Nature, Knowledge and Technology
Nature:
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What do we consider ideal in nature?
How do animals in art reflect desirable or
despicable qualities in humans?
The Unicorn in Captivity
Tapestry from the Netherlands
1495 - 1505
Shaman's Amulet:Tlingit
Alaska/BC
Mask of Hanuman: Thailand
Chris Ofili: Monkey Magic–Sex, Money and Drugs
Great Britain, 1999
Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions: Iraq, c. 650 BCE
Spider: large rock drawing from Nazca, Peru
200 – 600 CE
Ren Renfa: Horses and Figures: China, 1250s
Tang Yin: Chinese Landscape
(1470-1523)
John Constable: The Haywain
England, 1821
Claude Monet: Water Lily
French, early 1900s
Ansel Adams: Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park
USA, 1944
Ma Yuan: Apricot Blossom
China, 13th Dynasty
Jan Bruegel
Little Bouquet in a Clay Jar
Flanders, 1599
Bishndas:
Barbur Surpervising the Layout
of the Garden of Fidelity
India, 1590
Ryoanji Zen Garden of Contemplation
Kyoto, Japan (1488 - 1499)
Serpent Mound, earthen sculpture
Native American, near Ohio
c. 900 - 1300
Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty
Great Salt Lake, Utah (1970)
Walter de Maria: The Lightning Field
New Mexico, 1971 - 1977
Neil Jenney: Meltdown Morning
USA, 1975
Knowledge:
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What do we know about the world around us
through art?
How does art advance knowledge?
When does knowledge advance the wellbeing of humans and the world, and when is it
oppressive, manipulative or too unwieldly to
be helpful?
Andreas Vesalius of Brussels
The Fourth Plate of Muscles
Engraving (Flanders, 1543)
John James Audubon
Carolina Paroquet
Watercolour
USA, 1827 - 38
Hunter and Kangaroo
Paint on bark
Aboriginal
Australia, c. 20th century
Bridget Riley: Current
Great Britain, 1964
Salvador Dali: The Persistence of Memory
Spain, 1931
Mark Rothko: Green, Red, Blue
oil on canvas
USA, 1955
Jose Clemente Orozco: Gods of the Modern World
12th panel in a cycle of murals in New Hampshire
Mexico, 1932 - 34
Anselm Kiefer: Breaking of the Vessels
Germany, 1990
Technology:
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What are our attitudes regarding the things
humans have constructed in the world?
How is technology helping us and how is it
hurting us?
Fernand Leger: The City
oil on canvas
France, 1919
David Smith
Cubi XXVI
USA, 1954
Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Fighting “Temeraire” Tugged To Her Last Berth To Be Broken Up
England, 1838
Jean Tinguely
Homage to New York: A Self-Constructing, Self-Destructing Work of Art
mixed media sculpture, Switzerland, 1960
Nam June Paik
(in collaboration
with Shuya Abe)
Megatron
Korea, 1995