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I will go over what I consider to be the most important points in each chapter, to give you guidelines on what’s important in each chapter.

If you assume my lectures will give you enough info for you to be successful in the course—no, they’re not. They’re designed to give you an overview of what is included in the chapter, and to give you some clues of what to look for as you read.  Your success will depend upon whether you READ that chapter.  ‘Nuff said.

Now let’s explore Chapter 1

In the ninth edition, open your book to page two, where we read about the slashing of a work of art by Barnett Newman, called Cathedra.  There are a couple of very powerful sentences in the second column, and I’d like you to reflect on that as you look at art. They are in the second paragraph in that column, and they say, in essence, that encounters with art …form who we are.

Here’s a problem that you’ll encounter if you do not see art “in the flesh” so to speak. Note that Cathedra is eighteen feet wide. Now look at it on the next page—at only six inches.  Seeing art changes you. Looking at pictures in a book is only that… and not much else. So be sure to plan for a museum visit in the months to come, especially if you find a museum showing art that interests you!

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In the next 12 pages of this chapter, we learn two major things: why humans create, and what purposes art has had throughout millennia.  The chapter should show you through the examples on the pages how art is intertwined with the culture in which it was created. Much of the art, such as the Tree of Jesse (page 5 in your book, but in Chartres Cathedral in France, should you ever travel to see it), was controlled and created for the major religions of the world. This art communicates information visually to the illiterate majority of the times and was a library of sorts during the Middle Ages. Art also communicates, holding visual data for posterity, like our digital cameras do today.

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Art has been used to create decorative objects, to bring visual pleasure in our interaction with them. Buildings, bowls, and bags have all been visually enhanced by their design incorporating some form of art. What do you visually decorate?  

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In designing buildings, nothing says art as a form of worship or spiritual use than our churches and religious spaces. Look at Stonehenge on page 7 (in the south of England if you choose to go there).  All of the religious tools throughout the ages have become works of art through their embellishment, and you’ll see many of them as we look at art history. Beatrice Wood’s Chalice (on page 8) is a contemporary example of how we are moved by our cultural experience to see this piece as something related to a religious ceremony. Can you deny that? You see, our cultural experiences form our opinions of what we see.

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Art is created for personal expression, too. “I must”, the artist says. Rembrandt was one of those artists. He painted over 40 paintings and 30 etchings of his own image, called “self-portraits”.  Georgia O’Kkeefe said she painted flowers because they were cheaper than models, and they hold still. Self portraits are ways to learn, express one’s vision, and cheaper than hiring a model. Contemporary examples of Yong Soon Min’s personal expression of her cultural experiences are also shown.

*RB

*RB

Now, to perhaps confuse you a bit, the book brings Romare Bearden in with personal expression, yet he crosses over into the category of art for social causes.  This brings to life the reality that art and artists don’t easily fit into one mold, but are ever-changing, and refuse to be categorized.

This is why I say that art is more about YOUR thinking, because the art world will change as fast as we live our lives. Looking back, art historians are also changing and altering how we think about art from earlier times. So there is no one cubbyhole for art.

*Goya

*Book of Dead

The art in museums is NOT art of the culture in which we currently live.  It is more of a telescope into the past, and we need to understand the culture surrounding it, to understand why it looks the way it does. This is especially true for art created in response to social causes.

*Alhambra

And finally art is created for the pure joy of delighting our eyes. This is especially true of Islamic art.  When I was 19 years old, I had the unique pleasure of walking the Alhambra with all of the visual decoration, and I can tell you that the sole image in your book cannot possible convey what it means to see art in person, up close. I hope the course will light a fire in you to see art in person. Even though I am far away from age 19 now, I have been forever changed by the experience.

*Heartland

Art has many ways to express humanity’s pleasure and joy in being human. We can live comfortably with that, because art truly defies being defined.

*Last Slide