art history

ART HISTORY : ASSIGNMENT 4 : THE EVOLUTION OF ART

Submitted by : _________________

University

Submitted to : _________________

Course

May 1 , 2008

ART HISTORY : ASSIGNMENT 4 : THE EVOLUTION OF ART

To answer the first question , one artist from the first assignment that would the course is Pablo Picasso . He would definitely disapprove with the sayings of Diego Rivera (1932 , who believe that art for art 's sake does not comply with the social realities of time

The man who is truly a thinker , or the painter who is truly an artist

cannot , in given historical moment , take any but a position in accordance with the revolutionary development of his own time . The social struggle is the richest , the most intense and the most plastic subject which an artist can choose . Therefore , one who is born to be an artist can certainly not be insensible to such developments (Rivera 1932 , 422 It is like saying that one needs to be acquainted with the present realities of time , to do candid research on the subject that would be painted by the artist . This would absolutely be opposite the statement made by Pablo Picasso (1923 , who says

I can hardly understand the importance given to the word research in connection with modern painting . to search means nothing in painting To find , is the thing . Nobody is interested in following a man who with his eyes fixed on the ground , spends his life looking for the pocketbook that fortune should put in his path (Picasso 1923 , 215

To answer the second question , I do not entirely disagree with the opinion declared by Rivera or Picasso . The way art is created and transformed depends on the basic intention of the artist on why he or she is trying to come up with a work of art . Art that is created for art 's sake would take on the side of Picasso (1923 while art that is created for the sake of social development (e .g , revolutionary ) takes the side of Rivera (1932 . What I disagree with , however , was what Ana Mendieta (1996 ) said . I believe an artist is even limited to what he or she can give life to . I make the art I make because it 's the only kind I can make . I have no choice . The Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset said : `To be a hero , to be heroic , is to be oneself ' I think the statement is particularly significant to the attitude an artist must have in society (Mendieta 1996 , 1064 From here it is evident that Mendieta (1996 ) was not yet a full , grown artist when she declared her opinion . She was merely in the process of knowing herself and to know what or how she expresses herself , she would have to know first herself . Thus , she was just in the process of becoming an artist . I do not consider her statement , therefore , that an artist 's capability to express or reconstitute thoughts and ideas are in reality , limited . What limits the ability...