Focus On !

Figure 1–1 Artist Piet Mondrian looked at the world and saw
shapes, lines, and colors. He kept simplifying his subjects until his paintings became
just straight lines and squares of color.
Piet Mondrian. The Winkel Mil, Pointillist Version. 1908. Oil on canvas. 43.8 x 34.3 cm (17 1⁄4 !
131⁄2"). Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas. Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of the
James H. and Lillian Clark Foundation.

2
The Elements
of Art
“
“ Nature cannot be copied; it can only be expressed.
— Piet Mondrian (1872–1944)
Quick Write
Interpreting the Quote
Read the quote by Piet
Mondrian. Then look at
Figure 1–1. Describe in

J
a paragraph how you
think Mondrian is
ust as the poet arranges nouns, verbs, and expressing nature in his
painting.
adjectives into ideas, the artist arranges shapes, lines, and
colors into images about our world. Each artist’s work is
as personal and individual as the artist. You, too, are an Key Terms
artist, and the drawings and paintings you will be doing in
artist
this class will be as individual as you are. In this book, you
elements of art
will learn how to look at art and the world around you line
with the eyes of an artist. line quality
color
After completing this chapter, you will be able to: hue
● Name and describe the elements of art. value
● Describe the different types of line. intensity
portfolio
● Identify the properties of color.
shape
● Experiment with various elements of art to understand
form
their role in making art. space
negative space
still life
texture

3
 LESSON 1

The Language of Art

Have you ever heard a person described
as “wearing many hats”? Saying a person
wears many hats means he or she is good at
a number of things. An artist—a person who
uses imagination and skill to communicate ideas
in visual form—wears many hats. Among the
hats artists wear is one labeled “scientist.”
Wearing this hat, artists experiment with the
effects of light on objects. Wearing the math-
ematician’s hat, they carefully measure dis-
tances between objects. Wearing the hat of
writer, they tell stories and record events.
In this book, you will learn about the dif-
ferent ways in which artists have used these
skills over the centuries. You will also meet
specific artists and learn about their creations.
THE ARTIST’S LANGUAGE
Like other professionals, artists “speak” a
language all their own. Just as the mathe-
matician uses numbers, so the artist uses line.
Much in the way musicians communicate
through notes and sounds, artists speak in
color, value, and shape. The writer relies on
words, sentences, and paragraphs; the artist
on form, space, and texture.
These seven terms—line, color, value,
shape, form, space, and texture—make up the
artist’s vocabulary. The terms are grouped to-
gether under the heading elements of art.
These are the basic visual symbols an artist uses
to create works of art. An artist’s success depends
on how well he or she uses these elements.
Using the Artist’s Vocabulary
When you look at an artwork, it is not
always clear where one element ends and
another begins. Study the artworks in Figures
1–2 and 1–3. You do not see the elements of
form and color in the first or the element of line
in the second. Instead, you see the works as a
whole. As you examine each work, your eye

! Figure 1–2 Does the

artist use a single color to show
an object? Do the objects look
real? What does this artwork
“say” to you?
Paul Cézanne. The Basket of
Apples. c. 1895. Oil on canvas.
65.4 cm ! 81.3 cm (25 3⁄4 ! 32").
The Art Institute of Chicago,
Chicago, Illinois. Helen Birch
Bartlett Memorial Collection.

4 Chapter 1 The Elements of Art

“reads” all the elements together. In fact, it is
the careful blending of elements that allows
you to see an artwork as the artist meant it to
be seen. Taken together, the elements in Figure
1–2 “add up” to a basket of apples and a bot-
tle. The lines in Figure 1–3 cleverly suggest a
familiar farm animal. Can you identify it?
“Reading” the Artist’s
Vocabulary
Think back to when you first learned to
read. You did not start with a book. Rather,
you began by reading a word at a time. This
is how you will learn the vocabulary of art.
You will learn about the elements of art one
at a time.
Each of the remaining lessons in this chap-
ter treats one or more elements. In later chap-
ters, you will learn about other terms that are
central to the practice and study of art.
Check Your
Understanding
1. Define artist.
2. Name the seven elements of art.
! Figure 1–3 What are some of the questions you think the artist asked himself while he was creating this work?
Alexander Calder. Sow. 1928. Wire. 43.2 ! 76.2 ! 19.5 cm (17 ! 30 ! 7 2⁄3 "). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York. Gift of
the artist. © 1997 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris.
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)
Cultural connection. Although he is
sometimes associated with the French
Impressionist painters, Paul Cézanne was a
leader in the movement toward abstraction
in painting that became known as Post-
Impressionism.
Born in Aix-en-Provence, France, in 1839,
Cézanne exhibited a few times with Claude
Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Camille
Pissarro. It soon became apparent, however,
that Cézanne’s style and vision were clearly
unique.
While the Impressionists were concerned
with the effects of light on objects, Cézanne
was more interested in showing the basic
form and structure of objects. He once said,
“Everything in nature is modeled after the
sphere, the cone, and the cylinder. One
must learn to paint from these simple fig-
ures.” Look at Figure 1–2. How did Cézanne
use these “simple figures” in his still life?
To learn more about Cézanne and
his work, click on Artist Profiles at
art.glencoe.com.
Lesson 1 The Language of Art 5