WHAT IS ART?

IS IT
FORM?
CONTENT?
STYLE?
MEDIUM?

LINE

SHAPE

COMPOSITION

SPACE An element of art, space

refers to distances or areas around,
between or within components of a
piece. Space can be positive (white
or light) or negative (black or dark),
open or closed, shallow or deep and
two-dimensional or threedimensional. Sometimes space isn't
actually within a piece, but the
illusion of it is.

MASS &

VOLUME

COLOR
HUE

VALUE

SATURATION

Maybe Art is a point of view- the angle from which we see the world.

Perspective is an attempt to reproduce objects on a flat surface as they appear to the eye.

Form is an element of art. At its most basic, a form is a threedimensional geometrical figure (i.e.: sphere, cube, cylinder, cone,
etc.), as opposed to a shape, which is two-dimensional, or flat.

Form refers to the visible elements of a piece, independent of

their meaning. For example, in Leonardo's Mona Lisa, the
formal elements are color, dimension, lines, mass, shape,
etc., while the feelings of mystery and intrigue the piece evokes
are informal products of the viewer's imagination.

But what does it mean?

Meaning is a question of CONTENT, which includes:
Subject matter
Context (social, political, and economic)
Intention (artist)
Reception or interpretation (of and by the
viewer)
Iconography and symbolism

Aulus Metellus

DOES IT ALL
COME DOWN TO
STYLE ?

REPUBLICAN

Augustus

IMPERIAL

REPRESENTATION STYLES
ILLUSIONISM

IDEALISM

Title: Flower

Piece with Curtain

Artist: Adriaen
Date: 1658

van der Spelt and Frans van Mieris

Medium: Oil
Size: 18

on Panel

X 25" (46.5 X 64 cm)

Title: The Medici Venus

Museum: Villa Medici, Florence, Italy

Date: Roman Copy of a 1st-Century Medium: Marble

BCE Greek statue
Size: height 5' (1.53 m) without base

Title: Charles V Triumphing over

Fury, without Armor
Artist: Leone Leoni
Date: c. 1549-1555

Museum: Museo Nacional del Prado

Medium: Bronze
Size: height to top of head 5'8" (1.74 m)

The ESSENCE that is Abstraction

I know I cannot paint a flower.

I cannot paint the sun on the
desert on a bright sunny
morning but maybe in terms of
paint color I can convey to you
my experience of the flower or
the experience that makes the
flower significant to me at that
particular time.
Georgia OKeefe November 1,
1930

The opposite realism:

Nonrepresentational
or
Nonobjective Art
No reference to objects
from the physical world
Only pure elements of
design lines, shapes,
forms, space, texture,
color.
What does it mean?

Title: Cubi XIX

Medium: Stainless

Artist: David Smith

Size: 9' 5/8" X

Date: 1964

steel

1' 9 " X 1' 8" (2.88 x .55 X .51 m)

DIFFERENCES IN NONFIGURAL STYLES

NONREPRESENTATIONAL

ABSTRACT

Public and Propagandistic Art

Title: The Great Sphinx

Source/Museum: Giza,

Artist: N/A

Medium: Sandstone

Date: Dynasty 4, c.

2613-2494 BCE

Size: height approx. 65

Egypt

Title: Vietnam Veterans

Memorial

Source: The Mall, Washington,

Artist: Maya Ying Lin

Medium: Black

Date: 1982

Size: length

granite

500' (152 m)

D.C.

In the end,does art, or the meaning of art, always comes down to a confrontation
between an object and a viewer.?

SO,
WHAT
IS

ART
???

I look forward to hearing your opinions!