Art, even in its simplest form, has a culture embedded on it. It cannot be separated from the artist’s way of life. It differentiates a culture from all the rest and defines itself to an extent where nobody but the artist can even grasp. Traces of art forms have been identified alongside the evolution of mankind and flourished since the establishment of civilizations. These earlier art masterpieces in the form of sculptures, cave paintings, petroglyphs and the like were found from different parts of the world. These represented the perception of the people in the ancient times about their way of life and so despite its uniqueness in form, the similarities in these perceptions became the binding thread that connected every culture to the other thereby making art a shared experience.
The concept of art is hard to define; not because it is vague or abstract, but because it has had many different reasons for being created. It takes us to a journey to the past, the present and the future. It may reveal a community’s way of life, a person’s imagination, or merely a form of entertainment. It must be taken into consideration that art is culture-bound, something that is in a person’s field of experience. This paper aims to show that art is a shared experience by the artist, the artwork itself and the viewers of it. By looking at two different paintings, created in different times, of artists having different backgrounds, the paper intends to provide an understanding of how art threads time and links all cultures abound.
(Figure 1) – The Cutting Scene, Mandan O-kee-pa Ceremony by George Catlin
Medium: Oil paint on canvass
The Cutting Scene, Mandan O-kee-pa Ceremony, an oil canvas painting by George Cat...
... middle of paper ...
... look at it hence explaining the inter-connectedness of people regardless of race and culture. In conclusion, it is still within the viewers’ openness that they will truly appreciate the beauty and find the importance of art to mankind.
Works Cited
Catlin Virtual Exhibition. George Catlin and his Indian Gallery. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://americanart.si.edu/catlin/highlights.html.
Eanger Irving Couse. Saginaw Images. December 2000. Retrieved from http://www.saginawimages.org/essay.asp?ItemID=SMES0005.
E. Irving Couse,(1866 1936). Fine Old Art. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.fineoldart.com/browse_by_essay.html?essay=230.
George Catlin. Indeginous Peoples’ Literature. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.indians.org/welker/catlin.htm.
Who is George Catlin. Essortment. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.essortment.com/george-catlin-63651.html.
Long before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic to the ‘New World’, the Western Hemisphere had already divided and developed civilizations. Some of these civilizations were extremely advanced for the time. As people settled in the Americas and developed cultures, so did differences in the life styles, religions, and art of these peoples. The cultures of Mesoamerica, South America, and North America all developed many different types of art, most notably ceramics and larger scale items that still baffle historians today.
In conclusion we can see that even worlds apart artists can still find inspiration from unlikely subject matter. Watteau’s from the theater. Picasso’s from the street. Both artists not only showed their era in their art but also themselves and others. Even when it comes to entertainment it seems that not artist can escape the idea of shaping their own worlds into their piece of art. As well, both also showed not only the similarities but also differences of their era and how art was viewed.
different works of art influence one another. The article helps us see how all art is connected,
My friends, after traveling through the Asian continent and Japan, I continued on to the Americas. The art in the Americas has three regions, North America, Central America, and South America. Each region has a very distinct aspect to their forms of art. All cultures have some kind of art. Being curious about art, I have collected samples from five different areas. The following works of art are very different from European art, but there are still some similarities. The similarities of the human spirit are evident in the following images.
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
Even though an individual’s response is subjective, hermeneutical aesthetics focuses on interpretive incompleteness as part of the way human, viewers of artworks included, are in the world. An artwork is always experienced in the present from a particular present point of view and its interpretation is the transmission of meanings across time. In this way the artworks discussed in this thesis bear witness to particular historical events and allow for possible projections of those past events into the future. Contemporary life is permeated with a diversity of visual information. In such an atmosphere the hermeneutic approach provides a way of understanding the applications of the meaning we make of visual input. In light of it, the responsibility of both artist and viewer is among the issues discussed in the last part ‘Beyond Horizons’. Here the perspective moves to weave together the threads of ideas and issues that have been identified in the ‘Fusion of Horizons’ section, and reflects on aspects that reverberate beyond the shifting possibilities within the
More in depth, the entire concept of art and what is art differs in the world of the nonliterate societies. This is the first rule that needs to be analyzed. In addition to, the objects westerners view as art is actually a small piece to a bigger puzzle. To the Natives, the overall puzzle or purpose is to created and stabilize the cosmic order in which they live in. It is through this process of rituals and sacred ceremonies to keep order that objects are created of beauty, but for bigger reason. Not to hang on a wall or leave behind a glass case; but rather, keeping order and doing away with chaos that could destroy their existence.
In order to familiarise myself with the above topic, I have invested much time reading vast selection of the portraiture art themes with aim to get acquainted with the knowledge and the language used in this particular subject. It was very challenging and entertaining to read comprehensive range of various critiques and analysis of the world best paintings stretching from ancient classic to contemporary western image. Developing understanding of the diverse art expressions and social and political influences tha...
... over time – and the viewer’s personal experience, essentially her history. This gets very near to a common sense perspective – what we look at, and what we think about what we see has much to do with who we are and what we have experienced in life. Thus, art may be described as an interaction between the viewer, influenced by her experiences, with the work of art, inclusive of its history and the stories built up around it over time. When we look at art, we must acknowledge that the image is temporally stretched – there is more to it than meets the eye at present. What we learn from Didi-Huberman’s approach is to give this temporal ‘tension’ its due. Didi-Huberman describes and defends the importance of of how we look at artistic works: images that represent something determinate, while always remaining open to the presentation of something new and different.
Art has been around for as long as humanity has existed, and it is much more than just drawings or paintings. Art is what every a person makes of it. Art can be drawings, paintings, writings, or even dancing, but never is it contained to just one of those things. As we explore just two aspect of art it is important to realize that there is no right or wrong way to look at the art. Art comes in many different forms, in which they are all interpreted a little differently by different people. For me, when I read a poem I do not instantly know what the poet is trying to say and I don’t find it as interesting, but when I look at a painting so many more thoughts comes and I can’t help by imagine what that artist was thinking while he was painting.
All in all, the artworks of Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Aegean cultures, and Ancient Greece have similarities that not only reflect objects and images, but also the media, style and representation, these cultures are vastly exclusive works ranging from triangular depictions of form, to breezy depictions of nature, to sturdy architectural innovations for their citadels. Because of the existence of these major cultures of art in our world, it has made what art is today. These four unbelievable time periods have learned from each other and improved the way they accomplish their art techniques. These amazing cultures set a foundation that we were able to build on for thousands of years now with much more to come.
During the ancient times in Greece, Plato was the first human to document and criticize the existence of art and artists. He mentioned that human art was always in a form of a representation of something else. In one of Plato’s famous works, he demonstrates the idea of art is like an “imitation of nature” (Blocker 3). In other words, the purpose of art was to represent nature and nothing else. Art was not created for the sake of its own self nor was it created to appreciate its own beauty by any means. Instead, art, usually in forms of writings, paintings, or sculptures, was created to only to represent nature, Gods, emperors, families, or other important individuals. Furthermore, Plato had a very critical view towards the existence art in our society because art makes us more emotional, and our emotions lead to many errors about life. He believed it is our rational thinking, not our emotions or senses, which helps us und...
“Art is a recurring form of human practice. Some have argued that all human societies have shown evidence of artistic activities.” (Carroll 5)
...ns something when it imitates nature and delivers facts of history or culture. Art is the exploration of what it is to be alive, to be human and struggling to understand one’s role within society and identity in general. By stretching the limits of what is acceptable, the artist questions preconceived ideas of what is ugly and beautiful, important and unimportant. These ideas in art and society are influenced by the emergence of new technologies that expand human understanding. Since technology improves and human understanding is bolstered by these theories (both philosophical and scientific), then art will always have a place. The artist’s place is to criticize and express the tendencies and attitudes of himself and of society. Even if those feelings are marginalized, their expression makes the audience aware of them, and begs them to ask questions of themselves.
Human’s have always struggled to express themselves. Art, is considered by many to be the ultimate form of human expression. Many assume that art has a definition, but this is not the case. Art, it can be said, is “in the eye of the beholder.” This simply means that what you consider art, someone else would not. Art is part of a person’s internal emotions, which signifies why different people see art as different things. Every type of culture and era presents distinctive and unique characteristics. Different cultures all have different views of what art can, and would be, causing art itself to be universally renowned throughout the world.