Online Reading Club: Art Theory and Appreciation

Here you can check the orientation for this edition of the Art Theory and Appreciation Online Reading Club.

 Files to download.

Here is a video with a definition of line including some ideas and vocabulary to describe lines.

Here is an optional reading activity of a pdf file which consists of a summary of the section “Line” from the book Point and Line to Plane written by Russian artist and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky (first published in 1926). If you are interested in the original source, consult the Downloading Area in the Multimedia Library section.

Here is a video with a definition of color including some ideas and vocabulary to describe colour.

Here's an outline with the fundamental concepts in colour theory taken from the book Art Class, a guide to painting.

Here is an optional reading activity of a pdf file which consists of a summary of the seventh chapter “Color” from the 1974 book Art and Visual Perception written by German-born American art and film theorist and perceptual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim. If you are interested in the original source, consult the Downloading Area in the Multimedia Library section.

This is a follow-up on Josef Albers's ideas of a hands-on approach to study colour. Play a colour matching game with the following characteristics of colours: hue (colour itself), saturation (intensity), complementary colours (opposite colours on the colour wheel), analogous coulours (colours next to each other on the colour wheel), triadic harmony (three colours forming triangle on the colour wheel) and tetradic harmony (four colours forming a rectangle on the colour wheel).

Here is a video with a definition of shape including some ideas and vocabulary to describe shapes.

Here is an optional reading activity of a pdf file which consists of a summary of the second chapter "Shape" from the 1974 book Art and Visual Perception written by German-born American art and film theorist and perceptual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim. If you are interested in the original chapter, please consult the Downloading Area in the Multimedia Library section.

Here is a video with a definition of form including some ideas and vocabulary to describe forms.

Here is an optional reading activity of a pdf file which consists of a summary of the third chapter "Form" from the 1974 book Art and Visual Perception written by German-born American art and film theorist and perceptual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim. If you are interested in the original chapter, please consult the Downloading Area in the Multimedia Library section.

Here is a video with a definition of texture including some ideas and vocabulary to describe textures.

Here is an optional reading activity of three pdf files which consist of (1) an adaptation of the eleventh chapter "Texture" from the 1972 book Principles of Two-Dimensional Design written by Chinese artist and poet Wucius Wong; (2) a two-page adaptation of the section "Texture" from the 1993 book Art in the World written by American artist and professor Stella Pandell Russell; and (3) the two-page section "Textures and Effects" from the 2002 book Art Class. If you are interested in Wong's original chapter, please consult the Downloading Area in the Multimedia Library section.

Here is a video with a definition of value including some ideas and vocabulary to describe values.

Here is an optional reading activity of a pdf file which consists of a summary of the sixth chapter "Light" from the 1974 book Art and Visual Perception written by German-born American art and film theorist and perceptual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim. If you are interested in the original chapter, please consult the Downloading Area in the Multimedia Library section.

Here is a video with a definition of space including some ideas and vocabulary to describe space.

Here is an optional reading activity of a pdf file which consists of a summary of the fifth chapter "Space" from the 1974 book Art and Visual Perception written by German-born American art and film theorist and perceptual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim. If you are interested in the whole chapter, please consult the Downloading Area in the Multimedia Library section.

Here you can listen to four people talking about a painting and the artist who painted it, and below them, you can find a link to the image of the painting that has been analyzed by the four speakers. After you listen to the recordings, do the self-correcting tasks in the quiz that follows this page. This will help you organize your own analysis of your chosen artwork.

Ekphrastic poems

"Exphrasis" means a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art. These are poems commenting works of art.

Right to quotation and illustration.