Reaction Paper On Shadow Magic

Surrealism is a movement that built off of the burgeoning look into art, psychology, and the workings of the mind. Popularly associated with the works of Salvador Dali, Surrealist art takes imagery and ideology and creates correlation where there is none, creating new forms of art. In this essay I will look to explore the inception of the surrealist movement, including the Surrealist Manifesto, to stress the importance of these artists and their work in the 20th century and beyond. I also will look to films from our European Cinema course to express how films incorporate the influence of surrealism both intentionally and unintentionally.

In her text, Armstrong continuously analyzes the similarity between religion and art. In fact, she initially starts her chapter with an in depth discussion of images painted in an underground labyrinth dated back from 30,000 BCE. She talks about paintings of different animals, such as an ox, deer, and a jumping cow, that must have had some religious meaning to the

People were constantly in awed considering artist like Salvador Dali, kept providing unexplored and unforeseen imagery. Imagine people seeing melting watches for the first time. Their reaction was likely separated in two with one side fascinated while the others remained in a puzzled trance.

Modern figurines of art stem directly from the hands of the ancient’s. The organic forms of modernly sculpted artifacts can most likely be directly referenced to the movements of prehistoric artworks. There seems to be an ongoing transition on how cultures no matter how stretched apart through time, contrasted by ethnicity or religious views; can all be somewhat related to each other by the methods or principles portrayed through their artworks. In fact, I saw that very transition; within two works in which are extremely different in meaning, craftsmanship, time, culture and so on. However, I was still able to find similarities within the artifacts. In this paper I will examine Venus of Willendorf, a Paleolithic carving in limestone; which can fit in the palm of one’s hand. As well as, The Sacrifice of Chacmool, which are a plethora of Mesoamerican statues emulating rituals of sacrifice.

I think this can be seen when you look at religious holy sites. In the sense that people gravitate to some holy sites even though it may not be their religion. Also Benjamin says “the unique vale of the “authentic” work of art has its basis in ritual.” In holy sites there are usually ritual you should perform when visiting, for example, praying, toughing the holy water, toughing a statue, or leaving gifts. I feel as if holy sites use aesthetics as a way of communicating with more people. The aesthetic I feel are interlaced with aura, ether beauty or the ugly the reaction that interacts with your person. Young artist should consider the aura of the objects or materials they use in their work. The history of a box, for example, could severally alter how your work is view. Being an artist I feel is it necessary one understands the aura and the history can help or hurt ones

There is a longstanding acceptance that Palaeolithic cave paintings are art, and scholar Stephen Davies (2013) has only ever found one piece of research that doubts this. Additionally, Davies determines art differently than the art world’s criteria of history, genre, or authenticity, and proposes that art is art if “it is intended by its maker/presenter to be art (p. 378)”. This implies that anything that any person, museum, gallery, or institution deems ‘art’ is ‘art’ and has cultural worth. Hence, the inclusion of the cave painting, the replica of David, and of Homer’s piece, questions what qualifies as art, in fact Mr. Burns, while lamenting that he missed out on purchasing Picasso’s Guernica, buys Homer’s artwork, which signifies Homer’s piece as worthy of cultural consideration. Lastly, to take Davies definition one step further, I contend that whatever objects/artifacts that institutions decide are culturally important similarly follow his

The ancient artefacts in the exhibition include works widely separated by great periods of time, and works which have been altered by succeeding generations. For millennia the oldest works were simply ‘there’, and part of folklore. From the eighteenth century they began to be viewed as being of antiquarian interest; later they were taken into the care of professional organisations, and later still they began to be considered as a form of ‘art’.

For my visual and cultural arts essay I visited the James E Lewis museum at Morgan State University. For my essay I have selected key pieces of art that I believe express the African experience in terms of their social, ethnographical and theological beliefs. This paper will also attempt to draw a comparison to key themes features in the African Creation myths, which will further elucidate the meanings hidden in these various works of art. It is my belief that this paper will not only serve as a guide into the philosophical ideas of the African peoples but will help to juxtapose these ideas with the often false premise purported by certain groups of society, which would like to view Africans as primitive and uncultured.

Walter Benjamin writes about the aura of works of art, and how reproductivity can affect the authenticity of the artwork. Throughout his essay, he discusses the production of art, and how each piece of art has a specific aura that separates it from any reproductions of it. Some arguments have been made that reproductivity can degrade the authenticity of a work of art, while others have been made that it spreads the influence a work of art. While both claims can be made, it is more valid that the reproductivity of a work of art degrades its authenticity, and that the original art has an aura that cannot be reproduced.

Religious stories and scientific theories have tried for thousands of years to accurately date the formation of man. However, in the 1860s, a new art was discovered that changed the view of human creation forever. This new insight was cave painting. Cave painting is a form of prehistoric art that dates back hundreds of thousands of years. Analysts are unable to specify the reasoning behind these paintings of objects on cave walls, but many theories have been formulated to surmise the rational behind the art. Questions arise like, “why did man find a need to paint the walls of caves” and is this part of the foundation of the origin of human life as we know it? (Beacon) The ecumenical belief is rooted at history, cave paintings are

In order to properly argue my point it is best to lay out the framework of Benjamin’s argument. Benjamin begins his essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by briefly distinguishing his categories from traditional aesthetic values, those of “creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery” (Benjamin, 218). In contrast, he relates these tendencies to bourgeois and fascist ideologies and to the conditions, inevitably generated out of capitalism itself, which provoke “revolutionary demands in the politics of art” (217-8) Benjamin claims that in times past the role of art has been to provide a magical foundation for the cult. Here the artwork’s use value was located in its central position within ritual and religious tradition (223-4). A statue or idol conveyed a sense of authority, or magical power, which inhered in that particular historical artifact. The reproduction in mass of such an item would have been unthinkable because it was a unique singularity, and it would lose its “aura”. He focuses on describing the objects aura, defining the aura as:

Throughout the vast history of art, historians can find connections throughout the centuries. Artists from the beginning of humankind have been inspired by the world around them. From the Apollo 11 stones to present day, history and culture have provided inspiration and have been the focus of various pieces. Examining artwork from the 15th-18th century, viewers can be shown a whole world that would be unknown to us without these artist’s contributions. History, religion, and cultural events have sculpted the art world, and we can observe this through many pieces during the 15th-18th centuries.

According to Benjamin (1955: 794) aura belongs to the artwork’s uniqueness and that most artworks had this uniqueness before mechanical reproductions. In Film theory and

This essay contains a visual example that will illustrate the concept of simulacrum. The essay will explain the difference between cult value and exhibition value, how the relationship between the two results in a loss of the “aura’’ of authenticity in reproduced artworks in reference to to Walter Benjamin, The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (1937). The essay will further define the concept of simulacrum in reference to Michael Camile, Simulacrum (1996), also discussing the difference between a simulacrum and a copy and further explain if the example displays an aura of authenticity. Lastly the essay will identify the dynamics of the stages of simulacrum by a way of an example by referring to Baudrillard’s understanding of

Back in the fifteenth century, Renaissance’s art work, literature and science had a huge impact in Europe. The reason why the art work or literature represent the specific time period is because shared knowledge of art has influenced personal knowledge, so that the artists’ style of painting would be no different from another, which becomes the highlight of Renaissance’s artwork. Therefore, in the area of knowledge of arts, individuals learn the lifestyle back in the prosperous time period, which is also called mimesis. Majority of the artwork in Renaissance demonstrates the power of Christianity, thus demonstrates that people living in that time period values religion, which is the shared knowledge that influences their personal knowledge in believing what is beauty. Hence, sensory perception and memory is influenced from the external impacts in the society. Individuals living in