Art Explainer 2: Surface and Depth

What makes paintings feel as deep as the view from a window or as flat as a wall?
Learn more about these artworks:
Poussin landscape: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/5848?search_no=15&index=3
Harnett still life:
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/111377?search_no=18&index=16
Mondrian painting: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/109819?search_no=22&index=19

Using three artworks from the Art Institute’s collection, this video unpacks a central theme and uses innovative visual storytelling to highlight the choices artists made to shape form and meaning in their works.

Art Explainer videos empower you to look at and understand art from any historical period or culture. Designed for students as well as adults, this video series is produced for the web and usable in a wide range of learning environments, from mobile devices to formal school classrooms.

Artwork credits:
Albert André
Woman Reading Before Window, 1903
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1937.1013

Nicolas Poussin
Landscape with Saint John on Patmos, 1640
A. A. Munger Collection, 1930.500

Giovanni Battista Piranesi
View of the Mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian (now called Castel S. Angelo) from the rear, from Views of Rome, 1750/59
The Charles Deering Collection, 1927.4818

Giovanni Battista Piranesi
View of the Basilica of S. Paolo fuori delle Mura [St. Paul outside the Walls], built by Constantine the Great, from Views of Rome, 1750/59
The Charles Deering Collection, 1927.4810

William Michael Harnett
Just Dessert, 1891
Friends of American Art Collection, 1942.50

William Michael Harnett
For Sunday’s Dinner, 1888
Wilson L. Mead Fund, 1958.296

William Michael Harnett
Still Life — Five Dollar Bill, 1943
Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Alex Simpson, Jr., Collection

Piet Mondrian
Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray, 1921
Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., 1957.307

Piet Mondrian
Broadway Boogie-Woogie, 1942-1943
Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art
Licenses by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

Piet Mondrian
Composition with Yellow, Blue and red, 1937-42
Piet Mondrian; Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red, Photographic Rights © Tate 2016, CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0