The Purpose & Functions of Art

Art for Delight

• We need delight, enjoyment, pleasure, decoration, amusement and embellishment in our lives to “lift us above the stream of life”

• Aesthetics: refers to an awareness of beauty or that quality in a work of art or other manmade or natural form which evokes a sense of elevated awareness in the viewer.

• Classical: in reference to ancient Greece or Renaissance

• Monochromatic: based mostly on one color James Abbott McNeil Whistler.

Nocturne: Blue and Gold- Old Battersea Bridge. 182-1875

Art as Commentary

• Artists who view art’s primary goal as communication between the artist and the viewer by the means of subject matter.

• Prints: works that exist in multiple copies

Francisco Goya. I saw This (The Disasters of War), 1810. Etching, drypoint and burin.

Art as Commentary

Painterly: loose or spontaneous brushworks • Testifies clearly to what the

artist experienced and takes us to a specific place and time.

Berthe Morisot. In a Villa at the Seaside, 1874. Oil on Canvas.

Barbara KrugerUntitled (I shop therefore I am)111" by 113"photographic silkscreen/vinyl1987

Campbell's Soup CansAndy Warhol(American, 1928–1987)1962. Synthetic polymer paint on thirty-two canvases, Each canvas 20 x 16" (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

Art in Worship and Ritual

• Another function of art has been to enhance religious contemplation

• most of the world’s religions have found ways to incorporate artists’ creativity into their sacred rituals, places, and ceremonies.

Buddha Shakyamuni or Akshobhya 13th century

Nepal, 1200–1299

Sun Stone. Aztec. Late-Post Classic. (900-1521) Mexico.

Art for Commemoration• Commemoration is something

done as an aid to memory• More often a public act, perhaps

celebrating a significant person or event, or honoring patriotic actions.

• Commemoration of any kind connects us with the chain of humanity that stretches back for millennia, making human life seem more significant and valuable.

• “Crown of the Palace” was a tomb for the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan’s favorite wife, who died in childbirth.

• It sits at one end of a four-part paradise garden that recalls the description of Paradise in the Qur’an.

Taj Mahal. Agra, India. 1632-1648

Great Pyramids of Giza.Giza, Egypt.

4th century -2325 B.C.

Martin Luther King MemorialLei YixinWashington, D.C.2011

Art for Persuasion

• Government buildings, public monuments, television commercials, and music videos all harness the power of art to influence action and opinion.

• They invite and urge us to do or think things that we may not have otherwise thought of.

• idealism: the representation of subjects in an ideal or perfect state or form.

Augustus of Prima Porta. Early 1st Century AD. Rome. Marble

Barack Obama “Hope”Shepard Fairey2008

Art for Self-Expression

• Art fulfills an expressive function when an artists conveys information about his or her personality or feelings or worldview, aside from a social cause, market demand, commissioning ruler, or aesthetic urge.

• Art becomes a meeting site between artist and viewer, the viewer feeling empathy and gaining an understanding of the creator’s personality.

• Self-portraiture has traditionally been an important vehicle by which artists reach out to us.

Felix Nussbaum. Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card. 1943 Oil on Canvas.

Jackson Pollock Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist)1950

Fundamentals of ArtIntroduction : Part I

What is Art?

• Usually refers to: music, dance, theater, literature, and the visual arts.

• Fine Art: painting, drawing, sculpture, photography

• Each grows from a common need to give expressive substance to feelings, insights, and experiences.

• The arts communicate meanings that go far beyond ordinary verbal exchange.

Banksy. “Parking” S Broadway Parking Lot (at W 9th St), Los Angeles, CA. 2010

Work of Art

• Visual expression of an idea or expression, formed with skill, through the use of a medium.

• Medium: a particular material, along with its accompanying technique. (plural: media)

• Mixed Media

Representational Art

• Representational art depicts the appearance of things.

• It represents objects we recognize from the natural, everyday world.

• Objects that representational art depicts are called subjects.

• When human form is the primary subject, it is called figurative art.

• The most “real”-looking paintings are in a style called trompe l’oeil (pronounced “tromp loy”) French for “fool the eye”

René Magritte. La Trahison des Images. 1929. Oil on Canvas

Abstract Art

• In art, abstract art may refer to either two thing:

• 1. works of art that have no reference at all to natural objects

• 2. works that depict natural objects in simplified, distorted or exaggerated ways.

• In abstract art the artist changes the object’s natural appearance in order to emphasize or reveal certain qualities.

Theo van Doesburg. Abstraction of a Cow series. 1917. Pencil on Paper.

Nonrepresentational Art

• Often called nonobjective or nonfigurative art- presents visual forms with no specific reference to anything outside themselves.

• Amish quilts, many Navajo textiles, and most Islamic wood carvings consist primarily of flat patterns that give pleasure through mere variety of line, shape, and color.

• Just as we can respond to the pure sound forms of music, so can we respond to the pure visual forms of nonrepresentational art.

• Absence of subject matter actually clarifies the way all visual forms affect us.

Form and Content

• Form: refers to the total effect of the combined visual qualities within a work including: materials, color, shape, line, and design

• Content: refers to the message or meaning of the work of art- what the artist expresses or communicates to the viewer. Content determines form, and form expresses content; thus the two are inseparable.

Iconography

• Refers to the subjects, symbols, and motifs used in an image to convey its meaning.

Circle of Diego Quispe TitoThe Virgin of Carmel Saving Souls in

Purgatory. 17th century. Peru. Oil on Canvas

• scapular, dove, crown, flaming pit, cross, balance

Looking & Seeing

Difference between Looking and Seeing. • Looking is habitual and implies

taking in what is before us in a generally mechanical or goal-oriented way.

• Ex: doorknob, winters day. • Seeing is a more open,

receptive, and focused version of looking. In seeing, we look with our memories, imaginations, and feeling attached.

• Ordinary things become extraordinary when see them deeply.

Edward Weston. Pepper #30. 1930. Photograph.