1. Key Topics for this chapter include:
What is Art?
Key Topics for this chapter include:
Artist and Audience
Art and Beauty
Art and Appearances
Art and Meaning
Art and Objects
© 2013, McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

2. Key Terms for this chapter include:
outsider/folk art
disinterested contemplation
representational (Naturalistic, trompe l’oeil)
abstract (stylized)
nonrepresentational/nonobjective Art
embodied meaning
form, content, and context
installation
© 2013, McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

3. Artist and Audience
Our modern world of art includes schools, galleries, critics, collectors and museums. It features individual artists working independently expressing their own ideas.

4. Dasavanta, Shravana, and Madhava Khurd (attr. )
Dasavanta, Shravana, and Madhava Khurd (attr.). Badi’uzzaman Fights Iraj to a Draw, from the Hamzanama. c Opaque watercolor on cotton, 26 1/4 x 19 7/8”.

5. James Hampton, Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, c – 64. Gold and silver aluminum foil, colored kraft paper and plastic sheets over wood, paperboard, and glass. 180 pieces, 105 x 27 x 14 ½’.

6. Artist and Audience
In the past, an artist typically worked for a client, patron, or collaboratively in a workshop. Rarely were individual artists known.
Outsider/Folk Art: Refers to artwork that is created by the nonprofessional artist.
Discussion Topics:
Why is more value placed on the professional artists work versus folk art?
Should contemporary art be more valued than historically significant works of art from past centuries?

7. Art and Beauty
Aesthetics: A philosophy of the nature and meaning of beauty, as it pertains to art.
Disinterested Contemplation: Refers to looking beyond the actual, practical, and personal in search of beauty and pleasure.
Discussion topics:
Should art be beautiful to be considered “art”? If so, why?
How can art not be beautiful and still be highly valued in society?
Insert visual(s).
Suggestions:
2.9 Cabbage Leaf
2.11 Saturn Devouring One of His Children

8. Edward Weston, Cabbage Leaf, 1931, gelatin silver print, 7 ½” x 9 ½”.

9. Francisco de Goya. Saturn Devouring One of His Children, c. 1820 – 22.
Wall painting in oil on plaster ( since detached and transferred to canvas),
57 7/8” x 32 5/8”.

10. Art and Appearances
Art is represented in a variety of ways in the Western art world. The following terms are used to help describe the visual appearance of artwork:
Representational
Abstract
Nonrepresentational
Insert visual(s).
Suggestions:
2.12 First Communion
2.13 Seated Woman Holding a Fan

11. Pablo Picasso, First Communion, 1895-96, oil on canvas, 65 3/8” x 46 ½”.

12. Pablo Picasso, Seated Woman Holding a Fan, 1908, oil on canvas, 59” x 39 3/8”.

13. Art and Appearances
Representational art resembles forms found in the natural world. The result is a recognizable likeness of objects and forms.
Trompe l’oeil: French for “fool the eye”
Naturalistic: Artwork that is very faithful to visual experience
Insert visual(s).
Suggestion: 2.17 Cylindrical Head

14. Cylindrical Head, from Ife. Yoruba, c. 13th – 14th century
Cylindrical Head, from Ife. Yoruba, c. 13th – 14th century. Terra cotta, height 6 3/8”. Japan.

15. Art and Appearances
Abstract art distorts, exaggerates, or simplifies the natural world to provide essence or universality.
Stylized: Artwork that conforms to a preset style or set of conventions for depicting the world.
Insert visual(s).
Suggestion: 2.14 Woman with Packages

16. Louise Bourgeois, Woman with Packages, 1949, bronze, polychromed, 65”x 18”x12”

17. Art and Appearances
Nonrepresentational art contains no reference to the natural world as we see it. This art is also referred to as nonobjective.
Style: refers to characteristics recognized as constant, recurring, or coherent.
Insert visual(s).
Suggestion: 2.19 Melodious

18. Vasily Kandinsky, Melodious, 1924, watercolor and ink on paper, 12 5/8” x 9 1/16”.

19. Art and Meaning
Understanding art is a cultural skill and must be learned.
Embodied Meaning: Art is always about something.
Form: The way a work looks.
Content: What a work of art is about or its subject matter.
Insert visual(s).
Suggestions:
2.24 Piano Lesson
2.25 Music Lesson

20. Henri Matisse. Piano Lesson, 1916, oil on canvas, 8 ½” x 6’11 ¾”.

21. Henri Matisse, Music Lesson, 1917, oil on canvas, 8’ ½” x 6’ 7”.

22. Art and Meaning Form is the way a work of art looks and includes:
Media: Materials used
Style: Constant, recurring or coherent traits
Composition: The organization of design elements & principles

23. Art and Meaning Content is what a work of art is about and includes:
Subject Matter: general idea
Message: more specific meaning
Iconography: The story of a work of art including symbols or references, people, events, etc.) requires knowledge of a specific time, beliefs or culture.

24. Art and Meaning
To understand a work of art as created by an artist, at a specific time, and in a particular culture is referred to as context.

25. Finial of a linguist’s staff, from Ghana. Asante, 20th century
Finial of a linguist’s staff, from Ghana. Asante, 20th century. Wood and gold, height 11 ¼”.

26. Thomas Struth, Church of the Frari, Venice, 1995.
C-print, edition of 10; 7’ 7 3/8” x 6’ 3/8”.

27. Art and Objects
During the 20th century, artists began to question the purpose and role of art in contemporary society. A greater emphasis was placed on the meaningfulness of the art making process.
Installation: A work of art meant to be entered, explored, experienced and reflected upon.
Insert visual(s).
Suggestion: 2.40 mantle

28. Ann Hamilton, mantle, 1998. Installation at the Miami Art Museum, 1998.
Eight tables, eleven shortwave radio receivers, voice, chair, figure, steel block, sewing implements, 33 wool coats, and approx. 60,000 fresh-cut flowers; overall dimensions 16’ x 24’ x 72’

29. What is Art?: Summary Key Topics Key Terms outsider/folk art
Artist and Audience
Art and Beauty
Art and Appearances
Art and Meaning
Art and Objects
outsider/folk art
disinterested contemplation
representational
abstract
nonrepresentational
embodied meaning
form, content, and context
installation