Learning Units
Week 1: Introduction to Design History
Week 2: Paleolithic / Neolithic
Week 3: Arts & Crafts 1800 – 1900
Week 4 : Art Nouveau / Art Deco
Week 5 : Bauhaus / Nazi
Week 6 : 60’s / 70’s / 80’s
Week 7 : Midterm Exam
Week 8 : Midterm Break
Learning Units
Week 9: 90’s / Millennium
Week 10: Material Culture Studies and Design Histories
Week 11: Towards a Cultural History of Design
Week 12 : Group activities and discussions
Week 13 : Group Project Presentation / Discussion Week
Week 14 : Group Project Presentation / Discussion Week
Paleolithic era refers to the “old stone age”, during which human beings were making tools of stone
In art, the Paleolithic era is marked by cave paintings and drawing of animals
Hunted animals were for food and that the paintings were some type of ritual related to the hunt
• It has also been suggested that the paintings represent primitive calendars or almanacs,
• “coming age” ceremonies, records of tribal migration, mystic paintings during a shamanistic trance.
• The art can be categorized as being “public,” – created to be viewed by anyone in the area, such as a public monument, territorial marker, or gravestone
Methods and Materials:
• Paleolithic artists made objects from a variety of materials.
• They made simple forms by modifying natural objects – making holes in teeth, shells, and bones, or carving them to form beads or pendants, beads, bracelets
• The animal figures are both naturalistic and stylized, often showing the details that suggest keen familiarity with the animal painted or drawn.
The blending of colors seen here, such as in the horse's mane blending into the horse's neck, may suggest the paint was blown or 'spit' onto the wall.
“Neolithic” refers to the “new old stone age”
• Began when humankind first developed agriculture. Human were settling down into agrarian societies
• Explore some key concepts of civilization – namely, religion, measurement, the rudiments of architecture and art
• Animal husbandry
• People settling into permanent communities
• Generally reflecting the use of tools with some use of metals
• The prime medium of Neolithic art was pottery
• Other important artistic expression were statuary of the universal worshipped Mother Goddess and Megalithic stone monuments.
• Megalith( Prehistoric stone monuments) are found in the Neolithic from Spain to the British Isles and Poland
This settlement gives its name to the first Neolithic culture of Europe, which inhabited Thessaly and parts of Greek
Macedonia.
Sesklo (ancient town, Greece) Neolithic Settlement 6850 BC.
• Megalith( Prehistoric stone monuments) are found in the Neolithic from Spain to the British Isles and Poland
Contemporary Megalith
The most well-known is Stonehenge, where the main structures date from the early Bronze age. Most have religious significance.
It ended when the discovery of bronze led to the more advanced Bronze Age.
What kinds of art were created during this time?
• The “new” art to emerge from this area were weaving, architecture, the construction of megaliths and increasingly stylized pictographs that are well on their way to becoming writing.
Art of the Paleoolithic and Neolithic Eras
KEY EVENTS ARCHITECTURE VISUAL ARTS MUSIC
33,000 BC Paleolithic Period ( Old stone age)Cro-Magnon peoples,Culture of hunters and food gatherers10,000 – 4,000 Neolithic Period ( New old stone age)Culture of food gatherers and animal husbandry.
House of bricks and mud, wattle and dab construction.7700 – 5700 first cities appear at Catal Huyuk (Turkey), Jerico (Palestine)
15,000 – 10,000 Cave Paintings and carvings in Southern France (Lascaux) and Northern Spain (Altamira)Stone Carvings (weapons and flint axes)Pottery, painted vases, weaving, Woman of Willendorf carved
Bones Whistles, Primitive drums