Van Gogh Vs Greek Essay

When cavemen were around, they used art as a way to record their huntings and stories. As the world became more civilized, art became a valued part of a sophisticated society. The early 20th century believed art should reflect only beauty. However, people experienced traumatic events like World War II, and 9/11 and artists took these experiences creating art that was drastically different from the beautiful meadow fields. Ever since then, art has become more provocative leading to debates on whether some contemporary art today is art. Although many people dislike contemporary art, controversy exists because art reflects current culture and our culture has controversial events and every person has a different has a perspective about it.

In a world that has become immune to accepting all types of art, Marya Mannes believes we have lost our standards and ability to identify something as “good” or “bad”. In her essay, “How Do You Know It’s Good”, she discusses society’s tendency to accept everything out of fear of wrongly labelling something as being good or bad. She touches on various criteria to judge art, such as the artist’s purpose, skill and craftsmanship, originality, timelessness, as well as unity within a piece rather than chaos. She says that an individual must decide if something is good “on the basis of instinct, experience, and association” (Mannes). I believe that by using standards and the process of association, we will be able to judge what makes an art piece good in comparison to others. However, Mannes forces me to consider the difference between what may be appealing versus what is actually good, and when deciding which art we should accept, which is truly more important. I believe that “good” and “bad” are two ends of a large, subjective spectrum of grey area. It is possible for a piece of art to be good in some areas and bad in others, and if something does not live up to all of our standards, it does not necessarily mean it should be dismissed. Thus, I believe my personal standards for judging art are based on which my standards are largely based on the personal reaction evoked from a piece of art. Though I agree with Mannes’ standards to an extent, I believe that certain standards, such as evoking a personal response, can be more telling of if a piece of art is good as opposed to its timelessness, or the level of experience of an artist in his/her craft.

Beauty is an incredibly subjective thing; what might seem appealing to one’s eyes may be horrendously ugly in the eyes of another. However, the status of “beautiful” or “ugly” can be assigned rather objectively when art is examined from the perspectives of different philosophies. The beliefs and values of different philosophies can be used to find meaning and beauty in various art forms, allowing for a more straightforward determination of beauty. Because of the many layers of meaning most paintings entail, they are a perfect example of an art form that can be analyzed by numerous philosophical viewpoints to find meaning and beauty, and Ma Yuan’s painting Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring, which comes from the Song dynasty of Chinese and depicts a sole figure standing in a natural surrounding, is no exception. Ma Yuan’s painting is beautiful because it represents the ultimate achievements for the Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian philosophies.

This paper examined in detail the reasoning, evidence from a claim that Robert Florczak arguing Why is modern art so bad? Robert florczak is an American artists and illustrator with many years of experience in field of art. The motive of the speech is to convince the art community of the ineffectiveness of modern art. The speaker uses a compare and contrast method during his speech between western and modern art. To show differences between the two, he illustrates his ability to back up his argument with evidence. He uses rhetorical analysis techniques such as, ethos, pathos, and logos to build on various point of views to strength his point. The speaker could achieve the overall purpose of the speech in convincing the art community of the

Students through the process of art appreciation will build connections through the exploration of textures, lines, colour and shape when describing, analysing, interpreting and judging the artworks before them (3 chosen images). They are asked to describe what they see, the artist’s use of colour, lines, shapes and texture. They then move onto analysing; what catches their eye, is the composition balanced and do the paintings look flat or do they have depth. The discussion then progresses onto interpretation where students are able to express what type of emotion they feel when looking at the pictures, perhaps the kind of sounds they might hear if they could step into it, and why they think the artist chose this particular subject to paint and what may have inspired the artist.

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.

Visual opulence, creativity, inimitable vision, and a style that is highly influential are the many characteristics of an admired movement in art history, that being of the Post-Impressionism movement (1875-1892). This movement, which was a by-product of the Impressionism movement, is the bridging gap between the two movements known as Realism and Expressionism. Post-Impressionism takes on some of the stylistic characteristics of these movements; however, it does not contain the all too glossy visuals of Realism or the heavily fantastic visuals of Expressionism, rather it is the intermediary of these two poles. My paper will discuss why this link was absolutely essential to the history of art movements, and I will be specifically using the

The way we see and perceive this art is predetermined by a variety of different factor ranging from cultural background to socioeconomic status. “A people or a class which is cut off from its own past is far less free to choose and to act as a people or class than one that has been able to situate itself in history. This is why -- and this is the only reason why -- the entire art of the past has now become a political issue” (J. Berger pg. 33) He argues that if a group of people are robbed of being able to create their own culturally relative and socially correct standards for art, then they are being oppressed from engaging as political equals. People use art to understand their place within world history and create social and political meaning for themselves or their culture. Art gives you the power to control how people perceive the past, the present and possibly even the future. Although now the ability to control what art people see isn’t as “regulated” as it once was, but prior to the invention of the camera and the internet, art was controlled by the minority of the elite and wealthy. “the art of the past is being mystified because a privileged minority is striving to invent a history which can retrospectively justify the role of the ruling classes and such a justification can no longer make sense in modern terms” (J. Berger, Pg.157). The upper class mystifies the general population to stay in control; without the ability to see things through our own eyes, people are being deprived of their right to understanding themselves and placing themselves in a role of society. Mystification contributes a negative influence on our society. Mystifying of art distinguish upper class and low class, and more importantly causes the past of certain groups and cultures, such as women,

I'm sure artists can agree that art is not something written in stone, it is a matter that is always changing. Looking back at eighteenth century artist and comparing them to artists of today, there are many factors that have changed; from composition and color, to technique and even canvases. There are always trends in the design field. Personally, I don't believe that a single artist can have the responsibility of making a direct impact on the world of art; however, he/she can influence and impact his/her audience to go out and make a difference. So in an era where every individual is caught up and distracted with the media to be focused on world problems, the only real way to communicate with the world is through media, which is where illustration and entertainment come into play.

Hi Adam, I agree, I have a new found respect for the art. I've always been somewhat interested, but not because of its history. It's really enlightening when you are able to start from the beginning and go through all of the movements, and its history. That's when I was able to get a better understanding of the humanities. At first I thought that the neoclassical movement was my favorite, but once I started doing research on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, I'm not sure which one I like best. The Middle Ages is about the rise and fall of cities and it's economy, the rise of nations, kings, and nobles losing power. France and England in a war for 100 years and because of it, government trade was disrupted. The church has weakened due to

Impressionism was considered irreverent and ghastly for its incomplete appearance, lack of refinement, and academic disregard toward an established art community during the late 1800s. Although an outpouring of attention was given to dissidents from traditional styles, artists such Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and eventually Mary Cassatt pressed forward to showcasing Impressionism as it became widely accepted across Europe and in America (About.com, 2014). The purposeful absence of clarity instilled by Impressionism provides an onlooker with a lasting sense for contemporary life, subtle landscapes, and an opportunity to embrace a new revolution. Impressionism challenged enthusiasts surrounding Classical through Romantic period works with a sense of bewilderment when contrasting these timeless works to the first, true, and a modern art style that diverges from the norm. Impressionism is no longer considered irreverent or ghastly among academics or enthusiasts although a contrast is required among modern admirers of the Romantic period and Impressionist works.

Even though the times have changed, many characteristics from the past still impact the world of art today. Characteristics from the Baroque period, Classical period, and Romantic period have had their share of impact on today’s society. In order to fully develop an overall understanding of how defining each of these eras are, one must expose themselves to the vastly varying eras’ music, and other art forms including paintings.

Visual art as we know it today is completely different from what had been created before the 20th century. Realistic depictions of the surrounding reality has given up its place in favor of attempts to convey the artist’s inner world directly through the diversity of shapes, colors, and means of visual depiction. Hence, a reasonable question arises: how should one evaluate pieces of modern art given that traditional criteria of assessment do not apply easily in this case? Unlike traditional art, where one can make judgments about the scene, an artist’s skills, and composition, modern art should be evaluated in a slightly different manner.

“Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. “- Francis Bacon. However when I learnt more about history of art and the way each movement and happenings in the world inspired artist to make new works, I was able to see much more than just a canvas with random paints and sketches. The interesting part about this concept is that each piece of art could be interpreted in many different ways. In contemporary art there isn’t right and wrong, each of us view and find different meanings and connections with artworks.

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