Visit to Albany Institute of History and Art

Located in the middle of the city of Albany, this museum was surprisingly large with two floors of exhibits. My classmate Michael Anderson and I explored the entire museum, but focused mainly on the the second floor exhibition on graphic design because it was contemporary art. Graphic design is the carefully planned arrangement of visual images and printed text that can convey both meaning and message. This exhibition broke down visual arts into for distinct categories for display: typography, commerce and graphic design, political and social messages, and the creative process.

The exhibition was immense and covering the entire second floor, but I found two topics particularly interesting. One sideroom focused on how technological advances such as the Internet has changed graphic design throughout the years. This area also showed the evolution of entertainment sources such as video games. It was incredible to see an early video game system next to the incredibly complex video game systems available now. Another area I found very interesting was the displays of graphic design used in times of war. These examples were were used to express political messages such as pride in the nation.

Favorite Genre of the Semester

For my favorite topic that Professor Blum presented to us was Street Art.  I have selected a few pictures that I have found on line to present to all of you.  These pieces of work are very fun to look at.  I hope you all enjoy them!!!!!

The Frances Young Tang Museum

For my museum visit I went to the Frances Young Tang Museum on the Skidmore College campus.  This museum was very interesting because it was my first time going to an actual gallery.  There was only one exhibit but everyone that went with me was so interested that we stayed for a while.  There were very interesting items and I wish I could have posted one but they were very strict about pictures being taken and nearly kicked us out because we were taking one.

The items in the gallery were beautiful pieces.  One that really caught my eye was this item as soon as you walked in that was made of plastic bottles.  This is the first thing that everyone sees when they walk into the gallery and I believe it took the person who was the artist a long time to construct.  There was also a couple pieces of one man in different poses.  There were 4 pictures of him in different poses holding different items.  If there were one thing I can post on this blog it would be this but I could not take a picture.  This is the one thing that stood out for me in this visit.  I really wanted to share this with everyone. 

Conceptual Art - From Stillness to Fidgeting

Class Date: April 13, 2011

In class today we were introduced to an assignment that hasn't been like any other one we have recently seen.  Jillian Werning was the first artist we looked at and her works of art included a "sixty minute assignment".  She took police men and women and had them sit in a gallery for 60 straight minutes.  This assignment starts out as initial stillness, but moves to fidgeting as the minutes progress.  I would never view this is art because it is different than what I have normally thought art to be.  This work is about the idea of control.  She looks at an observation and figures out what to do based on that.

Another artist we looked at was Vanessa Becekhoff.  He arts of work were similar in that she took humans and made them still by looking like a statue of some sort.  One piece of work was when she white washed females and had them lay on pedestals to make them look like they were actually statues.  This was very interesting to me and couldn't believe the self control these females had while sitting for the extended period of time.  These two views of art were new to me, but very interesting.  I couldn't imagine being a part of something like this and having to sit still for over an hour.  I give these individuals a lot of credit for their self-control to be able to do that.   

Affordable Art for Everyone

Class: April 4th, 2011

Today in class we discussed a website that allows people to purchase pieces of art for an affordable rate.  The website is called "20 by 200".  They pride themselves by being able to offer art for every single person.  Most people will be able to find some type of art for themselves at a very affordable price.  The website brings people together by having a seller and a buyer.  These pieces range anywhere from $20 to $200 and the price varies on size of the piece.  It is available through a contemporary way and it opens up the world of contemporary art for many artists.  Once you log onto the website, you are able to go directly to the artists site and look at reviews of it.  If it is something for you, it will be ready to be purchased on the spot!

We also watched a video in class that made me realize there are many different reasons why an individual will would purchase a piece of art.  I always knew people bough art based on a couple different reasons but never actually thought about all the reasons.  These pieces of art could mean a lot to the person.  This is usually the biggest factor but there are many other reasons why someone would buy art.  People may be attracted to art history or even be collecting it for money.  It could make them feel a certain way or even be interested in the meaning of the work.  Sometimes people just like to come back after a long day of work/school and just look into the painting and get trapped to relieve stress.

Public Participation in Artwork

Today we discussed two artists that used the general public as part of their respective artwork. Spencer Tunick has gained fame for creating unique "one time only" events with the use of gathering numerous nude people in one area. One work we viewed was hundreds of people lying on a seashore, imitating a natural event of dead sea life being washed up on shore. The concept of the individual disappears when so many people are gathered in one area. The normally embarrassing nature of being nude in public is no longer taboo because everyone is nude together. Antony Gormley is a famous British sculptor, but is also well known for a work of art when he invited thousands of people to gain "their 15 minutes of fame." In this exhibit a raised "stage" was assembled and the public was invited to do absolutely anything they wanted during their allotted time on this platform. This show ran for several months, and was streamed live over the Internet. We also watched a "Ted Video" in class which attempted to explain the question of "what the experience of beauty is?" There are so many different forms and opinions of beauty. A very common explanation is that beauty is in the culturally conditioned eye of the beholder, but Charles Darwin gives insight which proves this explanation to be errored. These visions and tastes on beauty are actually ingrained in our mind through the evolution of our ancestors who helped formulated these thought processes.

Artist Curators

Class Date: April 6th, 2011

Today in class we explored the extrmely unique talents of artist curators. The term curators employ gestures or emotions of assembling objects together in a certain way. One of the leading artist curators we discussed is Fred Wilson. He uses collections of paintings, crafts, or artifacts to create extremely unique collections. He is most famous for his incredible work "Mining the Museum." This artwork assembled various artifacts to highlight the history of slavery. The physical location of the items in these collections portray his emotions. For example, shackles were placed between golden goblets to distinguish the difference between high society and the horrors of the slave trade that once existed in America. Another work of Fred Wilson is his creation of black tear drops made from glass. This work is extremely creative because glass is actually just an extremely slow moving liquid just as tears pour down one's face.

Another artist curator we discussed was Mark Dion. The best way to describe Mark Dion is an archeologist, environmentalist, explorist, and scientist all rolled into one man. He is best known for making art out of his archeological digs. Mark would analyze an artifact or fossil found during his fieldwork and then focus on recreating it to make it look as authentic as possible. He was very interested in how people formulated opinions about the environment.