The story of art
A while back I decided to put together a presentation for my workshop classes that told a story of art history that was interesting, reasonably comprehensive, and would fit into an hour-long format. I took as my inspiration E. H. Gombrich’s book The Story of Art. However, his book is over 600 pages. I needed to narrow the focus and the information considerably.
The title of the presentation is “The Story of Art: Symbolism, Idealism, and Realism, Continuity and Change Through the Centuries.” Long title, but I did manage to weave the story of art from the Egyptians through Impressionism and up to the beginning of Cubism. My goal was to show how art developed, how changes in perception evolved, and also how changes in materials allowed artists to move the dialogue forward.
In looking through the power point presentation, I realized that the slides can work individually as short summations of interesting art information.
My plan is to present some of these slides as part of my newsletters.
I think the final slide in the presentation pretty much sums it all up:
“We started with the Egyptians who created symbols for what they knew. The Greeks set the stage for much of the art to follow. They searched for what they saw and created a more natural, yet idealized, interpretation of reality.
"Great artists throughout history made one discovery after another. Over the centuries artists refined these techniques and learned new ways to optimize their interpretation of the visible world.
"The constant throughout art history has been the search to explain what we think we see, what we actually see, and, perhaps more importantly, what we want to see.”
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1330 BC King Tut and his wife, gilt and painted woodwork
Egyptian art (3000 BC to 500 BC) was highly stylized, very symbolic and remained relatively unchanged for 2500 years.
The majority of these works were never intended to be seen and were designed to benefit a divine or deceased recipient.
4290-2792 BC
Egyptian society was based on the concept of harmony and their art reflected the ideal world of the gods. Balance and symmetry were very important.
The plain stone columns and statues seen in Egypt today have had the color worn away, but bright paints once covered the stone.
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Greek art began where the Egyptians left off. The Egyptians based their art on what they knew . The Greeks started to use their eyes.
c. 615-590 BC Polymedes of Argos
The Brothers Cleobis and Biton
Early statues called kouros were rigid and stood up straight. Over time, Greek statuary adopted a more natural, relaxed pose with hips thrust to one side, knees and arms slightly bent, and the head turned to one side.
c. 447-438 BC Battle between Centaurs and Lapiths
Next up - The Golden Age of Greece