Influences of Philosophy and Religious Belief

Influence of Philosophy and Religious Belief

Australian Aboriginal art

This type of art, often called Indigenous Australian Art is made by the indigenous peoples of Australia and in collaborations between these and other artists. It includes work in a wide range of media including carvings, paintings on leaves, woodcarving, rock carving, sculpting, ceremonial clothing and sand painting.

The piece above is an example of aboriginal art. The aboriginal art tends to be cartoony and simple, but portrays a story or a message in its work. Normally there would be loads of symbols describing things or telling stories. The piece above is supposed to be an areal view of a landscape. It represents the dreamtime and imagination of the people. The painting symbolizes the meeting places and trails the people would follow, the landscape it shows is supposed to resemble the land native to the aboriginal people.

The pigments of the color are all very earth natural colors. This is because the aboriginal people would grind down natural rocks to create the pigments they used to paint. I love this idea, it keeps the painting very specific, it’s an interesting creating a painting about a landscape using elements of the landscape as the paintings main element.

       Aboriginal art is based on important ancient stories, even contemporary aboriginal art. The symbols are centered on ‘the dream time’. This was a period in which they believe the world was created. The dreamtime stories about the origin of the earth are up to, possibly older than 50,000 years old and have been handed down through the generations, virtually unchanged.

Buddhist art

Buddhist art is the artistic practices, which are influenced by Buddhism. These pieces of art may include the narrative scenes fro historical and mythical lives. They could include mandalas (pretty circular shapes full of geometric pattern) which Buddhists may be used as an aid when they are meditating.

Zen Buddhism is a mixture of Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism. It began in China, spread to Korea and Japan, and became very popular in the west from the mid 20^th century. The essence of Zen is attempting to understand the meaning of life directly, without being misled by logical thought or language.

The image above is an example of a piece of Zen Buddhist painting. It is an ink and brush painting of bamboo.

The ink was applied to the paper with a brush. The type of paper that was used in this painting is called rice paper. It is very degradable and so you can not spend long applying small details to the piece, as it would disintegrate. You simply have to apply a brush stroke very fast and very precise, and let it dry before adding any other lines on top.

Zen Buddhists see the painting as a symbol of strength. The precision and concentration required for this kind of painting is a kind of meditation which can be used to zone out, especially this specific technique, as each mark needs to be created precisely, and can not be removed or change once it has been done.

Tibetan Buddhism

The painting below is a Buddhist painting called “Tara”. Tara is the female goddess in the painting, also known as Ketsun Dolma. She is known as the “mother of liberation” and represents success and achievements in work.

The painting is painted on to fabric, so that it could be hung on to peoples walls, like decorative tapestries, however people believed these ones had meanings and purpose. The woman painted on the tapestries is supposed to protect the people against Demons.

       The whole tapestries are full of religious symbols, e.g. the woman is sitting on a lotus throne. In the Buddhist culture Buddha’s, Buddhist saints, gurus, Bodhisattva, and the other important figures are always seen sitting on standing on to a lotus throne. The lotus stands for purity mainly, but had thousands of other meanings in Buddhism.

Tanzanian Tinga Tinga

“Tinga-tinga” is a style of painting, which was developed in the second half of the 20^th century in the Oyster Bay area in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), and later spread to most of East Africa. The Tazanian Tinga Tinga paintings are traditionally made on Masonite, using several layers of bicycle paint, which makes for bright, brilliantly saturated colors. Many of the elements to the painting are related to the requirements of the tourists, which would buy them. For example, they are very small so they can be easily transported, and subjects appeal to the Europeans and Americans. It is controversial whether the Tinga art is completely original or a derivative of traditional art forms from East Africa.

Above is an example of Tinga art. The animals in the painting are often very stylized, you can clearly see what the animals are supposed to be; giraffes in the foreground and birds in the tree in the background; but other interesting elements have been added to create a much more interesting and strange patterned painting. For example you can see there is circular patterning on the body of the giraffes which resemble the spots they would normal have, but instead of being realistic spots they resemble patterns, something which is very common in this style of work.

       The vivid bright colors I mentioned earlier and very obvious in this painting. There’s such a contrast between the bright orange in the background and the black, then with the bright yellow of the birds.

Japanese Woodblock Print – Ukiyo-e

Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre. Woodblock printing has been used all over china for centuries to print books long before the invention of the ‘moveable type’.

Ukiyo-e is a genre of woodblock prints and paintings that flourished in Japan from the 17^th through to the 19^th century. The popular themes were mainly beautiful women, kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers, scenes from history folk tales, travel scenes, landscape scenes, flora and erotica.

The picture above is an example of a traditional Japanese woodcut print. The figures in the woodcuts would have very simple, stylized faces and bodies which are supposed to give off an air of beauty. The figures would always be adorned and surrounded by some areas of highly detailed intricate patterns which contrast the areas of whiteness and clarity (such as the ladies face and the clear ground she is stood on).

The woodcuts were often of scenes, and were as a result asymmetric. This gives it a jumbled up feel which is much more authentic than just looking at a symmetrical panting (which can look very false). This asymmetric view helps to give off the impression that the view has been snapped from normal life, rather than being posed or positioned in such a way for the photograph.

       The outfits that the model wears in the image and the fan that she is carrying has a very theatrical feel about it; a very common element In the Japanese woodblock prints, the models often look like “Geisha”, traditional Japanese female entertainers who act as hostesses and whose skills include preforming various arts such as playing music, dance, games and conversation mainly to entertain male customers.

Indian art –Krishna

The major gods in Indian art are described as quite social people, they love the earth and nature and are always described to love their partners and compliment each other. Krishna was physically irresistibly appealing (the man in the image below). Ancient texts dwell at length on him. He had a blue complexion soft like the moon, shining locks of black hair framing a beautifully chiseled face, large lotus eyes and always a smile.

The painting on the previous page is called “Krishna”. The Indian art tradition shows the love between people and gods because it acknowledges that sex is the supreme fact in life, which provides the urge to procreate and maintain the species. These paintings are usually created very miniature for books. They depict lives if Hindu gods and Goddesses and attempt to show that they love and love nature, they show the attraction to the gods and remind people of their natures.

       The paintings were set in deal landscapes or architectural structures. The places they were situated are always very beautiful and calm looking, covered with extravagant amounts of nature of beautiful architectural details.

       The paintings are incredibly detailed but there is some evident stylization in the tree in the back. You can see that rather than including every part of detail they simply stylize and color the whole lot in a rough estimate of color. However they leave the main subjects of the painting very detailed, which I think helps draw attraction to them (the two dancing god/goddesses in the bottom half of the page).

       The images were very beautiful and decorative, staying true to their culture the women and men wear beautifully bright and patterned clothing. The boarders of the page were also patterned in a beautiful way to frame the work.

      

Islamic Art

Islamic art encompasses the visual art produced from the 7^th century onwards by people who lived within the territory that was inhabited or ruled by culturally Islamic populations. It is very difficult to define what Islamic art actually is because it covers many different lands, styles and people from a range of about 1400 years. The Islamic art may not have any significant reference to religion, a time or place or subject matter; nor is the art typically created in a set medium, it is very open to the artists interpretation.

The photograph above is an example of islamic art. the most prominent feature about the piece for me is definitely the repeat geometric patterns, which make up the piece. They’re such intricate unique patterns which fit together perfectly into a tiled slight composition. The Islamic art pieces would often be used for actual tiles on walls and ceilings because they were always very patterned and pretty to look at.

       The Islamic art designs very rarely involved any figures in them, they were usually a very strict complex geometric patterned design.

William Blake

Newton is a monotype by the English poet and painter William Blake, which was first created in 1795, but re-worked and re-printed in 1805. It is one of the 12 large color prints created between 1795 and 1805, which also include his series of images on the biblical ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

The photograph above is of a painting by William blake. Isaac Newton is shown sitting naked and crouched on a rocky place, covered in algae, apparently in the bottom of the sea. His attention is focused upon what looks to me like a map, but is infact diagrams which he draws on with a compass. The scroll he is working on appears to un-wravel from his mouth. William was showing his own personal interpretation to Christianity. All of the figures in his paintings were very masculine and muscular. Painted with watercolours.

John Martin

The photograph on the previous page is of a painting by John Martin called “Last judgment”. The red scariness surrounding both the background and the foreground is supposed to resemble the end of the world and the devastation and destruction surrounding. John’s main painting focus was on apocalyptic events like this one shown above.

John specializes in large very detailed oil paintings. He is inspired by Christian events from the bible, hence the title of this painting “Last judgment day”, the days where the people who are in “purgatory” will be judged. A very important part of the bible.

John studied and loved the large Victorian narrative paintings and obviously incorporated these into his own work.