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

WORLD OF ART
EIGHTH EDITION

CHAPTER

5

Light and Color

World of Art, Eighth Edition
Henry M. Sayre

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


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.


Introduction
• 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]


Light
• 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
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]


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.