Saturday, March 21, 2020
Essay on Painting and Philosophy
Essay on Painting and Philosophy Essay on Painting and Philosophy Essay on Painting and PhilosophyUnder the great impact of various brand-new ideologies that appear in the late 19th and earlier 20th century, the styles and the manners of art are changing and the cohesive group with previous art interests splits apart. The new mode of the artistic expression has begun to develop, an emphasis on decorative forms of artworks in place of the realistic representation gradually. Art as one of the most particular platforms empowers people to demonstrate the reality as well as to express the individual cognitive. In either way people treat arts as an efficient resource to define the term of â€Å"Reality†. Artists from late 19th and earlier 20th century manipulated naturalistic forms to reflect what they conceptualized to be â€Å"their realities†. The examination of decorative forms (colors, brushworks and Proportion/depth) that applied in specific paintings would provide the evidence of how artists interrupt the realities with their concept s and impression.Colors and Van Gogh           Color is one of the most crucial components in the process of establishing the art style. According to Andrew and Markus’s theory of the Color-in-Context[1], color have 3 properties, which are hue, lightness and saturation. These three properties not only provide the aesthetic value of the color but also with the functional value. Basically, it means color shouldnt be seen as the simple representation of the reality but the ideology or the cognitive that people attempting to present. Vincent Van Gogh’s artworks always applied the dramatic colors, which demonstrate the representation of his emotional experience. â€Å"The night cafe†is one of his oil paintings from 1888 and the color tone of this painting is standing out because it got plenty of saturated and non-naturalistic colors assembled together. The title of the painting suggests the content suppose to associate with the part icular ‘Night’ time period. However, all the complimentary colors with heavy saturation mess around the reality. Van Gogh increased the intensity of the light in the night cafà © and created a new version of it with his imaginary and manipulation. Because of the bright yellow, saturated red and pure green, everything in the painting provides the spectator a feeling of horror and isolation. Refer to Van Gogh’s letter[2]:           â€Å"The general effect of beauty of color in nature may be lost in painfully literal imitation; it may be maintained by recreating a parallel spectrum of colorsmuch, everything, depends on my feeling for the infinite variety of tones of the same family†According to Bekker’s idea[3], Van Gogh focused more on the intensity level of his psychological emotion but obscured part of his sensory experience purposely. The inner motion of Van Gogh dominates his production process. He put his atten tion close to the beauty of color and exaggerated the great effect the color has. Also, Van Gogh did interrupt the reality with his individual feelings, and meanwhile, this individual concept empowers him to depict the idea of how he sees the world and in his words, to maintain â€Å"the beauty of color in nature†.Depth and Proportion           In the journal â€Å"On the origin of the world: ‘Expressionism’†, Donald developed the idea about the expressionism that Matisse carried in his work is reflecting an individual creative process, which covered both the result of naturalistic and pictorial.[4] Through this creative process, color and brushwork definitely play the crucial roles but the proportion of the artworks is important as well. The oil painting â€Å"Joy of life†which was done by Henry Matisse from 1906 shows how he represents the nature instead of copying it in the aspect of Proportion.[5] â€Å"Joy of life†is the painting focused on the flatness of the space by compressing multiple levels into a single platform. Regarding to Werth Margaret’s analyze of this painting, she conceptualized the proportion of the painting is divided into three different bands and has â€Å"both triangular and circular†composition.[6] All the components and figures in the painting are organized to guide the spectator’s eye toward the opening centre in the painting. Matisse recreated the reality and interrupted his individual concepts into the nature to express â€Å"his reality†to the spectators.Brushwork is the index of artists’ manipulation           Based on Michael Newall’s study[7], visible brush marks on the painting would always be the evidence to trace the artistic movement from the artist. In another word, brushwork has the same function as the beats in a piece of music, which acts as indexes to guide spectato r going through artists’ inner world. As one of the establishers of Fauvism, Henry Matisse abandoned the naturalistic style of art expression and applied the controversial movement in his works. â€Å"Woman with the hat†from 1905 is one of the earliest Fauvism painting which done by Matisse. There are two main components in the painting draws people’s attention a lot the harsh brushstrokes and the non-naturalistic color, which was studied in the previous section. In Lauren Tracy’s journal, â€Å"Matisse emphasized the depiction of idea and feeling rather than the representation of reality, and his works served as an important shift toward the highly abstract artistic movements looming on the horizon.†[8] The free-roaming brush works that applied on the painting presents the direction of the artist’s movement with hands and arms. Bold outline of the figure demonstrates less accuracy of the reality but more depict of Matisse’s idea and emotion. This painting’s background is basically created with several color layers, for example a patch of green simply attached with the pink color on the right side of the woman. Matisse didn’t keep his eye on the delicate transaction between different colors but leave them as the separated color palettes with wild brush marks. He is presenting the reality that he sees in the world.           From Michael’s points of view: â€Å"That the action painter’s brushstroke was expressive of the painter’s mental state at the time of its application quickly became subject to the kind of objections that put paid to the expression theory of art.†[9] There are various ways for artists to express themselves but brush mark is the form could be identified with the dynamic movement that the artists made while they are creating artworks. Though those dynamic brushstrokes, the artists’ personalities and their mental stages could be presented and connected.Conclusion           In the later 19th century and earlier 20th centuries, artists are facing the great changes from the previous art interests to the new art expression, which focus on using the decorative forms to demonstrate the particular points of view that artists have towards the reality. Specifically, colors, proportion and the brushwork in the painting are not only presenting the aesthetic value but the function value as well. Those components of decorative form connect the nature to the artists’ manipulation of the reality and show the spectator the emotional level of artworks.[1] Andrew J.Elliot, Markus A. Maier, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Chapter two- Color-in-Context Theory (Elsevier Inc. 2012) 61-125http://ac.els-cdn.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/B9780123942869000020/1-s2.0-B9780123942869000020-main.pdf?_tid=0e7ab44e-6ee3-11e4-ab60-00000aacb362acdnat=1416288400_4aba50b 425480bde8c969ab4e9df7a4c[2] Bejjer, K G; Bekker, A Y, Color and Emotion- a Psychophysical Analysis of Van Gogh’s work. (University of Florida, 2009)http://search.proquest.com/docview/894124164?accountid=14771.[3] Ibid.[4] Donald E. Gordon, On the Origin of the Word Expressionism- Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (The Warburg Institute, 1966) 371[5] Ibid. 370[6] Werth Margaret, The joy of life : the idyllic in French art, circa 1900, (2002),163[7] Michael Newall, Painting and Philosophy (Philosophy Compass, 2014) P.231http://journals1.scholarsportal.info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/pdf/17479991/v09i0004/225_pap.xml[8] Lauren Tracy, Woman With a Hat by Henri MatisseBeauty and the Wild Beasts (JAMA Facial Plast Surg, 2014) 81-82[9] Ibid. 232
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Undertaker
Undertaker Undertaker Undertaker By Maeve Maddox After reading my recent article on caretakers and caregivers, a reader asks, How about explaining the particular use of another kind of â€Å"taker†-an undertaker, as in mortician or funeral director. If the business that is being â€Å"undertaken†[is] that of burying the dead, why don’t we call other professional services such as banker, realtor, physician, â€Å"undertakers†as well? The easiest answer to this question is that at one time we could have used the word for other service providers, but in current usage, undertaker has dwindled to only its present specialized meaning. In the 14th century, an undertaker was a â€Å"helper.†Wycliffe translated Psalm 53:6 as â€Å"The Lord is undertaker of my soul.†In the 17th century, undertaker had more than one meaning: an investor a person who acts as security for someone else in a business undertaking a baptismal sponsor. In the 19th century, undertaker could refer to: a subcontractor an investor. a book-publisher a play producer Undertaker with the meaning, â€Å"one who makes a business of carrying out the arrangements for funerals†was already in use in 1698. By 1884, someone could write, â€Å"You look as solemn as an undertaker.†Such is the human aversion to death that words closely associated with burial tend to be abandoned for other uses. The noun shroud, for example, started out in English with the meaning of â€Å"clothing.†In Aelfric’s translation of Genesis 45:22, God gives Adam and Eve â€Å"twa scrod†(two shrouds) to cover themselves. By the 16th century, shroud had taken on the meaning of â€Å"white cloth or sheet in which a corpse is laid out for burial; a winding-sheet.†Note: Shroud in the sense of â€Å"a set of ropes, usually in pairs, leading from the head of a mast and serving to relieve the latter of lateral strain†was in use in the 15th century. The ropes â€Å"clothed†the mast. Coffin is another word that started out with a general meaning that had nothing to do with death: â€Å"basket.†In a 14th century sermon referencing the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the left-over food filled â€Å"twelve coffins,†but by 1525, coffin had taken on the specific meaning of â€Å"the box or chest in which a corpse is enclosed for burial.†In the United States, funeral directors came to feel that the word coffin was too creepy for consumers, so they decided to change the name to a more pleasant word: casket. In its original sense, a casket is â€Å"a small box or chest for jewels, letters, or other things of value, itself often of valuable material and richly ornamented.†For example, the Franks Casket in the British Museum is a beautiful little 8th century chest made of whale’s bone and carved with scenes depicting the Adoration of the Magi, the Emperor Titus, Romulus and Remus, and Weyland Smith. The coffin-to-casket evolution in the U.S. is an example of a pretty word taken as a euphemism for something unpleasant, which in time comes to acquire the same unpleasantness it was supposed to obscure. At least one meaning that used to be attached to undertaker is still to be found in another â€Å"under†word, underwriter. Sometimes public radio announcers refer to their sponsors as underwriters. And in one sense, we are all â€Å"undertakers†when we undertake a new project. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Rhetorical Devices for Rational Writing10 Colloquial Terms and Their MeaningsHow Do You Fare?
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