glossary of art terms and first few lessons

8/14/2019 Glossary of Art Terms and First few lessons

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Glossary of Art Terms

Glossary of Art Terms

abstract/abstraction - Abstract means the modification of a (usually) naturalform by simplification or distortion. Abstraction is the category of such modified

images. (See also non-objective.)

alla prima - (pronounced ah-la pree-ma) - Italian term, meaning to paint on

canvas or other ground directly, in full, opaque color, without any preliminary

drawing or underpainting done first. (Underpainting is often done to establish the

larger masses of the composition, or to establish tonal values (lights and darks)).

all-over space - A type of space in modern painting characterized by thedistribution of forms equally "all over" the picture surface, as opposed to the

traditional composing method of having a focal point, or center of interest. In "all-

over" space, the forms are seen as occupying the same spatial depth, usually on

the picture plane; also, they are seen as possessing the same degree of

importance in the painting. (In traditional painting, the focal point (or center of

interest) is meant to be the most significant part of the painting, both visually and

subject-wise, for instance, a portrait; whereas with "all-over" space, there is no

one center of interest visually or subject-wise.) The Action painter, Jackson

Pollock, was the first to use all-over (also called infinite) space, in his famous

"drip" paintings of the 1940's and '50's, and this spatial concept has influenced

most two-dimensional art since that time.

assemblage - (pronounced as-sem-blidge) - A type of modern sculpture

consisting of combining multiple objects or forms, often 'found' objects. (A found

object is one that the artist comes upon and uses, as is or modified, in an

artwork.) The most well known assemblages are those made by Robert

Rauschenberg in the 1950's and '60's; for example, one assemblage consisted of

a stuffed goat with an automobile tire encircling its stomach, mounted on a

painted base. The objects are combined for their visual (sculptural) properties, as

well as for their expressive properties.

atmospheric - A quality of two-dimensional images which has to do more with

space than with volume; an 'airiness,.' seen more in contemporary than

traditional images. Also refers to atmospheric perspective, which is a less

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technical type of perspective, using faded and lighter colors to denote far

distance in landscapes.

atmospheric perspective - Atmospheric, or aerial, perspective, is a less

technical type of perspective, which consists of a gradual decrease in intensity oflocal color, and less contrast of light and dark, as space recedes into the far

distance in a landscape painting or drawing. Often, this far distance will also be

represented by a light, cool, bluish-gray. (See also perspective.)

automatic (writing) - Automatic writing was a technique first used by the Dada

and Surrealist artists in the early 20th century, to tap into their subconscious to

write poetry (Freud's ideas on the subconscious had been introduced in the early

part of the 20th century). They would try to connect with their subconscious to

access a 'stream of consciousness,' or more 'free' type of poetry. Visual artists in

these movements also tried to draw or paint "automatically," by allowing their

subconscious to play a large part in the creative process. The Abstract

Expressionists of the 1940's and '50's also used this method, for example,

Jackson Pollock's "drip" paintings.

biomorphic - An attribute related to organic, since it describes images derived

from biological or natural forms; it was a term frequently used in early- to mid-

20th century art. The art of Miro, Arp and Calder contains examples of these

simplified organic forms.

broken color - Broken color was first used by Manet and the Impressionists in

19th century French painting, where color was applied in small "dabs," as

opposed to the traditional method of smoothly blending colors and values (lights

and darks) together. This method results in more of a "patchwork" effect, where

the dabs render the facets of light on forms, and/or the planes of the forms'

volume, by means of color and value. Broken color has continued to be used in

much modern and contemporary painting.

calligraphy/calligraphic - Calligraphy is beautiful personal handwriting, whichhas also been practiced in the Orient and Near East for many centuries. The term

calligraphic is also applied to drawing or painting which contains brushstrokes

reminiscent of calligraphy.

camera obscura - A system of lenses and mirrors developed from the 16th to the

17th centuries, which functioned as a primitive camera for artists. With the

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camera obscura, painters could project the scene in front of them onto their

painting surface, as a preliminary drawing. Vermeer, among others, is thought to

have used the camera obscura.

chiaroscuro - (pronounced kyar-oh-scoor-oh) - Italian term for light and dark,

referring to the modeling of form by the use of light and shade.

collage - (pronounced col-laj) - French word for cut and pasted scraps of

materials, such as paper, cardboard, chair caning, playing cards, etc., to a

painting or drawing surface; sometimes also combined with painting or drawing.

color field painting - A style of painting begun in the 1950's to '70's,

characterized by small or large abstracted areas of color. Mark Rothko is one of

the earliest and best known color field painters; Morris Louis, Jules Olitski and

Helen Frankenthaler are other examples.

complementary colors - Colors which are located opposite one another on the

color wheel (e.g., red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange); colors

which when mixed together will (in color theory) produce a neutral color (a color

which is neither warm nor cool). In the case of the three primary colors (red,

yellow and blue), the complementary of one primary will be the mixture of the

other two primaries (complementary of red will be a mixture of yellow and blue, or

green). When placed next to one another, complementary colors will make one

another appear much more intense, sometimes in an "eye-popping" sense, which

was utilized by Op artists of the 1960's to create optical effects. Also in color

theory, an object's primary color has its complementary color in its shadows (e.g.,

the shadows on and around a painted yellow apple will contain some purple).

composition - The process of arranging the forms of two- and three-dimensional

visual art into a unified whole, by means of elements and principles of design,

such as line, shape, color, balance, contrast, space, etc., for purposes of formal

clarity and artistic expression.

conception/execution - Conception is the birth process of an artistic idea, from

the initial creative impulse through aesthetic refinement, problem-solving, and

visualization/realization. Execution is the second half of the creative process: the

actual carrying out of the idea, in terms of method and materials, which often

involves compromises and alterations of the initial conception. Artists often see

the initial conception as the guiding force for their aesthetic decisions, in terms of

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formal elements of design, and in terms of the expressive content desired.

Contemporary conceptual artists place more emphasis on the first part of the

creative process; traditional artists are somewhat more concerned with the

techniques and methods involved in producing the artwork. The painter Henri

Matisse advised, in his essay On Painting, that artists should keep their initialimpulse in the front of their minds when working on a painting, to make the best

expressive and formal decisions.

conceptual - Pertaining to the process involved in the initial stages of art-making

(i.e., the initial conception, or idea). Also, the name of a contemporary art

movement which is mainly concerned with this process of conceiving of and

developing the initial idea, as opposed to the carrying-out of the idea into

concrete form. I think that conceptual artists also often think of the idea as the

real work of art, rather than its concrete manifestation. It is possible for a

conceptual art "piece" to not even be a tangible object - it may be an event or a

process, which can't be seen itself, but the results of the event or process may be

displayed, in text or photographs, for instance. Conceptual art tends to be created

across artistic categories - for instance, mixing the mediums of photography, text,

sound, sculpture, etc. My feeling about a lot of the conceptual work I have seen is

that it tends to be an experiential art, rather than the traditional 'passive'

experience of viewing art on a wall or a pedestal. Perhaps because our age and

time demand a more interactive experience; or because art had by the late 20th

century become a 'commodity,' to be bought and sold like any other commodity,and artists felt a need to avoid this commodification. Two examples come to

mind: 1) Maya Lin's memorial to Vietnam veterans in Washington, DC. The

traditional bronze statue of soldiers would not have been nearly as effective as a

memorial to Vietnam veterans; as it is, it has become a powerful catharsis for

Vietnam vets, and also for the two war-era factions - the hawks and the doves -

those who protested the war in the 1960's, and those who supported the Vietnam

war. 2) In the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is a large collection of

shoes which belonged to Nazi concentration camp victims. Though this may not

be officially a conceptual artwork, it has the characteristics of one, and perhaps

was influenced by conceptual art. A photograph on the wall of such belongings

would be an adequate representation of the horror of that time. But a huge pile of

shoes in a room, to be walked through, to see the different types of shoes which

resemble their former owners in personality and age, is to really experience the

powerful emotions associated with such horror.

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contemporary art - The term contemporary describes the most recent art, in this

case as distinguished from modern art, which is generally considered to have lost

its dominance in the mid-1950's.

content - As opposed to subject matter, content is the "meaning" of the artwork,e.g., in Moby Dick, the subject matter is a man versus a whale; the content is a

complex system of symbols, metaphors, etc. describing man's existence and

nature.

contour - The outer edge of forms which implies three dimensions, in contrast to

an outline, which is a boundary of two-dimensional, flat form. Also, a type of line

drawing which captures this three-dimensional outer edge, with its fullness and

recession of form.

contrapposto - (pronounced con-tra-pos-to) - Italian term, meaning to represent

freedom of movement within a figure, as in ancient Greek sculpture, the parts

being in asymmetrical relationship to one another, usually where the hips and

legs twist in one direction, and the chest and shoulders in another.

cool colors - In color theory, colors are described as either warm, cool, or

neutral. A cool color generally is one which contains a large amount of blue, as

opposed to a warm color, which will contain more yellow. In theory, cool colors

seem to recede in space, as the distant mountains or hills tend to appear light

bluish-gray, and the closer ones will be more green or brown (warmer). In

landscape paintings, artists often paint the distant hills in this pale blue color; and

it is generally thought that cool colors will recede into space in any painting.

However, color is a complex element, and colors often misbehave - it is usually

best to go on a case-by-case basis, because colors are influenced greatly by

what colors they are next to, appearing "warm" in one setting, and "cool" in

another. (I recommend reading the abbreviated version of The Interaction of

Color, by Josef Albers, for his ideas and exercises.)

cross-hatching - The practice of overlapping parallel sets of lines in drawing to

indicate lights and darks, or shading. (Hatching is one set of parallel lines, cross-

hatching is one set going in one direction, with another overlapped set going in a

different, often perpendicular, direction.)

diptych - Two separate paintings which are attached by hinges or other means,

displayed as one artwork.

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directional movement - A principle of visual movement in artworks, which can

be carried by line, dots, marks, shapes, patterns, color, and other compositional

elements. Directional movement in paintings or sculptures directs the viewer's

eye around or through the artwork, in a way which the artist consciously orunconsciously determines. One important function is to keep the viewer's eye

from "leaving" the work, and instead cause the viewer to follow an inventive

(interesting) path within the work, or exit in one area, only to be brought back in

another area.

drawing - Pencil, pen, ink, charcoal or other similar mediums on paper or other

support, tending toward a linear quality rather than mass, and also with a

tendency toward black-and-white, rather than color (one exception being pastel).

earthwork - A type of contemporary art begun in the 1960's and '70's, whichuses the landscape, or environment, as its medium, either by using natural forms

as the actual work of art, or by enhancing natural forms with manmade materials.

Two well-known earthwork artists are the husband and wife team of Christo and

Jeanne-Claude, and Robert Smithson. Some of these earthworks can be very

large, measured in miles. The origin of earth art may have been the environment-

conscious '60's and '70's, but earthworks also refer back to ancient earthworks,

such as the large Native American and other burial mounds. Christo' and Jeanne-

Claude's work is various, usually temporary and site-specific, and ranges from

"wrapping" an island or a building (such as the former German Reichstag

headquarters), to erecting a very high "curtain" of fabric over miles of uninhabited

(and inhabited) land. They work with an army of workers to erect these works,

and also work with the surrounding community to get permission and establish

guidelines of what they can and cannot do, during which meetings they explain

their artistic purposes to community members, and often the residents evolve

from their initial reluctance to give permission, to becoming enthusiastic

supporters. It is a very interesting process to watch, and I think is another

example of how some contemporary art tries to enlist the participation of thepublic in the art-making process, or at the very least to familiarize the public with

artistic motivations. In Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work, I see a kind-of Quixotic

whimsy - when they wrapped the former Reichstag headquarters building in

Germany, it seemed to me to be a poetic expression of victory over the former

Nazi Third Reich tyranny.

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encaustic - The process of using pigments dissolved in hot wax as a medium for

painting; mostly used long ago, but there are some contemporary artists who

have used encaustic, such as Jasper Johns.

engraving - A general term used to describe traditional printing processes, suchas etching, aquatint, drypoint, etc., where an image is made by the use of metal

plates and engraving tools, and printed, usually through a printing press. The

image can be incised into the plate, or drawn with fluid and then dipped in acid to

etch the uncovered areas. These processes are still used by artists, but of course

have been supplanted by more modern processes for general printing purposes.

expressionistic - A characteristic of some art, generally since the mid-19th

century, leaning toward the expression of emotion over objective description.

James Ensor, Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh were perhaps the firstexpressionists, though there was not really a movement per se, but individual

artists. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, expressionism

became widely espoused, particularly by German and Austrian artists, such as

Emil Nolde, Kirchner, Gustav Klimt, and others. Though there is variation, certain

characteristics predominate: bright, even garish, color; harsh contrasts of black

and white (as in woodcuts); exaggeration of form; and distortion or elongation of

figures. There are still many artists whose work has expressionistic tendencies; in

the 1980's there was a period of art called Neo-Expressionist. (The word 'neo'

before an art label means that there is a reprise of work similar to the original

movement.)

figurative - A term used to describe art which is based on the figure, usually in

realistic or semi-realistic terms; also loosely used to describe an artist who paints

or sculpts representationally, as opposed to painting or sculpting in an abstract or

non-objective manner.

figure/ground - The relationship of the picture surface (ground) to the images on

the picture surface (figure). The figure is the space occupied by forms (e.g., aperson in a portrait) (also known as the 'positive' space); the ground is the

"empty" or unoccupied space around the person in the portrait (also known as

the 'negative' space) (The ground is also commonly called the 'background.') In

art since the early 20th century, this division of the picture plane has been

seriously challenged, to the point where there is not a distinction of figure/ground,

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but rather one continuous surface and space, with no 'positive' or 'negative'

space, just one interwoven space.

focal point - In two-dimensional images, the center of interest visually and/or

subject-wise; tends to be used more in traditional, representational art than in

modern and contemporary art, where the picture surface tends to have more ofan overall importance, rather than one important area.

foreshortening - Perspective applied to a single object in an image, for a three-

dimensional effect, which often results in distortion with possible emotional

overtones. It is used particularly with the human figure, in Renaissance and

Mannerist art.

formal - A term used by artists to describe the visual elements of a work of art,

such as composition, space, color, etc., i.e., formal elements.found object - First used in the early years of the 20th century (in the Dadaist

movement), a found object is any object that an artist comes upon, and uses in

an artwork, or as the artwork itself. Marcel Duchamp called these works

'readymades.' He exhibited a urinal in the Society of Independent Artists

exhibition in New York in 1917, under the signature 'R Mutt'; Dada was the

precursor to Surrealism, and was an 'anti-art' movement after World War I, which

sought to avoid order and rationality in art. Dada also questioned the very

meaning of art: what is art? who decides if an object is art? is it art because an

artist places it in a museum and calls it art? etc. Later, Picasso made a bull's

head from found objects: the seat and handle bars of a bicycle.

fresco - Wall painting in water-based paint on moist plaster, mostly from the 14th

to the 16th centuries; used mostly before the Renaissance produced oil paint as

a more easily handled medium.

frottage - (pronounced fro-taj) - French term, meaning to rub a crayon or other

tool onto paper or other material, which is placed onto a textured surface, in order

to create the texture of that surface on the paper. The Surrealist artist Max Ernst

used this technique in some of his collages.

genre - (pronounced jahn-re) - A type of painting representing scenes of

everyday life for its own sake, popular from the 17th century to the 19th century.

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gesso - An undercoating medium used on the canvas or other painting surface

before painting, to prime the canvas; usually a white, chalky, thick liquid. In the

mid-20th century, gesso became available already commercially prepared; before

this time, artists often mixed their own gesso mixture.

gesture/gestural - The concept of gesture in drawing is twofold: it describes the

action of a figure; and it embodies the intangible "essence" of a figure or object.

The action line of a figure is often a graphic undulating line, which follows the

movement of the entire body of the figure being drawn or painted. The term

gestural is an extension of this idea to describe a type of painting which is

characterized by brushstrokes with a gestural quality, that is, flowing, curved,

undulating lines or forms. Gestural composition means a type of composition

based on gestural directional movements. The work of Arshile Gorky, the

Abstract Expressionist, is an example of gestural painting, which often connotes

a spiritual or emotional content.

glaze/glazing - A glaze is a thin layer of translucent oil paint applied to all or part

of a painting, to modify the tone or color underneath. Glazing is the process of

using this technique.

golden section - A mathematical ratio first used by the Greeks in their

architecture, and developed further in the Renaissance, which was said to be in

tune with divine proportion and the harmony of the universe. It has been used by

artists to divide the picture surface (as a compositional device); among others,

Seurat and Mondrian are thought to have used this ratio to create compositions.

graphic/graphic arts - The graphic arts (drawing and engraving) are said to

depend for their effect on drawing, as opposed to color. The term graphic

describes drawings or prints which lean more toward drawing (line) than color

(mass). I think that this division is less pertinent in modern and contemporary art

than in traditional art or art of the past.

grid - A formal visual vehicle much in currency during 20th century art, the grid isa geometric construct of squares or rectangles that form the underlying or actual

structure of some two-dimensional modern art. Though the meaning of the grid to

artists is hard to describe in words, it is more than just a visual armature. In a

way, it can be said to represent the modern and postmodern stance of the 20th

century; and often seems to inspire almost a reverence, as a symbol of aesthetic

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over the course of time a pattern can often be found, as a logical progression or

repeating images. An artist can be said to have a personal iconography, which is

often noted and analyzed by others, including art historians, critics, writers and

the public. Often, the meanings seen in an artist's work by others differs,

somewhat or considerably, from what the artist has intended.ideal art - Art which aims to be the true, eternal reality. In the 18th and 19th

centuries, this included some Neoclassical art, which emulated the forms and

ideas found in classical art (Greece and Rome). In modern times, this could

include artists such as Mondrian and Malevich, who considered pure abstraction

to be the manifestation of this pure reality. Perhaps the theoretical opposite of

ideal art is realism, which tries to depict things not as some ideal, but as they

'really' are.

impasto - An Italian term for oil paint applied very thickly onto the canvas or

other support, resulting in evident brushstrokes (visible).

installation - A type of art, usually sculptural, which is often large enough to fill

an entire space, such as a gallery, and consists of a number and variety of

components. Installation art perhaps began in the 1960's with Ed Kienholz and

George Segal, two American sculptors. Ed Kienholz' work contains such

elements as cars and institutional furniture (suggesting a state hospital or prison),

with the content being death and serious societal issues. Segal's work, in

contrast, consists of lifesize plaster figures (cast from real people and usually

white), engaged in contemporary and mundane activities, such as adding letters

to a movie marquee or waiting for the subway, and often represent the poetry of

the mundane. Installation art is often site-specific, meaning that it is created

specifically for a certain site. There are many contemporary artists creating

installations, such as Judy Pfaff.

linear - Describing a quality related to the use of line in painting or sculpture; can

refer to directional movement in composition, or the actual use of the element of

line in the image or sculpture, as contrasted with the use of mass or shape forms.

local color - The actual color of a form or object, uninfluenced by the effects of

light or reflected color. For instance, a vase may be turquoise (the local color), but

appear pale blue because of sunlight hitting it in certain places; dark blue

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because of areas in shadow; and many subtle color shades in certain areas

because of reflected light from surrounding surfaces.

lyrical - A quality applied to various art forms (poetry, prose, visual art, dance

and music), referring to a certain ethereal, musical, expressive, or poetic qualityof artistic expression. Although difficult to define, when a visual work of art is

described as having a lyrical quality, it means that it possesses a certain spiritual

or emotional quality; perhaps the color relationships may be said to "sing"; or the

linear quality of directional movement may be

of a sensitive and expressive nature; or the work expresses a particularly

profound, passionate or tender sentiment, perhaps related to romanticism or

other lofty expression.

mannerism/mannered - Mannerism was a style of art in 16th century Italy,

characterized by somewhat distorted (usually human) forms and a high emotional

key. Practitioners included the artist Pontormo. In modern and contemporary art,

the term mannered when applied to a style or work of art is somewhat critical,

implying that the style or work of art is done not from the inner convictions and

perceptions of the artist, but rather out of the artist's historical artistic habits or

preconceptions. In other words, the work appears contrived or forced, as

opposed to arrived at by genuine and self-aware creative impulses.

mass/masses - Shapes or forms used in visual art, as contrasted with lines; also

masses often form the large part(s) of the compositional structure, without the

additional complexity of detail.

medium - Material or technique an artist works in; also, the (usually liquid or

semi-liquid) vehicle in which pigments are carried or mixed (e.g., oil, egg yolk,

water, refined linseed oil).

mobile - (pronounced mo-beel) - A type of kinetic sculpture (that which moves),

invented and first used by the artist Alexander Calder. Trained as an engineer,

Calder built many hanging mobiles with various attached forms, which movedand changed with air currents, etc. Many of them were very large, and hang in

museum lobbies or auditoriums, from the ceiling. The forms which rotate and

change their configurations are often of a biomorphic nature, similar to those

used by Hans Arp and Juan Miro.

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modeling - Three-dimensional effect created by the use of changes in color, the

use of lights and darks, cross-hatching, etc.

modern art - Generally considered to be the period from about 1905-6 to the

mid-1950's, when Pop art ushered in what is referred to as the postmodernperiod in art. Modern art is generally characterized by formal experimentation

and exploration, and mostly seriousness of purpose. (Dada and Surrealism may

be the exceptions to this rule.)

motif - (pronounced mo-teef) - A French term which refers to: the subject matter

or content of a work of art (e.g., a landscape motif); also refers to a visual

element used in a work of art, as in a recurring motif (i.e., Warhol used the motif

of soup cans in his early works; or Mondrian used rectangles as a visual motif.

naturalism - A style of painting which uses an analysis of tone (value) and colorof its subject, resulting in a representation of the appearance of forms or

landscapes. Impressionism has naturalistic tendencies, because it analyzes tone

and color in the play of light on surfaces. Naturalism can also have a sensual

character (as against composition and drawing). The Impressionists were

influenced by 19th century researches into the physics of color by Chevreul (a

scientist) and others, which showed that an object casts a shadow which

contains its complementary color (see complementary color). This theory

eventually hardened into Neo-Impressionism, where Seurat and others sought

the maximum optical truth about nature and the ideal composition and color

relationships. This line of inquiry also led eventually to Post-Impressionism,

where Gauguin and Van Gogh, among others, used color in a purely artistic and

anti-naturalistic manner, which was non-intellectual. (Color used by Gauguin and

Van Gogh is often deliberately independent of the local or light-influenced color of

objects; and beyond that in the early 20th century, the Fauve painters used bright

color and forms even more distant from their perceptual origins.)

negative space - In a painting or sculpture, the areas where there are no forms

(the "empty" areas). In a painting, this means the areas which have no forms orobjects (sometimes also called the 'background' ). In sculpture, this means the

"holes" between forms or within a form (e.g., Henry Moore sculptures). Negative

space is the other side of the coin of positive space, which is space actually

occupied by forms in a painting or sculpture (the figure in a portrait). The notions

of positive and negative space were advanced during the late 19th and early 20th

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centuries, replacing the more traditional notion of a 'background' which was

subordinate to and separate from the subject image - portrait, still life, etc. Since

about 1950, the notions of positive and negative space have also been replaced

by much contemporary art, which sees the picture surface not as positive and

negative areas, but rather one continuous surface where every area is equallyimportant, and at the same spatial depth. (See also positive space.)

neutral color - A color which in color theory is neither warm nor cool. Neutral

colors are said to result from the combination of two complementary colors (e.g.,

red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple). Neutral colors can also

be mixed by other means. (See also complementary colors, and warm and cool

colors.)

non-objective - A term used to describe visual art which is not based on

existing, observable forms, but rather on abstract or idealized forms, such as

geometric, mathematical, imaginary, etc. Non-objective art came into existence in

the early 20th century, often with much theoretical accompaniment. Mondrian is

an example of an artist whose work is non-objective. (See also abstract.)

non-representational - Non-representational art is art which is not based on

external appearances; this covers several types of art - abstract, non-objective,

and decorative; as contrasted with representational art, which is art based on

"real" imagery, whether actually existant or existant only in the artist's

imagination.

one-point linear perspective - Developed in 15th century Italy, a mathematical

system for indicating spatial distance in two-dimensional images, where lines

converge in a single vanishing point located on the horizon line, as seen by a

stationary viewer. (See also two-point linear perspective.)

organic - A description of images which are partly or wholly derived from natural

forms, such as curvilinear, irregular, indicative of growth, biologically-based, etc.

painterly - An adjective used to describe a style of painting which is based not

on linear or outline drawing, but rather patches or areas of color. In painterly two-

dimensional images, the edges of forms tend to merge into one another, or into

the background, rather than be separated by outlines or contours. Titian and

Rembrandt are two artists with painterly approaches; Botticelli's work is not

painterly, but more linear/drawing oriented.

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palette - A thin piece of glass, wood or other material, or pad of paper, which is

used to hold the paint to be used in painting; also, the range of colors used by a

particular painter.

pastel - A drawing stick made of pigments ground with chalk and mixed with gumwater; also, a drawing executed with these pastel sticks; also, a soft, subdued tint

(light shade) of a color.

pentimenti - Italian term, from the word meaning 'repent'; refers to the lines or

marks which remain after an artist corrects his/her drawing (or painting).

Traditionally, this meant that these lines or marks remained unintentionally, in the

quest for the perfectly drawn figure, for instance. However, at the end of the 19th

century (with Cezanne), these marks became part of the visual expression; his

figure drawings, for example, often show several contours in the search for the"correct" one contour. With Cezanne's drawings, these multiple contours in fact

aid in the expression of three dimensions, more than one contour alone would

do, giving a sense of roundness and volume. In addition, these pentimenti

contribute in an expressive sense. In drawings and paintings since, some artists

have taken advantage of this expressive function of pentimenti, particularly in

painting, and have left the marks/lines deliberately, or even created them on

purpose. They can add richness to a work.

photomontage - (pronounced photo-montaj) - A two-dimensional combining of

photographs or parts of photographs into an image on paper or other material (a

technique much used by the Surrealists in the 1920's, such as Max Ernst).

pictorial/picture surface - The flat plane of the canvas or other support, which is

the two-dimensional arena of the image.

picture plane - The flat surface on which an image is painted, and that part of

the image which is closest to the viewer. (In modern and contemporary art, the

picture plane is synonymous with pictorial surface, meaning that the entire image

is located on the picture plane, as contrasted with art from the Renaissance until

the mid-19th century, where the picture surface was considered as a window into

which the viewer looked into the illusion of distance.)

positive space - The areas of a painting or sculpture which are occupied by

forms or images, as contrasted with negative space, which are the "empty" areas

where no forms/images are located. For example, in a portrait, the figure would

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be the positive space, the "background" would be the negative space. In painting

since around 1950, the differentiation between positive and negative space has

given way to a sense of a continuous surface/space/plane, where all the forms

are located on the picture surface, rather than on different planes in space. (See

also negative space.)

postmodern - A term used to describe the period of art which followed the

modern period, i.e., from the 1950's until recently. The term implies a shift away

from the formal rigors of the modernists, toward the less formally and emotionally

stringent Pop artists, and other art movements which followed.

printmaking - The category of fine art printing processes, including etching,

lithography, woodcut, and silkscreen, in which multiple images are made from the

same metal plate, heavy stone, wood or linoleum block, or silkscreen, with black-

and-white or color printing inks.

proportion - The relation of one part to the whole, or to other parts (for example,

of the human body). For example, the human body is approximately 7 to 7-1/2

times the height of the head; the vertical halfway point of the body is the groin;

the legs are halved at the knees, etc. Proportion also refers to the relative sizes

of the visual elements in a composition, and their optimum relationships for good

design.

realism - Representational painting which, unlike ideal art, desires to depict

forms and images as they really are, without idealizing them. Courbet was one of

the first realists, in opposition to the previous reigning Neoclassical art in France;

19th century realist artists wanted to depict life "as it is," warts and all.

representational art - Art which is based on images which can be found in the

objective world, or at least in the artist's imagination; i.e., images which can

perhaps be named or recognized. For instance, an objectively faithful depiction of

a person is representational art; also, a depiction of an alien from outer space

can also be considered a representational image. (See also non-representational.)

rubbing - A product of rubbing a crayon or other tool onto paper or other material

over a textured surface, in order to reproduce that texture into a two-dimensional

image. For example, a rubbing of a gravestone, a penny, etc. (See also frottage.)

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scumbling - A painting technique (the opposite of glazing), consisting of putting

a layer of opaque oil paint over another layer of a different color or tone, so that

the lower layer is not completely obliterated, giving an uneven, broken effect.

shade - A dark value of a color, i.e., a dark blue; as opposed to a tint, which is alighter shade of a color, i.e., light blue. Also, to shade a drawing means to add the

lights and darks, usually to add a three-dimensional effect.

sfumato - (pronounced sfu-ma-to) - Italian term meaning smoke, describing a

very delicate gradation of light and shade in the modeling of figures; often

ascribed to da Vinci's work (also called blending). Da Vinci wrote that 'light and

shade should blend without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke', in his

Notes on Painting.

sgraffito - (pronounced sgraf-ee-to) - Italian term meaning scratched; in painting,one color is laid over another, and scratched in (with the other end of the brush,

for example) so that the color underneath shows through.

shaped canvas - A type of painting/stretched canvas first begun in the 1960's,

where the canvas takes other forms than the traditional rectangle. Canvas is

stretched over multiple three-dimensional shapes, which are combined to form a

three-dimensional, irregularly shaped canvas on which to paint (often abstract or

non-objective) images.

spatial cues - Methods of indicating three-dimensional space in two-dimensional

images. Examples are: the modeling of forms with light and shade to indicate

volume; overlapping of forms to indicate relative spatial position; decrease in the

size of images as they recede in space; vertical position in the image (the further

away an object is, the higher it is normally located in the image); the use of

increased contrast of light and dark (value) in the foreground; the decreasing

intensity of colors as they recede in space; the use of a perspective system, of

lines converging toward the horizon line. Spatial cues are used also in abstract or

non-objective art to indicate relative position in relation to the picture plane, bymeans of overlapping forms, color and size relationships, and other spatial cues,

but generally without perspective and other indications of Renaissance (illusional)

space.

stabile - (pronounced stah-beel) - A type of 20th century sculpture which

consists of a stationary object, usually on a base of some kind. Described in

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contrast to a mobile, the free-hanging sculptural invention of sculptor Alexander

Calder, stabiles were also created by Calder.

stained canvas - A method of painting first begun in the 1960's, consisting of the

application of (liquid) paint directly to canvas by pouring or rolling, rather than

with the traditional brush, and without the prerequisite layer of priming normallydone to stretched canvas. Helen Frankenthaler is one example of an artist who

worked with stained canvas. This way of applying paint gives a totally different

image than one brushed on - obviously a more fluid image, with translucent fields

of color - perhaps like the aurora borealis - an effect impossible with traditional

brushes.

stippling - A drawing technique consisting of many small dots or flecks to

construct the image; obviously, this technique can be very laborious, so generally

small images are stippled. The spacing and darkness of the dots are varied, to

indicate three dimensions of an object, and light and shadow; can be a very

effective and interesting technique, which can also be used in painting.

study - A preliminary drawing for a painting; also, a work done just to "study"

nature in general.

subject matter - As opposed to content, the subject matter is the subject of the

artwork, e.g., still life. The theme of Vanitas (popular a few centuries ago) of

vanity, death, universal fate, etc., used in the still life, can be considered the

content. The still life objects used in the image are the subject matter. (See also

content.)

tint - A light value of a color, i.e., a light red; as opposed to a shade, which is a

dark value, i.e., dark red.

tone - The lightness or darkness of an area in terms of black to white; also called

value, i.e., a light or dark red, or light or dark gray.

two-point linear perspective - A more recent version of perspective than one-

point perspective; using two (or more) points instead of one on the horizon line

gave artists a more naturalistic representation of space in two-dimensional

images.

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triptych - A painting which consists of one center panel, with two paintings

attached on either side by means of hinges or other means, as "wings."

underpainting - A layer of color or tone applied to the painting surface before the

painting itself is begun, to establish the general compositional masses, the lights

and darks (values) in the composition, or as a color to affect/mix with subsequentlayers of color. Underpainting is generally a thin, semi-opaque layer of paint.

value - The lightness or darkness of a line, shape or area in terms of black to

white; also called tone; e.g., a light red will have a light value; a dark red will have

a dark value.

volumetric - A quality of two-dimensional images characterized by a sense of

three dimensions, solidity, volume, as contrasted with atmospheric, which is

characterized more by a sense of space, or airiness, than with volume.Volumetric is generally more characteristic of representational or traditional art,

than with modern or contemporary art, which is generally less concerned with the

depiction of three dimensions in objects and space.

warm colors - In color theory, colors which contain a large amount of yellow, as

opposed to cool colors, which contain more blue. For example, a yellow-orange

color would be warm; a greenish-blue would be cool. Warm colors are thought to

appear to be closer to the viewer, while cool colors are thought to recede into the

distance. (See also cool colors.)

wash - A thin layer of translucent (or transparent) paint or ink, particularly in

watercolor; also used occasionally in oil painting.

Nancy Doyle

performance art - A type of art which began in the 1960's (although the Dadaists

had some event-oriented artworks in the early part of the 20th century), which

consists of events, or performances, presented as art. Sometimes many artists

(and others) are involved; sometimes it is performed by a single artist. In the

1960's, Robert Rauschenberg and others were involved in 'happenings,' a similar

endeavor, where, for instance, someone would be riding a bicycle around and

through the performance area, another person would be reciting a prose poem,

music might be playing, lights and images projected onto the walls, etc.

Performance art can sometimes be taken to extremes, as when, in the 1990's, an

artist shot himself as part of his performance piece.

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perspective - A semi-mathematical technique for representing spatial

relationships and three-dimensional objects on a flat surface. (See also

atmospheric perspective, one-point linear perspective, and two-point linear

perspective.)

Art Appreciation

I read once that artists live in a different reality than what we normally call the 'real' world. To artists, the

world of images or forms, or ideas and feelings, is more "real" than the nuts and bolts world. I would agree,

from my own experience. I think that serious artists live with a "cosmic" sense - that is, consciously or not,

they are aware that galaxies and universes, both in macrocosm and microcosm, are spinning and travelingin space, while we humans go about our daily business. This gives artists the necessary perspective of the

dreamer, to take the 'long' view of reality.

It was previously thought that humans painted as long ago as 50,000 years, as there are caves in France and

Spain with drawings of animals and hand prints almost that old. Recently, however, the evidence of

pigment-making tools has been found in Zambia, Africa which puts the beginnings of art much further into

history - as much as 350,000-400,000 years. (At this point in prehistory, homo sapiens had not even arrived

- this means that a close relative to us, our precursors, may have been the ones who first painted images.)

No one is sure why the cave images were painted, incised, and sometimes formed from pigment blown

through a hollow bone (a primitive airbrush), but speculate that they were for spiritual and/or huntingpurposes. Over the millennia, the place of art in cultures has changed many times; but I think that a spiritual

connection with art remains for many of us, artists feeling it especially. Nature doesn't allow much

superfluous behavior - the fact that many artists are still born among us testifies to me that it is a

fundamental and preliterate human activity, that we need to express our humanity, our being alive, that it isjust as important as food. It is food for the soul.

It is easier to see this in music, which is so accessible to all of us, and so important to us. We may not all be

conversant with, say, classical or world music; but we all grew up with, for example, rock music. We have a

collective understanding and knowledge of its evolution, and as a result, we often judge as a group whethera particular song or artist is "good." My favorite example of this is at a concert, when one musician will do

a solo during a performance, and if it is inspired and skillful, we all know it, and applaud spontaneously

together. Because of its power to move us and express our deepest selves, it is very important to us, and

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because of its ubiquity, we are all familiar with it, and we are knowledgeable about it, confident of our

judgment.

To me, art has the same power, but because it doesn't have the same accessibility as music, many people are

unaware of this. And because of the inaccessibility, people are not knowledgeable about its history, nor

confident of their judgment of its quality. To me, this is a terrible tragedy. I think many people areintimidated by art for this reason; and also skeptical, even suspicious, at times, thinking it might be a scam.

Modern and contemporary art particularly call forth this response, which is sad, because there are manyartists of the 20th and 21st centuries who have eloquent and insightful, and stirring and moving visions to

share with us. I plan to share some of those artists with you.

To continue the analogy with music, we are often not shocked or offended by the contemporary sounds

rock music has given us, though it can be argued pretty persuasively that much of it is not what could be

considered 'good' music in a music academy. Singers don't sing in classically trained voices; instruments

play sounds that don't resemble anything in a classical orchestra; songwriters don't compose like Beethovenor Mozart. And often, rock musicians seem to be deliberately trying to be as outrageous as possible - and

usually, we love it! And we love the music! It often defines our lives, whether 40's swing, 50's rock'n'roll,

60's expressiveness, or 90's rap.

We love the music because it expresses US. It is us - and even though we know that it is not "good" - we

also know that it is GREAT. The fact that Bob Dylan "can't sing" is really irrelevant. As he said himself, he

is not a musician - he is an artist. We don't want to hear Beethoven as much as we want to hear Ricky

Martin, or the Stones, or Bob Marley, because Beethoven, though great, is not of OUR TIME. It is not now

- in America, in the 21st century - it is not US. And different aesthetic criteria apply now. We know JimiHendrix was a great, serious musician and artist; we judge him by our knowledge of the history of rock

music, and its roots in blues music. Because we know our rock history and all his precursors, his musicdoes not sound off the wall to us; he came from a long line of musical continuity and influences.

A similar situation exists with visual art, although I should point out that serious art, like serious music, is

often expressed on a more profound level than that of much "pop" culture. Artists have a history of

movements and influences, since the beginning of time. We can no longer paint like Rembrandt, because

we are not of his time, though we may love his work. Artists develop new aesthetic criteria also, to meet the

needs of their time. They may not 'draw correctly.' The work may not be 'beautiful' in the old-fashioned

sense. Their work may not look like anything seen before; it may be an 'earthwork' - or art that is made

totally of natural elements. But its value lies in what it expresses to us. The 'outrageousness' of modern orcontemporary art exists only out of the context of art history. Perhaps ironically, since the early 20th

century, modern art has been much influenced by ancient, or 'primitive' art, as has some music. Are we

seeking those selves of long ago, from the concrete enclaves of now? Unfortunately, since art is not on thetelevision very often, or even taught in schools as much, people have to go out of their way to learn about

art history, and even then, where do they start? And how many have the time?

I hope to light a candle in the proverbial darkness on this page. Art has progressed to the point of

conceptualism and beyond, where the work of art is not visual, or even tangible, but an idea. This notion is

not really new - Plato also wrote that the idea of a thing is more "real" than the thing itself. But all seriousart movements and ideas have a rationale, and a validity, in art history; and the strongest ones have the

power to move and enrich us. In 20th century art, there are also, as in music, movements and individual

artists who seemed to be deliberately outrageous, like Marcel Duchamp, and the Dadaists. And in the

1950's in America, the Pop artists reflected what they were seeing around them, the new consumer culture,

some with tongue firmly in cheek. It is perhaps the same outrageousness in contemporary art that exists in

music - the why of this is not easy to answer. Perhaps it lies in the unprecedented megadangers of our time

- nuclear weapons, holocausts, environmental forecasts of doom. Or maybe it is the unbridled exuberance

of being alive NOW!Many of the more recent conceptual and installation artists develop their work in a brand new way, where

the idea behind the intangible work is often a poetic and striking one, that causes the viewer to rethink theirassumptions, or express a cry for the environment, the human spirit, or man's inhumanity. Christian

Boltanski comes to mind. It is said that film is the major art form in the 20th century - has the biggest

impact in people's lives. Just think about the powerful effect Schindler's Listhas had on the world - a pure

work of art that was created out of pure love and expression, not out of box office expectations.

This new art is very seldom seen on TV, or even in the written media. But it is an interesting, vital saga, and

I can't wait to start sharing it! Stay tuned!

DESCRIPTIONS OF MAJOR MODERN ART MOVEMENTS: (See also Glossary of Art Terms)

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(Note: Some art movements were formed by artists organized to promote their shared beliefs;often these movements, like Futurism in the early 20th century, would write a manifestoexpressing their credo, and profess a collective aesthetic philosophy and style. Although theSurrealists also wrote a manifesto, the styles of individual artists associated with Surrealismvaried widely. Other movements, like Impressionism in 19th century France, were a somewhat

looser confederation of artists who came together because of certain common aestheticprinciples, and the opportunity to exhibit their work collectively. Again, the style of individual artistsvaried, from Degas to Monet. Still other movements were not really movements at all, not beingorganized officially, but were instead either loosely associated artists, or even artists who camefrom different times and places, who happened to share a similarity of style or way of thinking.Examples of these movements would be expressionism and post-impressionism.We live in a world of sometimes brutal speed and pressure. Without the humanizing influence of art, people

become more desensitized and alienated. What is difficult for an adult to deal with becomes impossible for

a child. I'm thinking of the series of school shootings, for example. Art has the same effect on humans as

nature - one gets an appreciation of the beauty, fragility and preciousness of all creation, including

ourselves. And of the interconnectedness of all life. Without this spirit, corporations can deceive consumersabout the hazards of their products; create defective cars and other products that take human lives; leave

toxic waste near schools and neighborhoods, and not seem to have any sense of accountability or human

feeling. Art is a creative, not destructive, activity, and soothes the savage beast with its only aim to enrich,

extoll, cry out, or joyfully be alive. Its side effects are gentleness, generosity of spirit, appreciation of other

cultures, innocence, bliss, sensitivity, industriousness, earnestness, goodwill and understanding, for artists

and viewers.

It is estimated that 1% of artists are able to make a living from their work. Most are not making money -

they're doing it because their genetic makeup precludes not doing it - they have a vision to express, and will

sacrifice everything to express it. Many have full-time jobs, and paint/sculpt/write/compose nights and

weekends, or even driving down the highway, and also work on their career activities - exhibitions, bookpublishers, galleries, etc. This is a 7-day-a-week proposition, often with no material gain. There were many

years when I was happy to break even in my expenses for materials, frames, etc. So, the idea of a scam is

ludicrous.

Another misconception about art is that it exists mostly for those with the economic means to buy it. Quite

simply, art is for everyone - not an elite. To be an artist only takes sensitivity, maybe some training, and a

vision. Most are not born with this vision - it develops gradually with working. And it is a being rather than

a doing - I find that I am looking at the world as one gigantic painting - everything is colors and shapes -not labeled objects with objectively defined names and characteristics. I get impulses to create from in mycar, at the supermarket, at the dentist's office. It is an ever-present consciousness. Which explains the

spaced-out personalities of many artists.

Impressionism: A painting movement of sometimes varying styles which began in mid-19thcentury France, including such artists as Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, Morisot, Cezanne (inhis early years), and the American painter, Mary Cassatt. The group practiced plein air painting(working from life mostly out-of-doors), wanting to capture modern life in a spontaneous, directmanner. Impressionism also at times included breaking up the picture surface into small dabs ofbroken color, rather than blended, smooth surfaces, which the viewer would merge together whenlooking at the painting.Post-Impressionism: Not really a movement in the usual sense, but a description of paintingwhich followed Impressionism in France, and was influenced by it, but evolved beyond it. Post-

Impressionism generally existed in the 1880's, and included artists such as Cezanne, Gauguin,Seurat, and Van Gogh, and tended to be less naturalistic than Impressionism, seeing the picturesurface more as a flat plane than an illusion of depth. This thinking led toward the 20th centurynotion of painting as essentially colors and forms on a flat surface, rather than the imitation ofobjective reality. Seurat and others began the Pointillist movement, which carried the color andoptical ideas of the Impressionists to an almost scientific extreme, consisting of tiny dots of color.Symbolism: A literary as well as a visual art movement, in the 1890's in Europe, particularlyFrance, which included the painter Odilon Redon. A group of painters was influenced bySymbolist ideas, and also carried further the ideas of the Post-Impressionists, such as Gauguin.Painters influenced by Symbolist ideas, calling themselves the Nabis (French for 'prophets'),

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included Pierre Bonnard and Vuillard. The Symbolists were also influenced by Art Nouveau (withits curvilinear quality), and carried forward the notion of painting being colors and shapes on a flatsurface, rather than "objective" reality. There was also a tendency toward dreamlike imagery,such as Gauguin's and Redon's.Fauvism: Also a movement of loosely connected French painters, of the first years of the 20thcentury, which included Matisse and Derain. The main emphasis in Fauvism was on color - bright,free use of arbitrary (independent of objective reality) color (les fauves meant 'wild beasts,' a termcoined by those critical of the paintings). The shapes were also not confined to objective reality,and showed strong exuberance of spirit.Cubism: A new structural and spatial organization in painting (and sculpture), begun in Francefollowing Fauvism, in the first years of the 20th century, by Picasso and Braque, which wasinspired by African sculpture and Cezanne's paintings, among other influences. Cubism dealtmainly with space - the disintegration of traditional illusionistic space in art, and the beginning ofpictorial space, which again was based on the notion that a painting is not an illusion of threedimensions, but has its own two-dimensional reality which overrides the depiction of depth. Therewas also a tendency toward flattening images as geometrical shapes, and the notion of multipleperspectives, as opposed to the previous one vantage point of Renaissance space. Other artists,such as Gris and Feininger, followed Picasso and Braque, and spelled out their cubist theories inwriting.Abstraction: Abstraction (in painting and sculpture) was not really a movement per se, but an

idea which took root in the 1890's in Europe, came to fruition around 1910, and continues to be aviable tradition today. Some of the first abstractionists included Kandinsky and Mondrian. Theybelieved that art does not exist to depict external reality, anymore than music exists to imitate thesounds of nature. Abstract art modifies or distorts objective reality (nature), as opposed to "non-objective" art, which refers to art which exists independently of, and is not based on, externalreality. Kandinsky's essay, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, recounts his passage from moreconventional painting to his ideas on the higher ideals of abstract art.Dada: Dada was a European precursor to Surrealism, and included artist Marcel Duchamp. Thedadaist movement extended to both visual art and literature. It was an anti-movement born in thesecond decade of the 20th century, and affected by the disillusionment after World War I.Dadaism was out to shock, to shake up conventions, to be anti-art, to question the verydefinitions of art. The most famous example of dada is Duchamp's entry into the 1917 Society ofIndependent Artists exhibition in New York - a 'found' urinal displayed with his pseudonym of "R

Mutt." (Duchamp was way ahead of his time, and is considered the first exponent of conceptualart, a movement of the late 20th century.) Dada expressed itself in the forms of collage andsculpture, among others.Surrealism: Some of the members of Dada went on to create the Surrealistic movement of the1920's, which was also a literary movement, in Europe. Surrealistic painters had wildly divergentstyles, but some of the elements they had in common were: the effect of the subconscious anddreams in art; the importance of the element of chance in art; the idea of an absolute, or 'super-reality' in art. The most famous exponent of Surrealism was Salvador Dali; other Surrealists wereJoan Miro, Max Ernst, and Rene Magritte.Abstract Expressionism: A mainly American movement of artists who came together informally,Abstract Expressionism began in the 1940's, influenced by European abstraction and Surrealism.Many emigre artists from World War II Europe and before came to America and became majorinfluences on artists here before, during and after World War II, including Max Ernst, Mondrian,

Arshile Gorky, Leger and Hans Hoffman. Major figures of Abstract Expressionism were Willem deKooning (who came from Holland in the 1920's), Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, and MarkRothko. Stylistically, there was a wide range, from the large drip paintings of Pollock to thegeometric abstraction of Newman, and the soft color field paintings of Rothko, and the painterlywork of de Kooning. Common elements included a certain spiritual nature of the work, theelements of chance and the unconscious, and the absence or distortion of objective reality. Themovement was at its height during the early 1950's; several sculptors can also be consideredabstract expressionist, such as Reuben Nakian.Expressionism: Mainly centered in early 20th century Germany, with loosely connected painters,Expressionism was also found in other places and even other times (James Ensor, Edvard

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Munch, and Van Gogh are considered to be three precursors of Expressionism). It can beconsidered to be the German version of Fauvism. As well as being a movement, expressionism isalso a characteristic applied to any art which holds as its primary focus the expression of emotion,as opposed to a description of external reality. Stylistic tendencies include bright or even garishcolor, sharply linear, or dark and brooding quality, black and white woodcuts. Kirchner and EmilNolde can be characterized as Expressionists.Pop Art: Also an American (and non-organized) movement, Pop is well-known as a late 1950's,early 1960's art movement. A reaction to Abstract Expressionism and the new consumer culture inthe United States, Pop's early figures were Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and AndyWarhol; Claes Oldenburg is a Pop sculptor. Pop artists generally wanted to make art that was'cool' as opposed to the strong emotion of Abstract Expressionism; that avoided AbstractExpressionism's tendency to serious artistic individualism to instead divorce the artist'spersonality from the work. Everyone is familiar with Warhol's Soup Cans, and other images takenfrom advertising and the contemporary world. Styles of Pop ranged from painterly to hard-edge,but generally had a certain 'deadpan' attitude.Op Art: Generally a minor (and not organized) movement of painters, Op art came to prominencefollowing Pop art in 1960's America, although artists had been creating works using optical effectssince the 1930's. It focused on a strictly visual exploration of the inter-relatedness of colors andother optical effects in painting, often resulting in striking and dramatic effects that also wereillusionary in terms of depth (optical illusion). The best known of the Op artists was Victor

Vasarely; Josef Albers is sometimes considered to be an Op artist, but I feel his work, thoughdealing with the interaction of colors, was more of an intense lifetime study of color, rather than asuperficial interest in optical effects.Earth, or Environmental Art: This international movement began in the 1970's, and used thenatural world as its material and content, generally making large 'earthworks'. Environmentalartists work as individuals, rather than as part of an organized art movement. Coming fromEurope to America, Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the best known environmental artists (theywork as partners). They create temporary works that are a combination of natural and manmade,often involving large numbers of workers to construct their projects. Examples of their work: InJapan and California, a series of large umbrellas in the landscape; a miles-long and tall runningfence in California; a "wrapped" building in an urban setting, such as their covering of theReichstag in Germany. There is a conceptual, or idea, sense to their work, and generally a poeticand art-for-all quality. Other earthworks consist of natural materials, such as large rocks, arranged

in patterns over a large and perhaps isolated area, such as Spiral Jettyby Robert Smithson.Conceptual Art: Not an organized movement, Conceptual art can be thought to have begun inthe early 20th century with Marcel Duchamp of the European dada movement (see above), but itsofficial genesis was the 1960's. Basically, conceptual art places its emphasis on the idea of thework of art as its primary identity, rather than the object itself. This idea is as old as Plato,meaning that the idea of an object is more real than the actual object (the chair can be destroyed,but the idea of the chair is eternal and immutable). There is perhaps a contemporary addition ofthe notion that art is not a commodity, as so much else in our society is, but rather a non-saleableidea. Conceptual art, as is much art in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, is an internationalmovement, and comes in many forms and mediums, sometimes being an act or acts done by anartist, that may or may not result in a physical object. Conceptual art can sometimes be verycerebral in nature. Good examples of conceptual artists are Ann Hamilton and ChristianBoltanski, whose work contains poetic and powerful ideas on the nature of reality.

Installation Art: Not a movement per se, installation art consists of very large, mainly three-dimensional, collections of objects and forms, often filling a large gallery or museum space. Entireenvironments can be created (or re-created), often evocatively. One of the first installation artistswas Kienholz, an American artist first known in the 1960's, and loosely connected with the Popartists. He created large three-dimensional groupings of objects, such as smashed-up cars, etc.,with an air of violence, or perhaps death, but also an element of tongue-in-cheek. Some of hislater work contained elements from such institutions as prisons or state mental hospitals, perhapswith social comment in mind. Another installation artist beginning in the 1960's was GeorgeSegal, who made white plaster casts from real people, and placed them in contemporarymundane settings, such as a man putting letters on a movie marquee, reflecting the poetry of the

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mundane. Artists since have created many site-specific installations, meaning that the work wasconceived to fit physically and aesthetically in a given area. One contemporary sculptor andinstallation artist is Judy Pfaff.Minimalism: Not an organized movement, minimalism began in the 1960's, predominantly in theUnited States. Its main thesis is "less is more," perhaps a reaction against the highly emotionalnature of Abstract Expressionism. Large sculptures and paintings consist of bare geometric forms- squares, cubes, sometimes in more complex arrangements, and often limited in color. DonaldJudd's minimalist sculpture consists of large, heavy cube forms. Although it can be a sterile formof expression in the hands of an artist of limited depth, Judd's cubes express a forceful finalityand strength, and are an expression of our times in terms of the lessening influence of the naturalworld, and more influence from our industrial, geometric environment; and within this asceticparameter, minute variations in treatment, composition, and color can become much moreapparent and meaningful. The painter Agnes Martin works in an austere geometric abstraction,which is also luminous in muted color and expression.

Materials Needed:

Note: Art materials can be bought online, at www.utrechtart.comand

www.dickblick.com.

Sketch pad - You can start small, if you wish, at around 5 or 6 inches by 8 or 9

inches. These are good for carrying around with you, in case of a drawing

emergency. If you feel comfortable with a larger size, go for it. At this point, you

don't need a high grade of paper. The idea is to do lots and lots of sketches, and

for this newsprint pads or a sketch pad are cheap and work fine. If money is not

an issue, a heavier weight drawing paper, like Strathmore, or even a hardbound

drawing book is great. An art supply or office supply store will have these

materials.

Drawing tool - A soft pencil is good, preferably a 2B or 3B drawing pencil. You

can also try a felt tip pen or even a ballpoint pen, just to get a different feel.

These can all be found at an art supply store, some office supply stores.

Kneaded eraser - These are sold in art supply stores, or some office supply

stores. A small to medium size is good, unless you are working on large paper.

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These can be kneaded after use, to get a cleaner surface to erase with. These

only erase pencil marks, not felt tip or ballpoint. There are erasers made for these

pens - look in an art or office supply store.

Exercise 1 - Contour Drawing

(I recommend that you first readArt Instruction, to get the most benefitfrom this exercise.)

Exercise:

Contour drawing is a good beginning exercise, in the way that practicing scales is

good for learning the piano. It uses the element of line to create a three-

dimensional outline of objects. Natural objects are especially suitable, like plants,

flowers, hands, and the human figure, but it is also good to try drawing non-

natural objects, like containers with interesting shapes, or old shoes, which can

have a lot of character.

Contour drawing should be done very, very slowly. Place your chosen object in

front of you, where you get a good view of it. You will be starting to draw

anywhere on the object's edge - but you will be aware of how the object doesn't

end at that edge, but continues behind it, usually as a rounded contour, unless

the object is geometric, for instance, a cube. (An outline of the object would be

two-dimensional, or flat; a contour is three-dimensional.) Keep your eyes on the

object as much as possible (try not to look at your paper), and concentrate on

what the contour does, every single little curve or meander. Don't worry at thistime about getting an exact likeness or correct proportions. If your edge goes into

the form, follow it until it ends, and then pick up the contour where you left off.

Try to feel the line, its jaggedness or smoothness, its curve, its delicacy, or

sharpness. If you feel the form going away from you, press down on your pencil.

Your progress should be so slow as to be painstaking - don't draw the line until

you feel sure of what it does next. It is like climbing the mountain, as opposed to

flying over it. And don't think about what the form is, like elbow or leaf - just draw

the line/contour and what it does. When you finish the outer contours, you can

draw the inside contours, for example, the features on the face, or lines on a leaf.

Don't erase for this exercise! You are not making a drawing - you are involved in a

process of learning.

When you are finished, don't be dismayed if it doesn't look like a "real" drawing. If

you do the exercise correctly, and many, many times, you'll see progress as you

look back on last month's drawings. Carry your sketchbook with you as much as

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possible, for when you are in life's waiting rooms. The best time to draw, when

you feel confident enough to tackle a figure, is with your family or friends. People

are relaxed, in comfortable positions, and unself-conscious - and they make great

models. Drawing yourself is good, too - your hands and feet in different positions.

Making it fun for yourself is good, too. Draw things that really interest you, andthat you love. Play your favorite music, and wear your most comfortable clothes.

Save your drawings - you will see progress, I promise! You are learning to SEE.

And the more you learn to see, the more you will see, and that knowledge will in

turn improve your drawing.

Recommended Drawing Books:

The Natural Way to Draw, by Kimon Nicolaides, Houghton Mifflin Company,

Boston, 1941.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards, J.P. Tarcher, Inc., Los

Angeles, Distributed by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1979.

Once you have done many contour drawings, and are feeling adventurous, try:

Blind contour: Try doing the entire drawing without looking at your paper.

Other hand contour: Try drawing with your non-drawing hand. This will really get

you to slow down!Suggested Art/Artists for Examples of Line Drawings/Etchings:

Line has been used in many ways throughout art history; not only with contour

drawing, but with variations of the contour. The following are just some examples

of the use of line in art: Picasso line drawings (especially portraits) - I was

unsuccessful in locating examples of these on the Web; Holbein the Younger

(click on the Scholarportrait thumbnail); Leonardo da Vinci;Ingres; Durer

(scroll down to see the engravings); Chinese ink drawings(click on the images

to enlarge); the sculptor Rodin'sdrawings; Mary Cassatt etchings(influenced

by Japanese prints coming into Europe in the mid-19th century).

Van Gogh also did many ink drawingsusing line; rather than limiting his use of

line to contours, he used it in the form of variously shaped marks, which serve to

create a textural effect, as well as to help delineate spatial depth. A good

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http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a703-1.htmlhttp://www.visi.com/~reuteler/leonardo.htmlhttp://www.metmuseum.org/collections/co_rec_acq/co_rec_eur_1998_21.htmhttp://www.ku.edu/~sma/durer/durer.htmhttp://www.ishibi.pref.ishikawa.jp/english/collections/kaiga/kaiga_5.htmlhttp://newimageart.com.au/Artists/viewartwork@name=MA037.htmlhttp://www.ku.edu/~sma/cassatt/cassmap.htmhttp://www.sjcsf.edu/instruction/art/popups/vangogh25.htmlhttp://www.sjcsf.edu/instruction/art/popups/vangogh27.htmlhttp://www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a703-1.htmlhttp://www.visi.com/~reuteler/leonardo.htmlhttp://www.metmuseum.org/collections/co_rec_acq/co_rec_eur_1998_21.htmhttp://www.ku.edu/~sma/durer/durer.htmhttp://www.ishibi.pref.ishikawa.jp/english/collections/kaiga/kaiga_5.htmlhttp://newimageart.com.au/Artists/viewartwork@name=MA037.htmlhttp://www.ku.edu/~sma/cassatt/cassmap.htmhttp://www.sjcsf.edu/instruction/art/popups/vangogh25.htmlhttp://www.sjcsf.edu/instruction/art/popups/vangogh27.html


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example of the lattershows how "empty" space (the white of the paper) can

indicate a sense of spatial depth as much as the actual lines and marks do so.

Exercise 2 - Mass Drawing

(I recommend that you first read Art Instructionto get the most benefit from this

exercise.)

Materials Needed:

Drawing paper, such as a newsprint pad or sketchbook, any size up to 18" x 24".

You can also try pastel or charcoal paper, for a nice texture.

Conte crayons or compressed charcoal sticks: Conte crayons are about 3"

long and block shaped, and hard. They come in black, gray, brown and red

ochre. Compressed charcoal is usually 2" or 3" long, rounded, and hard, and

usually black. Utrecht and Pearl online have what they call "Charkole," which

looks like it might serve the same purpose.

These materials can be found at an art supply store, a general department or

office supply store with an art department, or can be ordered online at

www.utrechtart.com, www.pearlpaint.com, orwww.dickblick.com. At the

websites, look in the menu under Drawing supplies, or Charcoal.

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Sometimes, what we know differs from what we see. When drawing or painting,

we sometimes need to choose between what we know and what we see. For

example, though we can see a person or object only from one vantage point, we

know that the person or object is rounded, and continues beyond the "edges" that

we can see. Though we can draw figures or objects with a line on a flat surface totry to depict reality, we also need to have a real sense of the actual 3-dimensional

form.

Exercise:

The first exercise, Contour Drawing, dealt with the element of line. This exercise,

Mass Drawing, deals more with the 3-dimensional reality of figures or objects,

that is, their form, or mass, using tonal values of light and dark.

This experience of the 3-dimensional form gives our work not only physical depth,

but depth of content as well. Even if we choose to make art without the illusion of

three dimensions, our understanding of these dimensions will add substance to

our work. For example, the painter Paul Cezanne had a strong sense of the flat

surface as the reality of painting, but his understanding of the third dimension

gives his work a solidity that not many artists have achieved, and creates a

tension between the 2-dimensional and the 3-dimensional realities. This is one

reason why his work is so powerful.

First, choose an object or figure to draw. Figures work very well for this exercise,

including yourself in front of a full-length mirror, in a non-symmetrical pose toavoid monotony. Don't be intimidated by the figure - just look at it like you would

at any other form - just draw what the forms do. But if you find the figure too

daunting, find a solid, large form, like an animal; or a large sculpture or still life

object. In one of the examples shown here, I used a conch shell, which is small,

but has a definite form. Try to work from life, rather than photographs, for this

exercise.

Always start a drawing by sitting quietly and studying your object, waiting to draw

until you are relaxed and prepared. Allow your eyes to receive the information,

rather than pursue it. You are trying to feel the solidity and volume of the form.Start in the "center" of the form by pressing the crayon slowly and lightly in a

relaxed, circular motion, as though you were building the object with clay.

Continue to "build" the form in outward circles, gradually reaching the outer

edges of the form. Work on the whole figure first, before you go back to refine

your drawing. Do not worry about proportions or edges - you are only thinking of

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the mass of the form. When you have the whole form roughed in, go back over it,

slowly increasing the pressure of the crayon in the bulkier areas of the form,

where the weight is.

These mass drawings do not need to be large. Work in whatever size you're

comfortable with. Break off a small piece of conte crayon or charcoal; you will beworking with the side of the crayon, not the point, for this exercise.

This darkening of certain areas will help define the form of the object or figure.

You don't want details or individual hands, feet, etc. here - only the sense of form.

Again, this is an exercise to increase your understanding of forms. You're not

making a product - you're practicing. In art, it isn't enough for the intellect to

understand a concept - the whole art-making apparatus must be brought along -

the eyes, mind, heart, soul and hands. The only way to do this is to draw with

these ideas in mind, and the more drawings you do, the more understanding and

strength you will have in your work.

Examples of Mass Drawing:

A really good example of this concept are the drawings of the 19th century

French pointillist painter, Georges Seurat. They are deceptively simple drawings

of figures, probably studies for his paintings. Looking at these drawings, you can

see what can be done with such simple means, in the hands of a good artist.

Click hereto see an example online; also, you can find examples of Seurat's

drawings in the following book:

The Natural Way to Draw, by Kimon Nicolaides, Houghton Mifflin Company,

Boston, 1941

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Exercise 3 - Gesture Drawing

(I recommend that you first read Art Instructionto get the full benefit of this

exercise.)

Gesture drawing can exist on two levels - action drawing, and gesture drawing.

Both involve the principle of movement. However, action drawing deals withphysical movement; and gesture drawing involves not only physical movement,

but a deeper concept of essential identity, as well. Kimon Nicolaides, in his book

The Natural Way to Draw, explains this concept of gesture exceptionally well. I

will try to explain it here.

First, action drawing: This exercise works best with figures or animals. You are

essentially trying to capture the action the figure is performing. Once again, a

likeness or correct proportions are not important in this exercise, nor is the

exercise meant to result in a finished drawing. This is an exercise to get you to

learn to identify the action the figure is doing, with his/her body. Individual body

parts are not important here - only the curve or direction of the main bodily

movement. You are not capturing what the figure or object looks like, but

what it is doing. In fact, you are looking at the figure as a form in space, not as a

person or animal. You are seeking what the form itself is doing. Try to FEEL the

line of movement, the fullness of the curves.

When the person takes the pose (action pose - as though suspended in the midst

of a strong movement, like a basketball player reaching for the basket, for

instance), imagine a central wire, or axis, which goes inside the figure from the

tips of the fingers in the air to the bottom of the ankle. This is the action line you

are seeking - and you want to do this quickly, in a matter of seconds. The model

should change poses approximately every 10-60 seconds, and

glossary of art terms and first few lessons

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