This blog came out of a seminar class I taught originally called Cultural Artifacts and later called Art & Culture. My goal here is to provide resources on books, films, documentaries, and plays that analyze art in a very specific way (see below) so that you can think more about art, think about art in a deeper way, and eventually grow.
The Art & Culture blog is a repository for short pieces that help with the analysis and discussion of non-fiction books, novels & plays, feature films, and documentaries, all in 500 words or less.
Culture is the interaction of three elements of a particular place and time: ideas, artifacts, and institutions.
Art is situated under the umbrella of culture and can be thought of as items or performances skillfully and intentionally created by humans that follow conventions and engage in imitation, expression, revelation, or provocation.
Works of art, whether they be a ballet recital, song, novel, sculpture, or television show, can best be understood when considering four elements: the Artist, Artifact, Arena, and Audience.
Artist: LIFE and MOTIVES. The creator of the piece of art, the artist, has life experiences and motivations that influence the artwork.
Artifact: MEDIUM and CRAFT. The piece of art itself has content (the plot, the characters). It also follows conventions within a particular field. Painters follow general rules of painting; songwriters compose with an understanding of harmony, rhythm, and melody.
Arena: CONTEXT and SETTING. If Artist zooms in on the life of the creator and Artifact zooms in on the specifics of the work itself, then Arena is a bird’s-eye view. This happens in two ways. First, consider the setting (time and place) of the events within the artwork itself (if a novel, film, show, etc.). Second, consider the context in which the work was created. A piece crafted in ancient Greece deserves different considerations than something done in 1980s England. Look also at the work’s impact on the surrounding culture, or, how the work was or wasn’t received.
Audience: REACTION and INTERPRETATION. Lastly, there is you. You as the reader have a degree of power over and because of a piece of art. You interpret and ultimately are in charge of recognizing an artist’s intention or meaning. Notice that I didn’t say that you determine meaning. Our job as viewers is to discover the artist’s intended meaning and then apply it to our lives. You can react and interpret in countless ways because you have different desires, predispositions, and social considerations.\
The order of these is key. Notice that the Artist comes first and the Audience last. One must listen before speaking, or, phrased another way, we must practice exegesis before eisegesis.
What you’ll see below is a quote from the master’s thesis I wrote at UVA called “The Prophetic Principle: Biblically Affirmed Nude Art.” You can read the whole thing here. This is an example of putting Artist, Artifact, and Arena into action and relating them to a painting:
"Take Picasso’s Guernica for example [at top]. Briefly and simply, consider the three criteria of artist, artifact, and arena. Picasso read in a newspaper that the village of Guernica had been bombed in northern Spain, his homeland. He soon undertook to paint a massive work, roughly 10’x25’, to express his disgust with the death and destruction of his countrymen. The subject matter in the painting concerns individuals who are dead, mourning, or attempting to escape fires. Interestingly, without the painting’s title, one might never directly associate the painting with the tragedy in Guernica, Spain. Historically, this work was done before the start of the Second World War, as Hitler was continuing to gain power, as European fascism snowballed. This painting protests this specific tragedy inflicted on the citizens of Guernica but has since become an international protest symbol against war’s collateral damage."
The last step is your reaction, your thoughts to the painting. You have a unique filter through which you view life, a filter that is different than everyone else’s, yet has commonalities that are worth recognizing as well.
Please feel free to use and enjoy these Discussion Guides. Click above on either Posts! or Archives!
-Sam
The Art & Culture blog is a repository for short pieces that help with the analysis and discussion of non-fiction books, novels & plays, feature films, and documentaries, all in 500 words or less.
Culture is the interaction of three elements of a particular place and time: ideas, artifacts, and institutions.
Art is situated under the umbrella of culture and can be thought of as items or performances skillfully and intentionally created by humans that follow conventions and engage in imitation, expression, revelation, or provocation.
Works of art, whether they be a ballet recital, song, novel, sculpture, or television show, can best be understood when considering four elements: the Artist, Artifact, Arena, and Audience.
Artist: LIFE and MOTIVES. The creator of the piece of art, the artist, has life experiences and motivations that influence the artwork.
Artifact: MEDIUM and CRAFT. The piece of art itself has content (the plot, the characters). It also follows conventions within a particular field. Painters follow general rules of painting; songwriters compose with an understanding of harmony, rhythm, and melody.
Arena: CONTEXT and SETTING. If Artist zooms in on the life of the creator and Artifact zooms in on the specifics of the work itself, then Arena is a bird’s-eye view. This happens in two ways. First, consider the setting (time and place) of the events within the artwork itself (if a novel, film, show, etc.). Second, consider the context in which the work was created. A piece crafted in ancient Greece deserves different considerations than something done in 1980s England. Look also at the work’s impact on the surrounding culture, or, how the work was or wasn’t received.
Audience: REACTION and INTERPRETATION. Lastly, there is you. You as the reader have a degree of power over and because of a piece of art. You interpret and ultimately are in charge of recognizing an artist’s intention or meaning. Notice that I didn’t say that you determine meaning. Our job as viewers is to discover the artist’s intended meaning and then apply it to our lives. You can react and interpret in countless ways because you have different desires, predispositions, and social considerations.\
The order of these is key. Notice that the Artist comes first and the Audience last. One must listen before speaking, or, phrased another way, we must practice exegesis before eisegesis.
What you’ll see below is a quote from the master’s thesis I wrote at UVA called “The Prophetic Principle: Biblically Affirmed Nude Art.” You can read the whole thing here. This is an example of putting Artist, Artifact, and Arena into action and relating them to a painting:
"Take Picasso’s Guernica for example [at top]. Briefly and simply, consider the three criteria of artist, artifact, and arena. Picasso read in a newspaper that the village of Guernica had been bombed in northern Spain, his homeland. He soon undertook to paint a massive work, roughly 10’x25’, to express his disgust with the death and destruction of his countrymen. The subject matter in the painting concerns individuals who are dead, mourning, or attempting to escape fires. Interestingly, without the painting’s title, one might never directly associate the painting with the tragedy in Guernica, Spain. Historically, this work was done before the start of the Second World War, as Hitler was continuing to gain power, as European fascism snowballed. This painting protests this specific tragedy inflicted on the citizens of Guernica but has since become an international protest symbol against war’s collateral damage."
The last step is your reaction, your thoughts to the painting. You have a unique filter through which you view life, a filter that is different than everyone else’s, yet has commonalities that are worth recognizing as well.
Please feel free to use and enjoy these Discussion Guides. Click above on either Posts! or Archives!
-Sam