The document discusses light and color in art. It begins by introducing how artists use light and color to create space. It then covers various color theory topics like atmospheric perspective, value, hue, saturation, and color schemes. Specific artists and works are discussed to illustrate different techniques - for example, how Leonardo da Vinci used atmospheric perspective in the Madonna of the Rocks. The document also explores symbolic uses of color and how restoration affected perception of Michelangelo's frescoes. Overall it provides an overview of fundamental principles and vocabulary for understanding the use of light and color in visual 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.
Light and Color
5

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. The Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton, New York.
1963–83.
Courtesy of Dia Art Foundation, New York. Photo: Florian Holzherr. [Fig. 5-1]

5. 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]

6. LightLight
• Natural light helps define spatial
relationships.
• Artists can control the experience of
their work through the manipulation of
light.

7. Atmospheric PerspectiveAtmospheric Perspective
1 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.

8. Atmospheric PerspectiveAtmospheric Perspective
2 of 32 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.

9. 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]

10. Atmospheric PerspectiveAtmospheric Perspective
3 of 33 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.

11. 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]

12. Value: From Light to DarkValue: From Light to Dark
1 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.

13. The gray scale. [Fig. 5-5]

14. Blue in a range of values. [Fig. 5-6]

15. Value: From Light to DarkValue: From Light to Dark
2 of 42 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.

16. 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]

17. 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]

18. Value: From Light to DarkValue: From Light to Dark
3 of 43 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.

19. Value: From Light to DarkValue: From Light to Dark
4 of 44 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.

20. Ben Jones, Black Face and Arm Unit.
1971. Acrylic on plaster, life-size plaster casts.
Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 5-9]

21. Chiaroscuro and ModelingChiaroscuro and Modeling
1 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.

22. Chiaroscuro and ModelingChiaroscuro and Modeling
2 of 32 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.

23. 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]

24. A sphere represented by means of modeling. [Fig. 5-11]

25. Chiaroscuro and ModelingChiaroscuro and Modeling
3 of 33 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.

26. 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]

27. Hatching and Cross-HatchingHatching and Cross-Hatching
1 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.

28. 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]

29. Hatching and Cross-HatchingHatching and Cross-Hatching
2 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.

30. 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]

31. 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.

32. Shirin Neshat, Fervor.
2000. Gelatin silver print, 5' 6" × 47".
© Shirin Neshat, courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. [Fig. 5-15]

33. 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.

34. 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]

35. 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]

36. 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.

37. 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]

38. Basic Color VocabularyBasic Color Vocabulary
1 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.

39. Colors separated by a prism into the spectrum. [Fig. 5-19]

40. Conventional color wheel. [Fig. 5-20]

41. Basic Color VocabularyBasic Color Vocabulary
2 of 52 of 5
• 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.

42. Color mixtures of reflected pigment—subtractive process. [Fig. 5-21]

43. Basic Color VocabularyBasic Color Vocabulary
3 of 53 of 5
• 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.

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

45. Basic Color VocabularyBasic Color Vocabulary
4 of 54 of 5
• 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.

46. Basic Color VocabularyBasic Color Vocabulary
5 of 55 of 5
• 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.

47. Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam (unrestored), ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
1508–12. Fresco. Vatican City.
Canali Photobank, Milan, Italy. [Fig. 5-23]

48. Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam (restored), ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
1508–12. Fresco. Vatican City.
akg-image/Erich Lessing. [Fig. 5-24]

49. Color SchemesColor Schemes
1 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.

50. Color SchemesColor Schemes
2 of 82 of 8
• 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.

51. 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]

52. Color SchemesColor Schemes
3 of 83 of 8
• 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.

53. 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]

54. Color SchemesColor Schemes
4 of 84 of 8
• 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.

55. Color SchemesColor Schemes
5 of 85 of 8
• 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.

56. Cara Grande feather mask, Tapirapé, Rio Tapirapé, Brazil.
ca. 1960. Height 31". National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. [Fig. 5-
27]

57. 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]

58. Color SchemesColor Schemes
6 of 86 of 8
• 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.

59. Georges Seurat, La Chahut (The Can-Can).
Netherlands. [Fig. 5-29]

60. Georges Seurat, La Chahut (The Can-Can) (detail).
1889–90. [Fig. 5-30]

61. Color SchemesColor Schemes
7 of 87 of 8
• 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.

62. Robert Delaunay, Premier Disque.
1912. Oil on canvas, diameter 4' 5". Private collection.
Photo © Christie's Images/Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 5-31]

63. 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]

64. Color SchemesColor Schemes
8 of 88 of 8
• 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.

65. 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]

66. 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.

67. 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]

68. 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]

69. Representational and Symbolic Uses ofRepresentational and Symbolic Uses of
ColorColor
1 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.

70. 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]

71. Representational and Symbolic Uses ofRepresentational and Symbolic Uses of
ColorColor
2 of 32 of 3
• 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.

72. Representational and Symbolic Uses ofRepresentational and Symbolic Uses of
ColorColor
3 of 33 of 3
• 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.

73. 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]

74. Symbolic ColorSymbolic Color
1 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.

75. 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]

76. Symbolic ColorSymbolic Color
2 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."

77. 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]

78. The Critical Process: ThinkingThe 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.

79. 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]

80. Zaha Hadid, Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, Ohio.
2003.
© VIEW Pictures Ltd/Alamy. [Fig. 5-41]

81. 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.