Sayre woa ch05_lecture-243768

WORLD OF ARTWORLD OF ART

CHAPTER

EIGHTH EDITION

World of Art, Eighth EditionHenry M. Sayre

Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.

All rights reserved.

Light and Color

5

Learning ObjectivesLearning 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.

IntroductionIntroduction

• 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]

LightLight

• Natural light helps define spatial relationships.

• Artists can control the experience of their work through the manipulation of light.

Atmospheric PerspectiveAtmospheric Perspective1 of 31 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.


• Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks shows three groupings of rocks with different distances marked only by atmospheric perspective. The one nearest to the viewer is on the

right, and the one on the left that appears blue is the farthest.

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]


• 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 DarkValue: From Light to Dark1 of 41 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]


• 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]


• 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.


• 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 ModelingChiaroscuro and Modeling1 of 31 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.


• 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]


• 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-HatchingHatching and Cross-Hatching1 of 21 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-HatchingHatching and Cross-Hatching2 of 22 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 DarkContrast: 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 ProcessThe 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]

ColorColor

• 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 VocabularyBasic Color Vocabulary1 of 51 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]


• 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]


• Mixing colored light is an additive process. Primary colors are red-orange, green,

and blue-violet. Secondaries are yellow, magenta, and

cyan. As more colors are combined and more

light is added, the colors become brighter.

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


• 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.


• Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel were thought to have been painted in dull, somber hues, but were discovered to have been covered with centuries of dust, smoke, grease, and animal glue.

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 SchemesColor Schemes1 of 81 of 8

• Analogous color schemes are composed of neighboring hues on the color wheel.

• They are often organized on the basis of color temperature.


• 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]


• 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]


• 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.


• 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]


• 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- Muller, Otterlo, The

Netherlands. [Fig. 5-29]

Georges Seurat, La Chahut (The Can-Can) (detail). 1889–90. Museum Kröller-Muller, Otterlo, The Netherlands. [Fig. 5-30]


• 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]


• Monochromatic works feature a single color from a closed or restricted palette. 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 ProcessThe Creative Process

• The New Pointilism: Chuck Close's Stanley Close's method includes overlaying a

large photograph with a grid, which he then fills with micro-paintings to create a larger image.• Each micro-painting consists of two to four

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. 1980–81.

Purchased with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Barrie M. Damson, 1981, 81.2839. Photo: David Heald. © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York (FN 2839).

© Chuck Close, courtesy of Pace Gallery. [Fig. 5-33]

Representational and Symbolic Uses of Representational and Symbolic Uses of ColorColor1 of 31 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]


• 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.


• 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.

Pierre Bonnard, The Terrace at Vernonnet. ca. 1939. Oil on canvas, 4' 9-11/16" × 6' 4-1/2". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Mrs. Frank Jay Gould, 1968. 68.1. © 2015. Image copyright Metropolitan Museum

of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. [Fig. 5-37]

Symbolic ColorSymbolic Color1 of 21 of 2

• Color symbolizes different things in different contexts and cultural environment.

• In Vincent van Gogh's The Night Café, the artist uses red and green to create visual tension and emotional balance; this context is different the red-and-green color scheme Americans often associate with Christmas.

Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café. 1888. Oil on canvas, 28-1/2 × 36-1/4". Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.

Bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, 1961.18.34. [Fig. 5-38]

Symbolic ColorSymbolic Color2 of 22 of 2

• Wassily Kandinsky's Black Lines is punctuated with nervous, black lines that overlay nonobjective colors and shapes. Red and green juxtaposes active and

passive for the artist, whereas van Gogh's work references "powers of darkness."

Wassily Kandinsky, Black Lines (Schwarze Linien). December 1913. Oil on canvas, 4' 3" × 4' 3-5/8". Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Gift, Solomon R. Guggenheim, 1937, 37.241. Photo: David Heald, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation/Art Resource, New York. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP,

Paris. [Fig. 5-39]

The Critical Process: Thinking The Critical Process: Thinking about Light and Colorabout Light and Color

• Katharina Grosse's Cincy features swathes of spray painted color so vibrant they appear to be light projections.

• The Rosenthal Center, which was designed by Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid and housed this work, provides a stark contrast.

Katharina Grosse, Cincy. 2006. Installation view, Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, Ohio.Courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Centre (CAC). Photo: Tony Walsh © Katharina

Grosse/DACS. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. [Fig. 5-40]

Thinking BackThinking Back

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.

Sayre woa ch05_lecture-243768

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