Many pronounced artists have chosen to represent the relationship between people and landscapes in their chosen medium; considering the ways in which experiences of individuals are as diverse as the composer’s outlook they wish to endeavor. The non-fiction text The Art of Travel by Swiss-British philosopher Alain de Botton involves an approach with an implicit humanistic perspective, suggesting that different types of landscapes have the ability to influence an individual’s outlook on life, from unhappiness and dissatisfaction to eudaimonic. De Botton tactfully applies the use of media, textual form and language choices to communicate his personal ideas through representation. Combining perspectives from great historical figures and his own …show more content…
The reader is then engaged by the opening anecdotes of de Botton’s experiences, closely followed by the endeavors of great cultural icons used as a helpful guide of human wisdom. In the particular chapter, ‘On Travelling Places’, de Botton presents a personal reflection of his experience at a service station. Initially, de Botton creates a Romantic image of his environment using repeated descriptive imagery such as “red sky” and “ornamental trees”, commenting on the nature around him. This image suggests a connection between people and nature, and then is skillfully contrasted to the manmade service station that has common stereotypical connotations of being isolated and “architecturally miserable”. De Botton continues to describe the landscape using industrial imagery, such as “illuminated” and “metal runway”, juxtaposing the beauty of the natural landscape. This comparison is then followed by an assortment of multisensory imagery such as “islands of dried ketchup” and smelling of “frying oil and lemon scented floor polish”, further convincing the audience that
Florian Maier-Aichen is a landscape photographer and drawer.With the computer he is able to alter photographs and make them a piece of artwork that not only pleases his thoughts, but also makes a statement.Since he takes real life images of a landscape and then constructs them in different modes that satisfy him , those images aren’t reality anymore.In Blum & Poe you can observe the strange colors he added to enrich myth-making.He fantasizes landscapes, making them open ended
The name of this evening’s program, “Wanderlust,” refers directly to its definition: a strong desire for or impulse to travel and explore the world. The selected song cycles were written by composers of different backgrounds who were inspired by cultures outside of their own through travel or other means of exposure. In each piece, one can see these sources of inspiration manifest itself in various ways, whether it be through the composer’s choice of text, their style of composition, or other musical elements borrowed from other cultures.
Although often inspired by natural landmarks and places, crafted landscapes are separate from the land the pieces attempt to depict (Andrews 1). A piece of artwork is a vessel to judge how an artist or culture saw, felt and depicted nature. As of a result, citizens of similar cultures may depict similar themes in their work in a variety of different styles. Both Barret’s 1785/1819 Untitled (Landscape) and Lacroix’s 1763 A Shipwreck display distinct European attitudes towards nature while attempting to captivate the audience in a similar way.
De Botton implies that the traveler’s mindset is the idea of thinking that a place can not decide one’s mood. In order for a person to escape that boredom in life, they must find a way to interpret their surroundings differently. The same sense can be brought towards relationships. If a person is miserable in a
This places the reader in recognisable landscape which is brought to life and to some extent made clearer to us by the use of powerful, though by no means overly literary adjectives. Machado is concerned with presenting a picture of the Spanish landscape which is both recognisable and powerful in evoking the simple joys which it represents. Furthermore, Machado relies on what Arthur Terry describes as an `interplay between reality and meditation' in his description of landscape. The existence of reality in the text is created by the use of geographical terms and the use of real names and places such as SOrai and the Duero, while the meditation is found in...
I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes – a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder. (P. 171).
The Landscape with a Calm(figure B) by Nicolas Poussin from 1650-51 incorporates a realistic appearance through its gentle brushstrokes similar to natures simplicity in the oil on canvas artwork. Poussin’s objective is to depict the relationship of nature and man such as a transcendentalist; who accepts the ideas not as a religious belief but as a way of understanding life relationships.
(ll. 19-24) Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This small
The first images of the garden are seen through the exaggerated imagination of a young child. “” are as “ as flowers on Mars,” and cockscombs “ the deep red fringe of theater curtains.” Fr...
These assemblages of work mirrror a reflection of glimpses of landscape beauty, a particular solace found in the nature surrounding us during her time in the outback, elegance, simplicity and the lifestyle of the physical world around us. Gascoigne has an essential curiousity displayed in her work exploring the physical word that is captured in an essence of this rural home which brings evocate depictions, subject to the arrangement of these simple remnants that offer so much more. The assemblages focus us on viewing the universe from a unique turnpoint, compromising of corrugated iron, feathers, worn linoleum, weathered fence palings, wooden bottle crates, shells and dried plant matter. The art works offer a poetic expression that traces remnants around the world that individually hold meaning to their placement in the
Frederic Edwin Church was clearly an epic and defining figure among the Hudson River School painters, particularly in his collaborative efforts in developing a sense of national identity for America, but also in fostering tourism through landscape painting, political influence, and entrepreneurialism. By answering the national call for artists and writers to define American landscape, Church took the first steps towards becoming, not only one of America’s greatest painters, but also a successful entrepreneur when it came to selling his own work to make a living. Church was dedicated to preserving “scientific accuracy” in his interpretations of nature and beauty, which were stimulated by the scientific writings of geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt.1
Artists of the Modernist era responded to the relationship of body and landscape in many different ways. This essay will focus on the works of Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) and Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) and will explore two works by each artist. A desire of the Modernist artist was the pursuit of pure forms and removal of extraneous detail that would encumber their vision of what the world should, or in fact did look like to them. As Honour and Flemming (2009) propose, the thought of seeking original elucidations to the issues that surrounded the production of paintings and sculpture helped to propel the movement forward.
In Alain de Botton’s collection of philosophical essays, The Art of Travel and Tim Winton’s short story ‘Neighbours’, the representation of people and landscapes leads us to a greater awareness of the complexity of human attitudes and behaviours. This is explored through the idea that changes in one’s receptivity to the landscape can determine their perspective of it and thus influence their behaviour and attitude towards those people in the landscape. The desire for a new landscape is due to the non-receptivity to the old landscape, this is explored in de Botton’s first essay, ‘On Anticipation’ with his experience of Barbados. The representation presented to him by the travel brochure was a severe abbreviation of reality, and thus his expectations of Barbados were overtly influenced by the misleading representation given to him.
As I read this work of art, my mind was transported to my favorite place in the outdoors. My imagination was filled with the waving of the tall grass, the stillness of the trees, and the feeling that time is standing still and I’m the only one who notices. For example, it sparked the idea, or memory, of how much I love nature and the outdoors, and the great sense of peace it brings to me. In an instant, it showed me how far I had drifted from that mindset.
“In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. Moreover, unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.” This quote by Ernst Fischer, a German composer, means that truth in art exposes the parts of society, and of life, that no one wants to see. In order for art to change society, it must first reflect the fears and failures of its people. The artist can change how people think of themselves and the world by using less conventional methods of creating art. The artist, in doing this, introduces new ideas of human placement in time and space, new frontiers of thought, that are furthered by the disciplines of science and philosophy. The artist works to introduces unique- and sometimes offensive- ideas so that society will be exposed to new ways of thinking and understanding the world. The artist does this through experimentation with color, style, and form. Therefore, the purpose of the artist should be to challenge how individuals perceive themselves and the offensive aspects of society reflected in art to bring about innovations in the greater society.