Abstract forms of Arts

Abstract/non-representational/non-objective art can be painting or sculpture that doesn't represent a person, place, or thing in the natural world which is completely based on what we see - color, shapes, brushworks, size, scale and, in some cases the process (http://arthistory.about.com/od/glossary_a/a/a_abstract_art.htm). Mondrian from 1917 to 1944, reduced paintings to four elements: line, shape, color, and space which can be seen in his painting Tableau 2 which is an excellent example of non-representational art.

In 1910, Kandinsky changed the most important rules of Western Art to - "concentrate on the expressive potential of pure form by stating - Art need not be a picture of anything" (Frank, 258). In his painting, Blue Mountain, he focused on form rather than the subject matter and hoped that "abstract art could provide spiritual nourishment for the modern Art" (Frank, 360).

I like the quote by Brancusi, "Simplicity is not an end in art, but one arrives at simplicity in spite of oneself, in approaching the real sense of things."

Abstract Speed - The Car Has Passed by Giacomo Balla is an excellent example of an abstract work of Art. When I see this painting for the first time, I noticed the green color and the distracting curves in blue that overlaps the green spherical objects. It caught my eyes and my mind wanted to know more about it as I was only looking at it form. I couldn't even guess what this piece of art all about, until, I see the title of the piece of the Art. Then, I related the artists work to speed and now, I would see the road, green mountains, blue sky and most definitely - the speed!

To appreciate the work of art, I don't think we actually need to have its title. But, saying that I would also like to take into account - the incident, that happened to me when I looked in to Giacomo Balla's Abstract Speed - The Car Has Passed by. I appreciated the art piece in its forms and content but, for the subject matter and meaning, I had to look at the title of the Art to actually, fully, appreciate the piece of Art.

When I went to Denver Art Museum, I appreciated a lot of art and many of them - I even didn't bother to look at the title. But, with the non-representational Art, after looking at the Art piece, my eyes were following quickly to the title.

Therefore, as far as by experience with the process of appreciating Art so far, I would like to have title of the abstract piece of art to fully appreciate the work. For other forms of art, it would not matter as much for myself but definitely helpful to see from the artist's eye view!

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Discussion 8

I can see the colors - Blue, Orange, Red in the work of Art, Blue, Orange, Red by Mark Rothko and it just wants us to see the form as color and enjoy it rather than concentrate on the subject of this piece of Art.

But, if subject matter is what is being depicted in this work of art then I can think of its subject matter broadly in many ways. I can sense the subject matter in this painting as a earth, moon and sun in this infinite universe. The universe is as diverse as the background color of red that represents infinity to me. The earth and moon are alike except the fact that their size differ in proportion with each other which is represented by the same blue color that matches the atmosphere of earth and moon. Life on moon is very interesting subject to me as there are traces of water on the moon that the scientists have studied over the past years. Moon may be the destination for humans if we sense the end of the earth in many years of life on earth. Similarly, Sun represented by the little orange rectangular color at the bottom is giving light to moon and the earth. The form of geometrical shapes with colors combinations help me to figure out the content and eventually the subject matter so diverse to depict the functioning of our solar system.

Similarly, if I have to extract the subject matter out of Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm then I would say -  I saw many dots that are inter-connected which makes me think of the subject matter of this piece of Art as our world that has now been interconnected with the innovation of technology that makes us possible to connect from one part of our world to the other. This led the diversity of our world as there are dots and dots following other dots in many colors as black, white, brown, blue and many other colors of skin which is so beautiful in its own way. This diversity in culture of many colors in our society is always beneficial. We can learn for each other and gain knowledge of many different cultures and stay together happy. 

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Non-Western Art

Non-Western art is different from Western European art with many perspective as culture, religion, materials used in the making of art, form, purpose and many other aspects. The structure of temples, stupas, mosques, houses etc in the non-western art is completely different than the structure of churches, buildings, houses etc in the Western European art. The design concept and the purpose seems to be different as well. For instance, if we go inside Kandarya Mahadeva Temple and so many other temples then we could see hundreds and thousands of erotic scenes in the form of sculptures (Frank, 276). In Hindu belief, spirituality of a man and a women is intact with the joy of sensual pleasure of erotic love (Frank, 276). From the ancient times they were sculptured in certain temples of love in Nepal, India and many more other non-western countries. I have seen these temples in Kathmandu, Nepal which is the world's officially Hindu country (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5355816.stm). I haven't found any of these forms of art in a worship place in the Western European region.

Since, there is difference in belief with the religion in western and non-western region, this belief has created a lot of difference in the arts, its forms and its purposes. For instance, the western art seem to have emphasized in figurative art of their beliefs in God but the Islamic world seems to avoid creating those figurative art with their set of beliefs, unlike, Hindus whose majority of the art seems to be figurative art of lord Shiva, Ganesh, Laxmi, Swaroswati, Mahadev, Parvati and so many Gods. They seem to be more in motion as the art piece of Nataraja, Shiva as King of Dance (Frank, 277). For example, the bright red and blue colors that was used in "The Approach of Krishna" symbolizes the emotional states expectancy and desire that western artist used 

in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, without knowing of these early examples(Frank, 278).

Hence, with these examples we can conclude the importance of studying non western art as it only increases the knowledge, and get to appreciate the art, and, at the same time, learn the civilization from the perspective of our world as one. It would definitely broaden our way of looking at things, and I believe makes us creative and more human or say a real artist. I believe creativity comes from our wide variety of knowledge and, learning the non-western art would increase our knowledge which would indeed increase the likeliness of being creative as an artist!

There is a huge difference in the Non-Western and Western European architecture with its form as well as the purpose. For example, the Kandarya Mahadeva Temple is considered one of the world's most distinctive architecture (Frank, 276). It has a porch and a womb chamber. It has stairways that lead to many porches and allow access to womb chamber for the people to worship God - Mahadeva. The outside of the temple has many sculptures that displays erotic reliefs. The architecture is more open and people can commonly enter the temple without opening the doors. It has the feeling of anyone can come to this building and either, see the reliefs from outside or, go inside to worship lord Mahadeva.

The architecture of Norte Dame de Charters is very huge and its purpose serves more variety than just to worship God. It can hold all of the townspeople at once whose purpose were also to conduct meetings, concerts and religious plays apart from worshipping God (Frank, 244). It looks modern in compared to the architectures from Non-Western region as the Kandarya Mahadeva Temple. There are statues of the Old Testament Prophet Kings, and Queen at the west entrance unlike the erotic reliefs in the Kandarya Mahadeva Temple.

Generally, the major difference I noticed in Hindu and European religious architectures is with its structures, purpose, materials used to construct and the sense we get out of the piece of art.

Frank, Patrick. Prebles' Artforms. Tenth ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2011. Web. 4 June 2011

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Realism and Idealism

In today's world, one of the examples of the artwork that utilizes idealism can be the painting of Michelle Blade: Cast & Cascade and Jose Lerma: The Lightweight.

It uses materials like Durta-lar, lace, wood, paper, wooden selves, etc, that has a mystical presence and absence of a different form of arts. The painting would mean different for different individuals and their meaning can vary in great range. For myself, the meaning of this painting is the women and her characteristics of shyness, calmness, and purity that can only be framed in a wooden frame, these days. 

Jill Harrison Nichol’s paintings of the sea and shore present the love of the sea and the environment you get when you are actually enjoying the sand and the seawater.

The classical Greeks basically focused more on individuals and the ideals an individual should portrait in society. They focused on the achievement of individuals and what they can do for the community. Their main focus was human beings as the superior of all the being and nature as well, and, focused on its characteristics to create many sculptures and other forms of arts (Frank, 227). But, today's idealistic art doesn't seem to be constrained only to this aspect of idealism as far as my understanding.

Romans were practical, less idealistic than the Greeks (Frank, 232). They had people from different cultures living together and it was more practical and beneficial for the Romans to be realistic rather than idealistic, which would develop their community (Frank, 232). They encouraged an even higher degree of individuality than Greeks which helped them develop as a nation with many contributing individuals. They contributed a lot to civil engineering, town planning, and architecture (Frank, 233).

The oil on canvas painting of Marina by Igor Babailov is of an individual innocent girl whose smile is like of my little cousin - reminds me of her.

If it is only the ideology perspective of what I would prefer to follow then I would say, I prefer realism over idealism. It may be because I see the objective reality more than idealism. It is my individual way of taking things. But, saying that, I would also like to follow the idealism for the innovation aspect of the concept. I think there must be a third term that I don't have a knowledge that would integrate both the concepts into one.

Frank, Patrick. Prebles' Artforms. Tenth ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2011. Web. 4 June 2011

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