2. BASIC TAXONOMY (course one continued)

Here are the most important terms we will be using throughout this year's study; please be sure you get well acquainted with all of them:

• THEME: the general content of the artwork (general aspect/subject) (e.g. the landscape)
• SUBJECT-MATTER: the sum of identifiable objects, persons, places, references in the artwork (e.g. the rosegarden)
• MEANING (or, CONTENT): is revealed through interpretation; sometimes the title may be of help, but most often than not, it is revealed through careful iconographic and/or iconological interpretation
• ICONOGRAPHY: the overt or hidden symbolism in the artwork, rendered through images (signs, symbols)

• ICONOLOGY: the meaning revealed through the study of the cultural, social, historical background of the artwork (through literary, historical, etc., texts)
• DESCRIBING ART: the verbal pointing to the features; a means of gathering the support for interpretations; it concerns the subject matter, the most expressive formal elements; the principles of design, etc.
• ANALYSING ART: explaining how the described elements get their meanings, the artist's choices; inferring meaning; evaluating technique
• INTERPRETING ART: a most important and complex activity; the arriving at the meaning of the artwork by employing different strategies of interpreting based on the information gathered through iconographical and iconological insights
• EVALUATING ART: determining how good the artwork is, according to some criteria, either clearly stated, or implied, while providing reasons and evidence for judgments

Task: Watch the video. What is the role of iconography, and how does it work?

Deadline: Oct 23

1. Course one: Art and Communication. An overview on the peculiarities of the discourse about art

The members of the (artistic) discourse community share several features:

• a set of common public goals
• mechanisms of intercommunication
• mechanisms to provide information and feedback
• GENRES - which are specific to the common goals
• specific lexis
• discourse expertise in the specific field

TASK 1: Can you exemplify these common features: e.g. What common goals do artists have? Which are the mechanisms through which they communicate among themselves?

Art and communication: visual + verbal/linguistic

Visual communication: facilitated by such features as theme, subject matter, elements of design, principles of design/composition, iconography (signs, symbols).

Linguistic/verbal communication: 

The artistic discourse community employs its own discourse, characterized by certain features:

• specific vocabulary (the specific lexis)

- everyday words placed in a new, art-specific context (e.g. brush, installation, ground, glazing, etc)
- words from science and technology (e.g. de-gas; alkyd resin)
-word-formation (e.g. water-colour, aqua-tint, body-color, aquamarine, etc)
- borrowings (from French: e.g.frottage, sanguine, gouache, and Italian: e.g. sfumato, chiaroscuro, sgraffitto, etc )
- specific phrases (e.g. still life, life-size, color  field, nonobjective art, found object, ready-made, etc)
- trademarks/tradenames (e.g. a Picasso, a Chanel, an Impressionist, etc)
- NOMENCLATURES

•  specific morphology, syntax, semnatics, rhetoric (not extremely different from the general use, yet presenting some peculiarities; see Artspeak and IAE = International Art English)
•  specific GENRES

NOMENCLATURES = hierarchical arrangement of the terminology of an area of study; they are probably the most important characteristic of any specific vocabulary.

subject-matter identifiable objects, stories, events; "what is depicted?"

• representational/abstract/non-representational=nonobjective art
• meaning=content
• title
• iconography + iconology

formal elements:

• line (e.g. dominant/subordinate, smooth/jerky/brusque/jagged)
• shape (e.g. geometric/biomorphic)
• light/dark (value,key)
• mass
• volume
• colour, hue, value, intensity/saturation/purity; primary/secondary/intermediate/analogous/monochromes/warm/cool
• space (overlapped shapes, foreshortening, size, linear=geometric perspective + vanishing point/atmospheric=aerial perspective/realistic space/analogical,abstract space; three/bi-dimensional space
• texture
• time and motion
• sound and smell

principles of design:

• balance (symmetrical/approximately symmetrical/asymmetrical balance)
• focal point
• dominance
• economy
• rhythm
• scale, proportion ("the golden section")
• unity/variety
• open/closed composition

purposes of art (functions that artworks may fulfill - in religious rituals, commemorating, the assertion of power, honoring a person, recording an event, etc)

processes and materials/media

• drawing (e.g. in silverpoint, in pastels, etc)
• painting (e.g. in acrylics, oil paint, etc)
• printmaking (relief/intaglio processes/engraving/drypoint/aquatint, etc)
• sculpture (additive/subtractive; modelling, casting, assemblages, etc)

styles

• conceptual, representational, illusionistic, naturalistic, realistic, idealistic, abstract, non-representational;
• Classical/Romantic/Baroque/Impressionistic/Expressionistic, etc

In addition, click the link below:

8 English Art Terms You Should Know

Task 2: give some examples of how the artist may communicate a specific thing through one or more of the above features of the plastic discourse.

GENRES     = classes of communicative events (spoken, or written) that share the same communicative  purposes

The genres that we will be studying are:

• the critical essay (the formal analysis, the expository essay, the compare and contrast essay, the argumentative essay);
• the essay examination;
• the research paper
• the art review
• the art news
• the artist's statement
• the artist's blog
• the artist's home page/website
• the exhibition catalog

NOTE: for more detailed information and deeper insight, please consult the following books (in the UAD library) by Anda-Elena Cretiu: An ESP Perspective on Art-Related Discourse, EZway Books, LLC, Las Vegas, NV, 2004, chapter3- An overview of the peculiarities of the discourse about art, pp.71-100; the 1000 terms dictionary at the end may also be of some help + Art Terms - English-Romanian/ Romanian-English Dictionary, CCS, 2015. You may as well consider  Discourse and Communication in Visual Arts, CCS, 2014 (pp. 9-68) and 249-259

TASKS:  DEADLINE: October 18, 24 hrs.