Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Bird

Response for “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Bird”

I think the most difficult yet most appealing concept in the reading is the concept that the content arises from the temporal duration of the artwork. I like how McEvilley thinks artwork is timeless and eternal. The author also described in the article that “The divine spark inside the artwork is its immortal Soul, which enables it, like the magical ritual, to penetrate through to higher metaphysical realms and to act as a channel to conduct higher powers downward while yet keeping them pure.” It is difficult to think of artwork as a form of the divine, but the significant influence great artwork has in drawing in people cannot be neglected. For example, the author gave an example of Sappho's undying roses, Egyptian tomb art, and so on. In eastern culture, great artists in history left a great deal of precious art in the form of ink paintings, poems, and music that still give people sensational spiritual experiences. I also like how McEvilley linked artwork with the artists' soul. Because of the fact that great artworks live eternally regardless of historical time, an artists' soul becomes immortal. When I read a novel, I feel as if I am communicating with the author. Likewise, when I look at a painting in the art museum, I can feel the emotion behind the story the painter was trying to tell. The reading has done a good job analyzing art with different content. The author believes that every piece of art can be dissected and analyzed from many different perspectives. For example, content that arises from the aspect of the artwork that is understood as representational recognizes elements based on resemblance. Content arising from verbal supplements supplied by the artist uses verbal supplements to help interpret artwork. Content arising from the genre or medium of the artwork adds different medium to artwork to create a three-dimensional experience. Also, a piece of art that depicts contradiction