I'm Kenney Mencher. I'm an artist who left a tenured professorship in 2016 to pursue making art full time. This blog is about art, art history, with a emphasis on human rights. I make homoerotic art featuring bears, otters & other gay wildlife.
Thursday
Sculptures Willendorf and Dolni Vestonice
Courses on Udemy:
- Art History: Prehistory to the 1300
- Art History: Renaissance to 20th C
- Business for Fine Artists: How to Market, Sell, and Ship
- Painting and Drawing the Human Form and Portraiture
Why is the “Venus of Wilendorf,”so important.
In our world there are certain artifacts and works of art that are ideal examples of how (western culture) views a historical period or art movement.
Starting with the title of the so called “Venus of Willendorf,” is now considered misnamed because most historians do not believe it is a love goddess such as we think of the Roman goddess of love and romance Venus. When it was found in 1908 by the archaeologist Josef Szombathy in the country of Austria near a place called Willendorf, archeologists believed that “cave men” (also a term that isn’t used much) saw this figurine as a kind of ancient porno magazine. In the 1960s, after anthropology and archeology really got going as disciplines, academics felt that the figurine probably represented an image of a woman who was sturdy, well fed, and healthy. A woman with a large amount of body fat would be nice to snuggle with during the ice age. So historians see this small sculpture in different ways and from different points of views based on when they lived, what they believe, and the culture that the person who is looking at it from. One other thing that you should know, they’ve found a lot of figurines that share very similar qualities and date from the same period.
You can decide what you want to believe it is after you get some facts about it. I think that disregarding other interpretations and just describing it is a good way of figuring it out.
It’s small, about 8 inches long. It was made out of stone. The feet are broken off. It has a couple of dots or small circular impressions where the face should be. The “hair” is a repeating slightly geometric pattern that looks almost like a series of ovals in rows. The breasts, stomach, butt, and thighs are very large while the arms which are crossed across the chest are almost just etched shapes. The vagina is very clearly defined. The sculpture has some traces of reddish paint on it.
There are a range of interpretations of the large body parts, the hair and the lack of realism in the features of the face and the hair. The body is very naturalistic and so are the genitals. The contrast of real looking stuff to abstract or cartoonish stuff maybe an indication that the face was less important than the body or the reverse could be true. Maybe the face was so important that there was a reason to make it just three small holes. Here’s the most reasonable explanation for what this sculpture is.
The sculpture is probably a representation of some kind of ideal woman. The extra body weight and exaggerated sexual characteristics might have represented a “sexy” woman or a “motherly type” or both at the same time. The stylized repeating pattern on the head is probably some sort of cap, but more likely it represents hair and could represent braids, of a type of mud encrusted hair style that some people use even today in parts of Africa.
 | form (1) : orderly method of arrangement (as in the presentation of ideas) : manner of coordinating elements (as of an artistic production or course of reasoning) (2) : a particular kind or instance of such arrangement <the sonnet is a poetical form> b : PATTERN, SCHEMA <arguments of the same logical form>(3) The literal shape and mass of an object or figure. (4) More general, the materials used to make a work of art, the ways in which these materials are used utilized in terms of the formal elements (medium, texture, rhythm, tempo, dynamic contrast, melody, line, light/contrast/value structure, color, texture, size and composition.)
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|  ico·nog·ra·phy |
Iconographic Analysis An iconographic analysis is the analysis of the symbols and what they mean in the work, or what the work itself symbolizes. Some scholars such as Marilyn Stokstad refers to this as content. According to Stokstad book Art History: "Content includes subject matter, which is quite simply is what is represented, even when that consists strictly of lines and formal elements-lines and color without recognizable subject matter, for example.". | |
CONTEXT
Etymology: Middle English, weaving together of words, from Latin contextus connection of words, coherence, from contexere to weave together, from com- + texere to weave
1 : the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning
2 : the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs : ENVIRONMENT, SETTING
contextual analysis
Is the analysis of a work by discussing its history, culture, environment, and or background.
Roughly close to conclusion in music.
contextualism A methodological approach in art history which focuses on the cultural back ground of an art object. Unlike connoirsseurship, contexualism utilizes the literature, history, economics, and social developments (among others) of a period, as well as the object itself, to explain the meaning of an artwork. She was unearthed by worker Johann Veran, about 30m above the River Danube, during the Wachau railway construction in 1908, then identified by Austrian archaeologist Josef Szombathy. Wilendorf had already been known as a Palaeolithic site for over 20 years before systematic excavations by Josef Szombathy, Josef Bayer and Hugo Obermaier began. | |
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 Kachina Palhik’ mama (Water Drinking Girl) c 1920 wood pt. Yarn front view SW United States, Hopi Culture |  Woman from Willendorf, (Venus of Willendorf ), Austria. c. 22,000-21,000 BCE. limestone, painted with ochre. Size: 4 3/4 inches Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna Paleolithic Period |
Title Venus of Willendorf Region/Country Europe (Austria) period/style name Paleolithic approximate dates c. 22,000-21,000 BCE. Courses on Udemy: | Historic Era Neolithic Technology Cultures 1125-1200 CE Ansazi Paleolithic 600,000-10,000 European Sites: Altamira, Lascaux, Tuc Audoubert, La Madeleine, Willendorf Neolithic Cultures 4,000-1,500 BCE Europe |
Wednesday
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APPLICATIONS OPEN: Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant for Queer Women(+) Dance Artists
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Paleolithic Art c30,000-10,000 BCE
Courses on Udemy:
- Art History: Prehistory to the 1300
- Art History: Renaissance to 20th C
- Business for Fine Artists: How to Market, Sell, and Ship
- Painting and Drawing the Human Form and Portraiture
Paleolithic Art c30,000-10,000 BCE
Main Ideas
Vocabulary about art.
How to look at or breakdown a work of art in terms of its physical appearance and feel.
What do these things mean and what kinds of subjects and ideas are repeated.
Where and how were these things found and what do they tell us about mankind back then and maybe now.
| form (1) : orderly method of arrangement (as in the presentation of ideas) : manner of coordinating elements (as of an artistic production or course of reasoning) (2) : a particular kind or instance of such arrangement <the sonnet is a poetical form> b : PATTERN, SCHEMA <arguments of the same logical form>(3) The literal shape and mass of an object or figure. (4) More general, the materials used to make a work of art, the ways in which these materials are used utilized in terms of the formal elements (medium, texture, rhythm, tempo, dynamic contrast, melody, line, light/contrast/value structure, color, texture, size and composition.)
|
| ico·nog·ra·phy |
Iconographic Analysis An iconographic analysis is the analysis of the symbols and what they mean in the work, or what the work itself symbolizes. Some scholars such as Marilyn Stokstad refers to this as content. According to Stokstad book Art History: "Content includes subject matter, which is quite simply is what is represented, even when that consists strictly of lines and formal elements-lines and color without recognizable subject matter, for example.". | |
CONTEXT
Etymology: Middle English, weaving together of words, from Latin contextus connection of words, coherence, from contexere to weave together, from com- + texere to weave
1 : the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning
2 : the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs : ENVIRONMENT, SETTING
contextual analysis
Is the analysis of a work by discussing its history, culture, environment, and or background.
Roughly close to conclusion in music.
contextualism A methodological approach in art history which focuses on the cultural back ground of an art object. Unlike connoirsseurship, contexualism utilizes the literature, history, economics, and social developments (among others) of a period, as well as the object itself, to explain the meaning of an artwork. She was unearthed by worker Johann Veran, about 30m above the River Danube, during the Wachau railway construction in 1908, then identified by Austrian archaeologist Josef Szombathy. Wilendorf had already been known as a Palaeolithic site for over 20 years before systematic excavations by Josef Szombathy, Josef Bayer and Hugo Obermaier began. | |
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Kachina Palhik’ mama (Water Drinking Girl) c 1920 wood pt. Yarn front view SW United States, Hopi Culture | Woman from Willendorf, (Venus of Willendorf ), Austria. c. 22,000-21,000 BCE. limestone, painted with ochre. Size: 4 3/4 inches Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna Paleolithic Period |
Title Venus of Willendorf Region/Country Europe (Austria) period/style name Paleolithic approximate dates c. 22,000-21,000 BCE. | Historic Era Neolithic Technology Cultures 1125-1200 CE Ansazi Paleolithic 600,000-10,000 European Sites: Altamira, Lascaux, Tuc Audoubert, La Madeleine, Willendorf Neolithic Cultures 4,000-1,500 BCE Europe |
 Bison from La Madeleine 15,000 – 10,000 BCE 4" long reindeer horn |
Knife handle? 19th Century, ivory, pearl, shell, wood, Ht 4 1/8’’ width 1 5/8’’ |
Paleolithic Art c30,000-10,000 BCE
Altamira Spain, 25,000 BCE
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Cosquer Cave, France c25,000
Altamira
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Chauvet Cave c 30,000 BCE
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 asym.met.ri.cal or asym.met.ric adj [Gk asymmetria lack of proportion, fr. asymmetros ill-proportioned, fr. a- + symmetros symmetrical] (1690) 1: not symmetrical 2 usu asymmetric, of a carbon atom: bonded to four different atoms or groups -- asym.met.ri.cal.ly adv -- asym.me.try n | sym.me.try n, pl -tries [L symmetria, fr. Gk, fr. symmetros symmetrical, fr. syn- + metron measure--more at measure] (1541) 1: balanced proportions; also: beauty of form arising from balanced proportions 2: the property of being symmetrical; esp: correspondence in size, shape, and relative position of parts on opposite sides of a dividing line or median plane or about a center or axis--compare bilateral symmetry, radial symmetry 3: a rigid motion of a geometric figure that determines a one-to-one mapping onto itself 4: the property of remaining invariant under certain changes (as of orientation in space, of the sign of the electric charge, of parity, or of the direction of time flow)--used of physical phenomena and of equations describing them bilateral symmetry n (1860): symmetry in which similar anatomical parts are arranged on opposite sides of a median axis so that only one plane can divide the individual into essentially identical halves |
 space, picture plane, and overlapping |
The black edges of the contour lines are accented with a chiseled line into the rock. |  |
 Why in profile? What function does contour serve? Colors/Pigments -charcoal -manganese -ochres -ferrous oxides -vehicle or medium |  Bisons c. 15,000-12,000 BC bison length 77 in. (195 cm) Altamira, Spain |
 |  Wounded bison attacking a man? c. 15,000-10,000 BC bison length 43 in. (110 cm) Lascaux, France |
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Items for discussion:
Most of these don't have a single "correct" answer. I want you to guess, theorize, and speculate.):
What are the major subjects painted and sculpted in the Paleolithic era?
Why no architecture?
Why no pottery?
Why no plants?
Why were they nomadic?
Where and how were these things found and what do they tell us about mankind back then and maybe now?
Courses on Udemy:
- Art History: Prehistory to the 1300
- Art History: Renaissance to 20th C
- Business for Fine Artists: How to Market, Sell, and Ship
- Painting and Drawing the Human Form and Portraiture
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