The Missing Body

This chapter considers the presumed absence of figurative representations in Islamic art, which to some is yet another indication of Islam’s inability to face and represent reality (accept modernity) – as opposed to the body-centric aesthetics of the Renaissance. It is discovered that Islamic history in fact overflows with examples of representations of sentient life. The contrast between Islam’s figurative art (as secular) and abstract and geometric art (as sacred) should not be seen as contradictory, but as a case of cultural simultaneity, which reflects an Islamicate daily life that has always been both religious and secular at the same time.

Likeness-making and the evolution of cognition

Paleontological evidence suggests that human artefacts with intentional markings might have originated already in the Lower Paleolithic, up to 500.000 years ago and well before the advent of ‘behavioural modernity’. These markings apparently did not serve instrumental, tool-like functions, nor do they appear to be forms of figurative art. Instead, they display abstract geometric patterns that potentially testify to an emerging ability of symbol use. In a variation on Ian Hacking’s speculative account of the possible role of “likeness-making” in the evolution of human cognition and language, this essay explores the central role that the embodied processes of making and the collective practices of using such artefacts might have played in early human cognitive evolution. Two paradigmatic findings of Lower Paleolithic artefacts are discussed as tentative evidence of likenesses acting as material scaffolds in the emergence of symbolic reference-making. They might provide the link between basic abilities of mimesis and imitation and the development of modern language and thought.

Twórczość Marcina Rząsy. Przyczynek do monografii

Abstrakt: Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie sylwetki zakopiańskiego rzeźbiarza Marcina Rząsy w oparciu o badania własne autorki. Tekst prezentuje życiorys artystyczny twórcy, począwszy od czasu studiów w warszawskiej Akademii Sztuk Pięknych. Następnie Autorka nakreśla zasadnicze motywy w twórczości Marcina Rząsy i stara się zinterpretować styl i wyraz jego figuralnych przedstawień. Podkreśla też znaczenie drewna jako wykorzystywanego przez Rząsę materiału rzeźbiarskiego. Summary: The article aims to bring the profile and the work of the sculptor Marcin Rząsa from Zakopane. It consists of sculptor’s artistic biography from his childhood to the end of the education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In the second part the author outlines the main interest of Marcin Rząsa figurative art and tries to analyze and interpret the artist’s expression. Further the article brings out the importance of wood as a material used in Rząsa’s carving process.

The Cage Case. Arts and Social Neuroscience

A great story told by a musician is the basis of the best stage experimentation of the second half of the 20th century. The musician is John Cage, whose work synthesizes the entire system of arts within the extraordinary world of the avant-garde. This great story begins with the experimental artistic activities which were developed in the 1920s, consolidated in the thirties and continued through the post-war period up to the dawn of the fifties. Apart from the socio-historical cross-section Cage’s experimentation provides, it is also a pretext for reflecting on the artist’s work as well as the relationship between neuroscience and art. Important contributions to this topic come from the neuro-scientific-social research on new expressions “of creativity, imagination, genius” (Pecchinenda, 2018). This study is based on the assumption that Cage was the forerunner of neuronal experimentation that would be central to the experiments and research of many other artists. The theoretical reference model can be found in the research of the neuroscientist Kandel et al, whose work was the starting point for this investigation. Kandel grasps the definitive break between scientific logic and humanistic sensitivity in the methodological reductionism practiced by neuroscience and in the experiments of contemporary creativity. According to Kandel, both neuroscience and artistic experimentation have similar objectives and problems, and in some respects seem to develop similar methodological practices. Kandel identifies the use of memory, synthesis and knowledge of the world in authors such as Mondrian, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, Louis, Warhol as well as the New York school of which Cage was an important member. The relationship between art and neuroscience is synthetized in the avant-garde action of Cage and in all the artists who launched continuous attacks against traditional forms. The transition from figurative art to abstraction is “comparable” to the reductionist process that is used in the scientific field to explain complexity and phenomenology. The prolegomena of this discourse are anticipated by a previous work written by Kandel in 2012 and can also be found in other studies on the relationship between neuroscience and art, in particular in the reflections of the neurobiologist and father of neuroaesthetics, Semir Zeki. Zeki analyzed artists work as a practice perfectly comparable to the research carried out by neuroscientists. Cage, the focus of this investigation, carried out a sound-stage-vision experimentation affecting theatre, media and art which can be examined from at least two different perspectives. The first concerns the definitive subversion of “innate rules of perception” (Kandel) and the second deals with the relationship between art and neuroscience.

Metaphysics of postmodern figurative art in Ukrainian art of the late XX - early XXI century

The purpose of the article is to study the artistic traditions and conceptual innovations in the works of Ukrainian artists of the XX-XXI centuries. In contemporary Ukrainian art, figurative language is produced simultaneously with the renewal of public consciousness and in certain aspects directly contributes to its formation. Figurative imagery using Ukrainian artists of this cultural period is not only the result solely of sensory experience, they also absorb the institutionalization of social experience that allows them to reflect different levels of reality. The methodology is the cultural-semiotic analysis of the forms of manifestation of visualization of modern art culture. The application of a systematic approach allowed us to study semiotic systems that contribute to the comprehensive disclosure of the problem of the semantics of modern forms of visualization. The integrative approach has enabled research in new forms of visualization of modern artistic language, which combines informational and aesthetic functions. Due to the revealed changes, traditional images are visualized with the help of a new artistic language, which does not correspond to the traditional meanings of the artistic image. The scientific novelty of the work lies in understanding the metaphysics of postmodern figurative art in contemporary Ukrainian art. A characteristic feature of the development of modern culture is the rapid social transformation, covering all areas of human activity. For the structure of art, the nature of which is due to constant change and renewal, the problem of the relationship between tradition and innovation is important. Thus, contemporary artists in their figurative, non-figurative and conceptual practices use the memory of artistic culture and artistic traditions as a mediator between the past and the present. Ukrainian art practitioners build a multiple and diverse artistic and image system based on the mechanism of interaction of traditions and innovations, involvement in the creative process of specific stylistic combinations of past and present, and reflection on cultural realities. Conclusions. Ukrainian culture is being revived in the following main directions: the process of self-consciousness and the formation of national historical memory has intensified, and the vector of development of social consciousness has been determined. Also, due to the weakening of totalitarian control, upgraded ideological and spiritual social norms. In the context of freer cultural development, artists use simple and clear images in various unusual contexts, often visualizing the determinants of the renewal of the collective consciousness. At the same time, the entry of domestic art into the world art arena meant the urgent need for rapid change in all spheres of art. This speed led to a number of complex problematic issues related to the difficult interaction of traditions and innovations, as well as folk and classical in contemporary art, determined the formation of a new series of images.

Regions within Regions

Archaic Crete has always provided a useful counterweight to Athenocentric views of how early Greece developed. This paper's focus is on Crete's epigraphic habits. It proposes that there is a deep-seated connexion between these and other features of its material culture-its austerity, and apparent lack of interest in narrative art. It goes on to compare epigraphic habits in Western, Central, and Eastern Crete. It concentrates on inscriptions from the three known Archaic political communities in Eastern Crete: Azoria, Praisos, and Itanos. They differ as much from each other as they do from the pattern to be found in Central Crete. Insofar as there is an East Cretan pattern, however, it seems in part to relate to a greater interest in figurative art than was the case in Central Crete. Whether this relates to linguistic differences, which seemed to have required modifications to the Cretan epichoric script, is also discussed.

Evidence-based art in the hospital

Summary Background Evidence-based art is the investigation of art effects and art investigated for effects. In this study the evidence regarding patient preferences for art styles and effects of art in nonpsychiatric hospitals and outpatient departments was reviewed. Methods Results from original articles were retrieved by a scoping PubMed search and by browsing the internet using the terms “evidence based art”, “evidence based design”, “art and hospital” and “design and hospital”, “art effect”, “design effect”, “landscape preference” and “abstract art figurative art”. The quality of art was not operationalized as a criterion. Results Of the articles 7 original sources showed patient preference for natural scenes and figurative art, 2 studies showed no preference, 16 studies showed positive art effects on well-being and behavior and 5 studies showed a positive effect of nature pictures on measurable findings. Conclusion Controversial results together with theoretical aspects suggest natural scenes in patient rooms and diverse art in public areas.

Painting with words. Some considerations on the picture of women from The Child of Pleasure to The Virgins of the Rocks by Gabriele D’Annunzio

Il saggio si occupa di un aspetto fondamentale della ricerca compiuta da D’Annunzio che è la fusione di scrittura e arte figurativa, e della sua declinazione secondo i dettami dell’estetismo finisecolare. Lo studio intende mettere in luce non solo le modalità stilistiche e compositive, ma anche la finalità poetica e le valenze ideologiche, della sperimentazione ecfrastica realizzata nel passaggio tra il romanzo di debutto (Il piacere) e il romanzo del superomismo (Le vergini delle rocce). L’analisi testuale prenderà in esame come i ritratti dei personaggi femminili, costruiti attraverso la comparazione con oggetti d’arte, poggino altresì sulla narrazione dell’effetto prodotto sull’io del protagonista che sceglie e guarda tali opere d’arte. La visione viene cristallizzata nelle immagini verbali che ornano le pagine del libro, il quale, a sua volta, diventa museo e si offre allo sguardo del lettore del tempo proponendogli un nuovo canone estetico di Bellezza. The essay deals with a fundamental aspect of D'Annunzio’s research which is the fusion of writing and figurative art, and its declination according to the dictates of end-century aesthetics. The study intends to highlight the stylistic and compositional modalities, in addition to the poetic purpose and ideological values, of the ecphrastic experimentation carried out in the transition between the debut novel (The Child of Pleasure) and the novel of superomismo (The Virgins of the Rocks). The textual analysis will examine how the portraits of female characters, constructed through the comparison with objects of art, rest at the same time on the narration of the effect produced on the Self of the protagonist who chooses and looks at these works of art. The vision turns out to be crystallized in verbal images which adorn the pages of the book which in turn becomes a museum and offers itself to the eye of the reader of the time, proposing a new aesthetic canon of Beauty. Il saggio si occupa di un aspetto fondamentale della ricerca compiuta da d’Annunzio che è la fusione di scrittura e arte figurativa, e della sua declinazione secondo i dettami dell’estetismo finisecolare. Lo studio intende mettere in luce le modalità stilistiche e compositive, oltre alla finalità poetica e le valenze ideologiche, della sperimentazione ecfrastica realizzata nel passaggio tra il romanzo di debutto (Il piacere) e il romanzo del superomismo (Le vergini delle rocce). L’analisi testuale prenderà in esame come i ritratti dei personaggi femminili, costruiti attraverso la comparazione con oggetti d’arte, poggino al tempo stesso sulla narrazione dell’effetto prodotto sull’io del protagonista che sceglie e guarda tali opere d’arte. La visione viene cristallizzata nelle immagini verbali che ornano le pagine del libro, il quale, a sua volta, diventa museo e si offre allo sguardo del lettore del tempo proponendogli un nuovo canone estetico di Bellezza.

История художественного собрания Н.Е. Добычиной в послереволюционные годы: состав и проблемы бытования

Nadezhda Evseevna Dobychina, whose name is strongly associated with the Art Bureau, which operated in St. Petersburg (Petrograd) from 1911 to 1919, possessed a significant collection of works of art by her contemporaries. The central part of the collection consisted of the works of the artists of the “World of Art” (“Mir Iskusstva”) circle, as well as the associations “Blue Rose” and “Union of Russian Artists”. From the lists of the collection preserved in the Dobychina’s archive, made at the initiative of representatives of the Soviet state in 1919, 1924 and 1930, one can trace how the collection developed in the first post-revolutionary decade. Nadezhda Dobychina gave preference to figurative art, in her property there were practically no abstract works, and the leftist trends of the avant-garde were also not represented. Most of the works kept by Dobychina were graphics (watercolors, pencil drawings and charcoal sketches), however, it should be noted that a block of bright paintings, perfectly combined in style and color, stood out in her collection (“Dawn” by D.S. Stelletsky, “Heat” by M.S. Sariyan, “Portrait of Dobychina” by N.I. Altman and others). The collection changed over time, but its central part remained unchanged despite all the vicissitudes of the owner's eventful life. Надежда Евсеевна Добычина, имя которой прочно ассоциируется с Художественным бюро, функционировавшим в Санкт-Петербурге (Петрограде) с 1911 по 1919 год, обладала значительной коллекцией художественных произведений своих современников. Центральное место в собрании занимали мастера круга «Мира искусства», а также объединений «Голубая роза» и «Союз русских художников». По сохранившимся в архиве Добычиной спискам коллекции, сделанным по инициативе представителей советской власти в 1919, 1924 и 1930 годах, можно проследить, как развивалось собрание в первое послереволюционное десятилетие. Надежда Добычина отдавала предпочтение фигуративному искусству, в ее собственности практически не было абстрактных работ, а также не представлены были левые течения авангарда. Большая часть произведений, хранимых Добычиной, — это графика (акварели, карандашные рисунки и наброски углем). Однако следует отметить, что в ее собрании выделялся блок ярких живописных работ, прекрасно сочетавшихся по стилю и колориту («Заря» Д.С. Стеллецкого, «Зной» М.С. Сарьяна, «Портрет Добычиной» Н.И. Альтмана и другие). Состав коллекции менялся с течением времени, но костяк ее оставался неизменным, несмотря на все перипетии богатого событиями жизненного пути владелицы.