1.4: Color
1. This is the most vivid element of art and design.
a. color d. line
b. value e. mass
c. shape
2. This object can be used to separate white light into the colors of the spectrum.
a. color wheel d. color chart
b. prism e. microscope
c. electromagnet
3. Physicists have explained that when we see a color, it is the portion of the light spectrum that a
surface fails to ________.
a. absorb d. neutralize
b. reflect e. lighten
c. subtract
4. If you were to look at a t-shirt that absorbed the colors violet, blue, green, yellow, and orange,
what color would the t-shirt appear to be?
a. orange d. green
b. white e. blue
c. red
5. When ________ colors are mixed, they make a duller and darker color because more of the visible
spectrum is absorbed.
a. optical d. warm
b. additive e. subtractive
c. grayscale
6. The traditional primary colors are ________.
a. red, yellow, blue d. red and blue
b. blue, green, yellow e. green and yellow
c. green, orange, violet
7. The artist Vasily Kandinsky advocated the use of primary colors, which cannot be mixed from any
other color combination.
8. Most commercial color printing is achieved using three primary colors and black. These primaries
are ________.
a. red, yellow, and blue d. orange, green, and purple
b. red, green, and blue e. yellow, green, and blue
c. cyan, magenta, and yellow
9. Because additive color mixtures are made using light, they rely heavily on pigment.
10. Colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel are radically different in wavelength and are
called ________.
a. tints d. hues
b. analogous colors e. complementary colors
c. neutrals
11. When complementary colors are used next to each other in a composition, they produce a visual
anomaly called simultaneous contrast. This visual effect makes the colors appear to ________
along the boundary where the two colors meet.
a. vibrate d. darken
b. neutralize e. lighten
c. disappear
12. By using ________ color scheme in his painting Twilight in the Wilderness, Frederic Edwin
Church intensified the drama of the vast natural landscape.
a. a Fauvist d. a complementary
b. a neutral e. a primary
c. an analogous
13. Colors that do not contrast strongly with each other, and which are similar in wavelength, are
________ colors.
a. analogous d. primary
b. complementary e. grayscale
c. neutral
14. Analogous color combinations can be used to create unity and steer viewers toward a particular
attitude or emotion. Mary Cassatt’s The Boating Party uses yellow, green, and blue hues to create
a ________ and ________ composition.
a. strange . . . uneasy d. tense . . . angry
b. jarring . . . stressful e. hot . . . erotic
c. harmonious . . . relaxed
15. Ancient Greek philosophers speculated that color was not a state of matter but a state of mind.
What do you think is meant by this statement?
16. Color associations vary by culture. For example, an American bride would probably wear white,
while her Asian counterpart might wear ________.
a. black d. green
b. red e. yellow
c. purple
17. The term used for referring to each of the basic colors of the spectrum is ________.
a. complementary d. optical color
b. secondary e. analogous
c. hue
18. The sculptor Kane Kwei’s Coffin in the Shape of a Cocoa Pod is painted a brilliant orange hue.
Why might the artist have exaggerated the brightness of a cocoa pod’s natural color for use in this
context?
19. The element of art that describes the relative lightness or darkness of a hue, compared to another
hue, is known as ________.
a. value d. contrast
b. saturation e. form
c. intensity
20. A color that is lighter than its basic hue is known as a tint. A color that is darker than its basic hue
is called a ________.
a. tint d. monochrome
b. shade e. shadow
c. neutral
21. The American artist Mark Tansey used ________ color palette when he painted his homage to
Cubism titled Picasso and Braque.
a. a neutral d. a monochromatic
b. a complementary e. a vivid
c. an analogous
22. An artwork that uses many hues but only one value is called monochromatic.
23. We generally associate a color with its purest, most intense state, or its highest level of ________.
a. value d. saturation
b. tint e. grayscale
c. contrast
24. A color that is almost gray has a ________ saturation.
a. high d. valuable
b. low e. monochrome
c. medium
25. In Barnett Newman’s Vir Heroicus Sublimis, the artist used color to communicate his idealistic
vision of the perfectibility of humankind. What does the perfectibility of humankind mean in this
context? What does the artist’s use of color have to do with this?
26. The use of strong chromatic color in The Turning Road, L’Estaque by André Derain gives the
work a feeling of ________.
a. calm d. languor
b. depression e. frailty
c. energy
27. The varying color tones in Ancient Sound by Paul Klee were intended to be associated with
________.
a. randomness d. personality
b. death e. emotion
c. music
28. When a color is associated with hot or cold we refer to this as color ________.
a. personality d. temperature
b. value e. harmony
c. tint
29. Color ________ can be relative to the other colors nearby. For example, violet can be warm if we
see it next to a hot color like red, or cool if we see it next to a colder color like blue.
a. temperature d. personality
b. value e. harmony
c. tint
30. Why did the ceramist who created the underglaze-painted lamp from the Dome of the Rock,
Jerusalem, use green as one of the main colors?
a. green is the best color to use for depicting grass
b. green has positive associations in Islamic art
c. green is the only color permitted for use in Islamic ceramic art
d. the Dome of the Rock has a green-colored theme
e. none of the other answers
31. We see this type of color when the brain receives so much color information that it is forced to
simplify what we perceive.
a. tint d. neutral color
b. complementary color e. optical color
c. analogous color
32. The French artist Georges Seurat employed a new technique to create a jewel-like diffusion of
light and vibration of color in his work The Circus. This type of painting, made up of small dots of
color, is known as ________.
a. pointillism d. Luminism
b. Impressionism e. Pop art
c. Fauvism
33. When he experimented with the relationship between adjacent colors, ________ showed that the
human eye can be deceived by color.
a. Rembrandt d. Michelangelo
b. Josef Albers e. Isaac Newton
c. Vincent van Gogh
34. Color can be used for healing purposes. The ancient Persian philosopher Avicenna believed that
looking at the color ________ had beneficial effects.
a. green d. black
b. yellow e. red
c. blue
35. Color associations can be both culturally specific and universal. Red is a color that can arouse
universal feelings, such as these three:
a. aggression e. eroticism
b. sadness f. cowardice
c. passion g. apathy
d. decay
36. In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent van Gogh wrote about The Night Café: “I have tried to
express with red and green the terrible passions of human nature.” Discuss what Van Gogh meant
by this statement, and how color helps communicate this idea.
37. Henri Matisse was a member of the ________ movement, a group of artists who were especially
focused on using color as intensely as they could.
a. Pre-Raphaelite d. Baroque
b. Impressionist e. Fauve
c. Pop Art
38. ________ in particular is an element of art that can engage the viewer and express a wide range of
emotions.
a. volume d. form
b. texture e. color
c. shape
39. Paul Gauguin’s use of the color ________ in his depiction of a crucified Christ enhances the
work’s connection with the seasons, and expresses a message of optimism and rebirth.
a. red d. yellow
b. green e. black
c. gray
40. Cecilia Beaux’s strong use of the color red in her self-portrait, which was commissioned for the
prestigious Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, may have been an expression of ________, related to
an event that had happened before she started the project.
a. pain d. fear
b. envy e. depression
c. sadness
41. The artist Adrian Kondratowicz was able to elicit a positive emotion from his Harlem community
by distributing ________.
a. pink polka-dot trash bags d. yellow raincoats
b. green shamrock-shaped charms e. black billiard balls
c. gray tweed trousers