Art as a Culture

(1) Art has and continues to play an important role in defining time periods and the people during those times. An example such as the Lascaux Caves in France is full of various paintings and engravings that are mainly of animals. Most of these consist of horses, cattle, and deer which leads me to believe the culture that created these paintings were probably foragers. A part of their culture would've required a lot of time following a roaming food source and that was important to them. The artists that created these scenes of animals was a way of conveying their lives of traveling the long distances and probably important times of hunting before reaching that area. The amount of detail used for some of these paintings could also tell us about they were observance of the overall anatomy and movement of these animals. Their struggles would've revolved around their survival and becoming knowledgeable of the animals they were hunting and the different climates that they'd have to adapt to in order to continue thriving.

The main difficulty the painters would've encountered in these caves would be lighting. Creating tools to hold and maneuver burning animal fat could've been a way to resolve this and would've then assisted them in moving their way through the caves. The surface of the walls could've also created an issue with the appliance of the materials to paint these animals. It can be seen in images like the Great Red and Black Horse that several techniques were used to create this painting.

Many forms of art have been used for storytelling and this could've been a possible function of the cave paintings. Important hunting successes depicting images of those certain animals would've been an example of this. Another possibility would involve a form of religion or belief that creating these paintings would improve their future hunting endeavors. Seeing that there's series of herds of a specific animal in the same area of the cave could indicate that maybe there was more successes during different periods of time. Lastly this could've been a way to record history. There's so many paintings and engravings linking their way deeper into the cave from the passageway. It's possible each group that has explored the cave has recorded their own memories and observations.

(2) Art is also a form of expression and can be interpreted in many ways no matter when and where something has been created. The Lascaux cave paintings express an importance of the animals that were involved in these people's everyday lives and similarly modern artists do the same with subjects that are important personally or throughout the world. It can also be used a way learn. Observing the use of detail in these paintings suggest that they were becoming more knowledge of the behaviors and anatomy that by recreating their own observations could be used to educate themselves. As such examples could also be seen today through illustrations in books or the verses of lyrics in a song.

(3)

Graphic design is visual communication that incorporates images, color, typography and space. We see products of this art form in many ways like billboards, commercials, advertisements, sponsorships, and brands. I don't believe that it's associated with one culture, in a way it's been associated throughout the world. Graphic design is mostly known for its use of images to communicate information and originates to the simplest of forms such as the Lascaux cave paintings.