LibGuides: IBDP Visual Arts Comparative Study: Function and Purpose (2024)

PURPOSE

According to Ben Dutton "What Makes ArtArt?"

Here is a brief summary of Dutton's annotated cluster-criteria definition of art.
Direct pleasure -Art is "a source of immediate experiential pleasure in itself."

Skill and virtuosity -The making of art requires and demonstrates "specialized"skill
Style. Objects and performances in all art forms are made in recognizable styles, according to rules of form, composition, or expression."
Novelty and creativity -These qualities, as well as "the capacity to surprise," are integral to art in Dutton's view.

Criticism:"Wherever artistic forms are found, they exist alongside some kind of critical judgment and appreciation, simple or, more likely, elaborate."
Representation -"Art objects . . . represent or imitate real and imagined experiences of the world."
Special focus -All art is "bracketed off from ordinary life, made a separate and dramatic focus of experience"
Expressive individuality -A work of art possesses this trait (but so does "[a]ny ordinary activity with a creative component--everyday speech, lecturing, home hospitality" and so on)
Emotional saturation -Art is "shot through with emotion"

Intellectual challenge -Art "tends to be designed to utilize the combined variety of human perceptual and intellectual capacities to the full extent."
Art traditions and institutions -Works of art "gain their identity by the ways they are found in historical traditions, in lines of historical precedents."
Imaginative experience -The chief defining characteristic of art may be that its objects "provide an imaginative experience for both producers and audiences."

FUNCTION

Some different functions that art can have

(remember, a single artwork can have more than one!)

Expressive function – expresses the artists’ feelings

Descriptive function – records the likeness of a place or person or other subject.

Conceptual function –the idea or concept behind the work is more important than the object

Practical function-has a practical use, such as clothing, vessels, furniture, a building

Religious function – tells a religious story or is an object of devotion.

Historical narrative function- tells a story of an event in history

Commemorative function – made to honour someone (like a statue of a famous person)

Political function- serves a political purpose, such as propaganda.

Symbolic function – symbolizes certain beliefs or ideas without representing them.

Decorative Function- used to adorn the body, a room, a building etc.

Ritual function – used as part of a ritual or ceremony, or has magical powers.

Shock function – intended to shock or upset the viewer

FUNCTION

According toConcerning the Nature of Art

Keifer-Boyd, K. & Maitland-Gholson, J. (forthcoming) "Expose, Explode, Empower: Visual Culture Explorations in Art Education." Davis Publication.

INSTRUMENTALISM: One very important idea about art is that it should serve a purpose.

IMITATIONALISM: There is a strong belief among many viewers of art that the purpose of art is to imitate life in a way that recreates the experience we would have if encountering the real-life experience being interpreted by the art work.

EXPRESSIONISM: Another BIG idea about art is that it must express emotion.

FORMALISM: Viewers, often off-handedly, refer to art as “modern art” or “abstract art.”

CONTEXTUALISM: There are many other factors beside design that influence our response to visual art and visual experience in general.

FUNCTION

According to Alain De Bottonand John Armstrong "Art As Therapy" Phadion Press

Video. Notes.

1. Remembering: As a tool to refresh our memory on what has been observed.

2. Hope: As a tool to re-direct out energies and provide hope through beautiful depictions of reality.

3. Sorrow: As a tool to re-assure ourselves, helping us realise that we are not alone in out experiences

4. Rebalancing: Asa tool to rebalanceus by showing us depictions of personal experiences

5. Self Understanding: Asa tool to re-new self understadning by guiding our attention to aspects of ourselves.

6. Growth: As a tool to redevelop and grow by presenting imagery that triggers off putting associations.

7. Appreciation: As a tool to revisit the know and familiar images to develop awareness and gratitude for the everyday.

LibGuides: IBDP Visual Arts Comparative Study: Function and Purpose (2024)
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