Jonathan Morgan
Adjunct Professor of Art at Lone Star College & South Dakota State University, PhD candidate at IDSVA
Unit 1:
Reading an Artwork
ARTS 1301, Art Appreciation
Prof. Morgan
Elements of an Artwork
Topics to be Covered:
- Lines
- Shape/Form
- Scale & Proportion
- Color & Perception
Lines
Types of Lines
Contour
Where differing areas meet and form edges; Outlines; Topography
Communicative
Directional Lines that also suggest emotional info
Directional
Lines that guide the viewer's gaze within the artwork
Actual
Physically present, existing solid connections between one or more points
Implied
Suggested by intentional alignment of forms; Gives the impression of line
Wall Drawing #1077
Sol LeWitt
2003 CE | Oil on canvas
Implied Lines
Rabbit
Roa
2010 CE | Graffiti at Hackney Road, London
Actual Lines
Portrait de Femme
Henri Matisse
1918 CE | India ink on paper
Contour
Lines
Flower Thrower
Banksy
2007 CE | Grafitti on wall in Bethlehem, Israel
Directional Lines
The Starry Night
Vincent van Gogh
1889 CE | Oil on canvas
Communicative Lines
Shape/Form
Geometric
Organic (aka Natural/Freeform)
Categories of Shape/Form
Cloud Gate
Anish Kapoor
2004 CE | Chicago, IL
Cube XIX
David Smith
1964CE | Stainless Steel
Open Form
Closed Form
Categories of Shape/Form
Discobolus of Myron
Myron
c. 450 BCE
Marble copy of Greek Bronze Original
Le Penseur (The Thinker)
Auguste Rodin
1904 CE
Bronze
Composition VIII (The Cow) | Theo Van Doesburg | 1917 CE
The visual artist can leave the repetition of stories, fairy-tales, etc, to poets and writers.
-Theo van Doesburg, Principles of Neo-Plastic Art, 1919
The only way in which visual art can be developed and deployed is by revaluing and purifying the formative means.
Painterly means are: colours, forms, lines and planes.
Raft of the Medusa
Théodore Géricault
1819 CE | Oil on canvas
Scale & Proportion
Proportion
The relation based on size between parts or objects within a piece or composition
Vitruvian Man
Leonardo da Vinci
1490 CE
Ink & watercolor over metalpoint on paper
Figure of a King
Ife Culture
late 13th-early 15th century CE
Copper Alloy
Hieratic Proportion
Proportional relationships where emphasis conveys power & importance
Narmer Palette
Predynastic Egypt
c. 3000-2920 BCE
Siltstone/Slate
How Ancient Egyptian Artists Depicted People
Narmer Palette
Predynastic Egypt
c. 3000-2920 BCE
Siltstone/Slate
Examples of Ancient Egyptian Artistic Canon
2D Method
3D Method
Rules for Body Proportion
Khafre Enthroned
Early Dynastic Egypt
c. 2570 BCE
Anorthosite gneiss
Idealized Style
A specific type of abstraction where the subject matter is made to look perfect/flawless
Khafre Enthroned
Early Dynastic Egypt
c. 2570 BCE
Anorthosite gneiss
Artemision Bronze
Classical Greece
c. 450 BCE
Bronze
Parthenon
Iktinos, Callicrates, & Phidias
432 BCE | Athens, Greece
Parthenon
Iktinos, Callicrates, & Phidias
432 BCE | Athens, Greece
4:9 Ratio
San Lorenzo Colossal Head 1
Olmec Culture
c. 900 BCE (others range 16th-5th cent. BCE) | Basalt
San Lorenzo Colossal Head 1
Olmec Culture
c. 900 BCE (others range 16th-5th cent. BCE) | Basalt
Scale
The absolute size of an object or piece of subject matter, often using the human body as reference
Cologne Cathedral
Ernst Friedrich Zwirner & Richard Voigtel
1248-1322 CE (19th cent. CE) | Cologne, Germany
Cologne Cathedral (Inteior)
Ernst Friedrich Zwirner & Richard Voigtel
1248-1322 CE (19th cent. CE) | Cologne, Germany
Mistos (Matches)
Claes Oldenburg
1992 CE
Barcelona, Spain
Corridor Pin, Blue
Claes Oldenburg
1999 CE | New Orleans, LA
Cupid's Span
Claes Oldenburg
2002 CE | San Fransisco, CA
Tyson Fury on a Nail, Hard as Nails
Willard Wigan
Early 21st century CE | Mixed Media
Skateboarder on Artist's Eyelash Balanced on a Pin Point
Willard Wigan
Early 21st century CE | Mixed Media
Dr. Willard Wigan Discussing His Work
Color & Perception
Subtractive Color
Additive Color
Primary Colors
Subtractive Color
Additive Color
- Used when light is produced by a visible source.
- No color = Black.
- Light combines into coherent colors.
- Happens in the eye.
- Used with reflective surfaces like paint, ink, & pigments.
- No color = White.
- The surface absorbs certain colors of light.
- Happens on the surface.
- More accurate version of the older RYB model.
Primary Colors
Notice how each color triad is present in the mixing of the other.
Primary Colors
CMY colors absorb RGB colors.
Primary Colors
Primary Colors
Cyan absorbs Red
Magenta absorbs Green
Yellow absorbs Blue
Each color absorbs it's complimentary color.
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Example of RYB Primary Colors in Paint
Example of RGB Colors in Pixels
Each subpixel produces
only one of the RGB colors.
The colors mix/combine within your eye and brain.
Example of RGB Colors in Pixels
The human eye functions in the same way, but as an RGB receiver.
The eye and pixel only ever handle
RGB light.
RGB Colors & Perception
This means the yellow light you see in the image above contains no real yellow/600nm light.
So, how can you see it?
Electromagnetic Spectrum & the Eye
Rod & Cone cells 'split the difference' between signals to interpret color.
The Mystery of Magenta/Purple
EM Spectrum & Color Wheels
EM Spectrum & Color Wheels
Pixels as they relate to a Color Wheel
Color Relationships
Monochromatic
'Venezia' #27 Revisited
Tino Zago
2011 CE
Oil on canvas
Analogous
Lost Hidnsight
Mark Messersmith
2009 CE
Oil on canvas, Mixed media
Complimentary
In the Loge
Mary Cassatt
1879 CE | Oil on canvas
Ben-Day Dots
Whaam!
Roy Lichtenstein
1963 CE | Acrylic & Oil on canvas
Le Cirque (The Circus)
Georges Seurat
1890-1891 CE
Oil on canvas
Seurat is known for both his art & for developing Pointillism as a technique
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat
1884-1886 CE | Oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago: Georges Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat
1884-1886 CE | Oil on canvas
Color Perception, Illusions, & Bias
Visual Studies
Topics to be Covered:
- Concepts & Terms
- Comparative Analysis
- Visual Culture
- Applied Visual Studies: John Berger
Concepts & Terms
Semiotics
The study of signs and symbols, and how they communicate meaning through visual and cultural codes.
Visual Studies Terminology
Representation
The way in which images, objects, or ideas are depicted or portrayed, often reflecting and reinforcing cultural values, ideologies, and power structures.
Gaze
The way in which the viewer's perspective is constructed and influenced by cultural, social, and power dynamics, such as the male gaze or colonial gaze.
Visual Rhetoric
The use of visual elements to persuade or influence an audience, often employed in advertising, propaganda, and political imagery.
Visual Literacy
The ability to interpret, analyze, and create visual messages.
Surveillance
Monitoring and regulation of individuals and populations through visual technologies and practices, which can reinforce racial and social hierarchies.
Visuality
The structures and power relations of looking, being seen, and vision in society.
Portrait Bust Of Cardinal Richelieu
Kehinde Wiley, 2009
Subject:
The actual visual/physical elements that make up an artwork.
Context:
The conditions of the artwork's creation.
Content:
The intangible aspects of an artwork; the meaning behind the piece.
Portrait Bust Of Cardinal Richelieu
Kehinde Wiley, 2009
Portrait Bust of Cardinal Richelieu
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
1640-41 CE
Napoleon Crossing the Alps
Jacques-Louis David
1801 CE
Bull-Leaping Fresco
Palace of Knossos, Crete | Minoan | 1450 BCE
Comparative Analysis
Descent from the Cross
(a.k.a. Deposition)
Rogier van der Weyden
Oil on panel
1435-1438 CE
Culture: Flemish
Flagellation of Christ
Piero della Francesca
Tempera and oil on panel
1455-1460 CE
Culture: Florentine
Flaggelation of Christ | della Francesca | Florentine/Southern
Deposition | van der Weyden | Flemmish/Northern
Three Avenues of Analysis:
- Media
- Culture
- Philosophy
Note: These are just 3 examples of ways to analyze artworks.
You may see other additional ways to approach this.
Comparative Analysis:
Media
Tempera Paint
Tempera Paint Ingredients
Oil Paint
Egg Tempera vs Oil Paint
with Leo Stevenson
Comparative Analysis:
Culture
Flanders
- Powerful Merchant class
- Materialism
- Influenced by Aristotle
Florence
- Aristocratic Nobility
- Idealism
- Influenced by Plato
Comparative Analysis:
Philosophy
Plato
Aristotle
-
Separates Form from Matter
-
Math as model for Pure Thought
-
Transcendental
-
Intuition over Logic
- "Overcoming" the physical world
-
Matter & Form are inseparable
-
Grounds theories in Biology
-
Imminent
-
Logic as foundational
- Discovering the order of the world
Visual Culture
Analysis & Visual Culture
The study of the visual aspects of culture, including:
- Art
- Design
- Media
- Everyday objects
and how they shape and are shaped by
social, political, and cultural contexts.
Also studies how images, objects, and visuality communicate meaning & influence social dynamics.
Insofar as we live in a culture whose technological advances abet the production and dissemination of such images at a hitherto unimagined level,
it is necessary to focus on
how they work and what they do,
rather than move past them too quickly to the ideas they represent or the reality they purport to depict.
In so doing, we necessarily have to ask questions about technological mediations and extensions of visual experience.
Martin Jay on the Importance of Visual Studies & Literacy
Liberty Leading the People
Eugène Delacroix
1830 CE | Oil on canvas
The Barricade (Memory of Civil War)
Ernest Meissonier
1850 CE
Oil on canvas
Liberty Leading the People (Romanticism)
The Barricade (Realism)
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci
c. 1503–1505 CE
Oil on wood
Approx. 30” x 19”
Mona Lisa in its current display at the Louvre
Mona Lisa (Prado)
Workshop of Leonardo da Vinci | c. 1503-1516
Mona Lisa (original)
Leonardo da Vinci | c. 1503-1505
Untitled
(I shop therefore I am)
Barbara Kruger
1987 CE
Untitled
Barbara Kruger
Date unknown (late 20th-century)
Untitled
Barbara Kruger
1987 CE
Chivalry
Frank Bernard Dicksee
1885 CE
"Damsel in Distress"
A character type, trope, and/or theme where a primary female character must be rescued by the usually male hero, often due to her own inability.
The Knight Errant
John Everett Millais
1870 CE
Triple X Rancho
Allen Anderson
1941 CE
You're seeing less than half the picture
The Guerrilla Girls | 1989 CE
Two Thirds
The Guerrilla Girls | 1988 CE
Advantages
The Guerrilla Girls | 1985 CE
Guerrilla Girls wearing their signature Gorilla Masks
Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?
Guerrilla Girls
1989 CE
Applied Visual Studies:
John Berger
“To be naked is to be oneself.
To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude.(The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.)
To be on display is to have the surface of one's own skin, the hairs of one's own body, turned into a disguise which, in that situation, can never be discarded.
The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress.”
To be naked is to be without disguise.
John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972 CE
Nakedness reveals itself.
Nudity is placed on display.
Sleeping Venus (a.k.a. The Dresden Venus)
Giorgione & Titian
c. 1510 CE | Oil on canvas
Venus of Urbino
Titian | 1538 CE | Oil on canvas
Examples of the "Venus Pudica" pose
Grande Odalisque
Ingres
1814 CE | Oil on canvas
Odalisque
Delcroix | 1825 CE | Oil on canvas
We are deep in the Orient – an exciting, erotically charged world of harems and hashish – and the lady is an odalisque, the concubine of a sultan, a woman kept for the purposes of male pleasure.
-Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Odalisque
Delcroix
Grande Odalisque
Ingres
Olympia
Manet | c. 1863 CE | Oil on canvas
"Olympia" Destroys Convention
Olympia
Manet
Venus of Urbino
Titian
Portrait (Futago)
Yasumasa Morimura | 1988 CE | Photography
Sleeping Venus
Venus of Urbino
Portrait (Futago)
Olympia
Grande Odalisque
Odalisque
End of Unit 1
Art Appreciation: Unit 1
By Jonathan Morgan
Art Appreciation: Unit 1
Prof. Morgan | Updated Summer 2025
