Art History - Essay Example

Three different and distinct functions of art have been chosen to show that each culture and or society uses this theme as a means of communication. Three chapters will be studied (7,10 and 12). It is important to bring up that in discussing society, mortality, social protest, and affirmation, many of the same pieces of artwork are represented.

Chapter 7: FOOD AND SHELTER

Art is used to reflecting customs related to shelter. According to Louis Sullivan, "form follows function."  The Interior of Markets of Trajan, CE 100-112 Rome page 161 is a perfect example of the construction of the use of individual inside markets. This construction is often used in bazaars in some of the Arab markets today.

Pei and Partners. The Bank of China, 1989 was constructed as a beautiful architectural masterpiece with geometrical perfection of the mathematical design of each piece of glass. This was the precursor of his constructing the pyramids of the Louvre.

Architecture in the commercial world has been transformed into art in itself. The design of Pei, the US Pavillon of Budminister Fuller, and the beautiful buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright are just a small indication of how architecture has changed since the early 1950s. Art is to be beautiful to the eye visible at 180° and promote social cohesion.

Chapter 10: MORTALITY AND IMMORTALITY

The man was deified and made immortal through art. 3000 BCE were the Pyramids in Egypt or the Chichen Itza in Mexico. Because of many social changes including the overcrowding of cities, graveyards became the responsibility of civil authorities. This can be seen in the Romanticism era with Père Lachaise in 1804. (p265). As more controls were established ornaments were allowed on gravestones. In some graveyards, stones were discontinued altogether as in Memorial Lawn outside of Los Angeles.

It is significant to bring up the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square (p 266) for the architecture of the building and for the statue outside. A similar edifice can be seen in North Korea and in Moscow.

There are two photos in this section that the writer feels should go in Chapter 12.

Chapter 12: SOCIAL PROTEST AND AFFIRMATION

The following two photos were in the last chapter for the number of people who have died. It is important to look at the date of publication of this book and the six years that have passed and the importance of social affirmation. "Modern commemorative art serves a psychological need of loss" and of closure. The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a commemorative work that promotes cohesion.

Other commemorative works in Chapter 11 are: USA MARINE CORPS WAR (p 297) and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, (p 1982) No other time in history have people been able to congregate in masses to mourn their losses.

The most significant piece of architecture today is the computer-designed Liberty Tower or 7TC. The land has been broken and it is scheduled to be finished in 2013. This site represents a corporate structure built will a shape that has never been used before and has no national or cultural significance. It will be used as a memorial for the thousands who have died and who have died in the war. Building one of the highest buildings in the world, it will be a social protest and a social affirmation that terrorism can be won. The context might be considered subjective to those who were not part of September 11, 2001. Context, therefore, is depended on the person's culture. An American reading this report will not have the same perspective as someone from an Eastern culture.