Category: Arts – Arts Theory and Criticism
Schubert – the Strange and the Supernatural: Exploring Nineteenth Century Fantasy Aesthetic and Its Expression in Schubert’s Music
This study aims to comprehend better the culture surrounding Romantic aesthetics of fantasy and the uncanny during the nineteenth century (c.1800-1890) and evaluate how their expression in Schubert’s music can be understood. Initially, it will examine philosophical writings (Chander 2015) artwork (Crane 2013; Dunekacke 2016) and literature (Geistfeld 2015; Smajic 2003) of the period, combining …
From Virtual Space to “Third Space”: Mickey Mouse in Shanghai During the 1930s and 1940s
Mickey Mouse made his Chinese debut in the Shanghai illustrated magazine Liangyou in 1932. Since then, urban audiences in Shanghai began to see both authorized and unauthorized Mickey Mouse cartoons in entertainment mediums, including magazines, newspapers, and films. Through the analysis of images in various Shanghai media, this paper explores how the cultural identity of …
Redefining Crafts and Crafts Enterprise in the Twenty-First Century: A Theoretical Analysis
When studying crafts as a tangible material culture associated with intangible heritage contexts, it is essential to investigate the terms objectification, material culture and artefact. These three terms are connected with the concepts of ‘thing’, socialization, production, biography, exchange, art, fetishism, taste, lifestyle, consumption, values, history, place and landscape (Tilley, 2010); therefore, it is very …
Writing Forces: Revisiting the Aesthetic Concept of Shi 勢 in Chinese Calligraphy Criticism
Ideas regarding forces in things – and artists’ sensations and presentations of such forces – have been discussed by Western theorists Theodor Lipps, Rudolf Arnheim and Gilles Deleuze. For example, Deleuze, in “Painting Forces,” pronounced that art is about rendering invisible forces visible. This paper concerns Chinese calligraphy, an East Asian art that since its …
Solving Problems and Pleasing Patrons: The Case Study of the Egyptian Artists Who Decorated the Xviiith Dynasty Private Theban Tombs
This study is focused on the artists involved in the decoration of the private Theban tombs of the nobles of the Egyptian XVIIIth Dynasty, who were part of the court and usually had a close relationship with the king. These private tombs, full of vivacious and original decorations, have been a focus of attention for …