Words and images can symbolically refer to things in the world, but are not the things themselves. They have a complex relationship where each can inform the interpretation of the other through context, symbols, and cultural conventions. 2. Distinguish between representation and abstraction. 3. Discuss how form, as opposed to content, might also help us to understand the meaning of a work of art.

1. WORLD OF ARTWORLD OF ART
CHAPTER
EIGHTH EDITION
World of Art, Eighth Edition
Henry M. Sayre
Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010
by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.
All rights reserved.
Developing Visual
Literacy
2

2. Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
1 of 21 of 2
1. Describe the relationship between
words and images.
2. Distinguish between representation
and abstraction.
3. Discuss how form, as opposed to
content, might also help us to
understand the meaning of a work of
art.

3. Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
2 of 22 of 2
4. Explain how cultural conventions can
inform our interpretation of works of
art.

4. IntroductionIntroduction
1 of 21 of 2
• In order to get the most out of art
appreciation, you must describe why
you "like" a work and how it
communicates to you rather than just
"I like this work."

5. IntroductionIntroduction
2 of 22 of 2
• Making sense of Willem de Koonig's
North Atlantic Light requires visual
literacy.
 The title helps us recognize what looks
like a sailboat at the painting's center.
 Closer observation can reveal details
about light reflecting from the sky into
the sea.
 Critical thinking aids in the
interpretation of complicated works.

6. Willem de Kooning, North Atlantic Light.
1977. Oil on canvas, 6' 8" × 5' 10". Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Acquired with the support of the Rembrandt Association.
© 2015. Photo Art Resource/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Willem de Kooning
Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 2-1]

7. Words and ImagesWords and Images
1 of 41 of 4
• Magritte's The Treason of Images
depicts a reproduction of an image of a
pipe found in tobacco ads of his time.
 The caption, translated as "This is not a
pipe," refers to the fact that this image
is not actually a representation of a
pipe.
 Both images and words symbolically
refer to things in the world, but are not
the things themselves.

8. René Magritt,. The Treason of Images, Ceci n'est past une pipe.
1929. Oil on canvas, 21-1/2 × 28-1/2". Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
© 2015 C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 2-2]

9. Words and ImagesWords and Images
2 of 42 of 4
• Shirin Neshat's series, Women of Allah,
combines words and images.
 Rebellious Silence shows a woman
wearing a chador that covers everything
but her face.
• A rifle divides the Farsi poem written on
her face.
• The subject matter only hints at the
complexity of its content, which relies
on the context of the viewing party.

10. Shirin Neshat, Rebellious Silence, from the series Women of Allah.
1994. Gelatin silver print and ink, 11 × 14".
© Shirin Neshat, courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Photo: Cynthia
Preston. [Fig. X-X]

11. Words and ImagesWords and Images
3 of 43 of 4
• In Islamic culture, calligraphy is the
chief form of art and pious writing is
sacred.
• Until recent times, every book began
with the bismillah.
 The Triumphal Entry from Firdawsi's
Shahnamah shows a beautiful example
in the top right-hand corner.

12. Triumphal Entry, page from a manuscript of Firdawsi's Shahnamah, Persian, Safavid culture.
1562–83 Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper, 18-11/16 × 13". Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston.
Francis Bartlett Donation and Picture Fund, 14.692. Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston. [Fig. 2-4]

13. Words and ImagesWords and Images
4 of 44 of 4
• Islamic culture concerns itself largely
with the word of the Qur'an and images
are absent in most architecture.
 Depiction of living creatures was
frowned upon; a page from a copy of
Nizami's Khamseh shows the heads of
humans have been erased.
• Iconoclasts wished to destroy images
in religious settings and appeared at
various periods in Christian history.

14. Page from a copy of Nizami's Khamseh (Quintet) illustrating a princely country feast,
Persian, Safavid culture.
1574–75. Illuminated manuscript, 9-3/4 × 6". India Office, London.
© British Library Board, I.O. ISLAMIC 1129, f.29. [Fig. 2-5]

15. Representation and AbstractionRepresentation and Abstraction
1 of 51 of 5
• Vocabulary has been developed to
describe how closely an image
resembles visual reality.
• Art can be representational,
portraying objects in recognizable form.
 Realism occurs when the image
resembles what the eye sees.
 An work is photorealistic if it is so
realistic that it seems like a photograph.

16. Representation and AbstractionRepresentation and Abstraction
2 of 52 of 5
• Art can be abstract when it resembles
its real-world subject less.
 It can be called nonobjective if it does
not refer to the natural or objective
world at all.

17. The Creative ProcessThe Creative Process
1 of 21 of 2
• Abstract Illusionism: George Green's …
Marooned in dreaming: a path of song
and mind
 Green's distinct style is characterized by
images of abstract sculptural forms that
seem to float free from the painting's
surface.
 This work begins with a single sheet of
raw birch, painted with a highly
illusionistic trompe-l'oeil frame.

18. George Green. …marooned in dreaming: a path of song and mind, in progress.
2011. Top: Raw birch ground before painting. Middle: Second stage, painted frame and
mat. Bottom: Third stage, painted frame and seascape.
Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 2-7]

19. George Green. …marooned in dreaming: a path of song and mind, in progress.
2011. Second stage, painted frame and mat.
Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 2-8]

20. The Creative ProcessThe Creative Process
2 of 22 of 2
• Abstract Illusionism: George Green's …
Marooned in dreaming: a path of song
and mind
 A photorealistic seascape, based on a
photograph, is then painted inside the
frame.
 Then, the entire composition is overlaid
with scrolls, arabesques, and planes of
color, a visual representation of music.

21. George Green. …marooned in dreaming: a path of song and mind, in progress.
2011. Third stage, painted frame and seascape.
Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 2-9]

22. George Green. …marooned in dreaming: a path of song and mind.
2011. Acrylic on birch, 4' × 6' 10".
Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 2-10]

23. Representation and AbstractionRepresentation and Abstraction
3 of 53 of 5
• Albert Bierstadt's Puget Sound on the
Pacific Coast was criticized for being
more fanciful than realistic, despite its
representational appearance.
 Since Bierstadt had never visited Puget
Sound, his work is naturalistic rather
than realistic.
 While it is based in realistic elements, its
composition is formulaic.

24. Albert Bierstadt, Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast.
1870. Oil on canvas, 4' 4-1/2" × 6' 10". Seattle Art Museum.
Gift of the Friends of American Art at the Seattle Art Museum, with additional funds from
the General Acquisition Fund, 2000.70. Photo: Howard Giske. [Fig. 2-6]

25. Representation and AbstractionRepresentation and Abstraction
4 of 54 of 5
• Wolf Kahn's Afterglow I is more
abstract naturalism, featuring a less
descriptive landscape with trees.
• Old Mick Tjakamarra's Honey Ant
Dreaming also shows a landscape, but
along the rules of Aboriginal
symbolism.
 Landscapes were thought to depict a
record of the Ancestral Being's passing.

26. Wolf Kahn, Afterglow I.
1974. Oil on canvas, 41-1/2" × 5' 6". Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Kahn. Art © Wolf
Kahn/Licensed by VAGA, New York. [Fig. 2-11]

27. Old Mick Tjakamarra, Honey Ant Dreaming.
1982. Acrylic on canvas, 36 × 27".
© Aboriginal Artists Agency Limited. Photo: Jennifer Steele/Art Resource, New York.
[Fig. 2-12]

28. Representation and AbstractionRepresentation and Abstraction
5 of 55 of 5
• Old Mick Tjakamarra's Honey Ant
Dreaming also shows a landscape, but
along the rules of Aboriginal
symbolism.
 Ceremonial paintings on rocks and the
ground were made for centuries in
Australia's Western Desert region.
 This work shows Papunya Tula, where
three colonies of ants appear at center.

29. Form and MeaningForm and Meaning
1 of 31 of 3
• Form refers to everything from the
materials used to create a work to the
way it employs formal elements into
the composition.
 It often opposed to content, or what
the work expresses or means.

30. Form and MeaningForm and Meaning
2 of 32 of 3
• Kazimir Malevich's Black Square was an
attempt to free art from objectivity.
 The work shows a black square set on a
white one and was originally exhibited in
the gallery space as though it were a
religious icon in a traditional Russian
home.
 The work is minimal, parodic, and totally
abstract.

31. Kazimir Malevich, Black Square.
ca. 1923–30. Oil on plaster, 14-1/2 × 14-1/2". Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Inv. AM1978-631. Photo © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand
Palais/Jacques Faujou. [Fig. 2-13]

32. Form and MeaningForm and Meaning
3 of 33 of 3
• Beatriz Milhazes based Carambola on a
square, influenced by Malevich.
 Even the geometrical composition's
circles were intended to contain
squares.
 She cites color as creating conflict and
movement and references forms of
Brazilian culture in the piece.

33. Beatriz Milhazes, Carambola.
2008. Acrylic on canvas, 4' 6-7/8" × 4' 2-5/8".
Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York and Shanghai. [Fig. 2-14]

34. Convention, Symbols, and InterpretationConvention, Symbols, and Interpretation
1 of 61 of 6
• Interpretation of a work relies on its
cultural context.
• Art historian Kenneth Clark compared
the images of Apollo and an African
dancing mask.
 He was able to decode conventions of
Greek sculpture, but misinterpreted the
meaning of the African mask through his
ethnocentric reading.

35. Apollo Belvedere (detail), Roman copy after a 4th-century BCE Greek original.
Height of entire sculpture 7' 4". Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican City.
© 2015 Photo Scala, Florence. [Fig. 2-15]

36. African dancing mask from Ulivira, Lake Tanganyika.
Lateral view. Wood, Height 24". The Courtauld Gallery, London.
©The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London/Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 2-16]

37. Convention, Symbols, and InterpretationConvention, Symbols, and Interpretation
2 of 62 of 6
• Iconography is a system of visual
images widely understood by a given
culture or group that is carried forward
through generations.
• Symbols represent something other
than their literal meaning.
• Over time, the meaning of an image
can still change or be lost within a
culture.

38. Convention, Symbols, and InterpretationConvention, Symbols, and Interpretation
3 of 63 of 6
• Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife
Giovanna Cenami by Jan van Eyck has
a repertoire of symbols that would have
been understood by the
contemporaneous viewer, but are lost
today.
• From a Muslim perspective, its
elements would be nonsensical.

39. Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami.
ca. 1434. Oil on oak panel, 32-1/4 × 23-1/2". National Gallery, London.
Inv. NG186. Bought, 1842. © 2015 National Gallery, London/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 2-17]

40. Convention, Symbols, and InterpretationConvention, Symbols, and Interpretation
4 of 64 of 6
• It was recently discovered that Jan van
Eyck's painting represents a betrothal
rather than a marriage.
• The artist has also painted himself as
witness, inscribing "Jan van Eyck was
here" above the mirror.

41. Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife (detail).
ca. 1434.
Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 2-18]

42. Convention, Symbols, and InterpretationConvention, Symbols, and Interpretation
5 of 65 of 6
• Jean-Michel Basquiat pays tribute to
jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker in his
Charles the First.
 Iconography includes a crown
representing African-American heroes.
 The large "S" stands for Superman as
well as SAMO, the artist's "tag."
 "X" has multiple meanings as X-Men,
hobo signs; negation and affirmation.

43. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Charles the First.
1982. Acrylic and oil paintstick on canvas, three panels, 6' 6" × 5' 2-1⁄4" overall.
© 2015 Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat/ADAGP, Paris/ARS, New York. [Fig. 2-19]

44. Convention, Symbols, and InterpretationConvention, Symbols, and Interpretation
6 of 66 of 6
• Western viewers of the Buddha may
not understand that the position of the
Buddha's hands carries iconographic
significance.
 Mudras refer both to general states of
mind and specific events in the
Buddha's life.
 The Amida Buddha represents the
promise of being reborn into Paradise
and escaping endless rebirth.

45. Buddha (Amida), Japan.
ca. 1130. Wood with gold lacquer, 37-1/4 × 27 × 17". Seattle Art Museum.
Gift of the Monsen Family, 2011.39. Photo: Elizabeth Mann. [Fig. 2-20]

46. The Critical Process: Thinking aboutThe Critical Process: Thinking about
Visual ConventionsVisual Conventions
1 of 21 of 2
• Two views of the signing of peace
treaties in Kansas in 1867 present the
same content, but different form.
• John Taylor's illustration is based on
sketches done at the scene while
Howling Wolf's work was completed
about a decade later.
• "Ledger" drawings were created on
blank accountants' ledgers.

47. John Taylor, Treaty Signing at Medicine Lodge Creek.
1867. Drawing for Leslie's Illustrated Gazette, September–December 1867, as seen in
Douglas C. Jones, The Treaty of Medicine Lodge, page xx.
© 1966 Oklahoma University Press. Reproduced with permission. All Rights reserved.
[Fig. 2-21]

48. Howling Wolf, Treaty Signing at Medicine Lodge Creek.
1875–78. Ledger drawing, pencil, crayon, and ink on paper, 8 × 11". New York State
Library, Manuscripts and Special Collections, Albany. [Fig. 2-22]

49. The Critical Process: Thinking aboutThe Critical Process: Thinking about
Visual ConventionsVisual Conventions
2 of 22 of 2
• Does the difference in the way both
artists depict space suggest greater
cultural differences?
 Howling Wolf depicts the scene from
above and Taylor's viewpoint is limited
to the grove.
• Native Americans are portrayed
individually and identifiably in Howling
Wolf's work.

50. Thinking BackThinking Back
1 of 21 of 2
1. Describe the relationship between
words and images.
2. Distinguish between representation
and abstraction.
3. Discuss how form, as opposed to
content, might also help us to
understand the meaning of a work of
art.

51. Thinking BackThinking Back
2 of 22 of 2
4. Explain how cultural conventions can
inform our interpretation of works of
art.