Contemporary Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Contemporary Art - Essay Example The essay "Contemporary Art" talks about the Contemporary Art. In introducing the concept of ‘ready-made’ art, Duchamp began to establish that an important element of art was the meaning that the viewer brought to it. â€Å"All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. This becomes even more obvious when posterity gives its final verdict and sometimes rehabilitates forgotten artists†. Greenberg (1939) illustrates how the avant-garde movement was an attempt to move away from what it was not in its search for purity and the absolute. In discussing how the avant-garde as modern art has explored art from the inside and provided the ruling class with the means by which they might explore the ideas of the new age, Greenberg introduces the necessity of a rear-guard action to this general repudiation of exterior reference. This rear-guard is kitsch: â€Å"popular, commercial art and literature with their chromeotypes, magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, Tin Pan Alley music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies, etc. etc†. Avant-garde art presents the cause, leaving it to the viewer to inject effect while kitsch presents the effect, making the art immediately accessible to the viewer without requiring any effort from the viewer at all – the art is already interpreted for him.

Compare of Artwork the Mayan and Apulian Bowls Research Paper - 1

Compare of Artwork the Mayan and Apulian Bowls - Research Paper Example The Apulian Lekanis: Head of a Woman and Winged Genie, and Bowl and Lid with Boar Head is credited as a gift to Mrs. Henry E. Perry in the late 4th century B.C. This work was created as part of Greek culture. It falls under the visual labor sculpture using terracotta as the medium and is currently visible in Indianapolis museum under the Classical collection. Conversely, the bowl and lid with boar head is the work credited to the Maya culture and falls under the Native American collection. The creation date was around 350-500 A.C and the art is credited as a gift of Bonnie and David Ross. The materials used include slithered and painted earthenware. Amongst the Apulian or South Italian vases, some of the common themes were transcendent sections of love and merriment (Indianapolis Museum of Art n.p). The urns were then offered to the dead with the offering venue being the tombs. The Lekanis portrayed red-figures of ladies of style. These Lekanis were routinely on the lids secluded fro m each other by huge palmettes on both sides (Ambrose 14). Additionally, each lady had a half palmette in front of her and behind her a volute. Some of the attributes of the Lekanis were that they were identical in terms of Stephane, Saccos, and neatly comprehensive ribbons. The lid of the Apulian vases also had winged genies. The Greeks believed that the genies would help with the valedictory rites and with the switch to the afterworld. Unlike the Apulian Lekanis, the Bowl with a Boar Head was mostly used to recognize Maya civilization (Indianapolis Museum of Art n.p). The boar was linked with the heavens and the sun’s movement. Additionally, the Bowl with a Boar Head was an earthenware container and not a sculptured container like the Apulian Lekanis. The boar head was used as a handle for opening the boar and not just a decorative picture.  Ã‚