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
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
Rabbit
Roa
2010 CE | Graffiti at Hackney Road, London
Actual Lines
Wall Drawing #1077
Sol LeWitt
2003 CE | Grafitti on wall in Bethlehem, Israel
Implied 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
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
Examples of Ancient Egyptian Artistic Canon
2D Method
3D Method
Rules for Body Proportion
Khafre Enthroned
Early Dynastic Egypt
c. 2570 BCE
Anorthosite gneiss
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
San Lorenzo Colossal Head 1
Olmec Culture
c. 900 BCE | Basalt
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
Color
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Electromagnetic Spectrum & the Eye
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
Example of Primary Colors in Paint
Additive Color
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
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat
1884-1886 CE | Oil on canvas
Color Perception & Bias
The Mystery of Purple
Optical Illusion through Color and Composition
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.
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
-Theo van Doesburg, Principles of Neo-Plastic Art, 1919
End of Unit 1
ARTS 1301: Unit 1 (RiAA)
By Jonathan Morgan
ARTS 1301: Unit 1 (RiAA)
ARTS 1301, Lone Star College, Prof. Morgan | Updated Fall 2024
