Friday, February 24, 2012

Reflection - The Idealized Body in Art


The idea that it is natural human instinct to exaggerate certain features beyond what is really possible is definitely an interesting one, as it seems that much of human life is based on exaggeration, at least where aesthetics and entertainment come into play. Theater is “dramatized”, stories are pushed far beyond the limits of reality, and art is made to impress and awe rather than always simply capturing the things we see day in and day out.

I know in artwork that I myself tend to exaggerate features in drawing certain things, unless I am specifically going for a nearly photo-realistic piece. It is this exaggeration that draws attention to the portions of a figure that I particularly like, or shows off a type of character without having to write out their personality. Especially since I like to make things greater than real for the sake of making something out-of-the-ordinary, this theory of exaggeration makes quite a bit of sense to me.

In the movie though, not only did I end up agreeing with their theory of exaggeration, but I also found it quite interesting how they followed it through different art periods, and even some counter examples. Their evidence actually seemed the stronger for the counter examples in fact, as there was great reasoning behind them as well. That, and the art itself was overall quite convincing of exaggeration being used to make everyday objects and people far more engaging and interesting to view.

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