Art Club

Through most of its history, art has served a variety of purposes: to honor the dead, to recall the appearance of rulers or relatives, to give visual form to gods, to create sacred places, to display wealth, to teach, and to give pleasure. Many people today think of the visual arts at best as isolated objects to contemplate in museums or, at worst, as mere frills, unnecessary in education or life. Historians trace such attitudes to 18th-century philosophers who hoped to find an intellectual basis for our perception of beauty and thus separated it from other activities. Their view became known as “art for art’s sake.”

Even if we think of art as isolated from the rest of life, we still must turn to architects to design buildings with important functions, whether churches or banks. We still value design in furniture and other useful everyday objects, and want monuments to honor our heroes. Visual effects in movies astound us, well-designed Web pages appeal to us, and gorgeous images in advertising persuade us. The methods and materials have changed dramatically, but art is still very much a part of our lives.

1. Recording Appearance

An artist’s ability to reproduce the appearance of things in our world lies behind some of the earliest uses of art. Prehistoric people may have made carvings and cave paintings of animals to ensure the fertility of the flock or for use in rituals aimed at guaranteeing a good hunt. Female figures in prehistoric sculpture typically have exaggerated breasts and genitals and were probably used in fertility rites. Other sculptures found at burial sites show the appearance of the person buried there. Although no written records exist from this period, it seems clear that prehistoric people made images for use in rituals related to the most important events in their lives: birth, death, and hunting—the means of the group’s survival.

2. Making Visible the Invinsible

Art can also make visible things we normally cannot see. The extraordinary special effects in movies have their origins in the ability of human beings to imagine and transform these imaginings into substantial form. Dreams and visions are dominant themes in some styles of art—symbolism (symbolist movement) and surrealism, for example. Throughout history, people have made images of gods, angels, and demons; of events from the distant past or the far-off future; and of what they wished the present would be but is not. Imagination is at work in more practical forms of art as well. Any act of planning involves imagining a result, and the artist or architect uses drawings or models to show patrons—the people who request the work—what the completed project will look like. The drawings, as well as the finished projects, are valued as works of art.

3. COMMUNICATING

Art in all its forms can display wealth, power, and prestige. Because of the high value of art, it may seem affordable to only an elite class of patrons and collectors. Some works of art, however, were created specifically to appeal to the general populace. For example, art that adorned churches communicated religious beliefs to worshipers. Portraits of leaders or images of historic events sometimes carried a political point of view. Before newspapers became widely available art also conveyed news of general interest. Easily reproducible art forms, such as photographs or prints, are the perfect media for art that teaches or persuades.

4. DELIGHTING

An important purpose of art is to delight. Some works of art are beautiful or charming in themselves. Others delight us through their visual intricacy, by reminding us of patterns in nature, and in many other ways. Some art works even delight by frightening us with terrifying sights, which are not really terrifying because we know they exist only in the work of art.

by: Aldrin Mirambel

We categorize art for the sake of understanding and interpretation: It is easiest to compare and make connections between works that are similar in fundamental ways. Painting, sculpture, and architecture are the arts most commonly discussed in textbooks as “the fine arts,” and they are sometimes grouped together with music and poetry. The wording fine arts, however, suggests that these art forms in some way rank higher than other art forms generally categorized as decorative arts or crafts. There are various justifications for this distinction: The fine arts use the human figure as their subject (although this is a difficult rationale when applied to architecture); they can convey ideas or moral values; they are interpreted or discussed in theoretical writings; and they can be appreciated for their own sake, without regard to their usefulness. The idea of fine arts traces back to the French Academy of Fine Arts of the 17th century, however, and since then artists have on many occasions actively worked to tear down this division.

We might instead think of painting, sculpture, and architecture as corresponding roughly to two-dimensional art, three-dimensional art, and arts that enclose or define space. Some of the newer art forms that add motion—for example, film and video art—are sometimes referred to as time-based media. Decorative arts, such as jewelry and textiles, and crafts, such as woodworking and basketry, are defined primarily by their practical use: for example, in fashion, furniture, or household items.

1. PAINTING and TWO DIMENSIONAL ART

Painting involves applying a pigment (coloring substance, often a mineral) on a surface. The pigment is suspended in a medium such as oil, water, or egg yolk, which helps the pigment adhere to the surface or gives it other qualities such as transparency or sheen. Among the most common types of painting are fresco painting, in which a water-soluble paint is applied to wet plaster; oil painting, in which pigment is suspended in slow-drying oil; tempera painting, in which pigment is suspended in egg yolk; and watercolor, in which pigment is suspended in water. The surface on which the paint is applied is called the ground; some commonly used grounds include wood panels, plaster, canvas, and paper.

2. SCULPTURE

Sculpture, a broad category, comprises three-dimensional objects, whether freestanding (without other structures for support) or attached to a background and called relief sculpture. Sculptors can make their objects by modeling a soft material such as clay or wax; by carving hard materials, such as stone or wood; or by assembling different sorts of materials. Works modeled in a soft material are often cast in a more durable material such as plaster or bronze. Traditionally, we have thought of sculpture as objects without movement that are isolated from the viewer on a pedestal. Since the mid-20th century, however, sculptors have created objects that move, that share space with the viewer, or that create whole environments in which people can move.

3. ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is the art of creating structures in which we can live, work, worship, and play. Architects, more than painters and sculptors, are concerned with the function of their buildings as well as with the visual appearance, structural solidity, and way in which a building fits into the landscape. Landscape architecture and garden design use plants and the land itself as materials to create outdoor spaces and interesting visual effects. Urban planners use architecture and landscape design at a larger scale, to shape the communities in which we live. A designer—someone who imagines and works with the ideas—is common to all of these fields. Although many people with specialized skills work to make the projects a reality, the person considered the artist is the one who creates the design.

4. PHOTOGRAPHY and MEDIA

Photography, video art, film, and digital art all use sophisticated technology to create images, which then can usually be reproduced in multiple copies. Photography may most closely resemble painting and the graphic arts because most photographs are stable, two-dimensional objects. The photographer’s role, however, is different from the painter’s. Photographers select their subject matter, but light, rather than the artist’s hand, makes the image. Photographers make many creative decisions about film development, printing, or digital adjustments, and they can even add drawing or color by hand. However, the primary process is mechanical and chemical.

Video artists and filmmakers also use photography to record images, and they often combine visual effects with dramatic action, narrative, and music. Some video artists, such as Korean-born Nam June Paik, incorporate their work into sculptures or environments, blurring the line between new and traditional media. Digital art, another new artistic medium, uses the computer to create works of art. Digital art can use video, photography, or traditional methods of drawing. The works may be printed out and displayed like other drawings or photographs, or they may exist only in virtual form, to be viewed on computer screens.

5. DECORATIVE ARTS

Decorative arts furnish or embellish the spaces in which we live, or adorn our bodies. Among the decorative arts are textile and furniture design, metalwork, glass, ceramics (see pottery), and fashion design. The categories of decorative arts and crafts overlap a great deal, although we generally think of crafts as handmade objects of simple materials, such as clay ceramics or woven cloth. Generally decorative arts and crafts are useful and lack narrative or symbolic content. But the separation between the decorative and fine arts is not always clear. Painters can make works that avoid subject matter entirely, and architects often design the furnishings for their buildings. In many non-Western cultures, household items, such as painted Chinese screens and African carved doors, can have highly symbolic subject matter.

by: Aldrin Mirambel

Monalisa also known as "La Gioconda"

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as Aesthetics.

The definition and evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the early 20th century. Richard Wollheim distinguishes three approaches: the Realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the Objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the Relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans. An object may be characterized by the intentions, or lack thereof, of its creator, regardless of its apparent purpose. A cup, which ostensibly can be used as a container, may be considered art if intended solely as an ornament, while a painting may be deemed craft if mass-produced.

Traditionally, the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery. This conception changed during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as “a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science”. Generally, art is made with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions.

The nature of art has been described by Richard Wollheim as “one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture”.It has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation. Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another. Benedetto Croce and R.G. Collingwood advanced the idealist view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in the mind of the creator.

DEFINITION of ART

The most common usage of the word “art,” which rose to prominence after 1750, is understood to denote skill used to produce an aesthetic result. Britannica Online defines it as “the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.”[8] By any of these definitions of the word, artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind: from early pre-historic art to contemporary art; however, some theories restrict the concept to modern Western societies. Much has been written about the concept of “art”. Where Adorno said in 1970 “It is now taken for granted that nothing which concerns art can be taken for granted any more”. The first and broadest sense of art is the one that has remained closest to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to “skill” or “craft,” and also from an Indo-European root meaning “arrangement” or “to arrange”. In this sense, art is whatever is described as having undergone a deliberate process of arrangement by an agent. A few examples where this meaning proves very broad include artifact, artificial, artifice, artillery, medical arts, and military arts. However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology.

by: Aldrin A. Mirambel

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Art in Your Eye proudly announces the second year of its amateur songwriting contest.

May 29 (Bloomberg) — Dealers preparing for Art Basel in Switzerland are hoping wealthy collectors from around the world remain as eager to spend money as they were at record-breaking auctions this month.