INTENT OF ART

Duration: 29 min

Year Published: 1957

Creator: Produced by WGBH-TV. Kinescopes

Format: 16mm

Color: B&W

Sound: Sound

Description: 7-film series illustrating the art of various purposes and expressions. Titles: 1. ART AS UTILITY. Presents the utilitarian function and underlying ideas of varied works of art. Tells how many objects now treasured in museums were originally created for practical, utilitarian purposes. Explains how changes in ideas bring changes in art expression. 2. ART AS REASON. Discusses the reasoning behind the contrasting styles of Greek and Roman architecture. Shows the canon of measurement governing the proportions of the human figure in the sculpture of Greece, Egypt, and India. Shows the application of the rules of dynamic symmetry to painting. Points out ways in which modern scientific knowledge inspires new forms of art through new processes of reasoning about space and matter. 3. ART AS EMOTION. Explains some of the codes, symbols, and techniques employed by the artist to convey deeper meanings in art beyond the physical. Shows how lines can express the feeling of certain ideas or emotions. 4. ART AS SOCIAL ORDER. Discusses religious and secular art as an expression of and a directing force in society. Explains how Chinese and Christian arts helped maintain social order and established images of faith. Contrasts art as individual expression in a free society with art as a propaganda tool under dictatorship. 5. ART AS NATURAL KNOWLEDGE. Examines art in relation to nature and different ways of looking at nature. Compares the different views of nature as seen by the Egyptians and the Greeks. Explores the effect upon art of the developing interest in science. 6. ART AS REVOLUTION. Illustrates how a changing environment forces art through a revolution if it is to retain vitality. Uses art objects to show how the rococo style of the French court gave way to the classical expression of Napoleonic pomp, which in turn gave way to romanticism. Discusses the great revolution in art in Europe during the 19th century. Points out the impact of technical developments and democratic ideas. 7. ART AS HUMAN DISCOVERY. Examines modern art as an expression of the world today. Points out how the artist is involved in an age of discovery; how his work must be looked at as something new, not something to be recognized from past experience; and how art looks to the future, forecasting the unknown.

Complete Record: Source: NET Interest level: c-ad Price: rent ea $4.75 Format: sd b&w

Metadata Source:Educational film guide. Supplements (1959-62)