Color Theory Blog

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Color Focus: Grey

The artworks shown above are all examples of artists using the color grey in their work. (The artwork details are listed below.)

Please choose 1 of the above artworks to research. Use the powers of the internet to determine what is significant about the artwork. What is the generally accepted importance of the work? What makes it art? What does the artwork teach us about grey? Why did the artist choose to use grey in the work?

Post your findings onto your blogs. Use the hashtag #colorfocusgrey to make your post easy to identify.

Images from top:

Gerhard Richter (1932-) “Bomber”, 1963, oil on canvas, 51 1/4” x 70 3/4”, Städtische Galerie, Wolfsburg, Germany

Alberto Giacometti (1901 - 1966) “Portrait of Isaku Yanaihara, 1956, oil on canvas, 21 1/2” x 17 3/4”, Foundation Alerto et Annette Giacometti, Paris.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) “Guernica” 1937, oil on canvas, 137 1/2” x 305 3/4”, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.

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Pablo Picasso: 

Guernica is one of Picasso’s most famous works and if often considered to be his outward political statements. It critiques the bombing of Guernica by the Nazis in the Spanish Civil War. His use of dramatic grey mimics a photograph so the work will seem like a historical photographic record. 

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Color Focus: Black

The artworks shown above are all examples of artists using the color black in their work. (The artwork details are listed below.)

Please choose 2 of the above artworks to research. Use the powers of the internet to determine what is significant about the artwork. What is the generally accepted importance of the work? What makes it art? What does the artwork teach us about black? Why did the artist choose to use black in the work?

Post your findings onto your blogs. Use the hashtag #colorfocusblack to make your post easy to identify.

Images from top:

Robert Motherwell “Elegy to the Spanish Republic No 110”, 1971, acrylic with graphite and charcoal on canvas, 82” x 114”.

Kara Walker “Slavery! Slavery! presenting a GRAND and LIFELIKE Panoramic Journey into Picturesque Southern Slavery” or “Life at Ol’ Virginny’s Hole (sketches from Plantation Life” “See the Peculiar Institutions as Never Before! All Cut from Black Paper by the Able Hand of Kara Elizabeth Walker, an Emancipated Negress and Leader in her Cause”, 1997, cut paper on wall, 12’ x 85’, Peter Norton and Family Foundation, Dallas, Texas.

Bridget Riley “Crest” 1964, emulsion on board, 65 1/4” x 65 1/4”.

Odilon Redon “The Eye, like a Strange Balloon, Mounts toward Infinity”, 1882, lithograph, 10 5/16” x 7 11/16.

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Kara Walker:

Her work uses stark and clean black and white color in her work that comments on slavery in the United States. The black silhouettes match the style of the time period she is using as well as the message of black oppression. 

Bridget Riley:

This artist is considered “one of the 20th century's major abstract painters, and a leading figure in British contemporary painting.” Her simplistic style of monochromatic geometric shapes stood out. This piece is meant to play with the viewer’s sight so they “cannot establish a fixed image of the picture which appears to hover upsettingly between the painting and the viewer”. 

sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/arts/design/12walk.html

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-artists/bridget-riley.htm

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Studio Project

Inspired by Sarah Cain

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Paintings by Sarah Cain that inspired my Studio Project^

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Studio Project

Inspired by Sarah Cain

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Color Research

My favorite color research by far!! This was really fun to make. (I made it last week on time, I accidentally pressed “Draft” instead of “post”)

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Color Post Week 15

My boyfriend visited me yesterday for the first time during the shelter in place order but we had to stay 6 feet apart. It was really painful. But he brought me these flowers and the colors were exactly what my emotionally exhausted heart needed. For some reason the soft pink and the white was soft on my heart and comforted me. I usually like flowers that are bright and happy, but these matched my feelings of painful love and made me feel understood.

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QOTW #15: What is the role of the artist?

I think the role of the artist is to communicate something through what they create. 

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Color Post Week 14

This week I tried to notice color combinations that didn’t necessarily tickle my fancy, but that popped out at me. The first photo has a filter on from Instagram, which I found super interesting how it’s really popular right now for photos to look warm with green and red.

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QOTW #13: In what ways do artists work with restrictions and rules? How might restrictions or rules help to form ideas?

I believe that when God created the world, he used the perfect unity between chaos and order to create beauty. I think rules and restrictions help artists in the sense that they are tools to help them understand how human brains usually work in order to portray the message that the artist desires. For instance, if I wanted to use watercolor and light pastel colors to portray morbidity and violence, I probably wouldn’t succeed in prompting my observers to think of anything like that.

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QOTW #12: What distinguishes visual art from design? What distinguishes visual art from craft?

While I would say that craft is more functional and serves to persuade a consumer and that design is more beautiful and can be interpreted many different ways, I also see how someone could easily make the case that there is no difference at all.

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Color Post Week 13

I usually try to look for color in nature, but I decided this week to try to find it in art media that another artist had made! I’ve been getting into animal crossing lately and the pastel & bright colors make me feel colorful and happy. As opposed to another game I play, Hollow Knight, those colors are really beautiful but the darkness and neon colors make me feel spooky and adventureous.

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Studio Project Update

I’ve gathered my materials for my vision! I want to utilize Sarah Cain’s use of art supplies that are deemed immature and obnoxious to create something beautiful and complex.

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Color Focus: White

The artworks shown above are all examples of artists using the color white in their work. (The artwork details are listed below.)

Please choose 2 of the above artworks to research. Use the powers of the internet to determine what is significant about the artworks. What is the generally accepted importance of the work? What makes it art? What does the artwork teach us about white? Why did the artist choose to use white in the work?

Post your findings onto your blogs. Use the hashtag #colorfocuswhite to make your post easy to identify.

Images from top:

Jasper Johns “White Flag”, 1955, encaustic, oil, newsprint and charcoal on canvas.

Kazimir Malevich “Suprematist Composition: White on White”, 1918, oil on canvas.

Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), “Villa Savoye”, 1929-31, reinforced concrete, Poissy-sur-Seine, France.

James Abbott McNeil Whistler “Symphony in White No 1: The White Girl” 1862, oil on canvas

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Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), “Villa Savoye”, 1929-31, reinforced concrete, Poissy-sur-Seine, France.

This architect created this home in the 1920′s to show the significant life change that the modern age was bringing into the world. The white color and plain architecture signify the simplicity of a machine. White is known to be clean, functional, and without emotion. “Its clean simplicity and its use of concrete evoke the precisely-calibrated works of engineering so admired by the architect. The Villa Savoye represents Le Corbusier’s re-conception of the very nature of architecture, his attempt to express a timeless classicism through the language of architectural modernism.”

source:

 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/corbusier-savoye

Jasper Johns “White Flag”, 1955, encaustic, oil, newsprint and charcoal on canvas.

Johns was known for making art that changed up icons of the age, like targets, flags, and beer cans, thus making them cultural icons. In this piece, he stripped down an American flag to portray its natural process of craftmanship using unbleached beeswax, strips of fabric and newspaper, and white oil. This was the first time he took something colorful and made it monochromatic, which was the opposite of his usual style.

source: https://www.metmuseum.org/en/art/collection/search/487065

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Question #11: What is the role of the viewer of an artwork?

Synonyms include: interpreter, appreciator, critic, learner, fan, researcher, student, skeptic, etc.

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favorite on left, least favorite on right (of each version)