Ch 1: Introduction

Architecture

- determine architect -scale: relative size of one thing to another - site: location of object/ building - use elements of art to analyze

what do the arts do?

- give form to imagination - express beliefs and emotions - create beauty - move, persuade, entertain - help us leave behind our preconceived notions and challenge beliefs

what are the humanities?

- objects/experience created by humans - record of humans experience/concerns

role of artist

-express dominant cultural beliefs or rebel against them -known vs unknown - men vs women -majority vs minority

commonalities among works of art

-form=pattern, arrangement, structure -content=subject - artists -composition=arrangement of parts -technique=process/ method -medium- physical material

Theater

-reveals human life through time, sounds, and space - imitation of reality: gesture, movement, language, characters, ideals, and spectacle Genres: tradgedy, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama

Questions to help perceive and understand art

1. What is it 2. how is it put together 3. how does it simulate our senses

concerns of art

1. creativity- bringing forth new forces and forms 2. aesthetic communication 3. symbols 4. fine and applied arts

functions of art

1. enjoyment 2. political and social commentary (influencing people's behavior) 3. therapy (role playing/ art therapy) 4. artifact

ways to sharpen aesthetic perception

1. identify items that can be seen and heard in art and literature 2. learn the teminology related to those terms 3. understand why and how what we perceive relates to our response

standards of criticism

1. knowledge of the art form may be shallow 2. perceptual skills may be faulty 3. the range of personal experience may be limited 4. application of personal standards is problematic if the judgement involves preestablished criteria because if the work does not meet those criteria it will be considered faulty despite other qualities that make the work unique

purposes of art

1. provide a record of history 2. give visible or other form to feelings 3. reveal metaphysical or spiritual truths 4. help people see the world in new and innovative ways

What does understanding our humanness through art require?

1. relying on the perceptive capabilities we already have, because using them develops confidence in analyzing art 2. learning how art fits into the general scheme of things of how people, examine, communicate, and respond to the world around them

approaches to criticism

Questions what is it? what does it do? what is it worth? formal criticism- applies no external judgements or information, analyze work as is contextual criticism- seeks meaning by adding additional information outside the artwork such as facts about the artists life and culture

"When a person studies the humanities, the intended result is that he should be able to better unstand, design, build, or repair a life"

The humanities provide us with the opportunity to become more capable in thought, judgement, communication, and action"

artifact

a product of a particular time and place

Convention

a set of rules and mutually accepted conditions (keyboard and tuning method on a piano)

formal analysis

analysis of visual components without reference to context

What do the arts disciplines do?

arrange sound, color, movement, and other elements in a manner that affects or sense of beauty in a graphic or plastic (capable of being shaped) medium

What does art serve as and what does it reflect?

art serves as the major remaining evidence we have of our earliest times and reflects the unchanged human characteristics of intuition and symbolism, and helps us to understand cultures

judgments

artisanship- is the work well made?- to make this judgement need to understand something about the medium the artist chose, good artisanship means that the work will have clarity (be coherent) and hold our interest things that can hold interest: universality- common experience/ feeling focal points freshness of approach to inoke curiosity communication- figuring out what a work is trying to say requires less expertise what is the artist trying to say? were they successful? was it worth the effort? these three things focus on artist communication by making us first what was being attempted and then focus on artist sucess at that attempt

symbols

carry a deeper, wider, and richer meaning than signs. Symbols go beyond what they indicate to a larger significance (doves for peace), whereas signs are what they indicate and suggest a fact or condition (stop sign),simply images that have resonance or additional meaning

signs

convey visual info by symbols or words

records of culture

durable- long lasting ephemeral- fleeting

Music

ephemeral(fleeting) vs notated(lasting) -liturgical: chant, plainsong, a cappella -secular: chamber music, pop music, musical theater, opera

fine vs applied art

fine arts- painting, sculpture, architecture, music, theatre, dance, and cinema: prized for their purely aesthetic qualities applied arts- includes architecture and the decorative arts (ie: sculpture), have a primarily decorative rather than emotional or expressive purpose, also considered "crafts"

form and content

form- structural or organizing principle content- what the work is about, subject

Functions and genre in art

functions - religious, secular, informative, entertainment genre- subset of discipline Music- pop, rock Lit- romance, sci fi Painting- portrait, historical

types of contexts and aesthetics

historical and social contexts - public vs private - secular vs sacred - rich vs poor intuitive and intellectual aesthetics - intuitive= emotional -intellectual= beyond emotion considers context and construction of work

how does it stimulate our senses?

how do the formal and technical arrangements elicit a response from us? Physical and mental properties such as touching a sculpture and feeling its smoothness or roughness, or the idea that traingles give us a sense of solidity

how is it put together?

identify and respond to the technical elements of the work. We recognize and respond to whether it was made using oil paint, printmaking, or watercolors also respond to the elements that constitute the work- line, form, mass, color, repitition, harmony- and unity that results from all of these. What devices have been employed, and how do these relate to the others to make a whole?

humanities

include the arts but also include philosophy, literature, and history. branches of knowledge that share concern with humans and their cultures, those aspects of culture tht look into what it means to be human

value judgements

involve intensely personal standards but some opinions are more informed and authoritative

what does the work mean?

meaning in a work of art implies much more than a refrence to a personal experience, the ultimate response, meaning, and experience of a work could go beyond opinion and attempt to address contextual matters personally conceptually

cinema

most familiar/ accessible Aesthetic communication through design of time and 3d space into 2d imagery persistance of vision: optical phenomenon that allows brain to perceive a series of still images as motion

critical thinking

not criticizing, but instead analyzing/snythesizing, compare/contrast, cause/effect, understand, appreciate/evaluate cultural production

types of visual art

representational- depicts likeness of form abstract- not photographically recorded but recognizable non objective- non recognizable

criticism

should entail a detailed process of analysis to gain understanding and appreciation 1. identify the formal elements of an artwork- describe art by examining its many facets and try to underand how they come together to create meaning and experience 2. try to state what the meaning or experience is

The terms arts and humanities fit together as a piece to whole

the humanities constitute a larger whole into which the arts fit as one piece. So when we use the term humanities, we automatically include the arts, and when we use the term arts we restrict our focus

iconography

the language of symbols

style

the personality of an artwork that gives us the body of characteristics to identify it with an individual, historical period, a school of artists, or a nation - realism, expressionism, abstract - many elements form a style historical style- refer to works created in a specific time, place, and style (Renaissance)

aesthetics

the study of the nature and beauty of art and comprises one of the five classical field of philosophy (including epistemology- the nature and origin of knoweledge, ethics- the general nature of morals and and of the specific moral choices to be made by an individual in relationship with others, logic- the principles of reasoning, and metaphysics- the nature of first principles and problems of reality)

The three arts disciplines

visual art- painting, drawing, photography performing art- music, theatre, dance architecture

what is it?

we recognize that we perceive the 2d space of a picture, the 3d space of a sculpture or architecture, time in sound, or time and space in dance, as well as recognize its form