Visual Arts, Design, and Architecture - Essay Example

First half of the 20th century visual arts, design, and architecture, and its impact to society and the worldIntroduction Numerous revised dictionaries define the arts as imaginative, creative, and nonscientific branches of knowledge considered collectively (Wikipedians, NP: 15). On the hand, the singular term ‘art’ is defined as art produced when an artist creates an appealing object, or delivers an exciting experience that the audiences consider to have an artistic merit. Hence, art has a general definition that is a process, which leads to production of an artwork. This artwork is later analyzed and examined by experts or relevant to those who appreciate it. Arts are limitless subdivision of culture that consists of numerous art forms. These art forms that unite through employment of human creative impulse (Wikipedians, NP: 15). This means that art implies to a diverse range of disciplines than the perceived art, which according to modern terms, is usually referred to as visual arts. Most people confused art and visual arts while the fact is that art refers to visual arts, and that visual art is not among the disciplines of art but rather it is a common term of arts. Art is a global activity that comprises of a host of disciplines that include Liberal Arts, Fine Arts, Decorative Arts, Design, Crafts, Performing Arts, and many others (Wikipedians, NP:15). The other major field of the arts is the literary arts commonly referred to as literature. Literature includes poetry, short stories, novels and other numerous forms. The other literary art are the performing arts that comprise of dance, music, magic, film and theatre. This paper will outline how different form of arts in the middle of the 20th century and how their evolvement transformed the society and changed the world. Evolution of art During the 20th century, industrialization tremendously matured into global industrial capitalism, which eventually spurred the rise of consumer economics (Gardner et al, 2006:687). These developments brought forth great promises and significant problems to the society and the world in general. Change brought excitement and anxiety because people experienced the outcomes of change that were spurring in the society. Events like the Great Depression, World War I, the rise of totalitarianism, and World War II exaggerated this schizophrenic attitude. Artists were not exceptional in the evolution because many of them changed not only their personality but also their artistic perspectives. Some of these artists responded with energy and optimism while others responded with bleak despair. More so, the world’s evolution influenced artistic developments, especially to the artists working within the crucible of historical turmoil (Gardner et al, 2006:687). This was because it was challenging them to contend with shifting institutional structures in the world of art. Wide-held belief in the first half of the twentieth century that the visual arts, design and architecture could transform society and produce a better world As stated before, evolution changed the perception of many artists who began viewing their art works in a different angle. These artists started inventing g possible means of improving their artwork in order to transform the society by producing artworks that befitted that period of the century. These artworks included architecture, paintings, drawings, pictures, music and many others. Architecture Architecture refers to the science and art of designing buildings and structures. However, in modern usage, the definition of architecture is art and discipline of creating actual, implied or apparent plan of any complex object. Since early 1990s, architect founders had a strong belief of transforming architecture to fit the modernizing world (Gardner & Kleiner, 2010:737). This was as a result of emergence of new machines and cities which forced the artists to broaden their thoughts about the environment which improved the way they perceived, portrayed and participated in the world of arts. Numerous artists and designers came up with different beliefs and ideas on how (Gardner et al, 2006:686) to improve art in order to create a better world. Among the artist was the English artist William Morris whose incredible writings formed the arts and crafts movement. Morris advocated for well-made, handcrafted work instead of poor quality, mass-produced machine-made items. One of his famous statements clarified the fact that people had items in their houses that did not please them because they are either not used or not beautiful. Morris vividly outlined the modern belief that viewed utility as more important than beauty. Another artist Louis Sullivan advocated for functionalism, which insisted on elimination of ornaments in building so that the buildings could plainly express its purpose. This idea led to the idea of designing buildings from the inside outwards, which freely let the essential structure to dictate the form and its external (Gardner & Kleiner, 2010:737). A Viennese architect called Adolf Loos, came out to back Sullivan’s idea by insisting that functional objects did not need decoration at all because doing so was a waste of, material, effort and capital. Adolf further wrote a manifesto called “Ornament and Crime,” which depicted his argument that avoiding ornaments was a simplified sign of expressing spiritual strength. This essay was among the foundation texts that were used in the modern movement. The Vienna workshop also contributed to the development of art modernism. Its founders, painter Koloman Moser and architect Joseph Hoffman formed a movement in 1903 that was dedicated to developing high quality art and design that would become useful in peoples daily life. This philosophy reflected the influence of William Morris. Reacting against historicism, the Vienna workshop invented simplified shapes, geometric patterns, and minimal decoration whose aim was to improve the quality of art and design. However, by 1920s, modern designers began to broaden their perceptions by embracing new technologies (Gardner et al, 2006:687). For instance, new technology led to the invention of machines, which brought out the possibility of mass production. Art schools also evolved with an aim of adopting the ideology of modern industry. For instance, Gropius was the leader of the Bauhaus, Germany’s school of art and architecture (Gardner & Kleiner, 2010:738). The school modernized art training by combining the study of crafts with the teaching of the pure arts. Gropius had an aim of uniting technology with art, and he empowered a new generation of architects and designers to shun ancient precedents and embrace the ideology of the modern industry. Another most influential and fascinating architect was Le Corbusier. He is acknowledged for introducing an appeal with the plans of engineers, like cruise ships, grain silos and automobiles (Gardner & Kleiner, 2010:738). The expression of his ideas comes out fully in his 1923 book titled Vers Une Architecture "Towards a New Architecture", which is an impassioned manifesto. Surprisingly, his book is still the best architecture book in the market. In the 1930s, many of the leading European modernists immigrated to the United States, hence spreading the theory and practice of Modernism. Pictures/paintings/drawings The first half of the 20th century saw a tremendous change in pictorial art because cubism destroyed the old traditional illusive pictures that had became part of the western art for the past 500 years. The Cubists opted for compositions of shapes and forms retrieved from the conventionally perceived world, and rejected naturalistic depictions (Gardner et al, 2006:687). These artists pursued to analyze form by breaking it into its numerous parts and then gathering and reconstructing it using new logic of design and eventually making it a coherent aesthetic object (Gardner & Kleiner, 2010:747). Therefore, the art of painting shifted far beyond the description of observed reality. This rejection of old traditional practice existed in those times where everything was being questioned because of the crumbling of the concrete Newtonian world, which was fostered by the physics of Einstein and other scholars. The evolution experience changed the way artists’ perceptions of pictures and paintings for the better because artists developed a new way of portraying reality through pictures and paintings with an aim of changing the society. For instance, regionalist paintings during the depression in the 1930s had a common appeal that often projected as a reassuring image that portrayed America’s heartland. The public perceived regionalism as a means of recuperating from the national crisis through searching for cultural roots. Hence, people embraced any implicit in regionalist paintings or mythologies that the art works conveyed because the painted art works served a crucial purpose. Other numerous pictorial paintings portrayed or outlined the events that took place at the time and viewers perceived the events like the world war and dehumanizing butchering that people experienced (Gardner & Kleiner, 2010:738). More so, the pictures and paintings depicted probable solutions to the issues that arose in this time of the century. Music Music is generally and simply defined as an art form whose medium is sound. The name music was derived from the Ancient Greek muses, and these muse were the nine goddesses of art and science. Scholars believe that music begun at around 500 B.C. During the middle ages, the main form of music was the Gregorian chant, named for Pope Gregory I. This kind of music was used by Catholic Churches to improve the services. This music consisted of a sacred Latin text that the monks sung without instrumentation (Anonymous, NP: 178). The chant was sung in a monophonic texture meaning there was only one line of music, and it had a rhythm that flowed freely with little or no set beat. The passing of the chants was originally through oral tradition, but as time went on, the chants increased to the extent that the monks began to notate them. In this respect, music like any other art evolved because during the twentieth century, tone and color became more important than before. Numerous techniques that were considered uncommon before became useful. Many composers invented the use of noise like and percussive instruments and henceforth, the percussion instruments became a major part of the twentieth century music (Anonymous, NP: 179). These percussion instruments gave a variety of rhythm and tone colors to the music. Contrary to 1900, chords in music were considered either consonant or dissonant, and they became extremely common to an extent that the composer was no longer limited to use traditional chords. This means that the composer had to choose freely on what sound they wanted to achieve. Another crucial element was the sway from the traditional tonal system, and just as composers expanded their tonal abilities, they expanded their rhythmic patterns too. The different rhythmic patterns came from a variety of parts all over the world. At this time, signature would often change in the middle of a piece, while accents and other rhythmic irregularities would follow unexpectedly. Music composers also wrote polyrhythmic music, whereby numerous rhythms would play simultaneously by different sections (Anonymous, NP: 179). With all the varied rhythms, different tone colors, tonal systems, melodies of the twentieth century became unpredictable and more entertaining. These changes and unpredictability changed the world because from the first half of the 20th century music became a greater part of society. The improvements are evident in radio broadcasts, recordings and the ability to print masses of music copies for anybody to play in their convenience at any time. The stated music developments spurred during the first half of the 20th century, but before then especially in the beginning of the twentieth century, many people did not embrace the outrageous new music styles. However, the conception changed with time because by the end of modernism people had tremendously accepted music as part of their culture. Such evidence portrayed when music composers moved to the U.S. to look for work during Hitler’s reign in Europe because live at the time was not conducive enough for music. In America, colleges and universities expanded music throughout the nation, educating massive number of students (Anonymous, NP: 179). These colleges and universities are currently the shadows of churches and nobility that were in the past. Generally, music transformed the lives of many by offering entertainment and jobs to the society. Conclusion Art in the first half of the 21st century was a burgeoning field of research, practice and publication, which made it a dynamic field of study. The driving force behind art in the 21st century was the impact of globalization, which accelerated interconnectivity of human activity and information across time and space (Gardner et al, 2006:687). Modernized art acquired its improvement through the internet and mass media, which boosted awareness, of the vitality of modern art in different localities around the globe. More so, the current increased movement of artists across borders has added to the influences of intermixing and artistic vocabularies. Modernists had an intense desire to create a better world using technology as the main key towards achieving social improvement and the invented machines as a symbol of aspiration. More so, all of the stated principles were frequently combined with social and political beliefs, which held that design, and art could, and should, transform society. The impact of transformation of arts in the beginning to the middle of the 20th century definitely yielded fruits because the influence is evident in the current society. Obviously, the built environment that we live in today was largely shaped by Modernism (Gardner et al, 2006:287). The buildings we inhabit, the chairs we sit on, the music and literature that entertain and educate us, the graphic design that surrounds us and the environment we live in were created by the ideology and the aesthetics of Modernist design. We currently live in an era that still identifies artistic modernism as post-Modernist or even post-post-Modernist. Bibliography Anonymous. ND. Physical Education, health, and music Rex Bookstore, Inc. Gardner, H., and Kleiner, F. S. 2010. Gardners art through the ages: the western perspective. Boston, MA, Wadsworth/ Cengage Learning. Gardner, H., Kleiner, F. S., and Mamiya, C. J. 2006. Gardners art through the ages: the western perspective. Belmont, CA, Thomson Wadsworth. Wikipedians. ND. The Arts. PediaPress Read More