The Subject of Art

The Subject of Art

The subject of art refers to any person, object, scene or event described or represented in a work of art.

(some arts have subject, others do not)

Representational art/ objective art (arts that have subject)

Non-representational art/non objective arts (appeal directly to senses as in music)
represenational to non-representational, the shift in attention

In his essay "Art as Technique" Victor Shklovsky argues that what defines literature is its ability to make the familiar seem strange (DEFAMILIARIZATION). Literature disrupts our normal habits of perception. This passage is my favorite critical passages of all time:

"And so life is reckoned as nothing. Habitualization devours works, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war. 'If the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been.' [Tolstoy] And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone STONY. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects "unfamiliar," to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged."

REALISM
ABSTRACTION
DISTORTION
SURREALISM

WAYS OF REPRESENTING A SUBJECT

REALISM
When things are depicted in the way they would normally appear in nature, representation is said to be realistic, almost photographic.

ABSTRACTION
Process of simplifying and /or reorganizingobjects and elements according to the demands of artistic expression.

The artist selects and renders the objects with shapes, colors, and positions altered.

Enough likeness/ or in some case original objects are reduced to simple geometric shapes and can rarely be identified unless named.

Braque-Mandola

DISTORTION
Twisting, stretching, deforming the natural shape of objects
Proportions differ noticeably
Distortion is done to dramatize the shape of a figure or create an emotional effect


SUREREALISM
REALISM + DISTORTION (1 type only)
Dreamlike scenes to express the subconcious.
Dreamlike because of the irrational arrangement of objects (recognizable objects combined with utterly fantastic and unnatural relationships.

KINDS OF SUBJECTS
1. Landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes
2. Still life- inanimate objects arranged in an indoor setting
3. Animals
Animals used as symbols in conventional religious arts
4.Portraits

-human face

portraits need not be photographic likeness

A great portrait is a product of selective process, the artist highlighting certain features and de-emphasizing others. It does not have to beautiful but it has to be truthful.
But some painters, wanting to please their patrons decrease the lines of experience on the faces of their subject.

Applicable to busts, sculptures of heroes and leaders. Quite common among the Romans.
Etched in coins, medals

Portraits may also mark milestones such as Baptism, Weddings, Graduations

Self portraits

Chaucer’s Prologue in the Canterbury Tales, the knight and his son, the demure Prioress, the Monk and the Wife of Bath

6. Figures

human body - form - structure

Nudes or clothed
The grace and ideal proportion, the symbol of moral and spiritual perfection to the Greeks.

7. Everyday life
7. History and Legend
8. Religion and Mythology
9. Dreams and fantasies