The Mystification of the Artistic Object

With comments on my post such as “Actual art on [Reddit!?]” and “Art isn’t art unless it’s old” – it was at this point that I became more aware of Thomas Horsfall’s view of, what he put as, “arts bitterest enemies.” To elaborate further, Horsfall suggested in his paper, ‘Art in Large Towns…’ dated 1882, historical and modern art visually entices the average viewer and their knowledge about its context, but people who only recognise a piece for its visual aesthetics have poor knowledge of the true approach to art. So, do we, the viewers go to museums and galleries in hope of finding beautiful imagery? Are we, as suggested by Horsfall, positively influenced on our ideas of beauty and taste by our viewings?

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but maybe they are worth far more than that. Pictures, although seemingly simple in nature, are extremely complex. Far too often, people overlook what a picture truly is. When a person looks at an image, they most likely see only the image, nothing else. Many people do not look deep enough into an image to fully comprehend the true meaning of it. However, when an individual begins to truly study an image in an attempt to understand the true complexity of it, they will be surprised at what they overlooked before. As stated by French Realist Painter, Gustave Courbet, “Fine art is knowledge made visible.”

Art is able to evoke different feelings and emotions to each person that sets their eyes on it. The act of ‘looking’ is simple, but a lot comes from it. Where the eyes are first drawn to, the duration that the eyes are focused on a specific detail, and the thoughts that flood one’s brain when viewing art is all significant. These actions say more than the piece itself, it reveals emotions of both the artist and the audience. Art can be expressed through infinite forms, but the underlying importance is not with the art itself. It represents a place in time, displaying what was noteworthy to an individual in their own life. It serves as a lasting creation representative of human imagination with the ability to bring out a multitude of emotions from whoever views it. When art is created it represents the creativity of the human mind compacted into a physical object. Art has little usage aside from pure observation, yet it has prevailed throughout time, showing its importance to humanity. Art provides a lens into humanity, showcasing the human ability over time. When studied through history, art is a view into the development of humans and their interests. Through something as basic as commonly using symmetry to transitioning to asymmetry, the European’s perspective following the Renaissance is revealed. The making of art is solely up to one individual and their creativity. It is the pinnacle of

A painterly quality with an otherworldly aesthetic is what set pictorialism apart from other photographic practices at the time. This notion of perfection is what really captures my attention. What I find quite interesting is that looking into this aesthetic every man

It promotes viewers to maintain an apathetic gaze, which wanders to the next piece without ever delving into the first work of art. Cooper’s notion about the correct way to view Hudson River School paintings limits an audience’s abilities. There is no way that an audience member can know how the artist intended his or her artwork to be seen. Wallach counteracts Cooper’s ideal technique by emphasizing that viewers do not obtain a true understanding by simply staring. There must be engagement or the addition of other elements; otherwise, individuals are seeing only what is staring back at them. Deploying materials in connection to works of art, like texts explaining historical context, additional images, or artifacts, yields a complete and comprehensive understanding of an artwork. After all, studying means engaging and diving deeper into something to extract a true grasp on that something. Additionally, Cooper writes that Americans do not see anything other than in a surface manner; he jumps too far with this generalization. Like Wallach believes, American society is more open and sees things with a higher level of appreciation. The number of ways people can interpret and see items improves societal comprehension, not restricts it to one-dimensional viewing. Thus, art historians should attack art through a multitude of different lens. Techniques to explore artwork should not take on a passive role but instead, an active

Another part of the artwork that highly influences our emotions is what the art is of. Because if the art contains an image or depiction of a boy in the rain,staring and frowning, then most likely we will feel sympathy or sadness. While if the painting was bright, and colorful, and had images of children playing, we would feel enlightened, and maybe in a

Alexander Nehamas believes that the attracted properties of art and beauty lies within our feeling and emotions. In his account, he explained that even though a higher or more abstract ideas of beauty can be found, the fundamental principles we used to judge the quality of the art is not purely intellectual but, rather, the desires plays as a part of the appreciation. He emphasized that the beauty of the artwork provokes individuals to possess in a way that we want to know more about the painting whether from our lust or other forms of emotion (7). In another word, Nehamas reasons that emotional properties of the beauty attracts observer’s attention. To further clarify Nehamas’ argument, he pointed out that the beauty are capable of being deceptive

Imagine having the ability to feel like you are mentally and physically in a painting, as if you were transported into another dimension and were able to feel every emotion specified at that very moment. The piece of art that is able to do this is Saint Mary Magdalene at the Sepulcher by Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo painted in the 1530’s now shown at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. This painting illustrates a woman covered in her cloak as her body turns away and her emotion filled face looks back at you. The woman is Saint Mary Magdalene. As I glance to the background of the picture it shows a beautiful peaceful sky with white clouds over a mountain, and Mary Magdalene standing in front of a brick building with two lightened tunnels to the

Shepard Fairey’s piece titled Pay Up or Shut Up is a representation of the role that money or your role in society dictate the power of your speech. This piece of art by Fairey was released in May of 2015. It is a screen print on cream speckletone paper.

“Why Art Matters” by Thomas P.Campbell, explains the importance of art through cultural aspects and roles played in today's society, to help support funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. He firsts explains that many people often see art as being an unnecessary subject; he then goes onto stating that art provides millions of jobs and brings money back through revenue taxes. Another important idea he makes is,the N.E.A. serves many functions, promotes art, disperses fundings, and helps lower the cost of insuring exhibitions. In addition, he goes into discussing the importance of the N.E.A. being a link between the government and its the people; eliminating the N.E.A. would destroy that link causing the government

The Mona Lisa, 1503 - 1506, painted on poplar wood (77 x 53cm) with oil paint.

The readings for this week consisted of summaries in Applerouth and Edles (2016), excerpts from Discipline and Punish by Michael Foucault (1975), “Social Space and the Genesis of Groups” by Pierre Bourdieu (1982), “Outline of a Sociological Theory of Art Perception” also by Bourdieu (1968) and Orientalism by Edward Said (1978), as well as the article “Towards an ‘optics of power’: technologies of surveillance and discipline and case-loading midwifery practice in New Zealand” by Deborah Davis and Kim Walker (2013). All of these readings center on “Poststructuralism”, which Applerouth and Edles (2016) describe as being a response to “Structuralism” (Applerouth & Edles, 2016, pg. 644). Applerouth and Edles (2016) state that “From the perspective

"A picture can paint a thousand words." I found the one picture in my mind that does paint a thousand words and more. It was a couple of weeks ago when I saw this picture in the writing center; the writing center is part of State College. The beautiful colors caught my eye. I was so enchanted by the painting, I lost the group I was with. When I heard about the observation essay, where we have to write about a person or thing in the city that catches your eye. I knew right away that I wanted to write about the painting. I don’t know why, but I felt that the painting was describing the way I felt at that moment.

As onlookers peer into the artworks in front of them, there is no question as to whether or not they considered what the artwork means, where it came from and what the artist was interested in who created it. The

The area of art is popularly known for heightening emotions, challenging stereotypes, and ultimately providing insights into how individuals view the surrounding world. The artist and the observer time and time again see pieces in overwhelmingly different ways. Individuals may wonder why this is so. What could possibly create such a drastic change from one perspective to another? When it comes down to it, experiences are the answer. The artist and the observer have different