Monday: Introduction to the Art Imitation Project. This is going to be due a week from today (next Monday)and it will be awesome. We'll also be looking at art through the ages and discussing what art says about the culture from which it emerges.
Simon Schama's "Caravaggio"
Tuesday: Introduction to different ways of interpreting "quality" in art. Simon Schama's "Bernini"
Wednesday: Introduction to "Marxism" (both the philosophical position, the economic system, and the method for interpreting art), Simon Schama's "David"
Thursday: Introduction to Freud/ Psychoanalytic Art Criticism. Zizek on Hitchcock
Friday: In-Class Essay applying a Marxian or Freudian analysis to Fritz Lang's Metropolis
BLOG POST ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEK
It is always said that "art imitates life," but how true is this cliche? Why do human beings feel the need to express something about their lived experience through artistic expression? How has this changed throughout the ages?
I think that this cliche is absolutely correct. The need to express who we are through art is because we want some one to remember us or even remind us of what we are when we lost our paths. Sometimes, one may find that an experience in their life has some kind of meaning and one wishes to express this message to the world, like how protest art is use. I cannot say this for certain, as the style fluctuates depending on the era and place, but it seems that back in older times, art were not as symbolic, the "art" is a more simple and straightforward. If one starts going a little further into time, art starts to become more symbolic, especially in terms of architecture. Buildings of important people are grand and huge, such as the pyramids or even the temples in Greece. As one goes further into the future and into present time, it becomes harder to categorize the style into one category because there are so much styles out there.
ReplyDelete-Kim Pham
Period 5/6
Art can definitely imitate an experience by exactly replicating the experience through a medium. A painting can be painted of a beautiful day at a mountain, for example. Art can also imitate the emotions of humans in a more abstract way; through symbolism, color and many more artistic devices. It is also true that art can never truly imitate life because it is created by humans. Humans can only do so much as to interpret a situation, using only a handful of methods.
ReplyDeleteYet, ironically, it lets humans see the deeper meanings of life through the isolation of certain situations. To a human that sees life as a whole through eyes, life is a big
jumbled mess that has endless interpretations through different lenses. Art singles out a certain situation and interpretation and shows it to the world, allowing it to be seen, felt, and interpreted again.
Because of that, art is a way to communicate. It is a way to provide a factor or variable in the giant pool of human thought.
This communication can also be used with historic value. If future generations can see past art, a direct and irreplaceable connection has been made.
People who create art might have felt the need to get in touch with the other side of the tangible and superficial side of the everyday world.
So the ways that people use art are vast. But in the far past art was probably used to tell more stories, while in the present more art is used for communication. With the enlarged system of political and social interactions in present day society and with more knowledge, communication is even more necessary to convey wisdom to keep a balance.
Zach Krebs, Period 1/2
"Art imitates life" because life is messy while art is beautiful. Art is simple. Simple and beautiful. Art imitates life because though art we can view our world. The world is almost too big and too dirty and too impossible for us to fully understand. When we put life as art, it makes life easy and small and beautiful. Humans have very little appreciation for life, for everything that is beautiful. It is really only though looking at ourselves though art that we truly see all this. Art has always been to honor something, to show its beauty. Or conversely to vilify something. From some of the earliest cave paintings, in which you see the virtues of the hunter extolled, to the Roman art, which praised the warrior and male strength, to the Renaissance man. We've always used art to appreciate the beauty of every day life and to extol certain values. So art imitates life because we need to be reminded of our lives.
ReplyDelete-Blair Creedle Reynolds
1st and 2nd period
Art can never truly replicate life because the smallest details and the true feelings and emotions of the subjects cannot be captured by even the most skilled painter or sculptor. Because of this, artists must imitate life. I think the reason artists imitate life is because there is nothing more worthy of imitation. The landscape around us, the birds in the trees, the warmth from the sun-these are all things that make up our lives and they are perfect subjects for art. Art can also imitate the more depressing aspects of life, from the sadness of losing a family member to the ravages of war.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is, there is nothing we can subject our art after that isn't a part of life. Religion, myth, and made up situations are all things that have been thought of by an artist, and therefore are parts of our life. Even the most outlandish piece or the most abstract of paintings still can represent the feelings and emotions that we have in our lives. All art imitates life, because everything that we create is a part of our lives.
I think we feel that we must express life through art because art is more appealing. A man telling the story of his life might be entertaining, but the cons to that are there is no guarantee of his story. He might be making it up just for entertainment and the interpretation of the story is left up to the audience's imagination. But art shows the audience what was in the teller's mind as he created it. Second, with art, one can express anything. As a person just spouting out his feelings, it doesn't hold as much weight, because like I said before, there is no insight into the person's mind and therefore we cannot truly feel what one is feeling. But with visual representation, we have an image of the mind of the creator, and that image might also convey some of the creator's feelings to us. An example of art imitating life is the statues of men conversing in front of Barton Springs in Zilker Park. The creator wanted to capture the content of life back in (insert date here) through a leisurely group of men talking happily, and now anyone who sees that statue might feel content as well. Unfortunately, it won't let me copy the pic onto this post, so here is the link: http://wmorrow1.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/friday-may-07-2010-41.png?w=316&h=203
ReplyDeleteAlec Brown
1/2 period
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis cliché has its rights and wrongs in my opinion. There is no art in which some sort of meaning, emotion or life isn’t present. If there was, it shouldn’t be classified as an art piece. All art, from sculptures to paintings have an emotional level, however different for each person. The more one can relate to the artwork, the more he/she will appreciate it. The truth is art will always be able to “imitate” life, because the term life is full of emotion and value which any art can represent. Some people may look at one art to imitate life more, while others may look at another art at believe that it imitates life more. It all depends on the viewer’s perspective. Human beings from the day of cave carvings to the now modern, abstract art have always created art so that it could express something of their life. From experience or emotion, artists want to share their information out to the rest of the world. Some art may have significance like protest art such as war-depiction paintings showing a horrendous scene of war. Others may be made for pure relaxation for the viewer, but whatever the reason he/she wants their art to live long after they die. As a culture, humans make projects that live beyond they do to escape the fear of death. From cave-carvings to the abstract, modern art, art has always been an influence of our lives.
ReplyDeletehttp://ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/images/uploads_img/leonid_afremov_art_work_1.jpg
(I wasn't able to paste the picture onto the blog)
This painting shows just how simple an art work can be to represent so much emotion value and significance. It brings out the emotion of happiness and romance as the couple walk down the street in the rainy colorful night. It's just the good emotion the painting gives you that allows the viewer to call the piece a true piece of art.
-Ashvin Roharia
-Period 1/2
People feel the need to express their lived experiences through artistic expression as a way of preserving their experiences. Art represents the Apollonian aspect of our lives. Human life is fleeting. Experiences last for an instant and are then gone forever. Life as we live it is Dionysian (in the Dionysian v. Apollonian dichotomy). Life is a series of fluid experiences that are only truly experienced in the moment. Art is a way to try and preserve some aspect of these experiences so that they may live on in the future. Art is the preservation (Apollonian) of some Dionysian emotion or experience that will eventually fade. Preserving the experience in art keeps some aspect of the experience present. Yet, all art is an order of magnitude away from the true emotion or experience it represents.
ReplyDeleteThe general trend of artistic expression has been an embrace of direct symbolism. Across all modern art movements: Distille, Abstract impressionism, Rococo, etc.. art has embraced the use of symbolism. Ancient art was comprised of broad themes. In ancient art the symbolism is overt and doesn't signify anything deeper. Essentially, the defining aspect of modern art (modern meaning non-ancient) is that it contains layers of symbolism. The rise in popularity of painting (as opposed to architecture) has fostered this assumption of layers of symbolism.
Matt Goodman
Period 1/2
i think this is a little backwards and more art imitates life. We are inspired to do great artistic feats by life and real events that have changed and shaped us. You can argue that art inspires others but at some point it was life that inspired art. We depict our emotions and feelings in art and most art (good art anyways) shows part of human culture, feeling and everyday life. The picture you posted is a painting of what came to be by life and that man inspiring someone to make the art. I think we feel the need to express this because we want people to know what we are thinking and how we feel. Also we want to feel like our emotions matter and effect people. Through out time art as an expression has become more symbolic and means more to people when before it was more literal and often about religion.
ReplyDeleteAnnalee Alston
1/2
The cliché that “art imitates life” is very true. I believe that all art expresses some kind of emotion, event, and/or experience. In the movie that we watched about art as a form of protest, one of the men said that he has yet to create piece of art completely devoid of any influence from what he has seen in life. I think that this holds true for every artist because while there is creativity, all new creative ideas must be based on something that came before. Because of this, I think that it is impossible to create art that does not imitate life. If we look back on the cavemen and the art that they drew on cave walls, we can see that it is straightforward and tells a specific story. Throughout time, artists have come to use more symbolism and emotions rather than outright stories. This can be seen especially in modern art such as the Brodway Boogie Woogie by Piet Mondrain. This could be interpreted in a multitude of ways including the attempt to represent confusion, happiness, possibly even the pathways of life. Art now leaves much more interpretation for the viewer to relate it to their own lives as opposed to the explicit art of the caveman age.
ReplyDelete-Emily Tubbs
Period 1/2
There is nothing that anyone knows of besides life, we have experienced nothing else. It is impossible to make something that has not been seen or imagined. It is impossible to imagine something without first knowing what is already there. And so, in everything that can be made or imagined there is nothing that is not related to what we know, and all we know is life, so it follows that all is based off of life. Art most definitely imitates life, from completely abstract expressions of love, reverence or any other emotion, to simple portrait of things and events we have seen.
ReplyDeleteHuman beings are creatures that like to imitate others and reactions. We are fond of using our knowledge to get a point across rather than making up information to try and win an argument. In art, human beings like to use the thing they are most comfortable with and that is their lives. The artist feels that their life is significant and can be used to make their art stronger. They also imitate life because it gives a sense of well-roundness to their art that they wouldn't have otherwise.
ReplyDeleteWith the beginning of modern art, art has become a more complex idea. Before, an artist could paint a person and it would be obvious what the painting was about. With modern art, the art can be a series of lines that can have infinite meanings to it. The art can also symbolize the artist's view on life and how they were emotionally feeling at the time that they had created said art. With Jackson Pollocks' art, he has a sense of technique that is still considered art and he can express his life through his painting by the colors he chooses and in the different types of patterns he chooses to drip.
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/articulations/files/2007/05/pollock_comparisons1.jpg
The expression “art imitates life,” can be true depending on the piece. Some art is created out of pure imagination that the viewer will understand that that particular piece was created through the artist’s emotion. But art that imitates life is the representation type of art because these pieces portray reality so they imitate life. Artists feel that some pieces of art are made to express an important experience because they hope the viewer will receive a message through the art. All art has a meaning which the artist hopes the viewer will take away. But some art is made through a lesson that the artist might have gone through so they can only hope the viewer will understand their experience and take something away from the art. I think this idea has changed through the ages because now artists don’t seem to create as elaborate pieces as they had in the past. The art is now modern and doesn’t seem to have the same viewer response as art that was created earlier on. Maybe artists don’t feel the need to express their own lived experiences because people will buy whatever they can put their hands on. Meaning possibly some artists don’t want to put their heart and soul into the art as much. Although just because particular pieces seem to have less heart in them this doesn’t mean they don’t have a meaning they just may not be related to the artists life.
ReplyDeleteEmily Steger
5/6
By creating art, humans can feel important and innovative, which, in an existentialist view, is what we are constantly trying for. By creating art, we are able to express ourselves in a way that does not necessarily use words and in some cases, this more accurately pinpoints our feelings. This expression relievs the weight of emotion that can sometimes overwhelm a person if not expressed. Further, some simply create art for fun or because they find it relaxing, however this still expresses some feelings, however insignificant. Art in a replication of life makes our lives permanent. this, also an existentialist view, aids us in running away from death and meaninglessness. By creating art successfully, we may be able to make a name for ourselves or at least compose a picture of what we were feeling at one specific monemt in our lives that will last longer than we will.
ReplyDelete-Kat
This saying is very true. Art is an expression of the life of the artist. When an artist creates art, they are sort of creating an extension of their ideas and feelings and how the world today seems to them. I believe that humans express themselves in or through art for two different reasons. Art is can be a form of coping in many cases and allows someone to get all of their ideas and feelings out side of their mind, and analyze it from a more outward prospective. Art can also be used to get a message across. If a person has been through a powerful or traumatic experience art can be a way that they explain and get the message across to others. Throughout the ages the way art has been used has become more flexible. Early art always has a sort of very formal feel to it, and may not have been exactly what the artist wanted to express. Art has now evolved to be a loose and very free form of self expression that is open to anyone, where as in the past artists were a select few who were somewhat high up in the social standing.
ReplyDeleteRachel Ballard
Periods 5/6
Art imitates life because life is the only thing all of us have in common. We all live life so we all have similar life experiences. Artist draw on these common experiences and attempt to make their works relatable to all that view them. Works of art, like Van Gogh's starry night, try to show us how the artist, Van Gogh, sees a common scene. The art, in a sense, is window through the viewer's eyes.
ReplyDeleteArt also imitates life because when we think of life, we think of suffering. There are countless pieces out there that deal with suffering because the strong emotions associated with it make it easy to express oneself in art. This results and there being alot of art having to do with suffering, and so we say it of life, because in life we have known suffering. I guess what i'm trying to say is that life is made up of everything, and the artist have to paint something, don't they?
Paul Holmes
12
“Art imitates life” by displaying things that happen in life, but it puts an interesting twist on its imitation of life. Sometimes the twist is hidden, and other times one must closely study a piece of art to find the hidden meanings. One could look at a painting of a person and think that it is just a simply painted painting and there is not much to it. But if one were to take the time to sit down and stare into the picture, they might find that the proportions are off and maybe that the background is more than one might have expected. By looking deep into the painting, we can figure out what the artist may have been feeling and what they were wanting to express when they were painting the picture. Many times, words are not enough to express or even describe how we are feeling, so we use artistic expression. This has changed through the ages with the different styles of art and the different tools, materials, and knowledge. The way we express our experiences in art has changed also with what we, as a culture, find important and beautiful. The cavemen liked to paint on cave walls to tell their stories, the ancient Egyptians liked to engrave drawings and writing onto stone to show the greatness of certain people and gods, and in medieval times people did a lot with stained glass which was put into many churches. The way we express ourselves even now seems to be changing dramatically. Some people construct abstract sculptures, and others draw normal portraits. All of us have our own styles and they keep changing based on what the people want.
ReplyDelete-Kendra Faulkner
Period 5/6
The cliché “art imitates life” is a 100 percent true, art portrays segments of our lives that we believe are worth saving and remembering later in life. Most of all art is something that the author has witnessed, experienced, or felt, and all are symbolic. Human beings feel the need to express something about their lived experiences through aoristic expression because it gives room for imagination, creativity and life. If an artist experiences something, they can take that true basis and twist and turn it into whatever they want to because art allows them room to do this. And, on the other hand, people like remembering something that has happened, be it good or bad. This has changed through the ages drastically, more people seem to express their emotions now a day, rather than in the past. Maybe this is a change in thought throughout the years, or a resource biased opinion, considering art can easily be made in this day and age.
ReplyDeleteZach Johnson – 5/6
The statement that "art imitates life" is very true. Life comprises every single experience that humans experience in this universe. Art can never be as detailed as life because life involves emotion, experience, and senses (including smell and touch). Art cannot convey all of these. However, art can convey images and emotion and a tiny portion of the experience. Actually, this is what every single piece of art is. It involves everything we have seen in our lives. We create art based on what emotion we feel based on a certain issue and as artists, we try to convey that emotion and image using colors and various mediums.
ReplyDeleteHumans feel the need to convey their emotions and experiences through art because art is a means of release. When someone depicts how they feel and what happened to them, they have created a story about themselves for the whole world to know. This creates awareness of the person's story and becomes a part of history. People of the future will see it and learn a part of history by analyzing a person's art and the story behind it.
Throughout the ages, where new technologies and advancements have brought changes to human society, art has remained constant and existent. Cavemen are one of the earliest people to have recorded art, which we now find in caves. While they may not have created art, their art is one of the earliest ones we have existing today. We can't necessarily find an emotion or story in all of the cave art, but it really was the cavemen imitating life. For example, in
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Lascaux-aurochs.jpg
we see some animals, presumably cows or bulls. I can't identify a specific emotion or story in this, but the fact that the cavemen used nature to create their own art is the earliest example of art imitating life. In the following "modern art"
http://www.paintingsdesign.com/images_art/modern-art-11.jpg
we see a multitude of colors. While we may not know how the artist intends to imitate life or how they want to convey emotions and experience in this, the audience can derive their own experience. Nowadays, art doesn't have to be direct, but art uses a crazy combination of colors and lines to create an image. This image doesn't necessarily imitate life, but as an audience, we make it connect to life. This "modern art" may try to show chaos, and that life is chaotic, but we don't know for sure, because art is open to interpretation. As an audience, we are the ones who connect art to life.
previous comment
ReplyDeleteAbdulkarim Bora
Great Ideas Period 1/2
The cliché that “art imitates life” is definitely true. A week ago we discussed what it meant for an art piece to be a true piece of art. I discussed that a real work of art is done with meaning. All aspects of the piece of art have a purpose behind it and the piece itself is unique. It presents qualities that almost give the art piece itself personality. This means that the art piece has an expression in it. As the painter paints the painting, he or she is unconsciously putting a little bit of themselves into it. Because the painter is built up from the experiences they had, the painting is painted with the artistic expression of the life of the painter. Since this is true, this cliché is fairly accurate. Art imitates life more than life imitates art. Art is frankly a representation of life. Whether abstract or realistic, both convey one, a symbol of life, and two, a moral or idea that life holds. Life creates art so life itself cannot imitate life because life has more meaning. Art is locked in time, whereas life is continuously moving so art is only a snapshot of life. With the advances in technology and change in culture, art has changed with it. This is another proof that art imitates life. As life changes culturally and in other aspects, art follows right after because it “imitates life.” Recently, the structure of life has changed and so has art. Modern art has split into more and more categories because the world today has become more and more diverse and many new cultures have arose.
ReplyDelete-Daniel Kim
½ Period
All we know of is life, so by saying that art imitates life is saying that what we make is something that we know, so i find it very true. Humans are a creature that has trouble imagining what we don't know, assuming it's not fairy tales. none of us can look forward and say a device that will be around in the future just like in the 1600 no one guessed there would be phones. So if you take a piece of art it has something to do with your life, whether colors that remind you of something or an image of something you wish to be in the most abstract of things. Everything links back to your life and who you are. Art is complex. Even if ones painting a picture of a girl it may have symbolism and meaning that anyone other than the artist can only guess at. So yes, art imitates life, because life is all we know so what we create has to be based off of it.
ReplyDeleteAriel Timkovich
period 1/2
The definition of cliche is a truth that has been warped to the point where it has lost all meaning. The problem with calling the phrase "Art imitates life" a "true cliche" is that it is in many ways an oxymoron and somewhat trite. I believe that there is no reason why we sometimes do not imitate art. Our actions and goals are built on a standard and set of perfections that can only be achieved by art. Therefore, if life imitates art, and art does indeed imitate life, which I feel it does, then does art imitate art and life imitate life? Part of the reason this class exists is to show the progressions of mankind through such mediums as art, theology and even government. Perhaps if culture is to survive, art must imitate life, life must imitate art and both must imitate themselves as a way of making a symbiotic system of furthering culture, from cave drawings to norman rockwell.
ReplyDeleteAaron Weintraub 1/2
It is completely true that "art imitates life". Given that all of our perceptions and experienced are made up by our lives, including our emotions, life is the only possible subject matter. If art is something that evokes emotion in some manner, and what we consider to be sad or happy is shaped by our lives, then art evokes and aspect of our lives upon its viewing. If there are no subjects to be drawn upon that have not been experienced or at the least imagined within our lives, then how could art possibly imitate anything but life?
ReplyDeleteSam Shook
Period 1/2
I don't exactly agree with that expression, unless you're talking about some hardcore realism artist. To me, art imitates life only to an extent. If you're recreating a scene that you are seeing/have seen, there is usually a reason for that. There must be a reason why the image is so memorable to you that you felt the need to do that. It's the subjective emotion that you're recreating, not necessarily the exact image. The different styles of artists also reflect that. Art is different from life. For instance, the photo example that you used of the man preparing food. If you saw a man fixing a dish in a regular environment, you wouldn't think much of it. It's just a person making a meal, the end. But by capturing that moment, you give it meaning and feeling. This also applies to drawings that in no way resemble anything in real life.
ReplyDelete- Zoe Obkirchner
1st/2nd period
II agree with the statement that "art imitates life." Human beings feel the need to express their own emotions and actions through art because it is a mean of preserving our experiences. By turning our experiences and feelings into art, we are expressing them in a different way, allowing us to analyze them differently. Art also imitates life in the sense that it gets a reaction from people. The purpose of art is to cause an emotion or a reaction. In life, we make decisions based on the response we think we’ll get from the people we have relationships with. Early art depicts obvious actions, where the symbolism is obvious. As life has gotten more complicated and hectic in today’s times, more abstract art is being created. Abstract art forces the viewer to look deeper into the more complicated symbolism, extracting a more complicated meaning.
ReplyDelete-Luisa Venegoni 5/6
I agree with the adage "art imitates life" because I think that every artist feels the need to represent their life as a piece of art for two reasons. The first is, as humans we try and turn everything into something tangible and material, and an art piece is something expressive that is maybe one of the best ways we can represent something as vast as life itself.
ReplyDeleteThe second reason has to do with the vastness of life, that is, life to us, through our subjective eyes, is so vast and so unique, we feel we must demonstrate its greatness to others. While everyone on the earth has their own life, which can be viewed as spectacular and unique in a way, naturally we see our lives as something irreplaceable, something completely unlike anything on this universe. Many appeal to this uniqueness and use art to relay their feelings.
However, it is very true that the way of representing life through art has changed, and evidence is as simple as looking at arts' differences over the centuries. During the 15th century, when Catholicism was at a cultural high, most paintings are either blatantly related to the church, or have some tie-in to Catholicism. Today, however, formalist art, which exists specifically to question the boundaries of what makes art, is a prime representation of the skeptic and cynical attitude towards life that the world has taken on. We question the boundaries of life more now than we have ever before, and the art made today demonstrates our curiosity, our desire to stretch the boundaries.
All of this is to say that art most certainly imitates life.
Phillip Hawkins
Period 5/6
Art is made exclusively by humans, so subesequently it reflects only that which lies within the boundaries of the human experience. For art to not imitate some facet of life would mean that the painter was privy to a unique and exclusive perspective. Some might argue that each individual artist was in fact experiencing their own exclusive perspective, but the fact that their art is comprehensible to some portion of the populatuion renders it still limited by the collective human experience. The statement that "art imitates life" is therefore always true.
ReplyDeleteCody Pfund Pulliam
Period 1/2
I think that artistic depiction of life has changed a lot from the early days of humanity to now. When the first cave paintings were created, it's possible that the people were using the art to communicate. Whether the drawings were of animals in the region, rituals of the people living there, or anything else, they depicted scenes that others were meant to look at and know something new about the area. Now, however, art is not necessarily for educational purposes. A lot of paintings come from the artists' imagination, are portraits of specific people, or depict landscapes. Many pieces of modern art don't really depict anything, at least not the same thing to everyone. The paintings now have more abstract meanings, and can be interpreted to have deeper themes and symbolism. Many artists put more thought into their creations than the ancient humans do. Therefore, the statement that art imitates life was more true during the dawn of humanity than it is. However, modern artists are still limited to things in the world. While it's perfectly acceptable to paint a flying unicorn in an orange sky with a moose riding on its back, each of those elements is defined in our society. However inventive someone can be, nothing can be created in a mind that hasn't been influenced by something in the world.
ReplyDelete~Kerry Anderson, Periods 1/2
Art imitates life because art is created by those whose only experience is life. As humans, we cannot convey anything that we cannot conceive of, and our only past experience is with that which is included in "life". What is seen in art is also restricted to being interpreted based on the past life experiences of the viewer, so even if art could be created that did not imitate life, it would be viewed as imitating life merely because we understand everything through a filter of our own lives and through our past experiences. Humans feel the need to express something about their experience because that is the only thing that exists (for them), and that is the only thing that they could possibly have any insight into because they have actually experienced it.
ReplyDeleteRebekah Pruett, 1-2
Art does imitate life and if it does not then I would not consider it art. Experiences in life such as pleasures and pains can only happen once in your life. Humans feel the need to imitate their experiences in life or life it self to re-experience that event or feeling. Art is like a snap shot of life and you can experience that snap shot by looking at the art.
ReplyDeleteI think as time passes, art has been involving and becoming more complex. The concept is the same but more things are getting added. What i mean by that is that modern art today has more symbolism and has a deeper message than lets say ancient Greece pottery paintings.
Glenn Sampayan
1/2
I would not go so far as to say that the statement is entirely true, after all there is plenty of art made for the sake of breaking beyond the shackles and boundaries of life. I would agree, though, that as human beings, we have a tendency to create art from ourselves and from the human experience. I think this is because we are, exclusively it seems, aware of our own mortality and insignificance. I do not mean to say that the art about ourselves is there just to slap our names on something and justify our existence. Art can and should be used to beautify the mundane and glorify the seemingly unimportant because everyone's story deserves to be told. What is art but an expression of the artists or other human's ideas and emotions? Art is created, above all else, for ourselves for it to be true. As humans we have a desire to make our mark on the world and leave not just to impress our importance, but also to let our voice be heard when we are not present. Throughout the ages different people have done this in different ways. The emperor types leave their impressions with great cities and monuments. The entrepreneurial and resourceful do it with their companies. The documentation that holds the most value is of the masses. They speak the clearest of our cultures and values, and these are what should be interpreted by future generations.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletei would agree that art imitates life. In multiple ways as well. With the literal with paintings like " the second glance ". Art is used as a creative note pad to spill our ideas and imaginations on. Life is such a wild and unexpected ride, that its only natural that record our ridiculous ways. Imitations can be as easy as a self portrait to a abstract confusing painting.
ReplyDelete- jaquice per. 1
ex. http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/30-pictures-of-life-imitating-art
"Art imitates life" is such a broad phrase, and there it becomes very hard to argue upon further examination. Life can encompass everything as an individual perceives, and in this way, everything is life. Therefore, art has to imitate life, because what else is there for it to imitate? It's not as if art is some piece of junk that is given no thought.
ReplyDeleteArt is premeditated, unless it is free-flow improvisational art. In this way, the artist is in some way thinking of some way to imitate life, whether this imitation takes a very literal sense or something much more abstract such as emotions. Even if the art is improv, you could easily say that the art is an imitation of life, because it is reflecting the emotions or the subconscious of the artist.
In the past art imitated life in "simple" ways, such as a Neanderthal drawing a cave painting of some type of animal, most likely a food source. However, now that we no longer spend most of our lives hunting large game to stay alive, art has become at times much less literal a reflection of every day life and more abstract. As well as art has progressed to contain a larger variety of genres today, there are still many differences around the globe that have to deal with culture. For example, in one country dot art might be the standard form of representation, but in another it might be pastel based drawings. No matter how you look at it though, the phrase remains true, "art imitates life."
-John Gormley
-12 Odum
I agree with this cliche, because art is an artists interpretation of day to day life and values. The styles, colors, strokes, and lines and artist uses can represent their views on life. For an example, Vincent Van Gogh did a series of paintings during his blue period. These paintings included darker colors (mostly blues) and depicted scenes in a rather dark manner, expressing his depression in life.
ReplyDeleteHuman beings feel the need to express their emotions through art, because art allows the artist to unlock their inner secrets without truly being found out. An artist may crate a work which will then be interpreted by critics, however nobody but the artist will ever truly understand why they created that piece and what it represents. It is a free release of emotion.
Over time this has changed through style, issues, and ideas. This is because of not only an evolving art world, but the growing world around us where new day to day things happen, new wars occur, and new debates arise.
--Mariah Park per. 5/6
It's not completely true that art imitates life, and this is because we can completely control art, and we cannot control life. Because of this, we make art to retain some sort of freshness of memory for events and emotions.
ReplyDeleteOver time, however, we've made art less to preserve a memory or event, but to express something about the world we may wish to change.
Many of the paintings from centuries ago are religious, and attempt to project a past religious event. However, now we're seeing paintings about starvation and more tragic things.
Art will never truly imitate life because we can't control life, and over time art has changed from the preservation of events to a commentary on our imperfect world.
Thomas Massad
Odum 1/2
I think that art imitates life because, otherwise, what is there to portray? In a sense, there is only life to portray. To portray anything other than life would be meaningless; what would there be to relate to, as a viewer of the art? The viewer can only relate to life, because that is all that he has experienced. Life also is all that the artist has experienced as well, and hence it is all that he can portray.
ReplyDeleteArt is used as a creative idea. Life is such a wild,unexpected and spontaneous, that its only natural that record our ridiculous ways. Imitations can be as easy as a self portrait to a abstract painting. Almost all art is different, because many people perceive things in a different way.
ReplyDeleteWell, all that the viewer has to relate fromto create art are the experiences he or she has had IN his or her life. Art nessecitates reflefction on life, because you have to have some sort of intention of the effect you want to have on the viewer, and the viewer needs to be able to relate to it. and since both the artist and the viewer are alive, the artists depiction of the artists life will break through the viewer's perspective so the viewer understands.
ReplyDeleteClare Lewis, 1st period
Art imitates life because it's truly the only perspective humans can draw from. We might wish that we can see the world from a different perspective, but this is what we have, and so our art is inevitably going to be based upon that. If you see a painting about life, then there's a reflection of life as it was when it was painted, because as Sartre believed, humans are always re-defining themselves, and so the definition of humans at that time was what was painted.
ReplyDeleteNate Hattersley
ReplyDeletePeriod 5/6
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