I had lots of fun this semester and learned an amazing amount about the history of the arts. I have found that I honestly appreciate the development of art and have the means to look at it more analytically.
This was a great class and I hope everyone one else had some fun and learned some things.
thank you.
The Japanese tradition of puppet theater is a very dedicated and involved process. Not only is it an act of story telling, it is also uses skilled visual art, and amazing coordination among the storyteller, the puppeteers, and the music.
Bunraku puppet
The stories of the Bunraku usually entail complicated plots and drama that usually questions social and cultural roles. These dramas also included some wild plots twists at the end of the story, much like you might find in some Japanese dramas that a re popular today. The stories are told in the style of joruri that incorporates chanting lyrics along with music. This type of theater was unusual for its long, intricate story plots and drama that represents human emotion and inner conflict, instead of myths and folk tales.
The puppets are moved around the stage by three puppeteers, one for the head, one for the arms, and one for the legs. Since the dolls are heavy and complicated, lots of practice and coordination are required to make the figure move together gracefully. Not only do the puppeteers have to coordinate with each other, they all have levers that control eye, head, eyebrow, mouth and hand movements. One interesting element of these puppeteers is that they are in plain sight of the audience instead of painstakingly hidden. Although they do wear black and sometimes cover their face so as not to draw too much attention away from the puppet. Having the puppeteers visable is unique to Banraku theater, it also allows the puppet to act on a much larger stage since it have more freedom of movement.
"Puppet Theater" June 27, 2005
The puppets themselves are a wonderful work of visual art. Sizing up to 3/4 of a human, they are quite large and heavy. A lot of detail goes into making the hair, costumes, armor, and other accessories for the puppet. However, the faces are usually simple, smooth, and white in an almost geisha style. As mentioned before, each part of the puppet is skillfully assembled with levers and strings to control the eyes, mouth and eyebrows. This allows for a much more dramatic and realistic representation of emotion compared to previous styles of puppet and mask theater.
"Bunraku Face" May 21, 2007
I personally find Bunraku a beautiful craft of theater, visual art, music, and story telling. The time, effort, and attention to detail that goes into making these plays is simply astounding. The very unique and complicated style really makes the puppetry stand out from other styles. I think I can honestly say this has been one of my favorite styles of theater.
http://web-japan.org/museum/bunraku/about_bu.html
http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/
http://www.japan-zone.com/culture/bunraku.shtml
http://www.sagecraft.com/puppetry/definitions/Bunraku.hist.html
Even though i know Australia wasn’t one of the listed non-western art choices, I wanted to do a piece on it since Australia is horribly under-represented in the world of art.
Australia is know mostly for their ancient aboriginal art, but they also have had quite a large contemporary boom the past couple of decades. I will present a look at some of the old art and hopefully spread the recognition of Australian art.
Old indigenous Australian art is very spiritual in nature, the people believe that with a painting or carving that the spirit is actually in the art and will become aggressive if disturbed (source). The native art is expressed in rock paintings using the “x-ray” style or dot art. They also used carved rock, painted on bark, and created images out of piles of rocks on the ground, and body painting. I’m only going to talk about a few of the styles, otherwise my blog will get way too big.
Ancient aboriginal art was created as a well to tell stories and teach lessons since they had no form of writing. Stories of animals, terrain and the spirits were common subjects. People would paint their bodies for religious and ceremonial dances, very similar to the art of Africa.
X-ray style is a very minimalistic, anatomical representation of animals; showing the muscles and sometimes the organs. The natives had a very limited use of color, using only what is found naturally for pigments which usually was limited to whites, reds, orange, yellow, black and blue.
"Frilled Lizard" By: Desmond Raymond (2008 Charles Darwin Univerity)
Another style of art was called “dot art”, this style was used more to represent landscapes, people, and abstract imagery.
"Eastwood"
Rock carvings date back thousands of years and have the same iconic and minimalistic representation of the world as one would find with the western European cave paintings and carvings.
"Ancient Rock Wall Carving"
Aboriginal art has a long and spiritual history, its sad that it doesn’t get more recognition in the art world. Hopefully this has sparked your interested to look further into Australian art.
Graffiti has been used by gangs, bored teenagers, and amateur artists practicing their style on the sides of train cars and walls. However, recently there seems to have been an outburst of professional graffiti artists that roam the streets manipulating common day objects, making a political jab, or simply creating an interest piece. Although technically these forms of art are illegal, it doesn’t make their art any less valid.
So welcome to the virtual gallery of graffiti where I will represent art from the well-known Banksy, Alexandre Orion, Swoon, and Mark Jenkins. I selected these artists to show the large variety of content and style f graffiti that is used. I could go on for days about the powerful social impact and liberating means for the artist graffiti has, but instead I think I’ll show the artists and let you do the thinking.
First off, I’m going to lead you through the Banksy collection to start out the exhibit.
Banksy is quite a famous graffiti artist, his style going from political jabs to humorous twists of reality. I guarantee you have seen some of his work before. Since these are graffiti artists, their identities are kept rather secretive, and Banksy is a master. Luckliy we do have some information. Banksy is a resident of the UK and started his brand of graffiti around 1992-1994 and has spread his art around the world. His style revolves around a stencil style of spray painting, a style first used for graffiti by Blek le Rat.
Banksy
"Keep your coins, I want change" Banksy
I personally had a very hard time choosing so few pieces of art from Banksy as I am captivated by all of his work; however, I narrowed it down to one showing social commentary, a twist on reality, and political commentary. If you want to find yourself amused for hours, just do a simple google image search on Banksy and be amazed at the vast collection of art he had created.
Next, another style of graffiti is brought to us by a Brazillian artist that used what he called “Reverse Graffiti“. This artist I’m referring to is Alexandre Orion. Instead of creating damaging “vandalism” he created a mural of skulls in a tunnel by removing the caked on soot. So, In reality he was helping to clean the walls of the tunnel, he just chose to do it artistically. The city didn’t find it so amusing and power-washed the walls a few days later (video clip of him working).
"Reverse Graffiti" Alexandre Orion
Another popular means for an artist to get their message to the street is a style called wheat-pasting. This method allows an artist to work on the art on thin sheets of paper before applying it to the streets. Once the piece is ready to hang, the artist simply needs to run out and paste the picture to the surface like wallpaper ( another video showing the method).
I found one artist named Caledonia “Callie” Curry, who goes by the code name of “Swoon“, who’s main method is the wheat-paste method. She is based in Brooklyn in America and has been contributing her art to the streets since 1999. Her content isn’t political or social like what you would find with Banksy, hers is far more whimsical as you can see from the examples.
Swoon: Street Art
Swoon: In Berlin
Finally, there is one last medium of graffiti art that I found worthy of the exhibit, instillation art. This method is essentially the sculptor’s version of graffiti. The artist created three dimensional art around everyday objects that are found on the streets of a city. This method also seems to have become popular in advertising recently, but that’s a different story.
Mark Jenkins is an American artist from Virgina who currently is active in Washington DC. His art began appearing on the streets around 2003, mostly using packing take to create sculptures placed around the city. This included people, babies, horses, various other creatures all constructed out of tape.
Tape Giraffe
Meterpop
Tape Men
Once again, this was another artist that I had a hard time choosing so few pieces to represent. I encourage a simple google image search to see more if I have peaked your interest.
That is my exhibit representing the different styles, content, and variations of vandalism that we call art. I think graffiti is a fantastic way to send a message to the public and force them to re-think their everyday lives when it get broken up with such iconic art. Graffiti is a valuable freedom of expression in the art world and I hope it continues to create shock, awe, and confusion amidst the public.
“The Entertainer” 1902 By: Scott Joplin
Joplin created music in the pop style of early jazz called ragtime as a son of a slave in Texas. Joplin is more famous for his “Maple Leaf Rag”, but I find this one to be equally iconic. This particular song ,you may recognize, was used in the movie “The Sting” in 1973 and brought the tune to the public’s attention. As a fun fact, you may be more likely to recognize this tune from the music played by ice cream trucks (citation).
This new style of music was derived from the African American influence brought over by the slaves. They created a faster paced music that incorporated the same instruments as a formal orchestra, but left behind the formality.Ragtime its self uses mostly the tinny piano found in bars and other clubs compared to jazz which incorporates more of its own orchestra. The music itself was defined by the player using the left hand playing the beat while the right hand creates a syncopated rhythm. The entire piece is a balance of swing notes and a quick waltz tempo.
Ragtime is much more laid back and refuses to follow the strict guidelines of classical and romantic music composition. The theme of ragtime seems to be limited to up-beat, fast paced music that can easily be listened to or danced to. However, it lacks the emotion and word painting that previous music styles and jazz seem to create. Pretty much, the African American slaves disregarded the rules of music and created the music they knew, and that was a music to have fun with.
I personally have more of an appeal to the ragtime than its cousin jazz. The quick, up-beat music seems to be more lively and captivating. The improvisational jazz or deep emotional jazz just doesn’t strike a cord of fancy in me.
Personally, I find Impressionist art very beautiful and unique. In the previous art era’s, almost all the art looked the same since all the art was a trade to be learned.
Each artist was taught to master the style of the era and nothing else. The style of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling looks almost exactly the same as Raphael’s School of Athens. Although the content of those paintings differ between the secular rendition of the bible and the non secular philosophies of Athens, the depth, color, and form are the same. Impressionist art however varies by style, colors and content.
The two images above are excellent examples of the different styles of the Renaissance and Impressionism. While the content is relatively similar (nature background, woman as center focal point, and even similar emotion) the feel of the two paintings is remarkably different. The painting “Reading” has a much softer and low-tone feel too it, compared to the stark contrast of “Madonna in the Meadow” with it’s sharp lines and vibrant colors.
The style of the Renaissance had very solid lines, compared to the loose brushwork of Berthe, that allowed for a lot of detail. The vibrant colors also allowed the painting to grab the attention of the viewer and create a painting of great interest. On its own, Renaissance art is fantastic; however, when compared to Impressionism, I prefer the calmer feeling of the muted colors and soft image.
The impressionist style creates the idea of an image without simply throwing the image in the viewer’s face. This way the audience is forced to build the image themselves in their mind. The muted colors also feel more natural and not as dynamic as the bright greens, reds, and blues used in the painting by Raphael. Impressionists varied the style of their paintings more than previous era’s, from the blotchy style of Monet to the more refined paintings done by Sargent.
In the end, both era’s are very revolutionary, unique, and masterful in their own right.
This is the orchestrated performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Requiem mass in D minor”; written in Vienna, 1791.
I picked this particular piece of Mozart’s because it was the last composition he ever wrote before he died later that same year. In fact, the music was never finished and the 4th movement trails off without proper completion. There is speculation that Mozart never finished the piece himself since it follows the traditional sonata form where the last movement repeats the first movement. Even though this was common to the era, it wasn’t a method Mozart commonly used.
As you can tell early in this piece Mozart combined vocals to the instrumental orchestration. This tactic was very similar to the music form of the Baroque era, but was separated by its simplistic style and melody. Even though this piece was commissioned by count Walsegg, it was still intended to be played for the general public. Speculation finds that the count asked for the piece so that he could declare that he had written it himself.
The middle class was growing in their involvement with the arts, especially music since the power of the church declined. As people began to read and learn through the mass production of books, people began to think more secular and not blindly follow the word of the church. As the churches lost control over the population, they also lost the money and need to fund artists for their architecture, sculpture, painting, and music. This caused the artists, like Mozart, to perform to the public for money instead of the exclusive upper class or churches.
Mozart gained popularity since the age of six when he began touring Europe to show off his exceptional skill. He had an unstoppable talent that amazed all spectators, making his music very popular to listen to in the era. His style was said to have been brilliant and powerful, being able to be light and delightful or heavy and dark. Mozart’s style had inspired some of the works of Beethoven.
Although personally I find most classical music to sound the same, I picked this one to see if Mozart’s illness would translate into the song, perhaps as sorrow or dark heavy tones. Sadly, since it was a commissioned piece his creativity was bound.
http://www.mozartproject.org/compositions/ko_86_91.html
This YouTube clip features the controversial comedy of the Restoration Theatre, The Country Wife, by William Wycherley from 1675.
As explained in the lectures, the Restoration was brought into place by the introduction of Charles II. This involvement of royalty drastically changed the production and content of Baroque style plays.
Men were removed of their need to cross dress as women, allowing the roles of women to be much more natural. However, the opposite happened and women found themselves in a lot of cross-dressing roles themselves. This created controversy as men’s clothing exposed the female figure far more than the standard dress or skirt. This time period also opened up the door to women writing their own plays, adding a new style to the theatre options of the time.
This particular play is quite popular for its style, wit, lewd humor, and good construction. This play fully utilizes the freedom of women as actresses as the play is focused around their promiscuity in the city of London. The humor pokes fun at the idea that even the upper class women have fun wandering the streets of the city. This play, as seen in the video clip, also involves questionable themes that occur from a woman dressing as a boy. It is stated in the movie that the effect of the women is far superior than any play would be if the role were to be fulfilled by a man acting as a woman.
I find this play very befitting for the Baroque era as they used the complex scenery, women acting, and lewd, slapstick humor. I was drawn to the comedy’s of the time more so than the tragedies, and this one in particular was well written enough to withstand decades of existence beyond the Baroque era. There is something delightfully fun in watching endless slapstick comedy that allows me experience the theatre of the time.
I got all the information from the lectures, the video clip, and Wikipedia. Sadly I could not find too much online information on the play besides Wikipedia. However, it is full of a lot more information for anyone interested.
Venus and Mars
This painting, Venus and Mars, was created by Sandro Botticelli in 1483 A.D Florence, Italy during the era of humanism and the growth of Florence. Botticelli was a growing artist and had be sanctioned for many pieces of art by the Medici family; including Birth of Venus, a painting very similar to this one in both content and style.This painting depicts a story-telling scene of Venus, the goddess of love, interacting with Mars, the god of war, using very symbolic representation.
Humanist art strayed away the sacred, Christian imagery and began expanding into the realms of secular interpretations of the world. The Greek and Roman philosophies were very important to re-enlightening people as they crawled out of the dark ages. In this particular painting, there are many signs of humanist ideas; for starters, the use of Venus and Mars, as well as the satyrs, as the main content is a sign of regressing back to the Greek and Roman beliefs. These figures were taken from Roman mythology and been given a second interpretation in a new era.
Another sign of the forward thinking in art, is the portrayal of the woman having conquered man. Love has outlasted the personification of war and violence. This viewpoint of humanity was considered when humanism was in strong influence and artists were looking more closely at humanity and how people interacted with the world, and with each other. The story turns the gods almost human, making them experience the same effects of the world as mortals, such as the exhaustion of Mars and the relaxed confidence of Venus.
Finally, the use of the near-nude, muscular male form is very significant of the era’s Greek and Roman art style. It follows the trend of many other Renaissance artists copying the ancient Italian style, such as: Pollaiuolo, Donatello, and Michelangelo. These artists went back to studying the human body, form, and elegance of the nude. Though this painting does have the woman fully clad and the man tastefully covered, the study of the human form and muscular tone is still present.
I personally like the piece because of its playful nature, it really captured action, emotion and skill of representing the human figure. Venus looks upon the sleeping Mars in a sort of satisfaction as she watches the satyrs play with the god’s armor and get ready to rudely awaken him. The exhausted pose of mars tells its own part of the story, his relaxed body laying partly on Venus and Mars himself completely oblivious to what is happening around him. This lets the viewer feel just how tired Mars and brings the emotion of the painting to a personal level of the viewer. the satyrs are fun in their devious trickery and add a nice element of humor to the painting. They also add to the story as you watch them start to sneak off with the war accessories and the viewer is tempted to sit and wait to see how Mars will react upon the horn being blown into his ear.
A good source of this information comes from “Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, Volume Two” as it covers an in-dept look at art through the Renaissance.
Ak in summer
I’m new to the internet sensation of blogs, so bear with me as I learn to post videos, photos and comments.
Looks like we have a great semester ahead of us and I look forward to reading everyone’s postings.
Kelly lowry's Blog 