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In this section, you will find useful online resources for your research on art, as well as resources on art writing and how to prepare your essays for submission. 

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In this section, you will find useful online resources for your research on art, as well as resources on art writing and how to prepare your essays for submission. 

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In this section, you will learn about the processes of constructing an art criticism essay. 

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In this section, you will learn about the processes of constructing an art criticism essay. 

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In this section, you will learn about what art criticism is, and how it deepens our understanding of art. 

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In this section, you will learn about what art criticism is, and how it deepens our understanding of art. 

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In this section, you will learn about how to structure your essay. 

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In this section, you will learn about how to structure your essay. 

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In this section, you will learn about how theories can serve as an analytical approach to read artworks critically, along with examples of artworks that can be read through these approaches.

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In this section, you will learn about how theories can serve as an analytical approach to read artworks critically, along with examples of artworks that can be read through these approaches.

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In this section, you will learn about artistic periods and movements that relate to significant literary periods. 

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In this section, you will learn about artistic periods and movements that relate to significant literary periods. 

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2.1 How do we critically engage with Art? 

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2.1 How do we critically engage with Art? 

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The major questions to be asked are:

(a) What is this?

(b) What does it mean? and

(c) What is its significance?

The corresponding processes are then:

(a) a visual analysis,

(b) interpretation, and

(c) an evaluation/judgement

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The following page lists the elements and principles of art and design that can be described in a visual analysis. 

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A visual analysis begins with description. It objectively and literally describes what can be observed, analysing its form, which is made up of such elements as line, shape, colour, texture, mass, composition. These give the artwork its form, its expression, its content, and its meaning.

The questions you should ask are: What am I looking at? What is being represented?

You may also use the general information on the artwork label (artist name, title, date created, medium and size, location), in order to elaborate or evidence your analysis.

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Library Guides: Design Fundamentals: Elements & Principles

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A guide to selecting and creating visual material

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In the following video, we learn about how to approach reading a painting’s formal qualities.

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How to do visual (formal) analysis in art history

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In this section, you will learn about how to write a comparative essay between literary and artistic works.

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In this section, you will learn about how to write a comparative essay between literary and artistic works.

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While much of visual analysis consists of description, it also offers further inferences, explaining how visual elements invoke certain effects in the viewer. It proffers an argument concerned with cause and effect, for example: a pyramid resting on its base causes us to perceive a sense of stability, whereas an inverted pyramid conveys precariousness. As such: what is being evoked visually?

For instance, an analysis of colour in the above artwork: In Manit Sriwanichpoom’s Pink Man on Tour # 6 (Amazing Rice Field, Northern Thailand), the figure’s artificially garish pink suit and cart stand in stark contrast against the naturalistic surroundings of the paddy field. This draws emphasis to the figure, but also seems to suggest a sense of alienation.

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Pink Man on Tour # 6 (Amazing Rice Field, Northern Thailand)

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Manit Sriwanichpoom (1961) was born in Bangkok and is one of Thailand's leading photographers, best known for the series of works featuring the enigmatic figure of the Pink Man. His works are a critique of present-day Thai society and have been exhibited in a number of prominent international exhibitions such as Cities on the Move (1997 - 1999), and the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.

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To interpret is to close read an artwork for meaning. An interpretation sees the work of art as representing or expressing something, and tries to make sense of a work by highlighting its meaning (or one of the meanings of the work)

In other words: what claim does the artwork seem to make?

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In this video, you will learn about navigating different interpretations of art. 

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In Roland Barthes's The Death of the Author, he challenges the idea of the author as an authoritative figure in the interpretation of a text. He argues for readers' multiple interpretations, rather than privileging the author’s intended meaning. But this doesn’t mean all analyses are equally valid, nor that the author's intent is irrelevant. Authorial intent still contextualises the text and its meaning, and some analyses are better rooted in the source material.

Additionally, to simply conclude that art is purely subjective, as critic Weng Choy Lee says, is to "close the door on the discussion...To claim that varying judgements about art are merely differences in opinion is to flatten all arguments as somehow equivalent."

As such, while there are many possible interpretations of art, but not all statements are equally interesting, compelling, or relevant.

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Life Boat, Tang Da Wu, April 1989. Accessed from How, Koh Nguang. "Early Performance Works by Tang Da Wu in Singapore." Art Journal 77.4 (2018): 49-61.

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2.3.2 Interpreting and supplementing your Visual Analysis

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2.3.2 Interpreting and supplementing your Visual Analysis

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Most artworks cannot be read purely through their visual analysis (formally). A formalist reading believes that all meaning can be derived entirely within the text/artwork without being informed by its socio-political, historical, or autobiographical (as intended by the artist) background.

While a visual analysis is well suited to analysing figurative and traditional art (paintings, sculptures), it is harder to apply to abstract or conceptual works where concept takes precedence over form, and the work's meaning relies heavily on its context. Visual analyses of artworks hence should be supplemented by context in order to engage meaningfully with them.

For example, Tang Da Wu's Life Boat performance (above). The artist drew a spiral on the ground and asked audiences to fold paper boats, which he later pushed to the center of the spiral. At night, Tang asked audiences to light a candle on each boat and spread them out. There is limited visual information provided by a visual analysis of the artwork.

For context: in Life Boat, Tang's intention was to expresses his sympathy for Vietnamese refugees fleeing their country by sea to seek asylum in Singapore. Tang's audience participation hence activates the work, but also encourages people to (literally) take action to aid these refugees. Contextualising the work is hence necessary to illuminate the meanings of its visual and participative elements.

Additionally, the spatial context of the work adds to your interpretation as well: Life Boat's presentation in a space of consumer culture and extravagance (the Art Mart Singapore International Shopping festival) contrasts uncomfortably with the harsh realities faced by the refugees.

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Jim Supangkat, Ken Dedes. 1975, remade 1996. Plaster, wood, marker pen and paint, 186.5 x 43.5 x 27cm. National Gallery.

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You can read visual motifs and iconography for their symbolic, religious, and socio-cultural meaning (eg: in Lee Wen's Artists Investigating Monuments (AIM), 2000, Raffles statue is read as a colonial figure; or the contrast of the profane and the sacred) in Jim Supangkat's Ken Dedes)

On a deeper level, you can introduce theory, and how the works embody or disprove them. For example, gender and feminist theory, eco-criticism, post-colonial theory, psychoanalytic, political theory, and even literary theory, which will be covered in later sections.

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John Berger, "Ways of Seeing", 1972. (or watch the video series above)

Challenges our ways of looking at art, and argues how the institutions of art history have fabricated an aura around art.

Susan Sontag, "Against Interpretation", 1966.

A very important essay that challenges the interpretation and analysis of literature and art. Sontag argues that the emphasis on interpretation has led to a loss of appreciation for the formal, sensory and emotional experience of art.

George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language", 1946.

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/

In this essay, novelist George Orwell discusses writing -- specifically at inaccessible writing styles that confuse rather than enlighten readers. His points on pretentious diction and meaningless words are very relevant as they appear often in art and literary criticism.

While art writing may necessitate theoretical jargon, and you may be tempted to replicate the profound terms in other essays, it is crucial to keep in mind the accessibility and clarity of your writing, and to ensure that it is able to be understood even by a lay reader.

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John Berger / Ways of Seeing , Episode 1 (1972)

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Plural is a local online art magazine that focuses on writing on modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art. The site is a rich resource for examples of art writing that aren't necessarily academic, but which still engage critically with art practice. Their publications review local exhibitions, art-world and curatorial discourse, and range from academic to opinion pieces.

Additionally, their Art Abridged page contains the series The ABCs of Asian Art with regional examples (V is for Video art, L is for Land art, etc.).

Some examples of essays that engage with critical concepts:

The problematic representation of women in Liu Kang's paintings: https://pluralartmag.com/2023/07/15/between-artist-and-model-does-it-matter-that-liu-kang-wasnt-a-feminist/

Historiography and coloniality: https://pluralartmag.com/2020/04/06/alternative-facts-wong-hoy-cheongs-re-looking/

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Kuala Lumpur-based Wei-Ling Gallery has come to Singapore with two pop-up exhibitions, Merdeka Project - In(ter)dependence and A Tapestry of Us. Located at Henderson Industrial Park, the shows will run

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Art Magazine Singapore | Southeast Asian Art | Plural Art Mag

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PLURAL is a dynamic online art magazine with a focus on Southeast Asian modern & contemporary visual art, art-related food, fashion & travel. Learn more!

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While this resource is curated to guide you to write about art in a structured and academic way, outside of your research projects, art writing can be informal: art reviews, op-eds, exhibition reviews, or debating art-world discourse.

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Artistic periods emerge as responses to current environments - be it economic, political, or cultural. As such, these periods inform the formation of key themes that provide insight into the concerns and values of the human experience in that time.

Some artistic periods even emerge as responses to existing ones: for example, the sentimental Romanticism era was a reactionary movement to the strict Classicism period before it, to which the objectivity of Realism was later a reaction to Romanticism. In the above link, you will find an summary of the many art periods and their corresponding examples.

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For as long as we have been able to use our hands, we have been creating unique artworks that document our context and state of mind. From early cave paintings to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, human artistic expression can tell us a lot about the lives of the people who created it. To fully appreciate the cultural, social, and historical significance of different artworks, you need to be aware of the art history timeline and the major periods that shaped it. This article presents an overview of the most significant eras of creation and the historical contexts from which they originated.
Art Eras: Tracing the Earliest Art Periods

The earliest artworks have been identified as Paleolithic cave paintings, which date back to roughly 40,000 years ago. There have been many discoveries that document human activity from this period and have taken shape in many spectacular rock shelter paintings and drawings. While it is unclear as to the reasons why early humans began to produce art, it has remained a consistent practice for centuries. Scholars narrow down the purposes of early art as a tool for recording the early cultures, experiences, and local narratives, such that these images and stories were passed onto the next generation.

These prehistoric rock paintings are in Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad, Central Africa. Camels have been painted over earlier images of cattle, perhaps reflecting climatic changes; David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Despite the many exquisite examples of early artistic expression, the official history of art was recognized by the Romanesque era. Official art era timelines do not include cave paintings, sculptures, and other works of art from the Stone Age or the beautiful frescos produced in Egypt and Crete around 2000 BCE.

The reason behind this is that these early eras of artistic expression were bound to a relatively small geographical space. The official art eras that we will be discussing today span many countries and have mostly originated in Europe and parts of North and South America. Despite their lack of official recognition, these earliest examples of human artistic flair raise a lot of interesting questions. Where did early humans learn to draw so realistically, what inspired early humans to create art, and was art a practice that was taught in prehistoric civilizations?

Reviewing the Timeline of the Different Art Periods

As with many areas of human history, it is impossible to delineate the different art periods with precision. The dates presented in the brackets below are approximations based on the progression of each movement across several countries. Many of the art periods overlap considerably, with some of the more recent eras occurring at the same time. Some eras last for a few thousand years while others span less than 10 years. Art is a continuous process of exploration, where more recent periods grow out of existing ones.

Art from ancient Greece, including its many temples, ruins, and archaeological sites have provided us with insight into the Classical styles that shaped the Western canon of art for centuries. It may seem strange for our account of the art period timeline to end 30 years ago. The concept of an art era seems inadequate to capture the variety of artistic styles that have grown since the turn of the 21st century.

There is a feeling among some art historians that the traditional concept of painting has died in our era of fast-track living and digital expanse, however, it would be unwise to think that traditional mediums do not have a place in the 21st century. We continue to share our unique human experiences through the medium of art, just as the cave people did outside of our modern system of classification.

A Comprehensive Art Movement Timeline

It is time to dive a little deeper into the social, cultural, and historical contexts of each of the distinct art eras we presented above. You will see how many eras take influence from those before them. Art, like human consciousness, is continuously evolving. It is also important to note that this art timeline is a history of Western and predominantly European art.

The Byzantine Era (330 - 1453): Eastern Roman Empire and Christianization

Byzantine art was a period of increased religious art production that was inspired by the Christianization of Greek culture and the prevailing art styles of the Roman Empire. The Byzantine art period commenced around 330 CE and lasted until 1453. Influential themes on this period included scenes from Greek Hellenistic mythology and Christian literature. Byzantine art is usually categorized into three distinct periods: the Early Byzantine, Middle Byzantine, and Late Byzantine eras.

The styles found in Byzantine painting were religious and devotional, and included angular contours, flat colors, and a distinct gold backdrop. Byzantine styles of the Roman Empire infiltrated architecture and other art forms such as mosaic making, interior decor, and religious buildings as reminders to society of the Christian faith, which promoted "the path to salvation". Centers such as Constantinople were the hub of artistic expression since it was the center of the Byzantine Empire and the Catholic Church.

The Romanesque Period (1000 - 1300): Sharing Information Through Art

Art historians typically consider the Romanesque art era to be the start of the art history timeline. Romanesque art developed during the rise of Christianity around 1000 CE. During this time, only a small percentage of the European population were literate. The ministers of the Christian church were typically part of this minority, and to spread the message of the bible, they needed an alternative method.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, art shifted from the ideals of Classical Greek and Roman art styles to focus on religious art promoted by Christianity. Christian objects, stories, deities, saints, and ceremonies were the exclusive subject of most Romanesque paintings and were intended on educating the masses about the values and beliefs of the Christian Church.

Due to the Christian purpose behind Romanesque paintings, they are almost always symbolic. The relative importance of the figures within the paintings is shown by the size, with the more important figures appearing much larger. You can see that human faces are often distorted, and the stories depicted in these paintings tend to have a high emotional value.

Romanesque paintings often include mythological creatures like dragons and angels, and almost always appear in churches. At the most fundamental level, paintings of the Romanesque period serve the purpose of spreading the word of the bible and Christianity. The name of this art era stems from round arches used in Roman architecture, often found in churches of the time.

Altar frontal from Avià, c. 1200; Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Gothic Era (1100 - 1500): Freedom and Fear Unite

One of the most famous eras, Gothic art grew out of the Romanesque period in France and is an expression of two contrasting feelings of the age. On the one hand, people were experiencing and celebrating a new level of freedom of thought and religious understanding. On the other, there was a fear that the world was coming to an end. You can clearly see the expression of these two contrasting tensions within the art of the Gothic period.

Just as in the Romanesque period, Christianity lay at the heart of the tensions of the Gothic era. As more freedom of thought emerged, and many pushed against conformity, the subjects of paintings became more diverse. The stronghold of the church began to dissipate.

Gothic paintings portrayed scenes from real life such as laborers in the field and hunting scenes. The focus moved away from divine beings and mystical creatures and tended towards the essence of what it meant to be human.

Human figures received a lot more attention during the Gothic period. Gothic artists fleshed out more realistic human faces, as they became more individual and less two-dimensional. The development of a three-dimensional perspective is thought to have facilitated this change. Painters also paid more attention to subjects of personal value such as clothing, which was typically portrayed realistically.

Duccio di Buoninsegna; The Raising of Lazarus (1310-1311) by Duccio di Buoninsegna, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Many historians believe that part of the reason why the subjects of art became more diverse during the Gothic era was due to the increased surface area for painting within churches. Gothic churches were more expansive than those of the Romanesque period, which was thought to represent the increased feelings of freedom at this time.

Alongside the newfound freedom of artistic expression, there was a deep fear that the end of the world was fast-approaching. This was accompanied by a gradual decline in faith in the church, which spurred the expansion of art outside of the church. In fact, towards the end of the Gothic era, works by Hieronymus von Bosch, Breughel, and others were unsuitable for placement within a church.

We do not know many individual artists who painted in the Romanesque period, as art was not about who painted it but rather the message it carried. Thus, the move away from the church can also be seen in the enormous increase in known artists from the Gothic period, including Giotto di Bondone. Schools of art began to emerge throughout France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and other parts of Europe.

The Renaissance Era (1420 - 1520): The Revival of Humanism

The Renaissance era is possibly one of the most well-known, featuring artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. This era continued to focus on the individual human as its inspiration and took influence from the art and philosophy of the ancient Romans and Greeks. The Renaissance can be seen as a cultural rebirth and is usually understood as consisting of several art movements across Europe.

Sandro Botticelli was among the most popular early Renaissance painters, who was later rediscovered by the artists of the pre-Raphaelite movement. Early Renaissance styles of sculpture were further developed by artists such as Donatello, who was inspired by Classical sculpture and was considered to be one of the greatest sculptors in Florence.

A part of this cultural rebirth was the returned focus on the natural and realistic world in which humans lived. The three-dimensional perspective became even more important to the art of the Renaissance, as is aptly demonstrated by Michelangelo's statue of David. This statue harkened back to the works of the ancient Greeks as it was consciously created to be seen from all angles. Statues of the last two eras had been two-dimensional, intended to be viewed only from the front.

Michelangelo's David (1501-1504); Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The same three-dimensional perspective carried over into the paintings of the Renaissance era. Frescoes that were invented 3000 years prior were revived by Renaissance painters. Compositions became more complex and the representation of humans became much more nuanced. Renaissance artists painted human bodies and faces in three dimensions with a strong emphasis on Realism.

The paint used during the Renaissance period also represented a shift from tempera paint to oil paint. The Renaissance period is often credited as the very start of great Dutch landscape paintings. Among the leading painters of the Italian High Renaissance was Raphael, who alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, encompassed the essence of ideal Renaissance styles and values.

Mannerism (1520 - 1600): A Window into the Future of Kitsch

Of course, this heading is partly in jest. Not all of the art produced in this era is what we would understand today as "kitsch". What we understand kitsch to mean today is often artificial, cheaply made, and without much 'classic' taste. Instead, the reason we describe the art of this period as being kitsch is due to the relative over-exaggeration that characterized it. Stemming from the newfound freedom of human expression in the Renaissance period, artists began to explore their own unique and individual artistic style, or manner.

The S-shaped curve of the human body that characterizes the Renaissance style was transformed into an unnatural contortion of the body. This was the first European style that attracted artists from across Europe to its birthplace in Italy.

Parmigianino; Madonna with Long Neck (1534-1540) by Parmigianino, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Baroque Era (1590 - 1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Eye

The progression of art celebrating the lives of humans over the power of the divine continued into the Baroque era. Kings, princes, and even popes began to prefer to see their own power and prestige celebrated through art than that of God. The over-exaggeration that classified Mannerism also continued into the Baroque period, with the scenes of paintings becoming increasingly unrealistic and magnificent.

Baroque paintings depicted scenes with monarchs ascending into the heavens, mingling with angels, and reaching closer to the divinity and power of God. Here, we really can see the progression of human self-importance, and although the subject matter does not move away entirely from religious symbolism, man was increasingly the central power within Baroque compositions.

New materials that glorify wealth and status like gold and marble become the prized materials for sculptures. Opposites of light and dark, warm and cold colors, and symbols of good and evil are emphasized beyond what is naturally occurring. Art academies increased in their numbers, as art became a way to display your wealth, power, and status.

Baroque ceiling frescoes of Cathedral in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Work of Italian master Giulio Quaglio in 1703-1706 and later 1721-1723; Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Prominent artists of the Baroque period included figures like Caravaggio who was considered to be the master of light and chiaroscuro painting. Caravaggio amplified the concepts of divinity and human grandeur through his striking use of contrast in portraiture and religious painting. Another prolific master of Baroque portraiture was Rembrandt, whose theatrical self-portraits continue to inspire many painters who admire the traditions of Baroque art.

The Rococo Art Period (1725 - 1780): French Aristocracy

The paintings from the Rococo era are typical of the French aristocracy of the time. The name stems from the French word rocaille which means "shellwork". The solid forms which characterized the Baroque period softened into light, air, and desire. Paintings of this era were no longer strong and powerful, but light and playful.

The colors were lighter and brighter, almost transparent in some instances. Many pieces of art from this period neglected religious themes, although some artists like Tiepolo did create frescos in many churches.

Much like the attitude of the French aristocracy of the time, the art of the Rococo period was totally removed from social reality. The shepherd's idyll became the leading theme of this period, representing life as light and carefree, without the constraints of economic or social hardship.

Classicism (1770 - 1840): A Throwback to Classicism

Classicism, like the Rococo era, began in France in around 1770. In contrast to the Rococo era, however, Classism reverted to earlier, more serious styles of artistic expression. Much like the Renaissance period, Classisim took inspiration from classic Roman and Greek art.

The art created in the Classicism era reverted to strict forms, two-dimensional colors, and human figures. The tone of these paintings was undoubtedly strict. Colors lost their symbolism. The art produced in this era was used internationally to instill feelings of patriotism in the people of each nation. Parts of Classicism include Louis-Sieze, Empire, and Biedermeier.

Romanticism (1790 - 1850): Adding More Feeling to Art

You can see from the dates that this art era occurred at around the same time as Classicism. Romanticism is often seen as an emotionally charged reaction to the stern nature of Classicism. In contrast to the strict and realistic nature of the Classicism era, the paintings of the Romantic era were much more sentimental.

There is no tangible or precisely determinable style to the art of the Romanticism period. English and French painters tended to focus on the effects of shadows and lights, while the art produced by German painters tended to have more gravity of thought to them. The Romantic painters were often criticized and even mocked for their interpretation of the world around them.

Realism (1850 - 1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity

As the Romanticism era was a reactionary movement to the Classicism period before it, so is Realism a reaction to Romanticism. In contrast to the beautiful and deeply emotional content of Romantic paintings, Realist artists presented both the good and beautiful, the ugly and evil. The reality of the world is presented in an unembellished way by Realism painters.

These artists attempt to show the world, people, nature, and animals, as they truly appeared. In Realism, there was a focus on the "obligation of art into truth", as phrased by Gustave Courbet.

Just as with Romanticism, Realism was not popular with everyone. The paintings are not particularly pleasing to the eye and some critics have commented that despite the artist's claims of Realism, erotic scenes somehow miss the real eroticism. Goethe criticizes Realism, saying that art should be ideal, not realistic. Schiller also calls Realism "mean", indicating the harshness that many of the paintings portrayed.

Proudhon and His Children (1865) by Gustave Courbet; Gustave Courbet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Impressionism (1850 - 1895): Heralding the Era of Modern Art

Historians often paint the Impressionist movement as the beginning of the modern age. Impressionist art is said to have closed the book on Classical art and was one of the most easily recognizable art periods of the 20th century. Featuring artists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, Impressionism broke away from the smooth brush strokes and areas of solid color that characterized many art periods before it.

Initially, the word Impressionism was like a swear word in the art world, with critics believing that these artists did not paint with technique, but rather simply smeared paint onto a canvas. The brushstrokes indeed were a significant departure from those that came before them, sometimes becoming furiously expressive. Distinct shapes and lines disappeared into a whirlwind of colors. Individual dots of completely new colors were put together, particularly in the Pointillism variety of Impressionist paintings. The subjects of Impressionist paintings could often only be recognized from a distance.

View of Vetheuil sur Seine (1880) by Claude Monet; Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A significant change that occurred during the Impressionist era was that painting began to take place en-plein-air or outside. Much of the Impressionists' ability to capture the complex and ever-changing colors of the natural world were a result of this shift. Impressionist artists also began to move away from the desire to lecture and teach, preferring to create art for art's sake. Galleries and international exhibitions became increasingly important to the spread of such philosophies in art and painting.

Symbolism (1886 - 1900): There is Always More Than Meets the Eye

Between 1886 and 1900, the era of Symbolism began to emerge in France as a literary movement that soon influenced the world of visual art. Artists became preoccupied with the representation of feelings and thoughts through objects. The common themes of the Symbolism movement included death, sickness, sin, and passion. The forms were mostly clear, a fact which art historians believe was in anticipation of the Art Nouveau era.

Post-Impressionism (1886 - 1905): Expression Over Naturalism

The post-Impressionist period followed the era of Impressionism and was defined by its rejection of Naturalism as it applied to the representation of color and expression. The art movement was also coined by the 20th century art critic Roger Fry in 1910 and was a term used to describe the development of art after the styles proposed by Édouard Manet. Post-Impressionism embraced the idea of deep symbolism rather than the mere representation of optical impressions drawn from nature.

Although these artists operated independently, their works possess similarities that differ from the norms of Impressionism and offer a more emotionally charged atmosphere. While artists like Georges Seurat created his own unique style of painting, traditional mediums saw the use of innovative techniques that made each of these artists stand out from the rest of the art crowd of the early 20th century. Famous Fauvists such as Henri Matisse was also greatly influenced by the work of renowned post-Impressionists such as Paul Signac and John Russell.

Art Nouveau (1890 - 1910): All That Glitters is Klimt

Although Gustav Klimt was by no means the most important artist in the Art Nouveau movement, he is one of the most well-known. His style perfectly encapsulates the Art Nouveau movement with soft, curved lines, lots of florals, and the stylistic characterization of human figures. In many countries, this style is known as the Secession style.

The art produced in the Art Nouveau period includes a lot of symmetry and is characterized by playfulness and youthfulness. Art Nouveau has a lot of political content, although many critics ignore this and hold the decorative aspects against it. Through the art of the Art Nouveau period, artists attempted to bring nature back into industrial cities.

Expressionism (1890 - 1914): Bringing a Political Edge to the Debate

In the Expressionism art era, we once again see a resurgence of the importance of the expression of subjective feelings. Expressionism originated in Germany and reflected many artists' criticism of power. The artists within this movement were not interested in Naturalism or what things look like on the outside. As a result, there was a tinge of aggression in some Expressionist paintings, which are often archaic and expressive. Wassily Kandinsky was one such Modern artist who leveraged Expressionism styles in his abstract compositions to explore color theory, form, and pure abstraction in painting.

Cubism (1906 - 1914): Distorting Representation

Beginning with two artists, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the Cubist movement was all about fragmentation, geometric shapes, and multiple perspectives. The dimensional planes of everyday objects were broken down into different geometric segments and put back together in a way that presented the object from multiple sides simultaneously. Cubism was a rejection of all the rules of traditional Western painting and has had a strong influence on the styles of art that have followed it.

Futurism (1909 - 1945): Artistic Anarchism

Futurism is less of an artistic style and more of an artistically inspired political movement. Founded by Tommaso Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto, which rejected social organization and Christian morality, the Futurist era was full of chaos, hostility, aggression, and anger. Although Marinetti was not a painter himself, painting became the most prominent form of art within the Futurist movement.

These artists vehemently rejected the rules of Classical painting, believing that everything that was passed through generations (beliefs, traditions, religion) was suspicious and dangerous. The militant nature of the Futurist movement resulted in many people believing that it was too closely affiliated with Fascism.

Dadaism (1912 - 1920): Life is Nonsense

Dada means a great many things and nothing at all. The writer Hugo Ball discovered that this small word has several different meanings in different languages and at the same time, as a word, it meant nothing at all. The Dadaism movement is based on the concepts of illogic and provocation and was seen as not only an art movement, but an anti-war movement.

The illogic of existing rules, norms, traditions, and values was called into question by the Dadaist movement. The art movement encompassed several art forms including writing, poetry, dance, and performance art. Part of the movement was to call into question what could be classified as "art". Artists such as Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp also leveraged Dadaism and Surrealism to define the foundations of conceptual art, which paved the path forward for later Modern art movements.

Constructivism (1913 - 1930): The Union of Cubism and Futurism

In 1913, the Russian Konstruktivizm movement emerged with the abstract paintings of Vladimir Tatlin, which went on to influence the development of abstract modern art itself. The art period is also recognized as a historical movement that involved the arrangement of geometric forms in a harmonious manner. Painters who explored Constructivism rejected bright colors and expanded the styles found in earlier movements such as Suprematism.

The conceptual theory behind the era was shaped by Jean Piaget, whose work in educational psychology and cognitive development expanded on how humans create meaning and explored the relationships between human experiences and their ideas. The theory also described the idea that human create their own knowledge.

Bold typography and constructed photomontages became the essence of Konstruktivizm with minimal color palettes. The era proved to be incredibly influential in the fields of design and architecture, which shifted from political connotations to a dynamic design style throughout the 1920s. Famous Russian artist Kazimir Malevich also coined the term "Constructivist" while referring to the work of Alexander Rodchenko, a well-known Russian designer.

The Harlem Renaissance (1920 - 1930): The Revival of African-American Culture

The Harlem Renaissance was a decade of significant cultural rebirth for the African-American communities of America in the 1920s. The period was characterized by the recognition and production of intellectual and cultural art forms spanning music, literature, visual art, poetry, politics, dance, and fashion produced by African-American individuals.

The period is also recognized as the New Negro Movement and encompassed a variety of unique Contemporary art styles that focused on relaying the Black experience from a non-Western perspective in light of the historical negation of African-American scholars and artists.

The Harlem Renaissance originated in the New York neighborhood of Harlem, which debuted many cultural icons that promoted African-American culture and the recognition of Black artists in the early 20th century. The period fostered a strong commitment to political activism, which went on to influence important movements such as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s.

Surrealism (1920 - 1930): Subconscious Realities

As if the pure illogic nature of the movement was not outlandish enough, the Surrealists took the dream world to be the fountain of all truth. One of the most famous Surrealist artists is Salvador Dalí, and you are bound to know his painting Melting Watch (1954).

Sometimes dealing with uncomfortable concepts, hidden desires, and taboos, Surrealism was a direct critique of the ingrained ideas and beliefs of the bourgeoise. As you can imagine, this style of art was not popular when it began, but it has greatly influenced the world of modern art.

Space and time (in homage to L.V. Beethoven) (1974) by Italian painter William Girometti; William Girometti, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

New Objectivity (1925 - 1965): Cold and Technical

The different art periods from the 1960s to the Contemporary era mark the height of Modern art and the development of art styles that proved significantly influential in redefining notions of representation, visual aesthetics, and postwar culture.

The New Objectivity movement of the 1960s turned towards themes that dealt with social and political critique. The turbulence of the war left many people searching for some kind of order to hold onto, and this can be seen clearly in the art of New Objectivity.

The images represented in New Objectivity were often cold, unemotional, and technical, with some common subjects such as the radio and lightbulbs. As is the case with many Modern movements in art, there were several different wings to the New Objectivity movement.

Abstract Expressionism (1948 - 1962): Stepping Away from Europe

The 1960s also produced one of the most impactful art periods shaped by Abstract Expressionism. The art world saw many post-World War II painters from the United States embrace abstract approaches to painting as a means of expressing emotion. Abstract Expressionism is said to be the first art movement to originate outside of Europe. Emerging from North America, Abstract Expressionism focused on color-field painting and action paintings. Rather than using a canvas and a brush, buckets of paint would be poured on the ground, and artists used their fingers to create images.

With well-known artists of the 1960s include figures like Marc Tobey and Jackson Pollock, who piloted the style of the art movement. The application of the paint in Abstract Expressionism was sometimes so thick that the finished piece would take on a form unlike any painting before it. As with all art, there are always critics, with conservative Americans during the cold war calling it "un-American."

Pop Art (1955 - 1969): Art is Everything

For the artists of Pop art period, almost every aspect of popular culture in the world was art. From advertisements, tin cans, toothpaste, and toilets, everything was art. Pop art developed simultaneously in the United States and England and was characterized by uniform blocks of color and clear lines and contours. Painting and graphic art became influenced by Photorealism and serial prints.

One of the most famous English Pop artists was David Hockney, although only a few of his lifetime paintings were in this movement. Another iconic legend of the Pop art era in the 1960s was Andy Warhol, whose most popular artworks were inspired by vivid imagery from popular culture and Hollywood's finest celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.

A detail of Roy Lichtenstein's Wall Explosion II, 1965; Colin McLaughlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neo-Expressionism (1980 - 1989): Modern Fauvism

Starting in the 1980s, Neo-Expressionism emerged with large-format representational and life-affirming paintings. Berlin was a central point for this new movement, and the designs typically featured cities and big-city life. The name Neo-Expressionism emerged from Fauvism, and although the artists in Berlin disbanded in 1989, some artists continued to paint in this style in New York.

We've also created a web story about art periods.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is an Art Period?

In art history, an art period is understood as a particular span of time that encompasses various artists and their artworks, whose works are classified under a particular style or movement within art. Art periods indicate eras of significant change or evolution in the trajectory of art and the way it is understood by society. Art periods usually highlight a focused goal and may encompass multiple art movements.

What Is the Difference Between an Art Period and an Art Movement?

Art movements differ from art periods since art periods are categorized and understood according to time and the different eras they encompass, while art movements are formed by artists in a conscious manner and share a common philosophy. Art periods are used to classify artists according to the style of the time and is a broader category that can encompass more than one art movement.

What Is the Current Art Period Called?

The art period of the present is known as the Contemporary art period, which encompasses art and new styles of art produced from the late-1970s until the current era. The Contemporary art period is characterized by art formed within the context of a globalized and technologically advanced era.

Why Was the Renaissance Art Period Important?

The Renaissance art period is a broad art era that is considered significant for the many cultural changes that occurred in multiple disciplines in Europe. The era was recognized as a widespread period of cultural rebirth that saw the revival of Classical subjects across philosophy, literature, visual art, and science. The Renaissance also included the Northern Renaissance, which occurred from the late-15th century and spread to the North of the Alps. The Northern Renaissance was considered particularly important since it birthed many advanced oil painting techniques and approaches in printmaking.

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Art Periods - A Detailed Look at the Art History Timeline

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Important Art Periods ✔ Exploring the Art Periods Timeline ✔ A Comprehensive Look at the Art History Timeline ✔ Significant Art Eras ✔

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Art criticism is talking or writing about art. It analyses and evaluates artworks, searching for meaning the artist has embedded into the artwork. More subtly, art criticism is also often tied to theory; it is interpretive, involving the effort to understand a particular work of art from a theoretical perspective and to establish its significance in the context of socio-cultural, historical, political, and even artistic issues.

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5.2 The Renaissance (14th - late 16th century)

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5.2 The Renaissance (14th - late 16th century)

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The Renaissance period took place from the 14th to late-16th century, and took as its foundation the art of Classical antiquity. It saw a gradual shift from the abstract forms of the medieval period to the representational forms of the 15th century, and influences of an increased awareness of nature, a revival of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of man.

Renowned artists include the likes of Michelangelo, Botticelli, Da Vinci and Rembrandt. The above Youtube channel has an extensive and detailed series on the period.

Themes: Christianity, realism, classical arts and humanism

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Some questions to keep in mind while writing a comparative essay (between literature, film, art, etc.):

What insight does looking at these two subjects together produce as opposed to looking at them in isolation?

Are there differences or similarities in their engagement on an idea or concept? How does this complicate your understanding of this idea?

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Art criticism is not just looking at the aesthetic values of art. It also highlights issues in the work worth attending to, and relates art to contemporary, real-world issues across works, cultures, genres, and disciplines.

Additionally, critic Michel Foucault mentions: "A critique is not a matter of saying that things are not right as they are. It is a matter of pointing out on what kinds of assumptions, what kinds of familiar, unchallenged, unconsidered modes of thought the practices that we accept rest…”. As such, criticism is also a mode in which we can explore how artworks might reinforce or challenge dominant narratives, theories, or beliefs (especially Euro-American ones).

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What is the Purpose of Art Criticism Today? | Widewalls

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What is the purpose of art criticism? Art criticism has been an inevitable part of contemporary art dynamics, but some argue it has been going through a crisis.

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A comparative essay can take on two different structures:

1. The block approach:

This approach allocates a separate paragraph(s) to each work, examining the ways each of them address the ideas raised by the topic. The final body paragraphs pull the material together and discuss the similarities/differences between the works’ approach to the essay's central idea.

It can be challenging to maintain a strong connection between the texts when discussing them in isolation. A careful use of linking words/terms is essential to ensure that the comparison of works is coherent.

2. The woven approach:

The woven approach draws evidence from both works within each body paragraph. Each paragraph focuses on how both works similarly demonstrate (or challenge) an aspect of the essay's central idea.

It can be challenging to move between two texts smoothly, be sure to signpost well and consistently link the arguments back to the central idea.

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What is a comparative essay?

A comparative essay asks that you compare at least two (possibly more) items. These items will differ depending on the assignment. You might be asked to compare

positions on an issue (e.g., responses to midwifery in Canada and the United States)

theories (e.g., capitalism and communism)

figures (e.g., GDP in the United States and Britain)

texts (e.g., Shakespeare's Hamletand Macbeth)

events (e.g., the Great Depression and the global financial crisis of 2008-9)

Although the assignment may say "compare," the assumption is that you will consider both the similarities and differences; in other words, you will compare and contrast.

Make sure you know the basis for comparison

The assignment sheet may say exactly what you need to compare, or it may ask you to come up with a basis for comparison yourself.

Provided by the essay question: The essay question may ask that you consider the figure of the gentleman in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The basis for comparison will be the figure of the gentleman.

Developed by you: The question may simply ask that you compare the two novels. If so, you will need to develop a basis for comparison, that is, a theme, concern, or device common to both works from which you can draw similarities and differences.

Develop a list of similarities and differences

Once you know your basis for comparison, think critically about the similarities and differences between the items you are comparing, and compile a list of them.

For example, you might decide that in Great Expectations, being a true gentleman is not a matter of manners or position but morality, whereas in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, being a true gentleman is not about luxury and self-indulgence but hard work and productivity.

The list you have generated is not yet your outline for the essay, but it should provide you with enough similarities and differences to construct an initial plan.

Develop a thesis based on the relative weight of similarities and differences

Once you have listed similarities and differences, decide whether the similarities on the whole outweigh the differences or vice versa. Create a thesis statement that reflects their relative weights. A more complex thesis will usually include both similarities and differences. Here are examples of the two main cases:

1. Differences outweigh similarities:

While Callaghan's "All the Years of Her Life" and Mistry's "Of White Hairs and Cricket" both follow the conventions of the coming-of-age narrative, Callaghan's story adheres more closely to these conventions by allowing its central protagonist to mature. In Mistry's story, by contrast, no real growth occurs.

2. Similarities outweigh differences:

Although Darwin and Lamarck came to different conclusions about whether acquired traits can be inherited, they shared the key distinction of recognizing that species evolve over time.

Come up with a structure for your essay

1. Alternating method: Point-by-point patternIn the alternating method, you find related points common to your central subjects A and B, and alternate between A and B on the basis of these points (ABABAB ...). For instance, a comparative essay on the French and Russian revolutions might examine how both revolutions either encouraged or thwarted innovation in terms of new technology, military strategy, and the administrative system.

Note that the French and Russian revolutions (A and B) may be dissimilar rather than similar in the way they affected innovation in any of the three areas of technology, military strategy, and administration. To use the alternating method, you just need to have something noteworthy to say about both A and B in each area. Finally, you may certainly include more than three pairs of alternating points: allow the subject matter to determine the number of points you choose to develop in the body of your essay.

When do I use the alternating method? Professors often like the alternating system because it generally does a better job of highlighting similarities and differences by juxtaposing your points about A and B. It also tends to produce a more tightly integrated and analytical paper. Consider the alternating method if you are able to identify clearly related points between A and B. Otherwise, if you attempt to impose the alternating method, you will probably find it counterproductive.

2. Block method: Subject-by-subject patternIn the block method (AB), you discuss all of A, then all of B. For example, a comparative essay using the block method on the French and Russian revolutions would address the French Revolution in the first half of the essay and the Russian Revolution in the second half. If you choose the block method, however, do not simply append two disconnected essays to an introductory thesis. The B block, or second half of your essay, should refer to the A block, or first half, and make clear points of comparison whenever comparisons are relevant. ("Unlike A, B . . ." or "Like A, B . . .") This technique will allow for a higher level of critical engagement, continuity, and cohesion.

When do I use the block method? The block method is particularly useful in the following cases:

You are unable to find points about A and B that are closely related to each other.

Your ideas about B build upon or extend your ideas about A.

You are comparing three or more subjects as opposed to the traditional two.

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A comparative essay asks that you compare at least two (possibly more) items. These items will differ depending on the assignment.

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After your interpretation, a good practice is then to ask: so what? In other words, explain what implications or wider significance your reading of the artwork may have.

If we were to continue with the interpretation of Tang Da Wu's Life Boat: there was an uncomfortable tension between the setting of the performance (in a shopping space) and the harsh realities faced by the refugees.

The "so what?" of this interpretation could hence be: this tension creates a sense of urgency and discomfort that compels audiences to reflect on their privilege, and hence activate them to take action to aid the refugees.

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An art essay is very similar to a literature essay, comprising of:

1. A thesis (your argument)

2. Engaging with the evidence in the artwork (this is where your analysis, interpretation, and evaluation will be)

3. Engaging with what others have said

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The thesis is your main argument about an artwork or topic. It should not be a truism (something obviously true and saying nothing new or interesting), and should be arguable (able to be argued for or against).

Motivating the thesis:

What are some potential responses to the artwork that are not immediately obvious to a reader? Why would this make for an engaging essay that invites multiple readings?

Following this, how does my answer propose something new, rather than repeating a factual observation, and how does my answer relate to the larger concerns of the text? Does viewing the artwork through a certain theoretical framework presents a different understanding of it?

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(only for reference, do not copy this verbatim)

XX's [artwork] depicts [short description summarising the artwork]. While a reading of [XX's artwork] may initially suggest _______, I argue that reading it through [theoretical framework] instead reveals _______ (i.e. something not immediately obvious to most readers). This approach hence suggests how _______ (the "so what?" portion).

Again, in the "so what?" portion, you should state why your argument is significant in the broader context of the primary text and/or theoretical framework.

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The elements discussed previously (visual analysis, interpretation, evaluation) should fall under here in order to evidence the argument in your thesis.

Additionally, avoid making grand claims, especially of the artist's intent, unless it is made clear in writing or interviews. For example, saying "The artist wanted..." is different from "The warm palette evokes..." The first phrasing necessitates proof of the artist's intent, as opposed to the effect of the image.

You should continue to link your evidence back to your thesis at different points in your essay to show how it addresses it.

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A more detailed guide on how to engage with sources

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Primary sources can be used to give grounds to the information in your essay (eg: the history of an event being depicted, or a study on the status of women in a certain period).

Additionally, other art critics may have voiced similar or different interpretations of an artwork. Integrating these as secondary sources into your essay and engaging with them can help develop your argument to be more sophisticated and nuanced.

You may use secondary sources in different ways:

1. to expand on as the foundation of a more sophisticated argument you are trying to make (Yes, and...)

2. to agree, but correct the limitations/oversights in their argument with your own take (Yes, but....)

3. to consider as a possible counterargument that a skeptical reading might raise, subsequently disproving it in order give weight to your own argument (No, because...)

While it may be easier to integrate sources that already agree with your argument, doing so results in an essay that is one-dimensional and neglects alternative readings.

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In this link is an example of the application of theory to a literary text.

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3.5.1 On engaging with theory: what approaches should I use?

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3.5.1 On engaging with theory: what approaches should I use?

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You may choose to incorporate certain theoretical frameworks into your essay as a sort of lens, to understand the artwork in relation to broader ideas.

While the above link pertains to literary theory, most frameworks used in literary analysis can also be broadly applied to art criticism, for example: post-colonial, feminist, and psychoanalytic theories. (The literature resource padlet boasts a more extensive list)

However, artworks' potential to be multidisciplinary in nature (visual, performance, auditory, temporal, participative) sets it apart from literary texts, and some frameworks are specific to analysing art. For example, artworks can be viewed specifically through the approaches of relational aesthetics, representation, objecthood, etc. The resource will go through a few of these theories in a later section.

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A common technique for analyzing literature (by which we mean poetry, fiction, and essays) is to apply a theory developed by a scholar or other expert to the source text under scrutiny. The theory may or may not have been developed in the service literary scholarship. One may apply, say, a Marxist theory of historical materialism to a novel, or a Freudian theory of personality development to a poem. In the hands of an analyst, another's theory (in parts or whole) acts as a conceptual lens that when brought to the material brings certain elements into focus. The theory magnifies aspects of the text according to its special interests. The term theory may sound rarified or abstract, but in reality a theory is simply an argument that attempts to explain something. Anytime you go to analyze literature-as you attempt to explain its meanings-you are applying theory, whether you recognize its exact dimensions or not. All analysis proceeds with certain interests, desires, and commitments (and not others) in mind. One way to define the theory-implicit or explicit-that you bring to a text is to ask yourself what assumptions (for instance, about how stories are told, about how language operates aesthetically, or about the quality of characters' actions) guide your findings.

A theory is an argument that attempts to explain something.

Let's turn again to the insights about using theories to analyze literature provided in Joanna Wolfe's and Laura Wilder's Digging into Literature: Strategies for Reading, Analysis, and Writing (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2016).

Here's a brief example of a writer using a theoretical text as a lens for reading the primary text:

In her book, The Second Sex, the feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir describes how many mothers initially feel indifferent toward and estranged from their new infants, asserting that though "the woman would like to feel that the new baby is surely hers as is her own hand,. . . she does not recognize him because. . .she has experienced her pregnancy without him: she has no past in common with this little stranger" (507). Sylvia Plath's "Morning Song" exemplifies the indifference and estrangement that de Beauvoir describes. However, where de Beauvoir asserts that "a whole complex of economical and sentimental considerations makes the baby seem either a hindrance or a jewel" (510), Plath's poem illustrates how a child can simultaneously be both hindrance and jewel. Ultimately, "Morning Song" shows us how new mothers can overcome the conflicting emotions de Beauvoir describes.

Daniel DiGiacomo. From Mourning Song to "Morning Song": The Maturation of a Maternal Bond.

Notice that in this brief passage, the writer fairly represents de Beauvoir's theory about maternal feelings, then goes on to apply a portion of that theory to Plath's poem, a focusing move that establishes the writer's special interest in an aspect of Plath's text. In this case, the application yields new insight about the non-universality of de Beauvoir's theory, which Plath's poem troubles. The theory magnifies a portion of the primary text, and its application puts pressure on the soundness of the theory.

Applying a Theoretical Lens: W.E.B. Du Bois Applied to Langston Hughes

Experienced literary critics are familiar with a wide range of theoretical texts they can use to interpret a primary text. As a less experienced student, your instructors will likely suggest pairings of theoretical and primary texts. We would like you to consider the writerly workings of the theory-primary text application by examining a student's paper entitled "Double-consciousness in 'Theme for English B," an essay which uses W.E.B. Du Bois's theory (of double-consciousness) to elucidate and interpret Langston Hughes's poem ("Theme for English B"). W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was an American sociologist, civil rights activist, author, and editor. Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was an American poet, activist, editor, and guiding member of the group of artists now known as the Harlem Renaissance.

But before you can make sense of that student's essay, we ask that you read both a synopsis of the theoretical textand the primary text .
Primary Text

Theme for English B Langston Hughes

The instructor said,
Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you- Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple?

I am a twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.

I went to school there, then Durham, then here

to this college on the hill above Harlem,

I am the only colored student in my class.

The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,

Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,

the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator

up to my room, site down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me

at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what

I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:

hear you, hear me-we two-you, me, talk on this page.

(I hear New York, too.) Me-who?

Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.

I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.

I like a pipe for a Christmas present,

or records-Bessie, bop, or Bach.

I guess being colored doesn't make me not like

the same things other folks like who are other races.

So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white.

But it will be a part of you, instructor.

You are white-

yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.

That's American.

Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.

Nor do I often want to be a part of you.

But we are, that's true!

As I learn from you,

I guess you learn from me-

although you're older-and white-

and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

Theoretical Text

Of Our Spiritual Strivings

W.E.B. Du Bois
Of Our Spiritual Strivings O water, voice of my heart, crying in the sand, All night long crying with a mournful cry, As I lie and listen, and cannot understand The voice of my heart in my side or the voice of the sea. O water, crying for rest, is it I, is it I? All night long the water is crying to me. Unresting water, there shall never be rest Till the last moon drop and the last tide fall, And the fire of the end begin to burn in the west; And the heart shall be weary and wonder and cry like the sea, All life long crying without avail As the water all nigh long is crying to me.
-Arthur Symons

Between me and the other world there is an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or I fought at Mechanicsville; or Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

And yet, being a problem is a strange experience-peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe. It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghkanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys' and girls' heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards-ten cents a package-and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card-refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain sadness that I was different from the others; or, like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world as by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination time, or beat them at a footrace, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the hears all this fine contempt began to fade; for the worlds I long for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine. But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them. Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my head-some way. With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny: their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white, or wasted itself in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his tw0-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strengths alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.

This, then, is the end of his striving: To be a coworker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius. These powers of body and mind have in the past been strangely wasted, dispersed, or forgotten. The shadow of a might Negro past flits through the tale of Ethiopia the Shadowy and of Egypt the Sphinx. Throughout history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness. Here in America, in the few days since Emancipation, the black man's turning hither and thither in hesitant and doubtful striving has often made his very strength to loos effectiveness, to seem like absence of power, like weakness. And yet it is not weakness-it is the contradiction of double aims. The double-aimed struggle of the black artisan-on the one hand to escape white contempt for a nation of mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, and on the other hand to plough and nail and dig for a poverty-stricken horde-could only result in making him a poor craftsman, for he had but half a heart either cause. By the poverty and ignorance of his people, the Negro minister or doctor was tempted toward quackery and demagogy; and by the criticism of the other world, toward ideals that made him ashamed of his lowly tasks. The would-be black savant was confronted by the paradox that the knowledge his people needed was a twice-told tale to his white neighbors, while the knowledge which would teach the white world was Greek to his own flesh and blood. The innate love of harmony and beauty that set the ruder souls of his people a-dancing and a-singing raised but confusion and doubt in the soul of the black artist; for the beauty revealed to him was the soul-beauty of a race which his larger audience despised, and he could not articulate the message of another people. This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people-has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of salvation, and at times has even seemed about to make them ashamed of themselves.

Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faither as did the American Negro for two centuries. To him, so far as he thought and dreamed, slavery was indeed the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice; Emancipation was the key to a promised land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before the eyes of wearied Israelites. In song and exhortation swelled one refrain-Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand. At last it came-suddenly, fearfully, like a dream. With one wild carnival of blood and passion came the message in his own plaintive cadences:-
"Shout, O children! Shout, you're free! For God has bought your liberty!"
Years have passed away since then-ten, twenty, forty; forty years of national life, forty years of renewal and development, and yet the swarthy scepter sits in its accustomed seat at the Nation's feast. In vain do we cry to this our vastest social problem:-
"Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble!"
The Nation has not yet found peace from its since; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land. Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people-a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people.

The first decade was merely a prolongation of the vain search for freedom, the boon that seemed ever barely to elude their grasp-like a tantalizing will-o-the-wisp, maddening and misleading the headless host. The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku Klux Klan, the lies of carpetbaggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for freedom. As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea. The ideal of liberty demanded for its attainment powerful means, and these the Fifteenth Amendment gave him. The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him. And why not? Had not votes made war and emancipated millions? Had not votes enfranchised the freedmen? Was anything impossible to a power that had done all this? A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom. So the decade flew away, the revolution of 1876 came, and left the half-free serf weary, wondering, but still inspired. Slowly but steadily, in the following years, a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power-a powerful movement, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day. It was the ideal of "book-learning": the curiosity, born of compulsory ignorance, to know and test the power of the cabalistic letters of the white man, the longing to know. Here at last seemed to have been discovered the mountain path to Canaan; longer than the highway to Emancipation and law, steep and rugged, but straight, leading to heights high enough to overlook life.

Up the new path the advance guard toiled, slowly, heavily, doggedly; only those who have watched and guided the faltering feet, the misty minds, the dull understandings, of the dark pupils of these schools know how faithfully, how piteously, this people strove to learn. It was weary work. The cold statistician wrote down the inches of progress here and there, noted also where here and there a foot had slipped or someone fallen. To the tired climbers, the horizon was ever dark, the mists were often cold, the Canaan was always dim and far away. If, however, the vistas disclosed as yet no goal, no resting place, little but flattery and criticism, the journey at least gave leisure for reflection and self-examination; it changed the child of Emancipation to the youth with dawning self-consciousness, self-realization, self-respect. In those somber forests of his striving his own soul rose before him, and he saw himself-darkly as through a veil; and yet he saw in himself some faint revelation of his power, of his mission. He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another. For the first time he sought to analyze the burden he bore upon his back, that deadweight of social degradation partially masked behind a half-named Negro problem. He felt his poverty; without a cent, without a home, without land, tools, or savings, he had entered into competition with rich, landed, skilled neighbors. To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. He felt the weight of his ignorance,-not simply of letters, but of life, of business, of the humanities; the accumulated sloth and shirking and awkwardness of decades and centuries shackled his hands and feet. Nor was his burden all poverty and ignorance. The red stain of bastardy, which two centuries of systematic legal defilement of Negro women had stamped upon his race, meant not only the loss of ancient African chastity, but also the hereditary weight of a mass of corruption from white adulterers, threatening almost the obliteration of the Negro home.

A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought to its own social problems. But alas! while sociologists gleefully count his bastards and prostitutes, the very soul of the toiling, sweating black man is darkened by the shadow of a vast despair. Men call the shadow prejudice, and learnedly explain it as the natural defense of culture against barbarism, learning against ignorance, purity against crime, the "higher" against the lower races. To which the Negro cries Amen! and swears that to such much of this strange prejudice as is founded on just homage to civilization, culture, righteousness, and progress, he humbly bows and meekly does obeisance. But before that nameless prejudice that leaps beyond all this he stands helpless, dismayed, and well-nigh speechless; before that personal disrespect and mockery, the ridicule and systematic humiliation, the distortion of fact and wanton license of fancy, the cynical ignoring of the better and the boisterous welcoming of the worse, the all-pervading desire to inculcate disdain for everything b lack, from Toussaint to the devil-before this there rises a sickening despair that would disarm and discourage any nation save the black host to whom "discouragement" is an unwritten word.

But the facing of so vast a prejudice could not but bring the inevitable self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals which ever accompany repression and breed in an atmosphere of contempt and hate. Whisperings and portents came borne upon the four winds: Lo! we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what we need of education, since we must always cook and serve? And the Nation echoed and enforced this self-criticism, saying: Be content to be servants, and nothing more; what need of higher culture for half-men? Away with the black man's ballot, by force or fraud-and behold the suicide or a race! Nevertheless, out of the evil came something of good-the more careful adjustment of education to real life, the clearer perception of the Negroes' social responsibilities, and the sobering realization of the meaning of progress.

So dawned the time of Sturm und Drang: storm and stress today rocks out little boat on the mad waters of the world-sea; there is within and without the sound of conflict, the burning of body and rending of soul; inspiration strives without doubt, and faith with vain questionings. The bright ideals of the past-physical freedom, political power, the training of brains and the training of hands-all these in turn have waxed and waned, until even the last grows dim and overcast. Are they all wrong-all false? No, not that, but each alone was oversimple and incomplete-the dreams of a credulous race-childhood, or the fond imaginings of the other world which does not know and does not want to know our power. To be really true, all these ideals must be melted and welded into one. The training of the schools we need today more than ever-the training of deft hands, quick eyes and ears, and above all the broader, deeper, higher culture of gifted minds and pure hearts. The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defense-else what shall save us from a second slavery? Freedom, too, the long-sought, we still seek-the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, the freedom to love and aspire. Work, culture, liberty-all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of human brotherhood, gamed through the unifying ideal of Race; the idea of fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other race, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic, in order that someday on American soil two world races may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack. We the darker ones come even now not altogether empty-handed: there are today no truer exponents of the pure human spirit of the Declaration of Independence than the American Negroes; there is not true American music but the wild sweet melodies of the Negro slave; the American fairy tales and folklore are Indian and African; and, all in all, we black men seem the sole oasis of simple faith and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and smartness. Will American be poorer if she replace her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined Negro humility? of her coarse and cruel wit with loving jovial good-humor? or her vulgar music with the soul of the Sorrow Songs?

Merely a concrete test of the underlying principles of the great republic is the Negro Problem, and the spiritual striving of the freedmen's sons is the travail of souls whose burden is almost beyond the measure of their strength, but who bear it in the name of an historic race, in the name of this the land of their fathers' fathers, and in the name of human opportunity.

And now what I have briefly sketched in large outline let me on coming pages tell again in many ways, with loving emphasis and deeper detail, that men may listen to the striving in the souls of black folk.

Using a Theoretical Lens to Write Persuasively

Applying a theoretical lens to poetry, fiction, plays, or essays is a standard academic move, but theories are also frequently applied to real-world cases, hypothetical cases, and other non-fiction texts in disciplines such as Philosophy, Sociology, Education, Anthropology, History, or Political Science. Sometimes, the theoretical lens analysis is called a reading, as in a "Kantian reading of an ethical dilemma," or a "Marxist reading of an historical episode." At other times, the application of a theory is known as an approach, as in a "Platonic approach to the question of beauty."

The basic writerly moves to using a theoretical lens include:

name and cite the theoretical text and accurately summarize this text's argument. Usually this short summary appears in one or two paragraphs at the beginning of the essay. You will want to be sure your summary includes the key concepts you use in your paper to analyze the primary literary text.

use the surface/depth strategy to show how deeper meanings in the primary text can be explained by concepts from the theoretical text. You might think about this as creating a "match argument" between the primary and theoretical text (or case under consideration). Take important points made in the theoretical argument and match them to particular events or descriptions in the primary text. For instance, you could argue Langston Hughes's line So will my page be colored as I write? (27) matches Du Bois's argument that the veil prevents Whites from seeing Black's individuality. Such a match argument can form an organizing structure for the essay as you develop whole paragraphs to support different points of connection between the theoretical and primary texts. You may be able to devote an entire paragraph to the claim that Du Bois's concept of "the veil" can help us understand Hughes's description of the challenges his speaker faces in asking his instructor to see him on his own terms.

support your surface/depth claims linking the primary and theoretical texts with textual evidence from the primary text. If you claim that a particular passage exemplifies a particular theory, you need to provide evidence in the form of quotations or paraphrases to support this interpretation. This evidence will most certainly need to be provided from the primary text you are analyzing but perhaps also occasionally from the theoretical text, too, especially if you connect the primary text to a small detail in the theoretical text or if the wording of the theoreticl text helps you explain something in the primary text. Use the patterns strategy to provide multiple examples from the primary text supporting your claims that it matches elements of the theoretical text.

reveal something complex and unexpected about the primary text. The goal of the theoretical lens strategy-like all strategies of literary analysis-should be to show that the text you are analyzing is complex and can be understood on multiple levels.

challenge, extend, or reevaluate the theoretical text (for more sophisticated analyses). The most sophisticated uses of the theoretical lens strategy not only help you better understand the primary text but also help you better understand-and reveal complexities in-the theoretical text. When you first start applying this strategy, it may be sufficient to argue how the theoretical text helps you understand the primary text, but as you advance, you should attempt the second part of this strategy and use the primary text to extend or challenge the theoretical argument. Such arguments may serve as starting points for you to contribute to literary (or philosophical, or sociological, or historical) theory as a theorist yourself. These arguments are often made in the concluding paragraphs of analyses using the theoretical lens strategy.

Common Words and Phrases Associated with Theoretical Lens

A Sample Student Essay

Title: Double-consciousness in "Theme for English B"

Paragraph 1

The post-slavery history of African-Americans in the United States has been one of struggle for recognition. This struggle continued through the civil rights movement in the 1970s and '80s. W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the most influential African-American leaders of the early twentieth century, described the complicated effects racism had on African-American selfhood. In his treatise The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois introduces the term "double-consciousness" to describe African-Americans's struggle for self-recognition. Double-consciousness is the sense of "always looking at one's self through the eyes of others" (8). It means that an African-American "[e]ver feels his two-ness-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body" (8). According to Du Bois, double-consciousness means that African-Americas are always judging themselves through a veil of racism, experiencing how others judge and define them rather than how they might define and express themselves.

Paragraph 2

Langston Hughes's poem "Theme for English B," written nearly fifty years after Du Bois's essay, depicts one African-American's continued struggle with double-consciousness. However, where Du Bois sees double-consciousness as a painful condition he hopes will one day disappear, Hughes seems to have a more positive view, suggesting that mainstream Americans should also have an opportunity to experience this condition. Instead of eradicating double-consciousness, Hughes seeks to universalize it. His poem suggests that true equality will be possible when all cultures are able to experience and appreciate double-consciousness.

Paragraph 3

We see the poem's speaker struggling with double-consciousness when he expresses difficulty articulating what is "true" for himself. Hughes writes:

It's not easy to know what is true for you and me

at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what

I feel and see and hear. Harlem, I hear you:

hear you, hear me-we two-you, me, talk on this page.

(I hear New York, too.) Me-who? (16-20)

In this passage, which concludes with a question about who he is, the speaker expresses a divided self. At first, he seems to identify with Harlem, an African-American neighborhood in New York, where he is currently sitting and writing. However, this identification becomes troubled by his acknowledgment that Harlem does not completely define him. When the speaker writes "hear you, hear me-we two" (19), he suggests that "you" (referring to Harlem) and "me" (referring to himself) are intimately related by not identical. They are two voices that, while both present in his poem, still "talk" (19) to one another. The fact that these voices converse, rather than speak as one, indicates they are not completely merged.

Paragraph 4

This sense of a divided self is further reinforced by the claim "(I hear New York, too.)" (20). This aside is interesting because it establishes Harlem as both separate from and connected to the larger city. This division reflects what Du Bois calls the "two-ness [of being] an Amercan [and] a Negro" (8). By placing New York in parentheses, the speaker may be suggesting that the American part of himself represented by New York plays a weaker role in his identity than the African-American self represented by Harlem. Like Du Bois, the speaker in "Theme for English B" experiences inner conflict when he tries to reconcile the different parts of himself.

Paragraph 5

We further see evidence of the speaker's conflict when he writes that he likes "Bessie, bop, or Bach" (24). "Bessie" refrs to the popular blues singer Bessie Smith, an African-American woman who sang a very African-American style of music. At the other end of the spectrum is "Bach," which refers to the classical European composer J.S. Bach and represents a traditionally White form of music. In the middle is "bop," which refers to "bebop," a form of jazz made popular in the 1940s that inspired a particular form of dance most practiced by White teenagers at the time. In saying that he likes all of these forms of music, the speaker indicates that he is a mix of both African and European identities-like Du Bois, he feels both traditional White and traditional African-American culture calling him.
Paragraph 6
The "page" that the poem's speak has been asked to write likewise reflects the two-ness of being African-American. An essay can be thought of as black ink on white paper, which in the context of the poem represents Black identity articulated against a White background. The speaker refers to this conflict of identities when he writes, "So will my page be colored that I write? / Being me, it will not be white" (27-28). These lines suggest that the speaker is worried that his instructor will only see him as a representative Black student. It shows how the speaker is caught in a double bind: when the teacher asks the class to write something "true" (5), he will expect this particular student (who in the first stanza tells us he is the only Black student in the class) to write in a way consistent with his obvious Black heritage. But the student is aware that his White teacher doesn't really know what it means to be Black. Thus, if he writes in a way that fulfills his instructor's expectations, he will write a page that seems to a White teacher to be an authentic depiction of what it means to be Black-in other words, a White representation of Blackness. This dilemma illuminates what Du Bois refers to as "always looking at one's self thorugh the eyes of others" (8). Because the speaker in the poem is so aware of what his instructor (and possibly the other students in the class) already thinks of him, he is having difficulty articulating just who he really is.

Paragraph 7

At the end of the poem, however, instead of calling for the eradication of double-consciousness as Du Bois does when he longs for the day that African-Americans will be able to "merge his double-self into a better and truer self" (9), Hughes seems to suggest that instead his instructor needs to feel the double-identity that he feels so strongly. Thus, he writes "You are white- / yet a part of me, as I am a part of you" (31-32) and "As I learn from you, / I guess you learn from me-" (36-37). These lines indicate that the White instructor needs to accept, African-American identity as part of his own culture, just as the speaker has needed to see both parts of his identity calling him. This ability to feel and be multiple perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds at once is labeled "American" in the second stanza. Hughes seems to be suggesting that even though the"two-ness" he feels is often difficult and painful, it needs to be seen as central to American-and not just African-American-identity. When he states at the end of the poem, "I guess you learn from me" (38), he is turning the tables on the teacher, and on Whites in general, by suggesting that they have as much to learn from exploring Black culture as Blacks have to learn by studying classic White culture.

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Literary Analysis: Applying a Theoretical Lens

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A common technique for analyzing literature (by which we mean poetry, fiction, and essays) is to apply a theory developed by a scholar or other expert to the source text under scrutiny. The theory may or may not have been developed in the service literary scholarship.

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When choosing theories to integrate in your essay, remember to consider :

1. Have I considered any potential limitations in my choice of theoretical frameworks? Could my reader refute my arguments using different angles of my theoretical frameworks, or by using different theoretical frameworks?

2. How else do my theoretical frameworks illuminate the subject matter beyond my visual analysis?

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4.3 Comparing between Literature and Art

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4.3 Comparing between Literature and Art

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While comparing art and literature, one key difference

while there are different forms of literature, they are primarily confined to text. In contrast, other than the familiar traditional forms of art (painting, sculpture), there are numerous other art media, disciplines, and genres, each with their unique characteristics and strategies.

Many of these artworks necessarily engage with the audience and space around them. As such, you should consider how each medium interacts with its surroundings.

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5.3 Romanticism (late 18th - mid-19th century)

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5.3 Romanticism (late 18th - mid-19th century)

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The Romantic period is often seen as an emotionally charged reaction to the stern nature of Classicism. In contrast to Classicism, Romantic paintings are sentimental, and emphasised the individual in terms of imagination, subjectivity, and emotional responsiveness. Romanticism emphasised intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, and emphasised the experiences of sympathy, awe, wonder, and terror, the "beautiful" and the "sublime".

Romanticism was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and the Age of Enlightenment, especially the scientific rationalisation of Nature.

Themes: the sublime, spirituality, imagination, mystery, tragedy, nature, the supernatural

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Perspective: Decoding the Secrets of Romanticism in Art

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Introduction to Orientalism in art history

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The Orientalist movement refers to 19th-century Western artists who specialised in Oriental subjects, produced from their travels in Western Asia. It existed as a branch of academic art, and notable artists include Jean-Léon Gérôme, Eugène Delacroix, and J.A.D Ingres.

These paintings exoticised their Oriental subjects, presenting scenes of sensuous excess and Western fantasies. Orientalists later presented these paintings as ethnographic and objective, despite being fabrications. While there were realist Oriental artists who painted from their voyages to the Orient, many Oriental artists imagined Orientalist scenes without ever leaving the studio. The above video explores representations in Orientalist art in tandem with Edward Said's conception of Orientalism.

Themes: the exotic Other, eroticism and sensuousness

Video on Eugène Delacroix's "The Women of Algiers":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcaNYS1q4SY&ab_channel=Smarthistory

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Introduction to Orientalism in art history || Explained by curator Dr Ambra D'Antone

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5.5 Victorian Period (early 19th to early 20th century)

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5.5 Victorian Period (early 19th to early 20th century)

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The Victorian period began as an age of realism in literature and art, and of nationalism and romanticism in culture. Artists responded to the wealth generated by empire and industry, and its moral consequences.

In the mid-19th century, a group called Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed as a reaction against the teaching of the Royal Academy. They painted as accurately as possible from nature when able. Later, the period saw shifts from realism to poetry and attractiveness, and further, a revival of Classic subjects was seen. As the century progressed, mechanisation, economic decline, political chaos and religious faith made the population look back to pre-industrial times as a golden age. Artists hence became drawn to pre-industrial subjects and techniques.

Themes: Nature, realism, the Classical

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Artists responded to the wealth generated by empire and industry-and its moral consequences.

1837 - 1901

Periods in Victorian art

Early Victorian

Pre-Raphaelites and mid-Victorian art

Late Victorian

All content | Victorian art

Landseer's animal paintings, Gothic revival churches, arts & crafts furniture, the symbolic realism of the Pre-Raphaelites, and more.

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Artists responded to the wealth generated by empire and industry-and its moral consequences. 1837 - 1901 Landseer's animal paintings, Gothic revival churches, arts & crafts furniture, the symbolic realism of the Pre-Raphaelites, and more.

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An introduction to Modernism in art and literature

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The Modernist period does not refer to a single movement, but encompasses a whole range of movements. Avant-garde movements - Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Constructivism, de Stijl, and Abstract Expressionism - are generally defined as Modernist.

There are certain underlying principles that define modernist art:

A rejection of history and conservative values (such as realistic depiction of subjects)

Innovation and experimentation with form (the shapes, colours and lines that make up the work) with a tendency to abstraction

An emphasis on materials, techniques and processes. Artists increasingly focused on the intrinsic qualities of their media - visual elements like line, form - and moved away from inherited notions of art.

Modernism can hence be seen as a broader way of thinking rather than a specific way of art practice.

Themes: experimentation, reflexivity, the avant-garde

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Modernism: WTF? An introduction to Modernism in art and literature

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6.1 Representation and the Politics of Images

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6.1 Representation and the Politics of Images

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One important theory with artworks is their limitations in representing reality, specifically how representing tragedy in art undermines its violence. Even photography, which seems to be faithful and unbiased, includes aesthetic choices of framing and composition. Philosopher Jacques Rancière hence argues that this aestheticisation divorces viewers of the artwork from the reality it represents.

Some key texts:

Jacques Rancière, "The Emancipated Spectator", 2008.

Rancière discusses in the chapter The Intolerable Image how representing abject reality banalises it and disengages viewers.

Susan Sontag, "On Photography", 1977; "Regarding the Pain of Others", 2003.

Sontag's works talk about how images mediate our relationship with war and violence, and how photography fosters a voyeuristic relationship between viewers and the world, diminishing the gravity and meaning of events.

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

Alfredo Jaar, “Eyes of Gutete Emerita”, 1996; "Real Pictures", 1995; discuss alternative ways of representing the violent Rwandan genocide without aestheticising it.

Dana Schutz, "Open Casket", 2016

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Alfredo Jaar Interview: Images Are Not Innocent

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Postcolonialism is the critical study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of European colonial and imperial rule around the world in the 18th through the 20th century, focusing on the impacts of its oppression and violence. Other forms of postcolonial theory are imagining a world after colonialism, but one which has yet to come into existence.

Some key texts:

Edward Said, "Orientalism", 1978.

Edward Said's concept of Orientalism examines how Western representations the East (or the Orient), constructs the image of the East as inferior and primitive. Additionally, he explores how this power dynamic is perpetuated through institutions -- through education, literature, sciences, scholarship, etc.

Other themes related to Orientalist representations include ideas of the "Noble Savage" and the "Magical Negro".

Roh, et al., "Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media", 2015.

This text looks the trend of Techno-Orientalism: representing the East in hypo- or hyper-technological terms in literary, cinematic, and new media representations. This presents the stereotype of Asians as still being intellectually primitive (much like in Said's Orientalism) despite being technologically advanced, and hence needing Western consciousness-raising.

Watch an introductory video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8e8xtvElpQ&ab_channel=MaiaC

Mark Dery, "Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose", 1993.

This text coins the term Afrofuturism, which is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

Orientalist artists: J. A. D Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Works that deal with Orientalism & Techno-Orientalism:

Lee Wen's Yellow Man series: "Journey of a Yellow Man No.13: Fragmented Bodies/Shifting Ground", 1999, "Strange Fruit", 2003.

Lu Yang, "Uterus Man", 2013.

Afrofuturism:

Yinka Shonibare, "Refugee Astronaut" series, 2015-

Wangechi Mutu, "Water Woman", 2017.

Christina de Middel, "The Afronauts", 2012.

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Juaia Kristeva's concept of abjection is the state of being cast off and separated from norms and rules, especially on the scale of society and morality. This results in the human reaction (horror, revulsion) to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object, or between self and other.

As Kristeva clarifies, it is "not the lack of cleanliness or health that causes abjection but what disturbs identity, system, and order. What does not respect borders, positions, rules. The in-between, the ambiguous, the composite". Abjection hence can take many forms: bodily fluids, corpses, and can even characterise or problematise women's bodies.

Video essay on how the female body is rendered abject in visual media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1yfsfQphmo&ab_channel=BroeyDeschanel

Some key texts:

Julia Kristeva, "Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection", 1980.

Rina Arya & Nicholas Chare (ed.), "Abject Visions : Powers of Horror in Art and Visual Culture", 2016.

Barbara Creed, "The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis", 1993.

This text talks about how the feminine is fabricated as monstrous through association with [female] reproductive bodily functions.

Harry M. Benshoff, "Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film", 1997.

This text talks about how non-normative cultures and identities are similarly made "monstrous" and villainised.

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

Mona Hatoum, "Corps Étranger", 1994.

Louise Bourgeois, "Spider (Bourgeois)", 1996; and "Maman", 1999.

Carolee Schneeman, "Interior Scroll", 1975.

Amanda Heng, "Yours Truly, My Body", 1999.

Doreen Garner, "Red Rack of Those Ravaged and Unconsenting", 2018.

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Julia Kristeva's "Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection"

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Relational art is art that involves the engagement and participation of audiences, and its goals is to create a social experience – one in which the viewer’s active participation in an artist-created event becomes the art. Art critic Nicolas Bourriaud defines this approach of relational aesthetics as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." Often taking shape as interactive performances, the artist takes on the role as the "catalyst" rather than being at the centre. This can take the form of instructional art or unscripted events.

Some key texts:

Nicolas Bourriaud, "Relational art", 1998.

Claire Bishop, "Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics", 2004.

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

Rirkrit Tiravanija, "Pad Thai", 1990.

Mella Jaarsma, "Pribumi Pribumi", 1998.

Adeline Kueh, "Sama-sama: Comfort is on the menu" 2023.

Amanda Heng, "Let's Chat", 1996.

Roslisham Ismail (Ise), "Langkasuka Cooking Project", 2012.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A)", 1991.

Yoko Ono, "Cut Piece", 1964.

Marina Abramović, "Rhythm 0", 1974.

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Can cooking and eating dinner be art? How about sliding down a helter-skelter in the middle of a museum? Or building and managing a store, painting a river, talking to strangers, producing soda in a cooperative, and promoting historical reenactments?

According to Relational Aesthetics, yes, all of these things can be art! Relational aesthetics is the art that, in the age of technological speed and virtual communications, turned its focus toward human connection. It's the art of collaboration, contact, and person-to-person bonding. It is something that blurs the lines between art and social exchanges, between institutions and public space.

The Birth of Relational Aesthetics

In 1992, people went to the 303 Gallery in NYC to see the work of Argentinian-Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. There were no canvases on the walls, no sculptures across the floor, no informational collages. Rather, Tiravanija took hold of a room in the gallery to cook a pad thai dinner for his audience.

This dinner was, in fact, the actual artwork. Not the food itself, but the entire event and the gathering. The conversations between those present, the experience of sharing food, and the interactions that took place there-all of this was a part of the work.

At the time, artworks like this one were often overlooked by critics, dismissed as unclassifiable or messy, and constantly compared to the avant-garde movements of the 1960s. Art critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud was the first to make a serious attempt to understand them. For Bourriaud, the art that was gathering momentum in the 1990s couldn't be properly analyzed through comparison with preceding movements. It demanded a new theoretical paradigm. Identifying the trend of interactivity, de-materiality, and a growing interest in human and social relations, Bourriaud coined the term relational aesthetics.

The term was used for the first time in the 1996 collective art exhibit Traffic at the CAPC Contemporary Museum in Bordeaux. As the curator, Bourriaud came up with the concept of relational aesthetics while discussing the exhibit with his featured artists, which included Rikrit Tiravanija, Vanessa Beecroft, Pierre Huyghe, Carsten Höller, Jorge Pardo, Gabriel Orozco, Liam Gillick, Christine Hill, and other key artists in relational art.

In 1998, Bourriaud published his book Relational Aesthetics, which became something of a best-seller in the art world, and birthed its own subsequent industry of commentary and critique. Comprised of a collection of essays on the art of the decade, the book classified relational art as an art taking as its theoretical horizon the realm of human interactions and its social context, rather than the assertion of an independent and private symbolic space.

The Genealogy of Relational Aesthetics

The theory of relational aesthetics builds upon a number of radical art practices that rose to prominence in the mid-20th century. Though relational artists' objectives and sensibilities are different than the movements of the 1960s and 1970s, they nevertheless build upon the innovations of several of those groundbreaking artistic groups.

Allan Kaprow's Happenings

In the mid-1950s, artist Allan Kaprow coined the term Happening to denote an art event that featured something spontaneous, something that just happens to happen. Kaprow's happenings were actually well-planned and extremely participative. The term soon caught on as a way to refer to practices and performances of art.

The Situationist International

The Situationist International was an intellectual, artistic, and revolutionary group that operated from 1957 to 1972. The artists in the Situationist International sought to construct situations or events in which people would come into direct contact with each other and the space around them, disrupting the rules of the art market and the very basis of the capitalist bourgeois society of the spectacle.

The situationists created and promoted practices like the dérive (the action of walking aimlessly and getting lost in the city), psychogeography (the study of the relationships between people and the geographical space they inhabit), and détournement (the act of appropriating and subverting advertisements and other means of consumerist propaganda).

Fluxus

Fluxus was an international, multidisciplinary art movement active in the 1960s and 70s. Operating often through humorous, playful subversiveness, Fluxus declared itself a non-movement, producing anti-art. The artists worked in expressed opposition to the object of art as a commodity. Experimental music, performances, and happenings of Fluxus aimed to collapse the boundaries between art and day-to-day life, at times including audience participation.

Hélio Oiticica's Interactives

Gordon Matta-Clark's FOOD

In 1971, American artist Gordon Matta-Clark opened FOOD, a restaurant in Soho, NYC. At once an art project and a service-providing business, FOOD employed artists as staff and experimented with socially engaged food art, collapsing the boundaries between cuisine, performance art, and day-to-day life.

The 1990s and the Relational Form

Following the end of the Cold War, the 1990s experienced a rapid advance of globalization and unrestrained consumerism. It was the decade of the digital technological boom, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Communication became digitalized and instantaneous.

The arrival of virtual space connected different sides of the world, but it also allowed for multiple areas of human relations to be turned into products and areas for consumption. It's on the heels of these developments that relational art came into being. Relational works sought to distill social experiences into art, creating direct bonds with the world and turning its attention to human connections at a time when they became increasingly commodified.

Key Relational Artworks

Like many contemporary art movements that aren't quite movements, relational aesthetics doesn't have a set of strict rules or boundaries. A few examples of important relational work include everything from interactive installations, participatory sculptures, street interviews, urban interventions, and happenings.

There are also sculptures of Felix Gonzalez-Torres like Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A) (1991) which consists of a pile of candy representing the artist's boyfriend Ross Laycock. The candy pile has an ideal weight of 175 lbs, the weight Laycock had before contracting AIDS. The work encourages the public to not only touch the artwork but to eat it. As the public takes the candy for themselves, the work dwindles, referring to the illness.

Christine Hill's Volksboutique is a project started in 1993 that's still ongoing. It takes the form of several shops set up by the artist, where she sells a number of products, reinstating the human element to commercial transactions. Jans Haaning's Turkish Jokes (1994) featured a performance where the artist played recorded Turkish jokes on the streets of Oslo, confusing and excluding Norwegians who didn't know Turkish while connecting Norwegians and immigrants who did.

In Jeremy Daller's Battle of Orgraeve (2001) the artist set up a reenactment of a historical conflict between police and workers on strike, involving people who were there for the actual event. Daller later exhibited a recording of the reenactment and historical records of the actual conflict in installations blurring the boundaries between fiction and recorded history.

Carsten Höller on the other hand makes installation of giant slides in regular buildings. The artist has worked with slides several times, from the Valerio slides at the 1998 Berlin Biennale to the massive Test Site slides at Tate Modern in 2006. The toy prompts people, especially adults, to engage in play.

After Relational Aesthetics

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Relational Aesthetics is an artistic tendency that makes human connections the central subject of art.

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Jean Baudrillard's concept of simulacra refers to copies of reality that are no longer based on any original referent. In other words, a simulacrum is a representation that has lost its connection to the reality it was meant to represent, instead, they create their own reality, which may bear little or no relation to the world we inhabit. The artwork is based on some original sign, but has little or nothing to do with the work that results. The simulacrum becomes more important than the original, rendering the original irrelevant. The concept is embodied in photorealism, trompe-l'œil, pop art, Italian neorealism, and the French New Wave.

Some artworks may engage with this concept when they simulate the stylistics of dominant institutes of knowledge, while re-writing histories or providing alternative narratives to challenge (or even supplant) existing narratives.

Some key texts:

Jean Baudrillard, "Simulacra and Simulation", 1981.

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

Ming Wong, "Four Malay Stories", 2005.

Li Ran, "Beyond Geography", 2012.

Ho Tzu Nyen, "Utama – Every Name in History is I", 2003, "CDOSEA (The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia)", 2017-

Wong Hoy Cheong, "Re:Looking", 2002 – 2003.

Debbie Ding, "Wikicliki", 2008 -

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We are raised with a notion - whatever you do, you cannot reinvent the wheel. Yet, the production of the wheel has evolved from wood to rubber, and from basic rubber to ultra-advanced and expensive high-class rubber. Occupying the world of hyperrealities and simulations is becoming more and more complex for creators. Using texts by Walter Benjamin, and, of course, Jean Baudrillard, as well as various examples from contemporary and postmodern art, I shall argue that contemporary visual cultures are acting as a simulation of what has been produced and created previously.

First of all, it is important to begin with an accurate description and analysis of such complex terms as "hyperreality" and "simulation and simulacra".

The concept of "hyperreality" has been used by various postmodern philosophers and writers. For instance, Gilles Deleuze once wrote that all human beings are created as simulations - since God created mankind in his own image. The notion of hyperreality was first introduced by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard in his book Simulacra and Simulation. He defines the notion right in the beginning of the book:

Therefore, hyperreality is a repetition of a reality in which the actual, original reality is often lost and forgotten. In his writing, Baudrillard often compares postmodernity to hyperreality, stating that there are not many differences between the two conditions. The philosopher repeats that hyperreality is not the unreal; it presents a virtual reality which continues copying itself to infinity.

Baudrillard argues that whilst reality is responsible for production and growth, hyperreality is only able to simulate. He writes:

"Representation starts from the principle that the sign and the real are equivalent (even if this equivalence is Utopian, it is a fundamental axiom). Conversely, simulation starts from the Utopia of this principle of equivalence, from the radical negation of the sign as value, from the sign as reversion and death sentence of every reference."

Baudrillard continues with this idea by listing four possible conditions that a simulated image can occupy:

-it is the reflection of a basic reality;

-it masks and perverts a basic reality;

-it masks the absence of a basic reality;

Baudrillard offers the reader a famous example using Disneyland.

In this passage, Baudrillard states that in order to perceive something as real, one must compare it to something fake, or second-hand real. He underlines that the main quality and forte of simulacra is that they are capable of masking reality, which leads to the dominance of the simulacra over the real. This, essentially, is how hyperreality exceeds reality - by adopting the most obvious attributes of the real, it becomes a splendid and indistinguishable camouflage.

Not only does hyperreality influence production, but it also plays a major part in quotidian lives and means of communication. Real, in-flesh relationships are easily substituted by virtual correspondence. Real-life interviews are easily transferable to Skype, and romantic conversations are surely replaced by text messages and Tinder.

The invention of photography was, in some way, the beginning of a transition between modernism and hyperreality. Walter Benjamin in his arguably most important essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility", writes:

"With the advent of the first truly revolutionary means of reproduction, photography, simultaneously with the rise of socialism, art sensed the approaching crisis which has become evident a century later. At the time, art reacted with the doctrine of l'art pour l'art, that is, with a theology of art. This gave rise to what might be called a negative theology in the form of the idea of 'pure' art, which not only denied any social function of art but also any categorizing by subject matter."

Benjamin writes about the foredooming crisis, unknowingly predicting the prospective crisis that the spectators have only begun to sense now, in 2016. On the same page of the essay, Benjamin states that with the invention of photography, the production of art becomes a mechanical process in which, from a single photographic negative, one can develop a variety of prints. Not only does photography counterfeit the originality of the subject, but it also gives space for the fabrication of hoaxes - which, indeed, is one of the most important and appalling consequences of hyperreality.
EDITIONS

Another important aspect of the devaluation of the art market as a consequence of hyperreality is the introduction of editions. There is nothing new in the tradition of creating an artwork with various editions; however, contemporary effortless technological attributes truly reduce the significance of the original.

In 2011, Harry Blain, founder of Blain | Southern gallery, together with Robert Norton, former CEO of Saatchi Online, launched the online platform Sedition Art. This platform provides its customers the services of buying, selling, or reselling editions of digital artworks. For instance, shortly before Mother's Day, Sedition put up for sale a copy of Tracey Emin's digital installation This Is My Favourite Little Bird, for the price of £57, as a gift option for the upcoming internationally-celebrated day. Buyers were able to purchase a single edition - from 5,000 in total. Sedition is famous for selling digital works of art produced by such artist as Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono, and the above-mentioned Tracey Emin - all of whom are undoubtedly giants of the contemporary art scene. The initial idea, indeed, is brilliant and very generous - most anyone with a middle-class income is given the opportunity to purchase a work of art created by one of the most famous artists in the world, and at a very affordable price. Yet, when all is said and done, by selling 5,000 editions of Tracey Emin's This Is My Favourite Little Bird, Harry Blaine will have earned £285,000, which is the average price for two or three of Emin's neon installations, of which there is usually just one unique edition of each.
OBJET TROUVÉ
Digitally-produced editions are nothing but a killjoy for canonical aesthetes of art - even though the most traditional artists, including Bernini, Chagall and Degas, produced various editions of their work. It is different today, though - banal mechanical reproduction of art does not require specific skills, techniques or artistic vision. It shadows and masks the original work, and, in fact, often leaves the original unknown - which, as we learned before, is the main signifier of simulacra.

Objet trouvé, or Found Objects, is an art technique which emerged in the early 20 th century; it described works of art which were created out of objects which are not normally used in art - in other words, mass-produced products. The technique was used by several collage artists, including Pablo Picasso and Kurt Schwitters. In 1913, Marcel Duchamp created Bicycle Wheel, referring to it as a "readymade". In 1917, he created Fountain, arguably his most famous work. Fountain is made out of a mass-produced urinal which the artist placed on a pedestal.

I want to argue that Found Objects, unlike editions, often broaden the meanings and possibilities of an artwork. To enhance the argument, I shall use three examples - Damien Hirst's Let's Eat Outdoors Today (1990-1991), Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Untitled (Perfect Lovers) (1991) and Ai Weiwei's Straight (2008-2012).
Let's Eat Outdoors Today

Let's Eat Outdoors Today may not be Hirst's most famous work, but it is created in his highly recognizable style. The artist puts a countryside-like barbeque set-up into a glass container that has been split into two equal parts. One half is occupied by a barbeque with raw meat on it; the second half is occupied by an outdoor table with half-finished beverage bottles and half-empty plates on it, a plate full of roast chicken, as well as bottles of condiments, salt, pepper, and used napkins. Hirst places a cow's head underneath the table, and an electric Insect-O-Cutor [an electric fly killer] above it. The surfaces of the barbeque set-up, as well as the table, are covered with dead flies and maggots. In an interview for The Telegraph, Hirst said:

Hirst is using found objects in order to underline and emphasise human apathy and lack of motivation. By presenting an abandoned barbeque scene, Hirst is also focusing on the idea of compulsive cleaning. He argues that humans are dogmatically concentrating on avoiding dirt, but forget that dirt will always eventually find and surround them.
Untitled (Perfect Lovers)

Felix Gonzalez-Torres is an artist who often uses found objects in his art installations. Untitled (Perfect Lovers) (1991) is an installation that consists of two clocks which are fully synchronized and always show the same time. Yet, one of the two clocks will eventually stop before the other. Gonzalez-Torres produced this work of art when he was in a relationship with Ross Laycock, who was a huge inspiration for many of Gonzalez-Torres's works. When the artist created Untitled (Perfect Lovers), Laycock was already terminally ill. In this work, the artist is showing his fears and anxieties concerning time, as time is the most violent and uncontrollable weapon. By using an object that can be easily found in any household, Gonzalez-Torres is framing an allegory of restlessness.

In creating a parable of time that simulates and repeats the tradition of tracking time, Gonzalez-Torres is depicting his personal attitude towards lastingness. Use of a habitual object aids the artist in building a parallel between the laws of the Universe and his own subjective life and trauma, which potentially is projected towards the spectator, too.
Straight

In 2008, the Chinese province of Sichuan suffered an unbelievably strong earthquake. Following the tragedy, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei took action - he began speaking out about abuses of human rights and the rottenness of the Chinese government, as well as started an investigation leading to the uncovering of the truth about the actual number of casualties of the earthquake. These activities lead to him being arrested for 81 days, and to the confiscation of his passport up until Autumn 2015.

Straight is an installation that consists of over 150 tons of steel reinforcing bars that Ai recovered from sites that were severely damaged and destroyed by the earthquake. Ai and his assistants brought the bars back to artist's studio, where they then spent years straightening them in order to bring them back to their initial condition. After straightening the bars, the artist arranged them into piles, thereby recreating some sort of a landscape. By giving every bar his utmost attention, Ai managed to achieve two things - firstly, he collected and preserved the physical memories of a horrible disaster in order to create a memorial, almost a bed of honor for the victims of the earthquake. Secondly, Ai performed a symbolic act of atonement.

By using the actual materials that were involved and damaged in the earthquake, Ai underlines the importance of, in the most literal sense, found objects. The artist repeats the use of bars in order to create a different lieux de memoire - a site of memory. Ai transfers materials, which once formed a house, into the gallery space, thereby reinforcing the importance of remembering.

In Latin, simulo means to imitate. In his artwork Straight, Ai imitates earthquake waves, the uneven Sichuan landscape, and housing construction - all in order to show the secrecy and inhumanity of the Chinese government.

The three examples mentioned above do not fully reject the original objects, yet they still occupy two important phases of a simulated image: each of the artworks is a reflection of a basic reality; and each of them masks and perverts a basic reality. Hirst, Gonzalez-Torres and Ai have all applied a level of their personal interpretation and connotation on top of the original purposes and functions of the objects that they chose to use.

Lastly, I want to focus on a different aspect of hyperreality - the adaptation of a stolen or borrowed image. This section is inspired by the forthcoming exhibition "Thomas Demand: L'image volée", which will be demonstrated at Fondazione Prada in Milan. The exhibition will take a look at the history of intellectual art theft and the tradition of borrowing. I wish to highlight a work of art that will be featured at the exhibition - Sophie Calle's The Hotel (1981), as well as another work of art that depicts a complex relationship between an original image and the artist's usage of the image - Josh Azzarella's Untitled #13 (AHSF) (2006).
The Hotel

In order to produce the photographic series titled The Hotel, Sophie Calle spent a lot of time researching possible locations, writing texts, and actually taking photographs. In 1979, after being away from home for seven years, the artist returned to Paris. She felt lonely and unwanted, so she turned her attention to strangers. An obsession with the lives of people unknown to her lead Calle to take a trip to Venice where, in order to complete her project, she chose to work as a maid in a hotel. She spent her days investigating the lives of strangers - the artist researched their daily routines and habits, as well as inspected their personal possessions - Calle took numerous photographs of opened suitcases, bathroom accessories, and the wardrobes of people who stayed at the hotel.
Untitled #13 (AHSF)

After taking the photographs, Calle often wrote a little commentary for each of them, describing her sentiments regarding the objects that she managed to find whilst looking through the personal possessions of the hotel's guests. Not only did the artist hijack ones personal belongings, but she also used them for her project. The morality of Calle's art project is really dubious, but the effect is definitely astonishing. Calle exhibited an associative link between hotel guests and the ordinariness of their valuables. In Baudrillard's vocabulary, Calle used a basic reality to narrate similar, yet individual, stories of the people whom she had met in Venice.

The artwork Untitled #13 (AHSF), by Josh Azzarella, is one of the digital prints that the artist produced as a response to the terrifying images from Abu Ghraib.

Abu Ghraib was a prison complex located in Iraq, close to Baghdad. It was built in 1950, and has been famously used by US-led coalitions. In January 2004, the Army Criminal Investigation Division reported shocking details of abuse and torture of Abu Ghraib prisoners by American troops - US soldiers had raped, stoned and mocked prisoners, without forgetting to take photographs of their horrific acts of torture. One of the most famous images shows an Abu Ghraib prisoner standing still on a narrow wooden box, with electric wires attached to his arms and genitalia. If the prisoner made any movement, he was immediately subjected to electric shocks.

In his artworks, Azzarella uses the images from Abu Ghraib, but alters them by removing the figures of the tortured prisoners. In this particular work, the artist removes the hooded figure so that all that is left in the image is a wooden box and the American torturer. Azzarella is questioning the importance of the absence of part of the image. By altering the original photograph, Azzarella is creating a separate political level. Firstly, he is questioning the memory of the spectator - the original images are extremely graphic and are difficult to forget. Secondly, he is questioning the importance of rancor - whether it is more important to remember the victim or the perpetrator. Finally, Azzarella is investing the importance of an empty space - this could only be compared to an eerie New York panorama without the Twin Towers.

The previous two examples are works of art based on borrowed histories, memories, and physical objects. They represent the artist's desire to create new meanings and to construct new memories out of stories that belong to someone else.

To conclude, I could ponder whether the use of simulated, hyperreal images is good or bad, or whether it adds or reduces creativity and vision within visual cultures. But then, my argument would, as well, be dominated, predicted and eventually surrogated by the literature and visual material I have adopted. In lieu of this, I want to offer to the reader the following quote by Jean Baudrillard:

My only hope is that the absence of a basic reality creates space for greater meaning and achievements.

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The Tate has an extensive list (above) of different art practices and corresponding examples to kickstart your research into them. However, this list is primarily Western-centric and does not include Asian art cultures.

Different forms of art:

Traditional (Painting, photography, sculpture, architecture, drawing, etc.)

Performance

Readymade (collage, found items)

Conceptual

Research-based art

Arte povera

Formalist

Land art

Participative or instructional art

New media (augmented or virtual reality)

Audio-visual (sound, video)

Folk art/handicrafts

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Land art or earth art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting the land itself into earthworks or making structures in the landscape using natural materials such as rocks or twigs

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The Case for Performance Art | The Art Assignment 

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Art always has to have an audience for it to have meaning - it could be patrons in a gallery or an audience in a public performance. Specifically, performance art involves a live element and viewership of an audience. It directly communicates between the spectator and spectacle, and the artist is able to reach an audience directly rather than through coded forms of text, image, etc. Additionally, many artists used the immediacy of their bodies as protest against gendered discrimination and oppression.

Instructional or participatory performance art further engages the audience, no longer passive spectators, but activating and taking part in the meaning-making. For example, Marina Abramović's "Rhythm 0", 1974, invited the audience to do whatever they wanted with her body and the 72 objects she had placed on a table. Abramović assumed the role of the medium or artwork, and the audience, the role of the artist.

As such, when looking at performance art, consider how the involvement of the audience creates meaning: What kind of people are in the audience? What bodies are being highlighted? What is the audience being made to do?

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The Case for Performance Art | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios

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The artworks we see nowadays are typically within art institutions: museums, galleries, exhibitions. However, location-specific art, for example: public performance or land art, necessarily exists outside of these spaces. Art in public spaces can be used to reach the layman outside of elite art institutions, to democratise art and make art accessible to the public.

Public space is also political space. When a work of public art is put up or taken down, it is an inherently political statement, and the work’s aesthetics are inextricably entwined with its political message.

As such, when looking at art that is located outside galleries, consider the context of the space it is in, and the audiences in the space. What is the socio-cultural significance of the space? Who has access to this work? Why is this work allowed to be put up in public?

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This resource provides a summative overview of style guides. Students and instructors will find this resource particularly useful for understanding what a style guide is, why and how style guides are used, and suggestions for exploring style guides across the disciplines.

What is a style guide? Why & how do we use them?

Most people know style guides as rules for citation formatting. Common and popular style guides include MLA and APA, both of which the OWL maintains extensive resources on, but there are many more that the OWL does not cover in depth or at all.

Style guides, however, are not just for citation. They include a wide range of rules and guidelines for works in their respective fields, from grammar and language use to the font and size of headings in a work. Generally style manuals include everything a writer needs to know in order to make their work look and read just like every other work written in that style - the look of the page, the way other authors are referenced in the body of the work, and even the tone of the writing. In the corporate sphere, "style guide" is often synonymous with "branding guide," and in a way academic style guides can be thought of similarly. APA style brands papers with specific guidelines in the same way Apple's style guide brands their websites, advertisements, products, documentation, and even stores: you know an APA paper when you see one, just like you know an Apple device when you see one.

In other words, style guides are used as a way of making common elements consistent across documents written by many writers, in many places, and in many circumstances; as a result, readers from any university (or other audience groups) can read a paper written in APA style and know immediately how to navigate the headings of the paper, which details will be listed in the abstract, how quotes will be introduced and marked, where to look for important citation information, and what each citation element represents.

There are a great deal of style guides, both in academia and in industry; the OWL has resources on some of the more common ones, but not every style. Some general style guide examples include:
Your discipline may have its own style guide not represented here; if you're not sure, take a moment to look it up!
Now that I know what a style guide is - what's next?

Often writers (especially academic writers) need to adapt to new style conventions in specific situations (a journal's house style, a university's specific thesis & dissertation formatting requirements, etc.). If you find yourself needing to learn a new style guide, there are a few key strategies you can employ.
Find out what style you need to be using.

Sometimes this information may be unclear; sometimes journal submission guidelines lack clarity, for instance. Compare what you do know about the style with resources such as style manuals in your library or the OWL's style resources to find a match; or, you can ask a point of contact like an advisor or a journal editor what is expected for your specific context. This is often made easier by knowing which style guides are common in your discipline (because these are often the best place to start looking).

Some journals or other publishing venues use specific in-house styles. These are usually indicated with a set of rules on the journal's website or in a downloadable PDF - you can look for pages such as "Author Guidelines," "Instructions for Authors," "Submission Guidelines," etc. In some cases, in-house style will be just a few modifications on a more widely-used style guide, like requiring APA 7 th edition but asking authors to list full names for sources cited in-text rather than just the last name. These are usually indicated in the same way as in-house styles above.
Find a copy of the style guide in your library or online and read the manual.

The OWL has several resources, and many style guides are available in part or in full on the relevant association's website. You don't need to read manuals cover-to-cover since most of the material is for reference, but style guides usually have a great deal of information that will help you write your paper or manuscript. For instance:

The Chicago Manual of Style's entire first section, almost 200 pages, describes in detail the scholarly process undertaken by researchers using Chicago style, including expectations for navigating copyright law as an author and for what elements authors need to include in their manuscripts (and how those elements are written).

The MLA Handbook includes a substantial section on how to write a research paper or scholarly work in an MLA field, especially useful for beginning scholars or international scholars writing for an American academic context.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association includes sections like those mentioned above in addition to guidelines for writing about research with Indigenous populations, rules for nondiscriminatory language, and more.

At the very least, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the manual's table of contents, general structure, and any special systems that style guides uses (MLA 8's container style is specially designed for research with non-traditional and digital sources, for example).
Look at examples of texts in your discipline and in journals you would like to publish in.
Most fields use one or two style guides only, so another way to familiarize yourself with the style outside the context of a reference manual is to look at already-published papers and attend to common elements you notice in formatting, but also tone, vocabulary, and headings, among other elements. Following disciplinary conventions or, more specifically, an academic journal's conventions will help your writing fit into readers' expectations, and will usually also mean you're following style guidelines too.

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This resource provides a summative overview of style guides. Students and instructors will find this resource particularly useful for understanding what a style guide is, why and how style guides are used, and suggestions for exploring style guides across the disciplines. Most people know style guides as rules for citation formatting.

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7.5 JSTOR & ARTSTOR - Academic Journals and Artwork Databases

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7.5 JSTOR & ARTSTOR - Academic Journals and Artwork Databases

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JSTOR is an online resource of academic journals, books, and primary sources. You may find relevant texts as well as essays people have written in response to theories, texts, artworks, etc.

ARTSTOR is an online resource of more than 2.5 million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences, and as of 2024 is being centralised on the JSTOR site. You can find many high-resolution images of artworks in this database with accurate attributions, dates, and dimensions.

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Search and browse millions of images on JSTOR, including Artstor's diverse collections.

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Given many art criticism and art history resources online center Western perspectives, listed are some Asian art resources:

Online resources:

National Gallery's Free Resources and Publications

https://www.nationalgallery.sg/freeresources/

Asian Art Archive

https://aaa.org.hk/en

Includes archival materials and documentation, as well as art essays

The Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Database

A comprehensive and rich data source on the artistic practices of artists and collectives from the South, Southeast Asian and Pacific Regions.

https://climateshabitatsenvironments.art/

CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art

https://epa.culturalcenter.gov.ph/encyclopedia/

Digital Archive of Indonesian Contemporary Art

https://archive.ivaa-online.org/

On-site resources:

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art's Public Resource Centre

https://ntu.ccasingapore.org/public-resource-centre/

A library with many physical art collaterals and publications

National Gallery's Rotunda Library & Archive Collection

https://www.nationalgallery.sg/discover-learn/rotunda-library-archive

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An independent non-profit that documents the multiple recent histories of art in Asia, with a valuable collection about art available from its website and onsite library.

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In this section, you will find 7 sections with curated resources on Art Criticism:

1. Introduction to Art Criticism

2. How do we critically engage with Art?

3. On writing Art Criticism

4. Comparing Literary works and Artworks

5. Western Art Movements, Genres, & Periods

6. Art Theories and Approaches

7. Digital Resources and Additional Readings