Art History 101

Art History 101 was created beginning in 2010 and includes approximately 130 collages, which were made by combining reproductions of great art with one another, as well as with contemporary sources in Popular Culture.

An exhibit of a selection of 101 of the collages for this project (Art History 101) was held at Black Swan Books and Gallery (December 1, 2013-March 6, 2014) in Staunton, Virginia.

Included below are the 101 collages included in the exhibit which begins as follows.

It is the night before the final exam. The lectures have been given, the images of the works from the textbook Jansen’s History of Art  have been projected and discussed, and the professor’s judgments made. There is nothing more to learn.

The student falls into a troubled sleep and dreams. At first a mass of quotes  appear  from Jansen one after the other and then comes the images.

WHAT IS ART?” …ART TO US IS FIRST OF ALL A WORD…  ART IS MADE EVERYWHERE… ART, THEREFORE, IS ALSO AN OBJECT. ART IS AN AESTHETIC OBJECT. ART IS AN AESTHETIC OBJECT. ART IS AN AESTHETIC OBJECT. AESTHETICS IS DEFINED AS “THAT WHICH CONCERNS THE BEAUTIFUL. …NOT ALL ART IS BEAUTIFUL TO OUR EYES,… THE ISSUES RAISED BY “BEAUTY” ARE PERHAPS INHERENTLY UNRESOLVABLE. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REDUCE ART TO ONE SET OF PRECEPTS… LAWS ARE VIRTUALLY USELESS IN HELPING US TO UNDERSTAND WORKS OF ART…. ABSOLUTE QUALITIES IN ART ELUDE US… WE CANNOT ESCAPE VIEWING WORKS OF ART IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR TIME,… WE ALL DREAM. TO IMAGINE IS SIMPLY TO MAKE AN IMAGE… THE URGE TO MAKE ART IS UNIQUE TO MAN. THE BUDDING ARTIST REINVENTS THE FIRST STAGES OF ART.  ART IS NOT SIMPLY A NEGATIVE FORCE AT THE MERCY OF OUR NEUROSES… THE IMAGINATION IS ONE OF THE MOST MYSTERIOUS FACETS OF MANKIND. …THE ARTIST REMAINS A MAGICIAN WHOSE WORK CAN MYSTIFY AND MOVE US… WHY DOES MAN CREATE ART? ART, HOWEVER, IS MUCH MORE THAN DECORATION. ART ENABLES US WAYS TO COMMUNICATE OUR UNDERSTANDING IN WAYS THAT OTHERWISE CANNOT BE COMMUNICATED. IN ART , AS IN LANGUAGE, MAN IS ABOVE ALL ALL AN INVENTOR OF SYMBOLS TO CONVEY COMPLEX THOUGHTS IN NEW WAYS. WE MUST THINK OF ART NOT IN EVERYDAY PROSE BUT AS POETRY,… BUT WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ART? REPRESENTATIONAL ART IS, LIKE PROSE, ALWAYS BOUND TO SOME EXTENT BY THE LITERAL MEANING AND APPEARANCE OF THE EVERY-DAY WORLD. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY MAKING? THE CREATIVE PROCESS CONSISTS OF A LONG SERIES OF LEAPS OF THE ARTIST’S IMAGINATION… THE MAKING OF A WORK OF ART HAS LITTLE IN COMMON WITH WHAT WE ORDINARILY MEAN BY “MAKING. NO MACHINE, ON THE OTHER HAND, CAN REPLACE THE ARTIST. … THE ARTIST IS ALWAYS DRIVEN TO ATTEMPT THE IMPOSSIBLE… …WE SPEAK OF THE ARTIST AS CREATING INSTEAD OF MERELY MAKING SOMETHING,… WHAT SETS THE REAL ARTIST APART IS NOT SO MUCH THE DESIRE TO SEEK, BUT THAT MYSTERIOUS ABILITY TO FIND… ORIGINALITY, THEN, IS WHAT DISTINGUISHES ART FROM CRAFT. MANET DID NOT COPY…HE MERELY BORROWED…NO ONE, AFTER ALL, CAN BE TAUGHT HOW TO CREATE;… DECIDING WHAT IS ART AND RATING A WORK ARE TWO SEPARATE PROBLEMS;… WHY IS THAT ART?  WHY IS THAT GOOD ART? ART IS INDEED A COMPLEX AND IN MANY MYSTERIOUS HUMAN ACTIVITY… ARE THERE REALLY PEOPLE WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ART? …ART AT THIRD-HAND AND FOURTH-HAND, WORN OUT BY ENDLESS REPETITION, REPRESENTING THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR OF POPULAR TASTE. TO LIKE WHAT WE KNOW AND TO DISTRUST WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW IS AN AGE-OLD HUMAN TRAIT. THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH A WORK OF ART IF IT TAKES AN EXPERT TO APPRECIATE IT.  ART INVOLVES SELF-EXPRESSION. …THE CREATIVE ACT IS A LABOR OF LOVE… IT IS THE WORK OF ART WHICH GIVES BIRTH TO THE ARTIST… THE BIRTH OF A WORK OF ART IS AN INTENSIVELY PRIVATE EXPERIENCE… THE ARTIST DOES NOT CREATE MERELY FOR HIS OWN SATISFACTION,… THE CREATIVE PROCESS IS NOT COMPLETED UNTIL THE WORK HAS FOUND AN AUDIENCE…. PATRONS ARE ALWAYS “AUDIENCE”… THE MERITS OF THE ARTIST’S WORK CAN NEVER BE DETERMINED BY THE A POPULARITY CONTEST…. ART HAS THE POWER TO PENETRATE THE CORE OF MAN’S BEING. THE ARTIST OFTEN PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE AS THE ARTICULATOR OF OUR SHARED BELIEFS… WE LIVE IN A SEA OF IMAGES… WE HAVE BECOME DESENSITIZED TO ART… ANYONE CAN BUY CHEAP PAINTINGS… WE WILL HAVE SEEN THE ART BUT NOT REALLY LOOKED AT IT. LOOKING AT GREAT ART IS NOT SUCH AN EASY TASK. WE WILL HAVE TO LOOK AND THINK FOR OURSELVES… LOOKING AT A MASTERPIECE IS A COMPLEX TASK.  ART APPRECIATION IS MORE THAN MERE ENJOYMENT OF AESTHETICS. NO WORK CAN BE UNDERSTOOD OUT OF ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT.  ART HAS BEEN CALLED A VISUAL DIALOGUE,… THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE PROCESS IS ENTIRELY MYSTERIOUS… WHAT, THEN, IS THE YOUNG WOMAN DOING? WHAT ARE WE TO DO WHEN A WORK SEEMS DELIBERATELY DEVOID OF OSTENSIBLE MEANING. SOMETHING SO DISTURBING CANNOT BE WITHOUT SIGNIFICANCE…

* The quotes included above  are drawn from H. W. Janson’s, History of Art (Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1973, 17th printing). They are intended to provide a narrative for the collages included below.