Art and Fine Arts

". . .A systemic examination supports the relationship between art, culture, science and technology. The evidence shows that artistic and cultural issues are essential to make sense of life in society and in the absence of such basis, the world would be meaningless and humans would lose a sense of direction. . ."

". . .We used very different research methodologies and archives accumulated over the past ten years as a result of our research in the United States and Germany, with the goal of looking for common themes and trajectories instead of attempting a broader, systematic study that could only be undertaken as a large-scale research project. Nonetheless, we found that the examination of several case studies brought up the following questions: what contradictions are inherent in a professed identity of a multicultural, world city and the racial formations needed for the neoliberal marketing of global commodities? What are the means of production/frameworks in which dominant knowledge of the racialized migrant subject are produced and circulated in a world claimed to be postracial, the performance of which in the arts market is expressed with a particular flair-avant garde, elite, original, creative, and fiercely individualistic?"

"Glassmaking has prospered as an art since the late Middle Ages. It is therefore surprising that the first systematic treatise exclusively devoted to it appeared as late as 1612. In this article I explore the experimental background of Antonio Neri's L'Arte Vetraria, and its intimate connection with an ancient alchemical tradition and with more contemporary efforts to introduce technical innovations. Furthermore, the active role played by Antonio Neri, a clergyman and alchemist in the service of Antonio de' Medici, sheds new light on the patronage of the Medici court. This article aims at contextualizing Neri's book within the Florentine tradition of glassmaking and, above all, within Francesco I de Medici's alchemical interests in this art. Finally, the almost contemporary publication of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius and Neri's L'Arte Vetraria raises the question of the role played by alchemists like Neri and by Florentine glassmakers in the making of optical instruments.
". . .It was not exceptional to find artisans recruited by the Medici family for their expertise not only in glassmaking, but also in glazing and the production of porcelain. It is significant in this regard that Bernard Palissy (1510–1589), who was by profession a glassmaker, successfully introduced innovations in the art of ceramics by combining the techniques of glassmaking with those of glazing, enameling, and pottery making. . ." [from text]

"The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) reports that between 1982 and 2008, adult attendance declined in almost every art form. Not only is the number of people attending fine arts events falling, the median age of those who are attending is getting significantly older. Many fine arts organizations have failed to adjust to the radical social, cultural, and technological changes that have taken place in the United States during the last few decades. Many fine arts organizations have lost touch with the new American Zeitgeist. The leaders of these arts organizations often have outdated perceptions about who lives in their communities, what those people value, and what role the arts and their organizations do - or do not - play in their lives. Organizations need to rethink who they are, why they exist, what value they create, which people they need to reach and how they will reach them, and what the meaningful measures of success will be. . ." [from abstract]

"The downside of computers in the art room relates to the limited sensory feedback for the artist and the question of artistic ownership. The learning value and potential for individual expression in using a computer drawing or painting program is questionable. These programs put an expensive electronic device between students and their canvases. Instead of using a stylus on a pad while watching a disconnected line appear in colour on a screen, students should pick up a real crayon and enjoy the sensory experience of the friction on the paper surface and the stickiness of the crayon and even the smell of the wax or oil. While making their own distinct marks they may discover the difference in the line when they alter the speed or pressure as they draw. There is instant visual and tactile feedback for a student using art materials and tools. Digital drawing programs remove most of the rich sensory details that help students learn about the physical world. Another downside of digital art is that it so often involves sampling and altering the work of other artists. . ." [from abstract]

In this article, Jennifer Groff explores the role of the arts in education through the lens of current research in cognitive neuroscience and the impact of technology in today's digital world. She explains that although arts education has largely used multiple intelligences theory to substantiate its presence in classrooms and schools, this relationship has ultimately hindered the field of arts education's understanding of the relationship between the arts, human development, and learning. Emerging research on the brain's cognitive processing systems has led Groff to put forth a new theory of mind, whole-mindedness. Here she presents the evidence and construct for this frame of mind, how it sits in relation to multiple intelligences theory, and how it might redefine the justification for arts education in schools, particularly in our digitally and visually rich world. [from abstract]

". . .The accounts of this encounter reflect the broadening engagement with sound and its reproduction evident in Warhol's work and life during the vital 1963-67 period.3 During this time, he announced his retirement from painting, and in POPism he describes this move as meant in part to free more time for listening: 'Art just wasn't fun for me anymore; it was people who were fascinating and I wanted to spend all my time around them, listening to them, and making movies of them'. . ."

Anthropologists, psychologists, and philosophers have apparently concurred that shame is the most social and the most visually conveyed of all emotions which is directly involved with one's social self. The intersection of shame and visual arts is a rich and varied space. Hollander discusses visual narratives about shame, which proliferated in the pictorial arts from the late medieval period through the 18th century by focusing on the three famous paintings, two of Rembrandt and one of Masaccio.

"When the arts take it upon themselves to manipulate not only arenas of taste but, more significant, attitudes toward sexual mores--cleansed of all reference to societal repercussions--we have paddled backwards to a duplicitous idealism. Imitations of the ideological contests of the 1910s and 1920s, even played unwittingly as farce, orphan everyone of grace of mind and impoverish the shared culture that underwrites the common good. A candid stocktaking of the feminist art movement and its revisionist catechism would be useful." [from abstract]

Paleolithic cave art is an exceptional archive of early human symbolic behavior, but because obtaining reliable dates has been difficult, its chronology is still poorly understood after more than a century of study. We present uranium-series disequilibrium dates of calcite deposits overlying or underlying art found in 11 caves, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo, and Tito Bustillo, Spain.

". . .Propaganda differs from art precisely in that it locks up sense in a determined and specific meaning, whereas art opens it. Propaganda is meant to shut down thinking, imprison it in a fixed determination, where art opens thinking up to the restitution of the horizon, its reopening into the world beyond it. . ."

Art -- and particularly political satire -- is important (indeed indispensible) when it comes to building progressive, democratic societies and states. But the key for this has to be art that "punches up," that is, speaks truth to actually existing power, rather than "punches down," that is, makes individuals and groups that do not have structural power the targets of satire or critique. Or, to put this another way: the key is art that speaks truth to power, rather than art that speaks in the service of power, whether that power is the state or the dominant group(s) in society; art that defends the weak and powerless in society, rather than engaging in mocking and baiting them. The principle of free speech is in theory supposed to be what enables this speaking of truth to power. Allowing it to be used as a tool in the hands of power is tantamount to perverting its essential function. [from abstract]

These artworks all condemn the practice of torture by their explicit statements and their careful depictions of the victims' degradation; the viewer is shocked by the images and sickened by the specific acts. As Slavoj Zizek wrote in 2007, "The last time such things were part of public discourse was back in the late Middle Ages, when torture was still a public spectacle ... A precious part of our collective identity has been irretrievably lost."36

The five contemporary artists discussed here are courageous in their willingness to represent subjects that are difficult and painful. They have chosen to go against the accepted conventions of the art market in order to create work that is their response to deeply felt concerns for the United States. From Roger Shimomura's warning based in his World War II internment to Daniel FIeyman's intimate portrayals and testimonies, they provide an example of the ways in which visual artists are crucial to our moral sense of self. They are speaking for everyone who condemns torture. Looking at their work, the audience is deeply affected, confronted with the dark side of humanity. [from conclusion]

The digital revolution has provided easy access to photographic archives, enabling students and scholars to utilize new forms of visual evidence. Analyzing the 80,000 pictures contained in the online archive of Pittsburgh photojournalist Teenie Harris (1908-98) reveals that African Americans utilized Catholic devotional arts in both their homes and churches. Most likely these individuals were not Catholic but found that Catholic imagery spoke to their spiritual needs for an embodied Christianity that was powerful enough to heal, bring luck, and ward off evil. Photographic archives constitute valuable historical sources that can provide important insights into how religion is lived. [from abstract]

This essay examines the connections between art and politics in Middle East arts events in the U.S. since 9/11/2001. It critiques the universalist assumptions about humanity and the agentive capacity of art to build bridges of understanding in contexts of so-called civilizational conflict-assumptions that have strong roots in anthropology. By juxtaposing evidence of how the notion of "humanity" is deployed in exhibitions of Palestinian art with an analysis of the three more predominant types of arts events (historical Islamic art, Sufi arts, and contemporary art by Muslim women), the essay demonstrates how American secular elite discourse on Middle Eastern art corresponds to that of the "War on Terror." [from abstract]

[T]he civilisation of these years depended on certain assumptions that are out of favour in England and America today. The first of these, of course, was belief in authority, the absolute authority of the Catholic Church. This belief extended to sections of society which we now assume to be naturally rebellious. It comes as something of a shock to find that, with a single exception, the great artists of the time were all sincere, conforming Catholics. . .This paper will not address either the complex problems associated with Church history, or the almost insoluble methodological problems associated with attempting to gauge the sincerity of artists in any period. Where it will dare to enter, however, is another area with the potential to generate a comparable explosion of subjectively biased judgements - i.e. the relationship between art and human emotions. [from text]