MESSAGE, MEANING, MATERIALS

• Traditionally captured ordinary experiences to turn them into something of beauty• Items in other cultures that may often serve simple utilitarian functions may be

seen as things of beauty or works of art in our own• Clothing, environments often created to stimulate a sense of beauty in the viewer

– aesthetics• For most people, the main purpose of art is to satisfy our aesthetic sense. We

want to see and experience the beautiful• Art will often represent other truths and realities and be far from creating an

aesthetic visual experience• A valuable moment with art may not be its appearance but its ability to trigger a

higher level of thought and awareness – this may be a form of beauty in its own right

• The public often receives innovative works with negativity or reservation if it does not fit into

The Asparagus. 1880Edouard ManetOil on Canvas

Seated Bather. 1930Pablo Picasso

Vietnam Memorial. 1982. Maya Ying Lin

Stone Field Sculpture. 1977. Carl Andre

David. 1501-1504Michaelangelo

DRAWING

Corps de Dame. 1950Jean Dubuffet

PAINTING

Christina’s World. 1948. Andrew Wyeth. Egg Tempera

Door to the River. 1960Willem de KooningOil on Canvas

Golden TreeDorothy KnowlesWatercolour

COLLAGE

The process of pasting or gluing fragments of printed matter, fabric, natural material – anything relatively flat - onto the two-dimensional surface of the picture plane.

The Dove. 1964Romare BeardenPaper, gouache, pencil, colored pencil on cardboard

Bearden’s meaning is identical with his method. Mixed media provides Bearden with the means to bring the divers elements of urbanAfrican-American life into a formally unified, yet still distinctly fragmented, whole.