Objective:

• Consider the origins of art
• Explore a brief history of Western Art
• Examine multiple perspectives for evaluating art

Original Post: (Click here)

1. Palaeoanthropsychobiological view refers to the view which considers art as a human’s inherent biological or universal characteristic including human being’s history, societies and the idea that art belong to the term of emotion and psychology. The term of palaeoanthropsychobiological is firstly put forward by an American anthropologist named Ellen Dissanayake. And the term palaeoanthropsychobiological comes into being because of her experience of living abroad for 15 years. As Ellen Dissanayake has lived in many countries like Nigeria, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and India, she found that the culture of these countries is quit different from American culture. Moreover, she also found that the attitudes and meaning of art and culture for the people in these countries is extremely different from American. Therefore, she made some research on art according to her experience and released What is Art for?, which is very important to the development of art in the world.
2. Dissanayake refers the phrase of “making special” to one of the universal of human and the most important part of the term Behavior of Art. And “making special” is some behaviors of human which related to ritual and plan and art. According to Dissanayake’s palaeoanthropsychobiological, art is one human being’s inherent universal characteristic. Therefore, “making special” can accord with Dissanayake’s definition of palaeoanthropsychobiological and is the reflection of palaeoanthropsychobiological.
3. According to Dissanayake, the word “art” was first put forward by Greek in the medieval times. But the meaning of “art” is different from the meaning now. In medieval times, renaissance have great impact on the world in many factors including culture and politics. As the articles of renaissance emphasize natural science instead of God, art at that time refers to some subjects of harmony, beauty and so on by using some standard which is like craftsman. And the eighteenth century is an important period for the development of art. In the eighteenth century, talents of different fields get together to communicate and then “modernity” came to the world. And many important changes have great influence on the development of art, including the secularization of the society, the development of science, the interpersonal and the social changes, the great attention on reason and politics (pg. 17). Modernism begin to appear with the “aesthetics” widen the area of art. And the Romantic Rebellion is a great emancipation for people because the people are tend to be more free, regardless of the authority, custom and tradition. And people have more freedom to do whatever they want to do. And fairness and objectivity are encouraged by critical analysis and reason which has been emphasized in the eighteen century.

Reflection:

According to Dissanayake, the word “art” was first put forward by Greek in the medieval times. But the meaning of “art” is different from the meaning now. In medieval times, renaissances have great impact on the world in many factors including culture and politics. As the articles of renaissance emphasize natural science instead of God, art at that time refers to some subjects of harmony, beauty and so on by using some standard which is like craftsman. And the eighteenth century is an important period for the development of art, and at this period of time, talents of different fields get together to communicate and then “modernity” came to the world. Those talented artists tried to express themselves, they wanted to speak out what were they thinking to publics. Therefore, in other words, art is from life and inside because it is what once you have sense of feeling and strong urge to show their deepest inner feelings and thoughts in various ways (music, painting, movies, novels, etc.). Like the article said, “There, while there is no abstract concept of “art” everyone may be an artist-decorating their bodies and possessions, dancing, singing, versifying, performing-even when some person are acknowledged as being more talented or skillful than others.” (Page 21)

Western earliest works of art produced was in the late Paleolithic dating back 30,000 to 10,000 years. Western accustomed to the late Neolithic Age to the Middle Ages called ancient, specifically refers to 4000 BC to AD 476 (Western Roman Empire), which includes Mesopotamian, Egyptian art, Greek and Roman periods. Medieval refers to the 5th century AD to the 15th century (the Italian Renaissance dawn), it marks the West stepped into the Christian era. Constrained by Christian, medieval art does not focus on the real description of the objective world, but stressed that the so-called spiritual world performance. Later, International Gothic style, Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque art, Rococo came out. In the twenty-century, Realism Barbizon, Post-Impressionism, Cloisonnism and symbolism came out.

There are lots of perspectives evaluating art. First, human value is a perspective evaluating art. From human perspective, we can consider it from audiences and artists. Artists create an art works tending to express their values, and audiences tend to read the values based on their values. Also, different times give different meanings to art works. For instance, Van Gogh’s paintings worth nothing in the period of time he living, but for now, his work is very valuable artistic and price perspective. Therefore, timing is one of the perspectives evaluating art. Furthermore, from the art work itself, an art work from Europe may distinct from the one from Asian because of cultural differences. However, there may be a connection in arts from different culture. Thus, culture could be an perspective to evaluate art.

Future:   

I think I will try to take my time to appreciate the art. I will try to listen different kinds of music and spend some time to think what author try to say in that song. I will try to appreciate the paintings and fictions to give myself a chance to experience different lives. I hope by leaning the beauties of those arts, my eyes will be opened and it will make me think deeper about this world.

Reference

Dissanayake, E. (1991). What is art for? In K. C. Caroll (Ed.). Keynote adresses 1991 (NAEA Convention), (pp.15-26). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.