Final exam question

What inspired art in the twentieth century ?

Take home Final

            The first painting I chose from the MoMA to speak on is The Persistence of Memory painted in 1931 by the Spanish painter Salvador Dali.  This art style is known as Surrealism, and was a very prominent style of art starting around the mid 1920’s, and its influence lasting until about the mid 1960’s.  It has been considered to be the most influential art movements of the 20^th century.  In this style of art one of the main aspects that makes this art style unique is the inspiration behind it, Sigmund Freud the psychologist who studied people’s subconscious was a big inspiration to the artists that started this movement.  These artists began to explore subject matter in a way that was unrealistic giving way to its name, Surrealism.  These paintings were often mentioned in the same regards as a dream considering the imagery was just as bizarre as the dreams one might have.  In the painting I chose, the artist demonstrates a lot of these ideas of surrealism beautifully.  In this painting you see a desolate setting kind of like a desert with mountains in the background along with a lake or sea.  Meanwhile in the foreground and middleground of the painting you see different images.  To the left you’ll notice a platform with clocks draped over a branch of a tree that’s on the platform, and the platform itself.  Towards the middle of the painting you’ll see what seems to be a portion of the face draped over a rock with another clock draped over the face, and out of what seems to be the nose portion of the face there seems to be a tongue sticking out almost like a snail.  This imagery is very unrealistic and is a perfect example of Surrealism at its finest.  When you look at it, it’s something that looks like it came straight out of a dream and onto the canvas.  When I look at this piece I think the artist is trying to tell us that time won’t bend for anyone, no matter how badly you may want to speed it up or slow it down depending on what is happening in your life, it just won’t.  So I think the artist used the clocks bent and adapting to whatever form they were on to tell us that he wishes time did.

            The second piece I decided to speak about from the MoMA is Pablo Picasso’s painting done in 1910 called Girl with a Mandolin.  This art style is known as Cubism, and began in the early 1900’s.  Many of the artists who painted in this style of art were influenced by many indigenous tribes’ sculptures, mainly their masks.  These painters looked at these masks that they would see from African cultures and noticed their use of geometric shapes to create these masks, and decided to explore those shapes more.  These artists would start to create images using nothing more than just many geometrical shapes in many different ways such as fragmented, abstracted, and in such ways that you thought differently about the shape itself.  In this painting by Picasso, it is using many different geometrical shapes to create the image of a woman holding a mandolin.  The reason I chose this painting is because I really felt it captured the essence of what the Cubist movement was all about.  Picasso does a wonderful job in placing his shapes to create the illusion of a woman holding a mandolin, also with the use of lighting and shading it gives you the feel that this painting is actually three dimensional and is popping out at you.  When I look at it, just from the simple use of minimal color and shading I can tell the woman’s hair color, body size, and really just gives me a new appreciation for shapes in general.  It is quite incredible how someone can fragment and utilize shapes in such an abstracted way in order to create an image so potent and strong.  I feel this is a perfect example of the Cubism art movement.

PS1

During my visit to PS1 i happened to see this painting by Maria Lassnig.  When i look at this painting it reminds me a lot of Rembrandt's paintings.  The very realistic detail in the facial features, along with the positioning of the eyes make you feel the emotion as she painted this piece. The glaring look she delivers, shows her agitation at the moment. Along with the excellent use of lighting to give it that Baroque feel.  I feel this was a painting done in rebellion, at the time in 1942 she was in school in Vienna and was told to paint her self portrait in a German way, which she did not like. So instead she used more classical methods to make a self portrait. What is amazing to me is that she was able to recreate a piece from a period of art that was 200 years prior to this painting, but does it with her own flair using very little natural colors unlike Rembrandt.

Dada collage

Robert Gober

Bibliography:
http://www.matthewmarks.com/new-york/artists/robert-gober/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1370459/Robert-Gober

http://tyrusclutter.blogspot.com/2009/11/robert-gober-theres-no-place-like-home.html

Outline:

1-2 minutes:
Introducing the artist, and their influence and methods.

3-5 minutes:
Displaying the artists' work and explaining the piece in detail.

Art Thoughtz: catch a millennial

In this video, Hennessy Youngman is talking to a crowd in Chicago about how to keep up with this generation that is so into technology. He uses satire when he talks about this generation by making fun of them in a half serious/half joking manor, pointing out how things to them only are real if it is posted in facebook. He uses the example of how one decides whether their relationship is real or not based on whether it's written down somewhere on their facebook page. As bad as it sounds that is the fabric of the society that we live in. Seeming so fickle in nature, the way we feel or treat someone is can solely depend on what they are posted as in our lives. He also speaks about the implementation of more interactive pieces in museums that would cater and attract these millenials since they are so absorbed with the idea of technology. Even as he makes joking remarks while delivering this idea, he is absolutely right. The more people feel involved the more likely they are to do something. All in all watching this video was surprisingly eye opening and refreshing, seeing that he was very intellectual but very relatable. 

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei grew up as the son of famous poet, Ai Qing.  So it's no surprise how Ai Weiwei developed a passion for art.  Ai Weiwei is a mixed artist, known to make sculptures, use photographs, and create installed pieces of art in different places to express his message.  Ai Weiwei is also known as a political activist using his art as a medium to convey his message.  Most of his art is thought provoking and tackle many social issues that take place in the world.  Usually Ai Weiwei will use the space he has available to his advantage when making his installed art spacing things out very carefully, to create the illusion and thought he wants to get across to the viewers.  He tends to use salvaged items that are traditionally Chinese in his sculptural pieces.  However his installation work is what spoke to me the most.  Weiwei created a piece called Untitled which is installed at Harvard university.  This piece takes 5,335 students backpacks who were killed in the 2008 Sichuan Province earthquakes and pairs this together with the audio of Remembrance which is an audio that says every students name that was killed.  It is a very emotional and strong piece paired together.  The way the backpacks are arranged in clusters gives you the feeling of the overwhelming lose of life in the incident, along with the very haunting voice stating the names makes this a very touching piece.  Ai Weiwei had to employ a citizen investigation in order to get the student names since the Chinese government was hiding it from the public.  Because of that this piece serves as both a tribute to those lost and a slap in the face to the Chinese government for hiding this information.

Ai Weiwei's "Untitled" at Harvard University.

Between Wars

The movement that came about known as Dadaism, is a movement that developed in rebellion of World War I.  In this movement of art you no longer see the formal elements of art being used, in fact most of the work made in this time period was intentionally made to not make sense.  Due to the horrors experienced from the war a lot of what people thought made sense no longer did, in fact the things that didn't make sense is what actually made sense during this movement.  As you can see in George Grosz's piece of art called Victim of Society, it depicts a man being shaven by a razor.  Along with many of the abstract elements such as the patch work done to construct the face and the question mark and bagel to form the top of the head and hair, dada art had no real structure.  Most art made during this period had a message within the art.  This piece of art I think was trying to give us the idea that people didn't think much for themselves and were groomed into what the media or society wanted us to be.  The question mark taking the place of the top of the head where the brain would be and the razor as if it was grooming someone gave me this idea, as if to say people weren't sure what to think and they were what society made them to be.  Along with this style came may others in the 1900's including modernism.  In the online lecture we are shown pieces by Jacob Lawrence from his Migration series.  Lawrence was inspired by Goya, Dormier, and Orozco along with many events such as the Harlem renaissance and the history of African Americans.  In this series it depicts blacks struggling and fighting against oppression and also working and educating themselves.  He was heavily influenced by European Modernist with his excellent use of color, flat space and pattern.  The thing I found especially interesting about these painting were the colors used.  The intensity of the colors bring emotion to these pieces, whether it shows struggle, empowerment, or hard work the color brought those emotions to life in this series.

George Grosz's "Victim of Society"

The Renaissance and Baroque Art

            During my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there were two pieces of art that I felt really captured the essence of The Renaissance era of art, and the Baroque period of art.  These two pieces were The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), and Rembrandt’s Aristotle with a Bust of Homer.           

            El Greco is the name given to the greek artist Domenikos Theotokopoulos, which is Spanish for The Greek.  His painting The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind was painted in 1570 in either Venice or Rome.  The picture shows Jesus Christ healing a blind man in front of many people.  This picture has a lot of elements that were commonly used in Renaissance art including linear perspective.  As you look at the photo you can see the building appear to be further and further away leading to a vanishing point.  To create more of an illusion of depth El Greco uses vertical perspective to make objects or forms appear smaller the higher they are placed in the picture plane.  The feel you get from this piece is very miraculous and frantic.  El Greco also uses directional force to lead us to important elements of this painting to get the feel of the story being told.  When you look at the group to the right you see some hands pointing to Jesus as he performs his miracle, while their heads lead downwards to two figures in the foreground.  The group is huddled up as if they are gossiping and are pointing to indicate that they are shocked by what they are seeing/pointing at.  When you follow the faces to the two foreground figures you can see the woman holding her chest and a man holding her back, which gives us the idea that she may be overly excited or even frantic at the sight of Jesus curing the man of his ailment, this could also indicate that they are family or close friends.  El Greco beautifully illustrated a scene in this piece using many elements that were commonly used in The Renaissance era of art. 

Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind.

            Later in his life El Greco would move to Spain and continue painting in a Baroque style.  The painting I saw from Rembrandt called Aristotle with a Bust of Homer really was as great display of Baroque art.  Rembrandt was from Leiden, which is located in the Netherlands, and he eventually moved to Amsterdam to pursue his career in art.  This piece of art was created in 1653 in Amsterdam and it shows Aristotle resting his hand on a statue of Homer.  In this piece you can see one of the main elements in Baroque art at work, which is the contrast between shadows and light.  Rembrandt masterfully uses the light and shadows in this piece to almost give the painting a story.  Along with the tremendous detail to human condition something that Baroque art shows quite a lot, and something Rembrandt utterly mastered, he’s able to show us with the detail in the face and eyes that Aristotle is contemplating something.  He uses the light and dark almost as an underlying play on Aristotle’s thoughts.  That as Aristotle is dressed well and is doing well for himself with his teachings, that the material things shouldn’t be taking him over and that there’s more to life.  The shadows hovering over and descending onto his shoulder show the idea that the material things can consume him, where the light breaking through shining onto him and the statue of Homer remind him of his ideas and things he has learned from others about life.  Rembrandt depicted the element of conflict in this piece beautifully.  A lot of artists who painted in this period seemed to love the conflict that existed in society and they all seemed to capture it in their paintings, Rembrandt and this piece was no exception.  Only Rembrandt took it to a level that very few thought possible at that time and this is why I feel this piece captures the spirit of the Baroque period of art.

Aristotle with A Bust of Homer.

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

On The Bank of The Seine, Bennecourt

            I found the lecture about impressionism and post-impressionism very interesting.  In the Impressionism period you saw many artists focus on what the eye sees instead of their imagination. A lot of these paintings were done simply by observing the environment, or the activities of people.  Most of the paintings done in impressionism were from the middle class point of view, observing them enjoying leisure activities.  But instead of making it realistic, they painted impressions of what the eye saw, giving way to the name impressionism.  In post-impressionism artists began to drift away from observatory paintings of the environment and began to express their thoughts and feelings more through a free interpretation of nature.  To express thoughts deeper than just what the eye can see, with more of an insightful way to paint and interpret things.  Two pieces that I feel really capture the qualities of both periods beautifully are Claude Monet’s On The Bank of The Seine, Bennecourt, and Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

The Starry Night

             
              In Monet’s painting you can clearly see that it is his impression of a woman under a tree looking over a lake near a town.  He uses small dabs of color closely placed next to one another to give the look of brush strokes, something that was a common painting style in this era.  He also uses a strong emphasis of light and color to really make this painting come to life.  You can get a sense of a darker area under the tree and shade by the much darker greens and browns used in that area, and then suddenly feel the sun’s embrace over the town and lake as the colors lighten up giving way to the idea that this was painted on sunny day.  In van Gogh’s painting you can see a strong use of line and color, which was something common in post-impressionism.  Also when you look at the lines you can see that he used the paint almost like a pencil, very quickly and passionately.  In this piece he uses scaling amazingly, by painting the town very tiny underneath the star illuminated sky, giving us the sense that there are more powerful forces in this world than just humans.  He does that by painting the town a lot smaller than the sky and by using different designs and patterns along with the stars to give a spiritual feel, along with the church and tree reaching straight into the sky to directs us to what he feels is important in this painting.  These two pieces are remarkable examples of both periods of art.

Rembrandt

In the YouTube film "Simon Schama’s Rembrandt- Part One" it talks about Amsterdam in the 1600's and the way of life in that area at that time.  Explaining how Amsterdam went from a small fishing port to a economic capital of the world.  Not only did they speak about the city but also of the one of a kind artist, Rembrandt.  He was truly, a remarkable artist that had the gift of making us feel emotion in his painting and portraying it like the world has never seen before. In one piece he paints a fur merchant known as Nicolaes Ruts, who sold Russian sable fur.  In the painting of him he showed Nicolaes dressed in his own product, with the fur painted with great detail, very sharp eyes  and a neatly groomed beard and a glare in his eyes as if he was being bothered by someone stopping him.  Fascinating enough he was able to depict the the mans' need for rest or the lack of rest he gets by always working, by painting slight pink inside of his eyes as if he had been up all night working. This painting is known as the business man's hero, probably because of Rembrandt's beautiful display of the man's work effort through the painting.  However he was able to show other emotions and features through his work, such as the painting of the 83 year old women.  He managed to show a great deal of worry and weakness in very subtle ways that spoke volumes.  In this painting it depicts an 83 year old women with a look in her eye that isn't very focused and drifting elsewhere as if she had other things on her mind.  The droopy eyebrows show worry and concern about something that give her a sense of weakness or vulnerability.  The magnitude of detail in his paintings helped him express so many emotions or conflicts so personally that it touched people.  In his variation of Sampson an Delilah, instead of the more common way to paint this picture which was usually to show Sampson as a nude hulking man.  Rembrandt decided to depict Sampson much smaller and realistic, to give him a sense of vulnerability, while showing Delilah caressing Sampson with one hand and lifting his hair with the other.  What that very small gesture showed was the epitome of the story, love and betrayal.  Rembrandt was indeed one of a kind, and the level of detail he used was insanely genius, along with his mastery of light and shadows, it made him an extraordinary artist that embodied the Baroque period of art completely. 

Medici and their importance to the Renaissance

After watching the documentary on the Medici Family it made me realize just how important they were to the birth of the Renaissance.  By employing and backing up artist that no one would dare to take a risk on, it lead to revolutionary art and ideas that helped sparked the renaissance, such as the dome Brunelleschi created along with his concept of linear perspective.  Another artist backed by the Medici family was Donatello.  His David sculpture was so revolutionary because it was the first time since ancient Roman times that anyone attempted to make a free standing bronze statue of a naked man. The statue depicts and naked man standing with his foot on the helmet of Goliath with his head inside of the helm, with a feather sticking out of the helmet caressing the inner thigh of David. Certain artist like the 2 afore mentioned Brunelleschi and Donatello, along with many others, made the Renaissance what it was.

Design Principles, how they shape the art we see.

The Rehearsal.

Flamarion Woodcut's painting from 1888.

Artist use many different techniques in order to achieve the look and feel that they want their work to portray.  One of those techniques is call asymmetrical balance.  In the Painting to the right, The Rehearsal, the artist achieves asymmetrical balance by using directional forces of the smaller forms located in the top left of the painting, and leads you to the larger forms in the bottom right.  Also by using a lot of warmer toned colors throughout this painting, when the artist has the blue it really stands out giving a nice contrast and making the painting feel like in levels out. The stairs on the left gives the painting a feel of continuity, as if the directional forces go in a circular motion by the smaller figures pointing to the larger figures, to the open area near the blue form leading you back to the foot of the stairs, up the stairs and back to the small forms continuously.  It achieves a really contrasting balance.  Another technique is the ability to make a painting feel unified. Woodcut's painting to the left utilizes different things to make this piece feel unified.  Such as the strong cool presence on one side and on the opposite side a strong warm presence with the abundance of yellow.  Also Woodcut uses the repetition of the stars from top right corner to bottom left corner to help unify this work.  And lastly, Woodcut creates a from around the picture plane using similar designs and shapes to border the image in the middle, giving this piece that last touch to solidify the unity in this piece.  Along with those techniques some artist might use scale to get a feeling or message across.  In Bobby Chiu's art below, it shows what looks to be a larger man stealing a bike from a younger and smaller child.  It gives you a sense of justice by using an overly large guard dog with huge teeth in a menacing gesture as if he will be punished by the larger being just as he was punishing the smaller child by stealing his bike.  This creates almost moral feel to it, almost to say do not pick on others smaller than you because there's always someone(or thing) bigger than you.  The dramatically large dog also creates a bit of awe as you can see the people on the outskirts looking in fright and amazement.  These are just some ways in which artist use different design principles to craft their art.

Bobby Chiu's painting.

Egypt, Rome, Greece...how they do, and don't differ.

 

Golden Mask of Tutankhamen.

After watching the online lecture I was able to get a glimpse of each societies' art and it made me notice certain things.  In the Egyptians' art style you can notice that they depict themselves as gods.  From everything such as stature of the sculptures to the various symbols they use to depict certain qualities, such as cobras crowns or cobra symbolic head piece to show who the king/Pharaoh was.  However in Greek art their work would focus on the natural beauty of the human body, because in their culture there was no form on earth more beautiful than the human body.  In the Greek art you can see the realism in proportions in regards to the human body and the great detail they chiseled the stone into.  The Romans style of art focused a great deal on individualism, showing emotions in the statues' face that was unprecedented before.  These emotions or features ranged from things such as fear, sadness, happiness, anger, old age, and pain to name just a few.  Even though Greek and Roman art draw a thin line in some aspects where they differ, the clear difference is in the values they had.  The Romans went astray from the perfect human sculptures the Greeks would make, and instead show realism in the emotion they depicted or facial expressions they showed with great detail.



Portrait bust of a man, 1st century B.C.;
Republican Roman.

The Discus Thrower.

                 But apart from how all these styles differ they share one common thing that is interesting.  When you look at all these different pieces you can get a feel of the era and setting they were made in.  When I say that I mean the conditions in which they were made under.  In Egypt, the art was monumental paying tribute to Gods or Pharaohs, and you were able to feel the sense of a hierarchy in which they lived through during those times.  Same thing goes for the Greeks, in their work they make you appreciate the human physique in a way that they did by crafting their statues with such finesse and perfection.  It really shows you how much they valued the human body in those times.  The Romans, last but not least, also give you a feel of where their values lie during those times.  The amount of detail they put into facial expressions and features really showed how the felt about individualism and the power to express it.  To see these 3 different pieces and clearly see how different they are physically makes it really intriguing to find the similarities amongst them.  What's even more amazing is how they are able to depict a time period and give us a sense of what took place during those times all through these pieces of art, at least that's my take on it after all art is subjective.  Hope you enjoyed my brief point of view on Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art.