High Culture and Low Culture

I believe that this gif would be considered “low culture”. This is because it makes references to pop culture and is therefore more relatable to the average viewer. The gif shows Nightwolf, one of the characters from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, floating through two portals. I’m guessing that the portals are a reference to Portal, another video game series where the player must use portals to complete objectives, even though the colors of the portal are incorrect. I believe this because you can still see him appear through the other side of the portal when he goes through one side. 

 This gif would probably be considered more “high culture” because it is less cartoony and relatable to a general audience. The movement is only in a few tree leaves in the background. I could not even tell what was moving until I enlarged the image. It is one of those images that most people would just scroll past because the subject matter is not very interesting since it is only a frozen bird with only a tiny bit of movement in the background. It would probably be praised for jumbling up audience expectations by have the bird in midflight be the one thing that is not moving.

High Art and Low Art

I think the idea of there being “high art” and “low art” is a bit pretentious. It will most likely be used to look down on art that people just do not like. There are people who do not believe that digital art is still art and even think that it is cheating. With growing technology, art is going to begin looking different than what we are used to and things are going to change. Classifying everything as high or low art will probably discourage people from trying new things. Or it could encourage them to be defiant. I think the article had a good point about some high art being dull and uninspired in comparison to what they would call low art. We could be encouraging people to do something bland and mediocre because that is what they think they’ll have to be taken seriously.I think we should practice a bit more humility when it comes to this subject matter. If we have to classify anything as high or low art, maybe art that is done for marketing purposes or propaganda could be classified as low art. Even then it would not be entirely fair to some marketing designs that turn out to be pretty good.

Project 1: Equastrian Portrait Re-imagining

Title: Equestrian Portrait of Count Stainislas Potocki

I wanted to make the the original look more goofier. The original situation looked like it could go wrong, so I wanted to exaggerate it a little and make it more noticeable. I attempted to turn something serious into something more silly and brighten up the colors a little.
I originally found this on google art gallery and got more information from here: 
http://www.wilanow-palac.art.pl/the_equestrian_portrait_of_stanislaw_kostka_potocki.html
I found out who the person in the painting was as well as the situation that lead to its existence.I even found out the current location.
I did trace over the original image while simplifying every thing and making a few changes to exaggerate the situation. I made the figures react to what was happening as well as made the disaster more noticeable.

Projet 1 painting description

Equestrian Portrait of Count Stainislas Potocki 1781

 

The painting I chose is titled Equestrian Portrait of Count Stainislas Potocki. It was painted by Jacques-Louis David in the year 1781. The subject of the painting is the Prime Minister of Poland and a writer. The medium is oil on canvas and is around 120in x 86in. This painting was painted in Rome. It has been passed to the Branicki family and looted by German Soldiers. Now, It is currently on display at the Museum of King John III’s palace in Wilanow, Warsaw. In the painting, Potocki is shown riding a horse while the horse is getting taunted by a dog that is partially off screen. I chose this painting because it looks like everything is going to go wrong soon. The horse isn’t calm due to the dog and has a pretty interesting and dynamic pose because of it. The shiny blue and gold saddle really stands out among the rest of the colors and so does the rest of the horse’s tack. The horse’s mane and tail look very detailed and well taken care of. I do not know if the painter used a reference or painted it from his imagination, but the color scheme of the horse looks nice in general.

Chapter 6

chapter 5 Exercise

5 paintings