StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

History of Arts and Artists - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
This essay describes the history of art as the appreciation of beauty and artists, from ancient times and to recent popular concept of art, that are used these days. Like civilization, art has its own progress and decline as an observer might consider. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95% of users find it useful
History of Arts and Artists
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "History of Arts and Artists"

Full Appreciating Arts and Artists Art history is as old as when human existence can be traced and this gives a picture of art as a twin to humankind. Like civilization, art has its own progress and/or decline as an observer might consider. Art has primarily been known as the appreciation of beauty which has been expressed early on through paintings and carvings in various forms. Prehistoric and ancient art have been expressed mostly in paintings on walls and stones. Many of the prehistoric artworks have been found in caves as these are believed to have been the abode of early humans, which also show their creativity, making use of their available materials. One might think what people then would have used to do their paintings. Studies show that stones have been especially made for the purpose of etching the artist’s appreciation of beauty on walls and stones. Ancient art on the other hand followed a quite similar way of expressing one’s appreciation of beauty but could be said to have improved in details. Egyptian art, for instance, made use of more vivid illustrations, adding more details to the subject which usually picture their culture. Most Egyptian art have been preserved in tombs and pyramids, with the drawings usually giving clues to whom the tombs belonged. Royalties usually were regarded as the subject of most artworks found in pyramids leading to the conclusion that such structures were especially made for them. The pyramids themselves were an expression of the artistic point of view of ancient art, particularly in Egypt who dominated the era. The renaissance brought artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti into recognition with their beautiful paintings concentrating more on culture and religion illustrated with the use of more colors. The main points of the renaissance artists was balance, forms, colors, proportion, perspective and harmony which were expertly handled by the artists. Da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa pictures a smiling woman which used these factors to a high degree of expertise that brought the painting to a worldwide recognition, not to mention the generations of its popularity. Mona Lisa exemplifies the use of balance and this indeed did the trick on her famous smile, making it captivating with the mystery that it portrays. Michelangelo on the other hand was made known through a lot of his works mainly, the ‘Pieta’ and ‘David’, both sculptures which have been made exceptionally wonderful that it portrays the very details of human forms. The artist was also known for his paintings on walls which were mostly on religious subjects. Following the renaissance period was the baroque period which was borne in France, dominated by artists like Bernini, Caravaggio and Rembrandt who did not make so much changes in their paintings as compared to the renaissance period who rather played with the strong contrasts in light and shadow to give more drama to their works. In addition, their subjects now expanded to the results of science and technology as civilization was coming to a high degree. However, most of the baroque artist’s subjects still centered on human beings and other creations. This era resulted to the rise of the romantic period which went against orders and established values, driving the idea that art should be the expression of one’s self and not just following the rules in art as established by earlier artists. Artists in this era went for individualism, personal interpretations, imagination, emotions and nature so that most of their works were beautifully painted and or crafted to emulate the natural things. William Blake is an example of the romantic artists who is an English painter and engraver who respected immensely the works of Michelangelo and Raphael, reflecting their works but adopting the opinions of the romantics. Most of his paintings are obscure but are placed at another level of expressing one’s admiration of beauty, giving hidden meanings to his works as the romantics appreciate subjectivity. Realism came to existence with its objective rejecting the ideas set by romantics. They believed in the truths portrayed in their works so that they insisted on creating paintings and other creations depicting subjects as they are seen. This then led to artworks which were picturesque, imitating the very details of nature or any of their subjects without changing any of their appearances. Most of the paintings during this period then created a photographic outcome of the artworks of artists like Marie Rosalie Bonheur, John Singleton Copley and Gustave Courbet. As the past periods had many different arguments regarding what art’s boundaries should be, the contemporary era also have its fair share about it. This has given rise to a lot of groups which exist to this day, having their own opinions about art or having derived their opinions from different eras. Among these contemporary art groups is the expressionistic movement. This seemed to be an offshoot of the romantic period which adhered to the expression of emotions in their works. Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings are similar to the works of Blake, having the general appearance of his subjects but using alterations in the images like the use of broken spaces and lines. Probably, those which picture the propaganda of the expressionists in whole are the works of Salvador Dali like The Flames, They Call; Mural Painting for Helena Rubenstein, William Tell, Metamorphosis of Narcissus and many others which use exaggeratedly long lines and extreme imaginations making his works look almost frightful. Unlike the realists, expressionists have gone to extreme bounds to experiment on exaggeration of lines and contours as well as mixing realism with imagination to create a new and fresh outlook on art. Another contemporary art movement is Dadaism which was an effect of World War I. artists at this time saw the atrocities of war and used art as their instrument of sending their messages to the world, facing the realities of war and not just concentrating on the beautiful things. This reform brought to existence the art piece of Marcel Duchamp entitled Fountain which gained a lot of controversy in the area of art because it was a urinal simply turned upside-down and then signed by the artist. Most of his critiques say there is no expression of art in his work and it seemed gross to have used such a piece in art. Another contemporary artist is equally criticized regarding his work is Bruce Nauman who made a self portrait also entitled Fountain showing himself spewing water from his mouth. Such expressions of their ideas, to both artists are observed as going outside the bounds of art, because there is simply no beauty in them. On a personal note, I do not like the works of the aforementioned contemporary artists I am not able to see beauty in them in line with my perspective of the word. Although I understand that this is an expression of themselves, their imaginations and creativity, I see them as ordinary. In the case of Duchamp’s fountain, I do not think he did any effort in the creation of the urinal itself, which I think breaks the rules of being an artist. Nauman’s spewing of water for me is immature and ordinary because such actions generally observed in children. Of course my observations are just mine and not to be taken as something to do with the artists themselves but are just my notes to their works which contradicts my personal convictions about art. on being artists, I respect their opinions and their expression of themselves but I just simply like their works. Read More
Tags
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“History of Arts and Artists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
History of Arts and Artists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1577126-history-of-arts-and-artists
(History of Arts and Artists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
History of Arts and Artists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1577126-history-of-arts-and-artists.
“History of Arts and Artists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1577126-history-of-arts-and-artists.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF History of Arts and Artists

History of Art From the British Museum

hellip; artists used to describe their works by giving titles to them, adding dates and time they were created.... The artist brings out work of landscape artists who can make a good representation of landscape.... Name Institution Course Instructor Date Visual arts Description Introduction Visual arts are objects of art that naturally can be seen.... Visual arts can be used to present an event that existed in history to the current world....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

The Role of Artist in Society

The artist is responsible for documenting the history of the community for the sake of future generations by recording historical happenings in works of art; this is a very significant role of the artist because the history of a community can be lost to future generations and forgotten completely if it is not documented well.... In that case, artists create a greater impact in teaching and educating the community because their knowledge is packaged as edutainment rather than pure education, which may not be appealing to the disinterested members of the community....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Formalist and Expressionist Concepts of Art

In the paper “Formalist and Expressionist Concepts of Art” the author examines the influence of two of the most dominant perspectives in art, formalism and expressionism, on both artists and viewers alike as represented in the works of Caravaggio, Eduoard Manet, Barnet Newman, and Norman Rockwell.... Clive Bell argues this point by stating that “to appreciate a work of art we need bring with us nothing from life, no knowledge of its ideas and affairs, no familiarity with its emotions” (cited in Warburton 10) This contention accurately depicts the “art for art's sake” attitude taken by many artists and art critics subscribing to more formalist frameworks, which eschew the importance of representation and context in art production and art appreciation but judge the value of an art on its coherence, composition, and masterful use of forms....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

The Art of Graphic Design and Somethings Wrong by Tracey Emin

In this context, the artistic genre of graphic art emerged as both an intellectual and emotional outlet for women artists through which they reflected their spontaneous perception about society and their respective treatment as a human beings in a very explicit manner.... However, the emergence of modernism in the Western social and intellectual discourse has contributed to a great extent in the immense popularization of this art form and currently, it is considered as “the most universal of all the arts” (Newark, 2002, p....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Funding of Music Business in the UK

Local counties also offer funding in the form of small grants to artists who reside within those counties.... The majority of these regularly funded organizations are geared towards aiding emerging artists and labels to access the international music industry.... These are the arts Council England, the British Council and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI).... arts Council England provides grants to a diverse genre of music therefore competition is definitely high and success is generally determined by the artistic quality of the applicant's work (Artistic Assessment n....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Videogames as Forms of Art

They are as beautiful as the works of arts we see in museums.... It might not be made by artists or intended to be art, but that does not make it any less than a piece of art.... The engage our brains to an extent that some people relate them to real life.... What people fail to understand is that videogames can be more than a toy that is just a waste of time....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Cai Guo-Qiang, Jeff Koons, Shazia Sikander and Kiki Smith

The Art21 artists were chosen for their excellent delivery of their chosen art Cai Guo-Qiang is an artist from Fujian Province of China.... There is a relationship between art and morality.... The art masterpieces show the character and psychology of the artist.... Likewise, the art pieces depict the time period and the culture of the community during the artist's time… Painting is one form of art....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

The National Endowment for the Arts

In the entire history of art, artists have defied traditional customs and conventions.... n 1988, for example, two artists created works that provoked a profound response from the public.... Since they viewed themselves as artists of the future, their philosophy was to broaden the boundaries of previously accepted expression.... This paper "The National Endowment for the arts" focuses on the fact that visual art holds a hazardous position in the spectrum of artistic endeavours....
15 Pages (3750 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us