I have to admit that I somewhat discount people's opinions on movies when they say they won't watch anything in black & white. This is not because I believe all old movies are good. Believe me, I've seen enough counterexamples to know otherwise. But dull old movies, like most seriously bad movies, are done in by a lack of vision, not a lack of color. You don't need the same visual elements in every picture any more than you need the same seasonings at every meal.
I think literacy has slipped in terms of visual art in general. Color is a vital element of most painting. Less so in printmaking because of the labor intensity in applying different color inks, although this varies. Graphite drawings tend to be monochrome. And of course while sculpture can have color, it tends to be incidental. Being exposed to different kinds of art helps develop a sense of what's important visually.
I think literacy has slipped in terms of visual art in general. Color is a vital element of most painting. Less so in printmaking because of the labor intensity in applying different color inks, although this varies. Graphite drawings tend to be monochrome. And of course while sculpture can have color, it tends to be incidental. Being exposed to different kinds of art helps develop a sense of what's important visually.
2 comments:
I know I don't have to list any of the great black and white movies for you, but one can't help but feel kind of sorry for people who miss them for the sake of unsupported opinions. Jer has mentioned young people who won't play video games that were released prior to the latest machines. They're missing a lot, as are those who refuse to watch movies made before some arbitrary date. You're right that visual literacy has slipped in general and a similar case can be made about literacy in general, I think.
I don't know if you've seen any examples but I was surprised to learn that many, if not most, of ancient Greek sculptures were painted. I must say I far prefer them as we see them today in unadorned marble.
It's good to be back online again; twice in the past week we've had power outages that lasted longer than eight hours. The worst by far was the first when it was just this building hit by apower surge - there's nothing sadder in a modern city than trying to read your book by candlelight when you can see the people across the street have lights and all the other amenities electricity provides. We lost three surge protector power bars but, happily, no equipment.
From my limited understanding, we do seem to be living in a relative golden age of video game creativity. So if it were simply a matter of not having time to catch up with older games, I could certainly understand. If it's an outright refusal, that points to a lack of curiosity. Which is an underlying trait of cultural illiteracy - as opposed to the simple "never learned to read" kind, which has a lot of roots.
Yeah, I had heard that Ancient Greek statues were painted. Like you say, they don't really need the color. Its absence adds to their ghostly qualities. But it does show they felt a need for visual stimulation I suppose we can understand. If you look at Slavic folk art and some Orthodox church pieces it can give you an idea what they looked like back then.
Wow. That's an awful lot of time spent without power. Something we're not used to at all. It sounds like your building's wiring might be a little iffy. Yes, people used to read by candlelight, but non-rich people tended to retire at sundown, or as close to it as they could. If you're a night owl it's certainly nice to have the juice flowing.
Post a Comment