Knowledge Construction Project
Art
Understanding
Learning how modern society influences artwork.
Artists sought to break away from the upper-class restrictions on artwork. This brought about the impressionists, expressionism, dadaism, cubism, pointillism, abstract expressionism, street art, graffiti art, etc.
Goya's "Saturn devouring his children" is a depiction of what happens to a government, or any powerful position, when they are given too much power.
Even the representational artwork sneaked societal influences into their art work.
Neoclassicism and the formation of the Protestant church. (Negative inferences of the Catholic Church)
Learning how artists intent can change the meaning or intrepratation of the art.
Picasso's "Guernica" is a powerfully moving piece about the atrocities his own country (and Germany) committed on the small village of Guernica.
Edvard Munch chose to show the anxiety, stress, and fear his lived with everyday in his painting "The Scream."
Negative: Leonardo Davinci's "Mona Lisa" While this demonstrates excellent skills, this painting has no significant meaning.
Learning how history and specific art movements contribute to overall acceptance or rejection of a work of art.
The Paris Salon and the rejection of the "impressionists."
Marcel Duchamp and his own committee rejecting "The Fountain."
Artwork has documented human societies since the beginning of time. It is our truest form of historical documentation.