Expressionism and Cognitivism

A. Expressionism is defined as the tendancy of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect. Expressionism is exactly what it sounds like, it is what the art world considers art that is made by an artist with emotion. The artist takes thier emotions and puts them down on canvas or in sculpture so the viewers can relate to how they felt when they produced their work. Cognitivism is a lot like Expressionism, but it is more about teaching the viewer something new about the world through emotion. Expressionism is all about how the artist feels even if it isn't realistic but Cognitivism, the artist teaches us about reality using emotion.

B. Tolstoy believes there are three parts to the theory of art:the artist, the artwork and the viewer. He feels that art is the act of creating something hands on to express emotions or experiences he may have gone through in his life to share with the viewers so they too can feel these emotions. Tolstoy thinks that art made for a pleasure feeling isn't always good enough, it is there to make us more humane and see the world in another's eye's so we can be more sensitive to their thoughts and needs.

C. The viewer is the one that "makes" the art according to Collingwood, the artist can create a finished piece of art but until the viewer recreates it and reconstructs the work it isn't complete and isn't considered a "work of art". The artist creates the work according to their own feelings and then the viewer looks at it, maybe in a different way and sees his or her emotions in life reflected in the work therefore making the piece of work successful.

D. In Louis Bourgeious's work she uses metaphor's like her childhood, in her Cell series she shows viewers that she wants to depict her childhood because a cell is the beginning of life. It also symbolizes how sexuality played a role in her younger years. The different cells represent maybe certain people in her life that made her the type of person she is now. In Kiki Smith's work she also uses metaphors to show viewers symbolism. She uses things from nature to depict her feelings. Kiki uses the metaphor of the relationship between humans and animals to inspire her work. She does a lot of work with wolves and the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

E. My work is kinda like Karin Bos work. She does her work with colored pencil and uses childhood memories to inspire her art. Sometimes the objects and setting are random, like they are pieces of different memories not just one and that is a lot like my drawing. I took bits and pieces from my childhood and put them into one picture which is what makes it interesting.