WORLD OF ART EIGHTH EDITION CHAPTER Light and Color World of Art, Eighth Edition Henry M Sayre Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc or its affiliates All rights reserved Learning Objectives Describe the ways in which artists use light to represent space and model form Outline the principles of color theory, and describe the different sorts of color schemes that artists might employ Explain how color might be used both in representational painting and as a symbolic tool Introduction • 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 The Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton, New York 1963–83 Courtesy of Dia Art Foundation, New York Photo: Florian Holzherr [Fig 5-1] 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] Light • Natural light helps define spatial relationships • Artists can control the experience of their work through the manipulation of light Atmospheric Perspective of • 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 Atmospheric Perspective of • 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 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] Atmospheric Perspective of • 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 Chuck Close, Stanley II 1980–81 Oil on canvas, × 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] 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) Representational and Symbolic Uses of Color of • 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 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] Representational and Symbolic Uses of Color of • 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 Representational and Symbolic Uses of Color of • 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 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 Symbolic Color of • 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-andgreen color scheme Americans often associate with Christmas 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] Symbolic Color of • 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." 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, The Critical Process: Thinking about 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 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 540] Zaha Hadid, Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, Ohio 2003 © VIEW Pictures Ltd/Alamy [Fig 5-41] Thinking Back Describe the ways in which artists use light to represent space and model form Outline the principles of color theory, and describe the different sorts of color schemes that artists might employ Explain how color might be used both in representational painting and as a symbolic tool ... 20 15 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris [Fig 5- 10] A sphere represented by means of modeling [Fig 5- 11] Chiaroscuro and Modeling of • Tenebrism is a technique separate from modeling... Night Chrysanthemum 1984 Oil on canvas, three panels, each × 5' Courtesy of the artist and Cheim & Read, New York [Fig 5- 8] Value: From Light to Dark of • For African Americans, particularly during... 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