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Chapter 2 – Developing Visual Literacy
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In The Treason of Images, the artist combines awareness, creativity, and
communication by encouraging the viewer to look closely at an object. The artist is:
a) Lorna Simpson.
b) Duane Michaels.
c) René Magritte.
d) John Ahearn.
2. Jan van Eyck’s Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami depicts many
objects that have symbolic meaning. The use or study of these symbols is called:
a) content.
b) iconography.
c) form.
d) aesthetics.
3. While in prison, Howling Wolf made many drawings called _______ drawings
because they were created on blank accounting notebooks.
a) scraffitti
b) ledger
c) office
d) calculated
4. Bierstadt’s picturesque view of the Rocky Mountains combines a representation of an
American vista with his:
a) European experience.
b) World War I experience.
c) Polynesian heritage.
d) Alaskan expeditions.
5. Beatriz Milhazes’ Carambola (fig. 34, p. 30) is based on ___________.
a) the shapes, forms, and bright colors of Brazilian culture
b) the art of the ancient Maya culture
c) the purely formalist work of Kasmir Malevich
d) a & c
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6. When a work of art such as Kasimir Malevich’s Suprematist Painting, Black
Rectangle, Blue Triangle (p. 29) shows no reference to the natural world of images, it is
usually called:
a) stylized.
b) simplistic.
c) communistic.
d) nonrepresentational.
7. The stained-glass window from Chartres Cathedral is an excellent example of the use
of iconography in art, which means_____________.
a) it is highly abstract and unintelligible to all but the artist and the clergy
b) it uses a system of symbols which is easily understandable to most Christians
c) that it is non-objective
d) it utilizes a system of symbols that is intelligible to no one but the artist
8. Christian art’s main purpose through the Middle Ages, like that of the stained-glass
window from Chartres Cathedral, was __________.
a) to educate illiterate people in Christian doctrine
b) to glorify the patrons of the art
c) to distinguish Christianity from Islam and Buddhism
d) a & b
9. Erna Motna’s painting, Bushfire and Corroboree Dreaming, (p. 28) depicts the
preparations for a corroboree, or:
a) a human sacrifice.
b) a funeral.
c) a ritual hunt.
d) a celebration ceremony.
10. Which of these statements best defines visual literacy?
a) the ability to construct an artificial 3-d environment
b) the ability to recognize, understand, and communicate the meaning of visual
images
c) the ability to envision a theoretical concept
d) the ability to write about art
11. Rene Magritte’s The Treason of Images asks us to consider__________.
a) that images and words refer to things that we see, but are not the things themselves
b) that there is a direct, one-to-one relationship between objects and the words we use
to name them
c) that we are often fooled by what we see, a la “trompe l’loeil” paintings
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d) that images and words not only refer to things that we see, but are also the things
themselves
12. The Triumphal Entry page from the Shahnamah manuscript (p. 24), a sacred text,
exemplifies the preference of word over image in _______ art.
a) Chinese
b) Japanese
c) Korean
d) Islamic
13. The symbolic hand gestures that refer to specific states of mind or events in the life of
Buddha (p. 33) are called:
a) bismillah.
b) handies.
c) mudra.
d) calliform.
14. The terms naturalistic or realistic art are sometimes used to describe:
a) representational art .
b) abstract art.
c) nonrepresentational art.
d) folk art.
15. Abstract art reduces the world to its _______ qualities.
a) bulk
b) exterior
c) structural
d) essential
16. Lorna Simpson’s series, The Park (p. 23), includes both images and printed words.
The text contributes to the prints in a way that makes the viewer more active in the work.
What does the viewer become?
a) an artist
b) the subject of the work
c) the form of the work
d) a voyeur
17. Why are images of humans traditionally banned in Islamic art
a) Humans are thought to be a symbol of filth.
b) Human images are not banned in Islamic art.
c) Depicting a human is thought to be competing with the “creator.”
d) Calligraphy is more challenging.
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18. In a work of art, “content” refers to:
a) what the work expresses or means.
b) the culture that produced it.
c) its style.
d) the way it looks.
19. Kenneth Clark illustrates an _______ reading in his assessment that an ancient Greek
statue represents a “higher state of civilization” than a West African mask.
a) aesthetic
b) ethnocentric
c) Afrocentric
d) American
20. What is the chief form of Islamic art?
a) abstractions of animals
b) figurative representation
c) calligraphy, the fine art of handwriting
d) conceptual art
e) monumental sculpture
21. The Triumphal Entry page from the Shahnamah manuscript, a sacred text,
exemplifies the preference of word over image in _______________art.
a) Korean
b) Islamic
c) Maori
d) Japanese
e) Tlingit
22. Jan van Eyck’s The Marriage Of Giovanni Arnolfini depicts many objects that, many
used to think, have symbolic meaning. The study of these symbols is called:
a) aesthetics
b) content
c) form
d) iconography
e) none of the above
23. What is the subject matter of Shirin Neshat’s Rebellious Silence?
a) the prominent place of women within every aspect of Iranian culture
b) it is difficult to say from a Western perspective, because of lack of understanding
of language and culture, but it is probably feminist in nature
c) it reflects the artist’s comfort with the roles of women in Iranian society
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d) it depicts a Muslim woman in a black chador, a rifle dividing, and Farsi text
inscribed over her face
e) all of the above
24. What does Erna Motna’s Bushfire and Corroboree Dreaming depict?
a) a highly representational landscape
b) nothing, it is completely non-objective
c) a highly abstract landscape
d) a representational figure
e) a highly abstract figure
25. While Erna Motna’s Bushfire and Corroboree Dreaming is a very descriptive and, in
its way, beautiful painting which has helped to strengthen and revitalize religious practice
among Australian Aborigines, there is controversy about this type of painting. Which of
these statements best explains the controversy?
a) the colors are too vivid for contemporary minimalist aesthetics
b) the seemingly abstract marks are actually sexually charged
c) the paintings may reveal too much about secret ritual practice to outsiders
d) they commodify dynamic religious practices
e) c & d
26. Naturalism is a brand of representation in which the artist_______________.
a) abstracts what he/she is depicting, to varying degrees
b) retains realistic elements but presents the world from a personal or subjective point
of view
c) paints exactly, faithfully what he/she sees
d) works with ideas instead of images, creating purely non-objective artwork
e) paints in the nude
27. Which of these statements best describes Sesshu Toyo’s Haboku Landscape for
Soen?
a) the seemingly abstract marks, when taken as a whole, describe a landscape
b) it is a fairly typical Zen Buddhist painting that represents Sesshu’s feelings in
addition to being representational
c) it is a haboku (“broken ink”) painting that appears highly intuitive
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
28. When works of art like Kasimir Malevich’s Suprematist painting, Black Rectangle,
Blue Triangle, show no reference to the concrete world, it is usually called:
a) communistic
c) abstract
c) non-objective
d) stylized
e) simplistic
29. What is the CONTENT of Albert Bierstadt’s Rocky Mountains?
a) It is a sublime representation of the mountain range that can be seen to encompass
the spirit and character of the American West
b) It is an imaginative interpretation of the landscape of the American East
c) It combines a representational depiction of a mountain meadow with a lake,
waterfall, and Native American encampment with a barely disguised rendering of the
Matterhorn in the distance
d) a & b
e) a & c
30. The representation of _______ has consistently aroused controversy throughout the
history of the Western world.
a) the human figure
b) the Christian god
c) political leaders
d) Roman ideals
Short Answer Questions
31. What is the relationship between form and content?
32. What subject matter is the artist Lorna Simpson most noted for?
34. What is the content of Jean-Michel Basiquiat’s painting Charles the First?
35. What term is used when someone imposes his or her own meanings and prejudices
36. What is the content of Malevich’s painting, Black Rectangle, Blue Triangle?
37. In Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini “wedding” portrait, the dog symbolizes _______.
38. The habitual or expected ways (of seeing, for instance) of a given culture are called
_______.
39. What is the chief form of art in Islamic cultures?
40. What aspect of ancient Australian ideology did Erna Motna include in his painting,
41. Describe the content of Erna Motna’s Bushfire and Corroboree Dreaming.
Essay Questions
42. Discuss the disadvantages of judging artworks according to our own cultural
43. Using René Magritte’s Treason of Images, discuss how representational paintings can
44. Compare and contrast John Taylor’s and Howling Wolf’s Treaty Signing at Medicine
Lodge Creek. In your discussion, use the terms form, content, representational, abstract,
45. How is Howling Wolf’s Treaty Signing at Medicine Lodge Creek different from John
Taylor’s painting of the same name?