Art Flashcards Sample
(300 cards)
1
Q
Question
A
Correct Answer
2
Q
What is the term for the explanation of current art events to the general public via the press?
A
Art criticism
3
Q
Art historians generally describe art ___.
A
broadly
4
Q
What is the term for the philosophical inquiry into the nature and expressions of beauty?
A
aesthetics
5
Q
The knowledge of art can ___ over time.
A
shift
6
Q
Name the two modes of art analysis.
A
formal and contextual
7
Q
When did the study of art academic discipline arise?
A
18th century
8
Q
Who wrote the text Natural History?
A
Pliny the Elder
9
Q
Which art analysis involves looking outside of the work of art in order to determine its meaning?
A
contextual
10
Q
Who was the German scholar who shifted away from Vasari’s biographical emphasis to a rigorous study of stylistic development as related to historical context?
A
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
11
Q
When were the paintings in the Chauvet Cave discovered?
A
1991
12
Q
Name three animals depicted in the paintings in the Chauvet Cave.
A
bears, lions, bison and mammoths
13
Q
The Venus (or Women) of Willendorf were created during which time period?
A
Old Stone Age
14
Q
Which art forms are most often linked with the Neolithic period?
A
rings or rows of rough-hewn stones
15
Q
Around 4000 BCE, who built massive temples at the center of their cities?
A
Sumerians
16
Q
Whose legacy is associated with the codified Babylonian law?
A
Hammurabi
17
Q
In the stone stele, which is located at the Louvre Museum, who is providing the inspiration for the Code of Hammurabi?
A
Sun god, Shamash
18
Q
What is considered the most notable of Assyrians artworks?
A
relief carvings
19
Q
Name three items Assyrians relief carving often depict.
A
Battles, sieges, hunts and other important events
20
Q
During which period were the famous hanging gardens of Babylon constructed?
A
Neo-Babylonian period
21
Q
The Ishtar Gate is considered a ___.
A
Ziggurat of the temple of Bel
22
Q
What is considered the most important Persian architectural achievement?
A
Persepolis
23
Q
The Sphinx is considered one of the great works from the ___.
A
Egyptians
24
Q
Which scale uses the status of figures or objects to determine their relative sizes within an artwork?
A
Hierarchical scale
25
___ is exemplified in the Palette of King Narmer.
Hierarchical scale
26
Why do we know a great deal about the art of Egypt?
because of excellent conditions for preservation were present and their burial customs
27
Whose tomb is considered the most famous of the Egyptian tombs?
Tutankhamun
28
When was Tutankhamun’s tomb found?
1922
29
In terms of art production, whose cultures were very important as precursors of the Greeks?
Aegean island cultures
30
Which culture’s art used simplified, geometric nude female figures that were highly appealing to modern sensibilities?
Cycladic
31
Name the two major artwork forms of Minoan culture.
frescoes painted on palace walls and pottery design
32
Describe Minoan palaces.
They built four major palaces, all completely unfortified and designed in a light, flexible, and organic style.
33
The Mycenaeans are best known objects are made from __.
gold
34
During which period were the Greeks influenced by the stone sculptures of Egypt and Mesopotamia?
Archaic Period
35
During which period were temples built using columns in early Doric and Ionic decorative styles?
Archaic Period
36
Which style of painted vases set figures against a floral and ornamental background?
Corinthian
37
Where and during which period of history is the best known ancient Greek art from?
Athens, Classic Period
38
How are the sculptures from the Early Classic Period characterized?
By its solemnity, strength, and simplicity of form and most often focused on a figure or scene either in the moment before or the moment after an important action
39
What is another name for “counter positioning”?
contrapposto
40
Which pose was invented to show the body to its best advantage?
contrapposto or counter positioning
41
In a contrapposto pose, why is the standing figure’s weight shifted to one leg?
to show a more relaxed, naturalistic appearance
42
During which period was the Parthenon built?
Middle Classical Period
43
The Hellenistic Period had a growing influence from Eastern Civilizations as Greek styles blended with those of __.
Asia Minor
44
The Laocoön Group and Venus de Milo are considered masterworks designed to present the _____.
ideals of beauty
45
Which civilization’s art is seen as a transition from the ideals of Greece to the pragmatic concerns of the Romans?
Etruscan
46
The Etruscans are largely known for _______.
the arts of tomb decoration
47
Who discovered the equivalent to concrete?
Romans
48
Who pioneered the use of curved arches?
Romans
49
What kind of work used small ceramic tiles, pieces of stone, or glass that were set into a ground material to create large murals?
Mosaic
50
In terms of Byzantine architecture, which structure was built in Constantinople and is considered one of the greatest architectural achievements in history?
Hagia Sophia
51
Who preserved much of the art from the Medieval period?
The Church
52
The Germanic people from the early Medieval period are known for their ________.
metalwork
53
During the Medieval Period, who considered wood to be the most important medium?
Vikings
54
An arch shaped structure that is used as a ceiling or as a support to a roof
a vault
55
Which arch styles are linked to the Gothic style?
pointed arches and ribbed vaults
56
The early Renaissance arches cannot be clearly identified as either ___ or ___.
Gothic or Renaissance
57
Who is best known for their frescos and is often mentioned when discussing the transition from the Gothic period to the Renaissance period?
Giotto di Bondone
58
What played a key role in triggering the Renaissance?
change in the economy
59
Who won the competition to design the doors for the Florence’ new baptistery in 1404?
Lorenzo Ghiberti
60
Who called Ghiberti’s second set of doors for Florence’s new baptistery the “Gates to Paradise”?
Michelangelo
61
Who won the competition to complete the dome of the Cathedral in Florence?
Filippo Brunelleschi
62
Who is credited with developing linear (single vanishing point) perspective?
Filippo Brunelleschi
63
Who is considered the founder of modern sculpture?
Donatello
64
Name two High Renaissance artists.
Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael Sanzio
65
Whose key innovation in painting is readily apparent in the Mona Lisa?
sfumato
66
Who created the statue David and where is it located?
Michelangelo di Buonarotti, Cathedral in Florence
67
Who commissioned Michelangelo to design his tomb in 1505?
Pope Julius II
68
How long did it take Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?
approximately 4 years (1508 to 1512)
69
How did Michelangelo and Raphael differ?
Raphael employed numerous assistants to help him, Michelangelo did not.
70
Who is considered the most influential painter of the Madonna?
Raphael
71
Who is considered a prolific Venetian painter that is known for portraits of his patrons and as having been the greatest colorists of Renaissance artists?
Titian Vecelli
72
During the 15th century, why are artworks produced in north Europe considered to display a degree of realistic detail beyond what can be seen in the artworks from their counterparts in the south?
because they used oil paints
73
Name two ways that baroque art differed from Renaissance art.
less static and portrayed a greater sense of movement and energy
74
Who is considered the most famous artist of Reformation Germany?
Albrecht Durer
75
Who is considered the most important Baroque artist?
Gianlorenzo Bernini
76
Which Dutch artist is best known for their works from the Baroque period and is also recognized as a printer, printmaker and draftsman?
Rembrandt van Rijn
77
Name 3 aspects that Rococo art aims to celebrate.
Grand emotions, gaiety, romance and the frivolity of the grand life at court
78
Name three artists known for capturing the essence of Rococo art.
Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard
79
___ artistic style is considered a direct challenge to the Rococo art.
Neoclassicism
80
Realism is considered a reaction to which two art movements?
Neoclassicism and Romanticism
81
Which artistic movement largely grew out of dissatisfaction with the rigid rules that had come to dominate the Salons held to recognize selected artists each year?
Impressionism
82
___ is considered a Post Impressionists artist whose works emphasized the scientific rule of color.
George Seurat
83
In England, a group of artists dissatisfied with the effects of the Industrial Revolution banded together and became known as ________.
the Pre-Raphaelites 27, 1. 2
84
Who used colors so intense that they violated the sensibilities of critics and the public alike in the early to mid-1900s?
Henri Matisse
85
Which artistic group took the brilliant arbitrary colors of the Fauvists and combined them with the intense feelings found in the work of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch?
Die Brucke
86
Who invented the art category of ready-mades?
Marcel Duchamp
87
Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte and Joan Miró are considered what type of artists?
Surrealist
88
What did the Bauhaus School of Design try to do?
established standards for architecture and design that would have a profound influence on the world of art
89
When did organized movements in art come to a virtual standstill?
during World War II
90
Which art movement’s incorporation of images of mass culture, violated the traditional unspoken rules regarding what was an appropriate subject matter for art?
Pop Art
91
Which art movement sought to reduce art to its barest essentials, emphasizing simplification of form and often featuring monochromatic palettes?
Minimalism
92
Which art movement’s work often return to earlier styles, periods, and references and often question the mores and beliefs of contemporary society?
Postmodernism
93
The introduction of ___________ from India had a profound effect on Chinese arts and culture.
Buddhism
94
Traditional Chinese art often placed great value on ___.
drawings
95
Japanese artists are best known for _____.
printmaking
96
What is the most basic of art elements?
Line
97
Name 4 formal qualities of art.
line, shape, form, space, color, and texture
98
Name the two primary types of sculpture.
freestanding and relief
99
___ or the illusion of depth is another important use of space in two-dimensional artworks.
Perspective
100
What term is known as simply the name of a color?
Hue
101
How do you create a tertiary color?
mixing primary and the adjacent secondary color
102
What term is often used to describe the lightness or darkness of a color?
value
103
What is referred to as the brightness or purity of a color?
intensity
104
Which type of texture do artists create in a two-dimensional artwork?
visual texture
105
What refers to the artist’s organization of the elements of art, whether in two- or three-dimensional works?
Composition
106
Name two aspects of repetition.
motif and pattern
107
An element that contrasts with the rest of a composition will create a __ where the eye tends to rest.
focal point
108
When were the standards for the relationship of various parts of the human face and body developed?
Classic Period, 2500 years ago
109
What is a visual balance that is achieved through the organization of unlike objects?
Asymmetrical balance
110
What is arguably the most basic of art processes?
Drawing
111
What term refers to a group of mechanically aided two-dimensional processes that permit the production of multiple original artworks?
Printmaking
112
The essential element in the intaglio process is ______.
line
113
The process in which the image is drawn with a waxy pencil or crayon directly on a plate that can be made of stone, zinc or aluminum is known as __________.
lithography
114
Name the three elements of paint.
pigments, binders and solvents
115
Which is more versatile: oil paints or tempera paints?
oil
116
The most common water-based paint is _________.
watercolor
117
When was photography developed?
the mid-nineteenth century
118
Name the four basic ways to create a sculpture.
carving, modeling, casting and construction
119
Name two other names for Environmental Art.
Earthworks and Land Art
120
What is a medium based upon the use of natural materials?
Pottery
121
What is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings?
Architecture
122
What subject has long been important to artistic production?
Land
123
What is the basis for modern painting?
Materials mixed together and applied to a canvas stretched upon wooden bars
124
What materials have been common to sculpture?
Clay, stone, and wood
125
When did paintings of land become important?
During the modern era, when Dutch artists began to depict the lands of the Dutch Republic
126
When did “landscape” paintings become popular?
Throughout the Romantic period in Germany, England and the United States
127
Name three artists that experimented with new techniques for showing the uniqueness of their lands.
Caspar David Friedrich, John Constable, and Thomas Cole
128
In the U.S., what were landscape paintings particularly influenced by?
The cultural belief of “Manifest Destiny”
129
What idea was implicit in Manifest Destiny?
That the lands of the western U.S. were empty of culture and history, devaluing native people and their culture
130
What was a major effect of Manifest Destiny?
The severe displacement and mass killing of the Indigenous people of the West
131
What did the Euro-American landscape tradition in painting often highlight?
That which was picturesque (worthy of being seen)
132
Consequently, what does the work of contemporary artists highlight?
The idea that the unseen or unappreciated aspects of land are just as important as the picturesque
133
What is something to remember about lands?
There is no divide on this earth between lands that are occupied and lands that are wild.
134
What does the term “Indigenous” refer to?
People whose culture originates from a particular place and is not specific to North America
135
Why is the term “Native American” politically charged?
Because the term “America” itself originates from the Early Modern era of European colonial settlement and map-making
136
Where does the term “Indian” derive from?
From Christopher Columbus’s mistaken impression that he had landed in South Asia, rather than the Americas
137
Who uses the name “Allora & Calzadilla”?
Artistic partners Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla
138
Where was Allora born and where did she study?
Philadelphia, educated at the University of Richmond, MIT, and the Whiney American Art Museum
139
Where was Calzadilla born, and where did he study?
Havana, Cuba, educated at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico, Skowhegan School of Painting an Sculpture, and Bard College
140
Where do Allora and Calzadilla live and work today?
San Juan, Puerto Rico
141
What is the name of part of an extended series of artworks Allora and Calzadilla have created? What is the artwork about?
Land Mark (Foot Prints), land use on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico
142
What happened in Vieques, PR during WWII?
The United States military took possession of Vieques as a location to store and test weapons.
143
Why did Allora & Calzadilla start making the series of artworks on Vieques, PR?
To bring awareness of the military occupation and the tension with the residents of the island
144
Besides creating their artwork, what else did Allora & Calzadilla do in Vieques?
They joined civil disobedience groups in trespassing onto the bombing range, ceasing active explosions while they remained on site.
145
What did Allora & Calzadilla create to wear along with the other protestors at the Vieques bombing range?
Custom-made shoes with printed messages on the soles and pictures laser-cut onto a Plexiglas form
146
What were some of the messages on the sole of Allora & Calzadilla’s shoes?
“No more chemical and biological weapons on our land”, and “Great is the empire we challenge, but greater is our right to liberty”
147
What were the images included in the custom-made shoes?
A map of Vieques with two large Xs for the ammunition storage area and the bombing range, picture of the weapons, and symbols of peace
148
What languages were the messages on the sole of Allora & Calzadilla’s shoes written?
English and Spanish
149
Why did Allora & Calzadilla choose Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon as one of the images on the shoes?
It was intended to point Apollo 11’s mission as an example of the expansive colonial activities of the U.S. government.
150
How could people see the images and messages if they were on the BOTTOM of their shoes?
Allor & Calzadilla photographed the imprints that the soles left upon the sand during their protest, and they displayed their artwork via 2 sets of 12 printed photographs.
151
Why is the title “Land Mark” a poignant play on words?
Because it describes what the U.S. Navy had done through detonating weapons on Vieques, while the artists used a gentle mark on the sand, that would eventually disappear
152
What happens when you spell “Land Mark” as one word: landmark?
Landmark – with no space- refers to the term of a visible object in a landscape that helps people establish their location.
153
Give two examples of human-made landmarks that occupy their space with long-term constructions.
Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Statue of Liberty in New York
154
How does Land Mark contrast with traditional landmarks?
Land Mark was meant to remove an occupant of Vieques with marks that were more short-lasting.
155
What was the response to the protests in Vieques?
The U.S. military began to close the site in 2001, and left entirely by 2003.
156
What did Allora and Calzadilla do in 2005 to show that even after the U.S. military left, long-term damage had been done to the island?
They created a video, “Under Discussion” what shows a fisherman driving an upside-down table with a motor attached to the back around the island.
157
What is the video, “Under Discussion” meant to point out?
The man in the video circles a traditional fishing path in Vieques, which then included large craters from exploded bombs and presence of other un-detonated explosives.
158
What did Allora & Calzadilla do in describing their larger project Land Mark?
They posed a series of 4 questions.
159
What was the FIRST question posed by Allora & Calzadilla in the series?
“How is land differentiated from other land by the way it is marked?”
160
What is the SECOND question posed by Allora & Calzadilla in the series?
“Who decides what is worth preserving and what should be destroyed?”
161
What is the THIRD question posed by Allora & Calzadilla in the series?
“What are the strategies for reclaiming marked land?”
162
What is the FOURTH question posed by Allora & Calzadilla in the series?
“How does one articulate an ethics and politics of land use?”
163
Who was Kent Monkman and when and where was he born?
An artist born in 1965 in St. Mary’s, Ontario, Canada
164
Who does Kent Monkman identify as?
A Cree artist, and member of the Fisher River Cree Nation
165
What is Kent Monkman noted for?
He is one of the most prominent and widely recognized Indigenous North American artists working today.
166
What is the title of Monkman’s artwork and what does it do?
Fourth World, it both appropriates the artwork of other artists and blurs the time periods of cultural encounters.
167
What does “appropriation” mean?
An artistic technique in which one artist strategically uses the form of another artwork to give it new meaning
168
Who is responsible for making “appropriation” commonly used? And how did they do it?
Sherrie Levine, she showed photographs that had been taken of other photographs, rather than live subjects.
169
Explain how “appropriation” works using Levine’s work as an example.
Even though Levine’s images of other photos were taken by Walker Evan, their two photographs communicate differently because of the time they were made, and their intention for making the work.
170
What year did Kent Monkman create The Fourth World?
2012
171
What is depicted in Monkman’s The Fourth World?
Three blonde-haired male figures, two on horseback and one waving his camouflage shirt above his head, corralling a small herd of bison, beneath Yosemite Falls
172
What are bison commonly called?
Buffalo
173
What is the Yosemite waterfall in Monkman’s work based on?
A painting titled, “Cho-looke, the Yosemite Fall”
174
Who painted “Choo-looke, the Yosemite Fall”? When?
Albert Bierstadt in 1864
175
Who are the other two artists that traveled with Bierstadt throughout the western U.S. painting dramatic vistas of mountains and waterfalls to show back in the East?
Thomas Moran and Thomas Hill
176
Why were the Bierstadt landscape paintings from the West displayed in the East?
To show that the American West was a landscape of fantastic drama and beauty, and to stir up interest to expand the U.S. all the way to the Pacific Ocean
177
What was another role played by the Bierstadt paintings of the Western landscape?
They were used to convince members of Congress to dedicate national park lands to protect the kind of environments shown by Bierstadt.
178
What was one effect of the Romantic tradition of American landscape paintings of the West?
Places like Yosemite National Park were protected from large-scale settlement.
179
What is the “California genocide”?
The displacement and massacre of the Indigenous inhabitants by the United States government across the 19th century, as settlers moved west
180
What are the white men in Monkman’s Fourth World doing that shows appropriation of Indigenous cultural practice for personal enjoyment?
The men are “playing Indian”
181
What is the symbolism of the camouflage worn topless in Monkman’s artwork?
It is more of a fashion statement, following mass popularization of military style.
182
What is complicated about Monkman showing men riding horses in his painting?
While horses are associated with Native Americans, they are an animal that had been introduced to North America by European colonists.
183
What is the second appropriation in Monkman’s painting?
the copper-colored walls through which the bison run
184
Which artwork did Monkman appropriate for his copper-colored walls?
Clara-Clara by Richard Serra (1983)
185
Describe the “copper” color from Serra’s artwork.
A weathered color of rusted COR-TEN steel, a material preferred by Sera for his large-scale, site-specific sculpture
186
Why did Serra work alongside the Land Art movement?
To establish site-specificity as a key element of his outdoor sculpture
187
What is the title of Serra’s artwork that resulted in contentious public hearings?
Tilted Arc
188
Where was Tilted Arc originally installed, and who complained about it?
Lower Manhattan in 1981, a small number of federal white-collar workers employed in that area
189
What happened as a result of the workers’ complaints of Tilted Arc’s location?
A hearing was held, and it was ordered to be moved in 1989.
190
What was Serra’s argument for NOT moving his artwork? What did he end up doing with Tilted Arc?
He argued that the sculpture had site-specificity and moving it would remove its meaning; he destroyed it rather than moving it somewhere else.
191
What did Monkman do rather than including Clara-Clara as only an abstract sculpture?
He deploys it in The Fourth World as a buffalo jump.
192
What does the presence of Clara-Clara in Monkman’s painting invoke?
The impending slaughter of the bison that took place across the 19th century that almost brought the buffalo to extinction.
193
What does the quoted comment by Monkman reveal?
That he realized that his paintings were a manifesto of colonization and this was the visual record of his and his people’s relation to landscape
194
Whose earlier paintings from the 19th century documenting and type-casting native subjects did Monkman invoke?
George Catlin
195
What does “The Fourth World” refer to?
Cultures that are without their own sovereignty because they are forced to exist within another political nation
196
What is name of artist born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1952?
Bonnie Devine
197
Describe Bonnie Devine.
Indigenous installation artist, curator, writer, educator, and member of the Serpent River First Nation of Northern Ontario
198
Where did Bonnie Devine get her education?
She studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and earned a Master of Fine Arts from York University in 1999.
199
What is Bonnie Devine doing presently?
Since 2008, she has taught at OCAD and served as Founding Chair of its Indigenous Visual Culture Program.
200
What is the title of Devine’s early site-specific installation? Describe it.
Reclamation Project, a strip of sod that she draped across different landscapes in southern Ontario
201
Why did Devine create the Reclamation Project?
In response to the Ipperwash Crisis, an Ontario Provincial Police action against an Indigenous protest at Camp Ipperwash in 1995
202
What happened during the Ipperwash Crisis?
An Anishnaabe protester named Dudley George was shot and killed by the police
203
What did Divine do as a comment on the land claim?
She installed six rolls at various sites for 10 minutes, long enough to take a polaroid picture of it.
204
Where was the first site that Devine placed the sod?
A gravel road that adjoins two fields in the Lynde Shores Conservation Area
205
What is another site Devine used to adorn with sod?
The front steps of a health institute in downtown Toronto
206
What was the sod’s placement meant to illustrate?
The difference in timescales of colonial land claims in present-day Ontario and Devine’s re-clamation of such lands
207
Who were the two site performers at Devine’s Reclamation Project?
Rebecca Belmore and Ana Mendieta
208
What didn’t Devine’s work seek?
The status of being permanent to its site or possessing it
209
What is another technique used by Devine to examine and sustain the art-making techniques of the Anishnaabe/Ojibwa culture?
Sewing
210
Describe Devine’s work titled, “Canoe” on 2003.
She stitched together hundreds of pages of paper from her MFA thesis to form a sixteen-foot canoe, which she displayed suspended from the ceiling.
211
Canoe was part of what other multi-media installation by Devine?
Stories from the Shield
212
What did Stories from the Shield include?
Drawings, rocks, and tree stumps wrapped in silk threads and a video of her family talking about the negative effects of uranium mining on their community
213
What did art historian Cynthia Fowler say were described in Devine’s thesis?
description of traditional canoe technology
214
What is Devine’s most recent exhibition?
Battle for the Woodlands
215
When did Devine create Battle for the Woodlands and where is it displayed?
From 2014 to 2015, in its own room in the Art Gallery of Ontario
216
Describe Devine’s latest exhibition.
The work is anchored by a 19th - century map of Upper and Lower Canada, and the United States; it includes freestanding sculptures made from maple and willow trees as well as decorated moose and buffalo hides.
217
What does Devine depict over the map on Battle for the Woodlands?
The entire aquatic system of the five Great Lakes as five animals painted in red oxide
218
What are the five animals she painted?
Buffalo, otter, turtle, rabbit and leviathan
219
Which groups does Devine show fighting on her artwork?
The British, the American, and the Indigenous people
220
What did Devine express about a map of Eastern Woodlands of North America?
She felt that she did not want to exclude the life-giving waters of her home.
221
What is the final element of Devine’s Battle for the Woodlands?
The painting shows dozens of animals, including deer, bison, bear and rabbits fleeing to the West.
222
How does Devine describe the migration of the animals?
As a “catastrophic habitat loss” caused by colonial settlement
223
What kind of implications does Devine show in her latest work?
Forced occupation, both on political borders and on ecological life
224
When writing about her earlier work Stories from the Shield, what was Devine’s primary desire?
To examine and articulate the delicate and elemental relationship of land to consciousness, according to narrative traditions of the Ojibway
225
What has art historian Mark Cheetham acknowledged?
That the Indigenous continue to experience displacement
226
Who is Will Wilson?
A contemporary Diné (Navajo) artist
227
Where did Will Wilson get his education? What did he study and what is he doing now?
Oberlin College, photography, sculpture, and art history; he’s a professor of art at the University of Texas at Austin
228
What is the title of the part of photographic series called “Survey”?
Church Rock Spill Evaporation Ponds
229
What is documented in Wilson’s “Survey”?
Contaminated lands within and on the border of Dinétah that remain polluted as a result of harmful extraction made by the U.S. government and private U.S. companies
230
What exactly did the U.S. government do on the lands of the Navajo Nation?
From 1940s to 1980s, the U.S. stockpiled nuclear weapons, and about 4 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from their mines.
231
What kind of view does Church Rock Spill have?
An aerial view, it’s a photographic image shot from above, in the sky.
232
What is the subject of Church Rock Spill?
Two ponds used to evaporate water contaminated with tailings, which is radioactive waste product from uranium mining
233
What happened on July 16, 1979?
The dam holding contaminated water at the Church Rock uranium mill breached, releasing more than 93 million gallons of radioactive liquid into the Puerco River, eventually on to the Navajo Nation.
234
What finally happened when representatives of the Navajo Nation spoke at a congressional hearing?
They have been acknowledged by the U. S. Accountability Office in a 2014 report that the Navajo people continue to live with health effect from U.S. mining operations.
235
The Church Rock spill happened less than four months after what other nuclear disaster?
Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania
236
What does Wilson’s photograph of the tailing ponds in 2019 continue to do?
Bring it to public view and remind people that the toxicity of the spill remains on their land
237
What did Wilson say was his aim?
To convene indigenous artists, art professionals and government leaders and the public to engage in the performance ritual that is studio portrait
238
What is the name of the art technique that creates a glass-plate negative measuring eight inches by ten inches in the camera, giving a very high detailed quality?
wet plate collodion
239
Where can someone see Wilson’s collection of photographs of the wet plate collodion photographs?
on Wilson’s personal website
240
What do Wilson’s portraits seek to do?
To humanize pictures of people that have historically been dehumanized
241
Who are the two American photographers that have developed specific photographic techniques to render the lands and native people of the American West as information?
Timothy O’Sullivan and Arthur Schott
242
What does environmental art have a strong tradition into documenting?
Landscapes that have been polluted or the effects of that pollution
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What is an example of environmental art from the 20th century?
The Documerica Project
244
Who created the Documerica Project?
The Environmental Protection Agency
245
About how many photographs were produced by the EPA in the 1970s?
More than 20,000 photos of American pollution, infrastructure and wilderness
246
What is an example of photographs about American pollution?
W. Eugene Smith’s three-year project
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Where was W. Eugene Smith’s project?
Minamata, Japan
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What exactly did Smith photograph in Minamata, Japan?
The effects of mercury poisoning from a local factory
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What did artists like Smith use photography for?
As a tool to record and communicate environmental damage
250
What do many artists in contemporary art continue to do?
Engage issues of ecology and climate through the drama of pollution
251
Who takes close-up photographs of the plastic waste found in dead, decaying birds?
Chris Jordan
252
What is the title of Chris Jordan’s photograph series?
“Midway”
253
What is the title of Yao Lu’s photograph series?
“New Landscapes”
254
What do Yao Lu’s photos show?
Mounds of garbage laden with green netting that appears like the landscapes of traditional Chinese scroll paintings
255
What is the name of the photographer who creates colorful images of polluted rivers and the waste produced from industrial mining?
Edward Burtynsky
256
What have scholars called Burtynsky’s work?
“Toxic sublime”
257
What does the term “sublime” date back to?
Ancient philosophy and refers to overwhelming awe of something that can be felt, but not fully understood
258
What is the effect of toxic sublime when realized in photography?
Making the extreme appearance of pollution beautiful and almost pleasurable to look at
259
What are the issues of pollution addressed by the environmental artists?
The extraction of oil, gas and minerals from the earth
260
How do the artists in the Art Resource Guide approach pollution?
Through projects that invite understanding beyond a single feeling like beauty or awe
261
How long did Eugene Smith spend in Minamata, Japan to photograph the effect of mercury poisoning?
Three years 60, Figure
262
Who is the Hungarian-born American artist whose practice is based in NYC?
Agnes Denes
263
When was Agnes Denes born?
1931
264
Where did Agnes Denes study?
At the New School and Columbia University
265
What was Denes’ initial career choice before pursuing visual arts?
Poet
266
Agnes Denes was one of the first artists in the postwar decades to do what?
Articulate an explicitly ecological direction in art
267
What is the title of Denes’s work?
Rice/Tree/Burial
268
When was Rice/Tree/Burial made?
1968
269
What is special about Rice/Tree/Burial?
It is one of the foundational works of contemporary ecological art.
270
What is a manifesto?
A creative work that sets out an agenda for radical change
271
Where was Rice/Tree/Burial carried out?
Sullivan County, New York
272
What was special about the rice in Denes’s art?
It was actual rice that she planted in the ground, both as a gesture and a means to sustain life.
273
What was the rice tree a part of, and what did Denes do with them?
It was part of group of trees that Denes wrapped in chains, creating a zig-zagging pattern reaching up to the sky.
274
What were the metal-wrapped trees supposed to represent?
A symbolic expression of human damage and interference with the natural world61, 1, 2
275
What was the “burial” part of her project?
Denes buried a haiku poem she had written.
276
How did Denes describe her artworks?
As exercises in “Eco-Logic”
277
What are “Eco-Logic” exercises?
A complex of site-oriented artworks that depict ecological concerns
278
Where was Denes asked to recreate her work about 10 years after she did Rice/Tree/Burial?
At Artpark, an outdoor space in Lewiston, New York
279
What happened to the rice Denes planted at Artpark in Lewiston, New York?
Its growth was affected by mutations from contaminants in the soil.
280
Where did the contaminants in Artpark come from?
Love Canal
281
What was Love Canal connected to?
It was an abandoned waterway off of the Niagara River in Niagara Falls.
282
What ecological disaster happened at Love Canal?
21,000 tons of toxins were dumped by the Hooker Chemical Company
283
What did Denes bury at Artpark instead of a haiku poem?
A time capsule that she encased in nine feet of concrete, and that it should not be opened until the year 2979
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What is the fourth element Denes added to the project at Artpark?
She filmed the precipice of Niagara Falls.
285
What was so precarious about Denes’s filming of Niagara Falls?
It was for a sustained period of seven days, while she propped out over the falls on a constructed ledge.
286
What is the title of Denes’s major project after her performance at Artpark?
Wheatfield-A Confrontation
287
What did Wheatfield involve?
Multiple steps, including the planting of two acres of wheat in Lower Manhattan
288
Exactly where in lower Manhattan did Denes plant the wheat?
It was before the 9/11 attacks, directly beneath the World Trade Center towers, near Wall Street, and in view of the Statue of Liberty.
289
What kind of soil did Denes use to plant the wheat?
on polluted land, full of debris
290
When did Denes harvest her crop, and what happened to the land afterwards?
August 1982, the land was plowed to build high-end real estate.
291
What did Denes say about her artwork after harvesting the wheat field?
That Wheatfield was a symbol that represented food, energy, commerce, world trade, and economics
292
What did Denes day the wheat referred to?
Mismanagement, waste, world hunger, and ecological concerns
293
What happened to all of the harvested grain from Denes’s project in Manhattan?
It traveled to 28 cities around the world in an exhibition called, “The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger”.
294
What else besides the exhibition of the wheat and seeds was part of Wheatfield?
Photographs that help today’s art students know her project which no longer exists
295
What is the title of Denes’s ecological artwork she created following Wheatfield?
Tree Mountain
296
What is Denes doing in the image featured in the Art Reproductions Booklet?
Walking through the wheatfield in Battery Park with a stick
297
What did Denes include in her work, Tree Mountain? What did she “bury”?
a time capsule, trees
298
Describe the Tree Mountain project.
A pattern of 10,000 trees planted by 10,000 people, according to a geometrical spiral
299
How long did it take for the Tree Mountain project to be completed?
About 10 years
300
Who gave Denes the funds for her Tree Mountain project?
The government of Finland
