PART ONE: Introduction

We all dream. That is imagination at

work. (pg.6)
To imagine means simply to make an
image a picture-in our minds.

Different ways our imagination
can be triggered;
when we are ill
a ceiling crack on which we have kept
our eye may begin to look like an
animal or a tree
our imagination adds the line that
were not there before
inkblot (fig. 1, pg. 7) made by
accident
Imagination
the imagination is one of the most
mysterious facets of mankind
connector between the conscious and
subconscious, where most of our brain
activity takes place
the very glue that holds mans personality,
intellect, and spirituality together
imagination is important for allowing us to
conceive of all kinds of possibilities in the
future and to understand the past in a way
that has real survival value
Who were the first artists?
Who were the first artists?
Shamans
Believed to have divine power of inspiration
and could enter the underworld of the
subconscious in a deathlike trance;
Ability to penetrate the unknown and
express it through art
Artist remains a magician whose work can
mystify and move us
An embarrassing fact to civilized man, who
does not readily relinquish his veneer of
rational control
What is Art?
Art and Meaning
What is Art?
Why does man create it?
Because of an irresistible urge to recast himself and
his environment in ideal form
art represents its creators deepest understanding and
highest aspirations; at the same time, the artist often
plays an important role as the articulator of shared
beliefs
a great work contributes to our vision of life and
leaves us profoundly moved
a masterpiece has this effect upon us many people
Art and Meaning
it can bear the closest scrutiny and
withstand the test of time
art enables us to communicate our
understanding in ways that cannot be
expressed
Art and Meaning
But what is the meaning of ART?
What is it trying to say?
Art has been called a visual dialogue for it
expresses its creators imagination just as
surely as if he were speaking to us, though
the object itself is mute
If we cannot literally talk to a work of art,
we can at least learn how to respond to it
Taste is conditioned solely by culture, which
is so varied that it is impossible to reduce
art to any one set of precepts

Art and Meaning
Therefore, that absolute qualities in
art elude us, that we cannot escape
viewing works of art in the context of
time and circumstance.
Thus, forcing us to readjust our sights
Art and Meaning
Even the most painstaking piece of craft does not
deserve to be called a work of art unless it involves a
leap of the imagination
But if this is true, are we not forced to conclude that
the real making of a work of art takes place in the
artist mind? NO!
Without the execution of the idea, there would be no
work of art
The artist himself would not feel the satisfaction of
having created something on the basis of his leap of
the imagination alone and he could never be sure that
it would really work unless he put it into effect
Art and Meaning
Thus the artists hands, however modest
the task they may have to perform, play an
essential part in the creative process
The leap of the imagination is sometimes
experienced as a flash of inspirations, but
only rarely does a new idea emerge fully
blown
Instead, it is usually preceded by a long
gestation period in which all the hard work
is done without finding the key to the
solution to the problem
Imagination makes connections between
seemingly unrelated parts and then
recombines them
Art and Meaning
The creative process consists of a long
series of leaps of the artists imagination
and his attempts to give them form by
shaping the material accordingly
Thus, he gradually gives birth to his work
by defining more and more of the image,
until at last all of it has been given visible
form
Work of art is both joyous and painful,
replete with surprises, and in no sense
mechanical
Artist tends to look upon his creation as a
living thing
Art and Meaning
The making of art has little in common with
what we ordinarily mean by making
It is a strange and risky business in which
the maker never quite knows what he is
making until he has actually made it,
It is a game of find-and-seek in which the
seeker is not sure what he is looking for
until he has found it
Craftsman only attempts what he knows to
be possible
Art and Meaning
The artist is always driven to attempt
the impossible- or at least the
improbable or unimaginable
The artists way of working is so
resistant to any set, rules, while the
craftsmans way encourages
standardization and regularity
Artist as creating, instead of merely
making something
The urge to penetrate unknown realms, to
achieve something original, may be felt by
everyone of us now and there
Artists not so much the desire to seek
-- mysterious ability to find which we
call TALENT!
-- gift
-- genius meant that a higher
power-a kind of good demon-inhabits
the artists body and acts through him
Aptitude the craftsman needs
-- a better-than-average knack for
doing something that any ordinary
person can do
-- fairly constant and specific
-- can be measured with some success
by means of test which permit us
to predict future performance
Creative Talent utterly unpredictable
-- can spot it only on basis of past
performance
Even past performance is not enough to assure us
that a given artist will continue to produce on some
level
Originality
Distinguishes art from craft
How original?
Every work of art occupies its own specific place in the
spectrum of what we call tradition
Without tradition-the word which means that which
has been handed down to us no originality would be
possible, it provides, as it were, the firm platform
from which the artist makes his leap of the
imagination
Tradition- is the framework within which we inevitably
form our opinions, of works of art and assess their
degree of originality
Why is that Art?
Why is that good Art?

Originality
Why is that Art?
Why is that good Art?

Well, I dont know anything about art
but I know what I like.

Originality
Art is so much a part of the fabric of human
living that we encounter it all the time,
even if our contacts with it are limited to
the lowest common denominator of popular
taste
I know what I like = I like what I know
such likes are not in truth theirs at all, but
have been imposed on them by habit and
circumstance, without any personal choice.
Self-Expression and Audience
all art involves self-expression (fig. 3 pg.
11)
De Andrea makes us realize that to the
artist, the creative act is a labor of love that
brings art to life
The artist does not create merely for his
own satisfaction, but wants his work
approved by others
The hope for approval may be what he
makes him want to create in the first place
The creative process is not completed until
the work has found as audience
Self-Expression and Audience
In the end, works of art exist in order to be
liked rather than to be debated
public audience not the quantity but
the quality
the merits of the artist s work can never be
determined by popularity contests
love of works of art an attitude at once
discriminating and enthusiastic that lends
particular weight to their judgment
experts, people whose authority rests on
experience rather than theoretical
knowledge
PART TWO: HOW ART BEGAN
The Magic Art of Cavemen and
Primitive Peoples
The Old Stone Age
our earliest ancestors began to walk on the earth
with two feet about two million years ago, but not
until some six hundred thousand years later do we
meet the earliest traces of man the tool maker
he must have been using tools all along, for apes will
pick up a stick to knock down a banana, or a stone to
throw at an enemy
sticks or stones as fruit knockers or bone crackers
once man was able to do that, he discovered that
some sticks and stones had a handier shape than
others and put them aside for future use-he
appointed them as tools because he had begun to
link from and function.
The Magic Art of Cavemen and
Primitive Peoples
Large pebbles or chunks of rocks showing
the marks of repeated use for the same
operation
Next step was for man to try chipping away
at these tools-by-appointment so as to
improve their shape.
This is the earliest craft of which we have
evidence, and with it we enter a phrase of
human development known as the OLD
STONE AGE.
Cave Art
Thirty-five thousand years ago, late stages
of old stone age
Men lived in caves or in shelter of
overhanging rocks
Sites have been discovered
cavemen was divided into several groups;
Aurignacians and Magdalenians- gifted
artists
images of animals painted on the rock
surfaces of caves; cave of Lascaux, in the
Dordogne region of France (fig. 4 pg. 15)
Cave Art
Bison, deer, horses and cattle
Some simply outlined in black, others
filled in with bright earth colors
All showing the same uncanny sense
of life
(Fig. 5 pg. 15)
Cave Art
How did this art develop?

What purpose did it serve?

How did it happen to survive intact
over so many thousands of years?
Cave Art
The pictures rarely occur near the mouth of
a cave, where they would be open to easy
view ( and destruction), but only in the
darkest recesses, as far from the entrance
as possible
These images served a purpose far more
serious than mere decoration
By making a picture of an animal they
meant to bring the animal itself within their
grasp, and in killing the image they
thought they had killed the animals vital
spirit
Objects
Also produced small hand-size
carvings in bone, horn, or stone, cut
by means of flint tools
(fig. 6 pg. 17)
between 10, 000 and 5, 000 B.C
The New Stone Age
new crafts and inventions; pottery, weaving
and spinning, basic methods of
architectural construction
uncovered by excavation
stone implements of ever greater technical
refinement and a vast variety of clay
vessels covered with abstract ornamental
patterns, but hardly anything comparable
to the art of the Old Stone Age
(figs. 7 and 8 pg. 17)
The New Stone Age
religious
moving of mountains
structure is oriented toward the exact point where the
sun rises on the longest day of the year,
sun-worshiping ritual
Greek archi-tecture meant something higher than
ordinary
tecture (that is, construction, or building) , a
structure set apart from the merely practical,
everyday kind by its scale, order, permanence, or
solemnity of purpose
Primitive Art
the imaginative reshaping, rather than the
careful observation, of the forms of nature
its concern is not the visible world but the
invisible, disquieting world of spirits
to the primitive mind, everything is alive
with powerful spiritsmen, animals, plants,
the earth, rivers and lakes, the rain, the
wind, sun, moon.
Primitive Art
All these spirits had to be appeased, and it
was the task of art to provide suitable
dwelling places for them and thus to trap
them.
Such a trap is the splendid ancestor figure
from New Guinea (fig. 9 pg. 19)
Ancestor worship being perhaps the most
persistent feature of primitive society n
Mask and Costumes
Primitive man was not content with rituals
or offerings before his spirit traps
He needed to act out his relations with the
spirit world through dances and similar
dramatic ceremonials in which he could
temporarily assume the role of the spirit
trap by disguising himself with elaborate
masks and costumes
Masks from by far the richest chapter in
primitive art, and one of the most puzzling
Meaning is often impossible to ascertain
Mask and Costumes
Jealously guarded from the uninitiated
Heightened the emotional impact of the
ritual
Encouraged the makers of masks to strive
for imaginative new effects
Masks are less bound by tradition than
other kinds of primitive art
(Fig. 10 pg. 20)
(fig. 11 and 12 pg. 20)
Painting
plays a subordinate role in primitive
society
to color wood carvings or the human
body
intricate ornamental patterns
Indian tribes developed the unique
art of sand painting (fig. 13 pg. 21)
Development of Visual Arts
Prehistoric art is primarily focused on hunting,
and shows great variety of stylistic treatment,
and sophistication of form, color and line.
The Greek art rejected magic, combined sport
and religion and imbued scientific view of
nature.
Roman art has preference for sharp forms and
elongated figures. It served the cult of
ancestors and defied emperors.

Development of Visual Arts
Medieval art was focused on spiritual
expression than physical beauty.
Symbols were emphasized.
Gothic art emphasized rediscovery of
nature resulting in a calmer, more
plastic style.
Egyptian culture has the elements of
nature as the sun, moon, stars, sacred
animal on wall carvings, life size figures
of men and women.

Development of Visual Arts
Greek sculpture was calm, thoughtful,
and is more focused on the form of
men and womens body.
Roman sculpture emphasized bust
forms represented by famous men
and women.
Byzantine sculpture was focused
more on churches and biblical figures.

Development of Visual Arts
Gothic sculpture stressed figures with
carving of their garments to show
impression of real bodies and limbs
Architecture started with the Neolithic
Age, the New stone age, which lasted
roughly from 8000 to 3000 BC.
Before the Neolithic Age, man often
used existing caves for shelter and
also for religious ceremonies.

Development of Visual Arts
The oldest traces of early man are
tools made of stone.
Mud bricks and fired bricks were the
principal building in Mesopotamia.
The Architecture in Egypt consist of
steriometric shape or mass and
rhythmically articulated elements
expressed mainly in pyramids and
other tombs and temples.

Development of Visual Arts
Classic Greek Architecture is best seen in the
temple that consists of 3 columns: Doric, ionic
and Corinthian.
The principal building types of Islam
architecture were the palace, tomb, and fort.
Spiral buildings and spiral works of art were
found throughout the Islamic architectural
history.
The Byzantine architecture is famous with large
screen wth paintings of saints, Christ and
Madonna inside churches.

Development of Visual Arts
Romanesque architecture features
rounded arches, low and dark heavy
walls and fortress walls and piers.
Gothic architecture features pointed
arches, with verticality, no walls and
extensive use of glasses.
Renaissance architecture features
symmetrical, worldly, and
aristocratic.

Development of Visual Arts
The Romantic classicism architecture
consists of steriometric shapes or
values, such as cube, sphere,
pyramid and cone.
The current trends in architecture are
more of weightlessness and
transparency.