ART 1100 - Introduction to Art

1. Recognize the value of art in its practical role in everyday life, the health of the soul and society, and the purpose and functions of art in all elements of every civilization.
2. Recognize the naturalness of general creativity and specific personal style in artistic expression.
3. Recognize the visual elements of art including point, line, shape, mass, space, time/motion, light, color, texture, along with the design elements - scale, proportion, unity and variety, repetition and rhythm, balance, directional force, etc.
4. Recognize the various relationships of visual elements and design elements as universally applied to two-dimensional media (drawing, print making, painting, photographic and electronic arts), three-dimensional media (sculpture, mixed media, performing arts and the crafts), and the application of design principles to industrial and graphic design (architecture, urban/civil engineering and space).
5. Recognize the elements of the above as related to world civilizations including the essentials of economic and cultural influences of the early civilizations, through non-European cultures, the ancient world, medieval through modern Europe, to the contemporary.
6. Express in essay/note form the elements of the above, and in response to critical materials for commentary on the ethical and moral implications of art as perceived today outside of its time, and the role of the observer/collector and his cultural/moral preconceptions.
7. To be able to produce a creative work in the spirit of the above.
8. To demonstrate awareness of the above through written response to the texts and real world items.

1. Exploration of the concept of art-What is it? How is it produced/created? A process of both technique and intellect/creativity, combined with cultural/purpose factors.
2. The language of the visual experience. Specific examination of the “language” (visual elements, principles of design, style, criticism) and applications to both two-dimensional media, and three-dimensional media (sculpture/crafts), and the principles of design (various in application), in architecture and environment.
3. Extension of these aesthetic/practical/utilitarian elements into a review of their expression culturally in mankind’s heritage-prehistoric/early civilization, non-western world societies (Asian, African, indigenous American societies, Oceania, and Islam), Ancient through Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, the Modern World, culminating in the diversity of today (Conventional order of presentation of historical eras may be a reverse of timeline).
4. Covers the philosophy, techniques, applications and expressions of aesthetic experience for 60,000 years of man’s presence on earth. It instructs us that art involves all of man’s activity-economic, government, theology, domestic, and scientific. Art is unique only to man and only man can appreciate it.