pointillism

POINTILLISMSeeing the big

picture

RSNO Maestro Music 2011

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INTENDED LEARNING

In this presentation, we will learn about the term pointillism as it applies in art

By examining a painting by Georges Seurat and a piece of music by Arnold Schoenberg, we will compare the concept of pointillism in art to the concept of pointillism in music

We will also learn how the visual concept of pointillism has been used in other artistic contexts

We will then investigate further connections between various ideas in art and music

Copyright RSNO Education and Community Partnerships unless otherwise stated.

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WHAT IS THE POINT?

In this presentation we will be exploring the style of pointillism in both art and music

In art, pointillism is a post-impressionist style of painting that was developed by Georges Seurat (1859 – 1891) and Paul Signac (1863 – 1935)

Instead of blending colours on the palette, a pointillist artist uses a brush to apply many dots of different colours next to each other

Artists mostly used oil paint because its thick texture and tendency not to run or bleed on the canvas


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WHAT IS THE POINT?

When we see a pointillist painting, our eyes and mind work to blend the colours together and we see a three-dimensional image with a full range of blended colours

Colours can seem brighter and more luminous than in a typical painting

One of the most famous examples of pointillism is Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte (‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte’) by Georges Seurat. The painting is approximately 2 by 3 metres, and it took Seurat two years to paint it! Copyright RSNO Education and Community

Partnerships unless otherwise stated.

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Image source: http://www.canvasreplicas.com/images/Sunday%20Afternoon%20on%20the%20Island%20of%20La%20Grande%20Jatte.jpg

http://www.canvasreplicas.com/images/Sunday%20Afternoon%20on%20the%20Island%20of%20La%20Grande%20Jatte.jpg



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In music, pointillism is a composition technique used in 20th century music

This technique, also known as Klangfarbenmelodie (‘sound-colour-melody’), was mainly used by Anton Webern (1883 – 1945) and by Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951), and was further developed for electronic music by Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 – 2007) in the 1950s


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As you may know, the term colour can be used in music as well as in art. In music, colour refers to the unique sound a particular instrument makes. Just like pointillist painters played with the combination of visual colours, pointillist composers played with the combination of aural colours

In pointillist music the composer has many different instruments play single notes, and the unique colours of the different instruments combine to form a melody

As in a pointillist painting, the colours of the different instruments seem to be enhanced by the way they are placed togetherCopyright RSNO Education and Community

Partnerships unless otherwise stated.

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POINTILLISM IS THE ART OF COMBINATION: THE ARTIST USES MANY SMALL THINGS TO CREATE A BIG PICTURE. BUT AT THE SAME TIME THE ARTIST IS HIGHLIGHTING ALL OF THE DETAILS AND COLOURS CONTAINED WITHIN THAT BIG PICTURE. SO YOU CAN APPRECIATE THE BIG PICTURE AND THE DETAILS AT THE SAME TIME.

Seurat painted over 3 million coloured dots to create La Grande Jatte. Look at all the different colours in this detail of the painting:

Now look again at the full picture – do you see it differently?


Image source: http://www.viewfinderscameraclub.org.uk/Digital/ImageSizing/ImageSizing_microdetail-01.jpg

http://www.viewfinderscameraclub.org.uk/Digital/ImageSizing/ImageSizing_microdetail-01.jpg

http://www.viewfinderscameraclub.org.uk/Digital/ImageSizing/ImageSizing_microdetail-01.jpg

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Look up Five Pieces for Orchestra by Arnold Schoenberg. Find No3, which is called ‘Farben’

‘Farben’ means colours in German You will be able to hear many different

instrumental colours in this music Listen to the first 15 seconds of the

piece Can you hear the colours of all the

different instruments in the orchestra? Now listen to a whole minute of the

piece Can you hear how Schoenberg has

formed a melody out of many different notes?

Listening Exercise


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• The principle behind pointillism is now used in colour printing: printers use the combination of four colours – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black) – to recreate pictures. This is commonly known as the CMYK colour model

• A printer will layer tiny dots of these four colours onto a white background in the order they’re abbreviated, and the particular patterns and combinations of dots are what make the overall image.

• Here’s an extreme closeup of a printed page. Just imagine all of the tiny coloured dots that go into any printed image!

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Image source: http://www.joseoira.com/websites/1/images/ct-cmyk-closeup.gif

http://www.joseoira.com/websites/1/images/ct-cmyk-closeup.gif

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• Some other artists have borrowed the concept of pointillism in their own way

• One method that’s become quite popular is a photomosaic, where artists use many photographs to make up one big photograph

• Look at this photomosaic created by Adam Finkelstein and Sandy Farrier. It uses images of Marilyn Monroe to create an image of John F. Kennedy


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Image source: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~af/cool/jfk-mm.html

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~af/cool/jfk-mm.html

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Since this work was created in 1993, photomosaics have become more detailed and sophisticated

Now there are even computer programs that will help you create your own!


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Pointillist art was created more than twenty years before pointillist music, but composers chose to borrow the term pointillist to describe their music because they felt it was a very similar concept.

There are many other ‘-isms’ in music and art that share a name like this, such as romanticism and impressionism. Can you think of any more?

Why do you think they fall under the same term?

Compare the terms in art and music:

How are they similar or different?

When did they take place in history?

How might they have influenced each other?


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There are many terms like colour that are used in both art and music. Here are some more examples:

Texture

Composition

Brightness and Darkness

Rhythm

Line

Form Why do you think there are so many

words like this? What do these terms mean in art? Do you know what they mean in

music? Do they have a similar meaning in

each context?Copyright RSNO Education and Community Partnerships unless otherwise stated.

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Like other post-impressionist painters, Seurat and Signac developed their technique in reaction to impressionism

How is pointillism similar to impressionism? How is it different?

Post-impressionism is one of many movements in art that react to a previous movement: for instance, neo-classicism was a reaction to classicism

Why do you think artists ‘react’ to previous artists’ work in this way?

Is it better to build on past concepts, or try to do something completely different?

Schoenberg was a painter himself! Look up his paintings – are they at all similar to his music? How?


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EXPERIENCES AND OUTCOMES

I can analyse art and design techniques, processes and concepts, make informed judgements and express considered opinions on my own and others’ work [EXA 4-07a]


pointillism

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