CHAPTER TWO

WHAT IS ART?

• Definition and origins of art

• Art and Originality
• Who is an Artist?
• Representational and Abstract Art, Nonrepresentational
• Style
• Art and Meaning: Form and Content, Context
Britannica:

Art:
A visual object or experience consciously created
through an expression of skill or imagination. The
term art encompasses diverse media such as
painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative
arts, photography, and installation.

The various visual arts exist within a continuum that

ranges from purely aesthetic purposes at one end to
purely utilitarian purposes at the other.
 Waterworn pebble
resembling a human face,
from Makapansgat, South
Africa, ca. 3,000,000 BCE.
Reddish brown jasperite,
approx. 2 3/8” wide.
Red ochre stone from Blombos Cave,
South Africa (crayon with tally marks?), 75,
000 BCE

Shell Beads from Blombos

Cave.
Use-wear, indicates the
shells having being strung
and worn
Representation: the
presenting again – in 40-35,000 BCE – first works of art
different and substitute
form – of something
observed.

Woolly Mammoth Figurine from Germany.

3.7 cm (1.5 inch) long. 35,000 BCE
(It is believed to be the oldest ivory carving ever found. )
How Art made the
World

https://youtu.be/v
O6ay9eueR4?list
=PLK01liO6QU8K
6Jk_ZjDGk2WeS
o3b7nD3s

10:47

Horses. Chauvet cave, Ardeche Valley, France. C

25,000-17,000 BCE
Rhino. Chauvet
cave, Ardeche
Valley, France. C
25,000-17,000 BCE
Art and Originality
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-
1519), Italian painter, sculptor,
draftsman, architect, engineer,
writer and scientist whose genius
epitomized the Renaissance
humanist ideal.

Leonardo da Vinci, Self-

Portrait (?) 1512, Red chalk,
33.3 x 21.3 cm
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa,
(also known as La Gioconda)
1503-1505. Oil on wood, 2' 6" x 1'
9". Louvre, Paris.

The subject may have been 24 year old

Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the wife
of a prominent merchant in Florence -
Francesco del Giocondo.
 Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian who believed the
Mona Lisa should be returned to Italy, stole the
painting in 1911. It was recovered in 1913 when
he tried to sell it.

Peruggia was hailed for his patriotism in Italy and

only served a few months in jail for the crime.
Is she smiling or not?
Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa. Marcel Duchamp. Mona Lisa:
c. 1503–1506 Oil on poplar. 77 × LHOOQ 1919. Color reproduction
53 cm, 30 × 21 in. Musée du of the Mona Lisa altered with a
Louvre, Paris pencil. 8X5”.
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain.
Paint, urinal. 1917

1917 - The Independent Artists

show committee said that
Fountain was not art and
rejected it from the show.

Class Assignment 3

The year is 1917 and you

are a member of the
show committee. Would
you show this work?
Why or why not? Is it
art?
2004 - Fountain was voted
the most influential
artwork of the 20th
century by 500 selected
British artworld
professionals.
 Andy Warhol,
Thirty Are Better than One, Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa,
1963. Silkscreen ink, acrylic paint on c. 1503-1505. Oil on wood, 30
canvas, 9’ 2" x 7’ 10 1/2" 1/4" x 21". Louvre, Paris.
Appropriation - To take possession of
another's imagery (or sounds), often without
permission, reusing it in a context which differs
from its original context, most often in order to
examine issues concerning originality or to
reveal meaning not previously seen in the
original. This is far more aggressive than
allusion or quotation, it is not the same as
plagiarism however.

Richard Prince. Untitled (Cowboy), Ektacolor print, 49 1/4 by 74 5/8

inches, 1997.

An appropriation of a Marlboro cigarette advertisement.

(Sold for $744,000)
 Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1989
Chromogenic print; 50 x 70 in. (127 x 177.8 cm)

Richard Prince, Untitled

(Cowboy) taken from an old
Marlboro cigarette advertising
campaign.
 Han van Meegeren
demonstrating his forgery Art Forgery
techniques

Han van Meegeren (Art forger) 1941 – 1942, Christ with

the Adulteress (fake “Vemeer” that was sold to
Hermann Göring for 1,650,000 guldens, about $6.75
Million today)

When he was accused of

collaborating with the enemy in
having sold Vermeer's The
Woman Taken in Adultery to
Hermann Göring during World
War II, he was able to prove the
“Vermeer” was by his own
hand; van Meegeren was sent
to prison for one year.
Who is an Artist?
Rembrandt Signature. Robbert Watts. 1965/75
Neon, glass tubing, plexiglas, transformer. 13 ½ X 44 X 5”
Painting by
Congo the
chimp,
1950s, Sold
for $25,000
Paintings by Congo the
Chimpanzee
Outsider Art: Art produced by nonprofessional artists ‘outside’ the normal fine-
art tradition (self taught, children, prisoners, mentally handicapped etc.)
 Self Taught Artists/ Naïve/ Folk Art

Gayleen Aiken, A Beautiful

Dream, 1982. Oil on canvas
board, 12" x 16". Private
Gayleen Aiken, Bad Raimbilli Collection.
When Young, up in the Bedroom
14x17 mm/paper
James Hampton. Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nation’s Millennium
General Assembly, ca. 1950-1964, Gold and silver aluminum foil, colored kraft
paper, and plastic sheets over wood, paperboard, and glass. 180 pieces. 105" x
27" x 14 1/2". Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
James Hampton with The Throne in its
early stages

Plaque with James Hamptons cryptic script

Representational and Abstract Art
 Pablo Picasso: 1881-1973
Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and ceramist,
who worked in France. He is generally considered in
his technical virtuosity, enormous versatility, and
incredible originality and prolificity to have been the
foremost figure in 20th-century art.
Pablo Picasso biography: http://youtu.be/zXLi9QKaPU4
Pablo Picasso, First
Communion, 1895-1896. Oil
on canvas, 65 3/8" x 46 1/2".
Museo Picasso, Barcelona.

Representational (Related
terms: Naturalistic, Figurative):
Resembles forms in the natural
world; “window on the world”.
 Trompe l'oeil
(French for 'trick the eye.’
pronounced: tromp-loy):
Style of representation in
which a painted object is
intended to deceive the viewer
into believing it is the object
itself.

Andrea Mantegna, interior of

the Camera degli Sposi (Room
of the Newlyweds), Palazzo
Ducale, Mantua, Italy, 1474.
Fresco.
Andrea Mantegna,
Camera degli Sposi
The Oculus
1473. Fresco
270 cm diameter
Palazzo Ducale, Mantua

It took Mantegna almost nine

years to complete the
extensive fresco program in
which he sought to
aggrandize Ludovico
Gonzaga and his family
(Italian dynasty that ruled
Mantua )
 This drawing was
requested by Live8 to
support the pressure
campaign on the G8 in
Edinburgh

http://youtu.be/ECeGwg7
Cm0A

Julian Beever
Make Poverty History
2005, Edinburgh.
Scotland
 Duane Hanson, Slab Man, 1976, Vinyl,
polychromed in oil, with accessories. Life-size.
Cantor Museum at Stanford University

Duane Hanson,
Housepainter III,
1984/1988.
Autobody filler,
polychromed mixed
media, with
accessories, life-
size.
 Duane Hanson, Tourists II , 1988

DUANE HANSON, Supermarket

Shopper, 1970. Polyester resin and
fiberglass polychromed in oil, with
clothing, steel cart, and groceries, life-
size.
Abstract Art:
1.Art that distorts, Is this a representational work of
exaggerates or art?
simplifies the natural
world to provide
essence or universal
generalized form.

2. Art that does not

represent
recognizable objects

Pablo Picasso,
Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon (the Young
Women of Avignon)
1907.
Oil on Canvas, 8’X7’8”
Museum of Modern Art.
New York
 Pablo Picasso,
Pablo Picasso, First Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (the
Communion, 1895-1896. Oil on Young Women of Avignon) 1907.
canvas, 65 3/8" x 46 1/2". Museo
Picasso, Barcelona. Oil on Canvas, 8’X7’8”
Cylindrical Head, c. 13th-14th
century, Ife. Yoruba. Terra cotta, 6 Head of a King, from Ife.
3/8" high. National Commission for Yoruba, c. 13th century.
Museums and Monuments, Nigeria. Brass, life-size. The British
Museum, London.
Constantin Brâncuşi (1876-1957)

A Romanian sculptor who settled in

France.
Photographs,1933-34
He was a central figure of the modern
movement and a pioneer of
abstraction. His sculpture is noted for
its visual elegance and sensitive use of
materials, combining the directness of
peasant carving with the
sophistication of the Parisian avant-
garde.
Constantin Brancusi's studio,
as reconstructed 1977-1990 at the
Musée National d'Art Moderne,
Centre Georges Pompidou, France.
Constantin Brancusi. Bird in Space.
c. 1928-30. Gelatin silver print
Bird in Space, 1923
Constantin Brancusi
Marble; H. (with base) 56 3/4 in.
(144.1 cm),
Diam. 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm)
Metropolitan Museum, NY
Constantin Brâncuşi , Sleep.
Marble, 1908

Constantin Brancusi, Sleeping Muse,

bronze, marble 1909-1910
Louis Bourgeois
1911-2010 (aged 98)
French-born American
sculptor, born in 1911. After
studying art in Paris, she
moved to New York in 1938
with her husband Robert
Goldwater and became active
in the feminist movement. She
was the first woman artist to
have a retrospective at the
MoMA in 1982.

Robert Mapplethorpe.
Louise Bourgeois, 1982
(Bourgeois is holding her latex sculpture
Fillette —a French term that refers to a young
and inexperienced girl)
 "My childhood never lost its magic, never lost its mystery, and
never lost its drama."
Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois
Blind Man´s Buff 1984. Marble
Comaprison: Artemis of Ephesus. 1st century
CE Roman copy of the cult statue of the
Temple of Ephesus.

Louise Bourgeois
Blind Man´s Buff 1984. Marble
Louise Bourgeois, The Nest, 1994; sculpture; steel, 101 in. x 189 in. x 158 in.
(256.54 cm x 480.06 cm x 401.32 cm); SFMOMA
 Louise Bourgeois,
Woman with
Packages, 1949.
Bronze, polychromed,
65" x 18" x 12"

Duane Hanson, Housepainter III,

1984/1988. Autobody filler,
polychromed mixed media, with
accessories, life-size.
 Nonrepresentational

Nonrepresentational (Nonobjective. Sometimes called

“Abstract”): contains no reference to the natural world as we
see it.
Vasilyi Kandinsky.
Black Lines No. 189.
1913. Oil on Canvas,
51X51”. Guggenheim
Mus. NY

“Generally speaking,
color influences the
soul. Color is the
keyboard, the eyes
are the hammers, the
soul is the piano with
many strings. The
artist is the hand that
plays, touching one
key or another
purposively, to cause
vibration in the soul.”
Vasily Kandinsky
Vasili Kandinsky, Composition IX, 1936. Oil on canvas,
44 5/8" x 76 3/4". Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Class Assignment 4
Find in your book -
1. Two representational works which are also
naturalistic.
2. Two representational works which are also abstract.
3. Two non representational works.

You need to provide the name of the work and the

name of the artist.
 Style

Style: A characteristic, or a number of characteristics,

that we can identify as constant, recurring or coherent. In
art, the sum of such characteristics associated with a
particular artist, group, or culture, or with an artist’s work
at a specific time
 Hathor and Sety, detail of a pillar
from the tomb of Sety I, c. 1300
B.C.E. Painted plaster on limestone,
height 7'5". Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Isis and Osiris. 1291-1279 BCE (New

Kingdom.) Temple of Seti I. Abydos
Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait,
1887. Oil on canvas, 1889. Oil on canvas, 25 1/2" x 21 1/4".
Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
ART AND MEANING
 Form and Content

Form: The way a work looks. It includes all visual

aspects of the work such as size, shape, materials,
color and composition.

Content: What the work of art is about. It includes

subject matter, message and iconography.
Henri Matisse, Piano
Lesson, 1916. Oil on
canvas, 8' 1/2" x 6' 11
3/4". The Museum of
Modern Art, New York.
Henri Matisse.
Music Lesson.
1917. Oil on canvas,
8’X6’11”
Henri Matisse. Music Lesson. Henri Matisse, Piano Lesson, 1916.
1917. Oil on canvas, 8’X6’11” Oil on canvas, 8' 1/2" x 6' 11 3/4".

How does the form in these paintings contribute to the content

(including mood and message) ?
Auguste Rodin. The Kiss,
1886-1898. Marble, 5' 11
1/4" high. Musée Rodin,
Paris.
 Janine Antoni, Gnaw, 1992. Installation view and details
Three part installation. 600 lbs. of chocolate; 600 lbs. of lard;
(approximately 2 x 2 x 2 feet) display: 130 Lipsticks made with pigment,
beeswax, and chewed lard removed from the lard cube; 27 Heart-shaped
packages made from chewed chocolate removed from the chocolate cube.
Janine Antoni, Gnaw, 1992.
Janine Antoni, Gnaw, 1992.
 In your opinion, would it be
different if Antoni used a
tool to make it appear as if
the chocolate and lard
cubes had been chewed on
instead of actually biting
the cubes herself? Why or
why not?

Janine Antoni, Gnaw, 1992.

Janine Antoni, Gnaw, 1992.

How does the form in

these works contribute
to the content?

Auguste Rodin. The

Kiss, 1886-1898.
Marble, 5' 11 1/4" high.
 Jan van Eyck,
Arnolfini Portrait,
1434. Oil on wood, 32
1/4" x 23 1/2". National
Gallery, London.

Iconography (literally
“describing images”): The
identification, description and
interpretation of subject matter
in art (including symbols or
references, people, events, etc.)
Requires knowledge of a
specific time, beliefs or culture.
Jan van Eyck,
Arnolfini Portrait,
Detail. 1434. Oil on
wood, 32 1/4" x 23 1/2".
National Gallery,
London.
Jocho. Amida Nyorai
(Buddha of the Western Paradise)
Byodo-in Temple, Japan.
C. 1053. Gildded wood, height 9’2”

Lotus=purity. Ushnisha= enlightenment. Hand gesture= meditation and balance

Jocho. Amida Nyorai
(Buddha of the Western
Paradise)
Byodo-in Temple, Japan.
C. 1053. Gildded wood,
height 9’2”
 Context

Context: The personal and social circumstances

surrounding the making, viewing and interpreting of a work
of art; the varied connections of a work of art to the larger
world of its time and place.
Finial of a linguist’s (spokesperson)
staff, from Ghana. Ashanti culture, 20th
century. Wood and gold, 2 3/4" high. Musée
Barbier-Mueller, Geneva.

Political power is like an egg, says an

Ashanti proverb. Grasp it too tightly and
it will shatter in your hand; hold it too
loosely and it will slip from your fingers.
Linguists at Enyan Abassa, Ghana, 1974.
 Titian, Assumption of the Virgin,
1516-1518. Oil on panel, 22' 7 1/2" x 11' 9
3/4“ Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice.
Class Assignment 5
Choose one work of art from your book and describe its
form, content and context.

Form: The way a work looks. It includes all visual aspects of the
work such as size, shape, materials, color, style and
composition.
Content: What the work of art is about. It includes subject
matter, message and iconography. (Including the title of the
artwork)

Context: Includes knowledge of artist, time & culture.