Casting

Luis Jimenez is the artist of this piece, called Black Jack. The medium this artist uses is casting. Casting is a process in which you pour molten material into a mold of the sculptures impression.  It is usually a bronze. Jimenez is known for southwestern and Hispanic themed fiberglass sculptures. This could be due to the fact the artist was born in El Paso Texas and died in New Mexico.  Both cultures were the content of many works.  

Assemblage

The name of this piece is called Mirror Shadow VIII. Louise Nevelson is the artist of this work.  The medium being used is wood.  The artist uses assemblage. Assemblage is when numerous and different elements and objects are combined.  This is an additive sculpture process, unlike carving.   Nevelson worked as an assistant of Diego Rivera.  This helped her realize her niche.

Carving

Michelangelo is the artist of this piece.  The name of this piece is Rebellious Slave. The medium being used is carving.  Carving is when something being carved is chipped away from a raw block of material, usually wooden or stone. This is a subtractive sculpture process.  This artist created many famous sculptures during his lifetime. 

Video

Nam June Paik is the artist of this work.  The name of this piece is Elephant Gate. The medium this artist used is film.  Video is cheaper and faster than video.  The artist was one of the first to purchase a Portapak.  The works were referred to as “altered TV’s.” Sayre says these were created by “displayed images altered by magnets, combined with video feedback and other technologies that produces shifted patterns of shapes and color." 

Staged Photography

The name of this piece is untitled. The artist who created this is Cindy Sherman.  The medium this artist used was staged photography.  The artist used staged photography.  Staged photography is setting up to create or capture something that is not usually possible to capture in real life.  This artist is also a feminist and represents women in society in many of her photos. She’s sold some of the most expensive photographs ever.

Portrait Photography

The name of this work is Mike Cloud.  The artist of this piece is Annie Liebovitz.  The medium this artist used is portrait photography.  Portrait photography is the expression or personality of a person or persons the artist chooses to display through photography. Liebovitz was a photographer for Rolling Stone in 1970.  Sayre states the artist had the ability to “capture something of the spirit of celebrity – tension between the public face of stardom and the private person behind the mask.”  The artist was a feminist and loved to shock people with her photos. She was known for her brilliant and luminous use of color, as well content by shocking people with female sexuality. 

Woodcut

This work is by artist, Kathe Kollwitz. The medium used is woodcut.  Woodcut is a process done, by an artist carving a wooden block, cutting away the pieces that they do not want to print.  The design looks raised. Many of Kollwitz works show a sad woman, or mother and child. He works are sad and dark. The artist lost her son in the beginning of World War I.  This may be the way the artist was feeling while she was mourning her son.

Etching

The name of this piece is The Hundred Guilder Print.  This work is by artist Rembrandt Van Rijn.  The medium being used is Etching. Etching is a process done by covering a metal plate with wax, and drawing on the wax all the way down to the plate. After, you place it in an acid bath.  This leaves marks from the lines that were drawn.  The wax can be removed and you ink and print it.  The artist often focused on landscape, narrative, and biblical stories.  He used iconography.  Rembrandt Van Rijn ended up having to sell his printing press in 1660, and that was the end of etching for the artist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt#Etchings

Gouache

This work is called The Visitor.  The artist of this piece is Jacob Lawrence.  The medium used by the artist is Gouache.  Gouache is like watercolor.  The difference is it is opaque, not transparent. It is hard to blend brushstrokes. Lawrence uses complementary colors in his works. The artist was inspired by Harlem, which is where he moved at the age of thirteen. The shapes and colors that surrounded him reflect in his work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Lawrence

Fresco

Diego Rivera is the artist of this work. The name of the piece is called History of Medicine in Mexico. Many of his works reflect his roots and where he's from.   Fresco is the medium being used. Fresco is a pigment mixed with limewater and then out on a lime plaster wall.  This particular artist used wet plaster, which is also called buon fresco.  Rivera felt that art should not be kept in private galleries.  He believed the art should be on display on public walls for everyone to admire.  This type of art allowed his to do this.

Oil Paint

This painting is called Sunflowers by artist Vincent Van Gogh.  The medium this artist used is oil paint.  Oil paint uses linseed for a binder. This artist was known for his use of bright colors, pointillism, and impressionism.  The artist suffered from depression and possible bio polar disorder. His father was a protestant minister and Van Gogh became more and more interested in religion.  It is amazing that someone with such sadness and depression used such vibrant, beautiful colors in many of his works. The artist killed himself on July 29, 1890.

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Vincent-Van-Gogh/Vincent-Van-Gogh-oil-paintings.html

Watercolor

This work is by artist Emil Nolde. The name of the piece is Sea in the Evening. Nolde is considered on of the greatest watercolor painters of his time. The medium is watercolor.  Watercolor is pigments mixed with water and gum arabic.  This artist grew up on a farm. This may be where the inspiration for the landscape and sunsets originated from.  Later on in life, the Nazi regime condemned Nolde's works.  After 1941 he was no longer allowed to paint. As a result he secretly created these watercolors called "unpainted pictures." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Nolde

Scale and Proportion

This work is by artist Katsushika Hokusai.  The piece is called Lightning on Mount.  This work uses scale and proportion.  The volcano or mountain takes up the majority of the space.  This makes the clouds, sky and water look very small in the background.  The sky goes on forever and there is a large body of water behind it, but the size of the mountain gives the illusion that it is larger than everything else.  

Visual Movement

This work is by Raphael. The name of the piece is Virgin of the Rose.  This work shows us the use of visual movement.  The arrows above show the continuous movement that leads your eye around the work.  The bending of the knee and the foot are both leading you to the second child.  This child's arm leads your eye toward the mother in an upward motion.

Contrast and Variety

This work is by artist Elizabeth Murray.  The name of this work is The Sun and the Moon.  This work uses contrast and variety.  There are many different kinds of shapes. There is a lot going on in the piece, with everything different sizes and colors. Many lines are thicker and larger than others. One example would be the water drops that gradually get larger. There are many different colors and shapes to look at and some of the colors and shapes are repeated, but none are the exact same. 

Repetition and Rhythm

This piece is called Sedation.  This work is by artist Jacob Lawrence.  This work shows the use of repetition and rhythm.  This is shown through the use of color and shapes. The arrows show the repetitive use of the colors, blue, green and brown.  The shapes above the men repeat in different angles. The shapes of the men are all similar, including the shape of the bodies and the heads.

Emphasis

This work is called Penitent Magdalen by artist Georges de la Town.  This work uses emphasis by having more than just one focal point.  The arrows used show the different focal points. I am automatically drawn to the woman in the picture because of scale.  She is the largest object in the picture. My second focal point is the light, because of the contrast.  The light is the bright and makes everything else look dull.  My third focal point is the woman's lap.  I saw the color of her dress and the skull because of grouping. 

Asymmetrical Balance

This work is by artist Elizabeth Murray. The name of this piece is Heat.  This work demonstrates asymmetrical balance. Asymmetrical balance is when two sides of the work do not have symmetry but have the same visual weight.  This piece uses the dark green and the focal point but the two light circles on the right side make up for the lack of the yellow that is used on the left side. 

Hatching

This work is by Mary Cassatt.  The name of the work is The Visitor.  Cassatt uses hatching in many of her works.  Hatching is defined as closely spaced parallel lines that generate a shading effect. This is shown throughout the entire piece, especially shown in the walls on each side of the window.

Pattern

Barcelona Fan is the name of this work, created by Miriam Schapiro.  Schapiro uses patterns in many of her works.  A pattern is when a design repeats itself.  The same pattern is repeated over and over in this piece.  The same colors are applied to the identical parts time and time again creating a pattern.

Impasto

This artwork was created by Robert Ryman.  The name of the piece is Course.  This name is very suitable because by looking at the piece you see the texture of the work and how ruff it looks.  Impasto is used here.  Impasto is when the artist applies the paint heavily.  The texture is obvious to the viewer.

Symbolic color

This work is by a very famous artist named Vincent Van Gogh.  The name of this work is Cafe Terrance at Night.  It is a commonly known work.  Symbolic color is used by the artist.  Even though there is no one meaning for a single color, this piece is relatable to many.

Arbitrary Color

This piece is called 25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy. The work is my artist Andy Warhol.  He uses arbitrary color in this piece by making the cat blue.  Arbitrary color is when color is used on something that has no natural relation to the object, but may have some emotional significance.  In this case, cats a clearly not bright blue.

Chiaroscuro

This work is by artist Artemisia Gentileschi named Judith Beheading Holofernes.  This work is a good example of Chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro is when a artist uses light and dark to show a three dimensional surface.  This is used in various places throughout this piece. It is shown on the shoulders of each person in this painting, as well as on the wall, which creates the illusion of a shadow.

Steve DiBenedetto

This artwork is by Steve DiBenedetto.  The name of the work is Codex (Ruins in Reverse).  Visual overlapping is giving the viewer the illusion that certain objects are in front of one another in space.  This piece shows the continuous us of visual overlapping which is seen in many of DiBenedetto's pieces.

Paul Strand

This piece was created by Paul Strand called White Fence.  Strand demonstrates foreshortening in this work by using the fence as the closer extremity that allows for the distortion of a large yard behind it because of the point of view.  Axonometric projection is used because the fence changes the scale of the house, giving the illusion that the fence is larger than the house.

Gustave Caillebotte

This work is by artist Gustave Caillebotte and named Snow on Boulevard Haussman, Paris.  This piece is an example of two-point linear perspective.  A two-point linear perspective is when there are two or more vanishing points in the piece.  The architectural elements in the drawing are the two vanishing points.

Martin Puryear

This piece is called The Charm of Subsistence by artist Martin Puryear.  The positive shape is the object that draws the viewer's attention. This is the main object shown by the arrow. The negative shape is the ground or the space behind the figure that doesn't command the viewer's eye.

Jacques Louis David

This work is The Death of Camilla by artist Jacques Louis David.  Implied lines are used here by the line created by the direction the man is looking and pointing. (shown by arrow) I feel that the line orientation in composition is both horizontal and vertical as well as Diagonal and   The horizontal and vertical is the positioning of the men.  The diagonal and curvilinear are in the draping of the clothing worn by the men.

Henri Gaudier Brzeska

This piece is called Two Figures by artist Henri Gaudier Brzeska.  This artist uses outlines to define his shapes and figures.  He does this by depicting actual lines that are drawn on to the surface.  The contour lines used, mark the border of the objects.  The artists lines are expressive lines because of the looseness.  His work is often consistent in the simplicity and uniqueness of the lines.

Iconoclasm

Andy Warhol is the creator of this piece as well.  This famous work is covered with his face and the famous Campbell's can colors are absent. This is an example of iconoclasm because he covered part of the Campbell's label with his face. The famous colors are not absent and half of the can is covered.

Icon

This is a piece done by Andy Warhol.  Marilyn is a great example of icon because she has become a huge sex symbol of our time.  Even though she passed in 1962, her picture is everywhere.  She is famous for singing happy birthday to the president, her famous pose from "The Seven Year Itch" is still seen in stores everywhere today.

Nonrepresentational artwork

Kazimir Malevich is the artist of this work.  The name of this piece is Suprematist Composition.  This is a good example of nonrepresentational work because it does not have any relation to the natural world. It is very a nonobjective piece because the shapes do not form anything recognizable in the natural world

Abstraction

This piece is called Landscape, by Sesshu Toyo.  This artwork is an example of abstraction because it is not a typical landscape.  It does not resemble the real landscape as much as it could.  This is how the artist viewed this landscape.  Looking at the work I can see the shapes of mountains and brush.  The name of the piece was a big help and made it easier to see the landscape.   

Representational Art

Albert Bierstadt is the artist of this piece, called Nevada Falls, Yosemite.  This work is a good example of representational art because it portrays the natural landscape.  The Nevada Falls is recognizable to the viewer.  Many of Bierstadt's works are representational artwork because the works are of recognizable form and represent places all over the world.

Form vs Content

Beatriz Milhazes is the artist of this work.  For the form of this piece, the viewer sees bright colors and shapes.  The artist starts with a square and then continues to "build things on top of it." Milhazes is inspired by Brazilian culture and color.  Exotic plants and the botanical gardens were used as inspiration.