Art Appreciation

LESSON 1

 Philosophy of art

 No universal definition of art

 There is a consensus that is it the concious creation of something beautiful or meaningful using skill
and imagination
 Etymology

 Art is related to the latin word “ars” which means art, skill or craft.
 13th century manuscripts (first known use of the word)

The definition of art has three categories:

 Art as Representation

 Mimesis - copying or imitation

 Plato developed the idea of art as mimesis
 Representation or replication of something that is beautiful or meaningful - primary meaning of art in
centuries

 Art as Expression of Emotional Content

 Expression became important during the Romantic movement with artwork expressing a definite
feeling as in the sublime or dramatic.
 Audience response is important for artwork was intended to evoke an emotional response.

 Art as Form

 Immanuel Kant - influental theorist at end the of 18th century

 Should be judged only on its formal qualities because the content of the work of art is not aesthetic
interest.
 In the 20th century - formal qualities became important when art became more abstract
 And the principles of art and design were used to define and assess art.

 Definition (comments and quotes) on Art

 Resne Magritte
 Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.
 Frank Lloyd Wrigth
 Art is a discovery and development of elementary principles of nature.
 Thomas Merton
 Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
 Pablo Picaso
 The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls
 Lucius Seneca
 All art is but imitation of nature
 Edgar Degas
 Art is not what you see but what you make others see
 Jean Sebelius
 Art is the signature of civilizations.
 Leo Tolstoy
 Art is a human activity consisting in this that one man consciously, by means of certain
external signs, hands on to other feelings he has lived through and that others are infected by these
feelings and also experience them.
 Agnes Martin
 Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.
 Pablo Picaso
 Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.
 Laurie Anderson
 Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar.
 Friedrich Nietzsche
 Art is the proper task of life.
 Vincent Van Gogh
 Art is to console those who are broken by life.
 Rainbow Rowell
 Art wasn’t supposed to look nice, it was supposed to make you feel something.
 Twyla Tharp
 Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.
 Loiuse Bourgeois
 Art is a way of recognizing oneself.
 Olafur Eliasson
 Art helps us identify with one another.
 Oscar Wilde
 Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

Lesson 3
Art Criticism

When we observe art, our minds go through a process. This process naturally translates into
the steps of art criticism. Following these steps will help us evaluate art effectively. It is important
for us to be able to evaluate art effectively. The four steps in art criticism are description, analysis,
interpretation and judgment. Being able to critique art by utilizing the art elements, principles of
design and correct terminology is very important for students. There are valuable questions that can
be used to critique any piece of art.

Lesson 4
History of Art

 Characteristics
 Chief artist and major works
 Historical event
 Stone Age ( 30,000 B.C. -2500 B.C.)

 Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures

 Lascaux cave painting, women of willendorf
 Ice age ends, new stone age and first permanent settlements

 Mesopotamian (3500 B.C. - 539 B.C.)

 Warrior art and narration in stone relief

 Standard of Ur, gate of Ishtar, Stele of Hmmurabis code
 Summerians invent writing, Hammurabi writes his law code, Abraham founds monotheism.

 Egyptian (3100 B.C. - 30 B.C.)

 Art with an afterlife focus, pyramids and tom painting

 Imhotep, Step pyramid, Great pyramids, Bust of Nefertiti
 Narmer unites Upper/Lower Egypt, Rameses II battle te Hittites, Cleopatra dies

 Greek and Hellenistic (850 B.C. - 31 B.C.)

 Greek idealism, balance, perfect proportions, architectural orders (doric, ionic, corinthian)
 Parthenon, Myron, Phidias, Polykleitos, Paraxiteles
 Athens defeats Persia at Marathon, Peloponnesian Wars, Alexander the Greats conquests

 Roman (500 B.C. - A.D. 476)

 Roman realism, practical and down to earth the arch
 Augutus of Primaporta, Colloseum, Trajans Column, Pantheon
 Julius Caesar assasinated, Augutus proclaimed emperor, Diocletian splits empire, Rome falls

 Indian, Chinese and Japanese (653 B.C. - A.D. 1900)

 Serene , Mediative art, and Arts of the floating world

 Gu kaixhi, Li cheng Guo Xi, Hokusai, Hiroshige
 Birth of buddha, Silk road open, Buddhism spread to china, and Japan

 Byzantine and Islamic (A.D. 476 - A.D. 4153)

 Heavenly Byzantine mosaics, Islamic architecture and amazing maze-like design
 Hagia Sophia, Andrie Rublev, Mosque of Cordoba, The Alhambra
 Justinian partly restore, Western Roman Empire, Iconoclasm controversy, Birth of Islam, and Muslim
Conquests

 Middle Ages (500 -1400)

 Celtic art, Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic

 St. Sernin, Durham Cathedral, Charters, Cimabue, Duccio, Gitto
 Viking Raids, Battle of Hastings, Crusades I-IV Black Death, Hundred years war

 Early and High Renaissance (1400 - 1500)

 Rebirth of classical culture.

  Ghiberti’s Doors, Brunelleschi. Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael
 Gutenberg invents movable type, Turks conquer Constantinople, Columbus lands in new world, Martin
luther starts refromation

 Venetian and Northern Renaissance (1430- 1500)

 The renaissance spreads north-ward to france, The low countries, Poland, Gernany, and England
 Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Durer, Bruegel, Bosch, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden
 Council of Trent and Counter - reformation, Copernicus proves the Earth revovles around the sun

 Mannerism (1527 - 1580)

 Art that breaks the rules, artifice over nature

 Tinoretto, El greco, Pontormo, Bronzino, Cellini
 Magellan Circumnavigates the globe

 Baroque (1600 -1750)

 Splenor and flourish for God, art as a weapon in the religious wars
 Reubens, Rembrant, Caravaggio, Palace of Versaillels
 Thirty years war between Catholics and Protestants

 Neoclassical (1750 -1850)

 Art that recaptures Greco-Roman grace and grandeur
 David, Ingres, Greuze, Canova
 Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution.

 Romanticism (1780 - 1850)

 The triumph of imagination and individuality

 Caspar Friedrich, Gericault, Delacroix, Turner, Benjamin West
 American revolution, French revolution, Napoleon crowned emperor of France

 Realism (1848 -1900)

 Celebrating working class and peasants, en plein air rustic painting
 Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Millet
 European democratic revolutions of 1848

 Impressionism (1865 - 1910)

 Capturing fleeting effects of natural light

 Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissari, Cassat, Marisot, Degas
 Franco-Prussian war, Unification of Germany

 Post - Impressionism (1885 - 1910)

 A soft revolt against impressionism

 Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat
 Belle Epoque ( late 19th century golden age) Japan defeats Russia
 Fauvism and Expressionism (1900 - 1935)
 Harsh colors and flat surfaces (fauvism) emotion distorting film
 Matisse, Kirchner, Kandinsky, Mark Chagall
 Boxer rebellion in china, World War

 Cubism, Futurism, Supremativism, De Stijl (1905 - 1920)

 Pre and post World War 1 art experiments, new forms to express modern life
 Picasso, Braque, Leger, Biccioni, Severini, Malevich
 Russian revolution, American women franchised

 Dada and Surrealism (1917 - 1950)

 Ridiulous art, painting dreams and exploring unconscious

 Duchamp, Dali, Ernst, Magritte, De Chirico, Kahlo
 Disillusionment after World War 1, The great Depression, World War II, and Nazi horrors, atomic bombs
dropped on Japan

 Abstract Expressionism (1940s - 1950) and Pop Art (1960s)

 Post - World War II, Pure abstaction and expressiion without form, popular art absorbs consumerism
 Gorky, Pollock, de Kooning, Rotko, Warhol, Lichtenstien
 Cold war and Vietnam war, U.S.S.R. suppresses Hungarian revolt, Czechoslovakian revolt

 Postmodernism and Decontructivism (1970)

 Art without a center and reworking and mixing past styles

 Gerhad Richter, Cindy Sherman, Anselm Kiefer, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid
 Nuclear freeze movement, Cold war fizzles, Communism collapses in eastern europe and U.S.S.R.