ornament

Examples of ornament in the following topics:

• American Art Deco Architecture

  • The Art Deco style is often characterized by its use of rich colors, symmetry, bold geometric shapes, simple composition, rectilinear rather than curvilinear shapes, and lavish ornamentation.
  • Streamline Moderne was a concept first created by industrial designers, who stripped Art Deco design of its ornament in favor of the aerodynamic pure-line concept of motion and speed developed from scientific thinking.
  • Gone was unnecessary ornament.
  • The sunburst design executed in terracotta exemplifies Art Deco's characteristic combination of craft, ornament and geometrical motif.
  • The opulent Art Deco spire of the Chrysler Building in New York City, designed by William Van Alen, was built 1928–1930 and reflects the earlier lavish ornamentation, yet simple and streamlined composition of the style.

• Metalwork of the Inca

  • The Inca were well-known for their use of gold, silver, copper, bronze, and other metals for tools, weapons, and decorative ornaments.
  • Drawing much of their inspiration and style in metalworking from Chimú art, the Incas used metals for utilitarian purposes as well as ornaments and decorations.
  • Gold and silver were used for ornaments and decorations and reserved for the highest classes of Inca society, including priests, lords, and the Sapa Inca, or emperor.

• Kuba

  • Kuba have been described as a people who cannot bear to leave a surface without ornament.
  • They have been described as a people who cannot bear to leave a surface without ornament.
  • The color red is essential to the Kuba concept of beauty and was therefore used to ornament the face, hair and chest during dances and important ceremonies, as well as to anoint bodies for burial.

• Modern Architecture: Form Follows Function

  • Modern architecture adhered to Louis Sullivan's famous precept, "Form follows function," which meant the absence of ornamentation.
  • Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and by the creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building.
  • The approach of the Modernist architects was to reduce buildings to pure forms, removing historical references and ornament in favor of functionalist details.

• Postmodern

  • Postmodern architecture was a response to Modernism and a return to wit, ornamentation, and previous architectural traditions.
  • Postmodernity in architecture is said to be heralded by the return of wit, ornamentation, and references to previous architectural traditions.
  • Modernism's preoccupation with Functionalism and economical building meant that ornaments were done away with and that buildings appeared stark and merely functional.

• European Expressionist Architecture

  • While art nouveau had an organic freedom with ornament, expressionist architecture strove to free the form of the whole building instead of just its parts.
  • This sculpted building shows a relativistic and shifting view of geometry: devoid of applied ornament, form and space are shaped in fluid concrete to express concepts of the architect and the building's namesake.
  • In Mendelsohn's design, form and space are shaped in fluid concrete and devoid of applied ornament.

• Chicago School of Architecture

  • One of the distinguishing features of the Chicago School is the use of steel-frame buildings with masonry cladding (usually terra cotta), allowing large plate-glass window areas and limiting the amount of exterior ornamentation.
  • The first floor functions as the base, the middle stories, usually with little ornamental detail, act as the shaft of the column, and the last floor or so represent the capital, with more ornamental detail and capped with a cornice.

• Thai Painting

  • Thai painting traditionally took the form of book illustrations and ornamentation of temples and palaces.
  • While Thai sculptures most often depict images of the Buddha and other characters from Buddhist and Hindu mythology, Thai paintings traditionally comprised book illustrations and painted ornamentation of temples and palaces.

• Rococo in Painting and Sculpture

  • Rococo style in painting echoes the qualities evident in other manifestations of the style including serpentine lines, heavy use of ornament as well as themes revolving around playfulness, love and nature.
  • Painting during the Rococo period has many of the same qualities as other Rococo art forms such as heavy use of ornament, curved lines and the use of a gold and pastel-based palette.

• Deconstructivism

  • It also rejects the idea of ornament as an after-thought or decoration.
  • In Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction of Architecture, geometry is to deconstructivists what ornament is to postmodernists, and this complication of geometry was in turn applied to the functional, structural, and spatial aspects of deconstructivist buildings.