Cool. But … let’s explore that. For example, do you like poetry? No? What about song lyrics? Do you ever sing favorite lyrics because they move you? Well, that’s poetry, Lyric Poetry:

This definition applies to the “words” of popular songs today. We inherit the term from Greek playwrights (e.g., Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes) who, five centuries before Christ, dramatized stories from their mythology. The lyric portions of these plays were accompanied by the lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a harp). In the Euro-American literary tradition, lyric is applied to “the sonnet, ode, and elegy, along with many other varieties deriving from popular song.”

Martin Luther: A Mighty Fortress is Our God

One lyrical Genre is the hymn. Let’s explore a Protestant standard.

This hymn is a favorite for Protestant worshipers. But the more we know of the Context of its composition, the more we appreciate the lyrics. The hymn was one of many written by the 16th Century monk and scholar Martin Luther who braved the wrath of the Roman Church to challenge Papal authority. In 1521, Luther confronted the Holy Roman Emperor and papal representatives to defend his ideas. He was condemned to excommunication and death. Yet, God led him to sanctuary in a “might fortress,” Wartburg Castle, owned by Frederick III of Saxony. Think of that place of sanctuary when you hear or sing this hymn.

Woody Guthrie: This Land is Your Land

As do residents of every country, Americans are inspired by songs celebrating their nation. Listening to Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land (1940), many Americans celebrate the magnificence of their national landscape.

Do you dislike “poetry” but enjoy song lyrics? Many negative attitudes overlook unsuspected roles played by the arts in their lives. Enjoy lyrics and you are enjoying poetry!

What is Art?

OK, so what counts as art? What doesn’t? Obviously, painting and sculpture are widely seen as art. However, we will also consider poetry and prose fiction as arts. We will now and then nod to the artistic dimensions of photography, architecture, and other artistic endeavors.

These are great questions and they have been disputed for many years by artists and philosophers. We can’t resolve the thorny issue of defining art in our class. What we can do is notice that various traditions of artistic endeavor tend to share certain shared hallmarks.

Aesthetic Reactions to Art

Did you notice that word, aesthetic?  Aesthetic Attitude refers to a specific way of looking:

You watch a beautiful sunset over the water. You are pleased, perhaps moved by the beauty. But you receive no tangible benefit. The spectacle pays you no money. Gains you no power. Confers no health. The sunset’s beauty has no moral dimension. You respond to sheer beauty.

The aesthetic dimension of art refers to the feelings evoked by its pure form: color, light/shadow, sound, pattern, rhythm—the features that confer an experience of beauty or ugliness. Of course, aesthetic responses are subjective. People differ in their reactions.

What Do You Like?

Sargent, John Singer. (ca. 1892-1893). Lady Agnew. Oil on canvas.	Matisse, Henri. (1947). Two Girls, Red and Green Background. Oil on canvas.
Lucas Cranach the Elder. (1502) Portrait of Dr. Johannes Cuspinian. Tempera on red beech.	Picasso, Pablo. (1907). Les Memoiselles d’Avignon. Oil on canvas.
Monet, Claude. (1899). Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge. Oil on canvas.	Pollock, Jackson. (1950). Number 18. Oil and enamel on Masonite.

Well? What do you think? (Be sure to click on or hover over the thumbnails to see richer reproductions.) And what seems to determine your response? Familiarity? Your understanding? Surprise? A visual puzzle? Our responses to art reflect familiarity and understanding. Consciously or not, we are conditioned to respond comfortably to a Genre, certain kind of art:

At the movies, do you like rom-coms (romantic comedies)? Urban fantasies? Super hero flicks? Film noir? All are cinematic genres with which you are familiar. In the visual arts, the term Genre Painting refers to “paintings or other works depicting scenes from daily life” which have retained their appeal ever since the genre was pioneered by 17th-century Dutch artists. Those Dutch interiors and Still Life compositions are perennially popular because they are familiar in subject matter and in technique. A Genre, is defined by Convention.

Conventions guide artists in producing their works. They also contribute to an audience’s understanding. Our reading of the arts deepens as we become aware of the impact of conventions on our reactions. In a rom com, the primary characters initially clash, setting up the final resolution: true love. Watching the opening conflict play out, we smile, reassured that we know where the story is going. To see the guiding hand of the convention is to understand the film and our response.

Of course, unrelieved clichés, excessive conformity to convention can be boring. A rom com that merely lurches from one stock scene to the next will put us to sleep.  Artists who leave the biggest impression often challenge conventions in interesting ways. In great works, an interplay between comforting convention and surprising innovation lights the piece up for fascinated viewing.  Baldick notes that “while some [artistic] works may be ‘unconventional,’ none can be convention less” (Convention).

On a larger scale, art is produced and experienced in a Context: the social, cultural, and historical milieu in which a work of art is composed and received by an audience. Or, perhaps, two contexts: that of the work’s production and that of the audience. We read Shakespeare today in a far different context from that of Elizabethan England. And contexts vary in their degree of tolerance for convention and for innovation. In the so-called “art world” of artists and aficionado, artists have since the era of Impressionism to be valued for originality, innovation, challenges to conventional social values, and individual vision.

As the divergence between conventional expectations and insurgent innovation has widened, the gap between the sensibilities of the Fine Arts world and those of the mainstream public have tended to widen. While some folks are drawn to avant garde work, many are put off by wholly unfamiliar, bewildering conventions which can lead to confusion, impatience, dislike, even fear. In which direction do you move when you encounter really challenging ideas or art?

Reading the Arts

So how shall we approach the arts? What will be expected of you? No, you are not expected to decide that you love all of the poems, stories, and paintings chosen for the class. Nor are you expected to discover hidden codes of meaning that only the instructor can see. You might be concerned about your limited knowledge base. Well, that’s OK. Ultimately, the work must speak for itself. Your work will be judged for the richness of your observations of and reflections on the work’s features.

Of course, readings grows richer as we become more knowledgeable. This text will provide an array of information on the Context and techniques that comprise the painting or poem or story. Furthermore, we will approach these works as a reading community, enriching each other’s senses of the works.

In your class readings and writings, draw on the materials we provide and on class collaboration. But when you select a work to focus on in your writing, bear down on your own, close reading. See. Hear. Observe. Pay attention to details. And share the richness of your reading with your reading community.

The Challenge of Encountering the Arts

Folks who avoid off putting art may feel some anxiety about a course like this. They may feel they have a poor general sense of the arts. They may worry about kinds of art that seem strange or incomprehensible. They may want to resist an expected pressure to like what the instructor likes.

Will we expect you to learn to like everything we explore? Not at all. Your ultimate reaction is yours to choose. Our text samples a wide range of arts, too many to engage in detail. The hope is that, each week, you will be intrigued enough by a few pieces to look more closely.

Sometimes, that means bravely engaging work that initially puts one off. We will ask you to make a good faith effort to give our selected works a chance to speak to you. We’ll be working on the challenge of engaging art that confuses or put us off. Here are some tips:

So … try to relax and let these great artists speak to you. You just might find yourself enjoying them!

References