Essay 5

Essay # 1A

Title: Them and Us

Question:

How artistically similar, or different, do you think prehistoric people were compared to modern man and what singular force or need continues to drive the artistic needs and human expressions of the 21st century?

Part 1

Summary: Overall I think prehistoric people and modern man artistically were very similar and once art was born that force or need to continue to drive artistic needs came from prehistoric people.

Reason: The reason for this question I think was for us to see how art originated and how different is it today compared to prehistoric times.

Purpose: The purpose for this question was for us to find out the similarities between modern man and prehistoric people.

Direction: The direction I took in answering this was to find out why prehistoric people created this type of art and connect it to modern art.

Impressions: What impressed me the most was how many theories there were to the meaning of cave paintings all these years.

Part 2

Prehistoric people and modern man I think connect with art for the same reason. It fills them with passion and different outlooks. “The more well known works of prehistoric people are found in caves in southern and in central parts of France and northern Spain. The Chauvet cave, near Vallon-Pont-d`Arc in Southern France is the earliest known site of prehistoric cave paintings. These dramatic cave paintings included vital animals like horses, bison, bear, mammoths, deer, owls etc. As well as hand prints, humans, grids, circle, and dots.”(Art history, page 9) Art is a way of expressing yourself and these prehistoric people expressed what was in them such as their interests, needs etc. In my opinion it was a way for them to express themselves in a private, secret way and this captivated their interests and their need of freedom because with art you can freely express yourself. “Modern art centers instead of on the meaning of a work for an elite target audience or the attempt to pose challenging questions or unsettle deep-sated cultural ideas.” (Art history, XXVII) Both prehistoric and modern man use art to freely express themselves but also to communicate. Back then these images were powerful. As modern man uses art to demonstrate, symbols, signs, advertisement etc. Prehistoric people within a group used these images of animals to teach them the appearance and the behavior of them and also how to hunt them. “The most important new ability however,was the capacity to think symbolically: To create representational analogies between one person, animal, or object, and another, and to recognize and to remember those analogies.”(Art history, page 3, 4) This development marks the evolutionary origin of art and I think what started art is the force that still drives artistic needs today which is the ability to create something in your mind and that image has the ability to give someone knowledge, curiosity, pleasure etc.