This article discusses the beginnings of abject art. This movement is all about what is taboo or not considered to be proper. These pieces of art are often made of or are about things that are not considered appropriate for everyday life. The term abject art was coined at Whitney Museum. Three exhibitions mapped out abject art’s territories including Rugoff’s “Just Pathetic” along with “Work in Progress? Work? And Vik Muniz’s “Stuttering”. These artists were at the forefront of the abject movement. Many artists we discussed in class were discussed in this article including Mike Kelley. Abject art portrays images that are scandalous.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Matthew Barney
In class this week we saw some art created by Matthew Barney. Matthew Barney creates his pieces with sculpture, photography, drawing, and film. We were given an article to read outside of class that described to us more about Matthew Barney and his art. In this article, we learned that Barney first was noticed as an artist in 1991. He became successful instantly and ever since then, his artwork has gotten stranger and better. At the time that the article was written, Barney was the most important American artist of his generation. He is recognized for his creation of films and videos. He also performs in most of them himself. Matthew Barney and his crew created sculptures and other items to be in the films.
“Think of Barney’s work as a jigsaw puzzle.” This is a quote from the article that I believe sums up Matthew Barney’s creations. What he did was take pieces from his own life, the lives of Houdini and Gilmore, the history of the Mormon Church, the history of art, and material from his older work. He took all of these pieces and put them together to create new pieces. The films that Barney created are the type that stick in a person’s mind, leaving and impression on them.
Performance Art
I enjoyed the class on performance art. I believe that this art at its best. This form of art combines art with movement to create a unique performance each time. There are many types of performance art. Some artists paint with different types of objects while other perform musical instruments or draw. One example I found of performance art was “The Walking Piano” which was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this exhibit, the artist is in inside the piano and walks around playing backwards. I think that this example of performance art is very original and takes a lot of skill not only artistically but physically.
Alison Watt
Alison Watt is most known for her paintings of fabric. Her paintings are incredibly realistic and do not even look like a painting but rather they look like photographs of the actual fabric. Most of her paintings are of white linens arranged in some sort of bunch or knot. Her accomplishments have been recognized by her peers and in 2008 she was one of the youngest artists to have a solo exhibit at a gallery in London. She also paints portraits and has painted portraits for the Royal Family including the Queen.
Some of her artwork in included below.
John Baldessari
John Baldessari is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. His artwork consists mostly of photographs with certain pieces cut out and filled in with a solid color. This shows that there can be more to photography than just taking a still picture. His pieces of art help to build a bridge between photography and paintings. I really enjoyed looking at his artwork. I especially enjoyed his bold use of color. The different colors he uses draws your eye to the solid colors. My favorite pieces of his artwork were those in which objects were missing rather than isolating body parts. The bold colors stand out against the black and white photographs. He always puts a colored circle over the face making his photos more mysterious. My favorite of his piece is shown below. This picture reminds me of being on the beach, a place I would much rather be than snowy Albany. This piece of art is very playful and the girl in the picture looks as if she is having a relaxing and enjoyable day on the beach. This painting shows his California roots as well.
Robert Ryman
Robert Ryman is a painter who is known best for his abstract paintings. Robert Ryman creates most of his paintings using just white paint. Most critics view him as a minimalist. He refers to himself as more of a realist. His work is not there to create illusions; instead he only wants to create art, showing what he had used at their face value. Most pieces are with white paint on square canvas. Robert Ryman gives his pieces titles that have absolutely no meaning. He only uses titles as a way to identify a painting. He names them based on the names of supplies, companies, or just general words.
Mike Kelley
Mike Kelley is best known for his stitched doll bought objects. His works of art are constructed of pieces of fabric stitched together to form an object which resembles sock puppets. He is inspired by diverse sources including history, philosophy, politics, rock music, decorative arts and working class artistic expression. His work references and examines gender and class roles as well as other issues such as normality, criminality, and perversion. Below are some examples of his work. The first picture shows a quilt like piece which has different types of fabrics stitched onto it. While his pieces have deeper meanings, they are very childlike. This characteristic can mostly be attributed to the material in which the art work is made out of.
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