Presenter: Drashti V. Dave

Presentation topic: Transience nature of art and life as well as art as means of preservation through Lily’s painting.

Submitted to: Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of EnglishMaharaja Krisnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Paper no: 09- The Modernist Literature

Roll no: 06 Year: 2014

M.A. Sem:3

part-2

What is art?• Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities;

which includes the creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Architecture is often included as one of the visual arts; however, like the decorative arts, it involves the creation of objects where the practical considerations of use are essential—in a way that they usually are not in a painting, for example. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of art. Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the fine arts are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, such as the decorative or applied arts.

• Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. During the Romantic period, art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science".

• (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art)

The Transience nature of Art and Life:

• Nothing is permanent; everything is constantly changing. • Transience nature of art, life and work.• Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay have completely different approaches to life.• Mr. Ramsay relies on his intellect, while Mrs. Ramsay depends on her emotions. But they share the knowledge that world around them is transience.

• Mrs. Ramsay is keenly aware as her husband of the passage of time and of mortality. Whereas Mr. Ramsay is bowed by the weight of his own demise.

• Both have different attitude toward life.• Her reaction (about life or work) is completely different

from her husband’s.• Both characters represent transience of life and work,

including art.• Like approaches of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay art is also

constantly changing.• Video:

Andy Goldsworthy.mp4

Art as a Means of Preservation:•Title is more related with Lily’s character, because only she finds way to preserve her experience through her art.• Lily begins her portrait of Mrs. Ramsay at the beginning of the novel but she fully complete it after ten years.• For example: Ode on a Grecian Urn; in that Keats emphasizes the fact love, beauty and youth are all immortalized in the work of art. • At the same way Lily’s art is symbolically presented here.

• Her art helps Lily to brush aside Charles Tansley’s comments about women “can’t paint, can’t write” (136). Fully acknowledging that painting is a lonely profession especially for a woman, Lily realizes that by stepping back, she can see her canvas in perspective.

• Lily is independent: she is an artist. Lily no longer worries that her paintings would be unappreciated by others, for she now paints for herself: “It was done; it was finished…I have had my vision” (176).

Lily’s painting:• Her painting represents a

struggle against gender convention.

• Her desire to express Mrs. Ramsay’s essence as a wife and mother.

• Through her art she impulse modern women.

• One side Lily Briscoe finished her painting at a same time Woolf finished her writing.

Conclusion:

• Art is perhaps, the only hope of security in a world destined and determined to change.

• The painting also represents dedication to a feminine artistic vision, expressed through Lily’s anxiety.

• Woolf’s writing synthesizes the perception of her many characters to come to a balanced and truthful portrait of the world.