week 11 videos

Greenber on Art Criticism- This video compared art and music criticism, I found it very interesting and learned that it is easier to interpret music because the artists feelings seem to radiate from the song itself, whereas with art you have to interpret it on your own subjectively. This is helpful to the art criticism project because it teaches me that I have to do more than just look at the art, I have to search for the meaning or aspects that are interesting.

Renaissance- This video talked about how artists in the renaissance developed as they did because they studied the artists that were great before them and learned from them. This is helpful to our portrait project because we can draw insipration from artists for our self portrait.

Jackson Pollock- This video talked about Pollock's work and how he was a master painter, but also how his art shows a low point in modern art. This video showed exactly how art criticism works, some people might think one thing, while others think the opposite. This was helpful to our project in showing how critics have viewed things in the past.

Art Curation Project reflection

This project was fun but challenging. I knew what I wanted to right away (More than Meets the Eye), but was having trouble finding images that were cohesive and also enough images. The idea came from a project I did in high school where we used words of emotion that described a picture to create value, by overlapping the words. I had the idea that from far away it looks like just another picture, but as you get closer and see that there is text and read it, you get a different feeling for the work and get involved in the emotions and have a new connection with the work. I wanted to find more images out there like mine at home to show how we see images all the time in life, but how artists can make those images about more than what we just see on the surface.

I found enough pictures for the project, but realized there would be no cohesion in my exhibit and that viewers would get bored. I brought this to attention in the discussion forum, and Professor Tabone suggested that I find images of similar nature to compare my chosen images to. This idea was great and I think by using it I created a new interest in my piece. Instead of just being a jumble of images with a similar background, it became more of a challenge to viewers to see the differences and compare and relate them to their own lives and take what they could from it.

I think my exhibit turned out really well. It took a long time to put it together, but the final result is good I think. I chose a gallery space that was wide open so it would allow a maximum amount of viewers to see each section but not be over crowded. The walls are divided into niches, in which each pair of images would go, side by side so viewers could compare. I think this will have a great effect, since each pairing will be essentially in its own little world.

Although this project was challenging, I had a fun trying to complete it. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to put together an exhibit in real life. I'm not sure I want to find out either, I was stressed just trying to complete a power point exhibit! I have a new appreciation for art exhibits and won't just look at them as paintings on walls anymore, but will be able to view the gallery as an entire space created with purpose.

Curation videos

Lowdown: This video was about the style called "lowbrow" which is art that is "lacking in taste". I thought of art like this to be sort of like the urinal we saw in the last set of chapters, hard to consider it art. As you look further into it and learn more though the pieces begin to stand out as art because you have a better sense of it. Some people who like this style say they find it easier to relate to than traditional art, I think this is probably because they sometimes have everyday relateable objects in them, or are made my people they can relate to better than an 18th century painter.

Modern Art: This video showed how the art of displaying art evolved and how art came off the walls at a certain point and actually into the viewers plane. It talked about how the Tate museum organizes the art in their galleries in ways that would be interesting to the viewer, as in sticking a piece somewhere it doesn't seem to fit, so it would catch the viewers attention.

Contention: This video talked about how if a Native American body is found, historians study the remains to learn about their people, whereas if a caucasian body was found they would just bury it. It ended saying that many native American bodies are now being returned to their families instead of being picked over by scientists. I don't think this was really related to art, however it was very interesting and made me question many things.

Eastman: This video was about George Eastman who was considered to have started photography. They went inside his house which is now a museum and talked about all the original pieces there. I was surprised to know that they had 140,000 pictures from his collection online.

The video that helped me the most with this curation project was Modern Art, because it gave me new ideas of ways to organize an exhibit. I never though about all the work that goes into galleries before, I have a new appreciation for it now. Also the video about the lowbrow style was helpful because it shed light  on how different types of work can be considered art to many.

postmodern videos

Andy Warhol- I chose this video because he is a very popular artist, and I am familiar with his work. My uncle went to the Warhol museum and said once that Warhol was very messed up and he didn't like his artworks, so I wanted to learn more about Warhol and see for myself what I think about him. The video didn't really show him as being too nuts, so I decided that I still like him, unlike my uncle. The most interesting part for me was about how he made a lot of screen prints, because I am currently in the middle of screen printing here at home and it gives me inspiration.

Hockney- I had never heard of this artist before, but I enjoy photography so I decided to give him a shot. I really enjoyed the video and learning about the collages Hockney made out of poloroids. I find poloroids to be very classic and I love the way he put the piece together. I liked that this video concentrated on the artist and his process', I haven't seen that in many of the videos I have been watching this summer (maybe I have been choosing the wrong ones!).

Both the videos make the information in the book moer concrete in my mind. The end.

modern world videos

Dada and Surrealism- I chose this video because I find the Dada style very interesting...and sometimes strange. I wanted to learn more about it. I know of the artist Salvador Dali, so it was interesting getting to learn more about his works. Also I found it very interesting to learn about surrealism. I have completely looked over surrealism in the past, and now have a new appreciation for it because of its psychological background.

Expressionism- I don't know much about later styles of art, I have focused mainly on the renaissance in the past, so I wanted to explore styles such as Expressionism. I found the style a little confusing still, as the video taught me that this style uses color instead of perfection to represent something, and that it aims to show a sensation or feeling.

These videos reinforced what was in the book...as always.

Mask

 I was first drawn to this Batak mask from the Dutch East Indies, I like the elongated face that was created. I think the point of the mask is already to be someone you are not and so elongating that face into an even more abstract representation makes the effect even more impressive. I also like the playfulness of the faces, and the exaggerated features.

 My second inspiration is the Fang mask used in ceremony searching for sorcerers, again I like the elongated face and on this one I like the lack of facial features. It is simple and pleasing.

My last inspiration piece is the "Kifwebe" mask from the Songye people in Zaire. This is a mask described as portraying an dangerous force, and I like the simplicity of it. I like the geometric patterns the African people have used on their masks, seen on this and many others.

The mask I created is made out of clay that I let air harden and then painted an earth brown color. I wanted my mask to be completely 3D so I made a mini model of what a full version would look like, since I didn't have enough clay to make a life-size model.
My mask is a mix between all of my inspiration pieces. I wanted to use simple geometric forms and balance them on an enlongated face, but also keep the "dangerous force" aspect. My mask I think would be used to ward of bad spirits.
I had fun doing this project because I got to make something with my hands and be creative. Coming up with an idea wasn't very hard, once I got the clay in my hands it all just came together as one piece.

Video reviews week 8

I watched 3 asian videos, “Chinese Art:Treasures of National Palace Museum”, “The Great Wave” and the Buddhism video, as well as the Islamic Art video. I am not really a fan of Chinese art, so I didn’t really get much out of the first video, they have a lot of delicate decorated china, such as the tea bowl in the video. It is beautiful, but doesn’t really interest me. I tried to watch the video to get a greater appreciation for Chinese art. I know of the Japanese work “Great Wave” so I figured I’d watch the video to learn more behind the piece. I learned how the wave is representative of our lives, and especially enjoyed seeing all the places the piece has be reused, such as in comics. From the Buddhism video, I learned about their pilgrimage “Great Stupa”, I never knew Asian religions had Pilgrimages like Christian’s and Islam’s. The Islamic video was quite different from the other three, since it is a completely different culture. I think Islamic art is beautiful, and I appreciated that the video tried to break the barrier between the stereotype of terrorism and their religion. The videos added to this weeks reading by giving me more visual references and personal accounts.