Intro to the Arts Vanguard University Dr. Kirk J. Weller

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Intro to the ArtsVanguard UniversityDr. Kirk
J. Weller

• Chapter 1

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The arts and society

• Objectives
• Explore how the arts are the result of the
  dominant sociocultural climate of particular
  periods.
• Throughout our study we will
• Develop a breadth of knowledge about cultural
  patterns of the Western world
• Develop insight into the nature art of music
• Develop techniques of critical analysis for
  appreciating understanding works of music and
  art.

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Sociocultural Aspects of the Arts

• Art, in any age, is the expression of the
  characteristic attitudes of the people of that
  age toward aspects of life.
• More often than not, the social class that holds
  economic, political or religious power imposes
  its likes and dislikes on the rest of society.

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Sociocultural Aspects of the Arts 2

• Religious and social patterns have often
  determined the nature and function of music and
  art.
• Court life also mirrored the cultivated etiquette
  of essentially social activities.
• After WWII the tremendous buying power was in the
  hands of the youth. As a result the economy grew
  as did mass media. The commercial and popular
  images emerged as a vital force in art.

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Sociocultural Aspects of the Arts 3

• The influence of the dominant group of the time
  influences artists of the future.
• Each cultural pattern leaves its mark on the
  following generation and the artistic
  characteristics of any age are influenced in some
  degree by earlier traditions forms.
• Each period embodies a particular set of
  aesthetic goals that set it apart from the
  preceding age.

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Sociocultural Aspects of the Arts 4

• The artistic features of a particular period,
  place or individual is referred to as STYLE.
• Style is that combination that makes works of art
  recognizable as manifestations of a period,
  genre, person, time and place.
• An understanding of art involves not only the
  artwork itself, but the forces that influenced
  the artist, such as location, religion, political
  climate, economic status.

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Sociocultural Aspects of the Arts 5

• By understanding the underpinnings of artwe
  achieve a better understanding of the cultural
  heritage of Western civilization and appreciate
  its contribution to what it means to be human.
• Such understanding is the basis for studying
  HUMANISM.

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The functions of art

• What were they used for? For whom were they
  created? What kind of religion?
• Not all art has high purpose. Much of art is
  purely functional. A lot of art music aims to
  amuse provide pleasant diversion.

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Art periods

• Our study will be divided into large broadly
  defined periods. Here they are
• Greeks predecessors (antiquity-100bc)
• Roman Empire early Xians (100bc-500ad)
• Medieval (Romanesque) 500-1100
• Medieval (Gothic) 1100-1400
• Renaissance (1400-1600)
• Baroque Rococo (1600-1775)
• Classic period (1750-1800)
• Romantic period (1800-1900)

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Art periods

• Continuing
• 19th C. Realism and Nationalism (1840-1900)
• Impression Post-Impressionism
• (1860-1900)
• Modernism in the Arts (1900-1945)
• The Arts today (1945-present)

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End.chapter 1

• Thus ends the discussion of
• CHAPTER ONE