— THIRD EDITION ― APPROACHES TO A NEW INTRODUCTION TO ART HISTORY ArtBy Ferdinanda Florence SAN DIEGO Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher Carrie Montoya, Manager, Revisions and Author Care Kaela Martin, Project Editor Abbey Hastings, Associate Production Editor Emely Villavicencio, Senior Graphic Designer Alexa Lucido, Licensing Associate Kenneth Whitney, Interior Designer Natalie Piccotti, Director of Marketing Kassie Graves, Vice President of Editorial Jamie Giganti, Director of Academic Publishing Copyright © 2021 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc. For inquiries regarding permissions, translations, foreign rights, audio rights, and any other forms of reproduction, please contact the Cognella Licensing Department at [email protected]. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Cover images: Copyright © 2011 iStockphoto LP/JoKMedia. Copyright © 2015 iStockphoto LP/michaeljung. Copyright © 2015 iStockphoto LP/michaeljung. Copyright © 2016 iStockphoto LP/baona. Interior images: IMG 1: Copyright © 2016 Depositphotos/hrisrianin. IMG 2: Copyright © 2016 Depositphotos/Anthonycz. IMG 3: Copyright © 2016 Depositphotos/jemastock. Printed in the United States of America. 3970 Sorrento Valley Blvd., Ste. 500, San Diego, CA 92121 CONTENTS Introduction ix What Impacts How We See and Make Art? x What Is Art? xi What Is Art? A Case Study with Augusta Savage xiii Vocabulary in Introduction xvii 01 Art and Culture: The Choice between Abstraction and Illusionism 01 Beyond the Literal: Abstract Art for the Supernatural 03 Shared Concept, Contrasting Visions: The Theme of Death in Three Cultures 07 The Western Path to Illusionism: From Classical to Medieval to Renaissance 12 Realism versus Reality: Illusionistic Art and Deceiving Truths 14 Vocabulary in Chapter 1 18 02 Culture and the Vocabulary of Space in Two Dimensions 20 Picturing A 3d World in 2d: Landscape in Traditional Eastern and Western Art 20 Traditional Western Space: Perspective and the Italian Renaissance 24 Traditional Eastern Space: Oblique Projection and Pattern 30 Negative Space 35 iii Trading Spaces: Eastern Use of Western Space, Western Use of Eastern Space 37 New Vocabulary in Chapter 2 40 03 Approaches to Abstraction 42 Traditional Approaches to Abstraction 42 Modern Approaches to Abstraction 47 Modern Appropriation of African Art 54 Unity and Variety 57 New Vocabulary in Chapter 3 63 04 Beyond Pictures: Nonobjective Art 65 Abstract Expressionism and Nonobjective Art 65 Nonobjective Body Art in Traditional Cultures 69 The Garden and the Tea Bowl: Zen Buddhism and Nonobjective Japanese Art 70 Nonobjective Art and the White Walls of the Modern Art Gallery 72 Minimalism and Conceptual Art 74 Nonobjective Earthworks: Christo and Jeanne-Claude 76 Nonobjective Art and the Issue of “Crafts” 79 New Vocabulary in Chapter 4 86 05 Line and Drawing 87 Line Direction 88 Line Shape (Organic or Geometric) 91 Line Texture 93 APPROACHES TO ART: A New Introduction to Art History Expressive versus Analytical Line Vocabulary: Art Nouveau and Bauhaus 95 Drawing Media and Line Vocabulary 99 “Just a Sketch”: The Traditional Western Approach to Drawing 102 Women Artists and Drawing as a Fine Art Medium 104 New Vocabulary in Chapter 5 107 06 Light and Space 109 The Relationship between Light and Space 109 The Universal Vocabulary of Light and Space 110 Italian Renaissance Light and Space 111 Northern Renaissance Light and Space 115 Baroque Light and Space 117 Light, Space, and Modern Art 120 Installation 122 No Safe Distance: Performance Art 124 New Vocabulary in Chapter 6 126 07 The Choice Between Idealism and Verism, and the Power of Print 127 Idealism and Verism: Universal Criteria 128 Idealism and Verism: Cultural Criteria 130 The Social and Political Power of Verism 131 Verism and the Power of Printmaking 134 Contents v Verism and Photography 135 The Ethical Problems of Verism 138 Techniques of Printmaking 141 New Vocabulary in Chapter 7 148 08 Classicism: Art, Architecture, and Propaganda 149 Ancient Roman Propaganda 149 The Classical Female as Allegory 152 The Impact of the Enlightenment 152 Neoclassicism and the French Revolution 154 The United States: Classicism, Racism, and Manifest Destiny 157 The United States and Classical Nudity 159 Classicizing Architecture and Propaganda 162 Modern Classicism and Propaganda 167 New Vocabulary in Chapter 8 172 09 The Public Memorial and the Vocabulary of Time 173 The Challenges of a Public Memorial 173 Idealism versus Verism: A Tale of Two Lincolns 176 Timeless Vocabulary: The World War II Memorial 178 The Vocabulary of Time’s Passing: The FDR Memorial 181 The Challenge of Catharsis: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial 183 Catharsis and Compromise: The 9/11 Memorial 186 APPROACHES TO ART: A New Introduction to Art History Classicism Rejected: Holocaust Memorials 189 Catharsis, Change, and Contemporary Issues: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice 192 New Vocabulary in Chapter 9 196 10 Color and Painting 197 Color Mixing and Color Harmonies 198 Symbolic Color 206 Painting Media 212 New Vocabulary in Chapter 10 218 11 Patronage and Artist Agency 220 Power, Patronage, and the Artist’s Vocabulary 221 Women and Patronage 222 Patronage, Power, and the State 224 Artist Agency and Ethical Responsibility 228 Addressing Modern Times 232 New Vocabulary in Chapter 11 240 12 Controversies and Art 241 Expectations about the Modern Artist 242 Questioning Expectations: Dada and Pop 245 Controversy and Nonobjective Art 247 Nudity and “Obscenity” 249 Contents vii Context, Race, and Agency 255 Irony and the Sacred 258 Controversy, Technology, and Social Media 265 New Vocabulary in Chapter 12 268 Index of Artists 269 Appendix: Art Timelines 273 APPROACHES TO ART: A New Introduction to Art History INTRODUCTION hen you receive a gift, it’s customary to thank the giver and perhaps say, “I appreciate that!” But you may or may not like W the gift. You might prefer a different color or size. You might like the color and hate everything else about it! What does that mean, then, to “appreciate” a gift? We often say about gifts that “it’s the thought that counts.” So, the key to appreciating art is to understand the thought that goes into the making of it. This is where things get tricky. We can rightly question whether we can ever truly know what was in the mind of the artist when they made the artwork. Though artists give a great deal of thought to their work, they don’t necessarily think consciously about their work while they are working. The job of art experts (such as art historians and critics) is to infer and interpret all the thoughts that drove a particular artwork’s creation—not just the thoughts in the artist’s mind (conscious and subconscious), but also the driving concerns of those who paid for the art and gave direction to its making (known as patrons). Indeed, it is the thought that counts. What, then, are the thoughts that drive art making? Image omitted due to Brain science is a field of great advances and of many still unanswered ques- copyright restrictions. tions. We are still trying to figure out how the brain works and how creativity happens. There is no question, however, that successful art making requires coordinated brain functioning. It was traditionally argued that the driving force behind creativity lay in the “right brain.” The right side of the brain was believed to be more adept at making the kinds of decisions that creative work demands; it could see the “big picture” and make connections between distant, scattered threads. The “left brain,” in contrast, was believed to be better at linear thinking—following a chain of thought down the line, step by step.1 Different parts of the brain are certainly responsible for specific skills. 1 Though now repudiated as pseudoscience, this left brain-/right brain-domi- nance model is hard to shake, as it provides such a useful (if oversimplified) way of talking about complex brain functions. The phrase “right-brain thinking” pro- vides a tidy short-hand for creative, free-form problem solving, while “left-brain thinking” clearly speaks of a less creative, more literal or mechanical approach. Augusta Savage, Lift Every Voice and Sing exhibited at 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. Plaster. Photo by Carl Van Vechten. Copyright © 1943 by Miné Okubo. ix Image omitted due to copyright restrictions. Copyright © 1943 by Miné Okubo. FIGURE 0.1 Miné Okubo, Untitled (Children at play, Topaz Relocation Center, Utah, circa 1942–43, watercolor on paper. Oakland Museum of California. However, scientific studies of people’s brains in action show a dynamic dance of dual hemispheres, as the left and right brains work interdependently to solve creative problems. The job of the “art appreciator,” then, is to understand just what problems are being solved and how. Then appre- ciating is easy! You are not expected to like every work of art that you see—that wouldn’t be realistic or fair—but you can still appreciate every work that you see, on some level. (And once you are able to uncover the reasons behind the artwork, you will find a lot more to like.) That is a gift well worth having. I think of it as a kind of superpower—one that is essentially free, accessible to all, and that lasts a lifetime. WHAT IMPACTS HOW WE SEE AND MAKE ART? There are three main factors that determine how art is made and also determine how any given viewer interprets (sees or “reads”) the artwork. These factors are operating whether we are aware of them or not, and whether we acknowledge them or not! As viewers, we often see far more than we think we see, and make inferences and assumptions that can be confirmed or challenged, the deeper we look into a work of art.