This large tapa cloth, from the Polynesian island of Tonga, is made of strips of mulberry bark fiber that have been pounded to softened them and make a paper-like textile for ritual use. It is stamped and hand painted. Bark cloth, or tapa, has been produced throughout the islands of the South Pacific--in both Polynesia and Melanesia.

The people of Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa and other islands have made bark cloth in distinctive styles for both functional and ceremonial purposes. The cloth has played important roles in weddings, funerals and events associated with royalty. The decoration features geometricized plants and fish.

Look at the beautiful variety of lines. Repeated lines form patterns and designs. Can you find the repeated patterns? Why do artists repeat particular elements?

Look at this stirring portrait. This is a self-portrait of the German artist Kathe Kollwitz. To learn of her art, you must first learn about her life. She experienced WW I married to a doctor. She lost her son in that war. She later lost her grandson in WW II. She saw the pain and suffering of the mothers, wives and children of the people lost in the war.

Look again at this work. Do you view it differently?

Notice the lines carved into this woodcut proof to create the texture of this print. The direction of the lines follow the contour of her face. What impact do the lines have on the overall quality of this print?

Why do you think Kollwitz chose to integrate these heavy lines into her portrait?

Aubrey Beardsley, The Peacock Skirt, 1893
Pen And Ink Drawing

In this pen and ink drawing, the artist creates a beautiful image of two woman. The lines are soft and flowing giving the viewer the impression of elegance, softness and femininity. Beardsley uses curved lines to capture the lines of the elegant costumes worn by the woman.

Why do you think he curved the line of the skirt?
By curving the line, the skirt appears to be swirling around the figure. This implies Movement.

Why do you think the artist chose to call this work "The Peacock Skirt"?

What do you know about the lives of these women from this drawing? Are they wealthy?

Look at this simple, yet powerful mask. The artisan who created this mask added an echoing pattern of lines to embellish the mask. What does this do to the visual quality of the mask?

Curved lines follow the rounded contour of the cheeks and forehead. Straight lines follow the contour of the nose and mouth. The artist selected types of lines that would enhance specific areas of his mask.

If the mask was left unadorned, would it appear as powerful?

This is a view of the Needle Tower looking directly up to the top from the ground. Notice the effect the lines create with the pipes and the wires. It creates a spiral. If you look closely, you may even see a six pointed star. Do you think the artist did this intentionally?

Sculptor Kenneth Snelson's "Needle Tower" is a fragile-looking thing. Crisscrossing rods suspended by taut wires soar perilously upward 20 meters high. Surely it ought to crumble or fall over. Yet it doesn't. When the wind blows, the Needle Tower bends, not breaks. When someone shoves it, it shoves back. The tower is lightweight, strong and curiously beautiful. This is an example of a tensegrity (short for tensional integrity) sculpture. It balances compression with tension, and yields to forces without breaking. In the Needle Tower, the wires carry tension and the rods bear compression.

The sculpture is 20 meters tall. How tall would that be in feet?

This beautiful textile work is called a "mola". It is an indigenous artform created by the Kuna Indians of the San Blas islands of Panama.

Notice the important role Line plays in the overall look of this piece. The work seems to vibrate as the lines echo and stretch across the piece. The artist used lines to fill in the Negative Space. Lines were also created to echo the shape of the scorpions.

Can you describe some of the lines? (Dotted, angular, diagonal, organic, geometric,thick, thin, broken, decorative)

Look at this detail of the Scorpion Mola. Here you can see that the lines were created with fabric and different types of fancy stitches. These unique works of art are made by the women of the islands. Once used to decorate clothing, molas are now priced by collectors and museums alike.