Assignment Due 2/21

Assignment Due 2/21: For the next assignment please choose a passage from the book that interests you.  Once you have chosen a passage please do the following and post it on your blog. 1) Write out the passage; 2) Explain the meaning of the passage; 3) Explain why this passage is important to you.



"I'm not kidding. I'm telling you what I've found. Knowledge can be conveyed, but not wisdom. It can be found, it can be lived, it is possible to be carried by it, miracles can be performed with it, but it cannot be expressed in words and taught. This was what I, even as a young man, sometimes suspected, what has driven me away from the teachers. I have found a thought, Govinda, which you'll again regard as a joke or foolishness, but which is my best thought. It says: The opposite of every truth is just as true! That's like this: any truth can only be expressed and put into words when it is one-sided. Everything is one-sided which can be thought with thoughts and said with words, it's all one-sided, all just one half, all lacks completeness, roundness, oneness. When the exalted Gotama spoke in his teachings of the world, he had to divide it into Sansara and Nirvana, into deception and truth, into suffering and salvation. It cannot be done differently, there is no other way for him who wants to teach. But the world itself, what exists around us and inside of us, is never one-sided. A person or an act is never entirely Sansara or entirely Nirvana, a person is never entirely holy or entirely sinful. It does really seem like this, because we are subject to deception, as if time was something real. Time is not real, Govinda, I have experienced this often and often again. And if time is not real, then the gap which seems to be between the world and the eternity, between suffering and blissfulness, between evil and good, is also a deception."

                                                                                                               Siddhartha

 According to Siddhartha wisdom is very different from knowledge. Knowledge can be useful and can't be transfer from a teacher to a pupil. But in this passage knowledge is acquired and can be conveyed from one form to other. When a person gains knowledge they become enlightened in their thoughts and behaviors and the ways to live their life. Siddhartha compared knowledge to wisdom because wisdom is gift that cant be taught in words. The opinions of knowledge are different between Siddhartha and Govinda. 

Siddhartha also viewed teaching as dividing and categorizing the world. Siddhartha saw the world as united and as a whole. Its something that can't be taught but only experienced 

I like this passage because I believe in education and gaining knowledge. knowledge can be use in a positive way, its what helps an person to grow by experience. You can't teach knowledge you can only live it. knowledge is a form of power that can take you places, and help you achieve goals. 

Assignment 2/14

2) Choose one of the artists from either expressionism, dadaism, or new objectivity. Choose three examples from one or more of the artists, and try to depict what is going on in the piece, and what meaning it may have, especially drawing attention to how nihilistic themes show up in these pieces or how it reflects social conditions.

Include: 

1) the name of the artist and a little summary on their life; 

2) the title of the piece and its date;  

3) your interpretation of the piece, try to describe in as much detail as you can the physical appearance of the piece (how does it look, what kind of techniques are being used, what kind of colors, light etc are used, what kind of actions are going on) and the meaning of the piece what is it trying to say, what themes does it address, especially paying attention to nihilistic themes.

                                                        OTTO DIX

        Otto Dix was a German artist who was born in Utermhaus, Germany. He was born to the parents of Louise Dix, and Franz. Franz worked as an iron foundry, and the mother as a stream-stress who wrote poetry when she was a youth. Dix spent most of his dedication to art. He would spend hours a day with his cousins who owned a studio. His cousin's name was Fritz Amann, who was a painter as well. As the years progress Dix served as a apprenticeship for Carl Senff who was a painter. In the year of 1910 he began painting at his first landscapes.

       Dix joined the German army where he served as a volunteer. he fought in the first World War and become a non-commissioned officer of a machine gun territory. As a result from war he experienced traumatic nightmares that were demonstrated in his paintings. 

       In 1920, he put though the expressionist phase which was influenced by dada.

    1.                                               THE MATCH SELLER - OTTO DIX

                                                                                1921

  

Techniques: Oil, and Collage on canvas. 

         There are four different cripples that are shown in this picture. Dix shows he was against the brutality, and senselessness of war. In this painting he demonstrates a disfigurement of war, a wounded dog, and a blind old man siting in the center of the piece turned to one side with black sun glasses on. This shows the damage that war has caused to the German community. The old man siting was blinded, and crippled from the war and was given his sight and limbs back to assist in the war again. when he comes home he cries for help, and is ignored. The wooden cross behind him on the door is suppose to be an allusion of his suffering.

2.                              HELLISH FIRST WORLD WAR VISIONS - OTTO DIX

                                                                            1924

Techniques: Drawing 

       This is the one of the drawings Dix did from his experience in 1924."Hellish First World War Vision" was the first drawing he did from the World War. Storm troops are shown wearing gas mask meanwhile gas flows in the air creating a deadly scene. The troops are wearing masks that are covering them from being shown, This drawing is a clear vision of what the World War looked like in Europe 100 years ago, from a German artists point of view.  

3.                                               Selbstbildnis als Soldat (Self-Portrait as a Soldier)

                                                                                       1914

       

Techniques: Ink and water color on paper.

         Otto Dix painted himself as shown in this piece twice, which comes out to be the most important piece of the Great War. This image identifies epic and the other shows painful. The light of red, and white reserve is supposed to be strength, and violence approaching cruelty. Some see it as a struggle of war, with no regrets or remorse on  the "Self-Portrait as a Soldier" side. The other side shows the "Self-Portrait as a Gunner" in black, and the shadows that is around the helmeted head. The look on his face shows as a war-like symbol of the gold facings with death and night in the back.

   

2/14 Assignment

Dada Manifesto

Assignment DUE 2/14:   1) choose a passage from the "Dada Manifesto" by Hugo Ball. Choose a specific piece of the text that you want to quote. Write out the quote. Then interpret the quote, what is the meaning of this quote, why is the author saying this? Then explain why you chose this quote, do you agree or disagree? Did the quote make you think about something or challenge you? Does it relate to anything going on in the present?

“The sometimes shocking nature of dada is easier to understand

if you understand how thoroughly disgusted they with German society.”
                       "Dada Manifesto" by Hugo Ball

                Dada is a non-sense word. It was a movement that artists during the 20^th century often used to express themselves though art. Dadaists often referred it as “untrue art”. It was art that didn't make sense, and other was used to help destroy Germany’s corrupted society.

                Dada started in Switzerland after the beginning of World War I. As the movement spread thought out Europe, and the Americas others developed their own concept. Germany’s form of dada was more related to government, politics, and manifested as a reaction from World War I followed by the new objective movement. Being most artist were not supportive of the political, social, and culture ideas of war, art and journalist such as Hugo Ball used this movement as a distraction of expressing thoughts, and ideas about war. Art during this time was demonstrated with a mixture of artistic beauty and correctness of nations.

                In 1916 when the dada movement came about Hugo Ball a German artist believe that war didn't make sense, and that literary should be used to express it. This was depict in a poem ball wrote with non-sense words. Hugo Ball and other German author’s lived by this in their literary. Like Hugo Ball most exercised their political views by making statements against political views on society and the impact it had on the people. Part of the political view was that Germany had powers that were very different from European powers. Germany’s powers were develop late, and they had the biggest socialist’s movement in Europe. One of the parties by the name of Social Democratic Party of Germany had trade unions. Their goal was to improve Germany political.   

I found this quote fascinating because it mentions how important it is to understand Germany. In order to understand why most artists use the dada movement you have to know Germans history.  Artists were able to use their art to make a point instead of war. This is a positive movement that can change the future for the upcoming generation. I agree with quote. I do think once you understand Germany’s history you will understand why the dada movement came into play and why it was used all over the world, even today. Today society and society all around the world uses dada activates which contain public gatherings, demonstrations, and publications of art. Although there still war today, where would the world be if the dada movement didn't exist?      

Edouard Manet

Édouard Manet 1832 - 1883

       Manet was born January 23, 1832. He was an artist who lived in Paris, France and focused on paintings during the Realism movement.

      In 1848 Manet's father had dreams of wanting his son to join the Navy. After two attempts including sending him to Brazil on a training vessel, his father realized this wasn't for him. Manet continued his studies, and pursued his goal of becoming a painter with the guidance's of a former academic painter Thomas Couture. 

     Being Manet was a French painter who was influenced by most of his friends who were impressionist, He developed his own technique that would later inspire painters of the future. He used his masterpiece's to make connections between realism and impressionism. Most of his masterpiece's looked photographic-like, which contained a mixture of painting styles. The birth of photographic paintings during this period of time encouraged Manet in using color to make his art pieces more lively.

    " The Spanish Singer "  was painted by Manet on a oil based canvas with dimensions of 147.3 cm x 114.3 ( 58in x 45in ). This work demonstrates an Spanish music theme full of culture from Spain during 1860. This piece shows a left handed man siting on a bench playing with a guitar. The singer has on Spanish and French clothing. This wasn't an real event. Manet was paid a visit by a model in his studio, where he created this masterpiece. Diego Velazquez was one of the Spanish artists who had an impact on him.

      The colors that were used were to make a vivid, and realistic theme. Manet's motive was to take the vision he viewed of this model who appeared before him and make his painting as close as possible to life. This consists of a sharp, accurate lining that gives off a clear graphic look. The bold vigorous brush Manet helped him depict a little lighting behind the guitarist hands, as well as using strokes to create a dim lighting that provided high levels of saturation.

      Manet tried to make his paintings close to real as possible, This was a image he had inside of him that was real to him but not to the world. " The Spanish Singer " wasn't a real person he was a model he painted as a singer. In the 19th century Nihilism was shown in a rationalism way by a former artist Friedrich Heinrich Jacob (1743-1819). To some critics it is unreal to be embraced in a Spanish culture and have a mixture of Spanish and French clothing on. This is the part that is unreal to other but to Manet, its something he created in his head and expressed it in his drawing.    

" The Spanish Singer," Manet, 1860

" The Spanish Singer, " Manet. 1860