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Chapter 1

Art: the “visual expression of an idea or experience, formed with skill, though the use of a medium”.

Medium (pl: media) means the skillful use of a material.

◦ Painting

◦ Pencil

◦ Sculpture

◦ Computer arts

Figure 1.1 Janet Echelman, Her Secret is Patience, 2009, Phoenix, AZ

Creativity: the ability to bring forth something new that has value.

It has the ability to influence future thought or action.

The urge to create is universal.

Nora Dally, Age 6. We Love You, 2011.

Formally trained artist: aware of art history and the trends of their time.

Outsider artist: works are a personal expression created apart from any conventional practice or style.

Folk artist: works made by people working within a tradition. They create because they love to, not for professional commitments.

Figure 1.19 Anna Zemankova, Untitled. Ca 1970’s.

Art has many functions in our society beyond proving beauty.

Always begin an examination of a new work by asking “Why was this artwork created? How does it make me feel?”

14.2 “Venus” of Willendorf, ca. 25,000 BCE

Artists record the activities and objects of their time and place.

Reflects the world as well as the ideas and beliefs of a people at a given time.

Serves as a rich historical record also.

Mughal painting showing Jahangir Receiving a cup from

Khusrau.

Figure 1.2 Lauren Greenfield, The View North, toward Burj Dubai, 2009.

Everyone has used art to create a more pleasing, attractive living or working space.

Art can be both beautiful and functional.

Different types of art used throughout the centuries, but the end result is the same.

Image of an interior from the Simply Natural Blog, March 2009.

Top: Joyce Kozloff,

Galla Placidia in Philadelphia.

Bottom: Fig. 1.3 Mission One,

Electric powered motorcycle,

2009.

Art has a spiritual component.

Art has been used to

give physical form to gods and goddesses, to accompany religious ritual, and to express hopes.

Art also used to teach religious values to those that can’t read.

Funerary Mask of King Tutankhamun,

See also Figure 14.18

Left: Figure 1.6 Beatrice

Wood, Chalice (1986)

Right: Tibetan Wheel of Life, 19th century from Himalayas

Large wheel=samsara

12 ovals=the origins of suffering, craving, and ignorance

5 divisions=the 5 realms of existence

Circle at center=the causes of samsara

Figure outside of the wheels are Lord Buddha and the Bodhisattvas

Art used to highlight social injustices and persuade others to join a cause.

Also known as propaganda, ◦ “a form of

communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position”. Delacroix, Liberty Leading the

People, 1830

Figure 1.15 Chaz Maviyane-Davies. Global Warning, 1997.

Art also meets the needs of the artist.

Art allows a means for self-expression, creating order, understanding chaos, and exploring the fantastic.

Figure 1.10 Romare Bearden, Rocket to the Moon, 1971.

Art can provide pleasure, enjoyment, amusement, and embellishment.

Remember though that “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”.

Figure 1.16 Decorative Panel from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. 14th Century.

“An artist’s work grows from a lifetime of experience, thoughts, and emotions; no one else can duplicate them exactly. Works of art hold many meanings. The greatest of them seem to speak anew to each generation and to each attentive observer. The most important thing is that some works of art come to mean something for you, that your own experiences, thoughts, and emotions find a place in them, for then you will have made them live.”

–Gilbert’s Living with Art, 8th ed., pg. 16

Define all underlined key terms.

Demonstrate the functions of art utilizing the images shown in lecture.

Explain whether art needs to be beautiful or to be understood in order to be enjoyed.

Identify the images by title and artist that appear in your textbook.