History of Arts and Artists - Essay Example

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