Week 1 - Western art, Modern life

Lecture:

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Reading Notes:

- What to think about: why is it important to study art history?

• so you can understand the context of a historical event through an artists lens and how that effected their style (something about dadaism)

• art and politics

• become a better artist through learning about the past …

• “Art appreciation does no require knowledge of the historical context of an artwork (or a building). Art history does” P2

• Help understand the culture and style of particular artworks

• With an understanding of art history it can further your own practices as an artist - taking inspiration from the past to further your own artmaking

Notes: “

• Most ancient artist didn’t see their art as more than a pay check and a way of making money - compared to their works now being analysis to the same standard as an acclaimed Renaissance artist (p2)

• Determining age: (p2-3)

  • Physical evidence: relating to an objects age by reviewing the materials used (as some media may not have been invented yet), techniques, and other materials such as paper and inks

  • Documentary evidence: official records such as when an artwork has been commissioned

  • Internal evidence: the subject mater of a particular person may include style trends of that particular time period

  • Stylistic evidence: how the artist may produce a certain object in their artwork. this is far less reliable than the other methods due to the subjective nature of art

• Artistic style:

  • Period style:

  • Reginal style:

  • Personal style:

• Subject:

  • Iconography - writing of images, symbolism Christian art hold lots of symbolism as it is inherent to the religious teachings

  • The two deaths in the artwork “the passion of Seco and Vanzetti” was biased on a real event in the United state helping historians determine that the artist is an American

• Who Made it?

  • Personal style can help determine the artist

  • Artists who have similar styles can help determine historians artist that went to the same Art school

• Who Paid for it

  • helps determine the importance of the subject mater and style in that point in history

  • Artist that were commissioned may also have had no choice in how the worked looked as it would have to be officially approved, such as how Augustus despite his age of 76 was depicted to look youthful, and see him in a “godlike head of state” (p9)

  • The commissioned works would show the tastes of the person who commissioned it

• The Word Art Historians Use (write more notes on later)

  • Form and Composition: Shape and structure, how the artwork organises

  • Material and technique:

  • Line

  • Colour (too many sub)

  • Texture

  • Space, Mass, and Volume

  • Perspective and Foreshortening (lots)

  • Proportion and scale

  • Carving and Casting

  • Relief sculpture

  • Architectural Drawings

• Art history and other disciplines

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• Different ways of seeing

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