AP Art History : AP Art History

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Art History

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Example Questions

Example Question #5 : Analyzing Twentieth And Twenty First Century 2 D Art

Which of the following best describes the purpose of Picasso's Guernica?

Possible Answers:

A reaction to industrialization

A response to Fascist violence during the Spanish civil war

An exploration of human relationships

A reflection on the purpose of war

Correct answer:

A response to Fascist violence during the Spanish civil war

Explanation:

Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937) was painted in response to the Fascist bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The black-and-white cubist painting uses animal imagery to denote brutality and darkness, as well as a women with a torch to symbolize freedom.

Example Question #5 : Analyzing Twentieth And Twenty First Century 2 D Art

All of the following statements are true of Henri Matisse's Red Room (Harmony in Red) except ___________.

Possible Answers:

as a development of fauvism, color here is utilized as the formal element most responsible for pictorial coherence and is the primary conveyor of meaning

this painting testifies to the Fauve movement's interest in color's structural, expressive, and aesthetic capabilities

the rich contrasting colors here give this simple scene much of its emotional intensity

this painting demonstrates the fauvist tendency to use mixed, muted colors to convey meaning, rather than pure, intense hues

the objects are depicted in a simplified and schematized fashion with flattened-out forms

Correct answer:

this painting demonstrates the fauvist tendency to use mixed, muted colors to convey meaning, rather than pure, intense hues

Explanation:

Henri Matisse and the Fauve movement where primarily interested in intense, unadulterated color as a formal element to convey meaning. The colors in this painting imbue it with deep emotional intensity.

Example Question #6 : Analyzing Twentieth And Twenty First Century 2 D Art

Kirchner   selbstbildnis als soldat

Which conflict most inspired the work shown here?

Possible Answers:

Napoleonic Wars

Franco-Prussian War

World War II

World War I

Correct answer:

World War I

Explanation:

Self-Portrait as a Soldier was painted in 1915, just after the artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner had volunteered for service in World War I and quickly been discharged for mental health reasons. The alienation and detachment is shown by the off color in the main subject's skin tone and his missing hand, while his pride of being a soldier is evident in the prominence of the military uniform. With the general abstractness and surreality of the expressionists present before World War I, the horrors and frustrations of the conflict made post-war expressionism much darker in both color and subject.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirchner_-_Selbstbildnis_als_Soldat.jpg

Example Question #7 : Analyzing Twentieth And Twenty First Century 2 D Art

Piet Mondrian's Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow from 1930 represents the artist's style by featuring ___________________.

Possible Answers:

wide use of natural light elements

obvious brushstrokes in bright colors

abstract representations of natural figures

large blocks of the primary colors

Correct answer:

large blocks of the primary colors

Explanation:

Piet Mondrian was a part of the Dutch artistic movement known as De Stijl, Dutch for simply "The Style," a group of painters working before the First World War who attempted to distill art to its basic elements. Between the World Wars, Mondrian pushed ahead with similar work in Paris he termed "Neoplasticism." Mondrian's hallmarks from this period were thick black horizontal and vertical lines across a white canvas, while inside some of the resultant rectangular shapes were large blocks of primary colors.

Example Question #8 : Analyzing Twentieth And Twenty First Century 2 D Art

Georges Braque used stencilled letters in this work in order to __________________.

Possible Answers:

force the viewer to see the work outside of representational terms

underscore the tie to realistic representation in the overall work

draw a contrast to the strong imagery in the rest of the work

label his work with the piece's title

Correct answer:

force the viewer to see the work outside of representational terms

Explanation:

The letters “D BAL” are stenciled in the upper right corner of Portuguese, placed there by Georges Braque seemingly separately from the rest of the painting. As a cubist artist, Braque’s intention was to deconstruct the very concept of representation and clear imagery and present art in a new manner. Including the stencilled letters further reinforces the way in which the work of art intentionally separates itself from the traditional expectations of painting.

Example Question #341 : Ap Art History

George Braque’s frequent choice of a monochromatic color palette allows for ________________.

Possible Answers:

the viewer to focus on the main image of the work

deeper color saturation throughout the work

sharper contrast between dark and light in the work

the fragmented nature of the work to be minimized

Correct answer:

the viewer to focus on the main image of the work

Explanation:

Georges Braque intentionally picked a monochromatic palette for his cubist works to highlight the way he deconstructed his images into framents. With a monochromatic palette, the viewer would have to focus on Braque’s lines and geometric shapes, rather than be distracted by blocks of saturated color or sharp contrasts between light and dark elements.

Example Question #342 : Ap Art History

Mark Rothko's mature work is notable for all of the following recurring features except ___________________.

Possible Answers:

Two to four floating shapes against a vertical background

A large scale

Paint applied in thin washes

Translucent rectangles of color

Monochromaticism

Correct answer:

Monochromaticism

Explanation:

All of these are features of Rothko's work with rectangles except the notion that his works were monochromatic -in fact, the colors he employed varied over the course of his career, beginning as bright contrasting hues and moving toward darker maroons and blacks.

Example Question #343 : Ap Art History

Screen printing is an artistic method that allows for __________.

Possible Answers:

transforms the brushstrokes in a painting into different shapes

projects an image onto a canvas to allow for hand copying

reproduction of an image on different pieces of art

transforms the colors on a canvas painting

Correct answer:

reproduction of an image on different pieces of art

Explanation:

The technique of screen printing involves taking a stamp, covering it with cotton mesh, and inking the stamp onto a canvas to produce an exact image from the stamp. The technique, first developed in the early twentieth century, allows an artist to reproduce the same image repetitively on different pieces of art. This ability was used by Pop Artists like Andy Warhol to create similar images onto canvases which he then painted in a variety of colors to make similar, yet highly diverse, series of images.

Example Question #2 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Twentieth And Twenty First Century 2 D Art

Surrealism is the style most closely associated with which of the following artists?

Possible Answers:

Salvador Dalí

Henri Matisse

Pablo Picasso

Amedeo Modigliani

Correct answer:

Salvador Dalí

Explanation:

Surrealism was inspired by the work of pioneering psychologists like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and used odd, dreamlike imagery in realistic lines and shapes. Its most famous figure was Salvador Dalí, who was the archetypical surrealist. Dali's painting often featured familiar images juxtaposed with strange objects in barren and off-putting landscapes.

Example Question #15 : Twentieth And Twenty First Century 2 D Art

The American painter Grant Wood is most closely associated with the artistic movement known as __________.

Possible Answers:

regionalism

neo-classicalism

pop art

abstract expressionism

Correct answer:

regionalism

Explanation:

Grant Wood lived almost his entire life in the state of Iowa, teaching at schools and supporting organizations in the state. His painting reflected this attachment to his native region, and were articulated by Wood, along with Thomas Hart Benton, into an artistic style known as "regionalism." Wood's most famous work "American Gothic," featuring a farming couple in an honest, empathetic, yet slightly off perspective, is emblematic of the style.

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