Posted on 01/27/2019 11:39:20 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
Why do humans make art? When did we begin to make our mark on the world? And where? In this major new film, Britain’s most celebrated sculptor, Antony Gormley, is setting out on a journey to see for himself the very beginnings of art.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Very interesting if you’re in to ancient cave paintings, history or alien conspiracy theories.
Ping
Simultaneous discoveries are so common it would be strange if he hadn't.
But simultaneous discoveries that predate humans sound pretty fantastic to me. They claim these handprints were made by Neanderthals.
If you take you hand, dip it in a riverbank so it's covered with mud then press your hand against the wall that is what I would call an intuitive way of making a handprint. Laying your clean hand against a wall ans smearing mud around it so when you take your hand away there is an impression of your hand from where the mud didn't hit? Not so much. Throw in a cave so someone has to be standing behind you with a light so you can see what you're doing and it's even less intuitive.
Funny thing was the artist didn't even bring that point up at all. he waxed on about the wonder of humanity. Like I said in my OP, he was kind of goofy.
They were actually the very first form of "airbrushing"
People took hollow bones filled with pigments and blew into them, or simply blew them from their mouths, spattering the paint around their hand, exactly like using an airbrush stencil.
They used the same technique for some of the wonderfully subtle shading on their other subjects, too.
Those of who airbrush are fond of making cave art jokes. :)
Old but great book. :)
bkmk
You can make a primitive airbrush - or an atomizer- bamboo or any hollow stem cut s that you can blow through one half over the open end of the other which is immersed in pigmented water.
A modern metal version:
https://www.dickblick.com/products/art-alternatives-mouth-atomizer/
The history of art. Palm prints, then predators and prey, then porn...
;)
IMHO, that’s evocative of an image of Hell.
Yes, you can. :)
It depends on your perspective, I suppose.
Most cave art was created in the depths of the earth, in total darkness and the artists worked by lamp light.
Hundreds of the rudimentary animal fat lamps [and pigment pots and hollow bone tools] have been found in the caves.
The coolest thing is, is that the art was “animated” by the flickering flames of the lamps.
The dancing shadows [name of an excellent book, btw] delved into the probable “theater” of the artwork, used by the shamans and hunters to tell of great battles, hunts and legends and the shamans, to “preach” about the gods.
Imagine you’re in the total darkness of a cave and the shamans are hidden behind a large rock or outcrop, carefully manipulating the light and shadows to tell a story.
One by one, the Auroch, the horse and the warrior comes alive...
When I’d go to the old Gettysburg museum, the diorama reminded me of that.
All the scenes of battle were there in the darkness of the pit, hidden until the narrator illuminated each in its turn.
If I could take one world tour, ever, it would be to visit the cave art locations.
I think they are the most magnificent things ever and I wish I could see them as the people who made them did.
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/clottes/techniques.php
I have always found sculpture to be more expressive. And yes, combined with storytelling in theatrical lighting would be amazing.
Television has robbed us of the active imagination involved in theater and reading and art.
I have visited Egypt where they did candle light tours of the monuments and it does evoke a sense of mystery and majesty that was redolent in ways that draws you in to the ancient past.
I suppose the ancients in Indonesia could have discovered the same technique as the ancients in France several thousand years apart from each other, like knowledge of the Romans and Greeks that was lost during the Dark Ages and had to be rediscovered.
Thanks. Just ordered it.
Actually, it’s a class of first graders being asked who wants a puppy.
Modern definition
ART: Things of little or no value which most people do not want to purchase, the creators of which demand that their efforts be subsidized by public funds.
I’m pretty sure art began before Antony Gormley.
So they have somehow figured out that the first person to make art in a cave in Borneo 40,000+ years ago was named Antony Gormley? How did they learn his name?
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