From the beginning of time, men and women have scrutinized, categorized, and compared components of their surroundings in an attempt to better understand their world. In the Bible's book of Genesis, Adam, seemingly in appreciation of Eve's uniqueness and beauty, poetically proclaims her, "bone of...

Although the De Stijl movement was not the renowned development that cubism or surrealism turned out to be, it nevertheless carried quite an influence into the art world and the design of architectural workings. Despite a fairly fleeting exposure, the De Stijl group could possibly be considered the...

The "reintroduction" to the arts in the curriculum has been a slow process with many detours along the way. It has also been compared to Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences in this way: "Three important truths are woven together in Gardner's characteristically perceptive trope. First is ...

During the Archaic (600b.c. - 480b.c.), Classical (480b.c. - 320b.c.) and Hellenistic (320b.c. - 30b.c.) periods, the developments of Greek freestanding sculpture and the human body progressed considerably. The forms and features of the human sculpture changed dramatically from generation to genera...

Within John Ruskin's book "The Two Paths" he discusses many of his ideas, concerns, and theories on art and art culture. I will cover four of what I think to be the more interesting concepts. Balancing true representation of form and 'abstract' human expression in an artwork. The effect art has...

A common observation of current society demonstrates the link between art, music, drama, and literature and social norms, politics, scientific trends and discoveries, and religious and philosophical discussions. In some cases, it is difficult to discover whether it was, for example, the art that inf...

Art may be present in any form of human activity. Plato regarded art as a form of play or pastime, which was inferior to such occupations as agriculture or cookery. Schiller referred to art as a play impulse. According to Ruskin, fine art is that which the hand, the head and the heart of ma...

The term "conceptual art" is based on the simple but revolutionary premise that art should be mainly about ideas instead of material objects. In other words, artists should focus on what they think, not on how things look. Conceptual artists usually set aside the traditional processes of art like ...

What does the word formalism mean to you? Give a brief outline of your understanding of formalism historically and technically in the visual arts. How do you use formalism in your work? Is it a major consideration, is it a tool like any other, do you perhaps not concern yourself with such analyses. ...

Mary Cassatt was a woman who soared to the stars across the firmament of the male-dominated international art world. She was the only American, male or female, to become a member of the French Impressionists. Most women of her time were confined to the circumscribed world of marriage, homemaking and...

Gangs I'd like you to take a journey with me, would you please close your eyes and imagine yourself cruising along the streets of Oakland. You are driving and the light just turned yellow, you stop at the stoplight. You see a little kid walking towards you, while he crosses the...

Throughout history, women have often been portrayed in art as objects to be admired for their beauty and charm, but rarely to be acknowledged as artists themselves. Historically, the role of women was as mother and wife, a demanding charge that left little room for other pursuits. In "The Lady ...

Biculturalism is an integral part of analyzing the contemporary and modern artwork of Southeast Asia. Regardless of the country, every part of Southeast Asia has its own history with a complex timeline of western influences that have an impact on the style of each country's art. This essay will f...

The word "globalization" can be defined as the decline in costs of doing business internationally. One of its key effects is to enhance the international integration of markets for goods, services, technology, ideas, financial and other capital, labor, and even arts and crafts. The end of the Cold...

Every moment of every day art is created. A person can look at anything for a period of time, and eventually find some artistic quality to it. Will that quality that he or she finds be the same as the artist's, or even the same as the person standing right next to them? Of course not. But ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol is a very important contributor to the world of art. Andy's life so revolved around art, that he believed no two other things tied in with each other more. Alastair Mackintosh wrote of him: "He was aware of the pressure of success, of the danger of becoming an inst...

Following the Second World War, the art of literature has been one of the most important environments for the expression of the human nature and human thought. It stood out as a framework for personal analysis and contemplation despite the fact that there were numerous political elements which in th...

Plato's belief was that art is fundamentally based on imitation. It was this imitation which made art inferior, combined with the unsuitable moral content of some art. Plato's condemnation of art is seen by some as too rationalist and "depriving it of all its charms" (Otto Apelt). Modern obje...

"The Harness" By Ernest Buckler "The Harness", written by Ernest Buckler is a short story written by a Canadian author. It is a story about a boy and his father. The young boy and his father don't have a regular father-son relationship. At the beginning of the stor...

Manet's painting, "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère," was an integral factor in the rise of a new era in art; through the emergence of a contemporary Parisian city, modern art began to flourish during the late 1800s. Being a painting of extreme complexity and ambiguity, many art critics have comment...

Thesis: Donatello was one of the most important fifteenth-century masters whose bronze statue of David is an enigma. Donatello was a gifted sculptor who lived in the fifteenth century and had a great impact on not only the Italian Renaissance but also on the future of art. He was an innovator in ...

The life and work of Andy Warhol have inspired many writers to tell of the artist’s secrets in published writings. However, Carter Ratcliff accomplishes this feat in a unique fashion, profiling Warhol’s work in "Andy Warhol." A must-read for anybody interested in the origins of American Pop ar...

A significant work of Japanese art that is of particular interest is the handscrolls of "The Seven Fortunes and the Seven Misfortunes" by Maruyama Okyo of the Edo period. These scrolls by Okyo are a pictorial explanation of the real-life blessings and evils that, according to Buddhist philosophy, ...

The Northwest College of Art There are two parts of life I believe everyone is entitled to: the right to be yourself, and the right to an education. At school we learn more than what is written in a textbook; we learn to interact with our peers, we learn how to behave in certain situations, an...

Darwinian Creativity, fact or fiction? (The Evolution of Kids Stuff.) In his paper, "Could there be a Darwinian Account of Human Creativity?", Daniel Dennett ponders the origins of what society deems art, and whether art has evolved from more primitive acts of construction, or, ...