What is Art For?
1. The term paleoanthropsychobiological was coined by Ellen Dissanayake. The term is used as a way to depict humankind’s history through both psychological and biological perspectives or viewpoints.
2. When Dissanayake mentioned the phrase “making special” she meant that over time as humans evolved mentally and physically they were able to institute a way to recognize the things, events or humans that were so-called “special”.
3. Western Europe was home to many different theories/movement/periods of art. Dissanayake mentions several different theories of art that exemplify Western Euopean art. Some of the time periods were the Renaissance, Post-Impressionist, and Postmodernism. The Renaissance time period was an era where instead of being a society centered on religion it was going to be centered on science and reason. The art during this time was realistic and tried to create “recognizable world”. During the early Twentieth Century the next dominate art theory was Post-Impressionist. According to Dissanayake, this era of art theory focused on possessing preexisting knowledge or ability to view art. The art during this time moved away from naturalist artwork that reflected the real world. The last art theory came, which occurred in late Twentieth Century, was Postmodernism. The theory and art associated with Postmodernism became an outlet or way to represent the view of the worldwide elite of Western European. There was a sense that art during this time period no longer were movements or be called “ism”.