The idea of high and low may be traced back to 18th century ideas about fine art and craft. Writers in the 1700s drew a line between work that is contemplated purely for aesthetics (fine artwork) and work that has some kind of utility or operate (craft). The fine artwork grouping of painting, sculpture, music, structure and poetry was established right now. The familiar phrase “art for artwork’s sake” comes out of this view, and is so culturally pervasive that many people settle for it because the “right” method to classify art. Most persons are aware of a distinction between high and low art.
Martin Heidegger, “The Origin of the Work of Art”, in Poetry, Language, Thought, (Harper Perennial, 2001). See additionally Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “Cézanne’s Doubt” in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, Galen Johnson and Michael Smith (eds), (Northwestern University Press, 1994) and John Russon, Bearing Witness to Epiphany, (State University of New York Press, 2009). In the 20th century, Pablo Picasso’s Guernica used arresting cubist techniques and stark monochromatic oils, to depict the harrowing penalties of a up to date bombing of a small, ancient Basque town. Leon Golub’s Interrogation III , depicts a feminine nude, hooded detainee strapped to a chair, her legs open to disclose her sexual organs, surrounded by two tormentors dressed in on a regular basis clothing.
Art may be characterised in terms of mimesis (its illustration of actuality), narrative (storytelling), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. During the Romantic interval, artwork got here to … Read More