Subjective and Objective Perspectives

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this topic/chapter, you must be able to:
1. Discuss artistic roles:
2. Differentiate artistic categories.

Introduction and definitions

The first level in approaching art is learning to LOOK at it. In future

discussions, we will spend more time in pure observation than you probably have
done before. Generally, we tend to look at art in terms of "liking" it FIRST, and
"looking" at it later. From this perspective, the subjective (knowledge residing in the
emotions and thoughts of the viewer) almost completely dominates our way of
looking at art. In the arts, it’s especially important to begin to develop an informed
or objective opinion rather than just an instinctual reaction. An objective view is
one that focuses on the object’s physical characteristics as the main source of
information. This does not mean that you will remove or invalidate your subjective
feelings about a work, in fact, you will find that the more informed you
become, the more artwork will affect you emotionally and intellectually. It does
mean that you will learn alternative ways to approach art, ways that allow you to
find clues to meaning and to understand how art reflects and affects our lives.
Up until now, we’ve been looking at artworks through the most immediate of
visual effects: what we see in front of our eyes. Now we can begin to break down
some barriers to finding specific meaning in art, including those of different styles
and cultures. To help in this journey we need to learn the difference between looking
at something in an objective way versus subjectively.
To look objectively is to get an unbiased overview of our field of vision.
Subjective seeing speaks more to understanding. When we use the term “I see” we
communicate that we understand what something means. There are some areas of
learning, particularly psychology and biology that help form the basis of
understanding how we see. For example, the fact that humans perceive flat images
as having a “reality” to them is very particular. In contrast, if you show a dog an
image of another dog, they neither growl nor wag their tail, because they are unable
to perceive flat images as containing any meaning. So you and I have actually
developed the ability to “see” and read specific meanings into images.
In essence, there is more to seeing than meets the eye. We need to take into
account a cultural component in how we perceive images and that we do so in
subjective ways. Seeing is partly a result of cultural conditioning and biases. For
example, when many of us from industrialized cultures see a parking lot, we can pick
out each car immediately, while others from remote tribal cultures (who are not
familiar with parking lots) cannot.
Artistic Roles

Visual artists and the works they produce perform specific roles. These roles
vary between cultures. We can examine some general areas to see the diversity they
offer – and perhaps come up with some new ones of our own.

Description

A traditional role of visual art is to describe our self and our surroundings.
Some of the earliest artworks are drawings and paintings of humans and wild animals
on walls deep within prehistoric caves. One particular image is a hand print: a
universal symbol of human communication.

Portraits

Portraits, landscapes, and still life are common examples of description.

Portraits capture the accuracy of physical characteristics but the very best also
transfer a sense of an individual’s unique personality. For thousands of years, this
rolewas reserved for images of those in positions of power, influence, and authority.
The portrait not only signifies who they are but also solidifies class structure by
presenting only the highest-ranking members of society. The portrait bust of
Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, dated to around 1300 BCE, exemplifies beauty and royalty.

Egyptian, Bust of Nefertiti, painted sandstone, c. 1370 BCE,

Neues Museum, Berlin.
Licensed under Creative Commons and GNU.
Landscapes

Landscapes – by themselves – give us detailed information about our natural

and human made surroundings; things like location, architecture, time of day, year
or season plus other physical information such as geological elements and the plants
and animals within a particular region. In many western cultures, the more realistic
the rendering of a scene the closer to our idea of the ‘truth’ it becomes. In the 15th
century German artist Albrecht Durer creates vivid works that show a keen sense of
observation. His Young Hare from 1495 is uncanny in its realism and sense of
animation.

Albrecht Durer, Young Hare, c. 1505, gouache and watercolor on paper.

Albertina Museum, Vienna.
Image in the public domain.

Scientific Illustration

Out of this striving for accuracy and documentation developed the art of
scientific illustration. The traditional mediums of painting and drawing are still used
to record much of the world around us. Linda Berkley’s Merino Ram uses a layered
approach to record in great detail the physical anatomy of the head of the great
sheep.

Merino Ram, composite drawing, colored pencil, acrylic on Canson paper, 2009.
Linda Berkley, Illustrator.
Used by permission of the artist
Enhancing our World

Enhancing the world of our everyday lives is another role art plays. This role
is more utilitarian than others. It includes textiles and product design, decorative
embellishments to the items we use every day, and all the aesthetic considerations
that create a more comfortable, expressive environment

Artistic Categories

Visual arts are generally divided into categories that make distinctions based
on the context of the work. For example, Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ would not
fall into the same category as, say, a graphic poster for a rock concert. Some artworks
can be placed in more than one category. Here are the main categories:

Fine Art

This category includes drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs and, in

the last decade, new media that are in museum collections and sold through
commercial art galleries. Fine art has a distinction of being some of the finest
examples of our human artistic heritage. Here is where you will find Leonardo Da
Vinci’s Mona Lisa, ancient sculpture, such as the Gandhara figure from India, and
stunning ceramics from different cultures and time periods.

Mona Lisa, Leonardo Da Vincic. 1503-19. Oil on poplar. 30” x 21”. The Louvre, Paris
Image licensed through Creative Commons

Popular Culture

This category contains the many products and images we are exposed to every
day. In the industrialized world, this includes posters, graffiti, advertising, popular
music, television and digital imagery, magazines, books and movies (as distinguished
from film, which we’ll examine in a different context later in the course). Also included
are cars, celebrity status and all the ideas and attitudes that help define the
contemporary period of a particular culture. Handbills posted on telephone poles or
the sides of buildings are graphic, colorful and informative, but they also provide a
street level texture to the urban environment most of us live in. Public murals serve
this same function. They put an aesthetic stamp on an otherwise bland and
industrialized landscape.

Street handbills. Image by Christopher Gildow

Licensed through Creative Commons

Craft
Craft is a category of art that shows a high degree of skilled workmanship in

its production. Craft works are normally associated with utilitarian purposes, but can
be aesthetic works in themselves, often highly decorated. The Mexican ceramic vessel
is an example. Handmade furniture and glassware, fine metalworking and leather
goods are other examples of craft.

Ceramic bowl, Mexico. Date unknown. Painted clay. Anahuacalli Museum, Mexico City.
Licensed through GNU and Creative Commons.

Artistic Styles

The following sections present some of the common artistic styles.

Style

The search for truth is not exclusive to representational art. From viewing
many of the examples so far you can see how individual artists use different styles
to communicate their ideas. Style refers to a particular kind of appearance in works
of art. It’s a characteristic of an individual artist or a collective relationship based on
an idea, culture or artistic movement. Following is a list and description of the most
common styles in art:

Naturalistic Style

Naturalistic style uses recognizable images with a high level of accuracy in their
depiction. Naturalism also includes the idealized object: one that is modified to
achieve a kind of perfection within the bounds of aesthetics and form. William Sydney
Mount’s painting The Bone Player gives accuracy in its representation and a sense of
character to the figure, from his ragged-edged hat to the button missing from his
vest. Mount treats the musician’s portrait with a sensitive hand, more idealized by
his handsome features and soft smile. Note: click the image for a larger view.

The Bone Player

By William Sidney Mount (American, 1807–1868)
1856

Abstract Style

Abstract style is based on a recognizable object but which is then manipulated

by distortion, scale issues or other artistic devices. Abstraction can be created by
exaggerating form, simplifying shapes or the use of strong colors. Questions of
abstraction can also emerge from something as simple as our distance from an
artwork. At first glance it is a highly realistic portrait of the artist’s grandmother-in
law. You can zoom it in to see how the painting dissolves into a grid of individual
fingerprints, a process that renders the surface very abstract. With this in mind, we
can see how any work of art is essentially made of smaller abstract parts that, when
seen together, make up a coherent whole.
Non-objective imagery has no relation to the ‘real’ world – that is – the work
of art is based solely upon itself. In this way the non-objective style is completely
different than abstract, and it’s important to make the distinction between the two.
This style rose from the modern art movement in Europe, Russia and the United
States during the first half of the 20th century. Pergusa Three by American artist
Frank Stella uses organic and geometric shapes and strong color set against a heavy
black background to create a vivid image. More than with other styles, issues of
content are associated with a nonobjective work’s formal structure.

Landscape, New Mexico, Marsden Hartley, about 1916. Pastel on paper.

The Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Image in the public domain

Cultural Styles
Ground Hog Mask,Tlingit, c. 19th century.
Carved and painted wood, animal hair.
Collection the Burke Museum, University of Washington, Seattle.

Cultural styles refer to distinctive

characteristics in artworks throughout a
particular society or culture. Some main
elements of cultural styles are recurring
motifs, created in the same way by many
artists. Cultural styles are formed over
hundreds or even thousands of years and
help define cultural identity. We can find
evidence of this by comparing two masks;
one from Alaska and the other from
Canada. The Yup’ik dance mask from
Alaska is quite stylized with oval and
rounded forms divided by wide bands in
strong relief. The painted areas outline or follow shapes. Carved objects are attached
to the mask and give an upward movement to the whole artwork while the face itself
carries an animated expression.
 By comparison, a ‘Groundhog Mask’ from the Tlingit culture in coastal
northwestern Canada exhibits similar forms and many of the same motifs. The
mouths of each mask are particularly similar to each other. Groundhog’s visage takes
on human – like characteristics just as the Yup’ik mask takes the form of a bird. This
cultural style ranges from western Alaska to northern Canada.

Celtic art from Great Britain and

Ireland shows a cultural style that’s been
identified for thousands of years. Its highly
refined organic motifs include spirals, plant
forms and zoomorphism. Intricate and
decorative, the Celtic style adapted to
include early book illustration. The Book of
Kells is considered the pinnacle of this
cultural style.

Page from the Book of Kells, around 800 CE. Trinity College, Dublin.
Image in the public domain.