Favourite sculpture

The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer (French: La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze

Ans) is a c. 1881 sculpture by Edgar Degas of a young student of the Paris Opera
Ballet dance school, a Belgian named Marie van Goethem.
The sculpture is two-thirds life size and was originally sculpted in wax, an
unusual choice of medium for the time. It is dressed in a real bodice, tutu and
ballet slippers and has a wig of real hair. All but a hair ribbon and the tutu are
covered in wax. The 28 bronze repetitions that appear in museums and galleries
around the world today were cast after Degas' death. The tutus worn by the
bronzes vary from museum to museum.
When the La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans was shown in Paris at the Sixth
Impressionist Exhibition of 1881, it received mixed reviews. Joris-Karl Huysmans
called it "the first truly modern attempt at sculpture I know'. Certain critics were
shocked by the piece, and the dancer was compared to a monkey and an Aztec.
One critic, Paul Mantz, called her the "flower of precocious depravity," with a face
"marked by the hateful promise of every vice" and "bearing the signs of a
profoundly heinous character."[1] Comparisons with older art were made,
perhaps partly because it was exhibited in a glass case, like classical sculpture in
the Louvre, and was dressed in wig and clothes. The arms are taut, and the legs
are quite twisted round, and there is tension in the pose, an image of a ballerina
being put through her paces, not posing in an angelic way. Her face is
"contorted, people thought it was a deliberate image of ugliness, but you could
also say it's the image of a sickly gawky adolesecent who is being made to do
something she doesn't totally want to do."[2] To construct the statue, Degas
used a lead pipe armature[6] and, to some extent, paintbrushes for structural
support.

Conceptual art is meant to be uncomfortable

The very objective of this form of art is to move you out of your comfort zone and
give you new, yet unexplored avenues of thought. One must understand this
idea, and appreciate the effect conceptual art makes on them. If a piece has a
strong effect: it is good. If it has no effect or the effect is "eh": its fails.
Conceptual art is not classical art
Conceptual art has evolved form classical art where the objective was to capture
nature and later human emotions, thus we tend to judge modern art by this
same criteria, which is not correct. It's a different field. To be a great conceptual
artists you don't need to be able to draw (although it does not hurt). You have to
have novel ideas, and be able to conceive interesting ways to present them.
It's all about the idea

In classical art the actual piece of art (painting, sculpture, etc.) is what we
evaluate. The back story makes the art more interesting, but it's not an integral
part of the piece. In modern conceptual many times the art is just documentation
of the idea. One must evaluate the whole story that's captured by this
documentation, not just what's on canvas (or any other surface). One must
appreciate the idea overall, not the aesthetic of the documentation itself.
Compare fairly
When comparing classical art to conceptual art, the latter often fails, because
our comparison is unfair. On one hand we are looking at selected pieces of
classical art from art history: the top 0.01% of all classical art ever created. Most
of classical art sucked too, there were plenty of uninspired artists out there, but
they didn't survive the critics over the years. On the other hand, we're looking at
all of modern art because it is still contemporary. Most of contemporary art is
garbage too, but we don't yet have the benefit of hindsight. We should not judge
conceptual art by this majority of poor quality work, but by the few good pieces,
just like we judge impressionism by the few hundred best pieces created in their
era.
It's self referencing
To fully appreciate and enjoy something you need to have a knowledge of it. If
you want to appreciate a nice piece of ruby code, you need to know
programming to a certain extent. If you want to appreciate a great fishing catch,
you need to understand how hard it is to pull that off. You get the idea. In the
subject of conceptual art prior understanding is even more important. You need
to see lots of classical and modern art before you can fully appreciate modern art
because it references itself a lot. It's very meta. And sometimes several layers
deep. If you don't get a piece of modern art, the reason may be that you don't
have the complicated background story that makes a particular piece of art
clever.
It's not for everyone
You may understand what conceptual art is about and but you may still not like it
because you don't like the very idea behind it. It's possible you are
fundamentally a conservative person who doesn't like change, and you don't
enjoy the feeling of your ideas about the world being disturbed. In this case, the
best of conceptual art will be the worst thing you have ever seen in your life. An
abomination, and a sign for of end of times.
Be open to the new, learn more and enjoy modern art on any level you can. Look
for that feeling when your preconceived ideas as shaken a bit, or when a rush of
unexpected new ideas are initiated in your brain by something you see or hear.
Enjoy!
Internet art (often referred to as net art) is a form of digital artwork distributed via the Internet.
This form of art has circumvented the traditional dominance of the gallery and museum system,

delivering aesthetic experiences via the Internet. In many cases, the viewer is drawn into some
kind of interaction with the work of art. Artists working in this manner are sometimes referred to
as net artists.
Internet art can happen outside the technical structure of the Internet, such as when artists use
specific social or cultural Internet traditions in a project outside of it. Internet art is oftenbut not
alwaysinteractive, participatory, and multimedia-based. Internet art can be used to spread a
message, either political or social, using human interactions.
The term Internet art typically does not refer to art that has been simply digitized and uploaded to
be viewable over the Internet. This can be done through a web browser, such as images of
paintings uploaded for viewing in an online gallery.[1] Rather, this genre relies intrinsically on the
Internet to exist, taking advantage of such aspects as an interactive interface and connectivity to
multiple social and economic cultures and micro-cultures. It refers to the Internet as a whole, not
only to web-based works.

Art in school
Learning to create and appreciate visual aesthetics may be more important than ever to the development of
the next generation of children as they grow up.
Developmental Benefits of Art
Motor Skills: Many of the motions involved in making art, such as holding a paintbrush or scribbling with
a crayon, are essential to the growth of fine motor skills in young children. According to the National
Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and
beginning to use safety scissors. Around age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting
straight lines with scissors. Many preschool programs emphasize the use of scissors because it develops
the dexterity children will need for writing.
Language Development: For very young children, making artor just talking about itprovides
opportunities to learn words for colors, shapes and actions. When toddlers are as young as a year old,
parents can do simple activities such as crumpling up paper and calling it a ball. By elementary school,
students can use descriptive words to discuss their own creations or to talk about what feelings are elicited
when they see different styles of artwork.
Decision Making: According to a report by Americans for the Arts, art education strengthens problemsolving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices in the course of creating
art carries over into other parts of life. If they are exploring and thinking and experimenting and trying new
ideas, then creativity has a chance to blossom, says MaryAnn Kohl, an arts educator and author of
numerous books about childrens art education.
Visual Learning: Drawing, sculpting with clay and threading beads on a string all develop visual-spatial
skills, which are more important than ever. Even toddlers know how to operate a smart phone or tablet,
which means that even before they can read, kids are taking in visual information. This information consists
of cues that we get from pictures or three-dimensional objects from digital media, books and television.

Parents need to be aware that children learn a lot more from graphic sources now than in the past, says
Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University. Children need to
know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches
students how to interpret, criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.
Knowledge about the visual arts, such as graphic symbolism, is especially important in helping kids
become smart consumers and navigate a world filled with marketing logos.
Inventiveness: When kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they
develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives. The kind of people society needs to
make it move forward are thinking, inventive people who seek new ways and improvements, not people
who can only follow directions, says Kohl. Art is a way to encourage the process and the experience of
thinking and making things better!
Cultural Awareness: As we live in an increasingly diverse society, the images of different groups in the
media may also present mixed messages. If a child is playing with a toy that suggests a racist or sexist
meaning, part of that meaning develops because of the aesthetics of the toythe color, shape, texture of
the hair, says Freedman. Teaching children to recognize the choices an artist or designer makes in
portraying a subject helps kids understand the concept that what they see may be someones interpretation
of reality.
Improved Academic Performance: Studies show that there is a correlation between art and other
achievement. A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the
arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be
recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for
writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.

Supermarkets talking over local business

Some people contend that giant supermarkets, that operate in many regions,
diminish the ability of local business to survive, therefore local communities will
difficult to thrive. To some extent, I personally agree with their claim, but I also
agree that the opening of the supermarkets would be beneficial to the people
surrounding.
Admittedly, there is a justification by people who become the opponents of the
supermarket development. Supermarkets can exert leverage over local
businesses by attracting more buyer to visit the supermarkets. Supermarket are
supported by stronger financial than the local stores are, so that they are able to
supply many kinds of items from all over the world with cheaper prices as they
buy these items in large quantity.
However, still I support the opinion that the expansion of supermarkets would not
certainly take over local community business. The first reason is there is a
symbiosis between large supermarkets and people around them. The large
supermarkets are likely to utilize the local capacity to provide local vegetables or
other things as the local business products are easy to be controlled due the
short distances. Thus, the more people demand supermarket products, the
higher orders that the local businesses receive. Furthermore, the supermarkets

demand employees from local people, which spans the jobs opportunity for the
local society.
Another reason is that local stores offer their customers with a closer relationship
and more personal touch. For example, some large local stores in Malang
manage to survive because they understand their loyal buyers needs and are
able to maintain personal communication with each customer, which is hard to
be done by national level supermarkets.
To sum up, the existence of the large scale of supermarkets in cities may bring
advantages and disadvantages for local people but the advantages outweigh the
disadvantage. Moreover, local stores have competitive aspects that difficult to be
achieved by the large scale of supermarkets.