notes/education/humanities/Introduction.md
2024-03-04 13:37:23 -07:00

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What is art?

Art: the expression or application of human creative skill. art must:

  • be made with the intent to convey emotion
  • should "satisfy the senses"
  • be made with intent
  • have attention to feeling and emotion art may:
  • be a relay of experience or emotion from one person to another

Medium

A particular material, along with an accompanying technique (plural: media). Example include:

  • Acrylic, enamel, gesso, glaze, ink, oil

History

  1. The branch of knowledge dealing with past events

How do you look at art?

Purposes and functions of art include:

  • Communicating information:
    • In non-literate societies, art was used to teach.
    • Today, film and television are used to disseminate information.
  • Spirituality and Religion
    • All of the world's major religions have used art to inspire and instruct the faithful
  • Personal and cultural expression
  • Social and political ends - Artists have criticized or influenced values or public opinion - Often it is clear and direct - Other times, however, it is less obvious - Monarchs who commissioned projects to symbolize their strength and power

Generally, art can be broken down into two parts, form, and content.

  • Form relates to the "formal" aspects of art, composition or medium.
  • Content relates to the subject. What's being portrayed, how are they portraying it?
  • The distinction should be made between fact and opinion/guessing.

Parts of form:

  1. Line and Shape
    • Lines define space and may create an outline or contour, as style called "linear"
    • They can be visible or implied, and may be a part of composition
    • It may be 2 dimensional, 3 dimensional, suggested, or implied.
    • *Wherever there is an edge
  2. Color
    • Hue: The name of the color (red, blue, yellow)
    • Saturation: The quality or vibrancy of those values
    • Value: The addition of white, black, or grey to the value
      • Tint: pure hue + white
      • Tone: pure hue + grey
      • Shade: pure hue + black
  3. Texture
    • Texture is an element of art pertaining to the surface quality or "feel" of the work of art
    • Texture can be described as smooth, rough, soft, etc. Some textures are real, and others are simulated
    • Textures that can be felt are ones that fingers can actually touch.
  4. Space and Mass
    • Space references to what contains objects: may be 2D or 3D.
    • Mass refers to the effect and degree of the bulk, density, and weight of matter in space.
    • In architecture or sculpture, it is the area occupied by a form.
    • Perspective: Foreshortening is a way of representing an object so that it conveys the illusion of depth; an object appears to be thrust forward or backward in space.
  5. Composition
    • How are items arranged or organized in art
    • Symmetrical, asymmetrical
    • Static or dynamic
    • Picture space is comprised of foreground, middle ground, and background.
  6. Scale
    • As an art history term, scale refers to the size of an object or object represented
    • Size of things, conveyed or literal

Parts of style:

  • Cultural style
    • Societies develop their own beliefs and style of material forms
    • Artists are a product of their culture
  • Period style
    • Style changes over time
    • Art changes because of economic and political changes
  • Regional style
    • Geography leads to diverse styles
  • Personal style
    • Individual artists often have distinct styles

Two basic forms of style:

  • Representational: Seeks to create recognizable subject matter (this is a picture of a dog)
  • Abstract: Seeks to capture the essence of a form, not the literal representation (thi)
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