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Tag: art

  • The Heroes In Art Closely

    The Heroes In Art Closely

    As archetypes of human virtue and vice, the gods and heroes of ancient Greece and Rome have figured prominently in Western culture. In art, they have been portrayed time and time again, especially during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical periods.

    Gods and Heroes in Art aims to help museum patrons and art lovers recognize the legendary characters of classical antiquity in art. The characters are each described in entries summarizing their distinctive stories, their special attributes, and the ways in which artists have depicted them. Each entry is richly illustrated with reproductions of works of art in which the god or hero is pictured, giving readers a chance to examine images of the character and to understand the work of art better.

    The informative guide first surveys the pantheon of the Greco-Roman world, then focuses on characters from the Trojan War and The Odyssey. The next sections describe kings, philosophers, warriors, and other historical figures. The book concludes with useful indexes, including a list of iconographic symbols associated with the subjects, and a bibliography of essential resources.

    Art has saved lives. Whether it has been through writing, movies, or painting, many people have named art as a huge influence in their lives. So I always find it interesting that people don’t think of artists as heroes.

  • How To Display Art Now

    How To Display Art Now

    It’s time to master the prop-and-lean. After all, it’s a stylish way to get by sans nails and a drill. Whether you’re looking to dress up your dining room or add some pizazz to the front hall, enlist the help of shelving to put your favorite pieces on display. Displayed alongside books, dishware or plants, your artwork adds visual dimension and drama to an otherwise understated detail.

    Okay, so this not might fly if your style is more on the traditional side, but if you’re ready to push the envelop, washi tape is the way to go. It gives you the flexibility to switch up prints, photographs and posters at a moment’s notice, and will even save you a few bucks on frames. This is a particuarly great solution for work spaces and inspiration boards. For maximum impact opt for tape in vibrant colors or funky patterns.

    To fill a wall with beautiful art, head to your local salvage store to find an assortment of old frames. Give them a quick makeover by painting them the same color or coordinating color scheme, then hang them in a gallery on your wall. Using a variety of sizes creates a gathered-over-time vibe. Wide white mats unify the colorful mix of prints.

    Layering art on shelves or mantles, instead of placing on the wall, makes it easy to move pieces and quickly change the look of your room.

    You can mount one large piece on the wall – lean and overlap the others below it on a bookshelf or credenza – a very low fuss bohemian feel.

    You can also achieve layering using various different types of framing and photo mounting methods. There are so many great ways to print your photos these days that it is quite easy to turn them into pieces of art. Layering wood prints with acrylic prints and gallery frames results in a very eclectic and interesting look.

  • Art Light Works Gallery

    Art Light Works Gallery

    Art is generally understood as any activity or product done by people with a communicative or aesthetic purpose—something that expresses an idea, an emotion or, more generally, a world view.

    It is a component of culture, reflecting economic and social substrates in its design. It transmits ideas and values inherent in every culture across space and time. Its role changes through time, acquiring more of an aesthetic component here and a socio-educational function there. The definition of art is open, subjective, debatable. There is no agreement among historians and artists, which is why we’re left with so many definitions of art. The concept itself has changed over centuries.

    The very notion of art continues today to stir controversy, being so open to multiple interpretations. It can be taken simply to mean any human activity, or any set of rules needed to develop an activity. This would generalize the concept beyond what is normally understood as the fine arts, now broadened to encompass academic areas. The word has many other colloquial uses, too.

    While the definition of art has changed over the years, the field of art history has developed to allow us to categorize changes in art over time and to better understand how art shapes and is shaped by the creative impulses of artists. If we look at other kinds of creative activity we can see how various forms can all exist and be valid at the same time. I’ve made what I think of as art since I was a child, initially drawings, then photographs, paintings, videos, and so on. By the time I got to graduate school, I was not so interested in making more stuff, and instead started to move into another direction, which these days is sometimes called “Social Practice.”

    This is sort of a confusing term since it is so new and undefined. In a broad way, I think of it as the opposite of Studio Practice—making objects in isolation, to be shown and hopefully sold in a gallery context. Most of the art world operates with this Studio Practice approach. In Social Practice, there is more of an emphasis on ideas and actions than on objects; it can take place outside of art contexts, and there is often a collaborative or participatory aspect to the work.

  • The Taste Of Art Display

    The Taste Of Art Display

    The eighteenth century witnessed the historical change from aesthetic instrumentalism to aesthetic autonomy. Aesthetic research has often attempted to capture this change in teleological terms, wherein British aesthetic instrumentalism appears to contain the seeds of its own decline. The purpose of this article is to restore a balance between these two major historical modes of appreciating art, and to display the uniqueness of British aesthetic instrumentalism. During especially the first half of the eighteenth century, aesthetic instrumentalism was revitalised due to a new rationale for art in the reinforcement of a national body politic and in the strengthening of a British identity. In order to recognise the distinctiveness of aesthetic instrumentalism, as well as to acknowledge by what means it operated, I make essentially two claims: (1) aesthetic instrumentalism rediscovered its effective interaction with a national body politic by exploring a possible nexus between Britain and classical antiquity, and (2) although the philosophy of art advanced by Joseph Addison (1672–1719) frequently is held as a possible commencement of aesthetic autonomy, it was, first and foremost, characterised by a systematic aesthetic instrumentalism intended to reinforce the British body politic.

    Taste starts long before we grab the spoon, put it to our mouth, and let the food pass our lips and touch our tongue. Almost all of our senses are involved in the process of how we taste, and help to determine what foods we like or dislike.

    We think we know how something tastes due to lifelong learned facts and patterns. Our sense of taste decides if we will swallow something or spit it out. Wolfgang Meyerhofer, from the the Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine in Homburg, guided us through the biochemical perspective of aversions and attractions in taste. Emotional valence categorises experiences as positive or negative, or in this case, attraction and aversion. An aversive valence protects us from possible poisoning, by acids or salt for example. An attractive valence, for example sugar, indicates calories which are vital for sustaining life. This means that our sense of taste is an overall safeguard for our health.

  • The Way Art Works For Us

    The Way Art Works For Us

    You know what the phrase “Art works” means to us – the works of art themselves, the way art works on us in transformative ways, and the fact that artists are workers contributing to our economy. What we wanted to know, however, is what the phrase means to you. So we asked! Here’s what our Facebook fans and Twitter followers had to say.

    Art works when 200 people of all races gather to listen to three emerging writers read about the meaning of home, then the crowd gathers at a reception and finally disperses to local bars and cafes to top off the evening. Art works to me means art that changes, alters, frees, consoles, gratifies, shifts the perspective of each viewer, resident, dramatist, friend, grandparent, painter, onlooker, donor, poet, audience member, musician, participant, reader, child, actor, living being around the country and the world. Art works means art that works toward something and, in our case, the different communities both in Houston and abroad. It also means having the ability to (re)define art in our own way and to produce art that blurs the boundaries regarding what is considered adaptable, engaging, contemplative, and unique.

    Art works for people. Art works for society, and art works for the economy. Art works to transform individual lives (including my own) to offer hope, growth, and opportunity where they do not seem to exist. Art works to blur the lines that are used to divide us and add color to black and white ways in which contemporary society is so used to thinking. Art works to create not just jobs, but careers that offer pseronal fulfillment and serve the community. These jobs can’t be outsourced, can’t be done by machines, are vital to the economic, social, and cultural growth of our neighborhoods. Any way you look at it, ART WORKS!

    The arts are indicative of the evolution of human culture, creativity, and expression through various mediums. The implementation and cultivation of the arts and arts education provides both social and economic benefits to people and communities. The arts make places more vibrant, inspire a sense of community, create jobs, help heal medical problems, and more.

    Teaching via the fine arts works because art, music, and theater are excellent multidisciplinary subjects with the potential to cover all major academic studies while being engaging and encouraging imagination, which is the main fuel of innovators. 

    Art works as an industry, building the economy through unexpected outlets in new ways all the time. Art works as an outlet, providing opportunity to experience the world as it has never been experienced before. Art works as a lifestyle, brining beauty to the small things in the mundane and provoking thought in the menial.

  • Art Is For Everyone

    Art Is For Everyone

    Activities like painting, sculpting, drawing, and photography can lower stress levels – providing a distraction from occupying thoughts. They can induce meditative-like states, which temporarily push aside worries. The act of producing art is great for boosting drive, focus, and concentration, and enhances creative thinking and problem-solving skills. It encourages emotional awareness and forward-thinking. And ultimately it leaves us with a sense of accomplishment.

    Here you have to differentiate: There is “art for everybody,” and there is art for a very exclusive group. That is where the prices explode. It has nothing to do with the pictures; those stay the same. But it has to do with the fact that some people have too much money and art belongs to the luxury goods market.

    In the meantime, an extreme situation has taken over the art market. On the one hand, artists like Damien Hirst can attain the highest prices while, on the other hand, just one to three percent of graduates from art academies can afford to live from their art. It is these polar opposites that the exhibition is trying to showcase.

    You could theoretically take yourself off the market, but then you wouldn’t know where the rent will come from next week. To do that, you would have to have additional sources of income. The art historian Wolfgang Ullrich came up with the term “Siegerkunst,” or “victor’s art,” which says that in order to be successful today, art needs to fulfill certain criteria: It must be international, global, easily understood, and available in a large quantity. And when someone creates art that doesn’t meet those standards, which is, for example, too flighty or difficult to retain, then it is avoided automatically.

  • How Can Art Change the World?

    How Can Art Change the World?

    It’s one of the biggest questions that comes to mind when we really, truly think about the value of art: can art make a difference?

    Art influences society by changing opinions, instilling values and translating experiences across space and time. Research has shown art affects the fundamental sense of self. Painting, sculpture, music, literature and the other arts are often considered to be the repository of a society’s collective memory. Art preserves what fact-based historical records cannot: how it felt to exist in a particular place at a particular time. Art in this sense is communication; it allows people from different cultures and different times to communicate with each other via images, sounds and stories. Art is often a vehicle for social change. It can give voice to the politically or socially disenfranchised. A song, film or novel can rouse emotions in those who encounter it, inspiring them to rally for change.

    Researchers have long been interested in the relationship between art and the human brain. For example, in 2013, researchers from Newcastle University found that viewing contemporary visual art had positive effects on the personal lives of nursing home-bound elders. Art also has utilitarian influences on society. There is a demonstrable, positive correlation between schoolchildren’s grades in math and literacy, and their involvement with drama or music activities.

    Yes, art can change the world, but not in the way the modernist avant-garde hoped for. The avant-garde could change the actual situation because back then people hadn’t yet become zombies — they weren’t slaves to the media and to TV; people went to concerts, they listened to music. Now art is the last territory of freedom: if a person’s soul is alive they’ll come to an exhibition and they’ll feel something. But art is increasingly marginal: it can change the situation in a country only in the sense that it remains a little island for people who think and feel.

  • How Can Art Change a Person?

    How Can Art Change a Person?

    In terms of destroying art itself, one might think of Gustave Courbet’s successful proposal, in 1871, to topple and disassemble the Vendôme column during the events of the Paris Commune, a monument he claimed was “devoid of all artistic value, tending to perpetuate by its expression the ideas of war and conquest of the past imperial dynasty.” Or more recently, of British artist Hannah Black’s conversation-fueling but unsuccessful 2017 open letter requesting that Dana Schutz’s painting Open Casket, which reproduced the famous image of Emmett Till at his funeral, be removed from the Whitney Biennial and destroyed. Both of these cases, however, are gestures of framing. The proposals to topple the column and ruin the painting are not artworks in themselves.

    In 1997, the German artist Christoph Schlingensief pulled off one such work when he organized Tötet Helmut Kohl! (Kill Helmut Kohl!), for which he gathered as many unemployed people as possible to swim in then-German chancellor Helmut Kohl’s favorite holiday destination, the Austrian Wolfgangsee, while the politician was on holiday. He claimed that all of Germany’s unemployed would together displace the lake’s water. In 2014, Lawrence Abu Hamdan made the work The All-Hearing, for which he asked two sheikhs in Cairo not to deliver their usual weekly Friday sermons, but instead to deliver city-wide speeches about the dangers of noise pollution as a public health issue. Schlingensief and Abu Hamdan alike disrupted a status quo to force a change.