This document provides an introduction to key concepts and terminology in art, including different art mediums and materials, as well as the formal elements of art such as line, shape, space, texture, value, color, scale, and time. It explains that the formal elements are the building blocks used to create an artwork's form, while the content refers to any ideas, meanings, or aesthetic value conveyed. An artwork's meaning can come from its formal qualities, subject matter, symbolism, or cultural context.

1. ART 2 Introduction to Art
ARTMAKING:ARTMAKING:
some
TERMINOLOGYTERMINOLOGY
and
CONCEPTSCONCEPTS
Vasily Kandinsky

2. MEDIUMS/ MEDIA:
MATERIALS and TOOLS of ART-MAKING
Pastels (chalk)
Watercolor and Ink
Paint: Acrylic, Oil, Watercolor
Photography/
Camera
Pencil, Colored Pencil
Digital/ Computer
Ceramics
Sculpture: Stone Carving

3. 2-Dimensional MEDIA
painting, drawing, photography, digital art, printmaking…
photography
acrylic painting
chalk drawing
digital print
printmaking
oil painting
watercolor painting
photography
pen
and
ink

4. 3-D MEDIA:
Sculptural Media
stone
metal
wood
mixed media,
assemblage
clay

5. ART MEDIA:ART MEDIA:
Light Installation
other
LIGHTLIGHT
Video Installation

6. Installation, Environmental, Performance
Richard Long Yoko Ono
Judy Pfaff

7. Any art-work can be looked at, and
talked about,
in terms of both
FORM and
CONTENT.

8. Painting by
Dana Schutz
FORM refers to the purely
abstract visual qualities in the
work, such as particular COLORS,
types of SHAPES and
TEXTURES, or
the quality of SPACE.
CONTENT refers to what is
represented and to MEANINGS
that might be communicated.

9. The abstract visual components of a work of art
are known as
Formal Elements of ArtFormal Elements of Art
oror
“The Elements of Form”.
The arrangement of formal elements
as a unified work is known as a
COMPOSITION.

10. Elements of
Form:
LINE SHAPE
SPACESPACE TEXTURE
VALUE COLOR
SCALE MATERIAL
TIME

11. Christo (“Running Fence”)
Picasso light drawing
Franz Kline painting
Chloe Piene pencil drawing
Louise Bourgeois sculpture
LI NE
A line can be
thought of
as a moving
point.

12. Philip Guston
LINE describes
or
outlines form…
Childe Hassam
and edges of form are seen
as line…
Donald Lipski
and form
may be
a line.
Jack Thompson

13. Matisse paper cut-out
Jackie Winsor sculpture
Monet painting
Tom Friedman sculpture
SHAPE
Shapes can be thought of as
enclosed line.

14. Wouter Dam
“Negative Shapes” or “Negative Spaces” are the shapes that
exist between the shapes of represented forms in a
composition. In a painting, negative shapes may be made up in
part by edges of the canvas.
Paul Gaugin

15. Salvadore Dali painting
Magdalena Jetelova installation
Jiang Yangze ceramic sculpture
R. Devore ceramic vessel
SPACE:SPACE:
Volume,Volume,
Mass,Mass,
DimensionalityDimensionality

16. TEXTURE
Lia Cook tapestry
Meret Oppenheim sculpture
Vincent Van Gogh painting
Adrian Arleo clay sculpture
Texture, the tactile
quality (relating to the
sense of touch) of
surfaces, may be
actual or
purely visual.

17. Caravaggio painting (@1600)
Edward Weston
photograph
Paul Klee painting
VALUEthe quality of darkness or lightness

18. Henri Matisse painting
Hhans Hoffmanans Hoffman painting
CCOOLLOORR
Bruce Nauman neon sculpture
Marco
Evaristti
dye on ice
Henri Matisse oil painting
Ron Nagle
ceramic
sculpture

19. Willie Cole
Jonathan Borofsky
Japanese Netsuke
Rene Magritte painting
Ron
Mueck
sculpture
Willie Cole sculpture
relating to
size,
perceived size,
relative size/
proportion.
(miniature)
(@ 3 ft.)
SCALE:

20. Anthony Gormley (toast)
Marilyn Levine (ceramic)
Marc Quinn (frozen blood)
Wolfgang Laib
(hazelnut pollen)
MATERIAL
Cai Guo-
Qiang
(gunpowder
on paper)

21. Tony Oursler video projection on forms
Janine Antoni performance
Liza Lou bead environment
Alexander Calder mobile
TIME…
Kinetic, moving
forms; work
involving time in its
creation (such as
performance);
ephemeral works.

22. Ephemeral Art:
Andy Goldsworthy

23. THE FORMAL ELEMENTSTHE FORMAL ELEMENTS
(abstract and objective)(abstract and objective)
ARE BUILDING BLOCKS OFARE BUILDING BLOCKS OF
(subjective)(subjective)
CONTENT
Form and Content

24. Andy Warhol “Electric Chair” series, silk screen prints
may be thought of as the
ideas, meanings or aesthetic
value associated with an
artwork.
CONTENTCONTENT

25. Meaning in an artwork is suggested by
--- abstract visual qualities (such as color, shape or value)
--- subject matter: what is represented
--- symbolism and reference/ allusion
--- text within or about the artwork

26. Abstraction (non-objective or non-realistic imagery) can allow pure form (line,
shape, texture, color, etc.) to communicate directly, and in ways that allow for
open-ended interpretation/ appreciation.
Richard Diebenkorn
Martin Puryear

27. Tibetan
Navaho
SAND
PAINTINGS
Meaning
(and the function of an art-work)
is culturally determined.

28. Pavel
Tchelitchew
1942
Content
may be
emotional or
psychological.

29. James Turrell “Skyspaces” architectural installations 2000’s

30. Marcel Duchamp “Fountain” 1917
(found urinal)
Sherrie Levine “Fountain (after Marcel Duchamp: A.P.)”
1991 (polished bronze)
“Post-modern” art sometimes self-consciously reflects on the history of
art, as in this re-make of Duchamp’s famous “Ready-made.”

31. Ai Wei Wei “Sunflower Seeds” installation http://vimeo.com/52688185
Meaning in an artwork may also derive from cultural or historical references, or from the process of making, itself.