Art that shows History

This is a piece of art work by an artist Mary Elizabeth and it is titled "History of the American Flag." This art work shows the American Flag over the years from 1775 to 1960.






This artwork "Grim Harvest of War" by Bradley Schmehl depicts a scene during the Civil War.

Controversial Art

This is a piece of artwork, “Sculpture of a Dead Woman,” from the art exhibit by Gregor Schneider called Hannelore Reuen. An ominously dense deluge of debate hangs heavy in the atmosphere of the art community. Gregor Schneider, a German artist, decided that his next piece of art would be similar to the execution of a criminal. The only difference is that there will be no execution and there will be no criminal, just death, and just art.
Currently, he’s seeking already-dying volunteers to lay in an art gallery, alone, in view of uneasily curious onlookers who anticipate nothing more than for the subject to take his or her last breath, so Schneider can simply capture what he calls, “the beauty in death.”
Controversy arises when critics and art lovers mutually suggest that the German artist is doing nothing more then making a mockery of death. “He’s just turning it into a carnival act,” says an online blogger in agreement with numerous opinions spanning the globe. A more open-minded blogger, on the other hand, suggested that, “Now that the world has abortion and death as art, it’s funny how [artists] never seem to bring life into the world as art [anymore].” All of the taboo surrounding Schneider may be unwarranted when other artists, Schneider’s predecessors, did things so taboo as to remove their own ears.
















The monochromatic images themselves, part of a series entitled ‘Basque Chronicles‘, depict many aspects of terrorism that rarely make the evening news, including a man weeping over the casket of an ETA member at his funeral. The Spanish conservative Popular Party (PP) and the Association of Victims of Terrorism in the Basque Country have demanded their withdrawal. Speaking with the media, a spokesperson for the AVTBC said, “This show does not condemn terrorist violence.” However, despite the strong reactions to the exhibition, the question remains; should photojournalism condemn terrorist violence?
Does portraying a rarely seen side to the conflict pose a dilemma for those that actually oppose terrorist violence? On the other hand, does it merely present an alternative to the typical media stereotyping of what defines terrorism? I am sure that Bernad is not a supporter of terrorists or their causes, yet her work manages to make a powerful statement about the difficulty of the terrorists’ humanity. Impartiality in matters such as this is certainly difficult; however, is it the responsibility of photojournalists and their work to side with the majority opinion, or to tell the truth?







The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been used for over 3,000 years. (That even predates the ancient Egyptian symbol, the Ankh!) Artifacts such as pottery and coins from ancient Troy show that the swastika was a commonly used symbol as far back as 1000 BCE.
During the following thousand years, the image of the swastika was used by many cultures around the world, including in China, Japan, India, and southern Europe. By the Middle Ages the swastika was a well known, if not commonly used, symbol but was called by many different names

Picture This-SHADOW

For our Picture This assignment, we chose the theme SHADOW. Here are our teams interpretation of our theme:

DADA

Dada is a cultural movement that primarily involved visual arts, literature, theatre, and graphic design. It concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. For many participants, it was a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war.

Origin of the word Dada:
There were many different explanations of the origin of the word Dada:
Originates from Romanian artists Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco’s frequent use of the words da, da, which translates into the English language yeah, yeah
Some believe it is simply a nonsensical word
A group of artists assembled in Zurich in 1926, wanting a name for their new movement, chose it at random by stabbing a French-German dictionary with a paper knife, and picking the name that the point landed upon.

History of Dada
Dada is a cultural movement that primarily involved visual arts, literature, theatre, and graphic design. It concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. For many participants, it was a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war.

When and where did Dada Start
Began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916
Berlin, Germany in 1918
Cologne in 1920
New York City, NY
Paris, France in 1920
Netherlands in 1923
Georgia in 1920
Tokyo, Japan
Yugoslavia between 1920 and 1922

Some activities involved in Dada were public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals.

The following art movements and groups were inspired by Dada:
Avant-garde
Downtown music
Surrealism
Nouveau realisme
Pop art
Fluxus
Punk rock

Art techniques that were developed during this period are collage, photomontage, assemblage, and readymades.

Artists that were involved and some of their artwork:

Hans Arp-"Forest"




















SophieTaeuber-Arp


Marcel Duchamp-"You-Me"








Kurt Schwitters-"Merz Picture with Rainbow"




















Francis Picabia-"Feather"






















Marcel Janco
Raoul Hausmann
Hugo Ball
John Heartfield
Max Ernst





Man Ray-"Legend"

Islamic Patterns and Calligraphy

Our first group presentation was on Islamic Patterns and Calligraphy. Islamic art is essentially a contemplative art, which aims to express above all, an encounter with the Divine Presence. The origin of Islamic art has often tried to be explained through tracing it back to some precedent in Byzantine, Coptic or other art, yet what is lost sight of, is the intrinsic and original unity of Islamic art and thus the 'seal' that Islam conferred on all borrowed elements.
Islamic art is created by using different geometric patterns, which consisted of, or were generated from, such simple forms as the circle and the square, and they were combined, duplicated, interlaced, and arranged in intricate combinations. As a matter of fact, geometric ornamentation in Islamic art suggests a remarkable amount of freedom; in its repetition and complexity, it offers the possibility of infinite growth and can accommodate the incorporation of other types of ornamentation as well. Calligraphic ornamentation also appears in conjunction with geometric patterns. A sample piece of Islamic Art is below:



Calligraphy has been the most important medium of artistic expression in Islamic culture. This is due to it being the noblest of the visual arts in the world of Islam, for it is the writing of the Qur'an that is sacred art par excellence. It plays a part more or less analogous to that of the icon in Christian art, for it represents the visible body of the Divine word. Thus calligraphy itself was considered a major art - great calligraphers, who introduced new styles of forming the script, were more famous than great painters, and calligraphy was not only the affair of the craftsman, it was also practiced by many learned people and even by sultans. A calligraphy example is below:



ARTISTS:
Ali Omar Ermes is an international artist whose artwork is principally based on the Arabic letter forms. He paints on various sizes and some very large canvases (up to 5 metres long), in single or multiple colours applied with large brushes mainly on specially hand-made paper.

Ali Rouhfar was a calligraphy artist and he was taught by his grandfather, Sakkal Rouhfar. Ali started practice and received his first lessons of calligraphy from him. After his grandfather passed away, he almost stopped practicing calligraphy, but in the end he decided to continue.

Works of Art:

God is the Greatest - Where the Ocean meets the Dunes


This piece of art is an example of Islamic Art since it uses simple geometric patterns throughout the entire artwork.

Poesie by Kalaam - A lighted life size Calligraphy design that was created in the artists house.

Body Sculpture

We did our body sculpture by representing this Untilted piece by Keith Haring. We chose this piece of art since it represented showing emotion through music and dancing to us. We have six members of our group, so we did have to add another pose to it. All of us chose a particular color to wear and we all posed in a certain position. We also played the following music and video behind us to help represent what we thought the piece showed.