The "Origins" of Art

3 credits · Undergraduate

For millions of years, hominid creatures quite like us made nothing like what we now take to be images or ornaments-"art." Why not? Between 32,000 and 26,000 BC, images and ornaments appear and proliferate. Why? When a workman shovels dirt, the pile is mere garbage. An artist exhibits an identical pile in a gallery as "art." What makes the difference? Detailed examination of paleolithic & prehistoric arts, children's drawings, & some contemporary practices.