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MD: Ancient World Blog Post

Michael DeGennaro

Choose one artwork from the ancient world (your choice, but the BK Museum has a good selection of Mesopotamian and Egyptian art), use formal analysis to talk about the work and relate it to some of the concepts we have discussed in class.

This cartonnage/mummy was particularly eye catching to me because when I think of ancient Egypt, the mummification process instantly pops into my mind.  As as a child, it is what mostly interested me when learning about the ancient civilization. Mummification and the preserving of the human body is an art form in itself, adding makeup, and trying to rejuvenate diminishing features is difficult.  Though this piece of art is titled “Mummy of an Anonymous Man”, features that the artist chose to include can indicate his level of importance. On the exterior, the artist depicted a human head, whose eyes are wide open, glaring at his viewer. This shows that although their physical body has died, they are still alive and watching closely and intently from the afterlife.  His skin is a dark red-brown skin color which in ancient egypt, represented outdoor life and pursuits of men. Red was also the color of precious stones which can indicate his value. The artist chose to groom the man very sharply and neatly, similarly to the neatly groomed, though much longer beards we looked at in class, which can indicate his status in society as well.  The faded burgundy patch on his shoulder is an ancient symbol for holiness, which the artist chose to include as a sign of his possible God-like value. The gold necklace, as well as the sold idea of being preserved alone indicated that you are apart of the upper class, and your legacy will live on in the after life.

Unit 1 Summary

In our unit one for Art History, we learned what is art, what it means, Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy and Power, banking model, and formal analysis. In the beginning, as our first assignment, we were to write what art means to us, an and most of us wrote how it is a form of expression to oneself, it can be music, it can be choreography, and how it can be literally anything.

As I read The fundamentals of interpretation: formal and contextual analysis, I learned how art is also used as a form of advertisements and how it can have a powerful impact. For example in the reading, they mentioned the Dior ad, it was a simple photo of a lady sitting with the Dior bag, with the Central Park as a backdrop, and within this photo, there is no headline promoting sales and discounts. This photo is powerful in a way because it captures the thrive of New York City, with a gorgeous and stylish lady who is Gwyneth Paltrow, this ad is literally screaming “Dior’s not outdated, its retro cool”.

When we learned about formal analysis, I realize it’s more than that criticizing an artist work, it’s about understanding what the artist is trying to convey visually. There are many kinds of formal analysis such as analyzing the colors, the lines, the space and mass, scale of the work, and the dimensions. It had made me realize there is a deeper meaning to the art, and appreciate the techniques that the artist puts into their work.

Paulo Freire’s banking concept of education is basically that the teachers “teach” and the students are “taught”. The problem with this model is that the teachers have the authority over what is being taught to the students, and the students have freedom in their own thoughts and opinions. We are to aimlessly learn and memorize on what the teachers are teaching and retain this information without an objective. Freire objects this kind of concept and instead believes that students should work together with their teachers to come up with solutions, to have dialogues to interact with each other, thus allowing the students to be able to think more freely and come up with their own ideas and opinions.  

To sum up, what I learned so far in unit one, it is how to have a better mindset, to have a deeper judgment/critic on things and to appreciate on how much effort people put into their art. It’s almost like the popular saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, get a better perspective on things. I thoroughly enjoy what we have learned so far in unit one, and cannot wait to see what unit two can teach me.

Comment to Alex’s post

I really agreed with everything Alex posted on his blog post.  Art is a way for a message to be conveyed and for creativity to flow.  His post is similar to mine in the set up as well as the context.  I also like him took a class my senior year and it gave me so freedom to explore all types of arts.  Art is a great way to send a message out as well as express feelings that can not be said.

Formal Analysis

Formal analysis is the way you describe a visualization through the use of colors, lines, contrast, position, material, illusion, space and mass. You can use colors because the pallet that the author chose to use in his painting can help determine the mood that the painter was feeling. You can use the the size of certain objects to see the importance of the item to the artist see if they saw it as important. The way things are modeled in a painting are important because you will be able to see how the artist intended for something to be looked at.

Blog Post: My Comment on a Colleague’s Blog Post.

I recent commented on a colleagues well- written blog post on their art story and the  similarities in both our  post. We bove agree on the how subjective the meaning of “art” could be and the variety of art forms that exist that is not just limited to paintings, sculptures, and photography. I also commented that we only have one differences in our art story which was our favorite art form, theirs being Photography and my being Painting and sculptures. Through their interest I was also able to notice that they seem more interested in modern art. Despite having different interests in different art forms it is not big deal because we are different people with different art stories who happen to agree that “art” has no definite meaning.

Formal Analysis

Formal analysis is a way of visually describing things with careful examination. Often when using formal analysis it “concerns the visual and physical aspects of the work of art” (23). When using this method of analysis, usually the purpose is to get ‘the bigger picture’… literally. It SHOWS rather than simply telling us; and as the viewers, we’re trying to see what the artist was trying to get at and what the picture means and how it may effect the viewer- it extends further past it’s physical description.

Formal analysis is unique because it’s very open to interpretation, as each viewer will interpret differently and get different meanings from the paintings. Things like color, lines, space, scale, dimension, etc can all play into the visual exploration, and should all be considered when examining a painting- as they all play into decoding the painting and hopefully providing us with a meaning or explanation of what may have occurred at the time or the artists’ minds.

Formal Analysis

A Formal analysis is a method that we use to describe a person’s art. For example we observed the artwork from our point of view and not from the artist. A formal analysis uses color, patterns, shape, tone and the lines in the artists artwork. The color in a formal analysis is like the artworks shading. Chiaroscuro (light and dark), bright colors to show the tone of the setting in the scenery. We the person looking at a piece of artwork should try to analyze what the message that the artist tries to display. We all have our opinions because we can see the artwork differently from person to person. We use our judgement to understand what the artwork is trying give out to us. For example, the video that we watched in class explain how to do a formal analysis on one of Goya artwork. The person describing the artwork shows each step of how he/she sees the work and giving their opinions and judgement.

Formal Analysis

Formal Analysis is an assessment of visual elements that construct sculptures or any given art work. It is important to use formal analysis to describe a piece of art work because it pin points each element illustrated and expresses the meaning of each element.

The components of formal analysis are:

  • Line
  • Shape and form
  • Space
  • Color
  • Texture

Lines can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, thick, thin, curved, and thick or thin. These lines allow artists to compose pieces that communicate to the viewer by creating various images using different techniques. Shapes and forms of objects bring life to a 2 dimensional object and allow viewers to better interpret the work. Space in art brings a 2 dimensional object to a 3 dimensional state through a feeling of depth and use of shadowing techniques. The three main characteristics of color are hue (red, blue, green, etc.) , value (how light or dark it is)  and intensity (how bright or dull it is) . Color allows artists to depict emotions or playful meaning through their work. Texture brings surface value to art work. If the art work is 2 dimensional texture allows artists to illustrate how the object would feel in reality. All of these elements define art work and allow us to fully understand a piece of art work.

Blog post #4 Formal analysis

 

Formal analysis is the examination of a piece of artwork by describing three different aspects from it.  These aspects are the artwork’s formal properties, subject matter and historical context.  When examining formal properties, the examiner must look at the medium used to compose the art itself, the colors used, the dimensions, the canvas, and all other properties that relate to the art’s aesthetics.  Subject matter of an artwork is sometimes obvious, as with “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo.  With artwork that is less direct and more interpretative, this is where the examiner’s knowledge of art will shine.  Historical context will also help an examiner further understand the subject matter.  Historical context can play into artists’ influences, intentions and state of mind.

Pedagogy And Power

Paolo Friere banking concept of education is basically that teachers “teach”, and students are “taught”. Teachers basically have the power to choose what the students will be learning. The problem with this is that the “teachers” have the authority to choose what to fill with students minds, and the students are forced to memorize and learn these things without knowing why. “Teachers confuse authority of knowledge with their own professional authority, which they oppose the freedom of the students.” Friere disagrees with this banking concept and believes that students should work together with their teacher to come up with solutions, and have dialogues to interact with each other, thus allowing students to be able to think freely and independently.

As students, we encounter the banking concept when we are at school. We are constantly being filled with knowledge that we get from teachers from a young age until we graduate, and constantly being retaining this education yet most of us don’t understand it all or remember it. Although the banking concept can be applied to our education, it also helps us build our own thoughts when we get older. We start questioning things about the time we get to middle school/high school and are always asked about our thoughts on the topic, which gives us a freedom to build our own thoughts and opinions.