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Matthew
J. Hierons Art
Across The Ages 48 separate
lecture topics , each approximately 30 minutes for a total of 24 hours
$550.To be offered in the Spring or Summer of 2009 Through
the use of computers, electronics and other visual aids. Professor Hierons will present an exciting and educational course
that delves into the history of art across the ages. All
visual art speaks—sometimes in a voice stirred by passion or afloat with tenderness,
sometimes in an angry shout, sometimes in a soft whisper. It may speak to the
person viewing it, to the artists who share its time in history, or to those
who will not come until much later. And its message may lie as much in what
is not said as in what is. No
matter what form visual art takes—as symbolic images carefully drawn on a
cave wall, thick colorful oils on wood or canvas, cold stone carved and
crafted into an intricate form, or tonal qualities of a single
black-and-white photograph—a single constant remains: Art
speaks, and to be able to understand its language is to be privy to an
artistic conversation thousands of years old—a conversation that will lead
you to a better understanding not only of art but also of the time in which
it was created and the humans who created it. Satisfying as a Survey, Essential as an Introduction In Art across the Ages, Professor. Hierons will utilize computer electronics and graphic
media to present a course in Western visual art that serves as both a mind-broadening
survey and an essential introduction. It is designed to give anyone
interested in Western art a firm familiarity with its basics, acquainting you
with major artists and styles in various media and providing a broad
foundation for deeper exploration. By
giving you a ready grasp of the substance and significance of a vast range of
artists and their work, along with a solid knowledge of how those artists and
their work fit within art's continuum, the course will add immeasurably to
your next visit to a museum or exhibition, or simply enhance your pleasure in
the art you encounter in your life. Have
you ever regretted not having the time to take an art appreciation course in
college and wished you could somehow gain the knowledge you missed? Or wondered,
even if you did take such a course, how much more your years of experience
and maturity would have enhanced your appreciation of art's creative wonders?
Or would you like to simply indulge yourself in a feast for the eyes and
mind, enjoying more than 1,100 images of the Western world's glorious
heritage of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other examples of art's
constantly evolving definition? Art across the Ages is a course that will satisfy on all those counts. And
although it is certainly not a prerequisite for any Teaching Company art
course you may choose in the future, it can be tremendously useful in helping
you make your choices because it will give you a firm contextual grasp on
where those future courses fit into both the history of Western visual art
and your own aesthetic interests. This
course covers the wide range of media that have defined visual art throughout
Western art history: painting, sculpture, architecture, the decorative arts,
photography, drawing, mixed media, assemblage, and installation art. In
it will be considered those categories from the perspectives of chronological
sweep and broad geographic and cultural context, such as the influence of
religion—including the Reformation and Counter-Reformation—on art, the role
of Jewish art in an artistic world focused on Christianity, or the impact of
war and politics on artists and their choices of subjects. And he also looks
at aspects of style, subject, and symbol that touch—or are touched
by—artistic activity beyond the West, such as that from Learn How Art Has Echoed the Human Experience Throughout these lectures, your instructor is attentive to what he calls "the
ever-present tension between continuity and transformation, between the
carrying of a visual idea forward and altering aspects of that idea,"
permitting us to "reflect on the ways visual art has echoed the human
experience and has refracted human intelligence and creativity across the ages." The history of Western art, he adds, "is a compendium, a sweeping
compendium, of conceptual, philosophical, and theological issues ... of ...
political, religious, and social issues interwoven with aesthetic and formal
issues. "Western art folds all of this together into a rich history of
continuity in dialogue with transformation, as we see throughout this history
artist after artist engaged in vision and re-vision, both with respect to
other works of art and with respect to the world around us. Western art expresses
our struggle to define ourselves, to define the worlds around us and those
perhaps beyond us, expressing our reflections on and our relationship to both
worlds as we move through the millennia." Although acting mainly as a coordinator, Professor Hierons
is the ideal teacher for this course. His remarks range across every aspect
of art and come at us from many directions as appreciators of art, calling on
us to perceive the riches of art visually as well as intellectually and
culturally. With training in philosophy, classics, and interdisciplinary
studies, Professor Hierons has held positions as
scholar, exhibition curator, documentary narrator, author, and teacher and
lecturer at more than 7 universities and throughout the country. In addition
visual aids and computer generated presentations will be used throughout,
making a unique presentation which would not have been considered possible
even a few years ago The result is a course that constantly stretches you, often going to
unexpected places to reveal aspects of a work's background—sometimes
harrowing, sometimes humorous—you may never have suspected. A Famous Painting's Chilling Inspiration For example, one of the most astonishing images in art history is a
painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith
Beheading Holofernes, inspired by a
famous earlier painting by Caravaggio of the same Biblical subject—the
slaying of an Assyrian general who was besieging Jerusalem. Caravaggio's
version was considered startling in its direct treatment of the gory event,
but the version painted by Artemisia, one of the most important painters of
the early 17th century, is even more so. Caravaggio has his Judith leaning
backward, almost reluctant to be involved in the brutal task her sword is
performing. Artemisia's Judith, however, shows no such reluctance; her left
hand grips her victim's head while her right wields the sword, and her face
shows only a determined satisfaction as she cuts, unconcerned with the blood
that runs down the sheets. Was the difference in the two presentations of Judith only a matter of
artistic choice? The answer may lie in a bit of history from Artemisia's own
life. Not long after coming to In a lighter story illuminating the varied sources of an artist's
inspiration, the instructor recalls a recurring episode from the childhood of
renowned architect Frank Gehry, whose many unusual
buildings include the world-famous The museum is situated on the banks of the Where might such an idea for a surface material have come from? You
will learn about Gehry's Jewish grandmother, who
would purchase a carp every Thursday and put it in the family bathtub until
the time came to prepare the traditional gefilte fish for Saturday's dinner.
It was to his time spent observing that carp, swimming in the bathtub, that Gehry traces the origins of the museum's fish-scale
exterior! Art, you see, can come from many sources, just as it makes many
statements and evokes many emotions. Challenging, provocative, and
eye-opening, Art across the Ages
will enable you to discover those sources, explore those statements, and
understand and appreciate those emotions. Course Lecture Titles
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