What Is Art? Exam Questions Chapter 2

Living with Art, 12e (Getlein)

Chapter 2 What Is Art?

1) What quality of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa dazzled his contemporaries?

A) Da Vinci's use of varnish

B) Its designation as a ready-made

C) The miraculous lifelike portrait

D) None of these answers are correct.

2) During the ________, there began to be a separation between "art" and "craft"; painting, sculpture, and architecture, came to be thought of as more elevated forms of art.

A) Renaissance

B) Middle Ages

C) Baroque era

D) Nineteenth century

3) The field of philosophy called aesthetics is concerned with what question?

A) What makes art beautiful?

B) How is art made?

C) Is art from the past better than that of today?

D) Who is responsible for judging the meaning of an artwork?

4) Marcel Duchamp's Fountain is known as what type of art?

A) Ready-made

B) Abstract

C) Nonrepresentational 

D) Iconography 

5) What common feature of today's art world was absent from that of the Renaissance?

A) Museums

B) Patrons

C) Commissions 

D) Studios

6) ________ helps describe why the sculptor of the Amida Buddha depicted the subject with elongated earlobes, specific hand gestures, and a bun atop his head.

A) Designation

B) Iconography

C) Craft

D) Aesthetics

7) What term is used to refer to the recurring pattern of choices—characteristic subject matter or materials, distinctive ways of drawing or of applying paint, preferences for certain colors or color combinations—in an artist's work?

A) Iconography

B) Style

C) Form

D) Content

8) What was an important part of an artist's path in past eras?

A) Gallery sponsorship

B) Auction sales

C) Apprenticeships 

D) Outsider status

9) During the eighteenth century, why were beauty and art discussed together?

A) They were studied by the upper class.

B) They were both considered nonrepresentational.

C) They were related to the senses.

D) They were both felt to provide pleasure.

10) What formal qualities are associated with beauty in art?

A) Symmetry

B) Complex geometrical shapes

C) Repeated lines

D) Monochromatic color scheme

11) If a work of art is faithful to our visual experience, its style is said to be ________.

A) iconographic

B) representational

C) stylized

D) abstracted

12) Art that does not refer to the world outside itself, creating meaning and expressive power from the elements of art itself, is called ________.

A) nonrepresentational

B) abstract

C) trompe l'oeil

D) stylized

13) In art, what is form?

A) The physical appearance of a work

B) What a work is about

C) The subject matter of a work

D) The symbolic meaning of a work

14) What meaning can be inferred by the use of marble in Rodin's The Kiss?

A) Romance is a commercialized product.

B) Love is an illusion.

C) Love is eternal.

D) A romantic kiss is ephemeral.

15) What is term for the personal, social, cultural, and historical setting in which a work of art was created, received, and interpreted?

A) Form

B) Meaning

C) Context

D) Style

16) Kara Walker's A Subtlety is an example of a(n) ________.

A) painting

B) sculpture

C) installation

D) trompe l'oeil

17) In Navajo culture, what is the purpose of sand painting, ceremonially created by a hataali?

A) To comment on the modern, commercial society in which we all live

B) To record and commemorate a specific historical event

C) To call upon spirit powers to heal and bless someone who is ill

D) To guide the initiation of young people into adulthood

18) Which statement is NOT true regarding James Hampton's Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly body of work?

A) The artist's art was outside of the realm of professional training.

B) The artist was unknown until his death.

C) The complete body of work resides now in the Smithsonian.

D) The artist intended the work to be viewed by everyone as a message of redemption.

19) Louise Bourgeois's work, Woman with Packages, is an example of ________ art, which simplifies, fragments, or otherwise distorts forms of the visual world.

A) nonrepresentational

B) abstract

C) nonobjective

D) contextual

20) Aesthetic philosophers determined that the pleasure of art was an intellectual pleasure and was perceived through what practice?

A) Physical experience of the art through touch

B) A special kind of attention called disinterested contemplation

C) The analysis of a work's context

D) Any emotional response experienced by the viewer

21) Cite and describe four works representing each of these categories: representational, abstract, trompe l'oeil, and nonrepresentational. For each of the works you select explain what the artist communicated through the form of his or her artwork.

22) Identify and explain three reasons that an artist would elect to present content through abstract or nonrepresentational form, referring to a different work or artist as an example for each of the reasons you have identified.

23) At the beginning of the 20th century, how did the development of photography transform the art of artists who worked in nonphotographic media? Which artist determined that this new process changed the process of representing the observable world and how?

24) Consider the differences between "outsider" art and the works of professional artists, explaining why you believe that "outsider" art should or should not be accepted by critics, museums and galleries, and the public as "real" art.

25) Discuss how the form and content of non-Western works of art represent ideals of beauty differently than Western works. Note several examples of differences in culture or tradition that prove standards of beauty to be culturally specific rather than universal. 

26) Consider Jan van Eyck's painting Arnolfini Double Portrait. Discuss three symbols within it that reveal the possible iconography of the work. Then explain an alternate interpretation of the work relating to the meaning of the same objects.

27) Consider both Auguste Rodin's The Kiss and the Head of King from the Yoruba kingdom of Ife, included in this chapter of the text. Compare and contrast the materials from which the works were created and the styles each work represents, mentioning at least two of the general categories of styles (cultural, period/historical, and school styles). Finally, discuss the themes of art that you believe each work presents.

28) Consider the following works, included in this chapter of the text, and discuss each artist's style and treatment of the subject: Utamaro's Hairdressing, from Twelve Types of Women's Handicraft, and Degas's Nude Woman Having Her Hair Combed.

29) The ideas we have about art today have not always been in place. Discuss how the Mona Lisa, one of the most famous works of Western art, became a product of our modern era. Consider influences such as historical context, the concept of celebrity, and the contemporary meaning of the term art as compared to that of the pre-modern era.

30) Discuss how the artist Louise Bourgeois rejected traditional art education and explored alternative paths to create a career that spanned decades. Include her personal influences and public attention, and how she came to terms with life through her art.

31) The Amida Buddha is an example of a sculpture that employs the iconography of Japanese Buddhism. Give an example of an artwork that employs Christian iconography and explain how the components of the artwork are examples of the term iconography. 

32) Compare Titian's Assumption and Banksy's mural in regard to historical and social context, visual presentation, and audience. 

33) Discuss how Kara Walker's A Subtlety and Joseph Bueys's How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare are examples of installation and performance art, addressing the performance nature of the pieces, the importance or unimportance of the space, the visual impact, and your response to this type of art.