Compare and Contrast: Value

Understanding the Elements of Art using works from the Polk Museum of Art Collection

Roy Lichtenstein, Before the Mirror, 1975. Lithograph and screenprint with embossing on BFK Rives roll paper, Museum Purchase from Hamilton Art Gallery, Allentown, PA through the Douglass Screen Printers Serigraphy Collection Fund

Louise Cherwak, The Survivor, 1999. Graphite on paper. 2000 Mayfaire-by-the-Lake Purchase Award through the Kent Harrison Memorial Acquisition Fund

 

VALUE

the lightness or darkness of a color

Big Idea
Value is used to express three-dimensional form in two-dimensional works of art.

Discussion 1
How do these artists use tints and shades differently? (Sharp contrasts between light and dark versus subtle transitions between tones)

Discussion 2
What if the artist didn’t show light and dark values in these works? How would this change what you can understand about the object or person being portrayed? (e.g. wouldn’t know that the glass was three-dimensional, wouldn’t know The Survivor was portraying a sunny day)

Fast Facts

  • Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) was a Pop artist just like Andy Warhol was, and both were known for using recognizable images as their subject matter

  • Lithography is a printmaking process where each color is printed separately, one at a time, on the same surface, so this work had to be printed three times to be completed

  • Louise Cherwak (d. 2008) lived in Florida her entire life

  • Cherwak’s drawings are often mistaken for photographs

  • Cherwak used a range of 14 different graphite pencils to try to replicate the array of tones and essences of colors we would see in real life

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