week 7 blog post
Functions of Early Art
1. Civilizations react by attempting to put something down whether to transcribe a time or an event in history. as well as to create/ remember stories for said tribes and individuals. It is very clear that individuals were interested in making the cave art. As well the artists were trying to portray what they were seeing all around them, including animals. they faced nature more than humans in their lifetime. so, they had a level of fascination for there way of life and created the art we see in the caves. it could've even been used for educational purposes for other people within the tribe/future generations. the aspects of the life of cave dwellers and Paleolithic people tells us they were very aware of everything going on around them. This was a way for them to be remembered in the grand scheme of history.
2. The reason why there were a lot more animals than people within the paintings could be down to the region. They could have more animals than people if we compared the ratio. When these individuals have had more encounters during hunting, gathering and traveling. Therefore, there could be stories of animals attacking them and others who were affected in the group. They may have been trying to describe and write down exactly what these animals look like. maybe warning signs? maybe the meat/fur and tools that could be pulled from the animal.
3. The paintings tell us about the other aspects of their lives with the cave dwellers/paleolithic people. We can further understand their thought processes of how they perceive their life, how they see other people, let's not forget the method at which they used to communicate with the resources they had and as well their intellect. They were able to gather knowledge from previous times that could be written down dates, established stories, God or anything else within such they could write down.
4. first let's look at, one's life experience or seeing it firsthand of being able to transcribe what happened. it had to be put down into the cave. We have to remember; these are people who live in real time and all the headwinds that came their way. They were only showing us a small fraction of what their daily life was. The second part is, how were they even able to get started with the work in the cave. Were there previous civilizations that created this method? We must also remember what the necessary paints and other resources were needed in order for them to get to a point where they are able to transcribe, build and create what it is that we see today. As well what about the thought and the calculation process that was gone into creating these pieces of work. The only other difficulty that I could think of is the space within the caves at which they were living in. You have to imagine it’s still dangerous for us to be going into the locations today, so I absolutely cannot imagine how it is back in the day, maybe some low level of oxygen alongside the fact that they would need to have some sort of sustainable light, and they could’ve ran into some sort of animals, vermin, or other dangerous creatures that could crawl in or walk in at any moment, as I imagine, they didn’t have a door just sitting there All of those factors of playing to the difficulty of them being able to paint these pictures.
5.The three possible functions for early humans to have art is number one storytelling passed down by generations, either by marking important information like dates stories information and God. continuing to write down information to identify animals or other creatures. using the opportunity to create strategies with the tribe, or just a general fascination with attempting to write down everything that it seems the follow history, weather on stones, weather on papaya paper, or even today, stored on to server, databases written code.
Commonalities in function
2. between humans during the past and modern humans today. Art is an ability to transcribe the world around them/us. whether it is from one particular person's view, or it is the nature which surrounds them. The natural curiosity is to create things that are from the mind. I’m sure that within the cave, one or more of the objects can be pointed to as something similar to Basquiat, or van Gogh. you may see an image of old faded paint, but in their mind, that was a beautiful piece of art during its creation. This is something they had no idea if it would be lost in history. But remember they have had a level of intellect and a natural creativity that is found with all humans even today. within modern art we look to convey emotions and feelings of a specific culture. There is always a story behind certain paintings, which can go deeper than just what you see on the art on the canvas, I could imagine such a reality especially for the art We have witnesses today in the caves.
3. Favorite art
'Face of War': Ukraine artist creates Putin portrait with bullet shells (yahoo.com)
1. The function of this art expression serves to communicate the current circumstance facing the Ukraine people as Russia has invaded. By painting the character of the leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin as a war criminal. He is responsible for every single bullet that is dropped for or against Ukraine. This is solely on his hands the devastation, the murder. The artist is expressing her feelings as you can see, she has demonstrated by taking a number of 5000 bullets to craft the art of vitamin Putin.
2. I will now begin to describe the culture surrounding this art form from the language behaviors from the Ukrainian people. Ukraine has unique and diverse culture that is based on ancient Slavic traditions and symbols. The national flag colors mean blue peaceful sky above yellow wheat fields. It reflects the special role of agriculture for Ukraine (earlier known as a “bread basket of Europe”). People, Religion, Festivals, Traditions in Ukraine - ContactUkraine then i found The Ukrainian people also enjoy their culture in the form of traditional dances and dance games. Many of these originated in rural Cossack villages and some of the oldest dances can be traced back to ancient cults. Nowadays, with the help of these dances, people all over the world may get acquainted with the whole Ukrainian culture. The most vivid example is the Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. Ukrainian Culture - Ukraine.com next Ukrainian architecture has eagerly adopted classic European forms throughout much of the last several centuries, such as the Renaissance styles exemplified by many of the castles built in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries, as well as most of the buildings which can be seen in the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Baroque architecture was favored by the Ukrainian aristocracy, with most Medieval churches being redesigned in that era with richer interiors and exteriors alike. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Ukrainian folk architecture displays strong Baroque and Neoclassical influences, while still largely using traditional, locally sourced building materials. In the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, the "Empire" architectural style arrived in the Ukraine from the West. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, however, there was also a revival of nationalistic architectural styles, which was fueled by increasingly socialist-oriented feelings Ukraine Culture and Traditions - WorldAtlas
3. I find that the art has no detrimental effects. Ultimately this art benefits more of the outside society than the inside. The vast majority of people in Ukraine hate Vladimir Putin, and they hate the Russians for what they’ve done to them. artists continue to remind the world of the scary things that are going on. As we do not understand the day-to-day interactions that are going on within the foreign country. those who are within the United States will be able to look at this and have a chilling effect. Knowing that these 5000 shells were used and how this artist was able to acquire all of them in order to make this art piece a disturbing image. someone who has so much control and power over a region of the world can create such terror. Ultimately, this art will be a benefit as a reminder for the world to not forget Ukraine.
Section 1: Good discussion on the possible message in these paintings.
ReplyDeleteWhile I see your point in the second section, take a second look at how animals and humans were painted differently in this art. Humans, when they exist, are stick figures. Animals are painted in detail and in full color. This goes beyond sheer numbers. They focused on animals because the art was about the animals. They were the focus and the message here.
A little superficial on the third section. Can you consider a more concrete piece of information we can deduce from these paintings? For example, seems like the information is solely upon hunting. Considering hunting is traditionally a male practice, with women doing the gathering, does this tell you anything about who was doing these paintings? Would the paintings have been different if women were doing the painting?
Good coverage here on the difficulties. Other than gathering the pigments, the primary problems to me would be maintaining a reliable source of light, in addition to just *getting* to the site.
Good discussion on possible functions, but let's be careful about assigning a religious function here. I know that the researchers who initially analyzed the caves considered this to be a prime function, but later researchers recognized this jump in logic was likely due to bias upon the part of those first anthropologists.
Are you familiar with the concept of Occam's Razor? It suggests that if simpler explanations work in understanding the function of a behavior or an event, then there is no need to opt for more complex driving forces. This applies here. Do we need to resort to religion and faith and a supreme being to explain the function of these paintings? Or can they be explained by "simpler" concepts, such as gaining resources, survival, and teaching future generations about these herds? This doesn't rule out a religious explanation, but recognizes this just raises more questions... such as where is the evidence that it IS religious in nature. We can't just assume that.
Section 2: In the prior paragraph, you identified three possible functions of this cave art: storytelling, recording information (possibly for teaching or analysis), and recording history. All good functions. But this would have been a great place to start for this second section. How is modern art also used for these functions?
Section 3: This piece is fascinating. The only issue is that you were asked to select a "type" or art that you like, not a specific piece. So what type of art does this represent? It seems that it most closely represents sculpture of some kind.
For the second prompt, you aren't describing the culture of the type of *art*. You are describing the Ukranian culture and there art. If you were focusing on sculpture (which I still suggest represents the piece you highlight for this section), then you were asked to discuss the culture of people who practice sculpture.
Again, your focus is missing the point here. I agree that this particularly piece has a positive impact. But if you were discussing the culture of sculpture, that would open up your discussion to all types of sculpture. That would include many sculptures that serve as center pieces for our city centers and town squares in America. Think about how many of them are sculptures of people, some that are famous for taking part in historical events. Examples include sculptures of Rosa Parks (Statuary Hall in the Capitol building), the wonderful sculptures of soldiers in the Viet Nam and Iwo Jima memorials (also DC), or how about the sculptures of confederate General Robert E. Lee in the south? Could you see how sculptures could have both positive and negative impacts?
Note that it would have been better to insert the image directly into your post instead of posting a link. You can right-click on an image and save to your computer, then upload into your post. Keep this in mind for posting your images for your ethnography projects next week.
DeleteHi David, I really enjoyed reading your blog. I could agree with you on why there was more animals than paintings especially because I feel like it had a lot to do with the region. I found the art work you had chosen very interesting and did not know it was related to the ukraine people. I really liked the concept of how they used bullet shells for the art.
ReplyDeleteHello David, I liked how much information you gave on the Face of War portrait and about Ukrainian culture it was really interesting it truly is sad all the terrible things they've been through as a country. I saw that you had said that the lack of humans drawn in the caves could have meant that they were seeing more animals instead of people, but do you think it could also be because the paintings were for information in regards to the types of animals in the area?
ReplyDeleteHey David, I find it so imperative that you mentioned that this is but a sliver of the various aspects of Paleolithic people. Speculation can only take us so far, which makes the nature of this art so appealing. Be it for communication or storytelling, this art is a relic of a civilization with its own values and subsistence strategies.
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