Art as Expression Essay Example for Free

Art as Expression Essay The question of what art is cannot be properly answered without asking why art is. Prior to the advent of the written language, art was used as a means of communication, and in some ways, written language is in its own regard, art. Art, then, must be an expression of meaning by the artist, or potentially by the client that artist created the artwork for, but this assumption is altogether too broad. Art is not exclusively a private expression because it is left open to interpretation by the individual who looks upon it, and as such art can then be categorized as the representation through a variety of mediums, of whatever the beholder or artist thinks it should be. Which poses a greater question is something art if the individual who designed it had no intended message? Or visa versa is something art if the consumer of the artform does not perceive any message? I was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art about a two years ago, and they had some very abstract pieces on display, all of which brought forth in me at least some semblance of a response, except for a piece by Robert Rauschenberg, call White Painting [three panel], that began a philosophical debate between my brother and I because I refused to call the â€Å"painting† art. To me, there was no way to interpret the three panels of white, they were simply empty canvases that Rauschenberg sold for substantially more than he bought them for. No soul, or emotion went into the piece and as I understand art, that does not qualify as any more than a man playing a abstraction crazy consumer culture for the fool. To backtrack, art in my eyes is the true expression of an artist to the consumer, for the purpose of provocation; art has to make something well up in a person, even if it is not enjoyment, even if it is sorrow, or anger. Art is the way we have always talked to each other as people, and the pure aesthetic painters and songwriters of the last century do not produce art. Art is emotion and passion mixing into something for others to partake in; there is no private art, there is only art that no one else has applied their own perceptions to yet.

From Taco Bell to Tanzania Essay example -- Graduate Admissions Essays

From Taco Bell to Tanzania I lived until the age of 18 in Lacey, Washington, a small town made up mostly of the strip malls and Taco Bell fast food restaurants that line Interstate 5 from Portland to Seattle. Very few of my high school classmates left this town, and instead moved back into the service industries and lower rungs of state bureaucracy where their parents had worked before them. For those of us who wanted to leave, the only routes, at the time, seemed to be the military or higher education. Since, by middle school, I had been tracked into college prep courses, I assumed that I would go to college but did not know where or what to study. In our garage, my grandfather kept back issues of National Geographic dating to the 1920's. The summer before starting high school, he paid me to dust them and it was then that I discovered something called "Anthropology" which, when studied, appeared to lead to a more interesting life in a more interesting place. For my Freshman Physical Science course's "SCIENCE CAREERS DAY," I wrote "Anthropology" down as my career goal, though I knew nothing at the time about the discipline besides the name. I likewise chose a college which I knew nothing about - Lewis and Clark in Oregon - because the brochure mentioned that there were several dozen overseas programs available through the school. Though I could have gone to India, Indonesia, Ecuador, Australia, Korea or many other countries, I decided to apply for Kenya because the year before I had read a book about nomads and the program included a unit on nomadic pastoralism and ecology. After rereading this book much later, I discovered it to be an incredibly sappy, melodramatic and condescending ... ...conflicts in other areas of social life. In the summer of 1994, I had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania on an SSRC Predissertation Grant to begin to establish affiliation, research clearance and possible fieldsites. I have also made contacts at the district level with officials and academics in the area. Though I already speak Kiswahili, the national language of Tanzania, I also have made arrangements to study Maa, the language of the Kisongo Maasai and WaArusha who live in the district in which I will be working. I am looking forward to working in Tanzania not only because of its political stability and unique history as a nation, but also because of the opportunity to generate information about children and education in pastoral communities there, a topic which is still under-researched despite the restructuring of national curriculum in recent years.

A National Artist

A national artist refers to a person who has been given a high recognition for having made significant contributions towards the development of national arts in regard to music, theatre, literature, film, visual arts and other allied arts.   Italian artists are professional artists who have mastered all the themes of fine arts and are Italians by virtual of either working or living in Italy.Italy is well known for its art and artistic culture.   It has been globally recognised for its numerous monuments such as the Leaning tower of Pisa and the Colosseum in Rome.   Italy is also famous for other fine arts, music, cinema, theatre and other forms of arts.History of the Italian art.The origin of Italian art can be traced many centuries back with major happenings having began in the early 14th century (Feller 85).   Art in Italy has been marked by several eras or periods as they are commonly known this includes:The Roman period.This began immediately after the the end of the Puni c wars which was marked by the invasion of the Greek into the Roman empire.   This era was marked by Hellenistic styles which were common in the Greek civilization.There was cultic and decorative use of sculptures and mosaic pictorial presentations which are still evident from the remains of many temples and villas.   As the Roman period came to an end, more naturalistic and severe styles of art were developed at the centre of the empire and were later spread to the East of Italy and before moving to the Constantinople.Byzantine period.Due to the collapse of the western capital of the Roman empire, Italy stayed under the leadership of Constantinople for close to a thousand years.   During this time, artists in the region were involved in many projects throughout Italy and the Byzantine styles were most dominant in all these projects.   This style extended throughout the 14th century.Gothic period.The Gothic era was marked by various religious disputes and the Franciscans and the Dominicans were struggling to address the controversial issues within the aim of uniting the Roman catholic.During this time, Giovanni and Giotto being the first painters in Italy revolutionised the role of an artist from being a copier of traditional social norms and beliefs to being a creative individual.   These two artists strived towards improving the depiction of the whole artistic figures into more realistic pictures (Gibbons and George 19).By the 19th century, the art of Italy was marked with a lot of resurgence.   Italy's unification which happened in early 1871 had all the local paintings which had been painted decades earlier already expired.   This caused a lot of embarrassment for the Italian artists who had to deal with the lost glory in order to define the national voice of a pre-Garibaldi state which had now been unified from dozens of antipathetic small states.Panaroma period.Garibaldi Panaroma marked a special form of survival period for the public art i n Italy which was prevalent in the 19th century.   During this time, the panaromas were easily found on display on the streets to provide visual and knowledgeable   entertainment.   This were linear paintings which served the purpose of interpreting history and news concerning such great cities such as Rome and Paris (Mohen 78).The panaroma art work which depicted the life of Garibaldi is an example of a panaroma which was used to offer commercial entertainment during this era.   In order to keep up with the current happenings, most of the large panaromas were repainted over time but the small ones were just left to wear out.Recently in 2007, the department of Italian studies offered financial support for the state's national library to digitize the Garibaldi panaroma and make it available all over the world.   Etruscan bronze figures together with the terracotta funerary relief are some if the examples of the Italian traditions which were denounced after the Roman unifica tion.

Money And Success The Myth Of Individual Opportunity By...

Today, in America there are many people who struggle to get their dream job and live an American dream but due to the fact that everyone is applying to the exact same job they cannot accomplish the dream they have always dreamt of. This means that there is plenty of competition between people chasing the same dream. In â€Å"Money and Success: The Myth of Individual Opportunity† Gary Colombo discusses how many people live in the myth of an American dream. People assume the American Dream will make them happy by having the dream job and being like everyone else. While Colombo talks about how the American dream is a myth of having money and being successful, Diana Kendall discusses in â€Å"Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption† how the media doesn’t just portray the different social classes differently, the media glamorizes the one and show the other one unfairly and make it seem like if one is poor it is the end of the world. The Higher so cial class is considered to be rich and successful, and believed to have everything â€Å"handed to them†. The middle class is mostly considered the working class and are those who have a hard time getting what they want, but are still able to do something for themselves and their progress. And then the lower class is portrayed as being in poverty in society and not considered to be well off just because of their education and job status. Yet many Americans work and study their hardest to achieve the American Dream and still areShow MoreRelatedThe Myth of Money and Success and That of Gender Essay1843 Words   |  8 PagesThe Myth of Money and Success and that of gender â€Å"The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. 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