Deck 38: The Body in Art

Question 1

Which type of beauty does Kaigetsudo Dohan's painting Beautiful Woman represent?

A) the physical beauty of a young geisha's apprenticeship
B) the inner beauty and studied grace of a mature geisha
C) the kind of beauty that will win the woman the beauty pageant in which she is participating
D) supernatural beauty bestowed by the gods
E) the beauty inherent in the woman's musical abilities, represented by the instrument she holds

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following was used to make the sculpture Menkaure and His Wife,Queen Khamerernebty?

A) realistic rendering
B) children's drawings
C) a canon of proportions
D) death masks
E) abstract artistic interpretation

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What is the subject matter of Myron's Discus Thrower?

A) a prehistoric stonemason
B) an Egyptian pharaoh
C) a Greek athlete
D) a Roman circus performer
E) a contemporary DJ

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Willem de Kooning intended his painting Woman I to ________.

A) emphasize elements of female anatomy
B) convey the inherent abilities of women to give and protect life
C) reflect universal ideas of powerful women
D) refer to images of women made throughout the history of art
E) all of the other answers

Question 5

Ancient Greek notions of beauty were based upon the combination of an underlying canon of mathematical proportions with the finely honed physiques possessed by male athletes.

Question 6

Kaigetsudô Dohan was an artist from which culture?

A) African
B) Japanese
C) Italian
D) Mexican
E) Indian

Question 7

Titian's Venus of Urbino shows ________.

A) a full-bodied figure, understood to be a sign of fertility
B) a Classical goddess, represented as both modest and inviting
C) a French model in the guise of a prostitute with an assertive gaze
D) a Japanese man pretending to be a female icon of Western culture
E) none of the other answers

Question 8

Who is the artist of The Birth of Venus?

A) Leonardo da Vinci
B) Sandro Botticelli
C) Titian
D) Édouard Manet
E) no one knows for sure who the artist was

Question 9

What is believed to be the purpose of the Woman from Willendorf?

A) it is a portable doorstop
B) it is a deadly weapon
C) it is an ancient piggy bank
D) it is the first garden gnome
E) none of the other answers

Question 10

The date of Willem de Kooning's painting Woman I is:

A) 24,000-22,000 BCE
B) 545-500 BCE
C) 1100-1200 CE
D) 1950-1952 CE
E) the date is not known

Question 11

What concepts of beauty are conveyed in the sculpture of a head,believed to represent a king of Ife (4.9.6)?

A) the community's core values of composure, wisdom, and power
B) both internal attributes as well as external appearance
C) elegant lines, delicate features, and a composed demeanor
D) graceful and refined facial features
E) all of the other answers

Question 12

Which of the following issues are raised by Yasumasa Morimura's Portrait (Futago)?

A) the meaning of an artwork gains depth when one knows about the context
B) race and gender can be seen as artificial constructions
C) we should not make assumptions about identity based on appearances
D) our understanding of who we are can be directly influenced by the past
E) all of the other answers

Question 13

Menkaure and His Wife,Queen Khamerernebty was made by sculptors from which culture?

A) Egyptian
B) Sumerian
C) Greek
D) Roman
E) Dutch

Question 14

Which of the following nudes was made first and served as an influence on the others?

A) Titian, Venus of Urbino
B) Édouard Manet, Olympia
C) Yasumasa Morimura, Portrait (Futago)
D) they were all made at the same time
E) no one knows the date of at least one of these artworks

Question 15

When and where was the artist of Olympia working?

A) prehistoric Europe
B) sixteenth-century Italy
C) nineteenth-century France
D) twentieth-century Japan
E) twenty-first-century America

Question 16

What was the artist of Olympia trying to do?

A) persuade the gods to bestow good fortune on the community
B) convince viewers that a fictional figure actually existed
C) pretend that his walls were actually windows onto a beautiful garden
D) update a Classical subject for his own time
E) all of the other answers

Question 17

The sculpture of a head,which probably represents a king of Ife (4.9.6),was made using which medium?

A) bronze
B) ivory
C) limestone
D) terra-cotta
E) none of the other answers

Question 18

The form of the goddess's figure in The Birth of Venus was based on ________.

A) Classical Greek sculptures
B) prehistoric goddess figurines
C) Romanesque tapestries
D) photographs made during Venus's lifetime
E) all of the other answers

Question 19

The Woman from Willendorf is made from which medium?

A) woven reeds
B) limestone
C) fired ceramic
D) marble
E) oil on canvas

Question 20

What is the medium of Yasumasa Morimura's Portrait (Futago)?

A) painted limestone
B) oil on canvas
C) fresco
D) color photograph
E) multimedia installation

Question 21

Consider the following statement by Matisse:
"These drawings sum up,in my opinion,observations that I have made for many years about the character of drawing,a character that does not depend on forms being copied exactly as they are in nature,or on the patient assembling of exact details,but on the profound feeling of the artist before the objects that he has chosen,on which his attention is focused,and whose spirit he has penetrated . . . Exactitude is not truth." (Gateways to Art,p.671)
What is your response to this statement? Do you agree or disagree with Matisse? Give an example of an artwork that supports your opinion and discuss it in relation to Matisse's statement.

Question 22

Compare Yves Klein's Anthropométries de l'époque bleue (4.9.11a)with Loving Care by Janine Antoni (4.9.12).Briefly describe what each one looks like,in terms of materials used,shape,size,and so on,concentrating on the most noticeable similarities and differences.What are the artist's intentions for each artwork? What does comparing the artworks in this way reveal that you had not thought of before making the comparison?

Question 23

Who is the artist of Loving Care?

A) Yasumasa Morimura
B) Yves Klein
C) Janine Antoni
D) Vanessa Beecroft
E) Spencer Tunick

Question 24

The key component of Spencer Tunick's installation at Zócalo,Mexico City,is ________.

A) a group of police officers
B) thousands of nude bodies
C) replicas of famous sculptures
D) a replica of Mount Vesuvius erupting
E) none of the other answers

Question 25

What is so revolutionary about Walking Man?

A) the artist presented a rough representation of a figure as a finished sculpture
B) the artist exactly followed the accepted conventions used since Classical antiquity
C) this sculpture was made of precious gems and metals from every continent
D) this sculpture was the first artwork the artist made after he finished art school
E) all of the other answers

Question 26

Why does the figure in Branded look like it does?

A) because it is idealized and perfect, like a Greek goddess
B) because it confronts, even exaggerates, the imperfections of reality
C) because the woman in the picture ate nothing but jelly donuts for a year
D) because the artist was a medical student
E) because the artist's favorite color is blue

Question 27

What is the medium of Henry Moore's Recumbent Figure?

A) bronze
B) clay
C) green Horton stone
D) wax
E) paper

Question 28

Anthropométries de l'époque bleue introduced which of the following for the very first time?

A) living brushes
B) International Klein Blue
C) monochromatic paintings
D) a musical accompaniment to the presentation of art
E) a nude audience and clothed performers

Question 29

Compare the self-portraits depicted in Jenny Saville's Branded (4.9.19)and ORLAN's Omnipresence (4.9.20).How does each artist craft the view of herself that we see? Briefly describe what each artwork looks like,in terms of medium,shape,size,and so on,concentrating on the most noticeable similarities and differences.What were the artist's intentions for each artwork? What does comparing these artworks in this way reveal that you had not thought of before making the comparison?

Question 30

How were Icarus and Blue Nude II made?

A) using cast bronze
B) using stained glass
C) using painted paper cutouts
D) using dried fruit
E) using crumpled bed sheets

Question 31

What is the medium of Yves Klein's Anthropométries de l'époque bleue?

A) metal sculpture
B) performance
C) sculptural clothing
D) pastels on paper
E) sticks and bones

Question 32

Auguste Rodin made which of the following artworks?

A) Man Pointing
B) Recumbent Figure
C) Blue Nude II
D) Walking Man
E) Discus Thrower

Question 33

The artist ORLAN was the first person ever to undergo plastic surgery.

Question 34

What does the body of the figure represented in Alberto Giacometti's Man Pointing look like?

A) exactly like the person being represented
B) an abstraction based on the artist's creative choices
C) a non-objective representation that does not look anything like a body
D) a fictional projection of what an alien might look like
E) none of the other answers

Question 35

What did the artist of Loving Care do to create the work?

A) she took pictures of thousands of nude people
B) she impersonated a famous work of art
C) she instructed a room full of models to stand still and not speak
D) she dipped her head in a bucket of dye and mopped the floor with her hair
E) she directed other people to paint with their bodies

Question 36

Spencer Tunick considers his artworks to be ________.

A) performances
B) photographs
C) installations
D) drawings
E) priceless

Question 37

The artist ORLAN is known for her ________.

A) large oil paintings
B) abstract public sculptures
C) unconventional performances
D) awkward interviews
E) none of the other answers

Question 38

What is the date of Alberto Giacometti's Man Pointing?

A) 1890-95
B) 1938
C) 1947
D) 1952
E) 1963

Question 39

Who is the artist of Branded?

A) Willem Dekooning
B) Yves Klein
C) Janine Antoni
D) Jenny Saville
E) ORLAN

Question 40

Which of the following artistic tendencies and formal concerns did the artist of Recumbent Figure incorporate into his sculpture?

A) both European and non-Western artistic traditions
B) natural forms, such as mountains and valleys
C) the integration of solid forms and voids
D) the organic contours of the materials used
E) all of the other answers

Question 41

Consider the following concepts as they relate to artworks in this Chapter:
male and female
active and passive
representation and performance
realistic and abstract
After making a list of artworks that relate to each pairing,write a short paragraph about the artworks related to the pairing you find the most intriguing.

Question 42

Compare Myron's Discus Thrower (4.9.4)with Alberto Giacometti's Man Pointing (4.9.16).Which of the artworks is more realistic? Which one is more abstract? What does each of the artworks reveal to you about the human body? Does the medium used affect the way you view each artwork? Give your reasons why,or why not.