Lecture 1 - 26/09/11
'On the Shoulders of Giants'
In this lecture we learned that culture is a reflection of the society we live in, and art only reflects the culture that makes it. Therefore, in order to learn about or understand a group of people we need to look at their culture, or we need only look at the art their culture has created.
Cave Art
The earliest recorded cave art dates back to almost 30,000 years ago. Even in those days, a form of technology was used to create it; when a person picks up a stone and uses it to draw on a wall, that stone becomes a tool. Since then we have obviously become more technologically advanced, and with these advances, art has also moved forward. However, theoretically, our reasons for creating art remain the same.
The (theories of) reasons behind the cave art are high in number. For example, it could have been in order to make statements of pride about hunting and ruling over animals. It could have been to record their work and their way of life, perhaps to teach future generations how to hunt and survive, to pass down their values through their art. Perhaps the people who created the cave art wanted to make their mark and be recognized by people for their artistic skills, or even just remembered as beings, as people, a civilization who existed at some point in time. Another possibility is simply the need for expression. This need is said to be present in all humans and perhaps more-so in artists, musicians, writers, etc.
Our need for expression today has perhaps become more adventurous and experimental due to the fact that we actually live, whereas they just existed. Their days would have mostly been the same, probably filled with a particular routine or series of events. Ours, however, are often less routine and we have more free time to speculate and let our imaginations go wild in order to come up with more perspective-based art, instead of just recording what we can see, as they most often did.
Modern art as we see it today came about as a response to the camera and what it can do. It can capture life realistically and records things exactly as they are. Modern art tries to do what the camera can't, e.g. exaggeration, or depictions of ideas and objects that don't actually exist. However, with image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop and Aperture, interesting effects can be added to images taken by a camera to make them seem surreal or non-existent.
However, some early art shows exaggeration, anthropomorphism and surrealistic ideas. For example, figurines from the Neolithic period (beginning around 9500BC) of women portray what they saw as 'the perfect woman'.
This figurine is called Venus of Willendorf, and is said to be an early portrayal of 'the perfect woman'. We can see she has largely exaggerated breasts and hips. This would have been desirable in those times as those features were associated with being able to effectively reproduce, i.e. hips large enough to bear many children, and breasts large enough to feed them so they are able to survive.
I feel this lecture was useful as it showed me how early art began and how modern art is similar but also different, i.e. our reasons for creating art are the same. Also, modern art tries to portray surreal and fantasy-type depictions, whereas their art often just recorded what they saw.
Lecture 2 - 03/10/11
In this lecture we continued along the timeline of art and learned mainly about the ancient Egyptians, ancient Romans and ancient Greeks. We looked at what they had left us as evidence of their culture and their behaviours.
Ancient Egyptians
From just looking at the pyramids and the sphinx, we can see just what the ancient Egyptians were capable of creating. The sheer size of them is astounding, and the designs are magnificent. This would have taken a lot of work and organisation, suggesting they had quite an advanced infrastructure and order to their society in order to create these structures. With these legacies, we can see further into the ideology of their society, and what it meant to live in those times. The awe-inspiring structures that housed the Pharoahs created a sense of insignificance for the average person, especially in comparison the 'Royals', who were almost worshipped as gods.
Above is an image of the sphinx of Giza, with a pyramid in the background - the size alone is overwhelming. Many Pharoahs had their heads carved on top of sphinxes in order to show their relationships with the gods of their time. When we compare this to what we were creating at that time (i.e. Stonehenge), we get an idea of how sophisticated, intelligent and organised the Egyptians were in comparison to our own ancestors here in the UK.
When looking at the insides of the mighty pyramids, we see intricate artwork to create a sense of awe when thinking of the Pharoahs. We see a similar technique closer to home when looking at Cathedrals, Abbeys, etc. as we can see intricately detailed tapestries and paintings, giving a sense of importance and showing heritage from our culture many years ago. This is what the Egyptians left behind for their future generations, to signify the precedence of those inhabiting the Pyramids.
This is a photo of the tomb of Sennefer - 'mayor of the city'. A favourite of the king, he gained alot of wealth. This is reflected in the detailed and vibrant imagery featured within his final resting place.
As we can see from the image, Egyptians mostly depicted people from side-on, they struggled to translate the 3D world into 2D images. However, they did a pretty good job of attempting it.
This is an image of a bas-relief carving - a shallow sculpture into the rock to create the impression that the carving's subject is raised above the background. This effect is created by chiselling away the background, a very time-consuming task. Many of these carvings are very intricate and would have taken a lot of time and effort to create. This therefore suggests to us that the Egyptians having slaves could have just been a myth, and instead they may have had hired or trained, highly-skilled craftsmen.
The image above is of a sculpture containing a mixture of bas-relief and high relief carving. As we can see, the bas-relief still depicts people from side-on, whereas the high relief is from a front view, and slightly rounded as this can give a greater sense of depth and dimension. This is where the Egyptians began to master recording the 3 dimensional world in a more realistic way.
We can see from the above images that the people in the drawings and sculptures look mostly the same. This is because the artists often had set measurements of what a person should look like and how to depict them. So rather than copying from what they saw, they stylized what a person should look like - the ideal human. We do a similar thing today in that we edit peoples' shapes and faces in digital images in order to enhance their features and make them look more desirable.
We can also see that when creating imagery, the Egyptians would often place a narrative alongside it in order to describe what the image represented or depicted. This is similar to what we do today, e.g. in advertising or in books, etc. They also put their writing into columns, something we almost always do in newspapers, next to the images we include there.
Ancient Greeks
The Greeks were able to copy quite realistically from life but began to exaggerate limbs, etc. This again links with what we do today, in editing images of people to create an ideal.
Above is a statue of 'Kritios Boy', an anatomically perfect depiction of a human being. The sculpture is accurate in its 'balance of movement', i.e. he is propped on the left leg, the right leg bent and relaxed, thus the left side of the pelvis is pushed upward, as it would be on a real person, etc. The artist must obviously have put a lot of time, effort and most importantly thought into creating this sculpture, as they have made it look incredibly realistic compared to earlier depictions of people.
The Greeks brought a lot of thinking to the world, e.g. they were responsible for the creation of trigonometry, pi, and other theorems that are still used in the academic world today. They were a very powerful people, and that is what their artwork was often about, as we can see in the artefacts that survived from their era.
Take the Parthenon at Athens, Greece. This is a huge structure, and to see it looming over you could possibly be overwhelming. The structure is about power, and the powerfulness of the goddess it was built for, Athena. This reflects the values of the Greek culture and shows us that they were severely dedicated to their gods and where they worshipped was heavily important to them. Every part of the Parthenon's structure is symbolic or has some kind of meaning, and was carefully planned out, including many relief carvings on the exterior walls of the temple. The front base of the building is bent in order to counteract an optical illusion that the columns may appear bowed. The entire front of the temple has a 'Golden Rectangle' design, meaning that when a square section of the rectangle is removed, what remains is yet another golden rectangle in the same proportions as the first, and this can be repeated infinitely.
When looking at the insides of the mighty pyramids, we see intricate artwork to create a sense of awe when thinking of the Pharoahs. We see a similar technique closer to home when looking at Cathedrals, Abbeys, etc. as we can see intricately detailed tapestries and paintings, giving a sense of importance and showing heritage from our culture many years ago. This is what the Egyptians left behind for their future generations, to signify the precedence of those inhabiting the Pyramids.
As we can see from the image, Egyptians mostly depicted people from side-on, they struggled to translate the 3D world into 2D images. However, they did a pretty good job of attempting it.
We can see from the above images that the people in the drawings and sculptures look mostly the same. This is because the artists often had set measurements of what a person should look like and how to depict them. So rather than copying from what they saw, they stylized what a person should look like - the ideal human. We do a similar thing today in that we edit peoples' shapes and faces in digital images in order to enhance their features and make them look more desirable.
Ancient Greeks
The Greeks were able to copy quite realistically from life but began to exaggerate limbs, etc. This again links with what we do today, in editing images of people to create an ideal.
The Greeks brought a lot of thinking to the world, e.g. they were responsible for the creation of trigonometry, pi, and other theorems that are still used in the academic world today. They were a very powerful people, and that is what their artwork was often about, as we can see in the artefacts that survived from their era.
Take the Parthenon at Athens, Greece. This is a huge structure, and to see it looming over you could possibly be overwhelming. The structure is about power, and the powerfulness of the goddess it was built for, Athena. This reflects the values of the Greek culture and shows us that they were severely dedicated to their gods and where they worshipped was heavily important to them. Every part of the Parthenon's structure is symbolic or has some kind of meaning, and was carefully planned out, including many relief carvings on the exterior walls of the temple. The front base of the building is bent in order to counteract an optical illusion that the columns may appear bowed. The entire front of the temple has a 'Golden Rectangle' design, meaning that when a square section of the rectangle is removed, what remains is yet another golden rectangle in the same proportions as the first, and this can be repeated infinitely.
The Greeks are also responsible for the creation of fresco, a technique in which an artist paints onto wet plaster in order for their work to be within the wall so that it cannot crumble or break off.
The above image is of a Greek fresco from around 1600BC. The technique travelled across the world and was heavily utilized for many, many years, and was very popular throughout the Renaissance, being used by artists such as Michaelangelo in the Sistine Chapel ceiling, one of the most famous artworks of our time.
Ancient Romans
Ancient Roman architecture was all about the power of the Roman state, i.e. the emperor and his hierarchy of servers. They adopted particular aspects of Greek architecture but also came up with their own, the most famous being the arch and the dome. If we look at the outside of the Pantheon, built in Rome, we can see its similarity to the Greek Parthenon. Even the names are similar.
The Romans were extremely sexually liberated in comparison to our society today. When the lost city of Pompeii was excavated many years after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, uncovered were dozens of paintings and sculptures that were extremely sexually explicit in nature.
Take the image above, for example. It is a relief carving discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, and is a blatant portrayal of intercourse. Artefacts such as this were frequently discovered in the city. This suggests the Romans were very laid-back in terms of expression and were not afraid to portray scenes such as the one above. Perhaps their civilization were even curious and open to experimenting, etc. as some sculptures portray zoophilia/bestiality. In modern day art, imagery like this would most likely be taboo and extremely shocking for its viewers, showing that our civilization is extremely reserved in comparison to theirs.
This lecture showed me many things; I learned various similarities and differences between the ancient cultures and the modern civilizations of today.
Image sources:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPy2pIM2fJ6Zf9rq8I66aeOq3hjo7N5AlW1Ny8OrOIwbgQUKmpEhSMBaUYVwpHpwxV6yX7kmwGdCNGACJJuyEYpKNlFpJHYjBD4qjB7bS4eYyTWo899sSw7ShJnBNKB2gfZHZLYCg48BXg/s1600/Sennefer+egypt+luxor+tomb+nobles.jpg
http://www.molon.de/galleries/Egypt/Luxor/Karnak/images01/15%20Bas-relief%20with%20Egyptian%20gods.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPy2pIM2fJ6Zf9rq8I66aeOq3hjo7N5AlW1Ny8OrOIwbgQUKmpEhSMBaUYVwpHpwxV6yX7kmwGdCNGACJJuyEYpKNlFpJHYjBD4qjB7bS4eYyTWo899sSw7ShJnBNKB2gfZHZLYCg48BXg/s1600/Sennefer+egypt+luxor+tomb+nobles.jpg
http://www.molon.de/galleries/Egypt/Luxor/Karnak/images01/15%20Bas-relief%20with%20Egyptian%20gods.jpg
Lecture 3 - 10/10/11
In this lecture we learned about religious art, and the development of depth and perspective in art.
During the Dark Ages (described by Wikipedia as 'a period of intellectual darkness following the collapse of the Roman Empire'), people in Britain forgot how to live properly; how to farm. Their knowledge and their will to do these things was lost due to a lack of infrastructure. We became almost nomadic, living off the land in small communes. We roamed for food and weather, never settling in a single place and so had a lack of consistent culture and therefore a lack of art.
Eventually, art began to be created by and for the main figure - Christianity, and was therefore largely religious. The art was almost like advertising. It was the Christians' task to 'sell' their religion to the population - nowadays, the Vatican is one of the world's biggest multinational corporations - it has had a revenue of £222million in the last year alone.
Roman Catholic art spread throughout the world because of the expansion of the Roman Empire over time. Byzantine art came from the Eastern parts of the Empire, e.g. Turkey, Cyprus. Early Byzantine art included illuminated bibles and manuscripts - it was very religiously based. There was also the development of ivory carving, a technique popularized by Roman and greek civilizations, which is still used today.
Above is a diptych - an object with two flat plates joined together in the centre with a hinge. This particular diptych is a consular diptych, created to celebrate Areobindus becoming consul - the highest elected official below the Emperor. We can see the diptych is quite elaborately decorated, to highlight the importance of the consul. Ivory was also often used to carve gifts, boxes/containers for important objects, etc.
Above is an image of a page from an illuminated manuscript from the Rabula Gospels - a manuscript in which text is accompanied by decoration such as miniature illustrations and borders. We can see intricately detailed drawings surrounding the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. Peacocks are above them in the illustration, perhaps symbolizing beauty and reverence - Byzantine art was often symbolic and abstract. Byzantine art is also more loose and free in comparison to the Gothic art of Northern Europe from the same time period.
This period also saw the development of religious Icons. Icons were used because they are different from 'Idols'. An Idol is where the object itself is worshipped, whereas an Icon is where the ideas the objects symbolise are worshipped. Icons were mostly Christian, and there is little evidence of what was being created by other cultures at this time. Most art left over from the Renaissance and before is Christian as they could afford to keep and preserve it. Icons were often painted onto wood to represent the wood of the Crucifix. Everything about them was symbolic, even down to the materials. Many Icons were painted using tempera - a mix of colour pigment and egg yolk, which would dry fast and generally make the painting last longer - temperas from the 1st centuries AD are still in existence today.
Above is an example of late Gothic art, which first emerged in 12th-Century France. It seems to be aiming to be more figurative than Byzantine art - perhaps the painters were trying to create a realistic representation of religious figures, rather than inaccurate portrayals of them. Gothic often used darker images (perhaps limiting use of colours) and was usually tighter and more restrained with lines. The work is very plain and ordinary; nothing about the painting particularly stands out.
The above forms of art are considered to be worse than previous Roman art, as their infrastructure had been lost. This meant the civilisation was unable to produce and create the same things they had done previously.
The Roman art from this time period also had problems with perspective when translating the 3D world into 2D, e.g. on frescoes, paintings and illustrations. There is evidence of some attempt at the use of perspective, but it is definitely inaccurate.
Above is a painting by Giotto - a famed artist from the Middle Ages. We can see where he has attempted to create depth in this painting, within the front pillars of the castle. However, the perspective seems all wrong - the people aren't far off being as tall as the castle itself is. There is also a lack of depth in terms of the people - all of whom look entirely 2D and therefore almost spoil the painting slightly.
Early Islamic art is figurative. However, there were problems with this as objects had the chance to become idols. The artists rid their work of figures and began to use patterns so that a single object could not be worshipped.
Here is a set of tiles originating from 16th-century Turkey. As we can see, there is a followed pattern which has been reproduced across all of the tiles. Because no single object can really be made out in this pattern, viewers would be unable to worship any of them, meaning no religious rules would be broken, and the artwork would not be blasphemous in any way.
During the Renaissance, an artist called Raphael managed to create accurate perspective and three-dimensional effects.
The image above is a painting called 'Sposalizio della Vergine', or 'Wedding of the Virgin'. We can see it has excellent perspective - the people in the foreground are larger than those in the background, and those in the background are also the correct size in relation to the building behind them.
Today, David Hockney theorises that the Old Masters had tools such as the Camera Obscura to aid their paintings. The Camera Obscura uses a small hole to project light from a scene onto a wall or, in this case, a canvas or painting surface. The artists would then have been able to trace the outlines of the scenes onto the painting surface and therefore create a more realistic image.
After the Renaissance, cultures began to regain infrastructure and so the art created around this period had more permanence than that which preceded it.
Hieronymus Bosch was a painter around the late 1400s. He is best known for his use of fantasy-type imagery within his paintings to depict religious concepts.
Above is one of Bosch's most famous works - 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'. The work is a triptych which folds into a cabinet. The outside has two panels detailing the creation of the Earth by God. The inside consists of three panels hinged together - one to each represent Heaven (or God presenting Eve to Adam), Earth and Hell. The piece is very finely detailed and contains many bizarre and unusual depictions of both man and animal. For example, the center panel depicts people and animals engaging in sexual conduct, eating oversized fruit, and animals which have never existed and so must have been created in the mind of the artist. All of the panels can be considered to be very symbolic of religious concepts and ideas. These depicitions can be interpreted in various ways by the viewer, which is perhaps what Bosch was aiming for, but then again, he could have been trying to get a particular and specific point across through the painting. Many experts today theorise that Bosch is trying to warn viewers against a sinful life (the first two panels), and the torments we will be subjected to if we are to lead such a life (the last panel).
During the Renaissance, there was a painter named Pieter Bruegel, who painted the Tower of Babel;
This painting is of a Tower described in the Bible, which was built by a monolingual humanity to mark what they had achieved in surviving the 'great flood'. Because of their arrogance, God got angry, scattered them and cursed them with various languages so that they would not be able to understand each other. This painting is therefore based entirely on religious ideas but the imagery is all in the mind of Bruegel, as he would never have seen such a piece of architeture. However, we can see the arches and the cylinder shape of the entire building (examples of Roman architecture), which Bruegel would have drawn upon from his surroundings at that time. What the artist has created here is a mixture of biblical message and his own imagination, possibly attempting to warn viewers not to make the same mistakes (and make God angry) as the people who built the tower did.
Bruegel is also known for a painting entitled Netherlandish Proverbs;
This is a painting of various scenarios one may possibly see occurring in everyday life. The painting i figurative in this sense, however each scene in the painting is a reference to a proverb/parable. For example, the roof in the top left corner is 'tiled with tarts', which means 'to be rich'. The work contains a lot of symbolism and hidden meanings which may not be obvious to a viewer who had not heard of such proverbs or parables. There is a heavy utilization of symbolism throughout Renaissance art and I feel this is because the artists were trying to get various messages across to the viewers without being too direct about it; mostly these messages were religious and about ways of life and how to live it.
Another user of symbolism during this period was Jan van Eyck, a Flemish painter.
Above is a work painted by van Eyck, entitled 'The Arnolfini Portrait', but also known by many other names. Today, the imagery within the painting is interpreted in various ways by different experts. However, there can only have been one intended meaning by the artist, which we cannot necessarily decode now from the clues we see. For example, the dog in the foreground is interpreted to represent loyalty, the removed shoes represent something sacred, as the shoes would traditionally have been removed as a sign of respect. The fruit on the windowsill and side table is a symbol of wealth. The couple are dressed in formal clothes, which suggests they are having a blessing. Many people believe the portrait is an old day equivalent to a modern day wedding photo. Another reason for believing this is that the convexed mirror in the background reflects the scene with the inclusion of two other figures - van Eyck and what some people believe to be a priest.The red of the fabric on the bedspread and the cushions in the background represents passion.
Others believe the portrait could be a memorial of Arnolfini's wife, perhaps she died in childbirth? Or perhaps the painting was even a last chance to be recorded as there was a 50% mortality rate for both mother and child during those times. The man's side of the portrait is filled with light from the window and positive symbols. The man is in black which is traditionally the mourning colour. Perhaps he is making a blessing with the way he is holding his hand toward the woman.
Lecture 4 - 17/10/11
Today's lecture was about the Renaissance. During this period there were many advances in science and technology and how we depicted/perceived/presented the world. Leonardo Da Vinci, known as the 'Renaissance Man', was responsible for some of the most important pieces of work from this period. He was a scientit, mathematician, and biologist. We looked at the Mona Lisa;
This painting is probably the most famous piece of art on earth. It is often considered to be partly self-portrait and is extremely powerful. The eyes follow you - we like to look/watch and this creates and interface between painting and viewer.
We also learned that paintings of women from this period often portrayed them looking up in rapture or down in humility.
We then looked at Boticelli's La Primavera;
This painting tells the story of the goddess Flora, who was a nymph and was turned into a goddess. It shows more than one moment captured at a time. However, this does not fit the religious (Christian) pattern of the Renaissance, as it is painted from Roman mythology. People admired early cultures for their civilization and telling stories/showing nudity from these cultures was fine because it was not in that context.
We also looked at Michelangelo and his early Renaissance work about naturalism, which later became about mannerism - he was amazed at capturing real life how it was and so began using exaggeration.
For example in the above painting - The Creation of Adam - Adam is way out of proportion - his head is much too small for his body, his arms are huge and one leg is bigger than the other.
We then learned about baroque architecture and how it refers to Roman culture, i.e. floral, ornamental parts of buildings. We also learned of Rococo - very fancy, detailed, almost over-the-top/overpowering.
Lecture #5 - 31/10/11
Today we looked at Rembrandt, who used artificial light sources in his paintings. He painted commissions of the rich and famous.
The Night Watch, above, portrays men having to look after a fragile young girl, which supposedly represented the fragility of the city in which Rembrandt lived. As we can see, the girl appears to be the light source in this painting.
We also learned about Goya and about May 3rd 1808, when there was a massacre of Spaniards during a war. The role and responsibility of artists to record things was at this time replaced by a machine (the camera). Goya recorded the disasters of war - a set of etchings. Some were recounted by others, some were things he witnessed himself. He took on the role of a photographer by taking real accounts of life and portraying them in context of how they had occurred.
We also learned of the first known photograph in 1825 by Nicephore Niepce, who didn't make anything of it and considered it as more of a novelty around this time.
Lecture #6 - 07/11/11
Today we learned that the impact of the camera pushed artists to try to do what the camera couldn't. The most vibrant period of art came after the invention of the camera. Modernism advances to a point where our lives become perfect/utopian. Socialism believes people are more important than money and does not account for greed.
We learned about William Morris who tried to do applied art - to have a use. For art to be art, it has to have no purpose. For example, wallpapers, houses, furniture, etc. He saw artists as being artisans and took inspiration from nature instead of the modern world, the industrial revolution, etc. He wanted people to live in smaller communities and work together, believing artists should be multiskilled. This is ironic as art could only be afforded by the rich and art was not going to be the industry.
We learned about Art Nouveau, which was inspired by nature but machine made, as opposed to Morris' handmade. This was a style that affected art, fashion, jewelry, etc. It became wider/vaguer, style was occurring. The pieces were often delicate and ornate, but modern designs were becoming simplified and stylised, eventually becoming more about geometric shapes. Art Nouveau eventually became Art Deco. Deco meant simple, clean lines and rounded corners on buildings, and was about simple shapes and styles and was often very symmetrical. This was almost a complete reversal of older art and late Deco designs became almost minimal.
Lecture #7 - 14/11/11
Today we learned that applied art has a purpose and is there to solve practical problems, whereas fine art has no purpose. We looked at The Scream by Edvard Munch;
This painting is about expressionism - it is trying to show something which isn't there, something he experienced, e.g. a mood or feeling. It is about the expression of these things.
We also learned about Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, who formed a movement that became known as Cubism. They were aware they were a separate movement and doing something totally different to everyone else during that period. Cubism took 3D presentation to the extreme - presenting several different picture plains within one painting. Picasso was interested in art outside of Western culture and borrowed from tribal cultures in Africa and even from children's art. He also went through a 'blue period', during which he painted everything with hues of blue, thus simplifying the colour palette down even more to just different shades of a single colour.
There were two stages of cubism - analytical cubism, which looks at subjects through one lens and believes we can never truly represent the world as we see it. Then there was synthetic cubism, which brings together real objects as mediums to be used, i.e. collage.
After Cubism came Dada, which is/was about college/montage and often had a political agenda. Dad was art that challenged what art was, and challenged/questioned everything. The Dada movement took Cubism's idea of using real objects to create art.
We looked at Duchamp's 'Fountain';
This piece is basically just an overturned urinal that has been called art. Through this, Duchamp was questioning what the art object is, and asking why does it have to be a particular medium? The object has been taken off the wall where it once sat and turned upside down, and through this the essence of it has totally changed and it has been put into a different context.
There were two stages of cubism - analytical cubism, which looks at subjects through one lens and believes we can never truly represent the world as we see it. Then there was synthetic cubism, which brings together real objects as mediums to be used, i.e. collage.
After Cubism came Dada, which is/was about college/montage and often had a political agenda. Dad was art that challenged what art was, and challenged/questioned everything. The Dada movement took Cubism's idea of using real objects to create art.
We looked at Duchamp's 'Fountain';
http://www.friendsofart.net/static/images/art2/piet-mondrian-the-red-tree.jpg
http://www.beatmuseum.org/duchamp/images/fountain.jpg
We learned about Salvador Dali, who often had sexual themes running through his works. We looked at his painting, The Persistance of Memory;
The melting clocks in this image challenge the use of objects. Dali's work were called dreamscapes, however Freud taught that dreams were fluid and therefore hard to remember, meaning there was widespread criticism of Dali's work. Dali was eventually invited to leave the Surrealist movement by its other members, the reason for this is uncertain but perhaps it had something to do with what he was presenting and where he claimed it had come from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Persistence_of_Memory.jpg
Pollock would simply throw paint at the canvas to create his pieces, which would often turn out looking similar to the above - not forming a particular shape or image, but showing the artist's expression of the canvas.
We then looked at 1950s Pop Art in Britain, which was challenging what art can be about, using things from popular culture. Pop Art is based on the idea that art gives you information and also talks about bigger things, e.g. God, love, power, etc. British Pop Art was challenging what can be classed as important in art - what art can be. Pop Art was never popular - if you take something popular and put it in an elitist environment, only a higher class will see it. The context of Pop Art was different in the UK and US. In the US, it was all about the post-war consumerist boom, about being able to buy anything. Whereas consumerism was not evident in the UK Pop Art, as we had less money, and had the class system instead.
We looked at Andy Warhol, whose work transcended the movement - it was about things that maybe not all Pop Artists were interested in. Warhol was obsessed with celebrity, but saw it as a commodity - something we consume. For example, Warhol's painting of 200 soup cans;
All are different but all are the same, just like celebrities, and they have been put in a format that we consume - soup, which we eat.
Money (e.g. dollar signs) and death (e.g. electric chair, etc.) were big themes in Pop Art as people were obsessed with and controlled by money, and also obsessed with and fascinated by death. Was Pop Art glorifying or criticising consumerism with this?
http://austinkids.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/pollockpic.jpg
http://www.friendsofart.net/static/images/art3/andy-warhol-200-campbell-soup-cans.jpg
Action Plan for Summer;
Since I have struggled to keep up with all of these lectures, I will be undertaking the following plan over this Summer to catch up on what I may have missed;
I will be going back over my notes and making connections between my own work and the work of other photographers, selecting those I wish to research further from this. I will be using the Internet and look for different books to divulge further information on the history of photography and how it has developed, and how pioneering artists link to my own work. I will also take the opportunity to visit different archives to look at historical images from the artists I have researched from the above. This will hopefully help me to gain a better understanding of how photography has developed over time and why certain events within photography have occurred.
http://www.beatmuseum.org/duchamp/images/fountain.jpg
Lecture #8 - 21/11/11
Today's lecture was about Surrealism. We learned about Freud's writings on the unconscious mind and how it can be split into three sections; the Id - driven by the pleasure principle, the Ego - what we think is ourselves, and the Superego - allows communication to take place between the Id and the Ego.
Surrealism tries to tap into the Id to get true creativity to come out.We learned about Salvador Dali, who often had sexual themes running through his works. We looked at his painting, The Persistance of Memory;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Persistence_of_Memory.jpg
Lecture 9 - 28/11/11
There was never much art coming from America until the 20th century. The artists that appeared during this time had their own identity rather than just copying what was going on in art in Europe at the time.
We learned about Edward Hopper, who created very dynamic artworks. He used figurative art during the 1920s and tried to capture the feeling of places he was painting, similar to impressionist paintings. Many of Hopper's works have a narrative or suggest a narrative and we as viewers cannot help but project our own stories onto the images. Hopper is almost asking the viewer to complete the story. We learned that some of his works were inspired by photography, certain angles and cropping would not have been used in his paintings if not for photography.
We also learned about abstract expressionism, which is about abstraction (i.e. not figurative), and being expressive - you don't have to paint SOMETHING, the movement is just about being expressive as an artist.
We looked at Jackson Pollock - perhaps he saw something in his paintings that we can't. His work was more about the actual action - the physical side of painting.
We then looked at 1950s Pop Art in Britain, which was challenging what art can be about, using things from popular culture. Pop Art is based on the idea that art gives you information and also talks about bigger things, e.g. God, love, power, etc. British Pop Art was challenging what can be classed as important in art - what art can be. Pop Art was never popular - if you take something popular and put it in an elitist environment, only a higher class will see it. The context of Pop Art was different in the UK and US. In the US, it was all about the post-war consumerist boom, about being able to buy anything. Whereas consumerism was not evident in the UK Pop Art, as we had less money, and had the class system instead.
We looked at Andy Warhol, whose work transcended the movement - it was about things that maybe not all Pop Artists were interested in. Warhol was obsessed with celebrity, but saw it as a commodity - something we consume. For example, Warhol's painting of 200 soup cans;
Money (e.g. dollar signs) and death (e.g. electric chair, etc.) were big themes in Pop Art as people were obsessed with and controlled by money, and also obsessed with and fascinated by death. Was Pop Art glorifying or criticising consumerism with this?
http://austinkids.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/pollockpic.jpg
http://www.friendsofart.net/static/images/art3/andy-warhol-200-campbell-soup-cans.jpg
Lecture 10 - 05/12/11
Today we looked at land art - work which is not in galleries but has been installed out in the environment. We looked at the work of Andy Goldsworthy, who challenges what art is on several levels, e.g. 'art is permanent', but art will decay when made with items from the environment. Another example is where we see art - it is usually controlled by dealers/gallery owners, but when it is outdoors it is free for anyone to see. Another example is that it doesn't use any technology, but just manipulates the environment. However, this can be problematic as often the works can only really be seen in photos/books because they are only temporary and therefore cannot always be appreciated first hand.
We learned about Damien Hirst, who took over an abandoned building and painting directly onto the wall, resulting in an exhibition in this abandoned building. Hirst's work is often about mortality - the fact that we can never know what happens when we die has spurred on science, art and religion. We physically cannot image death, at all. Hirst's work is often about the biggest questions on earth.
Lecture 11 - 12/12/11
Today's lecture was all about photography. The earliest known photo was taken in 1826 and had an exposure of eight hours! Everything changed after this image, as for the first time people could mechanically record the world.
A man named Daguerre refined the process of photographing with his still life images in 1887 - these image had much more definition than previous ones. Although these images were accurately recorded, they never gave a feel of what it was like to be there. The Impressionists reacted to this and that is where the movement came from.
From photography onwards it became apparent that humans are a sex-driven culture, fascinated by sex, and by death. Photography changed the way we see the world - the way we see beauty in images. Whilst it tried to gain credibility as an art for, it was seen as a gimmick for many years.
People began to take images that didn't refer to previous art forms, e.g. in composition or subject matter. Such radical images were produced because it was so portable - it gave people the potential to get to places and record things painting could never have done.
We learned of the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, an early female photographer. Women were accepted in photography from very early on. The reason for the successfulness was the powerful images of women as people that were produced. For a long time, woman were paint as objects rather than subjects. The gaze in photographs changed this and created a connection with the viewer.
We also learned that you don;t have to deliberately set up a scene for an image to lie - it can be how you title it that creates the lie. Photography lies by omission - we cannot encompass everything into an image at once.
Action Plan for Summer;
Since I have struggled to keep up with all of these lectures, I will be undertaking the following plan over this Summer to catch up on what I may have missed;
I will be going back over my notes and making connections between my own work and the work of other photographers, selecting those I wish to research further from this. I will be using the Internet and look for different books to divulge further information on the history of photography and how it has developed, and how pioneering artists link to my own work. I will also take the opportunity to visit different archives to look at historical images from the artists I have researched from the above. This will hopefully help me to gain a better understanding of how photography has developed over time and why certain events within photography have occurred.
