Public Art
Before this assignment I did not know these murals existed in the library. After going to see these pieces in person, it made me think of how intricate people’s idea on the evolution of art and science are. What I noticed was that in majority of the panels for both murals, the figures that had the darker skin were the ones placed not facing the front and bending over performing work. I am not sure if the artist intended on this coincidence but from my perspective I am not fond of this portrayal. This makes me feel that from the beginning, people saw the darker skinned individuals as the ones performing the labor. I think the period in time the murals were created has an influence on the way the mural was created. Ellen Dissanayake wrote a piece addressing the different eras that experienced different waves of art influences during their time period. She mentions the idea that “authors may not have meant the same thing by the word ‘art’ as we do” (pg. 16). With this in mind, perhaps the artist was trying to experiment with different shadings and show different cultures coming together, which developed the growing idea of art. The world’s view on art has definitely grown in various directions all very influential to today’s art.
In one of the videos we watched in class, Dennis Dutton provides an excellent argument on the idea of how and why we develop feelings towards art pieces. He brings up the idea of stemming our innate ability to asses art and develop an opinion on it from our ancestors before us, the homosapien. I have to disagree with his argument as I think I develop my thoughts and ideas from my environment and experiences.
What I also noticed in the murals were the lack of women represented in the evolution of both art and sciences. In the early days, women were not allowed to perform duties that were seen as a man’s job. Perhaps this is why both of these murals depict men performing most of the scholarly and innovative works. The two artists were also both male, which may be the reason for the heavy male influence seen in the murals.
These two murals are great examples of the early idea of public art. The early program to exhibit and increase the public’s knowledge about public art was the WPA, or the Works Progress Administration. Today’s public art has sky rocketed since 1935. We can see works here at the University of Oregon as a public display of eye pleasing art pieces. I am fond of the idea of increasing the public’s knowledge on art as most individuals stray away from appreciating and understanding the meaning of art. In the Development of the Arts mural, this exemplifies the growing tree of art work and knowledge. If there were a mural painted today, the tree would be enormous and almost infinite. In the article by Erika Doss, she talks about how the view and essence of public art have shifted. She talks about how public memorial grounds such as the African Burial Ground has become a national landmark for both knowledge and pleasure (pg. 3-4). It is monuments like this that allow for the growth in knowledge about other cultures and worldly historic events.
I think it is almost imperative to increase the amount of public art and the push the limits on what can be displayed. As time progresses artists are always finding new and innovative ways to portray art in ways that are unimaginable. These two murals represent an interpretation of the beginning of this expanding art culture as well as standing as a basis for the origin of all existing art today.
Below I have attached my idea of the evolution of art. I started with the cave paintings from the early stone age. The next image represents the art from the old Greek era. Following that is the famous Mona Lisa. The next two images represent modern art sculptures that I think show how intricate the art pieces have evolved into.
Doss, E. (2006, October). Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate. Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf
Dutton, D. (n.d.). Denis Dutton: A Darwinian theory of beauty. Retrieved June 1, 2015, fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PktUzdnBqWI
A Response to the Runquist Murals. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2015, from http://blogs.uoregon.edu/runquistmurals/
Contemporary art. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2015, from https://giannadispenza.wordpress.com/tag/contemporary-art/
Modern Art Sculpture. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2015, from http://kuaibozz.com/modern-art-sculpture/
Packet #22. Renaissance Art. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2015, from http://artdiscovery.info/rotations/rotation-1/packet-22/
(n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2015, from http://blog.livepsychicsnetwork.com/history/the-whos-who-in-greek-mythology/
ArtLex on the Stone Age. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2015, from http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/s/stoneage.html