Traditional Definitions
Traditional definitions, at least as commonly portrayed in contemporary discussions of the definition of art, take artworks to be characterized by a single type of property. The standard candidates are representational properties, expressive properties, and formal properties. So there are representational or mimetic definitions, expressive definitions, and formalist definitions, which hold that artworks are characterized by their possession of, respectively, representational, expressive, and formal properties. It is not difficult to find fault with these simple definitions. For example, possessing representational, expressive, and formal properties cannot be sufficient conditions, since, obviously, instructional manuals are representations, but not typically artworks, human faces and gestures have expressive properties without being works of art, and both natural objects and artifacts produced for the homeliest utilitarian purposes have formal properties but are not artworks.
But the ease of these dismissals serves as a reminder of the fact that traditional definitions of art are not self-contained. Each traditional definition stands in (different) close and complicated relationships to its system's other complexly interwoven parts — epistemology, ontology, value theory, philosophy of mind, etc. For this reason, it is both difficult and somewhat misleading to extract them and consider them in isolation. Two examples of historically influential definitions of art offered by great philosophers will suffice to illustrate. First, Plato holds in the Republic and elsewhere that the arts are representational, or mimetic (sometimes translated “imitative”). Artworks are ontologically dependent on, and inferior to, ordinary physical objects, which in turn are ontologically dependent on, and inferior to, what is most real, the non-physical Forms. Grasped perceptually, artworks present only an appearance of an appearance of what is really real. Consequently, artistic experience cannot yield knowledge. Nor do the makers of artworks work from knowledge. Because artworks engage an unstable, lower part of the soul, art should be subservient to moral realities, which, along with truth, are more metaphysically fundamental and hence more humanly important than beauty.
Beauty is not, for Plato, the distinctive province of the arts, and in fact his conception of beauty is extremely wide and metaphysical: there is a Form of Beauty, of which we can have non-perceptual knowledge, but it is more closely related to the erotic than to the arts. (See Janaway, and the entry on Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry.) Second, although Kant has a definition of art, he is for systematic reasons far less concerned with it than with aesthetic judgment. Kant defines art as “a kind of representation that is purposive in itself and, though without an end, nevertheless promotes the cultivation of the mental powers for sociable communication.” (Kant, Critique of Judgment, Guyer translation, section 44)). The definition, when fully unpacked, has representational, formalist and expressivist elements. Located conceptually in a much broader discussion of aesthetic judgment and teleology, the definition is one relatively small piece of a hugely ambitious philosophical structure that attempts, famously, to account for, and work out the relationships between, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious faith. (see the entry on Kant's Aesthetics and Teleology) For treatments of influential definitions of art, inseparable from the complex philosophical systems in which they occur, see, for example, the entries on 18th Century German Aesthetics, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Dewey's Aesthetics.
About Me
- Hafiz Mohd Nordin
- Creative Designer,Primeworks Studio, Media Prima Berhad / B.A Hons Fineart University Technology MARA,Malaysia
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Functional Art
Functional (mainly aesthetic) definitions
Functional definitions take some function(s) or intended function(s) to be definitive of artworks. Here only aesthetic definitions, which connect art essentially with the aesthetic — aesthetic judgments, experience, or properties – will be considered. Different aesthetic definitions incorporate different views of aesthetic properties and judgments. See the entry on aesthetic judgment.
As noted above, some philosophers lean heavily on a distinction between aesthetic properties and artistic properties, taking the former to be perceptually striking qualities that can be directly perceived in works, without knowledge of their origin and purpose, and the latter to be relational properties that works possess in virtue of their relations to art history, art genres, etc. It is also, of course, possible to hold a less restrictive view of aesthetic properties, on which aesthetic properties need not be perceptual; on this broader view, it is unnecessary to deny that abstracta like mathematical entities and scientific laws possess aesthetic properties.)
Monroe Beardsley's definition holds that an artwork: “either an arrangement of conditions intended to be capable of affording an experience with marked aesthetic character or (incidentally) an arrangement belonging to a class or type of arrangements that is typically intended to have this capacity.” (Beardsley, 1982, p. 299. For more on Beardsley, see SEP, Beardsley's Aesthetics)Beardsley's conception of aesthetic experience is Deweyan: aesthetic experiences are experiences that are complete, unified, intense experiences of the way things appear to us, and are, moreover, experiences which are controlled by the things experienced. (SEP Dewey's Aesthetics). Zangwill's aesthetic definition of art says that something is a work of art if and only if someone had an insight that certain aesthetic properties would be determined by certain nonaesthetic properties, and for this reason the thing was intentionally endowed with the aesthetic properties in virtue of the nonaesthetic properties as envisaged in the insight. (Zangwill, 1995)Aesthetic properties for Zangwill are those judgments that are the subject of “verdictive aesthetic judgments” (judgements of beauty and ugliness) and “substantive aesthetic judgements”, (e.g., of daintiness, elegance, delicacy, etc. ). The latter are ways of being beautiful or ugly; aesthetic in virtue of a special close relation to verdictive judgments, which are subjectively universal. Other aesthetic definitions are easily obtained, by grafting on a different account of the aesthetic. For example, one might define aesthetic properties as those having an evaluative component, whose perception involves the perception of certain formal base properties, such as shape and color. (De Clercq, 2002).
Views which combine features of institutional and aesthetic definitions also exist. Iseminger, for example, builds a definition on an account of appreciation, on which to appreciate a thing's being F is to find experiencing its being F to be valuable in itself, and an account of aesthetic communication (which it is the function of the artworld to promote). (Iseminger, 2004) Another definition that combines features of institutional and aesthetic definitions is David Davies'. Davies adopts Nelson Goodman's account of symbolic functions that are aesthetic (a symbol functions aesthetically when it is syntactically dense, semantically dense, syntactically replete, and characterized by multiple and complex reference, which he takes to clarify the conditions under which a practice of making is a practice of artistic making. (Davies 2004; Goodman 1968)
Aesthetic definitions have been criticized for being both too narrow and too broad. They are held to be too narrow because they are unable to cover influential modern works like Duchamp's ready-mades and conceptual works like Robert Barry's All the things I know but of which I am not at the moment thinking - 1:36 PM; June 15, 1969, which appear to lack aesthetic properties. (Duchamp famously asserted that his urinal, Fountain, was selected for its lack of aesthetic features.) Aesthetic definitions are held to be too broad because beautifully designed automobiles, neatly manicured lawns, and products of commercial design are often created with the intention of being objects of aesthetic appreciation, but are not artworks. Moreover, aesthetic views have been held to have trouble making sense of bad art. (see Dickie, Art and Value, and Stephen Davies, Philosophy of Art, p. 37) Finally, more radical doubts about aesthetic definitions center on the intelligibility and usefulness of the aesthetic. Beardsley's view, for example, has been criticized by Dickie, who has also offered influential criticisms of the idea of an aesthetic attitude. (Dickie 1965, Cohen 1973, Kivy 1975)
To these criticisms several responses have been offered. First, the less restrictive conception of aesthetic properties mentioned above, on which they may be based on non-perceptual formal properties, can be deployed. On this view, conceptual works would have aesthetic features, much the same way that mathematical entities are often claimed to. (Shelley 2003, Carroll 2004) Second, a distinction may be drawn between time-sensitive properties, whose standard observation conditions include an essential reference to temporal location of the observer, and non-time-sensitive properties, which do not. Higher-order aesthetic properties like drama, humor, and irony, which account for a significant part of the appeal of Duchamp's and Cage's works, on this view, would derive from time-sensitive properties. (Zemach 1997) Third, it might be held that it is the creative act of presenting something that is in the relevant sense unfamiliar, into a new context, the artworld, which has aesthetic properties. Or, fourth, it might be held that (Zangwill's “second-order” strategy) works like ready-mades lack aesthetic functions, but are parasitic upon, because meant to be considered in the context of, works that do have aesthetic functions, and hence constitute borderline cases. Finally, perhaps heroically, it can be denied that Duchamp's Fountain is a work of art. (Beardsley1982).
As to the over-inclusiveness of aesthetic definitions, a distinction might be drawn between primary and secondary functions. Or it may be maintained that some cars, lawns, and products of industrial design are on the art/non-art borderline, and so don't constitute clear and decisive counter-examples. Or, if the claim that aesthetic theories fail to account for bad art depends on holding that some works have absolutely no aesthetic value whatsoever, as opposed to some non-zero amount, however infinitesimal, it may be wondered what justifies that assumption.
Functional definitions take some function(s) or intended function(s) to be definitive of artworks. Here only aesthetic definitions, which connect art essentially with the aesthetic — aesthetic judgments, experience, or properties – will be considered. Different aesthetic definitions incorporate different views of aesthetic properties and judgments. See the entry on aesthetic judgment.
As noted above, some philosophers lean heavily on a distinction between aesthetic properties and artistic properties, taking the former to be perceptually striking qualities that can be directly perceived in works, without knowledge of their origin and purpose, and the latter to be relational properties that works possess in virtue of their relations to art history, art genres, etc. It is also, of course, possible to hold a less restrictive view of aesthetic properties, on which aesthetic properties need not be perceptual; on this broader view, it is unnecessary to deny that abstracta like mathematical entities and scientific laws possess aesthetic properties.)
Monroe Beardsley's definition holds that an artwork: “either an arrangement of conditions intended to be capable of affording an experience with marked aesthetic character or (incidentally) an arrangement belonging to a class or type of arrangements that is typically intended to have this capacity.” (Beardsley, 1982, p. 299. For more on Beardsley, see SEP, Beardsley's Aesthetics)Beardsley's conception of aesthetic experience is Deweyan: aesthetic experiences are experiences that are complete, unified, intense experiences of the way things appear to us, and are, moreover, experiences which are controlled by the things experienced. (SEP Dewey's Aesthetics). Zangwill's aesthetic definition of art says that something is a work of art if and only if someone had an insight that certain aesthetic properties would be determined by certain nonaesthetic properties, and for this reason the thing was intentionally endowed with the aesthetic properties in virtue of the nonaesthetic properties as envisaged in the insight. (Zangwill, 1995)Aesthetic properties for Zangwill are those judgments that are the subject of “verdictive aesthetic judgments” (judgements of beauty and ugliness) and “substantive aesthetic judgements”, (e.g., of daintiness, elegance, delicacy, etc. ). The latter are ways of being beautiful or ugly; aesthetic in virtue of a special close relation to verdictive judgments, which are subjectively universal. Other aesthetic definitions are easily obtained, by grafting on a different account of the aesthetic. For example, one might define aesthetic properties as those having an evaluative component, whose perception involves the perception of certain formal base properties, such as shape and color. (De Clercq, 2002).
Views which combine features of institutional and aesthetic definitions also exist. Iseminger, for example, builds a definition on an account of appreciation, on which to appreciate a thing's being F is to find experiencing its being F to be valuable in itself, and an account of aesthetic communication (which it is the function of the artworld to promote). (Iseminger, 2004) Another definition that combines features of institutional and aesthetic definitions is David Davies'. Davies adopts Nelson Goodman's account of symbolic functions that are aesthetic (a symbol functions aesthetically when it is syntactically dense, semantically dense, syntactically replete, and characterized by multiple and complex reference, which he takes to clarify the conditions under which a practice of making is a practice of artistic making. (Davies 2004; Goodman 1968)
Aesthetic definitions have been criticized for being both too narrow and too broad. They are held to be too narrow because they are unable to cover influential modern works like Duchamp's ready-mades and conceptual works like Robert Barry's All the things I know but of which I am not at the moment thinking - 1:36 PM; June 15, 1969, which appear to lack aesthetic properties. (Duchamp famously asserted that his urinal, Fountain, was selected for its lack of aesthetic features.) Aesthetic definitions are held to be too broad because beautifully designed automobiles, neatly manicured lawns, and products of commercial design are often created with the intention of being objects of aesthetic appreciation, but are not artworks. Moreover, aesthetic views have been held to have trouble making sense of bad art. (see Dickie, Art and Value, and Stephen Davies, Philosophy of Art, p. 37) Finally, more radical doubts about aesthetic definitions center on the intelligibility and usefulness of the aesthetic. Beardsley's view, for example, has been criticized by Dickie, who has also offered influential criticisms of the idea of an aesthetic attitude. (Dickie 1965, Cohen 1973, Kivy 1975)
To these criticisms several responses have been offered. First, the less restrictive conception of aesthetic properties mentioned above, on which they may be based on non-perceptual formal properties, can be deployed. On this view, conceptual works would have aesthetic features, much the same way that mathematical entities are often claimed to. (Shelley 2003, Carroll 2004) Second, a distinction may be drawn between time-sensitive properties, whose standard observation conditions include an essential reference to temporal location of the observer, and non-time-sensitive properties, which do not. Higher-order aesthetic properties like drama, humor, and irony, which account for a significant part of the appeal of Duchamp's and Cage's works, on this view, would derive from time-sensitive properties. (Zemach 1997) Third, it might be held that it is the creative act of presenting something that is in the relevant sense unfamiliar, into a new context, the artworld, which has aesthetic properties. Or, fourth, it might be held that (Zangwill's “second-order” strategy) works like ready-mades lack aesthetic functions, but are parasitic upon, because meant to be considered in the context of, works that do have aesthetic functions, and hence constitute borderline cases. Finally, perhaps heroically, it can be denied that Duchamp's Fountain is a work of art. (Beardsley1982).
As to the over-inclusiveness of aesthetic definitions, a distinction might be drawn between primary and secondary functions. Or it may be maintained that some cars, lawns, and products of industrial design are on the art/non-art borderline, and so don't constitute clear and decisive counter-examples. Or, if the claim that aesthetic theories fail to account for bad art depends on holding that some works have absolutely no aesthetic value whatsoever, as opposed to some non-zero amount, however infinitesimal, it may be wondered what justifies that assumption.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Aesthetics of Art II
Ancient aesthetics
We have examples of pre-historic art, but they are rare, and the context of their production and use is not very clear, so we can little more than guess at the aesthetic doctrines that guided their production and interpretation.
Ancient art was largely, but not entirely, based on the seven great ancient civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Persia, India and China. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Greece had the most influence on the development of aesthetics in the West. This period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of corresponding skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions. Furthermore, in many Western and Eastern cultures alike, traits such as body hair are rarely depicted in art that addresses physical beauty.[citation needed] More in contrast with this Greek-Western aesthetic taste is the genre of grotesque.
Greek philosophers initially felt that aesthetically appealing objects were beautiful in and of themselves. Plato felt that beautiful objects incorporated proportion, harmony, and unity among their parts. Similarly, in the Metaphysics, Aristotle found that the universal elements of beauty were order, symmetry, and definiteness.
Islamic aesthetics
Islamic art is not, properly speaking, an art pertaining to religion only. The term "Islamic" refers not only to the religion, but to any form of art created in an Islamic culture or in an Islamic context. It would also be a mistake to assume that all Muslims are in agreement on the use of art in religious observance, the proper place of art in society, or the relation between secular art and the demands placed on the secular world to conform to religious precepts. Islamic art frequently adopts secular elements and elements that are frowned upon, if not forbidden, by some Islamic theologians.
According to Islam, human works of art are inherently flawed compared to the work of God; thus, it is believed by many that to attempt to depict in a realistic form any animal or person is insolence to God. This tendency has had the effect of narrowing the field of artistic possibility to such forms of art as Arabesque, mosaic, Islamic calligraphy, and Islamic architecture, as well as more generally any form of abstraction that can claim the status of non-representational art.
The limited possibilities have been explored by artists as an outlet to artistic expression, and has been cultivated to become a positive style and tradition, emphasizing the decorative function of art, or its religious functions via non-representational forms such as Geometric patterns, floral patterns, and arabesques.
Human or animal depiction is generally forbidden altogether in Islamic cultures because it is said to lead to sculptural pieces which then leads to worship of that sculpture or "idol". Human portrayals can be found in early Islamic cultures with varying degrees of acceptance by religious authorities. Human representation for the purpose of worship that is uniformly considered idolatry as forbidden in Sharia law. There are many depictions of Nabi Muhammad, Islam's prophet, in historical Islamic art.
The calligraphic arts grew out of an effort to devote oneself to the study of the Quran. By patiently transcribing each word of the text, the writer was made to contemplate the meaning of it. As time passed, these calligraphic works began to be prized as works of art, growing increasingly elaborate in the illumination and stylizing of the text. These illuminations were applied to other works besides the Quran, and it became a respected art form in and of itself.
Indian aesthetics
Indian art evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the audience, or with representing them symbolically. According to Kapila Vatsyayan, "Classical Indian architecture, sculpture, painting, literature (kāvya), music, and dancing evolved their own rules conditioned by their respective media, but they shared with one another not only the underlying spiritual beliefs of the Indian religio-philosophic mind, but also the procedures by which the relationships of the symbol and the spiritual states were worked out in detail."
In the Pan Indian philosophic thought the term 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' is another name for the concept of the Supreme. 'Sat' is the truth value, 'Shiv' is the good value & 'Sundaram' is the beauty value. Man through his 'Srabana' or education, 'Manana' or experience and conceptualization and 'Sadhana' or practice, through different stages of life (Asramas) comes to form and realize the idea of these three values to develop a value system. This Value-system helps us to develop two basic ideas 1) that of 'Daksha' or the adept/expert and 2) of Mahana/Parama or the Absolute and thus to judge anything in this universe in the light of these two measures, known as 'Adarsha'. A person who has mastered great amounts of knowledge of the grammars, rules, & language of an art-form are adepts (Daksha), where as those who have worked through the whole system and journeyed ahead of these to become a law unto themself is called a Mahana. Individuals idea of 'Daksha' and 'Mahana' is relative to one's development of the concept of 'Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram.' For example, Tagore's idea of these two concepts should be way above any common man's and many perceive Tagore as a 'Mahana' Artist in the realm of literature. This concept of Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram, a kind of Value Theory is the cornerstone of Indian Aesthetics.
Of particular concern to Indian drama and literature are the term 'Bhava' or the state of mind and rasa referring generally to the emotional flavors/essence crafted into the work by the writer and relished by a 'sensitive spectator' or sahṛdaya or one with positive taste and mind. Poets like Kālidāsa were attentive to rasa, which blossomed into a fully developed aesthetic system. Even in contemporary India the term rasa denoting "flavor" or "essence" is used colloquially to describe the aesthetic experiences in films; "māsala mix" describes popular Hindi cinema films which serve a so called balanced emotional meal for the masses, savored as rasa by these spectators.
Rasa theory blossoms beginning with the Sanskrit text Nātyashāstra (nātya meaning "drama" and shāstra meaning "science of"), a work attributed to Bharata Muni where the Gods declare that drama is the 'Fifth Veda' because it is suitable for the degenerate age as the best form of religious instruction. While the date of composition varies wildly among scholars, ranging from the era of Plato and Aristotle to the seventh century CE. The Nātyashāstra presents the aesthetic concepts of rasas and their associated bhāvas in Chapters Six and Seven respectively, which appear to be independent of the work as a whole. Eight rasas and associated bhāvas are named and their enjoyment is likened to savoring a meal: rasa is the enjoyment of flavors that arise from the proper preparation of ingredients and the quality of ingredients. What rasa actually is, in a theoretical sense, is not discussed and given the Nātyashāstra's pithy wording it is unlikely the exact understanding of the original author(s) will be known.
The theory of the rasas develops significantly with the Kashmiri aesthetician Ãndandavardhana's classic on poetics, the Dhvanyāloka which introduces the ninth rasa, shānta-rasa as a specifically religious feeling of peace (śānta) which arises from its bhāva, weariness of the pleasures of the world. The primary purpose of this text is to refine the literary concept dhvani or poetic suggestion, by arguing for the existence of rasa-dhvani, primarily in forms of Sanskrit including a word, sentence or whole work "suggests" a real-world emotional state or bhāva, but thanks to aesthetic distance, the sensitive spectator relishes the rasa, the aesthetic flavor of tragedy, heroism or romance.
The 9th - 10th century master of the religious system known as "the nondual Shaivism of Kashmir" (or "Kashmir Shaivism") and aesthetician, Abhinavagupta brought rasa theory to its pinnacle in his separate commentaries on the Dhvanyāloka, the Dhvanyāloka-locana (translated by Ingalls, Masson and Patwardhan, 1992) and the Abhinavabharati, his commentary on the Nātyashāstra, portions of which are translated by Gnoli and Masson and Patwardhan. Abhinavagupta offers for the first time a technical definition of rasa which is the universal bliss of the Self or Atman colored by the emotional tone of a drama. Shānta-rasa functions as an equal member of the set of rasas but is simultaneously distinct being the most clear form of aesthetic bliss. Abhinavagupta likens it to the string of a jeweled necklace; while it may not be the most appealing for most people, it is the string that gives form to the necklace, allowing the jewels of the other eight rasas to be relished. Relishing the rasas and particularly shānta-rasa is hinted as being as-good-as but never-equal-to the bliss of Self-realization experienced by yogis.
Chinese aesthetics
Chinese art has a long history of varied styles and emphases. In ancient times philosophers were already arguing about aesthetics. Confucius emphasized the role of the arts and humanities (especially music and poetry) in broadening human nature and aiding “li” (etiquette, the rites) in bringing us back to what is essential about humanity. His opponent Mozi, however, argued that music and fine arts were classist and wasteful, benefiting the rich but not the common people.
By the 4th century A.D., artists were debating in writing over the proper goals of art as well. Gu Kaizhi has 3 surviving books on this theory of painting, for example, and it's not uncommon to find later artist/scholars who both create art and write about the creating of art. Religious and philosophical influence on art was common (and diverse) but never universal; it is easy to find art that largely ignores philosophy and religion in almost every Chinese time period.
African aesthetics
African art existed in many forms and styles, and with fairly little influence from outside Africa. Most of it followed traditional forms and the aesthetic norms were handed down orally as well as written. Sculpture and performance art are prominent, and abstract and partially abstracted forms are valued, and were valued long before influence from the Western tradition began in earnest. The Nok culture is testimony to this. The mosque of Timbuktu shows that specific areas of Africa developed unique aesthetics.
Western medieval aesthetics
Surviving medieval art is primarily religious in focus and funded largely by the State, Roman Catholic or Orthodox church, powerful ecclesiastical individuals, or wealthy secular patrons. These art pieces often served a liturgical function, whether as chalices or even as church buildings themselves. Objects of fine art from this period were frequently made from rare and valuable materials, such as gold and lapis, the cost of which commonly exceeded the wages of the artist.
Medieval aesthetics in the realm of philosophy built upon Classical thought, continuing the practice of Plotinus by employing theological terminology in its explications. St. Bonaventure’s “Retracing the Arts to Theology”, a primary example of this method, discusses the skills of the artisan as gifts given by God for the purpose of disclosing God to mankind, which purpose is achieved through four lights: the light of skill in mechanical arts which discloses the world of artifacts; which light is guided by the light of sense perception which discloses the world of natural forms; which light, consequently, is guided by the light of philosophy which discloses the world of intellectual truth; finally, this light is guided by the light of divine wisdom which discloses the world of saving truth.
Saint Thomas Aquinas's aesthetic is probably the most famous and influential theory among medieval authors, having been the subject of much scrutiny in the wake of the neo-Scholastic revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and even having received the approbation of the celebrated Modernist writer, James Joyce. Thomas, like many other medievals, never gives a systematic account of beauty itself, but several scholars have conventionally arranged his thought—though not always with uniform conclusions—using relevant observations spanning the entire corpus of his work. While Aquinas's theory follows generally the model of Aristotle, he develops a singular aesthetics which incorporates elements unique to his thought. Umberto Eco's The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas identifies the three main characteristics of beauty in Aquinas's philosophy: integritas sive perfectio, consonantia sive debita proportio, and claritas sive splendor formae. While Aristotle likewise identifies the first two characteristics, St. Thomas conceives of the third as an appropriation from principles developed by neo-Platonic and Augustinian thinkers.
Lorsch Gospels 778–820. Charlemagne's Court School.
With the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, art likewise changed its focus, as much in its content as in its mode of expression.
Modern aesthetics
From the late 17th to the early 20th century Western aesthetics underwent a slow revolution into what is often called modernism. German and British thinkers emphasised beauty as the key component of art and of the aesthetic experience, and saw art as necessarily aiming at absolute beauty.
For Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten aesthetics is the science of the sense experiences, a younger sister of logic, and beauty is thus the most perfect kind of knowledge that sense experience can have. For Immanuel Kant the aesthetic experience of beauty is a judgment of a subjective but similar human truth, since all people should agree that “this rose is beautiful” if it in fact is. However, beauty cannot be reduced to any more basic set of features. For Friedrich Schiller aesthetic appreciation of beauty is the most perfect reconciliation of the sensual and rational parts of human nature.
For Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, the philosophy of art is the "organon" of philosophy concerning the relation between man and nature. So aesthetics began now to be the name for the philosophy of art. Friedrich von Schlegel, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel have also given lectures on aesthetics as philosophy of art after 1800.
For Hegel all culture is a matter of "absolute spirit" coming to be manifest to itself, stage by stage, changing to a perfection that only philosophy can approach. Art is the first stage in which the absolute spirit is manifest immediately to sense-perception, and is thus an objective rather than subjective revelation of beauty.
For Arthur Schopenhauer aesthetic contemplation of beauty is the most free that the pure intellect can be from the dictates of will; here we contemplate perfection of form without any kind of worldly agenda, and thus any intrusion of utility or politics would ruin the point of the beauty. It is thus for Schopenhauer one way to fight the suffering.
The British were largely divided into intuitionist and analytic camps. The intuitionists believed that aesthetic experience was disclosed by a single mental faculty of some kind. For Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury this was identical to the moral sense, beauty just is the sensory version of moral goodness. For Ludwig Wittgenstein aesthetics consisted in the description of a whole culture which is a linguistic impossibility. That which constitutes aesthetics lies out side the realm of the language game.
For Oscar Wilde the contemplation of beauty for beauty's sake was not only the foundation for much of his literary career but was quoted as saying "Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life.".
Wilde famously toured the United States in 1882. He travelled across the United States spreading the idea of Aesthetics in a speech called "The English Renaissance." In his speech he proposed that Beauty and Aesthetics was not "not languid but energetic. By beautifying the outward aspects of life, one would beautify the inner ones." The English Renaissance was, he said, "like the Italian Renaissance before it,a sort of rebirth of the spirit of man".For Francis Hutcheson beauty is disclosed by an inner mental sense, but is a subjective fact rather than an objective one. Analytic theorists like Henry Home, Lord Kames, William Hogarth, and Edmund Burke hoped to reduce beauty to some list of attributes. Hogarth, for example, thinks that beauty consists of (1) fitness of the parts to some design; (2) variety in as many ways as possible; (3) uniformity, regularity or symmetry, which is only beautiful when it helps to preserve the character of fitness; (4) simplicity or distinctness, which gives pleasure not in itself, but through its enabling the eye to enjoy variety with ease; (5) intricacy, which provides employment for our active energies, leading the eye on "a wanton kind of chase"; and (6) quantity or magnitude, which draws our attention and produces admiration and awe. Later analytic aestheticians strove to link beauty to some scientific theory of psychology (such as James Mill) or biology (such as Herbert Spencer).
Post-modern aesthetics and psychoanalysis
Early twentieth century artists, poets and composers challenged existing notions of beauty, broadening the scope of art and aesthetics. In 1941, Eli Siegel, American philosopher and poet, founded Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy that reality itself is aesthetic, and that "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites."
Various attempts have been made to define Post-modern aesthetics. The challenge to the assumption that beauty was central to art and aesthetics, thought to be original, is actually continuous with older aesthetic theory; Aristotle was the first in the Western tradition to classify "beauty" into types as in his theory of drama, and Kant made a distinction between beauty and the sublime. What was new was a refusal to credit the higher status of certain types, where the taxonomy implied a preference for tragedy and the sublime to comedy and the Rococo.
Croce suggested that “expression” is central in the way that beauty was once thought to be central. George Dickie suggested that the sociological institutions of the art world were the glue binding art and sensibility into unities. Marshall McLuhan suggested that art always functions as a "counter-environment" designed to make visible what is usually invisible about a society.[page needed] Theodor Adorno felt that aesthetics could not proceed without confronting the role of the culture industry in the commodification of art and aesthetic experience. Hal Foster (art critic) attempted to portray the reaction against beauty and Modernist art in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Arthur Danto has described this reaction as "kalliphobia" (after the Greek word for beauty - 'kalos').André Malraux explains that the notion of beauty was connected to a particular conception of art that arose with the Renaissance and was still dominant in the eighteenth century (but was supplanted later). The discipline of aesthetics, which originated in the eighteenth century, mistook this transient state of affairs for a revelation of the permanent nature of art.Brian Massumi suggests to reconsider beauty following the aesthetical thought in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.
Daniel Berlyne created the field of experimental aesthetics in the 1970s, for which he is still the most cited individual decades after his death.
Pneumaist aestheticism is a theory of art and a highly experimental approach to art negating historical preconceptions of the aesthetic.
Jean-François Lyotard re-invokes the Kantian distinction between taste and the sublime. Sublime painting, unlike kitsch realism, "...will enable us to see only by making it impossible to see; it will please only by causing pain."
Sigmund Freud inaugurated aesthetical thinking in Psychoanalysis mainly via the "Uncanny" as aesthetical affect.Following Freud and Merleau-Ponty,Jacques Lacan theorized aesthetics in terms of sublimation and the Thing .
We have examples of pre-historic art, but they are rare, and the context of their production and use is not very clear, so we can little more than guess at the aesthetic doctrines that guided their production and interpretation.
Ancient art was largely, but not entirely, based on the seven great ancient civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Persia, India and China. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Greece had the most influence on the development of aesthetics in the West. This period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of corresponding skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions. Furthermore, in many Western and Eastern cultures alike, traits such as body hair are rarely depicted in art that addresses physical beauty.[citation needed] More in contrast with this Greek-Western aesthetic taste is the genre of grotesque.
Greek philosophers initially felt that aesthetically appealing objects were beautiful in and of themselves. Plato felt that beautiful objects incorporated proportion, harmony, and unity among their parts. Similarly, in the Metaphysics, Aristotle found that the universal elements of beauty were order, symmetry, and definiteness.
Islamic aesthetics
Islamic art is not, properly speaking, an art pertaining to religion only. The term "Islamic" refers not only to the religion, but to any form of art created in an Islamic culture or in an Islamic context. It would also be a mistake to assume that all Muslims are in agreement on the use of art in religious observance, the proper place of art in society, or the relation between secular art and the demands placed on the secular world to conform to religious precepts. Islamic art frequently adopts secular elements and elements that are frowned upon, if not forbidden, by some Islamic theologians.
According to Islam, human works of art are inherently flawed compared to the work of God; thus, it is believed by many that to attempt to depict in a realistic form any animal or person is insolence to God. This tendency has had the effect of narrowing the field of artistic possibility to such forms of art as Arabesque, mosaic, Islamic calligraphy, and Islamic architecture, as well as more generally any form of abstraction that can claim the status of non-representational art.
The limited possibilities have been explored by artists as an outlet to artistic expression, and has been cultivated to become a positive style and tradition, emphasizing the decorative function of art, or its religious functions via non-representational forms such as Geometric patterns, floral patterns, and arabesques.
Human or animal depiction is generally forbidden altogether in Islamic cultures because it is said to lead to sculptural pieces which then leads to worship of that sculpture or "idol". Human portrayals can be found in early Islamic cultures with varying degrees of acceptance by religious authorities. Human representation for the purpose of worship that is uniformly considered idolatry as forbidden in Sharia law. There are many depictions of Nabi Muhammad, Islam's prophet, in historical Islamic art.
The calligraphic arts grew out of an effort to devote oneself to the study of the Quran. By patiently transcribing each word of the text, the writer was made to contemplate the meaning of it. As time passed, these calligraphic works began to be prized as works of art, growing increasingly elaborate in the illumination and stylizing of the text. These illuminations were applied to other works besides the Quran, and it became a respected art form in and of itself.
Indian aesthetics
Indian art evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the audience, or with representing them symbolically. According to Kapila Vatsyayan, "Classical Indian architecture, sculpture, painting, literature (kāvya), music, and dancing evolved their own rules conditioned by their respective media, but they shared with one another not only the underlying spiritual beliefs of the Indian religio-philosophic mind, but also the procedures by which the relationships of the symbol and the spiritual states were worked out in detail."
In the Pan Indian philosophic thought the term 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' is another name for the concept of the Supreme. 'Sat' is the truth value, 'Shiv' is the good value & 'Sundaram' is the beauty value. Man through his 'Srabana' or education, 'Manana' or experience and conceptualization and 'Sadhana' or practice, through different stages of life (Asramas) comes to form and realize the idea of these three values to develop a value system. This Value-system helps us to develop two basic ideas 1) that of 'Daksha' or the adept/expert and 2) of Mahana/Parama or the Absolute and thus to judge anything in this universe in the light of these two measures, known as 'Adarsha'. A person who has mastered great amounts of knowledge of the grammars, rules, & language of an art-form are adepts (Daksha), where as those who have worked through the whole system and journeyed ahead of these to become a law unto themself is called a Mahana. Individuals idea of 'Daksha' and 'Mahana' is relative to one's development of the concept of 'Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram.' For example, Tagore's idea of these two concepts should be way above any common man's and many perceive Tagore as a 'Mahana' Artist in the realm of literature. This concept of Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram, a kind of Value Theory is the cornerstone of Indian Aesthetics.
Of particular concern to Indian drama and literature are the term 'Bhava' or the state of mind and rasa referring generally to the emotional flavors/essence crafted into the work by the writer and relished by a 'sensitive spectator' or sahṛdaya or one with positive taste and mind. Poets like Kālidāsa were attentive to rasa, which blossomed into a fully developed aesthetic system. Even in contemporary India the term rasa denoting "flavor" or "essence" is used colloquially to describe the aesthetic experiences in films; "māsala mix" describes popular Hindi cinema films which serve a so called balanced emotional meal for the masses, savored as rasa by these spectators.
Rasa theory blossoms beginning with the Sanskrit text Nātyashāstra (nātya meaning "drama" and shāstra meaning "science of"), a work attributed to Bharata Muni where the Gods declare that drama is the 'Fifth Veda' because it is suitable for the degenerate age as the best form of religious instruction. While the date of composition varies wildly among scholars, ranging from the era of Plato and Aristotle to the seventh century CE. The Nātyashāstra presents the aesthetic concepts of rasas and their associated bhāvas in Chapters Six and Seven respectively, which appear to be independent of the work as a whole. Eight rasas and associated bhāvas are named and their enjoyment is likened to savoring a meal: rasa is the enjoyment of flavors that arise from the proper preparation of ingredients and the quality of ingredients. What rasa actually is, in a theoretical sense, is not discussed and given the Nātyashāstra's pithy wording it is unlikely the exact understanding of the original author(s) will be known.
The theory of the rasas develops significantly with the Kashmiri aesthetician Ãndandavardhana's classic on poetics, the Dhvanyāloka which introduces the ninth rasa, shānta-rasa as a specifically religious feeling of peace (śānta) which arises from its bhāva, weariness of the pleasures of the world. The primary purpose of this text is to refine the literary concept dhvani or poetic suggestion, by arguing for the existence of rasa-dhvani, primarily in forms of Sanskrit including a word, sentence or whole work "suggests" a real-world emotional state or bhāva, but thanks to aesthetic distance, the sensitive spectator relishes the rasa, the aesthetic flavor of tragedy, heroism or romance.
The 9th - 10th century master of the religious system known as "the nondual Shaivism of Kashmir" (or "Kashmir Shaivism") and aesthetician, Abhinavagupta brought rasa theory to its pinnacle in his separate commentaries on the Dhvanyāloka, the Dhvanyāloka-locana (translated by Ingalls, Masson and Patwardhan, 1992) and the Abhinavabharati, his commentary on the Nātyashāstra, portions of which are translated by Gnoli and Masson and Patwardhan. Abhinavagupta offers for the first time a technical definition of rasa which is the universal bliss of the Self or Atman colored by the emotional tone of a drama. Shānta-rasa functions as an equal member of the set of rasas but is simultaneously distinct being the most clear form of aesthetic bliss. Abhinavagupta likens it to the string of a jeweled necklace; while it may not be the most appealing for most people, it is the string that gives form to the necklace, allowing the jewels of the other eight rasas to be relished. Relishing the rasas and particularly shānta-rasa is hinted as being as-good-as but never-equal-to the bliss of Self-realization experienced by yogis.
Chinese aesthetics
Chinese art has a long history of varied styles and emphases. In ancient times philosophers were already arguing about aesthetics. Confucius emphasized the role of the arts and humanities (especially music and poetry) in broadening human nature and aiding “li” (etiquette, the rites) in bringing us back to what is essential about humanity. His opponent Mozi, however, argued that music and fine arts were classist and wasteful, benefiting the rich but not the common people.
By the 4th century A.D., artists were debating in writing over the proper goals of art as well. Gu Kaizhi has 3 surviving books on this theory of painting, for example, and it's not uncommon to find later artist/scholars who both create art and write about the creating of art. Religious and philosophical influence on art was common (and diverse) but never universal; it is easy to find art that largely ignores philosophy and religion in almost every Chinese time period.
African aesthetics
African art existed in many forms and styles, and with fairly little influence from outside Africa. Most of it followed traditional forms and the aesthetic norms were handed down orally as well as written. Sculpture and performance art are prominent, and abstract and partially abstracted forms are valued, and were valued long before influence from the Western tradition began in earnest. The Nok culture is testimony to this. The mosque of Timbuktu shows that specific areas of Africa developed unique aesthetics.
Western medieval aesthetics
Surviving medieval art is primarily religious in focus and funded largely by the State, Roman Catholic or Orthodox church, powerful ecclesiastical individuals, or wealthy secular patrons. These art pieces often served a liturgical function, whether as chalices or even as church buildings themselves. Objects of fine art from this period were frequently made from rare and valuable materials, such as gold and lapis, the cost of which commonly exceeded the wages of the artist.
Medieval aesthetics in the realm of philosophy built upon Classical thought, continuing the practice of Plotinus by employing theological terminology in its explications. St. Bonaventure’s “Retracing the Arts to Theology”, a primary example of this method, discusses the skills of the artisan as gifts given by God for the purpose of disclosing God to mankind, which purpose is achieved through four lights: the light of skill in mechanical arts which discloses the world of artifacts; which light is guided by the light of sense perception which discloses the world of natural forms; which light, consequently, is guided by the light of philosophy which discloses the world of intellectual truth; finally, this light is guided by the light of divine wisdom which discloses the world of saving truth.
Saint Thomas Aquinas's aesthetic is probably the most famous and influential theory among medieval authors, having been the subject of much scrutiny in the wake of the neo-Scholastic revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and even having received the approbation of the celebrated Modernist writer, James Joyce. Thomas, like many other medievals, never gives a systematic account of beauty itself, but several scholars have conventionally arranged his thought—though not always with uniform conclusions—using relevant observations spanning the entire corpus of his work. While Aquinas's theory follows generally the model of Aristotle, he develops a singular aesthetics which incorporates elements unique to his thought. Umberto Eco's The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas identifies the three main characteristics of beauty in Aquinas's philosophy: integritas sive perfectio, consonantia sive debita proportio, and claritas sive splendor formae. While Aristotle likewise identifies the first two characteristics, St. Thomas conceives of the third as an appropriation from principles developed by neo-Platonic and Augustinian thinkers.
Lorsch Gospels 778–820. Charlemagne's Court School.
With the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, art likewise changed its focus, as much in its content as in its mode of expression.
Modern aesthetics
From the late 17th to the early 20th century Western aesthetics underwent a slow revolution into what is often called modernism. German and British thinkers emphasised beauty as the key component of art and of the aesthetic experience, and saw art as necessarily aiming at absolute beauty.
For Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten aesthetics is the science of the sense experiences, a younger sister of logic, and beauty is thus the most perfect kind of knowledge that sense experience can have. For Immanuel Kant the aesthetic experience of beauty is a judgment of a subjective but similar human truth, since all people should agree that “this rose is beautiful” if it in fact is. However, beauty cannot be reduced to any more basic set of features. For Friedrich Schiller aesthetic appreciation of beauty is the most perfect reconciliation of the sensual and rational parts of human nature.
For Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, the philosophy of art is the "organon" of philosophy concerning the relation between man and nature. So aesthetics began now to be the name for the philosophy of art. Friedrich von Schlegel, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel have also given lectures on aesthetics as philosophy of art after 1800.
For Hegel all culture is a matter of "absolute spirit" coming to be manifest to itself, stage by stage, changing to a perfection that only philosophy can approach. Art is the first stage in which the absolute spirit is manifest immediately to sense-perception, and is thus an objective rather than subjective revelation of beauty.
For Arthur Schopenhauer aesthetic contemplation of beauty is the most free that the pure intellect can be from the dictates of will; here we contemplate perfection of form without any kind of worldly agenda, and thus any intrusion of utility or politics would ruin the point of the beauty. It is thus for Schopenhauer one way to fight the suffering.
The British were largely divided into intuitionist and analytic camps. The intuitionists believed that aesthetic experience was disclosed by a single mental faculty of some kind. For Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury this was identical to the moral sense, beauty just is the sensory version of moral goodness. For Ludwig Wittgenstein aesthetics consisted in the description of a whole culture which is a linguistic impossibility. That which constitutes aesthetics lies out side the realm of the language game.
For Oscar Wilde the contemplation of beauty for beauty's sake was not only the foundation for much of his literary career but was quoted as saying "Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life.".
Wilde famously toured the United States in 1882. He travelled across the United States spreading the idea of Aesthetics in a speech called "The English Renaissance." In his speech he proposed that Beauty and Aesthetics was not "not languid but energetic. By beautifying the outward aspects of life, one would beautify the inner ones." The English Renaissance was, he said, "like the Italian Renaissance before it,a sort of rebirth of the spirit of man".For Francis Hutcheson beauty is disclosed by an inner mental sense, but is a subjective fact rather than an objective one. Analytic theorists like Henry Home, Lord Kames, William Hogarth, and Edmund Burke hoped to reduce beauty to some list of attributes. Hogarth, for example, thinks that beauty consists of (1) fitness of the parts to some design; (2) variety in as many ways as possible; (3) uniformity, regularity or symmetry, which is only beautiful when it helps to preserve the character of fitness; (4) simplicity or distinctness, which gives pleasure not in itself, but through its enabling the eye to enjoy variety with ease; (5) intricacy, which provides employment for our active energies, leading the eye on "a wanton kind of chase"; and (6) quantity or magnitude, which draws our attention and produces admiration and awe. Later analytic aestheticians strove to link beauty to some scientific theory of psychology (such as James Mill) or biology (such as Herbert Spencer).
Post-modern aesthetics and psychoanalysis
Early twentieth century artists, poets and composers challenged existing notions of beauty, broadening the scope of art and aesthetics. In 1941, Eli Siegel, American philosopher and poet, founded Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy that reality itself is aesthetic, and that "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites."
Various attempts have been made to define Post-modern aesthetics. The challenge to the assumption that beauty was central to art and aesthetics, thought to be original, is actually continuous with older aesthetic theory; Aristotle was the first in the Western tradition to classify "beauty" into types as in his theory of drama, and Kant made a distinction between beauty and the sublime. What was new was a refusal to credit the higher status of certain types, where the taxonomy implied a preference for tragedy and the sublime to comedy and the Rococo.
Croce suggested that “expression” is central in the way that beauty was once thought to be central. George Dickie suggested that the sociological institutions of the art world were the glue binding art and sensibility into unities. Marshall McLuhan suggested that art always functions as a "counter-environment" designed to make visible what is usually invisible about a society.[page needed] Theodor Adorno felt that aesthetics could not proceed without confronting the role of the culture industry in the commodification of art and aesthetic experience. Hal Foster (art critic) attempted to portray the reaction against beauty and Modernist art in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Arthur Danto has described this reaction as "kalliphobia" (after the Greek word for beauty - 'kalos').André Malraux explains that the notion of beauty was connected to a particular conception of art that arose with the Renaissance and was still dominant in the eighteenth century (but was supplanted later). The discipline of aesthetics, which originated in the eighteenth century, mistook this transient state of affairs for a revelation of the permanent nature of art.Brian Massumi suggests to reconsider beauty following the aesthetical thought in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.
Daniel Berlyne created the field of experimental aesthetics in the 1970s, for which he is still the most cited individual decades after his death.
Pneumaist aestheticism is a theory of art and a highly experimental approach to art negating historical preconceptions of the aesthetic.
Jean-François Lyotard re-invokes the Kantian distinction between taste and the sublime. Sublime painting, unlike kitsch realism, "...will enable us to see only by making it impossible to see; it will please only by causing pain."
Sigmund Freud inaugurated aesthetical thinking in Psychoanalysis mainly via the "Uncanny" as aesthetical affect.Following Freud and Merleau-Ponty,Jacques Lacan theorized aesthetics in terms of sublimation and the Thing .
IMPORTANT IN VISUAL ART DESIGN
Elements of Art
Form is an element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses volume. Cubes ,spheres,and cylinders are examples of various forms. Line is an element of art which refers to the continuos mark made on some surface by a moving point. It may be two dimensional, like a pencil mark on a paper or it may be three dimensional(wire) or implied( the edge of a shape or form) often it is a outline,contour or silhouette. Shape is an enclosed space defined by other elements of art. shapes may take on the appearance of two-d or three- objects. Color Is an element of art with three properties1) Hue, the name of the color, e.g. red, yellow, etc. 2) Intensity or the purity and strength of the color such as bright ness or dullness. And 3) value, or the lightness or darkness of the color. Texture refers to the surface quality or "feel" of an object, such as roughness, smoothness, or softness. Actual texture can be felt while simulated textures are implied by the way the artist renders areas of the picture. Space refers to the distance or area between, around, above or within things. It can be a description for both 2 and 3 dimensional portrayals. Value describes the lightness or darkness of a color. Value is needed to express Volume.
Principles of Art
Emphasis in a composition refers to developing points of interest to pull the viewer's eye to important parts of the body of the work. Balance is a sense of stability in the body of work. Balance can be created by repeating same shapes and by creating a feeling of equal weight. Harmony is achieved in a body of work by using similar elements throughout the work, harmony gives an uncomplicated look to your work. Variety refers to the differences in the work, You can achieve variety by using difference shapes, textures, colors and values in your work. Movement adds excitement to your work by showing action and directing the viewers eye throughout the picture plane. Rhythm is a type of movement in drawing and painting. It is seen in repeating of shapes and colors. Alternating lights and darks also give a sense of rhythm. Proportion or scale refers to the relationships of the size of objects in a body of work. Proportions gives a sense of size seen as a relationship of objects. such as smallness or largeness. Unity is seen in a painting or drawing when all the parts equal a whole. Your work should not appear disjointed or confusing.
Art criticism:
The skills of art criticism
Examine any object we are willing to call art. In order for it to exist someone had to produce it. Skills of observation, representation and interpretation had to be joined with skills of rendering and creation to bring this work into existence. These are the skills associated with art production. In order to fully understand the symbols, subjects and themes affiliated with this work and how the work relates to the culture and times in which it was produced, one must be familiar with its heritage; seeking answers to the who, when, what and why questions. These are issues associated with art history. But in order to appreciate the significance of this work, one must be able to identify, describe and interpret what is actually in the work in terms of its expressive properties, and to assess, or make judgments about, the work's personal and social values. This is, of course, within the realm of art criticism.
Identifying and describing -- if one is to respond to a work of art as fully as possible, it is essential that effort be invested in carefully examining every aspect of the work. Specific shapes, colors, values and textures, and where these visual qualities are located need to be identified. Illusions of form, space and gesture must be observed. One should look for what is obvious as well as nuances and subtleties. In addition, what is observed needs to be articulated. This can be done intuitively and/or analytically, silently with oneself or in discussion with others. The key point is the necessity to elucidate what has been experienced in order to verify the validity of one's observations; e.g., describing the range of colors, variations in dark and light qualities, the width of lines, and tactile and visual textures, as well as the extent to which organic and/or geometric shapes and illusions of deep and shallow space exist. If qualities within the art work are not observed, than one's response will be stunted and appreciation will be limited. If qualities are ascribed to the work that do not actually exist within it, than one's response will be invalid.
Analyzing -- another objective activity is to contemplate how the characteristics of the work that have been identified and described are organized. Are visual qualities arranged primarily symmetrically or asymmetrically? Are there colors, textures or shapes that are clearly dominant because of their relative size or repeated use? What kind of implied or actual movements can be identified? Are their large sinuous curves or staccato-like gradations or transitions? Are contrasts among and between visual qualities very obvious and conflicting, or subtle and harmonious? It is essential to analyze as carefully as possible how visual qualities are arranged because the nature of these qualities and their distribution are the best and most legitimate indicators of what is being expressed both overtly and covertly.
Interpreting -- making an accurate assessment of the formal "objective" qualities in works of art is critical to discerning what the work expresses. The emotions and thoughts evoked by our contemplation of the work should be based upon what can actually be observed. If we say we are saddened by the work or that we experience a sense of tranquillity, we ought to be able to identify the sources in the work for these responses. What we must not succumb to is allowing our predisposition's to bias our reactions. For instance, we may believe that weakness and resignation are associated with old age. When we observe a painting by Van Gogh of an old peasant we assume that he is a frail old man, even though he is painted in very vibrant and forceful and conflicting colors. Weakness and resignation are not associated with these colors, therefore, such a response would be invalid. Biased response do not allow the work to speak for itself.
Making judgments -- all of the foregoing types of responses are necessary prerequisites to making informed judgments about the value of visual phenomena including works of art. Judgments, however, do not exist in isolation; they are relative to a variety of criteria, which also need to be clarified. If one declares that a particular painting is an extraordinary masterpiece, what is the basis for this judgment? Is the work being compared to other works that are similar in style and/or theme? Or, does the work evoke such profound personal reactions that one is moved to call it great?
Making comparative judgments requires that one possess a background that is relative to what is being evaluated. For example, questioning whether a work is an ordinary or an extraordinary example of a particular artistic style requires some acquaintance with other works in the same style. Styles can vary in terms of time and/or place (Song Dynasty ceramic vessels from China), the character of a work's formal organization (baroque forms from various times and places), or the unique approach of a particular artist (Modigliani, for example).
Form is an element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses volume. Cubes ,spheres,and cylinders are examples of various forms. Line is an element of art which refers to the continuos mark made on some surface by a moving point. It may be two dimensional, like a pencil mark on a paper or it may be three dimensional(wire) or implied( the edge of a shape or form) often it is a outline,contour or silhouette. Shape is an enclosed space defined by other elements of art. shapes may take on the appearance of two-d or three- objects. Color Is an element of art with three properties1) Hue, the name of the color, e.g. red, yellow, etc. 2) Intensity or the purity and strength of the color such as bright ness or dullness. And 3) value, or the lightness or darkness of the color. Texture refers to the surface quality or "feel" of an object, such as roughness, smoothness, or softness. Actual texture can be felt while simulated textures are implied by the way the artist renders areas of the picture. Space refers to the distance or area between, around, above or within things. It can be a description for both 2 and 3 dimensional portrayals. Value describes the lightness or darkness of a color. Value is needed to express Volume.
Principles of Art
Emphasis in a composition refers to developing points of interest to pull the viewer's eye to important parts of the body of the work. Balance is a sense of stability in the body of work. Balance can be created by repeating same shapes and by creating a feeling of equal weight. Harmony is achieved in a body of work by using similar elements throughout the work, harmony gives an uncomplicated look to your work. Variety refers to the differences in the work, You can achieve variety by using difference shapes, textures, colors and values in your work. Movement adds excitement to your work by showing action and directing the viewers eye throughout the picture plane. Rhythm is a type of movement in drawing and painting. It is seen in repeating of shapes and colors. Alternating lights and darks also give a sense of rhythm. Proportion or scale refers to the relationships of the size of objects in a body of work. Proportions gives a sense of size seen as a relationship of objects. such as smallness or largeness. Unity is seen in a painting or drawing when all the parts equal a whole. Your work should not appear disjointed or confusing.
Art criticism:
The skills of art criticism
Examine any object we are willing to call art. In order for it to exist someone had to produce it. Skills of observation, representation and interpretation had to be joined with skills of rendering and creation to bring this work into existence. These are the skills associated with art production. In order to fully understand the symbols, subjects and themes affiliated with this work and how the work relates to the culture and times in which it was produced, one must be familiar with its heritage; seeking answers to the who, when, what and why questions. These are issues associated with art history. But in order to appreciate the significance of this work, one must be able to identify, describe and interpret what is actually in the work in terms of its expressive properties, and to assess, or make judgments about, the work's personal and social values. This is, of course, within the realm of art criticism.
Identifying and describing -- if one is to respond to a work of art as fully as possible, it is essential that effort be invested in carefully examining every aspect of the work. Specific shapes, colors, values and textures, and where these visual qualities are located need to be identified. Illusions of form, space and gesture must be observed. One should look for what is obvious as well as nuances and subtleties. In addition, what is observed needs to be articulated. This can be done intuitively and/or analytically, silently with oneself or in discussion with others. The key point is the necessity to elucidate what has been experienced in order to verify the validity of one's observations; e.g., describing the range of colors, variations in dark and light qualities, the width of lines, and tactile and visual textures, as well as the extent to which organic and/or geometric shapes and illusions of deep and shallow space exist. If qualities within the art work are not observed, than one's response will be stunted and appreciation will be limited. If qualities are ascribed to the work that do not actually exist within it, than one's response will be invalid.
Analyzing -- another objective activity is to contemplate how the characteristics of the work that have been identified and described are organized. Are visual qualities arranged primarily symmetrically or asymmetrically? Are there colors, textures or shapes that are clearly dominant because of their relative size or repeated use? What kind of implied or actual movements can be identified? Are their large sinuous curves or staccato-like gradations or transitions? Are contrasts among and between visual qualities very obvious and conflicting, or subtle and harmonious? It is essential to analyze as carefully as possible how visual qualities are arranged because the nature of these qualities and their distribution are the best and most legitimate indicators of what is being expressed both overtly and covertly.
Interpreting -- making an accurate assessment of the formal "objective" qualities in works of art is critical to discerning what the work expresses. The emotions and thoughts evoked by our contemplation of the work should be based upon what can actually be observed. If we say we are saddened by the work or that we experience a sense of tranquillity, we ought to be able to identify the sources in the work for these responses. What we must not succumb to is allowing our predisposition's to bias our reactions. For instance, we may believe that weakness and resignation are associated with old age. When we observe a painting by Van Gogh of an old peasant we assume that he is a frail old man, even though he is painted in very vibrant and forceful and conflicting colors. Weakness and resignation are not associated with these colors, therefore, such a response would be invalid. Biased response do not allow the work to speak for itself.
Making judgments -- all of the foregoing types of responses are necessary prerequisites to making informed judgments about the value of visual phenomena including works of art. Judgments, however, do not exist in isolation; they are relative to a variety of criteria, which also need to be clarified. If one declares that a particular painting is an extraordinary masterpiece, what is the basis for this judgment? Is the work being compared to other works that are similar in style and/or theme? Or, does the work evoke such profound personal reactions that one is moved to call it great?
Making comparative judgments requires that one possess a background that is relative to what is being evaluated. For example, questioning whether a work is an ordinary or an extraordinary example of a particular artistic style requires some acquaintance with other works in the same style. Styles can vary in terms of time and/or place (Song Dynasty ceramic vessels from China), the character of a work's formal organization (baroque forms from various times and places), or the unique approach of a particular artist (Modigliani, for example).
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
BINOCULARS
MALAYSIAN CERAMIC ARTIST : Mohd Al-Khuzairie Ali
The artists Binoculars borrow its title from the optical instrument and symbolizes, the artist act looking into the distant future with his eighteen ceramic work, which in turn consist of three discernable series: Reborn,Mind Machine and Xerox.Across the three, forms take on space-age guises as body parts mingle with machine components and human flesh fraternizes with nuts and bolts.And altogether, the humble, ultilitarian medium of ceramic is given a futuristic facelift to represent Khuzairie's observations of socio-cultural changes caused by our ever-increasing dependence on science and technology.
The artists Binoculars borrow its title from the optical instrument and symbolizes, the artist act looking into the distant future with his eighteen ceramic work, which in turn consist of three discernable series: Reborn,Mind Machine and Xerox.Across the three, forms take on space-age guises as body parts mingle with machine components and human flesh fraternizes with nuts and bolts.And altogether, the humble, ultilitarian medium of ceramic is given a futuristic facelift to represent Khuzairie's observations of socio-cultural changes caused by our ever-increasing dependence on science and technology.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
REALIST PAINTINGS
Realist Paintings by David Kassan As an expression of his own calculated observation and visual consumption of surrounding environment, introspective glimpses of reality imbue the art of David Jon Kassan. By immersing himself into his subject matter, Kassan is able to infuse his painting with life and realism. Kassan’s direction of realism follows the philosophies emplyed by the Ashcan School of American Realists.
Artist Statement
My work is a way of meditation, a way of slowing down time though the careful observation of overlooked slices of my environment. It is the subtlety of emotion in my acquaintances that inhabit the aforementioned environment which intrigues me. My paintings strive for reality, a chance to mimic life in both scale and complexity. The viewer is given an eye level perspective of the subject. A view that is unbiased and in its most raw condition. It is my intent to control the medium of oil paint so that it is not part of the viewer to subject equation. The image stands alone without evidence of the artist. I displace textures from their natural environment by moving them out of the context they exist in. Taking the abstract form from the streets where they get lost and moving them into the gallery space where they can be contemplated as accidental abstractions.
The technical aspect of my work is a means to an end; an end rooted in the viewer's experience. I am interested the concept of a painting's technical and transformative powers. By turning an ordinary painting surface into a textured trompe l'oeil documentation of the city or turning the surface into a life sized representation of a figure in space that transmits feeling this technical process allows for the viewer's experience to be altered.
The thoughts behind my chosen subject matter, the scale at which it is presented, my search for understanding what I observe, and my effort to constantly learn to document reality with a naturalistic, representational painting technique allows for pieces to be inherent contradictions; paintings that are both real and abstract. My influences are understandably just as contradictory as they have fed and connected my perspective on painting. I am constantly seeking out work that is congruent with my own which has led me to explore the work of life size old master paintings, urban stencil and graffiti street art, Marcel Duchamp's found objects, abstract paintings by Robert Rauschenberg, and finally the sheer conceptual and executed realism of Caravaggio.
Time is the most valuable thing that we all have, the one aspect of daily life that we can not get back once its gone. I want to use time while trying to understand the world around me. Painting is my notebook, my sounding board.
Sculpture Artists
Pencil Carving Art By Dalton Getty
What do you see in this picture? Pencils? Look again. They’re sculptures. Dalton Getty has been patiently carving sculptures from pencils for 25 years. He creates amazing miniature pieces of art, including linked hearts, keys, and an alphabet project completed over a steady 2.5 year period. Incredible.Dalton Getty is a 45-year-old resident of Bridgeport who turns ordinary pencils into miniature sculptures, without using a magnifying glass
He works very slowly and does not use any special tools: for he needed only a blade, a sewing needle and a very bright light. To protect their vision, the author works for one and half hours a day. One tiny sculpture may take several months, and one creation may take Dalton 2 and a 1/2 years.
Dalton believes that his sculptures are forcing people to stay for at least a few moments to escape from the mad rhythm of modern life and see the beauty in miniature detail.
What do you see in this picture? Pencils? Look again. They’re sculptures. Dalton Getty has been patiently carving sculptures from pencils for 25 years. He creates amazing miniature pieces of art, including linked hearts, keys, and an alphabet project completed over a steady 2.5 year period. Incredible.Dalton Getty is a 45-year-old resident of Bridgeport who turns ordinary pencils into miniature sculptures, without using a magnifying glassHe works very slowly and does not use any special tools: for he needed only a blade, a sewing needle and a very bright light. To protect their vision, the author works for one and half hours a day. One tiny sculpture may take several months, and one creation may take Dalton 2 and a 1/2 years.
Dalton believes that his sculptures are forcing people to stay for at least a few moments to escape from the mad rhythm of modern life and see the beauty in miniature detail.
Performance and Installation art
MEET : Rebecca Belmore
Born in Upsala, Ontario, Rebecca Belmore is an artist currently living in Vancouver, British Columbia. She attended the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and is internationally recognized for her performance and installation art. Since 1987, her multi-disciplinary work has addressed history, place and identity through the media of sculpture, installation, video and performance. Belmore was Canada’s official representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale.
Her work has appeared in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally including two solo touring exhibitions, The Named and the Unnamed, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2002); and 33 Pieces, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga (2001). Her group exhibitions include Houseguests, Art Gallery of Ontario (2001); Longing and Belonging: From the Faraway Nearby, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico (1995); Land, Spirit, Power, National Gallery of Canada (1992); and Creation or Death: We Will Win, at the Havana Biennial, Havana Cuba (1991).
Born in Upsala, Ontario, Rebecca Belmore is an artist currently living in Vancouver, British Columbia. She attended the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and is internationally recognized for her performance and installation art. Since 1987, her multi-disciplinary work has addressed history, place and identity through the media of sculpture, installation, video and performance. Belmore was Canada’s official representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale.
Her work has appeared in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally including two solo touring exhibitions, The Named and the Unnamed, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2002); and 33 Pieces, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga (2001). Her group exhibitions include Houseguests, Art Gallery of Ontario (2001); Longing and Belonging: From the Faraway Nearby, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico (1995); Land, Spirit, Power, National Gallery of Canada (1992); and Creation or Death: We Will Win, at the Havana Biennial, Havana Cuba (1991).
NEW ART:Photo realistic artwork
Paul Roberts
Paul Roberts was brought up by artist parents in Wales. Gaining early recognition in the 1970s, his career as a painter was interrupted when he had worldwide success with the rock band, Sniff ’n’ The Tears, in 1978 (whose cover artworks were all his creation). In 1988, he moved with his family to Somerset, where he has continued to paint and make music. His work can currently be seen at the Plus One Gallery London.
Paul Roberts (born in Tiverton, Devon, 1948) is the former lead singer and songwriter of Sniff 'n' the Tears. He is also known for his work as a photorealistic painter. He recorded a number of albums under his own name, with music very similar to that of Sniff 'n' Tears. The key albums were City Without Walls (1985) and Kettle Drum Blues (1987). The album Slowdown (1992) is a mainly a compilation of the two albums stated before.
Roberts was brought up in Wales by his parents, both themselves artists. Having studied at Newport College of Art, Cardiff College of Art and Goldsmiths College of Art, he gained early recognition as a painter in the 1970s before his career was interrupted by worldwide success with the rock band Sniff 'n' the Tears in 1978. Around 1980 he was exhibited by Nicholas Treadwell, who then wrote:
"Paul's work explores and parodies the glamorous way of life with seductive and dramatic effect, accentuated by an excellent sense of colour and powerful abstract values. The influence of cinema can clearly be seen in his paintings and his appreciation of Visconti and Hitchcock is often apparent".In 1988 he moved with his family to Somerset. Until 2000, his music commitments limited the time he had available to develop as a painter.
Paul Roberts was brought up by artist parents in Wales. Gaining early recognition in the 1970s, his career as a painter was interrupted when he had worldwide success with the rock band, Sniff ’n’ The Tears, in 1978 (whose cover artworks were all his creation). In 1988, he moved with his family to Somerset, where he has continued to paint and make music. His work can currently be seen at the Plus One Gallery London.
Paul Roberts (born in Tiverton, Devon, 1948) is the former lead singer and songwriter of Sniff 'n' the Tears. He is also known for his work as a photorealistic painter. He recorded a number of albums under his own name, with music very similar to that of Sniff 'n' Tears. The key albums were City Without Walls (1985) and Kettle Drum Blues (1987). The album Slowdown (1992) is a mainly a compilation of the two albums stated before.Roberts was brought up in Wales by his parents, both themselves artists. Having studied at Newport College of Art, Cardiff College of Art and Goldsmiths College of Art, he gained early recognition as a painter in the 1970s before his career was interrupted by worldwide success with the rock band Sniff 'n' the Tears in 1978. Around 1980 he was exhibited by Nicholas Treadwell, who then wrote:
"Paul's work explores and parodies the glamorous way of life with seductive and dramatic effect, accentuated by an excellent sense of colour and powerful abstract values. The influence of cinema can clearly be seen in his paintings and his appreciation of Visconti and Hitchcock is often apparent".In 1988 he moved with his family to Somerset. Until 2000, his music commitments limited the time he had available to develop as a painter.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Art Issue
Criticisms of modernism
The most controversial aspect of the modern movement was, and remains, its rejection of tradition. Modernism's stress on freedom of expression, experimentation, radicalism, and primitivism disregards conventional expectations. In many art forms this often meant startling and alienating audiences with bizarre and unpredictable effects, as in the strange and disturbing combinations of motifs in surrealism or the use of extreme dissonance and atonality in modernist music. In literature this often involved the rejection of intelligible plots or characterization in novels, or the creation of poetry that defied clear interpretation.
After the rise of Stalin, the Soviet Communist government rejected modernism on the grounds of alleged elitism, although it had previously endorsed futurism and constructivism. The Nazi government of Germany deemed modernism narcissistic and nonsensical, as well as "Jewish" and "Negro" (see Anti-semitism). The Nazis exhibited modernist paintings alongside works by the mentally ill in an exhibition entitled Degenerate Art. Accusations of "formalism" could lead to the end of a career, or worse. For this reason many modernists of the post-war generation felt that they were the most important bulwark against totalitarianism, the "canary in the coal mine", whose repression by a government or other group with supposed authority represented a warning that individual liberties were being threatened. Louis A. Sass compared madness, specifically schizophrenia, and modernism in a less fascist manner by noting their shared disjunctive narratives, surreal images, and incoherence.
In fact, modernism flourished mainly in consumer/capitalist societies, despite the fact that its proponents often rejected consumerism itself. However, high modernism began to merge with consumer culture after World War II, especially during the 1960s. In Britain, a youth sub-culture emerged calling itself "modernist" (usually shortened to Mod), following such representative music groups as The Who and The Kinks. The likes of Bob Dylan, Serge Gainsbourg and The Rolling Stones combined popular musical traditions with modernist verse, adopting literary devices derived from James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, James Thurber, T. S. Eliot, Guillaume Apollinaire, Allen Ginsberg, and others. The Beatles developed along similar lines, creating various modernist musical effects on several albums, while musicians such as Frank Zappa, Syd Barrett and Captain Beefheart proved even more experimental. Modernist devices also started to appear in popular cinema, and later on in music videos. Modernist design also began to enter the mainstream of popular culture, as simplified and stylized forms became popular, often associated with dreams of a space age high-tech future.
This merging of consumer and high versions of modernist culture led to a radical transformation of the meaning of "modernism". First, it implied that a movement based on the rejection of tradition had become a tradition of its own. Second, it demonstrated that the distinction between elite modernist and mass consumerist culture had lost its precision. Some writers[who?] declared that modernism had become so institutionalized that it was now "post avant-garde", indicating that it had lost its power as a revolutionary movement. Many have interpreted this transformation as the beginning of the phase that became known as postmodernism. For others, such as art critic Robert Hughes, postmodernism represents an extension of modernism.
"Anti-modern" or "counter-modern" movements seek to emphasize holism, connection and spirituality as remedies or antidotes to modernism. Such movements see modernism as reductionist, and therefore subject to an inability to see systemic and emergent effects. Many modernists came to this viewpoint, for example Paul Hindemith in his late turn towards mysticism. Writers such as Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, in The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (2000), Fredrick Turner in A Culture of Hope and Lester Brown in Plan B, have articulated a critique of the basic idea of modernism itself — that individual creative expression should conform to the realities of technology. Instead, they argue, individual creativity should make everyday life more emotionally acceptable.
In some fields the effects of modernism have remained stronger and more persistent than in others. Visual art has made the most complete break with its past. Most major capital cities have museums devoted to 'Modern Art' as distinct from post-Renaissance art (circa 1400 to circa 1900). Examples include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. These galleries make no distinction between modernist and postmodernist phases, seeing both as developments within 'Modern Art'.
The most controversial aspect of the modern movement was, and remains, its rejection of tradition. Modernism's stress on freedom of expression, experimentation, radicalism, and primitivism disregards conventional expectations. In many art forms this often meant startling and alienating audiences with bizarre and unpredictable effects, as in the strange and disturbing combinations of motifs in surrealism or the use of extreme dissonance and atonality in modernist music. In literature this often involved the rejection of intelligible plots or characterization in novels, or the creation of poetry that defied clear interpretation.
After the rise of Stalin, the Soviet Communist government rejected modernism on the grounds of alleged elitism, although it had previously endorsed futurism and constructivism. The Nazi government of Germany deemed modernism narcissistic and nonsensical, as well as "Jewish" and "Negro" (see Anti-semitism). The Nazis exhibited modernist paintings alongside works by the mentally ill in an exhibition entitled Degenerate Art. Accusations of "formalism" could lead to the end of a career, or worse. For this reason many modernists of the post-war generation felt that they were the most important bulwark against totalitarianism, the "canary in the coal mine", whose repression by a government or other group with supposed authority represented a warning that individual liberties were being threatened. Louis A. Sass compared madness, specifically schizophrenia, and modernism in a less fascist manner by noting their shared disjunctive narratives, surreal images, and incoherence.
In fact, modernism flourished mainly in consumer/capitalist societies, despite the fact that its proponents often rejected consumerism itself. However, high modernism began to merge with consumer culture after World War II, especially during the 1960s. In Britain, a youth sub-culture emerged calling itself "modernist" (usually shortened to Mod), following such representative music groups as The Who and The Kinks. The likes of Bob Dylan, Serge Gainsbourg and The Rolling Stones combined popular musical traditions with modernist verse, adopting literary devices derived from James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, James Thurber, T. S. Eliot, Guillaume Apollinaire, Allen Ginsberg, and others. The Beatles developed along similar lines, creating various modernist musical effects on several albums, while musicians such as Frank Zappa, Syd Barrett and Captain Beefheart proved even more experimental. Modernist devices also started to appear in popular cinema, and later on in music videos. Modernist design also began to enter the mainstream of popular culture, as simplified and stylized forms became popular, often associated with dreams of a space age high-tech future.
This merging of consumer and high versions of modernist culture led to a radical transformation of the meaning of "modernism". First, it implied that a movement based on the rejection of tradition had become a tradition of its own. Second, it demonstrated that the distinction between elite modernist and mass consumerist culture had lost its precision. Some writers[who?] declared that modernism had become so institutionalized that it was now "post avant-garde", indicating that it had lost its power as a revolutionary movement. Many have interpreted this transformation as the beginning of the phase that became known as postmodernism. For others, such as art critic Robert Hughes, postmodernism represents an extension of modernism.
"Anti-modern" or "counter-modern" movements seek to emphasize holism, connection and spirituality as remedies or antidotes to modernism. Such movements see modernism as reductionist, and therefore subject to an inability to see systemic and emergent effects. Many modernists came to this viewpoint, for example Paul Hindemith in his late turn towards mysticism. Writers such as Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, in The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (2000), Fredrick Turner in A Culture of Hope and Lester Brown in Plan B, have articulated a critique of the basic idea of modernism itself — that individual creative expression should conform to the realities of technology. Instead, they argue, individual creativity should make everyday life more emotionally acceptable.
In some fields the effects of modernism have remained stronger and more persistent than in others. Visual art has made the most complete break with its past. Most major capital cities have museums devoted to 'Modern Art' as distinct from post-Renaissance art (circa 1400 to circa 1900). Examples include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. These galleries make no distinction between modernist and postmodernist phases, seeing both as developments within 'Modern Art'.
Sculpture Artists
Martin Puryear
Martin Puryear was born in Washington, D.C., in 1941. In his youth, he studied crafts and learned how to build guitars, furniture, and canoes through practical training and instruction. After earning his BA from Catholic University in Washington D.C., Puryear joined the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, and later attended the Swedish Royal Academy of Art. He received an MFA in sculpture from Yale University in 1971. Puryear’s objects and public installations—in wood, stone, tar, wire, and various metals—are a marriage of Minimalist logic with traditional ways of making.
Puryear’s evocative, dreamlike explorations in abstract forms retain vestigial elements of utility from everyday objects found in the world. In “Ladder for Booker T. Washington,” Puryear built a spindly, meandering ladder out of jointed ash wood. More than thirty-five feet tall, the ladder narrows toward the top, creating a distorted sense of perspective that evokes an unattainable or illusionary goal. In the massive stone piece, “Untitled,” Puryear enlisted a local stonemason to help him construct a building-like structure on a ranch in Northern California. On one side of the work is an eighteen-foot-high wall—on the other side, an inexplicable stone bulge.
A favorite form that occurs in Puryear’s work, the thick-looking stone bulge is surprisingly hollow, coloring the otherwise sturdy shape with qualities of uncertainty, emptiness, and loss. Martin Puryear represented the United States at the São Paolo Bienal in 1989, where his exhibition won the Grand Prize. Puryear is the recipient of numerous awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture. Puryear was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1992 and received an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 1994. Martin Puryear lives and works in the Hudson Valley region of New York.
"Desire" 1981
Pine, red cedar, poplar, and Sitka spruce, 116 x 240 x 288 inches
Collection of Panza di Buono, Varese, Italy
Courtesy Courtesy McKee Gallery, New York
"Vessel"
1997-2002
Pine, mesh and tar, 18 1/2 x 84 x 68 inches
Collection of the artist
Courtesy Courtesy McKee Gallery, New York
"The most precise work is generally done by hand, with hand tools. Some people rely on machines for their precision, and my way of working is backwards. I rely on the machines for doing the gross stock removal and then, when it comes to the final refinements and fitting of joints and things, making things work together, I rely more on sharp-edged tools that I push by hand."
Martin Puryear was born in Washington, D.C., in 1941. In his youth, he studied crafts and learned how to build guitars, furniture, and canoes through practical training and instruction. After earning his BA from Catholic University in Washington D.C., Puryear joined the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, and later attended the Swedish Royal Academy of Art. He received an MFA in sculpture from Yale University in 1971. Puryear’s objects and public installations—in wood, stone, tar, wire, and various metals—are a marriage of Minimalist logic with traditional ways of making.
Puryear’s evocative, dreamlike explorations in abstract forms retain vestigial elements of utility from everyday objects found in the world. In “Ladder for Booker T. Washington,” Puryear built a spindly, meandering ladder out of jointed ash wood. More than thirty-five feet tall, the ladder narrows toward the top, creating a distorted sense of perspective that evokes an unattainable or illusionary goal. In the massive stone piece, “Untitled,” Puryear enlisted a local stonemason to help him construct a building-like structure on a ranch in Northern California. On one side of the work is an eighteen-foot-high wall—on the other side, an inexplicable stone bulge.
A favorite form that occurs in Puryear’s work, the thick-looking stone bulge is surprisingly hollow, coloring the otherwise sturdy shape with qualities of uncertainty, emptiness, and loss. Martin Puryear represented the United States at the São Paolo Bienal in 1989, where his exhibition won the Grand Prize. Puryear is the recipient of numerous awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture. Puryear was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1992 and received an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 1994. Martin Puryear lives and works in the Hudson Valley region of New York.
"Desire" 1981
Pine, red cedar, poplar, and Sitka spruce, 116 x 240 x 288 inches
Collection of Panza di Buono, Varese, Italy
Courtesy Courtesy McKee Gallery, New York
"Vessel"
1997-2002
Pine, mesh and tar, 18 1/2 x 84 x 68 inches
Collection of the artist
Courtesy Courtesy McKee Gallery, New York
"The most precise work is generally done by hand, with hand tools. Some people rely on machines for their precision, and my way of working is backwards. I rely on the machines for doing the gross stock removal and then, when it comes to the final refinements and fitting of joints and things, making things work together, I rely more on sharp-edged tools that I push by hand."
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Seni Catan Moden Malaysia
PENGARUH IDEOLOGI SENI LUKIS BARAT
Jika dihalusi, aliran dan falsafah seni yang diaplikasikan di dalam karya-karya catan tempatan telah diadaptasi daripada ideologi senimlukis Barat terutamanya dari benua Eropah.Fenomena ini berlaku disebabkan oleh aliran seni catan di Malaysia telah diperkenalkan oleh pihak Inggeris ketika era penjajahannya di Semenanjung Tanah Melayu.Menurut Mohd Khairi Baharom (2007) :
"Memang tidak dinafikan kebanyakkan karya yang dihasilkan berlandaskan ideologi Barat kerana kita masih berpegang teguh kepada prinsip dan peraturan asal yang diperkenalkan oleh Barat.Walaupun begitu, karya-karya yang dihasilkan telah diolah dan disesuaikan dengan budaya Malaysia.Cuma falsafahnya sahaja yang masih dikekalkan.Oleh itu, identiti Malaysia menjadi keutamaan.Sebagainya contoh karya Syed Ahmad Jamal berjudul Angin Dingin.Walaupun karya ini dihasilkan menerusi pendekatan Barat, namun subjek utamanya bercirikan budaya Malaysia.Disamping itu terdapat segelintir pelukis yang mengenepikan prinsip Barat contohnya Chuah Thean Teng dan Khalil Ibrahim yang terkenal dengan catan batik.Ini menjelaskan bahawa identiti Malaysia merupakan dominan utama di dalam karya yang dihasilkan"
(Temu bual: Pensyarah Universiti Teknlogi MARA, UITM / 20hb Mac 2007 )
Seni catan moden malaysia perlu mempunyai identiti serta nilai-nilai keistimewaanya yang tersendiri tanpa dipengaruhi oleh ideologi Barat.Terutamanya dari segi falsafah, teori, aliran, nilai-nilai estetika, teknik pengkaryaan dan persembahan karya serta pendekatan seni dan sebagainya.Aspek ini amat penting kerana ia mencerminkan keunikkan identiti seni rupa malaysia.
Namun pada hari ini, minda masyarakat malaysia dipengaruhi dan terdedah secara total kepada budaya barat, yang kadangkala disalahtafsirkan sebagai proses pemodenan.Justeru, ancaman terhadap identiti seni catan moden malaysia kian meruncing apabila dasar langit terbuka menguasai minda.Oleh itu, sebagai sebuah negara yang telah mencapai taraf kemerdekaan, kesedaran untuk memelihara dan mengelakan identiti seni catan tempatan wajar dibentuk dan dipupuk menerusi proses pendidikan yang sempurna.
Jika dihalusi, aliran dan falsafah seni yang diaplikasikan di dalam karya-karya catan tempatan telah diadaptasi daripada ideologi senimlukis Barat terutamanya dari benua Eropah.Fenomena ini berlaku disebabkan oleh aliran seni catan di Malaysia telah diperkenalkan oleh pihak Inggeris ketika era penjajahannya di Semenanjung Tanah Melayu.Menurut Mohd Khairi Baharom (2007) :
"Memang tidak dinafikan kebanyakkan karya yang dihasilkan berlandaskan ideologi Barat kerana kita masih berpegang teguh kepada prinsip dan peraturan asal yang diperkenalkan oleh Barat.Walaupun begitu, karya-karya yang dihasilkan telah diolah dan disesuaikan dengan budaya Malaysia.Cuma falsafahnya sahaja yang masih dikekalkan.Oleh itu, identiti Malaysia menjadi keutamaan.Sebagainya contoh karya Syed Ahmad Jamal berjudul Angin Dingin.Walaupun karya ini dihasilkan menerusi pendekatan Barat, namun subjek utamanya bercirikan budaya Malaysia.Disamping itu terdapat segelintir pelukis yang mengenepikan prinsip Barat contohnya Chuah Thean Teng dan Khalil Ibrahim yang terkenal dengan catan batik.Ini menjelaskan bahawa identiti Malaysia merupakan dominan utama di dalam karya yang dihasilkan"
(Temu bual: Pensyarah Universiti Teknlogi MARA, UITM / 20hb Mac 2007 )
Seni catan moden malaysia perlu mempunyai identiti serta nilai-nilai keistimewaanya yang tersendiri tanpa dipengaruhi oleh ideologi Barat.Terutamanya dari segi falsafah, teori, aliran, nilai-nilai estetika, teknik pengkaryaan dan persembahan karya serta pendekatan seni dan sebagainya.Aspek ini amat penting kerana ia mencerminkan keunikkan identiti seni rupa malaysia.
Namun pada hari ini, minda masyarakat malaysia dipengaruhi dan terdedah secara total kepada budaya barat, yang kadangkala disalahtafsirkan sebagai proses pemodenan.Justeru, ancaman terhadap identiti seni catan moden malaysia kian meruncing apabila dasar langit terbuka menguasai minda.Oleh itu, sebagai sebuah negara yang telah mencapai taraf kemerdekaan, kesedaran untuk memelihara dan mengelakan identiti seni catan tempatan wajar dibentuk dan dipupuk menerusi proses pendidikan yang sempurna.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
ART COMPETITION 2010 / PERTANDINGAN MELUKIS 2010
PERTANDINGAN MELUKIS CITRA TERENGGANU 2010
Transkripsi Tema.
Citra Terengganu – merujuk kepada gambaran dan imej khusus tentang perilaku, aktiviti manusia , kehidupan lain yang menjadi lambang, simbol atau ikon yang merujuk kepada kehidupan berbudaya masyarakat Terengganu dan persekitarannya merangkumi aspek pemikiran seperti pengetahuan, kepercayaan, kesenian, undang-undang, moral serta apa jua yang diwarisi dari dulu hingga kini menerusi sejarah dan budaya yang diterima pakai , diakui telah menjadi budaya dan imej Negeri Terengganu.
Contoh:
a. Kehidupan nelayan dan aktivitinya
b. Penyu dan hidupan laut
c. Perahu dan bot nelayan
d. Kesenian seperti ukiran, ulik mayang dan rodat
Terengganu Dalam Kenangan merujuk kepada peristiwa, aktiviti, gerak, perilaku manusia, landskap, monumen dan persekitaran yang merangkumi perkisahan lisan, mitos, lagenda melalui bukti, fakta atau imaginasi yang berlaku pada masa lalu yang diterimapakai serta diakui menerusi rakaman sejarah dan budaya di Negeri Terengganu.
Contoh-contoh peristiwa dan monumen
a. Lawatan Munshi Abdullah di Kuala Terengganu - pertengahan abad ke 19
b. Peristiwa Sam Po Kong di Jeram – abad ke 16
c. Perang Besut – 1870 an
d. Bah Merah - 1926/27
e. Orang Hanyut Vietnam Pulau Bidong - 1975
f. Pelabuhan Kuala Terengganu – abad ke 16
g. Pelabuhan Foloan – abad ke 12
h. Kota Lama, Kuala Terengganu – 1730an
i. Kota Batang Mahang, Tg Baru, Kuala Berang - 1708
MORE INFO VISIT : http://museum.terengganu.gov.my/maxc2020/agensi
/index_borang.php?cid=43
2nd Penang International Print Exhibition 2010
Call for submissions
2nd Penang International Print Exhibition 2010
Penang State Museum and Art Gallery together with The School of the Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) will hold the Second International Penang Printmaking Exhibition at The Penang State Art Gallery as well as at The Tuanku Fauziah Museum and Gallery, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, from 16 September to 15 October 2010.
Participation to the exhibition is open to all printmaking artists from around the world. Each artist may submit a maximum of four prints. Participation is free of charge, each artist must donate at least one print to our permanent collection.
All form and variations of two-dimensional printmaking techniques are acceptable.
The size of the paper may not be smaller than 20 x 30 cm and not larger than 60 x 80 cm.
Submission Deadline:
30 June 2010
More information and contact:
2nd Penang International
Printmaking Exhibition 2010
c/o Rahman Mohamed
School of the Arts
Universiti Sains Malaysia
11800 Penang
Malaysia
www.usm.my/art/penangprint2010/penangprint2010@gmail.com
Transkripsi Tema.
Citra Terengganu – merujuk kepada gambaran dan imej khusus tentang perilaku, aktiviti manusia , kehidupan lain yang menjadi lambang, simbol atau ikon yang merujuk kepada kehidupan berbudaya masyarakat Terengganu dan persekitarannya merangkumi aspek pemikiran seperti pengetahuan, kepercayaan, kesenian, undang-undang, moral serta apa jua yang diwarisi dari dulu hingga kini menerusi sejarah dan budaya yang diterima pakai , diakui telah menjadi budaya dan imej Negeri Terengganu.
Contoh:
a. Kehidupan nelayan dan aktivitinya
b. Penyu dan hidupan laut
c. Perahu dan bot nelayan
d. Kesenian seperti ukiran, ulik mayang dan rodat
Terengganu Dalam Kenangan merujuk kepada peristiwa, aktiviti, gerak, perilaku manusia, landskap, monumen dan persekitaran yang merangkumi perkisahan lisan, mitos, lagenda melalui bukti, fakta atau imaginasi yang berlaku pada masa lalu yang diterimapakai serta diakui menerusi rakaman sejarah dan budaya di Negeri Terengganu.
Contoh-contoh peristiwa dan monumen
a. Lawatan Munshi Abdullah di Kuala Terengganu - pertengahan abad ke 19
b. Peristiwa Sam Po Kong di Jeram – abad ke 16
c. Perang Besut – 1870 an
d. Bah Merah - 1926/27
e. Orang Hanyut Vietnam Pulau Bidong - 1975
f. Pelabuhan Kuala Terengganu – abad ke 16
g. Pelabuhan Foloan – abad ke 12
h. Kota Lama, Kuala Terengganu – 1730an
i. Kota Batang Mahang, Tg Baru, Kuala Berang - 1708
MORE INFO VISIT : http://museum.terengganu.gov.my/maxc2020/agensi
/index_borang.php?cid=43
2nd Penang International Print Exhibition 2010
Call for submissions
2nd Penang International Print Exhibition 2010
Penang State Museum and Art Gallery together with The School of the Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) will hold the Second International Penang Printmaking Exhibition at The Penang State Art Gallery as well as at The Tuanku Fauziah Museum and Gallery, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, from 16 September to 15 October 2010.
Participation to the exhibition is open to all printmaking artists from around the world. Each artist may submit a maximum of four prints. Participation is free of charge, each artist must donate at least one print to our permanent collection.
All form and variations of two-dimensional printmaking techniques are acceptable.
The size of the paper may not be smaller than 20 x 30 cm and not larger than 60 x 80 cm.
Submission Deadline:
30 June 2010
More information and contact:
2nd Penang International
Printmaking Exhibition 2010
c/o Rahman Mohamed
School of the Arts
Universiti Sains Malaysia
11800 Penang
Malaysia
www.usm.my/art/penangprint2010/penangprint2010@gmail.com
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Melihat Seni Cetakan
Cetakan Tamadun Melayu
GALERI Petronas pada tahun lepas melancarkan pameran pertamanya untuk tahun 2009 yang bertajuk: Go Block: Five Contemporary Malaysian Printmakers.Pameran tersebut merupakan satu pertunjukan yang meraikan amalan-amalan baru dalam seni cetak di Malaysia melalui hasil karya baru oleh lima orang seniman iaitu Juhari Said, Kim Ng, Izan Tahir, Zulkifli Yusoff dan Shahrul Jamili.Kesemua mereka banyak memberi sumbangan besar kepada perkembangan seni cetak kontemporari dalam gerakan seni tanah air.Seniman Malaysia dan ahli akademik yang disegani, Prof. Dr. Sulaiman Esa telah menyempurnakan majlis pelancaran pameran tersebut, termasuk buku iringan pameran yang mempunyai judul yang sama pada 17 Februari lalu.
Go Block dikurator oleh Badrolhisham Mohamad Tahir dengan mengetengahkan 15 hasil karya terbaru artis tempatan yang bertujuan mengajak orang ramai meneroka seni cetak sebagai satu bahan tara berciri dinamik dan inovatif yang memberikan kesan besar terhadap pergerakan kesenian di Malaysia hari ini.Konsep asas pameran itu adalah bagi menyedarkan orang ramai bahawa wujudnya satu bentuk alternatif pada proses seni cetak biasa yang selalunya terhad pada penggunaan dakwat, blok cetak, kertas dan tindakan menghentak atas permukaan kertas.Melalui pameran itu, ia menggalakkan penggunaan bahan tara selain dakwat yang boleh diacu dan dibentuk kemudian dipadukan bersama bagi menghasilkan satu hasil karya seni baru yang unik.
Idea asas sebenar pameran itu ialah untuk memberikan definisi baru tentang seni cetak. Pameran tersebut turut menerokai penggunaan pelbagai bahan harian seperti konkrit, kayu, tanah dan lapisan logam sebagai bahan tara, selain menggunakan dakwat yang diacu ke dalam bentuk-bentuk tertentu secara berulang-ulang bagi mendapatkan hasil seni muktamad yang diinginkan.Ketika secara tradisinya seni cetak berada pada tahap sekunder dalam konteks gerakan seni kontemporari di Malaysia, teknik-teknik serta cara penataan dalam seni cetak selalunya digunapakai dalam penghasilan rupa bentuk seni lain, misalnya lukisan, arca dan instalasi.
Peminjaman atau pertukaran teknik dan penataan itu menjadi bukti tentang pengaruh berterusan yang dimiliki oleh seni cetak dalam amalan seni kontemporari kini. Dalam pada itu, batasan atau sempadan peraturan-peraturan atau cabang-cabang seni yang dahulunya lebih jelas dan tersendiri kini menjadi semakin kabur.Walaupun seni cetak dianggap mudah untuk orang ramai menghasilkannya serta tidak mahal kerana alatan dan bahan yang digunakan dikeluarkan secara besar-besaran, namun masih terdapat segelintir seniman Malaysia yang mampu mengguna pakai bentuk seni itu secara berkesan dan menjadikannya sebagai satu keistimewaan.Golongan seniman yang menyertai pameran Go Block itu merupakan antara yang berpengaruh dan berdedikasi dalam amalan seni kontemporari iaitu mereka bertanggungjawab untuk memecah batasan bagi menjadikan seni cetak lebih relevan pada masa kini.Menurut Pengarah Galeri Petronas, Tengku Nasariah Tengku Syed Ibrahim, Go Block merupakan satu pameran yang membuka jalan baru dalam memperkembang seni cetak kepada satu tahap terkini.
"Ia merupakan satu amalan seni yang berkesan kerana mudah bagi orang ramai mengaitkannya dengan pengalaman mereka. Bagaimanapun, kami ingin mencabar pemikiran orang ramai terhadap kefahaman mereka tentang seni cetak, bukan sahaja cetakan blok atas selembar kertas, maksudnya kini lebih luas dan hanya terhad kepada daya imaginasi," katanya.
SECARA tradisinya seni cetak berada pada tahap sekunder dalam konteks gerakan seni kontemporari di Malaysia.Di Malaysia cetakan dihasilkan dengan menggunakan pelbagi teknik dan media. Antara media yang biasa digunakan ialah lino, syelek, lekar dan media campuran. Manakala teknik yang biasa dihunakan hádala seperti teknik timbulan, kolagraf dan cetakan saring. Proses menghasilkaan cetakan timbul ialah dengan
Meletakkan dakwat atau warna pada permukaan yang biasanya terdiri daripada blok
kayu atau lino. Hasil permukaan acuan merupakan imej yang dikehendaki.Langkah menghasilkan cetakan stensil
– Sediakan sebuahpemidang skrin. Lukis dan gunting imej atas kertas pendua.
Semasa mencetak,letakkan iime yang telah dipotong di atas
kertas permukaan dasar yang hendak dicetak.
Pemidang skrin diletakkan di atasnya sebelum dituangkan dakwat atau warna.
Gunakan sekuji untuk meratakan warna diatas pemidang skrin.
Angkat perlahanlahan pemidang skrin.
Biasanya imej yang dipotong itu akan terlekat pada belakang pemidang skrin.
Cetakan ini tidak boleh menghasilkan edisi yang banyak kerana
kertas pendua yang dipotong itu akan lembap dan
menyebabkan dakwat atau warna terkeluar.
Cetakan Tamadun Islam
Cetakan Tamadun Islam lebih berunsurkan Islamik seperti ayat suci al Quran dan unsur geometri. Dalam tamadun islam, kebanyakan hasil seni amat menjauhkan lambang/simbol perantaraan antara manusia dan Tuhan. Hampir semua karya menggunakan unsur dalam motif hiasan. Kegiatan cetakan ketika itu, kebanyakannya berasaskan kayu dan setengahnya dicetak dengan pencetak seperti penghasilan ayat suci al-Quran. Reka corak cetakan adalah kaligrafi (menekankan keseimbangan pola positif dengan negatif) dan berunsurkan kehidupan Islam. Kebanyakan corak adalah menegak ke atas dan bermula dari bawah kerana menggambarkan Tuhan Yang Esa dan Satu. Cetakan dalam tamdun ini tidak menjadikan objek manusia sebagai subjek kerana insan Kamil tidak menampilkan dirinya kepada Tuhan secara tampak. Seni cetakan dihasilkan bertujuan sebagai panduan kepada seluruh umat Islam serta kebanggaan kerana keunikan dan kehalusan pembuatannya. Unsur seninya adalah kontemporari iaitu campuran pelbagai media dan agak moden. Namun begitu, setiap hasil karya yang dihasilkan mestilah berlandaskan kepada unsur tauhid dan akidah umat Islam. Garisan dalam kaligrafi menghasilkan ruang tertentu dalam setiap karya. Banyak karya cetakan menekankan penggunaan garisan dan fungsinya. Unsur geometri seperti segi empat tepat dan sama banyak digunakan beserta dengan ayat suci al-Quran. Ia menjadikan cetakan yang dihasilkan mempunyai kombinasi selain terdapat unsur pengulangan pada motif corak.
Cetakan Tamadun China
China telah menjadi tempat penghasilan cetakan terawal sekali iaitu bermula abad ke 7 Masihi. Cetakan menjadi satu lagi ciptaan budaya China yang penting yang bermula pada 500 S.M. dengan percetakan blok di atas kertas dengan menyapu dakwat ke atas blok yang diukir pada muka surat, meletakkan kertas di atasnya dan menyapu belakang kertas hingga rata. Teknologi percetakan dengan mesin taip dicipta oleh Bi Sheng pada abad ke 11 S.M.
Penciptaan seni cetakan
Tahun sebenar tentang bila seni cetakan di China mula wujud masih lagi diperdebatkan dalam lingkungan akedemik kerana tiada bahan artifak atau peninggalan dokumen yang dapat dikaitkan dengan cetakan terawal yang telah dijumpai. Namun begitu, berdasarkan pengamatan daripada aspek perkembangan sosial dan budaya dan fakta-fakta serta bukti dokumen yang relevan untuk dikaitkan, kita boleh melakarkan secara kasar bahawa cetakan blok kayu mula digunakan dalam Dinasti Sui (581---18) dan menjadi popular dalam Dinasty Tang. Kebanyakkan rekod dokumen tentang cetakan blok kayu dalam Dinasti Tang (618---07), amat sukar untuk dipersembahkan.
Cetakan pada pertengahan dan akhir pemerintahan Dinasti Tang
Pada akhir zaman pemerintahan Dinasti Tang, cetakan telah menjadi semakin popular sejak awal penciptaan. Jauh daripada ajaran Buddha yang telah menggunakan cetakan secara aktif, ajaran Taoisme juga telah menggunakan cetakan untuk menghasilkan buku.Pusat perkembangan cetakan juga semakin berkembang dari ibu negeri di Chang'an dan Luoyang ( ibu negeri wilayah timur) sehingga keke tempat seperti Sichuan, Huainan, dan Dunhuang. Tempat-tempat yang dijadikan untuk membuat cetakan juga semakin bertambah maju.
Cetakan dalam lima Dinasti dan Dinasti Song
The printing industry thrived during the Song Dynasty (960---279). Government departments from the central to the local levels engaged in printing activities. The private printing industry expanded, leading to the existence of printing houses throughout the country, and the cre-ation of a few areas of concentration.
All types of texts were printed including Confucian classics, history, philosophy and belles-lettres. The scale of Buddhist publications was considerably larger then ever before. Apart from the printing of books, new items appeared including the printing of paper money and trademark advertisements.
An important revolution in printing technology during the Song Dynasty was the invention of mov-able type printing. A commoner by the name of Bi Sheng used movable-type blocks for printing during the Qingli years (1041---048) of the Northern Song. This invention ushered in an era of movable-type printing and is a significant milestone in the history of printing.
Cetakan di Liao, Barat Xia dan Jin
Sezaman dengan Dinasti Song yang telah menjadi ikutan cara hidup etnik minority di Liao, Barat Xia dan jin, peringkat cetakan di kawasan ini juga pada tahap yang sama dengan kawasan di tengah dan Selatan China.
Dalam tahun 1991, Sembilan jilid ayat-ayat suci Buddha bertajuk Propitiousness telah tersebar ke merata tempat di Kouhebenxu. Tulisan tersebut telah ditulis dalam simbol dan tulisan daripada Barat Xia dan dibatasi mengikut format rama-rama, telah dijumpai di lingkungan pagoda di Baishigou yang terletak di negeri Helan, Ningxia, wilayah Auton-omous. Ahli arkeologi dan pakar telah menjelaskan bahawa jilid ini telah dicetak sekitar tahun di Barat Xia iaitu setengah abad dalam abad ke 21 dengan menggunakan kayu jenis mudah alih. Ayat-ayat suci ini telah diambil sebagai penemuan terawal tentang cetakan kayu mudah alih dan ia telah menduduki tempat terpenting dalam sejarah cetakan China.
Cetakan Tamadun Jepun
Cetakan blok kayu di Jepun di kenali sebagai Ukiyo-e. Pada asalnya ia dibawa masuk ke Jepun seiring kemasukan agama Buddha. Stail dan gaya cetakan blok kayu Jepun yang unik berkembang maju pertengahan abad ke 17 hingga pertengahan abad ke 19. Perkataan ‘Ukiyo’ berasal dari perkataan Buddha bermaksud dunia sedih. Aspek yang digambarkan dalam Ukiyo-e, adalah tentang dunia terapung merujuk kepada perasaan dan kebebasan yang tidak abadi atau tidak kekal. e’ pula bermaksud gambar atau lukisan. Pada zahirnya, Ukiyo-e menceritakan kekayaan sejarah zaman Edo di bawah pemerintahan Shogun yang terasing dari dunia luar. Kegiatan dilakukan berkisar persembahan teater, restoran, kedai minum, geisha dan rumah pelacuran kelas atasan. Tahun 1650, ilustrasi buku cetak dari blok kayu pertama dihasilkan oleh Ise Mongatari. Awalnya ilustrasinya agak kasar dan tidak penting berbanding teks yang dikeluarkan. Akhirnya gambar jadi penting yang dihasilkan sekumpulan artis seni. Tokoh artis seperti Utamaro dan Sharaku menghasilkan poster, iklan persembahan teater dan rumah pelacuran atau potret idola seperti aktor Kabuki (drama tradisi Jepun).
Secara amnya mereka menggambarkan kehidupan seharian waktu itu yang sesuai dijadikan cetakan poskad. Awal abad ke 18, perubahan pada kualiti kertas, rupa bentuk dan saiz cetakan bertambah dan pelbagai. Teknik cetakan lebih moden. ‘Urushi-e’ bahan pengilat, ditambah pada kawasan hitam tertentu menjadikannya berkilat melalui campuran gam dan dakwat. Dari awal cetakan warna dilakukan dengan tangan. Pertengahan abad ke 18, Okumara Masanobu(penerbit &pelukis) telah membuat eksperimen dengan menggunakan lebih daripada satu kayu blok untuk menghasilkan beni-e’ atau gambar merah. Tokoh artis Suzuki Harunobu antara yang cemerlang dan terkenal di Edo yang dapat mencetak dan menghasilkan beberapa siri cetakan blok kayu yang halus & serupa dengan figura lelaki dan perempuan dengan gaya sungguh menarik. Kecantikan ukiyo-e hanya dapat dikecapi oleh warga dunia selepas Laksamana Perry ke Jepun tahun 1854 selepas dasar ‘buka pintu’. Malangnya banyak hasil ukiyo-e rosak kerana gempa bumi, kebakaran dan terlalu usang.
Shunga merupakan karya seni bergaya ukiyo-e (seni lukis di atas woodblock yang penggarapannya melalui cetakan). Kadang-kadang shunga dicetak pula di atas gulungan kertas perkamen. Lukisan pada kerya shunga biasanya adegan percintaan. Seni Shunga bermula sejak era Muromachi (1336-1573) dan dipengaruhi pelukis erotik dari dinasti Tang di China, Chou Fang. Seni Shunga dibuat dan dijual dalam bentuk lembar atau dalam bentuk buku dinamakan “enpon”. Selain itu, karya ini juga dalam bentuk gulungan(hand scroll format) dinamakan “kakemono-e”. Karya shunga yang dibuat di Osaka & Kyoto warnanya lebih kaya dibandingkan dari Edo kerana digunakan “gofun” (bubuk kulit kerang putih yang dicampur dengan berbagai bahan hingga menjadi pigmen beraneka warna.
Ketika era pemerintahan Kaei (1848-1854), banyak kapal pedagang asing datang je Jepun. Seni cetakan Ukiyo-e ketika itu telah banyak mengalami perubahan dari segi budaya.
Diikuti oleh zaman keagungan Meiji sekitar tahun 1868, jepun mengamalkan dasar terbuka kepada bahan import dari luar termasuklah hasil photografi yang telah menggantikan seni Ukiyo-e secara keseluruhannya. Pengaruh barat ke atas Jepun telah berkembang dalam era Meiji. Ukiyo-e ketika itu jatuh dan menjadi amat tidak bernilai sehingga hasil cetakan ini hanya dijadikan sebagai kertas pembalut bahan dagangan. Ketika masyarakat barat melihat dan menjumpai kertas cetakan ini, ia telah menjadi sumber ilham penting kepada pengkarya-pengkarya daripada aliran impresionisme, kubisme, dan post-impresionis seperti Vincent Van Gogh, James Abbott, McNeill Whistler, Claude Monet dan lain-lain, pengaruh ini telah dikenali sebagai Japonisme di Barat.
Proses penghasilan Ukiyo-e
Secara tradisi proses penghasilan ukiyo-e melibatkan 3 bidang dan orang yang berbeza. Bidang tersebut ialah,
- Kerja melukis (pelukis/artis)
-Kerja mencetak, memilih warna, mengeluarkan modal (pengeluar/penerbit)
-Kerja mengukir blok kayu (pengukir)
Proses dimulakan dengan menggunakan blok dakwat hitam dan diikuti blok warna di akhir cetakan. Kemudian ‘hansita-e’ dilekatkan ke atas blok kayu yang kering. Kemudian diukir berhati-hati supaya garisan timbul. Cetakan terhasil dari permukaan timbul yang ditinggalkan, bila bahagian lain diukir keluar. Setiap warna memerlukan blok kayu yang berasingan. Garis panduan diukir secara berhati-hati atas kayu blok untuk memastikan warna dicetak mengikut garisan yang betul. 2 bentuk cetakan timbul yang paling biasa menggunakan kayu dan lino. Selain itu termasuklah getah atau styrofoam.
Cetakan Tamadun India
Cetakan di India dijadikan sebagai alat untuk membuat salinan. Latihan mencetak sebagai satu bentuk seni yang serius, mampu berdiri tanpa sebarang konsesi, tidak lebih 100 tahun sasarannya. Sempadan antara bahasa dan teknik cetakan adalah kabur, seni cetakan telah masuki laluan utama latihan visual. Latihan sokongan proses mencetak muncul ketibaan untuk menjadi luas dengan cara perbandingan oleh sebilangan kecil pelukis. Bentuk alam semulajadi/ tuntutan rejimnya, desakan dan dorongan menyebabkan kebanyakan pelukis lebih menonjol berbanding kurangnya jalan disekat dan seni perkataan mutunya rendah. Bagi memahami medianya, kita perlu mengetahui sejarah permulaan dan perkembangannya terlebih dahulu. Konsep salinan dan pengeluaran semula, yang merupakan asas cetakan, diketahui oleh India sebelum tertubuhnya mesin pencetak tahun 1956 di Goa. Tamadun Lembah Indus bukti rekod tentang alat pengesahan cop materai diguna secara besar-besaran. Anugerah tanah direkod oleh pengukir menggunakan tangan dan berimaginasi untuk tujuan agama dan duniawi . Kemahiran mengores atas permukaan tulang , kayu, kulit kerang, gading merupakan kraf popular. Rekod tamadun Lembah Indus dihasilkan dengan menekan blok ke atas tanah liat telah dijumpai. Untuk buat cetakan blok dan bahan warna seperti habuk pasir atau serbuk hitam atau sayuran merupakan selalu digunakan, bermula zaman Vedik. Cetakan Calica terhasil dengan ukiran blok kayu dan pengukir dengan warna dari sayuran dan ditekan pada kain dan urat. Awal kurun ke 16,orang Portugis membuka kilang di Calicus, Cochin dan Goa serta cetakan dikuasai oleh penguasha asing. Ahli Society of Jesus Portugis Missionaries di Goa merupakan orang pertama mencetak buku sebagai media berkesan untuk propaganda ideology Kristian. Pada 6 sept. 1556, 2 pencetak kayu tiba di Goa dan menetapkan di bawah penguasaan Joan de Busta Mante
Cetakan Tamadun Barat
Seni cetakan di barat mula berkembang selepas kemunculan seni cetakan di China. Pada abad ke 14 Masihi, industri cetakan mono telah berkembang di negara Barat.
Ketika itu, cetakan digunakan bagi tujuan propaganda, pendidikan dan bahan keagamaan. Penggunaan warna bermula pada abad ke 15. Bermula dengan cetakan pakaian seawal kurun 60 an. Kelewatan teknologi kertas di negara Timur menyebabkan cetakan kertas lebih lewat diperkenalkan. Tahun 1511, kertas mula diperkenalkan di Jativa, Sepanyol. Cetakan kayu yang pertama dicetak di atas kertas adalah di German seawal abad ke 15. Goresan dihidupkan oleh pelukis Belanda pada kurun ke 17 dan Rembrant telah membuat cetakan pertamanya pada 1626. Dia lebih cenderung menghasilkan cetakan sendiri berbanding kepada teknik cetakan professional. Beberapa dari cetakannya memaklumkan teknik cetaka mengalir tetapi melalui pengalaman dan uji kaji, dia mengasah dan membentuk kemahirannya, lalu menjadi mahir dan kreatif dalam seni cetakan.
Engraving
Proses ini dikembangkan di Jerman sekitar tahun 1430 dari engraving (ukiran halus) yang digunakan oleh para tukang emas untuk mendekorasi karya mereka. penggunaan alat yang disebut dengan burin merupakan ketrampilan yang rumit.
Pembuat engraving menggunakan alat dari logam yang diperkeras yang disebut dengan burin untuk mengukir corak ke permukaan logam, tradisionalnya memakai plat tembaga. Alat ukir tersebut memiliki bermacam-macam bentuk dan ukuran menghasilkan jenis garis yang berbeza-beza.
Seluruh permukaan plat disapu dakwat, kemudian dakwat dibersihkan dari permukaan, yang tertinggal hanya dakwat yang berada di garis yang diukir. Kemudian plat ditaruh pada alat tekan bertekanan tinggi bersama dengan lembaran kertas (seringkali dibasahi untuk melunakkan). Kertas kemudian menyerap dakwat dari garis engraving (bahagian yang diukir), menghasilkan karya cetak.
Etsa
Etsa adalah bahagian dari kelompok teknik intaglio bersama dengan engraving, drypoint, mezzotint dan aquatint. Proses ini diyakini bahawa penemunya adalah Daniel Hopfer (sekitar 1470-1536) dari Augsburg, Jerman, yang mendekorasi baju besinya dengan teknik ini. Etsa kemudian menjadi tandingan engraving sebagai medium seni grafis yang popular. Kelebihannya adalah, tidak seperti engraving yang memerlukan ketrampilan khusus dalam pertukangan logam, etsa relatif mudah dipelajari oleh seniman yang suka berkhayal dan menggambar.Hasil cetakan etsa umumnya bersifat linear dan seringkali memiliki perincian dan kontur halus. Garis bervariasi dari halus hingga ke garisan yang kasar. Teknik etsa berlawanan dengan teknik cukil kayu, pada etsa bahagian permukaan tinggi bebas daripada dakwat. Bahagian permukaan rendah menahan dakwat. Mulanya selembar plat logam (biaanya tembaga, zink atau baja) dilitupi dengan selapisan minyak atau lilin. Kemudian pengkarya akan menggores lapisan tersebut dengan jarum etsa yang runcing, sehingga bahagian logam kelihatan.plat tersebut kemudiaannya dicelupkan dalam larutan cuka atau hanya disapukan ke atasnya.bahagian logam yang tenggelam akan dihakis oleh larutan asid tersebut. Setelah itu, lapisan yang tersisa dibersihkan dari plat. Dan proses pencetakan selanjutnya sama dengan pencetekan selanjutnya sama dengan prosen pencetakan engraving.
Mezzotint
Salah satu cara lain dalam teknik intaglio di mana plat logam terlebih dahulu dibuat kasar permukaannya secara merata; gambar dihasilkan dengan mengerok halus permukaan, menciptakan gambar yang dibuat dari gelap ke terang. Mungkin juga menciptakan gambar hanya dengan mengkasarkan bahagian tertentu saja, bekerja dari warna terang ke gelap.
Mezzotint dikenal kerana kualiti tonnya yang kaya: pertama, kerana permukaan yang dikasarkan secara merata menahan banyak dakwat, menghasilkan warna cetak yang padu; kedua, kerana proses penghalusan tekstur dengan menggunakan burin, atau alat lain menghasilkan gradasi halus untuk mengembangkan tone.
Metode mezzotint ditemukan oleh Ludwig von Siegen (1609-1680). Proses ini dipakai secara luas di Inggeris mulai pertengahan abad lapan belas, untuk mereproduksi foto dan lukisan.
Aquatint
Adalah variasi dari etsa. Seperti etsa, aquatint menggunakan asid untuk membuat gambar cetakan pada plat logam. Pada teknik etsa digunakan jarum untuk menciptakan garis yang akan menjadi warna dakwat gelap, aquatint menggunakan serbuk resin yang tahan asid untuk menciptakan kesan ton.Kebanyakan karya-karya grafis Goya menggunakan teknik aquatint.
Drypoint
Merupakan variasi dari engraving, dikerjakan dengan alat runcing, bukan dengan alat burin berbentuk "v". Sementara garis pada engraving sangat halus dan bertepi tajam, goresan drypoint meninggalkan kesan kasar pada tepi garis. Kesan ini memberi ciri kualitas garis yang lunak, dan kadang-kadang berkesan kabur, pada drypoint. Karena tekanan alat press dengan cepat merusak kesan tersebut, drypoint hanya berguna untuk jumlah edisi yang sangat kecil; sekitar sepuluh sampai duapuluh karya. Untuk mengatasi ini, penggunaan electro-plating (pelapisan secara elektrik dengan bahan logam lain) telah dilakukan sejak abad sembilanbelas untuk mengeraskan permukaan plat.
Teknik ini kelihatannya ditemukan oleh seorang seniman Jerman selatan abad limabelas yang memiliki julukan Housebook Master, di mana semua karya-karyanya menggunakan drypoint. Di antara seniman old master print yang menggunakan teknik ini: Albrecht Dürer memproduksi 3 karya drypoint sebelum akhirnya berhenti menggunakannya; Rembrandt sering menggunakannya, tapi biasanya digabungkan etsa dan engraving
litogaf
Litografi adalah teknik yang ditemui pada tahun 1798 oleh Alois Senefelder dan didasari pada sifat kimiawi minyak dan air yang tidak boleh bercampur. Digunakan permukaan berpori, biasanya sejenis batu yang disebut limestone/batu kapur; gambar dibuat pada permukaan batu dengan medium berminyak. Kemudian dilakukan pengasidan , untuk memindahkan minyak ke batu, sehingga gambar 'terbakar' pada permukaan. Lalu dilapisi gum arab, bahan yang larut air, menutupi permukaan batu yang tidak tertutupi medium gambar (yang berbasis minyak). Kemudian batu dibasahkan, air akan berada pada bagian permukaan yang tidak tertutup medium gambar berasas minyak tadi; selanjutnya batu di-roll dengan dakwat berasas minyak ke seluruh permukaan; kerana air menolak sifat minyak pada dakwat maka dakwat hanya menampal pada bagian gambar yang berminyak. Kemudian selembar kertas lembab diletakkan pada permukaan, image/gambar dipindahkan ke kertas dengan menggunakan alat tekanan. Teknik litografi terkenal dengan kemampuannya menangkap gradasi halus dan detail yang sangat kecil.
Variasi dari teknik ini adalah adalah foto-litografi, di mana gambar ditangkap lewat proses fotografis pada plat logam; kemudian pencetakan dilakukan dengan cara yang sama.
Seniman yang menggunakan teknik ini:
George Bellows, Pierre Bonnard, Honoré Daumier, M.C. Escher, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning, Joan Miró, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso, Odilon Redon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Stow Wengenroth.
GALERI Petronas pada tahun lepas melancarkan pameran pertamanya untuk tahun 2009 yang bertajuk: Go Block: Five Contemporary Malaysian Printmakers.Pameran tersebut merupakan satu pertunjukan yang meraikan amalan-amalan baru dalam seni cetak di Malaysia melalui hasil karya baru oleh lima orang seniman iaitu Juhari Said, Kim Ng, Izan Tahir, Zulkifli Yusoff dan Shahrul Jamili.Kesemua mereka banyak memberi sumbangan besar kepada perkembangan seni cetak kontemporari dalam gerakan seni tanah air.Seniman Malaysia dan ahli akademik yang disegani, Prof. Dr. Sulaiman Esa telah menyempurnakan majlis pelancaran pameran tersebut, termasuk buku iringan pameran yang mempunyai judul yang sama pada 17 Februari lalu.
Go Block dikurator oleh Badrolhisham Mohamad Tahir dengan mengetengahkan 15 hasil karya terbaru artis tempatan yang bertujuan mengajak orang ramai meneroka seni cetak sebagai satu bahan tara berciri dinamik dan inovatif yang memberikan kesan besar terhadap pergerakan kesenian di Malaysia hari ini.Konsep asas pameran itu adalah bagi menyedarkan orang ramai bahawa wujudnya satu bentuk alternatif pada proses seni cetak biasa yang selalunya terhad pada penggunaan dakwat, blok cetak, kertas dan tindakan menghentak atas permukaan kertas.Melalui pameran itu, ia menggalakkan penggunaan bahan tara selain dakwat yang boleh diacu dan dibentuk kemudian dipadukan bersama bagi menghasilkan satu hasil karya seni baru yang unik.
Idea asas sebenar pameran itu ialah untuk memberikan definisi baru tentang seni cetak. Pameran tersebut turut menerokai penggunaan pelbagai bahan harian seperti konkrit, kayu, tanah dan lapisan logam sebagai bahan tara, selain menggunakan dakwat yang diacu ke dalam bentuk-bentuk tertentu secara berulang-ulang bagi mendapatkan hasil seni muktamad yang diinginkan.Ketika secara tradisinya seni cetak berada pada tahap sekunder dalam konteks gerakan seni kontemporari di Malaysia, teknik-teknik serta cara penataan dalam seni cetak selalunya digunapakai dalam penghasilan rupa bentuk seni lain, misalnya lukisan, arca dan instalasi.
Peminjaman atau pertukaran teknik dan penataan itu menjadi bukti tentang pengaruh berterusan yang dimiliki oleh seni cetak dalam amalan seni kontemporari kini. Dalam pada itu, batasan atau sempadan peraturan-peraturan atau cabang-cabang seni yang dahulunya lebih jelas dan tersendiri kini menjadi semakin kabur.Walaupun seni cetak dianggap mudah untuk orang ramai menghasilkannya serta tidak mahal kerana alatan dan bahan yang digunakan dikeluarkan secara besar-besaran, namun masih terdapat segelintir seniman Malaysia yang mampu mengguna pakai bentuk seni itu secara berkesan dan menjadikannya sebagai satu keistimewaan.Golongan seniman yang menyertai pameran Go Block itu merupakan antara yang berpengaruh dan berdedikasi dalam amalan seni kontemporari iaitu mereka bertanggungjawab untuk memecah batasan bagi menjadikan seni cetak lebih relevan pada masa kini.Menurut Pengarah Galeri Petronas, Tengku Nasariah Tengku Syed Ibrahim, Go Block merupakan satu pameran yang membuka jalan baru dalam memperkembang seni cetak kepada satu tahap terkini.
"Ia merupakan satu amalan seni yang berkesan kerana mudah bagi orang ramai mengaitkannya dengan pengalaman mereka. Bagaimanapun, kami ingin mencabar pemikiran orang ramai terhadap kefahaman mereka tentang seni cetak, bukan sahaja cetakan blok atas selembar kertas, maksudnya kini lebih luas dan hanya terhad kepada daya imaginasi," katanya.
SECARA tradisinya seni cetak berada pada tahap sekunder dalam konteks gerakan seni kontemporari di Malaysia.Di Malaysia cetakan dihasilkan dengan menggunakan pelbagi teknik dan media. Antara media yang biasa digunakan ialah lino, syelek, lekar dan media campuran. Manakala teknik yang biasa dihunakan hádala seperti teknik timbulan, kolagraf dan cetakan saring. Proses menghasilkaan cetakan timbul ialah dengan
Meletakkan dakwat atau warna pada permukaan yang biasanya terdiri daripada blok
kayu atau lino. Hasil permukaan acuan merupakan imej yang dikehendaki.Langkah menghasilkan cetakan stensil
– Sediakan sebuahpemidang skrin. Lukis dan gunting imej atas kertas pendua.
Semasa mencetak,letakkan iime yang telah dipotong di atas
kertas permukaan dasar yang hendak dicetak.
Pemidang skrin diletakkan di atasnya sebelum dituangkan dakwat atau warna.
Gunakan sekuji untuk meratakan warna diatas pemidang skrin.
Angkat perlahanlahan pemidang skrin.
Biasanya imej yang dipotong itu akan terlekat pada belakang pemidang skrin.
Cetakan ini tidak boleh menghasilkan edisi yang banyak kerana
kertas pendua yang dipotong itu akan lembap dan
menyebabkan dakwat atau warna terkeluar.
Cetakan Tamadun Islam
Cetakan Tamadun Islam lebih berunsurkan Islamik seperti ayat suci al Quran dan unsur geometri. Dalam tamadun islam, kebanyakan hasil seni amat menjauhkan lambang/simbol perantaraan antara manusia dan Tuhan. Hampir semua karya menggunakan unsur dalam motif hiasan. Kegiatan cetakan ketika itu, kebanyakannya berasaskan kayu dan setengahnya dicetak dengan pencetak seperti penghasilan ayat suci al-Quran. Reka corak cetakan adalah kaligrafi (menekankan keseimbangan pola positif dengan negatif) dan berunsurkan kehidupan Islam. Kebanyakan corak adalah menegak ke atas dan bermula dari bawah kerana menggambarkan Tuhan Yang Esa dan Satu. Cetakan dalam tamdun ini tidak menjadikan objek manusia sebagai subjek kerana insan Kamil tidak menampilkan dirinya kepada Tuhan secara tampak. Seni cetakan dihasilkan bertujuan sebagai panduan kepada seluruh umat Islam serta kebanggaan kerana keunikan dan kehalusan pembuatannya. Unsur seninya adalah kontemporari iaitu campuran pelbagai media dan agak moden. Namun begitu, setiap hasil karya yang dihasilkan mestilah berlandaskan kepada unsur tauhid dan akidah umat Islam. Garisan dalam kaligrafi menghasilkan ruang tertentu dalam setiap karya. Banyak karya cetakan menekankan penggunaan garisan dan fungsinya. Unsur geometri seperti segi empat tepat dan sama banyak digunakan beserta dengan ayat suci al-Quran. Ia menjadikan cetakan yang dihasilkan mempunyai kombinasi selain terdapat unsur pengulangan pada motif corak.
Cetakan Tamadun China
China telah menjadi tempat penghasilan cetakan terawal sekali iaitu bermula abad ke 7 Masihi. Cetakan menjadi satu lagi ciptaan budaya China yang penting yang bermula pada 500 S.M. dengan percetakan blok di atas kertas dengan menyapu dakwat ke atas blok yang diukir pada muka surat, meletakkan kertas di atasnya dan menyapu belakang kertas hingga rata. Teknologi percetakan dengan mesin taip dicipta oleh Bi Sheng pada abad ke 11 S.M.
Penciptaan seni cetakan
Tahun sebenar tentang bila seni cetakan di China mula wujud masih lagi diperdebatkan dalam lingkungan akedemik kerana tiada bahan artifak atau peninggalan dokumen yang dapat dikaitkan dengan cetakan terawal yang telah dijumpai. Namun begitu, berdasarkan pengamatan daripada aspek perkembangan sosial dan budaya dan fakta-fakta serta bukti dokumen yang relevan untuk dikaitkan, kita boleh melakarkan secara kasar bahawa cetakan blok kayu mula digunakan dalam Dinasti Sui (581---18) dan menjadi popular dalam Dinasty Tang. Kebanyakkan rekod dokumen tentang cetakan blok kayu dalam Dinasti Tang (618---07), amat sukar untuk dipersembahkan.
Cetakan pada pertengahan dan akhir pemerintahan Dinasti Tang
Pada akhir zaman pemerintahan Dinasti Tang, cetakan telah menjadi semakin popular sejak awal penciptaan. Jauh daripada ajaran Buddha yang telah menggunakan cetakan secara aktif, ajaran Taoisme juga telah menggunakan cetakan untuk menghasilkan buku.Pusat perkembangan cetakan juga semakin berkembang dari ibu negeri di Chang'an dan Luoyang ( ibu negeri wilayah timur) sehingga keke tempat seperti Sichuan, Huainan, dan Dunhuang. Tempat-tempat yang dijadikan untuk membuat cetakan juga semakin bertambah maju.
Cetakan dalam lima Dinasti dan Dinasti Song
The printing industry thrived during the Song Dynasty (960---279). Government departments from the central to the local levels engaged in printing activities. The private printing industry expanded, leading to the existence of printing houses throughout the country, and the cre-ation of a few areas of concentration.
All types of texts were printed including Confucian classics, history, philosophy and belles-lettres. The scale of Buddhist publications was considerably larger then ever before. Apart from the printing of books, new items appeared including the printing of paper money and trademark advertisements.
An important revolution in printing technology during the Song Dynasty was the invention of mov-able type printing. A commoner by the name of Bi Sheng used movable-type blocks for printing during the Qingli years (1041---048) of the Northern Song. This invention ushered in an era of movable-type printing and is a significant milestone in the history of printing.
Cetakan di Liao, Barat Xia dan Jin
Sezaman dengan Dinasti Song yang telah menjadi ikutan cara hidup etnik minority di Liao, Barat Xia dan jin, peringkat cetakan di kawasan ini juga pada tahap yang sama dengan kawasan di tengah dan Selatan China.
Dalam tahun 1991, Sembilan jilid ayat-ayat suci Buddha bertajuk Propitiousness telah tersebar ke merata tempat di Kouhebenxu. Tulisan tersebut telah ditulis dalam simbol dan tulisan daripada Barat Xia dan dibatasi mengikut format rama-rama, telah dijumpai di lingkungan pagoda di Baishigou yang terletak di negeri Helan, Ningxia, wilayah Auton-omous. Ahli arkeologi dan pakar telah menjelaskan bahawa jilid ini telah dicetak sekitar tahun di Barat Xia iaitu setengah abad dalam abad ke 21 dengan menggunakan kayu jenis mudah alih. Ayat-ayat suci ini telah diambil sebagai penemuan terawal tentang cetakan kayu mudah alih dan ia telah menduduki tempat terpenting dalam sejarah cetakan China.
Cetakan Tamadun Jepun
Cetakan blok kayu di Jepun di kenali sebagai Ukiyo-e. Pada asalnya ia dibawa masuk ke Jepun seiring kemasukan agama Buddha. Stail dan gaya cetakan blok kayu Jepun yang unik berkembang maju pertengahan abad ke 17 hingga pertengahan abad ke 19. Perkataan ‘Ukiyo’ berasal dari perkataan Buddha bermaksud dunia sedih. Aspek yang digambarkan dalam Ukiyo-e, adalah tentang dunia terapung merujuk kepada perasaan dan kebebasan yang tidak abadi atau tidak kekal. e’ pula bermaksud gambar atau lukisan. Pada zahirnya, Ukiyo-e menceritakan kekayaan sejarah zaman Edo di bawah pemerintahan Shogun yang terasing dari dunia luar. Kegiatan dilakukan berkisar persembahan teater, restoran, kedai minum, geisha dan rumah pelacuran kelas atasan. Tahun 1650, ilustrasi buku cetak dari blok kayu pertama dihasilkan oleh Ise Mongatari. Awalnya ilustrasinya agak kasar dan tidak penting berbanding teks yang dikeluarkan. Akhirnya gambar jadi penting yang dihasilkan sekumpulan artis seni. Tokoh artis seperti Utamaro dan Sharaku menghasilkan poster, iklan persembahan teater dan rumah pelacuran atau potret idola seperti aktor Kabuki (drama tradisi Jepun).
Secara amnya mereka menggambarkan kehidupan seharian waktu itu yang sesuai dijadikan cetakan poskad. Awal abad ke 18, perubahan pada kualiti kertas, rupa bentuk dan saiz cetakan bertambah dan pelbagai. Teknik cetakan lebih moden. ‘Urushi-e’ bahan pengilat, ditambah pada kawasan hitam tertentu menjadikannya berkilat melalui campuran gam dan dakwat. Dari awal cetakan warna dilakukan dengan tangan. Pertengahan abad ke 18, Okumara Masanobu(penerbit &pelukis) telah membuat eksperimen dengan menggunakan lebih daripada satu kayu blok untuk menghasilkan beni-e’ atau gambar merah. Tokoh artis Suzuki Harunobu antara yang cemerlang dan terkenal di Edo yang dapat mencetak dan menghasilkan beberapa siri cetakan blok kayu yang halus & serupa dengan figura lelaki dan perempuan dengan gaya sungguh menarik. Kecantikan ukiyo-e hanya dapat dikecapi oleh warga dunia selepas Laksamana Perry ke Jepun tahun 1854 selepas dasar ‘buka pintu’. Malangnya banyak hasil ukiyo-e rosak kerana gempa bumi, kebakaran dan terlalu usang.
Shunga merupakan karya seni bergaya ukiyo-e (seni lukis di atas woodblock yang penggarapannya melalui cetakan). Kadang-kadang shunga dicetak pula di atas gulungan kertas perkamen. Lukisan pada kerya shunga biasanya adegan percintaan. Seni Shunga bermula sejak era Muromachi (1336-1573) dan dipengaruhi pelukis erotik dari dinasti Tang di China, Chou Fang. Seni Shunga dibuat dan dijual dalam bentuk lembar atau dalam bentuk buku dinamakan “enpon”. Selain itu, karya ini juga dalam bentuk gulungan(hand scroll format) dinamakan “kakemono-e”. Karya shunga yang dibuat di Osaka & Kyoto warnanya lebih kaya dibandingkan dari Edo kerana digunakan “gofun” (bubuk kulit kerang putih yang dicampur dengan berbagai bahan hingga menjadi pigmen beraneka warna.
Ketika era pemerintahan Kaei (1848-1854), banyak kapal pedagang asing datang je Jepun. Seni cetakan Ukiyo-e ketika itu telah banyak mengalami perubahan dari segi budaya.
Diikuti oleh zaman keagungan Meiji sekitar tahun 1868, jepun mengamalkan dasar terbuka kepada bahan import dari luar termasuklah hasil photografi yang telah menggantikan seni Ukiyo-e secara keseluruhannya. Pengaruh barat ke atas Jepun telah berkembang dalam era Meiji. Ukiyo-e ketika itu jatuh dan menjadi amat tidak bernilai sehingga hasil cetakan ini hanya dijadikan sebagai kertas pembalut bahan dagangan. Ketika masyarakat barat melihat dan menjumpai kertas cetakan ini, ia telah menjadi sumber ilham penting kepada pengkarya-pengkarya daripada aliran impresionisme, kubisme, dan post-impresionis seperti Vincent Van Gogh, James Abbott, McNeill Whistler, Claude Monet dan lain-lain, pengaruh ini telah dikenali sebagai Japonisme di Barat.
Proses penghasilan Ukiyo-e
Secara tradisi proses penghasilan ukiyo-e melibatkan 3 bidang dan orang yang berbeza. Bidang tersebut ialah,
- Kerja melukis (pelukis/artis)
-Kerja mencetak, memilih warna, mengeluarkan modal (pengeluar/penerbit)
-Kerja mengukir blok kayu (pengukir)
Proses dimulakan dengan menggunakan blok dakwat hitam dan diikuti blok warna di akhir cetakan. Kemudian ‘hansita-e’ dilekatkan ke atas blok kayu yang kering. Kemudian diukir berhati-hati supaya garisan timbul. Cetakan terhasil dari permukaan timbul yang ditinggalkan, bila bahagian lain diukir keluar. Setiap warna memerlukan blok kayu yang berasingan. Garis panduan diukir secara berhati-hati atas kayu blok untuk memastikan warna dicetak mengikut garisan yang betul. 2 bentuk cetakan timbul yang paling biasa menggunakan kayu dan lino. Selain itu termasuklah getah atau styrofoam.
Cetakan Tamadun India
Cetakan di India dijadikan sebagai alat untuk membuat salinan. Latihan mencetak sebagai satu bentuk seni yang serius, mampu berdiri tanpa sebarang konsesi, tidak lebih 100 tahun sasarannya. Sempadan antara bahasa dan teknik cetakan adalah kabur, seni cetakan telah masuki laluan utama latihan visual. Latihan sokongan proses mencetak muncul ketibaan untuk menjadi luas dengan cara perbandingan oleh sebilangan kecil pelukis. Bentuk alam semulajadi/ tuntutan rejimnya, desakan dan dorongan menyebabkan kebanyakan pelukis lebih menonjol berbanding kurangnya jalan disekat dan seni perkataan mutunya rendah. Bagi memahami medianya, kita perlu mengetahui sejarah permulaan dan perkembangannya terlebih dahulu. Konsep salinan dan pengeluaran semula, yang merupakan asas cetakan, diketahui oleh India sebelum tertubuhnya mesin pencetak tahun 1956 di Goa. Tamadun Lembah Indus bukti rekod tentang alat pengesahan cop materai diguna secara besar-besaran. Anugerah tanah direkod oleh pengukir menggunakan tangan dan berimaginasi untuk tujuan agama dan duniawi . Kemahiran mengores atas permukaan tulang , kayu, kulit kerang, gading merupakan kraf popular. Rekod tamadun Lembah Indus dihasilkan dengan menekan blok ke atas tanah liat telah dijumpai. Untuk buat cetakan blok dan bahan warna seperti habuk pasir atau serbuk hitam atau sayuran merupakan selalu digunakan, bermula zaman Vedik. Cetakan Calica terhasil dengan ukiran blok kayu dan pengukir dengan warna dari sayuran dan ditekan pada kain dan urat. Awal kurun ke 16,orang Portugis membuka kilang di Calicus, Cochin dan Goa serta cetakan dikuasai oleh penguasha asing. Ahli Society of Jesus Portugis Missionaries di Goa merupakan orang pertama mencetak buku sebagai media berkesan untuk propaganda ideology Kristian. Pada 6 sept. 1556, 2 pencetak kayu tiba di Goa dan menetapkan di bawah penguasaan Joan de Busta Mante
Cetakan Tamadun Barat
Seni cetakan di barat mula berkembang selepas kemunculan seni cetakan di China. Pada abad ke 14 Masihi, industri cetakan mono telah berkembang di negara Barat.
Ketika itu, cetakan digunakan bagi tujuan propaganda, pendidikan dan bahan keagamaan. Penggunaan warna bermula pada abad ke 15. Bermula dengan cetakan pakaian seawal kurun 60 an. Kelewatan teknologi kertas di negara Timur menyebabkan cetakan kertas lebih lewat diperkenalkan. Tahun 1511, kertas mula diperkenalkan di Jativa, Sepanyol. Cetakan kayu yang pertama dicetak di atas kertas adalah di German seawal abad ke 15. Goresan dihidupkan oleh pelukis Belanda pada kurun ke 17 dan Rembrant telah membuat cetakan pertamanya pada 1626. Dia lebih cenderung menghasilkan cetakan sendiri berbanding kepada teknik cetakan professional. Beberapa dari cetakannya memaklumkan teknik cetaka mengalir tetapi melalui pengalaman dan uji kaji, dia mengasah dan membentuk kemahirannya, lalu menjadi mahir dan kreatif dalam seni cetakan.
Engraving
Proses ini dikembangkan di Jerman sekitar tahun 1430 dari engraving (ukiran halus) yang digunakan oleh para tukang emas untuk mendekorasi karya mereka. penggunaan alat yang disebut dengan burin merupakan ketrampilan yang rumit.
Pembuat engraving menggunakan alat dari logam yang diperkeras yang disebut dengan burin untuk mengukir corak ke permukaan logam, tradisionalnya memakai plat tembaga. Alat ukir tersebut memiliki bermacam-macam bentuk dan ukuran menghasilkan jenis garis yang berbeza-beza.
Seluruh permukaan plat disapu dakwat, kemudian dakwat dibersihkan dari permukaan, yang tertinggal hanya dakwat yang berada di garis yang diukir. Kemudian plat ditaruh pada alat tekan bertekanan tinggi bersama dengan lembaran kertas (seringkali dibasahi untuk melunakkan). Kertas kemudian menyerap dakwat dari garis engraving (bahagian yang diukir), menghasilkan karya cetak.
Etsa
Etsa adalah bahagian dari kelompok teknik intaglio bersama dengan engraving, drypoint, mezzotint dan aquatint. Proses ini diyakini bahawa penemunya adalah Daniel Hopfer (sekitar 1470-1536) dari Augsburg, Jerman, yang mendekorasi baju besinya dengan teknik ini. Etsa kemudian menjadi tandingan engraving sebagai medium seni grafis yang popular. Kelebihannya adalah, tidak seperti engraving yang memerlukan ketrampilan khusus dalam pertukangan logam, etsa relatif mudah dipelajari oleh seniman yang suka berkhayal dan menggambar.Hasil cetakan etsa umumnya bersifat linear dan seringkali memiliki perincian dan kontur halus. Garis bervariasi dari halus hingga ke garisan yang kasar. Teknik etsa berlawanan dengan teknik cukil kayu, pada etsa bahagian permukaan tinggi bebas daripada dakwat. Bahagian permukaan rendah menahan dakwat. Mulanya selembar plat logam (biaanya tembaga, zink atau baja) dilitupi dengan selapisan minyak atau lilin. Kemudian pengkarya akan menggores lapisan tersebut dengan jarum etsa yang runcing, sehingga bahagian logam kelihatan.plat tersebut kemudiaannya dicelupkan dalam larutan cuka atau hanya disapukan ke atasnya.bahagian logam yang tenggelam akan dihakis oleh larutan asid tersebut. Setelah itu, lapisan yang tersisa dibersihkan dari plat. Dan proses pencetakan selanjutnya sama dengan pencetekan selanjutnya sama dengan prosen pencetakan engraving.
Mezzotint
Salah satu cara lain dalam teknik intaglio di mana plat logam terlebih dahulu dibuat kasar permukaannya secara merata; gambar dihasilkan dengan mengerok halus permukaan, menciptakan gambar yang dibuat dari gelap ke terang. Mungkin juga menciptakan gambar hanya dengan mengkasarkan bahagian tertentu saja, bekerja dari warna terang ke gelap.
Mezzotint dikenal kerana kualiti tonnya yang kaya: pertama, kerana permukaan yang dikasarkan secara merata menahan banyak dakwat, menghasilkan warna cetak yang padu; kedua, kerana proses penghalusan tekstur dengan menggunakan burin, atau alat lain menghasilkan gradasi halus untuk mengembangkan tone.
Metode mezzotint ditemukan oleh Ludwig von Siegen (1609-1680). Proses ini dipakai secara luas di Inggeris mulai pertengahan abad lapan belas, untuk mereproduksi foto dan lukisan.
Aquatint
Adalah variasi dari etsa. Seperti etsa, aquatint menggunakan asid untuk membuat gambar cetakan pada plat logam. Pada teknik etsa digunakan jarum untuk menciptakan garis yang akan menjadi warna dakwat gelap, aquatint menggunakan serbuk resin yang tahan asid untuk menciptakan kesan ton.Kebanyakan karya-karya grafis Goya menggunakan teknik aquatint.
Drypoint
Merupakan variasi dari engraving, dikerjakan dengan alat runcing, bukan dengan alat burin berbentuk "v". Sementara garis pada engraving sangat halus dan bertepi tajam, goresan drypoint meninggalkan kesan kasar pada tepi garis. Kesan ini memberi ciri kualitas garis yang lunak, dan kadang-kadang berkesan kabur, pada drypoint. Karena tekanan alat press dengan cepat merusak kesan tersebut, drypoint hanya berguna untuk jumlah edisi yang sangat kecil; sekitar sepuluh sampai duapuluh karya. Untuk mengatasi ini, penggunaan electro-plating (pelapisan secara elektrik dengan bahan logam lain) telah dilakukan sejak abad sembilanbelas untuk mengeraskan permukaan plat.
Teknik ini kelihatannya ditemukan oleh seorang seniman Jerman selatan abad limabelas yang memiliki julukan Housebook Master, di mana semua karya-karyanya menggunakan drypoint. Di antara seniman old master print yang menggunakan teknik ini: Albrecht Dürer memproduksi 3 karya drypoint sebelum akhirnya berhenti menggunakannya; Rembrandt sering menggunakannya, tapi biasanya digabungkan etsa dan engraving
litogaf
Litografi adalah teknik yang ditemui pada tahun 1798 oleh Alois Senefelder dan didasari pada sifat kimiawi minyak dan air yang tidak boleh bercampur. Digunakan permukaan berpori, biasanya sejenis batu yang disebut limestone/batu kapur; gambar dibuat pada permukaan batu dengan medium berminyak. Kemudian dilakukan pengasidan , untuk memindahkan minyak ke batu, sehingga gambar 'terbakar' pada permukaan. Lalu dilapisi gum arab, bahan yang larut air, menutupi permukaan batu yang tidak tertutupi medium gambar (yang berbasis minyak). Kemudian batu dibasahkan, air akan berada pada bagian permukaan yang tidak tertutup medium gambar berasas minyak tadi; selanjutnya batu di-roll dengan dakwat berasas minyak ke seluruh permukaan; kerana air menolak sifat minyak pada dakwat maka dakwat hanya menampal pada bagian gambar yang berminyak. Kemudian selembar kertas lembab diletakkan pada permukaan, image/gambar dipindahkan ke kertas dengan menggunakan alat tekanan. Teknik litografi terkenal dengan kemampuannya menangkap gradasi halus dan detail yang sangat kecil.
Variasi dari teknik ini adalah adalah foto-litografi, di mana gambar ditangkap lewat proses fotografis pada plat logam; kemudian pencetakan dilakukan dengan cara yang sama.
Seniman yang menggunakan teknik ini:
George Bellows, Pierre Bonnard, Honoré Daumier, M.C. Escher, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning, Joan Miró, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso, Odilon Redon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Stow Wengenroth.
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