The Three Degres Of Subject Matter Essay

, Research Paper

There are “Three Degrees of Subject Matter,” known as representational, abstract, and nonrepresentational. Every piece of art can be classified into one of these. It might be a good idea when referring to a particular painting to state it’s Degree of Subject Matter (Johnson).

Representational or Naturalistic images in art look much like real images in the world (Gilbert 28). It is similar to a photograph (Johnson). Some artists use images refered to as illusionistic, meaning the images are so natural they trick you into believing they are real. When the eye is being fooled into thinking there are 3 dimensions in a work that is flat, it is refered to as trompe-l’oeil (Gilbert 28). At the following website you can view his infamous picture of Olga Picasso, along with many more pieces of Picasso’s work, such as Portrait de Dora Maar, which I found to be very unique, also giving a tour of the many masterpieces he created:

http://www.musexpo.com/english/picasso/picass2.html

This site led me to some outstanding photographs of Representational Art, that could also be interpreted as naturalistic and some of her paintings could be interperted as illusionistic.

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/9978/

Abstract art is when the art has a reference to the natural world but does not try to duplicate it exactly (Gilbert 30). The degree is which it is distorted can range from very slight where you can barely tell it is distorted, to very great where you can barely tell what it is (Johnson). Even if the colors are not true to real life it is abstract (Johnson). Stylized is a term close to abstract. It is stylized if it has features of a natural form that are in some way exaggerated (Gilbert 30). Willem de Kooning often used figural images in his paintings, especially in hi famous “Women” series (Gilbert 483) The following site will demonstrate many of his “women” paintings, along with many of his other works. Koonings paintings are cleary abstract, showing his conscious and unconscious feelings about women (Gilbert 483). Abstract Expressionists sought to express their subconscious through their art.

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/ftptoc/de_kooning_ext.html

Nonrepresentational art has no reference to the natural world of images (Gilbert 31). The art work shows no presence of people, places, or things, but shapes and sometimes colors. This type of art goes beyond the known forms and reaches our human emotions and sense’s directly (Gilbert 31). They are expressions of the artists who made them (Gilbert 31) Nonrepresentational art, also known as nonobjective art, does not stem from anything real (Johnson). It can be geometric nonobjective art and include squares and circles, along with colors. Or, it can be spontaneous nonobjective art and include splatters and dribbles of paint (Johnson). It is simply an expression of the artist (Gilbert 31). Sonia Katz, a fairly new artist has some dynamic pictures of what I consider to be spontaneous nonobjective art. It shows the mixture of paints and splatters to represent what she sees. Check out some of her work at the following site:

http://www.abstractandincolor.com/sonia/

Non-representational abstract works were followed by colour experiments and by works of abstract impressionism. Following a further phase of non-representational abstract painting (with imprints and rotary paintings), semi-representational, expressive flower still lives, architectural and animal depictions were created (Wanger). His site shows you how some of these types of art looks.

http://www.wangerart.net/

When it comes to creativity and skill, I definalty think there is a difference.Creativity is a part of all of us (Johnson). I know that some people obtain both naturally, my grandmother is one of those people. She absoultley obtains te ability to both create and perform many tasks. Sometimes it’s unreal as to the things the comes up with and creates, yet she has many skills, I tell her all the time you can do everything, from making my wedding dress from a picture to replacing a window pane I had to bust out because I had locked myself out. Skill, on the other hand, is something that can be learned (Johnson). We all have the potential to invent, to imagine, and to create. Many times what we lack is the skill to make our ideas a reality (Johnson). I really believe that we all posess creativity and that we we all have the abilty to create art, in one for or another. When it comes to skill, it’s just like anything else, it take practice. The defination of creativity is to bring into being, cause to exsist, to make or produce. That to me covers a wide range of things to be creative with. As for skill it is defined as the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively in doing something, or the developed or acquired ability, such as arts or crafts. Each and everyone of us posess some sort of creativity and skill, it is up to the indiviual how they use it to the best of there ability.

Gilbert, Rita. “Living with Art.” Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.

Johnson Doty. Lecture Chapter 1 & 2.

Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia 1997. “Art.” 1997 Edition Volume 1.0

http://www.musexpo.com/english/picasso/picass2.html

Markus Wanger

http://www.wangerart.net/

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/9978/

Harden, Mark. Mark Hardens Artchive. Willem de Kooning. Online 2000

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/ftptoc/de_kooning_ext.html

Sonia Katz. Abstract an in Color Online

http://www.abstractandincolor.com/sonia/