Evaluating art

Evaluating art

• 1.
  Evaluating Art
• 2.
  Encountering the object What do you see? Does it matter who made it?
• 3.
  Encountering the object HenryMoore (1898-1986) Artist unknown Reclining Woman, 1927 The Sleeping Lady, ca. 3600 - Cast concrete 2500 B.C. British Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, Malta
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  Four theories ofart • Realism Art portrays reality as we see it • Expressionism Art shows feelings and communicates thoughts • Formalism Art is significant form • Post-modernism Art is critical of accepted power structures
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  Realism Ron Mueck George Segal Bed, 2005 Blue Girl on Black Bed, 1976
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  Realism • The goal of art is to accurately describe reality • Plato (428 – 348 BC) originated the theory • Art is an imitation of reality • Emphasis on craft and beauty
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  Realism Which one ofthese is more like reality?
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  Expressionism Artist anonymous Alison Saar Power Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Untitled (from the Crossroads Mangaaka), mid to late 19th installation), 1989 century
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  Expressionism • Art communicatessubjective, personal, and cultural ideas • Fidelity to“reality” doesn’t reflect complexity of subjects • Art is a special way of knowing the world • Emphasis on feelings and individual experience
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  Expressionism What is being expressed? How does the object communicate?
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  Formalism Loretta Pettway Barnett Newman Lazy Gal – Bars, ca. 1965 Concord, 1949
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  Formalism • “Art forart’s sake” • Art is important because it can find essence of form • Emphasis on abstraction, composition, and an object’s internal relationships • Art about essences
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  Are these objectscommunicating the same thing? Sean Scully Raphael, 2004 Willie “Ma Willie” Abrams Roman Stripes variation, c. 1975
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  Post-modernism David Hammons Mickalene Thomas African-American Flag, 1990 Mama Bush: (Your love keeps lifting me) higher and higher, 2009
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  Post-modernism • Art meantto question, challenge and provoke • Emphasis on social experience and not individual • Interest in creating new relationships in society • Art is pluralistic; it tells a truth, not the truth
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  What questions arebeing asked in these? David Hammons Mickalene Thomas African-American Flag, 1990 Mama Bush: (Your love keeps lifting me) higher and higher, 2009
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  • What isyour philosophy of art? • Is there a “best” way to approach artwork? • Do theories help to look at artwork?