Mediums and Arts Movements: Minimalism

Class Date: February 21, 2011

In class we discussed various mediums and art movements, particularly minimalism.  This movement was made up as a revolt against other movements.  These types of works feel and look like they are manufactured, meaning that they were not made by a human.  These works are also abstract meaning it is hard to know how to respond to certain works.  Abstraction leaves things open for interpretation, which makes everyone's reaction to the piece different and unique.

Piece done by Robert Ryman

We also watched a video on Robert Ryman, who believes that paintings gives pleasures to others.  There needs to be no background information on the piece for an observer to necessarily enjoy it.  Before he moved to New York, music was the biggest thing in his life and that all changed once he moved.  His love for music translated into painting and allowed him to express himself differently than music.  He works differently, however, and only uses the color white.  He believes that white can do things that normal colors cannot.  I have personally never seen types of work like this before having white paint on surfaces and streamlining essentially what it is.  To me, most of the paintings looked the same.

We then were introduced to Vija Celmins, who took something that is miniature and repainted or duplicated the exact object or image.  She was working on a picture of space that had taken her nearly over a year.  She paints the image until she can articulate it herself.  Celmins enjoys doing this because she likes to feel like a creator.  One time she even found stones and duplicated them herself to look identical.

Movements and Processes

Class Date: February 16

In Wednesday's class we discussed the various movements that have occurred in the visual arts world dating back to the 1950's. The major arts movements of the 1950's were abstract expressionism, lyrical abstraction, New York Figurative, and Bay Area Figurative. The 1960's were marked by a rapid increase in the number of movements. Many attribute this growth to the major advances in media technology during the 1960's , so each movement affected a large audience. Several of the movements, such as abstract expressionism, spanned across several decades. During the 1970's art movements get more descriptive of actual works in the titles. This decade also marks the first appearance of feminist art. The 1980's were a very controversial era, because several art movements began to make use of a previously completed work, and adjusting it in some way to make it unique. The 1990's and 2000's saw the increased usage of technological advances in art. For example many artists began to use computers to formulate works. Cory Arcangel became famous by using computers to show the mistakes made by people attempting to learn how to use new technology. He also created a compiliation of parts of youtube videos that filmed cats stepping on pianos.

In class we also discussed the work of Alison Watt which entailed the fabrics in various artworks. If you separate fabic from what it covers, it takes on its own artform. In the video we watched about her work we learned that she enjoyed working with larger paintings and murals because it actually engulfs the painter, as if you are within the work.

Abject Artist's

Class Date: Monday 2/14

In today's class we discussed several artists in the genre of abject art. The first artist we discussed was Mike Kelley. His pieces of art express the concept of negative aesthetics, or imaging that you would not generally perceive as being aesthetically pleasing. An example would be one piece in which Kelley combined ancient artifacts with a legendary figure such as Santa Clause. The meaning of these peices is shrowd in mystery, allowing every viewer to forumulate a unique perspective of the work.

Another abject artists we discussed in class today was Dash Snow. He can best be described as the artist of New York downtown party scene. His work entailed polaroid pictures of naked drunk party goers in New York City, that have obviously had a few too many drinks. It is the controversial nature of Dash Snow's art that makes it so great. Critiques from all over are attracted to the work of art due to controversial nature, and then formulate an opinion.

The last artist we discussed in class was Gillian Wearing. Similar to Dash Snow, her artwork was also surrounded by much controversy. Her works were "Mass Observation," a form of voyerism in which she would record the interactions between certain groups of people, usually groups that are typically cast out by society. In her most famous work Gillian taped alcoholics of a variety of backgrounds interact among each other. This detatched voyerism was very cotnroversial because it calls into question the concept of privacy and confidentiality.

Conceptual Art Roots: Different from other Art

This is a type of art used for the political function.

In class of 2/9/11, we learned about the roots of conceptual art.  We learned that different cultures and experiences make art different from one individual to another.  There are three functions of art.  The first is personal functions.  This comes from different experiences that an individual might go through that makes them create something based on how they feel.  This function may make sense to one person (especially the one who created it) and may make no sense to another.  The artist may use this function to establish a sense of control over the work.  This was seen in the video we watched in which the artist created certain things based on events that happened to him and how they made him feel.  An example of this was when he make cookies out of his brother's ashes after his brother died.  The second function of art is propaganda.  This function is used for other reasons than to just place in a museum.  There is usually a motive behind these works and they are usually used to make a point or get a certain point across.  The last function of art is political and this is used to help an artist portray certain messages that a politician may want to get across.  An example of this is the Uncle Sam poster created to try and get people to enlist in the army.

Just Pathetic: Michael Wilson on Sore Winners.

Art often has the misconception of being a beautiful sculpture or painting created by an incredibly skilled artisan. From the late 1980's into the mid 1990's a new movement of art arrived, "abject art." The term abjection is defined as "the state of being cast off." This form of art expresses the feelings and emotions stemming from failure and not fitting in with societal normality.

I found these works of art to be incredibly interesting. By being part of an "anti movement" the artists creating abject art were attempting to express incredibly unique concepts, never before attempted. Many critiques label these artworks as shamelessly adolescent, but I feel this is no reason to discredit the immense amount of thought and talent required to create these works. Abject artists are not attempting to get the approval of every single critique, in fact they are attempting to do the complete opposite. By having people make comparisons to the more traditional art forms, abject art is successfully establishing itself as a counter movement to society.

Marcel Duchamp Toilet and Contemporary Art

Today in class we talked about contemporary art.  First we started off with pictures of people view various forms of art.  This was both interesting and confusing to me at first because I didn't realize how people could put this as a form of art.  I then realized that some of the responses to pieces of art were very unique and interesting and could see how some people liked the pictures.  I really liked this idea because it showed people of all ages responses and you could tell who liked the art and what the art did for them.

We then discussed the different types of art and this was a real surprise to me because I never thought that there were so many different types of art.  I didn't know how much impressionism was from modern or contemporary art.  I have a friend that loves art and she always talks about how much the classes she takes move her based on the type of art she studies at the time.  I know understand where she is coming from after seeing all the different types of art and all the reactions from the people.

Conceptual Art is what exactly you see and you shouldn't have to think about what it means.  We saw a type of conceptual art by Marcel Duchamp where he took a urinal and made it into art.  This was very different for me because I would never think that a toilet could be some type of art.  The critic from the movie we watched was extremely funny with his responses talking about what the urinal actually meant.  I guess now after todays class that I realize how different pieces of art can be from one to another and how different the meanings can be.

(Post was from class on January 26, 2011.  I hit save instead of publish post and just realized.)

Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of Beauty

I found this piece to be interesting in many ways.  The first thing that popped out in this article was when the people said that "beauty" was "the corruption of the market".  This was surprising to me because I would never think of beauty as a corruption to anything.  I feel that beauty only makes things better and gives meaning to them.  I didn't understand how they could call it the corruption of the market when it essentially expanded the market.  The second piece of the story that was interesting to me was the fact that there is essentially a story behind beauty and how that story came to be.  The last thing that interested me was the fact that the story continues to be written and will continue to advance and be an instrument for change.