What Art Means to Me

Art Appreciation Essay By definition, art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. In simpler terms, art is what we find to be pleasing to our senses. In my opinion, art does not have a true definition. Its definition is different for all of us. To me, art is a way for one to express themselves. Each piece of art means something different for every one of us.

Just because we don’t understand a particular piece does not mean that it’s not considered art in society. We can all appreciate a nice photograph or painting, but we may disagree on whether or not it is art. I see art in nature, photography, drawings and even in the things we see in every day life. Just because something is considered art, does not necessarily that we as an individual consider it art for ourselves. We may not find beauty in certain pieces of art that everyone else may like.

For example, while a painting such as Picasso’s Seated Bather is considered art, I do not see it as beautiful. I can respect it as a work of art in general, but it does not speak to me, nor do I find it to be beautiful. One of my most favorite works of art is Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I love Van Gogh’s use of symbolism and his expressive use of color and color scheme. While I do enjoy paintings, photography is my favorite art medium. As an aspiring photographer myself, I find comfort in photographs as opposed to paintings and they tend to speak to me a little more.

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Some of my favorite photographers include Ansel Adams, Uta Barth, Sally Mann, David LaChapelle, and Zach Mazur. Each of these artists are very different from each other, yet I enjoy each of their styles. My least favorite type of art is probably sculpture. I am not real sure as to why this is, I just don’t seem to identify as well with sculptures and I haven’t ever really taken much interest in them. Anything is capable of becoming art. I think that something becomes art once it is accepted by society as being such.

It must invoke some sort of emotion within others and hold meaning to us. While each of us has our own idea of what is considered to be good art, and what is bad art a lot of times monetary value plays a big part in determining quality. Art could be determined as being “good” or bad” based on a set of standards that professionals and experts in the field of art set, but I believe for the most part, good and bad art is based largely on opinion. Art is completely subjective to the viewer. We as a society determine good and bad art for ourselves, not for the entire population.

A Comparison and Contrast between Three Worlds of Bali and The Power of Art

The Three Worlds of Bali and The Power of Art are two very different manifestations of the artists’ roles and goal in pursuing art itself. In a nutshell, the artists in the Three Worlds of Bali are pursuing art for religious and cultural reasons. They dance, wayang theater (or the puppet show in English) and Gamelan music were all done to please the gods.

This is to bless them and for the balance among the upper world, the watery underworld and the middle earth will be maintained. On the other hand, The Power of Art manifests that artists like Mark Rothko are driven to pursue art to stand up for their political and social beliefs, ergo self expression.

Therefore it is very clear that the two are driven by their culture. As Bali, a part of Indonesia which can be found in the Southeast region of Asia, is anchored greatly into religion and religious practices, a great amount of practically everything that men do are for the gods.

Their religion have a determining impact on their lives and existence which only goes to show that art is not a hobby or a interest that they do for their own delight; it is instead an instrument to communicate with the gods, a sort of sacrifice for the gods to listen to their prayers and yield to their requests.

Mark Rothko is a Russian born painter who later moved to the United States where he garnered a name for himself as one of the most important people in the Art Industry. Rothko is a very common example of a person who came from the West.

Unlike the Balinese artists who perform for a greater power, the likes of Mark Rothko pursue art, in his case, paint because of his socio – political leanings. Self – expression is a very rampant and saleable theme in the Western world.

The more bold, the more daring and the more innovative the artists is, the more controversy he generates and the more that people are intrigued. Mark Rothko used art to express himself, to make the whole world hear, by looking into his paintings, what he believes in and what he thinks the world is about.

Contrary to the driving force of the Balinese artists, we could say that Rothko is more self-serving, although it does not follow that he does not have any regards for the society that he lives in. The fact is, he cares so much about his society that he is not indifferent. Which is why he resorts to using art as a form to express himself and his ideas?

However, the Three Worlds of Bali presented a political paradigm through Eka Dasa Rudra. This is a very important ritual to the people of Bali because this is done once every hundredth year (this can be similar but not equal to the Jubilee Year in the Catholic Church) and all inhabitants of the island participate.

This aims to transform the 11 demons to beneficial spirits. The Eka Dasa Rudra of 1963 made a volcanic eruption upon the call for President Sukarno to step down from power. The eruption was thought to be the call of the spirits and demon.

Arts and the Creative Process

The main forms of expression in the arts are painting, music, theater and dance. Art disciplines have been in existence from the beginning of time. Man has an instinctive need to express himself.

Thus, this was manifested in wall paintings in Egypt, silk paintings in the Asian communities, Greek sculptures in European cities among other artifacts.

Dance

The first dance is salsa. The primary element in this dance is weight change. The dancer shifts his or her weight without affecting the upper body. Only the lower body moves to the music. This is normally a partner dance. It is often performed by a man and a woman.

The pace of the dance varies with the drummer’s beats. It can be very fast or moderately slow. The movements in this style are fluid since it was originally borrowed from several other influences (Cooper, 2001).

The second is the Waltz. This dance was conceptualized in the 18th century in Eastern Europe. It is a ballroom dance, where the dancer glides gracefully across the room with a partner. The basic steps are relatively easy to learn. The partners hold each other close while dancing. There is a leader, the man, who shows the follower, the woman, the next step. The third is tap dance.

Here, the performer wears specially made shoes that produce a clear tapping sound when they hit the floor. The tap sounds must vary to create a different resonance with each step (Dolfsma, 2004). The performer must balance his or her weight on the balls of their feet. The feet are used to produce rhythmic sounds.

The final dance is the break dance. This was primarily a street dance. The style integrates suppleness and style. The breaker’s upper body must be very sturdy. The head and hands are most utilized in this dance.

Music

The first genre of music is pop. This is the popular music at any one time. The performers can vary in number. The songs have a melodic chorus that is easy to remember.  However, the songs are arranged in the traditional structure. The second is Rock and Roll. Guitars are the main instruments played here. The music has gained massive popular appeal over the years (Dolfsma, 2004). It is truly motivated by Blues music. There are two types, soft and hard rock.

The third type is Gospel music. It is sung to express faith in Christianity. It is a substitute to conventional music in the secular realm. It is expressed in all other genres. The main theme is giving praise to God. The final genre is neo-soul. It is a fairly recent form of harmony. This music is very poetic. The themes of the songs are usually socially conscious. This music is a combination of jazz and hip-hop.

Compare and Contrast Bodies of Work by Two Artists

2. Compare and contrast bodies of work by two artists you have studied. In your discussion, address the significance of intentions to their practise. The intention of practitioners is pivotal to their practice, these intentions may be different or similar between artists, and two artists whose body of works will be discussed throughout this response include Chris O’Doherty (b. 1951) a contemporary Australian artist and Lin Onus (b. 1948 d. 1996) a contemporary Indigenous Australian artist.

The artworks in which will be compared and contrasted are Chris O’Doherty’s Aussie Jesus series, including “Aussie Jesus at the Football” (1996) available in poster, calendar and t-shirt form and Lin Onus’ three metre mixed media installation “Fruit Bats”(1990) Although both artists are Australian, Chris O’Doherty is an Anglo-Saxon Australian and was raised as a Christian and has a commercial background, as a rock musician he conveys his intentions in pop culture with many of his artworks placed on T-shirts, posters and calendars, an example of this is his artwork “Jesus at the Football”, whereas Lin Onus is not influenced by a commercial background, growing up as a man who had experienced the segregation and assimilation of the aboriginal peoples, Lin onus’ artworks are made to illustrate the loss and hope for aboriginal culture and how it has mixed with western culture, this can be seen in his artwork “Fruit bats” he is an Indigenous Australian raised in Aboriginal culture. However despite these differences they both identify with Australian contemporary culture. In this way that an artist’s world impacts their body of work.

Chris O’Doherty’s intentions were directly influenced by him being a commercial artist, as when he was in the band “Mad as Anything” he would design their album covers, and other promotional merchandise, this relates to many of his works such as “Aussie Jesus at the Football” which can be bought in the form of a poster, calendar, and shirts, this is a direct reference to O’Doherty’s use of popular culture in order to spread his art to a wide Audience O’Doherty also uses his artwork to educate his audience on spiritual aspects in contemporary Australia, while using humour in order to better communicate what he is trying to express, this can be seen in many of his “Aussie Jesus” works, specifically “Aussie Jesus at the football” (1996) through the use of the reinterpreted form of ‘Jesus’ if he was Australian, O’Doherty re-invents The bible story of ‘ The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes’ into a new Australian setting of ‘the Miracle of the pies and beer” in which allows him to reinterpret the original moral lesson, and to make a contemporary comment about the nature of worship in our culture today, in terms of our worship of food, beer and sports more than things such as family or church. Similarly Lin Onus aims to educate his audience on the Traditional Aboriginal culture, how it has become moulded to western culture and how it affects the Aboriginal peoples.

The installation “Fruit Bats”(1990) is a collection in which displays the fruit bats hanging of a Hill Hoist (clothesline) a symbol of western culture, in which is a direct reference to the effect of suburbia on the land and how these indigenous animals have adapted through them hanging of the clothesline and not a tree. However there is also a use of humour in his work, the small disks located on the floor and up the post of the hills hoist are symbols of the bats’ droppings, however display a flower like pattern. In this way Onus wishes to reflect on his culture in terms of the progression of the intertwining of Aboriginal and Western cultures.

Lin Onus also uses the medium of an installation in the artwork “Fruit Bats” (1990) which enables the audience to participate with the work and therefore is available for a wider audience much like O’Doherty. The artworks Differ in their medium, Lin Onus’ “Fruit Bats” (1990) is an installation piece made up of mixed media, whereas many of O’Doherty’s works such as “Aussie Jesus at the Football” are purchasable items in the form of posters, Calenders, shirts and much more, these are however linked to their common ability to communicate to a larger audience as O’Doherty’s work can be bought by many and Onus’ “Fruit Bats” can involve a large audience.

Another contrasting aspect of these works is the religion imbued in the work where as “Aussie Jesus” implies the artworks Christian nature Chis O’Doherty’s work is subtly Indigenous through the use of Traditional aboriginal symbols and techniques seen in “Fruit Bats”(1990), this then leads to the differences in the artistic style of the bodies of work, O’Doherty uses a comic like style in his illustrations of the bible in contemporary terms, while Onus mixes Western and Traditional Aboriginal art styles such as the Arnhem land crosshatching seen on the wings of the fruit bats in the artwork “Fruit Bats” (1990), in this way both collections of work communicate culture and spirituality. The artworks also contrast in their subject matters while Chris O’Doherty deals with the ideas of worship and contemporary Australian culture in his “Aussie Jesus” specifically “Aussie Jesus at the Football”(1996), Lin Onus focuses on the mixing of Western culture and Indigenous Australian culture and its effect on Aboriginal Australians. Finally Both artworks deal with Humour in their works while still pertaining to communicate a more serious message. O’Doherty uses humour in that he re-contextualises the bible stories into more comedic modern terms while making a point on Australian contemporary culture and worship.

Lin Onus also uses humour in his work “Fruit Bats” through the disks with flower patterns scattered over and around the Hills Hoist actually representing the bat droppings, however still communicating the more serious notion of the adaption of the Aboriginal people to western culture. It is evident that Both Lin Onus and Chris O’Doherty address the significance of intention to their practise. This has been demonstrated by comparing their bodies of work, including Chis O’Doherty’s “Aussie Jesus” series and Lin Onus’ installation piece “Fruit Bats” (1990). While these artists are completely different in their artistic styles, subject matter and mediums they share a common interest in their intentions of their art practise, showing their view on Australian culture and heritage, while imbuing their works with spirituality, humour and making it more accessible to a wide audience.

Importance of Art in the Society

Art brings beauty into our world. Art is important because it makes our world a better place. It also brings a sense of enjoyment and pleasure. Art allows for the expression of truth and beliefs. Some art challenges our beliefs. Other works affirm our faith. Art is an important tool in causing us to examine our beliefs in light of an artists' rendition or perception of truth. Art has the ability to transport us to a different time and place. It allows us to gain historical perspective and understanding.

Art allows us to appreciate different periods in history and their impact and significance in our world. Art immortalizes people, places, and events. Artists create a visual record of life experiences commemorating the memorable and challenging social injustices, such as slavery and abuses, in time. Artists serve as historians in this role, documenting life on canvass, photography, or sculpture. Art may be used to express chaos and misunderstanding, or to establish order from what appears to be chaos.

Art helps us organize our world. It is one means by which we understand our society and culture, and the society and cultures of others. Art is important as an intellectual stimulant. A good artist advances culture and civilization by provoking thought, introspection, and discussion. Art triggers emotions. Subject, color, and texture are used by artist to evoke feelings. In this way art can serve as a catharsis, or help us uncover feelings of which we were previously unaware.

Art has the intrinsic ability to elevate the commonplace. It lifts the viewer beyond the confines of reality and into another world, such as the use of art to express fantasy. Sometimes art provides pure escapism, such as cartoons and comics. Other art allows us to juxtapose fantasy and reality, creating a world in which the artist wished we lived. Art communicates across all cultures, tells the stories of the past and present, and inspires minds, both young and old, to do beautiful things.

Visit to Art Museum

I've never had a chance to visit any museum in real life, and it's even harder for me now since I've just arrived to the USA for 3 months. But I'm an art addicted, so I usually visit famous museums around the world on the internet. One Of my favourite museums is The Walters Art Museum. The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is internationally renowned for its collection of art, which was amassed substantially by two men, William and Henry Walters, and eventually bequeathed to the City of Baltimore.

The collection presents an overview of world art from pre-dynastic Egypt to 20th-century Europe, and counts among its many treasures Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi; medieval ivories and Old Master paintings; Art Deco jewelry and 19th-century European and American masterpieces. The Walters Art Museum preserves and develops in the public trust a distinguished collection of world art from antiquity to the 20th century. In 1931, the museum's founding benefactor, Henry Walters, bequeathed the core collection to the City of Baltimore "for the benefit of the public. Since its opening, the Walters has been a national leader in scholarship, conservation, and education. The Walters Art Museum brings art and people together for enjoyment, discovery, and learning. They strive to create a place where people of every background can be touched by art. They are committed to exhibitions and programs that will strengthen and sustain our community. The Walters Art Museum preserves and develops in the public trust a distinguished collection of world art from antiquity to the 20th century.

In 1931, the museum's founding benefactor, Henry Walters, bequeathed the core collection to the City of Baltimore "for the benefit of the public. " Since its opening, the Walters has been a national leader in scholarship, conservation, and education. Mission Statement The Walters Art Museum brings art and people together for enjoyment, discovery, and learning. We strive to create a place where people of every background can be touched by art. We are committed to exhibitions and programs that will strengthen and sustain our community.

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