Dave Hickey Podcast

After listening to Dave Hickey's podcast it really made me think about how much art has changed over the years.  It used to be based on the artistic talents and characteristics a person had for certain things.  Now it is all based on prices and the money one could receive.  He also discusses how there is art that can sell and there is art that will never sell.  I think its very sad how art has turned into such a commercialized activity.  People used to get involved in art because they had a love for it and they wanted to express their talents and their feelings.  Now as Hickey explains in his podcast people are getting involved because they see an opportunity to make money.  Although this may not be true to all artists, which I'm sure it is not, there are still many more artists than there ever were being placed into the commercialized art category.  Along with everything else in the world, art is changing, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? The answer to that question can be extremely different based upon who you are asking.

The Controversial Chalk

Learning about Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla was really interesting to me. The way they incorporate art into promoting social change made a huge statement and promoted debate. By welcoming people to speak about controversial topics in the bold way they did using huge sticks of chalk you can tell they are not afraid of feedback. I think it is often difficult to open yourself open to such ridicule and they handled it very well. This also allowed visitors to become an artist in the piece. It provided people with the tools to express themself in an artistic manner. I can only imagine some of the statements that were written during the time of this and I am sure it is a significant memory for the people that participated.Their artwork became an experience and because of that I think this was one of my favorite pieces this semester. Connectiong with your audience is the best way to captivate people and allowing them to express their own ideas and opinions did just that.

Andrea Zittel -Back to the Basics

I found Andrea Zittel to be strange and kind of awkward. It seemed like she was pulling away from society and trying to go against the ways of modern society. Her housing situation was a little extreme and it seemed like she put so much effort into being a minimalist that she may have been able to save herself some effort if she was a little more lax. I guess taking things to an extreme is the way she thinks especially with the lack of clothing she has. Choosing to live with only the basics is something you can get away with because people in the outside world do not need to know everything about your home life. But, when considering that she went to work for months in the same outfit that is a little much for me. In todays society appearance does mean alot...and so does cleanliness. I could not imagine what the people I work with would say if I wore the same thing two days in a row, let alone weeks. I guess if what she is trying to do is get noticed she is probably successful but it may be for the wrong reasons.

Herb & Dorothy

Herb and Dorothy Vogel are recently known for their documentary film that was released in 2008 about their collection of over 4,700 pieces of contemporary work.  The most interesting aspect to this story is that all these pieces of work were kept in their NYC apartment, which must have been extremely crowded.  The film describes the story of the two middle-class collectors of minimalist art and their valuable collection of contemporary art.  The film won many festival awards and audience awards and grossed almost $100,000 as of the end of July 2009.

When thinking about collection art, I feel that every individual does it in their own way.  Whether you collect pieces of art, or you collect something that has meaning to you such as toys when you were younger, or coins, or cards, that is all based on your own ideas and meanings to why you collect things.  Personally I love to collect movies, where my mom loves to collect thimbles from different places she has been around the world.  Herb and Dorothy loved to collect art and that is there own choice just like anyone else's choice to collect something they love.

Sunflower Seeds

I really enjoyed Al WeiWei's sunflower seeds exhibiton at the Tate Modern. I think the idea of you being able to step on the "art" is pretty cool. It allows the visitors to participate in the exhibit rather than just looking at it. I am a very hands on person so that appealed to me. I liked watching the video on how they make the seeds too, that way you really appreciated just how much work went into this. The extent to which Al is a part of the production of every seed is pretty remarkable when you think about how many seeds it must have taken to fill the Turbine Hall. I found the conflict going on around it interesting also. The fact the exhibit was closed due to a possible health hazard makes you think more about the logical sense behind this art. Which in many pieces of art I think artists are able to disregard logic and reason so I thought it was rare that a controversary like this arose. I would be very interested in visiting the Tate Modern Turbine Hall exhibits, they are all very drastic and different. I like the out of the box ideas of the artists they feature.

Louise Bourgeois- Spider woman

Known for her contributions to modern and contemporary art, Louise Bourgeois is truly recognized for her spider sculptures, which is where she got the nickname of 'Spider woman'.  She is also known for being the founder of confessional art.  In looking at her work on the spider structure I feel as though this is a very interesting and fun way of expressing ones artistic talents.  After researching through the meaning behind the spider structure I found out that it represents mothers, and the sustenance of life.  I also found that a spider's web deals with stories, social threads and interconnectedness.  Louise was named after her mother who she felt was a "clever, patient, caring,reasonable, subtle, etc. person."  She was her best friend and this is why she created this spider.  She felt as though spiders are everything her mother was.  In looking at this picture below I feel as though this structure is very interesting and fun.  After reading through the meaning of why Louise created it I like it even more because it has meaning.  Maybe other people can relate to this spider as well by not just looking at the actual structure but by learning more about what it represents.

UAlbany Courier Exhibit

         
                           

We went to the Courier exhibit at UAlbany and to put it lightly we were disappointed. I have never been to an art exhibit before and maybe my expectations were too high but I expected a lot more. I thought they would have filled the space with art pieces and instead it was quite bear. I didn't know there would be multiple artists work there either so that surprised me. I went into the exhibit without any prior knowledge of the exhibit or the artists featured there and in a way I expected there to be walls and walls of paintings and tons of sculptures. I guess if I had known the typewriting theme ahead of time I would have been more prepared and probably would have went to a different exhibit. Although, I did like the guy who made the sounds of the typewriter with his mouth. I think that was very creative and pretty entertaining. I guess overall the exhibit was educational but not the most interesting thing I have ever been to. I wish had gone to some tye of performance art instead. I think that would have been much more appealing to me.
 
                             

Damien Hirst's Pharmacy..Is it really Art?

Looking at this picture above of Damien Hirst's 'Pharmacy', do you really consider this to be a form of art? I don't understand how it is art besides the fact that it is displayed at an exhibit. Although this is a complete replica of an actual pharmacy, I just don't understand how it can be considered art.  The medicine bottles are all neatly separated throughout the store and the desk is even made like it is an actual pharmacy.  The four bottles on the desk represent: earth, water, fire, and air.  The only thing missing in this pharmacy are people working and customers shopping.  This piece of work can go back to our original question of "what is art?" Some people may consider this to be art, and some may not it all depends on the individual and in my case I don't think this is art.

Is this art?

After talking about a lot about collections and what people collect and why, I searched online for art collections. Much to my surprise I found the photo below:

                       

In my opinion a Pez candy dispenser is not art. But once I thought about it more I am sure it you asked the creator of Pez if they were art he would be quick to say yes. Understanding how different people interpret art is difficult for me. I think I could benefit from being a little more open minded but that is easier said than done. I see the creative aspects behind these characters and I do like the way they look. But, does something simply being creative make it a piece of art? If it is something that a person can display and collect is it automatically art? I guess I am searching for a defined meaning of what art is and as much as I can offer opinions there is no definite box that art can or cannot fit within.

Michael Craig

I really liked Michael Craig's work. I found the way he took common objects and displayed them in a bright colorful way was interesting. I think this kind of artwork is appealing to the eye and can catch your attention. I wonder how he chooses the objects he uses in his work. They are very random and do not seem to have any ryhme or reason. Somehow though they come together in his work and you start to look at what connections they may have. Although I have difficulty finding the connections I do believe that when he put these together there was reasoning behind it. I think he would be a great artist to sit down and talk with to figure out what his method behind the paintings are.

                                                 

Vija Celmins

                                      


Vija is most known for her realistic paintings and drawings. She did a lot of work regarding nature and the natural world. I found her paintings and drawings to be boring to look at possibly because I am not very interested in the sciences. These works of art appeared to me to be better suitable for a science book rather than an art course. I think the lack of imagination in these is what turned me off to them. I consider art to be a creation by the artist not a replication of something already present. I think that may be why I found it difficult to appreciate many of the works we have looked at this year because I have a hard time understanding how taking something out of its natural setting is artwork. The art that appeals to me the most is out of the box, creative objects that the artist has envisioned on their own.

              

Installation Art

So What exactly is installation art? I asked myself this question right away.  What it is, is an artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space.  For example in class we looked at Rachel Whitread's 'Embankment' which is a room full of large white boxes shaped into different structures.  The picture below shows exactly what I mean.

When I searched through installation art after class, I came upon the pictures shown below. The First one is basically a room full of junk.  Although it does take up space in a room, I feel as though this really isn't art.  Because if it was, then wouldn't hoarding be considered a form of installation art? And i truly don't believe that hoarding is any form of art.  The second picture below is a falling garden done by a Swiss artist named Elizabeth Schuppe.  This installation art is very interesting to me.  I feel like because it is so unusual to see a garden hanging from the ceiling it really catches peoples attention.  And because it takes up a three-dimensional space, it can definitely be considered installation art. 

Alison Watt

                                       
  
This was my favorite artist we have looked at thus far. When looking at Alison's paintings they seem like simple objects and to an untrained eye like myself it appears as if that kind of work would not be difficult. However, after looking at exactly how much work she puts into each line it makes the paintings seem amazing. I really like the way she looks like such a small object when standing near her enormous paintings. I think I appreciate the simple look of things so her art is very appealing to me. The process she goes through to complete the painting is very long and strenuous and I admire her determination to complete these. The paintings look so real it is almost as if you could feel the soft texture of them. They remind me alot of draped bed sheets in a really sophisticated way.

                                       

What is Performance Art?!

Performance Art refers to a performance which is presented to an audience but doesn't seek to present a conventional play or a formal narrative, and doesn't seek to depict a set of characters in formal scripted interactions.  It is said that performance art often breaks the fourth wall, meaning the performance artist doesn't seek to behave as if they are unaware of the audience.  

The performance art shown above is very interesting to me.  It seems as though these people are covered in tin foil, plastic wrap and pretty much anything they can find to cover their bodies.  They are putting on a performance for a random group of people on the streets of Dumbo, NYC, Brooklyn.  This was actually just one of the performances given during this street festival.  There were also performances such as a girl sitting in a tub, an elephant who apparently is always at this festival every year and many other performances throughout the day are given to the people attending the festival.

This festival in NYC is just one example of performance art specials that are given throughout the year.  I know when I go to NYC i often see people dancing on sidewalks to people walking by or people playing instruments, etc.  I never thought of things like this as art until after I researched about this, but now i can definitely understand how this is art.  It's people expressing their emotions, lives, and talents in the ways that they know how to.  

Appropriation Art

In the world of visual art, the word appropriate means to borrow, recycle, adopt, or sample aspects of man-made visual culture. Art Practices involve the appropriation of ideas, symbols, images, objects, etc from popular cultures or other aspects of man made visual or non visual culture. In dealing with appropriation art comes the law of copyright law.  This law contains exclusive rights granted by the law of jurisdiction to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work.  However, there are many exceptions and limitations to these laws to strive to balance the public interest in something.  


The art world is full of many different aspects that have been borrowed or recycled from others works.  If that was not allowed then the art world would be very boring.  Many people find it interesting to see others views on objects or pictures or paintings that others have used before.  

The image above is an example of appropriation art that we actually looked at in class.  Shepard Fairey is an artist that was simply trying to help Obama win the election.  He took the photo of Obama that was taken by photographer Mannie Garcia and used it to base his new art work off of.  Fairey stated in an interview about the controversy over the art that, My Obama poster variations of “HOPE” and “PROGRESS” were obviously not intended to report the news. I created them to generate support for Obama; the point was to capture and synthesize the qualities that made him a leader. The point of the poster is to convince and inspire. It’s a political statement. My Obama poster does not compete with the intent of, or the market for the reference photo."

After reading through what appropriation art consists of and the laws and regulations that come up in talking about it, I feel as though this controversy over the Obama picture above is not necessary.  The artist was simply trying to help Obama win the election and he was showing his support.  Fairey was not trying to steal the photograph and make it his, he was trying to show his support for the Obama campaign and gain others to follow his beliefs.  Although many may argue differently with this conflict, I truely believe that he was not trying to take the work of Mannie Garcia.

The Functions of Art

After studying and viewing a bunch of different pieces of art, it is clear that there are three functions of art; personal, social, and physical.  These functions do and normally overlap in any given piece of art. The first function, the personal function is the most difficult to explain.  It can vary from person to person and can deal with many different feelings and emotions.  The second function, the social function deals with specific periods of life, or events that may have happened in life that affect many people.  This function of art doesn't look at just one persons feelings towards something, but instead a whole group of people and how they as a whole see something.  And the last function is probably the simplest function, the physical function.  This function deals with works of art that are created to perform some service.

Physical

personal

social

These photos along with many others can all be interpreted to contain some or all of the functions of art.  Depending on your own interpretations of art and your beliefs, everyone may have different views and opinions of these pieces.

“One of the principal ways we can change our relationship to difficult art is by repetition. An unpleasant piece of music may, the sixth or seventh time we listen, reveal new beauty. If we study one of Josef Albers's seemingly simple paintings of different colored squares, the colors start to shift. Of course, difficulty doesn't always give way to revelation - sometimes what follows is, alas, frustration. But when it does, we get that additional sense of satisfaction: The arduous ascent has been rewarded with a panoramic view.”

After reading this quote above, and looking at this very interesting piece of art I feel like the two almost fit perfectly together.  This piece of art is very unusual to me.  It looks like a calm and colorful drawing, but then if you look close you can see a face in the middle of all the butterflies, shapes and colors.  This simple and beautiful painting has now turned into something else because of this face.  Is it supposed to be portraying beauty in a different way, or is it supposed to be a face hiding behind all the other beautiful things in the world.  In my opinion I think this painting means there are so many beautiful things in the world and people are part of those things.  Along with butterflies, bright colors, shapes, love, happiness, people are probably the most beautiful of them all.

If you were to look at other pictures of unusual pieces of work you may see something different.  I even feel that if you stare at this painting long enough your opinions on what you first think it means will change to something else.  Maybe that is why art is so interesting and different from other things in the world.

Bruce Nauman

Putting neon lights together can be considered art?

To Bruce Nauman the answer is yes. The piece of art below is just an example of what Bruce Nauman does as an artist.

This kind of art is very interesting to me. The lights make it stand out right away.  Because of the attentiveness that Nauman receives from his art, you can definitely consider it to be art.  Nauman does not believe in repetition between artists.  And even though I am not well educated in the field of art, ive never seen someone portray art through neon lights before.  I think its really cool and many people like it. (Nicole)

                 

To me, as someone that does not have a great interest in art, this seems appealing. I think it may be because it is somewhat familiar to me in that I have seen neon signs and the way they are used. As it is I think the point of neon signs are to stand out in their surroundings so I would definitley consider this art. As a college student this modern, flashy type of art gets my attention much more than any statue or painting ever could. (Erin)

Pure Beauty

In looking at this picture, what do you see? what do you think?  When I look at this I see a distorted face that was blacked out by the painter. But in looking at this, I wouldn't call it 'pure beauty'. Many of you may argue with my opinion but that brings us back to the fact that everyone has their own opinions and their own views on what is art and what isn't, or what is beauty and what isn't in this case.
In searching through John Baldessari's work you can argue the fact of beauty through all of his pieces of work. (Nicole)
When looking at this picture I do see a form of art. I think that taking away the natural elements of a human face is strange and although I do not consider it beauty I definitely think the fact that it is interesting and makes you take a second look at it. In a way it leaves you curious about what the other features would look like. (Erin)

This painting above can also be considered "pure beauty" to some but not others.  John Baldessari wanted to get his point across that his art is not boring.  In fact it is just different.  It brings attentiveness from people and it gives people a different way to look at something.  What if paintings were blacked out? Doesn't it just make you focus on what is there? (Nicole)
I think I view art somewhat more harshly than others that perhaps know more about the subject. Because of this I found this painting entertaining because a lot of the art we see does bore or not interest me. This vow to not make any more boring art is humorous and allows John Baldessari to make a connection with people who may not have as much respect for art. (Erin)

                 
Another painting of John Baldessari's I found is the above called "Two Figures (red) and Two Figures (green) in Different Environments." I found it interesting that in this painting the artist blurred out the figures instead of perhaps the table or glasses. It seems like the people should be the vocal point in this painting and instead you are left focusing on the settings and the table contents. Although by looking at the settings I did form certain opinions such as the top setting seems more formal and the people in the painting seem engaged in more of a proper conversation. Whereas the bottom painting seems to be in a relaxed setting and the people seem much more comfortable in this atmosphere. (Erin)

Frida - Paintings of Pain

Frida Kahlo is famous for her paintings of people, mostly dealing with some sort of pain.  This picture above is one of Frida's most famous paintings called, "Without Hope".  From looking at other paintings that I've seen this is very different.  Is painting someones pain a form of art? To some people it might not be, but to me this picture in particular does come off as a piece of art.  It's showing this women's feelings inside of her and how they are all twisted together, some good and some bad. (Nicole)


                      
I agree that Frida's art is very different from anything I have seen before. After looking further into her other paintings I came across this painting called "The Little Deer." This painting follows the theme of showing pain in a form of art however I am not sure what the message behind this is meant to be. I can see a consistent theme in many of her paintings that show a tie between her and nature. I did some research on Frida and found out about her many health problems she had experienced throughout her life which makes these paintings a little more clear to me. I think she see herself in the same light as a deer being hunted because of her constant struggle with health they she cannot get away from. (Erin)

Can anything really be art?

According to Andy Willow who is known for his Brillo Boxes piece of art, he believes that anything can be considered art.  Depending on the individual looking at the piece, they can consider just about anything to really be art.  For example, Damien Hirst has a Shark in a glass box at the Met and many people consider that to be art. But isn't it really just a dead shark being displayed?  To some people that may be true but to others it may not.  Art is something that brings attentiveness from people and catches the eye of people even when they are not really looking.  It is something that some people perceive to be beautiful, ugly, interesting or fun.  In my opinion it really has to deal with the individuals idea of what is art and what it isn't. (Nicole) In my opinion art needs to be something displayed in such a way that interests people. Although this would obviously differ among different people. (Erin)