Download Art Intro 2013

Art
An area of knowledge
Intro Exercise
Take 10-15 minutes to construct a piece of
art that is pleasing to you.
 Become an art critic. Rank the top three
pieces of art. 10 minutes
 What are the traits that the top three
share?
 The “real” artist in the group…

My thanks to
fineartamerica.com
for their piece:
Energized
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self actualisation needs
Self esteem needs
Social needs
Safety needs
Physiological needs
Think, Pair, Share
Think for 2, Pair for 5, Share for 2.
What is the role of the arts in the hierarchy
that Maslow has identified? Is this role
universal across different cultures?
Revisit You are so beautiful…

Journal Entries

Consider: “There are absolutely no
standards for beauty.”

You are so beautiful to me….
Carl Jung:
 “The
supreme goal of man is to
fulfill himself as a creative,
unique individual according to
his own unique potentialities and
within the limits of reality”
John Adams

I must study politics and war so that my sons
may have liberty to study mathematics and
philosophy. My sons ought to study
mathematics, philosophy, geography, naval
architecture, navigation, commerce and
agriculture in order to give their children a
right to study painting, poetry music,
architecture, statuary, tapestry and
porcelain.
The Role of Art

The desire to create some sort of art seems
to be a universal (some have argued defining)
human trait, and the artistic impulse may be
among the loftiest of human drives.
•A Do you -think that the notion of a hierarchy of needs is
meaningful? If so, is Maslow's model the correct one? If not,
why not - surely we all have biological needs that we must
satisfy before other needs can be met?
•B if you accept Maslow's hierarchy, which is more Important
- the lowest level of the pyramid or the top level? Construct
arguments to support both views.
Guernica: Testimony of War
It is modern art's most powerful antiwar statement... created
by the twentieth century's most well-known and least understood
artist. But the mural called Guernica is not at all what Pablo
Picasso has in mind when he agrees to paint the centerpiece for
the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 World's Fair.
Fabergé Eggs:
Mementos of a
Doomed Dynasty
Taj Mahal:
Memorial to Love
Tracey Irwin: Unmade Bed
Is photography
Art?
SCENE I. A lane by the wall of
Capulet's orchard.
Enter ROMEO
ROMEO Can I go forward when my
heart is here?
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre
out.
He climbs the wall, and leaps down
within it
Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO
BENVOLIO Romeo! my cousin Romeo!
MERCUTIO He is wise;
And, on my lie, hath stol'n him home to
bed.
Charles Dickens
"I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD"
I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine….
William Wordsworth
What is Art?

“Sunflowers” by Vincent van Gogh.

A mass-produced urinal entitled fountain, chosen and displayed, but not
designed or created, by Marcel Duchamp.

An untitled white piece of canvas.

A superb rock concert.

The song Happy Birthday.

A superb sportsman running 100 m.

A perfect copy of “Sunflowers” sold for $3 in a market.

A beautiful mountain

An white piece of canvas entitled “Hiroshima”
value creativity truth Intention enlightenment splendour reality
perspective accuracy elegance form realism novelty empathy beauty
emotion passion wisdom Interpretation education wonder awe
What is Art?









A poem generated by a computer.
Einstein's general theory of relativity.
A white piece of canvas entitled “A Foggy day”
An extremely funny cartoon.
Mozart's “Clarinet Concerto”.
A perfect copy of Sunflowers hung In a gallery and called
“The Perfect Copy”.
“King Lear” by William Shakespeare.
The Taj Mahal In Agra, India.
A sheep cut in two and preserved in a glass container.
value creativity truth Intention enlightenment splendour reality
perspective accuracy elegance form realism novelty empathy beauty
emotion passion wisdom interpretation education wonder awe
Prescriptive or Descriptive?

When we ask what art is, we need to be clear about what sort of answer we
are hoping to find. If we mean 'What sort of things are called art?' then we
have an empirical issue - the question is about how and in what contexts
people use the word 'art'. In this sense, the answer will be descriptive of
how the world is. On the other hand, and perhaps far more interestingly, if
we mean 'What sort of things should we call art?' then we have entered a
different area for this question cannot be answered purely by reference to a
description of the world. In order to answer the question in this sense we a
re required to make a judgement, and the answer will indicate how we think
the world should be.
The World’s Most Wanted and Least Wanted
Paintings
Visit the website:
Click here
Survey Result:
•Preferred: A predominance of blue and a
pastoral scene with a stretch of water.
•Least liked: Modern abstract painting with
a predominance of red
So, is there GOOD art and BAD Art?

What are the criteria we would use to
judge?
Weekly Telegraph September 2003
“The Arts are a way of expressing emotion”

Think of several pieces of art in different media (for example,
architecture, music, painting, poetry, plays, sculpture), good and
bad, which evoke emotion.

lf the purpose of art is to evoke emotion,- then what are the best
forms of art?

Would this definition of the purpose of art include things which we
would not wish to include, or exclude things we would not wish to
exclude?

In light of this, to what extent is communication of emotion a useful
characterisation of art?
“The Arts imitate nature or the world” –
the mimetic theory
Art teaches us what is right……
Guernica: Testimony of War
“The Arts offer an insight into the human
condition” ie more than just a moral statement

Perhaps this explanation allows us to see why the arts
are regarded as a mark of civilisation, why they offer
something glorious and profound. If they offer us a way
to make sense of what is a confusing natural world, a
way to interpret our emotions and those of others, or a
guide to the nature of morality, then they are indeed to
be valued! This characterisation of the arts seems to
encompass the others so far suggested.

Perhaps other disciplines give us 'knowledge' but we
turn to the arts to broaden our emotional and intellectual
boundaries.
Look at the examples of Art you have seen. What do
they tell you about the human condition?
The Human Condition……
Look at the examples of Art you have
seen. What do they tell you about the
human condition?
 Describe some Art that has moved you
profoundly in some way.
 According to this model, what are the
highest and lowest forms of Art?

Does it all come down to opinion?

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

Beauty is no quality in things themselves:
it merely exists in the mind that
contemplates them. i.e perception

Is Art and Beauty necessarily connected?
Personal Opinions: If the arts are about personal opinions then
why do we, as a society, rate some art as much better than
others?
Why are some pieces that were created centuries ago still well
known today?
Could the sound of my pet dog vomiting really be great art?
Objective Standards: If there are objective standards by which
to measure the arts, then what are they?
Do you think your standards are universally applicable?
What is the basis for your choice of those particular standards?
•Are the arts Important? If so, is this despite or because
of the problem of finding the standards by which to judge
them?
•What place does rationality have in the arts?
•What are the standards of artistic judgement?
•Which people are best qualified to judge the arts? What
qualities should they possess?
The arts, experience, and the nature of
artistic truth.

a work of art is not necessarily
the worse for the fact that ... [it
is] ... literally false ... If the
author writes nonsense, it is
because he considers it most
suitable for bringing about the
effects for which his writing is
designed – A J Ayer
(philosopher)

'Art is a lie that gives us the
truth, at least the truth we are
given to understand.' Pablo
Picasso
Literature

A tragic ending for Verona lovebirds: after mistakenly thinking his
sweetheart dead, a young man took his life. Having discovered the
fate of her lover, the woman killed herself in turn.

It’s a hard life on the streets of London: A young orphan runs away
to London where he falls in with thieves led by a wily Jew. He
eventually rises above all this and discovers his real origins.

A poor but noble young hero falls in love with a rich heroine on
board ship: They struggle against social pressures and intend to
make a life together, but disaster strikes and the hero dies. The
heroine goes on to live a happy life but she never forgets.
So, where does that leave us?

The arts have proven to be at least as slippery as the sciences! As we were
hoping to use them to fill the gaps left by the sciences, this is probably no
bad thing. As to whether or not we have succeeded in doing so, that's up to
you.

However, we cannot deny that the arts offer us something different to
science. They seem to connect with us, and to allow us to connect to each
other in a very human way. This benefit has, however, come with a cost we have lost much of any objective claim to certainty that we may
once have had. What can we do about this? Probably little, as far as the
arts go, but perhaps we should look elsewhere. If it is certainty we seek in
our quest for truth, what things are most certain?
Louis Armstrong

If you gotta ask you
ain’t never gonna
know!!

Writing about arts is
like dancing about
architecture
Homework Aug 21
Due next class period August 26th
 Begin to assemble the Lexicon of TOK.
 Complete task “You are so beautiful to
me…”
 Purchase a bound journal to begin your
TOK Journal. Parameters to be discussed
next week.
 http://wjlmitchell.edublogs.org/

Homework August 26
Due Next Class August 28
 Send me an mp3 file of your favourite
song. No profanity. I know, it is limiting.
 Prepare for discussion on:
 “There are absolutely no standards for
beauty.” Two groups. See blog for
groupings.
