ART 101 What Is Art CSUCI Spring 2017

ART 101 : What Is Art? CSUCI Spring 2017 Instructor: Prof. Alison Perchuk Office: Madera Hall #2414 Drop-In Hours: W 9 AM – 1 PM or, see me by appointment 805 -437 -3733; alison. perchuk@csuci. edu Course Website is on CI Learn Presentation 12 INTERPRETING ART

Objectives 1. Warm-Up: Analyzing Popular Culture 2. Methodology: An Overview 3. Analysis Take Two: Method + Information

INTERPRETATION Ø A researched argument regarding the intrinsic and/or extrinsic meanings, functions, and/or operations of an object. Ø An interpretation of a work of art may address some of the circumstances surrounding the creation and initial display or use of that artwork. Ø An interpretation may explore aspects and ramifications of the presence of that artwork within a subsequent context, either historical or in the present day.

How Do We Arrive at an Interpretation? Observation Description Formal Analysis + Information (Research!) Methodology -----------Interpretation

Who’s This Guy?

Some Art Historical Methods (in alphabetical order) Ø Ø Ø Ø Biography/Autobiography (artist, patron, collector) Connoisseurship Context (artistic, cultural, historical, religious, etc. ) Deconstruction (structural underpinnings, concepts of value, e. g. ) Feminism and Gender Formalism and Style Iconography Multiculturalism and Postcolonialism Psychoanalysis / Psychological Perspectives Semiotics Structuralism / Poststructuralism Visual Culture / Material Culture NEW Method: Technical Art History

METHODOLOGY The approach or strategy a scholar employes to understand an artwork, literary text, natural phenomenon, historical events, etc. A method “focus[es] the analytical process on a series of issues using a specific set of principles. ” (TAUA, p. 163) The Met’s Methods: Ø Connoisseurship Ø Stylistic analysis Ø Contextual analysis (Renaissance) Dr. Herbert’s Methods: Ø Visual culture Ø Biography Ø Contextual Analysis (Middle Ages)

Technical Art History http: //www. getty. edu/art/exhibitions/pollock/ Jackson Pollock, Mural, 1943. Oil and casein housepaint on canvas. University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA.

Application: Method + Information Ø Ø Formalism Context Feminism Gender • Many methods are interrelated. • The method(s) you choose determine(s) your results. • Art is complicated! Results more often complement than contradict one another.

Application: Method &. . . What Would We Need to Know? Ø Ø Ø Ø Biography/Autobiography Connoisseurship Context Deconstruction Feminism and Gender Formalism and Style Iconography Multiculturalism and Postcolonialism Psychoanalysis / Psychological Perspectives Semiotics Structuralism / Poststructuralism Visual Culture / Material Culture NEW Method: Technical Art History N. B. : NOT ALL METHODS WORK FOR ALL ARTWORKS!