Rhino With Hat

 

Jose Chocce

W History of Graphic Design

Aubry, Molly

September 1, 2022

The figure of the artist is hard to see, they have left drops of their history and despite all effort (from the documentary) to simplify and understand the cave paintings from a scientific perspective, we are reminded that this is mere guessing, and many questions are left unanswered. The first looks at the cave shows the desperate attempt to salvage and  preserve every single drop of history that this cave contains, from both the scientists and the French government, since past history have shown the failure to salvage historic sites and art. In the first look of the paintings it is clear that motion by repetition and visual rhythm is important for the artist to convey his point of view, the paintings of animals don't seem for the purpose of documentation or belittling, rather the artists highlight the curves and beauty of each single animal, it shows a sense of respect, adoration and gratitude towards these animals.  

The documentary shifts to the past world; a different landscape and a different climate, to ground our selves to their surroundings to understand why paint in walls and why paint specifically horses, bison, lions and other animals. The documentary speaks of evolution and cultures that lived around the same epoch, to see a similarity in priorities and their arts and music. The documentary lays out the tools and weapons of the past. The documentary shows
how scientist have mapped the map in its entirety. The documentary stresses all the scientific method for the sake of painting an image of what happened in this time when the cave paintings were made, paintings a story. However, the documentary does not want to and cannot re-create history, that history is lost. I understood that the purpose is to understand in a silent and indirect way.

The documentary looks at the cave it self, the floor and walls and rocks. Personally I am not interested; however, the near 10 minute of displaying various if not all the paintings inside this cave was a refreshing take, no dialog just raw emotion and visuals coming from these paintings. It is easy to understand mere images. The curvature of every animal distinctively speaks of the specific animal clearly, every animal a different life a different placement in time, the positioning of the animals create a scene, it is the memory of the artist. The simplification of the animal is timeless, there's no need for detail, a mere figure is all I need. It is an artist that I can't see, I can't listen, nor learn and despite all I understand, after 32,000 years I still can understand the artist work.