Black-figure

Examples of Black-figure in the following topics:

• Ceramics in the Greek Archaic Period

  • Instead of painting a figure with black slip and using a burin to scrape away the slip to create details, red-figure painting has the background painted black and the figures left the red color of the terra cotta.
  • One side depicted the scene in black-figure and the other side depicted the scene in red-figure.
  • Athenian Black-figure amphora.
  • Athenian black-figure volute krater.
  • Black-figure side of a bilingual amphora.

• Vase Painting in the Orientalizing Period

  • During the Orientalizing period in Corinth, human figures were rarely seen on vases.
  • This oriental black figure style originated in the city of Corinth, spread to Athens, and was exported throughout Greece.
  • The Corinthians developed the technique of black figure painting during this period.
  • Black figure pottery was carefully constructed and fired three different times to produce the unique red and black colors on each vase.
  • The black color came from a slip painted onto the vessel, after which incised lines were drawn on to outline and detail the figures.

• Etruscan Ceramics

  • The Etruscans are known for their production of impasto and bucchero pottery, as well as local versions of black- and red-figure vase painting.
  • After it is fired, its surface becomes black and glossy.
  • Initially, Etruscan vases followed examples of black-figure vase painting from Corinth and East Greece.
  • The black-figure style ended about 480 BCE.
  • In pseudo-red-figure painting, internal details were marked by incision, similar to the usual practice in black-figure vase painting, rather than painted on, as in true red-figure.

• Ceramics in the Greek Early Classical Period

  • The Classical period witnessed the continuation of red- and black-figure painting techniques on ceramic objects.
  • While artists continued to produce black-figure-paintings into the second century BCE, the technique became increasingly rare, overtaken about 520 BCE by red-figure painting.
  • Their main characteristic is that they maintained features of black-figure vase painting in the red-figure technique.
  • His unique style depicted figures, isolated from context, on a small ground line against a glossy black background.
  • Attic white-ground black-figure lekythos.

• Painting during the Tang Dynasty

  • The Tang Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese civilization, and Chinese figure painting developed dramatically during this time.
  • Figure painting eventually reached the height of elegant realism in the art of the court of Southern Tang (937-975).
  • Most of the Tang artists outlined figures with fine black lines and used brilliant colors and elaborate detail.
  • However, Wu Daozi used only black ink and freely painted brushstrokes to create ink paintings that were so exciting, crowds gathered to watch him work.

• The Southwest

  • For hundreds of years, the Anasazi created utilitarian grayware and black-on-white pottery, as well as orange or red ceramics.
  • These were usually finished with polished surfaces and decorated with black painted designs.
  • Among Hopi ritual art is the kachina figure, which is to instruct young girls and new brides about katsinas or katsinam, the immortal beings that bring rain, control other aspects of the natural world and society, and act as messengers between humans and the spirit world.
  • Artisans produced jewelry from shell, stone, bone and carved stone figures.
  • The Kachina figure originated in the eighteenth century as a flat object with an almost indistinguishable shape that suggested a head and contained minimal body paint.

• Sculpture of the Qin Dynasty

  • Other terracotta non-military figures were found in other pits, including officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians.
  • The figures were painted in bright pigments before being placed into the vault, and the original colors of pink, red, green, blue, black, brown, white, and lilac were visible when the pieces were first unearthed.
  • The figures were constructed in several poses, including standing infantry, kneeling archers, and charioteers with horses.
  • Along with the colored lacquer finish, the individual facial features would have given the figures a realistic feel.
  • The terracotta army figures were manufactured in workshops by government laborers and local craftsmen using local materials.

• Yoruba Artwork in the transAfrican Context

  • The transAfrican style of art was manifest in the work of Jeff Donaldson, an African American visual artist whose work helped define the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
  • In the midst of the racial and cultural turmoil of the 1960s, a group of African-American artists endeavored to relate its artwork to the black masses.
  • One of his key works, Victory in the Valley of Eshu (1970), depicts an elderly black couple holding what appears to be an eye-shaped pinwheel.
  • This effect achieves the celebration aspect of black art: an art that, as stated by Donaldson, defines, glorifies, and directs black people—an art for the people's sake.
  • The notion of shine is conveyed through the collection of small dots of color in the figures' hair and surrounding their bodies.

• Political Art: Race and Ethnicity in the 1990s

  • Common tactics include re-figuring logos, fashion statements, and product images as a means to challenge the idea of "what's cool" along with assumptions about the personal freedoms of consumption.
  • Post-black art is a phrase that refers to a category of contemporary African American art.
  • It uses enigmatic themes wherein black can substitute for white.
  • Some suggest the term is attributable to the 1995 book, The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson.
  • While the notion of "post-black" attempts to avoid identity labels, the title of "post-black" serves as an ethnic marker.

• Painting of the Early Dynastic Period

  • Their main colors were red, blue, black, gold, and green.
  • The main figures in reliefs adhere to the same figure convention as in painting, with parted legs (where not seated) and head shown from the side, but the torso from the front, and a standard set of proportions making up the figure, using 18 "fists" to go from the ground to the hair-line on the forehead.
  • Small figures of deities, or their animal personifications, are commonly found in popular materials such as pottery.
  • There were also large numbers of small carved objects, from figures of the gods to toys and carved utensils.
  • The main colors used were red, blue, black, gold, and green.