ART CH1 STUDY GUIDE

Chapter 1—What is Art?

Introduction: Chapter 1 will be interesting for you to begin your study of visual art. It contains a wide variety of artworks and a vast spectrum of ideas pertaining to the question "Why is art made?” Begin by reconsidering definitions for very familiar terms, such as "beauty." You may even include ideas and objects beyond painting and sculpture into your definition of what art is. A Closer Look – A Portrait in the Flesh may jolt your current definition of art or artists as you read about Orlan and her aesthetic goals via plastic surgery. Compare and Contrast – The Piano Lesson(s) by Matisse and Bearden provides a detailed tour of two works with the same title and offers an opportunity for you to speculate on similarities and differences in the two works of art. For this chapter, the study guide provides you with a detailed introduction to Taking Notes and Preparing for Tests, keyed especially to Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, which lay the groundwork for understanding works of art. The last exercise, For More Understanding, will introduce you to the resources available for test preparation, study, research, and writing.

Chapter One – Why Read It? In Chapter 1, the many works of art featured and can lead you to do a bit of detective work. If you find you are interested in one artist’s work, you may want to see more works by that artist. You can find out much just by looking at the caption of the image. For example, let’s say you are interested in learning more about Pablo Picasso, not featured in Chapter 1. How many images by Picasso can you find in the text in other chapters? Look in the index at the back of the book: under P, you will find “Picasso, Pablo” and various page or chapter/plate numbers for his works: The Painter and His Model, Family of Saltimbanques, Mandolin and Clarinet, Self-Portrait, Nude with Drapery, The Old Guitarist, The Bottle of Suze, Guernica, Bull’s Head, and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Locate these images and their captions or where they are mentioned in the text. You could explore more about these works on the internet, or plan a travel itinerary for an art tour based on where you would be able to see these works. This tour would take you at least to New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Paris and the Museo Reina Sofia, and Musée Picasso, Barcelona, both in Spain!.

•        When reading the discussion on purposes for art, what comes to mind? What memories or images do these words evoke for you? Write a brief personal statement.

Do the words “intellect” and “emotion” go together? Can you think of a work of art that might both stimulate the intellect and fire the emotions?

How about order, harmony, and chaos? Do these words go together, and can you see them in an art work together?

Have you ever been somewhere or experienced something that you wished you could record with a photograph, a sketch, a sound recording or a story? Find an art work that does this.

All these purposes for art relate to the way people live, think, and feel. Visual art is interconnected with every aspect of our lives within the social and cultural context. It can be a vehicle for activism, in order to protest or raise awareness about issues. For example, political satire, cartoons lampooning well-known figures is considered an art form. Pick up any New Yorker magazine, and you will see images in cartoons by people who make a living from creating visual satire.

What commonplace object or concept, taken for granted by most, can you think of that has been turned into art? Many artists use discarded items found in junk piles or dumpsters to make art. The Dada movement was brought to the public’s attention because an artist, Marcel Duchamp, used an article no one had ever thought of as art and placed it in a sculpture exhibit! (See image 1-35.)

Finally, the purpose of meeting the needs of the artist may seem self-evident. There are so many reasons a person might wish to express themselves through visual art. List two reasons you would like to express yourself visually.

Understanding Concepts: The premise for many fields of knowledge, including the sciences and the arts, has been asking the question of purpose: Why does something exist? What brings this thing into being? What role does it play in the greater scheme of things? How does it relate to our purpose of everyday life and beyond? Chapter 1 addresses one of the human primal points of inquiry into the vast realm of exploring art and why it is made.

Purpose – There are many purposes for the existence of art. Some works of art have more than one purpose. From looking at various examples given in the introduction and throughout Understanding Art, we can see that art does all of the following: brings beauty into being, responds to our environment, presents truths, immortalizes and glorifies, expresses religious beliefs and ideologies, fantasizes, summons the powers of intellect and evokes emotions, visually presents order and harmony and chaos, records and commemorates personal and communal memories and experiences, reflects the social and cultural context, raises social consciousness, elevates the commonplace and popular culture, and meets the needs of the individual artist. It does so much!

1. As you review this impressive list, can you think of an example of art you've seen in person that you feel powerfully fulfills one or more of the above purposes?

• Do you recall its title or who the artist was?
• Where did you see it, and how long ago? Notes:

2. Besides the above list, can you think of two other purposes for art? (For example, most of us are exposed to advertising on a daily basis for the purpose of selling a product. This involves the use of carefully created images designed to target your attention within the first two seconds you see them.) Other purposes:

A. B.

3. List two purposes for art that connect to your interests, your field of study, and your current understanding of art. (For example, for an art student, needing to see art in person would make travel an important aspect of life!)

A.

B.

Making Connections: Creativity theorists and artists know learning and creativity are stimulated by exposure to new things. People then make new connections between previously unrelated bodies of knowledge by cross-relational activities.

1. Now that you have seen some images in class, read portions of Chapter 1 mentioning those works.

•        How many names of the people mentioned in this chapter do you recall or did you already know about? For example, did you know that besides the many artists cited or quoted, there are three psychologists, several writers, poets, and a wide variety of cultures, time periods, and topics mentioned? How do these creators from other fields influence your perception of art? Notes:

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