PRE-HISTORIC ART

Periods of Stone Age (14000-2000 BCE)

● Paleolithic (old Stone Age)
● Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)
● Neolithic (New Stone Age)
Sulawesi Cave Painting (39,900 years old)
- 39, 900 years old
- Composed of hands stencil and pig-deer
- pig tear is the oldest figurative art
- The given age is just merely the minimum age of minerals surrounding the image, meaning this artwork can be thousands
years older.
Lascaux Cave Paintings
- 600 color paintings and 1500 word engravings
- Subject is merely animals outline of hands and geometric symbols
- The art, dated to c. 17,000 to c. 15,000 BCE, falls within the Upper Paleolithic period and was created by the clearly
skilled hands of humans living in the area at that time.
- On 12 September 1940 CE four boys examined the foxhole down which their dog had fallen on the hill of Lascaux. After
widening the entrance, Marcel Ravidat was the first one to slide all the way to the bottom.
- Open to public 1948 but of the numbers of visitors the authorities are worried to the deterioration of the of the cave its
officially close to public in 1963
- Today you can still visit the cave but you can only see the replica few blocks of the cave
Venus of Willendorf
- Also called women of Willendorf or Nude Women
- The Venus of Willendorf is an 11.1-centimetre-tall Venus figurine estimated to have been made around 29,500 years ago.
- It was recovered on August 7, 1908 from an archaeological dig conducted by Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier, and
Josef Bayer at a Paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria.
Code of Hammurabi
- 282 laws, not oldest law but the most strict law
- Some laws quite harsh
- Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
Gate of Ishtar
- King Nebuchadnezzar II named the Gate of Ishtar after the Goddess Isthar, Goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex
depicting both masculine and famine race.
Great Pyramids
- It was built for the three pharaohs namely; Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.
- Align with the constellation of orarion.
- 147 meters tall
- Took 20 years to build
- Composed of 2.5 million stone blocks
- It was the highest man made structure for 3,800 years
Temple of Ramses
- Crafted because of the celebration of victory ancient Egyptian king Ramses II
- Composed of two main temples, the grand temple and the small temple.
The Great Sphinx
- The biggest debate surrounding this topic is the belief that the sphinx has the body of a lion, the head of a woman, and
the wings of a bird.
- It called androsphinx. (a sphinx with the head of a man)
- The early name was Hor-em-akhet, meaning “Horus in the horizon.” Horus is the Egyptian god of the sky.
Parthenon
- 2460 years old
- First it was a temple for Goddess Athena
- Initially, the building was converted into a Christian church, but later, under Turkish dominion, it underwent a
transformation and became a mosque.
- Due to its elevated position, the location was utilized as a strategic military point during the war between the Venetians
and the Turks.
- The location where the art is positioned is commonly referred to as an acropolis.

WESTERN PERIOD ARTS

1. Renaissance (1400-1525)
- Renaissance is a French word meaning “rebirth”
- Focused on nature and individualism; artist used linear perspective and created depth through intense lighting and
shading
- It produced several artists, scientists, and thinkers who are still household names today: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci,
Donatello, Botticelli, and others.
2. Mannerism (1527-1580)
- Mannerism is derived from the Italian word "maniera," which means style, stylishness, or manner.
- Style and technique outweighed the meaning of the subject matter; figures had graceful, elongated limbs, small heads,
stylized features, and exaggerated details.
- Also known as late Renaissance
 3. Baroque (1600-1750)
- Ornate, over- the-top visual arts and architecture
- Painters used an intense contrast between light and dark and had energetic compositions matched by rich color palettes
- Baroque emphasizes dramatic, exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted, detail.
4. Rococo (1699-1780)
- Offered a softer style of decorative art compared to baroque’s
- Compared to the baroque style that preceded it, Rococo had a much lighter color palette.
- Easily translate to silver, porcelain, and French furniture.
- Also known as Late Baroque
5. Romanticism (1780-1850)
- Emphasized the individual and imagination
- Also focused on passion, emotion, and sensation over intellect and reason.
6. Realism (1848- 1900)
- A result of multiple events: the anti-Romantic movement in Germany, the rise of journalism, and the advent of
photography
Example: Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners, 1857.
- Inspired new interest in accurately capturing everyday life. This attention to accuracy is evident in art produced during the
movement, which featured detailed, life-like depictions of subject matter.
7. Art Nouveau (1890-1910)
- Heavily influenced applied arts, graphics, and illustration
- Focused on the natural world
- Characterized by long, sinuous lines and curves
8. Fauvism (1900-1935)
- Characterized by expressive use of intense color, line, and brushstroke, a bold sense of surface design, and flat
composition
9. Expressionism (1905-1920)
- Used a distortion of form and strong colors to display anxieties and raw emotions
10. Futurism
- Futurism is an artistic movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.
- It emphasized the dynamism, speed, energy, and power of the machine and the vitality, change, and restlessness of
modern life.
Contemporary Art Movements (1970–present)
- The 1970s marked the beginning of contemporary art, which extends through present day. This period is dominated by
various schools and smaller movements that emerged.
1. Postmodernism:
- In reaction against modernism, artists created works that reflected skepticism, irony, and philosophical critiques.
2. Feminist art:
- This movement arose in an attempt to transform stereotypes and break the model of a male-dominated art history.
3. Neo Expressionism:
- Artists sought to revive original aspects of Expressionism and create highly textural, expressive, large works.
4. Street art
- Artists such as Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Barry McGee, Banksy, and more created graffiti-like art on surfaces in
public places like sidewalks, buildings, and overpasses.
5. The Pictures Generation
- Artists Cindy Sherman, Louise Lawler, Gary Simmons, and others who were influenced by Conceptual and Pop art
experimented with recognizable imagery to explore images shaped our perceptions of the world.
6. Appropriation art
- This movement focused on the use of images in art with little transformation from their original form.
7. Young British Artists (YBA)
- This group of London artists were notorious for their willingness to shock audiences through their imagery, and a
willingness to push beyond limits of decency. They’re also known for their zestful, entrepreneurial spirit.
8. Digital art
- The advent of the camera lent way to this artistic practice that allowed artists to use the infusion of art and technology to
create with mediums like computers, audio and visual software, sound, and pixels.

ASIAN ART
Japanese Art
● Consists of a wide range of art styles and media that includes ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on
silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, bonsai, and more recently manga and anime.
● It has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BCE, to
the present day.
Chinese Art
● Japanese artists retain traditional themes and techniques. In the later half of the 19th century, Japanese art, which is
valued for its simplicity and colorful style, had an impact on other western forms of art.
● Chinese art history can be traced back to the Neolithic Period (10,000-2000 BC), also known as the New Stone Age when
pottery was created for practical uses and to please the Gods. Agricultural societies produced more sedentary living, and
artisans had the time and energy to sculpt, paint, and produce artworks.
Two characteristics of Chinese art:
1. A love of, and reverence for, Nature.
2. A strong connection with calligraphy done with brushes ; quite often, the 2 elements are combined.
SOULMAKING
- An alternate place to know oneself and to look at the depths and meaning of what we do in our daily lives.
- Is a step towards a deeper comprehension of how the world is perceived and how his or her own personality is seen.

CATEGORIES OF SOULMAKING
1. Crafting Images
- Imaging or representing in any form, which may be through painting, sculpting, drawing, storytelling, poetry, dancing,
composing or taking notes.
- It is rooted in our own personal experiences, our personal encounters, and events that triggered or reflections, recall and
judgment.
2. Crafting Stories
- The moment we write, engrave and inscribe our own thoughts, ideas, commentaries, criticisms, and positive and negative
emotions, we are crafting stories.
- It becomes our own history that can be handed down to our children and family for the succeeding generations.
3. Crafting Instruments
- An instruments maker is a bridge toward the unknown because the instrument produces sounds that transcend our
feelings, emotions, and sensation in another realm.
- The soul is accompanied by a vessel so that the sol will not vanish.
- Transforming any found or used object into a musical instrument allow one to discover harmony and balance to produce a
sound that is entertaining, enhancing, and magical.
4. Crafting Movements
- Life is full of movements, filled with various beats.
- Life is full of flowing images accompanied by flowing narratives.
- Everything we do in life is a performance, we perform life.
5. Crafting Techniques
- Anything can be crafted by using different evocative descriptions of experience and explorations, like photograph studies,
puppets, and masks, constructions and notepad studies.

APPROPRIATION
- Refers to borrowing to create a new artwork
- To appropriate does not mean stealing or plagiarizing
- It is different from Forgery
Two Forms of Forgery
● Outright copies of existing works and pastiches
● Making an artist interpretation might do by prediction in contemporary times

7 DA VINCIAN PRINCIPLES
1. Curiosita
- An insatiably curious approach to life and unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
2. Dimostrazione
- A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and willingness to learn from mistakes.
3. Sensazione (Refinement of the Five Senses and Mindfulness)
- The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience and to stay present in the
moment.
4. Sfumato
- The technique of allowing tones and colors to shade gradually into one another, producing softened outlines or hazy
forms.
5. Arte/Scienza
- Developing a balance between logic and imagination. Other terms for this are balancing between art and science as well
as whole brain thinking.
Right Brained:
● I like details
● I am almost always on time
● I rely on logic
● I am skilled at math
● I am organized and disciplined
● I like lists
Left Brained:
● I am highly imaginative
● I am good at brainstorming
● I love to doodle
● I often say or do the unexpected
● I rely on intuition
● I often lose track of time
6. Corporalitá
- An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
7. Connessione
- A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking