ART APPRECIATION

• We should always dig into the history of a concept, person, or event in order to completely know its origins and foundations on how a certain idea came to be the way it is
• In this lesson, we will focus on the numerous artistic trends that have occurred over the years, as well as the account of how these techniques have changed over time
• From prehistoric times to the twenty-first century, art history encompasses the entire history of humanity
• Art history has evolved into a discipline that teaches people how to analyze and understand works of art out of their own standpoint in current times
• Because the concept of what is beautiful changes from person to person, art history has been chastised for its subjectivity
• Depending on the forms of art you already know, you can enhance your aesthetic perception by learning to critique what you see
• Design elements in art history

  • Line
  • Color
  • Shape
  • Texture
  • Value
• You must analyze and characterize with what you see in terms of the design elements
• You can compare one artwork to another once you've written a response to it
• An option is to make direct comparisons among artists and their creative expression with the mind's gaze
• Prehistoric Art


  The earliest cave paintings that we are aware of were created roughly 40,000 years ago
• We cannot truly know the reason why these early humans began to produce art
• Possible reasons for early humans producing art

  • To record their lived experiences
  • To tell stories to young children
  • To pass down wisdom from one generation to the next
• Romanesque art


  Developed during the rise of Christianity 1000 AD, when only a small percentage of the European population were literate
• Christian objects, stories, deities, saints, and ceremonies were the exclusive subject of most Romanesque paintings
• Romanesque paintings had to be simple and easy to read in order to teach the masses about the values and beliefs of the Christian Church
• Romanesque period


  The name stems from round arches used in Roman architecture, often found in churches of the time
• Gothic art


  Grew out of the Romanesque period in France and is an expression of two contrasting feelings of the age: a new level of freedom of thought and religious understanding, and a fear that the world was coming to an end
• As more freedom of thought emerged, and many pushed against conformity, the subjects of paintings became more diverse, and the stronghold of the church began to dissipate
• Medieval Art


  A highly religious art beginning in the 5th Century in Western Europe, characterized by iconographic paintings illustrating scenes from the bible
• As early as the 14th century, the early Medieval period was alluded to as the "Dark Ages" by Petrarch (1304-1374), an Italian poet and scholar who saw no redeeming features in cultures after the loss of the classical world in knowledge and training until the Renaissance
• Throughout the Medieval period, the church emerged as a powerful force essential in European unification
• Renaissance


  A word that signifies "rebirth" or "revival", sparked by the restoration of Graeco-Roman knowledge which promoted rationalism
• Mannerism


  An exaggerated style of art characterized by emotionalism, elongated human figures, strained poses, unusual effects of scale, lighting or perspective, vivid often garish colors
• Baroque


  An art style characterized by exaggerated motion and clear detail used to produce drama, exuberance, and grandeur, with an iconography that was direct, obvious, and dramatic, intending to appeal above all to the senses and the emotions
• Rococo


  An art style characterized by lightness, elegance, and an exuberant use of curving natural forms in ornamentation
• Classicism


  An aesthetic attitude dependent on principles based in the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, with the emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, clarity of structure, perfection, restrained emotion, as well as explicit appeal to the intellect
• Romanticism


  An attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography, characterized by a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Neoclassicism, and an emphasis on the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental
• Modern Art


  Art created from the 1880s up to the 1970s
• Contemporary Art


  Current works of art, usually by artists who are still living and creating artworks or have only very recently died or retired
• Contemporary art could be on almost any medium you can think of – video art, object design, tech-enabled artworks, graphic arts, etc.