the arts. what is art? art is the creative use of the human imagination to aesthetically interpret,...
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The Arts
What Is Art?
Art is the creative use of the human imagination to aesthetically interpret, express, and engage life, modifying experienced reality in the process.
Views About Art
American View– Nonessential
Communicate– Feelings– Make statements– Share values
Marcel Duchamp, The Fountain, 1917.
Art and Anthropology
Why study art?– Cultural insight
• Religion
• Social Structure
• Lifeways
• Subsistence
• Resources
What Are the Functions of Art?
Myths offer basic explanations about the world and set cultural standards for right behavior.
Verbal arts transmit and preserve a culture’s customs and values.
Any art form may contribute to the cohesiveness or solidarity of that society.
Social Functions of Art
Individuality
Social Identity
Social Status
Art for Ritual
– Not to be seen by all• Tutankhamen
– Not to be saved for posterity• Navajo
• Johann Sebastian Bach
Types of Art
Verbal Art– Folklore
Music– Verbal
– Nonverbal
Pictorial Arts– Painting
– Sculpture
Verbal arts
Stories within a culture reflecting a history, gender relationships, proper or improper behavior, or religious beliefs.
Examples: Narratives, dramas, poetry, incantations, proverbs, compliments, and insults.
Verbal Arts - Myth
Religious
A myth provides rationale for religious beliefs and practices.
Creation myths
Verbal Arts – Legend
Stories told as true
Common elements– No known author
– Multiple versions
– Detail
– Insight to society
Verbal Arts - Tale
Common elements– Secular
– Nonhistorical
– Entertainment
– May be moralistic
Motif– Story situation
Verbal Arts – Poetry and Epics
Poetry - Allows for inappropriate subjects to be talked about
– Epics - Long oral narratives, sometimes in poetry or rhythmic prose, recounting the glorious events in the life of a real or legendary person.
Music
Ethnomusicology – Study of music in a specific culture.
Anthropology studies how a culture defines music.
art
Music
Verbal and nonverbalAbstract emotionDefine – Indigenous terms– Musical lingo
• Melody, rhythm, form
Components– Repetition– Tonality
Functions of Music
Group identification
Self-identification
Political commentary
Social commentary
Social function– Entertainment
– Work
– Oral tradition
Pictorial Arts
A type of symbolic expression that can be realistic or abstract.
Aesthetic approach - Looks at technique and form.
Narrative approach - Looks at what is depicted.
Interpretive approach – Looks at symbols and beliefs that are depicted in art, a knowledge of these must first be understood.
art
Pictorial Art
Various mediums– Drawing, painting,
sketching, etc…
– Walls, rock, fibers, wood, animal hide, plants, clay, etc…
Symbolic expression
Rock Art
Pictographs– Painting
Petroglyph– Pecking
Anthropomorphic
Animals
Abstract
Ritualistic
Non-Representational
Meaning
Entoptic phenomena– Trance phase 1
– Nervous system
– Geometric patterns
Construal– Trance phase 2
– Brain makes sense of image
Representational
Naturalistic
Western art
Abstracted– Style
– Technique
– Ability
Art and Iconography
Symbols
Colors
Meaning to culture
Hard to decipher
Sculpture
Many forms– Relief
– In the round
Media– Marble
– Mixed