AC 221:
ART:
What is art:
High art
o Appreciated by those with culture & taste
o Deeper purpose & meaning
o Fine art: Paintngg sculpture & architecture
o Purely appreciated for aesthetc & isual ualites
o Seen as more ‘ci ilized’
Often refers to Esuropean & Asian arts
High alue & meaning
Low art
o For the ‘masses’
o Accessible & easy to comprehend
o Decorat e art/ minor art
o Craft
o Incl. furnitureg ceramicsg metalworkg textles & car ed work
o Mary carry more mundaneg functonal signifcance as well as aesthetc appeal
o Ofteng unfairly seen as more ‘unci ilized’
Often refers to Africang Australiang Naat e American & South American arts
Low alue & meaning
o Mass-producedg easily replicatedg e eryday objects & decor
Classifcaton between high & low art:
o Inconsistently applied: rooted in scholarly opiniong not fact
o Many objects difcult to place in one category or the other
o more attempt to undermine distncton now (who decides why 1 piece of art is ‘better’ or
‘higher’ than another – isn’t it subject ee?
Material Culture:
Jules Prown thought of another way to distnguish art:
o Art: paintngg sculptureg printsg drawingg photography (expected categories?
o Di ersions: toysg gamesg booksg foodg performances
o Adornment: clothingg jewelryg hairstylingg cosmetcsg tattoos
o Modifcatons of landscape: architectureg gardeningg town planning
o Applied arts: furnishings & receptacles ( asesg jars & bowls?
o De ices: machinesg ehiclesg science instrumentsg music instrumentsg & implements
Ancient Greece was a culture of images
Narrative art:
Illustrates a story/ scene/ e ent
Describes easy to interpret scenes of e eryday life
Often depicts well-known mythsg stories & folk-tale (recognizable characters/ archetypes?
Resonates with oralg literary & artstc traditon
Recognized through isual clues
Gestures help us interpret scenes depicted
o Es.g. someone grabbing another’s wrist could signify marriageg abducton or force
Where is meaning housed:
ARTIST IMAGEs/ OBJEsCT VIEsWEsR
, VASE PAINTING
Potery:
Used by e eryone in Ancient Greece – indicates part of culture of e eryday life
It sur i es well o er tme
o Almost indestructble (thick?
o Virtual worthlessness (doesn’t pose risk of being stolen like items with gold or gems?
o Used in burials (tombs or gra es?g so no one’s constantly touching the ase
Types of pottery:
o Storage jars
o Jars for mixing water & wine
o Water jars (holding water?
o Jugs
o Perfume bottles
o Drinking cups
o Cosmetc pots
Uses of pottery:
o General household use
o Cooking & ser ing food
o Ritual essels
Weddings
Childhood/ milestones
Funerals (holding gra e goodsg gra e markersg funerary rituals?
Geometric period:
Collapse of Mycenaean empire: Greek Dark age (1100-700BCEs?
o Skill of writng (literacy? almost completely lost.
o Mass migratons
o Fine art underwent recession
o Time of Homer’s The Iliad & the Odyssey
o Esarly geometric ases ha e Mycenaean similarites
Freehand wa esg circles & simplifed oral patterns
Rectlinearg inorganic design
Compass drawn circlesg semi-circlesg straight linesg trianglesg zigzagsg swastkas in horizontal bands
Decoraton through repettong isual patterningg stylizaton & symmetry
o Aniconic: not representng anythingg patterns simply for aesthetc
Mostly only interested in patternsg not life/ depictons of e ents
o 8th century BCEs onwards: humans & animals make limited appearances as parts of patterns
o single fgures depicted in inconspicuous places to not distract from geometry in ase
750BCEs: artsts start deliberately composing scenes in Greek art
o Dipylon Amphora
gradually fgures become eshier & geometric motfs reduce
o narrat e scenes become more prominent
o turn of the century: beginnings of narrat e art
Dipylon Amphora:
funerary urn: gra e marker
made on potter’s wheel in the Athens Potter’s Quarter in 750 BCEs
clay comes from a pit near Skourta
ART:
What is art:
High art
o Appreciated by those with culture & taste
o Deeper purpose & meaning
o Fine art: Paintngg sculpture & architecture
o Purely appreciated for aesthetc & isual ualites
o Seen as more ‘ci ilized’
Often refers to Esuropean & Asian arts
High alue & meaning
Low art
o For the ‘masses’
o Accessible & easy to comprehend
o Decorat e art/ minor art
o Craft
o Incl. furnitureg ceramicsg metalworkg textles & car ed work
o Mary carry more mundaneg functonal signifcance as well as aesthetc appeal
o Ofteng unfairly seen as more ‘unci ilized’
Often refers to Africang Australiang Naat e American & South American arts
Low alue & meaning
o Mass-producedg easily replicatedg e eryday objects & decor
Classifcaton between high & low art:
o Inconsistently applied: rooted in scholarly opiniong not fact
o Many objects difcult to place in one category or the other
o more attempt to undermine distncton now (who decides why 1 piece of art is ‘better’ or
‘higher’ than another – isn’t it subject ee?
Material Culture:
Jules Prown thought of another way to distnguish art:
o Art: paintngg sculptureg printsg drawingg photography (expected categories?
o Di ersions: toysg gamesg booksg foodg performances
o Adornment: clothingg jewelryg hairstylingg cosmetcsg tattoos
o Modifcatons of landscape: architectureg gardeningg town planning
o Applied arts: furnishings & receptacles ( asesg jars & bowls?
o De ices: machinesg ehiclesg science instrumentsg music instrumentsg & implements
Ancient Greece was a culture of images
Narrative art:
Illustrates a story/ scene/ e ent
Describes easy to interpret scenes of e eryday life
Often depicts well-known mythsg stories & folk-tale (recognizable characters/ archetypes?
Resonates with oralg literary & artstc traditon
Recognized through isual clues
Gestures help us interpret scenes depicted
o Es.g. someone grabbing another’s wrist could signify marriageg abducton or force
Where is meaning housed:
ARTIST IMAGEs/ OBJEsCT VIEsWEsR
, VASE PAINTING
Potery:
Used by e eryone in Ancient Greece – indicates part of culture of e eryday life
It sur i es well o er tme
o Almost indestructble (thick?
o Virtual worthlessness (doesn’t pose risk of being stolen like items with gold or gems?
o Used in burials (tombs or gra es?g so no one’s constantly touching the ase
Types of pottery:
o Storage jars
o Jars for mixing water & wine
o Water jars (holding water?
o Jugs
o Perfume bottles
o Drinking cups
o Cosmetc pots
Uses of pottery:
o General household use
o Cooking & ser ing food
o Ritual essels
Weddings
Childhood/ milestones
Funerals (holding gra e goodsg gra e markersg funerary rituals?
Geometric period:
Collapse of Mycenaean empire: Greek Dark age (1100-700BCEs?
o Skill of writng (literacy? almost completely lost.
o Mass migratons
o Fine art underwent recession
o Time of Homer’s The Iliad & the Odyssey
o Esarly geometric ases ha e Mycenaean similarites
Freehand wa esg circles & simplifed oral patterns
Rectlinearg inorganic design
Compass drawn circlesg semi-circlesg straight linesg trianglesg zigzagsg swastkas in horizontal bands
Decoraton through repettong isual patterningg stylizaton & symmetry
o Aniconic: not representng anythingg patterns simply for aesthetc
Mostly only interested in patternsg not life/ depictons of e ents
o 8th century BCEs onwards: humans & animals make limited appearances as parts of patterns
o single fgures depicted in inconspicuous places to not distract from geometry in ase
750BCEs: artsts start deliberately composing scenes in Greek art
o Dipylon Amphora
gradually fgures become eshier & geometric motfs reduce
o narrat e scenes become more prominent
o turn of the century: beginnings of narrat e art
Dipylon Amphora:
funerary urn: gra e marker
made on potter’s wheel in the Athens Potter’s Quarter in 750 BCEs
clay comes from a pit near Skourta
