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with Ian Jehle

What do we mean when we say a work of art or a picture has depth? Does something in the picture look like it’s leaping off the page or is it a scene that feels like you could step into. How do artists make us see 3 dimensions when we look at a two dimensional image?

This class focuses on the principles used by artists, architects, engineers, designers, and mathematicians to depict three dimensions on a two dimensional surface. We will start by talking about the classical method of one and two point perspective formalized during the Italian Renaissance. Then we will move on to isometric projection, which is one of the most common ways that architects and engineers describe three-dimensional space. These two methods are rooted in mathematics and speak to a time when creative thinkers were often both artists scientists. But space is more than mathematics. Space is part of how our minds perceive and navigate the world. So we will also discuss other methods for depicting space from various cultures and eras  that are related to our experience of the natural world. These will include atmospheric perspective employed most notably by Leonardo da Vinci as well as the stacked and elastic methods used by traditional Chinese and Japanese artists. We will conclude with the view from a train method used by Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Modules: 

• One point perspective in the renaissance and beyond
• Two and three point perspective end it uses in contemporary design
• Isometric perspective and the art of IKEA
• Atmospheric perspective from Leonardo and Whistler
• Stacked perspective in vertical Chinese painting
• The art of the mysterious world: elastic space in Japanese scroll painting
• The view from a train: Siqueiros and the art of the mural