Contemporary art - Exercise 5 Finding out more

Author: Melendez, Luis Egidio (1716-80)
Title: Still of fisches, oranges and garlic (oil on panel)



Author: Clara Pieters (Flamish painter 1607-1621)
Title: Still life of fish and Lemons




My sketches:

Contemporary art - Exercise 4 Looking at context

Not knowing there will be an exercise I have already seen a video about Hirst's Shark.

• First reaction to Hirst's shark: when I saw it for the first time in past (I do not remember exactly when) I was really surprised that somebody can call it art. The problem was I have got only the visual part of that piece, there was not any context mainly due to language obstacle, time (my country in '90s was awaken from communist regime), my knowledge about art.
• The emotional response: it is good question because I can see it only as reproduction from different angles. I can imagine what emotions must a man have when see the shark in gallery. Anyway, to see it on paper/monitor I have those emotions: mortality, some kind of devotion to this creature (knowing that shark is here over thousand millions years, he has great "tools" to kill), to be present next to a "killer" must arise several question around death, meaning of life, will I swim in sea at all :-)?
• I think the piece reminds us that we are not here forever and everything what we can see and realize about it happens only in our mind, the projection of our experiences, knowledge, emotions, conditional mind etc. Just a thought  crossed my mind: our "creator" and his presence in all form around us :-) Man - dominator on dry side and Shark on the wet side :-)
• The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living: The title is like a magic formula. It gives complete other point of view how to THINK about the object.

• First reaction Collier's still life: impermanence of life is one side of being, but the pleasures of life like music, alcohol are still with us. It is a window into 17th century. The death is same but the forms such the watch, the glass are a little bit different. Better said. The "nature" forms (death, grapes) are same the objects made by man have changed.
• The emotional response: stillness, humbleness
• What it is about? Simply said: life in its form. we live, we enjoy live, we die.
• The title is just a description. It could be without it and we know what it is about.

Kazimir Malevich

kazimir malevich

Art History: The basics Grant Pooke & Diana Newal

There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists. (Gombrich 1984:4. Art History, page 4)

Art is something which artists do.

The classical concept of art: 
in a western context, art understood as a practical, craft-based activity has the longest history. The Greek word 'techne' denoted a skill or craft and 'technites' a craftsman who made objects for particular purposes and occasions (Sörbom 2002:24). Simirlarly, within the classical world, examples of of craft, such as statues and mosaics, had practical, public and ceremonial roles.

The categories of art and craft have become familiar within specific contexts, cultures and in relation to particular audiences (academies, museums).Of central importance to this were the social institutions such as academies and museums which were established from the late sixteenth century onwards.Collectively, these interests, and those associated with them, establish normative definitions of art, that is, ideas about how art should look and what it should do, variations of which have continued today.

Fine art as an exclusive category:
From the later nineteenth century onwards many avant-garde artists began to make work which questioned either the conventional subject matter and primacy of these distinct categories (history paintings and portraiture), or the tradition of representation which they signified.
The work of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) underlined the importance of still-life as a gengre to the birth of modernism. Development of collage by Braque and Picasso, explored the actuality of the flat structure. Academy-based ideas typically marginalised non-Western art practises which reflected different ideas about aesthetics, culture and meaning. Overseas trade, colonisation and imperialism stimulated interest in tribal masks, carvings, fabrick and fetish objects from regions such as Africa, Asia, India and Iberia. Within the avant-garde artist like Beaque, André Matisse, Picasso and Maurice de Vlaminck popularised the cult of primitivism.

African art.

Art is imitation:

Adam and Eve 1526  by Lucas Cranach I vs Mrs Fiske Warren and her Daughter Rachel, 1903 by John Singer Sargent's


There are differences between these two paintings in terms of subject, date, genre, origin, materials and meaning. Whereas Cranach attempts to convey the symbolism of a Biblical story and Sargent seeks to capture the likeness of his sitter.

ReadyMade

There are three important points here: first, that the choice of object is itself a creative act. Second, that by cancelling the 'useful' function of an object it becomes art. Third, that the presentation and addition of a title to the object have given it 'a new thought', a new meaning. Duchamp's readymades also asserted the principle that what is art is defined by the artist.

- The Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms

Contemporary art - Exercise 3 Reading about art

I had a problem to buy The Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms on Amazon because there is a restriction for non Britain countries. What a luck there is a digital version.

As I was playing with that application I have found dada term and those names next to Duchamp:

Hans Arp,


Francis Picabia: I like his cubist paintings. This one has a great feel of plasticity and it makes me to be happy :-)


Kurt Schwitters