Week Six

1. What and when was the Enlightenment?

Answer:
The Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason or the Age of Rationalism, was a period during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when European philosophers stressed the use of reason as the best method for learning the truth.
(http://www.enotes.com/history-fact-finder/eras-their-highlights/what-was-enlightenment)



2. Define the concept of the Sublime.
 
Answer:

sublime

in literary criticism, grandeur of thought, emotion, and spirit thatcharacterizes great literature. It is the topic of an incompletetreatise, On the Sublime, that was for long attributed to the 3rd-century Greek philosopher Cassius Longinus but now believed tohave been written in the 1st century AD by an unknown writerfrequently designated Pseudo-Longinus. 

Following 'the discoveries of geography within reason' this was one thought to be an intellectual basis that the sublime carried. The main concept was to simply convert the subject matter of humanistic ideas and social development to landscapes to finally the presentation of a landsscape and man.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sublime)

3. How did the concept of the Sublime come out of the Enlightenment thought?

Answer:
Enlightenment thought suggests that oppression and domination are residues of the feudal past and will eventually fade away. ... distinction between terror (linked to the sublime) and horror.The concept of the sublime came out of the enlightenment when it was in the 18th century when people began to think more of they way world was ruled through the rules of the government, rather then the rules of their religion.

4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work. Add some more images of his work.

Answer: His works are represented in more than fifty major museum collections around the world. Richard Misrach is one of the most influential and prolific artists of his generation. 

Misrach has had one-person exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Musee Beaubourg, amongst others. A mid-career traveling survey was organized by the Houston Museum of in the collections of most major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In fall 2010, on the five-year anniversary of Katrina, the exhibition “Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 2005]” made its debut at the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Misrach)


5. Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.
Answer:
James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York. His parents were Quakers. His father was an aeronautical engineer and educator. His mother trained as a medical doctor and later worked in the Peace Corps. Turrell obtained a pilot's licence when 16 years old. He subsequently flew supplies to remote mine sites and worked as an aerial cartographer. He received a BA degree from Pomona College in perceptual psychology in 1965 and also studied mathematics, geology and astronomy there too. He received a MA degree in art from Claremont Graduate School, University of California, Irvine in 1966.^{(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Turrell)}


6. How does Misrach's photography make you feel? Does it appeal to your imagination?
Answer:

I love photography as art, I have lots of photographs around my house, some of family, some of places we have been and some by other photographers. I find it very relaxing to be able to look at photographs. Having photos of family around brings up memories and keeps them close. Pictures of places we have been stirs up memories and makes me want to go again. But pictures that other photographers have taken are interesting because I am seeing the scene or subject through their eyes, and appreciating it for what they have captured. It’s a more real type of art, like I can just step into the photograph and be somewhere else. A complete get away or escape from whatever I am doing at the time. Being moved or inspired by the things around you and enjoying them through photographs makes things real, like a place I have always wanted to visit but not had the chance yet.

7. Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.
Answer:

Sublime image