Thomas Brennan
RE: Week 1 Discussion
At the end of our video lecture, I introduced two different definitions of art. How did you interpret or respond to these definitions?
I thought Marx’s definition was very insightful. Humans live beyond the laws of nature. We care for each other as a species, not as individuals. Not only do humans strive to survive as a species, but we evolve because we live by the laws of beauty. We create art because art is beautiful, not because it is needed for survival. Art is necessary for the human soul. The final sentence in Hegel’s definition is the perfect description of why we need art. He said, “Thus the universal need for art is man’s rational need to lift the inner and outer world into spiritual consciousness as an object in which he again recognizes his own self.”
Do you agree or disagree with this view of human creativity?
I agree with Hegel’s definition and view of human creativity. Art is a real world entity that is created from the mind of a person employing abstract thought. Art is the gateway from one person’s imagination to others. It is the only way for people born tens of thousands of years apart to communicate. Marx understood that one of the largest differences between man and animal is art.
What is your personal definition of art?
I define art as anything that is created by a person or group that, through its mere existence, invokes an emotional response by persons who experience it through any of their senses. This includes statues, painting, music, and movies.
Which specific objects covered this week do you consider works of art?
There were many works of art that were shown in this week’s lecture. The Spotted Horses and Hands painting found in the Pech Merle Caves in France I considered art. The images depict horses that lived in the area at the time of the painting’s creation. Paintings of animals can also be found inside the El Castillo Cave in Spain. Like the horse paintings, the cave paintings depict native animals in the region. Both of the cave paintings represent the native animals in their respective areas. Art can be decorative, as well as representational. There were some examples of decorative art shown in this week’s lectures.
In some societies, axes were hung on the walls of people’s homes as decoration. Although axes have a practical use, ones that are made with the intent of being decorative I believe to be works of art. The axes may have represented a sign of strength or an individual’s power in the area. The one absolute we know is that the axes were created with the intent of being a decoration. Other decorations include statues. One piece of art shown was the “In the round” statue of the Lion-Human. It is a decorative piece that shows the creativity of the artist. A similar statue was very prevalent in Serbia. The Lepenski statues of Fish-Humans were erected to remember that fish was a life-giving food source to the community. The two statues are similar in use and style. Both were creative to decorate homes and communities, and they were both animal-human hybrid statues. Not every piece of art depicted an animal.
Two pieces depict women, yet their art styles are vastly different. Woman from Brassempoury is a form of modern art, in my opinion, due to its minimalistic features. Woman from Dolni Vestonice, not only the object, but the complicated process that causes the piece is an art. The process of making a Woman from Dolni Vestonice takes dozens of hours and ungodly high temperatures.
The last artwork is actually two pieces. The Woman and Man statues from Romania. They are two pieces of the same work. You can see each of their body languages as they sit in their places. They almost seem curious. Thousands of years ago an artist created the couple and today we can still see their curiosity.
Which do you consider to be something other than art?
Many of the objects that are not considered art are so because they either have a practical use or are tools. Tombs and funeral settings are not considered art. Many tombs and funeral ceremonies are full of all kinds of decorations, but the purpose of a tomb is to carry a deceased person’s body, and a funeral is the spiritual ceremony of sending one’s soul to the afterlife. This includes the Tombs in Tells, Woodhenge, Stonehenge, and the Human Figure ‘Ain Ghazal in Jordan. The purpose of the Human Figure is to replace the body at a funeral. It is a tool used to further the funeral. The Tombs in Tells are nothing more than a final resting place for individuals. Both the Stonehenge and Woodhege are places for a funeral ceremony to take place. Although both are structured creative, its purposes are to hold funerals. I don’t consider a burial site or a funeral to be art. Another object that was used religiously was Venus of Willendorf.
Venus of Willendorf was a statue used to bring fertility to a household, not as decoration. It was believed that having the statue of the small woman with the enlarged features would cause the household, and the parents, to be able to bear more children. Some objects were made purely for survival. The Mammoth bone house is one such object
Without shelter, there is no surviving. There was no architecture or decorative thinking in the Mammoth bone homes. The only thing that was built was anything that would make the structure stronger. One object that helps the individual who made it was the Paleolithic Hand-Axe. It is an object used for survival, not decoration. The axe is a tool made out of flint used to hunt. The pieces of pottery shown in the videos were also not pieces of art. They were clearly made to hold a necessity like water. That is something that is common throughout civilization. This includes the Early Jomon Pottery to the Franchthi Cave Greek Pottery. If the pottery and Hand-Axe shown this week is considered art, then any common household item can be considered art as well.
How do you define a non-art object?
Non-art is anything that has a practical use to aid the survival of a species, particularly mankind. This includes anything that can be used as tools, whether it be for survival or for a ceremony.
Through the use of a hand print, we saw a Neolithic artist express authorship. These handprints were markers of identity; outward manifestations of the self. In what ways do we continue to express identity and stake authorship on a daily basis?
The way we continue to express identity and stake authorship on a daily basis is our names. This includes all types of art. Pictures, painting, songs, and articles are all given credit to the person who creates it. At the end of every movie the credits roll and we find out who was incharge of each individual task. When I hand in this assignment, I will get credit for it because my name is attached to it. Our “handprint” is our name.
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