Study Guide for AP Art History Course

AP Art History Overview

  • Instructor: Mrs. Baker

  • Location: Room 301

  • Featured Artwork: Faith Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre (1991)

    • Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

    • Border: Tie-dyed pieced fabric

Course Structure

  • Semesters: Divided into 12 units

    • Each unit will have 2-3 chapters

    • Expectation of 20-25 images per unit

  • Exam Date: May 14th

Course Requirements

  • Essential List: The "250"

    • There are 250 images to memorize

    • For each artwork, students must know:

      • Title

      • Artist (if applicable)

      • Date

      • Location

      • Materials

    • Scope: From prehistoric to contemporary

    • Example Artwork:

      • Title: Nude Form/ Venus of Willendorf

      • Artist: Unknown

      • Date: 28,000-25,000 BCE

      • Material: Limestone

Grading Categories

  • Assessment Grade:

    • Based on flashcards and notebooks

    • Critical for passing

  • Quiz Grades:

    • Tests and assessments for each unit

  • Practice Grade:

    • Daily warm-ups and participation in discussions

Supplies Needed

  • Student Supplies:

    • A sturdy 2-inch binder

    • A good set of writing utensils (pencils or pens)

    • A notebook for lecture notes and sketches

  • Provided Supplies:

    • Highlighters

    • Notecards and binder rings

    • Printed guidebook to be placed in binder

Introductory Concepts

Aesthetic

  • Definition: The human experience that encapsulates feelings, perceptions, and assigns meaning to the world.

  • Significance: Aesthetic experiences motivate behavior and create categories for organizing experiences.

Artistic Traditions

  • Concept: Norms of artistic production or products exhibited through material utilization, techniques, display methods, and audience interaction.

Audience

  • Definition: Individuals who engage with artwork as participants, facilitators, or observers.

Composition

  • Definition: The way an artist organizes forms within artwork, either on a flat surface or in spatial arrangement.

Key Vocabulary

Genre

  • Definition: A style or category of art; specifically, a kind of painting depicting realistic scenes from everyday life.

Iconography

  • Definition: The writing of images; significance and study of symbols, interpretations, subject matter, and meaning.

  • Components: Refers to both the content of an artwork and the study of art content.

Landscape

  • Definition: An artwork showcasing natural scenery without narrative content.

Materials (Medium)

  • Definition: Raw ingredients (e.g., pigment, wood) and compounds (e.g., textile, ceramic) used to create art.

  • Properties: Specific materials have inherent properties (e.g., fragile, permanent) and accrue cultural value.

Orthogonals

  • Definition: Imagined lines that appear perpendicular to the picture plane; they recede to a vanishing point in paintings.

Perspective

  • Definition: A technique for presenting the illusion of a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface.

    • Linear Perspective:

      • Parallel lines converge on vanishing points along the horizon.

      • Objects further from the viewer appear smaller.

    • Atmospheric (Aerial) Perspective:

      • Creates distance illusion via color intensity diminution, color shifts towards neutral tones, and blurred contours.

Personification

  • Definition: Abstract ideas represented in bodily form.

Presentation

  • Definition: The manner in which artwork is displayed, enacted, or appears to the audience.

Relief Sculpture

  • Definition: Sculpture from which figures project from a background; can be high (high relief), low (bas relief), or sunken.

Response

  • Definition: Reaction from an individual or population to the experiences generated by artwork.

  • Types of Responses: May be physical, perceptual, spiritual, intellectual, and/or emotional.

Sculpture in the Round

  • Definition: Freestanding sculpture that is carved or modeled in three dimensions.

Style

  • Definition: A unique and defining combination of features that reflect historical periods, geographic locations, cultural contexts, and the individual artist's hand.

Symbolism

  • Definition: A late 19th-century movement based on the artist as a creator transforming nature facts into symbols of inner experience.

Technique

  • Definition: Art-making processes, tools, and technologies that accommodate or overcome material properties.

  • Complexity: Techniques can range from simple to complex and may involve individual or group efforts.

Understanding Art: Content, Context, Form, and Function

Content

  • Definition: Communicative elements of design, subject matter, and representation within an artwork.

  • Components of Content:

    • Subject matter: Visible imagery may be formal, representative, or symbolic.

    • Can be narrative, spiritual, historical, or propaganda in nature.

    • Example: Francisco Goya, The Third of May (1814), Oil on Canvas, 268x347, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

Context

  • Definition: The milieu of a work of art, including time, place, culture, and audience interaction.

  • Characteristics:

    • How subsequent audiences interacted with the work.

    • Location of the work and original setting.

    • Historical context provided via records, personal reflections, media, etc.

Form

  • Definition: Component materials and how they are used to create physical and visual elements in a work of art.

  • Analysis:

    • Evaluated through design elements and principles to understand visual components and their relations.

Function

  • Definition: Intended and actual uses of a work that may vary based on audience, time, and culture.

  • Purpose:

    • Utility, intercession, decoration, communication, commemoration.

    • Can be spiritual, social, political, or personally expressive.

Elements and Principles of Art

Line

  • Definition: A mark characterized by length and direction; produced by a point moving across a surface or in space.

  • Variations: Length, width, direction, curvature, color. Exist in 2D and 3D forms, or implied.

Texture

  • Definition: The tactile quality of a surface (actual texture) and its visual representation (implied texture).

  • Sensory Experience: Perceived through touch and sight.

Value

  • Definition: Darkness or lightness of a surface related to light reflection.

  • Tints and Shades:

    • Tints: Light values of pure color.

    • Shades: Dark values of pure color.

Shape

  • Definition: A flat figure formed by the meeting of actual or implied lines.

  • Classification: Divided into geometric or organic shapes.

Form

  • Definition: 3-dimensional quality of objects; measurable in height, width, and depth.

  • Description: Includes mass and volume.

Space

  • Definition: The area surrounding or within objects; can be positive or negative, 2D or 3D.

Color (Hue)

  • Definition: The general name for a color; relates to the color spectrum.

  • Saturation: The amount of pigment in a color.

Balance

  • Definition: The arrangement or placement of elements within an artwork.

    • Types:

      • Symmetrical: Even distribution on both sides.

      • Asymmetrical: Balance achieved with different elements.

      • Radial: Elements radiate from a central point.

Variety

  • Definition: Introduces differences in artwork to enhance interest and break repetition.

Unity

  • Definition: A quality of wholeness in a work of art achieved through effective use of elements and principles.

Emphasis

  • Definition: Creating a focal point by making part of an artwork dominant.

Movement

  • Definition: The illusion of action or changes in a work, guiding the viewer’s eyes through the piece.

Proportion (Scale)

  • Definition: Relationships between sizes and locations of elements in artwork, determining their perceived size.

Rhythm (Pattern)

  • Definition: The repetition of elements, creating consistency and a sense of movement.