ELAC Iconography Journal

Below I am providing you the material for journal entry 1 and description also make sure about the instructions provided. for the journal entry I am attaching the journal entry question below and the picture of which parts are highlighted in chapter . Study this section with the images in your text. I’ve created this part with several questions to use as study guide while reading your text.The GatesThe World As Artists See It Roles of ArtistsThe World As We Perceive ItThe Process of SeeingActive SeeingThis Chapter Will:evaluate the criteria that define artexamine the functions of art and artists in various world civilizationsperception and the creative process the world as the artist sees itthe roles of artists the physical and active processes of seeingYin aesthetic functionalYang corroboreesublime earthwork animism In this chapter you will be introduced to variety of artworks that will familiarize you with cultural and historical differences and similarities. I would like to emphasize the potential of viewing and interpreting artworks with 21-century eyes. This is an issue that will come back throughout the course.All art is culturally determined and it must be viewed according to the context of the time and place it was created. Otherwise, we tend to judge artworks from our own cultural standards. In this module/chapter, we examine landscape artists, such as Albert Bierstadt, Wu Chen, Erna Motna and Richard Serra and the four roles of the artist each of these landscape artists address. 1. The Gates: The World as Christo and Jeanne-Claude See It:Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates Some issues for us to think about are: how The Gates pushes the three-dimensional space of art to a new level by creating a work that exists in the physical environment. While studying this part consider thinking about the following questions: What is the work’s purpose? What were the artists’ intentions? Is this art? Do you like this type of art? I’d like to stress that thinking about issues of what art is and what is considered art for one person may not be the same for someone else. Consider elaborating on your responses for your first journal entry. Just a suggestion.Compare and contrast Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates in Central Park, New York City with the Torii Gates in Kyoto, Japan (image below) and consider how the symbolism and perception of works of art change depending on cultural location. Read the sections in your text book. 2. The World As Other Artists See ItIn order to familiarize ourselves with cultural and historical differences and similarities we need to know the historical overview and context of artworks. There is potential dangers of viewing and interpreting artworks with 21st-century eyes. Art is culturally determined, and it must be viewed according to the context of the time and place it was created; otherwise we tend to judge artworks from our own cultural standards.Art often captures the spirit of the age and place in which it was created. Look at some of the art works from other cultures in the chapter and we see how artists make a visual record of the people, places, and events of their time and place.Functionality of art: Let’s look at to think about varying levels of functionality and how that relates to our experience of the work as aesthetic, as art. Utilitarian objects created by Native American, African, Oceanic, and Asian cultures reflect the desire to make the mundane beautiful and pleasing to the eye. Yet, in many cultures the word “art” does not exist. Many non-Western cultures’ philosophies of aesthetics and creative processes are different than ours. For example , Kane Kwei’s Coffin Orange, in the Shape of a Cocoa Pod, (fig. 57) and the Karaori kimono (fig. 59) both tell us the taste and self-image, and social status of the deceased or the wearer. Think about how we dress in our time and society and what that has to do with who we are and what we stand for.Seated Bather by the Sea (fig. 62) is a subjective representation of a woman by Picasso, one that represents how deeply Picasso was affected by imagery he had seen of ancient Iberian/African sculptural reliefs. We can similarly see Picasso influenced by both Iberian sculpture and African ritual masks in Desmoiselles d’Avignon (fig. 66). Do you think these images of women are aesthetically pleasing. Think about some of our own culturally determined notion of beauty by looking at current fashion magazines that promote how to achieve the body beautiful. 3. How Do We See the World?The physical process of seeing is usually divided into the 3-step description: reception—extraction—inference. Look at Jasper Johns’ Three Flags (fig. 13) and pay attention to how Johns’ intentional use of images that, according to the artist, are “looked at but never seen, never examined.” He is in fact, making us to understand the flag and not just see it. How well do we see/understand the American flag? From memory, see if can you answer the following questions. What are the flag’s dimensions? How many red stripes, white stripes? Why is the flag rectangular in shape? Do the colors red, white, and blue have symbolic significance? What does the compositional arrangement represent? Now, what if we consider the terrorist events of Sept. 11, what is the symbol of the flag itself and how the prominent display of the American flag after that time has actually increased our appreciation of the flag and all it symbolizes. How about other events in American history, like McCarthyism or the Civil Rights Movement, for example. The flag has not always been a positive symbol of patriotism. In recent Presidential elections, we witnessed the burning of the flag. This is explained in the variety of artworks that express specific viewpoints concerning the American flag with artists, Jasper Johns, Yukinori Yanagi, Faith Ringgold, and Andy Warhol. 1. The Creative ProcessFlexibility and openness are two fundamental characteristics of creativity. Look at Albert Bierstadt’s painting, The Rocky Mountains (fig. 5) and Robert Smithson’s earthwork, Spiral Jetty (fig. 8). The process and style that each of these artists use to create these landscapes are different. So is the historical context in terms of how nature was perceived during the lives of these two artists. Bierstadt was inspired by the appearance of the physical landscape, whereas Smithson was more interested in its geological properties. Earthworks like Smithson’s Spiral Jetty are often large temporal environmental sculptures produced outdoors that employ rocks, earth, and other natural materials. Another earth artist, Walter de Maria, creator of Lightning Field (fig. 436), whose work, New York Earth Room, was exhibited at the DIA Center for the Arts in New York City. How do you think natural elements change when they are brought indoors? Is the earthwork an unnatural phenomenon created in nature? What is de Maria’s statement about our environment? How is it similar to Smithson’s? Does either artist seek to isolate something? I’d like you to think about these questions for now. We will come back to them and the Lightning Field later in the course.In order to understand the nature of creativity, look closely at the Desmoiselles d”Avignon drawings ((fig.’s 64 & 65) and the finished work (fig. 66). What are some of the differences between Christo’s and Picasso’s processes and style when creating. Consider the historical context in terms of how nature was perceived during the lives of these two artists. (this can be a great topic for your Journal entry this week, you can choose any of the artists and their works discussed in this chapter and reflect on the historical context of their works in terms of nature and its perception.)Christo uses his drawings to help him visualize the finished piece and, importantly, to fund it. He does not accept funding for his projects. He and Jean-Claude fund them entirely through the sales of these preliminary drawings. But Picasso uses a more “traditional” use of preliminary sketches which lead to his finished composition. This week’s modules conclude our discussion on the Visual World and its many implications. Consider questions below as study guides to lead you to think critically about the images and their significance.Chapter Two: Developing Visual LiteracyWords and ImagesDescribing the World Meaning in Non-Representational Art Meaning and Culture/Conventions and ArtIconographyThis Chapter Will:introduce you to the interrelationship between words, images, and objects in the worldexamine Lorna Simpson’s artworkillustrate ideas of representation in different types of artmake the distinction between form and content in artintroduce iconography to further your visual literacyexamine cultural conventions of beauty and realitylearn additional terminology used to describe the characteristics of works of artvisual literacy calligraphy representational art mudra convention form content bismillahabstract art nonrepresentational art nonobjective art ethnocentricrealistic art illusionistic ledger drawing hubris naturalistic composition iconography objective artnon-objective art subject matter iconoclast symbolssublimeLook closely at René Magritte’s The Treason of Images (fig. 18) and here:Think about how visual literacy is only attainable if an understanding of language itself is understood. Read the section in your book, page 18. Many times words and our verbal descriptions of objects do not coincide. Now look at another work by René Magritte, titled The Interpretation of Dreams, 1930, which presents the viewer (you) with many isolated objects with words under each one. For example, in one section, under an image of a shoe, the word la Lune (French for the moon) is written. Magritte is clearly challenging us to question his or her visual literacy, thus posing the paradoxical nature of seeing itself: that sometimes what we see is not always what we see. Here, Magritte is challenging us to question our visual vocabulary, posing the paradoxical nature of seeing. Another crucial contemporary artist, who has been questioning the narrative potential of images is John Baldessari. You get to see him talk about his work at LACMA in the discussion section this week.His work demonstrate the associative power of language within the boundaries of his art works. He is the surrealist of the digital world, challenging the media. He is the grandfather of conceptual art.I am showing you the three above images by Baldessari to see how his image-making process works, by sticking dots on faces of people to announce that he is not making boring art— the first image above. Or by appropriating and synthesizing works by other artists before him, the second image, where hé creates new meaning by juxtaposing works of Piet Mondrian and Francis Picabia in order to create new meaning by revitalizing historical iconography and challenging viewers to interpret them in new ways. In case of the third image above, he is highlighting his sensitivity to the feelings of an inanimate object Baldessari is saying a little more than ‘I think this has something to do with art’, he is saying ‘I think this has something to do with why I am an artist’. In this sense, I read Pencil Story as a romantic piece. Here is an artist demonstrating his dreaming only instead of reaching for the cosmos or the classics, he is expressing this everyday – yet no less profound – phenomenon by reflecting on his own experience.Watch this short video and jot down some points to incorporate into this week’s discussion. Now, do you think that our Western culture is visually dependent on mass media such as magazines, television, the Internet, social media? If so, do they really help us to develop our visual understanding or do we remain visually illiterate? Look closely at Lorna Simpson’s Necklines (fig. 23) and She (fig. 21) and Shirin Neshat’s Rebellious Silence (below). What do you see in these images, what are some of the way images and words function together to create meaning. Do you need to know what society, culture, time period these images refer to to understand them?Shirin Neshat’s photographic series Women of Allah examines the complexities of women’s identities in the midst of a changing cultural landscape in the Middle East—both through the lens of Western representations of Muslim women, and through the more intimate subject of personal and religious conviction. The woman being presented here, Neshat herself as a symbol of femininity, draws our attention to the complexities and contradictory notions of beauty/poetry and violence, tradition and modernity, East and West. She created this photograph in 1991 when she returned to Iran from United States. Her face covered by romantic Persian poetry juxtaposed with the cruelty of the up-right rifle ready to be shot. Her head being covered with the Hijab imposed on women at the time of Iranian revolution in 1979 and yet her identity is that of an exiled experiencing women’s liberation movements of the 70s both in the US and in Europe. Neshat decided to explore this fraught symbol in her art as a way to reconcile her own conflicting feelings. Here the veil functions as both a symbol of freedom and of repression.Now what about Lorna Simpson, She (figure 21) and this one:In this image Simpson deals with the exploration of the ways images and words function together to create meaning.Some of the meaning of the Below words in Lorna Simpson’s Necklines:neck-ed=naked, necking refer to sensualitybreakneck and neck & neck refer to speedWhat do these two sets of terms have to do with each other?Necklaces, neckties. They both go around the neckNecktie parties: conduct hangings, hanging break necks and a person runs from a “necktie party” precisely because, instead of wearing a necklace, he or she is being hanged. In other words, one becomes ‘neckless’.Do words and images have the same relationship in Non-western art or can they? In so many other cultures the relationship between words and images are formulated differently. For example, in Islamic art and the Triumphal Entry (fig. 19) for example, the words used bring in the meaning and the message. In this page, which is from a Shahnamah–Book of Kings–that is a poetry collection, the interplay of colors, patterns, calligraphy and the way the page is structured all give importance to the history of the kings chronicled in the book. It is the importance of words over images that play a significant role in much of the Islamic art and architecture.The fact is that according Islamic religious law, representation of human figures was only prohibited in religious spheres, such as mosques, madrasa (Islamic religious school) because creating human likeness is considered to be God’s right. But, anywhere else, such as in the courts, palaces, and private residences such law didn’t exist. Therefore, poetry books are almost always filled with illustrated and illuminated miniatures depicting hunts, feasts, festivals of celebration or other important occasions. And all the books started with the phrase, Bismillah-In the Name of God.3. Abstract ArtAs a verb, abstract means “to take from,” to extract the essence of a thing or idea. As a noun, the word abstract refers to a summary of a longer text. Consider this analogy: when an unknown writer submits their 1,500-page novel to a publisher for possible publication, the publisher usually wants to see an abstract, or a summary of the work that emphasizes the main ideas of the book. Many artists interested in abstraction are not conforming closely to the appearance of the objects, but are emphasizing or revealing certain qualities not otherwise apparent to the viewer. This can be said of Marisol Escobar’s Baby Girl (figure 25.Here she is exaggerating the size in order to emphasize emotional presence of this rather monstrous baby.Many artists interested in abstraction are not conforming closely to the appearance of the object, but are emphasizing or revealing certain qualities not otherwise apparent to us (the viewer). Look at figure 26, and the one here, both works by Ana Mendieta:4. Nonrepresentational ArtA nonrepresentational artwork has no representation to the world of images. There is no object that is readily familiar, but the aim of the artist is to represent an idea that transcends the real world. In Malevich’s Suprematist Painting, Black Rectangle, Blue Triangle (fig. 28), a nonrepresentational imagery such as colored geometry can evoke ideas of color, shape and composition.Form is what we see; content is the interpretation of what we see. In relation to art works, the two terms are inseparable since form determines content. In a nonobjective work of art such as Malevich’s Suprematist Painting, Black Rectangle, Blue Triangle (fig. 28), form is the content. Other artists such as Piet Mondrian have arrived at a nonobjective type of art that considers formal elements of shape, color, and spatial properties of the composition as the primary content. Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie-Woogie, 1942-43. Oil on canvas, 50 x 50 in. New York, Museum of Modern Art. “What is art” depends on our own experiences, our prejudices, beliefs, values and how beauty or art is culturally determined for each individual or society.If we only like art that is beautiful, we are limiting themselves to one particular type of expression. There is power in what some may consider ‘ugly’ and that imagery is sometimes necessary to provoke deeper contemplation. Ethnocentrism: Ask yourself your own prejudices concerning the conventions of other cultures. The decoration and modification of the body through various means such as cosmetics, tattooing, piercing, scarification, circumcision, head binding, and so on dates back many thousands of years. There is, in fact, evidence to suggest that people were tattooing themselves and/or each other at least commensurate with Paleolithic cave painting. These practices are considered by many tribal peoples as a way of differentiating the human body from nature and the natural body of animals. The resulting “non-natural” body is beautiful. Animals do not file their teeth or tattoo their skin. People all over the world in virtually every society decorate themselves and so there is no reason to think that our ancestors did not. In Western industrialized culture, at least until very recently,we tend to dismiss modification of the body as something “primitive.” However, the Western conception of physical beauty is achieved through similar types of alterations. How about such body alterations as orthodontics, plastic surgery, and the application of make-up. What do you think about all these practices, our society has accepted and celebrates tattooing as a powerful art form, but do we put same meaning to it as other cultures such as the Maori or the Aboriginals do? Should we? Why?7. Representing the SpiritualSpiritual understanding is a realm of comprehension that is unique to each individual. Using visual imagery to educate and recruit parishioners has been an historical practice as seen in the works of Jan van Eyck, God, panel from the Ghent Altarpiece ( fig. 50), and the Chartres Cathedral lancet window (fig. 38). The use of Christian iconography represented in these examples. Here you see how art can function as a tool to reinforce religious belief systems. Compare and contrast with the cast Buddha Subduing Mara (fig. 37). How do you think the iconography of used in the representation of the Buddha are similar/different from that used in representations of Jesus. This discussion could be an excellent journal entry.Iconography is the set of symbols or images used in a particular field of activity (i.e. music, film, art) and recognized by people as having a specific meaning. Looking at Ana Mendieta’s Silueta Works in Mexico (fig. 26), how does the artist use images to symbolize an idea? What are some of your ideas about other images that represent gender. To understand iconography is to be familiar with the theory of semiotics—the study of signs and symbols of all kinds, what they mean, and how they relate to things or ideas they refer to.How images and words function within our society? The theory of semiotics as it relates to the issue of visual literacy developed by Jacques Derrida’s The Truth in Painting deals directly with the relationship between images and words. Look around while you are walking on the street, or in a restaurant, and consider how our Western signs and symbols achieve a proper perspective on how images and words function in our society. For example, we all know what it means as we enter a coffee shop with a WIFI sign. This is another excellent topic for your journal entry.Now, look closely at Jan van Eyck’s The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami (fig. 34). What are some of the symbols relate to the time in history in which they were created? Read page 31.If you have any questions regarding the journal entry please make sure to access canvas .