Art History - Intro

Categories of Art

Picture (Painting, Drawing, Photograph, Print), Sculpture, Architecture, Temporal Art

Picture

a two-demensional work of art that is usually meant to be viewed from one position.

Sculpture

a 3d work of art that is carved, modeled, cast, or assembled. Meant to be viewed from multiple positions.

Architecture

a 3d work of art (buildings, structures, monuments, whose function is to provide shelter and accommodate human activity. Viewed and experienced from multiple exterior and interior positions.

Temporal Art

Artwork that exists for a certain period of time, such as performance, art, land art, and installation.

What is the purpose of art?

to please, inform, teach, stimulate, provoke, inspire, awe, and record human beings and the human experience.

Artistic Impulse (purpose of art)

the desire to express oneself is a natural human trait that everyone is born with.

Art as Historical Record (purpose of art)

art commemorates, celebrates, mourns, and documents important and ordinary human experiences.

Art as a teaching tool (purpose of art)

art can demonstrate, instruct, and educate, illustrate stories, lessons, traditions, laws, and other ideas, presenting an alternative to written language.

Art as an expression of beauty (purpose of art)

art throughout history has been to provide objects of beauty to contemplate, to serve, as ideals to strive for, or simply as respite from the drudgery of daily life.

Art as a social statement (purpose of art)

(celebration, commentary, protest, etc.), the successes and failures, joys and sorrows, benefits and hardships of living in community present many opportunities for commentary, and artists have answered that call.

Why do we value art?

because we create it. It represents something that we, as humans, deem as important and worthy of expression.

Material value

the monetary or economic value of a work of art, based on the materials its made of.

Intrinsic value

the degree to which a work of art represents an important aspect or idea of humanity. It could be based on fact or myth but there’s a shared appreciation of it.

religious value

representative of a specific religion

cultural value/nationalistic value

representative of a particular culture or nation. Artworks of this kind usually incorporate symbols with political, ethnic, geographic, or military aspects.

Psychological value

representative of a viewpoint, opinion, set of morals, beliefs, or values. These works of art intend to affect the viewer’s state of mind, and can provoke positive as well as negative emotions.

Why do we study art and what can we learn from it?

Because we value it. We learn about ourselves through art created by people who are separated from us by great lengths of time and distance. Art documents the journey from birth to death and allows the opportunity to contemplate all aspects of human life.

How do we study art? What are the factors we consider?

-Culture and Time period

-Content and form

-Style

-Historical/cultural significance

-referential significance

Content & Form

together, they help to identify style, meaning, and cultural/historical significance.

Content

refers to objects and ideas represented in a work of art. Can be clear and direct or mysterious, confusing, hidden, or absent. The artist’s intention to communicate content will affect the characteristics of it.

Form

refers to the visual elements (formal elements) of a work.

line (formal element)

an actual line or implied direction of movement

shape (formal element)

a two dimensional area defined by a border

color (formal element)

hue, value, and saturation provided by the eye.

light (formal element)

refers to the value of a color, the degree of light or dark represented, and also the sense of weight in a work of art.

Texture

tactile or implied tactile quality of a surface

space

actual or implied 2D or 3D area represented in the art

mass

the sense of solid 3D matter represented

volume

the sense of void or empty 3D space represented

composition

the arrangement of elements in a work of art.

Formal elements

-Line

-Shape

-Color

-Light

-Texture

-Space

-Mass

-Volume

-Composition

Realistic/Naturalistic/Idealized Style

styles that aim to represent “the real world” appearance of things

hyper-realistic/illusionistic style

styles that exaggerate one or more aspects of accurate representation

abstract style

styles that intentionally distort, simplify, or otherwise alter the life-like representation of objects in order to emphasize an aspect other than true representation. Abstract artists usually begin with inspiration from reality, then deviate from it to create the desired effect.

non-representational style

styles intended to evoke emotion or other non-tangible ideas or experiences.

historical/cultural significance

helps the viewer understand the artist’s intentions and meaning of the work at the time it was created. Can be a comparison to life then vs. now and help us gain appreciation for human history

referential significance

works from the past serve as inspiration to contemporary artists as ideas become rediscovered, modified, and presented anew to current society.

Artistic Impulse ex 1

The Water Cube

Bejing Olympics

2008

PTW Architects

Artistic Impulse Ex 2

Spiral Jetty

Salt Lake Utah

1970

Robert Smithson

Artistic Historical Record Ex

Wrapped Reichstag

Berlin

1995

Christo & Jeanne-Claude

(a symbolic gesture of freedom in post-reunification Germany)

Art as a social statement ex

Campbell’s Soup I

1968

Andy Warhol

(making art accessible & understandable for everyday people vs. only the wealthy)

Material value ex

Salt Cellar

1543

Benvenuto Cellini

(fancy gold salt container created for the wealthy, prime example of pure physical value based on gold material)

Intrinsic value ex

Mona Lisa

1503

Leonardo Di Vinci

(value based on history and the fame from the artist who created it, well-known)

Religious value ex

The Last Supper

1498

Leonardo Di Vinci

(depiction of Jesus and his disciples)

Nationalistic vale ex

Arc De Triomphe

Paris

1836

(monument dedicated to Napoleon and the French Empire)

psychological value ex

Oath of the Horatii

1785

Jacques-Louis David

art + illusion, images + words ex 1

The Persistence of Memory

1931

Salvador Dali

(introduced the idea of surrealism and that art doesn’t have to depict the natural world physically as we see it)

art + illusion, images +words ex 2

The Betrayal of Images

1928

Remi Magritte

(shows how what we see differs from the physicality of what we see. The text says “this is not a pipe” because technically it isn’t a pipe, it’s a picture depicting a pipe. People need to recognize the difference).

Major Classifications of Western Art up to Rebirth

Prehistoric Period

Mesopotamia & Ancient Egypt

Classical Period

Middle Ages

The European Renaissance

prehistoric period

35,000-4000 BCE

4000 BCE marks…

the invention of writing/documentation and start of history

Mesopotamia & Ancient Egypt

4000-300 BCE

Classical Period

Ancient Greece & Rome

800 BCE - 400 CE

Middle Ages

Medieval Period

Carolingian, Romanesque, Byzantine, Gothic, & Dark Ages

400-1400 CE

The European Renaissance

1400 -1600 CE

CE

Common Era, same as AD or Anno Domini (after Jesus Christ is born)

BCE

Before Common Era, same as BC (Before the birth of Jesus Christ)

Christianity rose during…

The Middle Ages. Christians had an extreme dependance on religion and lost sense of independent humanity.