ODD MAN OUT!

The trip to the museum exhilerating, like a burst of fresh or eating a york pepperment. It was great to see all this beautiful art in one building, it was the greatest gift a man can ever get. I took this picture of Tomaselli bird and it conveyed a message of nature in its most pure form. To see a creature with such grace of a bird pirched on a twig while about to consume a worm was good to see and showed me not to take life for granted but to respect all lifeforms that dwell on planet earth

-Brandon Walters

Tang Museum

Today we took a trip to the Tang Museum in Saratoga. On our way there I felt as if i was already looking at art, Saratoga is filled with museums, and has a ton of brightly painted horses throughout its streets. Almost every where you looked there was a different design painted on the horse. While at the museum we saw a ton of different exhibits such as the roller coaster bed, which was crazy, when I touched it the women at the museum yelled at me. The other exhibit I saw was by Fred Tomaselli which included flowers, birds, people and many other objects, with a different arrangement or depiction of each. Many of his works are collages that are put together on multiple layers. In the picture above we are looking at a book that includes most of Tomaselli's artwork and has a description of each explaining a little about each piece.

Tang Teaching Museum Trip

Our visit to the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore was a very interesting experience. When we first walked in, we were greeted by the staff at the museum and they gave us brochures on Fred Tomaselli's artwork. We then walked through the galleries and saw his artwork firsthand. It was so intricate and there was so much detail within each painting. An untitled piece that Tomaselli had created in 1999 of leaves or something of that nature, really caught my eye because of the colors alone. Then when I looked even closer I realized that the painting was in layers, each layer strategically placed ontop of another, creating an image that almost popped out at the onlooker. His other paintings were interesting too because they were images created out of other images. For example, his painting that I placed in this blog is of a human body, and the body is created with smaller colored body parts to bring a whole other dimension into the painting. I thought that the Tang Teaching Museum was a great place to experience great contemporary artwork.

-Steph

Tang Teaching Museum Pictures

Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz is an artist that has truly created his own art form. Muniz is someone who is not afraid to try multiple unconventional mediums to create works of art. He is a New York City artist, however he is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Some of his works that we looked at in class were created with sugar. I think that the sugar pieces were some of the most creative art pieces that I have ever seen. Each portrait tells a story of each specific child that he portrays. Vik Muniz is talented and extremely creative. He knows how to create art in ways that other artists have never dreamed of. He takes thinkgs like chocolate, sugar, dust, thread, garbage, and other otherwise non-interesting items, and makes them interesting.

- Steph

Personal Collections

In class today we spoke about any collections we may have or may have had as a child. I never have had to many collections but looking back on it I had collected pogs, I forgot what there purpose was but I had a ton of them and would love to show them off with my friends. Another thing I had collected was baseball cards, when I was younger my grandfather gave me a bunch of older baseball cards and ever since then I would always collect them. Watching my collection grow was always a lot of fun and being able to see the new cards i had added to the collection was great. I do not have many collections today, I am a big fan of movies and purchase them often so that may be the only collection I currently have going for me.

20x200

This painting first caught my eye because of the bright colors that are involved and because i have not seen to many red owls in my lifetime. Like myself the artist was born in New York and i decided to use her picture for my $20 purchase. i don't have a specific reason for using this piece of work other then the colors involved drew me to it. I think it is a very interesting work and would be appealing to all people because of the originality of it. I have actually been contemplating buying this piece for my room just to brighten it up a little bit, so far i have not bought it but they may change.

Song Dong "Waste not"

Currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is the installation "Waste Not" by the Beijing-based artist Song Dong. A collaboration conceived of with his mother, the installation consists of the complete contents of her home. All of these items were collected for over fifty years, including the wooden frame of her house. Song's mother, typical of the generation that lived through the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, abided by the Chinese concept of wu jin qi yong, or "waste not." The installation, ranging from bottles and pots to blankets, egg containers, books, shoes, and styrofoam, forms a cityscape built out of the contents and baggage of the past. What i found so interesting about this piece is that it took 5o years to produce. Some artwork is done in a few hours or days and it is a masterpiece, but this was slowly put together over an enormous period of time. Some works are quickly put together but as you can tell from the period it started and was finished this one was slowly built one addition after another, which took enormous patience.

The Mona Lisa Curse is a Grierson award-winning polemic documentary by art critic Robert Hughes that examines how the world’s most famous painting came to change the art world. This documentary made me think about the relationship between money and art and what i had thought about this. It seems many people and artists consider art a business and it is very difficult to deny that there is a definite connection between the freedom to make art and the need to make money. This documentary seemed to show that being interested in art and biding on it was more a popularity contest rather than a desire to own artwork. I think throughout this we are shown the ugly and populist art-business by Robert Hughes. I was very interested in the documentary as it went on, at first I thought it was to long but then i began to find myself very interested in it and began to be disappointed if the class ended before the documentary was over. Robert Hughes is almost sarcastic at certain points throughout this, he often asks people questions he already knows the answers to just so he can hear what they think and how far off there understanding may be.

Andy Warhol

Warhol was born on August 6, 1928 and passed away February 22, 1987, he was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. He has his own museum known as "The Warhol" located in Pittsburgh, PA and also has the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, it was established in 1987 and its mission is to advance visual arts, by helping artists out with grants or whatever they may need. The Campbell's soup painting by Warhol is one of my favorite paintings because of its simplicity, I have seen this painting before and it always intrigues me. The painting is so simple and literally is a replica of a regular can of soup. It is funny how some people spend years looking for inspiration and Warhol simply copied a can of soup.

Tate

After hearing about the Tate Museum so many times in class I was very curious as to what it is and what type of art is included throughout this gallery so I researched it and began to learn about the museum. The gallery was founded in 1897, as the National Gallery of British Art. When its role was changed to include the national collection of Modern Art as well as the national collection of British art, it was renamed the Tate Gallery after Henry tate, the foundations for the collection. The Tate Gallery was housed in the current building occupied by Tate Britain which is situated in Millbank, London. In 2000, the Tate Gallery transformed itself into the current-day Tate, which consists of a federation of four museums: Tate Britain which displays the collection of British art from 1500 to the present day; Tate Modern which is also in London, houses the Tate's collection of British and International Modern and Contemporary Art from 1900 to the present day. Tate Liverpool, in Liverpool has the same purpose as Tate Modern but on a smaller scale, and Tate St Ives displays Modern and Contemporary Art by artists who have connections with the area. The Tate modern is made up of 5 levels. Level 1 and 2 are used to display large specially-commissioned works by contemporary artists and level 2 is a smaller gallery located on the north side of the building which houses exhibitions of cutting edge contemporary art. Its exhibitions normally run for 2 – 3 months. Levels 3, 4 and 5 have Material Gestures, poetry and dream, and level 5 had energy and process, while level 4 is broken into two large exhibition areas. This is used to stage the major temporary exhibitions for which an entry fee is charged.

Damien Hirst

The piece of artwork from Hirst that was really appealing to me is "for the love of god", which is a diamond covered platinum skull. this work is covered with 8,601 real diamonds and has been valued as the most expensive contemporary work of art. Hirst spent about $20 million USD to create the diamond covered work and put a price tag of $100 million USD on it. this was very intriguing when I had heard how much money he invested into it and how much the price tag on it was. It is amazing that such a large amount of money would be spent in order to make one piece of artwork. In August 2007, it was widely reported that Damien Hirst sold "For the Love of God" to an investment group for $100 million USD or about 50 million pounds. Hirst is said to own a percentage of the diamond skull, but it was not reported how much he still owns. The buyers will be expected to exhibit the work for the next two to three years at museums around the world. The BBC reported that the investors planned to resell the work at a later date.This would make "For the Love of God" the most expensive work of art ever to sell by a living artist.

Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons is a very interesting artist his work is very prominent and often catches the eye with ease. One of the main reasons i am fond of this piece is the ability it has to look so realistic while still being on such a large scale. As a child everyone has gotten a balloon animal at some point or another and you are always thrilled with it, it is always amazing to watch the artist make them. they so often have fake yet real traits to them which is why they are so interesting. What Koons was able to do in this sculpture is amazing, the ability he has to make this piece truly look like a balloon is remarkable. i think the two aspects that make this piece so special are is the look he is able to give the piece, the texture that it has makes it really seem as if it is an actual balloon. the other aspect of this that is special is the way he is able to have such perfect proportion in the pieces entirety. these two elements truly give this a very realistic feel. the reason i chose this was because the ability it has to draw attention to itself and catch your eye while still being so simplistic

What is Art?

Today for our first class, we were asked the question, what is art?. I do not think i ever gave that question much thought until this class. After thinking about it for a while and looking at pieces of "art" i came to the conclusion that anything can be art. There are many pieces of artwork that I see and I think to myself wow that's amazing how can someone do something like that, then there are other pieces that a see and i think that they are very simple or strange. Either way i have realized that anything can be art, whether it is the Mona Lisa or a simple illustration or sculpture. i think after thinking more about this i have a better understanding for art and can see beyond the surface of a piece and look for its meaning or message the artist is trying to get across. Art comes in all shapes and sizes some very original some easily copied, but either way every piece has its own story and i think that is what makes it art.

Installation Art

Installation art really interest me, I thought this was one of the cooler art forms because it is three dimensional designed to transform the perception of space. It almost serves as an illusion which makes the artwork fun and stand out. This was one of my favorite art forms, and i have a lot of respect for it's artists because the level of difficulty and the amount of time that must go into these pieces are incredible. There are many artist that we talked about in class each who had amazing art pieces. However I did my own research and found a artist I really liked because of the degree of difficulty of her work. The picture shown in this blog is by a artist named Rachel Whitread. Her art has a extreme level of difficulty and the amount of time she puts in her pieces really pays off. I respect her art work and artistic abilities her work is def. considered work to me.

-Alex Franklin~

Marcus Coates

In our class discussion about Altermodernism, which is defined as an attempt at making art in today's world as a reaction against regularity and commercialization. We were introduce to one of the craziest, boldest, weirdest, people I have ever witness on film Marcus Coates. In the video we watch on him we discovered his rare gifts and abilities. This was shocking to me when i saw it but he actually uses his skills to bypass his humanness to experience the world through the mind and body of a animal. Now sounds weird enough right? Well its even weirder watching a film on it. I couldn't help to laugh at the reactions he got from people watching him perform his rituals. He is a very unique and interesting man and he gets a lot of respect in my book because i don't know how he has the courage to go out and do what he does. He says that he translates the actions of animals and compares them to human experiences. Seeing it I didn't consider it as art, I just felt like this guy needed help but many people enjoy his work and skills and consider it art.

-Alex Franklin

Collections

In our one class discussion the topic of collections was brought up. This discussion brought back many memories, especially when my fellow classmates brought up childhood favorites such as pokemon cards, poggs, (one of the best things ever created) baseball card and so on. When I was growing up my dad and I used to collect coins, it all started when I found a very old penny and I thought it was the greatest idea to collect coins from every year. So my dad bought me collector folders with the years of each coin I need and my search began from there. My goal was to get every coin and one day sell them so I could make money. I still have the folders at home and its funny how things change over the years because I slowly stop collecting coins and moved onto basketball action figures. It safe to say that the basketball action figure collection was more my style and to this day I still have a passion for it. -Alex Franklin

Jelene Morris: Pop Art

Jelene Morris' art is contemporary pop art. Her art pieces are all very colorful and abstract. The picture that I included in this blog is an unititled piece by Jelene Morris. Personally, when I first saw this piece of art, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. The painting seems almost like a young child painted it, not only because of the simple lines and figures that are the characters, but because of the randomness of the images. In this painting alone, there is an elephant, a whale with a beret, a Campbell’s soup can, a cup, what looks like an octopus, a goldfish, and other unrecognizable shapes, all with faces. As I began to scroll through the thumbnails of Jelene’s paintings however, I began to like them. They are completely different than any other artwork that I’ve seen. Her artwork has an effect on your mood, making you smile without even realizing it. The bright colors and the randomness of the objects in the painting really make it a piece that you can’t just look at once and forget about it. You want to try to figure out what each object is and what significance it has in the piece. After researching the artist a little bit, I realized that the images that she paints really aren’t all that random. Jelene Morris’ paintings are all based on cartoon characters and some are based on her actual pets, including her dogs and her goldfish. I think that this brings a personal aspect into her art that proves that there are still artists in the world that love what they do and aren't just in it for money and fame, as Robert Hughes believes.

-Steph

"The Mona Lisa Curse" - Robert Hughes

Robert Hughes' main point in his documentary rant against the contemporary art world is that art is no longer just for viewing pleasure but more for financial gain. He blames this problem on Leonardo DiVinci's painting, The Mona Lisa, which made it's way to New York from the Louvre in Paris, for a short stay in the 1960's. Hughes claims that when The Mona Lisa came to America, people began going to see art work just so they could say they saw it, not because they were actually interested in the art. He states in his documentary, that art quickly became more celebrity than art, and that art collectors stopped collecting art because they liked it, and started collecting art because they thought that they could make a lot of money quickly. While I think that Robert Hughes definitely has a good point, and being an art critic, he's obviously well educated on the topic, I feel that his documentary was a bit dramatic. He acted like great art is non-existent in the contemporary world, and although there are artists, like Damien Hirst, who don't create their own art and who are seemingly in it for the money, there are artists that create art because it is what they love to do. There are also art collectors who still collect art because they love it as well.

-Steph

20x200: Sean Greene "Try Letting Go"

Only one painting in particular stood out to me on the 20x200 website, and it was a painting by Sean Greene. The painting is entitled, "Try Letting Go." The image is very abstract and can seemingly be interpreted however the viewer wants to interpret it. The bright colors flow with each other and compliment each other very well. The image appears to me, to be random letters, and the artist himself states that is what he was going for when he created the piece. I think that although this piece seems quite chaotic, I love the colors and the way that everything seems to fit together perfectly. If I had the money, I would absolutely purchase this piece.

-Steph

Aakash Nihalani - Tape Art

Although Aakash Nihalani is not an artist that we discussed in class, I wanted to include him in my blog. Aakash's art is very modern and interesting, bringing a new form of pop art to us. The medium that he chooses to use for most of his art work is tape. He uses the brightly colored tape on buildings in New York City and Brooklyn. All of his pieces are cubes placed together to form other shapes, creating an optical illusion-like piece. In his biography on his website, he claims that he doesn't ever really plan what he's going to do, he just creates his designs on the spot. His website is http://www.aakashnihalani.com/. On the website there are tons of pictures of pieces that he has created for both street art and gallery art. My favorite piece doesn't have a title, but it's one of his gallery pieces. It is pictured in this blog post. I think that Aakash is very talented because he has basically created a whole new art form on his own. His use of bright colors and his creative ideas really make him stand out in the art world.

-Steph

Song Dong from March 4, 2010

In class on March 4, we were introduced to Song Dong, an artist from Beijing, who created "Waste Not." "Waste Not" is an installation piece which was created with all of Song Dong's mother's possessions that were collected over fifty-some years. The contents that make up this piece are all so random. From his mother's pots and pans, to empty soda cans, to the frame of her house. The way that Song Dong set up the items is a sort of organized chaos. There is garbage and cooking utensils, blankets, and empty egg cartons, but it all somehow sort of fits together, creating this dump-like masterpiece. Everything in his creation seemed to have its place, even though it was very cluttered. "Waste Not" is a piece of art, out of a hoarder's dream. Meaningless items, collected over time, all coming together to form this piece of art in memory of Song Dong's mother. This piece is housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The picture I chose shows a great overview of the piece. It clearly shows how much space that the museum allowed Song Dong to use, and the amount of items that made up this piece.

-Steph

Martin Creed from March 2, 2010

A piece that stood out to me in class on March 2, wasn't any ordinary piece. This piece entitled, "The Lights Going On and Off" by the artist, Martin Creed, was simply an empty room with the lights on a timer, turning on for five seconds and off for five seconds (this cycle repeated itself over and over again.) It seems to me, that this isn't really art work, but instead just the use of electricity. However, someone thought it was genius, because Martin Creed won the Turner Prize from the Tate Museum in London, England for this piece. This is related to the question that Dave Hickey brought up in on of my earlier blogs. If an average, everyday, person came to the museum with this idea off of the street, would the museum directors really think that this piece was worth their gallery space? I personally don't think so. It is so interesting to hear about these pieces during class, because you wouldn't ever think that something as simple as turning a light on and off could win an award, since it is something that everyone does multiple times a day on a daily basis, but it happens!

-Steph

Paul Pfieffer from February 11, 2010

During class on February 11, we discussed videography as an art form. The one artist that we talked about, that I found very interesting was Paul Pfieffer. All of his artwork incorporated or was completely made from video footage to draw in his viewers. He re-created a scene from "The Poltergeist," so that people that came to see his showing, could almost feel as if they were a part of this well known horror film. Paul Pfieffer takes real videos and uses a computer to erase certain images to enhance his pieces and give them a sort of "haunted" feeling. Besides "The Poltergeist" piece, he also created many sports videos, featuring greats like Michael Jordan. A sports piece that stood out to me was his video of the Stanley Cup. In this video, he erased the hockey player that was skating around with it above his head, so it appeared as if the trophy was floating in the air by itself. Paul Pfieffer's videos create a ghostly and interesting image that makes the viewer look a little bit closer than they normally would to see what's missing.

-Steph

Dave Hickey's Theory on Beauty from February 4, 2010

In class on February 4, we discussed Dave Hickey's theory on beauty as a whole concept. Dave Hickey questions whether an object is beautiful from the moment it is created or when the object is placed in an institution. He wonders - is it beautiful because it is placed in a gallery? Dave Hickey sees beauty as a means, not an end. And, in his essay, he explains that the loss of a decent regard for beauty has shown itself in contemporary art. I agree with Dave Hickey's ideas. I think that art is beautiful, however sometimes it is questionable whether people think pieces are beautiful just because a certain artist created them, or a certain gallery labels them valuable. For example, Damien Hirst's "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.." I personally do not find this work to be as beautiful as it is grotesque, however, some people consider this piece invaluable. Leaving the question open, is this piece considered beautiful just because the Damien Hirst is so well known?

-Steph

Andy Warhol from January 28, 2010

I really enjoy viewing the pop art of Andy Warhol. He is known for his colorful pieces and is known as the true creator of what we now know pop art to be. His most well known art piece is the Campbell's soup print, however he is also known for his prints of celebrity icons, for example, Marilyn Monroe. My favorite thing about Andy Warhol's work is his use of bright and vibrant colors. I think that bright colors really make things stand out and neon colors seem to be his favorite colors to use in his artwork. His pieces really stand out an are attractive to onlookers. I feel that if he painted his pieces in bland and usual colors, the pieces would just be ordinary, but he turns simple, everyday items into his own works of art with his creativity.

-Steph

Richard Prince

one artist we looked at was richard prince. one of art worlds most controversial artist. He took a naked model and cropped a ten year old brook shields on the models shoulder which created a bad buzz for him. It was a controversial piece that nobody would have dared to create ad he did,but i guess thats art. To sometimes go outside the box and take your artwork into another direction, and turn heads.

-brandon walters

glen brown

in one of the classes i learned about glen brown. I'm not really into his work because it looks creepy and tad bizarre. he's an artist who copied masterpieces but added a little twist to it.


-brandon walters

Cory Arcangel

Learning about Cory Arcangel in class was the first artist that caught my attention. His works stood out to me the most because I've been a video gamer my whole life, and some of his most famous artworks are created from some of my childhood favorite games. Old Nintendo games always bring back memories for me and some of Arcangel best known pieces are his Nintendo game cartidge hacks and reworking of obsolete computer systems of the 1970s & 1980s.

-Alexander Franklin

vanessa beecroft

today I also learned about vanessa beecroft makes her models stand in free spaces which she has at exhibits and has the observers watch them. another reason this caught my eye was large part in me loving women's bodies. She picked great models to do the exhibit for her.

-brandon walters

spencer tunick

i learned about spencer tunick which is a famous artist who uses nude bodies for his art, and has a variety of these works all over the world. It was weird to see how many people would gather around to lay naked next to each other and be comfortable with it. His form of art is definitely different but there is a lot of people that enjoy his work. And I can tell by the enormous following tunick has that his art what's selling right now.

-brandon walters

against interpretation

i thought the peice by susan sontag was good. i didnt know that art played a significant part in philosophers lives back in the past. I in a way felt I knew where Socrates was coming from when he said art had no meaning and it was meaning in a little but i strongly agreed with aristotle that art was a form of relaxation because some form of art like listening to music such as mozart relaxes my mind.







-brandon walters

jeff koons art

we learned about Jeff koons the other day in visual arts, for the first time. I thought the pieces that he takes time to createare real state of the art such as the bunny and the micheal jackson adaptation it is amazing to see what an artist can mold out of steel patterns to make a sort of futuristic creature

-brandon walters

What is art?

In class we've been discussing what the definition of art is. On February 2nd, we were shown a print by an artist on which he described his interpretation of what the word "art" means. The piece described it as, "skills as a result of knowledge and practice, imitation, and design; perfection of workmanship; execution of an object in itself; application of skills to subject of tastes, as poetry, music, paintings, etc." Although the print itself said more about the definition, I found these descriptions of art to be close to how I define art. There are so many different types of art in the world, for example, Marcel DuChamp's "Fountain," Goya's graphic disasters of war paintings, and Jackson Pollock's "Lavender Mist." All of these works of art have different meanings and mediums, however they were all meaningful and beautiful to the individuals that created them. This is why I agree with the definition of art above. I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and therefore if there is one person that believes something is beautiful, then it should be considered art.

- Steph