ART 101 What Is Art CSUCI Spring 2017

ART 101 : What Is Art? CSUCI Spring 2017 Class 09: Encountering Art Today Instructor: Prof. Alison Perchuk Office: Madera 2414, 805 -437 -3733; alison. perchuk@csuci. edu

Today’s Objectives: • Warm Up I: Analyzing a photograph • Warm Up II: Comparing two paintings • Animals as Artists? • Encountering Art Today • Reading a Museum Label & Collection Record • Discussion: How Do We Learn about Art?

Discuss these two paintings by Josephine Halvorson. 1. Describe and compare them, using precise language 2. How do these paintings align with what Halvorson had to say about her artistic practice?

Can we call creations of non-human animals “art”? Or is art exclusive to homo sapiens?

If it wasn’t made by Homo Sapiens, is it art? Hand shadows at Altamira Cave (L) and El Castillo Cave (R), in Cantabria, Spain. These hand shadows may date to ca. 40, 000 BCE, when Homo Neanderthalensis was still alive in a few areas, including the far northeast of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal). Does the possibility that these images were created by a species other than Homo Sapiens change your view of their status vis-à-vis the category “art”?

Animals & Art? The Creations of the Vogelkop Bowerbirds https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=E 1 zmf. Tr 2 d 4 c

SOME QUESTIONS We’ve seen where the Vogelkop Bowerbird encounters “art” in its daily life. Where and how do you encounter art in yours? If you wanted to see a painting by Vincent van Gogh in person in Southern California, where might you find one? If you were asked to find an image of a painting by Vincent van Gogh, how would you do so? How would you know that you were looking at a photograph of an actual painting by Van Gogh?

Reading a Museum Label: Known Artist Title Artist: name, location(s), life dates Dimensions Location and date of artwork Medium Credit line Acquisition number

Reading a Museum Label: No Known Artist Title Date Location/culture Medium Dimensions Acquisition number Credit line

Searching LACMA’s Collections http: //collections. lacma. org/advanced-search

Guided Tour of a Museum Collections Record http: //collections. lacma. org/

Image of artwork; click to enlarge/download

“Tombstone” data, including acquisition number Acquisition number

Where to find the artwork if you visit

Curator’s description and/or interpretation

Provenance: A history of location/ownership This collection record does not include provenance information.

Bibliography Important Note: LACMA’s bibliography only pertains to this specific work of art. It focuses on exhibitions that included this object and on general guides to art. It’s not comprehensive enough for a research project on this artwork.

Every museum’s website is different. . . But the basic information provided remains roughly the same http: //www. metmuseum. org/col lection/the-collection-online

How Do We Learn About Art? Hand shadows at Altamira Cave (L) and El Castillo Cave (R), in Cantabria, Spain. Let’s say for the sake of argument that we have decided that these hand shadows, possibly made by Homo Neanderthalensis some 40, 000 years ago, qualify as art. If we wanted to learn more about them, what sorts of questions might we ask? And what types of sources might we use? (Use Chapter 7 of your textbook. )

What about these sets of items? If we decide that they are art, what questions might we ask and how might we try to answer them?

Patron: Caliph Abd al-Rahman III. Pyxis of al-Mughira, ivory, from Cordoba, 968. • What questions might you ask about this ivory box? • How would you try to answer those questions? What types of resources would you use?

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, Las Meninas, ca. 1656 • What questions might you ask about this painting? • How would you try to answer those questions? What types of resources would you use?

How would we learn more?