introduction


1. Slide 1

Topics covered in this Chapter:

What is art?

Where is art?

Who makes art?

The value of art

Censorship of art?

Why do we study art?

Note: The best way to see art is in person. Take advantage of opportunities you may have to see art for example while you art traveling or of course in your local area.


2. Slide 2

Art communicates ideas and emotions by visual means: it is a form of language

Art helps us see the world in new and exciting ways- can bring attention to the commonplace, or the controversial or ugly thruth.

Art is not made of a defined, prescribed set of media- new innovative uses of materials and processes. Art is redefining itself all the time.

Art has many purposes- creates beauty, enhances environment, immortalizes, expresses religious or spiritual beliefs, reveals truth, protests injustice and raises social consciousness, stimulates intellect and emotion, records events, reflects social and cultural context.


3. Slide 3

Another way to think about “Art”

Ability- the human capacity to make things of beauty and things that stir us. Creativity.

Process- acts such as drawing, painting, designing, etc.

Product- the completed work, a painting, sculpture etc.


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Sun god Re in the underworld at night

Reflects importance of rivers in Egypt

Refers to Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife


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1820. Hand-colored aquatint (print) from a watercolor

Painting by William G. Wall; print by John Hill

Landscape with one small human figure: a native American woman. Conveys the passing of the native American way of life as a result of the arrival of European settlers

Reflects nation-building and expansion of 19th-century America

 


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Not an immediately recognizable portrayal of its subject: river or waterfall, and fish

By making us look closely, artist evokes sensations of water falling and fish swimming


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Made by a construction worker, not a trained artist

Media: found materials (steel rods, pipes, wire mesh, mortar, broken glass, and pottery)

Named Nuestro Pueblo by Rodia but now called Watts Towers

Originally viewed as controversial, but now a National Historic Landmark

 


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1785-8

Civic building modeled on Roman temple in Nîmes, France

Used symbolic power of ancient Rome to communicate strength of the Republic and its institutions

 


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1986. Stainless steel

Jeff Koons had the idea

His employees made the artwork

 


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“High art” or craft?

In Japan ceramic tea bowls highly valued

Appreciated for subtle variations of color and tactile sensations

Artist followed a long tradition and well-established methods of working and making


13. Slide 13

Mona Lisa

Made in an era and in a culture that valued individual ingenuity

Portrait not simply a likeness: a meditation on the human soul

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Artist as genius: visual artist, engineer, scientist


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Art may not be the result of the work of the artist alone: patrons, collectors, dealers, and critics all help determine what art is made

Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of the city of Mantua, Italy funded many artists

Her money and taste determined what art was produced

This portrait was painted when she was in her sixties but because of her influence the artist showed her flatteringly as a youthful beauty


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Painted by famous artist: Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)

Wealthy patrons commissioned such portraits

Portrait sold for $135 million in 2006 (much more than artist was ever paid in his lifetime)

Value increased because of painting’s controversial history: looted by Nazis and became subject of a lawsuit

Also by 2006 had become rarer: artist no longer alive and fewer of his works available to buy

An artist’s achievement often comes to be better appreciated after his or her lifetime, as it is studied and stands the test of time


17. Slide 17

PERSPECTIVES ON ART: ROBERT WITTMAN WHAT IS THE VALUE OF AN ARTWORK?

Monetary value of art = price paid by a willing buyer to a willing seller

Stolen art is worth much less: 10% or less of free market value (it is very hard to resell)

Rembrandt, Self-portrait

Stolen from Swedish National Museum in Stockholm in 2000

Painting was not only by great artist but also very rare: only known portrait by Rembrandt that is painted on copper

Thieves tried to resell it for $250,000 - less than one percent of its market value - in 2005; painting was thereby recovered by police


18. Slide 18

Memorial dedicated 1922. Statue made of marble

Lincoln Memorial

Honors a great president - Abraham Lincoln

Symbolizes and celebrates American values and identity

Work of three artists: architect Henry Bacon, sculptor Daniel Chester French, mural painter Jules Guerin


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PERSPECTIVES ON ART: TRACY CHEVALIER ART INSPIRES A NOVEL AND A MOVIE

Portrait titled Girl with a Pearl Earring, painted by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, c. 1665

Vermeer portrait inspired Tracy Chevalier’s novel of the same name, which was then made into a movie in 2003

Painting is mysterious: is the girl happy or sad?

A single, flickering moment captured in permanent oil paint on canvas

A static painting but girl never seems to remain the same

 


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Self was part of 1999 Sensation exhibition at Brooklyn Museum, which showed controversial works

Many people objected to another work on show, Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary, for religious reasons

Mayor Giuliani demanded that work be removed but the museum refused

Giuliani attempted to evict museum from its building and withhold funding

Federal court ruled for the museum

 


22. Slide 22

Otto Dix (1891-1969) served in the army during the World War I and recorded his grim experiences of war in his art

Nazi regime in 1930s Germany objected to modern art that did not promote its goals

Nazis

Confiscated 21,500 works of art and destroyed many

Fired artists and museum directors from jobs

Attempted to ridicule other works, including Dix’s drawing, in the “Degenerate Art” Exhibition in 1937

But five times more visitors went to Degenerate Art Exhibition than to a show of Nazi-approved “Great German Art” that was on at the same time


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Visual analysis: how does the artist direct the viewer’s eye, what colors did he choose, and why?

How does the painting reflect its historical moment?

How does the painting reflect the artist’s views?

What can we learn by comparing it with other paintings of war?

 


25. Slide 25

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) was a French painter who worked in the Romantic style

Historical context: conflict between Greeks and Turks. The painting depicts a massacre of Greek people by Turks (the event was a reprisal for Greek destruction of Turkish mosques)

Is Delacroix’s painting objective or biased?

How does the painting reflect the opinions of its audience, who were Europeans?

How does the artist influence our own reaction to the painting?

 


26. Slide 26

Viewer’s eye directed downward to concentrate on the woman’s beauty

Made of rare materials for a wealthy king

Now displayed in a museum case but originally decoration on a king’s belt

Symbolism of Portuguese heads and mudfish carved around the top of the headdress, once we are aware of it, adds to our appreciation of the pendant


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