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Basic art theory
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As far back as I can remember I’ve been continually inspired by the natural world around me. As a child I was always finding things around the neighborhood and fashioning them in a proud display of what I can only guess to be a human innate connection with the land. When early in college I came across Andy Goldsworthy, I felt an immediate connection with his work. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to emulate what he was doing exactly. What he did for me was validate a way of working that was removed from the modern world and technology that I have long resisted.
In my own work I am still experimenting with a wide range of media. I have not yet found a niche to fit neatly into and so would like to focus on one work in particular that I feel resonates with Goldsworthy’s body of work. That piece is a sculptural painting made from a found object wooden board, plant materials, spray paint, pastels, mud and glue. It is called, strange meadowlark, after a favorite song.
At first glance it may seem as if Goldsworthy is making a profound social commentary on our removal from nature or the...
History plays a very important role in the development of art and architecture. Over time people, events, and religion, have contributed to the evolution of art. Christianity has become a very common and well established religion, however, in the past it was hidden and a few people would worship this religion secretly. Gradually, Christianity became a growing religion and it attracted many converts from different social statuses. Christian art was highly influenced by the Greco-Romans, but it was immensely impacted by the establishment of the Edict of Milan in the year 313 AD. The Edict of Milan was so significant that scholars divide Christian art into two time periods, time before and after the Edict of Milan of 313.
In nature, someone can hear the sounds of a creek flowing and birds chirping and insects buzzing; in civilization, someone can hear engines roaring, people chattering, and buildings being built. In nature, one feels happiness and contentment; in civilization, one feels guilt and misery and sorrow. These simplicities of nature are what appeals to William Cullen Bryant in the poem ‘Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood’. The poem tells the reader that nature is a happier place than civilization and that nature gives one the answers to their existence and problems of life that civilization created. Civilization is ugly and corrupt while nature is beauty and tranquility.
Rathnasambhava, the Transcendent Buddha of the South and Madonna Enthroned are very similar images that were produced by very different cultures. Both images were produced during the 13th Century. The image of Rathnasambhava, the Transcendent Buddha of the South was produced in Tibet during an interesting period of the country’s religious history. The branch of Tibetan Buddhism is led by a religious and sometimes political leader called the Dalai Lama. It was during the 13th Century during the reign of Kublai Khan, around the time of the production of this painting, that Tibet experienced the first incarnation of the Dalai Lama. One has to wonder if this painting is somehow related to that occurrence. According to one source, the reincarnation system for the Living Buddhas is the main point distinguishing Tibetan Buddhism from other forms of Buddhism.
Art Blakey was born to a poor family in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1919. He was working in the steel and coal mills when he was only fourteen. There were no child labor laws in those times. He had to work to help support his family and put food on the table. Blakey turned to music as a way of escaping the exhausting day-to-day labor of the mills. Blakey taught himself how to play the piano. Even though he couldn't read music, and could only play songs in three keys, Blakey was a crowd favorite a several local venues. He used to make fifteen-twenty dollars a night in tips every night he went. At fifteen Blakey was leading his own band. They were small and unknown, but played at clubs all around the city.
Throughout the Romanticism period, human’s connection with nature was explored as writers strove to find the benefits that humans receive through such interactions. Without such relationships, these authors found that certain aspects of life were missing or completely different. For example, certain authors found death a very frightening idea, but through the incorporation of man’s relationship with the natural world, readers find the immense utility that nature can potentially provide. Whether it’d be as solace, in the case of death, or as a place where one can find oneself in their own truest form, nature will nevertheless be a place where they themselves were derived from. Nature is where all humans originated,
...lley’s ideology that neglecting nature due to man’s desires is destructive. Yet Scott presents nature as a status symbol, Zhora’s snake that ‘once corrupted man’ holding biblical allusions to man’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Scott thus develops Shelley’s principle further as the ‘City of Angels’ ironic entitlement reflects our pessimistic future, premising the capitalist degeneration of our world due to man’s desires since the Romantic enlightenment in Shelley’s period.
Crooked Beak of Heaven Mask is a big bird-figure mask from late nineteenth century made by Kwakwaka’wakw tribe. Black is a broad color over the entire mask. Red and white are used partially around its eyes, mouth, nose, and beak. Its beak and mouth are made to be opened, and this leads us to the important fact in both formal analysis and historical or cultural understanding: Transformation theme. Keeping that in mind, I would like to state formal analysis that I concluded from the artwork itself without connecting to cultural background. Then I would go further analysis relating artistic features to social, historical, and cultural background and figure out what this art meant to those people.
Pop art is an experimental art which surfaced in Great Britain in the early 1950’s. One of the major art movements of the twentieth century, it came into its own in the United States in the late 1950’s. This art form incorporated photographs in ways that had not been utilized before. It utilized mass-culture imagery and iconography, in contrast to the traditional tendencies of fine art. Pop art is considered to be one of the last modern art movements and served as a precursor to postmodern art. The art form is characterized by themes and techniques derived from mass culture, including advertising and comic books. Perhaps one of the most famous Pop artists, is Andy Warhol.
I look to other artists for inspiration and affirmation in regards to my work. I am certainly not the first artist to portray ideas of the body and its fragility. Hannah Wilke, whose work dealt with ideas of beauty and vulnerability, is perhaps one of more influential artists for me. While her work greatly differs from mine, I believe that fundamentally she was asking similar questions of society through her work as I am. When I first saw her work, I felt f...
Art is defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. Jackson Pollock does an amazing job creating art. Pollock’s works are not as big as some of the other artists like Monet’s paintings but his works are still large enough to engulf the viewer.
Our awareness, our perception within nature, as Thomas states, is the contrast that segregates us from our symbols. It is the quality that separates us from our reflections, from the values and expectations that society has oppressed against itself. However, our illusions and hallucinations of nature are merely artifacts of our anthropocentric idealism. Thomas, in “Natural Man,” criticizes society for its flawed value-thinking, advocating how it “[is merely] a part of a system . . . [and] we are, in this view, neither owners nor operators; at best, [are] motile tissues specialized for receiving information” (56). We “spread like a new growth . . . touching and affecting every other kind of life, incorporating ourselves,” destroying the nature we coexist with, “[eutrophizing] the earth” (57). However, Thomas questions if “we are the invaded ones, the subjugated, [the] used?” (57). Due to our anthropocentric idealism, our illusions and hallucinations of nature, we forget that we, as organisms, are microscopically inexistent. To Thomas, “we are not made up, as we had always supposed, of successively enriched packets of our own parts,” but rather “we are shared, rented, occupied [as] the interior of our cells, driving them, providing the oxidative energy that sends us out for the improvement of each shining day, are the mitochondria” (1).
Gray, Jessica H. . "Creating Nature." English 610- British Romanticism. Professor J. Jennifer Jones, 25 10 2005. Web. 12 Mar 2010. .
Banksy is a pseudonym for an anonymous graffiti artist, painter, political activist and one of Time Magazines most influential people in the world. Little is known about Banksys actual background but according to Tristan Manco in his book Home Sweet Home, Banksy was born in Bristol England in the early 1970’s. Known for his contempt toward the government, for labeling graffiti as vandalism, he displays his art on public surfaces, such as billboards and walls, and has even built physical prop pieces. Banksys distinctive stencil style usually embodies humorous images often paired with slogans that carry themes of anti-war, anti-capitalism and anti-establishment. Uncommon to most artists Banksy does not sell photographs or reproductions of his work, but art auctioneers have been known to sell his street art on location for large sums of money. In 2005 Banksy infiltrated many New York museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History and hung his work among notable art pieces. Banksys distinctive satire graffiti style mixed with his anonymous rebellious antics give him an invaluable buzz that is rare among current graffiti artists today.
Art serves the purpose of transmitting ideas about our lives and environment - forcing people to think about different aspects of our lives. Artist Andy Goldsworthy has a very specific style, creating mostly temporary art using nature as both his materials and his setting. His works range from gold leaf covered rocks to a photo of him throwing a string of kelp into the sky for it to contort into some seemingly random shape. This paper, however, will discuss Goldsworthy 's work “Sycamore Leaves Edging the Roots of a Sycamore Tree” which shows the base of a tree lined with a yellow gradient fading into the ground made from the leaves of the very tree it surrounds. Through this work,
Diarmuid Costello, Jonathan Vickery. Art: key contemporary thinkers. (UTSC library). Imprint Oxford: Berg, 2007. Print.