Art Appreciation - Week Seven Art Study Guide

Balance (Art Principle)

A principle of Art in which elements are used to create a symmetrical or asymmetrical sense of visual weight in an artwork

All-Over Balance

When a composition has no apparent underlying structure and attention is equally spread across the entire picture plane

Symmetry (Balance)

When an image looks the same, (or nearly the same) on both sides when cut in half

Radial Symmetry

When all elements in a work are equidistant from a central point and repeat in a symmetrical way from side to side and top to bottom; Most animals exhibit

Asymmetry

A type of design in which balance is achieved by elements that contrast and complement one another without being the same on either side of an axis

Visual Weight Factor: High Contrast

Make an element of an artwork heavier

Visual Weight Factor: De-saturated (less intense color)

Make an element of an artwork lighter

Visual Weight Principle: Form Size

A large form is heavier than a small form

Visual Weight Principle: Proximity to Edge

Forms of the same size but one closer to the edge has more visual weight

Visual Weight Principle: Form Complexity

Complex forms are heavier than simple forms

Visual Weight Principle: Color Warmth

Warm colors are heavier than cool colors

Unity (Art Principle)

The appearance of sameness in a work of art: all the elements appearing to be part of a cohesive whole

Harmony (Unity)

The pleasing arrangement of variety into a unified whole

Variety (Art Principle)

The diversity of elements in a work; Martin Hanford’s famous Where’s Waldo images have high levels of variety

Composition

Overall organization of a work of art

Grid (Composition)

A network of horizontal and vertical lines; in an artwork’s composition, the lines are usually implied

Compositional Unity

When an artist organizes all the visual aspects of a work of art

Conceptual Unity

When a work of art has a cohesive expression of ideas within it

Gestalt

An organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its part is referred to

Gestalt Psychology

A school of psychology that emerged in Austria and Germany in the early twentieth century which emphasized that organisms perceive entire patterns or configurations, not merely individual components. Humans perceive visuals in connection with different objects and environments.

Closure (Gestalt Principle)

The illusion of seeing an incomplete stimulus as though it were whole

Figure-Ground Reversal

The reversal of the relationship between one shape (the figure) and its background (the ground) so that the figure becomes ground, and the ground becomes the figure

Pragnanz

A German word meaning “concise and meaningful”; the most obvious or probable solution is the one most likely to be seen in matters of uncertainty

Prior Knowledge (Gestalt)

What you already know, or think you know, or want to know/see biases the way you interpret information: Example- M y th ce be w th y u

Context (Gestalt)

The situation an object is placed in can change how you perceive it

Similarity (Gestalt Principle)

Elements that are similar are perceived to be more related than elements that are dissimilar

Common Fate

Humans perceive visual elements that move in the same speed and/or direction as parts of a single stimulus

Continuity (Gestalt Principle)

Elements that are arranged on a line or curve are perceived to be more related than elements not on the line or curve

Symmetry (Gestalt Principle)

Elements that are symmetrical to each other tend to be more perceived as a unified group

Proximity (Gestalt Principle)

Objects or shapes that are close to one another appear to forms groups. Even if the shapes, sizes, and objects are radically different, they will appear as a group if they are close

Common Region

When objects are located within the same closed region, we perceived them as being grouped together

Architecture

The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings

Masonry

The building technique which uses stones or bricks laid on top of one another in a pattern. May be done with or without a mortar

Post-and-Lintel

A structural system that uses two or more uprights or ‘posts’ to support a horizontal beam or ‘lintel’ that spans the space between them

Dressed Stone

A stone that has been worked into a desired shape, smooth and ready for construction

Column (Architecture)

A freestanding pillar, usually cylindrical in shape

Base (Column)

The projecting series of blocks between the shaft of a column and its plinth

Shaft (Column)

The main vertical part of a column

Capital (Column)

The architectural feature that crowns a column

Plinth (Column)

The rectangular slab or block that forms the lowest part of a column, statue, or pedestal

Cornice

Molding round the top of a building

Pediment

The triangular part of the front of a building in the classical style

Colonnade

A row of columns usually panned by connected lintels

Arch (Architecture)

A curved structure designed to span an opening

Keystone

The stone at the central, highest point of around arch, it holds the rest of the arch in place

Arcade

A series of arches supported by columns or piers

Concrete

The liquid building material invented by the Romans made of water, sand, gravel, and binder of gypsum, lime, or volcanic ash

Aqueduct

A structure designed to transport water over long distances

Vault (Architecture)

A curving masonry roof or ceiling constructed based on the principle of the arch

Dome

A generally hemispherical roof or vault. Theoretically, an arch rotated 180 degrees on its vertical axis

Pendentive

A curving triangle that points downward; a common support for domes in Byzantine architecture

Flying Buttress

A support, usually exterior, for a wall, or vault, that opposes the lateral forces of these structures

Balloon Framing

The fabrication of lightweight wooden frames to support the structure instead of using heavy timbers; invited in the United3 States in 1832

Modernism (Architecture)

A Twentieth-Century architectural movement that embraced industrial materials and a machine aesthetic

Façade

A single exterior side of a building, usually the front or entrance

International Style

An architectural style that emerged in several European countries between 1910 and 1920. International Style architects avoided decoration, used only modern materials, and arranged masses of building according to its inner uses

Curtain Walls

A non-loadbearing wall, typical in the international style, and generally well-endowed with windows

Cantilever

A slab projecting a substantial distance beyond its supporting post or wall, a projection supported only at one end

Post-Modernism (Architecture)

An electric, playful style of architecture that appeared in the 1970s as a reaction to the dogma of Modernism

Photography

Comes from the Latin “photo” and “graph” meaning “Drawing with light”; The process of recording an image- a photograph- on a light-sensitive surface

Camera Obscura

A device that takes advantage of the natural phenomena that occurs when light passes through a tiny hole in an otherwise unlit space, projecting an inverted image of the scene outside the device onto an interior wall

Daguerreotype

An early photographic process developed by Jaques Daguerre in the 1830s which consisted of exposing a copper plate coated in silver and sensitized with iodine to light in a camera, and then developed it in darkness by holding it over a pan of heated vaporizing mercury

Fixing (Photography)

The chemical process used to ensure a photographic image becomes permanent

Negative (Photography)

A reversed image, in which light areas are dark and dark areas are light (opposite of a positive)

Photo-Negative

A piece of film or paper in which the lights and darks are the opposite of what we see in life, with the tones reversed

Positive (Photography)

An image in which light areas are light and dark areas are dark (opposite of a negative)

Cyanotype

Photographic process using light-sensitive iron salts that oxidize and produce a brilliant blue color where light penetrates and remain white where light is blocked; a variant of this process was used historically to copy architectural drawings

Collodion (wet-plate) Process

Black and white darkroom photography process invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1850-51 and popular until the 1880s

Gelatin Silver Print Process

Process for making glossy black and white photographic prints in the darkroom based silver halide gelatin emulsions

Developer (Photography)

The chemical substance that transforms a latent image recorded on light- sensitive film/paper into a visible one

Soft Focus

The deliberate blurring of edges of lack of sharp focus in a photograph or movie

Photomontage

A single photographic image that combines (digitally or using multiple exposures) several separate images

Solarization

The darkroom technique that creates halo effects by exposing a partially developed photograph to light before continuing the process

Hand-Tint

An early process for adding color to monochrome photographic products by adding pigment in a manner very much like painting

Autochrome

Early additive color photography process patented by the Lumiere brothers in 1904 and primarily used from 1907 to the 1930s

Transparency (Photography)

In film and photography, a positive image on film that is visible when light is shone through it

Chromogenic Prints (c-prints)

Most wide-spread color process until digital prints; dyes couple with developers to create a negative image, reversed to make positive prints

Kodachrome

Introduced by Kodak Research Laboratories in 1935, Kodachrome is a subtractive reversal process for making color photographic film slides

Photojournalism

The process of storytelling using the medium of photography

Appropriation (Art)

The deliberate incorporation in an artwork of material originally created by other artists. Richard Prince took screenshots of strangers' Instagram posts and hung them in a gallery. When he claimed that this was his own original artwork, he challenged the border between copyright infringement and acceptable forms

Time (Art)

The measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues

Temporal Art

Any art that utilizes the passage of time

Bio Art

Art that is created with living, changing organisms

Performance Art

Artwork that involves the human body, usually including the artist, executed in front of an audience. Chris Burden is famous for various pieces of Performance Art

Kinetic Sculpture

Three-dimensional art that moves

Mobile (Sculpture)

A Kinetic Sculpture is suspended

Stroboscopic Motion

The effect created when two or more images are repeated in quick succession so that they visually fuse together to create the illusion of Motion

Implied Motion

When a static object suggests the illusion movement or being moved

Op Art

A style of art starting in the 1960s that exploits the physiology of our optical system to create illusory effect