understand world via art

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How might we use art to understand people’s ways of seeing and

understanding the world?

In order to know how art can be used as a tool to comprehend how people

see and understand the world, it is frst vital to assert that while there is no

agreed defnition o what art is, there is no doubt that it is a particular kind o

human action (Morphy & Perkins, 2!"# $he evolution o humans has given

rise to what %delman characteries as higher consciousness ('ewis)illiams,

2*"# $his involves the capacity or language, memory, and that humans

are aware o being conscious# +umans live in particular social, political and

economic contets, and consciousness e-ects how people see their reality,

in terms o past and uture, and act in it by constructing a socially based

selhood ('ewis)illiams, 2*"# )e can conclude that art is a product o

human consciousness, by .uestioning why certain entities are represented,

and how they have been represented# I use represent loosely as not all art

ob/ects have the intention to look like eisting entities, such as those created

by the 0belam o 1ew uinea, and instances where representational images

are orbidden (3orge, 456"# $his eample o representational images

demonstrates that artworks echo an artist7s social contet# $his point is

developed by noticing that the unction, construal and eecution o art is

sub/ect to di-erences over time and space, or eample the use as a hunting


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magic device in the Palaeolithic %ra, to fate images o another world in

shamanic art, or to solely please and decorate ('eakey, 4558"# 0s

anthropologists, in the scope o art, it is undamental to see the etent that

artists are driven by their social contets, and how social relationships have

contributed to the production o art#

3ocusing on the visual arts, the scope o this essay is situated in the varying

perceptions and understandings that people have o emale body# $he body

is a site o image construction and a-ects how people interact with the

world# 9ody image is simply the way our body looks and is commonly defned

as an individual7s satisaction with their physical sel (sie, shape, general

appearance: ;ash &


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argue that artworks, in a metaphorical sense, are doorways into artist7s

social, economic and political contet# I shall do this by demonstrating that

the skills and styles an artist uses are chosen to mimic his perception and

understanding o the world that he is part o# =imilarly to the act that we

cannot literally see into people7s minds and completely comprehend how

they view the world, art will never give us a ull picture o how an artist sees

and understands the world#

9aandall7s concept >the period eye> describes how art can be used as a

record to see and understand people7s sociality# +e states that to be able to

create and comprehend an artwork, >one brings to the picture a mass o

inormation and assumptions drawn rom general eperience### ?thereore@

our comprehension depends on what we bring to the picture> (45AA:B8"# $he

inormation brought to an image is the repertoire o visual skills that allow

individuals to structure and draw meanings rom artworks (45AA:B"#

0ccordingly, viewers use inormation they have gained through eperience,

and assume relevant, to draw inerences and interpret an artwork# =imilarly

to how the inormation used is derived rom the viewer7s contet, artworks

themselves are derived rom the artists contet# In other words, artworks are

created in the style that relates to the cognitive skills people have# $his is

due to two reasons# 3irstly, and mainly, because the artist is also >a member

o the society he works or, and shares ?the viewers@ visual eperience and

habitat> (45AA:*"# =econdly, the artists must be aware o his >publics visual


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capacity> as people7s tastes are mediated by their cognitive skills, and we

en/oy >our own eercise o skill> (9aandall, 45AA:B*,*"#

$he artworks produced in the ancient reek era ocused on aesthetic appeal,

but also echoed concepts o reek sociality# $he ancient reek sculptor

Praiteles depicted the goddess 0phrodite, let, with a uller fgure, a rounded

stomach and wide hips, shielding hersel in a cocked hip and slightly

hunched pose# 0lternatively, nude male fgures in ancient reek sculptures

are mesopmorphic, with nothing evading the eye# 9y adding contet it

becomes apparent why men and women were depicted di-erently and how

their social contet was reCected through their art# In ancient reece, there

was a gender divide# 0ristotle demonstrates this in Politics, >when one rules

and the other is ruled we endeavour to create a di-erence o outward

orms### the relation o the male to the emale is o this kind, but there the

ine.uality is permanent> (B8 9;"# $his ine.uality arose because in ancient

reece, >the culturally constructed terms o emininity and masculinity###

depended upon their socially assigned di-erences>, meaning that women

and men were ecluded to act in the same spheres (=almon, 4556:2"# )e

can see 9aandall7s concept take lie throughout ancient reek sculptures#

$he male physi.ue was idealised, and artists >?brought@ together rom many

models the most beautiul eatures o each > (Denophon, *9;"#

0lternatively, women were portrayed in their naturalistic orm as emale

modesty in ancient reece was highly valued, and women could not act in


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the sphere o power that the nude male orm presented#

)hile the naturalistic orm o the emale nude was not

highly idealised like the male nude sculptures, it still

nonetheless showed how women should look# In ancient

reece the ideal emale body was one o a uller fgure,

akin to Praiteles sculpture# $his particular ideal

demonstrated wealth and a higher chance o conceiving

(0ndrew, 4556"# $hus, ancient reece7s belies about

male and emale di-erence maniested into its artworks

as the artist was a part o that social contet# 0ncient

reek artists shared the same eperiences o assigned di-erences and

brought this inormation into the creation o art#


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body very di-erently to conventional 0ustralian culture# In most societies,

such as the west, the human orm is depicted with a human7s most defning

eatures: a head, torso, and two arms and legs# +owever, it is common or a

Eshape to represent a whole person by both )arlpiri children and adults

(;o, 242:442"#


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other species> (=childkrout, 2*:BB"# $his elucidates di-ering

understanding7s o the body even though representing the body as a stick

man,


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understanding o socially shared mental images o what is signifcant and

believed, and this agreement is made through language# 9y doing this,

artists in di-ering social contets create art that people would notice and

understand what it would mean, which conse.uently reinorces values

because seeing establishes our place in the world# +owever, what is

signifcant and believed in social contets does not always determine how

people think and thereore what art people will create, alternatively it allows

the chance o people to surrender to common belies and, or, resist rom

people7s particular social, political and economic contet# $he development

o higher consciousness, that being our memory and awareness o being

conscious, allowed or the possibility o resistance# $his possibility entails

that the production o artworks be endowed with alternative motives to those

already eisting#

I the signifcant and believed ideas in a social contet determined how

people thought and acted in the world then the depiction o the human fgure

would not have altered, however it has, and this demonstrates that the

motives behind the reason or a certain depiction have changed# $o be able

to understand, via art, the motives o an artist7s social contet that drive the

production o an artwork, it is necessary to draw our attention to the

processes o signication that occur in works o art# $he signifcation o an

artwork are its conveyed meanings# )e attain meanings through signs

because signs communicate things to us# GH =haughnessy (4555" stated that


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the method semiotics asserts that sign systems work through certain rules

and structures and result in the ability or meanings to be communicated# +e

states this can aid the understanding o what is being communicated in

artworks by simply asking >what is there> (4555:!6"# 9y comparing the

di-ering depictions o the emale nude created in %urope I shall demonstrate

that these two di-ering styles have been produced rom a resistance o what

was commonly believed and signifcant o the time# I believe this is driven

through eperience, as I have shown previously through 9aandall,

eperience is central to the art that is created# I shall suggest that pre

eisting motives that were communicated in previous art orms, such as the

9aro.ue period, were not what all %uropean7s were eperiencing# Esing %gon

=chiele as an eample I shall show that di-erent mental images and

eperiences lead to new artworks and styles because the motives altered,

there were eperiences that were not being depictures in art#

$he 9aro.ue art ollowed rom the Jenaissance# )hile 9aro.ue art o nudes

similarly aimed to depict the ideal body image, it was not preoccupied with

the study o mathematics as a means o constructing the ideal emale orm#

9aro.ue art reashioned the classical ideal, the signifed, which was

conveyed in through the signs o ample emales with rippling Cesh# Jubens

was known or presenting women o this era with generous fgures in his

paintings# )hile some contest that Jubens7 art glorifes larger women, the

act remains that this sie would be portrayed in many nudes o the 9aro.ue


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era, and was regarded as ashionable, and was the ideal fgure (Koda, 2!"#

$his created the ideal body image in 9aro.ue art where there was no

celebration o human variety (=orabella, 2A"# 3oucault stated >this political

investment o the body is bound up in accordance with comple reciprocal

relations with its economic use> (mirror

was oten used as a symbol o the vanity o women ###in treating hersel### a

sight> (4562:84"# $his illustrates that women were depicted and art arranged

in art >to display it to the man looking at the picture> (9erger, 4562:88"# $his

demonstrates the social relations that held during the 9aro.ue art period

were those dominated by the male gae (Josenthal, 28"# 9oth the sign o a

deCected gae and the proportion o the body taking up the rame signifes

an ideal display or men# $his was the cultural connotation and

understanding o why the nude was depicted o the time: the nude had to be

conventionalied in order or it to be represented (4562:8B"# $he portrayal o

the emale nude, i wanting to gain acceptance rom 9aro.ue society, had to

be constructed with the aim o arousing the viewer, and thus must conorm


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to the accepted standards o how a women should,

ideally look# )oman has a submissive position in

the time o 9aro.ue art and maniested in its

construal# $his occurred because the >une.ual

relationship ?was@ deeply embedded in the culture,

and was the structure o consciousness o many

women> (9erger, 4562:!B"# 9eing a part o the

social contet and drawing rom his eperience,

Juben was able to depict societies ideas around how the emale body was to

be understood through his art#

G7 =haughnessy states that connotations o the time are culturally shared

and dependent on cultural knowledge (4555:!8"# +e continues claiming that

cultural knowledge is a prere.uisite in understanding art through semiotics

as it allows the interaction between the sign and the values o a culture to be

viewed: >being aware o these connotations will make us aware o the

cultural meanings in images>(4555:!6"# $his has precedence as without

having cultural knowledge about the )arlpiri, gaining an insight into what

their art represents about how they understand the body will not be possible#

+owever, G7=haughnessy claims that individual connotations are specifc and

whilst they a-ect how we see and understand the world, because they are

not shared, they are not useul in understanding o semiotics between art

signs and values o culture# %gon =chiele7s artworks o the emale nude act


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as a dissent o this view as a new style in its entirety ormed out o his own

individual connotations# I argue that individual connotations and eperiences

are a primary key in the resistance o social contets and push new styles o

art and ultimately new representations o the body# 0s $racey %mins eplains

>=chiele appeared to be intensely looking at himsel> (248"#

!emale "ude, %gon =chiele #emi$"ude

Girl% &eclinging %gon =chiele#

0s aorementioned, the signifcation o an artwork rests in its conveyed

meanings# )e attain meanings through signs because signs communicate

things to us# GH =haughnessy (4555" stated that the method semiotics

asserts that sign systems work through certain rules and structures and

result in the ability or meanings to be communicated# +e states this can aid

the understanding o what is being communicated in artworks by simply

asking >what is there> (4555:!6"# 9y comparing the di-ering depictions o

the emale nude created in %urope I shall demonstrate that these two


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di-ering styles have been produced as a result o a resistance to common

belies and what was signifcant# I believe this is driven through eperience,

as I have shown previously through 9aandall, eperience is central to the

art that is created and particularly individual eperiences# I shall suggest that

preeisting motives that were communicated in previous art orms were not

what all %uropean7s were eperiencing and thereby led to new art styles#

$hrough signifcation and eperience people who were looking at these new

works knew what they were meaning#

=chiele7s art demonstrates that his motives were not determined by his

social contet, and ultimately impacted on the art he produced sparking

controversy# $hese motives were those o resistance to what was believed

and signifcant in how the body should be depicted in his social contet# +e

rebelled against the rigid character o naturalistic drawings o the body and

perspective drawing (=teiner,2:28"# +is epressive style and use o hard,

dark and distorted lines were signs used to signiy a truth o a hidden

underworld# +is art moved away rom an idealied worldview in %uropean

society as what portrayed in subse.uent artworks did not represent all social,

political and economic relations o %uropean people# =chiele lived in prewar

%urope and depicted a reality that eisted away rom the public eye,

challenging social norms and acting as a resistance to the idealied approach

relating to the nude and conventional norms o beauty that were bodies o

volume and sot lines# 0lthough the compositions and poses o the bodies he


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depicted were seually direct, it was less about the gae o the male,

because the bodies drawn were thin, gaunt and angular with unusual use o

colouring# $his demonstrates a change in reciprocal relations between men

and women as they were not conventionalised or depicted to have the ideal

body thus evoking emotion# $he thin fgures were not depicting as a new

ideal but were used as a sign to communicate that people were living in

poverty and conse.uently were malnourished and had health problems in

prewar %urope (wingenberger, 244:4!"# =chiele lived in a socially and

psychologically charged atmosphere and this maniests in his art as those

were the mental images he eperienced and thus communicated in his art#

+is own individual connotations and eperiences allowed or the emergence

o this art style that mimicked the reality o certain social, political and

economic contets via the techni.ue o stripping away the ideal emale nude

depicted or men in art in prior art styles#

=chiele7s depiction ocusing on the social contet o prewar %urope that he

was eperiencing had not been represented in art by previous works# 0s a

conse.uence, what many were eperiencing was only a shadow o a true

reality# Plato used the allegory o the cave to argue that the creation o art

may present itsel as something, but there is always a deeper or hidden

reality that is not observable (Plato,B8 9;"# $hus, the art that was produced

by =chiele7s subse.uent artists were not showing other political, social and

economic happenings in %urope# 0s 3oucault stated the body was used to


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deploy certain political and economic agendas# $his argument encourages us

to not accept things as they appear to be, however Plato uses this to argue

that there is an ob/ective truth o reality (Plato,B8"# I disagree that there is

an ob/ective truth o reality as it is through people7s senses that individuals

come to know the world# +owever Plato7s point that there is more to what we

observe highlights the act that art doesn7t always open a doorway into how

people view and understand their world# )e cannot assume that we are

literally seeing into another persons world, as this essay has shown, cultural

knowledge and specifcally eperience is crucial in being able to truly

understand how people view their world# G7 =haughnessy draws attention to

this point stating that when we look at art >what we are seeing is not 7reality7

but signs and signifers that aim to represent the real world> (4555:!!"#

=ontag argues against the interpretation o art and the importance placed

on the meaning o an artwork7s content (455"# =he argues against the

necessity o a >conscious act o the mind which illustrates a certain code,

certain 7rules7 o interpretation>, what G7 =haughnessy provides a method o#

$his leads us away rom the idea that a work o art is primarily its content,

she claims, and the ocus o the idea behind the art is stiCing the sensuous

aspects when we encounter a work o art# +er reasoning against

interpretation is that seeing what art is 7saying7 sets up >a shadow world o

7meanings7> and >tames the work o art> as she states that great artworks

have transcendental power to e-ect people, having the ability, or eample,


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to >make you eel nervous> when one does not interpret art (455"# )hilst I

agree that looking at an artwork that you lack an academic understanding o

can result in an aesthetic e'perience% I think it is implausible to say such an

eperience is eclusive to individuals without knowledge on what it is they

are viewing# In act, I take the view that academic interpretation, which

draws out possible social, political and economic contets conveyed in

artworks does not stiCe our sensibilities and can in act heighten our

aesthetic eperience by knowing what it is saying# Plato contends that art is

a shadow o a true reality, and that we need to be aware that our belies may

not always be a reCection o the reality, concluding that art isnHt useul# I

believe however that artists aim to represent a transcendent in their

artworks# )hat they produce is driven by their eistence, by their motives,

whether conventionalised or not, it is true to their reality# =ontag believes

that we save art rom Plato7s view i we stop interpreting it as we will /ust

ocus on its capacity to a-ect us instead o its meaning (455"# +owever, it

does not seem that we solve the argument that Plato proposes against art# I

art were proposed without initial interpretation we would be presented with

vast amounts o interpretations which may hold no real relevance at all#

Multiple interpretations arise as shown rom eperience and lack o cultural

knowledge due to signs and signifers# I believe that these interpretations

arise when one reCects inwards and draws rom own personal eperience to

attach meanings o artworks to our emotions, memories and thoughts# 0s

individual connotations are specifc it allows people the reedom to pro/ect


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their own viewpoint o artworks# Gn the other hand, this viewpoint is not

eclusive to simply /ust artworks where an interpretation is given, it is

possible that interpretation can intrude in on your perspective o it and a-ect

how one eels, but i =ontag states that >great art should make you nervous>

then great art should surely still achieve that as it has been interpreted

(455"# 9y being given an interpretation on it, or eample political works can

make the work stronger and ground it or you# Eltimately, art should

challenge your views and epand your thinking and by understanding the

conveyed meaning it is more likely or that to have an e-ect on you# 1ot to

mention this people interpret without having academia do it or them# 0s

most contemporary art ocuses on ideas, it is inherent that interpretations

consistently and naturally occur# I people didn7t interpret through semiotics

and connotations what conveyed meanings were represented in artworks it

would stay rather stagnant#

$he 24st century is saturated with social media and advertising and

constantly signifes what the ideal body is# G7 =haughnessy

shows that the media is an >agent o socialisation, ### and

communicates ideologies> (4555:B*5", as it communicates

ideologies through >appearing to o-er pleasure and power>

(4555:B!4" but ultimately goes into a >traditional view o

eminine roles and ideal eminity>(4555:B!8"# $he recent


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advert on the let, applying G7

=haughnessy, o-ers that i you have a

certain body type, then you have the

pleasure and power o wearing a bikini

on the beach because o the way you

look# $he advert implies that women

must have a particular body shape that complies with conception o beauty

to be able to wear a bikini# 3eminism established itsel in the beginning o

the 45s and sought to understand the long history o woman7s oppression

and aimed to alter gender roles and identities in social contets# 3eminists

.uestion the power relations o men and women that result in these adverts

are aimed at women, more so than men# =imilarly to art movements and

time periods prior to the 24st century, artists produce works to change body

ideals# It is clear that rom the time o 9aro.ue paintings up until this advert

that traditional roles and power relations have not shited and still eist

despite artworks rebellion against ideals#

0bove is an image I drew to convey the meaning that G7 =haughnessy

describes# I have signifed man7s ideal over woman# I positioned the man

coming out o the woman as it is our bodies which are a site where we

process images and the emale body has standards that are embedded in

western culture created by men#


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)e come to know the world through our senses and in our mind(s eye

interpret our social contet, and via our eperiences that are both commonly

and uni.uely shared to us# =imilarly to how our bodies take in the

surrounding world and we have the choice to agree and accept these values,

the uptake o women adopting the body ideal works similarly# 0s sight is

located rom our body and is how we come to know, it is unstoppable when

looking at images o bodies to deter away rom a reCection o our own# I take

this to be the case because, and to paraphrase 9erger, the male gae is

embedded in our culture and consciousness that we look at ourselves as

men do (4562"# I believe that this is a determinant or why ideals pertain

throughout time in western culture and an ongoing tension between

surrender or resist to body ideals#

I have demonstrated that art is a product o its time# 0rtists produce works

dependent upon the their eperiences in their social contet and through

semiotics their productions open a doorway into their world# $hroughout

history the development o the nude articulate concepts o the sel, others

and social values and belies and ultimately it7s representation and

understanding has constantly transormed# 0rt is used as an open doorway

and through semiotics and the period eye it aids viewer to see how people

viewed and understood their world#


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Word count

*6!4

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