City Lights

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,

The playwright was trying to get quite a few messages when he created this play. First of all, I believe he was trying to show social change and the power and potential that an individual has inside of them, despite their circumstances. I think that this play/movie reveals the true messiness of life and how with the right mindset, you can make it through anything you

In the movie Charlie Chaplin plays a tramp who finds a baby that has been abandoned by an unfit mother. At first Chaplin tries to get rid of the baby, but when that fails he decides to take him in as his own. The movie then skips ahead to when the boy is about five years old and shows Chaplin and the kid scamming their neighbors by breaking their windows and then making them pay for Chaplin to fix them. One day the kid gets sick so Chaplin calls a doctor who, after seeing the kid’s living conditions’ calls the police to have the child taken away. The rest of the movie is about Chaplin’s journey to rescue the kid and ends with a dramatic reuniting scene.

Art is a conversation between the artist and the audience, and through which the artwork is the medium between both. The artist, as the author of the piece, generates the message, plans the piece, and executes it to the best of his abilities. The audience, on their part, uses past experiences and knowledge of the artist and artwork to interpret the work,(which interestedly can lead to multiple conclusions of the work that are far distant from the artist's original understanding). Then there is the artwork itself: it is the passive participant whose influences beyond that of the artist and the audience is time. Throughout history, this has been the case—Raphael and his Galatea, and Leonardo da Vinci and his Last Supper—but in more recent times,

Art in general is a form of expression. Individuals use art to express emotions, passion, or make a statement. Society can have an impact on how an artist chooses to express his or her sentiments. The beauty of it all is that interpretation is what makes art so unique. The same piece of art can mean so many different things due to who is looking at it. Just like everything else, art changes with time. There has been different eras in art that have impacted society as we know it.

In this life, there are many forms of art or art “movements” to speak of. How we interpret art is a very subjective thing. What a person sees and feels when looking at art greatly depends on their upbringing, their values, and even their mood at the time of viewing. Could something dark and lacking color be art? What about a comic strip in the newspaper or the billboard down the street? Again, interpretation and taste in art is individual. I elected to explore into the two art movements I like the least to potentially better understand them, and to potentially link them together.

So much more can be conveyed in artwork when a finite canvas doesn’t imprison an artist. Pushing the boundaries of artwork from previous time periods allows new artists and graphic designers to experiment with, challenge, and/or destroy the rules of graphic design. This allowed for designs that truly challenge the audience, as well as other designers. Take for example the grunge artwork of David Carson who broke most compositional and legibility rules of graphic design – his style can be summarized by the phrase “expressive deconstruction.” Anything from grunge, to street art, to carving writing into your own body with a knife is considered Contemporary Design. In this world of art no authority can tell you what you’re allowed to do. With the definition of art so stretched, it really gives a lot of freedom to those of the contemporary time period to express a wide range of ideas.

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

The death of Raleigh at the end of the play sums up his characteristics in the best possible way, his innocence is shown until his final moments when he compares the wound in his back to be “just the same” as getting “kicked” in a game of “rugger”. His death signifies much more than the passing of one soldier, added with Raleigh passing, the candle flame extinguishing, shows the death of society in 1917 and of innocence, showing how nothing could return to the way it was in the years previous to the war.

Questioning the correlation of commercial success and true artistry began in the light of mainstream music. Mainstream music has been given a negative connotation due to the supposed lack of originality of the artists. Repetitive chord progressions and meaningless lyrics compose the majority of “mainstream music,” making each song sound like the next . Despite these patterns in music, artists still ventured outside of what was societally normal and created music that was unheard of. Despite the potential risks in being an individual in the music industry, several groups achieved high success and maintain the popularity in the present. Creativity and commercial success can definitely exist alongside one another, and this paper will prove that through the music of the Beatles, the performance styles of David Bowie, and the grunge movement in Seattle which was fueled by Nirvana.

The tramp in the film works hard to upkeep the illusion of his wealth for the flower girl wanting to be someone for her so that he may keep her. Actions such as giving her a ride home, buying all her flowers for the day, and bring her groceries indicate he would do anything for her. In the final scenes we witness the flower girl trying to give him money however, he does not take notice due to the fact he is in awe of seeing her. The roles have now reversed. The tramp is no longer in the caring position for her, but now that she has her sight back and a business she can take care of him, which is shown in the money she tries to give him. In what feels like an instant their social roles have drastically changed. The tramps true self is reviled,

Throughout time there has been of course many influences that have impacted the art world and have made it what it is today. However, there are some artistic movements that have had a greater impact and stand out over others. The movement that has always personally stood out to me was Ancient Egyptian art. The works that were produced for time period are interesting in terms of the lack of tools and the innovation to make these paintings, sculptures, and architecture that almost seem impossible to have been constructed. In my opinion the arts produced during the Early Dynastic through the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt are some of the most technologically advance forms that stand out over all other art forms for the time

Abstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influences, become an important article within the artists’ pieces. Subjectively, looking inward to express the artist psyche, artists within the Abstract Expressionism movement became a part of their paintings. Making the paintings more of a representation

According to Marshall Berman, Modernity is a term of art used in the Humanities and Social Sciences to designate both a historical period as well as the ensemble of a particular socio cultural norms attitudes and practices that arose in post medieval Europe and have developed since in various ways and at various times around the world. (Berman 2010, 15-36)

“Modern painting, breaking through old conversation, has released countless suggestions which are still waiting to be used by the practical world.”(Gropius) The birth of modernism and modern art goes back to the Industrial Revolution, a period that lasted from the 18th to the 19th century, in which rapid changes in manufacturing, transportation, and technology profoundly affected the social, economic, and cultural conditions of life in Western Europe, North America, and eventually the world. Before the 19th century, artists created art pieces for wealthy people and institution places like the church where they can create art works about storytelling of religious or mythological scenes . These arts were there to instruct the viewers.However, this changed when during the 19th century many artists began to create works that were about people, places, or ideas that interested them, and of which they had direct experience. With the popularization of the idea of a subconscious mind, many artists began exploring dreams, symbolism, and personal iconography as avenues for the depiction of their subjective experiences.Challenging the notion that art must realistically depict the world, some artists experimented with the expressive use of color, non-traditional materials, and new techniques and mediums.