Question

1. What discipline in the humanities do you feel has historically been the most important in the influence of a culture? Why?

2. What artist have had the greatest impact on the arts?

3. According to researcch, what do you believe to be the most defining moment in the history of the arts? Identify the time period and discuss what was happening at that time and place that may have contributed to the production of their work.

4. What are some modern examples of how the arts are reflected or influenced by culture? Discuss at least two examples of your own and Clearly explain the arts/culture relationship for each of your examples in order to convey a successful understanding.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) (1) One of the greatest disciplines in the humanities has been that of ‘art’. This is probably because art has always been the perfect mode of expression of humanity in all its glory and vain. One might find that the arts within a culture are difficult to ignore as it is exhibited in song, dance, paintings, structures, literature and even in ideologies and philosophy. The foxtrot, jazz, surrealism, poems and even physics and democracies are merely products of ideas. Ideas are nothing but the medium through which art is expressed. This is why it has been one of the most essential disciplines in humanities.

(2) Issac Newton, Dante, Michelangelo, Shakespeare and Leonardo DaVinci are a few of the pioneers that have had a great impact on art and the culture that surrounds it.

(3) The Renaissance is and probably always will be one of the most defining periods of art. It began around the 1300’s and lasted until the 1600’s. The word “Renaissance” simply means “rebirth” or “reawakening.” It has been rightly called so because; it was the awakening of humanity in terms of media. Prior to this period, an artist would surely express themselves through their work. However, it was in the Renaissance that this expression began to have meaning and motive. Most of the time, the motive in these works has been to simply enlighten mankind.

Artists like DaVinci and Michelangelo particularly thrived at this time since there wasn’t much of political hindrance that would leave the population in too much distress to focus on creating art. The dominant Medici family in Florence, where the Renaissance is said to have originated, brought about economic prosperity through the Medici Bank as well. Also, the invention of the metal movable type which is a certain type of printer and concrete had lead to artists having their own tools with which to create.

(4) One of the greatest influences that the Renaissance has provided is that artists after this time period began to depict reality in their own renditions. An artist like Pablo Picasso would also describe the atrocities of his time through his art. Just like artists of the Renaissance would express their emotions about the reality around them through their work, so would an artist like Picasso.

Picasso's Guernica: In the year 1937, the Nazi’s bombed a town called Guernica in Spain. Spanish artist Pablo Picasso severely criticised this attack through his work. He painted the Guernica in order to condemn these Nazi actions.

The painting depicts the suffering of people. Furthermore, the perpetrators are depicted as brutish forces. The painting serves as a mirror of war and has a certain “ugly” tone to it. The painting has the elements strewn across the canvas in a chaotic manner, just like the scene of a war might be. This is a revolutionary painting.

Picasso’s is surrealism. The brutishness of the perpetrators is depicted as them being animals. The painting is monochromatic and dark. Perhaps, it was a way to bring out the lamenting of the artist.