Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
English language - Essay writing
Essay writing techniques
English language - Essay writing
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In eighteenth century Paris the images on signboards served the purpose of stimulating, amusing and informing through an iconography that was complex enough to engage the great masters of the time.
At the time, signboards were an early form of advertising, meant to attract attention, establish a mental-visual association between sign and place, and seduce customers. Signboards indicated specific commercial establishments and provided information about the nature of the goods and services to be found within. The iconography for certain guilds and shops were apparent to the society and would be immediately understood. People used these signboards to find their way around the city and therefore were an important part of their everyday life. However, signboards were part of a commercial culture, not of a high culture. The painters of such signboards were not seen as high-valued artist; nevertheless, favourable public reception surrounding a sign could be evoked as an indication of the imminent inception of a successful career. This shows that the lowest, most despised kind of painting could, and did, serve as an entrée into the world of high art.
Watteau’s last painting, the Enseigne de Gersaint, a gift to his friend, the picture dealer Edame Gersaint, was a signboard. It has to be acknowledged, that Watteau’s signboard however, is of a somewhat different nature. The painting transcended the boundaries of the commercial genre and was recognized as a true work of art.
Watteau’s Enseigne de Gersaint is one of the artist’s most fully realized works. It is ambitious and sophisticated in size and execution, in visual economy, and in content. It is consequently only masquerading under the guise of a signboard, a categori...
... middle of paper ...
...tworks are essential interpretations or framings of received artistic and social codes rather than renderings of the natural world.
In the Enseigne, art is also shown to serve a function that it has always fulfilled in every society founded on class differences. As a luxury commodity it is an index of social status. It marks the distinction between those who have the leisure and wealth to know about art and posses it, and those who do not. In Gersaint’s signboard, art is presented in a context where its social function is openly and self-consciously declared. In summary, Watteau reveals art to be a product of society, nevertheless he refashions past artistic traditions. Other than other contemporary painters however, his relationship to the past is not presented as a revolt, but rather like the appreciative, attentive commentary of a conversational partner.
Although both Fragonard’s and David’s work convey different ideals through their style of painting, they are still able to use light in a very similar form. The viewer’s attention is directed on a specific point in the painting through the use of light. Both artists cast a spotlight on the figure or action in the painting that they want the viewer to especially notice. It is what each artist decides to focus on that makes his work is different from the other. A young woman on a swing who enjoys the pleasures of life is clearly where Fragonard wants to direct the viewer’s attention. However, David focuses attention on a male figure, specifically Socrates. How does the use of light help the viewer understand the ideals of each form of art? While Fragonard chooses to focus on a female and David chooses to focus on a male, the viewer now understands how Rococo can be a feminine form of art and Neo-Classicism the opposite. In addition, other stylistic elements like color and form depict how each art form differs from the other. By using all this visual evidence, we will later see how the concept of deciding...
Art is trapped in the cage of society, constantly being judged and interpreted regardless of the artist’s intent. There is no escaping it, however, there are ways to manage and manipulate the cage. Two such examples are Kandinsky 's Little Pleasures, and Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. Both pieces were very controversial and judged for being so different in their time, but they also had very specific ways of handling the criticism and even used it to their advantage. We will be looking at the motivations for each artwork, what made the art so outrageous, and the public’s reaction to the pieces.
ABSTRACT: British Avant-Garde art, poses a challenge to traditional aesthetic analysis. This paper will argue that such art is best understood in terms of Wittgenstein¡¦s concept of "seeing-as," and will point out that the artists often use this concept in describing their work. This is significant in that if we are to understand art in terms of cultural practice, then we must actually look at the practice. We will discuss initiatives such as the work of Damien Hirst, most famous for his animals in formaldehyde series, and that of Simon Patterson, who warps diagrams, e.g., replacing the names of stops on London Underground maps with those of philosophers. Cornelia Parker¡¦s idea that visual appeal is not the most important thing, but rather that the questions that are set up in an attempt to create an "almost invisible" art are what are central, will also be discussed. Also, if we concur with Danto¡¦s claims that "contemporary art no longer allows itself to be represented by master narratives," that Nothing is ruled out.", then it is indeed fruitful to understand art in terms of seeing-as. For application of this concept to art explains what occurs conceptually when the viewer shifts from identifying a work, as an art object, and then as not an art object, and explains why nothing is ruled out.
This group ran their own exhibition, and over time, became some of the famous names we know today, such as: Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Alfred Sisley. However, it was not all fame and fortune from the beginning. Most patrons who came to the exhibition were so used to the classic, disciplined style that they often criticized the artists’ works, calling them “unfinished” and offended that they could showcase “sketches” as finished pieces. But this is exactly what these artists embraced; letting go of formality and embracing the “freedom of technique” (“Impressionism”,
The Renaissance created an opportunity for master artists to publish their works and establish their reputation while elite patrons utilized an agent's creation as a means to express wealth, status, or embellishment a historical event. Aristocratic patrons utilized the artist's creation to elevate social status among the social elite. Often times, art was funded for the purpose of creating shifts in a social structure. Before a project was developed, an artist often negotiated with a patron(s) so to be diligent in their efforts since the sum of expenses and risk an artist accepted was rewarded by how well a creation was acknowledged by viewers. Ultimately, private and corporate patrons during the Renaissance employed master artists to propagate an idea of prestige, social status, or embellish a historical event through a perspective not equally unified with the majority of viewers.
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
In a time when artistic freedom was severely limited, the French Impressionists tirelessly explored new artistic frontiers despite hostile encounters with the public, ultimately redefining the world’s perspective on art.
In conclusion we can see that even worlds apart artists can still find inspiration from unlikely subject matter. Watteau’s from the theater. Picasso’s from the street. Both artists not only showed their era in their art but also themselves and others. Even when it comes to entertainment it seems that not artist can escape the idea of shaping their own worlds into their piece of art. As well, both also showed not only the similarities but also differences of their era and how art was viewed.
Cartier-Bresson traveled the world so that he may document and present to others the human condition. His photographs transcend any particular time or place. Instead, they capture the very essence of life, be it Harlem, Madrid, Shanghai or the Paris rue Mouffetard (Ill. 2)4. In rural Europe, silent in the absence of the engine, and where everything was still done by animals and human beings, he portrays, unaltered, a society's captivating traits. At times his poetic intention towards subject matter is inadvertently socially charged, which makes his work all the more intriguing5. Each of Cartier-Bresson's photographs presents itself not as part of a series, an archive selected among others, but as a singular work of art which, with its own formal qualities and unique meanings, exists in itself.
Art is said to be the expression of the soul; however, quite often, one is unable to truly know the artist by his or her works alone. So is the case of the postimpressionist painter Paul Gauguin. while the paintings of Paul Gauguin do not reveal all of his life, the paintings are very much so a reflection of Gauguin’s views on life.
This exhibition will examine the changing role of Classical imagery from seventeenth through nineteenth century painting, as well explain how these changes gradually produced Realism. In the seventeenth century Nicholas Poussin and Peter Paul Rubens produced works that corresponded with the Classicism of the French Academie des Beaux-Arts, though they presented these ancient subjects in very different ways. The predominance of drawing and planning in Poussin’s work was seen in contrast with the dynamic use of colour in the works of Rubens. These two means of addressing Classical themes ideologically divided the Academie between the rubenistes and the poussinistes, who quarreled for over a century about artistic approaches and techniques. The innovative and expressive works produced in the eighteenth century and beyond can be seen as a product of the rubenistes’ triumph in this conflict. Following in the example of Rubens, British artist Joshua Reynolds made use of colour and dynamic compositional techniques that combined the portraiture popular in England with the Grand Manner style that gained favour in the Academie. Reynolds became the first president of the Royal Academy in Britain and gained international acclaim for his work. The achievement of such an honour fared more difficult for artists such as Eugène Delacroix, who took a bolder approach to combining Classical imagery with reality and was frequently rejected by the Academie for doing so. This was also the case for Edourad Manet, whose scandalous work shocked viewers of the Salon des Refusés with its perceived immorality and distasteful appropriation of Classical imagery.
Due to the subjective nature of the impressionistic art and literary style, both mediums possess an ambiguous quality. According to Bernard Dunstan, in Painting Methods of the Impressionists, impressionism “has come to have overtones and associations which can obscure its true meaning,” (11). This is also true for impressionistic literature. However, Metz argues that “ambiguity surrounds the process through which the impre...
The accumulation of weathers acting on the canvas created a new means of mark making that was, once again, detached from the physical hand of the artist, but attached to the artist in its application through conceptual ideation and manifestation. It was not his interest to be involved in the painting’s process. He was most interested in being the creator, not the maker.
This exhibit was put on in a studio in Paris that was owned by the famous photographer Nadar and featured around 30 different Impressionist artists (Lewis 149). In the beginning of the impressionist 's “career” as impressionists, they were mocked and not always credited as real artists, but they accepted the name of Impressionist 's, turning the derogatory term into one to identify themselves with. The entire Impressionist art movement was “an unthinking form of naturalism” and also “… the fruitful renovation of the French schools…” (Lewis 23, 155). This oppression can be seen as synonymous with that of the actual oppressed people of France of which Karl Marx was calling to change their future. Impressionists took control of their own art and didn 't back down when mocked, they found the passion inside themselves. They were mocked since Impressionism was a shift of creativity that was now “…identified with the individual, not within the social…” (Lewis 26). When one looks at an impressionism painting from that period of time, the passion and emotions of the scene come through the painting causing the viewer to feel how the artist felt when they experienced this scene while painting
At age 13 Le Corbusier had finished and left grade school to move on to attend Arts Decoratifs in his home city of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Here a young Le would learn the art of facing watches, just like his father, through enameling and engraving. While attending Arts Decoratifs Le Corbusier was under the influence of his teacher L’ Eplattenier who he would later refer to as his “Master” and only teacher. Under L’ Eplattenier’s instruction a young Le Corbusier would learn the history of art, drawing and the naturalistic attributes of newly developed art. With his in depth teachings of art Le Corbusier soon abandoned his previous career of watch making and further continued his education in decoration and art intending to eventually...