Post Modernity
Post Modernity is a term to describe the reaction to modern art in the present time, so anything that has been created in culture can be reacted to with the correct knowledge and ideas can be put forward to either go towards the general public, or to challenge existing art, or even to make art better in someway and replace old art.
Contemporary Culture
In present times we are currently happy with our culture and art, this term just means that we are contempt about what goes on in our political and social views in the current time period.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
America and Modernity
After World War 2 came about a new art 'movement' called Abstract Impressionism, started in America it was the first time that Amercian art had an influence on artists world wide.
This style of art had an important predeccesor, surrealism. Surrealism art gave inspiration by ways of its seeming way of spontainous and imaginiate creation, this new art was in direct action to soret of rebel against German expressionists, who had created anti-figurative, abstract ways of learning art through schools such as the Bauhaus and Futurism. Abstract impressionism art was seen as rebelious and against anarchy.
Jackson Pollock a leading artist in this new movement created vibrant, action style paintings, which when looked at felt 'busy' to the eye. These paintings where not seen expressionist pieces of art, and compared to some other artists around at the time doing even more oppisite designs to Pollock, even they wern't classed as creating exprisionist art or even an abstract style art. Yet all of them claimed they where Abstract impressionists.
This style of art became more established and then went on to being taught in art schools around America gaining world wide recognition, bringing about a new era in American art work which was indeed abstract impressionism.
Pop Art was another movement that came about in the mid 1950's, it originated in Britain and went onto become popular in America in the 1960's. This movement challenged the idea of fine art and started to include art into more main stream public advertisements and graphic design on TV and film. Pop art was formed mainly from the culture around at the time, and was used cleverly by the americans in sophisticated advertisements to sell of products more easier. Art now had gone extremely commercial and was being used on almost everything, Andy Warhol a leading designer in this movement created a packaging design for a tomato soup product in 1964, which was meant to get the product to sell more, everything was just being made to look more modern and appealing to surrounding community.
Op Art came from the constructive teachings of the Bauhaus, it's simply a shortened name for optical art. As science and technology was moving along during this time, artists started to understand the way human vision works, and by using different colours and shapes, they could create optical illusions on the mind, hence Op Art which came around the 1960's.
Conceptual Art came in the 1970's, this style of art based it work on having more predominant concepts and ideas, rather than letting the aesthetics overtake the meaning of the art. In basics the decisions and concepts where created before hand to be able to produce a piece of art to acquire a desired effect, or to meet a certain purpose.
A French artist called Marcel Duchamp took the idea of conceptual art and made probably the most ground breaking revolution in art history, he challenged the idea of what could actually be 'art'. Duchamp came up with the idea to get a general urinal and then literally just turning it upside down, he submitted it as a 'fountain' at a world wide exhibition. This challenged all ideas of art and what art actually is, the urinal wasn't unique in anyways, it wasn't sculptures of hand made, it was just a urinal turned on its side to make it have a new functionality of a fountain. Once critics had realised what Duchamp had done, by creating a concept and producing the idea and challenging art, it meant people could now make anything into art, with a good idea/concept behind it.
Art as a Commodity
Art has become so popular that we currently think of it as a commodity, almost everyone has some form of art, whether it be a painting on the wall or personal taken photographs, art can be almost anything creative in culture nowadays, buildings and statues and pretty much any structures are designed to aesthetically pleasing, they look like pieces of art themselves. The influence art has had on the world has been immense and in our current culture we basically see art as a norm, whereas before art was seen as a unique skill among certain people, now art is being taught everywhere, and everyone has the chance to become a form of artist in there own rights.
Finally art is generally made for profit nowadays, or to make some kind of income generally. The world we live in is money driven and as technology and cultures improves new art comes, while the most important revolutionising old art has been put into museums so we can all remember how it all started.
This style of art had an important predeccesor, surrealism. Surrealism art gave inspiration by ways of its seeming way of spontainous and imaginiate creation, this new art was in direct action to soret of rebel against German expressionists, who had created anti-figurative, abstract ways of learning art through schools such as the Bauhaus and Futurism. Abstract impressionism art was seen as rebelious and against anarchy.
Jackson Pollock a leading artist in this new movement created vibrant, action style paintings, which when looked at felt 'busy' to the eye. These paintings where not seen expressionist pieces of art, and compared to some other artists around at the time doing even more oppisite designs to Pollock, even they wern't classed as creating exprisionist art or even an abstract style art. Yet all of them claimed they where Abstract impressionists.
This style of art became more established and then went on to being taught in art schools around America gaining world wide recognition, bringing about a new era in American art work which was indeed abstract impressionism.
Pop Art was another movement that came about in the mid 1950's, it originated in Britain and went onto become popular in America in the 1960's. This movement challenged the idea of fine art and started to include art into more main stream public advertisements and graphic design on TV and film. Pop art was formed mainly from the culture around at the time, and was used cleverly by the americans in sophisticated advertisements to sell of products more easier. Art now had gone extremely commercial and was being used on almost everything, Andy Warhol a leading designer in this movement created a packaging design for a tomato soup product in 1964, which was meant to get the product to sell more, everything was just being made to look more modern and appealing to surrounding community.
Op Art came from the constructive teachings of the Bauhaus, it's simply a shortened name for optical art. As science and technology was moving along during this time, artists started to understand the way human vision works, and by using different colours and shapes, they could create optical illusions on the mind, hence Op Art which came around the 1960's.
Conceptual Art came in the 1970's, this style of art based it work on having more predominant concepts and ideas, rather than letting the aesthetics overtake the meaning of the art. In basics the decisions and concepts where created before hand to be able to produce a piece of art to acquire a desired effect, or to meet a certain purpose.
A French artist called Marcel Duchamp took the idea of conceptual art and made probably the most ground breaking revolution in art history, he challenged the idea of what could actually be 'art'. Duchamp came up with the idea to get a general urinal and then literally just turning it upside down, he submitted it as a 'fountain' at a world wide exhibition. This challenged all ideas of art and what art actually is, the urinal wasn't unique in anyways, it wasn't sculptures of hand made, it was just a urinal turned on its side to make it have a new functionality of a fountain. Once critics had realised what Duchamp had done, by creating a concept and producing the idea and challenging art, it meant people could now make anything into art, with a good idea/concept behind it.
Art as a Commodity
Art has become so popular that we currently think of it as a commodity, almost everyone has some form of art, whether it be a painting on the wall or personal taken photographs, art can be almost anything creative in culture nowadays, buildings and statues and pretty much any structures are designed to aesthetically pleasing, they look like pieces of art themselves. The influence art has had on the world has been immense and in our current culture we basically see art as a norm, whereas before art was seen as a unique skill among certain people, now art is being taught everywhere, and everyone has the chance to become a form of artist in there own rights.
Finally art is generally made for profit nowadays, or to make some kind of income generally. The world we live in is money driven and as technology and cultures improves new art comes, while the most important revolutionising old art has been put into museums so we can all remember how it all started.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Surrealism
Surrealism is yet another cultural movement which replaced the Dada movement, Andre Breton was the main leader of this movement and he developed a philosophy about art that suggested that art should keep it's physical characteristics and purposes, but the rest of the piece should be open to the entire imagination and be able to be changed around making a completely new style of art work.
Andre Breton studied medicine and phycology throughout world war 1, then joined the dada movement, after developing his own ideas within dada, he went onto producing this concept of surrealism.
The concept basically being a piece of art should keep its original meanings and aspects, but the rest of it could be changed and left to the imaginations desire, creating new a surprising pieces for the world to see.
Andre Breton studied medicine and phycology throughout world war 1, then joined the dada movement, after developing his own ideas within dada, he went onto producing this concept of surrealism.
The concept basically being a piece of art should keep its original meanings and aspects, but the rest of it could be changed and left to the imaginations desire, creating new a surprising pieces for the world to see.
New Ways of Seeing
Expressionism
This was a modernist art movement that originated in Germany during the 20th century. The idea behind expressionism art was to show feelings and emotions through art rather than realism/reality, this was done to hopefully evokes moods and ideas from other artists around the world. This was an Avante-Gaurd style of art and it eventually extended into performing arts, film and photography.
'The Scream' created by Edvard Munch in 1893 is a very famous painting using the expressionist style.
Abstraction
Abstraction art is a style which means the departure of reality in a piece of art, and more into an imagery version art. A piece of art created in this style would have kept characteristics of the reality, but the aspects of the subject would have been disregarded and replace by colour and shapes, the idea of this kind of art is to show different kind of visual experiences (maybe the imagination of the artists). Some abstract art is totally has kept none of the subjects structure and meaning, basically becoming all shapes and colour.
Wassily Kandinksy, Oh White 2, 1923.
Cubism
Cubism was an Avante-Guard movement pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the idea behind this concept was to look at something in real life and pick it apart, then put it back together in different ways expressing characteristics about the subject that was being turned into an art piece. Usually taking on cube like depths in the art, this gave it a strange sense of perspective which revolutionised Europe's art production. This movement began around 1911.
Dada
Dada was a cultural movement that happened during world war 1, it was an anti-war campaign which wanted to have it's ideas heard through creating art. It was in direct action to world war 1 claiming that bourgeois nationalists and colonists led the people into war, by taking up other beliefs rather than conforming into the interest of society and art. The Dadaists say that this lack of knowledge lead the people into war.
Dada inspired the creation of a new 'movement', Surrealism.
This was a modernist art movement that originated in Germany during the 20th century. The idea behind expressionism art was to show feelings and emotions through art rather than realism/reality, this was done to hopefully evokes moods and ideas from other artists around the world. This was an Avante-Gaurd style of art and it eventually extended into performing arts, film and photography.
'The Scream' created by Edvard Munch in 1893 is a very famous painting using the expressionist style.
Abstraction
Abstraction art is a style which means the departure of reality in a piece of art, and more into an imagery version art. A piece of art created in this style would have kept characteristics of the reality, but the aspects of the subject would have been disregarded and replace by colour and shapes, the idea of this kind of art is to show different kind of visual experiences (maybe the imagination of the artists). Some abstract art is totally has kept none of the subjects structure and meaning, basically becoming all shapes and colour.
Wassily Kandinksy, Oh White 2, 1923.
Cubism
Cubism was an Avante-Guard movement pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the idea behind this concept was to look at something in real life and pick it apart, then put it back together in different ways expressing characteristics about the subject that was being turned into an art piece. Usually taking on cube like depths in the art, this gave it a strange sense of perspective which revolutionised Europe's art production. This movement began around 1911.
Dada
Dada was a cultural movement that happened during world war 1, it was an anti-war campaign which wanted to have it's ideas heard through creating art. It was in direct action to world war 1 claiming that bourgeois nationalists and colonists led the people into war, by taking up other beliefs rather than conforming into the interest of society and art. The Dadaists say that this lack of knowledge lead the people into war.
Dada inspired the creation of a new 'movement', Surrealism.
From Dissent to a New Establishment
Arts and Crafts is known as the international 'movement' that was formed at the end of 18th century, which was lead by an artist and writer called William Morris. This movement came about after WW1 and is meant to be rebellious against machine-produced art work, and was meant to influence artists to create art work reforming to more natural and simple styles of creating art pieces. Most of the work was made from materials since at the time there was a culture wanting to create decorative pieces of art, the art work usually took inspiration of nature and contained floral patterns on the pieces created, which was most likely seen as anti-industrial going with the whole arts and crafts movement idea.
The Arts and Crafts movement was started of in Britain and became popular internationally in America and Europe, the Pre-Raphealite Brotherhood was an organisation founded by english painters and writers trying to fulfill their intention to reject mechanistic art of which was adopted by the mannerists who surpassed Raphael and Michaelangelo. The brotherhood influenced William Morris and actually became partners with his design company, influencing artists and architects around the world to fulfill the brotherhood's ideas about art. William Morris went onto lead the Arts and Crafts movement which is where it all began, it was in direct response to the academic way of learning.
A new way of creating art was formed soon after the arts and craft movement was created, Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau in French meaning 'New Art', came from the theories and at movement of William Morris, this kind of art was inspired by natural forms and structures, it focused on mainly on floral aspects or nature and different structures. Architects started to create buildings which looked more natural with the environment and trying to focus on curves rather than industrial style buildings. Art Nouveau is considered as the 'total' style in art, it concerns both the geometrical and aesthetics sides of art, whereas in past movements it was one aspect concentrated on and not the other.
Art Nouveau made use of a lot of the technological advancements during the 19th century, it was also very expensive to create this style of art by the beginning of World War 1. Since it was so expensive to make, it later got replaced by a new style of art called Art Deco, which favored streamline designs and vibrant colours and a more modern style of art.
Art Deco began in Paris in the 1920's shortly after the first world war, it was formed directly in response to Art Nouveau being discontinued in usage. Art Deco goes for glamour and looks, employing a more modern style to its design, this concept takes inspiration from many ideas created in the early 20th century such as cubism, modernism and futurism. Most movements in the past had been derived from ideology or philosophical purposes, but Art Deco was mainly created for the sole purpose of being decorative only.
Artists employed this new way of creating art all the way through the World War 2 era, and to the present day, there are many great examples this kind of art still around today, for example the spire of the chrysler building in New York City which was built in 1928-1930 is still a massive attraction to the general public. Art Deco is different from its predecessor in the fact the that it has distinct linear symmetry compared to Art Nouveau which had asymmetrical flowing curves.
In Germany after they lost the first world war, the structure of their society changed and was highly influenced by modernism. Through this change in German society came The Bauhaus, known as simply Bauhaus it was an art school founded by Walter Gropius. It is said to be the perfect balance between form and functionality in a piece of architecture that had been created in the 1900's. Bauhaus had a great influence on graphic design, typography and it also has a massive impact on architecture throughout the world. Bauhaus was close in 1933 after being owned by famous architect Ludwig Meis van der Rohe, due to it being under pressure from the nazi regime.
The Arts and Crafts movement was started of in Britain and became popular internationally in America and Europe, the Pre-Raphealite Brotherhood was an organisation founded by english painters and writers trying to fulfill their intention to reject mechanistic art of which was adopted by the mannerists who surpassed Raphael and Michaelangelo. The brotherhood influenced William Morris and actually became partners with his design company, influencing artists and architects around the world to fulfill the brotherhood's ideas about art. William Morris went onto lead the Arts and Crafts movement which is where it all began, it was in direct response to the academic way of learning.
A new way of creating art was formed soon after the arts and craft movement was created, Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau in French meaning 'New Art', came from the theories and at movement of William Morris, this kind of art was inspired by natural forms and structures, it focused on mainly on floral aspects or nature and different structures. Architects started to create buildings which looked more natural with the environment and trying to focus on curves rather than industrial style buildings. Art Nouveau is considered as the 'total' style in art, it concerns both the geometrical and aesthetics sides of art, whereas in past movements it was one aspect concentrated on and not the other.
Art Nouveau made use of a lot of the technological advancements during the 19th century, it was also very expensive to create this style of art by the beginning of World War 1. Since it was so expensive to make, it later got replaced by a new style of art called Art Deco, which favored streamline designs and vibrant colours and a more modern style of art.
Art Deco began in Paris in the 1920's shortly after the first world war, it was formed directly in response to Art Nouveau being discontinued in usage. Art Deco goes for glamour and looks, employing a more modern style to its design, this concept takes inspiration from many ideas created in the early 20th century such as cubism, modernism and futurism. Most movements in the past had been derived from ideology or philosophical purposes, but Art Deco was mainly created for the sole purpose of being decorative only.
Artists employed this new way of creating art all the way through the World War 2 era, and to the present day, there are many great examples this kind of art still around today, for example the spire of the chrysler building in New York City which was built in 1928-1930 is still a massive attraction to the general public. Art Deco is different from its predecessor in the fact the that it has distinct linear symmetry compared to Art Nouveau which had asymmetrical flowing curves.
In Germany after they lost the first world war, the structure of their society changed and was highly influenced by modernism. Through this change in German society came The Bauhaus, known as simply Bauhaus it was an art school founded by Walter Gropius. It is said to be the perfect balance between form and functionality in a piece of architecture that had been created in the 1900's. Bauhaus had a great influence on graphic design, typography and it also has a massive impact on architecture throughout the world. Bauhaus was close in 1933 after being owned by famous architect Ludwig Meis van der Rohe, due to it being under pressure from the nazi regime.
Industry and Modernity
The start of Modern Art is recorded as starting in the late 18th century, finishing in the 19th century. The origin of modern art can be traced back to such early dates as 1784, but many aspects of the culture at that time contributed to the birth of modern art.
Each of the many aspects that occurred on different dates throughout the 18th century leading up to the birth of modern art, are said to be stepping stones to the creation of modern art, none of the single aspects where significant enough to be called the start of modern art, rather just little advancements.
The French Revolution that happened towards the end of the 17th century, caused uproar among the general public who started to question the legitimacy of institutions and beliefs that had been accepted for hundreds of years before hand without question. This sent the public into political and social debates, an art historian called Ernst Gombrich said that this 'movement' made the people become self conscious, making them, "Select their buildings, like they would their wall paper". This lead to artists becoming more free and experimental with their work, therefore the birth of what we call 'Modern Art'.
The pioneers of modern art were Romantics, Realists and Impressionists.
Impressionism was an art movement developed in the 19th century that came from independent Paris based artists, who put on exhibitions during the 1870's and 80's which gained them respect and prominence among the general public. The term 'Impressionism' has been derived from the title of an artists work, called Claude Monet. His painting which was created in 1872 called 'Impression' is seen as one of the first pieces of real imprestionissm art, this kind of art was created using oil paints on canvas using thin brush strokes and capturing the light using many colours.
Early impressionists took up this style of painting, breaking the previous rules which had been set by other artists, not following the science behind academic art which was to have the correct lines and contours in the image. The impressionists preferred to work outside and capture the scene using these new techniques, rather than the old way of painting in a studio.
After Post-Impressionism emerged during the early 19th century, this style of art kept certain aspects of impressionism art, but did not agree with dis-regarding the important lines and contours and wanted to both vibrant colours and strong brush strokes mixed with the important realism of whatever was being painted by keeping the geometrics correct. They wanted to emphasise these geometrics to give the paintings a sense of structure once again, and make them sort of durable making them popular for along time to come. The emphasis along with sometimes strange colours, conveyed a sort of expressive effect while keeping the structure of the real life object/subject.
Now as technology and the industries were moving forward, came World War 1. WW1 speeded up the advancement in technology, causing art to move forward with it at a rapid pace as well, beginning new movements around the world.
Each of the many aspects that occurred on different dates throughout the 18th century leading up to the birth of modern art, are said to be stepping stones to the creation of modern art, none of the single aspects where significant enough to be called the start of modern art, rather just little advancements.
The French Revolution that happened towards the end of the 17th century, caused uproar among the general public who started to question the legitimacy of institutions and beliefs that had been accepted for hundreds of years before hand without question. This sent the public into political and social debates, an art historian called Ernst Gombrich said that this 'movement' made the people become self conscious, making them, "Select their buildings, like they would their wall paper". This lead to artists becoming more free and experimental with their work, therefore the birth of what we call 'Modern Art'.
The pioneers of modern art were Romantics, Realists and Impressionists.
Impressionism was an art movement developed in the 19th century that came from independent Paris based artists, who put on exhibitions during the 1870's and 80's which gained them respect and prominence among the general public. The term 'Impressionism' has been derived from the title of an artists work, called Claude Monet. His painting which was created in 1872 called 'Impression' is seen as one of the first pieces of real imprestionissm art, this kind of art was created using oil paints on canvas using thin brush strokes and capturing the light using many colours.
Early impressionists took up this style of painting, breaking the previous rules which had been set by other artists, not following the science behind academic art which was to have the correct lines and contours in the image. The impressionists preferred to work outside and capture the scene using these new techniques, rather than the old way of painting in a studio.
After Post-Impressionism emerged during the early 19th century, this style of art kept certain aspects of impressionism art, but did not agree with dis-regarding the important lines and contours and wanted to both vibrant colours and strong brush strokes mixed with the important realism of whatever was being painted by keeping the geometrics correct. They wanted to emphasise these geometrics to give the paintings a sense of structure once again, and make them sort of durable making them popular for along time to come. The emphasis along with sometimes strange colours, conveyed a sort of expressive effect while keeping the structure of the real life object/subject.
Now as technology and the industries were moving forward, came World War 1. WW1 speeded up the advancement in technology, causing art to move forward with it at a rapid pace as well, beginning new movements around the world.
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Before the Revolution
At the beginning of the renaissance, artists which were formally known as craftsmen (or artisans) went on to becoming idolised by the communities as kind of celebrities, or people of great importance.
Those in power (the church and royalty) contributed to making this new idea of an artist being some kind of a celebrity, they basically realised that artists could create wonderful paintings and sculptures which therefore could be used to help promote and re-enforce ideology and belief towards the general public.
These artists now had very good lives, lived well and produced some unique pieces of art work reflecting the culture around that time. Other artists at the time such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo did not limit themselves to just developing art work, they ventured in learning more about science and other fields or knowledge. Clearly this was in some reaction to earlier artists in the renaissance and has been classed as the possible start of 'movements' in art.
The Renaissance has also been classed at the start of 'Modernism'.
Those in power (the church and royalty) contributed to making this new idea of an artist being some kind of a celebrity, they basically realised that artists could create wonderful paintings and sculptures which therefore could be used to help promote and re-enforce ideology and belief towards the general public.
These artists now had very good lives, lived well and produced some unique pieces of art work reflecting the culture around that time. Other artists at the time such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo did not limit themselves to just developing art work, they ventured in learning more about science and other fields or knowledge. Clearly this was in some reaction to earlier artists in the renaissance and has been classed as the possible start of 'movements' in art.
The Renaissance has also been classed at the start of 'Modernism'.
Art, Science and Religion
The Roman Empire eventually fell, it controlled most of europe at the time but because of this the center (Rome) became weaker than it used to be and was attacked multiple times from surrounding civilisations and tribes. This weakened the empire and therefore they lost alot of europe in the process, during this time the roman way of living and lack of a great army and infrastructure caused the Roman Empire to shrink and resort to new ways of surviving.
After this moment in history there isn't much of a cultural record to what happened in the centuries to come, this period was known as the Dark Ages. It is thought by many that the people of Ancient Rome simply went on to lead alternative lives, after losing hierarchy and infrastructure. In Roman culture they used to prosecute christians, but at the end of the Dark Ages it seems that the roman people went onto believing in christianity, included in the new ways of living.
The religious factor influenced the remains of the Roman Empire which lead to the empire splitting into East and West. It is very clear from the artifacts found at around this time period that religion had a big impact on the art being produced, since important skills had been lost through the infrastructure of the old empire, it is noticeable that art work had declined in quality from that made at the height of power of the old empire. The artifacts found were also relating to the religion of christianity, sculptures of Jesus and much more, the people clearly took up this view as some sort of mythological leader, giving them a sense of comfort in their current civilisations. Most of the art was being produced for the church.
Art in sexual terms subsided which is different than what the old roman empire and the greeks used to think about women and men. Paintings and sculptures of women and men had normal clothes on and were never seen naked in this time, unlike past times.
Artists were struggling to make drawings look 3D rather than 2D at this time, perspective was still on artists minds as a form of science, they wanted to get images to look as realistic as possible, which is were the term perspective was invented. Perspective had always been around, as the egyptians tried to use relief to make drawings have depth, while romans used materials to build sculptures but exaggerated the body features to show power, now in the current culture they want to know how to make drawings look even more real through using perspective.
Raphael came along and was known as the master of perspective at the time, they say he was accused of using some form of technology to help himself achieve these feats in creating art, as every in advancement in art and science at the time was relatively the same as they informed each other practices. This movement became known at The Renaissance, which took around a few hundred years to achieve.
After this moment in history there isn't much of a cultural record to what happened in the centuries to come, this period was known as the Dark Ages. It is thought by many that the people of Ancient Rome simply went on to lead alternative lives, after losing hierarchy and infrastructure. In Roman culture they used to prosecute christians, but at the end of the Dark Ages it seems that the roman people went onto believing in christianity, included in the new ways of living.
The religious factor influenced the remains of the Roman Empire which lead to the empire splitting into East and West. It is very clear from the artifacts found at around this time period that religion had a big impact on the art being produced, since important skills had been lost through the infrastructure of the old empire, it is noticeable that art work had declined in quality from that made at the height of power of the old empire. The artifacts found were also relating to the religion of christianity, sculptures of Jesus and much more, the people clearly took up this view as some sort of mythological leader, giving them a sense of comfort in their current civilisations. Most of the art was being produced for the church.
Art in sexual terms subsided which is different than what the old roman empire and the greeks used to think about women and men. Paintings and sculptures of women and men had normal clothes on and were never seen naked in this time, unlike past times.
Artists were struggling to make drawings look 3D rather than 2D at this time, perspective was still on artists minds as a form of science, they wanted to get images to look as realistic as possible, which is were the term perspective was invented. Perspective had always been around, as the egyptians tried to use relief to make drawings have depth, while romans used materials to build sculptures but exaggerated the body features to show power, now in the current culture they want to know how to make drawings look even more real through using perspective.
Raphael came along and was known as the master of perspective at the time, they say he was accused of using some form of technology to help himself achieve these feats in creating art, as every in advancement in art and science at the time was relatively the same as they informed each other practices. This movement became known at The Renaissance, which took around a few hundred years to achieve.
Art and the State
It is clear from looking at the earliest civilizations on the planet that art was used as way to enforce values and norms among the people, the found art and cultural artifacts re-enforce this concept and show us how they used to live compared to us in the present day.
When you look at egyptian art you can see they used symbols and images to show that the people idolised their leader, the pharaoh. The egyptians worshiped the pharaoh as a god and leader of the people, they did everything to please him and this shows through in the art work found in burial tombs and pyramids across Egypt. The egyptians clearly had better drawing skills than the earliest humans on the planet, the images where in a 2D side on view style, also low relief was added to the carvings to show slight depth to the images.
In culture Ancient Greece eventually replaced the egyptians as the main massive civilisation taking over Egypt, however both art and religious cultures mixed in the process and formed a newer more advanced concept of art. In Greek art it is clear that relief has still remained from the egyptian art but it is stronger making the images look more realistic than ever before. Greeks developed art called mosaics were they painted images on to small tiles and this was very popular throughout Ancient Greece.
The Greek society was more concerned about art, science and philosophy which shows in many of the Greeks artifacts, buildings such as the Parthenon show that the Greeks were concerned with symmetry in their buildings. This shows that they were looking into new things and trying to understand and develop the culture around them.
Another new force of people came along known as the Romans and basically overtook and merged with the Greek society to create Ancient Rome, like before this formed a new culture and along came new art.
The Romans like the Greeks/Egyptians had gods or leaders of their civilisations, but the romans were not so concerned about making art to please them, the artifacts found show that the romans were exploring into power and conquest trying to conquer other countries around the world, and having the greatest army at the time. Roman art shows powerful men with exaggerated limbs and body features to show their own strength and power, they clearly wanted to be remembered as one of the most dominant civilisations on the planet. Along with the art and sculptures buildings much like the Greek style of buildings were made, the romans built a new building called a colosseum where people used to fight and compete against each other to see who was the strongest man, this further enforces how obsessed Ancient Rome was into becoming the most powerful society.
Going back to the women in cultural history, in the roman society had changed the view of women radically compared to the earlier civilisations, before women were seen as the mothers of the families and carers for all people, providing for the children. Whilst now women where seen in a more sexual light, as seen in much roman artwork to be wearing limited clothes or even none, and with muscle packed bodies, this shows the romans looked at women in a different way than past communities.
Artists at in this time period had clearly become alot better at actually creating art, skills had been learnt from past civilisations and the culture around them had formed the way for the kind of artifacts being produced, Rome was a very colorful, interesting place to live in.
When you look at egyptian art you can see they used symbols and images to show that the people idolised their leader, the pharaoh. The egyptians worshiped the pharaoh as a god and leader of the people, they did everything to please him and this shows through in the art work found in burial tombs and pyramids across Egypt. The egyptians clearly had better drawing skills than the earliest humans on the planet, the images where in a 2D side on view style, also low relief was added to the carvings to show slight depth to the images.
In culture Ancient Greece eventually replaced the egyptians as the main massive civilisation taking over Egypt, however both art and religious cultures mixed in the process and formed a newer more advanced concept of art. In Greek art it is clear that relief has still remained from the egyptian art but it is stronger making the images look more realistic than ever before. Greeks developed art called mosaics were they painted images on to small tiles and this was very popular throughout Ancient Greece.
The Greek society was more concerned about art, science and philosophy which shows in many of the Greeks artifacts, buildings such as the Parthenon show that the Greeks were concerned with symmetry in their buildings. This shows that they were looking into new things and trying to understand and develop the culture around them.
Another new force of people came along known as the Romans and basically overtook and merged with the Greek society to create Ancient Rome, like before this formed a new culture and along came new art.
The Romans like the Greeks/Egyptians had gods or leaders of their civilisations, but the romans were not so concerned about making art to please them, the artifacts found show that the romans were exploring into power and conquest trying to conquer other countries around the world, and having the greatest army at the time. Roman art shows powerful men with exaggerated limbs and body features to show their own strength and power, they clearly wanted to be remembered as one of the most dominant civilisations on the planet. Along with the art and sculptures buildings much like the Greek style of buildings were made, the romans built a new building called a colosseum where people used to fight and compete against each other to see who was the strongest man, this further enforces how obsessed Ancient Rome was into becoming the most powerful society.
Going back to the women in cultural history, in the roman society had changed the view of women radically compared to the earlier civilisations, before women were seen as the mothers of the families and carers for all people, providing for the children. Whilst now women where seen in a more sexual light, as seen in much roman artwork to be wearing limited clothes or even none, and with muscle packed bodies, this shows the romans looked at women in a different way than past communities.
Artists at in this time period had clearly become alot better at actually creating art, skills had been learnt from past civilisations and the culture around them had formed the way for the kind of artifacts being produced, Rome was a very colorful, interesting place to live in.
Monday, 16 April 2012
High Art vs Low Art
When a piece of art work is created, it isn't automatically decided whether it is high or low art, to determine this meaning the art needs to serve its purpose in time, if the piece of art was created to serve a purpose by way of entertainment or for a general function then it is known as low art. If the art is symbolic and has earned the respect and appreciation of fellow artists, or just the general community, and also it keeps this respect way after the work has been destroyed or the artist has died, then this is called high art.
High Art is a term used to describe a creation made by an artist or non-artist that was so great, that it is used for inspiration and is respected by many people in a culture, making an impact on art history for it's inovation and therefore lasting way past it's own lifetime and still respected to the present day. An example of high art would be the painting 'Mona Lisa' by Leonardo Da Vinci. The 'Mona Lisa' is a very famous painting and is still seen as one of the greatest paintings of all time to this day.
Low Art is a term used for art that was used in it's own time period for a purpose or usage, but then the advancment of technology and culture made it so that the art/creation wasn't needed any longer and was simply replaced by something better to fit the purpose. Low Art generally shows what the certain time period was like in human history. A good example of low art is some of the earliest drawings ever found created by the earliest humans on the planet, cave drawings to be exact. The cave images show the humans doing simple tasks such as hunting for food and creating fire with tools.
High Art is a term used to describe a creation made by an artist or non-artist that was so great, that it is used for inspiration and is respected by many people in a culture, making an impact on art history for it's inovation and therefore lasting way past it's own lifetime and still respected to the present day. An example of high art would be the painting 'Mona Lisa' by Leonardo Da Vinci. The 'Mona Lisa' is a very famous painting and is still seen as one of the greatest paintings of all time to this day.
Thursday, 12 April 2012
The Role Of Art
Art can be created for many different reasons, maybe for recreational purpose, or for profit in the present day. Generally art is created in response to the culture around us and is used as a form of experimentaion in pleasing people's minds and making us feel like we are doing something good in the world through creation and expressing our feelings, or even to teach others in our world.
The earliest recordings of art work are documented at over 30,000 years old, these are the cave drawings made by the earliest human life on the planet which depict what life was like as a caveman. The drawings show the humans hunting for food and even attempts at drawing each other, they look similar to stickmen, this work could have been used for symbolic reasons, or simply for education and terrortorial reasons.
Its clear now that back then art was used as simply to in a pragmatic sense (recording history) or in a more metaphysical sense (symbolic). The caves in France where the earliest drawings in human history were found proves this concept.
Sculptures of what look like women where also found in the same caves in France one of which was famously named, The Venus of Willendorf. This shows that in this stone age period that art was also used to depict the feelings of the humans, they must have had something to desire about the women if they was making sculptures depicting them, or they might not have desired them like we portray women in our present times.
The Venus of Willendorf was a fat women which suggests that the men were worshiping them as the mothers of the children, and basically using the women for reasons other than sexual desire. Along with these kind of sculptures was found a lion man (literally the head of lion on a man's body) possibly show that humans feared something, or just wanted to express their imaginations through drawing.
You can actually see some elements of realism and exaggeration in the sculptures, this was probably down to the imagination of the early cavemen trying to convey what they saw (or thought was important) about the women in this time period.
The earliest recordings of art work are documented at over 30,000 years old, these are the cave drawings made by the earliest human life on the planet which depict what life was like as a caveman. The drawings show the humans hunting for food and even attempts at drawing each other, they look similar to stickmen, this work could have been used for symbolic reasons, or simply for education and terrortorial reasons.
Its clear now that back then art was used as simply to in a pragmatic sense (recording history) or in a more metaphysical sense (symbolic). The caves in France where the earliest drawings in human history were found proves this concept.
The Venus of Willendorf was a fat women which suggests that the men were worshiping them as the mothers of the children, and basically using the women for reasons other than sexual desire. Along with these kind of sculptures was found a lion man (literally the head of lion on a man's body) possibly show that humans feared something, or just wanted to express their imaginations through drawing.You can actually see some elements of realism and exaggeration in the sculptures, this was probably down to the imagination of the early cavemen trying to convey what they saw (or thought was important) about the women in this time period.
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