Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Comparative Culture


Our modern pop-culture art is definitely, to what I believe, up to date with our society. I think it fits in perfectly with how people are today. You look around at modern art; it is bright, full of life and color, fun, and very interesting to view. Then look around at our society. You see people walking around in outfits you would never think some one would wear. You see billboards filled with artwork, buildings with paintings on them, cars with designs on them, etc. That is just a few examples of how art mirrors life right now in our society. If you look back at ancient art you will notice a huge difference. They had sculptures, paintings, cave drawings, statues and much more. They were all very unique in their own way. The artwork from Egypt, for example, blends in to their society perfectly. Paintings and sculptures of Pharaoh’s and animals showed basically everything Egyptians lived around and dealt with on a day-to-day basis. The animals they worshipped were drawn in the pyramids, and sculptures of Pharaoh’s were made. The thing that gets me the most is, they did not have the technology or tools we have today. Comparing our society to ancient cultures, you can easily see how much times have changed. Our society today has much more to choose from when it comes to pretty much everything. We have better tools now made just for artists. We have many more colors and options to choose from to make any type of masterpiece anyone would want to create. There is much more abstract and odd-looking art in our world today than they are ever was in ancient times. I could never even think of coming up with some of the art, artists come up with today. Ancient cultures did not have much to choose from. Most of their artwork was basic and of natural things such as, animals, people and nature. Sculpting something back then could take them years to perfect, while now in our society we just need a few computers and were good to go. Another thing is we have art stores. They come filled with all types of paints, brushes, canvas’s, any type of supply you need for art and crafts. Ancient Egyptians had nothing anywhere near that! If they wanted paint they would have to make some, and tools would be made of stone, brushes would be hand made. They could not just walk into an art store and pick these things up as easily as we can today.  You can tell just by looking at their art how much we have modernized over the years. I personally have not been to an art museum anytime recently, but I can tell just from looking at the outside of the museum how modern it would be if I walked inside.  I definitely agree with the saying, “Art mirrors life”. I mean what else would an artist base their artwork on if there were no life? Most artists let their feelings out through their artwork, from what I hear.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you about the fact that all cultures have art that is unique in comparison to one another, but as far as the clothing goes, there are many cultures clothing to this day that Americans would consider outlandish or weird. I mean would you go walking down the street in a pharos clothes. I do agree that art mirrors life but as you said the only art that can be created is from what the artist knows in his or hers life. Cultures in general have many similarities as far as rituals and celebrations. The most common trait that all cultures share is the sense of family. For many culture families must stick together in order to survive As far as the art goes I believe that older art has much more character. The artists back then had to make their own paints, colors, and canvases, which at times was an art in its self. While all cultures make art, there is much more to compare than just art, such as religions or rites of passage. These same items are also what makes them different from other cultures. Music is another comparative difference, along with styles of cooking. Many cultures share languages and have different dialects. In all I thought you take on culture was interesting,but. I am not really sure what other cultures or items you were trying to compare or differentiate from one another, other than clothing and art from the Egyptian era and our present era.

    Authored by Patrick Dougherty Group1

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