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How to Look at and Understand Great Art

Season 1
Embark on an in-depth exploration of the practical skill of viewing art through the lenses of line, light, perspective, composition, and other crucial elements. Using timeless masterpieces of Western art as well as hands-on studio demonstrations, Professor Sharon Latchaw Hirsh gives you the knowledge you need to enhance your appreciation of great art.
202336 episodesTV-PG
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - The Importance of First Impressions
    October 31, 2023
    34min
    TV-PG
    Examine the contexts and environments in which we encounter art and their critical effect on our viewing experience. Consider ways of displaying and framing paintings, as well as key parameters for viewing sculpture. Then, learn the predominant genres of Western art, and the artist's media, tools, and techniques.
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  2. S1 E2 - Where Am I? Point of View and Focal Point
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Explore how point of view—the artist's positioning of the viewer with respect to the image—works in painting and sculpture, paying particular attention to differences in angle and spatial relation. Then, continue with focal point, or the artist's centering of attention on a key area of the work.
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  3. S1 E3 - Color-Description, Symbol, and More
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    Uncover the core principles of color in painting, including the distinctions of value and saturation and the relationship of colors as analogous or complementary. See how major works of art achieve their power and meaning through color, as seen in celebrated canvases by Seurat, Gauguin, and Van Gogh.
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  4. S1 E4 - Line-Description and Expression
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Discover the properties of line, another essential element of art, as "descriptive" (describing reality) or "expressional" (conveying feeling). Learn about the use of geometric lines, implied lines, and directional lines within a composition. Also, study the compelling, psychological use of line in Picasso's works, Seurat's "The Circus", and in key Modern and Expressionist works.
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  5. S1 E5 - Space, Shape, Shade, and Shadow
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Examine geometric and "organic" shapes in painting and sculpture and the crucial relationship of figure to ground and mass to space. Then, explore the illusionistic use of shading, shadows, and overlapping shapes in Caravaggio's and Friedrich's works, and the compositional power of shapes in paintings such as Matisse's "Dance" and Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam".
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  6. S1 E6 - Seeing the Big Picture-Composition
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Define symmetry and asymmetry in painting and sculpture, and the key effects on the viewer of each. Also, study scale and proportion of figures, and the distinction between "open" and "closed" composition, reflecting the artist's approach to visually framing the image.
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  7. S1 E7 - The Illusion-Getting the Right Perspective
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    Tracking the history of illusionism in Western art, grasp the principles of linear perspective, foreshortening, and atmospheric perspective as they replicate how the human eye perceives. See how artists, including Cézanne and Van Gogh, manipulated perspective for their own creative ends, and observe the extreme illusionism of trompe l'oeil and anamorphosis.
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  8. S1 E8 - Art That Moves Us-Time and Motion
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    Explore how artists evoke motion and the passage of time, including implying motion through strong directional lines and time through narrative devices. Study approaches to implied motion in Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and Op art, and the use of actual motion in performance art and modern sculpture.
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  9. S1 E9 - Feeling with Our Eyes-Texture and Light
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    Here, consider texture in sculpture as an aid to meaning in sculptures by Rodin, Donatello, and Bernini, and the painter's use of paint as a way to capture texture and light on canvas. Then observe the virtuoso representation of texture by master painters Ingres and Titian, and the handling of light and shadow in works by Renoir and Georges de la Tour.
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  10. S1 E10 - Drawing-Dry, Liquid, and Modern Media
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    In this first lecture on genre, define the various purposes of drawings, from "croquis" drawing to capture a pose or action, to successive sketches visualizing larger works, to finished drawings as a distinct art. Study the diverse media of drawing, focusing on master drawings in metalpoint, charcoal, ink, pastel, and pencil.
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  11. S1 E11 - Printmaking-Relief and Intaglio
    October 31, 2023
    33min
    TV-PG
    The medium of prints attracted great artists from Dürer and Rembrandt to Ensor and Picasso. Using studio demonstrations, study the expressive means and contrasting techniques of relief printmaking, including woodcut, wood engraving, and linocut, and intaglio printmaking, including metal engraving, etching, mezzotint, and aquatint.
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  12. S1 E12 - Modern Printmaking-Planographic
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    This lecture explores the art of planographic printmaking, which allows artists to draw or paint directly on the printing surface. In detailed demonstrations and works by Daumier, Degas, and Warhol, grasp the techniques of lithography, silkscreen, and monotype, and explore the mastery of Whistler's lithograph "Nocturne: The Thames at Battersea."
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  13. S1 E13 - Sculpture-Salt Cellars to Monuments
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Sculpture, as a genre, encompasses the full spectrum of three-dimensional artworks. Investigate the varieties and viewing contexts of relief and in-the-round sculptures—from monumental public works and religious and historical subjects to assemblage, collage, found objects, and large-scale "earth art"—noting the technical distinction between subtractive and additive works.
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  14. S1 E14 - Development of Painting-Tempera and Oils
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    Trace the history and technique of painting, beginning with the methodology of panel painting on wood; fresco painting, both wet and dry; and finally, oil painting and watercolor. Learn about types of oil paint, the mixing of colors, brushwork techniques, and the 19th-century phenomenon of plein air (outdoor) painting.
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  15. S1 E15 - Modern Painting-Acrylics and Assemblages
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    The lecture opens with a historical panorama of painting techniques, highlighting the diverse treatment of human faces. Then, it tracks 20th-century developments in nontraditional materials and methods of application, including the techniques of Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, and Jackson Pollock, as well as the contrasting strengths and mixed use of oil and acrylics.
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  16. S1 E16 - Subject Matters
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Focusing on masterworks by Van Eyck and Rubens, define three levels of iconography (subject matter). Also study the academic codifying and ranking of subject matter in art, probing subject and deeper meaning in a variety of religious and history paintings, still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and genre works.
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  17. S1 E17 - Signs-Symbols, Icons, and Indexes in Art
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    The richness of signs (signifiers) in art includes the use of symbols, icons, and indexes as they reveal layers of meaning. See how, in different historical eras, symbolic associations change over time, how icons visually represent a subject, and how indexes exhibit direct connections with the thing signified.
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  18. S1 E18 - Portraits-How Artists See Others
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    In examining the diverse functions and types of portraits, study the important elements of facial presentation and the subject's position and gaze with relation to the viewer and the pictorial space. See how Rembrandt added dramatic power to his group "corporation" portraits, and how David carefully rendered Napoleon in symbolic terms.
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  19. S1 E19 - Self-Portraits-How Artists See Themselves
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Across the centuries, self-portraits fascinatingly reveal the changing role of the artist. Follow this progression, from Renaissance painters subtly placing themselves within large compositions, to self-portraiture's emergence as a major form of self-revelation, noting many dramatic and colorful traditions within the form.
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  20. S1 E20 - Landscapes-Art of the Great Outdoors
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    In this lecture on landscape painting, observe the classical, balanced division into foreground, middle, and background, and how Romantic painters altered these proportions to express drama, infinite space, and the sublime. Discover proportion and composition in landscapes of the Hudson River school, Luminism, Impressionism, and also the subgenres of seascapes and cityscapes.
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  21. S1 E21 - Putting It All Together
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    This lecture integrates elements including color, line, shape, composition, light, symbolism, point of view, and focal point. Using the viewing tools you've developed, look deeply at four diverse masterpieces, including a sculpture by Thorvaldsen, a "vanitas" still life by Van Oosterwyck, a lithograph by Bonnard, and a painting by Van der Weyden.
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  22. S1 E22 - Early Renaissance-Humanism Emergent
    October 31, 2023
    28min
    TV-PG
    Contemplate the Renaissance phenomena of classicism and humanism in 15th-century Italian art, which focused—even in religious art—on the human body, nature, and depictions of earthly life and the individual. Learn how to recognize Early Renaissance art in characteristic subject matter and stylistic technique.
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  23. S1 E23 - Northern Renaissance-Devil in the Details
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Flanders and Germany also witnessed an explosion of art in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Define the stylistics of great Northern Renaissance oil painting, such as the use of cool light, richness of detail, and the depiction of fabric. Conclude by charting the development of the historical "canon" of universally recognized artworks.
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  24. S1 E24 - High Renaissance-Humanism Perfected
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    The Italian High Renaissance saw the full flowering of humanism and classicism. With reference to the era's thought and practice, delve into masterpieces by three of history's greatest geniuses: Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. Last, explore the composition of Raphael's School of Athens as it represents the sublime embodiment of High Renaissance ideals.
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  25. S1 E25 - Mannerism and Baroque-Distortion and Drama
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Two important artistic movements followed the High Renaissance. Beginning with late Michelangelo, Tibaldi, and El Greco, explore the hallmarks of Mannerism, including deliberate distortions of proportion and perspective and use of tertiary colors. Then, in the works of Caravaggio, Rubens, and others, define the essence of Baroque art in its dramatic expansion of classical style.
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Subtitles
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Producers
The Great Courses
Cast
Sharon Latchaw Hirsh
Studio
The Great Courses
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