Art History Guide

Imhotep was an Egyptian priest who became the chief architect for the Third Dynasty Pharaoh, Djoser. Imhotep was an extremely talented man who was well known for his wisdom in practical matters and also his wealth of knowledge in the field of health and well being of human individuals. It was said that he could extract medicine from plants and herbs and would treat common ailments such as arthritis and appendicitis with these home brewed medications.

One of his greatest achievements was the first structural monument to be made from cut stone. He designed and oversaw the building of the tomb of Pharaoh Djoser, a complex containg the first pyramid ever at Saqqara

The pyramid rises out of the Egyptian desert not unlike the more famous ones one in Giza In fact the Saqqarra pyramid predates these master works by a thousand years. In gradual measure the pyramid rises to 197 feet by 6 steps made of limestone and clay

The step pyramid is the centerpiece of a large complex that, in it’s day, was surrounded by a 37 foot high wall

In the 1999 movie “The Mummy”, an Egyptian priest named Imhotep was introduced to unsuspecting movie watchers as his transmogrification into a God was almost completed save for the heroics of an American mercenary played by Brendan Frasier. The truth of Imhotep’s real life is more fascinating than the movie script reveals.
Imhotep lived between 3000 and 2000 years before Christ and is known by some as the “Father of Medicine”
His most important achievment in my mind is his creation of building in stone. He was the first architect to use cut stone in a step pattern to build a pryamid.

What is Art? Where does creativity come from? What is beauty? Such difficult questions. These questions have been debated for centuries. Everyone wants to weigh in on the activity of Art but it is very difficult to define Art. In my own mind, I believe that Art is a function of expression and a representation of beauty. The great literary artist Leo Tolstoy was a well-known proponent of the expression theory. He supposed that an artist feels an emotion; then after recreating the feeling or emotion in himself, he attempts to create a work that conveys that emotion or feeling to others who are observing the work. If the feeling is not conveyed or transferred then the artwork fails. Looking at Art from this perspective seems to reduce Art to merely a means of communication. This perspective is limited and narrow in scope, but it is also much too all encompassing. The main argument against this theory is that it would include things not traditionally regarded as art, and excludes things that have been considered great works of art for centuries.
Surely Art IS a means of communication, but Art communicates something deeper than just feelings. It conveys, without words, comprehension of the artist’s state of mind. His inner state of being is revealed through the artwork. This, I believe, is the true aim of Art. It must be intentional. It is an intentional act designed to transfer emotional content and to elicit a emotional response from the observer.

Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund

April 16, 2007, will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the Virginia Tech community and the world beyond.

To remember and honor the victims of those tragic events, the university has established the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to aid in the healing process and generate financial support.

The fund will be used to cover expenses including but not limited to:

• Grief counseling
• Memorials
• Communication expenses
• Comfort expenses
• Incidental needs

If you plan to give, please click the link below:

This week there occurred a tragic event that has struck many people and caused shock, and pain, and has injected fear and worry into the community, the nation, and the world. The shooting at Virginia Tech is the worst mass murder on a college campus ever. It will reverberate for many years.
Why? Why did this happen?
There has been much said about mass murder and violence. Books have been written and cases have been studied but there are no easy answers. Some say it is a psychiatric problem, others say it is a problem of society and a symptom of it’s ills. There is no reason. It was senseless. It is my belief that Art can be a comfort in this time of sorrow.

The Creation of Adam.

Michelangelo painted this in the earlier 1500’s on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. His depiction of God reaching down from heaven and instilling life into Adam is a most comforting image. It shows us the mindset of the people of the early church. God is shown as a gentle elder surrounded by cherubs, in a space that seems to be outside the realm of reality, like a rip in the fabric of space and time. This convey a sense of purpose for the man Adam.

Although I am not a religious man, this painting, technically a fresco gives me a sense of calm, knowing that this painter created a great work of Art that has survived for centuries and has astonished people down through the ages. Michelangelo surely worked despite tragedy in his life at his time in society.

Do not despair. Life is full of senseless tragedy, but if we can learn to channel that fury, that anger at an unknowable universe, into Art and creation, this could be a much different world.

What is Inspiration?

“Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand immediate marriage to action.” -Brendan Francis Behan

When inspiration strikes you, do not delay in turning ideas into reality. Your dream will come when you put to work the strength of your mind, your senses, your back. It is easy to procrastinate and put off but that just makes getting started even harder. Inspiration will not linger while you hem and haw.

“We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.”
-Frank Tibolt

Action is ideas in motion. Creative facilities are contingent upon the ability to construct what the mind has envisioned. This works in all mediums. If inspiration is not felt, work anyway. It might be that the next spark will occur as you put paint to brush or pen to paper. It might not but odds are that if you are engaged in the act of creation, something is already working in a deeper way. Inspiration occurs on a deeper level like the act of creation.

” An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied. “ -Arnold H. Glasow

Physics demands this. I believe that there are eternally huge spaces contained within your brain cells and it is beyond what we think we know. We have not the power to recreate easily what our minds can easily perceive.

“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.” -Henry David Thoreau

All these quotes stress the action of doing. This is where inspiration comes from. To wait and make a note to do something when the time to work is just at that point, where you want to put it down and quit. You will be inspired, you will be motivated, you will be an artist.

The man considered to be the master of conceptual art and the founder of the minimalist art style, has passed away. Sol Lewitt died from complications from cancer on Sunday, April 8, 2007. He was 78 years old and had been living in Chester, Conn for the past two decades.
Some of Lewitt’s contributions to the art world include a series of dynamic wall paintings that were considered “conceptual” because the painting itself was of less importance than the “idea” of the artwork. To Sol, the essence of art is not in the work but in the original idea as formulated by the artist.
Much of Lewitt’s work was structural as opposed to sculptural.

His prolific two and three-dimensional work ranges from Wall Drawings, over 1200 of which have been completed, to photographs and hundreds of works on paper. Some of the most dramatic pieces includes structures in the form of towers, pyramids, and geometric forms.


This example is one from a collection of engravings done in black and white done in 1999 a tribute to his contributions even into his 70’s..

The discovery of the cave at Lascaux and the artwork found within, generated so much interest that at it’s height almost 1200 visitors a day would venture into the cave. It soon became obvious that the open acess to the cave was causing damage to the paintings. In 1963 the French government decided to close the site.
A great historical treasure would have been lost to the average public except for a ingenious plan to recreate the most interesting parts of the cave, The Great Hall o f Bulls, and The Painted Gallery
Realizing that society would suffer from the closing of the site, the French officials decided to build an artificial structure with a concrete shell that recreated the walls of the original to exacting specifications. They dubbed this shell Lascaux II. The paintings were reproduced on the walls of the replica by projecting the images onto the new cave.
A great resolution to a chronic problem in the Art History world was accomplished by the French government. This solution ensures the protection of the original cave and the enrichment of human society by revealing the hidden artifacts to a new generation.

On the Northern slopes of the Pyrenees in France, among a tremendous concentration of Palaeolithic caves and prehistoric sites exists a renown sanctuary called Lascaux.
In September of 1940 a group of teen-agers were seeking mythical treasures along the banks of the Vézère river. There were stories of tunnels that ran under the river which contained treasures beyond imagination. What the teens discovered was treasure beyond what they could ever have imagined.

The cave had been hidden for thousands of years, estimates range from 15,000 to 30,000 years. Because of it’s physical location, along the side of a hill, and the erosion of the land surrounding the entrance, the cave lay cloaked, unseen by human eyes since the stone age. Once the teens uncovered the entrance, the world was anxious to follow.

40,000 years ago the cave painters began to explore their existence through artistic representation. The artists were adept at their craft. From the images they left on the walls and ceilings in caves all around the world, we can learn much of our early ancestors. The caves in South-Western France contain some of the most outstanding examples of primitive art ever discovered. In fact that area in France contains a wealth of these caves that have astounded Art historians. Relatively recent discoveries have yielded a wealth of anthropological and cultural information about our mural painting relatives. Over the next few days we will explore this area in France where the caves have so wonderfully revealed the nature of early human artistic endeavor.