Art Appreciation

Spring 2010Chapters 1, 2 & 3

Brancusi studio

Brancusi, Endless Column

Brancusi, Bird in Space

Cave Paintings from Chauvet cave, Francec. 25,000 – 17,000 BCE

Cave Paintings from Lascaux, FranceDated 16,000 yrs old

Female Figure (“Venus of Willendorf’)c. 23,000 BCE found near Austria

Limestone, height 4 ⅜”

Stonehenge c. 2000-1500 BCESalisbury Plain, England

Height of stones 13’6”, weight up to 50 tons each

Carhenge, Jim Reinders, 1987

vintage American cars near Alliance, Nebraska

Eggshell pottery, c. 2000 BCELongshan culture, China

The Origins of Art

• To construct meaningful images and forms– Magic, Spirituality, Ceremony, Ritual– Record history

• To create order and structure– A desire to make sense of the world– The urge to paint and pile rocks

• To explore aesthetic possibilities– The desire to make something beautiful

Maya Lin, Wave field

Frank GehryGuggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain

Gehry Tower in Hanover, germany

THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST• The artist records and commemorates: historical reference,

captures a moment• The artist creates places for some human purpose: ritual,

remembrance, bringing the community together• The artist gives tangible form to the unknown: things we

don’t see… to the unknown, to the unseen, to the future• The artist gives feelings and ideas tangible form: using their

own perspective and the viewer’s response• The artist offers an innovative way of seeing: a visual way to

compare and contrast differing perspectives• The artist creates extraordinary versions of ordinary objects:

exploring aesthetics of the material, makes a functional item into a nonfunctional artwork

Records and commemorates

Creates places for some human purpose

Gives tangible form to the unknown

Offers an innovative way of seeing

Creates extraordinary versions of ordinary objects

Dieter's Spoon

by Sarah Doremus

Van Gogh

Monet

Monet, Water Lilies close-up

Vanitas

Terms to know:

• Aesthetics – branch of philosophy concerned with feelings aroused in us by sensory experiences such as seeing and hearing (your particular taste, what appeals to you)

• Artist Intent – the decision to use certain artistic devices to create a specific look, feeling or content

• Perception - The process of becoming aware through sight, sound, taste, smell, or touch; detection

The romantic definition of art:

• Art is created in search of an ultimate truth, an ultimate perfection, an ultimate confrontation with the self and the art.

• True fine art has the primary motive of artist expression & the secondary motive of money.

• Art has 2 intentions:– Satisfying the artist– Satisfying the patron

My personal definition of ART:

• The “art world” tells us what art is.

– In other words: if a piece is displayed in a gallery or an image of it is published in a magazine or if it is critiqued by professionals, it is art.

Verrocchio

Patronage

• Popes• The Medici family

• Dorothy and Herbert Vogel

The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest,

Willem van Haecht, 1628.

A private picture gallery as an early precursor of the modern museum.

Rodin studio

Camille

The Thinker, Auguste Rodin, 1902

Tales of Hamza

Dale Chihuly

James Hampton

Gayleen Aiken

Blurring the lines between high brow and low brow art:

• High art– Painting– Sculpture– Fine photography

• Low art– Pottery– Comic books– Advertisements

Dada movement – peak 1916-22an avante-garde art movement

avant-garde

• Artists and their work which stand in the forefront of a movement or of new ideas, often in opposition to established ideas and traditions; art that's ahead of its time, innovative, experimental.

Marcel Duchamp

The Fountain, 1917

He is considered part of the Dada movement.

Duchamp changed art for the 20th century.

From Prinzhorn’s book: Artistry of the Mentally Ill

Salvador Dali

Russian Surrealism

Degenerate Art Exhibition

Worhol

Lichtenstein

David Huang

Georgia O’Keefe

La Pietà, Michelangelo, 1499

Universal qualities of beauty

• Symmetry• Simple geometrical shapes• Pure color• Repetition of line or shape• Fine craftsmanship

Francisco de Goya

Chronos Devouring One of His Children1820

Pablo Picasso

First Communion, 1895

15 yrs old

Pablo Picasso

Seated Woman Holding a Fan

1908

The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli, 1486

William Harnett

The Old Violin 1886

Pablo Picasso

Seated Woman Holding a Fan

1908

Lavender Mist, Jackson Pollock, 1950

Alfred Stieglitz - photography

Three Major Styles of Art:• Representational– Naturalistic– Trompe L’oeil

• Abstract– Cubism– Stylized

• Nonrepresentational– Patterns– Shapes– Colors

Édouard Manet Luncheon on the Grass , 1863

Pere Borrell del Caso

Escaping Criticism

1874

Still life, Pompeii, c. 70 AD

Man on a Bench, Duane Hanson, 1997vinyl, polychromed in oil, with accessories

Marilyn Levine

Ceramic Leather Jacket

Life Size

David Furman

David Furman

The Actor

Pablo Picasso

1905

Rose Period

Paul Cézanne

Pablo Picasso

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

1907

Georges Braque

Violin and Candlestick

1910

Wassily Kandinsky

On White 2

1923

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, c. 1915

Cataract 3, Bridget Riley, 1967

Where, Morris Louis, 1960

Pablo Picasso

Seated Woman Holding a Fan

1908

STYLE

• Characteristics that we recognize as constant, recurring or coherent to an individual artist’s work.

• Pieces will have traits in common– Drawing style– Brush stroke– color

General styles

• Constructed after the fact as scholars discern broad trends– Cultural – Atzec, Egyptian– Period – Gothic, Victorian– School styles – Impressionism, cubism

The textbook’s definition of art:

• “embodied meaning”• Art is always about something

The romantic definition of art:

• Art is created in search of an ultimate truth, an ultimate perfection, an ultimate confrontation with the self and the art.

• True fine art has the primary motive of artist expression & the secondary motive of money.

• Art has 2 intentions:– Satisfying the artist– Satisfying the patron

My personal definition of ART:

• The “art world” tells us what art is.

– In other words: if a piece is displayed in a gallery or an image of it is published in a magazine or if it is critiqued by professionals, it is art.

4 key terms related to meaning:

• Form

• Content

• Iconography

• Context

Art & Meaning

• FORM – the way art looks; size, shape, materials, color, composition

• CONTENT – what the art is about; subject matter

• The interaction between form and content help us determine meaning

Music lesson, Matisse, 1917Piano Lesson, Mattise, 1916

iconography

• The identification, description & interpretation of subject matter in art

• Relates to the culture of the time

• To understand iconography of the past, we often have to do research

Shiva Statue

in Bangalore, India

Arnolfini Double Portrait

Jan van Eyck, 1434

CONTEXT

• Web of connections to the larger world of human culture– Relates to time & place– Personal and/or social circumstances– Why was the work made?– Who sees the work?– ALSO, the physical setting that the work is meant

to be seen in

Pablo Picasso

Seated Woman Holding a Fan

1908

4 key terms related to meaning:

• Form

• Content

• Iconography

• Context

The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest,

Willem van Haecht, 1628.

A private picture gallery as an early precursor of the modern museum.

Jenny Holzer, "Truisms“ 1977–79

Barbara Kruger

Richard Serra, Tilted Arc

Born in the Streets exhibition, Paris

• http://gprime.net/images/sidewalkchalkguy/

Non-object Art

• Installation art

• Conceptual art

• Performance Art

Rachel Whitread

Embankment

at Tate Modern

Jenny Holzer

jenny holzer

Jenny Holzer

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, 1995

Themes of Art• Craft / Decor• Sacred Realm / Religion• Politics / Propaganda• Social Order• Storytelling / History• Genre Art – images of daily life• Human Experience / Self-Expression• Invention & Fantasy• Art & Nature / Landscape• Art about Art

Beaded Pomo Basket Bowl

Mata Ortiz pottery jar,Jorge Quintana, 2002

Dale Chihuly

30-foot blown-glass chandelier in the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2000.

Women of Gee's Bend, Alabama, quilting, 2005

Roman Stripes by Deborah Pettway Young, circa 1963.

Drunkard´s Path -- Variation (Snowball) by Lucy T. Pettway, circa 1950

Ru Ware Bowl Stand, Chinese, Early 12th Century

iconoclasm• Iconoclasm means “image breaking”• Began in the Byzantium Empire– Early Christians debated the use of images• Idol worship

• Arose again after Henry VIII broke from Rome– The protestants claimed the Catholics practiced

idolatry, they destroyed many Catholic churches and art across Britain

• Taliban – Islamic fundamentalism

Byzantine Iconoclasm, Chludov Psalter, 9th century.

The Sons of Liberty pulling down the statue of King George III on Bowling Green (New York City), 1776.

The April 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue

Buddhas of Bamyan6th century, Afghanistan

2001

Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830

Guernica, Picasso, 1937

Propaganda• Propaganda is a form of communication aimed at

influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience.

• Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented.

• The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.

1876

1947 comic book

1917

1914

John Brown going to his Hanging, Horace Pippen, 1942 (the actual event happened in 1859)

1941

Dorothea Lang, Migrant Mother, 1936

Mary Cassatt, The Child’s Bath, 1893

Kathe Kollwitz, Woman with Dead Child, 1903 etching

The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope, Rousseau, 1905

The Snake Charmer, 1907

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights

Revenge of the goldfish, 1981, sandy skoglund

Germs are everywhere, 1984

The Tetons and the Snake River, Ansel Adams, 1942

Evening, McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park (1942)

Great Wave off KanagawaHokusai

Red Fuji from Hokusai's series, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

Mattise, L'Atelier Rouge, (The Red Studio), 1911

Themes of Art• Craft / Decor• Sacred Realm / Religion• Politics / Propaganda• Social Order• Storytelling / History• Genre Art – images of daily life• Human Experience / Self-Expression• Invention & Fantasy• Art & Nature / Landscape• Art about Art

End of Ch 1-3

Grading Criteria - Presentations• Proper length = 5 minutes• Full bio/history– Pic of artist– Where did they go to school– Influences/legacy

• Anecdotal info• Plenty of images• Presenters interest in the subject• Seems informed/able to answer questions• Proper sources cited