Art-and-Appearances

Homework #1

1. Watch this video: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/beginners-guide-20-21 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. – Representation and abstraction: Millais’s Ophelia and Newman’s Vir Heroicus Sublimis

• Tip 1 – Before watching the video read carefully Chapter 2 – especially the part titled – “Art and Appearances”
• Tip 2 – try to watch the video when you have some quiet time – try not to do it in the last minute so you have some time to digest it and form your own ideas and opinions.

2. Answer the following discussion question. Respond at least once to another student.

• The movie compares two paintings:

Millais’s Ophelia is representational/figurative/naturalistic (keep in mind that other works can be both representational and abstract at the same time – e.g. – Picasso’s Seated Woman Holding a Fan) while Newman’s Man, Heroic and Sublime can be described as non-representational/abstract

(Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Do you agree or disagree with the arguments brought in the video? Why or why not? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to the representational or non-representational style in your opinion? Do you find one style more appealing than the other? Why?

Tip 3 – it’s ok to disagree with a group member but please be respectful in your response.

Homework #2

1. Read Chapter 2 in the textbook – focus especially on the part titled “Art and Meaning”.

2. Choose one work of art that from your textbook (please don’t choose a work from chapter 2 – any other chapter is fine). The work needs to be a representational piece – not abstract and not architecture. (Bill Reid. The Raven and the First Men. 1980. Laminated yellow cedar, height 6′2¹â„₄″.

Courtesy UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada is the one that I chose from textbook)

3. Describe in details its:

a. Form (The way a work looks. It includes all visual aspects of the work such as size, shape, materials, color, style and composition.)

b. Content (What the work of art is about. It includes subject matter, message and iconography.)

c. Context (Includes knowledge of artist, time & culture.)

4. Explain how the form of the work supports its content (this is the hardest part to answer – but this is what you should ask yourself every time you see a work of art.)

Example:

Gnaw by Janine Antoni 1992

a. Form: The installation has three parts – 600 pound cube of chocolate, 600 pound cube of lard and showcase that contains lipsticks and empty heart-shaped chocolate boxes. The artist created them by gnawing the chocolate and lard cubes during a performance. The cubes stand on marble bases… etc.

b. Content: The chocolate boxes have association to love, the lipsticks are related to vanity and body image and both chocolate and the lard can refer to body image and eating disorders. For most people, the thought of the artist eating from them and then spitting it out is repulsive. Since they are so large it also brings up the issue of consumerism.

c. Context – The work was created by a female contemporary artist in 1992. It contains criticism about romantic ideals of “perfect” love and “perfect” human body in Western art and culture. It is still relevant for us in the 21st century. Here is a quote from the artist – “Lard is a stand-in for the female body, a feminine material, since females typically have a higher fat content than males, making the work somewhat cannibalistic”.

How the Form of the Work Supports its Content

The artist chooses to use chocolate and lard – nontraditional materials which are perishable and edible; she puts them on top of marble, which is a traditional material for Western sculptures. In that way she contrasts the beauty of the “classical” marble bodies (such as the ones created by Rodin inThe Kiss) with the abstract cubic shapes that are scarred by her teeth. She also contrasts the light lard and dark chocolate and the beautiful finished product – the lipsticks – with the more “raw” teeth bites she leaves on the cubes and “cannibalistic” process of eating them. Her work remind us that behind the glossy images we see in magazines and on social media there are human obsessions which are not always pretty.

 

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