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.
Mike Kelley
This week in class, we discussed the artwork of Mike Kelley. Mike Kelley has created a wide range of artwork. I found his sculptures made from stuffed animals to be the most interesting. This is a picture of one of his famous works, Frankenstein, which was created in 1989. This piece is a combination of stuffed animals, cloth dolls, and other cloths sewn together to create a creature. Next to Frankenstein is a basket with spools of thread inside of it. It is interesting that he was able to use such simple pieces of cloth to create a creature, Frankenstein.
We also were given the link to a video that shows us the work of Mike Kelley. In this video, we learn that he always knew that he was going to be an artist. His work was perceived to be about his child abuse. When he got this response from viewers, he embraced it and decided to go along with it. He created all of his work to be dark and to resemble his child abuse. I think that it is very interesting that he had no intentions of going that route, but when he got feedback, he just went with it. I feel that this makes him a strong artist that cares about making his viewers and followers happy and by giving them what they wanted.
It is also very interesting how Mike Kelley creates his pieces to be viewed by viewers of all types. At first glance his pieces look familiar. They look like simple things that everyone has seen before. This is appealing to the “lazy” viewer. When the piece is looked at more closely, it will appeal to the more sophisticated viewer. His pieces all have a deeper meaning when they are viewed more closely.
Math and Art
During class, a comparison between art and mathematics was discussed. Math is a subject that I enjoy a lot and this love for math has led me to become an Actuarial Science major. This major allows me to be in the business world while still able to use math in my everyday life. After much thought, on the subject, I concluded that there are many similarities between math and art. Both involve completing processes. In math there are certain steps that must be taken in order to solve a particular problem. The same in true in art; there are specific steps to take in order to complete a particular technique. Another similarity between the two is that all you need is an idea to create the next big discovery. A new idea can be proven to be true and then it can be used and admired by other for all time.
This comparison has led me to think differently about the art pieces we look at in class. Looking at art from this perspective makes art scientific with all the steps having a particular meaning. If the step did not add anything to improve a procedure when that procedure is replicated, it would not be included. Furthermore, math can be seen as a form of art. This can be true because sometimes you are unsure of exactly how a particular problem will turn out especially if it is a proof. Math problems are like puzzles in which the given information needs to be artfully fit together to produce the desired result.
While similarities can be drawn between the two fields, it is also clear that some pieces of art used math. For example, the below structure would not have been able to be constructed without using math. The structure is made up of triangles connected into pyramids and attached to each other to form the structure that was designed by the artist.
Jeff Koons
Today we saw some artwork from the artist Jeff Koons. He is most known for recreating objects. He made several pieces to be shaped like balloon animals. The picture here is of a balloon dog. I find this piece of art to be very interesting. It is very realistic and looks just like a real balloon dog. When Jeff Koons created this piece, he meant for there to be no hidden meaning behind it. He wants his work to be seen as what it is and nothing more. There are only two major differences between this sculpture and a real dog-shaped balloon. One difference is that it is made of metal instead of balloons. The metal is painted in a bright color in order to give a more realistic appearance. The second major difference is that this piece is over ten feet tall.
Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of Beauty
This article discusses beauty. In today’s society, we are always looking for beauty whether it is art we are looking at or each other. Through his experiences, the author has found that art dealers are more concerned with how a particular piece of art looks rather than looking for the message that piece of art is trying to convey to the viewers. This same notion can be applied to anything in today’s society. As a society we are very concerned with personal appearance and not as much concerned with inner beauty.
Furthermore, beauty should be a means to an end not the end. While a beautiful piece of art may have a lot of admirers, if it does not have a powerful or meaningful message to convey, it will not be as memorable as the artwork that does tell a powerful message. The beauty of a painting will draw viewers in but it is the message that keeps the viewers thinking. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This means that what one person may perceive as beautiful another person does not see the beauty. This is one of the things that make art and therefore beauty so unique.
Marcel Duchamp
In today’s class, we learned about an artist names Marcel Duchamp. Marcel Duchamp was a French artist who created the piece that we saw today, the Fountain. The fountain is a urinal. He refers to this as “found art” because he created art out of an object that already existed. Duchamp wanted to choose an object that was attractive to him. It could attract with beauty or ugliness. Many people find this to be controversial because they claim that these “readymades” are not real art. People feel that they are not real art because he uses preexisting objects, rather than create his own. I feel that his work is still considered art because it is all in the way the he presents the objects that forms the art.
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