Techniques in contemporary book illustration
- Authors: Huggins, Linda Wreford
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Illustration of books -- History -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2462 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008567
- Description: Introduction: Although the hackneyed adage "one picture is worth a thousand words" defies proof and begs argument, the basic value of illustration in graphic communications is beyond dispute. Without attempting to put a relative value on illustration as compared with words, we can still be aware of the special effectiveness of images, in accomplishing communication goals. The roots of illustration go hack to prehistoric pictorial art of engraved or painted figures done on stone. The hand print can be interpreted as one of the first attempts at drawing. Prehistoric pictorial art depicted visually what could not be expressed by word or gestures some had religious significance, some the presence of myth, others plainly diadactic, showing daily life, social communication, the magic of the hunt, death, birth, group life and sexual symbolism. Little is known of the vast lapse of time between prehistoric art and the imagery that man devised in the service of developing civilisations at the dawn of history. With steadily increasing demands upon his skills, the artisan's mastery of the tools and materials progressed, so that by the beginning of recorded time he was in possession of the potential elements for printmaking. Yet the importance of communication, as we know it today, only developed centuries later with the motivating force of religion. The print could tell its story to those who could not read or write but could quickly grasp the meaning of a picture.
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Tempera painting: an investigation of the aesthetic and technical advantages of the medium
- Authors: De Bliquy, Leon Paul
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Painting -- Technique Tempura painting
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2469 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009443
- Description: From Introduction: The balance between practical and theoretic components in the total submission bears relation to the title of this essay where aesthetic advantages are largely theoretical and where technical advantages refer mainly to the practical component. The historical significance of this structure is to be found in the earliest treatises on painting, Cenninni's treatment of painting as a purely practical matter is in accord with medieval tradition. His recipes are aligned according to the various individual techniques, tempera painting being the most significant to this essay. Practical recipes are interspersed with directions for the representation of various pictorial themes, and in the resultant conglomeration, the subdivisions are discernible only as basic premises. In contrast to him, the Renaissance authors beginning with Alberti make a significant innovation in that they divide their material into a theoretical and a practical part . The inter-relationship of practical and theoretical - aesthetic and technical aspects are un-avoidable when it comes down to realities. This is clearly illustrated in the notes of Leonardo da Vinci. Plans for the organization of the treatise are vaguely formulated .
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The life and work of Robert Paul
- Authors: Johnson, Christopher Charles Bonsall
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Paul, Robert, 1906-1980 , Artists -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2510 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018631
- Description: [From Introduction] When Robert Paul died in 1980, his daughter Colette Wiles gave her father's art materials to an artist who was very close to both Robert and his wife in their last years - Dian Wright. The materials consisted of five different pigments and brushes cut into different shapes to suit the artist. This is remarkable when one considers his proficiency in a variety of media and his accurate portrayal in the far reaching studies he executed of the Zimbabwean landscape. Yet, it is characteristic of his resourcefulness that Paul could make 'something out of nothing'. Paul welcomed the opportunity of new landscape when he arrived in Rhodesia in 1927. Against the backdrop of a chosen isolation from the British Isles, Paul developed his own personal tracks in spite of any early influence through John Piper with the English Southern Landscape idioms of the 1920s. This was a fruitful isolation where the creation of his art retained influences but were manipulated according to his needs and unleashed with a proficiency sometimes equal to his peers, who later found fame under the term 'Neo-Romantics'. Paul remained an individual in Africa. My intention in this essay is three-fold; first, to illustrate the effects and influences of 'chosen' and 'enforced ' isolation on his work. Secondly, I wish to determine the extent of the influence that Piper and the Neo-Romantics had on Paul and to illustrate mostly with anecdotes his life and life-style. He was no mean character. His life-long obsessions with art, alcohol and women were played out with a flair and dry humour which few emulated in his era. Although a strictly academic approach can be applied to the assessment of his work, his life followed thoroughly unorthodox lines. As Bradshaw noted when he wrote the forward to the Catalogue of Paul's Retrospective in 1976, he (Paul) had no historical interests in the accepted sense of the word. , ABBYY FineReader 12
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The machine and painting: an investigation into the interrelationship(s) between technology and painting since 1945
- Authors: Hennig, Sybille
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Art and technology Art, Modern -- 20th century -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2468 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009435
- Description: Introduction: We, i.e. contemporary Western man, live in a society which has increasingly embraced Science and Technology as the ultimum bonum. The Machine, i.e. Science and Technology, has come to be seen as an impersonal force, a New God - omniscient, omnipotent: to be worshipped and, alas, also to be feared. This mythologem has come to pervade almost every sphere of our lives in a paradigmatic way to the extent where it is hardly ever recognized for what it is and hence fails to arouse the concern it merits. While some of the more perceptive minds - such as Erich Fromm, Rufino Tamayo, Carl Gustav Jung, Konrad Lorenz and Arthur Koestler, to mention but a few - have started ringing the alarm bells, the vast majority of our species seem to plunge ahead with their blinkers firmly in place (more or less contented as long as they can persude themselves that these blinkers were manufactured according to latest technological and scientific specifications). Man’s uniquely human powers - his creative intuition, his feelings, his moral and ethical potential, have become sadly neglected and mistrusted. Homo sapiens – “homo maniacus” as Koestler suggests? - is now at a crossroads: he has reached a point where the next step could be the last step and result in the annihilation of man as a species. Alternately, avoiding that, there is the outwardly less drastic but essentially equally alarming possibility of men becoming robots, while a third alternative has yet to be found. While it does appear as if a lot of young people, noticeably among students, have started reacting against the over mechanization of life, these reactions often tend to follow the swing-of-the-pendulum principle and veer towards the other extreme, throwing out the baby with the bathwater and falling prey to freak-out cults in a kind of mass-irrationalism, rejecting science and technology altogether. Artists who by their very nature perhaps are particularly sensitive - in a kind of seismographic way - to the currents and undercurrents of their age, have become aware of the effects of science and technology on our way of living, and many of them have in one way or another taken a stand in relation to the position of man in our highly technological world. Looking at the art produced over the last four decades, it is truly astonishing to what extent our changed world reflects in our art - a world and a Weltbild very different from that of our ancestors even just a few generations ago. The purpose of the present study is to survey some of the observations and commentaries that painters and certain kindred spirits from the sciences over the last few decades have offered, in the hope of, if not answering, at least defining and posing anew some of the questions that confront us with ever-increasing urgency.
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The manipulated photographic images of Man Ray and Moholy-Nagy: "a deconstructural approach"
- Authors: Fry, Roger Bruce
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Man Ray, 1890-1976 Moholy-Nagy, László, 1895-1946 Photography, Artistic
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2470 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009447
- Description: From introduction: In the following essay an emphasis has been placed on manipulated photographic images. Although this implies a whole variety of ways in which these images can be manipulated e.g. in collage, silkscreen etc., the emphasis here is on images that have a fabricated or deliberate manipulation of subject matter to make up the photograph.
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Changes in the image of the feminine from Giotto to Raphael
- Authors: Crossley, Elizabeth Ellen
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Giotto, 1266?-1337 Feminine beauty (Aesthetics) Women in art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2471 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009448
- Description: From Introduction: The ideal of femininity which developed in Renaissance painting, was a visual and psychological type which was to become the Western European Christian formula of the feminine. This type has survived until the present day, so a discussion of its origins can be revealing for us in the twentieth century, especially as it has been neglected in traditional art historical works. In this essay, the changes in the image of the feminine, in just under three hundred years of Florentine painting, starting with Giotto1. and ending with Raphael~· will be covered. The images will be taken from the wo rk of artists who were Florentine in training, who worked in the city or who were strongly influenced by the Florentine style of painting. I have divided the paintings I have studied into three sections. In the Religious section the paintings are mainly of Mary. The Mythological images refer to Greek and Roman myths and the humanistic interpretations of them. Finally, the Portrait and Genre images are selected on the following basis: In the genre paintings they are sometimes part of works related to religion or mythology, but, in their handling, the painters treat the figures as real human beings rather than holy or mythological figures. In others they are bona fide portrait representations. 3. I have made the above distinction because I expect that the gap between religio-mythological images and portraits will give some indication of the difference between the ideal and the reality for women of that time. The images will be analysed and changes noted in favoured types, gestures, expressions, movements, placing in the composition, relationships to others, favoured themes, costume, colour and symbols. I will point out as I proceed the effects that these elements had on the mood and tone of each image.
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The relationship between the concept 'art' and its institutionalisation during the period 1850-1871 in South Africa
- Authors: Steyn, Pieter Andrew
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Art, South African -- 19th century Art -- Political aspects Art and society -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2438 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005626
- Description: This research evolved as part of a personal struggle to understand my role as 'art' student. As such the essay is concerned with both the theory and practice of 'art', and the relationship between the two. It is, however, my experience of the lack of an analysis of the concept 'art' as a social and historical phenomenon, and the suppression of the politics of culture in most fine art courses, that has led me to concentrate on theoretical and political issues, rather than the formal aspects of painting. This essay is therefore not concerned with individual 'works of art', but with the general category 'art' as an organisational form. Despite its limitations, the essay goes beyond the personal by exploring some of the social, political, economic and cultural processes that form the broader social context in which the examination of 'art' should take place.
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A study of kitsch in South African suburban society
- Authors: Page, Lindsay Ann
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Kitsch -- South Africa Decorative arts -- South Africa Popular culture -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2458 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007673
- Description: Consider the possibility of the remnants of our present day society being excavated and studied in centuries to come. Imagine the craftsmanship, the art, artifacts and architecture that will then be compared to those of the past centuries. Our entire culture will be labelled by the endless array of rubbish that has become an integral part of our lives. The increasing prevalence of kitsch in the society goes almost unnoticed where it should be causing concern. Few people are aware of its existence, or the permanent aesthetic scars induced by this prevalence. How has this cult of sheer awfulness come about and why has it become prevalent? It is impossible to pursue all the avenues of kitsch - so vast is it but it is the purpose of this study to try and answer some of the questions, in order to make people more aware of what has crept into our society, to help them become more discriminating, and not merely to level criticism at the perpetrators of kitsch.
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Art and cosmology: masks : the instruments of metamorphosis ...
- Authors: Landman, J H
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Masks Masks, African
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2439 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005638
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Art and technology: an analysis of this relationship in the field of graphic art since 1960, with specific emphasis on the development of printmaking
- Authors: Thorburn, Dominic
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Graphic arts -- History -- 20th century Prints -- Technique Art and technology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2444 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006136
- Description: From Introduction: The reIationship between technology and art today is a logical extension of a collaborative tradition with ancient roots. The artist has always been a principal perpetrator of technological innovation. He, through the natural progression of technical means, has virtually evolved each new art form. There are many examples such as the 'lost wax' casting process, Jan Van Eycks oil paint innovations, Senefelders 'chemical printing' and Niecephore Niepce's first eight hour photographic exposures. Even woodblocks were in their time an innovation. All art uses technology of a kind and artists who prefer to remain aloof from it are in fact merely using technologies absorbed in older traditional media further back in the history of art. It is the flexibility of art to adapt to changing conditions of the world today which has spurred change and brought about a new dynamism in the graphic arts. The present intensity of interest in the print can be directly attributed to the advancement of technology and communication in this century. A whole new field of materials, methods and techniques are now available to the venturesome graphic artist and printmaker. Along with the contemporary technology dedication to expression leads naturally to innovation in aesthetics.
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Goethe's theory of colours: Rudolf Steiner's foundation for an impulse in painting
- Authors: Coetzee, Cyril Lawlor
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von, 1749-1832 -- Aesthetics Steiner, Rudolf, 1861-1925 Color in art Painting, Modern Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von, 1749-1832 -- Knowledge -- Art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2464 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008571
- Description: From Introduction: In his influential treatise, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky refers to Goethe's "prophetic remark" made in connection with the relationship between the arts in which Goethe had asserted that "painting must count this relationship her main foundation". Kandinsky went on to say that Painting in his day stood "at the first stage of a road by which she abstraction of composition". I will, according to her thought and arrive own possibilities, make art an finally at purely artistic What he seems to have been suggesting is that form, colour and sound are differentiated expressions of a unifying spiritual content, that this spiritual content lives also somehow in the human soul and that it is the new task of the artist to awaken original creativity from out of this spirit by working consciously in creative empathy with the laws implicit in form, colour and sound. The extent to which this view of creativity is indebted to Goethe is only fully realised when it is discovered how closely Kandinsky's writings on colour recapitulate his. In an unpublished essay: Goethe's Theory of Colours : Its relation to some aspects in . the history of Art, Michael Grimly argues that not only Kandinsky in Germany but also Chevreul, the colour-theoretician who was, in France, the leading light, in a technical sense, both of Delacroix and of the Impressionists simply repeats in his writings on Colour many of the ideas that Goethe had already formulated.
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Image and symbol : some aspects of the creative impulse in the visual arts
- Authors: Stonestreet, Lyn
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Art Symbolism in art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2445 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006138
- Description: From Introduction: The making of images has been a human activity since Prehistory, undergoing many and drastic changes over the centuries, but the symbols integral to images have proved enduring and recurrent. This is because the artist draws on that stratum of the psyche which C.G. Jung calls the collective unconscious: a universal archaic memory within the human mind, containing the archetypes of all human experience.In this essay I have dealt with aspects of two of these archetypes; the anima and, to a lesser extent, the mother. I have limited my study to the work of male artists. Long sanctioned by tradition, images of women as seen by men, have provided an acceptable vehicle for men to express their own female principle. As long as a man operates in the world with total apparant masculinity, the anima or female principle is repressed and denied at a conscious level.
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The historical collection, King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth
- Authors: Forster-Towne, Rosemary
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Art collections and art museums Fine arts and History of art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2463 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008567
- Description: From Conclusion: For the sake of posterity and historical research, our need for secure origins and our appreciation of and pleasure in fine craftsmanship and art, it is important that any Art Collection, particularly an Historical one, be fully documented. All data pertaining to the pictures should be recorded from an artistic, historical and even scientific point of view and photographs should be taken of the pictures. An organized classification system, the correct registering and labeling of each picture and its accessioning and cataloguing as part of the contents of the Gallery and for visitors information, should be constantly 53 maintained and where necessary and in as many ways as possible, cross-references made so that the stored information be usable. To this end and with the growth and increasing importance being placed on Art Museums and Galleries in the community it would probably be of value to cross-reference with other similar institutions and in the respect and day and age, it is not unrealistic to propose that the King George VI Art Gallery consider a computer cataloguing system to facilitate research and complement a more simplified version for the use and guide of the general viewing public . The significance of a picture is not only its value as such, but also the information relating to it. The importance of the Historical Collection as Africana and works of art, expressive of the places, events, people and even attitudes, and as cultural and historic items, goes without saying. Without the Historical Collection of the King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth, the Eastern Cape community and South Africa too, would be the poorer. The pictures have their role to play .
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The effect of the feminist movement on painting and sculpture in Europe and America after 1945
- Authors: Brooks, Jennifer
- Date: 1983
- Subjects: Painting, American -- 20th century Painting, European -- 20th century Sculpture, European -- 20th century Sculpture, American -- 20th century Feminism and art -- United States Feminism and art -- Europe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2459 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007675
- Description: My investigation of women artists and their status in society today as a result of the feminist movement, revealed issues which, I felt, were multifaceted. This necessitated an exploration of many aspects in order to arrive at a fairly satisfactory conclusion as to whether the revolt and the aggression on the part of the feminists had borne any fruit, either generally in everyday life, or artistically. It has proved most stimulating and informative. I think that the need to assess oneself as a woman, working within a male-dominated creative environment is a very necessary process and one which has been most beneficial to me. The subsequent research revealed that a radical, thematic change had occured within the feminist movement at the start of the Eighties; a fact of which, till recently, I was largely unaware. What I discovered was that the militant, feminist approach of the Sixties and Seventies had given way to a more realistic involvement brought on partly by the economic recession and the effects as well of earlier feminist movements, leading to a relaxation on the part of the younger generation. The Violence had faded. Hard times curbed the excesses of the movement and took it along the road to practicality. Dovetailed to this and seeming to run concurrently was the phenomenon of the demise of the Modern Art Movement. These changes described were not only artistic and feminist, but cut right across the board. involving all facets of life. To take one as an example. the political with conservatism reinstating itself in America not merely as an alternative but as a worthwhile direction in itself. Other issues included the sociological, historical, biological, and cultural; all closely interwoven and therefore requiring some generalisations at times. Previous to becoming involved with my topic, I had been reacting to pre-conceived ideas laid on me as a student in the Sixties and Seventies - a militant, aggressive approach acquired as a protective shield, to deal with the masculine environment which denigrated in varying degrees mine and fellow female artists work, sometimes overtly, sometimes subconsciously. This discrimination, is usually denied as ever having existed by the men involved. It shows a lack of awareness of what, we, as female art students, were subjected to. This is one of the main reasons why I undertook this subject; partly out of interest and perhaps partly as some sort of catharsis.
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The question of validity in Vasari's art historical concept
- Authors: Gibb, Barry
- Date: 1983
- Subjects: Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2465 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008574
- Description: From Introduction: Giorgio Vasari's first and second editions of his 'Lives of the Artists I appeared respectively in 1550 and 1568, just after the great period of Renaissance art in Florence and Rome had ended. As a practising Florentine architect, painter and sculptor who travelled extensively in Italy, sari could write with authority on the development of these arts throughout what he saw ~s the whole Renaissance period in that country, from the l ate 13th to the mid-16th century. Gathering information from all possible sources, his 'Lives' constitute the first comprehensive historical - critical survey of Italian Renaissance art. Much of their value resides in the first hand information they contain concerning the artists (Michelangelo in particular) who were his contemporaries, and in reflecting the aesthetic attitudes prevalent in a peak period in the history of art.
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An investigation into nineteenth century book illustration with reference to the movement towards total collaboration in the works of Charles Dickens and his major illustrators
- Authors: Crowe, Richard J J
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Illustrations Illustrators llustration of books -- Great Britain -- 19th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2467 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009433
- Description: It is necessary to state clearly at the outset of this essay that the field comprising Book Illustration is extremely complex. This is not difficult to appreciate when one considers that the term "Book Illustration" covers both the highly developed art forms such as are found for example in the Book of Kells; and at the same time such cheap and shallow examples as are found in magazines and books that are churned out for the million. Therefore it becomes necessary to draw a sharp distinction between what could be called "inferior" and "superior" quality of Book Illustration. (a) I see this dividing line being drawn between two fundamentally divergent attitudes: the one involves a purely external and decorative approach which lacks real artistic value; (b) and the other, which is the result of the dynamic collaboration between an author and an artist to produce work founded on deep and rich artistic principles. (c) For the sake of clarity I wish to take this idea of a division a step further, and to suggest that within the "superior" bracket there is also a continuing scale of improvement and bettering, which culminates in an idealised state which could be called "TOTAL COLLABORATION" between an author and an artist.
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Baudelaire, nature and the artist in society
- Authors: Howell, Jane
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Baudelaire, Charles, 1821-1867
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2466 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009432
- Description: From Conclusion: The Artist can regard Baudelaire as a touchstone, as so many of his ideals and maxims are the ideals and maxims of the Artist himself. He teaches us many invaluable secrets of the universe and his lucid rendering of their explanations give us a clear insight into its mystery. He believed that Art was the ‘brainchild’ of Nature’s inspiration and that through its means and ways Natures mysteries will be revealed to us. He fought against all that the modern-day Artist is stiII fighting against. He rebelled against society1s false reasoning and its false morals. He became ‘self-exiled’ so that he could retain his individuality and reasoning. Like the Artist, his most valuable quality was his spontaneity and inspiration, given to him when his spirit moved him. His poems stand complete in themselves and yet all have a mysterious quality binding them. Likewise our paintings must also stand complete, they must be an end in themselves, each with its own singular message and yet a unity must prevaiI throughout. We must strive for that eternal quality that is so obvious in Baudelaire1s work. He can be read today at the distance of a century as if he had written for the present generation, with a knowledge of its problems and interests. His appeal is still vital because he was not fettered by the fashionable opinions and evanescent whims of his own age, and he made no concessions to the spirit of his own time in order to gain popularity.
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The visionary artist
- Authors: Lambert, Moira
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Blake, William, 1757-1827 Blake, William, 1757-1827 -- Symbolism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2441 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006113
- Description: Reading and personal experiences have often drawn my attention to the exceptionally high incidence of despair, "nervous disorder", alcoholism, nihilism and even suicide, among modern artists. I would like in this work to look at the visionary, Blake, against the problem of 'breaking the sound-barrier' and against the background of disastrous attempts at this by modern artists.
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Painting and the changing role of art
- Authors: Edwards, Veryan Courtenay
- Date: 1979
- Subjects: Painting Art and society
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2482 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011740
- Description: It is necessary to find out what the role of art is in order to see whether it changes. The role of art can be taken as synonymous with the words, 'function of art'. The role of art and the art work itself are inextricably linked. If we look at the role of art as analogous to a wheel we can look at the argument thus : the wheel exists in order to roll. Its function is to roll. The wheel's function of rolling informs us about its existence. Function and the wheel's existence cannot be separated. The role of art and the art work itself are inextricably tied. Intro. p. 1.
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The quality of threat in modern painting
- Authors: Radford, Anne Margaret
- Date: 1979
- Subjects: Painting, Modern -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2453 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007578
- Description: From Introduction: We not only tolerate violence, we put it on the front pages of our newspapers. One-third or one-fourth of our television programmes use it for the amusement of our children. Condone! My dear friends, we love it." -Karl Menninger, psychiatrist. War is one of the most violent of man's past-times, yet many of the atrocities committed are termed heroic deeds. Andre Malraux, one of the leading writer-philosophers of his day, praised the international involvement by so many writers, artists, etc. in the Spanish Civil War as one of the most wonderful deeds of brotherhood in the history of mankind. There is a strange idolatry that is often accorded to violent criminals such as the early American outlaws, and people like Charles Manson, around whom an entire cult has sprung up. The "aggressive machismo" is something that boys and young men strive to achieve in most countries in the Western world. Scientlsts and philosophers have puzzled these paradoxes for centuries, and this effort to unravel the mystery of violence and aggression bears a fateful significant. For the quality of human life and the survival of man are involved. Robbery, rape, riots, vandalism, are all now part of man's existence. Around the world, violence has soared. In London, violent crimes increased by 39 per cent in three years. Even sports events (the soccer fans stage gang wars at most soccer matches nowadays, especially in England,) and entertainment ---books, movies, television--- have become permeated with violence. It has not always been as bad as this, and as art imitates life, life imitates art, and so aggressive paintings, threatening paintings are now commonplace. In this dissertation, I have studied this development of threat in painting. What follows is the course my study has taken.
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