Deck 4: Deriving Meaning

Question 1

Which were important to modernists and to postmodernists respectively?

A)Construction and deconstruction
B)Sculpture and poetics
C)Painting and photography
D)Painting and sculpture

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is the role of the art critic?

A)To research art of the past
B)To write material for museum exhibitions
C)To define popular taste in art
D)To describe works of art and evaluate their significance

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What aspect of a work of art does content describe?

A)Beauty
B)Size
C)Shape
D)Theme

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which term describes what an artwork is about?

A)Aesthetics
B)Media
C)Subject matter
D)Formal elements

Question 5

What does the subtext of an artwork refer to?

A)Critical writings about its meaning
B)Noticeable areas of secondary dominance
C)Its underlying theme or message
D)Its working title

Question 6

How do structuralist interpretations analyze the structure of an artwork?

A)The ideology of its parts
B)The formal analysis of its parts
C)The iconography of its parts
D)The interrelationship of its parts

Question 7

Which conditions that encompass a work of art does the term context refer to?

A)Symbolic and iconographic
B)Structural and semiotic
C)Critical and formal
D)Political and social

Question 8

Which of the following terms refers to a system of symbols used by an artist to refer to complex ideas?

A)Phenomenology
B)Iconography
C)Structuralism
D)Deconstruction

Question 9

What kind of content is psychoanalytic criticism particularly helpful in interpreting?

A)Poststructuralist
B)Social
C)Spiritual
D)Emotional

Question 10

What is the study of signs in verbal or written communication called?

A)Semiotics
B)Formalism
C)Post-structuralism
D)Feminism

Question 11

In which school of thought does art support a particular political agenda, cultural structure, or economic/class hierarchy?

A)Psychoanalytic criticism
B)Ideological criticism
C)Gender-based analysis
D)Structuralism

Question 12

Which aspect of art does formal analysis include?

A)Composition
B)Subject matter
C)Iconography
D)Context

Question 13

What is an image or element that is descriptive of something else?

A)Ideology
B)Integration
C)Metaphor
D)Context

Question 14

How does iconography suggest concepts and ideas?

A)Writing
B)Paint
C)Symbols
D)Figures

Question 15

How does deconstruction interpret the meaning of an image?

A)As a multiplicity of possible meanings
B)As a set of meanings determined by the spiritual connotations
C)As a universal set of meanings
D)As what is learned when a conservator disassembles an artwork

Question 16

Which statement characterizes how Georgia O'Keefe's paintings have been interpreted?

A)Over time, critics have come to agree that O'Keefe's work celebrates female sexuality.
B)The contradictory interpretations by critics and the artist show the richness of O'Keefe's artwork.
C)Critics acknowledge that O'Keefe's writing about her work, describing her love of nature, is the best way to understand her paintings' meanings.
D)The critical consensus is that O'Keefe's importance is her stature as a feminist role model.

Question 17

What kind of criticism focuses on the political implications of a work of art?

A)Formalist
B)Psychological
C)Structural
D)Ideological

Question 18

What aspect of art does feminist criticism focus on?

A)Prejudice
B)Gender
C)Psychoanalysis
D)Postmodernism

Question 19

What aspect of a work's significance does ideological criticism address?

A)Religious
B)Political
C)Economic
D)Psychological

Question 20

Which is a recent discipline in critical writing that integrates and analyzes the visual components of contemporary culture?

A)Semiotics
B)Structuralism
C)Visual culture
D)Deconstruction

Question 21

Which statement is a formal analysis of Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith and Holofernes ?

A)Artemisia Gentileschi was rediscovered after centuries of oblivion by feminist art historians.
B)Gentileschi's personal experience of trauma, through rape, shaped the way she depicted this scene.
C)The dramatic use of diagonal lines and chiaroscuro highlights the gruesome decapitation.
D)Artemisia Gentileschi's painting depicts a biblical event, seen in the close relationship to the textual source.

Question 22

How has Morris Louis's Abstract Expressionist work Blue Veil been interpreted?

A)Using feminist criticism, the way the works' curving lines echo and celebrate the female form was explored.
B)Using phenomenology, the relationship of the viewer to Louis' painting was understood.
C)Using ideological criticism, the Central Intelligence Agency's use of Abstract Expressionism for propaganda was analyzed.
D)Using structuralism, the paintings' many different components were interpreted in relation to one another.

Question 23

The most obvious factor in determining the content of a work of art is its subject matter.

Question 24

​ What is the subject matter of Dona Schlesier's mixed-media piece Setting Cycles?

A)Historical allusions to other cyclical artworks
B)The organization of the materials used to make the piece
C)Abstract representation of a religious work
D)Autobiographical references to the artist's childhood

Question 25

From the moment a work of art is made, its content is subject to change.

Question 26

​ What do the frontal and symmetrical qualities of the Tlaloc Vessel symbolize?

A)Ambiguity
B)Music
C)Formality
D)Playfulness

Question 27

Symbols are culturally determined and cannot be taught.

Question 28

Which statement is correct about post-structuralism?

A)As in Gerhard Richter's work, the multiple meanings an artwork can possess are emphasized.
B)It is the application of the ideas of Karl Marx to the study of art.
C)It depends on the authority of an art critic to determine which meaning is most valid.
D)It is closely aligned with formalist criticism.

Question 29

Relational aesthetics focuses on human interactions rather than the creation of art objects to be displayed in private galleries, homes, or museums.

Question 30

​ What is the subtext of Hopper's Nighthawks ?

A)A sense of impending doom or entrapment
B)A sense of romance and glamour
C)Hope and renewal
D)Forebodings of war

Question 31

Which is an example of a symbol?

A)Shirin Neshat's Speechless 's inclusion of religious quotes in Farsi
B)Olafur Eliasson's The New York City Waterfalls 's location near the East River
C)The U.S. Capitol Building's allusion to classical Greece's tradition of democracy and Rome's of power
D)The unfolding view approaching Potala Palace in Tibet

Question 32

How has perception of the Dong Son civilization Drum changed since it was made millennia ago?

A)Once used in rituals, it is now incorporated into community-building rituals.
B)Once used in rituals, it is now in a museum, silent and viewed as a work of art.
C)Once used in rituals, it is now understood as key evidence in the history of music.
D)Once used in rituals, it now contributes to our historical understanding of trans-Asian migration.

Question 33

Which statement reflects a phenomenological approach to art?

A)The meaning or content of an artwork resides in the viewer's changing perceptions.
B)The meaning of an artwork is based on understanding cultural context.
C)The meaning of an artwork is based on analyzing dynamics of gender and sexuality.
D)The meaning of an artwork is based in analyzing the artist's psychology.

Question 34

Which is true of Rembrandt van Rijn's painting popularly known as The Night Watch ?

A)Its original context, in the merchant-run republic of the Netherlands, helps explain Rembrandt's choice of subject matter.
B)It demonstrates the importance of the king in shaping artistic practice.
C)It is usually viewed in terms of relational aesthetics.
D)Its subtext is a critique of the religious practice of the time known as the cult of saints.

Question 35

Brazilian-born Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija created a stainless steel Ping-Pong table, Untitled 2008 (the future will be chrome), which gallery-goers can play on. What is this work a good example of?

A)Phenomenology
B)Structuralism
C)Relational aesthetics
D)Semiotics

Question 36

How is Cindy Sherman's Untitled (Self-Portrait of Marilyn Monroe)characteristic of deconstruction?

A)It shows how popular culture figures such as Marilyn Monroe need to be seen within an integrated analysis of contemporary culture.
B)It shows how the notion of the self is a construct.
C)It shows the primacy of the original art object.
D)It emphasizes the singular genius of the artist.

Question 37

​ What kind of ideas does Gerhard Richter's series of fifteen paintings, October 18, 1977 , reflect?

A)Feminist
B)Religious
C)Post-structuralist
D)Ideological

Question 38

Which is true of visual culture's approach?

A)Art is viewed as the apex of human expression.
B)Art is viewed as a mechanism for understanding systematic political oppression.
C)Art is viewed as a way to understand symbolism.
D)Art is viewed as part of the whole cultural terrain.

Question 39

The subject in Neshat's art is Islamic women and femininity in a country where women's actions and rights are limited by law.