Expressionism & Congnitivism

A.) Expressionism is when art is made with the intent of portraying emotion. Cognitivism is when art is made with the intent to create knowledge. Cognitive art entices critical thinking and thought; whereas expressionist art exposes feeling. The main differences between the two are the way the viewer reacts to the work or the intent of the artist who made it. Aesthetic value plays a roll in making both types of work, because the aesthetics are a way of communicating to the viewer.

B.) I think that Tolstoy’s believes that art should express religious or moral attitudes. Art should be made with a clear and sincere expression. Tolstoy feels that art is a human activity where one person is able to “infect” others with his feelings and portray the experience. In other works, he believes that a work of art must transmit emotion/feeling onto the viewer. Tolstoy does not feel that expression of emotion is enough to make art “good art”. Art is important to Tolstoy because it is a way of communicating emotionally to others.

C.) To Collingwood, art is a mental process. The viewer must be able to see the finished work and recreate it in his/her mind in order for the work to function as art. Works of art only exist when it has meaning to the viewer. The viewer and the artist should collaborate emotionally through the piece; the viewer should imaginatively reconstruct the artists emotions and expression.

D.) Louis Bourgeois makes work a lot of work that relates to her past/events that have happened in her life. One of the metaphors that she used was in “cell” where there were two rooms (the parent’s and the child’s). The child’s room was not accessible like the parents room; the viewer must look through a small window. She uses this as a metaphor of the child’s repressed memories of dark/sexuality/violence. She places symbolic objects around the child’s room; some of which have metaphorical meaning. Kiki Smith usually makes her work about women; not necessarily her own life events. She uses insects and moths to portray sexual metaphors. In one particular piece she uses the insects and moths to represent the female body/sexual anatomy to symbolize fragility and metamorphosis.

E.) I chose Joan Perlman as my artist. The marks made on my currents piece are somewhat similar to her designs. The pieces that I saw were made with cool colors (lots of blues like my piece). She uses paint to manipulate the surface and create texture. Perlman’s works are beautiful and abstract. When I first saw her work, there was one piece in particular that I actually thought was a glazed piece of ceramics. I have enjoyed making my marks with the different stains that work kind of like the paint that Joan uses. I appreciate the way she portrays nature and texture to experiment with her work which is kind of what I am doing with using clay instead of paper.