Art Criticism

I reviewed the project "Soles with Soul." I chose this exhibit because I found the subject matter unique. I also enjoyed the various works. I found many of them quite striking and visually interesting. I immediately starting forming opinions when I went  through it.

The  biggest challenge was connecting all the ideas together. I really liked my opening in which I asked several questions. It was difficult for me to bring it together and make those points connect though.

I enjoyed critiquing my peer. It opened me up to artworks I had not seen before. I would like to see what others thought of my project.

I would rate my article a 9. I think I made it enjoyable to read while still being informative. However, I think I could have developed my ideas more.

I enjoyed looking at my peers work but I have never really enjoyed creative writing. Because of this, writing the article was difficult.

Video Reviews

Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T. J. Clark
Writing about visual art is more difficult than writing about literature or music
There has always been main stream art but at times Greenberg's preferences did not fit the main stream
You need to stay receptive and open-art can come from anywhere
You can only discuss results
Best art is created for the "elite"
All you can ask of lower social classes is to accept art
Greenberg believes there is a crisis of taste
Relevance is a guideline
Greenberg believes in modern specialization-keep refining things down

Greenberg on Pollock: An Interview by T. J. Clark
Pollock became famous for his drip paintings but Greenberg knew he would be great before that
The demise of the easel painting was inevitable-the next big move would be towards murals
You don't ask anything of art except that it be good
Drip paintings eliminate the artist's body getting in the way of what they want to create-when they fail it's because they don't "sit."
Pollock's work was not thought to be "real painting" in the traditional sense-he was really an outsider

An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance
Renaissance saw the rebirth of interest in art
Giorgio Vasari's "Lives of the Artists" still helps people today study art of the past
Art is continually changing and artists base their works on previous artists
Fall of Roman Empire meant much of Roman culture was lost
The cultural center moved to Byzantine Empire and Byzantine art-figures were marked by flatter figures
Giotto began the idea of perspective-one of the first artists to use this idea since the Romans. Brought back realism in art.
Craftsmen are artists as well-use similar skill sets
Donatello's "David" stands in contrapossto-the body still looks balanced even though the weight is shifted on one side
Masaccio brought shading, drama and intensity to his paintings
Piero della Francesco introduced chiaroscuro-light vs. dark
Botticelli was able to create works that celebrated the human form and had non-Christian subject matter
DaVinci believed the only way to recreate something realistically is by understanding how it works
Raffaefello is a master of composition-his works are always balanced and unified
Sistine Chapel took 4 years to complete-man's relationship to God

The Colonial Encounter: Views of Non-Western Art and Culture
The view of French colonies in the 1900s were not coherent or consistent-some images show a high status and others evoke a more primitive view
Dahome culture was represented as barbaric in the 1900 World Fair. French wanted to make the world think that it was imperative that the French step in and save the "barbarians." Sought to justify colonialism
Dahome did have skills as craftsmen-redeeming quality
Arabic culture became characterized by belly dancing and promiscuity
African men and women were put in cages and put on display in the name of science
Physical features were used as a way to determine intellectual superiority
Westerners do not understand the original cultural meaning, they see it only as an art object

Jackson Pollock: Michael Fried and T. J. Clark in Conversation
Pollock is a major modern art master
Clark-modern art was developed in opposition to bourgeoisie culture
Fried-modern art mattered because it was constantly renewing itself
Modernism-conflict between resources and condition
Difficult to agree on how to describe the character of Pollock's work so it is difficult to understand his intentions
Need to consider the importance of Pollock's work historically as well as pictorially

The Critics: Stories from the Inside Pages
Those who cannot do, critique-many artists do not see the need for the critics and do not allow them to influence their work
Critics get the public to think
Critics goal is to take you from a neutral state to wanting to experience the work they are talking about
Giving new ideas or suggesting new ways to view things
Critics direct people to good works
Grading systems are easy for people to understand and are common tools for critics
Critics enjoy their craft
Critics can improve media and influence public opinion
Critics can keep artists on their toes and give some artists their big break
Duty of a critic often overlaps with the duties of a reporter
Objective critic-neutral, fair and bring different points of view
Subjective critic-can express opinion freely
Criticism looks at a wider view than a review does
Criticism makes an argument
Critical Thinking Skills: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation
Superior Criticism involves critical thinking, good writing, choosing the right material and makes connections
Criticism has been water-downed
Internet provides a whole new medium for critics to write and others to read it
Criticism has negative connotation-but it should really be seen as a way of describing and analyzing various arts

The videos relate to my art criticism project because they discuss the importance and techniques of art criticism. They explain how art should be evaluated and what good art criticism includes.

The films added to my understanding because I have a better idea of what I should include in my art criticism project. They helped me better understand how to think critically about art.

Art Curator Project Reflection

I began by thinking of themes that interest me. I thought about doing a play on senses by having a mixture of sight with sound, and sight with touch. However, this seemed like it would be difficult to put together. Then I thought Dante's Inferno and finding works that represent the seven levels of hell. This also seemed difficult so I simplified it to just the Seven Deadly Sins. The Seven Deadly Sins have always fascinated me for some reason.

Once I found my first piece, Seven Virtues and Seven Vices, I knew how I wanted to put it together. I found some pieces that incorporated all the sins and placed one at the beginning at one at the end. Then I found seven individual pieces that represented a different sin. Then found three artists that did separate pieces that collectively made up the Seven Deadly Sins.

I made the colors of the slides try to be symbolic of the sins. Red for lust and anger, yellow for pride, green for envy, black for sloth. The colors of the slides were used to group the works together, as if viewing each set in its own room.

The project as a whole was challenging but definitely fun.

Video Reviews

Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art
Lowbrow art-art that nobody else knows how to characterize. It is a reaction to high brow culture-no color fields or urinals in galleries
Originally associated with hot rods and naked women
Some people call it lowbrow surrealism
Reaches out to masses and people relate to the imagery
Grew from World War II planes and hot rods with the pin-up style naked women
Inspired by suburbia, nuclear family, Malibu beach/surf scene, comic books and B level movies
Psychedelic rock posters-not accepted in galleries because associated with hippies and drugs
Lowbrow always has a narrative, a lot of things happening or about to happen
Tiki culture: men coming from the Pacific in World War II and came to love that decor-tiki idols
Culture open to women artists
Internet has opened a lot of doors to exposure to all kinds of art and made people more aware. People can can discover and seek out what they like.
People became exposed to the art through album covers and flyers
Vancouver experienced a similar underground art culture to California
Value of paintings is growing

George Eastman House: The Perfect House
George Eastman born1854 in the new age of photography, founder Eastman Kodak and popular photography
created first affordable, portable camera
George Eastman House holds 400,000 photographs, 25,000 films, 62,000 personal artifacts and 16,000 pieces of photographic technology
able to document history
First Kodak camera cost $25 for 100 exposures
Eastman understood marketing: "you press the camera, we do the rest"
Eastman worked with Edison to create a 35 MM motion picture camera
Restoration and preservation of film is a relatively new career and is growing
Eastman House has a large online collection
Eastman committed suicide in 1932 because he had a terminal illness and wanted to be in control of his life

Displaying Modern Art: the Tate Approach
Tate Modern: 4 million viewers in the first year
MOMA-pioneered display technique of chronological sequence of works. White walls with lighting on works. Separate rooms dedicated to different movements. Makes it seem like an evolution and that one piece built from a older piece.
Tate: 4 sections in themes-landscape, still life, history, nude-allows for many possibilities

Bones of Contention: Native American Archeology
Native American bones have been collected and studied at will
Discrimination-white people bones are reburied in a cemetery, while bodies of native American buried in the same area are taken for study.
1976-first law passed to protect Indian burial grounds
Colonists and settlers were fascinated by Native Americans
Dug up burial mounds and later discovered Native Americans had indeed built the mounds
Smithsonian held the remains of 18,000 Native American remains
Anthropologists want to study origins of Native Americans. Similar bone defects suggest shared genes origins. Many tribes do not believe the theory of migration. They believe in Creation.
Takes time to repatriate bones to correct tribes
Computer analysis may help determine what bones belong to a tribe
Native Americans have an oral tradition of their history
Study today's health problems by looking at remains
Omaha tribe work with University of Nebraska to understand their past culture and health. Studying their bones has provided a lot of significant information.
Repatriation has been accomplished

The videos relate to the art curation project because they showed different ways to exhibit art and show possible themes. The video on Native American bones showed the importance of respecting artifacts of a culture and if it is moral to remove objects to display them. It is an ongoing issue and certainly something to consider.

The videos definitely helped me because they explained different artistic movements and gave me ideas about how to present my Art Curation project.

Video Reviews

I chose the first three videos because I have always been fascinated and confused by Pop and Modern Art. I hoped watching the films would help me understand the styles better. I chose the last video because I wanted to know about Rothko's work,
Andy Warhol: Images of an Image
Ten Lizes 1963
Warhol began as commercial artist
Silkscreen Marilyn Monroe made Warhol famous
Silkscreen process-enlarge original image, contrast can be changed, results in large half tone sheet, screen of mesh is stretched across frame and treated with a light sensitive material.  Then layed on screen and exposed to light. Then it is rinsed with water, the black unexposed parts dissolve, while the white parts harden filling in the screen. This creates a negative image. It is then placed over the final surface, inked is poured and forced through the screen and creates a positive image.
Much of Warhol's work is a parable of mass production. The variation of the silkscreen technique mimics defects of mass produced molded objects.
Create the idea that celebrities are products just like a can of soup
Warhol was extremely narcissistic and obsessed with the idea of celebrity
Warhol used Polaroids as the basis for silkscreens
Subject of works (Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor) are recognizable even with flaws, variations and destruction of original image

Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the 50s and 60s
Figurative vs. Abstract: Abstract art wants viewer to think and feel about what the painting is. Space is different in each styles. In figurative painting the imaginary space around it grows. Abstract works in the real space between the viewer and the painting.
Action painting: the actions of the artist while painting is important as the final painting.
Difficult for an artist to be done with an abstract painting
Helen Frankenthaler impacted other color field artists-used cloth instead of canvas. This caused the paint to really seep in and appear to emerge from the painting
en caustic technique-oil paint mixed with solution of melted bee's wax. This dries quickly leaving translucent colors. It also holds brush strokes well
Pop Art movement was not a clear, coherent movement. Artists of the movement were brought together because they lived in the same city. Pop Art was the first 20th century movement since Futurism to embrace the rhythms of city life.
Warhol and Rauschenber paved way for pop artists to use everyday objects in art
Warhol became a brand-produced thousands of silkscreen portraiture of celebrities and wealthy upper class-many of his works were not actually executed by Warhol himself but by his assistants
Lichenstein used the idea of the comic book to create his works

Uncertainty: Modernity and Art
Greek statues offer the idealistic human form
Industrial Revolution separates man from nature-leads to modern life
Modern art has made obscurity popular
Modern art changes as society changes
Modern life means living with doubt
Cubism is deliberately primitively drawn to fight the recognizable. figures are fragmented then put back together
Abstract art puts the viewer in an experiment and provokes questions but gives no answers
Abstract Expressionist artists dared the viewer to look into the void
Pop Art communicates the ever growing value of consumerism
The growth of China economically helped moved China away from propaganda art to the avant garde

Power of Art: Rothko
Rothko committed suicide in 1970 because he had spent so much time in his mind and the realm of the dead
Rothko was commissioned to do paintings for the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagrams building in New York. He was paid $35,000, what would be the equivalent of $2.5 million today.
Born in Russia 1903 and then immigrated to the United States
Sought to communicate tragedy and basic human emotions through his art
Viewed the Seagram paintings as fight against the wealthy that would dine there. He hoped the diners would lose their appetites
After dining at the Four Seasons, Rothko decided his paintings will never hang in the Four Seasons because the people will never look at his paintings
Began to break down (chain smoking, alcoholism) and fell into melancholy that was reflected in his work


The video relate to the text because they discuss some of the most important artistic movements of the 20th century.

The videos were interesting and kept my attention. They went into more depth and discussed more artists than the text.

Burchfield Penney Visit

1. The title of the exhibition is Time Share: An Historic Art Collaboration. The theme is artworks from the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society that show important Buffalo landmarks, events and people.

2. The lighting in this exhibit was low. Only the artworks had light directed on them. The walls are painted a blue-gray color. The area is pretty open so the viewer can easily go around the entire room and see all the works. There is little interior architecture except for a small wall about 8 feet by 10 ft that is placed at the entrance that holds a painting and the title of the exhibit.

3. The artworks are organized by subject and time for the most part. Mostly landscapes are in the first room and moving into the second room are more recent works, such as a photograph from World War I. The artworks are similar in that all show important landmarks, like Niagara Falls, events, such as the Pan American Exposition, and people, such as William McKinley, from around Western New York. They are different in the subject matter. There are landscapes, portraits and photographs. The artworks are in simple wood frames for the most part except for the portraits, which have more elaborate frames. Each artwork has a plaque next to it that has the title, artist, medium and if some information about the context of the work. The artworks are fairly close to each other; about 2 feet apart.

The left image is entitled White Man's Fancy: Maiden of Past. The right image is entitled Red Man's Fact: The Maiden's Sacrifice. Both images were created by James Francis Brown  in 1891 to juxtapose each other and show how the story of the "Maid of the Mist" legend is viewed by "white" men and "red" men. The left image shows a woman with wings that appears to be floating in the air and carefully balanced on a rock, with mist surrounding her. The right image shows a woman going over the edge of Niagara Falls in a canoe and a man in another canoe following behind her. Both images are well balanced and harmonious. The colors are somewhat muted. though the artist shows skill in the transparency he achieves in the wings and mist.  

This work is entitled Horseshoe Falls and Niagara Gorge by Raphael Beck. The medium is oil on canvas. It is a landscape work of Niagara Falls and the Niagara Gorge. The work captures the movement of the Falls and the Niagara River. It uses linear perspective. It also utilizes color, especially in the sky. It is also balanced and harmonious. The artist wanted to capture the beauty of the area. The artist did not live far from the Niagara Falls and wanted to paint his surroundings. 

Mask

I choose the following inspiration pieces because they stood out to me. The first with the protruding nose caught my eye. Then the colors of the second piece were very vivid and I though of feathers. The feathers made me seek out the third piece.

My sketches:

I  tried to combine elements of each inspiration piece. The protruding nose from the first image translated into a large beak in my final work. I was really inspired by the parrot mask and that is how the piece grew. I wanted colorful feathers; similar to a Native American headdress. Then I kept going with this idea of the parrot in a tree.



Once I found my inspiration pieces, the idea for my mask came quite easily. I enjoyed the process and had fun creating my mask.