What is art? Assessment
1)
Dissanayake use the term “paleoanthropsychobiological” in order to explain her own view of “art for life’s sake”. She views that the art includes all of human history and society. Moreover, art has psychological or emotional effects. Her paleoanthropsychobiological view insists that art should be created by numerous characteristics of human nature and viewed as a traits of biological traits.
2)
Dissanayake state the “making special” on page 22 in her essay. Individuals or animals should be unique and specialized features to survive. We have heard many times in schools that we have to take specialized skills or knowledge in order to be employed or earn high incomes. The specialized skills or knowledge would be consistent with the meaning of making specials. We have to be a unique person in industry for eternal survivals. In the art forms, many unique cultures or customs are depicted by an art and the special performances or pieces of sculptures or drawings are interpreted by different people with special meanings. When people visit museum, they find different kinds of arts. That is why ‘making special’ is necessary for art.
3)
Dissanayake delivers three different theories of art in her essay. Firstly, she states about ‘Renaissance’ which represents reality in medieval time. From religious art, Renaissance focused on real world and represented accurate portrait of the situation. Secondly, she also delivers the definition of modern art. In 18th century, the subjects of art became aesthetics which focused on beauty. As it focused on beauties, the art in the era became more abstract and difficult for people to understand. The art was not reflecting the natures. Lastly, she mentioned postmodernism. From the modernism art which people have difficult to interpret, postmodernism focused on interpretation of art. In this era, the paintings reflected social issues and lamentation that the artists faced with. The social issues were different in various regions so that the postmodern arts depicted cultural portraits that people can understand and study for the era.