Lecture One - Introduction to Art

What is art: Art, in a general sense is a basis of human expression, and has been a part of human expression since the beginning of time.

Mostly everyone associates art with a certain level of skill.

Since early mankind, approximately from the Greek Empire, there has been a distinction between "fine Art" and what we loosely call "folk art".

Fine art is associated with the artists having a formal education and producing works in the following media: painting, sculpture, architecture, and possibly photography.

Folk art is associated with artists that learned their skills from their family members, and produced works of art in the following categories and media: fabric crochet, quilting, rug making, clay: pottery; wood - carving, furniture- and so on. Note: folk artists have produced painting and sculpture but it often lacks the polish and sophistication of a professionally trained studio artist.

We associate art with basis for human expression. We also think of it as having a certain level of skill. What other characteristics do we normally associate with fine art? Beauty and Meaning.

But what is art? What does it mean? How does it fit into our lives?

Art fits into every facet of our lives: History, Religion, Politics, and Aesthetics

1. Art and History

Art Communicates Civilizations Lost

How? It outlasts society. It was a form of record keeping, documentation of a lifestyle from the beginning of time--before the written word.

Cave Paintings of Lascaux, France 15,000-13,000 BC

- Lascaux caves were discovered accidentally by 2 boys in 1940, their ball was lost into a hole--their dog chased it, boys followed (side note: the boy who discovered the cave is now its caretaker)
- It is no longer open to the public bc carbon dioxide is damaging the art.
- The Hunter-Artist engraved and painted on walls pictures of animals

- - he used chunks of red or yellow ocher to draw
  - he used ground red or yellow ocher mixed with animal fat, and blew the colors onto the walls
  - the artist is trying to capture the animal
  - these parts of the caves were not inhabited so function was not decorative, rather, the places were dark and remote, which lets us guess that the place and pictures had magical properties, the artist would somehow gain power and control over the animal by depicting it. or "capturing" it on the wall.
  - we also know that the artist treated the picture as though it was alive- oftentimes shown with drawn spears, but also threw spears at them, as shown by the gauges in the walls.

So art history tells us something about a culture that is lost to us.

Art Records History through Portraiture or Depiction of an Even or Place

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, C. 165 A.D.

Caracalla, 3rd c. A.D.

- Both sculptures are portraits of Roman Emperors, but are quite different which reflect the period of time in which both emperors lived
- Marcus Aurelius looks very calm, powerful. He is gesturing towards prisoners- showing clemency. It was sculpted after a successful warfare. Marcus was once holding an orb to show mastery of land and sea. The times in which the sculpture was done were peaceful, successful times when Rome was still powerful.
- Caracalla, on the other hand, was sculpted during troubled times. The face reveals as much--with the furrowed brow and fleeting glances. It was a time of anarchy, a time of fleeting rule. It so has it that Caracalla should have been worried, because after only six years of rule, he was murdered. Caracalla was a brutal man who was losing his empire.

2. Art and Religion

Art was used to define religious practices

It enhanced religious ritual. For instance, the structure of a church promotes an atmosphere of mystery.

interior: Hagia Sophia, 546 A.D., Istanbul, Turkey

Or it was used to illustrate beliefs, such as scenes from the Bible.

Giotto, Arena Chapel, Padua, 1305

Detail: Lamentation, Areena Chapel, Padua

3. Art and Politics

Art as Propaganda

Augustus of Primaporta, 1st century CE

The statue of Augustus is an example of how the Romans used propaganda to display their authority.

Art as a Form of Protest

The Third of May, Goya, 1814

Goya depicts Napolean's army executing the citizens of their conquered Madrid
Goya uses distortion to further the emotional aura of horror, exposes the cruelties of the french army. Colors are acidic, which further the violent act.

4. Art and Aesthetics

Art can emphasize beauty and aesthetic experience over political, religious, or moral themes.

For example, here is The Peacock Room by James McNeill Whistler (1876–77)

🎨 About the Artwork:

Originally designed as a dining room interior for the London home of shipping magnate Frederick Leyland, The Peacock Room is a stunning decorative art masterpiece. Whistler transformed the room with elaborate gold and blue peacock motifs, using lavish color, pattern, and symbolism.

How to Look at the Components of Art

We will review Intent of the Artist, Form and Content; Iconography; and Style

Intent of the Artist - why was the work done? What is the artist trying to say?

This can be any of the above: historical, religious, political, aesthetics, personal, or a combination of some or all of these elements.

Form and Content - Everyone knows that the same story may be told in a variety of ways. Each person will select some details and omit others, depending our personal choices, and largely depending on our audience.

In a work of art the theme or story is the CONTENT, and the structural way that it is told, the way the work of art looks- referring to the shape of the objects is the FORM.

In the world of art, many paintings or sculpture have the same content- or the same story while the presentation or the form of these works of art are quite different. For example: these two works depicting the Last Supper have the same content, but vary in form.

The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, 1495

The Last Supper, Tintoretto, 1594

Iconography - The make-up of symbols is called iconography. Iconography is the translation of the content or theme into symbol or groups of symbols. Thus, the content is deciphered or understood by understanding the symbols. Similar to the game show Classic Concentration.

The Lion of Saint Mark above the entrance of St. Mark's Cathedral, Venice, 14th c.

The Lion of Saint Mark is a winged lion that symbolically represents Saint Mark the Evangelist, patron of Venice. It is a symbol used to give an immediate and unique sign of identity and power. It doesn’t have an official or political meaning, but only a popular and religious origin.

If we didn't know that this lion is a symbol of something, we would say that the content is an aesthetic depiction of a lion. However, we do know that the lion is really a symbol of St. Mark, one of the four writers of the Gospels. Therefore, the content, deciphered through the symbols or iconography is about St. Mark, the man who wrote the 2nd Gospel in the New Testament.

ICONOGRAPHY then is the traditional images in the work of art that have symbolic meaning for everyone.

This symbolic language was well known to the artist and his audience for whom he was painting. Today we may not have immediately spotted the lion as St. Mark, thus it is important in art appreciation to learn various iconographical or symbolic meanings in order to better appreciate the work of art.

Style - Style is two-fold.

It is the artist's individual approach to his subject. It is based on personal choices- how they want to approach a theme, influenced by the artist's emotions and outside influences.
Style also is a way of treating a subject that may be shared by many artists who belong to a particular historical period or cultural region or who have a similar point of view.

Style may be representational, abstract, or nonobjective, depending on how faithful the artist is to appearances of the real world.

Representational Art is art that closely mirrors the natural world. Many people believe that art should mimic the real world, duplicating nature.

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1500 CE

Most people would recognize this as great art because of the obvious use of talent that took to produce this work. It is clearly a mirror, or natural image of Dürer in his youth. It is realistic, mimicking the real world.

However, if you ask yourself, Why is this restriction placed on the pictorial arts? It is not on literature.
How many times has someone heard someone say "That is an awful painting-- That guy can't even draw."
In most cases - it is the choice of the artist to render something "unnaturalistic"
Another inaccurate belief is that representational art dominated from the Greeks to the twentieth century.

Abstract Art is is art that makes a reference to the natural world but does not duplicate it.

Picasso, Girl before Mirror, 1932

Picasso chose to represent his figures this way as part of a rebellion against the traditional definitional of what art should be. He is getting closer to the inner expressiveness of the artist's feelings.

The woman depicted is Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso’s muse and lover at the time. He met her in 1927 when she was 17 and he was 45. By 1932, she had become his dominant subject, inspiring some of his most sensual and emotionally rich works.

The painting shows a woman (Marie-Thérèse) standing before a mirror.
The left side (the "real" figure) is brightly colored, rounded, and youthful.
The reflection in the mirror is more abstract, darker, and distorted—featuring an almost skull-like face and elongated body.
Picasso uses bold, Fauvist colors, Cubist shapes, and geometric patterns to heighten emotional intensity.

Non-Representational Art or Non-Objective Art - Defined as having no reference to the natural world of images. It does nto represent anything but itself.

Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, Yellow, 1930

Subject matter is no longer outside the painting, rather it is in the colors, shapes, textures, masses, and space, their balance and arrangement become the subject matter. Art as art and nothing else.

Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was a Dutch painter and one of the founding members of the De Stijl movement (meaning The Style), which aimed for a universal aesthetic through abstraction and reduction. In this 1930 work, Mondrian pushes his radical simplification of form and color to its most iconic expression.

Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow is a defining work of 20th-century modernism. It influenced architecture, graphic design, fashion, and even furniture (e.g., the iconic Rietveld chair). Mondrian’s minimalist language prefigured later movements like Minimalism and Conceptual Art.

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