Study Guide

Art
Sample Questions

Expand All | Collapse All

Competency 0001
Understand media, tools, techniques, and processes used in drawing.

1. Gesture drawing is most likely to be used for which of the following purposes?

  1. creating the illusion of depth in a form
  2. establishing the implied texture of a shape
  3. capturing the essence of a figure
  4. determining the scale of a subject
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. Gesture drawing is well suited to figure drawing because the principal purpose of gesture drawing is to quickly capture the essential shape of a figure.

Competency 0002
Understand media, tools, techniques, and processes used in painting.

2. An oil painter is most likely to use a mahlstick to:

  1. steady the painting hand.
  2. make thick paint marks on the support.
  3. mix dabs of paint on the palette.
  4. scrape off wet paint from the support.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. A mahlstick is a stick with a padded surface on one end. Mahlsticks are used to steady the painting hand in order to allow the painter to work on precise details of the painting. In use, the padded end of the mahlstick rests against the support, so as not to damage it, and the painter's wrist or forearm rests on the stick.

Competency 0003
Understand media, tools, techniques, and processes used in media arts.

3. In the process of creating a video game, a content designer can most help a level designer understand the look of the game and level-by-level play of the game by taking which of the following steps?

  1. determining a goal for the hero
  2. explaining the history behind the game's world
  3. creating a detailed storyboard
  4. designing avatars and background scenery
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. Video games are typically created by many people filling many roles. The content designer creates the story and mission of the game. Level designers create much of the aesthetic look and play options of each level of the game. A content designer can help level designers understand the levels they are tasked with creating by explaining the history of the world of the game that precedes the player playing the game.

Competency 0004
Understand media, tools, techniques, and processes used in printmaking and fiber arts, and jewelry.

4. Which of the following safety precautions will most help prevent injury during the process of cutting a block for a relief print?

  1. wearing work gloves
  2. using a mallet
  3. wearing safety glasses
  4. securing the block with a bench hook
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D. Because cutting a block for a relief print requires working with sharp tools that could lead to injury, it is important to keep the block secure when gouging. A bench hook keeps the block in place.

Competency 0005
Understand media, tools, techniques, and processes used in sculpture and ceramics.

5. Which of the following types of sculpture most exemplifies a subtractive process?

  1. assemblage
  2. relief carving
  3. papier-mâché
  4. lost-wax casting
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. Relief carving is a subtractive process in which the sculptor removes media until the subject projects from the background of the media but remains part of it.

Competency 0006
Understand the elements of art.

Use the reproduction below of Barber Shop (1946) by Jacob Lawrence to answer the two questions that follow.

Source: Lawrence, Jacob. Barber Shop, 1946. Gouache on paper, 211/8" x 293/8". Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A. Copyright © 2009 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation / Art Resource, NY.

6. In this work, the artist creates the appearance of depth of space primarily by:

  1. employing linear perspective.
  2. incorporating several different colors.
  3. overlapping shapes.
  4. contrasting values.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. In this work, the artist overlapped shapes so that some shapes appear to be in front of other shapes, establishing the illusion of depth in a flat picture plane.

Competency 0007
Understand the principles of design.

7. The repetition of shapes and diagonals in this work creates primarily a sense of:

  1. radial balance.
  2. emphasis.
  3. endless space.
  4. rhythm.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D. In this work, the artist created a sense of rhythm by repeating the shapes of the figures' heads and hands and the diagonal lines demarcating the edges of the clients' smocks and the barbers' arms.

Competency 0008
Understand aesthetics.

8. Which of the following aesthetic concepts or critical perspectives is most open to the idea that artworks have multiple meanings determined by each individual viewer and that a definitive, final interpretation of any given artwork cannot be achieved?

  1. contextualism
  2. deconstruction
  3. semiotics
  4. phenomenology
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. Deconstruction looks at every work of art as having multiple meanings. According to deconstruction, every viewer derives his or her own meaning from works of art and a definitive, final, authoritative interpretation of any artwork is not possible.

Competency 0009
Understand art criticism.

9. Use the reproduction below to answer the question that follows.

Source: Padula, Warren. Mouth, 1996. Reprinted by permission of Warren Padula.

Which of the following interpretations of the artist's use of viewpoint in this photograph is most plausible?

  1. It obscures the true essence of the subject.
  2. It creates a visual metaphor that reinforces the work's message.
  3. It captures an image that would otherwise be too fleeting to see.
  4. It manipulates scale to create a false sense of depth.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. For this photograph, the artist used a unique viewpoint that resulted in the long supermarket food cooler taking on the appearance of a gaping mouth. This visual metaphor reinforces the work's comment on the enormous appetite of consumer culture.

Competency 0010
Understand connections between visual arts and connections between visual arts and other academic disciplines.

10. Which of the following art movements was inspired by French political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas that humans are naturally positive, compassionate beings who lose this nature when corrupted by society?

  1. neoclassicism
  2. dada
  3. romanticism
  4. impressionism
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that humanity in its most primitive state is essentially kind and decent, and that society is a corrupting influence on these positive human virtues. His idea that the path to freedom from such corruption was through human feeling instead of through thinking inspired the artists of the romantic movement.

Competency 0011
Understand works of art from various cultures of Africa and the Middle East from ancient times to the present.

11. Use the reproduction below to answer the question that follows.

Source: Unknown artist. Nkondi tatu oath taking figure. Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY. Used with permission.

In the Kongo culture, nkisi nkonde sculptures, such as the one shown, are believed to become endowed with specific powers through the placement of particular substances into the container near the figure's abdominal region. Individuals can then activate these powers in times of need by driving a nail or other object into the figure. This use of art indicates that the Kongo culture values art as a way to:

  1. unite the community.
  2. exert control over life events.
  3. memorialize ancestors.
  4. express personal emotions.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. Individuals interact with the nkisi nkonde sculptures to summon spirits to help them with a wide range of concerns, such as curing illness and stimulating crop growth. In this way, the Kongo people value art as a way to exert control over their lives.

Competency 0012
Understand works of art from various cultures of Asia and Oceania from ancient times to the present.

12. In traditional Tibetan Buddhist sandpainting, monks work in groups for many days pouring brightly colored powders on a flat surface to create complex, symbolic compositions known as mandalas. After a short time, the work is destroyed, representing the impermanence of life. This is an example of the function of art as a:

  1. form of entertainment.
  2. means of social commentary.
  3. spiritual practice.
  4. documentation of history.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. The ritual of constructing and destroying sandpaintings is considered a spiritual practice and a step in the Tibetan Buddhist path to enlightenment.

Competency 0013
Understand works of art from various cultures of Central and South America from ancient times to the present.

13. Use the reproduction below to answer the question that follows.

Source: Unknown artist. Moche deer-headed warrior (450–550). Reprinted by permission of Museo Larco. Lima, Peru.

The stirrup spout and animal form of the work shown are characteristic of the early art of:

  1. Peru.
  2. Mexico.
  3. Panama.
  4. Argentina.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. This ceramic jar's naturalistic depiction of an animal and its stirrup spout are characteristic of the art of the Moche people of Peru.

Competency 0014
Understand works of art from various cultures of Europe from ancient times to the present.

14. The twentieth-century Futurist art movement sought to create art that:

  1. celebrated the speed and technology of modern life.
  2. criticized the senseless brutality of war.
  3. promoted the spiritual importance of the natural world.
  4. explored the depths of the artists' psyches.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. The Futurist movement began in 1909 when the Italian poet Filippo Marinetti wrote a manifesto calling for a new kind of art. Futurism rejected tradition and celebrated the speed of urban life and the triumph of technology over nature. Youth and violence were also themes of the movement.

Competency 0015
Understand works of art from various cultures of North America from ancient times to the present.

15. Use the reproduction below to answer the question that follows.

Source: Unknown artist. Image of Navajo blanket, Banded background, 1870–1875. Length 75", Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, William Randolph Hearst Collection, Anthropology Department, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Used with permission.

The geometric patterns used on the woven Navajo blanket shown reflect an influence from artistic traditions common in:

  1. Alaska.
  2. Mexico.
  3. Hawaii.
  4. Canada.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. In the 1860s, the Navajo people were forcibly relocated to New Mexico by the U.S. government. It was there that Navajo weavers were influenced by the designs of Mexican serapes—woven garments that frequently featured geometric motifs.