1 9 gateways-to_art2e_final

Editor's Notes

• #3: Repetition of patterns provides a sense of unity Rhythm provides cohesiveness because it links elements together The artist can also use rhythm to add variety
• #4: Patterns can be based on occurrences in nature, such as the regular repetition of fish scales, or the pattern created by the cracks that open as mud dries in the desert Other patterns may be derived from the repeated shapes of mass-produced objects, such as tin cans or the warp and weft of woven cloth Artists often create unity by repeatedly using a similar shape, value, or color
• #6: This pattern shows a series of star shapes set on alternating black and white backgrounds on a rectangular field The drastic difference in value combined with the active shape causes a visual vibration
• #9: A variety of different colors and patterns enlivens work by the French painter Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938)
• #13: Created in seventeenth-century India A huqqa is a water pipe used for smoking
• #16: Created in seventeenth-century India Islamic artists delight in the detail of pattern
• #21: American artist Chuck Close (b. 1940) uses a repeated pattern of organic concentric rings set into a diamond shape as the basic building blocks for his large compositions There is a difference between a close-up view of the painting and the overall effect when we stand back from this enormous canvas
• #22: Even the simplest works have an implicit rhythm For example, the horizontal distance from one side of the canvas to the other is one rhythm, and the vertical distance from top to bottom, another The intervals between elements provide points of reference for more complex rhythms
• #27: Our attention follows the group’s direction, creating the first part of a rhythmic progression In the middle ground, figures appear to be ice skating The color of the sky and pond draw our attention to the horizon The recession of the ridgeline pulls the eye to the left and into the far background We then naturally inspect details in the painting and notice subsidiary rhythms, such as the receding line of trees Bruegel paints the winter activities of the townspeople of sixteenth-century Flanders (a country that is now Belgium, the Netherlands, and part of northern France)
• #28: We want reassurance that our buildings will endure Stability was so important to the ancient Romans that architects were made to stand under archways while temporary support structures were removed If the arch failed, the architect would be crushed
• #30: Voussoirs are the stone wedges that make up the arch The simple repetitions become like prayer beads, reciting the Shahada (profession of faith), or the five-times-a-day call to prayer
• #35: On the island of Belau in the western Pacific, a traditional men’s long house is called a bai The imagery begins, at the bottom, with a horizontal line of fish that become irregular as they change to other kinds of shapes
• #37: Spanish painter Francisco Goya shows an image of Napoleon’s troops executing Spanish citizens during the French occupation of Madrid in 1808 Although the number of figures in each group is the same, they are distributed differently Each soldier adopts the same stance and the machine guns repeat the uniformity On the left, the figures are not so rigid: some are on the ground, some stand, and some kneel The unarmed vulnerability and disarray of those being attacked invites the viewer to sympathize with the plight of the artist’s countrymen (the Spaniards)
• #38: Goya also uses different visual rhythms to communicate notions of good and evil in the work The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters The square box in the lower left stabilizes the image The straight lines symbolize reason as a guarantee of safety and goodness The evil monsters that dominate the upper portion are more haphazard and threatening
• #43: French artist Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899) may have been sympathetic toward those who worked outside of the stuffy social order of the time, yet she did not seek to glamorize her subject Her gender may have been a disadvantage in a traditionally male profession