Abstract This paper discusses the Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museums of Art, describing and contrasting the two museums in the context of bringing art, culture and architecture to the public. Modern thought regarding museum architecture is also discussed. It also discusses the history of art museums in the past century. It examines the level of interaction between the art admirer and the art itself in several museums and accordingly judges their success.
From the Paper "Art museums have been through multiple metamorphoses in the last 100-plus years, from ornate Victorian cathedrals stuffed with artifacts, to flexible modernist boxes and vast salvaged industrial buildings. A museum building is often thought of as monumental sculpture, and is itself potentially the most important work in an institution's collection. How paintings and sculpture actually fit into it is, typically somewhat controversial. Museum founders realize that the public can best appreciate and become engaged in art when the level of interaction and personal participation is high. Mimi Gaudieri, the executive director of the Association of Art Museum Directors, and other enthusiasts among professionals in the field insist that there's no conflict between a museum's mission and high-profile architecture. "On the contrary, an exciting building lends itself to art," Gaudieri says. "It's part of the growth of the whole museum field. Years ago we were just sleepy institutions with no profile, and all of a sudden things have changed. Museums have woken up. We are much more aware of the community and are working more closely with it." Current museums incorporate inviting lobbies, lecture halls, libraries, cafes and shops, recognizing that while they display art, they also must draw the interest of the public (and potential donors) with a holistic appeal (Lloyd 2001)."
Abstract By creatively setting this paper out in letter form written to Michelangelo by an admiring potential customer commissioning him to build a house, the author of the paper examines the great artist's work and rich and successful career in post-Renaissance Italy.
From the Paper "Your architectural style is unique in its own way. You have developed a style for others to follow. Each one of your works marks the inventiveness and unique signature style. You are known as the innovator of the 16th century in the architectural arena. You dare to deter from the Renaissance style of work. And have invented a work direction that deviates from the classical design theory. You have become an inspiration for the post-Renaissance architects. You have marked the beginning of the Baroque and the fall of the Renaissance style of work. Your work is the foundation of a new era and new horizon of when a plan has diverse parts, all those parts a true artistic inspirational work. Then also you modestly say that ?I am not an architect.? "
This paper compares three writers and their definitions of "decadence" in art. It talks about Botticelli's Birth of Venus, the Mona Lisa and how some view them as sick and diseased.
Abstract This paper was written for a class about decadence in art and discusses Richard Gilman (author of "Decadence: The Strange Life of an Epithet"), Arthur Symon (author of "The Decadent Movement in Literature") and Walter Pater (author of "The Renaissance"). These three authors have differing views on women in artwork including pictures of the Madonna and Christ child, the Mona Lisa and Botticelli's Birth of Venus.
From the Paper "The most important word used to describe Pater's The Renaissance is "diseased". Symons and Gilman refer repeatedly to the word in describing decadence. "Diseased" is not only the condition of an ill person but also can be the spiritual condition of the mind of a person who sees death and disease in a piece of artwork that most others see as beautiful. Society might construe this deviation from the normal as unhealthy, because, on the whole, society regards anything different from itself as abnormal and thus diseased and in need of being "cured."
Abstract The following paper examines how all Greek sports, even the Olympic events, were performed in the nude. This paper examines how nudity in and of itself wasn?t the purpose of the art, but was used to best represent the images. The writer explores how women were banned from the Olympics because it was held in a sacred area. This paper also explores how the the nudity in sports gave sculptors a reason to study the human body more closely, and its proportion and movements. The writer traces back early attempts to capture the human form and examines how over time, nude sculptures became smoother and more realistic, while still adhering to the quest for the ideal.
From the Paper "Even though sculptors eventually worked out the proportions in their work. the Greeks were not known for experimentation with style. Once they found an image that was pleasing, they tended to stick with it. The typical male statue, the Kouros style, had a very distinct pattern that was followed: ?The figure stands erect and strictly frontal with his left leg advanced, his arms tense at his sides with fists clenched. Details are represented with strength and simplicity. The eyes are big and almond-shaped, the ears large and so carved as to form a kind of decorative adjunct; the essential parts of the body are clearly defined and subject to an established canon of proportions, while muscles and bones form surface patterns on the marble. The work already has those qualities of grandeur and proportion which characterize all the best Greek sculpture throughout its history.? (Carver) The male form was the highest level of ideal beauty."
Abstract The author of the paper shows that graphic communication has always been important through history as an art, and therefore website designing today should be based on the same principals of art as a painting or a sculpture. The author argues that the best website will be founded on the principles of art and even recognized as art itself.
Table of Content
The Principles of Art and Design
The Technological Factor
The People
Combination Complete
From the Paper "Contrast must not stand alone, however. Pattern is also very important in graphic design, and goes hand in hand with balance and rhythm. For example, elements should be patterned to some degree geometrically. For example, if one were to take a ruler and drawn a straight vertical line from one of the corners of a left quadrant graphic, any graphics or text below it should be placed with some reference to this imaginary line. The squaring, or even circling of elements is important to direct the eye, and provide coherency. In addition, pattern may be used to group similar elements spacially. It should dictate the way in which typefaces are applied as well, so that there is a repetition of usage. (e.g. sans serif typeface is always a header, Roman typeface is always used in the text, thus establishing expectations and an ability to interpret the data one is receiving based on this pattern)"
Tags: shapes, space, color, graphic, design, Van, Gogh, technology, internet, HTML, Javascript, World, Wide, Web, FLASH, Microsoft
Abstract Artistic representations, depending on how they are read, often reveal through their texts ideas about sexuality and/or gender. Discussed here are three works, all of which can be read through the lenses of various topics. Allie Eagle's "This Woman Died: I Care" (died trying to abort herself) involves the politics of protest, Carole Shepherd has worked against specific traditions with her photo-collage, "John", and George Elgar Hick's "Woman's Mission: Companion of Manhood" deals closely with gender identity.
From the Paper "Protest instantly becomes political within the context of an image, due to the viewer's prior preconceptions regarding the issue under scrutiny. Opinions are challenged, and important questions consequently raised. ?This Woman died: I care (died trying to abort herself)?, by Allie Eagle (New Zealander) in1978, is an image from which a clear form of political protest can be easily identified. The image can be read in a way that distinctly illustrates an objection against the (suggested) violence forced upon women by society's codes of behaviour. It can also be read as a reaction to the question of the legality of abortion, which at the time was under review in New Zealand. In itself the title influences the viewer's interpretation of the image, whilst its visual features serve to demonstrate Eagle's lamentation."
Abstract This paper examines modern art's Dadaist movement of early twentieth century. It looks at parallel movements of its time, hand made art and decorative craft objects and the emergence of consumerism. This historical period surrounding World War II, had a wonder for technology in terms of machinery. The author defines the immense influence of the Dadaist on Art and society today.
From the Paper "We all know the story of how Marcel Duchamp took a urinal, called it "Fountain", put it in an art show and then defended his action on the grounds that as he was an artist and he said the urinal was art, then it was.
This is just the sort of thing that has given modern art a bad name. But why should it have? Why should that urinal not be art?"
Tags: tristan, tzara, technology, marcel, duchamp, urinal, fountain, war, materialism, art, world, war, i, hand-made, hand, made, arp, manray
Abstract This paper reviews four children's stories written and illustrated by David Wiesner: "Sector 7", "Tuesday", "Hurricane" and "The Three Pigs". The paper claims that although these works were intended for children, Wiesner has a talent at reeling in grown-ups too. This paper describes these four stories via the illustrations and the medium used by Wiesner.
From the Paper "Children's literature can provide rich pictorials that appeal equally to adults as to children. David Wiesner is one author-illustrator that can be singled out for his talents at reeling in grown-ups. Some of his picture books are exactly that; containing few or no words, they feel more like surreal comic strips than children's literature. Wiesner's artwork, usually done in watercolor or colored pencil, is at once striking and subtle. The subject matter often seems eerie until the end of the story, which finishes on an upbeat note. Books like Sector 7, Tuesday, Hurricane, and The Three Pigs, all written and illustrated by David Wiesner, convey his mood and tone with pictures alone. Any accompanying text is ancillary to the illustrations and causes the reader to wonder whether the publisher demanded that some words be inserted for convention's sake (especially in Hurricane). Wiesner's illustrations tell the tale far better than any words could; in fact, Hurricane is the weakest of these four books because of the distraction of the verbal narrative. With a talent like Wiesner?s, words are redundant; in all these books the pictures drive the story line and themes, and they also help to develop and delineate the characters. David Wiesner is an author/illustrator that can be relished equally by adults and children."
Abstract The author describes "Picture This" as a work of fiction about Rembrandt's painting "Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer", which was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1961. The author considers the book to be more than a pure novel, as Heller takes the reader through history from Plato to Rembrandt and through the history of the painting itself. The review states that Heller in "Picture This" has written one-liners for comic effect that sometimes appear to be incoherent.
From the Paper "However, scattered through the book, the writer has given a good deal of material about the canvas painting itself: the model who posed for Aristotle, the circumstances of its creation, the bust of Homer, the commission that directed to this picture and much more. Furthermore, its lineage, which is the list of people who consecutively owned it as it made its way from Amsterdam to Sicily to England to the Metropolitan, has also been discussed. However, the book overall is more or less directly about the painting."
Abstract This paper studies 20th century Jewish art, focusing on signs of ethnicity. Works are analyzed for evidence of explicit ethnicity and references to 20th century Jewish history. The paper looks at the work of Moritz Oppenheim, the works of European Jewish artists, Max Beckmann's picture entitled "The Synagogue" and Israeli art. It also touches on Jewish theatre and folk stories and explores Jewish ethnicity in U.S. artists. It concludes with a summary of the transformation of Jewish art over the 20th century.
From the Paper "The process of acknowledging, gathering, reviewing, researching, and elucidating Jewish art, was initiated around a hundred years ago, as it continues to date. The basic purpose behind studying the Jewish Art was to safeguard the ethnic legacy of the nation, and to sustain a promising resource for the revitalization of Jewish lifestyle. Be it in the customary, ceremonial, or conventional perspective, the Jewish art history is noteworthy to understand the future of Jewish works of art."
Abstract This paper provides a brief bio of Salvador Dali, his life, and works. It looks at the important contribution he made to the surrealism era of art. It looks at the significance of his work and painting and the depth of study needed to understand the true meaning of his work.
From the Paper "The artists of the Surrealist movement researched and studied the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, determined to explore ways in which to express their art through the world of dreams and the unconscious. Some expressed their art in the abstract tradition, others, in the symbolic tradition. Although, surrealism and certain forms of abstract art share similar origins, they diverge on interpretation of what those origins mean to the aesthetic of art (History pg). The accumulation of knowledge is the root, the basis, to push beyond the frontiers into the unknown. Dali was one artist whose approach to art during the Twentieth Century used that accumulated knowledge, built upon it and mastered it (History pg)."
Abstract This paper briefly discusses how studying Egyptian art proves the need for more use of all the senses in art. It uses the famous picture of the offering bearing to the court official Tjeti. The writer looks at all aspects of the picture to assist in enhancing the reader's senses.
From the Paper "Egyptian art and language are intimately and intricately linked. Egyptian writing is very pictorial --- all the alphabets are really pictures. Each letter is a representation of a sound, like in English. But unlike English, the very shape of a letter or word has meaning. In English, the word "love", for example, can have meaning only in the auditory medium. It's only when it is read and heard that it has meaning. The shape of "love" itself has no meaning. Nor do the shapes of any English alphabet. So, Egyptian alphabets are symbols of both sound and sight. This interplay between the auditory and the visual can make very interesting effects such as multilayered puns with multiple meanings (1)."
Abstract Laszlo Moholy-Nagy is widely considered to be one of the twentieth century's most important and influential artists. This paper discusses him as a photographer, painter, designer, writer, sculptor printmaker, film-maker and teacher. It shows how his influence reached into many aspects of the arts, from his native Eastern Europe, to the Western part of the Continent, across the Atlantic to the United States. The paper also explains how Moholy-Nagy was an important figure in the Western European Constructivism movement.
From the Paper "Moholy-Nagy was born in 1895 in Baac?s-Borsod, Hungary. He left school in Budapest to fight in World War I in 1916. It is during the war that he began sketching and taking his work as an artist seriously. In 1917, while recovering from a wound, he founded the artist group MA and started a literary magazine called "Jelenkor". In 1919 he moved to Vienna. It was there he began to make photograms and collages."
Tags: art, paint, designer, photographer, hungary, jelenkor, collage, war, sketch
From the Paper "The paintings "Ponts des Arts" by Pierre Auguste Renoir (1865) and "The Artist's Garden" by Claude Monet (1881) depict scenes appealing to the sensibilities of the respective artists, and each places the viewer in the position of observer, much as the painter was when the work was first made. The Monet work is more involving, probably because the subject matter is more personal to the artist, this being a depiction of his own garden at Vetheuil. The site of the Renoir painting may have had import for the artist, but it is still not as personal a meaning as the garden had for Monet.
Monet was known for paintings of sun-d renched, flower filled gardens. Vetheuil was a small town on the banks of the Seine, and Monet lived there in 1881. His garden was dominated by tall sunflowers and was terraced from the house down to the river, as can ..."
From the Paper "Pablo Picasso's 1906 portrait of Gertrude Stein and Willem de Kooning's 1944 painting "Woman" are both fascinating in themselves and at least somewhat anomalous in terms of each artist's canon of work, especially in terms of their depictions of women and the human form. The essay examines these two work, after providing a very brief overview of the artists? background.
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso was prolific both in terms of absolute numbers of works ? having created more than 20,000 pieces ? and in terms of creativity, as an innovator of styles and techniques, as a master of various media, and as one of the most prolific artists in history.
Picasso's genius manifested itself early: at the age of 10 he made his first paintings, and at 15 he performed brilliantly on the entrance examinations to Barcelona's School of Fine Arts. "
