History Of Art Research Assignment: The Evolution Of Art (Essay Sample)

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History of art
Introduction
Visual arts history is immense. Thousands of artworks are available around the world. People study art, teach art and learn from it. Mankind has developed the visual art from small paintings of the dead on limestone walls to the modern fascinating art. The Egyptians prominently created the earliest paintings. These paintings were gifts for the dead. The Egyptians decorated the temples and tombs to give the deceased a pleasant afterlife. Mud plaster was used to treat the rough walls. Mineral based paints were then applied on the walls. The resin was after that applied to preserve and protect the paintings.
During the industrialization period, better forms of art were manifest. Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Mona Lisa remains the most studied art in modern times. In this painting, he combined his techniques and knowledge of human anatomy. The result was a magnificent painting of a lady with a subtle, mysterious smile. Evolution of this art has grown through the various ages of human existence. In German, the most prevalent form of art is known as expressionism. Expressionism tries to illustrate the artiste's inner feelings regarding a certain issue.
Expressionism
Expressionism is a form of art in which the image is painted in a distorted way to make it expressive of the artist’s ideas and inner feelings. In this art, the colors can be non-naturalistic and highly intense. The brushwork is free, and paint application tends to be highly textured and generous. Expressionism can be associated with the 20th century.it simultaneously emerged in various German cities in response to the widespread human anxiety and the ever-widening human relationship with the world. During this period distortion of form and use of intense colors became profound as the artists tried to express a variety of yearnings and anxieties. This was meant to ensure that art emanated from the artist and was not an expression of the environment. This was to draw a clear difference in the art from impressionism. Impressionism is an art through which the artist seeks to express the wonders of nature and the human form.
Munch's "puberty painting."
This painting was a created towards Munch’s puberty end.it shows a bug-eyed, squashed girl with an oval face. She sits at the center of the picture. The girl provides a sharp focus. She is about puberty age and naked. She is sitting at the end of the bed. She has her legs clamped together, arms crossed over her crotch trying to hide from the view of the world and the eyes of the viewer. The painting dramatizes the girls struggle at the thought of growing into a woman. She can be seen to be trying her best to resist this growth (Danto, 13).
The picture expresses the artistes’ uneasy feelings towards women. It can be deduced that he is worried about being taken over by women, sucked dry and entangled in them. The girls’ posture turns the figure into a rounded form. An outline of the girl can be drawn all around her. There is the girls’ shadow. The shadow is not shaped like her. What it does not fall appropriately across the bed.it is a rounded formless dark blob that is just attached to her. This formless blob is a symbolic representation of the struggles that she is going through.
Jackson Pollock's Lavender Mist Number 1 1950.
Pollock had a unique way of producing his art. He would create paintings using brush drip technique. He had no specific pattern of applying his paint. He would drip it from all directions. He would then proceed to mix even the everyday materials such as sand on the canvas creating a magnificent piece of art. In his lavender mist no.1 painting of 1950, he managed to forge a beautiful landscape which delivers contrasting shades and well-differentiated colors (Freedberg, 14). He makes use of mainly white, black, brown and green painting. These color combinations give the painting an earthy resemblance. In this painting, Pollock uses contrast, texture, color, and emphasis. The overall effect is that the painting acquires an earthy appearance, relative calm and a serene atmosphere all depicted by the well-blended colors’
These two pictures are both forms of artistic expression. While Pollock’s picture illustrated the natural landscape, Munich creatively expresses the struggles of a young girl in her puberty age. The pictures give the viewers an insight into the artists’ view of things. Each picture is a perfect combination of colors that bring out a clear message from the painter's point of view (Broude, 20). These two paintings depict the onset of expressionism in such a befitting way.
The works were done in the 20th century where little was known about expressionism. These two paintings suffered similar fates at the hands of critics. To some critics, Pollock’s paintings appeared childish. Little was known and seen in the drip painting techniques. Pollock’s works required a keen observer and art enthusiasts. On the other hand, critics claimed that Munch’s puberty painting did not bring out a clear message. The blob that was painted at the girls back failed to make sense to some.