1. PART ONE Chapter 3: Themes of Art
Major THEMES for this chapter include:
1. The Sacred Realm
2. Politics and the Social Order
3. Stories and Histories
4. Looking Outward: The Here and Now
5. Looking Inward: The Human Experience
6. Invention and Fantasy
7. The Natural World
8. Art and Art
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2. Key Terms for this chapter include:
space cells
iconoclasm
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3. Themes of Art Themes and purposes may differ within a work of art.
A work of art may reflect more than one theme.
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Themes of Art
Our modern world of art includes schools, galleries, critics, collectors and museums. It features individual artists working independently expressing their own ideas.
In the past, an artist typically worked for a client, patron, or collaboratively in a workshop. Rarely were individual artists known.
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The Sacred Realm
The sacred realm cannot be seen with human eyes. Religious images help to give concrete form to abstract ideas.
Iconoclasm: Derived from the Greek word meaning “image breaking” and refers to the destruction of images in the name of spiritual purity.
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6. Prayer Hall of Great Mosque, Spain, Begun 786 c.e.
Upper Chapel, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris,
Prayer Hall of Great Mosque, Spain, Begun 786 c.e.
Sainte-Chapelle, private chapel for king and court. In contrast, Great Mosque meant to serve community, grew to be largest place of prayer in western Islam. Interesting light and shadows. Both buildings, every day world is shut out.

7. Madonna Enthroned, Cimabue, 1280-1290
Early Christian art
Use overlap to create space. Prominence through size and placement. Baby Christ has adult-features but small. Tempera on wood

8. Politics and the Social Order
Political art and social statements are often intertwined and reflect the nature of a society.
Discussion Topic:
What are some examples of modern day political art? Explain your examples.
Where do we most commonly find political art in our community?
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9. The Great Pyramids, Giza, Egypt, 2500 BC
Left – Mankaure, Middle – Khafre – 480 ft tall, base covers 13 acres, 2 million blocks,e ach weighing 2 tons, Right – Khufu. Tomb was meant to house all necessary things for afterlife.

10. Liberty Leading the People, Delacroix, 1830
Artist free to take sides in art. Glorified violence. Supported Revolution of 1830, popular uprising in Paris toppling one government and installing another. Liberty (center) personified as Greek statue come to life holds French flag. She rallies Paris citizens as they come forward. Before them are slain government troops. . Bought by citizen king but returned soon after. Too controversial.

11. Guernica, Picasso, 1937 25’ x12’ Cubism,
Picasso condemns violence that fascism unleashed against ordinary citizens in Guernica. Depicts horror after Nazis were allowed to test air power during Spanish Civil War and bombed Guernica. No purpose, just an experiment to see whether aerial bomb would wipe out whole city. Civilian poulation was massacred. Picasso had been commissioned by govt to paint mural for Paris’ World Fair and completed Guernica in a month. Black and white to echo newspaper.
Cubism,

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Stories and Histories
Artists sometime use stories as subject matter to express cultural history or shared experiences.
Space cells: An area within a work of art referred to as “painting within a painting” used for visual narration of a story.
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13. 3.10 Rama and Lakshmana Bound by Arrow-snakes, Sahibdin and workshop, 1650-52
Painting within a painting is a space cell. Depicts Story of Rama (500BC). Made for audience who kne

14. Altar to the Chases High School, Christian Boltanski, 1987
Re: Holocaust. Chases was private Jewish high school in Vienna. Graduating photos of people probably vanished in death camps. Enlarged to blurry scale. As if they are calling out to us. Lights block faces and serve as halos and interrogation lamps. What do stacked boxes meanor hold?

15. Looking Outward: The Here and Now
This theme illustrates artwork dealing with the everyday, here and now, and often makes use of images that are part of the artists’ everyday lives. The artists’ visual concerns are often close to their personal world.
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16. The highway apparently ends here, disappearing into the woods - not a promising location for a gas station. The last car seems to have passed long ago; the attendant is shutting down the pump, and soon will turn off the lights and lock up for the night. Hopper's painting represents a borderline situation. It is set at the frontier between day and night, between civilization and nature. The gas station has the appearance of a last outpost, where the human realm gives way, across the road, to the anonymous realm of nature. the edge of the woods rises like a dark wall in which no individual tree can be discerned. But our eye returns again and again to its warm hue. The bright, almost pure white fluorescent light in the gas station, in contrast, is almost painful to look at, and the eye shifts to the ribbon of road leading out of the picture to the right.

17. Gas, Edward Hopper, 1940 American Scene Painter

18. Windward, Robert Rauschenberg, 1963
Felt daily life could not be depicted with one image and treated canvas like scrapbook page. Controlled chaos and free association

19. Looking Inward: The Human Experience
This theme addresses what it is like to be human and questions that many humans ask like “Who am I?”.
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20. Talking Skull, Meta Warrick Fuller, 1937.
Viewer is empathic because of pose, nudity, open mouth, gaze. Represents human desire to commune beyond boundaries of life. Reference to artist’s African heritage.

21. Self-Portrait with Monkeys, Frida Kahlo, 1943.
Keeps viewer at distance with gaze. Constant pain as result of streetcar accident. Expressed experience, as woman, artist, and Mexican. SheVery complicated background. 2 monkeys appear protective and possessive.

22. Woman Holding a Balance, Johannes Vermeer, 1664
Still, delicate, and gentle mood. Last Judgment painting in background. Christ will judge (weigh) souls. Jewls are symbols of vanity. Mirro= self-knowledge. Woman’s pregnancy shows renewal of life.

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Invention and Fantasy
Art that springs from the imagination is represented through the theme of invention and fantasy. It is the product of dreams, fantasy, and daydreaming.
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24. The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymous Bosch, 1490
Triptych- 3 part painting, middle part shown. Other 2 sides can close and are painted on both sides.
Closed= creation.
Open (Left panel =Eden, middle=garden of earthly delights or false paradise of love, and right panel =Hell).

25. The Dream, Henri Rousseau, 1910
Rousseau gave his dream to reclining nude in pinup pose on velvet couch. Tame lions, lotus blossoms, full moon shines during day. Pinup pose is classic and occurred throughout history.

26. Empty Dream, Mariko Mori, 4’x10’, 1995
Artist casts herself as 3 different mermaids in beach scene. Merged multiple photos to create surreal them and poke fun at classic reclining pose.

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The Natural World
This theme deals with our relationship to nature and the artist’s use of it as subject matter. Some artists simply represent nature and others use it as a vehicle to explore other ideas.
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28. The Oxbow , Thomas Cole, 1836.
Depicts bend in Connecticut river. Evidence of the artist.

29. White Clouds over Xiao and Xiang,Wang Jian, 1668
Landscape is most honored subject of Chinese. Not observed, but imaginary. Bird’s eye view unlike Cole’s landscape which makes us perched on hill looking down.

30. Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson, 1970
Mud, salt crystals, rocks, and water. Fascination with salt lakes and microbacteria that tinged water shades of red.. Eventually submerged by rising waters and reappeared covered in salt crystals.

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Art and Art
This theme explores the use of art being pursued for its own sake. Artists learn to make art by looking at art.
Discussion Topic:
Should art be pursued for its own sake and what does that meet to you?
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32. Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai, Jeff Wall, 7.5’x12.5’, 1993
Erija in Suruga Province, Hokusai, 1831
Modern version is a set with actors, props, etc. Missing mountain.
Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai, Jeff Wall, 7.5’x12.5’, 1993

33. Six Colorful Inside Jobs, John Baldesarri, 1977.
Helped landlord dad paint apartments as a boy. Psychological trick to finish laborious task. Now I’m painting a wall. Now I’m painmaking a painting. Began to think about what separates one from another. Later in life, hired a man to paint room and recorded birds eye view tot create a flattened color Four hoirse compressed to 5 minutes. 6 days to create and one to rest.

34. Themes of Art: Summary Major THEMES covered in this chapter:
1. The Sacred Realm
2. Politics and the Social Order
3. Stories and Histories
4. Looking Outward: The Here and Now
5. Looking Inward: The Human Experience
6. Invention and Fantasy
7. The Natural World
8. Art and Art
Key Terms: space cells, iconoclasm
Discussion Topic:
If you were a professional artist, which of the themes in this chapter would you want to explore through your art and why?
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