ARTS

ARTS APPRECIATION

Lesson 1: EVOLUTION TO ARTS

Prehistoric Art (40,000-4,000 B.C.)

  • Rock carvings, pictorial imagery, sculptures, & stones arrangements

  • Leading Contributors: Existed before the advent of a written language.

  • Influential Works: Lascaux cave painting, Paleolithic era

Ancient Art (4,000 B.C. – A.D. 400)

  • Religious & Symbolic imagery, decorations for utilitarian objects, mythological stories.

  • Civilizations from Mesopotomia, Egypt, Greece & Americas

  • Infl. Works: Code of Hammurabi, 1972 B.C.

Medieval Art (500-1400)

  • Dark imagery, biblical subjects, Classical mythology, Gothic Architecture.

  •  Abbot suger, Cimabue, Giotto

  • Infl. Works: Cimabue, Crucifix 1288, Giotto, Lamentation of Christ 1305

  • Notre Dame: Cathedral Paris 1163-1345

Renaissance Art (1400-1600)

  • Natural elements, Individualism, Realism, Attention to detail, Precision of Human Anatomy

  • Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael

  •  Infl. Works: Leonardo da V., Mona Lisa, 1503 Michelangelo, David, 1504 Raphael, The school of Athens 1511

Mannerism (1527-1580)

  • Stylized features, Exaggerated details, Decorative elements

  • Bronzino, Francesco Salviati, Giorgio Vasari

  • Infl. W: Bronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly & Time, 

  • 154Giorgio Vasari, Allegory of the Immaculate Conception 1541

Baroque (1600-1750)

  • Ornate, Grandeur, Richness, Stylistically complex, Dramatic

  • Caravaggio, Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van rijn

  • Caravaggio, The calling of St. Matthew 1600 Rembrandt, The night watch,

  • 1642 Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a pearl earring 1665

Rococo (1969-1780)

  • Lightness, Elegance, Natural Forms, Asymmetrical design, Subtle colors

  • Antoine Watteau, François Boucher

  • Infl. Works: Antoine Watteau, Embarkation for Cythera, 1718

  • Francis Boucher, Venus Consoling Love 1751

 Neoclassicism (1750-1850)

  • Renewed Interest in classical antiquity, Harmony, Simplicity, & Proportion

  • Antonio Canova, Jacques-Louis

  • Infl. Works: Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps 1801,

  • Antonio Canova, The Three Graces 1816

Romanticism (1780-1850)

  • Imaginative Elements, Focus on passion, Emotion, & Observing the senses

  • Francisco GoyaHenry FuseliWilliam Blake

  • Infl. Works: Henry Fuseli - The Nightmare 1781, 

  • William Blake, The Ghost of a Flea 1820, 

  • Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring his Son 1823

Realism (1848-1900)

  • Detailed depictions of everyday life

  • Gustave Courbet, Jean-Francois Millet

  • Infl. Works: Jean Francois Millet - The Gleaners 1857, 

  • Gustave Courbet - Woman with a Parrot 1866

Art Nouveau (1890-1910)

  • Long, Sinuous lines and curves

  • Alphonse Mucha, Antoni Gaudi, Gustav Klimt

  • Infl. Works: Antoni Gaudi, Gustav Klimt, Church of Sagrada Familia 1882, The Kiss 1908, 

  • Alphonse Mucha - Princess Hyacinth 1911

Impressionism (1865-1885)

  • Short, quick brushstrokes, separation of color, sketch like finish, modern subject matter

  • Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

  • Infl. Works: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance in the city 1872, 

  • Claude Monet - Impression, Sunrise 1899

Post-Impressionism (1885-1910)

  • Subjective visions, Symbolism, Abstraction

  • Georges Seurat, Vincent Van Gogh

  • Georges Seurat - A sunday afternoon on the island of LA, Grande Jatte 1886, 

  • Vincent Van Gogh - The starry night 1889

Fauvism (1900-1935)

Expressionism ( 1905-1920)

Cubism ( 1907-1914)

Surrealism (1916-1950)

Abstract Expressionism  (1940-1950)

Op Art (1950-1960)

Pop Art (1950-1960)

Arte Povera (1960)

Minimalism (1960-1970)

Conceptual Art (1960-1970)

Contemporary Art ( 1970-present)


Arts VS. Crafts

Art - Unstructured & open-ended form ofg work that expresses emotions, feelings & vision. Relies on artistic merit. Well known for serving an aestheticpurposes

Crafts - Form of work, ivloving the creation of physical objects, by the use of hands & brain. Based on learned skills & techniques. Serves human objectives.


Lesson 2: ASSUMPTIONS OF ART

Art is Universal

  • Regardless of origin, time, and place are liked and enjoyed by people continuously.

Art is Not Nature

  • Made by Humans/Man, whereas nature is a given around us.

  • Ex: Humans take nature as an inspiration to make art.

Art Involves Experience

  • John Dewey explains that art is a dynamic human experience that involves both the artist and the audience

Lesson 3: FUNCTIONS OF ART

Physical Functions 

  • Often the easiest to understand. Works of art that are created to perform some service have physical functions.

  • EX: A japanese raku bowl is a piece of art that performs a physical function in a tea ceremony.

Social Functions

  • Has social functions when it addresses aspects of life as opposed to one person’s point of view or experience.

  • Ex: Political Art, often designed to deliver a certain message, always carries a social function. 


Personal Functions

  • Vague for a reason. From artist to artist and viewer to viewer, one’s experience with art is different.

  • Ex: An artist may create a piece out of a need for self-expression or gratification.


Lesson 4: PHILOSOPHICAL PERS -PECTIVE OF ART


Art as Mimesis

  • Greek means “IMITATION”

  • Plato & Aristotle spoke of mimesis as the re-presentation of nature. Acc. to Plato, all artistic creation is a form of imitation: that which really exist (in the WORLD OF IDEAS) is a type created by God; The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance, Aristotle wrote.


Art as a Form of Expression

  • Expression theory of art defined it as the means of portraying the unique & individual emotions of artists. Leo Tolstoy’s definition of art in his piece “What is Art?” was very much out of this mould: Art is a human activity, consisting in this, that one person consciously, by certain external signs, conveys to others feelings he has experienced, and other people are affected by these feelings and live them over in themselves.


Art and The Truth

  • Thinkers influenced by Martin Heidegger have interpreted art as the means by which a community develops for itself a medium for se;f-expression and interpretation. For Heideger, art either manifests, articulates or reconfigures the style of a culture from within the world of that culture.


Art Shaping the World

  • Karl Marx, Art can be understood as a part of the superstructure or as part of the material basis. Or in other words, it can be understood as an ideology or as technology. Art as an ideology contributes to the reproduction of the current social conditions, while the art in the material basis seeks to change them.