Art Criticism Research Articles

Refleksi Budaya Etnis Tionghoa dalam Kesenian Barongsai di Kota Singkawang

The lion dance is a form of ethnic Chinese culture with a beautiful variety of motion and visual ornaments. The purpose of this research is to serve as a reminder of cultural preservation and inheritance. The primary reflection resources paired with Feldman's art criticism method include a historical overview, performance dynamics, ritual/celebration procedures, and cultural heritage. This study also provides a glimpse into and description of ethnic Chinese's effort to express cultural arts following a time of prejudice. The dissection is carried out utilising descriptive qualitative methodologies, with data collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Triangulation of sources with ethnomusicologists validates the data analysed using an inter-academic model. Cultural reflection produced by Barongsai arts for ethnic Chinese includes reminders and awareness of evaluative materials related to the struggle for discrimination in the historical context, entertainment and sports functions in the context of performance dynamics, meanings and symbols of happy and sad expressions in the context of ritual / celebration processes, and sorting out incoming outside cultures for the younger generation in the context of cultura. It is critical and beneficial that the findings of this study serve as a vehicle and platform for future attempts to maintain and enhance the Barongsai art form. In addition, there needs to be support between elements of the ethnic Chinese community and the government so that the art of Barongsai can be preserved and developed in the future.

История проведения художественной выставки «Урало-Кузбасс» (1935)

The author of the article for the first time in Russian and Ural art criticism refers to the history of the organization of the 1935 Ural-Kuzbass art exhibition. Using the historical and genetic method, the main stages and events on the way to the exhibition are considered. The article summarizes and analyses the scattered historical data about the exhibition which are stored in the Documentation Centre of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk region and were found in the Sverdlovsk press of the 1930s. The study is of interest for completing the history of the artistic life of one of the largest industrial regions of the USSR in the 1930s; it provides new information about the functioning of art and the relationship between the government and the intelligentsia during this period.

Documentary and the question of knowledge

Ruthless Times: Songs of Care /Armotonta menoa – Hoivatyön laulujaan (Helke 2002) is an acclaimed musical documentary about the privatization of elderly care. I explore how the film was framed by the director Susanna Helke, in written articles and in an interview, as artistic research, and consider how this research engages with the question of knowledge production in terms of the director’s stated aims and reference points, particularly Bertolt Brecht and Jacques Rancière. I analyse to what extent, as Helke suggests, it can be seen as creating a “rupture”, in Rancière’s sense, in relation to previous documentary forms and languages. I argue that while the film faces some of the same issues that critical art often confronts in terms of spectator address, its process of working with its topic and its participants nonetheless embodies a progressive model of feminist witnessing.

중국 초등 미술교육과 전통 민속문화 - 미술 교과서 내용 분석을 중심으로

This study examines educational contents of folk culture in elementary school art textbooks to increase understanding of China’s traditional folk culture education. China, as a multi-ethnic nation, has established a legal basis for the preservation and protection of traditional folk culture of ethnic groups and has implemented educational policies to promote these folk cultures. The following are the results of analysis of the illustrations included in the art textbooks for all grade levels. First, illustrations related to Chinese folk culture in the textbooks are 49 in total, making up 12% of the total textbook illustrations. Second, educational areas represented are relatively evenly divided between sculpting and molding, design application, and art appreciation and criticism. Third, folk culture of 17 ethnic groups from 14 different regions are introduced in the textbooks out of 56 ethnic groups recognized in China. Fourth, educational content related to folk culture consists of folk toys, handcrafted ornaments, embroidery, dyeing and weaving, paper crafts, folk architect, sculpture, shadow puppetry, lotus paintings, rubbing, traditional holidays and traditional clothing. However, the fact that more than 70% of the images are of folk toys and handcrafted items and that some illustrations were inserted merely to arouse curiosity are areas that would need to be worked on to better

Resemblance as a Passing Quality: Liotard, La Tour, and the Question of Le Faire in Eighteenth-Century Portraiture

Abstract According to Diderot, ressemblance was a central quality in eighteenth-century portraiture – and yet it was ultimately less important than the particular manner of execution, le faire. Bold brushstrokes, art critics agreed in Paris around 1750, not only enliven the subject, but also testify to the artistic enthousiasme, the genius of a painter. While Maurice-Quentin de La Tour perfectly served this ideal with his bravura pastel portraits, his greatest rival at the time, Jean-Étienne Liotard, decidedly turned against this ideal. Concentrating on Liotard’s programmatic painting The Breakfast (exhibited in the Académie de Saint-Luc’s Salon of 1752), this article compares the different pictorial concepts of Liotard and La Tour, illuminates the contemporary discussion on execution, and ultimately asks about the strategies Liotard devised in order not to be overlooked as the author of his paintings despite his smooth finish.

Neoliberal Reason, Contemporary Music, and Proximal Critique

Abstract Theodor W. Adorno suggested that music is mediated by socially derived forms of reason, a provocation here considered with respect to neoliberalism. Drawing on a Foucauldian understanding of neoliberalism, which in Wendy Brown's summary takes neoliberalism as ‘a specific and normative mode of reason’, I consider what this means for immanent features of music and processes of its composition. This critical attention to music's formal, aesthetic register enables me to go beyond the more well-established (although nonetheless valuable) frameworks for discussing music and neoliberalism, which focus on music's relation to labour conditions and creative industries. A range of music and sonic art is discussed, work by Chino Amobi, Brian Eno, Bryn Harrison, Sarah Hennies, Johannes Kreidler, Wolfgang Rihm, Marina Rosenfeld, and John Zorn. I ultimately argue that some core features of Adorno's conception of critical art and music need reformulating for the neoliberal age.

Experimental Photography Study by Kurnia Ngayuga Wibowo “Memory Lane”

The work Experimental Photo Memory Lane by Kurnia Ngayuga Wibowo is a notable piece that has been featured in various prestigious exhibitions, such as "Permata Youth Photostory" organized by Permata Photojournalist Grant and Pannafoto Institute, Bandung Photography Triennale, Bandung Photography Month, and SEA Reading Photobookdummies in Taiwan. This work is considered a masterpiece by Kurnia Ngayuga Wibowo and serves as a compelling example of experimental photography. The appreciation of such a work is often conducted through art criticism, which plays a crucial role in interpreting and appreciating the underlying content of a photographic work. Understanding and interpreting each photograph can vary significantly, depending on the perspective of the critic or the photographer. The purpose of this research is to explore and analyze the artistic elements and intentions behind the Memory Lane series through the lens of art criticism, specifically using Feldman’s art criticism theory. This qualitative study utilizes Feldman’s four-step approach to art criticism-description, formal analysis, interpretation, and evaluation—to gain a deeper understanding of the photography series. The findings of this research reveal that Memory Lane represents a form of experimental photography, which navigates various challenges inherent to the medium, particularly in terms of storytelling through images. The study demonstrates how art criticism can provide diverse perspectives on a single work of art and how these perspectives can be integrated with other art forms to enrich the overall interpretation. The implications of this research extend to the broader field of art criticism and photography, highlighting the importance of critical analysis in understanding the multifaceted nature of photographic art and its capacity to convey complex narratives.

Notas sobre escultura e Notas sobre escultura, parte 2

The articles “Notes on Sculpture” and “Notes on Sculpture, Part 2” by Robert Morris mark a milestone in the history of sculpture, challenging traditional notions of form and function. The emphasis on basic geometric elements and the understanding of sculpture as a spatial event, rather than a static object, transformed artistic discourse. By proposing an approach centered on the viewer’s experience and the work’s interaction with the environment, Morris paved the way for Minimalism. Through his reflections, the artist significantly expanded the possibilities of sculpture, influencing contemporary art production and criticism in a decisive manner.

Integrating Art Analysis And Appreciation Into Subjects Areas And Disciplines Through Art Criticism And Interdisciplinary Learning

The quest for teaching aids and multi-media resources for teaching, and learning and the overriding interest in creating meaning in all disciplines is the motivation for this study. This all important drive for creating meaning through a multi-strategy of interdisciplinary nature in the context of this study identified as Art Criticism, calls forthe inquiry into interdisciplinary learning due to its numerous benefits. The art has been seen by many as a subject area or discipline that has little or no relevance to other fields of study. In view of these preconceived notions, this study proposes that integrating art analysis and appreciation into teaching and learning will not only correct this notion but also create a more rewarding and all inclusive interdisciplinary method of teaching and learning. Therefore, this research highlights the relevance of arts in interdisciplinary learning and explores the ways that art criticism and learning could be used to integrate art analysis and appreciation into other subjects as an interdisciplinary enterprise. This research adopts Richard Mayer's Multimedia Cognitive Learning Theory to explain the effectiveness of integrated teaching and learning, using art and multimedia in multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach. The methodology adopted for this research is basically qualitative research method with historical and deductive approaches used.This is achieved through documentary observation and textual references in the analysis and as means to advance the argument of the study. The study concludes that the evidence that sufficed the fact that the integration of art criticism and interdisciplinary learning has the potential to promote students' engagement in interdisciplinary understanding. This research recommendsthat art criticismis a means through which teaching and learning experience across disciplines is enhanced.

Research on the Development form of Chinese Contemporary Oil Painting in Recent 30 Years

This paper analyzes and discusses the development form of Chinese contemporary oil painting in the past 30 years, and thinks that in the past 30 years, after the baptism of Western cultural thoughts, postmodern thoughts have been deeply rooted in the hearts of Chinese people. Under this background, Western modern culture has brought rich topics to Chinese oil painting, and Chinese oil painting language is also transforming under the impact of Western artistic thoughts. This paper also summarizes the two aspects of Chinese contemporary art criticism during the period of 1990-2020. This paper holds that only by accurately grasping the characteristics of The Times and starting from the simple life can contemporary Chinese oil painting see the truth, goodness and beauty of art from life, and only by returning to the real "contemporary" can it absorb the essence from it and have enduring vitality.

RUSSIAN PAINTING OF THE 19TH - EARLY 20TH CENTURY AS A REFLECTION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY (REVIEW OF A MONOGRAPH BY KOPTSEVA N.P., KOLESNIK M.A., LESHCHINSKAYA N.M., SAMARINA D.N. “RUSSIAN CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE FINE ARTS OF THE 19TH - EARLY 20TH CENTURIES.

The article is a review of the collective monograph authored by the Siberian Federal University scholars — Koptseva N.P., Kolesnik M.A., Leshchinskaya N.M., Samarina D.N. “Russian cultural identity in the Fine Arts of the 19th — early 20th century”. The researchers examined the features of Russian cultural identity construction in the works by V.G. Perov, I.Ya. Bilibin, M.V. Nesterov and B.M. Kustodiev. The relevance of the book lies in the fact that it is the first of its kind in the series of scientific art criticism and cultural literature “Russian Culture”. The scientific novelty of the monograph consists in the philosophical and art criticism analysis of religious philosophy as a source of cultural identity, in the substantiation of new theoretical concepts such as area-critical and area-romantic styles. The results of the presented work contribute to the study of the process of constructing Russian cultural identity from the standpoint of God-seeking in works of fine art of the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The practical value of the book lies in the systematization of the basic content of Russian cultural identity and the establishment of a connection with the key concepts of Russian religious philosophy, including the ideas of Russian Orthodoxy, Slavophilism, the concept of Sophia — the Wisdom of God in the interpretation of V.S. Solovyov, the application of the sociology of imagination in the study of mythology, symbolism, semiotics of signs, visual perception of painting. The results of the research outlined in the book can be used in teaching courses on the history and theory of Russian culture as well as in the creation of special courses and programmes based on the relationship between culture, philosophy, Religious Studies and literature.

The total picture: Activist artist Virginia Jackson Kiah and the Black house museum beyond the frame

AbstractThis article presents artist activist Virginia Jackson Kiah as a key figure in the phenomenon of the African American house museum. Readers will benefit from this layer of Kiah scholarship and its contributions to the field of anthropology by looking at a talented artist fueled by her status as a Black woman denied civil, civic, and human rights. Therefore, Virginia Jackson Kiah recreated herself as an artist activist who led a cultural resistance to racism in the arts prior to desegregation and the civil rights movement. As a scholar outside the realm of anthropology, art criticism, and analysis, I approach this project from the stance of a storyteller applying cultural studies methodology and content analysis. I posit that more attention should be given to the total artist—not just the person that had a grasp of brush, paint, pencil, and canvas. Besides her gifts as a painter, little has been written about Virginia Jackson Kiah, the interdisciplinary artist activist who examined culture and history as a musician, composer, singer, pianist, and arts educator. This recovery project fills several voids using archived materials and interviews which recast a total picture of Virginia Jackson Kiah as an artist and activist.

Художествената критика в капан: кризата на субективизма през 20-те години на XXI век

Art criticism has the privilege of being part of all the transformations in the history of Bulgarian art, with its role in the avant-garde situation in the 1990s being particularly significant, which left a lasting impression of its usefulness and necessity for the world of contemporary art. Over the past ten years, critical writing has progressively declined until the last dedicated portal for criticism has disappeared, and this circumstance has given rise to disturbing articles and questions in the public domain such as Where is criticism today?. Numerous attempts have been made to revive it, and the results have shown that not every generation is privileged to participate in a revolution, and not every decade gives rise to the writing of heroic criticism. For this reason, its temporary attenuation is not necessarily a cause for alarm—on the contrary. The self-serving writing and artificial motivation of criticism in recent years have left a more troubling sense of unprofessionalism, naivety, and illegitimate subjectivism in an age that rejects rigid norms and rules about good art. On the one hand, this ultra-democratic nature provoked dissatisfaction from connoisseurs of critical thought, but on the other hand, it placed the artist in the most liberal regional artistic situation of the last hundred years. The text analyzes the typology of contemporary art criticism, the factors contributing to its decline, and the possibilities for its legitimate emergence.

Changing the Aesthetic Taste in Two Modern Kurdish Songs

Human being always looking for changes and experiencing new things. Since the art directly connected to the social and psychological phenomena, the meaning of aesthetics keeps changing. Therefore, it is common to see that the individual constantly looks for new styles, abandoning the old music and songs. This study, Changing Aesthetic in Two Modern Kurdish Song, is analyzing the differences between the two selected songs within the last twenty years regarding text, melody, rhythm, and song. It highlights that to what extent the songs are connected to the aesthetic feeling of their times. The importance of this research is that it clarifying the aesthetic feeling in the Kurdish modern music and song, revealing that it is a principal issue that never should be neglected in any art criticism. Therefore, the study is about aesthetic in art in general and modern music and song in particular. In addition to the introduction, and abstract, the research is composed of three chapters. The first chapter is about the general structure of the research including the problem and the importance of the research, the goal of the research, the tools and the limits of the research, and the terminology. In the second chapter, the structure of the research divided into different subjects such as aesthetic feeling, Aesthetic types, change in the aesthetic feeling, and the introduction to the historical changes in the Kurdish song. The third part is devoted to the implementation if the outcomes of the research which is composed of illustration and analyzing the case studies, analyzing the text, and practical music. The research ends with the result and the list of resources.

The meaning of autonomy: How artists justify career paths

While autonomy is a crucial concept in the sociology of culture, most scholars treat it as an objective feature of the cultural field or creative work. This article argues that autonomy is a subjective construct with ambiguous meanings that enable creative workers to flexibly justify their career paths. I draw on a case of Chinese visual artists in the postsocialist era (since 1979), where the institutional context of dual career path highlights the ambiguity of autonomy. Using interview data with two groups of Chinese artists in different institutional positions—state-affiliated artists employed by the official system and independent artists without official affiliation—I show that the two groups offer conflicting narratives of autonomy. State-affiliated artists claim freedom from market and art criticism, whereas independent artists assert autonomy from state and organizational duties. Both groups emphasize the kind of autonomy they have and downplay the kind they lack to justify their career over the alternative position. Based on these findings, I suggest a more interpretive analysis of autonomy in cultural fields, one that illuminates how workers use ambiguous meanings to justify career choices.

What Misfitting Makes

Weaving together personal experience, disability studies scholarship, and art criticism, this paper explores the relationship between embodied experience of the world and the demands placed on us to conform to it. Misfitting forces us to recognize the fundamental distinction between flesh and world, and with it both the limits and possibilities of the human capacity to act and to be. The fundamental misfit all humans share is that we emerge from the sheltering womb into a material world that is indifferent to our individual existence. That is to say, mortality is the fundamental misfit of the human condition. It is in this sense that flesh emplaced in world is always a relationship of misfitting. The existential and social repair that misfitting calls for is attentive care and love, an attitude of welcome and openness to all body-minds, whether expected or unexpected, whether fit or misfit.

On the question of the periodization of the history of Western art criticism

The subject of the study is the Western historiography of the history of art from the middle of the XIX century to the present, the patterns that determined the nature of its development, general cultural and general scientific factors that determined the paradigm shift in art criticism. The time frame of the study is determined, on the one hand, by the emergence of scientific art studies, on the other hand, by the assertion of a postmodern worldview that denies the possibility of scientific study of any texts, including artistic ones. The paper examines the characteristics of each of the highlighted stages, as well as their relationship with the general trends in the development of humanitarian knowledge at each stage. Thus, the history of art is placed in a broad context of general scientific and general cultural processes, which makes it possible to identify and study the driving forces that determine the course of its development. The main method of research is the method of periodization, the criterion for which is the predominance of a particular methodology at a particular historical stage of the development of art studies. The paper proposes the following periodization of the history of art studies: 1. Pre-scientific art criticism (before XIX century). 2. The cultural and historical stage (XIX century). 3. Formal and stylistic stage (XX century). 4. The iconological stage (XX century). 5. Post-scientific art criticism (beginning of the XXI century). This classification allows us to present the history of scientific art studies as a natural and consistent process of changing dominant methodologies, starting with the formation of a scientific approach to the study of art and up to the present time, when the very possibility of its application was questioned by the postmodern worldview. The main factor determining the change of stages in the development of art criticism is a change in the general cultural situation, as well as a change in the prevailing paradigms in art knowledge.

A process-relational sociology of art critics: Clement Greenberg’s Modernist theory and practice

A central theme of this article is the developing tension between art specialists and non-specialists as a function of complex, differentiated figurations. Bourdieu’s sociology of symbolic revolutions is allied to Elias’s model of the relative autonomy of the artistic figurations within lengthening relations of interdependencies and shifting cognitive-emotional tension balances of feeling and reasoning and spontaneity and self-restraint. Within the sociology of art, the field positionings, power, interdependencies, language and habitus of art critics remain a relatively underdeveloped area of enquiry. Art critics function as ‘professional explicators’ in Bourdieu’s terms or ‘specialists in verbalisation’ in Elias’s to communicate standard-setting models of value and taste of specialists to non-specialists. Clement Greenberg emerged as a socially mobile oblate from a position of artworld outsider to hegemonic dominance as the leading notable of Modernist art criticism. The article examines the social conditions of possibility for Greenberg’s standard-setting codes as they came to be established and sustained by particular figurations of people (a self-conscious avant-garde) at particular times (late 1930s–1970s) and places (New York).

Richard O. Hertz’s Art Criticism and Patronage During His Stay(1956-1960) in South Korea

Richard O. Hertz’s Art Criticism and Patronage During His Stay(1956-1960) in South Korea

The Aesthetics of Arabic Calligraphic and Islamic Formations in the Curtain of the Door of Kaaba: A Critical Artistic Study

The Kaaba's covering carries inherited aesthetics with an ancient historical and cultural character. The curtain for thedoor of the Holy Kaaba is an integral part of the design of the Kiswa of the Holy Kaaba, as it covers the door of the HolyKaaba. The door curtain of the Holy Kaaba is considered an immortal and unique Islamic artistic painting in terms ofthe uniqueness of its design. Therefore, this study aims to apply the Western theory of art criticism (Feldman) to Arabiccalligraphy and the calligraphic formations embodied in the curtain of the door of the Holy Kaaba to demonstrateaesthetic and artistic design values. The approach followed in this study is Feldman's approach to art criticism.Feldman's methodology is considered a systematic and integrated critical methodology for describing and analyzingartworks. In addition, this methodology enhances the aesthetic experience to understand art, its dimensions andvalue. The tool used in the study is observation. The study population consists of linear and decorative units withmultiple styles. The study concluded that the curtain of the door of the Holy Kaaba is characterized by an abundanceof calligraphic formations and compositions and Islamic decorative plant units.