Final Course Reflection

After reviewing my first Blog and discussion for this course, I would say that most of my opinions have remained the same.   I was expecting to learn about art interpretation, methods artists use and ways that I can use art in my life.  These expectations were met to some degree or another.  In addition to those I learned more about the history of art, countries and art and specific artists.  I still define art as what any one individual sees as beautiful or inspiring.  My opinion regarding my definition of art has been strengthened through this course.  I did not choose a favorite artist at the beginning of the course nor would I say I have one now.  I like to always keep an open mind.  I do not have particular authors or singers that I would label as a favorite either.  I just like what I like regardless of who it comes from.  As I stated in my first posts, I enjoy online courses.  I have taken several already and the flexibility in regards to time suit me perfectly.  I must say of the 8 or so online courses I have taken this one has been the most involved with the most time consuming work.  That could be due to my desire for perfection and others may not have felt the time required was more than any other course.

The opportunity/requirement  to visit art galleries was a nice change of pace in my busy life and I'm glad to have done it.  It was especially enjoyable that while on a trip to Massachusetts I was able to visit a wonderful gallery there that I otherwise would have passed by,

Self portrait Project

Due to my limited time I chose to use the Google Art Projects Site for this project. First, I chose Self-portrait with hat and veil by Paula Modersohn-Becker from Gemeentemuseum  because it appears to be a mom wearing a hat.  This reminded me of the many hats I wear in my day to day life.  I somehow wanted to get that idea across in my self-portrait because I feel it is so much of who I am. The self- portrait by Geun Taek Yoo from the Korean Art Museum Association is very abstract.  I chose that one because I knew that my self-portrait would in no way really resemble what I actually look like.  I’m not artistic in that way.  I planned to make my self-portrait represent me, not look like me.  Finally, I chose Self-portrait with Knickers by Sarah Lucas from the British Council.  I’m not really sure what inspired me on this one but I kept coming back to it so I decided it must mean something. After looking it over I think I chose this one because it is placed outdoors.  I love nature and being outside.  This inspired me to make the background of my self-portrait a nature scene.

Self-portrait with hat and veil by Paula Modersohn-Becker

self- portrait by Geun Taek Yoo

Self-portrait with Knickers by Sarah Lucas 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must admit when I saw that we had to create a self-portrait I got a little nervous.  I can’t paint or draw anything! Then I saw the option for a collage and I knew right away that would be a good choice for me.  I also do not like pictures of myself so I wanted my self-portrait to be abstract.  That fact that I don’t find myself artistic posed a challenge for me.  However, I am good with technology and I used this to my advantage.  I found images on Google that could express features of me and, more importantly,  about me.  Some of these I grouped together on the computer, others and simply cut and glued for my total piece to come together.  This self-portrait now represents who I am and what I feel I need to be.  I’ve included my physical traits, blue eyes, brown curly hair,  but also the hats I wear.  I don’t mean it to sound like I’m bragging though with the “trophy wife”, “best mom” and “employee of the month”.  On the contrary, I feel like those are the roles I need to play and I try to live up to them all.  On the top right I added an illustration of a favorite children’s boo,  Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.  This represents my goal of becoming a teacher in addition to representing my wearing of the hats.  The forest path on the left expresses my love for nature but also my question as to whether returning to school in my late thirties for a teaching career is the right path for me.  I found that I did enjoy working on this even though I was nervous about it at first.  I took some time to really look at myself as well.  My final artwork impresses me.  As I’ve stated I don’t find myself to be artistic.  However, art is in the eye of the beholder and I feel like this piece came out really well.  It is a non-traditional piece but as we have learned in this class art can be any number of things.

My Self Portrait-My Hats and I

While working on this project, I needed to consider elements of art and  principles of design.  I wanted to be sure that I kept the parts of “my face” in proportion and balance, even though I was going abstract.  I wanted to keep the whole piece balanced but not symmetrical.  I thought about the color of the shades skin tone and decided I didn’t need that to be exact matches. I liked the variation it added.  When arranging the hats I tried to keep them in balance as well and keep in mind how much space on the paper my portrait and the hats used up.  The fact that it is a collage, adds  bit of texture.  I considered adding mass by using yarn for my hair but then decided that would not give the look I desired. The hats stack to create a rhythmic pattern of sorts. 

That's Me

Fall of Colors Mod 13/14

Mod 13/14 videos reviews

The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art discusses non-traditional art.  Lowbrow has been used for art that some people, usually not the artists, consider not worthy of high brow or high class society.  Lowbrow Pop Art often includes the nude, hot rod cars, and TV celebrities.  It is a controversial term and some may consider this type of art surreal while others would not agree and may consider it abstract expressionism.  This style came about post WWII, 1940’s-1960’s but continued and still exists. The culture at the time, especially in California, including beach type movies and the opening of Disney Land in California, inspired the art that was different from previous styles.  Lowbrow art became popular on concert posters, comics and cartoons. Later it was used on album covers.  These things actually helped to spread the art more than it would have in a museum..  Lowbrow art, which sometimes had a “hippie” reputation, is narrative, in other words something in the image is happening or about to happen.  The servicemen coming back from war brought with them Polynesian desires and that played in to the Lowbrow art as well.  Women have been able to play a more involved role with Lowbrow art than with many others, perhaps because it is more open of a style.

This video was interesting and taught a lot about one basic style of art.  The only way this would help with the art exhibition project would be based in this particular style.  The video did not really discuss the display of art in general.  It touched on the fact that Lowbrow art is not well represented in museums and that they needed to create their own shows.  Many curators do not give Lowbrow art credit as being a fine art.  I personally found that I like many of the Lowbrow art pieces.  It was nice that the video showed so many to give the viewer a real feel for the style.  I find many of the works fun and a reminder of a time past.  The artists try to be open to its viewers which makes Lowbrow a consumer based art as opposed to museum or gallery based.  The galleries that do contain an abundance of Lowbrow art are those the the Lowbrow artists themselves set up.  Juxtapoz is a magazine that has spread this style of art from California and the West Coast, where it is more popular, to places like New York City on the east coast. It is now working it’s way all over, even into classic museums, like NYC Galleries, and people’s homes.



The video Displaying Modern Art: The Tate Approach discusses how The National Gallery of British art known as The Tate due to the collection of artist Henry Tate.  Alfred H. Barr Jr., director of The Museum of Modern Art in New York pioneered displaying art on blank white walls with flexible lighting. The works of art were then arranged by rooms based on particular movements or artists.  He did this to show the evolution of art separate from political or social history.  This method was critiqued and changed partly due to the number of new types of art (which often was a reaction to Barr’s model), including video, uniqued sculptured structures and more.  The Tate Museum began taking art off the walls, and using the floor, the video and other unique works to bring life and noise to the museum space.  History and social modems were also considered, gender roles, ethnicity and sexuality.  Tate organizers decided to set up four basic categories; landscape, still life and the nude.  They setup three areas in the museum encompassing these basic themes; Landscape/Matter/Environment, Life/Object/Real Life, and History/Memory/Society.  This gives them more options as to where and how to display the works of art.  Many people can view these displays in different ways.  Some may appreciate the mix of old and new, paintings and sculptures, ect.  Others appreciate the new ideas and it opens up minds to new connections of art.  The use of the categories allows for moving of artworks since many pieces will fit into any one of the categories.

The videos are very helpful in explaining what goes into deciding how to arrange art and what categories are to be used.  While watching, I was thinking back to the two gallery visits I’ve had so far.  These two museums were set up quite differently.  Parts of them seemed based on Barr’s model while other locations followed a thematic design like that of the Tate.  There is plenty to consider, and opinions included when choosing how to arrange a display.

The video, An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, discussed how the director, of more than thirty years, Philippe de Montebello, worked.  This displays of this massive worldly museum are no simple task.  Great detail needs to be given to each and every piece and display to be sure they are appropriate and of best quality.  This requires knowledge of art all over the world and what would best belong together.  This would mean taking out personal opinion.  As director, he needs to work with many curators on what pieces to purchase for display.  Sometimes curators, who have certain specialities, need to convince Montebello by bringing that actual art work to the museum to see live.  The museum has more than 100 curators and large departments for the many different types of displays.  The director takes the artwork choices to the Board of Trustees who make the final decision regarding purchases.  The curators need to know the history, the medium, connection to other pieces or the display, and the inspiration when presenting these pieces to the Board. 

This video also explores what it takes to store, care for and conserve the art works a museum owns.  It takes extreme care to restore and preserve every type of art work.  It is often a challenging job to keep the piece in its original state.  Each type requires a different attack in order to do this. The way a piece was made, the materials used and the origin need to be taken into account.  A piece cannot always be restored to original position, which is a choice conservationists need to consider.   There are even times that a piece, broken, is left alone because of the almost new art that has been created.

The director also needs to consider the location of pieces within the museum itself. This is an immense job at the Met due to its size and vast collection.  Many are the largest of their sort in the Western hemisphere.  Lighting and windows are considered as well as the size of the piece and the room.  Exhibitions have stepped into the 21st technology age by being available online and in catalogs but nothing can compete with seeing the exhibits in real life.

This video was perhaps the most beneficial of the three in regards to our exhibition project.  Although it discusses one museum in particular, it went into great depth as to what it takes to get a museum in walk through condition.  Creating an exhibit is a business of its own almost separate from the museum as a whole.  The tips on art work choice, restoration, location within a museum, themes and even the direction a piece faces will all be helpful to me in creating my own exhibition project.

Mod 12 video reviews

I chose the Andy Warhol video because he is an artist I’ve heard of and I knew he had a unique style.  The text and the video give similar descriptions to Warhol’s life.  He was a commercial artist turned pop artist in the early 1960’s.  He started out as a painter and gravitated to silk screen, photography, and videography.  Near the end of his works he put painting back into his pieces.  Warhol used celebrities for his subjects as well as commercial products like Coke bottles and Campbell’s soup cans.  He is probably best known for his work in silk screening, often very large pieces with multiple images of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.  The video states the he preferred this method because of its mass production properties.  Once he made an original, an assistant could produce copies.  This enabled him to earn more money.  Warhol was obsessed with the celebrity culture and lifestyle. He used them as subjects and dabbled in his own film making with the newly developed video camera. He himself may have wanted fame as he often did self portraits. The text mentions a near shooting of Warhol in his apartment, known as the Factory because it was covered in foil and silver paint.  Although the video does not mention the shooting in does show the apartment and the carefree lifestyle that took place there.  The video talks about his other obsession with death.  He has pieces with plane and car crashes, skulls, suicide and more.  Some even say his silkscreens are death like because they strip away the life of the subject.  I like how the video goes into great detail how Warhol made his silkscreen.  I previously had a basic idea of how it worked but this really showed the process start to finish.  It also showed the effect and imperfections on the artwork.  The video was also helpful because it gave a little visual insight to the pop culture era and gave additional details about Andy Warhol.

I also chose the video Hockney on Photography.  My dad is a photographer and I enjoy playing around with it.  My daughter also has desires to learn more and get more involved in photography.  Hockney is a photography artist.  This is a bit different than a photographer.  He uses his photos, in a collage or grid type method to create, or as he says, draw with his camera.  Hockney’s large piece of people looking at people looking at a photo with the photo also on he side is an amazingly interesting piece. It’s interesting that although his work may show more than one set of hands or the human face split up and shown more than once, the human brain and eye lets the viewer overlook that and see what is really there.  He played around with perspective, space and distortion.  Hockney sometimes took photos of his paintings as well, again playing with perspective.  He is an artist of several mediums and doesn’t stick to strictly one method.  He even worked in theater and set work.  His work with trying to capture the Grand Canyon was really a deep thought process.  That is not a subject one can just look at and capture either with paint or photography.  He broke it up into pieces and discusses how the eye needs to constantly scan such a piece.  He tried to create movement within his work also.  Sometimes he would take pictures from all views to accomplish this, even using a ladder in the dessert.

The video touches on similar ideas that were mentioned in the Living with Art text such as the development of the camera obscura.  It also relates Hockney’s visual perceptions to that of cubism.  The concept of cubism, as described in the text, contains multiple views of a subject.  Hockney often arranges his work in this way.

I found the video very helpful and informative.  It was not what I was expecting as far as learning more about photography and its process.  However, I learned about a whole new form of art using photos and photography.  The video was also good because it was the artist himself describing his work.  This was especially informative as some of his pieces are confusing otherwise.  A quote from Hockney that I love is, “The beauty is in the process of seeing”.  In other words, everyone has his or her own idea of what is beautiful and what has meaning.  This also sums up his ideas on why he works in the way he does.

Module 11 video reviews

I chose the video Dada and Surrealism because I wanted to learn a little more about these styles than what was described in the text.  I never really understood pieces like this and where they got their inspiration.   These artist considered Dada a state of mind or jumbled up feelings that took over the world of art. The text refers to this an “anti-art” style.  Ironically Dada mean yes yes in Russian.  It is interesting that it came about in a revolt of sorts against WWI and the nonsense going on in the world.  It led artist to create their own nonsense. The video discusses works by Kurt Schwitter and how he would take everyday objects and arrange them in a new way or in an unfamiliar arrangement, as did surrealist Man Ray in pieces like La Fortune. This is the basic concept behind dada and surrealism. Hanna Hoch, another Dada artist, shows her views of the jumbled up world at the time in her piece Cut with the Kitchen Knife.  Although the piece looks like a thrown together random collage, she had carefully sketched out and gave consideration to every piece and its placement.  Dada artist felt it was important to combine art with technology.  Sometimes this meant including photographs in their art.  Dadaism seems to branch from the artist frustration with politics and the world around them.  Although the viewer may not be able to make sense of a piece simply by looking at it, the artist can most certainly explain the emotion and meaning of a piece.

Surrealism is another “off the wall” style that came about after Dada.  As the Living with Art text explains it is a style that takes into account dreams, the bizarre, and the unconscious such as Salvador Dali’s The Burning Giraffe.  It came about during the studies of Sigmund Freud. Dali’s pieces are very dismal with erotic fetishes. He uses a lot of symbolism, such as the crutch representing support and drawers which hold personal secrets.  His work is the extreme of surrealism. The video also speaks of surrealist, Joan Miro and his unique use of everyday items.  Things like birds are placed in the water with fish.  Colors are used in unnatural ways. People and animals become rounded shapes sometimes mimicking or based off traditional historical paintings. 

This video opened my mind to this type of art that I formally looked at with confusion.  Although it’s still not a style I personally care for, at least now I understand how it came about and why these artist work in this manner.  It gives them an outlet for their emotions through their artwork.  The mysteriousness of the pieces may have even added to the release of these frustrations. Both the text and video referred to this type of work as poetry, not of words but of images.

I chose to watch the video on expressionism, again because I wanted to learn more about this emotional art style and what brought this unique method about.  This seems to be another style that doesn’t make sense by just looking at it.  A deeper understanding of the artists feelings in which they were trying to portray is needed.  The video goes into detail describing certain artists and their works.  It shows how colors and objects are often used symbolically and for emotional effect.  Color is given a life of its own, not simply to become another object. Even people are used to represent relationships and sex roles based on how they are portrayed in each piece.  Objects including people are often not drawn to scale.  They are either large/small or body parts my be out of scale with other parts and can show deformity.  Sometimes political expressions are exhibited. 

The Scream is one of expressionism’s most popular paintings done by Edward Munch.  He was taking a walk one night and not feeling well.  Around him he sensed a scream and so he painted what he felt. He portrays the clouds as blood because the sun was setting at the time and the clouds appeared red. The scream he felt is portrayed in the center as a somewhat faceless person.  Faces are often obscured and more abstract because they are meant to tell a feeling not be a specific person.  Shapes are used to create objects as opposed to using specific lines with realism.  Expressionist art is a protest of sorts to the historical art that glorified man.  It takes on characteristics of other styles as well like cubism.  This style does not show fine detail for realistic look but rather quick brush strokes and exaggerated images.  Many of the artists of this style seemed to have had emotional difficulties, such as depression or anxiety.  Some had nervous break-downs and/or committed suicide.

The most important thing I learned from this video is that each and every piece has a story to tell.  With this type of work a viewer needs to know the history at the time of the piece, the feelings of the artist, information about other pieces from the artist and other inspirations in order to truly understand the message a piece may be conveying.  Each viewer may interpret a piece in a different way depending on what feeling and opinions they may have.

Art Gallery visit #2, Module 11

For this museum visit I was in Springfield, Massachusetts so I went to the Springfield Museums.  This is a wonderful place to visit if you ever get the chance. There are four museums; Art, History, Science, and a Dr. Suess Sculpture Garden, with one admission price.  There are two art galleries, George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum and Michele & Donald D’Armour Museum of FIne Arts.  Both had exhibits set up by category.  For example, in the George Walter museum there was a Classical Cast Gallery that contained all types of sculptures and replicas from different time periods.  The room was very large with spring green colored walls.  Plenty of natural light flowed through the large windows as well as spotlights throughout the room.  The room even had columns reminiscent of Greek architecture. The viewer is moved around the outside of the room while still being able to view the large pieces in the center. In the Fine Arts Gallery, most exhibits were arranged by time period.  This was interesting since we have been working through the centuries and art styles.  Wall coloring and lighting varied depending on the century being exhibited.  The Late Medieval Gallery had dark blue walls with limited spotlights mostly on the artwork.  The artwork was in bulky frames.  In contrast, the Modern & Contemporary Gallery was well light with bright white walls, natural light and light wood floors.  There were sculptures in the middle, again guiding the viewer around the outside of the room.  The art work on the walls varied in style.  Large paintings on canvas containing no frames while other paintings had simple frames. One thing I didn’t care for about these exhibits, different from the Albright Knox Art Gallery, is that many of the pieces were not labeled with artwork name, artist, date and medium.  I decided to choose three pieces from the Modern Gallery to critique because there were some really unique and incredible pieces there. 

untitled, Don Eddy

Don Eddy, in this untitled piece from 1970, used acrylic on canvas, approximately 3‘X5’, to replicate, but improve upon, a black and white photo.  What strikes me as most dramatic is that this in NOT actually a photograph, but uses a photorealism style, making a painting look like a photo either from a photo or using a photographic vision.  Eddy uses the red paint in different hues and shades to show value and light reflecting off the car.   The emphasis is placed on the shiny red VW Bug in the foreground but in the background subordination is used with the plain white, almost beat up looking, car.  The red car in front is scaled larger to appear closer while the white car is smaller and we see almost the whole car.  This puts the piece as a whole in asymmetrical balance.  The artist may have been trying to take the viewer back to another place in time with this piece.

Rita, Bill Vuksanovich

Rita, a pencil on paper, by artist Bill Vuksanovich in 1993, is another photorealistic piece.   The black and white contrast in this piece draws emphasis to the woman’s face.  When one looks closely texture is seen in her dress, skin, hair and facial features. This is all done with lines and shapes drawn in pencil as well as the texture of the paper.  The piece is mainly symmetrical with only slight differences in her ands and hair.  The artwork is rather large, slightly larger than life-size.  The subject, the woman, takes up most of the paper with no details in the background.  The framing is simple and black, leaving all the focus on the woman.  I believe the artist may have been trying to capture the realism of an emotionally and physically exhausted woman.

The next piece I was unable to find an information card for but I really liked the piece.  This chair sculpture was in the center of the room. At first look it appears to be chairs unevenly arrange, perhaps mixed up from available seats for viewing.  However, when taking a closer look, the chairs have been cut and formed to create this unique sculpture.  Line is visible not only in the backs and legs of the chairs but also in the way they come together.  As a whole the mass of the piece is rather large in comparison to the space it occupies in the room.  The all black coloring adds little variety however, the asymmetrical way the chairs are arranged creates its own rhythm.  I’m not sure what the artist was trying to portray but I get the sense chaos or a meshing of ideas.  People normally sit in chairs like this to come together to eat and socialize.  These seats would not be functional in that way, thus the chaos.  The fact that the chairs are bunched together, with the back of one chair often connected to the seat of another, could be the ideas of the people that would be occupying these chairs coming together.

Another piece I wanted to point out is The Portrait of an Elderly Gentlemen with his Granddaughter, from around 1550, artist unknown. I immediately  thought it looked familiar.  Once I read the description card I knew why.  Although the artist is not formally known, the piece strongly resembles Portrait of Amilcare, Minerva, and Asdrubale Anguissola by Sofonisba Anguissola, which was discussed in the Living with Art textbook (386) under the Late Renaissance period in Italy. It was displayed in the Northern European and Italian Renaissance room.




Feel free to check out my album on Photobucket from my museum visit and the website for Springfield Museums as well.

Springfield Museum

Masks

This is likely a Maya mask was made around the 13th or 14th century.  It is made with tortoise shell.  The mask uses elements of shape and color, in the small pieces put together to form the face. The earlobes also use shape as they are made square. Space is also visible in the openness of the eyes and mouth.  Some principles this mask has are rhythm and balance.  The colors and shapes of the tiles form a rhythmic pattern.  The mask is almost completely symmetrical making it in balance.  I chose this mask because I liked the contrast of the please greens and blues with the harness of the square ears and pointed teeth.
This unique half human half jaguar mask immediately shows principles of asymmetrical balance and variety.  There is no specific rhythm or unity to the piece.  Elements of mass and texture present here.  Since the mask is three-dimensional it shows its mass in the space it takes up.  The sculptured facial features as well as the lines and dots at the top add texture.  I chose this mask more for what it represented to me than for how it looked.  I feel like I wear many masks in my daily roles and this mask shows an almost content side and a side that is a little crazy.  That represents my life perfectly sometimes!
This beautiful jade mask has elements of value, shape and mass.  There are different shades of the green color and light is seen reflecting off parts of this three dimensional piece. The principle of rhythm is noticed in the repeated use of the circles.  The mask is in symmetrical balance and the facial features are an accurate scale to true life.   I found the color and the the perfection of the face of this mask to be pleasing, which is why I chose this sample.

 This is the mask I created. As you can see from my sketches below I had a few ideas.  I liked this egg carton mask the best.  I saw the idea online while searching for something completely different.  Once I began work, things around the house just seemed to be the right fit.  I was plucking grapes and thought the stems would make good antlers for my mask.  I added shape by using round bottle caps for the eyes and marbles for the ears.  While I was creating I gravitated toward keeping the mask symmetrically balanced, unlike my one sketch that was asymmetrical.  I felt it needed a contrast of color.  The red chip clip for the straight line mouth did the trick and also added contrast to the rest of the muted tones.  The mask needed some texture.  I did this by filling the spaces with oatmeal. 
Overall I like how the mask turned out.  I think if I had done a paper plate style it may have not obtained the mass and depth that this one did.  It was a fun project but I found the sketches didn't help me that much.  I would rather brainstorm  then just start creating.