Study guide

Captors 1 and 2

Chapter 1 – Discovering a World of Art Mu Questions and objectives

Renzo Piano’s Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center is an example of “green architecture.” Such buildings are praised for their
a) lack of renewable resources. b) innovative design. c) use of high-tech materials. d) self-sufficiency

 Learning Objective: 1.2 Define the creative process and describe the roles that artists most often assume when they engage in that process. Topic: The World as Artists See It Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Jasper Johns chose to paint his image of the American flag to express a) his proclivity for things seen but not examined. b) his own patriotism during the McCarthy era. c) a universal concept of freedom.
d) the injustices incurred during the Civil Rights Movement.

Learning Objective: 1.1 Differentiate between passive and active seeing. Topic: The World as We Perceive It Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

The imagery in Faith Ringgold’s God Bless America was inspired by the a) McCarthy era in the 1950s. b) parade in New York City on Allies Day, May 1917. c) Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

Learning Objective: 1.1 Differentiate between passive and active seeing. Topic: The World as We Perceive It Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

What is the function of the nkisi nkonde figure? a) It is purely aesthetic. b) It pursues wrongdoers at night and punishes them when nails are driven into it. c) It is a fertility idol. d) It was made so that it could be stolen and exhibited in museums in Europe and the United States.

Learning Objective: 1.1 Differentiate between passive and active seeing. Topic: The World as We Perceive It Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Painter Richard Haas improved the unappealing façade of the Oregon Historical Society by a) painting a trompe-l’oeil mural on it. b) covering the building with white paint. c) applying stucco to the building.
d) designing a grand stairway to the entrance.

Learning Objective: 1.1 Differentiate between passive and active seeing. Topic: The World as We Perceive It Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

According to Sayre, what are the three steps in the process of “seeing”? a) looking, seeing, believing b) detection, processing, reference c) reception, extraction, inference
d) reception, interpreting, understanding

Learning Objective: 1.1 Differentiate between passive and active seeing. Topic: The World as We Perceive It Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

What might have affected Pablo Picasso’s severe style of representation seen in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon?
a) Native American sites he visited b) African masks he saw at a Paris museum c) his collection of Asian ceramics d) the imagery on Korean tapestries

 Learning Objective: 1.2 Define the creative process and describe the roles that artists most often assume when they engage in that process. Topic: The Creative Process Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Objects that are intended to stimulate a sense of beauty in the viewer are thought to be not merely functional but
a) iconographic. b) utilitarian. c) objective. d) aesthetic

We can clearly see the artistic impulse to “give form to the immaterial,” to represent hidden or universal truths, spiritual forces, and personal feelings in
a) art based on close observation of one’s immediate surroundings. b) religious art. c) contemporary art that deals with “identity politics.” d) political art.

On what basis did a Cincinnati jury acquit the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and its director of obscenity in showing an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’ s work?
a) The work possessed “serious artistic value.” b) The controversial work was removed from the exhibition. c) The work was not controversial. d) The exhibition was cancelled.

 Learning Objective: 1.3 Discuss the different ways in which people value, or do not value, works of art. Topic: Seeing the Value in Art Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

How did Michelangelo’s David become political? a) It was placed in a chapel in the Florence Cathedral. b) It was placed in the gardens of the Medici palace as a symbol of the family’s power. c) It was placed in Florence’s government square as a symbol of the Republic’s freedom from the Medici family. d) Its nudity was covered by a skirt of copper leaves.

 Learning Objective: 1.3 Discuss the different ways in which people value, or do not value, works of art. Topic: Seeing the Value in Art Difficulty Level: Difficult Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

The mission of the National Endowment of the Arts, as defined when it was first funded by Congress in 1967, was
a) to give tax deductions to art gallery dealers and auction houses. b) to censor art. c) to teach the public how to see and appreciate “advanced art”. d) to impose a state-sponsored artistic style.

 Learning Objective: 1.3 Discuss the different ways in which people value, or do not value, works of art. Topic: Seeing the Value in Art Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

Sayre states that he believes that all people are creative, but artists possess qualities that most do not. Which of the following best describes these qualities?
a) Artists must be willing to “buck the system.” b) Artists are critical thinkers, meaning they question assumptions and explore new directions. c) They must “look” like artists, dressing in turtlenecks and berets or sporting lots of tattoos. d) Artists are always “outsiders,” meaning they stand in opposition to the dominant paradigms of their day.

What female types does Mickalene Thomas’s Portrait of Mnonja evoke? a) avant-garde paintings of female figures in motion b) Spanish prostitutes as depicted in Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon c) the Virgin Mary and the female saints in Jan van Eyck’s The Ghent Altarpiece d) African-American superstar divas of the 1970s

Dunhuang is the site of a great collection of early Chinese art that fills the a) Mogao Caves. b) the Great Wall of China. c) the city of Beijing.
d) Beijing National Stadium.

Skill Level: Remember the Facts

Short Answer and Essay Questions

What material was used by Chris Ofili for the Holy Virgin Mary that created great controversy when it was exhibited at what museum in the United States? Why was the painting called “an attack on religion itself”? Answer: Ofili used elephant dung covered with resin, which caused an outcry when the painting was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum. This material was used to depict a religious subject, the Virgin Mary. Learning Objective: 1.3 Discuss the different ways in which people value, or do not value, works of art. Topic: Seeing the Value in Art Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Name some determinants of the monetary value of a work of art. Answer: The art market depends on the patronage and investment of wealthy clients and on art galleries selling the art to those clients. The value of a given work depends on the artist’s reputation, with monetary value being clearly established at auction houses. Learning Objective: 1.3 Discuss the different ways in which people value, or do not value, works of art. Topic: Seeing the Value in Art Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
What period of time and place does Manet depict in Olympia? Answer: He depicts Parisian modern life in the 1860s. Learning Objective: 1.2 Define the creative process and describe the roles that artists most often assume when they engage in that process. Topic: The World as Artists See It Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Explain the term “trompe-l’oeil.” Answer: Literally meaning “fool the eye,” the term describes a piece of illusionistic art designed to trick the eye. Learning Objective: 1.1 Differentiate between passive and active seeing. Topic: The World as We Perceive It Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Give an example from the textbook of an artwork used for political purposes. Answer: The ideal answer should include:
Richard Serra intended Tilted Arc to be confrontational and political.  
He questioned political power by showing the arc dividing the Federal Plaza, as he  believed Americans were divided from their government.  
The arc cast a dark ominous shadow.  
Serra considered Tilted Arc destroyed when it was removed from Federal Plaza. He  considered the work site-specific, designed to have a dialogue with its site.

Identify the four roles that artists play that have not changed over time. Cite examples for each from Chapter 1. Answer: The ideal answer should include:
They make a visual record of people, places, and events, such as Mickalene Thomas has done in Portrait of Mnonja.  
They help us see the world in new ways, as Ken Gonzales-Day has done in “At daylight the miserable man was carried to an oak . . .”  
They make functional objects and buildings pleasurable and imbue them with meaning, as Renzo Piano has done in the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center.  
They give form to the immaterial, as Jan van Eyck has done in The Ghent Altarpiece.

Use examples from the chapter to illustrate how artworks featuring the American flag can have different meanings. Answer: The ideal answer should include:
In Flag, Jasper Johns represented the United States flag with lumps and smears, asking viewers to consider the work as a painting and to contemplate its meaning.  
Johns created this work during a time of patriotism in the Cold War.  
Faith Ringgold’s God Bless America is a comment on bigotry.  
She painted at a time that white prejudice was supported by the legal system. She  represents the star of the United States flag as a sheriff’s badge, the stripes as prison  bars, and the woman behind the bars as a prisoner of her bigotry.

Learning Objective: 1.1 Differentiate between passive and active seeing. Topic: The World as We Perceive It Difficulty Level: Difficult Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

Discuss the creative process of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. What transformations took place in the early sketches, and how does the final product differ from the artist’s initial sketch? Answer: The ideal answer should include:
Early sketches show that Picasso began the painting as a narrative scene of a brothel, including a sailor and a medical student as well as the five nude women.  
After a visit to the Palais du Trocadéro, where he saw African masks, he transformed the faces of three of the prostitutes into African masks.  
The masks freed him from accurate representation.  
As he worked, Picasso developed the figures into twisted views, seen from various  points of view simultaneously. Picasso’s drawings show the many changes in the evolution of the squatting figure who is seen from the front and back at the same time.

Learning Objective: 1.2 Define the creative process and describe the roles that artists most often assume when they engage in that process. Topic: The Creative Process Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Developing Visual Literacy Multiple Choice Questions

In The Treason of Images, the artist combines awareness, creativity, and communication by encouraging the viewer to look closely at an object. The artist is
a) Duane Michaels. b) Lorna Simpson. c) René Magritte. d) John Ahearn.

 Learning Objective: 2.1 Describe the relationship between words and images. Topic: Words and Images Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

Jan van Eyck’s Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami depicts many objects that have symbolic meaning. The use or study of these symbols is called
a) iconography. b) content. c) form. d) aesthetics.

 Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Convention, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

While in prison, Howling Wolf made many drawings called a) scraffitti.
b) ledger drawings. c) office drawings. d) calculated drawings.

Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: The Critical Process Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

When a painting is so real it appears to be a photograph, it is called a) illusionistic.
b) a pseudo-photograph. c) photographic. d) photorealistic.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Beatriz Milhazes’s Carambola is based on a) the square.
b) the horizontal line. c) the zigzag. d) a triangle.

 Learning Objective: 2.3 Discuss how form, as opposed to content, might also help us to understand the meaning of a work of art. Topic: Form and Meaning Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Jan van Eyck’s Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami, like René Magritte’s The Treason of Images, is concerned with
a) expensive objects that signify wealth and success. b) images that are not literally what they appear to be. c) experimental painting materials. d) political messages.

Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Convention, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Difficult Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

In the sixteenth century, The Ghent Altarpiece, which represents the divine, was threatened by a) calligraphers. b) iconographers. c) graffiti artists.
d) iconoclasts.

Learning Objective: 2.1 Describe the relationship between words and images. Topic: Words and Images Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

The painting The Treason of Images asks us to consider a) that images and words refer to things that we see but are not the things themselves. b) that there is a direct, one-to-one relationship between objects and the words we use to name them. c) that we are often fooled by what we see, as with trompe-l’loeil paintings. d) that images and words not only refer to things that we see but are also the things themselves.

Learning Objective: 2.1 Describe the relationship between words and images. Topic: Words and Images Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

The Triumphal Entry page from the Shahnamah manuscript, a sacred text, exemplifies the preference of word over image in
a) Japanese art. b) Chinese art. c) Islamic art. d) Korean art.

Learning Objective: 2.1 Describe the relationship between words and images. Topic: Words and Images Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

The symbolic hand gestures that refer to specific states of mind or events in the life of Buddha are called
a) bismillah. b) mudras. c) handies. d) calliforms.

 Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Conventions, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

The terms “naturalistic art” or “realistic art” are sometimes used to describe a) folk art.
b) abstract art. c) nonrepresentational art. d) representational art.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

The title of Willem de Kooning’s North Atlantic Light refers to a). the town on Long Island where the artist lived b) the name of the artist’s sailboat. c) the feeling of light.in the painting.
d) the practice of painting outdoors. Answer: c

Learning Objective: 2.1 Describe the relationship between words and images. Topic: Chapter Introduction Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

Why are images traditionally frowned on in Islamic art? a) Humans are thought to be a symbol of filth. b) The word can be trusted in a way that images cannot. c) Human images are not frowned on in Islamic art.
d) Calligraphy is more challenging. Answer: b

Learning Objective: 2.1 Describe the relationship between words and images. Topic: Words and Images Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

In a work of art, “content” refers to a) what the work means. b) the culture that produced it. c) its style.
d) the way it looks.

Learning Objective: 2.3 Discuss how form, as opposed to content, might also help us to understand the meaning of a work of art. Topic: Form and Meaning Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

What kind of reading does Kenneth Clark illustrate in his assessment that an ancient Greek statue represents a “higher state of civilization” than a West African mask?
a) American b) aesthetic c) Afrocentric d) ethnocentric

 Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Conventions, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

What is the chief form of Islamic art? a) calligraphy
b) abstractions of animals c) figurative representation d) conceptual art

 Learning Objective: 2.1 Describe the relationship between words and images. Topic: Words and Images Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

What is the subject matter of Shirin Neshat’s Rebellious Silence? a) It depicts the prominent place of women within every aspect of Iranian culture. b) It depicts a Muslim woman in a black chador, a rifle dividing, and Farsi text inscribed over her face, showing her as liberated and equal to men. c) It is depicts a Muslim woman in Western dress to show her as rebellious. d) It reflects the artist’s comfort with the roles of women in Iranian society.

 Learning Objective: 2.1 Describe the relationship between words and images. Topic: Words and Images Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

18. Naturalism is a brand of representation in which the artist a) paints exactly, faithfully what he or she sees. b) abstracts what he or she is depicting, to varying degrees. c) retains realistic elements but presents the world from a personal or subjective point of view.
d) works with ideas instead of images, creating purely nonobjective artwork.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Kazmir Malevich called his art a) Dreaming.
b) Realism. c) Cubism. d) Suprematism.

 Learning Objective: 2.3 Discuss how form, as opposed to content, might also help us to understand the meaning of a work of art. Topic: Form and Meaning Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

SAMO is a name adopted by a) Charlie Parker. b) John Taylor. c) Jean-Michel Basquiat.
d) Willem de Kooning.

Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Conventions, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Easy

Skill Level: Remember the Facts

21.When a work does not refer to the natural or objective world at all, it is called a) representational. b) realistic. c) photorealistic.

d) nonobjective.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

The less representation resembles the real world, the more it is considered a) abstract.
b) symbolic. c) SAMO. d) natural.

 Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast was painted by a) George Green. b) Albert Bierstadt. c) Willem de Kooning.
d) Wolf Kahn.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

How did Kenneth Clark know of the African dancing mask he disparaged in his television series and book Civilization?
a) He saw a photograph of it in a book. b) He saw it in a museum of natural history. c) He owned it. d) He saw it in a magazine.

Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Convention, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Easy Skill Level: Remember the Facts

Why were images in religious settings destroyed in sixteenth-century northern Europe? a) The Book of Genesis forbids images. b) The Ten Commandments forbid images. c) The angel Gabriel forbids images.
d) The New Testament forbids images.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Difficult Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

How is Wolf Kahn’s Afterglow I comparable to Willem de Kooning’s North Atlantic Light? a) Both paintings are largely concerned with the effects of light. b) Both paintings are highly representational. c) Both paintings are photorealistic views of real landscapes.
d) Both paintings employ trompe-l’oeil.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Difficult Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

Short Answer and Essay Questions

Define the terms “form” and “content.” Answer: “Form” refers to the overall structure of the work, including the materials used to make it, its various formal elements, and the way the elements are organized into a composition. “Content” is what the work of art expresses or means. Form can also suggest meaning. Learning Objective: 2.3 Discuss how form, as opposed to content, might also help us to understand the meaning of a work of art. Topic: Form and Meaning Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
What aspect of George Green’s . . . marooned in dreaming: a path of song and mud is characteristic of Abstract Illusionism? Answer: He paints onto a sheet of raw birch an illusionistic frame and matte, a painted frame and seascape, and an overlay of scrolls of color, globes of wood, and snapshots of landscape, in a trompe-l’oeil effect.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: The Creative Process Difficulty Level: Difficult Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

In Jan van Eyck’s Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami, what abstract concepts does the dog symbolize? Answer: Here accompanying a man and woman joining hands, the dog symbolizes faith in the context of marriage or betrothal, indicating that this couple pledge to remain faithful to each other. The dog might also symbolize that the man and woman are faithful in their religious beliefs.

Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Convention, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

In Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami, what does the mirror reflect? Answer: The mirror reflects the backs of the subjects and, standing in the same space as the viewer, are two other figures, one of whom is most likely the artist. Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art.

Topic: Convention, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

What did Kenneth Clark not recognize about a carved mask from the Sang tribe of Gabon in West Africa? Answer: Clark surmised that the mask was a symbol of fear and darkness. He did not recognize the ritual function of the mask that affects its features. The masks were worn in celebratory ceremonies as vehicles through which the spirit world became accessible, and its features were exaggerated to separate it from the “real.”

Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Convention, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

Explain the concept of Dreaming in Australian Aboriginal culture, as in Old Mick Tjakamarra’s Honey Ant Dreaming. Answer: The Dreaming is the presence, or the mark, of an Ancestral Being in the World. Tjakamarra’s Honey Ant Dreaming represents a landscape according to the idea that the Ancestral Being can be revealed in the landscape.

Learning Objective: 2.2 Distinguish between representation and abstraction. Topic: Representation and Abstraction Difficulty Level: Moderate Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting Charles the First is filled with personal, ambiguous imagery that the artist summed up as “royalty, heroism, and the streets.” Cite some motifs that illustrate each of these concepts, in positive or negative ways, in the painting. Answer: The ideal answer should include:
Royalty: Basquiat uses the crown as a symbol of his personal success and of the success of African American heroes such as jazz musicians and athletes. Also, the title Charles the First refers to King Charles I, who was beheaded by the Protestants, and the panels are inscribed with the phrase “Most kings get thier (sic) head cut off.”  
Heroism: He refers to heroism by repeating the letter “S,” referring to the comic-book superhero Superman. The S, sometimes lined or crossed out, can also refer to dollar signs and the price of success.  
He paints the letters X-MN to refer to the X-Men comic-book heroes who protect the world that hates them, drawing an analogy with his African American heroes.  
The streets: The “X” also refers to a Hobo sign, marks hobos leave, such as graffiti, to inform other hobos about places. The “X” Hobo sign means “OK, alright.” The X can also stand for negation.

Learning Objective: 2.4 Explain how cultural conventions can inform our interpretation of works of art. Topic: Convention, Symbols, and Interpretation Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

Compare and contrast the two works titled Treaty Signing at Medicine Lodge Creek, one by John Taylor and one by Howling Wolf. In your discussion, use the terms “form,” “content,” “representational,” “abstract,” and “ledger” art. Answer: The ideal answer should include:
Both artists represent the same event; therefore, their works share similar content.  
Their works differ in form in their medium and composition. Taylor, an Anglo-  American journalist, made his work for a magazine and based it on sketches made on the scene. It was published soon after the event. Howling Wolf, a Native American, made his work nearly a decade later when he was in jail and drew it on blank accounts’ ledgers. It is so-called ledger art.  
Taylor’s view is limited to the grove itself. It represents more closely a natural view that could be called more representational. Howling Wolf shows the scene from above to show the grove and to include many cultural motifs related to the Indians, such as tipis and warriors. He adjusts space in a way that could be called abstract; for instance showing the tipis head-on instead of foreshortened as they would be seen from above. However, both artists selected how to depict the scene, according to their own purpose and point of view.  
Taylor does not show women, whereas Indian women are very prominent in Howling Wolf’s work, suggesting the importance of women in his culture.

Learning Objective: 2.3 Discuss how form, as opposed to content, might also help us to understand the meaning of a work of art. Topic: The Critical Process Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It

Multiple Choice Questions

maria.kolber

Study guide 2 Chapters 3 and 4