Beyond the European Tradition Project

Posted on the BET page of the class website as 1314BETBLOG

Read the instructions...Monday we will have time to as questions in class!

NOTE: there are 3 separate deadlines for the project to help you not save everything for the last minute...

October 15th
November 5th
November 15th

Qing Dynasty Paintiing

An exhibition, Beauty Revealed: Images of Women in Qing Dynasty Chinese Painting, recently opened at the UC Berkeley Art Museum.

The exhibit depicts Chinese painting unlike works from previous eras. Evidence of western art is shown in the one point perspective and use of bold colors.

The exhibition is organized to show women in various venues: home, garden, brothel, and bath.

For more information, visit the museum's website.

UNit 2 Beyond the European Tradition

Since I started INDIA before test #1 ... you will go BACK to that section....

CHINA
Block Day 9-26
Read Chapter 7 and complete WKBK pages
By THURSDAY NIGHT...Discussion Question 6 uploaded to turnitin.com. Write down the question since you will be turning in the wkbk pages!

Monday 9-30
Read Chapter 26 and complete WKBK pages for Chapter 27

Tuesday 10-1
Discussion Question Chapter 27 #'s 3 and 1 uploaded to turnitin.com

Wednesday 10-2
Chapter 27 Looking Carefully Uploaded to turnitin.com

JAPAN:
Block Day 10-3 Read Chapter 8 and complete WKBK pages

Monday 10-7 Read Chapter 27 and complete wkbk pages for chapter 28

Tuesday 10-8 Chapter 8 DQ 2 and 3 uploaded to turnitin.com

Wednesday 10-9 Chapter 8 DQ 5 and Chapter 28 DQ 4 uploaded to turnitin.com

INDIA
Friday 10-11 up[loaded to turnitin.com
Read Chapter 7 and complete DQ 5
Read Chapter 25 and complete Ch 26 DQ 4

TEST and MC on Tuesday 10-15-13
MC will be uploaded by 9/23/13. A hyperlink to the document will be placed here at that time. POSTED 9:27 PM on Beyond the European Tradition page of class website - titled 1314BETMC

Museums SET to OPEN in America

If you do not have an opportunity to view artwork in its original location, a museum is the best place to go! Architects in recent years have started constructing museums to be works of art in an among themselves. Frank Gehry is the architect that comes to mind as the embodiment of such a concept. When one views Gehry's masterpieces, they are in AWE!when walks INTO one of his masterpieces, they are in AWE of the treasures contained within the carefully designed walls!
(The building pictured here is The Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, a health care facility and not a museum.)

One museum that is in the application for permit process is the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum in the San Francisco Bay Area. The vision for this museum is to be a Beaux Arts style building to house digital arts and traditional arts under one roof. According to the article, the building will be pitched to Chicago if the Bay Area does not approve it.

The ASPEN ART MUSEUM is set to open in August of 2014. The building is a take on the Center Pompidou in Paris as it appears to be turned inside out!

The renowned architect Renzo Piano, creator of the Center Pompidou in Paris and the California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park, is working on a renovation and expansion of Harvard University's Art Museum. Details of the project to be completed in the fall of 2014 can be found here.

Philanthropist Eli Broad just watched a museum bearing his name be constructed at his alma mater, Michigan State University. He is giving back to his adopted home town and commissioning a new museum, The Brodd, for Los Angeles. The building, perhaps inspired by a honeycomb, opens in 2014.

Museums themselves are becoming works of art. It appears that architects are trying to create a lasting work of art to hose the lasting works art on display.

Include these new museums in your 2014 travel plans! Perhsps I will see you there!

Completing our Egypt Studies

we left off at 14 minutes on the Video: Egypt's Golden Empire - Pharaohs of the Sun

Complete the video tonight - take notes - respond to the turnitin.com discussion board.

UNIT 1 TEST Tuesday 9-24-13

BLOCK DAY IN CLASS - THURSDAY THIS WEEK - we move on to INDIA. I will post UNIT 2 assignments by the end of the week. NOTHING for UNIT 2 will be due until after Unit 1 yest.

HOMEWORK...ADD ons for UNIT 1 .... PLUS TEST INFO for UNIT 1

I created TWO Discussion Boards on turnitin.com.

Please watch Engineering an Empire Persia (starting with section 3) and complete the discussion board after you watch. I suggest you take notes as you go!
Submit your response by Sunday night...9-15-13

Watch Egypt's Golden Empire - Pharaohs of the Sun and take notes. Complete the discussion board by TUESDAY 9-17-13.

UNIT 1 TEST:
Tuesday 9-24-13
Multiple Choice and Short Answer

You will need to create a MUSEUM CATALOG for UNIT 1 ... the start of a study guide/book that will be compiled this year. You can use the MC on your test. Only the information REQUIRED will be included in your MC. I am modifying the MC from previous years and will have the 1314MCUnit1 Posted by Friday 9-13-13 on the Early Civilizations page of the class website.

THursday 9-12-13

Today we discussed HOW TO WRITE LIKE AN ART HISTORIAN.

1. Start with a thesis...make it specific (CLAIM)
2. Support your thesis with evidence (describe elements/sections of the art/architecture that supports your claim) (DATA)
3. Analyze/Interpret how the data supports the claim (WARRANT)

DESCRIPTION IS KEY!

We continued discussing Chapters 1-3

Marc Chagall

An exhibition of Marc Chagall's work from the WWII era will be on exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York from September 15, 2013 until February 2, 2014. To see more images from the exhibition and read more about the show, follow this link.

The artwork on display reflects Chagall's response to the Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe. Chagall spent the war years between Paris and New York. His characteristic style of bright colors, very much like a stained glass window, and "Russion Christian icon tradition" are evident in hos work from this period. The symbolism he uses in this period reflects displacement and Jewish heritage. The viewer can see disappointment and a sense of longing when looking at the images "floating" through the images.

Visit the Jewish Museum's website to learn more...or take the time to SEE the exhibition of the great master's work in person!

Risks of LOANING Artwork Between Museums

A recent article explains the National Gallery of London's stance on loaning artworks; the are hesitant to loan artworks.

The author of the article explains that artworks can be damaged as they are brought down off the wall. Depending on the age of the painting, as well as the quality of the framing, the artwork may break apart from the frame or crack when it is removed from where it rested on the wall, perhaps rested for decades!

As time goes by and artworks age, mother nature makes them more fragile. To continue the tradition of traveling exhibitions and reuniting collections , a method will need to be developed to ensure safety for the artwork that will travel to another location. If not, the days of traveling exhibitions may come to an end.

A very interesting scholarly report is attached in PDF form. Take a moment to read the author's opinion about "moving artwork". What is YOUR opinion?
ArtWatch UK Journal 22, Autumn 2007
Blockbuster Exhibitions: the Hidden Costs and Perils
A Report, in Honour of James Beck
By Michael Daley and Michael Savageat attached in PDF form.

The article takes a TURN and begins to discuss the concept of restoration. The debate in restoration is do you allow the work to age or do you bring it back to its original state? At this moment, until I learn more, I am on the side of allowing an artwork to age; let nature be the only "one" that works on the painting after the artist. What is YOUR opinion?

Stonehenge ... Recent Scholarship

In an article published Sunday, September 8, 2013 in the Raw Story, readers learn that historians have found missing pieces of Stonehenge to confirm that "it was built along an ice age landform that happened to be on the solstice axis".

The article explains that the historians have found evidence that the circles were once complete.

The new discoveries prove to the people of today that out ancestors were concerned with time and how it not only related to the cycle of the day but also the daylight. This knowledge allows modern humans to better understand how ancient people thrived with few tools and possessions. They understood the natural world better than most people today.

Technology MEETS Art...

I read an interesting article online the other day. National Geographic has an article titled Technology Sheds Light on 6 Great Art Mysteries that is worth taking a few minutes to read.

It is amazing to "see" the thought process of the artist come alive through infrared reflectography. Technology allows us to "see" the reality...artists sometimes recycled canvasses and artists changed their minds while working on a composition.

Art teachers always tell students that THERE ARE NO MISTAKES IN ART. Technology shows that adage is true. Even great masters worked and reworked their compositions until they were satisfied!

Current technology unravels for us the mysteries of art created before our time. One can only imagine where future technological breakthroughs will take the art world!

Easter Island

Easter Island, located over 2,000 miles off the west coast of Chile, is considered the world's most isolated inhabited island.

The island was supposedly first inhabited by Polynesian people who gave it the name Rapa Nui. The native people are best know for the MOAL, collossial heads carved out of volcanic rock and placed along the coastline.

The Dutch first encountered the island on Easter Sunday, thus giving it that name, in 1722. The island has remained relatively isolated since that time. The culture provides people of today with a glimpse into human history, as does the lifestyle and traditions of the Australian Aborigines.

Recent archaeological discoveries have found BODIES that accompany the heads. Mail Online published an article in May of 2012 that explains the statues were constructed with a purpose. There is evidence the construction was done on location and the statues were MEANT to stand upright. The dirt that has covered the bodies for years looks to be there due to natural erosion and weathering, rather than put there to support the statues.

The Easter Island Statue Project chronicles the archaeological discovery. The archaeologists have found petroglyph writings on the statues. Only some of the statues have writings on them. Could this denote rank? Could this have been for ritual purposes?

The question remains...WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE WHO CREATED SUCH IMMENSE STATUES? WHY WERE THEY CONSTRUCTED? Archaeologists and art historians keep seeking clues to find an answer, Until then, it is only conjecture.