Art theory - week 5 - 11/03/2019

IKB 79 (Internation Klein Blue, copyright 1957)
Yves Klein
(1959)
One of 200 monochromatic paintings, beginning in 1947, painted by Klein as a “way of rejecting the idea of
representation in painting and therefore of attaining creative freedom.”
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/klein-ikb-79-t01513


The Importance of Art Criticism to Practice-Based Research and Questioning
“…there is a level at which art speaks directly to all of us and piques our intuitive critical sensibilities. We’re entitled to hold both informed and uninformed opinions, since once the art is out in the world, it belongs equally to everyone. Sometimes we have to risk being wrong, but must at least make a valiant argument. ”
https://brooklynrail.org/2012/12/artseen/whats-so-important-about-criticism-macadam

Art Criticism and the Art Critic

Art criticism, the analysis and evaluation of works of art. More subtly, art criticism is often tied to theory; it is interpretive, involving the effort to understand a particular work of art from a theoretical perspective and to establish its significance in the history of art.

The critic is “minimally required to be a connoisseur,” which means he must have a “sound knowledge” of the history of art, as Philip Weissman wrote in his essay “The Psychology of the Critic and Psychological Criticism” (1962), but “the step from connoisseur to critic implies the progression from knowledge to judgment.” 

Three Kinds of Art Criticism

Imitationalism

Emotionalism

Formalism

Imitationalism

refers to art that focuses on things being realistically represented.

realism, shows everything as it really is. E.g, Portrait painting, bowl of fruit.

 Emotionalism

An aesthetic and critical theory of art which places emphasis on the expressive qualities. According to this theory, the most important thing about a work of art is the vivid communication of moods, feelings, and ideas.

Have you ever been evoked by art, had an art piece make you feel an emotion. 

I have view an photographic image of a girl, who was bent over a toilet, she was anorexia and was also dead. Even when I think of it now, I still feel the same feeling I feel when I first viewed it. I cried and felt sick to my stomach.  

Formalism

In art history, formalism is the study of art by analyzing and comparing form and style. Its discussion also includes the way objects are made and their purely visual aspects. ... At its extreme, formalism in art history posits that everything necessary to comprehending a work of art is contained within the work of art.