Reasons for Art

Wearable Art

Worn for spiritual worship

Subali/Sugriwi – Balinese Mask

Idols to Worship

Objects wish become fetishized

Spiritual Figure / Idol Nkisi Nkonde African Power Figure

To Tell A Story from the Past

The Story Teller1964Helen Cordero

To Communicate An Opinion or Point of View

Very common today: Post Modernism

Ben Shahn Liberation 1945

Visualize Dreams

SurrealistsDada

Salvador Dali The Broken Bridge and The Dream 1945

Document the feeling of a Place

Impressionists

Georges Seurat A Sunday Afternoon at the Island of La Grande Jatte 1884-1885

Depict the Beauty of Nature

Georgia O’KeefeBlack Iris1926

Political Commentary

Murals

Public Art

David Alvaro SiqueriosFor the Complete Safety of All Mexicans (detail of Mural)

Personal Identity (self-portraits)

• Not only images of the person

• Self- exploration

• Psychological

• Cross-over with surrealism

Frida KahloThe Frame1938

Illustrate a Story (Myth)

Educate the viewer about a particular culture

Marc ChagallThen the Daughter of the PharohOpened the Arke andSawe it was a Childe,From the Story of Exodus

1966

Marc ChagallLa Chute d’lcare1974-1977

Metaphor

• “juxtaposition” of two elements to create what is called a “third term”

• Also called a “poetic image”

Winslow Homer The Gulf Stream 1899

Environmental

Conservation

Attention to the environment

Christo & Jeanne-ClaudeThe Umbrellas, Japan & USA1984-91

Document of an Actual Place

Photo realism

Photograph

Richard Estes Woolworth’s 1974

Richard Estes Waverly Place 1980

To Depict Everyday life

George Segal Three People on Four Benches 1979

Question Artworld Conventions

Usually establish an art historical turning point or “movement”

Marcel DuChampNude Descending a Staircase1912

Others Reasons To Make Art?