What You Should Know About Prehistoric Art

Prehistoric art isn’t an art movement because it is a period in the artistic development of mankind. It predates writing and basically encompasses the origin of both early painting and sculpture. Although it is not a hot topic for art historians, it is always of interest to historical anthropologists.

Anthropologists study mankind’s origin and behavior, and asides from studying fossils and bones, it also studies the early tools, architecture and artwork mankind left behind. A small number of art pieces have stood the test of time. Only the toughest paintings and sculptures, made with plenty of pigment, have managed to last thousands of years.

Prehistoric people often represented their beliefs and world through visual images. With the appearance and of Homo sapiens, art emerged. Sculptures, Paintings, engravings and later ceramic reveal not only complex spiritual concepts and social systems but also a quest for beauty.

The colors used were produced from manganese dioxide (violet and black), charcoal (black) and ochre (reds and yellows). These minerals were ground on stone palettes and then mixed with animal fat to moisturize them before being applied with the bone spatula, brushes or fingers. Stone engraving tools called burins were used to carve and engrave portable works.

References

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/prehistoricart/

https://study.com/academy/lesson/prehistoric-art-history-timeline-quiz.html

How the Realism Movement Changed Art History

In the middle of the 19th century, European artists adopted a new style of art: Realism. This art movement emerged in France in the 1850s and transformed the western art world. The movement introduced the idea of working class people, day-to-day scenes, and contemporary settings as worthy artistic subjects.

Artists who adopted the Realist style rejected the principles of Romanticism, a genre defined by a heightened sense of emotion. Normally, Romantic paintings were characterized by either sublime scenes of nature or mythological figures. In either case, it elevates its subjects—a feature that Realist artists openly dismissed.

Important Realist artists include Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Honoré Daumier, Rosa Bonheur, and Édouard Manet. Some of most important works that were made by these artists are A Burial at Ornans (1849-50), The Stone Breakers (1849-50), The Gleaners (1857), Luncheon on the Grass (1862-63), and Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870-73).

After success of Realism in Europe, American artists embraced the approach shortly. Its influence is particularly evident in James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s body of “art for art’s sake,” Edward Hopper’s revealing studies of modern city life, and Thomas Eakins’ unidealized portraits.

In addition, Realism inspired prominent contemporary art movements such as Hyperrealism and Photorealism. Building on Realism’s, these genres demonstrate the lasting and evolving legacy of the revolutionary movement.

References

https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-realism-art-definition/

https://www.theartstory.org/movement-realism-artworks.htm#pnt_2

Guide to Evolution of Art: Stone Age to Post-Impressionism

Art has been running through the blood of history, it existed along with humans since the beginning of time. Venturing into art history, here is the most practical guide to get acquainted with the timeline:

30000 B.C.-2500 B.C.:

Stone Age: Paintings and carvings on walls of caves mostly focused on fertility

3500 B.C.-539 B.C.:

Mesopotamian: Warrior themed art is widely popular. Stone tablets that narrates history were also discovered.

3100 B.C.-30B.C.:

Egyptian: Concepts of the afterlife were born. Painting tombs and construction of giant architectural structures was born.

850B.C.-31B.C.:

Hellenistic and Greek: Perfection of architectural dimensions e.g. Corinthian, Doric and Ionic.

500 B.C.-A.D. 476:

Roman: Roman realism was given birth, revolving around the concept of practicality and humbleness.

653B.C.-A.D. 1900:

Japanese, Indian and Chinese: Art focusing on the floating world was given birth, centered

on meditation, serenity and peacefulness.

A.D. 476-A.D.1453:

Byzantine mosaic era, Islamic themed structures and designs influenced by maze.

500-1400:

Middle Ages: Carolingian Renaissance, the Gothic and Celtic art and Romanesque were famously expressed.

1400-1550:

Renaissance: Classical culture was reborn and reached France, Poland, England and Germany.

1527-1580:

Mannerism: Art was pushing the boundaries of its traditional rules.

1600-1750:

Baroque: Art was widely utilized on religious wars.

1750-1850:

Neoclassical: The influence of Roman and Greek art was relived.

Romanticism: ruled by individuality and romantic ideals.

1848-1910:

Realism: Dedicated to peasants and the laborers.

Impressionism: Utilizing the remarkable effects of light.

Post-Impressionism: A subtle counteraction to impressionism.

Reference: https://www.dummies.com/education/art-appreciation/art-history-timeline/

Essence of Art in Political Governance

Artists express their perspectives about different aspects of human life within societies, from equality and injustice to political governance. Art has played a vital role within the world of politics since the Renaissance period until today. Despite the fact that governments have been consistently supporting art, its complex connection to political awareness served as a key towards productive change though it may require challenging authorities.

During the middle ages, the Roman Catholic Church is well-known for its political influence and used their power to commission religious-themed pieces from prominent artists to promote their initiatives. But in modern society, artists are not solely relying on patronage from the government. They are gathering resources from various streams of supporters with the same beliefs.

With the independence, art grew into a wild field of expression that provokes the status quo. Though politics plays a role in today’s art, the expression to rise against oppression isn’t limited within government funding and political factors do not hold much influence to stop art from spreading awareness.

Reference: https://bizfluent.com/info-7749946-role-art-government-politics.html

Guide to the Art in New Music Video by Beyoncé and Jay-Z at the Louvre

Beyoncé and Jay-Z recently released a collaborative album entitled ‘Everything Is Love’, a video for one of their tracks ‘Apeshit,’ and an additional track title ‘Salud!’. The filming was done at the Louvre I Paris and included shots of various masterpieces from the collection at the museum.

The paints and sculptured captured in the video span to more than three millennia. They focus mainly on how power, conception, and regulation of female beauty and suffering were pictured and projected. The star of the show is Leonardo’s Mona Lisa (ca. 1503-06) where a woman is combing a man’s hair while he sits in a chair in front of the work.

The couple with their accompanying dancers spend time as well with great works such as the Venus de Milo (101 B.C), Great Sphinx of Tanis (ca. 2600 B.C.), Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s Portrait of a Negress (1800), and David’s Coronation of Napoleon (1805-07).

The song and video include political pointers such as where Jay-z says, “I said no to Super Bowl/You need me, I do not need you,” and his lines are accompanied by Veronese’s The Wedding to Cana where some black men are kneeling. By showing the art, the video provides an impressive small tour of the Louvre. There is so much to parse from it where more works with complicated political, historical, and biographical histories get screen time.

http://www.artnews.com/2018/06/17/guide-art-beyonce-jay-zs-new-music-video-louvre/

Germany Releases New Code of Conduct for Colonial Era Masterpieces

Monika Grutters from Germany’s ministry of culture in cooperation with German Association of Museums recently released a 130 pages long code of conduct to be followed in confronting and identifying artifacts from the colonial era. The “Guide to Dealing with Collection Goods from Colonial Contexts” is a big step from German Association of Museums as part of their efforts to accurately process artifacts from the colonial period.

According to Grutters, the colonial period has posted a big blind spot in Germany’s culture. The newly released code of conduct is made in attempt to provide a comprehensive discussion, both about history and the artifacts found. Different museums across the globe are looking forward to the return of artifacts looted between 17th to 20th centuries to their places of origin.

German Association of Museums is cooperating with the global community, specifically associations from Africa who is believed to own most of the artifacts residing in different German museums and private individuals.

Reference:

What Makes a Movie Arthouse?

A couple of days ago, the Cannes Film Festival ended and gave out its competition awards, which were determined by a jury comprised of film and art professionals. Top honors, to the surprise of some, went to Shoplifters by Hirozaku Kore-eda, a Japanese director widely known for his humanistic portrayals of love, loss, and family. However, for the first time in Cannes history, the jury decided to award a “Special Palme D’or” to French cinema legend Jean Luc-Godard, whose film The Image Book, a strange, abstract collage of footage and thoughts, was met with a highly divisive response.

At the surface, these two movies could not look any more different. Shoplifters is a somber, reflective tale of a family living in poverty, while The Image Book is a dense, unforgiving collection of evocative imagery. However, both won prestigious awards at the biggest film festival on earth from the same group of people, and both are likely to be given the “arthouse” tag when they are shown in the states. Why is that?

The answer seems obvious: neither of these movies are in English. But besides that, both films are the work of one brilliant, precise mind attempting to create a deliberate piece of art. Koreeda and Godard are both auteurs – people that “author” the entire experience of viewing their films to make the audience see exactly what they want them to see. What they want audiences to see may be entirely different, but there’s no denying they are completely their ideas.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/19/cannes-2018-japanese-film-shoplifters-wins-palme-dor/

The Beauty of Street Art

Walking around the streets and alleyways of Mexico City, it’s impossible to be bored. Every time you turn a corner, a bright burst of colors painted in the figure of a skeleton, a man and his lover, an image of Jesus Christ, or an abstract pattern of fluidly turning and twisting tentacle shapes. These colorful, eclectic murals frequently have peculiar names painted under them, the signature of an artist proudly proclaiming their work.

In a lot of places in the world, you don’t need to go to a museum to see what the city’s art has to offer. All you have to do is stroll around on foot or on bike and look at both sides of the street to see some of the most stunning pieces around. Street art is known in many places as representative of a city’s soul, as integral to the city’s personality as the buildings they are painted on. Everywhere in the world, from San Francisco to Sao Paolo to Hong Kong, street artists are making paintings that are larger than life itself.

It’s easy to see why, as street art is often the artistic voice of the common man. In many places, street art is highly representative of the current social, cultural, and political climate. A notable example of street art as a political statement comes from Banksy, a wildly popular British muralist that expresses his strong political opinions through his art.

https://www.foodandthefabulous.com/travel/street-art-in-sao-paulo/

The Art of Rube Goldberg

Born in 1883, Rube Goldberg was a famous cartoonist, illustrator, and designer for the New York Evening Mail, making over 50,000 cartoons during his 63-year career. Much of his work was recently on display at the Museum of Pop Culture’s latest exhibit, “The Art of Rube Goldberg.”

Although not all of his works can be showcased, the most famous wine bottle cork sculptures, paintings, and animated reels inspired by his comics were present. One of his most brilliant pieces of work, the six-foot tall machine was also on display, which is a mess of shoots and pulleys releasing two golf balls into a funnel at the bottom as “a great way to make a 60-second task take three minutes.” His work may not be known to kids and adults of the recent generation, but still, holds much significance to the American engineering era that it depicts.

Moreover, there was a subtle humor to his work, much of what can be seen in the comic strip titles as “It Takes a Champion to Hold a Woman’s Attention.” He was a keen observer himself, who used scientific methods to bring pop art and pop culture to life.

References

http://www.dailyuw.com/arts_and_leisure/article_16f809ca-f1a2-11e6-95f6-3302bae2dfd0.html

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/02/rube-goldberg-exhibit-world-premiere-celebrates-art-and-silliness-of-machines/

Yuko Shimizu: An Illustrator That Blends a Contemporary Edge with Traditional Japanese Art

Yuko Shimizu, an award-winning New York-based Japanese illustrator, has been focusing in traditional Japanese art. You may have come across her work on book covers, billboards, Pepsi can or in the pages of the New York Times, but recently The Folio Society has commissioned the illustrator of over 10 years to illustrate a new collection of historic Japanese stories..

Japanese Tales consist of 170 tales which have been around for almost a millennium. They involve characters such as scoundrels and saint, magical healers and ghosts, as well as a range of demons and deities. Colloquial translations of Royall Tyler does not only provide the reader with a window into cultural heritage of Japan but also shows that human conditions – such as jealousy, compassion, lust, benevolence, charity, greed, – are not so far removed from our own experiences.

The Folio Society asked Yuko to illustrate the collection, merging Japanese style with contemporary influences. She has made single and double-page, full-color illustrations alongside black and white line drawings. The illustrations are presented in a blocked-cloth binding and blocked slipcase and a die-cut. The new edition is finished with silvery page tops and a marker ribbon.

Creating illustrations that not only pay homage to Japanese heritage but also help to make the tales relevant to contemporary readers is no small achievement. Whether or not Yuko has succeeded is up to the readers to decide.

References

https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/illustration/illustrator-yuko-shimizu-on-blending-traditional-japanese-art-with-contemporary-edge/#2

https://www.creativeboom.com/features/yuko-art/