I'm not really sure what to write here...
I started out by watching the videos for this module anyway, intending to get the throwaway work done first. The first video - the one on West Coast Pop Art - inspired a Pop Art exhibit idea.
I had already been toying with an Impressionist theme - from the time I read about the project I had been thinking about an Impressionism theme. I am not kidding when I say it's my favorite movement; I have had a fascination with the works of Monet since I was little - I have a huge coffee table book containing a biography and all his works, plus received calendars of his paintings until I was a teenager (they no longer had any works I hadn't seen.)
I ended up with a third idea when I randomly asked my fiance what he might do as an exhibit. So I thought wrote out three different exhibits:
- An Impressionism exhibit focusing on the changing nature of light
- A Pop Art exhibit looking at the evolution of the form, from the founders to "lowbrow"
- An exhibit looking at the history of water as a subject matter for art, from early civilization to now
My paper ideas were then passed around my household and the consensus was on the Impressionist exhibit (with one vote for Pop art, and one torn between Impressionism and water.)
Now, I came to the idea of light as the focus of the Impressionism theme simply by refreshing myself on the basis of the movement. I wanted an Impressionism theme because I wanted a showcase for Monet - my favorite artist - but I didn't want to it be just about him. One of the goals of this movement was to study light as naturally as possible - to recreate the way light changes a subject. To this end, Impressionists frequently painted the same subject matter over and over, but at different times of the day or during different seasons.
That's where I got the idea for the exhibit. I would showcase different Impressionist painters, and where I could I would pick paintings in a series reflecting directly the goal they were chasing - the changing nature of light. All paintings chosen would be a study of how light plays on the subject, whether part of a series or not.
I picked the PowerPoint format for a couple of reasons. First, it is designed to look like an art gallery space, and second, it gave a few choices of theme colors and the color palette for this one seemed most in line with Impressionist choice of colors. I've also refrained from using black in the PowerPoint (except for the text of the body) - much like the painters themselves refused to use the color. I picked the heading/title font because it looked like the way a painter might sign their work. Colors were picked to be pretty and complimentary of the paintings. Regular text is in a font people can read - I'm fond of Times New Roman.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Art Curation Videos
1. Key Concepts
West Coast Pop Art: Concepts for this video included the definition of "lowbrow" as an art theory/movement - what was being struggled against in the art world. "Lowbrow" was meant to be the opposite of "highbrow" - the term for the elite art scene. In the eyes of these artists, art had become too intelligent, to uppity, and too hard to understand. It wasn't made for the everyday audience, and that's who they wanted to appeal to. It also related "lowbrow" art back to other art forms/schools like surrealism and pop art. The other major concepts concerned the evolution of the "lowbrow" art form - the pioneers of the form, where their inspirations came from, and the types of art they created & influenced. These artists were very much inspired by the culture that emerged after WWII in the late 1940s and 1950s - the suburban & specifically West Coast surfer/skater cultures that emerged. These nostalgic cultural influences merged with the uneasy political climate of the 1960s & 1970s, and expressed itself in the evolution of animation, comics, and record cover artwork. The video also commented on the broad influence this West Coast movement had, inspiring artists up to the north in Canada.
Tate Modern: The main concept of this video was a showcase of the newly remodeled Tate Museum of Modern Art. It highlighted some goals of the new administration, such as the effort to include more diverse artists - more women, more artists form non-Western countries, etc. It highlighted the expansion of the collection; how the museum was trying to expand what was considered as art, not just installations but digital, interactive pieces and a performance art space. The video even gave a little peak at the warehouse that stores the pieces that are not currently on display. The video also worked hard to show how the museum was trying to remain accessible to a large audience despite being so vast as to be intimidating.
An Acquiring Mind: The main concept of this video was the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) and its longest-running director. One of the focuses of the video was a portrait of the director (Philippe de Montebello), how he got to his position and what the focus of his administration was. It spotlighted a bunch of works that distinguished the collection and how this man obtained them. It also showed the broader work of the museum in how they go about getting permission to acquire pieces for the collection, how pieces are restored and otherwise conserved, and how gallery/exhibition spaces are physically set up.
2. Relation to Project
West Coast Pop Art: This particular video could be helpful - it was really interesting and inspiring because I am already a fan of pop art in general and found this particular subsect of it to be graphically pleasing. I am toying with the idea of doing a pop art theme for my curation project, but as I am unsure of my theme, this video may or may not be helpful.
Tate Modern: This video certainly got me thinking about gallery space and how to use it. The Tate is really vast and they had to choose exactly how to fill each space, even if that space was just going to have paintings. The way the works are set up in each room is important, because not everyone likes the same kind of art but you want everyone to find something of value in the rooms that they visit. It was a good lesson on how to make art available to everyone without seeming too elitist about it.
An Acquiring Mind: Now this video is super helpful for the project. It adds onto the Tate lessons about gallery space and exhibition set up. In addition, it makes you think really hard about what artworks to pick and why; how they are going to work with one another, what the flow of the exhibit would then look like, what the relations to the pieces are/how obvious you want to make that.
3. Opinion of Video
West Coast Pop Art: This video was very entertaining. There wasn't a lot of narration; it was mostly interviews with art history experts/artists/critics. These interview pieces were very interesting, engaging and even humorous, containing an awful lot of personal experience/encounters with this particular school of art. The interviews were cut away from for shots of artwork examples relating to the particular aspect of the movement that was being discussed. It was very colorful, showing not just gallery examples of artwork but pointing out artwork that I was more familiar with; aspects of culture like cartoons/comics (I'm a fan of comic artist Robert Crumb from a while back now), drug culture, and music. The video did a good job of showing a movement driven by a rapidly changing culture, while influencing/changing it at the same time.
Tate Video: This video was also very entertaining, though set up more like a television news article than a documentary. This video had two narrators of sorts that took us through the pieces of the video. The female reporter was very active - she was the one that took the audience on the tour of the gallery, and asked questions about the rooms and the exhibits of the administration. She was very friendly and accessible, asking questions that allowed the admin to go into detail about the topic. The male was usually cut to when more complex questions - questions about what is considered art and how should the Tate go about collecting/displaying/etc - were being asked. He was less friendly and more professional - reminded me a lot of the old 60 Minutes reporters. I also enjoyed how the video talked to some of the lesser known artists that were going to be displayed - it wasn't just about the museum stuff, it was about the art too.
An Acquiring Mind: This video wasn't quite as entertaining as the other two. The narrator was very engaging and had a sweet voice, but the topics being discussed were dryer than in the other two videos. I did really enjoy it when they talked about the artwork in the collection; both the highlighted coups of the collection and the conservation pieces that were shown were fascinating, and I found the whole conservation section very fascinating on its own. I noticed the video tried to tell a story of the Met and this director, but because it focused so much on the behind-the-scenes work life of a museum and less on the artwork, this storytelling mode made the video lag a little.
West Coast Pop Art: Concepts for this video included the definition of "lowbrow" as an art theory/movement - what was being struggled against in the art world. "Lowbrow" was meant to be the opposite of "highbrow" - the term for the elite art scene. In the eyes of these artists, art had become too intelligent, to uppity, and too hard to understand. It wasn't made for the everyday audience, and that's who they wanted to appeal to. It also related "lowbrow" art back to other art forms/schools like surrealism and pop art. The other major concepts concerned the evolution of the "lowbrow" art form - the pioneers of the form, where their inspirations came from, and the types of art they created & influenced. These artists were very much inspired by the culture that emerged after WWII in the late 1940s and 1950s - the suburban & specifically West Coast surfer/skater cultures that emerged. These nostalgic cultural influences merged with the uneasy political climate of the 1960s & 1970s, and expressed itself in the evolution of animation, comics, and record cover artwork. The video also commented on the broad influence this West Coast movement had, inspiring artists up to the north in Canada.
Tate Modern: The main concept of this video was a showcase of the newly remodeled Tate Museum of Modern Art. It highlighted some goals of the new administration, such as the effort to include more diverse artists - more women, more artists form non-Western countries, etc. It highlighted the expansion of the collection; how the museum was trying to expand what was considered as art, not just installations but digital, interactive pieces and a performance art space. The video even gave a little peak at the warehouse that stores the pieces that are not currently on display. The video also worked hard to show how the museum was trying to remain accessible to a large audience despite being so vast as to be intimidating.
An Acquiring Mind: The main concept of this video was the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) and its longest-running director. One of the focuses of the video was a portrait of the director (Philippe de Montebello), how he got to his position and what the focus of his administration was. It spotlighted a bunch of works that distinguished the collection and how this man obtained them. It also showed the broader work of the museum in how they go about getting permission to acquire pieces for the collection, how pieces are restored and otherwise conserved, and how gallery/exhibition spaces are physically set up.
2. Relation to Project
West Coast Pop Art: This particular video could be helpful - it was really interesting and inspiring because I am already a fan of pop art in general and found this particular subsect of it to be graphically pleasing. I am toying with the idea of doing a pop art theme for my curation project, but as I am unsure of my theme, this video may or may not be helpful.
Tate Modern: This video certainly got me thinking about gallery space and how to use it. The Tate is really vast and they had to choose exactly how to fill each space, even if that space was just going to have paintings. The way the works are set up in each room is important, because not everyone likes the same kind of art but you want everyone to find something of value in the rooms that they visit. It was a good lesson on how to make art available to everyone without seeming too elitist about it.
An Acquiring Mind: Now this video is super helpful for the project. It adds onto the Tate lessons about gallery space and exhibition set up. In addition, it makes you think really hard about what artworks to pick and why; how they are going to work with one another, what the flow of the exhibit would then look like, what the relations to the pieces are/how obvious you want to make that.
3. Opinion of Video
West Coast Pop Art: This video was very entertaining. There wasn't a lot of narration; it was mostly interviews with art history experts/artists/critics. These interview pieces were very interesting, engaging and even humorous, containing an awful lot of personal experience/encounters with this particular school of art. The interviews were cut away from for shots of artwork examples relating to the particular aspect of the movement that was being discussed. It was very colorful, showing not just gallery examples of artwork but pointing out artwork that I was more familiar with; aspects of culture like cartoons/comics (I'm a fan of comic artist Robert Crumb from a while back now), drug culture, and music. The video did a good job of showing a movement driven by a rapidly changing culture, while influencing/changing it at the same time.
Tate Video: This video was also very entertaining, though set up more like a television news article than a documentary. This video had two narrators of sorts that took us through the pieces of the video. The female reporter was very active - she was the one that took the audience on the tour of the gallery, and asked questions about the rooms and the exhibits of the administration. She was very friendly and accessible, asking questions that allowed the admin to go into detail about the topic. The male was usually cut to when more complex questions - questions about what is considered art and how should the Tate go about collecting/displaying/etc - were being asked. He was less friendly and more professional - reminded me a lot of the old 60 Minutes reporters. I also enjoyed how the video talked to some of the lesser known artists that were going to be displayed - it wasn't just about the museum stuff, it was about the art too.
An Acquiring Mind: This video wasn't quite as entertaining as the other two. The narrator was very engaging and had a sweet voice, but the topics being discussed were dryer than in the other two videos. I did really enjoy it when they talked about the artwork in the collection; both the highlighted coups of the collection and the conservation pieces that were shown were fascinating, and I found the whole conservation section very fascinating on its own. I noticed the video tried to tell a story of the Met and this director, but because it focused so much on the behind-the-scenes work life of a museum and less on the artwork, this storytelling mode made the video lag a little.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Modern & Postmodern Art [Videos]
1. I decided that my two videos would be: Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the 50s & 60s, and Uncertainty: Modernity and Art. I picked the first video because I'm definitely interested in the material - my mother's favorite artist is Pollock, the father of Abstract Expressionism, while additionally Pop Art through the 50s & 60s has always fascinated me. I love the colors and style of Pop Art. I was going between the Modernity video and the Warhol video, but I think I'd rather study Warhol on my own so I chose the video with the mysterious title.
2. The Abstract Expressionism/Pop video was set up much like the Expressionism video for Mod 11. Essentially, the whole video is broken up into bits that closely examine one work of one artist, breaks it down, and analyzes it in context with the style/school of art that we are talking about. The Uncertainty video is much more of a dynamic documentary. This particular video is weaving a story about what Modern Art is and what it went through to get here. It tells this story in a dynamic way, weaving stories about artwork into facts about the changing climate of the world at the time.
3. I feel as if I'm repeating myself for the Abstract Expressionism/Pop video - this video is very good at giving a broad number of examples of the style simply described in the textbook. The textbook gives a good theological base for the style of art being described, but it only gives one or two examples and focuses more on Jackson Pollock than anywhere else. This video does a better job at giving examples of the style and background as to how it came about (by providing background on each artist & the painting being focused on.) The Uncertainty video really ties the theology described in the book into world history and its impact on art. It looks at artwork and analyzes it, but it doesn't spend the entire time looking at artwork as examples. Instead, the Uncertainty video ties in different questions about life, society, etc with the paintings & the broader environment they came out of.
4. The narrator for the Abstract Expressionism/Pop video appears to be the same one from the Expressionist video. He sounds like an English professor lecturing, but not in a boring or dry way. The filming of the video is also the same, allowing the narrator to break each image down for analysis and lead us around as we look at it. The narrator for the Uncertainty video was much more dynamic - his tone & pitch changed depending upon the subject matter upon which he was speaking. Additionally, the Uncertainty video is shot more like a documentary film for theater than something meant for teaching. The camera is always moving, switching between artwork and shots from life. I really like the art history tying into world history aspect of this video. To be very honest, I feel like this video actually talks more meaningfully about Abstract Expressionism/Pop Art than the previous video did. Uncertainty tied the morals of the movement to the broader culture better than either the book or the previous video.
2. The Abstract Expressionism/Pop video was set up much like the Expressionism video for Mod 11. Essentially, the whole video is broken up into bits that closely examine one work of one artist, breaks it down, and analyzes it in context with the style/school of art that we are talking about. The Uncertainty video is much more of a dynamic documentary. This particular video is weaving a story about what Modern Art is and what it went through to get here. It tells this story in a dynamic way, weaving stories about artwork into facts about the changing climate of the world at the time.
3. I feel as if I'm repeating myself for the Abstract Expressionism/Pop video - this video is very good at giving a broad number of examples of the style simply described in the textbook. The textbook gives a good theological base for the style of art being described, but it only gives one or two examples and focuses more on Jackson Pollock than anywhere else. This video does a better job at giving examples of the style and background as to how it came about (by providing background on each artist & the painting being focused on.) The Uncertainty video really ties the theology described in the book into world history and its impact on art. It looks at artwork and analyzes it, but it doesn't spend the entire time looking at artwork as examples. Instead, the Uncertainty video ties in different questions about life, society, etc with the paintings & the broader environment they came out of.
4. The narrator for the Abstract Expressionism/Pop video appears to be the same one from the Expressionist video. He sounds like an English professor lecturing, but not in a boring or dry way. The filming of the video is also the same, allowing the narrator to break each image down for analysis and lead us around as we look at it. The narrator for the Uncertainty video was much more dynamic - his tone & pitch changed depending upon the subject matter upon which he was speaking. Additionally, the Uncertainty video is shot more like a documentary film for theater than something meant for teaching. The camera is always moving, switching between artwork and shots from life. I really like the art history tying into world history aspect of this video. To be very honest, I feel like this video actually talks more meaningfully about Abstract Expressionism/Pop Art than the previous video did. Uncertainty tied the morals of the movement to the broader culture better than either the book or the previous video.
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Second Visit to the Albright-Knox
The Exhibit
1. The exhibit I chose for this was Rosalyn Drexler: Who Does She Think She Is?
2. The theme of the exhibit was the body of work by the artist Rosalyn Drexler. Her body of work is large & varied: she has painted, wrote, done theater - even wrestled at one point! The exhibit was mostly a showcase of her paintings, which focus on love & violence between men & women. The author has a very feminist viewpoint that shows clearly in the works as a whole. Additionally, some of her writings were featured under glass in the exhibit.
The Gallery
1. The lighting of the exhibit didn't appear to be special - there were no colors used, the lights were not particularly dim or bright or focused on anything specific.
2. The walls were mostly white, however there were temporary walls constructed in a couple of the rooms of the exhibition which were painted bright, intense colors that matched the way the artist herself used color. In combination with the white building walls, this gave the exhibit more of a Pop art/1960s look and complimented the style of the artists' paintings.
3. The interior architecture of the space is varied. The main structure of the gallery is simplistic and of an older style. There are a few pieces of intricate molding, and the ceilings are somewhat high, but other than that, the gallery is very simplistic. The rest of the architecture consists of the few constructed walls in a couple of the gallery rooms. These are simplistic rectangular structures, painted bright colors and highlighting a particular painting and/or the theme of the works in that room. I would assume all the materials of the architecture are plaster or drywall, but they didn't want us touching anything. Also, there were glass-enclosed tables against some of the walls showcasing the artist as a writer, though much of it wasn't meant for us to actually read.
4. The movement of the viewer through the gallery space is very free and open. There are a couple of big rooms with artwork posted every few feet, and there are smaller rooms set up much the same way. One of the smaller rooms connecting to the larger gallery spaces was meant for viewing a video related to the exhibit, but it was not set up to be the first thing you encounter before seeing the rest of the exhibit. It's very obvious that the exhibit was set up to be self-guided; the viewer should look at what they want, when they want and not be directed about.
The Artwork
1. I don't feel like the artworks were organized in any particular fashion - though I do believe that they chose a specific theme of the artists work because she is very prolific in a variety of ways. The artworks chosen were all portraying the relationships between men and women (with very, very few exceptions); sometimes hopeful or loving, sometimes violent.
2. As mentioned above, the artworks were all connected by theme, among other things. They were all about the varying relationships between men & women. Additionally, as someone educated on feminism & having read feminist literature, those viewpoints come through very strongly in many of the paintings in the exhibit. The actual artistic style employed by Drexler is very obvious in all of the works in the exhibit as well; it's very Pop art, with lots of bright colors and negative space. The forms are bright and easily identifiable, though not particularly sharply defined - they could easily blend into the background. One last similarity: she is a multi-media artist. Drexler's works are usually some blend of collage and acrylic paint on canvas.
3. The artworks are different individually, generally by emotion/mood. Violence is a common theme, but sometimes is is anger being portrayed, while other times it is less personal/more objective. Not all of her artwork is violent. Love is shown, contentment as well. Some works I felt had a air of cynicism, others seemed like a portrayal of disinterest.
4. The artworks were framed in such a way as to make them look not-framed. The frame did not extend past the work, and only served to hold it away from the wall. This allowed the Pop art aspect to be more highlighted/enhanced, as the bright splashes of paintings on the white walls was more stark with a lack of framing.
5. The artworks are identified with plaques showing the title, date, material, and credit either to the right or the left of the artwork (it changed.)
6. The works of art are spaced roughly equidistantly throughout the gallery. There appeared to be no special, close groupings of any work. The works are not so far apart as to stand out very much. The exception of this are the works hanging on the couple of temporary walls - each wall generally has only one painting hanging on it, setting a "theme" of the room - pictures particularly showing gangsters verses general, less-themed paintings.
Art Criticism Exercise
Description - I see the form of a woman in fur and a blue hat smoking on a red background. Elements of her attire blend in with the background
Description - The painting features two figures engaged in a struggle. The figure on top is a woman, blonde, with her breasts nearly hanging out of her open dress. She is wielding a weapon, and is struggling with an African-American man against a dark blue background.
Formal Analysis - Unity is a principle much more evident in this painting. If you took the two figures separately, the painting wouldn't make much sense; it requires the two figures together to convey its message. I believe value was used here as well, though less as a gradient for shadow and more for a value in skin tone - dark opposed to light. This may also apply to contrast. Movement is more evident in this painting than the one before, as the figures are actively engaged in a struggle and are placed in a dynamic diagonal fashion. Color, as with the painting before, is very prominent and very intense.
Bracketing - This art piece could be a scene from a movie. It's very highly stylized and the intense colors remind me of intense filmmaking. This scene would be drawn out in some way, but no matter how it ended it would be very dramatic.
Interpretation - This works meaning is very straightforward. Titled as Self-Defense, it seems to be portraying a woman defending herself from an attacker of some sort. Her dress being open the way it is seems to be implying that the crime was a rape. As both a feminist and a survivor of sexual assault, I can feel the anger coming from the woman defending herself. However, I am still left with a couple of questions. The use of color doesn't seem to suggest anger; in fact, the use of blue is more calming. Yet it could signify something simpler like darkness, putting the occurrence in a dark place or at a dark time of day - the background is just simple color so setting is left to the viewer. Additionally, I wonder if the racial differences mean anything significant - this was painted around the time of the intense racial struggles of the 1960s and while I cannot see a message from this standpoint, it doesn't mean that there isn't one.
Description - the painting had two figures - two heads, one male/one female, both of whom are smoking cigarettes. The figures are in shades of orange upon a darker background
Format Analysis - This particular piece seems very balanced to me, with where the figures are positioned especially (one in the upper left, one in the lower right). Additionally, there is unity in the photo, shown by the figures doing the same act. I feel like color was not used to convey emotion in this, but for emphasis. The figures are lighter colored than the background, emphasizing them, but the cigarettes are even more prominent (white against the dark), drawing even more focus to them.
Bracketing - This piece feels like it could be from a cigarette ad in a newspaper. It's more flat than the other two works, and it doesn't feel like there's any motion from the figures.
Interpretation - I feel like this was one of Drexler's works that tried to convey a very disinterested or cynical version of the world. It's almost as if the figures in the work don't care about the warning in the title. That cigarette smoking, however hazardous it might be, still evokes feelings in the figures, shown by the colors radiating in them. The figures seem warm, as if smoking is a comfort in a dark & cold world.
The other pictures I took while there can be found in this Photobucket album: http://s350.photobucket.com/user/amynewt87/library/Art%20Gallery
I always enjoy visiting the gallery, and it was interesting to contemplate the space used for paintings (not just sculpture, which I am more aware of when I view.) But it didn't particularly enhance or change the way I go and view artwork.
1. The exhibit I chose for this was Rosalyn Drexler: Who Does She Think She Is?
2. The theme of the exhibit was the body of work by the artist Rosalyn Drexler. Her body of work is large & varied: she has painted, wrote, done theater - even wrestled at one point! The exhibit was mostly a showcase of her paintings, which focus on love & violence between men & women. The author has a very feminist viewpoint that shows clearly in the works as a whole. Additionally, some of her writings were featured under glass in the exhibit.
The Gallery
1. The lighting of the exhibit didn't appear to be special - there were no colors used, the lights were not particularly dim or bright or focused on anything specific.
2. The walls were mostly white, however there were temporary walls constructed in a couple of the rooms of the exhibition which were painted bright, intense colors that matched the way the artist herself used color. In combination with the white building walls, this gave the exhibit more of a Pop art/1960s look and complimented the style of the artists' paintings.
3. The interior architecture of the space is varied. The main structure of the gallery is simplistic and of an older style. There are a few pieces of intricate molding, and the ceilings are somewhat high, but other than that, the gallery is very simplistic. The rest of the architecture consists of the few constructed walls in a couple of the gallery rooms. These are simplistic rectangular structures, painted bright colors and highlighting a particular painting and/or the theme of the works in that room. I would assume all the materials of the architecture are plaster or drywall, but they didn't want us touching anything. Also, there were glass-enclosed tables against some of the walls showcasing the artist as a writer, though much of it wasn't meant for us to actually read.
4. The movement of the viewer through the gallery space is very free and open. There are a couple of big rooms with artwork posted every few feet, and there are smaller rooms set up much the same way. One of the smaller rooms connecting to the larger gallery spaces was meant for viewing a video related to the exhibit, but it was not set up to be the first thing you encounter before seeing the rest of the exhibit. It's very obvious that the exhibit was set up to be self-guided; the viewer should look at what they want, when they want and not be directed about.
The Artwork
1. I don't feel like the artworks were organized in any particular fashion - though I do believe that they chose a specific theme of the artists work because she is very prolific in a variety of ways. The artworks chosen were all portraying the relationships between men and women (with very, very few exceptions); sometimes hopeful or loving, sometimes violent.
2. As mentioned above, the artworks were all connected by theme, among other things. They were all about the varying relationships between men & women. Additionally, as someone educated on feminism & having read feminist literature, those viewpoints come through very strongly in many of the paintings in the exhibit. The actual artistic style employed by Drexler is very obvious in all of the works in the exhibit as well; it's very Pop art, with lots of bright colors and negative space. The forms are bright and easily identifiable, though not particularly sharply defined - they could easily blend into the background. One last similarity: she is a multi-media artist. Drexler's works are usually some blend of collage and acrylic paint on canvas.
3. The artworks are different individually, generally by emotion/mood. Violence is a common theme, but sometimes is is anger being portrayed, while other times it is less personal/more objective. Not all of her artwork is violent. Love is shown, contentment as well. Some works I felt had a air of cynicism, others seemed like a portrayal of disinterest.
4. The artworks were framed in such a way as to make them look not-framed. The frame did not extend past the work, and only served to hold it away from the wall. This allowed the Pop art aspect to be more highlighted/enhanced, as the bright splashes of paintings on the white walls was more stark with a lack of framing.
5. The artworks are identified with plaques showing the title, date, material, and credit either to the right or the left of the artwork (it changed.)
6. The works of art are spaced roughly equidistantly throughout the gallery. There appeared to be no special, close groupings of any work. The works are not so far apart as to stand out very much. The exception of this are the works hanging on the couple of temporary walls - each wall generally has only one painting hanging on it, setting a "theme" of the room - pictures particularly showing gangsters verses general, less-themed paintings.
 |
| Rosalyn Drexler Chain Smoker Acrylic & paper collage on canvas 1960 [my picture] |
Description - I see the form of a woman in fur and a blue hat smoking on a red background. Elements of her attire blend in with the background
Formal Analysis - Space is utilized in this painting; the figure is positioned in the lower left of the canvas & the rest of the composition is blank. This utilization is combined with the Color element; the red of the background is intense & blends with the figure. Texture is also employed in this painting; the clothes of the figure are constructed to convey the texture of fur. I suppose motion could be an principle in play here; what we can see of her lower body appears to be suggesting walking, as one leg seems outlined as being in front of the other one.
Bracketing - This artwork reminds me of the sophisticated ladies of LA or NYC in the 1960s. She looks like she might be a model of some sort, or an actress on the way to an audition. Smoking makes her seem more sophisticated & glamorous, rooted in portrayals of Silver Screen Starlets like Marilyn Monroe.
Interpretation - I interpret this painting to be about the emotion of smoking. The figure in the painting seems to be in transit, on the way somewhere. Generally, there is a level of stress being dealt with when rushing off to meetings, appointments, or jobs. The stress seems to pulsate in the red around the woman, and is both feeding and being fed by the cigarette she is smoking. Smoking raises heart rates & stimulates the brain, yet many smokers describe the calming effects of the behavior. I think stress, motion, and smoking intertwining is the message of this particular painting
 |
| Rosalyn Drexler Self-Defense Acrylic & paper collage on canvas 1963 [my photo] |
Description - The painting features two figures engaged in a struggle. The figure on top is a woman, blonde, with her breasts nearly hanging out of her open dress. She is wielding a weapon, and is struggling with an African-American man against a dark blue background.
Formal Analysis - Unity is a principle much more evident in this painting. If you took the two figures separately, the painting wouldn't make much sense; it requires the two figures together to convey its message. I believe value was used here as well, though less as a gradient for shadow and more for a value in skin tone - dark opposed to light. This may also apply to contrast. Movement is more evident in this painting than the one before, as the figures are actively engaged in a struggle and are placed in a dynamic diagonal fashion. Color, as with the painting before, is very prominent and very intense.
Bracketing - This art piece could be a scene from a movie. It's very highly stylized and the intense colors remind me of intense filmmaking. This scene would be drawn out in some way, but no matter how it ended it would be very dramatic.
Interpretation - This works meaning is very straightforward. Titled as Self-Defense, it seems to be portraying a woman defending herself from an attacker of some sort. Her dress being open the way it is seems to be implying that the crime was a rape. As both a feminist and a survivor of sexual assault, I can feel the anger coming from the woman defending herself. However, I am still left with a couple of questions. The use of color doesn't seem to suggest anger; in fact, the use of blue is more calming. Yet it could signify something simpler like darkness, putting the occurrence in a dark place or at a dark time of day - the background is just simple color so setting is left to the viewer. Additionally, I wonder if the racial differences mean anything significant - this was painted around the time of the intense racial struggles of the 1960s and while I cannot see a message from this standpoint, it doesn't mean that there isn't one.
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| Rosalyn Drexler Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health Acrylic & paper collage on canvas 1967 [my photo] |
Description - the painting had two figures - two heads, one male/one female, both of whom are smoking cigarettes. The figures are in shades of orange upon a darker background
Format Analysis - This particular piece seems very balanced to me, with where the figures are positioned especially (one in the upper left, one in the lower right). Additionally, there is unity in the photo, shown by the figures doing the same act. I feel like color was not used to convey emotion in this, but for emphasis. The figures are lighter colored than the background, emphasizing them, but the cigarettes are even more prominent (white against the dark), drawing even more focus to them.
Bracketing - This piece feels like it could be from a cigarette ad in a newspaper. It's more flat than the other two works, and it doesn't feel like there's any motion from the figures.
Interpretation - I feel like this was one of Drexler's works that tried to convey a very disinterested or cynical version of the world. It's almost as if the figures in the work don't care about the warning in the title. That cigarette smoking, however hazardous it might be, still evokes feelings in the figures, shown by the colors radiating in them. The figures seem warm, as if smoking is a comfort in a dark & cold world.
The other pictures I took while there can be found in this Photobucket album: http://s350.photobucket.com/user/amynewt87/library/Art%20Gallery
I always enjoy visiting the gallery, and it was interesting to contemplate the space used for paintings (not just sculpture, which I am more aware of when I view.) But it didn't particularly enhance or change the way I go and view artwork.
Friday, November 18, 2016
Videos on the Modern World of Art
1. The two videos I picked were the one on Matisse & Picasso, and the one on Expressionism. I found the videos difficult to choose this time. I have a passing interest in everything discussed, but no real motivations/feeling about it - kinda wish there had been a video on Impressionism. I chose the Matisse/Picasso one because I am stimulated by Picasso's art and seeing his work compared with another sounded intriguing. I picked the video on Expressionism because it's one of the art styles I'm not very familiar with and I really wanted a little more information. I was interested in Dada & Surrealism too, but I know more about those so I went with expressionism.
2. The Matisse/Picasso video was very much an overview of the lives & friendship of the two artists. It worked very hard to show the social & political climate of the times, really focusing on the human element as it relates to art. The video really seemed to want to show the way these artists created, and compared/contrasted the two works frequently. The Expressionism video, by contrast, was focused solely on the artworks produced under this genre, and analyzed them while giving a very brief biography of the artist & the time they lived in. This video took multiple works/artists and broke them down to show what was behind them rather than bothering with individual artists.
3. The Matisse/Picasso video was able to give me a broader look into the artists' lives than the book did. The book has only a brief, one-page biography on both artists, though it takes more time throughout the book to look at/analyze their art. The book looked at a lot of Picasso's art in particular in chapters before, as examples for whatever we had been talking about. The video gave a more complete picture of the two artists as artists and showed the creative processes a little more. The Expressionism video was meant to expound upon what Expressionism is - or at least I thought that's what the video would do. I suppose I understand Expressionism a little better now, but the book's definition made me think more abstractly than the examples I was shown in the video. I was under the impression that Expressionism was a lot like Postmodern Poetry; if the focus is to be on the expression of emotions, then I did not expect to see very solid forms or coherency in the paintings in the way that I did.
4. The Matisse/Picasso video was alright - the narrator was strong and almost mystical in a way. He seemed to really want to draw the reader into a story about these artists, even if it's history and you kind of already know what happens. The Expressionism video was much better. Even though the narrator wasn't as strong, he was very proper and did a good job describing the paintings and what was going on. Additionally, I enjoyed the way this video was filmed/edited. They did a good job filming the paintings so that I could actually see the analysis come to life. I can't always do that when artwork is broken down.
2. The Matisse/Picasso video was very much an overview of the lives & friendship of the two artists. It worked very hard to show the social & political climate of the times, really focusing on the human element as it relates to art. The video really seemed to want to show the way these artists created, and compared/contrasted the two works frequently. The Expressionism video, by contrast, was focused solely on the artworks produced under this genre, and analyzed them while giving a very brief biography of the artist & the time they lived in. This video took multiple works/artists and broke them down to show what was behind them rather than bothering with individual artists.
3. The Matisse/Picasso video was able to give me a broader look into the artists' lives than the book did. The book has only a brief, one-page biography on both artists, though it takes more time throughout the book to look at/analyze their art. The book looked at a lot of Picasso's art in particular in chapters before, as examples for whatever we had been talking about. The video gave a more complete picture of the two artists as artists and showed the creative processes a little more. The Expressionism video was meant to expound upon what Expressionism is - or at least I thought that's what the video would do. I suppose I understand Expressionism a little better now, but the book's definition made me think more abstractly than the examples I was shown in the video. I was under the impression that Expressionism was a lot like Postmodern Poetry; if the focus is to be on the expression of emotions, then I did not expect to see very solid forms or coherency in the paintings in the way that I did.
4. The Matisse/Picasso video was alright - the narrator was strong and almost mystical in a way. He seemed to really want to draw the reader into a story about these artists, even if it's history and you kind of already know what happens. The Expressionism video was much better. Even though the narrator wasn't as strong, he was very proper and did a good job describing the paintings and what was going on. Additionally, I enjoyed the way this video was filmed/edited. They did a good job filming the paintings so that I could actually see the analysis come to life. I can't always do that when artwork is broken down.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Exploring Line by Drawing Hands
1. I did not enjoy using my hands as subjects. For one, I have heard more than one artist in my life talk about how hard it is to draw hands - and then you wanted me to do it with my non-dominant hand. Isn't this supposed to be an introductory course? Why would you do that?? The only reason mine look this good is because I started out by tracing my hands in the first place. There was no way I was going to try doing the palms of my hands; talk about something too difficult for an amateur, non-major artist! At the very least, I like doing my nails and can draw them.
2. I selected pencil because charcoal is expensive and I would have never used it outside of this class. Pencil, on the other hand, is something all my classes require; you can't mark a Scantron without one, so I generally have those on hand.
3. I hate working with my left hand. I am very, very right-handed. My left hand is really only good for holding things and helping me type. I definitely cannot draw anything near a straight line with with, so in my drawing any lines on the top hand that look scribbled or something weird/not sketchy are because I used that hand. I started just vaguely sketching what I wanted with the left and then switching to my right to make it actually look like something.
4. I think my drawing is a decent representation of my hands. Kind of, anyway. Color would help, because I'm very pale and my veins stick out a lot but it would look a lot better to see the bluish tint under a skin color than in a black & white sketch. I'd also like color for my nails, because my hobby is doing my nails and I do a lot of fancy nail art that would be fun to re-create on paper. My nails this time were a glittery black, which I obviously can't show in this black & white sketch (I had accent nails that were red with a gold foil over it that I sketched out too - that's why a couple of the nails are sketched differently)
5. I would not use my non-dominant hand for any artwork unless it was helping my dominant hand out. I certainly would not sketch or try to create forms with it in any way. I probably wouldn't even use it to cut with because I'd probably end up cutting myself.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Non-Western Art
1. I picked the Legacy of Oppression video because I am very politically active, and I enjoy learning about the history of ideologies like racism. It helps me understand better how important/destructive imperialism is, and helps me understand the emotions behind modern activism. I believe in learning from history to better understand modernity. The other video I chose was the one on Buddhism because I am a fan of old kung-fu movies and many of the monk characters are Buddhist. It is a religion that has always fascinated me and I enjoy learning about it.
2. There were two key concepts from the Legacy of Oppression video. The first concept/theme was about the different pieces of art - what they meant/represented, the history of the culture that made it. The second theme/concept was about the colonization of the Congo by the Germans, which is how many of the art pieces came to the exhibit talked about in the first theme. The video really went in depth with the atrocities committed against the Central Africans. The video on Buddhism was partly about the history of the religion & how it came up, but it was also a history of the art - the subject matter, the representations, & the depictions of important events.
3. The Legacy of Oppression video was a very specific look at the colonization of Africa, which is something that the book doesn't go into. While the book does look overall at the different civilizations of Africa and the art that came from them, the book heavily focuses on the artwork, breaking it down and analyzing it. The video gave me environmental historical context the book only glosses over. The same thing kind of goes with the Buddhism video. The book looks at ancient India/China as a whole, and is particularly focused on the kinds of art that came from those cultures. The book does have one section on how the Buddha is portrayed but it's only one page, it doesn't really go into what Buddhism is and how the art is connected to it. This video is really in-depth; it goes into the foundations of Buddhism and how the art came out of Buddhism in general.
4. The Legacy of Oppression video was very very good. I really enjoyed the woman who was talking about the pieces of artwork; she was very knowledgeable. I also really enjoyed that they didn't try to sugarcoat or otherwise tone down the level of violence/atrocities that were committed in the course of German conquest. I appreciated the willingness to show me, openly, how terrible the treatment was. The Buddhism video was very good; it was very respectful and quiet, allowing you to hear some of the beauty of Buddhist chants/prayers. The narrator was very good in this one; he had the right tone of voice and it worked very well with the beautiful depictions of Buddhism.
2. There were two key concepts from the Legacy of Oppression video. The first concept/theme was about the different pieces of art - what they meant/represented, the history of the culture that made it. The second theme/concept was about the colonization of the Congo by the Germans, which is how many of the art pieces came to the exhibit talked about in the first theme. The video really went in depth with the atrocities committed against the Central Africans. The video on Buddhism was partly about the history of the religion & how it came up, but it was also a history of the art - the subject matter, the representations, & the depictions of important events.
3. The Legacy of Oppression video was a very specific look at the colonization of Africa, which is something that the book doesn't go into. While the book does look overall at the different civilizations of Africa and the art that came from them, the book heavily focuses on the artwork, breaking it down and analyzing it. The video gave me environmental historical context the book only glosses over. The same thing kind of goes with the Buddhism video. The book looks at ancient India/China as a whole, and is particularly focused on the kinds of art that came from those cultures. The book does have one section on how the Buddha is portrayed but it's only one page, it doesn't really go into what Buddhism is and how the art is connected to it. This video is really in-depth; it goes into the foundations of Buddhism and how the art came out of Buddhism in general.
4. The Legacy of Oppression video was very very good. I really enjoyed the woman who was talking about the pieces of artwork; she was very knowledgeable. I also really enjoyed that they didn't try to sugarcoat or otherwise tone down the level of violence/atrocities that were committed in the course of German conquest. I appreciated the willingness to show me, openly, how terrible the treatment was. The Buddhism video was very good; it was very respectful and quiet, allowing you to hear some of the beauty of Buddhist chants/prayers. The narrator was very good in this one; he had the right tone of voice and it worked very well with the beautiful depictions of Buddhism.
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