All self portraits by Edvard Munch from The Munch Museum, Oslo
1. Why did you select the
inspiration pieces?
I liked Munch’s
self-portraits because I like his style in his other paintings, which made me
enjoy his self portraits more.
2. Why did you select the media to create your
self-portrait?
I wanted to try using digital
manipulation because I’m not really familiar with it, but I was hoping it would
be easier for me to understand than trying to draw or paint.
3. What challenges did you face in creating
your self-portrait and how did you overcome them?
I do not enjoy pictures of
myself, so I chose one from when I was a child because it’s easier for me.
4. How does this piece represent you?
It’s a picture of me as a
child.
5. What elements and
principles of art did you apply in this work?
I tried to focus on the lines
and colors to make something that was visually interesting and create a focal
point in the center.
6. Did you enjoy working on this project?
Somewhat. I enjoyed trying to use Photoshop and ArtRage
because I’ve never really used either one before, but without any formal
training I’m sure I missed a lot of features that they have.
7. What do you think of your final artwork?
It looks a lot better than
anything I could have possibly drawn, as clearly evidenced by the atrocious
stuff I did previously (other than the mask).
1. Which assignment did you ENJOY working on the best? Why?
I enjoyed the final project the
best, because I liked poring through all of the art galleries online and
looking for images that fit into my theme. In doing so, I found a lot of art
and artists that I would never have heard of otherwise.
2.
Which assignment did you ENJOY working on the least?
Why?
I didn’t enjoy doing the self
portrait, because I don’t enjoy looking at pictures of myself and trying to
make art of it is very difficult for me.
3.
How did you like using ANGEL?
Doesn’t matter too much, as ANGEL is
done after this semester, but I think I still like it better than Blackboard.
It seems simpler, but a lot of the information (other than Grades) isn’t as obfuscated
as it is on Blackboard.
4. If you had the opportunity to change
this course:
What
would you keep?
I would keep the discussion boards
because it helps keep everyone and everything linked together.
What
would you remove?
I had a hard time with creating my
own art most of the time, but I understand that it was part of the course and
wouldn’t be feasible to remove. Some of the videos were a bit tough to get
through, but that’s probably more to do with my ADHD than anything.
What
would you add?
I would add a few more art
appreciation projects, maybe replacing a few of the ones where we made art
ourselves.
5. Would you recommend this course to
your peers?
Yes, I would.
6. Please list any other comments you
would like to share.
I enjoyed the class thoroughly, even
though the amount of homework was easily 2-3x more than the other online
classes I am taking this semester (Computer Programming & World History).
1. What were you expectations for this
course and where they met?
I expected to learn enough about the different forms and ‘eras’ of art that
I could recognize them by myself. If I am able to retain what I know now, I
should be able to think and speak a lot more intelligently about art with other
people.
2. Now that you've been through this
course, What is art? How would you define it now compared to your intial
posting?
I will still stick to my original idea and define art as “anything that is
made to inspire feelings in a person.” I’m staying with it because it’s succinct
and it still makes sense to me.
3. Who was your favorite artist in
your original posting and who is your favorite visual artist now? If there is a
difference, why do you think so? If you have the same favorite artist, why do
you think so?
In my original post, I chose Hieronymus Bosch as my favorite artist. Now I
would say it is Ron Mueck. I think it changed because I was exposed to a ton of
different artists and styles that I had no idea even existed. Mueck’s
hyperrealistic, but bigger than life-size, sculptures of people are very unsettling to me like a lot of
Bosch’s work, but he is much more modern and not as well known at this time.
4. Now that you've completed this
course, how do you feel about taking an online course? Is your answer the same
as it was in your first posting? How is it the same or different?
I love taking online courses. The answer is the same because I’ve taken a
lot of them in the past and I have rarely had any issues with them. This course
was handled in a good way for an online course.
1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned . Giotto
was one of the first artists during what would become the Renaissance. Roman
artists loved nature and beauty and liked to make very realistic art. After barbarians
sacked Rome, the tradition of art was carried on by the Byzantine empire, but
they stuck strictly to religious art. Giotto brought back the use of
perspective in architecture to give a 2-d painting a 3-d appearance. Uccello did
the same thing with people and animals. Masaccio brought back intensity and drama
into painting.
2. Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Criticism
project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.
It helped
give some perspective into the beginnings of the Renaissance.
3. What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to
understanding of art criticism?
The
acting was pretty silly, but keeping it lighthearted kept me interested longer
than a boring interview.
Greenberg on Art
Criticism: An Interview by T. J. Clark
1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
Staying open and receptive is important; art must be good; all of the best
art of the previous 50 years was abstract art and that’s not Greenberg wanted.
2. Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Criticism
project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.
Yes, the
way he kept saying that all he wanted was for art to be good and to be open and
receptive when criticizing art. I appreciated how he admitted to past mistakes
and was open about why he said what he said in the past.
3. What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to
understanding of art criticism?
I enjoyed Greenberg’s candor and his friendliness throughout the video. If I
were asked to picture an art critic, I would guess much more conservative and
very bristly, without a smile on his face. Greenberg was the complete opposite
and I enjoyed it very much. It did add a lot of depth to my understanding of
art criticism, but I didn’t understand a lot of what he meant.
My exhibit is based on the concept of the afterlife throughout human history as it's depicted with visual art. Finding relevant pictures for different human interpretations proved to be a challenge in some cases, because so much of what I could find was based on the Christian concepts of heaven and hell. I ended up with about a 50:50 split, non-Christian to Christian which was enough for me to feel pretty strongly about the exhibit. I chose a dark (but not too dark) powerpoint theme to try to help keep the mood. I was having a hard time with ArtStor, but the Encyclopedia Britannica image search turned out to be a godsend, as long as I could figure out the right search terms. I ended up using that for most of the pictures. A few of the pictures really need to be seen at a larger higher resolution to really be appreciated due to their immense size, such as Michelangelo's Last Judgment from the Sistine Chapel and Bosch's gigantic triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights. I included a couple close-ups from the latter to really show his surrealistic version of hell.
It was a really fun assignment and I really enjoyed doing it. I also learned a lot about history and art while I was doing it which is always a plus.
According to the
website: “This exhibition features a selection of works from a series Ezawa
created that focuses on physical space versus illusionary space, and how
reality and fiction merge to form intricate relationships in films, television,
and photographs,” which I think speaks to how the exhibit was setup.
Step 2: The Gallery
Questions about the physical space:
1. What type of lighting is used?
Very minimal
lighting, most of the lighting came from the light box being used to display Nan and Brian in Bed and from the two
videos showing, one being projected on a large screen and one being played on a
large TV.
2. What colors are used on the walls?
The walls are
painted very dark, black and dark grey.
3. What materials are used in the interior artchitecture of the space?
Small room, dark
carpeting, one dark bench in the back of the room, ceiling was a mess though.
4. How is the movement of the viewer through the gallery space?
It’s a very small
rectangular room, I was the only one there and I went around it
counter-clockwise because that’s what felt right.
Step 3: The Artwork
Questions about the artwork:
1.
How are the artworks organized?
There were two light boxes with artwork at the
front of the room, followed by a grouping of 4 smaller paper cut out pictures,
followed by a projected 3-d digital animation, followed by a digital animation
being played on a television.
2. How are the artworks similar?
Ezawa uses very broad outlines of shapes in
his videos and in his duratrans, as well as using very easy to identify images.
3. How are the artworks different?
Some of the works were paper cutouts, 2 were
digital animation (1 in 3-d), and 2 were durantrans on top of light boxes.
4. How are the artworks framed?
The paper cutouts were in simple frames, and
the other pieces weren’t framed at all.
5. How are the artworks identified and labeled?
Black placards with white font.
6. What is the proximity of the artwork to each other?
The paper
cutouts were massed together in different size frames and everything else was
very spread out on different walls.
4. Answer this question:What did you think of visiting the Gallery and
purposefully looking at the exhibition from a different perspective - the
physical space, the architecture, theme, etc.?
It was enjoyable to look at the gallery as a physical space
that had its own importance aside from being a place to show the art. I went to
Albright Knox right when they opened, so it was very quiet and peaceful. The
exhibit itself was in a small dark room all by itself, which was nice because
most of his work provided its own illumination.
Art Criticism: Describing, Analyzing,
and Interpreting Artwork
Artist: Kota Ezawa
Title of work: Nan and Brian
in Bed (1983)
Media: Duratrans transparency and
lightbox
Date: 2013
Size: 20 x 30 inches
Source of picture (URL: http://www.hainesgallery.com/artists/Ezawa_Kota/Ezawa_01.html
1. Be receptive - Keep an open mind.Look for what is good.No put-downs allowed
2. Description – Describe what you see.(subject matter)?
A woman lying in bed, looking
at a man who is smoking while sitting on the edge of the bed and looking
outside of the picture. You can’t see it in the image from the internet as well
as you can in person, but the picture hanging over the bed seems to show the
same man smoking. It’s an interpretation of the photo by Nan Goldin called Nan and Brian in Bed, NYC, 1983.
3. Formal analysis – (form)What principles and
elements were used and how are they used?
Colors – very warm colors, mostly
orange, yellow and red
Lines – The lines of the
headboard is the main horizontal plane, and the doorway is the main vertical
Value – The blanket wrapping
the lady lying on the bed is the darkest part of piece
Movement – our eyes follow
the gaze of the lady to the man smoking
4.Bracketing - Is there anything in or
about this work that reminds you of anything else? Do you see any symbols,
metaphors, or allegories?(iconography)
It seems like a common enough
pop culture beat – the man coolly smoking a post-coital cigarette while his
latest conquest looks on in either longing or shame. The man seems to be
absorbed in his own thoughts.
5.Interpretation - (content)What do you think the artist was trying to
say?
The man smoking and the
disheveled woman on the bed watching him seem to suggest that they just
finished sleeping together. She seems to be lonely and he seems to be thinking
about anything else. The single ring on her finger could be a wedding ring (and
the lack of his), which would change the meaning of the piece entirely – it doesn’t
seem like a situation a married couple would be in.
Artist: Kota Ezawa
Title of work: UFO
Media: Paper cutout
Date: 2011
Size: 8 x 10.5 inches
Source of picture: http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/recent-acquisitions/piece:ufo/
1. Be receptive - Keep an open mind.Look for what is good.No put-downs allowed
2. Description – Describe what you see.(subject matter)?
A basic UFO that is flying
over some trees and power lines
3. Formal analysis – (form)What principles and elements were used and how are they used?
Forms – a circular object
flying in the sky
Space – The space between the
object and the trees takes up most of the piece
Contrast – everything is a stark
black against a grey background
Shapes – the trees are shown
as their basic shapes, with all fine details left out
4.Bracketing - Is there anything in or
about this work that reminds you of anything else? Do you see any symbols,
metaphors, or allegories?(iconography)
This is a famous photograph
of a pop culture interpretation of what UFOs would look like in the 1940s – 1980s,
which have been replaced in most current ‘photos’ of UFOs.
5.Interpretation - (content)What do you think the artist was trying to
say?
Ezawa likes to take things from pop culture and
distill them down into basic shapes.
Artist: Kota Ezawa
Title of work: City of
Nature
Media: Digital Animation
Date: 2011
Runtime: 3 minutes 54 seconds
Source of picture: http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/recent-acquisitions/piece:city-of-nature/
1. Be receptive - Keep an open mind.Look for what is good.No put-downs allowed
2. Description – Describe what you see.(subject matter)?
A digital animation of clips
of nature from various movies from the past 40 years, drawn in Ezawa’s distinct
style.
3. Formal analysis – (form)What principles and
elements were used and how are they used?
Movement – it was a digital
animation, so movement was very evident, especially in the water moving
Colors – Ezawa used a very
colorful, natural palette for the piece
Pattern – patterns in nature
are ever present, so there were many natural patterns in the piece, such as
repeating flowers, leaves, and rocks
4.Bracketing - Is there anything in or
about this work that reminds you of anything else? Do you see any symbols,
metaphors, or allegories?(iconography)
I recognized a few scenes
from his piece, most notably a shot from Jaws,
and the rest were recognizable enough in their ubiquitousness in the way that
films are made and framed. The music played seemed to be reminiscent of a song
from the Brokeback Mountain movie.
5.Interpretation - (content)What do you think the artist was trying to
say?
I think that he was trying to
take the small clips normally used for outdoor establishing shots in films, ‘unimportant’
clips showing that the characters are now outside in nature somewhere, and
making them the focal point and showing that nature is important.
Short Youtube video showing City of Nature on display outdoors in NYC (not taken by me)
