Beginnings of Art

For the course AED 200, I expected it to be an easy art course to complete a Gen Ed requirement. I was hoping to learn about art, and I learned much more. I was able to not just learn about art techniques, but also the entire history of art and how it has developed. This course exceeded my expectations and taught me much more than I was anticipating. At the beginning, I viewed art as a form of expression for artists and also communities as a whole. It creates uniqueness within the world. Now as I consider what art is, it is everything. It is a way for an artist to express themselves, improve on their skills, or just a hobby to do something interesting. Art cannot be defined, as was learned throughout the material. Artists made sure their pieces could not be labeled by rules, and we saw an avant garde movement which is the definition of these developments. Creating art can be done in any way whether it is a painting or someone constructs and decorates their new home. It is everything an...

To create realistic portraits, some artist have to first use themselves as a study. Someone who did this was Vincent Van Gogh because he could not afford models. He created at least 35 portraits of himself throughout his career. I used one of his self-portraits for my art curation, and his works specifically inspired me most when wanting to create my own self-portrait. The three self-portraits I discovered of his on a virtual art gallery visit are as follows.  https://artsandculture.google.com/search?q=vincent+van+gogh+self+portrait  Self-portrait from 1887 (media and dimensions not visible for this piece).  https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/self-portrait-vincent-van-gogh/nAHHHe2ggxUGyg Self-portrait from 1889 (oil on canvas, 540x650 mm). (original inspiration from previous project).  https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/self-portrait/9gFw_1Vou2CkwQ Self-portrait from 1887 (oil on artist board, 41x32.5 cm).  https://artsandculture.google.com/...

Curating an art exhibit is not an easy task. In the video of Philippe de Montebello and the Met, it discusses how not only how himself as a director chooses pieces, but how an entire team chooses what pieces to buy and display. A fine tooth comb must be used when creating an exhibit and analyzing works for it. Especially for the Met, they only want great quality pieces. A piece should not be selected based on personal taste, but based on the quality of the piece itself. Sometimes a person may know nothing about the work, so they have to rely on intuition. This is where research comes in, which takes place all the time. Research never ends on the pieces as there is much to learn about them. Many pieces do not come in perfect condition and have to be conserved. The conservation department revamps them without distorting what the original artist created. Another element that has to be considered in the architecture of the building and rooms the pieces will be placed in. The architecture a...

Artwork and it's influence has developed throughout the centuries. In the video of Jacob Lawrence, it discusses how he knew, experienced, and painted the american scene. He lived in Harlem during the Great Depression and learned much about art during this time. Lawrence speaks of the importance of passing creativity down to other generations, and how the young have creativity but lack the inspiration and outlet to use it. Important factors of art to Lawrence were color, design, pattern, texture, and especially content. First understand the media used and executed, then understand the content the image is saying or expressing. In the readings, it is learned that Lawrence continued to use basic paints that he used as a young child in Harlem for his artworks as he grew older. He continued to use unsophisticated materials because he wanted to emphasize the fact that he wanted every viewer to understand and analyze his work. Lawrence believes a painting needed to have universality, clar...

Here in part 2, 3 artworks will be discussed from the Uffizi Gallery. The Ognissanti Madonna is a painted piece by Giotto. Media used was tempera, size  10′ 8″ x 6′ 8″,  and was made between 1306-1310. This piece originated from the Ognissanti Church in Florence. The style is an alter piece, and it has a religious/spiritual representation. Those within the painting are life like, but many have halos around them to emphasize their grace. The artistic elements used were line to construct where the figures are sitting in the alter like form, which leads to the use of form to make the alter almost 3 dimensional, color even though muted was still used to bring attention to many areas of the work, and space which was utilized to emphasize the difference between those seated in the alter and those standing at the bottom of it. Artistic principles used are balance which is evident by how there are three figures with halos standing on each side of the painting, unity because all the ...

Due to the worldwide pandemic, the only way to "visit" art galleries is virtually. It is actually quite amazing how many works of art you can view from the comfort of your home. I chose to view the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy for this project link : https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/uffizi-gallery/1AEhLnfyQCV-DQ?sv_lng=11.2551405&sv_lat=43.7679503&sv_h=-72.56694733863031&sv_p=-2.1305702986631445&sv_pid=b42xmC8f5SIHlsj4VvjZUA&sv_z=1 . I am used to seeing a lot of art from the US, so I wanted to explore art that is displayed in others areas of the world. From what I could see throughout the virtual tour, the lighting used to highlight the pieces were natural light coming from unblocked windows, and also artificial white lights above many of the pieces of art. Scanning through the photos, many of the walls that display the pictures ranged anywhere from a neutral cream color to even deep red and bright blue. As you view the pieces of works aga...

Art had many developments in the 1900's. The following videos were chosen because I wanted to learn more about how difficult creating art was in the countries of Italy and Germany. I specifically wanted to know more about the art in Germany because of the movies called The Monuments Men which focuses strictly on rediscovering the art that Hitler tried to hide and destroy. One of the major points started in Italy with the idea of futurism. In the Futurism: The Art/ Life Revolution video, it discusses Marinetti's influence on futurism. He said it was time for Italy to industrialize and become more modern like the rest of the world. Marinetti termed futurism as a time to reawaken intellectuals who were stuck on things from the past. His manifesto stated to destroy what was holding people in the past, cancel things such as museums, libraries, and academies. He wanted the world to focus on new things such as the speed of powerful cars, locomotives, and airplanes. At this time the ...

Masks are made and performed in throughout many cultures all over the world. The following masks are ones I found interesting and took inspiration from. These masks originate from from Venice. They are Venetian Carnival Masks that date back to the 13th century. There original purpose is thought to show rebellion against the rigid society of the times. These masks are made out of paper mache or porcelain. The elements used were line which provides intricate detail to the masks and also head pieces, color which is used throughout the entire pieces to provides cohesion (masks colors correlate with headpieces), and texture which is found in the different fabrics and products used to add detail to the head pieces and some areas of the masks. The principles used were balance and even though not always symmetrical, the masks are not overly detailed in certain areas which makes them pleasing to look at, scale/proportion because the masks are as large as a human face, and none of the details ...

Many cultures have created masks to serve certain purposes. The video Olmec Masks tells the history behind how the Olmec's came 1500 years before the Aztecs did, yet artifacts are found in Aztec areas. The Aztecs and Olmecs used masks as offerings, and buried them within the ground or temples. It can be seen that the Aztecs were looking back on their history and wanted to honor it and make tradition. The masks from these areas tended to have upturned lips, almost baby face like features, almond eyes, and a cleft in the head. This style was specific to this culture. Another video that discusses Aztec culture is that of the Feathered Headress. Hernan Cortes took a headress from the Aztecs and brought it back to Europe. It was made of specific bird feathers of a region that was not that of the Aztecs. This shows the trade that went on between different cultures and societies. This ended up influencing European art, and the Aztec and Catholic styles came together. The Bundu/ Sowei ...

During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, there were many developments to art that are important to look at. To see what interesting things were accomplished, many videos have been developed to showcase these influential changes. The first video was The Great Wave. This discusses the work of Hokusai who was creating art into his 90's. In the articular work of The Great Wave, what is seen is the massive wave creating the illusion that the mountain behind is much smaller than it actually is. What Hokusai strived for, even into his older years, is perfect balance within his art. In his series of paintings you see one of a wood cutter, and one of a fisherman. The speakers in the video discuss how these may be self depictions and expressions of the artist himself at that time. These two works depict how satisfied he was, and the satisfaction he had with the world. What isn't discussed in this video is what influenced the structure of his art. From textbook readings, Hokusai wa...

This art project was interesting because it involved trying to create something that was realistic. The hands seem easy, but trying to depict form, structure, and angles is very difficult. I chose to use a pencil because it seemed like it would be easier to control and provide more precision than charcoal. Something that was very difficult when exploring this project was using my non dominant hand to draw my dominant hand. It did not feel natural and was very difficult to be as precise as I was with my dominant hand. It was hard to manipulate my non dominant hand to create the angles needed to make the hand look more realistic and to provide some sort of depth. I have created drawings for years, but realistic ones are not my specialty. I feel as though the top hand is quite similar to the real thing, but definitely is not perfect. I was not able to create the depth I wanted to make it so the fingers looked curved like they were when I was drawing them. The bottom hand does not look a...

The Renaissance was a time of major change. A video that showcased the change was the Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany. I chose this video because I thought it would be interesting to see how things changed because of country wide disease. Some believe the less realistic style of art after the plague was influenced by the plague itself, but many others believe it was due to internal development. Even if depicting human like forms, they were not as realistic as Giotto's work throughout this time. He wanted to create humanistic work with real life expressions. This was much different from the very specific depictions of religious art that lacked emotion. This relates back to the readings on Giotto where he connects the religious with the realistic to give holy figures emotion. The text also relates back to the video on the change of art after Giotto, during the plague. Artists started creating visually crowded compositions, which is believed to be influenced by despair. Anot...

As religions developed throughout the centuries, different architectural styles were used along with artistic ideas. The two videos this writer watched from the Age of Faith series were Christianity, and Islam. In the video describing the Christian churches and there construction overtime, there are very similar elements to each one that was built. Main points are naves which symbolized the middle of these great structures. Everyone shown also had significant stained glass windows that depicted some sort of story of life. These churches were not all the same though. Some had Roman influence, others were made with Gothic themes in mind. The difference mostly is the shape of the arches. Gothic arches are pointed while the other style is curved. Based on the time and place, each of these churches were built differently. One in Italy is not the same as one in France. From the video, one church that was much different from the rest was the Chapel of the Dominican Sisters. It had a more mode...

Observing peers artworks and projects is interesting and insightful because we can all see things in different perspectives. One of the peer blogs I observed was  https://faithartfundamentals.blogspot.com/  . The first project was to showcase the different elements and principles within a series of photographs. This individual did this very well, and I enjoyed the different ideas that she captured. One of the elements that was depicted well was the one for texture. Not only does the flower have texture, but the water has its own look of texture as well. What could also be said about this photo is that it provides contrast as well. The difference between the flower and water are prominent, which shows the contrast between the two things. Each of this individuals photos represents an element or principle very well, but other elements and principles can always be found in these as well because the world showcases so many. For the art gallery project, this writer and the individua...