2010年4月24日 星期六

Byzantium
•Refer to the eastern half of the Roman Empire (eastern Christian Roman Empire) •Constantinople’s original name: Byzantine
•The Byzantine emperors called themselves Romans, though they spoke Greek instead of Latin
•The westward flight of Byzantine scholars from the Rome of the East introduced the study of classical Greek to Italy and helped inspire there the new consciousness of antiquity that historians call the Renaissance.

Icons & Iconoclas
Christ as Pantokrator, come mosaic in the Church of the Dormition, Daphni, Greece, ca. 1090-1100.


Christ as Savior of Souls, icon from Saint Clement, Ohrid, Macedonia, early 14th century. Tempera, Linen, and silveron wood, 3’1/4” X 2’ ½”
Fully modeled head and nect contrast with the schematic linear folds of his garment



12-19
Virgin (Theotokos) and Child enthroned, apse mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Constintinople (Istanbul), Turkey, dedicated 867
Shortly after the repeal of iconoclasm, the emperor Basil I dedicated a huge new mosaic depicting the Virgin and child enthroned.


12-29
Virgin (Theotokos) and Child ,icon, (Vladimir Virgin), late 11th to early 12th centuries. Tempera on wood, original panel 2’ 6.5” X 1’9”. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
In this icon, the artist depicted Mary as the Virgin of Compassion, who presses her cheek against her son’s as she contemplates his future.

Gothic Art
•Humanists of Italian Renaissance actually considered Gothic art ugly and crude. However, in 13th and 14th century, the Gothic style was very popular in Europe.
•In 1337, the Hundred Years’ War began, affecting the peace between France and England. In the 14th century, a great plague, the Black Death, swept over western Europe and killed at least a quarter of its people.

•Other important changes:
1.intellectuals and religious men moved from monasteries in the countryside to rapidly expanding cities
2.urban centers started to have the first modern universities (founded by guilds of scholars
3. Crusades fought against the Muslims to have the more independent nations of modern Europe

Gothic architecture






Virgin with the Dead Christ , from the Rhineland, Germany, ca. 1300-1325. Painted wood, 2’10.5” high.



12-19
Virgin (Theotokos) and Child enthroned, apse mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Constintinople (Istanbul), Turkey, dedicated 867

14th century: widespread troubles: war, plague, famine, social strife…. Other sufferings… This sensibility could be found in religious art, e.g. Rottgen Pieta (“pity” in Italian). The sculpture portrayed Christ as a stunted, distorted human covered with streams of blood. àagony(very painful), death, sorrow
Virgin with the Dead Christ(Rottgen Pieta) , from the Rhineland, Germany, ca. 1300-1325. Painted wood, 2’10.5” high

In 14th century, art addressed the private person (often in a private place) ina direct appeal to the emotions. The expression of felling accompanied the representation of the human body in motion. The details of artworks became more outwardly related to the human audience as expressions of recognizable human emotions.

Transition to early Renaissance

•Although religion continued to occupy a primary position in the lives of Europeans, a growing concern with the natural world, the individual, and humanity’s worldly existence characterized the Renaissance period.
•Renaissance: “rebirth” of art and culture
•àrestoration of the glorious past of Greece and Rome and abandoned the styles in “middle ages”
•Italian humanists were concerned mainly with human values and interests (not religion came first). They recovered a large part of the Greek and Roman literature and philosophy that had been lost in the Middle Ages

Transition to early Renaissance

Gitto Di Bondone (1266-1377) was regarded as the first Renaissance painter: first in pursing a naturalistic approach to representation based on observation. He also helped establish painting as a major art form for the next 7 centuries. He and his followers suggested the visual world must be observed before it can be analyzed and understood.

Transition to early Renaissance

In Giotto’s painting:
-Madonna’s body is not lost. Mary’s breasts pressing through her undergarment.
-gold highlights on the robe have disappeared
-to construct a figure that has dimensionality and bulk (these are not shown in Byzantine art which focus on the spiritual immateriality mainly)
-portray sculpturesque figures--- giving them shadows
-mark the end of medieval painting and the beginning of a new naturalistic approach to art

Renaissance Perspectival systems






Title: Holy Trinity
Artist: Masaccio
Medium: fresco
Year: 1424-1427
Size: 21’ 10 5/8” X 10’ 4 ¾”
Current Location: Sanata Maria Novella, Florence, Italy

Requirements on Art PortfolioComparisonByzantine Art







Requirements on Art PortfolioComparisonByzantine Art
April 17, 2010

In Reserch workbook:
•1.exploration and development of theme/ideas
•2.interpretation of artworks and its articulation with art-making/critical studies
•3.experimentation of media and skills and exploration of ways of expression
•4.reflection and profession in learning

In the 2 art pieces (on one theme)
•1.Media, skills and techniques
•2.visual presentation
•3.relationship with context
•4.creativity & imagination
•5.overall presentation and communication of the theme
•6.progression of the 2 pieces of work

•Since May 1st is a public holiday,
•the presentation sessions will also take place on May 4th and 5th after school.
•Every student in this visual art class MUST attend these two sessions, even if s/he is not presenting on these two days.
•You will be required to fill up a form to judge other students’ presentation.

Writing comparison ---Why?
•-a way of discovering (e.g. compare two subway stations (considering the efficiency of the pedestrian patterns, the amenities, and the aesthetic qualities) -à understand both more fully
•But comparing a subway station with a pancake house may not be so helpful…


Why?
•Art historians use comparison to
•Help dating an art piece
•Help identifying the authentic artist of an art piece

How to organize a comparison?
•Block-by-block
•Point-by-point
•Or somewhat in between:
•Block-by-block (but also mentioning/referring to art piece A a little bit, when writing the details of art piece B.)


Shaka Nyorai 釈迦如来 (Historical Buddha)
by Zen’en BusshiDated +1225, Wood, H = 29.0 cmTreasure of Todaiji Temple, Nara

Yuan Dynasty Wood Sculpture of
Seated Kuan Yin
DATE CREATEDca. 1279-1369

The Buddha, recognizable by a bump at the forehead to indicate a sort of supermind, sits erect and rigidly in the lotus position (legs crosses, each foot with the sole upward on the opposing thigh), in full control of his body. The carved folds of his garments, in keeping with the erect posture, are rigid, forming a highly disciplined pattern that is an outward expression of his remote, constrained, austere inner nature. The bodhisattva, on the hand, sits in a languid, sensuous posture known as “royal ease,” the head tilted downard, accessible, relaxed, and compassionate.


“翶翔的法國人”, artist: Christ Plays, 8M high and 2M wide
Artist started working on this in 1989, and completed in 1992 April,
Nike Of Samothrace Discovered In 1863 A Missing Hand Was Found In 1950 Work Dated About 190 B.C. 8’1” high, Victory has just landed on a prow to crown a victor at sea. Her wings still beat, and the wind sweeps her drapery. It was placed in a fountain of splashing water.


“翶翔的法國人”,
Artist: Christ Plays
8M high and 2M wide
Artist started working on this in 1989, and completed in 1992 April,
Nike Of Samothrace Discovered In 1863 A Missing Hand Was Found In 1950 Work Dated About 190 B.C. 8’1” high, Victory has just landed on a prow to crown a victor at sea. Her wings still beat, and the wind sweeps her drapery. It was placed in a fountain of splashing water.

2010年3月25日 星期四

Work by Braze Leung

Timing

Artworks by students in the visual arts class from HKCCCU Logos Academy

Artworks by students in the visual arts class from HKCCCU Logos Academy
Project idea: to make a human figure out of paper for a specific site at school

1.



2.




3.Work by Chan Cheuk Yee and Wai Yin Tung



2010年1月29日 星期五

Non-objective Sculptures & Roman Empire Art 1 (23Jan 2010)


Art Theory: compare objective & non-objective sculptures
Before the 20th century:
sculptures-traditional materials (stone, wood, clay)
-representational, imitating human beings or animals
-about ideals, peace, war, death (represented allegorically through images of figures)
-by means of masses of material (e.g. by cutting away or adding on)
-clearly stand out (e.g. mounted on a pedestal): announcing that it is a work of art
From the 20th century and on:
sculptures - made out of “non-art” materials---plexiglass, cardboard, steel, wire, rope etc.
- many in the 20th century: about the space, creating space
- may be part of the environment
1.Art Theory: compare objective & non-objective sculptures
Iwo Jima Monument
1.Art Theory: compare objective & non-objective sculptures
Representing marines raising an American flag

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the
Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and came to be regarded in the United States as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.[1]
Of the six men depicted in the picture, three (
Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank) were killed during the battle; the three survivors (John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes) became celebrities upon their identification in the photo. The picture was later used by Felix de Weldon to sculpt the USMC War Memorial, located adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington, D.C.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima



Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) A pair of 200-foot granite walls join to make a wide V, embracing a gently sloping plot of ground


On the walls, which rise from ground level to a height of about 10 feet at the vertex, are inscribed the anmes of the 57,939 Americns who died in the Vietnam War.


Bronze sculptures (larger than life-size) By Frederick Hart
Because this monument did not seem in any evident way to memorialize the heroism of those who died in the war, it stirred controversy. àbronze sculpture nearby: celebrating heroism in wartime in a traditional way



This memorial: not an object, not on a pedestal, not At a picture frame
** it is a SITE* a place for reflection
**Primary Forms: massive constructions that are often designed with math equations and made by Industrial fabricators


Eva Hesse, “Hang-up”, 1966. Acrylic on Cloth over wood and steel, 72”X84”X78”
Description:
“A wooden frame is warpped with bedsheets, and a half-inch metal tube, wrapped with cord, sweeps out from the upper left and into the viewer’s space, and then returns to the frame at the lower right. The whole, painted in varying shades of gray, has an ethereal(immaterial) look.”


In her words: to create works that seem “silly” and “absurd”
In an interview, she mentioned:
Tried to “find the most absurd opposites Or extreme opposites”

Opposites:
1.Rigid, rectangular frame vs. curvy wire
2.Hard frame vs. cloth wrapping/bandaging
3.Metal tube vs. its cord wrapping
4.A frame on wall, but no painting
5.The tube: connected at each end to opposite extremes of the frame-may suggest a life support system /Perhaps, bandaging: illness of the artist
6. It wants to be a painting, but never materialized, and now the work is a sculpture…


Consider these when talk about non-objective sculpture:
1.The scale ( is it massive?domestic scale? Fairly large?)
2.The effect of the materials (e.g. soft/hard?bright/dull?)
3.Relationships between the parts (e.g. closed volumes? Open assembly? If assembly, are light materials lightly put together, or are massive materials industrially joined?)
4.The site (e.g. in a museum, hang on a wall? What does the work do to the site?)
5.The title (e.g. is it playful? Enigmatic? Significant?
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Sculptures from Roman Empire
•Strong influence from Greek art
•Official propaganda
•Realism, allegory,
*Subjects: mostly men of advanced age. Not making them nobler than they were.
*Verism (super-realism)

←recorded each rise and fall, each bulge and fold, of the facial surface, like a mapmaker who didn’t miss the slightest detail
Statement about the personality:
Serious, experience, determined, loyal to family and state (virtues that were admired)

Head of an old man, from Osimo, mid-first century BCE. Marble, life-size.








•This is called "Head of a Roman patrician" from Otricoli. It is a veristic portrait, that is, super-realistic with each rise and fall, bulge and fold of the surface of the face represented.

•It is in bust form too, because the Romans of the Republic believed the head was sufficient to constitute a portrait.









Portrait of a Roman general, from the Sanctuary of Hercules, Tivoli, Italy, ca. 75-50BCE


Marble, 6’2”high.


Interestingly enough, the general has a veristic head with the body of a youthful muscle man. Also, the modesty of the patron dictated that the man's genitals be shielded by a mantle. By his side, and acting as a prop for the heavy marble statue, is a cuirass, emblem of his rank

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Contemp Art :Pick to the week

Rashid Rana (born 1968). Red Carpet 1, 2007. Edition 1/5; C-print + DIASEC. H. 95 x W. 135 in. (241.3 x 317.5 cm). Collection of Pallak Seth. Image courtesy of Gallery Chemould and Chattertjee & Lal Mumbai


Detail of Red Carpet 1, 2007.
photomontages
Rana creates a large image out of a multitude of smaller images that contradict the larger subject. Red Carpet 1 when looked at from a distance is a beautiful deep red carpet. Upon closer inspection, it is revealed that the carpet is made up of images taken in a slaughterhouse. The work reflects the duel existence of Pakistan as a purveyor of beauty and violence. “I love art history, and formal art concerns are very important in my work---but I cannot deny the time we are living in


Reference:
http://www.angelfire.com/art/historygirl/roman.html
http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/fire-contemporary-art-from-pakistan/1987
“Gardner’s Art through the Ages”
•“A short guide to writing about art” by Sylvan Barnet