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ART 100: Introduction to Art

Reading #3 Artistic categories and roles and degrees of representation

This module covers the following topics: ● Artistic Categories (Fine Arts, Craft, Pop culture) ● Artistic Roles (describing our world or “other” worlds, and enhancing our world) ● Degrees of representation (representational, non-representational, and abstract art) ● Cultural Styles ● Ideas of Perception and Visual Awareness

Artistic Categories

Visual arts are generally divided into categories that make distinctions based on the context of the work and its audience. For example, Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ would not fall into the same category as, say, a graphic poster for a rock concert. Some artworks can be placed in more than one category. Here are the main categories: Fine Arts, Craft, Pop culture.

Fine Art: This category includes drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs and, in the last decade, new media, that are in museum collections and sold through commercial art galleries. Earthworks installations like Spiral Jetty below (we will further discuss these installations in the readings about 3D art), also fall under the category of fine arts, even though are neither in galleries nor can be sold. Fine art has a distinction of being some of the finest examples of our human artistic heritage and for contemporary art, the representation of the voice of its time. Here is where you will find Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (below), also ancient sculpture, such as the Gandhara figure from India, and stunning sculpture from different cultures and time periods.

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3. 1. Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, circa 1503-1506. Oil on poplar wood, 77 x 53 cm (30 x 21 in). Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. This image is in the Public Domain. 2. Stucco attendant figure, Khyber Region, 4th–5th century CE. Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England. This photograph by Michel wal is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. 3. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970. Site-specific installation, Salt Lake, Utah. This photograph, "Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April 2005" by Soren.harward is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

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Craft/Decorative Arts: Craft is a category of art that shows a high degree of skilled workmanship in its production. Craft works are normally associated with utilitarian purposes, nevertheless visually stunning and, often highly decorated. The Mexican ceramic vessel below is an example. As well as the elaborate coffin and the beautifully crafted iconic Kente cloth, its colors carrying very specific symbolism. Handmade furniture, glassware, fine metalworking, and leather goods are other examples of craft.

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3. 1. Ceramic vessel, date unknown. Painted clay, Anahuacalli Museum, Mexico City, Mexico. "Closeup of a colored ceramics piece in the Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City" by AlejandroLinaresGarcia is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. 2. Akan, Kente Cloth. Rayon, silk, 76 1/4 x 42 1/2 in. (193.7 x 108 cm). Brooklyn Museum, New York. This image by Brooklyn Museum is licensed under CC BY. 3. Eric Adjetey Anang. Limo Design Coffin. Ghana. This photograph by NdaniTV is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5.

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Popular culture: Here we are referring to the “visual” kind, as opposed to performing one, music, dance, etc. This category contains the many products and images we are exposed to every day. In the industrialized world, this includes posters, graffiti, advertising, and digital imagery, magazines, and books. Also included are cars, and all the visually expressed ideas and attitudes that help define the contemporary period of a particular culture. It is important to consider that often popular culture of the past comes to be considered, with time, fine arts, for example the advertisement by Alphonse Mucha and theater posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

1. 2. 1. Alphonse Mucha, Biscuits Lefèvre-Utile, 1896. Lithograph, 62 × 43.5 cm. This image is in the Public Domain. 2. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, 1891. Lithograph, 191 × 117 cm (75.2 × 46.1 in). Civica Raccolta di Stampe Bertarelli, Milan, Italy. This image is in the Public Domain.

Handbills posted on telephone poles or the sides of buildings are graphic, colorful and informative, but they also provide a street level texture to the urban environment most of us live in. Public murals serve this same function. They put an aesthetic stamp on an otherwise bland and industrialized landscape. Below an example you can find here in Tacoma, by local artist Jeremy Gregory. Another example of contemporary popular culture are tattoos, which can be quite intricate and unique, like the example below.

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1. 2. 1. Jeremy Gregory, 6th Avenue Speed Wash, 2014. Part of the Tacoma Murals Project organized by the City of Tacoma. This photograph of "Hilltop Mural" by Gexydaf is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. 2. "Photography of author, Tattoo from Chris/Seven-Star-Tattoo, Bochum, Germany, April 2005" by Bur is in the Public Domain.

Artists’ Roles

1. Describe Some artists describe our world and tell our stories (through, portraiture, landscapes, scientific illustrations etc.). A traditional role of visual art is to describe our self and our surroundings. Some of the earliest artworks discovered are drawings and paintings of humans and wild animals on walls deep within prehistoric caves. One particular image is a hand print: a universal symbol of human communication.

1. 2. 1. Lascaux Cave animal paintings, Late stone age. Montignac, France. This image by Prof saxx is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. 2. Chauvet Cave hand paintings, Late stone age. Ardèche region, France. This image by Claude Valette is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Portraits and narratives Portraits, landscapes, and still life are common examples of description of our society and surroundings. Portraits capture the accuracy of physical characteristics but the very best also transfer a sense of an individual’s unique personality. For thousands of years this role was reserved for images of those in positions of power, influence and authority. The portrait not only signifies who they are, but also solidifies class structure by presenting only the highest-ranking members of a society. The portrait bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, dated to around 1300 BCE, exemplifies beauty and royalty and the full- length Imperial Portrait of Chinese Emperor Xianfeng below not only shows realism in the likeness of the emperor, it exalts in the patterns and colors of his robe and the throne behind him.

1. 2. 1. Egyptian Nefertiti Bust, circa 1345 BCE. Painted sandstone, 48 cm (19in). Neues Museum, Berlin.This image by Philip Pikart is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. 2. Imperial Portrait of Emperor Xianfeng, circa 1855. Palace Museum, Beijing, China. This image by Highshines is in the Public Domain.

Artists can combine representation with more complex elements and situational compositions to bring a narrative component into art. Using subject matter – the objects and figures that inhabit a work

Page | 7 Degrees of representation and more of art -- as a vehicle for communicating stories and other cultural expressions, is another traditional function of visual art. The narrative tradition is strong in many cultures throughout the world. They become a means to perpetuate knowledge, morals and ethics, and can signify historical contexts within specific cultures. Narrative takes many forms: spoken or written word, music, dance, and visual art are most often used. Many times one is used in conjunction with another. In his Migration Series Jacob Lawrence paints stark, direct images that communicate the realities of the African American experience in their struggle to escape the repression of the South and overcome the difficulties of adjusting to the big cities in the North.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 40 (The migrants arrived in great numbers), 1940-1941. Casein tempera on hardboard panels, 12 x 18 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. This image by Ron Cogswell is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Similarly, photographers used the camera lens to document examples of segregation in the United States. Here the image on film tells its poignant story about inequalities based on race.

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Russell Lee, Negro drinking at "Colored" water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1939. Nitrate negative, 35 mm. This image from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs is in the Public Domain.

Landscapes Landscapes – by themselves – give us detailed information about our natural and human made surroundings; things like location, architecture, time of day, year or season plus other physical information such as geological elements and the plants and animals within a particular region. In many western cultures, the more realistic the rendering of a scene the closer to our idea of the ‘truth’ it becomes. The delicate and expressive Chinese painting below is more poetic and expressive than naturalistic. The image by American photographer Ansel Adams is a very the accurate representation of nature also touches upon, even if indirectly, issues of nature conservation and care for nature’s treasures.

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1. 2. 1. Ni Zan, Wood, Bamboo, and Elegant Stone, 1360-70. Palace Museum, Beijing, China. This image is in the Public Domain. 2. Ansel Adams, The Tetons - Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 1941-1942. This image from Series: Ansel Adams Photographs of National Parks and Monuments, 1941 - 1942, Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Branch of Still and Motion Pictures is in the Public Domain.

Scientific Illustration Out of this striving for accuracy and documentation developed the art of scientific illustration. The traditional mediums of painting and drawing are still used to record much of the world around us. Linda Berkley’s Merino Ram uses a layered approach to record in great detail the physical anatomy of the head of the great sheep and the watercolor depiction of the Lilium Superbum is indeed scientifically accurate.

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1. 2. 1. Linda Berkley, Merino Ram, 2009. Composite drawing, colored pencil, acrylic on Canson paper. Image used with permission of the artist. 2. Georg Dionysius Ehret, Botanical illustration of Lilium superbum, circa 1740s. Watercolour and gouache on vellum, 53.2 x 37 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England. This image is in the Public Domain.

2. Describe “other worlds” (Spirit, Myth, and Fantasy) Tied to the idea of narrative, another artistic role is the exploration of other worlds beyond our physical one. This world is in many ways richer than our own and includes the world of spirit, myth, fantasy, and the imagination; areas particularly suited for the visual artist. We can see how art gives a rich and varied treatment to these ideas. Artist Michael Spafford has spent his career presenting classical Greek myths through painting, drawing and printmaking. His spare, abstract style uses high contrast images to strong dramatic effect (you can see his depiction of The Twelve Labors of Hercules of 1982, originally installed at the State Capitol Building, House of Representatives Chamber in Olympia here). Italian Renaissance artist Pietro Del Pollaiolo depiction of the myth of Apollo and Daphne is a more classical visual representation of this classical story (in brief, Daphne, attempting to flee Apollo in his love pursuit is saved by being transformed in a laurel tree). A Smiling Figure from ancient Mexico portrays a god of dance, music and joy. A third example, Hieronymus Bosch’s painting the Temptation of Saint Anthony, gives the subject matter both spiritual and bizarre significance in the way they are presented. His creative imagination takes the subject of temptation and raises it to the realm of the fantastic. There is an entire module devoted to the idea of the other world in the next reading.

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1. 2. 1. Piero del Pollaiolo, Apollo and Daphne, circa 1470–80. Oil on panel, 25.9 × 20 cm (10.2 × 7.9 in). The National Gallery, London, England. This image is in the Public Domain. 2. Smiling Figure, Mexico,7th–8th century. Ceramic, 18 7/10 in. (47.3 cm) height. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. This image by Remojadas via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0.

3. 3. Hieronymus Bosch, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, circa 1495-1515. Triptych, oil on panel, 28 x 20 in. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. This image is in the Public Domain.

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3. Enhance our World Enhancing the world of our everyday lives is another role art plays. This role is more utilitarian than others. It includes textiles and product design, decorative embellishments to the items we use every day and all the aesthetic considerations that create a more comfortable, expressive environment. Similarly, the role of architects is that of making a functional place extraordinary and reflective of both the aesthetics and the needs of its users. The example below is by Italian architect Renzo Piano, who responds to the environment, the traditions, and the needs of the local population with the Tjibaou Cultural Center.

Bowl, Mythic Figures, Peru, 6th–9th century. Ceramic, H. 3 1/8 in. (8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. This image by Wari via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0.

1. 2. 1. Renzo Piano, Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, 1998. Nouméa, New Caledonia. This image by Fanny Schertzer is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. 2. This photograph "Nouméa" by JOOZLy is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Degrees of representation

The search for truth is not exclusive to representational art. From viewing many of the examples so far you can see how individual artists use different styles to communicate their ideas. Degree of representation refers to a particular kind of appearance in works of art. It is a characteristic of an individual artist or a collective relationship based on an idea, culture or artistic movement. Representational art uses recognizable images, and when it is done with a high level of accuracy in their depiction, we use a subcategory of representational art, called Naturalism. Naturalism also includes the idealized object: one that is modified to achieve a kind of perfection within the bounds of aesthetics and form. William Sydney Mount’s painting The Bone Player gives accuracy in its representation and a sense of character to the figure, from his ragged-edged hat to the button missing from his vest. Mount treats the musician’s portrait with a sensitive hand, more idealized by his handsome features and soft smile.

William Sydney Mount, The Bone Player, 1856. Oil on canvas, 36 1/8 x 29 ⅛ in. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This image is in the Public Domain.

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Abstract art is based on a recognizable object manipulated through distortion, scale issues, or other artistic devices. Abstraction can be created by exaggerating form, simplifying shapes, or the use of strong colors. Let’s look at three landscapes below with varying degrees of abstraction in them to see how this style can be so effective. In the first one, Marsden Hartley uses abstraction to give the spare “Landscape, New Mexico” a sense of energy. Through the rounded forms and gesture in treatment, we can discern hills, clouds, a road, and some trees or bushes.

Marsden Hartley, Landscape, New Mexico, 1916. Pastel on paper, 17 1/8 x 27 7/16 in. The Brooklyn Museum, New York. This image is in the Public Domain.

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Inside Red Canna, employs abstraction to turn the painting of the detail of a flower into a sort of cavity/vessel, a close up, which takes us away from the traditional idea of a bloom both for its geometry and framing and makes us as viewers, question the subject matter. By giving us a title with the name of the flower she is making sure that we don’t lose track of what she has depicted.. Vasily Kandinsky’s Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2 goes further into abstraction, releasing color from its descriptive function and vastly simplifying forms. The rendering of a town at the lower left is reduced to blocky areas of paint and a black triangular shape of hill in the background. In all three of these, the artists manipulate and distort the ‘real’ landscape as a vehicle for emotion.

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1. 2. 1. Georgia O'Keeffe, Inside Red Canna, 1919. Oil on canvas, 36 x 22 in, Colby College Museum of Art, New York. This image by CaroleHenson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. 2. Vasily Kandinsky, Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2 (Landschaft mit roten Flecken, Nr. 2), 1913. Oil on canvas, 46 1/4 x 55 1/8 in (117.5 x 140 cm). The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy. This image is in the Public Domain.

It’s important to note the definition of ‘abstract’ is relative to cultural perspective. That is, different cultures develop traditional forms and styles of art they understand within the context of their own culture (see ‘Cultural Styles’ further in the text), and which are difficult for other cultures to understand. So what may be ‘abstract’ to one could be more ‘representational’ in style to another. For example, the Roman bust of Sappho (see photo) looks very real from a western European aesthetic perspective. Under the same perspective, the African mask Could be called ‘abstract’. Yet to the African culture that produced the mask it would appear representational. In addition, the African mask shares some formal attributes with the Tlingit ‘Groundhog Mask’ (further in the text) from Canada’s west coast. It’s very possible these two cultures would see the Roman bust as the ‘abstract’ one. So it’s important that we understand artworks from cultures other than our own in the context in which they were originally created.

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1. 2. 1. Roman bust of Sappho, early 5th century BC. Marble. Capitoline Museums, Rome, Italy. This image by Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011) is in the Public Domain. 2. This photograph of "African wooden mask" by Cezary Piwowarski is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Questions of abstraction can also emerge from something as simple as our distance from an artwork. View and read about Fanny/Fingerpainting by the artist Chuck Close. At first glance it is a highly realistic portrait of the artist’s grandmother-in law. You can zoom it in to see how the painting dissolves into a grid of individual fingerprints, a process that renders the surface very abstract. With this in mind, we can see how any work of art is essentially made of smaller abstract parts that, when seen together, make up a coherent whole. Non-objective, also called non-representational, imagery has no relation to the ‘real’ world – that is – the work of art is based solely upon itself. In this way the non-objective style is completely different than abstract, and it’s important to make the distinction between the two. This style rose from the modern art movement in Europe, Russia and the United States during the first half of the 20th century. York Factory Sketch, No. 1 by American artist Frank Stella uses geometric shapes and strong color to create a vivid image. More than with other styles, issues of content are associated with a non- objective work’s formal structure: as mentioned in a previous reading here the content is the work’s form.

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Frank Stella, York Factory Sketch, No. 1, 1970. Acrylic on canvas, 54 1/8 x 163 7/8 in. Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas. This image by Sharon Mollerus is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Cultural Styles

Cultural styles refer to distinctive characteristics in artworks throughout a particular society or culture. Some main elements of cultural styles are recurring motifs, created in the same way by many artists. Cultural styles are formed over hundreds or even thousands of years and help define cultural identity. For instance, indigenous art of the Northwest Coast of North America (and this cultural style ranges from western Alaska to northern Canada), features distinguishing shapes and recurring elements. As described in "Northwest Coast Native Art" (thecanadianencyclopedia.com) "formline is the primary design element on which Northwest Coast art depends, and by the turn of the 20th century, its use spread to the southern regions as well. It is the positive delineating force of the painting, relief and engraving. Formlines are continuous, flowing, curvilinear lines that turn, swell and diminish in a prescribed manner. They are used for figure outlines, internal design elements and in abstract compositions." The recurring designs and shapes are visible in 2 dimensional works as well as in sculptures and other 3D objects. As you can see in the images below.

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Kadyisdu.axch', Tlingit, Kiks.ádi clan, Yéil X'eenh (Raven Screen), circa 1810. Spruce wood and paint, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle. This image by Joe Mabel is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

This photograph of "Ketchikan, Alaska. Native American totem pole" by Jeremy Keith is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Celtic art from Great Britain and Ireland shows a cultural style that’s been identified for

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Abbey of Kells, Book of Kells, Folio 32v, Christ Enthroned, 800 CE. Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. This image is in the Public Domain.

Perception and Visual Awareness

Visual information – images from media and the environment around us – dominates our perception. Our eyes literally navigate us through a visual landscape all our lives, and we all make decisions based on how and what we see. Separating the subjective and objective ways we see, helps us become more visually aware of our surroundings. We are exposed to so much visual information every day, especially with the advent of mass media, that it’s hard to process all of it into specific meaning. Being visually aware is more complicated than just the physical act of seeing because our perceptions are influenced by exterior factors, including our own prejudices, desires and ideas about what the ‘truth’ really is. Moreover, cultural ties to perception are many. Art is a resource for questioning our perceptions about how objects and ideas present themselves. The Belgian artist Rene Magritte used his easel as a soapbox to confront the viewer with confounding visual information. Click the hyperlink to watch a short video where Magritte considers language and perception.

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René Magritte, Les valeurs personnelles / Personal values, 1952. Oil on canvas, 31 ½ in. x 39 ⅜ in. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California. This image by rocor is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

As was mentioned at the beginning of this module, there is a difference between looking and seeing. To look is to glance back and forth, aware of surface qualities in the things that come into our line of sight. To see is more about comprehending. After all, when we say “I see” we really mean that we understand. Seeing goes beyond appearances. No matter how visually aware we are, visual clues alone hinder our ability to fully comprehend what we see. Words, either spoken or read as text, help fill in the blanks to understanding. They provide a context, historical background, religious function or other cultural significance to the art we are looking at. We ask others for information about it, or find it ourselves, to help understand the meaning. In a museum or gallery it may be wall text that provides this link, or a source text, website or someone knowledgeable about the art. Now that we have a basic understanding of what art is, the cultural roles it plays and the different categories and styles it can belong to we can begin to explore more specific physical and conceptual issues surrounding it.

This text of this work, “Artistic categories and roles and degrees of representation,” is a derivative of “ARTH101: Art Appreciation and Techniques, Unit 1: Definition, Artistic Roles, and Visual Thinking” by Chris Gildow for Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, licensed under CC BY 3.0. Except where otherwise noted, “Artistic categories and roles and degrees of representation,” is licensed under CC BY by Alice Di Certo.