Transcript
What Is Art?
Last Class• Why Art? The impulse to
make,experience,understand
• utilitarian, utilitarian-plus
• Ellen Dissanayake
• play, ritual, paleolithic/neolithic record
• “making special”, making special game
• art today vs art of the past
• aesthetic experience
Your comments on “what is art?” discussion forum•expression, communication
•emotion, ideas, thoughts
•anything
•personal, subjective, “eye of beholder”
• tells a story
•beauty, gives pleasure
•expands our understanding of the world, life
developing a complex, nuanced, sophisticated definition of art
• definition of art has changed over the centuries, continues to change
• determined by culture, time-period, events
• intention of human, given a context to exist as art
• carrier of meaning
• even if it is a utilitarian object, does not act as such
• even if representational, not merely so
Subjective vs Objective
•objective= measurable, verifiable, science
•subjective=based on personal taste, feelings
•art is mostly subjective
•objectivity in art means that you are basing subjective ideas on observation, “informed subjectivity”
•helps categorize and understand
meaning in art• what a work of art is about, it’s
significance, what is expressed
• explicit or implicit
• clear, direct or ambiguous, implied (art tends to be the later)
• intended by maker or unintended, discovered by experiencer
• shaped by interaction of form, content/theme,context, media/process,effect/affect,genre/style
Foregrounding
•what stands out, seems dominant, most important
•intended or unintended
Artistic Contributors to
Meaning
Form• the visual or physical aspects, the
composition
• elements (what) and principles (how) of art
• “formal” intent, attitude, approach, attentive to the composition
• Formalism- art criticism that considers only form
• how form relates to content/meaning
The Forkby Andre Kertesz, 1928
Gate 630by Meg Hitchcock, 2008
Le Reveby Pablo Picasso, 1932
The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell, 1964
Gun Crime, illustration by
Noma Barto protest gun violence in UK,
2010
Artistic Genre
•similar to music genres (country, rap, rock,etc.)
•related to subject matter
•portrait, landscape, still-life, representational, abstraction, figurative
Representational vs Figurative vs abstraction vs non-
representational• Representational art= depicts things in physical
world in a realistic manner
• Figurative art= similar to representational but often applies to those that include human forms (can be abstract)
• abstraction= a process or visual effect characterized by simplification, rearrangement and/or exaggeration, still references physical world, but in a less objective way
• non-representational art= no reference to physical world (also called nonobjective art)
Representational art
Figurative
Abstraction
non-representational or
nonobjective art
Name that Genre/s
• abstraction
• only know that via title
• “Bird in Space”
Name that Genre/s
• abstraction
• figurative
• “figurative abstraction”
Name that Genre/s
• abstraction?
• representational?
• figurative
Name that Genre/s
• representational?
• abstraction?
Name that Genre/s
• non-representational?
• representational?
Artistic Style
•a way of working, a distinctive look or method
•personal, part of an art historical movement
•naturalistic, abstract, Gothic, Baroque, Rococo, expressionist, surrealist, impressionist, pop art, classical are all examples
Classical vs Romantic
•Classical styles= order, harmony, the ideal, enduring and universal
•Romantic styles= emotion, sensation, personal and exotic
•both can refer to a period in art and a style
Classical
Ancient Greek Architecture and Sculpture
Renaissance art (Birth of Venus by Botticelli)
Neoclassical art (Jacques-Louis David)Alex Katz
Romantic
Vincent Van Gogh
JMW Turner
Eugene Delacroix
Gustav Klimt
some representational
styles
Realism
SurrealismPhotorealism
Impressionism
post-Impressionism
Pre-Raphaelite
Hyperrealist sculpture
Pop Art
some abstract and nonobjective styles
abstract-expressionism
fauvismdadaism
neo-plasticism or de stijl
expressionism
cubism
color-field
Op Art
Media or mediums
•specific materials used by artists
•traditional (oil on panel or canvas, wood carving, marble, ceramics, photography)
•contemporary (found objects, video projection, mixed-media, multimedia)
Traditionally, the media is not meant to be noticed, the illusion is paramount, material did not play a big role in meaning of work, also applies to more current art like photorealism
In modern times, the media becomes more noticeable, becomes more about the handling (brush stroke for example), “show the artist’s hand”
“Truth To Materials” = an idea in modern architecture where materials are shown raw, no painting of concrete for example
today, media and material is large part of meaning
Lick and Lather by Janine Antoni
I wanted to work with the tradition of self-portraiture but also the classical bust. So, the way I made it is: I took a mold directly from my body. I used a product called alginate, which is the kind of material that you might be familiar with when you go to the dentist, that sort of minty tasting stuff. It’s an incredible product because it gets every detail, every little pore. I even cast my hair. So, I started with an exact replica and then I carved the classical stand. I made a mold, melted down thirty-five pounds of chocolate, poured it into the mold. And when I took it out of the mold, I re-sculpted my image by licking the chocolate. So, you can see that I licked up the front and through the mouth up onto the nose, over the eye and back up over the ear onto the bun, and then down in the back around the neck.
I also cast myself into soap. She started as an exact replica of myself. We spent a few hours in the tub together. I slowly washed her down, and she becomes almost fetal because all her features start to be washed away. So, I was thinking about how one describes the self and feeling a little uncomfortable with my outer surface as the description of myself. And this piece very much is about trying to be on the outside of myself and have a relationship with my image. So, the process is quite loving. Of course chocolate is a highly desirable material, and to lick my self in chocolate is a kind of tender gesture. Having the soap in the tub was like having a little baby in there. But through that process, I’m slowly erasing my self. For me it really is about this kind of love-hate relationship we have with our physical appearance.
Janine Antoni or her work Lick and Lather:
Process•how an artist uses the materials/media
•can be foregrounded in “Process Art”
Tony Orrico