Show:
What is Art?
Art Media
Elements of Art
Principles of Design
Art in Context
100
Ms. Sawhill uses this phrase, based on a quote by Picasso, to explain why art can be confusing, show illusions, or just try to trick you!
What is "Art is a lie"?
100
This word is a generic term for any two-dimensional image and can refer to paintings, drawings, photographs, or prints alike.
What is "picture"?
100
This Element may be the most elemental or basic of them all, because it is simply the path of a mark moving in space. It is used to build shapes and forms and often to separate spaces as well.
What is "line"?
100
This Principle of Design creates a regular visual beat, similar to music, and organizes the sense of movement in a work of art.
What is "rhythm"?
100
This term refers to the historical background of a work of art.
What is "context"?
200
We looked at this object to answer the questions, "How is art supposed to be made?" and "Who is supposed to make art?" This discussion helped us to think about whether or not nature could make art, or if it had to be made by humans.
What is the "Water-worn pebble resembling a human face"?
200
This three-dimensional art medium has both aesthetic and practical functions, because it is meant to look beautiful as well as to provide a space for the activities of humans.
What is "architecture"?
200
This two-dimensional figure has height, width, and a boundary, but it is flat.
What is "shape"?
200
This Principle refers to a sense of equilibrium in a work of art and may be characterized as symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial.
What is "balance"?
200
This term refers to the person who paid for a work of art to be made.
Who is the "patron"?
300
This artist created a painting in 1875 that made art critics angry because it looked unrealistic, splotchy, and unfinished.
Who is James McNeill Whistler?
300
This two-dimensional medium is different from the others because it can be easily reproduced. But first, an original image must be created by carving in a block.
What is "printmaking"?
300
This Element has two definitions -- one two-dimensional and the other three-dimensional. Both have to do with the amount of area that exists between objects in an image or in real life.
What is "space"?
300
This Principle describes a sense of harmony among the parts of an artwork to create a cohesive composition.
What is "unity"?
300
This five-word term refers to the questions that help you to study the context of a work of art.
What are the "Questions that Art Historians Ask"?
400
This phrase, written in French on a Surrealist painting by Rene Magritte, challenges the notion that art must tell the truth.
What is "This is not a pipe"?
400
Sculpture usually has only this purpose, because it is meant to be looked at and admired, but is not used for practical purposes in the way architecture is.
What is "aesthetic"?
400
Hues, tints, and shades are all versions of this Element of Art.
What is "color"?
400
This Principle creates visual interest through variety or difference in colors, shapes, lines, textures, and any of the other Elements or Principles.
What is "contrast"?
400
This is the location of the cave where the Spotted Horses with Negative Handprints painting was found.
What is Pech Merle, France?
500
This 20th-century artist challenged people's ideas of how original art had to be when he attached a bicycle wheel to a stool in 1913.
Who is Marcel Duchamp?
500
Photography is special because it is not created with pencils or brushes, but with this two-word method.
What are "photomechanical processes"?
500
This term (not an Element of Art) describes the artistic creation of highlights and shadows on the surface of an image in order to create the illusion of three-dimensional form.
What is "modeling"?
500
Even when there is not literal motion in an image, this Principle may be present. It refers to a sense of visual energy among the parts of an image that makes you want to look around or experience the entire composition.
What is "movement"?
500
When art historians ask WHY a particular work of art was made, they are really looking for this aspect of an artwork's context.
What is the purpose/job/function?