CLEP Humanities : Visual Arts

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for CLEP Humanities

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Example Questions

Example Question #2 : Answering Other Questions About 2 D Visual Art

The artistic movement known as Impressionism was reacting against what establishment that set standards in French culture?

Possible Answers:

Le Salon de Paris

L'ecole des Beaux Arts

Le Sorbonne

Le Exposition Universelle de 1889

Le Salon d'Automne

Correct answer:

Le Salon de Paris

Explanation:

The Salon was the absolute pinnacle of the French art world from 1725 to 1890. In the late nineteenth century, the committee in charge of what art work was shown at the Salon valued grand historical and dramatic landscape paintings done in a clean realist style. The Impressionists desired to make paintings of vivid emotion with visible brushstrokes about scenes of everyday life.

Example Question #3 : Answering Other Questions About 2 D Visual Art

Which 19th-century art movement began in Paris with an emphasis on the changing quality of light and visible brushstrokes?

Possible Answers:

Impressionism

Neoclassicism

Cubism

Expressionism

Modernism

Correct answer:

Impressionism

Explanation:

Expressionism and Cubism began in the 20th century. Becoming more popular after World War I, Modernism led to more abstract works. Neoclassicism began during the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century and recalled the art and culture of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.

Example Question #42 : 2 D Visual Art

The artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns all belonged to what artistic movement?

Possible Answers:

Pop Art

Cubism

Dadaism

Impressionism

Abstract Expressionism

Correct answer:

Pop Art

Explanation:

Andy Warhol's most famous works are screen prints of familiar images, often in odd or bright colors. Jasper Johns appropriated national symbols in his paintings, but in altered forms. Roy Lichtenstein directly copied panels from comic books, down to the dialogue. All of these methods are representative of Pop Art, a 1950s and 60s artistic movement that sought to use popular forms and new technologies to change the nature of high art.

Example Question #2 : Identifying Artists, Works, And Schools Of 2 D Visual Art From The Twentieth Century

Which of the following artists was not a painter known for cubist canvases?

Possible Answers:

Pablo Picasso

Georges Braque

Juan Gris

Fernand Leger

Amedeo Modigliani

Correct answer:

Amedeo Modigliani

Explanation:

Cubism burst onto the art scene in Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century, with various artists creating avant garde images based more on representative shapes and symbols rather than strict representations. Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Georges Braques, and Fernand Leger were among its most notable proponents. Amedeo Modigliani was a contemporary of the cubists, but worked in modernist approaches to portraits that featured elongated lines and dark colors.

Example Question #3 : Identifying Artists, Works, And Schools Of 2 D Visual Art From The Twentieth Century

Which Pablo Picasso painting commemorates a gruesome bombing during the Spanish Civil War?

Possible Answers:

Las Meninas

The Weeping Woman

The Dream and Lie of Franco

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Guernica

Correct answer:

Guernica

Explanation:

During the Spanish Civil War, Francisco Franco's nationalist forces were supported by the German military led by the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. In one of the more notable aspects of the war, the German Air Force bombed the Spanish, Republican-held town of Guernica in 1937. That same year, Pablo Picasso made a massive canvas, entirely in black and white, that used gruesome abstract shapes and symbols to convey war's horrors and tragedies. The painting was instantly famous, and caused Picasso to be unable to travel to Franco's Spain.

Example Question #451 : Clep: Humanities

Salvador Dali belonged to what artistic school?

Possible Answers:

Cubism

Surrealism

Impressionism

Abstract Expressionism

Pointillism

Correct answer:

Surrealism

Explanation:

Salvador Dali's works were defined by realistic-looking objects placed in strange landscapes and weird positions. All of these are hallmarks of surrealism, which was influenced by the burgeoning field of psychotherapy, and drew on dreamlike imagery and situations. Dali helped pioneer surrealism, and remains one of its best-known artists.

Example Question #61 : Visual Arts

Peter Carl Fabergé is an influential artist known for what making what kind of art?

Possible Answers:

Portraits of the Russian nobility

Landscape paintings

Minimalist photography

Sculpture

Ceramic eggs

Correct answer:

Ceramic eggs

Explanation:

Fabergé is known for his ceramic eggs, also known as "Fabergé eggs," which were given as gifts to the Russian nobility during the early twentieth century.

Example Question #6 : Identifying Artists, Works, And Schools Of 2 D Visual Art From The Twentieth Century

Guernica was painted by which of the following artists?

Possible Answers:

Paul Cézanne

Edgar Degas

Claude Monet

Salvador Dali

Pablo Picasso

Correct answer:

Pablo Picasso

Explanation:

Pablo Picasso painted Guernica in 1937 in response to Franco's fascist Spain.

Example Question #1 : Identifying Artists, Works, And Schools Of 2 D Visual Art From The Twentieth Century

The American pop artist who created a piece of art based on the labels on the cans of a certain brand of soup was __________.

Possible Answers:

Mark Rothko

Roy Lichtenstein

Andy Warhol

Jackson Pollack

Jasper Johns

Correct answer:

Andy Warhol

Explanation:

Andy Warhol's 1962 series Campbell's Soup Cans was 32 separate screen-printed paintings of cans of Campbell's soup, each one depicting one of the different varieties Campbell offered at the time. The work featured many of Warhol's hallmarks, including screen-printing, repetition, and the use of commercial imagery. The work was Warhol's first well known piece, and helped launch his career, which would see him as a painter, filmmaker, art theorist, and screen-printer.

Example Question #3 : Identifying Artists, Works, And Schools Of 2 D Visual Art From The Twentieth Century

The pop artist whose most famous works are large canvasses of images taken from comic books is __________.

Possible Answers:

Jasper Johns

Robert Rauschenberg

David Hockney

Roy Lichtenstein

Andy Warhol

Correct answer:

Roy Lichtenstein

Explanation:

Pop Art as a general movement sought to bring post-World War II American popular culture into high art. One of the more famous approaches to this was Roy Lichtenstein's appropriation of comic book imagery. Lichtenstein painted all of his canvases by hand, but would copy one frame from a comic, including shaded dots, dialogue bubbles, and weak colors, onto a large canvas.

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