World off art 8th edtion by henry m sayre chapter 5

 Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man influenced the community to adopt the Black Power movement, which asserted that black was a color composed of all other colors... Value: From Light to D

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Light and Color

5

Learning Objectives

1 Describe the ways in which artists use

light to represent space and model form.

2 Outline the principles of color theory,

and describe the different sorts of color schemes that artists might employ.

3 Explain how color might be used both in

representational painting and as a

symbolic tool.

• Light and color are elements that affect the creation of space in art.

• Artist Dan Flavin transformed the space

of his gallery room with fluorescent

colored lights in 1936.

• Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez

saturated three gallery chambers in

red, green, and blue in his

Chromosaturation.

The Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton, New York

1963–83

Courtesy of Dia Art Foundation, New York Photo: Florian Holzherr [Fig 5-1]

Carlos Cruz-Diez, Chromosaturation

2012–13 Site-specific environment composed of fluorescent lights with blue, red, and

green filters

Courtesy of Americas Society Gallery, New York Photo © Arturo Sanchez [Fig 5-2]

• Natural light helps define spatial

relationships.

• Artists can control the experience of

their work through the manipulation of light.

Atmospheric Perspective

1 of 3

• Leonardo da Vinci concerned himself

with writing "rules" for atmospheric or aerial perspective.

 Objects that are farther away appear

less distinct, bluer in color, and have

reduced light/dark contrast.

Atmospheric Perspective

2 of 3

• Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks

shows three groupings of rocks with

different distances marked only by

Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks

ca 1495–1508 Oil on panel, 6' 3" × 47" National Gallery, London

© 2015 National Gallery, London/Scala, Florence [Fig 5-3]

Atmospheric Perspective

3 of 3

• J M W Turner's Rain, Steam, and

Speed—The Great Western Railway

does not depend solely on linear

perspective.

 Light and atmosphere obscure the train tracks near the center of the work and create a more spiritual sense of reality.

J M W Turner, Rain, Steam, and Speed—The Great Western Railway

1844 Oil on canvas, 33-1/4" × 4' National Gallery, London

akg-image/NationalGallery, London [Fig 5-4]

Value: From Light to Dark

1 of 4

• The relative level of lightness or

darkness of an area or object is

traditionally called its relative value.

• When white is added to the basic hue

(color), the variation is called a tint

• When black is added to the basic hue,

the variation is called a shade.

 For example, pink is a tint of red;

maroon is a shade of red.

The gray scale [Fig 5-5]

Blue in a range of values [Fig 5-6]

Value: From Light to Dark

2 of 4

• Pat Steir's Pink Chrysanthemum and

Night Chrysanthemum feature three

views of the same flower in stages of abstraction.

• Western culture often associates light with good and darkness with evil.

 In the eighteenth century, Goethe

created a color theory linked with moral and religious significance.

Pat Steir, Pink Chrysanthemum

1984 Oil on canvas, three panels, each 5 × 5'

Courtesy of the artist and Cheim & Read, New York [Fig 5-7]

Pat Steir, Night Chrysanthemum

1984 Oil on canvas, three panels, each 5 × 5'

Courtesy of the artist and Cheim & Read, New York [Fig 5-8]

Value: From Light to Dark

3 of 4

• For African Americans, particularly

during the 1960s, blackness signified

goodness and pride.

 Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man influenced

the community to adopt the Black Power movement, which asserted that black

was a color composed of all other colors.

Value: From Light to Dark

4 of 4

• Ben Jones's Black Face and Arm Unit is

a series of twelve arms and faces

decorated with bands of color that

recall ancient African sculpture.

Ben Jones, Black Face and Arm Unit

1971 Acrylic on plaster, life-size plaster casts

Courtesy of the artist [Fig 5-9]

Chiaroscuro and Modeling

1 of 3

• Chiaroscuro refers to the balance of

light and shade in a work, most often exhibited when the artist transitions from light to dark around a curved

surface.

• Using chiaroscuro on a curved surface

is called modeling.

Chiaroscuro and Modeling

2 of 3

• Paul Colin drew Figure of a Woman on

beige paper, indicating shadow with

black crayon and light with white

crayon.

• Highlights are indicated by white and

directly reflect the light source.

• Areas of shadow include the shadow proper, the core of the shadow, and the darkest cast shadow.

Paul Colin, Figure of a Woman

ca 1930 Black and white crayon on light beige paper, 24 × 18-1/2" Frederick and Lucy

S Herman Foundation, University of Virginia Art Museum

Collection of Frederick and Lucy S Herman Foundation © 2015 Artists Rights Society

(ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris [Fig 5-10]

A sphere represented by means of modeling [Fig 5-11]

Chiaroscuro and Modeling

3 of 3

• Tenebrism is a technique separate

from modeling in which areas of dark

contrast sharply with smaller, brightly illuminated areas.

 Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith and

Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes

lights the heroic Judith strongly with a

candle, with her hand casting a powerful shadow over her face.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes

ca 1625 Oil on canvas, 6' 1/2" × 4' 7-3/4" Detroit Institute of Arts

Gift of Mr Leslie H Green Bridgeman Images [Fig 5-12]

Hatching and Cross-Hatching

1 of 2

• Hatching is an area of closely spaced

parallel lines.

 The Coiffure by Mary Cassatt uses

parallel lines to render the depth of

shadow in the room.

Mary Cassatt, The Coiffure

ca 1891 Graphite with traces of green and brown watercolor, approx 5-7⁄8 × 4-3⁄8"

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C

Rosenwald Collection, 1954.12.6 Photo © Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C [Fig 5-13]

Hatching and Cross-Hatching

2 of 2

• Michelangelo's Head of a Satyr employs

hatching on the back of the figure's

neck and head.

 It also features cross-hatching, where

one set of hatches is crossed at an angle

by one or more sets of hatches, creating

a darker area of lines.

Michelangelo, Head of a Satyr

ca 1620–30 Pen and ink over chalk, 10-5/8 × 7-7/8" Musée du Louvre, Paris.INV684-recto Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Michèle Bellot [Fig 5-14]

Contrast: Light and Dark

• Greater contrast between light and dark often has greater dramatic impact.

• In Shirin Neshat's Fervor, women and

men worshiping at a mosque are

separated both by a divider and by the color of their garments.

 The single white face of a woman who

turns toward the camera draws the

viewer further into the narrative.

Shirin Neshat, Fervor

2000 Gelatin silver print, 5' 6" × 47"

© Shirin Neshat, courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels [Fig 5-15]

The Creative Process

• The Play of Light and Dark: Mary

Cassatt's In the Loge

 Cassatt sketched the idea with a clear

division between light and dark, with the line of light abruptly stopping at the

figure's hand and face.

 A slice of the woman's neck in the final version creates two light-and-dark

diagonals.

Mary Cassatt, Study for In the Loge

1878 Graphite, 4 × 6" Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gift of Dr Hans Schaeffer, 55.28 Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

[Fig 5-16]

Mary Cassatt, In the Loge (At the Français, a Sketch)

1878 Oil on canvas, 32 × 26" Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Hayden Collection, 10.35 Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston [Fig 5-17]

• On the evening of June 29, 2002, Cai

Guo-Qiang's Transient Rainbow was

displayed across the East River in New York City.

 It was a fireworks display in the colors of the rainbow.

 The symbolic message was one of hope, renewal, and healing in a post-9/11

period.

Cai Guo-Qiang, Transient Rainbow, realized over the East River, New York.

June 29, 2002 One thousand 3" multicolor peony fireworks fitted with computer chips,

300 × 600', duration 15 sec Commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for

the opening of MoMA Queens

Photo: Hiro Ihara, courtesy of Cai Studio © 2015 Cai Guo-Qiang [Fig 5-18]

Basic Color Vocabulary

1 of 5

• Sir Isaac Newton discovered that light

breaks into a spectrum, or bands of

color, and he reorganized them into a

circle to create the conventional color wheel.

• In this system, primary colors are red,

yellow, and blue.

Colors separated by a prism into the spectrum [Fig 5-19]

Conventional color wheel [Fig 5-20]

Basic Color Vocabulary

2 of 5

• Secondary colors are orange, green

and violet, and are mixtures of two

surrounding primary colors.

• Intermediate colors mix a primary

color and nearby secondary color.

• In this system, mixing all colors

together creates black, the absence of

color; it is known as a subtractive

process.

Color mixtures of reflected pigment—subtractive process [Fig 5-21]

Basic Color Vocabulary

Color mixtures of refracted light—additive process [Fig 5-22]

Basic Color Vocabulary

4 of 5

• Color can be described by its hue,

relative value, and intensity or

saturation.

• Intensity can be reduced by adding a gray or opposite hue, or by adding a

medium.

Basic Color Vocabulary

Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam (unrestored), ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

1508–12 Fresco Vatican City

Canali Photobank, Milan, Italy [Fig 5-23]

Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam (restored), ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

1508–12 Fresco Vatican City

akg-image/Erich Lessing [Fig 5-24]

Color Schemes

1 of 8

• Analogous color schemes are

composed of neighboring hues on the color wheel.

• They are often organized on the basis

of color temperature.

Color Schemes

2 of 8

• Jane Hammond's Fallen consists of

warm yellows, oranges, reds, and the

occasional green, exuding warmth.

 Each leaf is inscribed with the name of a soldier killed in the Iraq War, a

testament to tragedy and healing.

Jane Hammond, Fallen

2004–11 Archival digital inkjet prints on archival paper with acrylic, gouache, matte medium, Jade glue, fiberglass strands, and Sumi ink on a pedestal of high-density foam, cotton, muslin, cotton thread, foam core, and handmade cotton rag paper, 11" × 12' 10"

× 7' 5" Whitney Museum of American Art New York

2007.6 Courtesy of Galerie Lelong, New York Photo: Peter Muscato © Jane Hammond

[Fig 5-25]

Color Schemes

3 of 8

• Romare Bearden's She-ba features cool

blues and greens, accented with red,

yellow, and orange.

 The subject seems to cool the arid

desert atmosphere with everything she touches.

Romare Bearden, She-ba

1970 Collage on paper, cloth, and synthetic polymer paint on composition board, 4' ×

35-7/8" Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1971.12 Art © Romare

Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York [Fig 5-26]

Color Schemes

4 of 8

• Complementary color schemes

include hues opposite each other on the color wheel.

• Simultaneous contrast occurs when

two complementary colors appear

brighter when placed next to each

other without any mixing.

Color Schemes

5 of 8

• The Cara Grande features brilliant

blue-violet feathers surrounding a

yellow-orange face.

• Color interactions in Gerhard Richter's

180 Farben creates the effect of gray

spots in between blocks of color, a trick

of the eye.

Cara Grande feather mask, Tapirapé, Rio Tapirapé, Brazil

ca 1960 Height 31" National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C [Fig 5-27]

Gerhard Richter, 180 Farben (180 Colors)

1971 Oil on canvas, 6' 6-3/4" × 6' 6-3/4" Philadelphia Museum of Art © Gerhard

Richter [Fig 5-28]

Color Schemes

6 of 8

• Georges Seurat uses pointilism in

paintings such as La Chahut to create a

sense of tension between

complementary colors.

 He believed placing complements side by side, the intensity of the colors would be enhanced; however, there is a limited

range at which the viewers' eyes can mix the colors, and the work appears murky from farther away.

Georges Seurat, La Chahut (The Can-Can)

1889–90 Oil on canvas, 5' 6-1/8" × 4' 7-1/2" Museum Kröller- Müller, Otterlo, The

Netherlands [Fig 5-29]

Georges Seurat, La Chahut (The Can-Can) (detail)

1889–90 Museum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, The Netherlands [Fig 5-30]

Color Schemes

7 of 8

• Robert Delaunay experimented with

"simultaneous disks" in an effort to

balance complements in giant color

wheels.

• His wife Sonia captured dynamic,

energetic colors and flowing lines in her

Prismes Electriques.

 Her work is an open palette,

polychromatic with many colors.

Robert Delaunay, Premier Disque

1912 Oil on canvas, diameter 4' 5" Private collection Photo © Christie's Images/Bridgeman Images [Fig 5-31]

Sonia Delaunay, Prismes Electriques (Electric Prisms)

1914 Oil on canvas, 8' 2-3/8" × 8' 2-3/8" Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris

© 2015 Photo Scala, Florence Pracusa S.A [Fig 5-34]

 The Dylan Painting by Brice Marden

appears to be a single purplish gray, but when viewed in person the surface

changes with the light.

 Marden was a Minimalist who rejected

polychromatic color.

Brice Marden, The Dylan Painting

1966/1986 Oil and beeswax on canvas, 5' 3/8" × 10' 1/2" San Francisco Museum of

Modern Art

Helen Crocker Russell Fund purchase and gift of Mrs Helen Portugal © 2015 Brice

Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York [Fig 5-35]

The Creative Process

• The New Pointilism: Chuck Close's

Stanley

large photograph with a grid, which he

then fills with micro-paintings to create a larger image.

concentric circles.

 The work is both fully representational

and fully abstract.

Chuck Close, Stanley II

1980–81 Oil on canvas, 9 × 7' The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York.Purchased with funds contributed by Mr and Mrs Barrie M Damson, 1981, 81.2839

Photo: David Heald © Chuck Close, courtesy of Pace Gallery [Fig 5-32]

Chuck Close, Stanley II, detail

Representational and Symbolic Uses of

Color

1 of 3

• Local color is the color we "know" an

object to be, such as bananas being

yellow.

• Perceptual color is exemplified in

atmospheric perspective.

 Monet did not paint his Grainstack to be

true to the knowledge that "hay is yellow"; colors reflect the way natural light rendered it to his eyes.

Claude Monet, Grainstack (Sunset)

1891 Oil on canvas, 28-7/8 × 36-1/2" Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection, 25.112

Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston [Fig 5-36]

Representational and Symbolic Uses of

Color

2 of 3

• Impressionist techniques involved

mixing color on the canvas.

 This contrasts Seurat's paintings, where the color mixing is in the eye of the

beholder.

• Arbitrary color is used by artists to

render subjects in hues that are true to neither their optical nor local color.

Representational and Symbolic Uses of

Color

3 of 3

• Pierre Bonnard's The Terrace at

Vernonnet features a violet tree

contrasting the orange-colored figures.

 Space is flattened and backgrounds

seem to coexist in the same place.