Unit Objective:

  • Explore a brief history of Western Art

 

The original blog post can be viewed here.

What is art for? Essay Assignment

  1. Paleoanthropsychobiological refers to a perspective or view of art that is is historical, societal, psychological/emotional, and a genetic inherited trait of the human species. Art can be all of these things together. This term was created by the author of the assigned text, Ellen Dissanayake.
  2. Dissanayake means by the phrase “making special” that every human has a genetic evolutionary personality trait to want to make things that they care about and have “strong personal significance” special. What she means by special is something extraordinary and not usual or every day. I think the fact that diamonds are valued is similar to this concept. Diamonds are shiny and pretty and they were made special because they are rare. Things can be more special when they are rare and unusual.
  3. One theory of art is that is for religious purposes: “In medieval times, the arts were in the service of religion…but were not regarded ‘aesthetically,’ if this means separately from their revelation of the Divine. Another theory she brings up is modernism in the 18th century where “a startling and influential idea took hold that, like the concept of ‘art,’ was unprecedented. This was that there is a special frame of mind for appreciating works of art — a ‘disinterested’ attitude that is separate from one’s own personal interest in the object, its utility, or its social or religious ramifications” (Dissanayake, 3). Another theory is postmodernism which is what we think of today is “rather than assuming that art reflects a unique and privelaged kind of knowledge, postmodernists point out that any ‘truth’ or ‘reality’ is only a point of view — a ‘representation’ that comes to us mediated and conditioned by our language, our social institutions, the assumptions that characterize individuals as members of a nation, a race, a gender, a class, a profession, a religious body, a particular historical period” (Dissanayake, 5).

 

Reflection:

 This assignment helped me gain a small snippet into the history of western art. There are three theories of art from medieval times, the eighteenth century, and modern times that I reported in this artifact. Art history is very important because it gives clues to how us as humans evolved and changed throughout history as well. Art has been a great part of human life ever since it was created and dated back to 100,000 years ago when people made beaded necklaces and body paint (Dutton).

Looking at the history of art shows us how popular culture has changed. There were different philosophies and ideas that were prevalent in different periods of art. For example, in the 18th century, the philosophy of viewing art one had to have “a special frame of mind for appreciating works of art — a ‘disinterested’ attitude” (Dissanayake, 3). This showed that people even in the 18th century thought that you had to judge art separate from one’s own beliefs and culture.

Future Intentions:

In the future, I don’t know if I’ll go as far as to say that I will keep researching art history in my own time because that is not one of my interests. But, when I travel to different parts of the world, especially Europe, I will go to art museums like the Louvre because I would be interested in seeing the famous historical art pieces from different eras to see how they have evolved. I know that when looking at art, it is important for me to try to understand the context, and time of the painting in order to get a real understanding of its meaning.

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