Professor Rex
December 2, 2014
Blog Post 4
Artwork
When asked to define the meaning of art all I can think of is emotion. Artwork is used to express a vision, a thought, a memory; which to me all means emotions. Art can be envisioned differently to each person, but I believe each artwork was created due to emotion. Like this artwork that was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1903 called “The Old
Guitarist”. When arguing this statement there are two types of theories; Formalism and Romanticism. Formalism argues that the outward appearance (the beauty) is more important than the actual meaning of the art, while Romanticism argues that art is all about the emotion, the deeper meaning behind the appearance. Romanticism is more plausible because artwork is used as an emotional power, and that's the way artwork is not only created but viewed.
I think that when you look at art, you can't only look at how it's painted or how bright the colors are; there's more to it than how well it is painted. Art is used to emotionally connect to the viewer. In this Picasso painting you can see that it's a man with a guitar, but when you look deeper into the picture it's more than that. Picasso painted this picture when he found out that his dear friend had died. This picture represents the emotion he felt after hearing such news, based on Picasso's emotion he painted this picture for his friend. When I look at this, I suddenly feel emotional, I can feel his emotions through the picture. I can feel his sadness and pain, and because the colors are so dark, it makes the emotion feel so gloomy. Also, because he is holding the Guitar I also think of how much music can create such an impact on our feelings, how we think, and just overall. I think that because he is so sad he turned to his guitar to make him feel better or maybe the music he was playing made him feel so sad.
Romanticism is more plausible because when I looked at this photo I was looking more into the emotions of the painting than the appearance. I do believe that you need formalism when defining artwork because you do have to look at the appearance to judge the emotion but at the same time the appearance does not make the artwork.
When it comes to explanatory breadth Romanticism explain more than Formalism. Formalism only looks at the outside appearance, it misses the inward part of the artwork.
With explanatory depth Romanticism has greater detail than Formalism because it talks about the outward and inward appearance, the deeper meaning of the artwork, while formalism just looks at the experience.
Formalism would describe simplicity more than Romanticism because formalism lacks of details, this is more complicated because you're only looking at one part and not looking into what the artwork means.
Romanticism and Formalism would both use conservatism because it depends on your own belief.
1. Romanticism is an interpretation of the meaning of artwork X.
2. Though Romanticism is radical, it has a great deal of explanatory breadth and depth, and a moderate amount of simplicity.
3. Therefore, Romanticism is a good interpretation of artwork X.
Your first sentence is one that I agree with the most. When I looked at the picture you added to the blog, the first thing I thought about was "what do you have to be thinking about to paint that?" That would be me looking at the painting trying to feel the same emotion that the artist felt.When you look into the emotion of the artist, I think that it really helps you to understand the work more fully. Romanticism is all about feeling the emotion and looking into the deeper meaning, which is exactly what you succeeded in talking about.
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