Tutorial Questions and answers for Abstraction

Tutorial Questions and answers for Abstraction FLASHCARD A QUESTION: What is the first principle of abstraction, that we discussed in class, and at the beginning of the semester? ANSWER: All art involves abstraction, which means that all art involves SIMPLIFICATION--and especially simplification of a complex form into something that “reads” easily. QUESTION: What is the work of art shown in Flashcard A? ANSWER: The large geometric KRATER we discussed at the beginning of the semester. QUESTION: How is abstraction used in the way the human figure is depicted? ANSWER: Each part of the human body is reduced to a geometric form that is a simplification of that part of the body in its most recognizable form: for example, the torso is shown from the front as a triangle. Tutorial questions + answers - Abstraction 1 FLASHCARD B QUESTION: How does an artist DO abstraction? ANSWER: The artist chooses what to omit + what to emphasize. QUESTION: What are the criteria for making these choices? ANSWER: The best way to think of it is to look on art as a form of manipulation--a tool that can be used in a healthy or unhealthy way. QUESTION: How does it work? ANSWER: As an artist grows, he or she will observe what tends to draw forth certain responses in him or herself and in others, and will then choose details, shapes, + colors that will be likely to draw from the viewer the kind of response the artist wants. QUESTION: What are the 2 paintings in Flashcard B? ANSWER: Right: The Death of Sardanapalus by Delacroix; Left, The Executions of the 3rd of May, by Goya. QUESTION: What are some ways in which Delacroix and Goya are manipulating you, the viewer? ANSWER: The response varies w/ the viewer, but here are some common responses; Delacroix: It’s an attractive painting until you realize what’s going on: beautifully painted, attractive colors and shapes, + an ugly subject, w/ the focal point being Sardanapalus lying luxuriously on his bed, watching. Goya: Relatively dark colors, relatively little detail, but what’s there is carefully chosen. So the details catch the viewer’s eye, and the generally Tutorial questions + answers - Abstraction 2 dark colors make the Citizen’s white shirt and the pool of blood more dramatic FLASHCARD C QUESTION: What is the work illustrated in Flashcard C? ANSWER: Picasso’s The Old Guitarist (done in 1903) QUESTION: What is Distortion? ANSWER: It’s another principle of abstraction: It’s a form of emphasizing detail to the point that something is no longer depicted “correctly.” QUESTION: What are some examples of distortion in “The Old Guitarist”? ANSWER: His bony left shoulder is hitched up unnaturally high, his hands are very spidery, + his head is twisted around unnaturally so that it’s seen in profile. QUESTION: What is SURFACE PATTERN? ANSWER: Another principle of abstraction. When a painting begins to be abstract, the viewer becomes very aware of the work of art being shapes and colors arranged on a flat surface. QUESTION: Does the Old Guitarist have this quality of surface pattern? Tutorial questions + answers - Abstraction 3 ANSWER: Yes. There are large blocks of color, w/ strong horizontals, verticals, and diagonals, w/ a few curves to contrast w/ the straight lines. FLASHCARD D QUESTION: What works are illustrated in Flashcard D? ANSWER: Left: Manet’s Bar at the Folie Bergere; Cezanne’s The Gulf of Marsailles QUESTION: One of Manet’s great contributions to Art was to discover the present moment, to depict what he saw around him. What was his other great contribution? ANSWER: He sabotaged the illusion of depth by his way of painting, which draws the viewer’s eye to the SURFACE of the painting. QUESTION: What did Cezanne do in this department (of drawing the viewer’s eye to the surface of the painting)? ANSWER: He took it further, to the point that he’s been called the Father of Modern Art. QUESTION: What were Cezanne’s 2 great contributions to modern art? ANSWER: 1) His concern w/ STRUCTURE, and 2) his concern w/ being faithful to Nature, while at the same time being keenly aware of the painting as a flat surface. QUESTION: Strictly speaking, was Cezanne an abstract painter? ANSWER: No, but he did simplify a great deal--in fact, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he edited: he omitted a lot of detail, and yet when he was done w/ his painting, he would have captured the essence of the scene. Tutorial questions + answers - Abstraction 4 FLASHCARD E QUESTION: Did Picasso study Cezanne’s works carefully? ANSWER: Yes, he did. QUESTION: What is one of Cezanne’s famous statements about art and structure? ANSWER: He said in a letter to a friend that one should “treat mature by the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone.” --In other words, look for the underlying geometric structure, + use it to organize the painting. QUESTION: What did Picasso do w/ regard to exploring geometric structure? ANSWER: He took Cezanne’s idea, carried it further, + became one of the one of the major artists who developed a style called CUBISM. QUESTION: Picasso participated in developing 2 kinds of cubism. What are these 2 called, + what do the names mean? ANSWER: ANALYTIC, which involves the geometric analysis of form, and SYNTHETIC, which is a word used in the sense of “synthesis,” putting parts together to make a whole (not in the more colloquial sense of “fake.”) FLASHCARD E QUESTION: What are the 2 works illustrated in Flashcard E? ANSWER: Left: Picasso’s portrait of D. H. Kahnweiler; Right: Three Musicians Tutorial questions + answers - Abstraction 5 QUESTION: What kind of cubism is each of these paintings? ANSWER: Portrait of Kahnweiler is ANALYTIC cubism; Three Musicians is SYNTHETIC cubism. QUESTION: If abstraction involves simplification, why isn’t Kahnweiler’s portrait considered a failure. . . .What was Picasso trying to do? ANSWER: Actually, there IS simplification of form involved. What makes it look so complex is that not only did Picasso simplify the forms as he did in his painting Houses on a Hill, but he also was depicting his friend from more than one viewpoint at once. QUESTION: Where is it easiest to see this? ANSWER: In his face, where he’s shown in profile + from the front at the same time. QUESTION: What technique is Synthetic cubism based on? ANSWER: Collage--the pasting of various materials on a flat surface. Only Picasso has PAINTED broad areas of colors to make his picture, rather than cutting + pasting. QUESTION: What is Picasso depicting here? ANSWER: It’s a playful painting, in which Picasso shows 2 traditional stage characters: 2 clowns--the one in white is a Pierrot, + the one in diamond patterns is the Harlequin. The other is a monk-like figure. QUESTION: What principles of abstraction does this painting illustrate? ANSWER: All of them! Simplification of form; careful choice of detail, form + color; distortion; + a flat surface pattern that’s part of the work, but doesn’t dominate it. Tutorial questions + answers - Abstraction 6 FLASHCARD F QUESTION: What is the painting illustrated in Flashcard F? ANSWER: Guernica, by Picasso QUESTION: What kind of cubism is it? ANSWER: Synthetic QUESTION: Why was the work commissioned? ANSWER: Picasso did it as a commission for the pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris for the Spanish government in exile during the Spanish Civil War. QUESTION: Is this exactly what the Spanish Government in exile had in mind when they commissioned Picasso to do a painting? ANSWER: No. What they had in mind was some sort of statement against Franco’s totalitarian rule in Spain. QUESTION: How did the painting end up this way, then? ANSWER: Picasso was procrastinating, + then Guernica, the ancient Basque capital was attacked by German bombers (working for Franco) during market day, when there were more people there than usual. Guernica had no strategic value in the military sense. Picasso was enraged, + set to work immediately + produced this painting w/in about a month. Tutorial questions + answers - Abstraction 7