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How has your understanding of art changed?

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Penthesilea:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 12, 2006, 01:38:09 pm ---Thank you penthesilea, for that edit.
--- End quote ---

You're welcome, Lee.


--- Quote ---BTW, is penthesilea an art term like pentimento is? (Remember the movie, Pentimento?)

--- End quote ---

I don't remember a movie named Pentimento. Since most movies have different titles in German, I looked it up at imdb. Ifound three movies of that name there, but didn't know any of them.

Penthesilea is a figure of the Greek mythology. She was a female warrior, queen of the Amazons.

TexRob:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on November 09, 2006, 03:55:40 pm ---So I'm wondering, has this experience changed your appreciation and/or understanding of other art -- or perhaps affected the way you are creative in your own life?
[...]
How has your outlook changed? I don't mean, how has BBM ruined you for all other movies. I mean, what do you look for in movies now that you might not have noticed or thought about before?

For example, I have tried to glean ideas from Annie Proulx's writing  [...] Maybe I would know to use "sweet, salty stink" rather than "sweet, salty fragrance" now.

And seeing how incredibly complex and subtle and beautifully designed the movie is, I look for those nuances in other art now.
[...]

--- End quote ---

I had talked about the art of the movie with Lynne some time back.  When I look at creative works, I try to discern whatever underlying philosophy permeates them.  For example, in books by Thomas Hardy, characterized by literary naturalism, I see the influence of Arthur Schopenhauer.  Existentialism is what suffuses Brokeback Mountain.  That, as I see it, is the artistic genre of the movie.

Existential elements are usually associated with literature, a medium that allows them to be laid out effectively.  The philosophy itself had only a short heyday right after World War II, then was displaced by other philosophies.  One of them was and remains postmodernism. 

While existentialism translated well into literature, it didn't translate well into film.  This is what makes Brokeback Mountain so unusual.  Postmodernism does translate well into film, but it can mask a lot of mediocrity.  A recent production, a perfect example of postmodernism, won an Academy Award for best picture.  I can't quite recall its name anymore, but the film was just pure Trash.

Recently, I noticed existential elements finding their way into music, as in the case of some songs by Franz Ferdinand.  I've wondered now if existentialism is making something of mini-comeback.  More to the point, I've seriously begun to wonder if postmodernism in art is on the wane.   As a result, I try harder to see if I detect more of a direction away from postmodernism with each new artistic work I come across.   After so long a reign, is postmodernism starting to give way to something else -- maybe not existentialism, but perhaps something entirely new and unexpected?

Just as a footnote, I would have chosen "stench" instead of "stink" if I wanted to avoid the word "fragrance," but Annie Proulx indeed would likely have preferred "stink."   Either way, the word "fragrance" has a uniquely rich quality about it when sounded out, so I like to use it whenever it seems to fit.  The choice depends on the kind of writing being done.  The current trend is toward more trenchant prose.  I like that because it's often more effective at conveying a thought or painting a mental image.  But if the trend in other arts begins a shift toward something new, and Brokeback Mountain is a harbinger of that, I wonder if that shift also has implications for the art of literature.

Front-Ranger:
Chrissi, that's very interesting! I will have to read up on her!!

Noviani:
i strongly feel the movie and the short story have changed the way i see other movies and writings...

ang lee taught me to pay more attention to every scene, because there is a certain purpose in each of them. Heath and Jake and other casts show me how a simple gesture, expressions, few words, words unspoken, can bring a character to live. i don't remember other movie get me to this point. i feel my viewing experience is enriched now.

as for the short story, i learn that it does not need a 500-pages-length novel to make a master piece. i start to write again, and for my first writing after 4 years,  i am inspired by Annie's style. it also help me honoring our beloved Jack and Ennis. i am writing my sentences carefully know, no need long flowery  description. 

just get to the point, and hit hard.

Front-Ranger:
The two times I heard Annie Proulx speak in person, she talked quite a bit about artists, specifically Russell and Remington. Remington is best known for his sculpture, but I saw a show of his beautiful paintings on the theme of night, that were some of the last works he produced, and it was very inspiring. Here's one I particularly liked of cowboys around a campfire: http://www.nga.gov/feature/remington/remington25.shtm.

Here is some more info about Remington.

Frederic Remington was as East Coast as one could be, yet he made his mark by depicting the fading West. Born in 1861 and raised in upstate New York, he attended Yale University where he studied art, despite his mother’s belief that this was foolish. In 1881 he took his first trip to the West when he vacationed in Montana Territory. Two years later, Remington spent ten months on the frontier at a sheep ranch in Butler County, near Peabody, Kansas. Since he did not care much for hard work, he moved next to Kansas City. Although he never stayed long in one place, people remembered Remington as a large man who weighed more than 250 pounds. One of his guides once remarked, “Remington never stays put for long in any one place, but there’s an awful lot of him while he’s around.” He lived and worked in New York, but accepted frequent illustration assignments in the West, roaming the frontier in a safari helmet, English riding breeches, and fancy Prussian boots—not exactly the perfect picture of a 19th-century explorer of the West. He was the first urban cowboy! Rather than camp beside a fire, Remington preferred the luxury of a hotel. He became a successful painter, illustrator, and sculptor. Even though he sketched on location in the West, Remington preferred to work on his canvases back at his studio in New Rochelle, New York. In 1909, he died of peritonitis following surgery for an emergency appendectomy.

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