#art255

Ch 1 Discovering a World of Art

  • Passive vs. Active Seeing
  • Define Creative Process
  • Discuss ways people value or do not value works of art

Chinese born Cai used gunpowder as a form of “art”.

Creative Process

  • Artists have to engage in critical thinking
  • “Aesthetic” -> Our sense of ‘beautiful’

Roles of the Artist: Assume one of the four or a combination of the below

  1. Create visual record of their time and place
  2. Help us see the world in a new way
  3. Make functional objects and structures more pleasurable with beauty and meaning
  4. Give form to immaterial ideas and feelings

Seeing the Value

  • Art has intrinsic value
  • Avant-Garde - Those working in advance of their time

Ch 2 Developing Visual Literacy

  • Relationship between words and images
  • Distinguish between representation and abstraction
  • Form, opposed to content might help us understand meaning of a work of art
  • Cultural conventions can inform our interpretations of art.

Words and Images

  • In Islamic culture, words take precedence over images.

Representation and Abstraction

  • Photorealistic vs. Abstract art
  • Non-objective: completely abstract, does not refer to natural world at all

Form and Meaning

  • Form: Materials, elements, structure.
  • Content: What the art expresses or means