Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Art and Context

A few questions...

Is art universal in meaning? Should it be?
Do you need to have an understanding of the culture from which the art has grown to understand the art?
Is it necessary to know the historical context?
Does the creation of universal art devalue cultural art, or vice versa?

Sierra Tamkun
Poudre High School
Colorado, USA

5 comments:

Mr. Pseudonym said...

I personally think that art is universally personal. There are certain cultural things that change from location to location, so people from different regions may change just dependent on their society. Despite that, though, I feel that art has a certain personally satisfaction. I enjoy art from many cultures, and many time periods. The thing I like about it is that I can create my own interpretations of pieces without necessarily having full knowledge of it's origins.

Mr. Pseudonym said...

Oh, and

Wolf Songhurst
Poudre High School
Colorado USA

katrina337 said...

I agree with Wolf.
I think that understanding the art the way the artist intended it to be understood would require a thorough understanding of the culture from which the art has grown, but personal interpretation does not need that understanding.

I do not think universal art would devalue cultural art, because it's really just another realm of targeted audiences. Just because the author's intent states things to go one way doesn't mean it will be received that way.

Katrina Carnes
Poudre High School
Colorado USA

Dani said...

I think that while all cultures can make their own meaning from a piece of art, that doesn't mean it will have the meaning that the artist intended.
Then again, sometimes it hard, or even impossible to determine the artists intent even if you are from their culture, or state, or city even their class.
Last year, the IB art examiner asked each senior either what they though of Aboriginal art, or if they considered it art...i cant really remember. But I believe it demonstrates the point that sometims other cultures have entirely different guidelines for what they consider art, much less what the meaning is.

Danielle Duncan
Poudre High School
Colorado USA

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