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The Best Episodes of How to Look at and Understand Great Art

Every episode of How to Look at and Understand Great Art ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of How to Look at and Understand Great Art!

The Best Episodes of How to Look at and Understand Great Art

Contemplate the "anti-art" spirit of Dadaism, its nihilistic yet humorous indictment of civilization and bizarre use of unconventional media. In the sensibility of Surrealism, observe...

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  1. Background image for The Importance of First Impressions
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    #1 - The Importance of First Impressions

    S1:E1

    Examine the contexts and environments in which we encounter art and their critical effect on our viewing experience. Consider ways of displaying and framing paintings, as well as key parameters for viewing sculpture. Then, learn the predominant genres of Western art, and the artist's media, tools, and techniques.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for Where Am I? Point of View and Focal Point
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    #2 - Where Am I? Point of View and Focal Point

    S1:E2

    Explore how point of view—the artist's positioning of the viewer with respect to the image—works in painting and sculpture, paying particular attention to differences in angle and spatial relation. Then, continue with focal point, or the artist's centering of attention on a key area of the work.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  3. Background image for Color—Description, Symbol, and More
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    #3 - Color—Description, Symbol, and More

    S1:E3

    Uncover the core principles of color in painting, including the distinctions of value and saturation and the relationship of colors as analogous or complementary. See how major works of art achieve their power and meaning through color, as seen in celebrated canvases by Seurat, Gauguin, and Van Gogh.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  4. Background image for Line—Description and Expression
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    #4 - Line—Description and Expression

    S1:E4

    Discover the properties of line, another essential element of art, as "descriptive" (describing reality) or "expressional" (conveying feeling). Learn about the use of geometric lines, implied lines, and directional lines within a composition. Also, study the compelling, psychological use of line in Picasso's works, Seurat's "The Circus", and in key Modern and Expressionist works.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for Space, Shape, Shade, and Shadow
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    #5 - Space, Shape, Shade, and Shadow

    S1:E5

    Examine geometric and "organic" shapes in painting and sculpture and the crucial relationship of figure to ground and mass to space. Then, explore the illusionistic use of shading, shadows, and overlapping shapes in Caravaggio's and Friedrich's works, and the compositional power of shapes in paintings such as Matisse's "Dance" and Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam".

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for Seeing the Big Picture—Composition
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    #6 - Seeing the Big Picture—Composition

    S1:E6

    Define symmetry and asymmetry in painting and sculpture, and the key effects on the viewer of each. Also, study scale and proportion of figures, and the distinction between "open" and "closed" composition, reflecting the artist's approach to visually framing the image.

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    Director:Unknown
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    The 20 WORST Episodes of How to Look at and Understand Great Art

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  8. Background image for The Illusion—Getting the Right Perspective
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    #7 - The Illusion—Getting the Right Perspective

    S1:E7

    Tracking the history of illusionism in Western art, grasp the principles of linear perspective, foreshortening, and atmospheric perspective as they replicate how the human eye perceives. See how artists, including Cézanne and Van Gogh, manipulated perspective for their own creative ends, and observe the extreme illusionism of trompe l'oeil and anamorphosis.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for Art That Moves Us—Time and Motion
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    #8 - Art That Moves Us—Time and Motion

    S1:E8

    Explore how artists evoke motion and the passage of time, including implying motion through strong directional lines and time through narrative devices. Study approaches to implied motion in Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and Op art, and the use of actual motion in performance art and modern sculpture.

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    Director:Unknown
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  10. Background image for Feeling with Our Eyes—Texture and Light
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    #9 - Feeling with Our Eyes—Texture and Light

    S1:E9

    Here, consider texture in sculpture as an aid to meaning in sculptures by Rodin, Donatello, and Bernini, and the painter's use of paint as a way to capture texture and light on canvas. Then observe the virtuoso representation of texture by master painters Ingres and Titian, and the handling of light and shadow in works by Renoir and Georges de la Tour.

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    Director:Unknown
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  11. Background image for Drawing—Dry, Liquid, and Modern Media
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    #10 - Drawing—Dry, Liquid, and Modern Media

    S1:E10

    In this first lecture on genre, define the various purposes of drawings, from "croquis" drawing to capture a pose or action, to successive sketches visualizing larger works, to finished drawings as a distinct art. Study the diverse media of drawing, focusing on master drawings in metalpoint, charcoal, ink, pastel, and pencil.

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    Director:Unknown
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  12. Background image for Printmaking—Relief and Intaglio
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    #11 - Printmaking—Relief and Intaglio

    S1:E11

    The medium of prints attracted great artists from Dürer and Rembrandt to Ensor and Picasso. Using studio demonstrations, study the expressive means and contrasting techniques of relief printmaking, including woodcut, wood engraving, and linocut, and intaglio printmaking, including metal engraving, etching, mezzotint, and aquatint.

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    Director:Unknown
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  13. Background image for Modern Printmaking—Planographic
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    #12 - Modern Printmaking—Planographic

    S1:E12

    This lecture explores the art of planographic printmaking, which allows artists to draw or paint directly on the printing surface. In detailed demonstrations and works by Daumier, Degas, and Warhol, grasp the techniques of lithography, silkscreen, and monotype, and explore the mastery of Whistler's lithograph "Nocturne: The Thames at Battersea."

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  14. Background image for Sculpture—Salt Cellars to Monuments
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    #13 - Sculpture—Salt Cellars to Monuments

    S1:E13

    Sculpture, as a genre, encompasses the full spectrum of three-dimensional artworks. In this lecture, investigate the varieties and viewing contexts of relief and in-the-round sculptures—from monumental public works and religious and historical subjects to assemblage, collage, found objects, and large-scale "earth art"—noting the technical distinction between subtractive and additive work.

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    Director:Unknown
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  15. Background image for Development of Painting—Tempera and Oils
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    #14 - Development of Painting—Tempera and Oils

    S1:E14

    Trace the history and technique of painting, beginning with the methodology of panel painting on wood; fresco painting, both wet and dry; and finally, oil painting and watercolor. Learn about types of oil paint, the mixing of colors, brushwork techniques, and the 19th-century phenomenon of plein air (outdoor) painting.

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    Director:Unknown
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  16. Background image for Modern Painting—Acrylics and Assemblages
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    #15 - Modern Painting—Acrylics and Assemblages

    S1:E15

    The lecture opens with a historical panorama of painting techniques, highlighting the diverse treatment of human faces. Then, it tracks 20th-century developments in nontraditional materials and methods of application, including the techniques of Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, and Jackson Pollock, as well as the contrasting strengths and mixed use of oil and acrylics.

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    Director:Unknown
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  17. Background image for Subject Matters
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    #16 - Subject Matters

    S1:E16

    Focusing on masterworks by Van Eyck and Rubens, define three levels of iconography (subject matter). Also study the academic codifying and ranking of subject matter in art, probing subject and deeper meaning in a variety of religious and history paintings, still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and genre works.

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    Director:Unknown
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  18. Background image for Signs—Symbols, Icons, and Indexes in Art
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    #17 - Signs—Symbols, Icons, and Indexes in Art

    S1:E17

    The richness of signs (signifiers) in art includes the use of symbols, icons, and indexes as they reveal layers of meaning. See how, in different historical eras, symbolic associations change over time, how icons visually represent a subject, and how indexes exhibit direct connections with the thing signified.

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  19. Background image for Portraits—How Artists See Others
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    #18 - Portraits—How Artists See Others

    S1:E18

    In examining the diverse functions and types of portraits, study the important elements of facial presentation and the subject's position and gaze with relation to the viewer and the pictorial space. See how Rembrandt added dramatic power to his group "corporation" portraits, and how David carefully rendered Napoleon in symbolic terms.

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  20. Background image for Self-Portraits—How Artists See Themselves
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    #19 - Self-Portraits—How Artists See Themselves

    S1:E19

    Across the centuries, self-portraits fascinatingly reveal the changing role of the artist. Follow this progression, from Renaissance painters subtly placing themselves within large compositions, to self-portraiture's emergence as a major form of self-revelation, noting many dramatic and colorful traditions within the form.

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    Director:Unknown
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  21. Background image for Landscapes—Art of the Great Outdoors
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    #20 - Landscapes—Art of the Great Outdoors

    S1:E20

    In this lecture on landscape painting, observe the classical, balanced division into foreground, middle, and background, and how Romantic painters altered these proportions to express drama, infinite space, and the sublime. Discover proportion and composition in landscapes of the Hudson River school, Luminism, Impressionism, and also the subgenres of seascapes and cityscapes.

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    Director:Unknown
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  22. Background image for Putting It All Together
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    #21 - Putting It All Together

    S1:E21

    This lecture integrates elements including color, line, shape, composition, light, symbolism, point of view, and focal point. Using the viewing tools you've developed, look deeply at four diverse masterpieces, including a sculpture by Thorvaldsen, a "vanitas" still life by Van Oosterwyck, a lithograph by Bonnard, and a painting by Van der Weyden.

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    Director:Unknown
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  23. Background image for Early Renaissance—Humanism Emergent
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    #22 - Early Renaissance—Humanism Emergent

    S1:E22

    Contemplate the Renaissance phenomena of classicism and humanism in 15th-century Italian art, which focused—even in religious art—on the human body, nature, and depictions of earthly life and the individual. Learn how to recognize Early Renaissance art in characteristic subject matter and stylistic technique.

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  24. Background image for Northern Renaissance—Devil in the Details
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    #23 - Northern Renaissance—Devil in the Details

    S1:E23

    Flanders and Germany also witnessed an explosion of art in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Define the stylistics of great Northern Renaissance oil painting, such as the use of cool light, richness of detail, and the depiction of fabric. Conclude by charting the development of the historical "canon" of universally recognized artworks.

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  25. Background image for High Renaissance—Humanism Perfected
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    #24 - High Renaissance—Humanism Perfected

    S1:E24

    The Italian High Renaissance saw the full flowering of humanism and classicism. With reference to the era's thought and practice, delve into masterpieces by three of history's greatest geniuses: Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. Last, explore the composition of Raphael's School of Athens as it represents the sublime embodiment of High Renaissance ideals.

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    Director:Unknown
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  26. Background image for Mannerism and Baroque—Distortion and Drama
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    #25 - Mannerism and Baroque—Distortion and Drama

    S1:E25

    Two important artistic movements followed the High Renaissance. Beginning with late Michelangelo, Tibaldi, and El Greco, explore the hallmarks of Mannerism, including deliberate distortions of proportion and perspective and use of tertiary colors. Then, in the works of Caravaggio, Rubens, and others, define the essence of Baroque art in its dramatic, exuberant expansion of classical style.

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Importance of First Impressions" is the best rated episode of "How to Look at and Understand Great Art". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 1/1/2011. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Where Am I? Point of View and Focal Point".