Abstract Art : Art And Conceptual Art

The question of “What is art” is a discussion that for some people can be incredibly nuanced and challenging, while for others, it’s inexplicably simple. In this paper I will discuss the topic of what art is, it’s value to society, what it means to me and how this personal definition has evolved both over time and as a result of this course. In addition, this paper will also demonstrate the approaches by which one can evaluate and interpret art by comparing and contrasting works from two different periods. Specifically, the art works which are going to be discussed from two different periods are, Statuette of

Art is how you express yourself, and everyone does it in their own way, in their own style. I chose to write about the two following art works because I believe they have so many similarities but are done in completely different ways. For this comparison and contrast assignment the two works of art I chose to write about are called; End “Mixed Media” by: Terry Peterson,shown in the art building at Shasta College, and Forlakeph “Mixed Media in a Glass Jar” by: Gioia Fonda, also shown in the art building at Shasta College.

Art is able to evoke different feelings and emotions to each person that sets their eyes on it. The act of ‘looking’ is simple, but a lot comes from it. Where the eyes are first drawn to, the duration that the eyes are focused on a specific detail, and the thoughts that flood one’s brain when viewing art is all significant. These actions say more than the piece itself, it reveals emotions of both the artist and the audience. Art can be expressed through infinite forms, but the underlying importance is not with the art itself. It represents a place in time, displaying what was noteworthy to an individual in their own life. It serves as a lasting creation representative of human imagination with the ability to bring out a multitude of emotions from whoever views it. When art is created it represents the creativity of the human mind compacted into a physical object. Art has little usage aside from pure observation, yet it has prevailed throughout time, showing its importance to humanity. Art provides a lens into humanity, showcasing the human ability over time. When studied through history, art is a view into the development of humans and their interests. Through something as basic as commonly using symmetry to transitioning to asymmetry, the European’s perspective following the Renaissance is revealed. The making of art is solely up to one individual and their creativity. It is the pinnacle of

Non-conformist to traditional art forms, Conceptualism challenges the viewer to delve into the mindset of the artist. It is often seen as multidimensional as it forces the audience to decipher the artists intentions. This art movement has been completely rejecting the standard ideas of art since the mid-1960’s. Since then, many artists have made a name for themselves by self-consciously expanding the boundaries of art. Many of these artists have said they’ve linked their work to artist Marcel Duchamp.

The Gathering is an acrylic painting of a woodpile in Peterborough, NH. The image represents the gathering of ideas and people that led the painting’s success. The first visual element that comes to mind when I look at this painting is the direction. The painting’s direction is vertical because it gives the illusion that the viewer is looking towards the top of a hill to a woodpile. The woodpile is considered the “figure” in which is detached and focused on while the surround hill is the “ground”.

I chose the Michel Saloff-Coste abstract art for my piece. The artwork made me think of a busy market type street thronging with people of all different backgrounds. My piece is meant to convey a person getting up in the morning and walking down a bright street like this where there is lots of music from different places, all mixing together. I imagine it sort of like an open-air market in a big city, with everyone playing their own music. I opened with two different brass track solos. I felt that the bright, almost celebratory feel very much illustrated the ‘person’ of my piece heading out ready to face the day. After this it goes into a conga beat with a string bass playing a repeated eighth-note pattern. This establishes the ‘groove’ of

Over the course of several months the meaning and understanding of aesthetics and its application to art have taken place as a means to expanding the mind of a budding aesthete. Multiple respected aesthetes have been discussed regarding their philosophical approach to art and the theories influencing their philosophical stance. Some theories have been refuted while others have been regarded yet the insight provided by these aesthetes has been profound. Several of these aesthetes studied have helped in shaping one particular individual’s viewpoint in the creation of her own philosophy of art. Art and its significance can be appreciated by critics willing to understand the artist is in control of creating and expressing herself through

The three works that will be compared are Marcel Duchamp’s Bottlerack, Barnett Newman’s Eve and Ana Mendieta’s Silueta. Placed together the pieces show us three varying genres, each from different periods in the twentieth century. Between the artists we also see obvious connections in how they have challenged the spectator, and the art world alike, in viewing their art. All artists removed ‘something’, be it a body in Silueta or the ‘purpose’ of the Bottlerack and Eve’s figurative form or vanishing point. All were met with a critique of the processes in which their work were produced and likewise they also received admiration for their forward thinking, progressive art.

He presented this commercial object as art, a form called ‘readymade’, allowing him as an artist to select and modify it, showing that art is not all about artistic technique and expensive materials, testing censorship and peoples thoughts of what traditional art was at the time, and continuing today. Duchamp sparked new ideas of what art was all about, stunning artists and audiences around the world; while continuing to argue “an ordinary object [could be] elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist” , allowing people to see that art could be whatever the artist wanted it to be and what the artist felt it was. This significant change in the way audiences view and appreciate art came from the incident where the Society of Independent Artists, refused to show Duchamp’s, R Mutt’s Fountain. The independents congratulated themselves on championing all that was new and progressive in art, and to

Although art had nothing in common with the popular culture, the interplay of the two was becoming more obvious, while “critics have insistently connected the two, usually by opposition.” Different sources of influence were making people more aware of the ways that some issues can be compared or contrasted, while “In the classic Marxist view, history was a forward-marching dialectical struggle between opposed interests.” The opposite interests of the “fine art” and art of “everyday crap” cannot be compared in their historic value in terms of the ways they were perceived by the contemporary audiences, they still could be compared in terms of their perception. The perception of the “fine art” is still the same as many centuries before this moment, making people appreciate the colours and lines, structures and techniques, while the modern art came into straight opposition to the issues valued in the past. At the same time, the perceptions made “fine art” stand out as opposed to that of “everyday crap,” which could only rely on whether it is favoured by the audiences, sold and bought at galleries, and used in other interdisciplinary

Artwork can be described as a drawing, painting, or a print. In other words, Artwork does not have to be a drawing in order for it to be classified as art. Any type of creativity used in a drawing, painting, or print is considered to be artwork. Drawing is known to be the oldest type of art media. There are different types of media in each type of artwork. In drawing, there are two groups of media, dry media and wet media. Dry media consists of metal point, chalk, charcoal, graphite, and pastel. On the other hand, wet media consists of ink, brush, and wash. However, a pigment and a binder are used in all types of drawing medias. Artists combine dry and wet media to make unique and creative artworks. Paintings also have different types of media which consists of encaustic, tempera paint, oil painting, watercolor, and acrylic. Each media uses a different type of tool than others. Depending on the artist, mixtures of different types of media are also applied in paintings. An example of a mixture of medias is a collage. In a collage, there are more than two different medias in the work which makes it a mixed media. Printmaking can be defined as the process of making artwork by printing on paper. Prints can

Whilst putting Adorno and Horkheimer’s essay, “The Culture Industry” and Benjamin’s “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” into conversation, a debate had been sparked regarding the issue of artistic individualism and uniqueness. Although, Adorno, Horkheimer, and Benjamin all seem to agree that the aura of art is rapidly declining in today’s modern age, they seem to differ in classifying the reason behind it. The aura refers to the “one-timeness” of the experience of a certain object, which can be possessed only by the original work of art itself, and therefore cannot be reproduced.

Arthur C. Danto in “The Artworld” provides us with the argument that, “To see something as art requires something that the eye cannot descry-an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.” Danto shows us the importance of the artworld in order to know that a work of art is more than just what we can plainly see. Danto provides two theories he calls the “IT” (Imitation theory) and the “RT” (Reality theory). With these two theories, Danto explains how we can define art and why “The Artworld” is needed to help understand art, because after all, “these days one might not be aware he was on artistic terrain without an artistic theory to tell him so.”

Abstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influences, become an important article within the artists’ pieces. Subjectively, looking inward to express the artist psyche, artists within the Abstract Expressionism movement became a part of their paintings. Making the paintings more of a representation

In 1915 the concept of “readymade” art was introduced by Marcel Duchamp when he took an ordinary snow shovel and painted the title In advance of the broken arm. He had previously turned a wheel up-side down and attached it to a stool, creating a piece he called Bicycle wheel. This was also considered a “readymade.” A “readymade” by Duchamp is “an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.” Duchamp produced many of these “readymades,” but it his readymade entitled Fountain that we will be discussing here. Duchamp’s Fountain originated from a urinal that he with two other friends purchased from a plumber, took to his studio, and turned it on its backside. He painted the pseudonym “R. Mutt” on