NES Profile: Art (503)

Which of the following best defines a culture's aesthetic?

1. the features that differentiate the culture's artworks from other cultures' artworks
2. the degree to which art is incorporated into the culture's daily life
3. the degree of originality with which artists in the culture use art media, tools, processes, and techniques
4. the criteria used within the culture to determine the artistic value of an object

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D. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of aesthetic concepts in addressing aesthetic questions. The aesthetic of a specific culture is defined by the criteria the culture uses to determine an object's artistic value.

The lens distorts the straight lines of the shelves of dairy products and of the lighting in both the upper edge and lower rim of the cooler. The distortion results in a shape that resembles an open mouth, with the lighting at the top forming the upper lip, the rim at the bottom forming the lower lip, and the dairy products filling the space inside.

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

The most significant effect of the artist's use of viewpoint in this photograph is that it:

1. obscures the true essence of the subject.
2. creates a visual metaphor that reinforces the work's message.
3. captures an image that would otherwise be too fleeting to see.
4. manipulates scale to create a false sense of depth.

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B. This question requires the examinee to apply critical processes and principles to analyze a work of art. For this photograph, the artist used a unique viewpoint that resulted in the long supermarket food cooler having the appearance of a gaping mouth. This visual metaphor reinforces the work's comment on the enormous appetite of consumer culture.