Tag Archives: Culture

Form and Function in Art

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© Tassili-n-Ajjer, Nigeria, Section of rock-wall painting, ca. 5000-2000 BCE

“…things are beautiful when they work. Art is function.”

Giannina Braschi

© Nebamun Hunting in the Marshes, c. 1350 BCE

“One of the functions of art is to offer a more desirable reality – a model, as it were, of another style of existence with its own pace and its own cultural reference.” 

Peter Schmidt

© The Aldobrandini Wedding, c. 27 BCE – 14 BCE

Artists are concerned primarily with three functions.

1. Complete visual perception, internal, external, spatial, front, back and sides of an object.

© Masaccio, The Tribute money, c. 1425-28

2. Movement and the capturing of movement. From the the earliest cave paintings to the present day, artists have at various times studied the problem of showing movement on a two dimensional surface. Movement has always been there and it has been analysed in various fashions without really solving it.

Antoine Watteau, The Embarkation for Cythera, 1717 CE

3. An analysis of the whole, and the inter-relationships of the parts.

© Hokusai,The Underwave off Kanagawa, 1829-1833

“The painter’s function, generally speaking, is to explore and demonstrate in their work the interdependency of forms.” 

Robert McBryde

© Giacomo Balla, Dynamism Of A Dog On Leash, 1912

“Trying to capture the beauty of movement is a lofty and elusive endeavour…” 

Nisla

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam!, 1963

Click here to read and view more.

https://goffjamesart.wordpress.com

Image Credit © Tassili-n-Ajjer, Nigeria, Section of rock-wall painting, ca. 5000-2000 B.C.E.

Source Credit https://www.artsy.net/artwork/tassili-n-ajjer-nigeria-section-of-rock-wall-painting

Image Credit © Nebamun Hunting in the Marshes, c. 1350 BCE

Source Credit https://www.britishmuseum.org/visiting/galleries/ancient_egypt/room_61_tomb-chapel_nebamun.aspx

Image Credit © The Aldobrandini Wedding, c. 27 BCE – 14 BCE

Source Credit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldobrandini_Wedding#/media/File:Aldobrandini_wedding.JPG

Image Credit © Masaccio, The Tribute money, c. 1425-28

Source Credit https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/10-painters-of-the-italian-renaissance-you-should-know/

Image Credit © Antoine Watteau, The Embarkation for Cythera, 1717 CE

Source Credit https://www.wikiart.org/en/antoine-watteau/not_detected_229435-1717

Image Credit © Hokusai,The Underwave off Kanagawa, 1829-1833

Source Credit https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/de-grote-golf-bij-kanagawa/JgEdIdn4pME3Mw?hl=en-GB

Image Credit © Giacomo Balla, Dynamism Of A Dog On Leash, 1912

Source Credit https://www.artsology.com/motion_in_art.php