Fine Art, Commercial Art, Pure Art and Applied Art

We had to pick 20 images relating to our chosen quote, when picking my images I chose 5 pieces of art that relate to each of my themes within my quote. Once I had collected all 20 images I found it interesting how different Fine Art was compared to Pure Art, the main differences from this was that Pure Art was straight forward and traditional art with its purpose to be admired by an individual. However, Fine Art is much more broad, both in the era each piece was created and in style, from detailed oil paintings to post-modern installation pieces. Seeing this on a page backed up what Bruno Munari was explaining in the quote, that Pure Art was 'Once Upon a Time' and no longer exists.

I found that the difference between Commercial Art and Applied art were more like different things. Commercial art fell into other fields of art, such as graphic design and illustration, especially for brand logos and product images on packaging. For applied art, again, it appears to be more traditional. When I looked up a definition of applied art it mentioned the main influences came from the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Bauhaus and Productivism. These movements focused on making everyday objects a form of art, which was common during the 1900's and still used today frequently.

We paired up and chose a couple of these images to discuss image, idea and context. I chose the Bauhaus style light and the terracotta Waterhouse drawing, as I felt that these two images related to 2 words each.

For the drawing we describes image as a non-distinct time period, the style is almost timeless as it is a standard drawing of a figure. The audience for this type of art is usually limited, especially at the time when it was drawn, it would only be available to people of importance and the artist would often repeatedly draw the same person. The purpose is to gain skill and practice anatomy and is a drawing to inform the artist before they start the painting.

The image of the light is a simple design which is probably mass produced for people to purchase, making it accessible to anyone. The time period is flexible as Bauhaus peaked between 1919-1933 but is still often used today. The simplistic design is to minimise time and price of production in order to be affordable. Similarly to the other image, it has a similar purpose, to be appreciated.

Lastly we discussed how the Warhol print of Marilyn Monroe and the Frosties box actually are the same in terms of image and idea and only differ with context.