This document discusses several purposes and functions of art:
- Art for delight, providing enjoyment, pleasure, and embellishment. It lifts us above daily life.
- Art as commentary, communicating between artist and viewer through subject matter and style. It testifies to experiences.
- Art in worship and ritual, enhancing religious contemplation through incorporation in sacred places.
- Art for commemoration, honoring significant people and events to connect us through history. Monuments commemorate leaders and events.
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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.
6. Campbell's Soup Cans
Andy Warhol
(American, 1928–1987)
1962. Synthetic polymer paint on
thirty-two canvases, Each canvas
20 x 16" (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
7. 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.
8. Buddha Shakyamuni or Akshobhya
13th century
Nepal, 1200–1299
Sun Stone. Aztec.
Late-Post Classic. (900-1521)
Mexico.
9. 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
12. 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
17. 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.
30. 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
31. 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
32. 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
33. 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.
34. 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.
35. 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.
36. Iconography
• Refers to the subjects, symbols,
and motifs used in an image to
convey its meaning.
Circle of Diego Quispe Tito
The Virgin of Carmel Saving Souls in
Purgatory. 17th century.
Peru. Oil on Canvas
• scapular, dove, crown, flaming pit,
cross, balance
37. 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.
