This week, the class will be focusing on Realism and Perspective. Pay close attention to the Challenges of Perspective and the different art movements discussed in the chapter. Post a blog entry and respond to something that caught your attention.

Personally, I never have really thought about perspective and how artists use perspective in order to attract the viewer's eyes in a particular way. Often when I look at a piece, I simply dive right into it, unaware of the technique in which the artist may direct the spectator in viewing the piece. It is quite interesting to learn that when being aware of where the eye is trained to look, one can interpret and understand even more out of a work of art.

Practically everyone has heard of Pablo Picasso at some point in the grade school years. Picasso encompasses the style of Cubism, and his works are quite abstract and unusual at a glance. I have seen various works by Picasso and other cubists in my life, but typically have not held that much interest in them. Visually, I have never really found them appealing, and I always felt that his work tend to be all very similar. I always understood that his paintings were significant to the art world, and highly appreciated, yet I never truly thought on why and how his work were so significant. I knew that cubism is an art form that takes different perspectives and arranges them into one image, yet I never thought why one would want to do so.

Upon reading chapter 4, I have realized that in order to appreciate some works of art, one must understand that perspective often holds a great deal of weight on their significance. A statement in "Practices of Looking" truly caught my eye. Sturken writes, "Each painting presents itself as a representation of how we really see. But wheras the Roland de la Porte painting posits a singular spectator looking toward the image, the Braque offers the restless view of a spectator in constant motion" (167). Often, we as humans tend to look at art and see it straightforwardly. Cubism, however, tried to capture the way in which humans view in the real world, with dimensions, and movement of the eyes. I was able to look at Braque's Woman with a Guitar in a whole new way, noticing the space and use of depth, and the geometric-like parts of the painting. Braque's painting takes an image and presents snapshots of a 360 degree viewing of the subject. After understanding the weight of value towards cubism, I feel that I appreciate the style a bit more than before.