Light - Concept and Feeling in Art

“Light”

Concept and

Color Technique

Glenn Hirsch

Light is emotion

Francis Picabia

Monet

BertheMorisot

Maurice de Vlaminck

Alexei Jawlensky

Melissa Miller

Fred Martin

Reflected Light

Light comes from the sky and the ground

John Singer Sargent "Setting Out to Fish" 1888

Back Light

What captivates us about the woman?

The backlighting on her hat, and the veiled shadow across her eyes.

Vermeer

Vermeer’s cat -

Notice the backlighting around the head and chest.

Value

(contrast)

She is bathed in light

Can you imagine this in black and white?

Degas

“value’ = the black-and-white of the color

Black and white is the

“value” of the color

theatrical chiaroscuro light

Chiaroscuro Light (the object emerges from deep shadow

Chiaroscuro “Theatrical” light

spotlight

cast shadows

glow from metallic reflections

Theatrical ‘chiaroscuro’ light Caravaggio “The Calling of St Matthew“ 1602

Rembrandt and Caravaggio pioneered this kind of dramatic, ‘chiaroscuro’ light.

RembrandtA Woman Bathing In A Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels) 1654

Dramatic ‘chiaroscuro’ light used in art down through the ages.

“The End” (1897) Kathe Kollwitz

Early filmmakers evolved their vision out this tradition of theatrical light.

Gerhard Lamprecht, 1921

The language of dramatic light was transplanted to Hollywood in the 1930’s as film noire.

Dramatic light

just a man in a room.

What if the man wasn't there, would the feeling be the same?

Richard Diebenkornbrush and ink on paper

Glowing Light

Glowing, mystical, supernatural light –

the light isn't falling on the flower, the light is coming from it.

It is the source of the light.

Georgia O'Keefe

Supernatural light, glowing from the object

This is also a long tradition in Western art.

Matthias Grünewald Isenheim Altarpiece 1615

Glenn Hirsch, Second Coming of the Genome, 60x72

"The Day the Earth Stood Still" by Robert Wise

Monochromatic Light

Monochromatic color schemes

enhance

a particular mood

Francis Picabia

What is the ‘true’ color of anything, anyway?

What’s the ‘true color’ of the house?

Claude Monet painted ‘white marble’ on the Rouen Cathedral in different times of day

The color of anything depends on the light.

Color Theory

The contrast of warm and cool versions of each color create

the illusion of “light”

warm and cool versions of each color

Chromatic scale

• Light to dark• Bright to dull• Warm to cool

Chromatic scale

Georgia O’Keeffe

R. B. Kitaj