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The Arts. What Is Art?. Art is the creative use of the human imagination to aesthetically interpret, express, and engage life, modifying experienced reality in the process.
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What Is Art? • Art is the creative use of the human imagination to aesthetically interpret, express, and engage life, modifying experienced reality in the process. • Most societies past and present have used art to give meaningful expression to almost every part of their culture, including ideas about religion, kinship, and ethnic identity.
Views About Art • American View • Nonessential • Communicate • Feelings • Make statements • Share values Marcel Duchamp, The Fountain, 1917.
Art and Anthropology • Why study art? • Cultural insight • Religion • Social Structure • Lifeways • Subsistence • Resources
What Are the Functions of Art? • Myths offer basic explanations about the world and set cultural standards for right behavior. • Verbal arts transmit and preserve a culture’s customs and values. • Any art form may contribute to the cohesiveness or solidarity of that society.
Social Functions of Art • Individuality – express individual tastes • Social Identity – identify with specific group • Social Status – can show wealth, expressed through cars, clothing, etc.
Art • The creative use of the human imagination to interpret, express, and enjoy life. • From the uniquely human ability to use symbols to give shape and significance to the physical world for more than just a utilitarian purpose.
Art for Arts Sake • Art for Ritual • Not to be seen by all • Tutankhamen • Not to be saved for posterity • Navajo • Johann Sebastian Bach
Types of Art • Verbal arts • Folklore • Music • Verbal • Nonverbal • Pictorial Arts • Painting • Sculpture
Verbal arts • Stories within a culture reflecting a history, gender relationships, proper or improper behavior, or religious beliefs. • Examples: Narratives, dramas, poetry, incantations, proverbs, compliments, and insults. art
Verbal Arts - Myth • Religious • A myth provides rationale for religious beliefs and practices. • Creation myths
Verbal Arts – Legend • Stories told as true • Common elements • No known author • Multiple versions • Detail • Insight to society
Verbal Arts - Tale • Common elements • Secular • Nonhistorical • Entertainment • May be moralistic • Motif • Story situation
Verbal Arts – Poetry and Epics • Poetry - Allows for inappropriate subjects to be talked about • Epics - Long oral narratives, sometimes in poetry or rhythmic prose, recounting the glorious events in the life of a real or legendary person.
Music • Ethnomusicology – Study of music in a specific culture. • Anthropology studies how a culture defines music. art
Music • Verbal and nonverbal • Abstract emotion • Define • Indigenous terms • Musical lingo • Melody, rhythm, form • Components • Repetition • Tonality
Functions of Music • Group identification • Self-identification • Political commentary • Social commentary • Social function • Entertainment • Work • Oral tradition
Pictorial Arts • A type of symbolic expression that can be realistic or abstract. • Aesthetic approach - Looks at technique and form. • Narrative approach - Looks at what is depicted. • Interpretive approach – Looks at symbols and beliefs that are depicted in art, a knowledge of these must first be understood. art
Pictorial Art • Various mediums • Drawing, painting, sketching, etc… • Walls, rock, fibers, wood, animal hide, plants, clay, etc… • Symbolic expression
Rock Art • Pictographs • Painting • Petroglyph • Pecking • Anthropomorphic • Animals • Abstract • Ritualistic
Non-Representational • Meaning • Entoptic phenomena • Trance phase 1 • Nervous system • Geometric patterns • Construal • Trance phase 2 • Brain makes sense of image
Representational • Naturalistic • Western art • Abstracted • Style • Technique • Ability
Art and Iconography • Symbols • Colors • Meaning to culture • Hard to decipher
Sculpture • Many forms • Relief • In the round • Media • Marble • Mixed