In defense of Abstract Art
Essay - 2 pages - Arts and art history
It's possible to believe that people around the world love, hate, misunderstand, and criticize abstract art. More than likely the people who've come to hate and criticize probably have no art history knowledge or appreciation whatsoever. However, art critics and serious art collectors debate the...
Analysis of 'The miracle of Christ healing the blind' by El Greco
Essay - 3 pages - Arts and art history
“The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind” features in the European Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was painted in approximately 1575-76 by the artist El Greco in oil on canvas and measures 47 x 57 ½”, an outstandingly large painting. It illustrates the passage in...
'The Second Shepherd's Play' - A comment
Essay - 4 pages - Arts and art history
Religion has always had a major influence in all aspects of human culture. This can be seen in many different forums from education to social norms to entire governments: Art, in particular, has been deeply affected by religious ideals. In order to see the role religion plays upon an aspect of...
The value of Blues in the face of Oppression: Ma' Rainey
Essay - 4 pages - Arts and art history
In 1927, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstong began their careers. Armstrong's start was in Chicago. The setting for August Wilson's play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, also happened to be in 1927, and in the city of Chicago. During this time the commercial and economic value of African-American art,...
How Hogan Heals - "The Book of Medicines"
Thesis - 3 pages - Arts and art history
The concept of healing is a central and consistent theme in Linda Hogan's book of poetry called The Book of Medicines. Throughout all three sections of the book, the reader is shown the value and process of healing of American Indians and the earth itself, especially concerning the white...
Arts of America [A Mask- Shaman Pendant- A Sully Portrait]
Thesis - 3 pages - Arts and art history
There is a dynamic range of artistic style, cultural influence and quality of the pieces on display in the Arts of Americas wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. The variety of the art is reflective of the different cultures represented. The spectrum can be seen throughout the three pieces...
The Arts of Africa [Opon Igedeu v Nkisi Nkondi]
Thesis - 3 pages - Arts and art history
Throughout African history, artistic creation has been a fundamental element of the livelihood of various cultures. The Yoruba, of Nigeria, hold the aesthetics and criticisms of art to an extremely high standard, of which they can measure personal contentedness with life as a whole. The Chokwe,...
Pho Pasteur: Drawing in Emersonians and Bostonians
Essay - 3 pages - Arts and art history
It is quite popular among various social groups to have a favorite place to go for gastronomical options. A spot that encapsulates a comforting and familiar atmosphere, and that provides cuisine that is enjoyed and loved by those who flock to it. In Boston, it seems that there would be an endless...
Global Festivals: An Overview
Essay - 5 pages - Arts and art history
In today's contemporary times, music festivals are held on every continent, except Antarctica. These numerous festivals that take place across the globe each year, are illustrations of cultural identity, in the host country, and in the collection of foreign artists participating in them. The...
Art and globalization
Thesis - 21 pages - Arts and art history
"Art always has been and always will be important to humans", says Cynthia Freeland, professor of philosophy at the Houston University. This sentence, announced as a universal truth, shows that art remains strongly essential for human beings. It is also assured that everybody knows the importance...
Tricksters for Myths and Legends
Thesis - 2 pages - Arts and art history
Gods, according to mythology, are troublemakers. What shines through from the lessons espoused within most mythological tales is that Gods are apt to get carried away. They represent the most basic of human desires, seeking self success, happiness and fame; and they are driven entirely by blind...
Jenny Holzer: Merging Verbal and Visual Art
Thesis - 3 pages - Arts and art history
Art of the 20th century can be characterized by the common feature of progressing the definition of art and constantly challenging the relationship between artist, art and viewer; the ability to do this while utilizing new technologies that appeal to the modern world and current events is what...
Buddhist influence on architectural elements of the Dunhuang Caves of China
Thesis - 4 pages - Arts and art history
The Dunhuang Caves have long been one of the most important architectural sites in the world, not only as a monument of cultural heritage, but also as memorial to the only religion to ever be universally accepted throughout the vast empire of China. While the sheer number of caves is an...
Comparison of two artist-painters' works: Jacques-Louis David and Gustave Courbet
Thesis - 4 pages - Arts and art history
The artists chosen for this study are the two French painters Jacques-Louis David and Gustave Courbet.They lived similar experiences in the social and political chaos of post-revolutionary France. Chronologically speaking, the two of them together examined the changes in the society furthermore...
A historiography of the net.art
Essay - 4 pages - Arts and art history
The historiography of an event, phenomenon or a novel can be defined as the examination of different discourses and diverse modes of writing history. Therefore, we must first, examine the design of the history and methodology. Today, historiography is characterized by a rapid methodology that...
Cinema and Technology: An Essay
Thesis - 3 pages - Arts and art history
'The cinema of attractions directly solicits spectator attention, inciting visual curiosity, and supplying pleasure through an exciting spectacle' Gunning (1990), p. 58. To what extent does mainstream cinema today continue to operate as a 'cinema of attractions'? Illustrate this...
Medieval Europe: Investiture Controversy
Thesis - 3 pages - Arts and art history
The Investiture Controversy marks one of the most unstable moments in the history of the Catholic Church. At the heart of the controversy, there were two sides competing for supreme authority, trying to answer the question of whether the king's power outranks that of the Pope's or vice versa....
Art After 1945: Gordon Matta-Clark
Thesis - 7 pages - Arts and art history
Like many of the artists of the 1970s, Gordon Matta-Clark was concerned with the impact of a capitalist-driven society on an urban setting. After studying architecture at Cornell University, Matta-Clark devoted himself to the concept of “anarchitecture.” Anarchitecture is an...
The Night Cafe by Van Gogh: An analysis
Thesis - 5 pages - Arts and art history
The Night Cafe by Van Gogh gives a real sense of melancholy, which is an outcome of the deep night glow in the cafe. This canvas has a very specific character. Painted in 1888, the Night Cafe is the pictorial transcription of sentimental and emotional tribulations that haunted the painter....
Joseph Beuys's 'I Like America and America Likes Me'
Thesis - 10 pages - Arts and art history
Joseph Beuys's “I Like America and America Likes Me" was performed in May 1974. The location of the action is commonly referred to as the Rene Block Gallery in New York. The gallery opened with this performance at 409 West Broadway. Beuys performed this action as a 53-year- old and with...
Street art: A case study
Thesis - 5 pages - Arts and art history
Places and means of access to culture are very numerous and very diverse. However, one often makes a deliberate approach to access knowledge: visit a museum, surf the net, participate in classes etc. Fortunately, there are areas of universal access, all you need is to keep your eyes and ears...
Jackson Pollock's Black and White: Number 26 A:
Thesis - 9 pages - Arts and art history
On 11 August 1956, the art world lost one of its most innovative American artists. Jackson Pollock died in a car accident and took with him the secrets of his work (which had been controversial) specifically the art of "drippings" (which he had engaged in from 1947 to1950). Among the...
The representation of the Great War in German Art: Otto Dix (1891-1961)
Thesis - 5 pages - Arts and art history
In August 1914, after months of a prolonging crisis and tension, the Great War broke out, abruptly interrupting any artistic activity in Europe. Indeed, those who had helped launch the first wave of new ideas of the twentieth century by their avant-garde trends were mobilized. It is in the...
Land Art
Thesis - 20 pages - Arts and art history
In the late 1960s, a limited number of artists, especially from New York, United States, left the classical settings of the workshop, gallery and museum, to work directly in nature, or introduce natural elements into museums. According to GillesTiberghien, this new Land Art can be defined as "a...
Analyze the (critical) implications of how Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, Universal, USA, 1944) uses the conventions associated with film noir.
Thesis - 4 pages - Arts and art history
Double Indemnity is widely regarded as a classic example of film noir by film critics and fans of the genre alike. In terms of genre Double Indemnity clearly belongs to the film noir category although it is due to the lighting and style that many believe, film noir should be classed as a style...
The emergence of Al-Jazeera in the Middle East
Essay - 2 pages - Arts and art history
Olfa Lamloul, in her book entitled Al-Jazeera, Defiant and Ambiguous Mirror of the Arab World wrote, ‘The short history of the disrespectful Arabic channel Al-Jazeera, broadcast from the emirate of Qatar,provides valuable reference points in the maze of Middle Eastern issues in the post-Cold...
What image of the ' native ' population does Delacroix's 1834 Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement present, and how did Picasso revisit this painting in 1954?
Essay - 5 pages - Arts and art history
Delacroix painted Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement in 1834 after he was back from his journey in Morocco and Algeria which had profoundly influenced him,. In 1954, after having revisited many painters such as Velasquez or Monet, Picasso decided to revisit Delacroix's Femmes...
In what way does Romanticism challenge the aesthetic values of Neoclassicism?
Essay - 4 pages - Arts and art history
At a time when the ideal of enlightment dominated in European cultural life, Rousseau was the only philosopher to enhance the significance of individual experiment and the need for nature in the education of young boys. Nature is elevated to a moral guide, a source of innocence and timeless...
Women with the Hat, Henri Matisse, 1905
Essay - 3 pages - Arts and art history
This paper analyzes the extent to which the artwork, by virtue of the painting technique used, has an impact on the reaction of its audience, and the artistic context in which it was created. Imagine a woman looking at someone. She is seated, with her face turned towards the audience. She seems...
Avedon and Evans - Portraits of the Country
Essay - 3 pages - Arts and art history
Walker Evans (1903-1975) is often said to the best American documentary photographer of the century. His most important and famous work was his depiction of American rural life during the Great Depression. Commissioned by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1935, he meticulously documented...
