Blog Review

1.  George Eastman House: Picture Perfect:George Eastman created Kodak is a businessman and marketing genius and was the inventor of motion film. Photography is a vast technique.  Photography has captured many moments throughout history. Eastman made up Kodak there is “Mr. Kodak”.  The cinema is a gallery. 

Bones of Contention Native American Archaeology: There is a big battle between the use of native American burial grounds.  Some want them to be artifacts, some want them to stay and some want them put back.  Some bones can be found in museums around the world such as the Smithsonian.  These bones can be looked at to understand many things about the Native American history.  The Native Americans just want to bring home their ancestors. 

Displaying Modern Art: The Tate Approach:  The new museum of Modern art is so successful that curators had to move some of the art.  1900 to the present.  The MOMA was a powerful institution and dominated exhibition for half a century.  Curators are responsible for themes of exhibits.  Many people are attracted to modern art. 

The Lowdown on Lowbrow West Coast Pop Art: this can also be called POP Surrealism, but is also called lowbrow art or lowbrow surrealism, and does not mean what it did originally (pornography).  Rock and roll posters were shown around the world as art except in the U.S. Comics are a good example of this art.  Lowbrow is able to erase earlier definitions.  This art is almost up and coming because this art is getting more and more expensive.   

2. None of these videos related to my curation because my curation is based on Claude Monet, and he was not mentioned in any of the videos from what I could tell.

3. The films were quite interesting I actually really enjoyed watching the Lowdown one and  the Bones of contention one.  The only film that helped me would be the Tate Approach one because it told me about what a Curator does.

Art Gallery Visit

The Exhibits Title was Art Craft in Media and the Theme of the Exhibit is the use of crafts in art, things that would normally be thought of as art.  The lighting that was used was very many lights up very high in one area, and dimmer lighting in the other area, the lighting acted as spotlights on each work in the open area.  The walls were white.  Not very extensive architecture, white walls would block off each section, the ceilings were very high and open with a very open layout.  The movement of the viewer is easy throughout the gallery, it is an open floor plan for most of it with different sections around almost every corner.  The artworks are placed throughout the floor each in their own spotlight.  The artworks are similar because they are all crafty to go along with the theme. Each piece of art was individual because most of them were made with different materials by different artists.  Some of the works were placed in a clear cube on top of a white stand, while some were placed on the wall or on the floor, or on just a white stand.  The artworks are labelled by a white rectangle that says the artist, material, year etc.  All the artworks were within a foot or 2 of each other.

Chione, 2010 by Betty Stephan is monochromatic because only white is used.  It use different shapes and forms within the piece to bring interest.  The piece has texture because is uses different materials such as lace and different sizes beads. 

Breathe Deep, 2011 by Brendan Miller is made of glass and uses black to outline lungs.  The shape of a circle can be found through the work which creates a pattern.  The work is made in the shape of a human torso and was formed this way.

Intrusive Investigations of Intimacy, 2011 by Sarah McNutt is a clay sculpture that appears to not use very much colour until it is seen that the backs of the objects have newspaper strands coming out.  The shapes of the body insist intimacy and many lines are used.  The newspaper creates a different texture and a pop of colour. 

Looking at the gallery and exhibition from a different perspective this time around gave me a better outlook on what goes in to making the space perfect for viewing art and how much time and though must go into it.  Thinking about how the physical space and architecture made me appreciate the space as well as the art.    

Documentation of my visit:

videos

1. I chose: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884, Expressionism, The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19th Century to the Present, and Dance at the Moulin de la Galette because the titles stood out to me as something I wanted to learn more about.

2. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884: This painting is very large, has many people, boats and one monkey, it is of people enjoying a day of leisure, it is displayed in Chicago, The lady with the monkey and the lap dog on the right of the painting is thought to be a cocut (sp?) which was a women with 2 or 3 lovers, many paintings were made before the final one where “characters auditioned” almost, close up the paint is extremely rich, this painting meets every requirement for a masterpiece.

 Expressionism: so much can be learned about the time when we analyse the paintings, Munch had a very depressing life, many artists did self portraits, the techniques were often bleakly rough, and had many textures, colours are earthy.

 The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19th Century to the Present: Northern Spain has produced many famous artists in history, Spanish art has always been very vivid and memorable, Picasso was from northern Spain, Picasso set out to show spain that he always felt Spanish by displaying and showing his own selection of works, Dali’s one painting was very interesting with the melting pocket watch, war influenced some of the art from northern Spain, one building was quite influenced by Islamic culture, modern, and shipping.

Dance at the Moulin de la Galette: one of the most controversial paintings of all time sold for a large price, Lamisse urged the artist to complete his painting, Picasso chose this painting as his first painting of Paris but more dark and mysterious, paintings are influenced by history and history is influenced by paintings, This painting is developed to create interest of the viewer by making them ask questions about what’s going on.

3. I remember reading about Picasso in the text and the Northern Spain video talked about him and his art.  Expressionism was described in the text but not as in much depth as the video. 

4. These films were good although they were quite long.  These films helped me to better understand what the text was discussing because it was being shown and there was sound rather than me having to read. Expressionism was very hard to keep interested in.

Mask

Celebrating Femine Beauty and Cultural Pride

Female Mask, Okuyi or Mukudj

Punu peoples, Gabon

Wood, pigment

This mask does not have a lot of colour, but this is because of the culture it came from where whit faces were often represented.  This white face represents femininity and beauty.  Lines are used between the nose and ears of the mask to represent jewellery.  Many shapes are used to form this mask, the forehead is round and the eyes are oval shaped with a small nose and lips.   

Youthful Spirit

Mask,Kple kple

Baule peoples, Côte d'Ivoire

Wood, pigment

Because this mask is from a lower status and only represents a minor spirit, the mask is very simple and lacks detail.  The shape and form are simple and there are is almost one texture through the entire mask.  The horns on the mask are very large compared to the rest of the mask.

A Flying Spirit

Nwantantay mask

Bwa peoples, Côte d'Ivoire

Wood, pigment

The spirit that is represented by this mask has no shape or form so the shape and form is up to the artist.  The symbols on this mask, such as the X’s, the checkerboard pattern, and the white crescent represent certain aspects of the spirit.

I chose these three masks because I wanted to represent the spirit of Fall/Autumn and I believe that other masks that represent spirits will help me create a spirit mask of my own. 

The Sketches:

The Final Mask:

This mask uses the same white face as the first inspirational one I used, I used colour by implementing the Fall colours of the leaves.  I used simple shapes and forms just as in the one example spirit mask, the different sized and colour leaves creates texture for the mask, and the teeth can be looked at as a pattern.  I really enjoyed making this mask because I had to look for inspiration and I love the colours and spirit of fall so I figured why not make a mask about it.

Video Discussion

1. I chose African Art: Legacy of Oppression, African Art, Buddhism and Hinduism because I am interested in learning more about what each video is about just from looking at the titles.

2. African Art: Legacy of Oppression: Belgium's Tervuren Museum has the largest collection in African art which was taken by an explorer from a long time ago, this collection has a quarter of a million works.  Some of the art is even naturalistic. Masks were named after the word for sinking feeling in the stomach.  The sculpture of the woman who is fertile shows how they would make works abstract so that things would have meaning and make sense to those in their society.  Many of the everyday objects or everyday people would be glorified.  Most of the art was believed to be magical.  The most frequent art is masks.  Belgians brought back objects from Africa.  Culture is all about the nature of existence.

 African Art :  Art is a daily thing in the life of people that live in Africa, it is shown in hair, clothes, houses, and other objects.  Anciecnt Africans art was most used for rituals and dance, mostly masks.  This material decomposes, that is why there are only 200 year old artifacts.  Utilitarian objects were embellished.  Everyday items are covered in symbolic meanings.  Most African art is not meant to present a living human or animals, it was mostly for spirits.  Texture is important.  Now that Islam and Christianity has taken over most of Africa, the objects that were once used for religious ceremonies are no longer needed.

Buddhism: The Buddah was a man who had everything and then one day he stepped outside into the real world and saw all the suffering that he had been hidden from then he meant a monk, and became and ascetic and meditated.  Once he awoke Buddhism was born, he was enlightened.  The gateway to the temple is full of carvings of the teachings of the Buddha.  Buddhism spilt into 2 groups, ones who want to go to nirvana in a boat, and then those who would find companions and wait.  Many medallions were carved  into a building that were an inspiration to a temple in Dali.  The temple of the countless Buddha, only has 432 of them but it took about 100 years to build and only lasted about 30years, then the temple was taken by a volcano, then it was found and restored in the 1990’s.  Some buildings have no pillers but are glued together, and creates an open area, the building was erected around the biggest Buddha statue that took 8 years to build.

Hinduism: The oldest city in India is also the most religious one.  The great River Ganges is a giant symbolism for Hinduism, life is for millions even billions of years of death and rebirth.  Hindu’s can worship anywhere.  Most temples are tiny, but so much is put into the elaborate decoration.  The temples are monuments of giving up things, such as the one dedicated to Shiva.  Many people wish to die in this city and are cremated on the shores of the Ganges, the flames liberate the spirit.  Krishna inspired cave art was made directed out of rock, called cave art.  The temple dedicated to Shiva is miraculous and has so much detail.  The source of all life is the great breath, a breath that brings humans to creation, and the cycle of reincarnation until they obtain liberation.  The Gods are symbols of ways to reach god.

3. The videos African Art: Legacy of Oppression and African Art relates to the text because in the text many of the African masks and rituals were described as well.  The video Buddhism relates to the text because it talked about how Buddhism came to be, the beliefs and some of the art and architecture. 

4. I think that these films were full of information, even some things that were not in the text, therefore, I learned a lot more about the topics in this week’s lesson and I understand them better.