Art And Criticism: The Aesthetic Movement

During the 1870s a new category of art formed known as the Aesthetic Movement, which was based upon not what world was around the art, but the art itself (Pohl 284). This movement originated in England and spread throughout the Americas opposing the current views about art during the time the it arose, which was the ideology that art must always serve some sort of clandestine purpose. Artists who supported the Aesthetic Movement also denied any moral values that people gave to art. The painting that I chose that best fits the ideals of aestheticism is In the Studio, 1880 by William Merritt Chase. During the 19th century industrialization rapidly began to change American culture bringing on consumerism and capitalism, which focused on the

Just like everything else in life, art has its critics. Art criticism is the expression used to describe the act of making selective judgments, both positive and negative, about an art piece. Just as art is so diversely expressed and interpreted, those who critique it also have various methods and use various standards when criticizing an art piece. There are many theories critics use to evaluate art but there are three basic theories most commonly put to use by professionals. The three basic theories are: formal theories, contextual theories, and expressive theories. Formal theories focus on the formalities of art. Critics using formal theories pay close attention to the making of a piece, how each section of the art piece works to form a visual experience that may or may not attract the attention of those who come across it. Formalists’ attention is centered on the formal organization rather than the themes, which they deem irrelevant. Contextualists, on the other hand, value the theme and its relevance to the times in which the artwork was created. The contextual theories deal with the context in which an art piece is used; what it symbolizes concerning the culture and values of the environment. Lastly, there are the expressive theories. Expressionists are more concerned with the artist and the personal expression put into the work. Also, because art is a method of communication, expressive theories

question John Berger, critic of art and author of the Ways of Seeing, raised in his essay, and it is

5. Visual Art Expressionism art spread throughout America in the 1890s. “The objective of the art movement was to present the world solely from a subjective perspective or emotional experience rather than physical reality” (The Art History Contributors). Artists like Alfred Henry Maurer and Arthur Dove accomplished this aim through vivid, violent, and dynamic applications (The Art History

His argument was that mainstream art and pop culture was simply an esthetic duplicate, that would take the money from consumers and provide no other meaning. One of his criticism was that such

Art criticism, defined as the linguistic exploration of artworks, or talk about art (Feldman, 1970). Art criticism is driven by various individual perceptions, world views, morals, and values. Throughout this essay I will explain my thoughts and feelings about a particular piece of artwork I find fascinating. For this essay I will be focusing on Grant Wood's portrait painting of the American Gothic. The American Gothic painting was created in the 1930s and has become an iconic piece of art as well as in my opinion his greatest work.

a. Modernism is the movement in which artists seek to capture the images and sensibilities of their age, but modernism transcends the simple present to involve the artist’s critical examination of or reflection on the premises of art itself (Kleiner, 2014). Modernism requires artists to have some self-discipline.

The archetype of an animated painting as a representative of the creative reflection of O. Wilde General characteristics of the archetype in the works of O. Wilde The archetype of the animated picture is closely related primarily to the period of the 1820s-1840s, but the concept finds further development in the period of the next epoch change, namely, the breakdown of realism and decadence, one of the most prominent representatives of which was O. Wilde. The novel "Portrait of Dorian Gray" was first published in the American "Monthly Magazine of Lippenkoth" in 1890 and was published in a separate book a year later. Just like the "Portrait" of Gogol, the work became a kind of manifesto of a new era, in this case - a manifesto of aesthetics.

Art History is the study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts. The history of art, we feel, can sometimes be confused with art criticism. However, Art History is concerned with finding the value of the artistic piece in respect with others in the same category of art or movement, and art criticism is more of an evaluation of art. The art examined best represents the culture during the time period, visions the artist imagined, and history behind an event. It also represents society in a specific area, beliefs the people may have, writing that tells a story, the natural world and environment, conflict between people and areas, and the human body. With these representations, artwork overall represents the life in which we live (d). Each piece has its own genre, design, format and style to it. This makes each piece extremely different, yet pleasing to the eye. They also vary between paintings, sculptures and architecture. These different types also make a variety of artwork to be seen by all people. The art pieces that I chose, Jar, Bottle and Glass by Juan Gris, The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, and Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, seemed interesting to me and I believe to best represent the context in which they were created, along with the major artistic movements of the time. I went on to research them more thoroughly to better understand the history behind them,

Throughout history, art has reflected the morals of society and, in turn, society has projected its morals into art. In Victorian age, art cared the responsibility of being helpful for social education and moral enlightment. Hedonism and Aestheticism are main artistic and philosophical movements of the Victorian Age. The Aesthete believed that form was the essence of beauty and beauty was the highest perfection of human endevours. The Aesthetic writers broke away from the confining conventions of their time and led very unconventional lives, pursuing pleasure and newsensations and devoting themselves to the cult of beauty and art.

Case Study: The use of assemblage and the found object in historical and contemporary art practice.

Aestheticism was a popular dogma in the late 1800s that centered on the belief that art should exist for beauty alone. This doctrine is defined as an “exaggerated devotion to art, music, or poetry, with indifference to practical matters” and “the acceptance of artistic beauty and taste as a fundamental standard, ethical and other standards being secondary” (“Aestheticism,” def. 1 and 2). In Oscar Wilde’s sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, aestheticism is a fashionable belief accepted by society at the time. Oscar Wilde uses the moral deterioration and ultimate destruction of Dorian Gray in The Picture of Dorian Gray to emphasize the negative effects of society’s preoccupation with aesthetics and offer a moral for the reader.

Art has evolved and regenerated itself many times during our human existence. These differences are defined through changes in styles under various theories. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a style known as Expressionism became popular. During this movement the artists were trying to use their artwork as a tool of expression toward life. It was mainly dominant in the nonrepresentational arts, such as abstract visual arts and music. It also was probably one of the most difficult movements to understand because the whole point of the piece lay within the artist. Not only was it a movement, it defined the act of art as a whole. From the beginning of time, each work of art, excluding replicas, show a way of expressing

Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities and political concerns to the passage of the Reform Act1832.Victorian literature is that produced during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) or the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century. Books and novels in this age became ubiquitous , and the “Victorian novelist” created legacy of works with continuing appeal. Many novrels were published in serial form, along with short stories and poetry , in such literary magazines as Household Words .Both the purpose of poetry and its basic style and tone changed drastically during the Victorian Period . Victorian novels tend to be idealised portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love, and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished. They tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. In the first half of the nineteenth century , poetry was still mired in the escapist ,abstract imagery and the themes of the early generation. While essayists and novelist were confronting social issues head-on. By mid century

Modernism has found new expressions in art which in turn have changed how people critic and understand art, in this essay I am going to focus more on abstract expressionism. Debates in this movement have gone as far as influencing many artists and the two well-known critics who have made this movement more remarkable and have changed the art world completely are Clement Greenberg and Ronald Rosenberg. On the writings of these two gentlemen about art I will try to draw out the differences in the idea of what abstract expressionism is and what it is supposed to be, compare and outline the similarities and the differences between the two critics.