Prebles' Artforms

Prebles’ Artforms continues to lead the field with its steadfast focus on contemporary art, global artists, and cutting edge technology for the art appreciation classroom.

We form Art. Art forms us.

The title of this book has a dual meaning. Besides the expected discussion of the various forms of art, the title also reflects the fact that art does indeed help to form us as people. As we create forms, we are in turn formed by what we have created. Several years ago, the title was changed to Prebles’ Artforms, acknowledging the pioneering contribution of the original authors, Duane and Sarah Preble, to the study of art. Their vision and spirit have touched hundreds of thousands of students who have studied this book.

Artforms grew out of a desire to introduce art through an engaging visual experience, and to expose students to a culturally diverse canon of work. It is written and designed to help readers build an informed foundation for individual understanding and enjoyment of art. By introducing art theory, practice, and history in a single volume, this book aims to draw students into a new or expanded awareness of the visual arts.

Beyond fostering appreciation of major works of art, this book’s primary concern is to open students’ eyes and minds to the richness of the visual arts as unique forms of human communication and to convey the idea that the arts enrich life best when we experience, understand, and enjoy them as integral parts of the process of living.

Artforms is a great introduction to art and art history for those who have always wanted to understand how to look at art and interpret it for themselves.

Patrick Frank has taught in many higher education environments, from rural community colleges to private research universities. His recent scholarly work has focused on Latin American graphic arts. He is author of Posada’s Broadsheets: Mexican Popular Imagery 1890–1910 and Los Artistas del Pueblo: Prints and Workers’ Culture in Buenos Aires (University of New Mexico Press). He has curated five exhibitions of Latin American prints. He has also edited a volume of artists’ writings, Readings in Latin American Modern Art (Yale University Press). He served as collaborating author for the modern section of Marilyn Stokstad’s Art History (third edition). He earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and is currently teaching the History of Modern Latin American Art at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. He lives in the seaside community of Venice.

CONTENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
PREFACE 

Part 1: The Language of Visual Experience

1 THE NATURE OF ART AND CREATIVITY 
What Is Art? 
Purposes and Functions of Art 
Biography: Jazz, Memory, and Metaphor: Romare Bearden
Creativity
Art in the World: Early Encounters with the Artist Within 
Untrained Artists 

2 VISUAL COMMUNICATION 
Looking and Seeing
The Visual Toolbox
Line 
Shape 
Mass 
Space 
Time and Motion 
Light 
Color 
Art and Reality
Seeing and Responding to Form  
Biography: A Personal Vision: Georgia O’Keeffe 
Iconography 

3 HOW AN ART WORK IS BUILT
Unity and Variety 
Balance 
Emphasis and Subordination 
Directional Forces 
Contrast 
Repetition and Rhythm 
Scale and Proportion 
Design Summary 
Biography: Expression Is Foremost: Henri Matisse 

Part 2: The Media of Art

4 DRAWING
Biography: A Life’s Work in Ten Years: Vincent van Gogh  106
Purposes of Drawing 
Tools and Techniques
Graphic Novels / Comics 
Contemporary Approaches 

5 PAINTING 
Ingredients and Surfaces
Watercolor 
Tempera and Encaustic 
Oil 
Acrylic 
Fresco 
Art in the World:The Great Wall of Los Angeles   

6 PRINTMAKING
Relief 
Intaglio 
Lithography 
Stencil 
Current Directions 

7 PHOTOGRAPHY
A Tool and an Art Form 
Biography: “A Photographer at My Very Core:” Margaret Bourke-White 
Pushing the Limits
The Digital Revolution 

8 MOVING IMAGES: FILM AND DIGITAL ARTS 
Film: The Moving Image 
Television and Video 
Digital Art Forms

9 GRAPHIC DESIGN 
Design Disciplines 
Graphic Design 
Biography: Design Between the Eyes: Chaz Maviyane-Davies 
Interactive Design
Motion Graphics 
Product Design 

10 SCULPTURE 
Freestanding and Relief Sculpture 
Methods and Materials 
Kinetic Sculpture 
Mixed Media 
Installations and Site-Specific Art 

11 FLIRTING WITH FUNCTION 
Clay 
At the Edge of Art: Boolean Valley 
Glass 
Metal 
Wood 
Fiber 
Biography: Stitched into History: Faith Ringgold 

12 ARCHITECTURE 
An Art and a Science
Styles, Materials, and Methods
Biography: Deconstructing a Building: Zaha Hadid 
Designing with Nature 
Biography: Radical Innovator: Frank Lloyd Wright 

13 EVALUATING ART 
Evaluation 
Art Criticism 
What Makes it Great? 
Art in the World:What to Do in a Museum 

Part 3: Art as Cultural Heritage

14 FROM THE EARLIEST ART TO THE BRONZE AGE 
The Paleolithic Period 
At the Edge of Art:Stones from Blombos
The Neolithic Period 
The Beginnings of Civilization 
Mesopotamia 
Egypt 

15 THE CLASSICAL AND MEDIEVAL WEST 
Greece 
Art in the World:The Battle of the Parthenon   
Rome 
Early Christian and Byzantine Art 
The Middle Ages in Europe 

16 RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE EUROPE 
The Renaissance 
Biography: Temperamental Genius: Michelangelo Buonarroti 
Baroque 
Art in the World:Engendering It   

17 TRADITIONAL ARTS OF ASIA 
India 
Southeast Asia 
China 
Japan 

18 THE ISLAMIC WORLD 
Arab Lands 
Spain 
Persia 
India: The Mughal Empire 

19 AFRICA, OCEANIA, AND THE AMERICAS 
Africa 
Oceania and Australia
At the Edge of Art:New Ireland Mask  
Native North America 
Biography: Warrior, Captive, and Artist: Howling Wolf 
Pre-Columbian Central and South America 

Part 4: The Modern World

20 LATE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES 
Neoclassicism 
Romanticism 
Photography 
Realism 
Biography: Flouting Social Conventions: Rosa Bonheur 
Impressionism 
Biography: Guided by Light: Claude Monet 
The Post-Impressionist Period 
Biography: Struggling Idealist: Paul Gauguin 

21 EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 
The Fauves and Expressionism 
Cubism 
Biography: Restless Creativity: Pablo Picasso 
Toward Abstract Sculpture 
The Modern Spirit in America 
Futurism and the Celebration of Motion 

22 BETWEEN WORLD WARS 
Dada 
Surrealism 
Expanding on Cubism 
Building a New Society 
Political Protest 
Latin American Modernism 
American Regionalism 
Biography: Compelling Autobiographer: Frida Kahlo 
African-American Modernists 
Organic Abstraction 

23 POSTWAR MODERN MOVEMENTS IN THE WEST 
The New York School 
Photography and Architecture at Mid-Century 
Assemblage 
Events and Happenings
At the Edge of Art:Sensorial Masks  
Pop Art 
Biography: The Pope of Pop: Andy Warhol 
Minimal Art 
Conceptual Art 
Site Works and Earthworks 
Installations and Environments 
Early Feminism 
Performance Art 
Art in the World:Censoring It   

24 MODERN ART BEYOND THE WEST 
Japan
At the Edge of Art:Passing Through  
China 
India 
Islamic Lands 
Africa 

Part 5: The Postmodern World

25 POSTMODERNITY AND GLOBAL ART 
Postmodern Architecture 
Painting 
Photography 
Sculpture 
Public Art 
Issue-Oriented Art 
Street Art
At the Edge of Art 
The Global Present 

TIMELINE 
GLOSSARY 
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE 
NOTES 
INDEX