Abstract " Frank Stella is an American painter who remains poplar after almost four decades of work. He was born in 1936 and studied at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts under Patrick Morgan and at Princeton University under William Seitz and Stephen Greene.
From the Paper " Frank Stella is an American painter who remains poplar after almost four decades of work. He was born in 1936 and studied at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts under Patrick Morgan and at Princeton University under William Seitz and Stephen Greene. After 1958 he lived in New York. He came to the fore in the 1960s as one of the most inventive of the new school of Post-Painterly Abstraction, a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. He was then exhibited widely in New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. A retrospective exhibition in 1970 was held under the auspices of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He began as one of many post war minimalist painters, but then his work took a different route from the others, leading him to a "second career" in abstract expressionism. In this career, he struggled with..."
Abstract The success of the American Revolution meant that the former colonists had to take on the difficult job of building a new kind of nation, with a new style of government, based on ideas about freedoms and rights that had never been tried before
From the Paper "The success of the American Revolution meant that the former colonists had to take on the difficult job of building a new kind of nation, with a new style of government, based on ideas about freedoms and rights that had never been tried before. The young country wanted to draw on what was best from its European heritage, but also to distinguish itself from Britain's culture which had been the principal cultural model. In the first century, therefore, the United States formally and informally used painting, architecture, and sculpture to carry important messages about the nature of American society and to develop styles that were distinctively American. Examples of two works from each of these branches of the arts will demonstrate the variety of ways in which the country's art presented American ideals, promoted American self-confidence, and developed ..."
Abstract Pablo Picasso's painting Mother and Child (1921) at the Art Institute of Chicago represents a woman seated on the seashore holding a baby in her lap. The naked child leans backward, reaching his hand up toward the mother and she gazes down and into his eyes. The woman is dressed in a simple white gown reminiscent of the clothing of the ancient Romans or Greeks.
From the Paper "Pablo Picasso's painting Mother and Child (1921) at the Art Institute of Chicago represents a woman seated on the seashore holding a baby in her lap. The naked child leans backward, reaching his hand up toward the mother and she gazes down and into his eyes. The woman is dressed in a simple white gown reminiscent of the clothing of the ancient Romans or Greeks. This work, which is oil on canvas and measures 143.6 x 162.6 cm, features soft colors with pinks, pale blues, and browns dominating. The colors of the mother and child are skin tones heightened with a great deal of pink. The composition is extremely simple, with the figures occupying the lower half of a diagonal line that runs from the lower left corner of the canvas to the upper right and is carried through by the line of the woman's arm. The space is extremely shallow even though a great..."
An examination of the 19th century romantic and democratic response to the Industrial Revolution, including major artists and works, themes and subjects.
900 words (approx. 3.6 pages), 5 sources, 2000, $ 31.95
Abstract "Triggering a radical restructuring of the society on the economic, social and emotional levels, the Industrial Revolution inspired the rise of Romanticism in American art. The Industrial Revolution shattered the old order of authority and rationalism.
From the Paper "Triggering a radical restructuring of the society on the economic, social and emotional levels, the Industrial Revolution inspired the rise of Romanticism in American art. The Industrial Revolution shattered the old order of authority and rationalism. Romanticism encompassed the dual contradictory sentiments of this period: 1) the popular faith in the idea of progress and the democratization of society and 2) the pessimism of nostalgia (Garrett, 21-22). With the dissolution of traditional spiritual values and the emergence of paradoxical scientific beliefs wrought by the turbulent social and economic changes of the Industrial Revolution, people were thrust into a state of confusion and loneliness. Therefore, while Romanticism celebrated the rise of the individual against traditional authority, it also tapped into their longing for a lost world of..."
From the Paper "Art education assures the fullest possible integration of art with life. Whether students are being taught to make art, to learn about the art of the past, or to experience art critically and sensually, the goal is to achieve a 'literacy' in art equivalent to the literacy, numeracy, and other skills that every educated person must possess. This is, of course, an ideal goal since American society tends to view any activity so frivolous and nonproductive as art with a jaundiced eye. The struggle that faces those who believe in this goal, therefore, is to explain, or demonstrate, convincingly how art is an essential human activity completely on a par with all the traditional 'academic' skills of which this manifestly practical society approves. Two of the major documents in support of this idea are John Dewey's Art as Experience (1934) and Herbert Read's Education through Art..."
Abstract This paper focuses on the theme of Egyptian funerary art, illustrating its purpose to link the living world with the after life. The paper describes the Ka, the central life force which sustains one and which needs to be taken care of after death. The wall art and the statues found in Egyptian tombs provides knowledge of the Egyptian religious beliefs.
From the Paper "Religion attempts to answer several basic questions: who are we, where did we come from, and where are we going. Nothing serves a better example of man's attempt to answer these questions than Egyptian funerary art. The theme of Egyptian art is not to portray the living, except to provide guidance for the dead, but was meant to help link the living world with the after life."
Tags: religion, life, afterlife, ka, ba, akh, statues, mummy, tomb
Abstract This paper discusses the legacy of Sandro Botticelli, known as one of the best and most spiritually enlightened of the Neo-Platonic Renaissance painters who was eventually hired by the Pope to work on the Sistine Chapel. He was born to an artisan-class family of tanners where his artistic tempermant was ignored and started his working career as a goldsmith until he received his first apprenticeship as an artist. Eventually he rose to fame, gained more commissions, both creating panels and the like for rich merchant families and frescoes and other church decorations. He became known for his dreamy and melancholic mythic religiousity and implications of human form and feature and ranked among the greatest of the allegorical and mystical painters of his time.
From the Paper "Sandro's original apprenticeship as an artist was under the legendary Fra Filippo Lippi. In many ways this was a fortunate choice in masters; Botticelli's mystical and dreamy nature fit well with Lippi's penchant for the ideal and devotional. An apprenticeship in one of the more modern, naturalistic studios might have created a far different Sandro Botticelli, or hidden his actual talent. (Botticelli, 13) Lippi's influence is obvious in most of his student's early work, to such a degree that most of the earliest Botticelli paintings are virtually recreations of Lippi pieces, keeping content and design and scene in common while changing method and form ever so slightly. The resemblance between Botticelli's Madonna Guidi and Lippi's Madonna and Child with Angel is far from accidental."
Abstract This paper looks briefly at the background of the Spanish painter Salvador Dali and the Australian painter Brett Whiteley, two extraordinary artists from the surrealist movement. It details their artistic influences, views on life and makes an attempt at finding method in their madness. It discusses how it was an 'insatiable craving for sex', money and fame that drove Dali to artistic genius, while for Whiteley, it was alcohol and narcotics. It compares and contrasts some of their famous works, their styles and their perceived meanings.
From the Paper "Dali was a Spanish painter and writer who played a very significant part in the surrealist movement. From youth onwards, he was a very talented and recognised artist, with many of his works being displayed and published. He was an artist whose life was dominated largely by an 'insatiable craving for sex', money and fame. Dali was also fascinated with the aspect of death, combined with the popular beliefs of society. Much of his work was based on influences gained from other artists as well as both contemporary philosophy and science. His role models were Goya, El Greco, Durer, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Velaquez. In all, this represented the characteristically wide-ranging nature of Dali's way of thinking: the comic and the diabolic rub shoulders with serious classicism, with levity and gravity reflected to an equal degree. It was written that "Dali uses realistic items to reveal his dream-like ideas. His paintings are executed with infinite care and sometimes depict minute detail... The imaginary things depicted are presented in startling, distorted and fantastic ways, or else in natural, incredible combinations of parts of the human figure in tortured, writhing gestures." "
Abstract The paper provides a detailed analysis, as well as a personal review, of the oil and magna painting "Stepping Out' by artist Roy Lichtenstein, which is displayed in the The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The paper shows how "Stepping Out" is a work of Pop Art and seems to epitomize the superficiality of the dating experience in America. The paper also describes other works of art by Roy Lichtenstein.
From the Paper "Artists like Lichenstein and Warhol represented the natural creative progression of twentieth century art. Moving away from the abstract expressionist vogue they depicted the everyday reality of mass culture. Themselves emerging from a background in commercial art, they used familiar objects both to allow viewers to relate directly to art and to offer social satire.
Contemporaries, Lichtenstein and Warhol matured in their art under the heritage of American forerunners Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns who planted the seeds of Pop Art. Rauschenberg constructed collages from household objects and Johns repetitively painted American flags and bull's-eye targets. These artists in turn emerged under the influence of European forerunners like Richard Hamilton who produced Just What Is It That Makes Today's Home So Different, So Appealing? in 1956."
Abstract This paper introduces the renowned 19th century French painter Claude Monet. It discusses his life and examines one of his works in detail. The paper argues that Monet is unquestioningly the father of impressionism, and paved the way for the abstract expressionism. The author states that Monet's painting techniques rejected the standard art of time and came to influence painters today.
From the Paper "Since childhood he displayed the geniuses of an artist when he produced some of his marvelous caricatures and supplied to an art store at the age of sixteen (Monet French). This is where he met Boudin who saw in him the germs of an emerging artist and convinced Monet to step out in the world to prove his ability to paint. In 1860 Monet came across Pissarro at the Acad?mie Suisse in Paris (Monet French). Monet's love of art and painting faced many challenges and his career as a full-fledged artist saw many hardships (Monet French). "
Tags: 19th, century, france, impressionism, painting, technique
This paper discusses the origins and essense of artistic reation including imagination and expression: Plato, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Jacques Maritain and Benedetto Croce.
2,250 words (approx. 9 pages), 8 sources, 1974, $ 79.95
From the Paper "How does a work of art come to be? It might seem necessary to define "work of art" before one proceeds to answer this question, but many thinkers find it necessary to introduce notions of creation when trying to distinguish works of art from other sorts of objects. The situation seems to be this: If one answers the question, "What is a work of art," one will presuppose an answer to "How does a work of art come to be?" And if one answers the question, "How does a work of art come to be," one will presuppose an answer to the question, "What is a work of art?" How can we escape the circle?
It seems sound to say that works of art are differentiated from natural objects because human making (creation) is necessary to the former but not to the latter. But not all artifacts, or ... "
From the Paper "This report will discuss some of the characteristics of the art--particularly the paintings--of ancient Minoan Crete. It will seek to relate these to what we know or can infer about other aspects of Minoan civilization, and will inquire into the Minoan roots of later Western civilization.
The Minoan civilization of prehistoric Crete lies as a great question mark beneath the foundations of Western civilization. Of Minoan history we know almost nothing at all: the Egyptians left only a handful of oblique references to the "Keftiu," and from the Minoans themselves we have only some tablets inscribed in "Linear All--written in no known language--and (from the last period of Minoan civilization) some others inscribed in "Linear B." These can be read; they are in an early form of Greek. Alas, they record no history or poetry, but only "data processing"."
From the Paper "The purpose of this paper is to discuss French Impressionist painting. Impressionism was a style of art that flourished in the late Nineteenth Century. It found expression in a number of artistic media, including drawing, sculpture, literature and music. In addition, it was a style that developed into many different schools of thought throughout Europe and the United States. The focus of this paper, however, will be on the French Impressionist school. It will consider the styles of the major painters of that school, namely Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Paul Cezanne. By comparing and contrasting the works of these artists, this paper will seek to evaluate their contribution to the history and development of art as a whole.
In one sense, the French Impressionist movement marked a (...)"
Analysis of Willem de Kooning's artistic career. Places this Dutch-American artist as a key figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement. Also discusses his emphasis on the human figure.
1,125 words (approx. 4.5 pages), 4 sources, 1990, $ 39.95
From the Paper " Willem de Kooning is a Dutch-American painter who was born in 1904 at Rotterdam and who first studied art in Amsterdam. He later studied under the avant-garde artist Bernard Romein. He came to the United States in 1926, and his work at the time was conservative and traditional. He soon joined the circle of Arshile Gorky and other artists prominent in the abstract expressionist movement. Under that influence, de Kooning started to experiment in advanced techniques of abstraction derived from Kandinsky and the late Cubism of Picasso.
In the 1930s, de Kooning painted in several manners at the same time. He produced portraits and figure studies seemed to suggest the late works of Giacometti. De Kooning stands out from his contemporaries by being the only one to make the human figure, first male and then female, a central theme of his work..."
Describes sculpture in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance as ascending in relative importance during these periods. Examines elements of sculptures from each period, such as: "The Virgin", "Christ", "David", "Rape of the Sabine Women" and "Narcicuss".
900 words (approx. 3.6 pages), 2 sources, 1990, $ 31.95
From the Paper "Sculpture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance had different forms and different styles, but in each case sculpture as an art form changed from the previous era to a more important position in relation to other types of artwork and in relation to the purpose of sculpture itself. In the Middle Ages, sculpture achieved an importance in itself that it did not have in the late medieval period in Europe. In both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance era, sculpture involved a revival of certain earlier forms and styles as well, recalling an earlier period and Classical originals in the case of the Renaissance.
The era of the Middle Ages is divided into more than one period. Janson (1986) notes that during the Romanesque period, there was a revival of monumental stone sculpture that was remarkable because there had been no indication before that this..."
