2. Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
1. Explain the difference between actual
texture and visual texture.
2. Outline some of the ways that time
and motion inform our experience of
visual art.
3. IntroductionIntroduction
• Phillip K. Smith III's work, Lucid Stead,
consists of a homesteader's shack
transformed by alternating bands of
mirror and weathered siding.
At night, LED lights illuminate windows
and the cracks between the structure's
bands reveal interior light.
The pace of change is the theme at the
heart of the work: time and motion.
4. Phillip K. Smith III, Lucid Stead.
2013. Seventy-year-old homesteader shack, mirrors, LED lights, custom-built electronic
equipment, and Arduino programming.
Photo: Steve King. Phillip K. Smith III is represented by Royale Projects: Contemporary
Art, CA and all artwork use permissions are courtesy of the gallery. [Fig. 6-1]
5. Phillip K. Smith III, Lucid Stead.
2013. Seventy-year-old homesteader shack, mirrors, LED lights, custom-built electronic
equipment, and Arduino programming.
Photo: Lance Gerber. Phillip K. Smith III is represented by Royale Projects: Contemporary
Art, CA and all artwork use permissions are courtesy of the gallery. [Fig. 6-2]
6. TextureTexture
• Texture describes a work's ability to
call forth tactile sensations and
feelings.
• It can be described as rough or
smooth, slimy or soft; it may draw a
desire to touch or repulsion.
• Museums and galleries utilize "Do Not
Touch" signs so that works do not fall
prey to the touch of visitors and erode
over time.
7. Actual TextureActual Texture
• Michelangelo's Pietà transforms its
marble medium into lifelike figures with
gentle drapery.
• Manuel Neri's bronze sculpture from the
Mujer Pegada Series emphasizes both a
smooth, finished texture and a rough
texture beside loose brushstrokes.
It is as though the artist's subject is
only half-realized, begun to appear.
9. Manuel Neri, Mujer Pegada Series No. 2.
1985–86. Bronze with oil-based enamel, 5' 10" × 4' 8" × 11".
Photo: M. Lee Fatheree courtesy of the Manuel Neri Trust. [Fig. 6-4]
10. Visual TextureVisual Texture
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• Visual texture appears to be actual, but
is an illusion.
• Max Ernst's The Horde was created
through frottage, a technique where
an artist puts a sheet of paper over
textured materials then rubs across the
paper with a pencil or crayon.
Ernst was able to create a wide variety
of textural effects.
12. Visual TextureVisual Texture
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• William A. Garnett produced an aerial
view of strip farms across an eroding
landscape to study American land-use
practices.
Predictable patterns of farming contrast
the unfarmed regions, particularly
apparent in the upper left of the photo.
The photograph itself is smooth,
therefore its texture is visual.
14. Time and MotionTime and Motion
• Traditionally, plastic arts such as
painting and sculpture are spatial;
written arts such as music and
literature are temporal.
• However, time plays a greater role in
plastic arts, in part through narrative
structure.
• Sculpture can move, as in Calder's
Untitled kinetic art.
16. Narratives in ArtNarratives in Art
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• Gianlorenzo Bernini's David shows a
figure caught in the middle of action,
an incomplete and energetic moment
when contrasted with Michelangelo's
David.
18. Narratives in ArtNarratives in Art
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• Isidro Escamilla's Virgin of Guadalupe
narrates the event of Juan Diego
beholding a dark-skinned woman who
advised him to build a Christian church.
In this story, when the bishop did not
believe Juan Diego's story, the Virgin
caused roses to bloom on the hill out of
season; when Juan Diego presented the
roses to the bishop, the image of the
Virgin appeared on his cloak.
19. Isidro Escamilla, Virgin of Guadalupe.
September 1, 1864. Oil on canvas, 22-7⁄8 × 15". The Brooklyn Museum.
Henry L. Batterman Fund, 45.128.189. [Fig. 6-9]
20. Seeing Over TimeSeeing Over Time
• Monet's famous lily pond painting were
designed to compel the viewer to move
about the room in which they are
exhibited.
• The viewer is surrounded by the
paintings; the phenomenon of
"Brownian motion" prevails as the
viewer's eye has no place to rest.
21. Claude Monet, Water Lilies, Morning: Willows (central section and right side).
1916–26. Triptych, each panel 6' 8" × 14' 2". Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris.
Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 6-10]
22. The Illusion of MovementThe Illusion of Movement
• In optical painting, or "Op Art,"
physical characteristics of formal
elements are manipulated to stimulate
the nervous system into thinking it
perceives movement.
• Bridget Riley's large-canvas Drift No. 2
appears to wave and roll despite being
quite fixed to the canvas.
24. The Creative ProcessThe Creative Process
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• Painting as Action: Jackson Pollock's
No. 32, 1950
Pollock's action paintings challenge the
viewer to become actively engaged in
the large canvas.
• Painting is not so much a finished work
as it is also the process of painting.
"Pollock Paints a Picture" in Artnews
tells us about his working method,
despite being staged.
26. The Creative ProcessThe Creative Process
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• Painting as Action: Jackson Pollock's
No. 32, 1950
When creating, Pollock absorbed himself
in his work.
• We can imagine the immediacy of his
gesture, full of dancelike movements.
• He mainly painted on the floor, citing the
ability to walk around it as being nearer
to it.
28. Time-Based MediaTime-Based Media
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• Grace Ndiritu creates videos of solo
performances.
Still Life: White Textiles ironically
features the artist moving the printed
fabric and animating it as she holds it
across her body.
Still Life was inspired by an exhibition of
Matisse paintings.
The artist's "passive" female body both
invites and denies seduction.
30. Time-Based MediaTime-Based Media
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• Video artists Teresa Hubbard and
Alexander portray their videos as "long
photographs" with added sound.
Detached Building shows scenes within
and outside a tin shed in a 5-minute,
38-second loop.
Since the video is looped, viewers can
enter and leave the installation at any
point, constructing their own version of
the narrative.
31. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Detached Building.
2001. High-definition video with sound transferred to DVD, 5 min. 38 sec. loop.
Stills courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. [Fig. 6-15a]
32. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Detached Building.
2001. High-definition video with sound transferred to DVD, 5 min. 38 sec. loop.
Stills courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. [Fig. 6-15b]
33. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Detached Building.
2001. High-definition video with sound transferred to DVD, 5 min. 38 sec. loop.
Stills courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. [Fig. 6-15c]
34. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Detached Building.
2001. High-definition video with sound transferred to DVD, 5 min. 38 sec. loop.
Stills courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. [Fig. 6-15d]
35. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Detached Building.
2001. High-definition video with sound transferred to DVD, 5 min. 38 sec. loop.
Stills courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. [Fig. 6-15e]
36. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Detached Building.
2001. High-definition video with sound transferred to DVD, 5 min. 38 sec. loop.
Stills courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. [Fig. 6-15f]
37. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Detached Building.
2001. High-definition video with sound transferred to DVD, 5 min. 38 sec. loop.
Installation photo by Stefan Rohner, courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery,
New York. [Fig. 6-16]
38. The Critical ProcessThe Critical Process
Thinking about the Formal ElementsThinking about the Formal Elements
• Bill Viola's Room for St. John of the
Cross consists of a small television
monitor with a still video of snow-
covered mountain within a cubicle in
front of a large projection of a shaky
black-and-white video.
A quiet audio track of a poetry reading
drowns under the roar of wind.
• Formal elements surround the viewer.
39. Bill Viola. Room for St. John of the Cross. 1983.
Video/sound installation. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Bill Viola Studio LLC. Photo: Kira Perov. [Fig. 6-17]
40. Bill Viola, Room for St. John of the Cross.
1983. Video/sound installation. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Bill Viola Studio LLC. Photo: Kira Perov. [Fig. 6-18]
41. Thinking BackThinking Back
1. Explain the difference between actual
texture and visual texture.
2. Outline some of the ways that time
and motion inform our experience of
visual art.
