Chinese Culture

Travis Heinz

Assignment 4 Compare and Contrast

We are comparing and contrasting cultural art. The art on the left is from a Native American culture, where as the art on the right is from a Chinese culture.

How do they Compare? As you can tell the pieces of art vary quite a bit between cultures. There are also similarities among the change. The Native American art is a symbolic piece of artwork representing more than the picture itself. The Chinese artwork is simply a portrait of Chinese woman in Hong Kong wearing cultural attire. The focus of power comes from the Native Artwork. With the Chinese art I get a feeling of authentic culture being represented.

How are they Similar? They are both cultural and represent meaning to the places they come from. They both place a lot of emphasis on the colors in the art, and they both have a good sense of unity throughout the art. They also both use asymmetrical visual balance. They also both use a lot of shape and contrasting colors.

How are they Different? The texture to start is very contrasting between the two pictures. The Native artwork being very rough, and the Chinese art being very smooth. The motion of the Chinese art is nonexistent there is nothing to keep your eyes moving, where as the Native artwork keeps your eyes moving from shape to shape. They used a lot of similar colors, but contrasted them in a different way. The scale and proportion are quite different one being a hand taking up the whole art and another being a whole head and some upper body. Lastly the Native artwork gives a more repetitious feeling by the shapes.

What are the Artistic Principles being used?

Visual Balance: They are both using Asymmetrical visual balance.

Repetition: The Native American piece has a lot of repetition in it through the shapes, colors, lines, and texture. The Chinese artwork has some repetition as far as lines as colors, and flowers.

Scale and Proportion: The Native Art has been scaled to the size of a hand holding a rod, but the scale is enlarged so that fist and the bottom of the rod are the whole picture. In the Chinese artwork the scale is less. The head, neck, and part of the upper body can be seen.

Emphasis: The emphasis of both of these pictures is there color. The Native art might have more of an emphasis on texture, but still has a big emphasis on color.

Time and Motion: The Chinese art did not give off a lot of motion, but the lines and shapes of the Native piece keep your eyes moving around the image.

Unity: Both artworks do a job of using good colors, and tying everything in the photo into the art.

Variety: They also both do a great job of using a variety of