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A Brief Glimpse into Non-Western Art Forms: Meiji Era Japan

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Cat and Lantern , Kobayashi Kiyochika (1886, Japan) The world is so old and massive that it seems almost impossible to narrow art history to the Western World. However old and big the world may be, it’s too big to discuss each culture’s art history. Here, I’ll narrow it down a little bit to Japan. Specifically, let’s talk about the Meiji Era, which lasted from 1868 to 1912. Different art styles encapsulated the Meiji era, and increased contact with the Western World allowed artists to form friendships and study under the “Masters” of Europe and the Americas. Take, for instance, Kobayashi Kiyochika’s Cat and Lantern . Compared to other woodblock prints from previous eras, this was indeed one of the first of its kind in Japan. The attention to detail on the cat’s fur, alongside the shadows and highlights from the lantern, encapsulates the playfulness and whimsy of this tiny creature. We see this typical cat-and-mouse scene, and unlike the dramaticism of Western art at the time, this exud
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The Influence of Video Games on Modern Art: Talking About Postmodernism

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While video games started appearing in the middle of the 20th century, one could argue that they didn’t become massively popular until the arcade craze of the 80s. Since the first video games, this new genre of art has taken the world by storm. According to the Academy of Animated Art, in 2023 alone, around 3.03 billion people worldwide play video games, or around 38% of the world’s total population. Though the craze for video games didn’t truly begin until the 1980s, the Supreme Court, only recently in 2012, ruled that video games can be considered a form of art. Throughout the creation of video games, there have been around eight distinctive generations of household consoles. For the sake of continuity, I won’t get into the heavy details of arcade machines and will instead focus on the consoles people had in their homes. Consoles started appearing around the end of the 1970s, mainly with the Atari 2600, which was released in 1977 for US families. Though Atari sold a total of 30 mi
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The Early Modern Era: a Brief Look into 20th Century Art

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  Lobster Telephone , Salvador Dalí (1932) As with the Romantic and Classical eras of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Modern era of art is filled with many different movements. To focus on the Early Modern era first, I want to mention my favorite movement of the era: surrealism. Created after World War 1, surrealism was a tap into the unconscious mind, where artists depicted illogical or sometimes even dream-like scenes in their art (Barnes 508). A perfect example of this is Salvador Dalí’s Lobster Telephone sculpture. Dalí sculpted this piece in 1936 for the poet Edward James, Dalí’s main patron at the time (Dalí 340). In his autobiography (271), Dalí wrote, “I do not understand why, when I ask for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, I am never served a cooked telephone…,” which is strangely not the most out-of-place quote from his book. It was stated that for the artist, both lobsters and telephones had an erotic connotation, hence why the reproductive organs of the lobster were sit
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Romanticism and the Many Movements of the 19th Century

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The Acrobats , Gustave Doré (1874) Ah, the 19th Century, a time filled with wars, revolutions, and philosophical discoveries. A lot happened during the span of just 100 years, including the birth of countless art movements. Thought colloquially dubbed the Romantic Era, this period had more than just that. The 1800s saw the rise of artists like Monet and Renoir with their Impressionistic styles or JMW Turner and William Blake with Romanticism. It saw the birth of many different movements and the histories of some of the greatest painters of modern times. Of course, there are some that not many people will recognize right away. Romanticism, where the Romantic era gets its namesake, can be loosely defined as subjective, dark, and rooted in horrible tragedies and injustices. One of the best examples is The Acrobats or The Street Performers by Gustave Doré. It’s one of the most tragic examples of romanticism in the genre. The story is based on an accurate tale of a family of street performe
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Back to the Classics, a Study on 18th Century Art

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The Declaration of Love , Jean-François de Troy (1731) 18th Century Rococo Artwork The art of the 18th century was almost entirely different from earlier eras. In fact, during the “Long Century,” there was a nearly overnight shift in art. Rococo art dominated the scene for about the first half of the 1700s. Artists of the era imbued lustful ideals of aristocratic life, freedom to enjoy pastimes, and luxurious wardrobes and fashions into their art. Take, for instance, Jean-François de Troy’s The Declaration of Love . This piece is just one example of the intricacies of Rococo art. The pastel pink, flower print dresses and soft backgrounds are just some of the defining features of the Rococo era. Look at how ornate and flowing the women’s dresses are and how elaborate the men’s clothing is. This beautiful piece is precisely what the title describes it as: a declaration of love. The soft colors and gentle shadows illuminate and idealize the simple pleasures of everyday life. This piece is
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