The History of Art and Design - Literature review Example

The History of Art and Design: A Literature Review Introduction Art has been present since antiquity. It has taken various forms throughout the history. Starting from rock art of the Old Stone Age, art transformed from engravings, paintings, and tools to monumental art in the latter part of the era. The Renaissance period allowed further development in art as artists explored newer forms of creative expression. Then industrialization revolutionized art and introduced mass-produced design artifacts. Art has since evolved and in the modern times, art and design artifacts focus on enhancing experiences, solving problems, and creating meaning. Stone Age The origins of art can be traced back to the early human settlements. Art has been documented in cultures and societies dating back till the Old Stone Age. Osborn (1915) describes the contributions of the French archeologist, Edouard Piette, who traced the evolution of art through various phases along time. Mural art discovered on caverns confirmed the principality of art in the Paleolithic culture, which was characterized by a prehistoric culture of stones. The development of tools by humans from flint stones also explains their understanding of design. Broken blocks of stones from flints resulted in random shapes which were then sharpened to create a cutting edge. Osborn (1915) explains this as a development in the art of retouching similar to what we do today. Artistic impressions of animate figures on caves and stones were prevalent during the Stone Age. Rock art, as it is called, included carvings of animals, stick figure-like humans, tools, and other objects. These engravings displayed an early form of pictorial representation which also contributed towards the development of the alphabet and language. Many of the early artistic artifacts that survives today, enables us to know how art transformed into a unique medium of communication and expression. In archeology, older forms of art found in rock sites have allowed humans to study primitive cultures more closely. Art has been deeply rooted in prehistoric cultures. Assemblage art in Tanzania gives away plenty of information regarding the primitive cultures that inhabited the place. Humans had already learnt the use of stones to create helpful tools and artistic drawings. An analysis of the raw materials reveals that quartz stone constituted about 90% of the raw material composition (Masao 1976, iii). Stone Age tools like microliths display a clever employment of art and creative thinking to create geometric shapes. Once humans developed the capacity to create detailed tools, they discovered ways to produce more intricate artworks. Simple carvings transformed into ingenuous monuments thereby giving rise to monumental art. Such artifacts are prevalent across Northern Europe, particularly in Norwegian regions (Field 1939). Therefore, art has been embedded within cultures throughout history, experiencing frequent transformations. Renaissance Period While art had progressed since the Stone Age till the Medieval, the Renaissance Period also saw a great development in art and architecture. Sculpturing and paintings transformed from simple line works and flat strokes to incorporate more depth and realism. Various styles of art were popularized by artists and art entered one of its golden periods during Renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci, who is known as the Renaissance man, along with other fellow artists including Masaccio, Donatello, and Fra Angelico created one of the most remarkable works in the artistic period (Welch 2000). Italy can be considered the center of Renaissance art. Numerous notable artists emerged in Italy to transform the style of art. The period saw many art movements focusing on a particular style or element of art. All of this led to an understanding of dimensions and perspectives in art, light and shadows, emotions, and realism (Sypher 1955, 79). The Renaissance period allowed artists to express themselves through art. It provided a great medium for the dissemination of ideas. Rebirth was one of the most widely expressed ideas through oil paintings and sculpturing (Bober, Rubinstein, and Woodford 1987). Many artists of the time reformulated the idea adding their own insight into their representation of the idea. While the period maintained many aspects of medieval art, it also introduced its own philosophy and way of thinking which also affected art, architecture and sculpturing. Buildings displayed complex designs, paintings of humans were more realistic involving natural crevices, and sculptures got more natural with all the details. In short, Renaissance saw a great development of aesthetics in art influenced by various styles. Hence, the 15th century Renaissance period resulted in a remarkable evolution of all forms of art including but not limited to architecture, sculpturing, philosophy, and so on. Industrialization The Industrial Revolution was an important period of time in history characterized by massive economic growth (More 2000, 2). Industrialization allowed people to produce goods on a mass scale to be sold. Industrialization spurred an economic growth as merchants sold goods on a large scale thereby helping them to rake in large sums of profits. It was during this time when art also transformed to be involved into the highly lucrative trade. This is what makes the distinction between art and design where art only served as a way of expression whereas design essentially involved specifically those artifacts that were mass-produced to serve various purposes including easing lives and making it more comfortable. Soon art also began to be “industrialized”. Lepovitz (1983) has explored the industrialization of art in the Bavarian region, which was the center of art production during the 19th century. Various pieces of arts including those done on glass were produced to be industrialized. This is also the time, people started gaining an understanding on the utility of design and how artistic objects and artifacts were embedded in the social setting. This allowed people to view works of art as having a particular functionality in the social context, which allowed creative designs for problem solving and simply to make life easier. Hence, it can be said that the industrialization also had a profound effect on art and design and helped shape the discipline as it is today. The next stage involved the emergence of modern art and the influence the movement had on the overall artistic history. Modern Art Modern art has its origins in modernism, which itself can be traced back to the Industrialization period during which great developments in art took place. Modern art is characterized by a new approach to artistic expression which takes various forms including visual. It is greatly influenced by the emergence of technology that brought about new media to be used for expression. The period is also symbolized by new and modern ideas in the social setting which involves technologies such as the railway, telegraph, and other transportation channels thereby allowing easy dissemination of ideas. Modern art includes different styles of art including Dadaism, expressionism, fauvism, and popular culture. During this time, artists were in great demand as people asked them to make their portraits or other similar themed artworks. Exhibitions became a common phenomenon where curators collected and arranged the various visual artifacts based on different themes (Varnedoe 1990, 9). Today, emergence of computers has taken arts onto the digital space where visual arts can be created and manipulated using computer programs. While traditional art also persists, there is a range of media available to creatively express oneself using the language of arts and design. In fact, in modern times, art has become quite commercial in the sense that it can be used to innovate and make life more comfortable and easy. References References Bober, P., Rubinstein, R. and Woodford, S. (1987). Renaissance artists & antique sculpture: a handbook of sources. 1st ed. London: Oxford University Press. Field, H. (1939). EUROPE AND ASIA: Monumental Art of Northern Europe from the Stone Age. Part I: The Norwegian Localities. Gustaf Hallstrom. American Anthropologist, 41(4), pp.625-626. Lepovitz, H. (1983). The Industrialization of Popular Art in Bavaria. Past and Present, pp.88--122. Lepovitz, H. (1983). The Industrialization of Popular Art in Bavaria. Past and Present, pp.88--122. Masao, F. (1979). The Later Stone Age and the rock paintings of central Tanzania. Studien zur Kulturkunde Wiesbaden, 48, pp.1-311. More, C. (2000). Understanding the industrial revolution. 1st ed. London: Routledge. Osborn, H. (1915). Men of the old stone age. 1st ed. New York: C. Scribners Sons. Sypher, W. (1955). Four stages of Renaissance style. 1st ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. Varnedoe, K. (1990). High & Low: Modern Art & Popular Culture: Three Comparisons. Museum of Modern Arts, 2(6), pp.9-15. Welch, E. and Welch, E. (2000). Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350-1500. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More