Cultural Studies Art. (gen.

Art Latin ars/artis the way of doing things

Artist/Artizan
Artillery
Traditional classification:
- Fine arts (Beaux Arts) painting (mural,
easel), sculpture (in stone, wood, metal,
light)
- originally not architecture
- Performing arts theatre (film, television),
- Music
- (instrumental symphonies e.g. Eroica,
sonatas eg. Moonlight Sonata, concertos
piano, violin)
String and wind
- Aerophones (trumpet, clarinet, organ)
- Chordophones (guitar, piano, )

Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

- Vocal human voice (womens - contralto,

alto, mezzo-soprano, soprano; male: basso,
baritone, tenor, contratenor) castrati
- operas (Traviata, Aida), oratorios (Creation
of the World) ,
- Ballet Later classifications: Arts of space and arts
of time
The arts of a given society and historic period have much in
common with one another, with the prevailing mythology, religion,
and philosophy, and with the dominant structure, the
characteristic adventures, and the typical activities of the culture
and day. None of these may have been consciously noted by the
artist; he might even have set himself resolutely to oppose all of
them. Yet the prevailing patterns make their presence inescapably
felt in the language, the routine life, the omnipresent customs,
rules, and habits which characterize him no less than it does the
other members of the culture and period.

Since existence has three dimensions, there are

three types of art -- spatial, temporal, and
dynamic.
Since the essential dimensions of existence are
- space,
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Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

- time, and
- becoming,
it is reasonable to distinguish the arts on the basis of their primary interest
in one or the other of these dimensions.

(1) Architecture, sculpture, and

painting are arts which create a
space iconic of existent space. (1a)
The units of the spatial arts have
primary reference to the size of
man
Le Corbusier: "Architecture is the
masterly, correct and magnificent play of
the forms of light."
L. Mies van der Rohe: "Less is more.
L. Sullivan Form follows function
Adornments often help make a work of art
more conspicuous, attractive, or
acceptable. But they also tend to obscure
its nature, blur its value, prevent the work
of art from being recognized as a single,
organically unified whole. A work without

Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

ornaments is more likely to be a more fully

unified work than one with them

(2) Musical compositions, stories, and

poetry create a time having the
texture and meaning of existing time
(2a) that of the temporal arts have
primary reference to the span of his
attention

(3) Becoming is creatively presented in

musical performances, in the theatre, and
in the dance.
(3a) the dynamic arts have primary reference to
mans life pulse.
Each triad too has its own kind of "negative
space."
(1b)The first takes account of empty places,
(2b) the second of unaccented beats, and
(3b) the third of rests.
There is a correspondence among members of the
different triads.
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Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

(1c) Architecture, musical compositions, and

musical performances enclose a created
dimension of existence;
(2c) sculpture, story, and the theatre occupy a
created dimension;
(3c) painting, poetry, and the dance are the very
dimension which they create.
Tragedy tragoidia.
Messenger
Comedy Komos
Theatron
Odeon
Deus ex machina
3 unities of time, of place, of action
Mystery play Medieval beginnigs of theatre

The performing arts of music, theatre,

and dance have spatial components.
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Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

Music fills the hall; actors are on the

stage; dancing creates a sequence of
spatial regions
Sculpture:
Etienne Falconet: "Nature, alive, breathing, and
passionate this is what the sculptor must express
in stone or marble . . ."
Even a static work of art should express the
vitality which is at the root of all being.
Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini: "Sometimes in order
to imitate the original one must put into a
marble portrait something that is not in the
original."
The work can convey what the original did only if it is unlike the original, only if it
subtracts from, adds to, and transforms what was initially discerned.

Antonio Canova: "Sculpture is but a language

among the various languages whereby the
eloquence of the arts expresses nature."
Sculpture offers one of a number of possible
ways of expressing the nature of existence. It is a
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Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

language whose terms are lights and shadows,

hollows and protuberances, planes and solids,
whose grammar is given by the established
techniques, and whose message is expressed in a
created, beautiful work.
Aristide Maillol: "I pursue form in order to
attain that which is without form."
H. Lauren: "Essentially sculpture means taking
possession of space."
Sculpture is a spatial art, an art which
presents the texture and reveals the nature of
the space of ultimate reality by means of a
newly created, occupied space.
Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner: "Space can
be as little measured by a volume as a liquid
by a linear measure. . . . Depth is the unique
form by which space can be expressed."
Odilon Redon: placing the logic of the visible
at the service of the invisible."

Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

Nicolas Poussin: "Painting is nothing but an

image of incorporeal things despite the fact
that it exhibits bodies."
Franciso Goya: "Color does not exist in nature
any more than line . . . only advancing and
receding planes exist."
Vincent van Gogh: "Color in itself expresses
something; never mind the object."
Paul Klee: "Art does not reproduce the visible
but makes visible."
A painter is not a reporter. He offers no reproduction of what he
sees, but makes something to be seen.

Piet Mondrian: "To create unity, art has to

follow not nature's aspect, but what nature
really is."
H. Wadsworth: ". . . the painter does not paint
what he sees but what he knows is. A reality
must be evoked -- not an illusion."
Art does not present us with illusions. Instead, it
portrays existence in its bearing on man, at the
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Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

same time that it exhibits existence's spatial,

temporal or dynamic texture.
Henri Matisse: "Exactitude is not truth."
Paul Gauguin: "It is better to paint from
memory, for thus your work will be your
own . . . When you want to count the hairs on a
donkey, discover how many he has on each ear
and determine the place of each, you go to the
stable."
It is not the function of art to provide
duplications or reports of what particular things
are.
Giuseppe Verdi: "It may be a good thing to copy
reality; but to invent reality is much, much
better."
Art

Art is the creative use of the human

imagination to interpret, understand,
and enjoy life.
in Western cultures - nonuseful,
nonpractical purposes

Cultural Studies Art. (gen.)

10

in other cultures - important, practical

purposes.
art - especially verbal (myths, legends,
tales) - reflects the cultural values and
concerns of a people.
Functions:
- verbal arts transmit and preserve a culture's
customs and values;
- myths set standards for orderly behavior;
- songs do this within restrictions imposed by
musical form.
Any form of art may contribute to the
cohesiveness or solidarity of the society.
Art is the product of a specialized kind of
human behavior: the creative use of our
imagination to help us interpret, understand,
and enjoy life.
Links between art and other aspects of culture
(sea chantys, Bachs chorales, preludes, and
fugues).

Art is not a luxury to be afforded or

appreciated by a minority of esthetes or
escapists, but a necessary kind of social
behavior in which every normal and active
human being participates.
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11

Art must be at the same time related to, yet

differentiated from, religion. The dividing line
is not distinct.
It is convenient to distinguish between secular
and religious art, if not between art and religion.
In secular art our imaginations are free to roam
without any thought of consequence or
aftermath.
In religious art, the activity is aimed at assuring
our well-being through propitiation, celebration,
and acknowledgment of forces beyond ourselves.
VERBAL ARTS
folklore (coined in the 19th c) - unwritten
stories, beliefs, and customs of the European
peasant as opposed to the traditions of the
literate elite.
Linguists and anthropologists prefer to speak of
the oral traditions and verbal arts of a culture
rather than its folklore and folktales.

The verbal arts include:

- narrative,
- drama,
- poetry,
- incantations,
- proverbs,
- riddles,
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12

word games, and

naming procedures,
compliments,
insults (when these take elaborate
and special forms).

Narratives divided into three basic

categories: myth, legend, and tale.
Myth is religious - a rationale for religious
beliefs and practices: where we and the things
in our world came from? why we are here?
where we are going?.
Myth has an explanatory function; it depicts and
describes an orderly universe, which sets the
stage for orderly behavior.
Myth - if believed, accepted, and perpetuated
in a culture - expresses the world view of a
people:
Problems of interpretation:
- Are myths literally believed or accepted
symbolically or emotionally as a different
kind of truth?
- To what extent do myths determine or reflect
human behavior?
- Can an outsider read into a myth the same
meaning that it has in its culture?

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13

How do we account for contradictory myths

in the same culture?
- New myths arise and old ones die: is it then
the content or the structure of the myth that
is important?
Legends - semi-historical narratives that account
for the deeds of heroes, the movements of
peoples, and the establishment of local customs;
usually serve to entertain, to instruct, to inspire
or bolster pride in family, tribe, or nation.
Epics - longer legends, sometimes in poetry or
in rhythmic prose.
- direct and indirect statements about history,
institutions, relationships, values, and ideas.
- found in nonliterate societies with a form of
state political organization; they serve to
transmit and preserve a culture's legal and
political precedents and practices.
they provide the clues to what constitutes
approved or model ethical behavior in a culture.
The subject matter of legends is essentially
problem-solving, and the content is likely to
include: combat, warfare, confrontations, and
physical and psychological trials of many kinds.
questions:
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14

Does the culture justify homicide?

What kinds of behavior are considered to be
brave or cowardly?
- What is the etiquette of combat or warfare?
- Is there a concept of altruism or selfsacrifice?
Tales - creative narratives, (secular,
nonhistorical, and recognized as fiction for
entertainment, though they may as well draw a
moral or teach a practical lesson).
- a basic motif or story situation
Which one is the original?
What is the path of its diffusion?
Could it be sheer coincidence that different
cultures have come up with the same motif and
syntax, or could it be a case of independent
invention with similar tales developing in similar
situations in responses to like causes?
rize local types of tales: animal, human
experience, trickster, dilemma, ghost, moral,
scatological, nonsense, and so on. In West
Africa there is a remarkable prevalence of
animal stories, for example, with such

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15

creatures as the spider, the rabbit, and the

hyena as the protagonists. Many were
carried to the slave-holding areas of the New
World; the Uncle Remus stories about Brer
Rabbit, Brer Fox, and other animals may be
a survival of this tradition.

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