IMAGE AND ITS CONTEXT

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Gwyn Christianne E. Moreno

SEMIOTICS socio-political critique of present society

study of signs
artwork as a system of signs
3 planes of signification:
o non-mimetic: materials, elements
o mimetic: subject, image, icon
o thematic: social, cultural, historical
*with thematic plane contribute to form total
meaning of an artwork* photographic print
SIGNIFIERS
conveying concepts, values, feelings, and
attitudes
mimetic plane
*with thematic plane contribute to form total
meaning of an artwork* Veristic Surrealism
ICON
pictorial sign
drawing, illustration, painting
CONVENTIONAL SIGN
road or traffic sign
appears in the same form in similar situations
I. STYLES OF FIGURATION
A. TERMS
1. REPRESENTATIONAL
subject matter is recognizable as taken
from the world of people and nature
figurative
2. NATURALISM
puts the mirror up to nature
represent natural objects as they appear
3. REALISM
19th Century: Courbet, Millet, Daumier
draw subjects from contemporary life
always involves verisimilitude or
truthfulness to observed physical data
4. ILLUSTRATION
visual work done in relation to a text
Matisse: Exactness does not in itself
constitute the truth
5. WORK OF ART
expresses artists vision of people and
society
conveys or communicates
6. WORK OF DOCUMENTATION
presents empirical data and facts about
a subject and its physical characteristics
B. REALISM
1. SOCIAL REALISM
U.S. (Depression, crash of Wall Street)
PH: awakening of nationalist
consciousness (Martial Law)
not a stylistic term but a shared point of
view
and a vision of a new human order
2. MAGIC REALISM
Andrew Wyeth
familiar objects seen with a freshness
and purity of vision
Hyper-realism/Photorealism: painting
has clarity and sharpness of
miniaturismo: delicate transparacy of
fabric and elaborate embroidery on
native costumes as marks of social
ascendance (Fil portrait painters)
3. SURREALISM
faithful and realistic detail
Dali, Magritte, Delvaux
C. CLASSICAL FIGURATION
Hellenic Period or the Golden Age of
Greece
representational but cannot be called
realist
basic principle is not observation but
idealization
beauty has two aspects: moral and
mathematical
1. MORAL ASPECT OF BEAUTY
emphasizes values of balance, restraint,
detachment, serenity, and elegance
everything in moderation, nothing in
excess
Ideal figures: should not manifest
emotions because emotions are
transitory not eternal and absolute
2. MATHEMATICAL ASPECT OF BEAUTY
CLASSICAL BEAUTY
perfection attained through mathematics
CLASSICAL PROPORTIONS
Polycleitos: ideal mathematical
proportions for the human figure (7
heads)
o Doryphorus
o Lance-bearer
three orders of architecture:
o Doric (abacus)
o Ionic
o Corinthian (acanthus leaves)
Hellenistic Period: 8 or 8 heads
o Hermes
o Infant Dionysius
o Apoxymenos or The Scraper
D. TIMELINE
1. RENAISSANCE
IMAGE AND ITS CONTEXT "2
Gwyn Christianne E. Moreno
Italy, 15th century
revived Greek ideals of Classicism in art
2. After MANNERIST, BAROQUE, AND
ROCOCO
Neo-Classicism (18th century)
Jaques Louis David and Jean Auguste
Ingres
Romanticism
later chanllenged by Realism and
Impressionism
E. EXPRESSIONISM
emotion is the motivating principle that
gives shapes to the figures
free to express artists strong feeling
often involves distortion in the
elongation, attenuation, or exaggeration
of ordinary proportions
Expressionism distortion: captures
subjective reality, inner states of mind
use of color to convey emotion
(Fauvism)
aesthetics was replaced by
expressiveness
Blind Man With a Guitar (Picasso), Starry
Night and Sunflower (Van Gogh),
Scream (Munch), Women in the Street
(Kirchner)
Ang Kiu Kok, Onib Olmedo, Danilo
Dalema
F. CUBISM
Cezanne: everything in nature can be
reduced to the cube, the cone, and the
cylinder
landscapes of Mont St. Victoire, still life
of apples on a table
Cezanne as a Post-Impressionist:
simplifying and geometrizing
Braque and Picasso: Cubism with
influence of African masks
ANALYTICAL CUBISM
portrait of Kahnweller (Picasso)
Guernica (Picasso)
Vicente Manansala: transparent Cubism,
reluctance to subject human figure to
drastic fragmentation
o Madonna of the Slums
o murals (Philippine Life for the
Philamlife Insurance Bldg.)
G. POP
derices inspiration from popular visual
forms
Linchtenstein: Dick Tracy
Andy Warhol: Marilyn Monroe seires,
Campbell Soup, Dollar Bill
*What is important is the ability of the style to
signify, convey, or express certain qualities, values,
or concepts which are an integral part of the
meaning of the work*
*A style of figuration is not the mere expression of
an artists passing whim or choice of the moment;
it is rather contextualized in a particular society*
II. SUBJECT MATTER AND ITS
PRESENTATION
A. SUBJECT
what the image is generally about
may be representational or non-
representational
1. REPRESENTATIONAL
portrait of an individual or group
genre which shows people in everyday
activities
domestic interior
nude
landscape, seascape,cityscape
still life
may also be historical, mythological,
literary, religious, or surrealistic
2. NON-REPRESENTATIONAL
abstract or non-figurative
does not have a recognizable subject
its subject is the very composition of
lines, colors, shapes, and textures
B. REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGES
1. PORTRAIT
representational of an individual
a good portrait gives insight to the
character of the subject
first true portraits (not idealized):
Hellenistic Period (4th c. B.C.)
subject may be shown:
o full face: strongly asserting his/her
presence and possibly addressing
the viewer
o profile: reflective character or
bringing out the subjective quality
of the person
o note if subject is off center or if
cropping is used as a signifying
device
direction where the subject parlays his
or her gaze
general posture, angle of head to the
body
IMAGE AND ITS CONTEXT 3
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Gwyn Christianne E. Moreno
dress or costume and accessories
background and surrounding objects
iconography
full figure: general orientation of the body
with respect to the viewers
What kind of relationship is suggested?
2. GENRE PAINTING
subject: people engaged in daily
activities
Philippine genre: mostly communal
activities (fiestas)
Planting Rice (Amorsolo), Feeding the
Chicken and Primeras Letras (Flores),
Gadgets (Legaspi) records social and
economic changes in the life of people
during the 19th Century
San Isidro Festival (Blanco)
European: paintings of Vermeer of the
Dutch middle class of the 17th century
showed people in a self-contained world
3. LANDSCAPES
realist, romantic, classical, or symbolic
Realist: done on the spot, often titled
with the name of the place, meant to be
shared with the viewer
Romantic: suggestion of the divine spirit
in nature, picturesque, exotic,
mysterious, or awe-inspiring
Classical: often following formulas of
ideal proportion, ARCHITECTURE
(Poussin and Lorraine), meant to be
contemplated from a distance
Symbolic: meanings are often obscure,
Tempest (Giorgione)
human figures: scales in relation to the
entire scenery express the relationship
between people and the universe
4. STILL LIFE OR NATURE MORTE
natural objects or artifacts
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin: interest,
tastes, and concerns of a social class or
members of a household of a particular
place and time as in the paintings
European: vanitas or memento mori
(reminders of death) skull, cut flowers
Chinese flower painting: flowers are
never cut, filled with chi or spirit
Classical paintings of the European academies
long derived their subjects from Greek mythology
and from ancient Greek and Roman history
5. SURREALISTIC
derived from dreams, nightmares
Freudian symbolism (subconscious and
conscious levels of the mind)
6. VERISTIC
executed in meticuiously naturalistic
style but juxtaposes in an incongruous
manner objects not found together in
real life
One has to refer to the elements to see how their
use confirms, reinforces, or strengthens the
meanings that the image itself conveys
III. THE THEMATIC PLANE
social and historical context
symbolism and allegory operate
A. TEXTS
supplement images
in many cases, title merely serves to
identify or state the subject of the work
in case of some surrealist works, the title
extends the meaning of the work and
provides a literary dimension
artists may use printed elements to bring
in allusions to evoke memories and
emotionsl associations, or to serve as
units of visual design (Street graffiti,
jeepney signs)
calligraphy in Chinese painting
B. SYMBOLISM
may be personal (artists explanation) or
conventional (commonly understood)
Arnel Agawin, strong anti-nuclear
sentiment: yellow mushrooming cloud
(universal holocaust)
Retablo Series (Tequi): anti-fascist theme
Katay Series (Ruiz): bast carcass =
decaying system which spawns
prostitution and crime
C. ALLEGORY
system of symbols in which an image or
narrative contains elements in a one-to-
one correspondence with another image
or narrative with which they have a
parallel relationship
Spolarium (Luna): Spains colonization of
the Philippines
Picasso, 1945:
An artist is still a political being. It would not be
possible to pay no interest to other people. No,
painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is
an instrument of war to attack and defend against
the enemy