Pictures From The Museum

Courier, University Art Museum, University at Albany, State University of New York

When joining this class I was very hesitant over how much I would enjoy the class and how well I would succeed in it. I have always appreciated art, but never knew much about it. When traveling through Europe one of my favorite things to do is to go to the museums. I loved going because I felt that the art in the places I was going showed great cultural value and would let me become more worldly and educated. The four places I most enjoyed going to museums was in Paris, Vienna, Greece and New York City. I was amazed and taken aback by the beautiful art.
As class began and I started learning more about contemporary art, and art movements that took art out of a pastoral and portrait phase, I started to see that my art education was very limited. At first I was angered that someone could take a urinal and put their name on it and call it art. I asked myself, 'what talent does this show?' My view on art and my view on culture started to change as I saw that there was more to art then pretty pictures and history. Learning about different kinds of art and artists made me aware that art represents more than a pretty picture hanging on a wall, it represents culture, history, emotions.  Artists today seem to be trying to grasp the viewers emotions and shaking them upside down.
My partner Matt and I went to the Courier University Art Museum at UAlbany about half way through the semester. Looking back now I feel that it was the perfect time because if I had gone in the beginning I would not have been as educated and prepared for a different type of museum I had never encountered. Walking into the museum we were complexed and confused, we searched to find the entrance and when we walked in there was no one inside the museum. There was a woman at what seemed to be the front desk and I asked her for a pamphlet on the museum and then asked if I could take pictures. I found it very odd that we did not have to pay to enter and that the woman at the front desk didn't know whether or not I was allowed to take pictures. She went away and asked someone else and informed me that I was indeed allowed to take pictures. Matt and I started to walk around and the first thing we came to was  a video done by the artist Ann Hamilton. We were both excited to see that someone we had discussed in class was in the museum we were visiting. I took a brief look around the rest of the room and the walls seemed very bare and there seemed to be no pictures. This museum was nothing like anything else I had ever been to. As a whole the show was contemporary artists who based their work around the idea of words and typewriters. As a whole many of the works were letters repeated and put in different ways, there were actual typewriters displayed throughout time, and video displays.
We walked around the gallery looking at all the works and without needing to research the museum we instantly knew the theme based around the gallery. I had never been to a gallery before that had a theme, most of the museums that I have attended was mostly monumental pieces of work such as The Mona Lisa. One particular piece that grabbed my attention was "Zeno Writing" done by William Kentridge. This piece was a twelve minute video, I had never been to a museum where they were viewing a video so this right away grasped my attention. The video was a progression of time and modernity and was a little hard to comprehend but still held my attention. I can see why this piece was in this gallery because it represented the ideas of a book 'Confessions of Zeno' and because it depicted the revolution of machinery, such as a typewriter.

On the wall near the entrance of the museum was an introduction what we would be seeing it read " First patented in 1868, and marketed and sold by Remington Arms Company in 1873, the typewriter reached peak production in the mid 1970's. Deman began to wane in the 1980s with the advent of the word processor, followed by the personal computer. In 1995 Smith Corona, once the typewriters market leader, declared bankruptcy...... The exhibition "Courier" presents eleven artists who created works that are rooted in the physical, communicative, or iconic properties of the typewriter." It was great to see history of the typewriter by contemporary artists such as Leona Christie/Gavin Christie, Daniela Comani, Lee Etheredge IV, Ann Hamilton, William Kentridge, Matt Liddle, Elena del Rivero, Allyson Sttrafella, Ignacio Uriarte, and XU Bing.

All in all I was glad I went to the museum, it was an experience that I had never had before and it definitely broadened my horizon of art education and art appreciation. If I were to chose however between going to another museum like that or going back to The Louvre, I would have to pick The Louvre. It was a great experience and I learned a lot and especially enjoyed that Ann Hamilton was shown there because it connected greatly with what we had been learning in class.

Research and Art

While learning about Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla in class I found that their collaborative art was most interesting due to the fact that they incorporated research into their art. They said that research is important to them because it lets them learn something about the world. They are interested in looking at different backgrounds of people and cultures in places around the world and how they work. I find this artistic process riveting because of the fact that they really learn about culture through the research that they do. Loving history and being a history major Allor and Calzadillas process of art lures me in because they are looking at some places culture learning about the history and the current events and then translating that into their work. To me it shows educational value and a form of art that will last throughout time because it represents an alternate way of looking at someone's culture that you may not know too much about.

Museum Visit

I recently had the unique opportunity to visit the University Art Museum located on the campus of the State University at Albany. Upon arriving to the museum I was anxious to experience what my visit had in store because in my life time this would be the second museum I ever went to. We entered the museum on the main floor and were immediately surrounded by works that varied from computer animations to works that contained letters in different kinds of patterns. At the time, the University Art Museum was featuring an exhibit, ‘Courier.’ ‘Courier’ consisted of a group of eleven artists who all brought different forms of art which were related to the process, sound, and printing mechanisms of the typewriter. The exhibit was slated to open October 5 and run all the way through until December 4, 2010. The artists featured included Leona Christie/Gavin Christie, Daniela Comani, Lee Etheredge IV, Ann Hamilton, William Kentridge, Matt Liddle, Elena del Rivero, Allyson Strafella, Ignacio Uriarte, and Xu Bing.
The Museum was interesting to visit because the works allowed me to think creatively how they were presented and what they were trying to explain to the viewer. As we walked in on the lower level the work we viewed first was “abc” by Ann Hamilton. I was surprised to see this piece in the University Art Museum and remembered discussing it in class. In class I felt that this piece was very interesting because normally we are used to seeing letters come out and not be erased one by one. Viewing this piece in real life was a much different experience. The video screen was very small and it was mounted inside of a much larger white wall. Looking at the piece from a distance made it seem even smaller as the white wall overpowered the small video screen. When looking up close you can make out the finger print smearing the ink and erasing away the letters right before your eyes. Ann Hamilton’s work is interesting for the creativity she used in her piece. Seeing it in real life gives the viewer a different feel of the art she produced.

A large majority of the works that were shown in the museum consisted of a lot of skillful typewriting patterns. One particular artist that I noticed was Lee Etheredge IV, who was a very skilled typewriter who created art by making patterns of certain letters. At first when looking at the work it seemed almost not impressive with the technology that is available today. Then I thought about creating this work with a typewriter and I gained a lot of respect thinking this way. His work consisted of multiple circles, some overlapping each other and some by themselves. Looking at this piece from a distance the work looked like regular old circles that are drawn on a paper. I then took a closer look I could see that all these big circles were made from individual letters grouped together to make up a larger shape. I found this interesting that the picture looked completely different when you viewed it from different distances. The intricate style of work Lee had to do to create this piece was also impressive and made me appreciate the art much more than I did when I first looked at.

As we went up stairs to the balcony portion of the museum we ran into two rooms that contained video works. As we entered into the room with the projector, a movie came on that was on a loop of a man, Michael Winslow. This piece contained Winslow making noises into a microphone that perfectly resembled the noises made while typing on a typewriter. As I watched the movie I tried closing my eyes to see if I could get a more realistic sense of the work. The sounds were spot on and it took until I opened my eyes again to realize that they were not the sounds coming from a true typewriter. This portion of the museum was one of my favorites because I’ve never sat in an exhibit and watched art being performed live on a screen. I feel the viewer gets a more behind the scenes look at the process of creating the work and this was interesting for me to experience.

Going to the University Art Museum was a very interesting experience. In class we viewed many artists and their different styles of work, but going and experiencing art for myself was a different experience. Leaving the museum I felt that the art I viewed impacted me and made me appreciate things I did not appreciate coming into the museum. These include things such as the amount of work and effort needed to be an artist who produced popular enough work to be in a museum. The overall quality of the museum impressed me and although it was not as large as other museums the works were very interesting. The work that was derived from the typewriters, the skills to make the exact sounds of the typewriter, and the creativity to experiment with what would happen if you erased the ink all impressed me. Attending the University Art Museum at the State University at Albany allowed me to appreciate and look at art differently than I did upon arriving on the campus.

The Collaboration of Artists

All of the previous artists that we have viewed in class worked on materials based of solely their ideas. Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla work as one artist in their studio to devise new works of art. When they join together to create new works they research much about their interests and often times the worlds reactions help them to form their response. Both argue with each other until they both agree on the outcome of their work serving as a way to correct their piece making it perfect in the end. I especially was drawn to one piece of work that we viewed in class. It showed a video of a man who attached a motor to an upside down that was in the water. He used this table as his boat and the authors related this table to politics and their ability to not see the other side of things. For me it was very interesting to take an object and create something completely new from it and relate it to a current issue which people can relate to. These two artist collaborate together to come up with very interesting works that move the viewer to look at objects in ways they never before imagined.

Globalization of Art

Due to the result of technology we are now working as a global community and art is a moving force of social and cultural means. There is a cross pollinations of thoughts and ideas and artists are out of the studio and making statements and commenting on culture and are relating to their world in an exterior sense. Although this may seem like a good thing, now many places are trying to reclaim what they feel is their cultural past. For example the Greeks are now feeling the absence of the Elgin Marbles. They were removed from the Acropolis at the beginning of the 19th century, and are a priceless example of ancient Greek religious art, but the British Museum doesn't want to give them back. According to Greece it has been 200 years since the 90 pieces were taken from the Acropolis in the center of Athens and in that time span the state of Greece wants their marble statues back and the British Museum doesn't want to return them. The Greeks are angry because they feel that the British have no right to keep their most important cultural symbols, and believe that antiquities must stay in their homes. The British Museum argues that they are in far better shape than what was left behind partly due to more favorable conditions in Britain and partly because they were in a museum were people took care of them and in Athens what was left behnd on the Acropolis where the pollution has ravaged them.

Selling Without Selling Out

Dave Hickey an art critic gave a speech about the art world today. Hickey says that today the art world in the past 3 or 4 years has no rules. There are people who like art better than money, but the only bad thing is that there are a lot of artists who like money better than art, and this is a problem. There has never been a better chance to gain attention by acting honorably because a lot of people aren't and you would stand out. All you do is lose money by doing the honorable thing, and perhaps your art could be around for hundreds of years.  People are fascinated with money and not being right. Art dealers pride themselves on creating real value, but with the money and inflation of prices of art there is no real value.
Listening to this podcast his speech spoke to me about morals and the world today not just in an art sense. Today I feel that people are focused on making money, and finding success. Everyone is just out for themselves and no one is concerned for their community anymore. Society is just about one-up'ing everyone else. In our country, everyone is focused on money- the government, the education system, families, communities, art, and pretty much every aspect of the US. He is saying that today's artists as a whole have no morals and most don't even like art- they are just in it for the fame and the money. Inflation seems to be a huge problem in contemporary time, money inflation is shown through art in that pricing of art is ten fold of what the art is actually worth, there is no more value in todays society. I enjoyed his speech. I felt it was well rounded and not solely focused on just art which gave it more context and easier to comprehend and digest to someone who isn't well educated in the art world.

Ultramodernism

In class we discussed a new term for art- ultramodernism. The term was coined by Nicolas Bourrioud who noticed a globalization of art and that today the reach of art is further and broader. Ultramodernism is harder to discuss, understand and categorize. Artists under the spectrum of this new term sometimes work as a social worker in that they represent movements and journeys of culture, time and space and aspects of technology and communication. An example of this kind of art and artist is Andrea Zittel who looks at furniture and their habitats and thinks of space and economy and the difference between freedom and property and human values and perception.
In my searches on the internet to learn more about this newly coined term, I came across a website Dream Designs: 10 Ultramodern Homes. This website demonstrate ultramodern art through the medium of architecture. Many artists know that when they imagine and construct these ultramodern homes that they may never be built in the real world. These homes represent a blast from the future, and this website demonstrates ten architects who have actually brought these incredible ultramodern houses to life.

AZ

Growing up in southern California shaped artist Andrea Zittel into a very unique person. Often her family would travel for long periods of time around the country weather it was in their Volkswagen van or sailing boat. Living in close quarters during these trips motivated some of her future work especially her island project, "Pocket Property". This 54-ton floating concrete island was sent out for Zittel to experiment living in. Living on the island she made was no ordinary task. Loneliness overcame here, but she said that it was more of a good feeling because she felt completely self-reliant and free from the outside world. I was interesting to see the artist actually test out the installation art she created. Watching the clip of her work really made me think if I would want to do what she was doing. I felt that it would be cool for the first couple of days, but then for me it would almost feel like i was letting time waste by. It would be hard for me to take myself out of society and I give Zettel a lot of credit for doing this for the sake of her art.

Turn of Terms

Throughout art history there have been many art movements, and terminology that has gone along with these changes in the art world. One of the most recent terms coined by Nicolas Bourriaud is relational art or relational aesthetics. Bourriaud noticed that artists were not approaching art differently and they approached it as a set of artistic practices that represent social themes. And this takes art out of the individual and private ideas. Art facilitator Ben Lewis noticed this turn in art and terms and the role of artwork in society and the real world and he reflects on the idea that anyone could be an artist and that this new idea in art has made artists believe that as he says "because we're artists we know better." All this talk about changes in art and the terms that come along with me made me question the importance of even giving art terminology. Does it matter what an artists type of work falls under? Does being called a certain kind of art make you more profitable or likable? Isn't art supposed to be about the practice not the production, about the sense of visual experience the public gets?

6 year old painter

Bourriaud

Nicolas Bourriaud is a French curator and art critic. In his publication Postproduction, Bourriaud relates djing to contemporary art. He lists the operations disc-jockeys apply to music and relates them to contemporary art practices. Throughout the eighties, the computer has given djs the opportunity to play with music by taking old pieces and creating new songs. Bourriaud claims that songs are no longer safe and often are being now used as building materials for new songs. We see the comparison to contemporary art because the art that is being produced is something new itself, but the pieces originated from other works. Any DJ today bases his or her work on the basis of older songs. My generation is used to hearing "remixed" music and reading this made me take a second look at the work. I defiantly can by Bourriauds argument and it helps me relate better to contemporary artwork after reading his work.

The Animal Inside

Just when you think art can not get any stranger Marcus Coates comes up with a new piece. His performance art stretches the word to the maximum as he parades around with animal skins on making noises as if he were the animal. Becoming an animal is in the thoughts of many people, but Coates is taking that to the next level. He truly believes that by taking the time to try and interact with species that he may be able to communicate with them. He feels if he had the power to communicate with animals the world could learn so much more them. Watching his performances is a odd experience, but the passion he shows while performing made me think more about animal relations. In his performances he even related the social issues such as the bad relations between Israel and Palestine to the relations between birds. Many may view his work as ridiculous, but when the viewer gives him a chance and tries to understand his message, his work is very interesting.

Art and the Internet and Public

There are so many different forms of art, that Andy Warhol once said "When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums." One thing that has entered society that has changed the art world is the internet. Artists use the internet as a public domain to sell art, get their art out there, get to be well known, advertise, get idea's, make statements and even make an audition call for a piece of art that includes the public. There are electronic artists who see a piece of music or a dance and view it on a grander scale, and they work with people and have specific intentions of taking it outside of the recital halls and into an exterior place to use the public and let the public see it. "Ice Cream Bands" by Chris Vates used a bunch of ice cream trucks and used ipods to play music on a grand scale at different times to create music and involve the public. There are artists who on their website have pictures of all the public events that they have put out there such as the no pants subway ride, or having everyone stop at a certain time and day, or having everyone scream at one time. The internet is expanding ideas of what you can use and how you can express your art. It borders on performance art in that many times it includes the public, and it can be very experimental.

Illegal Artist

Major cities are often flooded with graffiti all over the sides of building, bridges, and etc. One particular artist Banksy makes a career out of graffiti art that he is not permitted to do. His work is seen over a vast portion of the world and every work he does has some sort of representation behind it. When viewing this artist's work for the first time i was very impressed with his work. Not one work was the same as the other and each had an underlying message about what he felt was wrong in society. One such work included a vulture on a wall by water whose head was replaced with a gasoline pump. I found this very interesting and it was obvious that the artist was attempting to make a point that oil has polluted a lot of water and beaches. His message which lies within his works really speaks to its viewers. Instead of actually saying what he feels out loud he instead chooses to graffiti his thoughts. The illegality of the work makes this artist very interesting because he is willing to break the law in order to get his message out.

The Idea of What it Means to be Public

"Man is least himself when he is asked to speak about himself, give him a mask and he will tell the truth"- Oscar Wilde. Gillian Wearing is a conceptual artist who represents the idea of what it means to be public. She takes personal feelings and emotions, and makes them public through her photographs of people in the street with a sign of what they are feeling at the time. She said the signs represents what you want them to say not what other people want them to say. She doesn't give the people time to think about what they want to write because making it literal makes it lose its meaning. Wearing wants her work to speak the truth, and some of her photographs are a little shocking and ironic. There is a young well dressed business man who is holding up a sign that says "I'm desperate", and there is a police officer who is holding up a sign that says "Help." The reality of these photographs represent how the spotlight is now on the public with the art world today and that the intimacy of art is expansive. Personally I feel like her artwork really brings out human emotions when looking at it, because with the irony of having a police officer ask for help, and a business man saying he is desperate, it shows that it is hard to know yourself when you are inside of yourself.

Society in Art

Many art works that are produced contain no physical skill to create but the creativity to bring the piece together makes the art into something fantastic. Damien Hurst is a well known artist in which many of his pieces involve more of his creativity then art skill. His identical twins piece that was featured in Tate Modern expressed how two people could look the same, but have completely different thoughts and ways to express themselves. I was ironic that two people who are exactly the same could be so different. His piece allowed viewers to see the same, but think at the same time how different they really are from one another.
We also looked at a group of installations in class by artist Spencer Tunick. Tunick also had a unique way of creating his art by taking naked people and inserting them into his landscapes. One landscape he did in Switzerland was on top of a snow caped mountain. He tried to show the comparison of the vulnerable naked people to vulnerable melting mountain due to global warming. The piece allowed me to feel a little what the mountain was feeling when its "cloths" were being stripped of him due to the warmer climate.

Value- What does it Mean?

The definition of value is an amount, as of goods, services, or money, considered to be a fair and suitable equivalent for something else; a fair price or return. When I look at that definition and consider how someone can pay 104.3 million dollars for "The Running Man I" it perplexes me where the value is in art work that is sold for that much. The piece was sold for over 5 times more than its estimated price, and people viewed this as a positive thing because the economy especially in the art world was not doing great and companies such as Lehman Brothers were selling whatever art they could for whatever amount of money to pay off their creditors. Did this anonymous buyer of the Alberto Giacometti piece think that this sculpture actually meant 104 million dollars to him or was this all an investment? The art world itself is confusing enough to me, but when money has now changed the definition of art- it becomes even more confusing. 

Is the Art Really Worth the Money

Some pieces of art when i view them do not exactly strike me at an amazing piece of art. The effort and beauty that is seen in other works makes me like those works more. When it comes to the money although, it seems to me that the more fame an artist has the more his work will be cost. Andy Warhol saw how the market was progressing with a large increase in investors. He felt it was necessary in order to keep up with the amount of demand that his current production process would have to be accelerated. Soon enough prints of Warhol's work were selling at large sums and large prices. This irritates me that these investors worry more about the future profits they will make rather then the true value of the art. Private collectors who purchase a lot of pieces from a specific artist are in reality making artist more recognizable and contributing to the increase of price for the specific work. Record prices are being recorded for pieces that are being sold here in 2010 and this is all a result of the Mona Lisa arriving in New York. The paintings presence started a leak in the art market that has evolved into a flood parallel to the one that took over Florence which led Robert Hughes to get into the art industry. Since the 1960's the art market has significantly changed and it is hard to tell if it will ever go back to the days when art was purchased for beauty and not for potential profits.

Changes in the Art World- Lead to Changes in Art

We learned in class by lectures and the movie "Curse of the Mona Lisa" that there have been many changes in the art world which have led to changes in art itself. Artists themselves are now becoming popular instead of the works themselves becoming popular. Museums over time have changed and have become a brand and have branched outwards into different parts of the world, they have changed in physical appearance and the purpose of museums have now changed.
Before taking this course I honestly knew very little about everything that we have learned thus far- but I have been to my fair share of museums. Robert Hues the art director of the movie commented saying how now when going into a museum at this day in age, everyone can't help but ask how much is this piece of artwork worth. I disagree as much as Hues has great points about the art world and art itself changing and how museums are now in motion, I think that there are still a great portion of people who appreciate art for what its worth. For myself, my close friends, and my family, when we travel the first things we're interested in seeing are the great museums and the great pieces of artwork. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but being a history lover it interests me so much that there are pieces of art that go back so far. I think what the artists paint, sculpt, or whatever form of art they are doing show so much of what was going on in that time and place in history. I think it is sad that museums and artwork are becoming so commercialized that there are now cafes and computer rooms in  museums, but personally I never go there, so who cares if they put that in there? If you are the type of person to want to go to the cafe's and the computer rooms then thats great for you, but not everyone is like that. One great addition to museums that I thoroughly enjoy is how they have gift shops. I like the gift shops  not for the iconic t-shirts with paintings put on it, but because they usually have great books and literature on the artists, and paintings themselves which can add to your knowledge of the museum, artist, and artwork itself.
All in all there have been some changes to the art world and art itself, and yes people can view this as positive or negative, but the world is an ever changing place. If everything stayed the same and everyone and every art piece was the same the world would be a boring place. So I say we just accept the changes for what they are and deal with it according to whatever you find fitting for you. For me I don't care about the price of art, or who owns the piece, I care about the artist and the background behind the art work and the history behind it and the meaning it holds.

The Change in Art Culture

When the Mona Lisa first arrived in America many critics had no way of foreseeing the type of impact it would have on the future art industry. Soon after he arrival art was seen as beautiful if the price tag listed it at an amount that put the viewer in aw. Focused turned to the price tag of art for significance rather then the natural beauty which previously was enough to move viewers. Critic Robert Hughes explains that "art has a new job which is to sit in museums so i can gain recognition and ultimately become more expensive." Price tags on well known art are way out of the league of museum capabilities and wall street investors are buying these pieces up. Rise in prices has led to museums to not showcase certain works which is unfair to viewers who are unable to see these artworks. The culture has shifted from one of viewings in museums to one were on wealthy investors have the opportunity to enjoy the large ticket items they are purchasing. These changes in art have made freedom of access come to a loss and there is no foresight of this ever turning around to what viewing art used to be before the Mona Lisa made its visit to America.

The Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa is one of the most popular and well known paintings of all time. Robert Hues an art critic has also realized that the piece of work done by Leonardo Da vinci, has been deprived of meaning and has been turned into celebrity artwork. In 1962 the Mona Lisa left France ( it is currently owned by the French Government and is held in The Louvre in Paris), when it reached The United States it was greeted by a large press and current president of the time John F Kennedy and his wife Jackie. The movement of the Mona Lisa to the US created new expectations for act and moved the idea of art from appreciation of artwork to consumerism. Thousands of people came to see the Mona Lisa while it was in the US, but not to look at the artwork, but just to have said they have seen it.

For my 16th birthday instead of having a sweet sixteen I decided I would rather go to Paris for a week. When deciding what I wanted to do during the week, of course I wanted to experience Parisian cuisine and culture and see the Moulan Rouge, but what i wanted to do the most was go to museums and see the history of art and view the famous "Mona Lisa." When thinking about Paris the first two things that comes to my mind are the Eiffel Tower, and the Mona Lisa, so i was ecstatic to see both. When stepping into The Louvre my anticipation was building and the first piece of art I wanted to see was this painting I have heard so much about. There was a crowd of people around the painting and as I made my way to the front there was a barrier to prevent you from getting too close to the painting as well as shatter proof glass in front of the painting, and two guards standing side by side the painting. I was disappointed. I didn't realize in the past until seeing the painting how small it was, and since we couldn't get very close to it, it was hard to get a good look at the painting. Instead of being marveled by this Renaissance painting I was let down and looked at the painting no more than 30 seconds before moving on. I was saddened about how before even getting the look at the painting there was so much protection keeping me from actually seeing the painting (I know it has to be done).

Money

Art has changed drastically over recent years. Purchasing art has become harder due to the increase in all forms of art. Robert Hughes is an art critic who resides in New York and has lived through changes which has taken the art world by storm. He began his journey has an art critic in Europe, where in Florence he helped crews try to save art from a massive flood that put the city in ruins in 1966. It was from this experience that art really took off in Hughes life and ultimately led him to move to New York where young artists had the best chance of making it big in the industry. Hughes sees the traveling of the Mona Lisa to New York as the turning point in how people perceive art. Previously people who go to museums to view the art and its beauty. Now with the Mona Lisa in town viewers were flooding to museums to view the piece just to say they saw it, almost a as a life accomplishment. The news of the paintings swept through the news and JFK even greeted the piece as it made a short stop in the Capital. Expectations for art grew a significant amount and social status of obtaining prestigious works of art also grew significantly. Art became an icon and people viewed it as a possession rather then a beautiful piece of art. This became a major problem when collectors such as Scull would purchase works from artists at low costs and then auction them off for extremely large sums of money. Money transformed the art world and put many players that did not have a lot of money aside. Hughes predicts that this will become the future of art. No longer will it be about the artist, or the painting, but the social statues that comes along with the newly acquired painting.

The Art of Collecting Art

Is collecting art about buying expensive pieces? pieces of a certain time? pieces from a certain artist? pieces that just interest you? Collecting art can be something so different to every person doing it. Some feel that the hallmark of a good collector is someone who forms relationships with the art dealers, and keeps track of the artists that they enjoy by talking to them and learning about who they are and why they collect.

20x200 is a website that began through the idea that there are many artists who want to sell their art, and many people interested in buying art, but sometimes just cant find what they are looking for- which is why they created a website so art lovers and artists can find each other through the creators who are so passionate about art. They introduce at least 2 new pieces a week, one photo and one work on paper which are available at multiple sizes. Basically the idea is that this big website is built by many small pieces, having so many artists contribute their works and you are able to purchase great art at only 20 dollars!

My personal Collection

I have successfully collected all of the new 50 state quarters which i began collecting in 1999

Apartment of Art

Collecting is type of art that takes a lot of passion and time to acquire many pieces of art. Most of this type of art is held by people who have large sums of money that they are willing to pay for various works of art. A couple, Herb and Dorothy Vogel however are a unique type of collector that through hard work has led to their collection become one of the tops in the field. They both have been collecting as a team for the past 45 years and have acquired around 4,000 works by using Dorothy's salary for their personal use and Herb's salary for money to be used to purchase art. Herb is a retired Postal worker and Dorothy is a retired Librarian so although they don't make large sums of money, bargaining with artists allows them to purchase multiple works a week. After years passed artwork accumulated in their apartment to the point where it was extremely cluttered. They ultimately decided to move their collection to the National Gallery of Art in New York City which took 5 moving trucks to move all their collected items.
The Couple is a huge inspiration to many collectors around the world. They are living proof that you don't need to have a lot of money to build up a solid art collection. Recently a documentary was created about the couple which has been viewed at many film festivals and has caught the respect of many people around the country. They are two amazing people that helped me to get a better feel of the true life of an art collector.

Art and History

Through the artist Fred Wilson, I have come to see how art can relate to so many things in our lives. I am a History major, and so Fred Wilson's art work was very interesting to me. Wilson no longer feels the desire to work with his hands in art and his method of creating installation art is for his own purposes. He enjoys the juxtaposition of objects, and looks at his work from the cultural and social port of view. He is also about history because that he uses his installation art to be about narrative and to bring different historical objects together to get a different view and a different meaning about the pieces themselves and about the time period they come from. His artwork can bring up emotions of how through his juxtaposition he forces the viewer to look past the previous biases and limitations that cultural aspects have set to our knowledge of history.
In his piece "Mining the Museum" (1992) he transformed Baltimore Historical Society's collection to highlight slavery in America. Through this installation Wilson was said to be a great learning device through which the way he made people think.

Everyday Objects Become Art

Installation art is a very unique way of art. When looking at it I often times question how much thought and creativity is really necessary to create the works that these artists are producing. Taking a more analytical look though, viewers find the deeper aspirations of the artist and the work starts to make more sense then before. Fred Wilson is one of these types of artists whose work is interesting but not flattering until you realize his deeper thoughts. One specific piece, "Dark Dawn", that incorporates black glass that looks like it is dripping down the wall and forming a puddle on the ground. He used black to represent racism and to show the sadness that comes along with racial division. A significant amount of his works deal with racial problems and his ideas that he tries to express through his art has a lot of significant views from his past and current life.

Olafur Eliasson "The Weather Project"

Olafur Eliassion was in the Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern in London in 2003. Eliasson used humidifiers to create a fine mist in the air using a mix of water and sugar. He used semi-circular discs made up of hundreds of monochromatic lamps, which radiated yellow light in a single frequency. Throughout the Turbine's ceiling was a huge mirror that visitors could see themselves in as tiny black shadows against the massive orange light. Many visitors lied on their backs and seemed to be taking in the light from the massive light. The work attracted two million visitors. The illusion of this huge sun created an idea of natural elements and experiences. My father can never sleep, and when he does he only can sleep for an average of 3-4 hours a night. During the day as long as the weather permits, my father lays out in the sun. Many family members and friends have told him that he will get skin cancer, and ask him why does he need to be so tan? But his response is that he does not go out in the sun to get a tan, it’s a euphoric experience for him. He can relax and fall asleep under the heat and light of the sun. He enjoys natural experiences, and I can imagine if he went to see this exhibit he would very much enjoy the natural elements that come from it. 

Catastrophe Strikes the Tate Modern

A Columbian artist, Doris Solcedo had the unique opportunity to fill the tremendous Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern. The museum has invited many different types of artists to present their work and Salcedo was sold on the fact that she would be unique. Like most of her works the work she created for Turbine Hall had a very deep meaning consisting of social and political connections. The work "Shibboleth" was a crack in the floor's concrete that stretched 167m long, stretching the length of the giant hall. It took over a year to construct, but when it was done it hit viewers with amazing beauty. Salcedo explains that the crack shows elements of catastrophe from the inside of the crack and on the outside everyone recognizes the crack, but are not personally effected by it. She parallels this with her native country, Columbia, by referring to the crack as her countries problems and immigration. The whole world knows the travesties her native country goes through day to day, but since it is not effecting them it doesn't alter their view on the world. This piece was not as extravagant as others in the Turbine Hall, but it has meaning behind it that will push back viewers and allow them to look at the world a little differently when they leave the Hall.

Damien Hirst- Pharmacy

Installation art can look like a gallery setting but it could also be a way that the artist transplants different worlds. It can be made up of many different objects and ideas. Seeing something in a different concept can change a viewers ideas on installation art. It is a type of art that the viewer physically enters into, and is often hard to define because it could be any array of objects in a space so it could just be a normal piece on a gallery or it could be anywhere. Presence is never the main point, but its about the total sense. Damien Hirst did installation art, he did "Pharmacy" which represents a real pharmacy and it represents life and death and the body. There are four bottles on the counter filled with water and food coloring which represent the four elements; water, fire, air, and earth. These were traditionally used to symbolize a pharmacy, so Hirst uses this to represent the past. Hirst also uses symbolization with him placing an insect-o-cutor. Hirst says that it is unlikely for there to be many flies in a pharmacy, but that people act as flies in the pharmacy when they come to look at it.

From Hoarding to the MOMA

There is a unique piece that is displayed in the Museum of Modern Art. Installation artist Song Dong has an interesting way of incorporating his past into his current art work. Installation art consists of three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space. Installation art can stretch from mountain sides to vacant turbine facilities, which is the case in a London Museum. For Song Dong, although, it is a room in the MOMA that presents the events and almost everything possession he has ever known in his life.

When Dong was younger his father passed away which greatly affected the rest of his life. His mother felt that by keeping everything of his fathers that it would neglect the fact that the house would be so empty without him. She kept everything that they went through in their home and soon the fullness of the house provided security that was absent after his father died. Many years later Dong had the opportunity to display his mother's collection in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. This piece of installation art is truly incredible because it has hundreds of pieces that all contribute to Dong's past. It is incredible that he able to show his life off and let his parents know that he is doing okay all in a days work.

'I’m Still Here' is a Deception

Performance art has started in the 1960's, it was a backlash to minimalist. The conceptual concept was the piece itself whether it be music, dance, or whatever medium that artist produces. Its live and has no guide lines, its experimental and not a consumer product. Performance art has changed a lot throughout time. Casey Affleck did a documentary on Joaquin Phoenix and it came to be found that Phoenix was just doing an elaborate performance, and so this now was a mockumentary and therefor it was Phoenix's performance art. The alleged documentary was aimed to show the deterioration of the mind and body of Joaquin Phoenix from supposed drug induced raps, to his belligerent appearance on David Letterman. Phoenix committed himself to this performance art for 2 years, he altered his body by gaining weight and growing facial hair. He was so into character that he fooled the audience and Letterman when acting to be under the influence of alcohol.

Main Objective, Wow the Audience

When Mariana Abramovic was asked what the difference in performing art and performance art she quickly replied, its real. Abramovic is noted as the grandmother of performance art and her passion for what she does is incredible. She explains that in theater, the blood is fake, knives aren't real, and pain is in act. In her work on the other hand, everything is real. On stage the audience witnesses Mariana endure pain for the sake of art. The main goal for the performance is to implicate real emotions from the audience. The audience is ultimately judges the work of the art. Creativity and shocking scenes is what makes a performance into a masterpiece.

Mariana's body has taken a large beating for the events she puts herself through for the sake of her work. One such instance she elected to sit in a wooden chair with no arm rests for 700 hours. The work consisted of people coming and sitting in front of her watching as she just sat there and stared with a blank stare. The pain felt by enduring such a piece of work was worth it, Mariana said because it was a test of endurance and physical and mental strength. Another work of hers accidentally got out of hand and fire consumed her causing her to pass out and be rushed to the hospital. She only suffered minor burns, but this is the type of work that made here into what she is today. The danger of this art is what makes it real leading to real emotions felt by the crowd that helps bring back viewers time after time.

A Different View of the World

Ann Hamilton has a very unique way at observing her surroundings. She is a contemporary American artist best known for her installations, textile art, and sculptures, but is also active in the fields of photography, printmaking, video, and video installation. What caught my immediate attention about her work was her views on the little things that make up the larger aspects of life. Her thoughts of sewing suggest that the viewer take a more intricate look into the material. Every piece of thread plays a major role in the outcome of the final product. Cloths for example, are seen as an object, but truly consist of a mass of smaller objects working together to cover your body.

Another interesting view that Hamilton has is that what is the world like from the view of ones mouth. We hear what the mouth says and how it illustrates the world, but in actuality what is it seeing to make these claims. So she devised a pin-hole camera that would be able to be in her mouth where she could take pictures. "The shape of the opening suggests an eye, alluding to the visual nature of a photograph, while the act of opening her mouth recalls speaking – a reminder that Hamilton is both revealing an intimate view and authoring it." I though this was extremely creative and interesting because we are used to hearing the mouth but we never realize what it actually sees. Ann Hamilton is an extraordinary artist because of her way to make people think differently about the world.

http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/hamilton_ann.php

Barney and Hamilton

Matthew Barney is an artist whose work is hard to decipher. The meaning behind his work is hard to characterize and there are many levels of meaning that are lofty. He was an athlete and a model before becoming an artist and so is very in tune with the body. He has a strange manifestation of format to get the result of what he wants. His movies all titled "Cremaster" are not in numerical order of when they were made. His movies are about body and journey and his characters have a journey that they must undertake, and in this journey there is a sense of conflict. Barney has both an artistic side and a business side. The movies are about physicality not a mattered performance. Violence and passion is sublimated into form in his works and that is the central theme of the movies. The movies have a repetitious look to them in which there is a biomorphic and organic look to them. Ann Hamilton is another artist whose art is of a combined nature in which there is video, installation art, and performance art and other characteristics of art. Hamilton's art is a connection between the thread of sewing and fabric and the line of writing. She feels like there is a social metaphor between the art of cloth and what we wear. She takes this idea in one of her pieces of art in which she has a grey man's suit covered in tooth picks to make him look like a porcupine. She works with words as materials and you can see the theme of a constant tie of thread and writing. In her installation work she feels that people must reach out of what they are expecting to see, and must allow the things that are there but aren't visible to make for experience. Both of these artists have different themes in their work, but have some similarities in the sense that they cross the boundaries of process and theme in their work and have metaphorical underlying messages in all their work. They make what they want as art and do what they have to, in order to achieve their goal. There is a progression of development and they don't plan on making a piece of art, they have an idea come to them and this gets worked into the medium in which they are arriving at.

Picasso- The Innovator of Different Textures

Pablo Picasso was one of the first people to adhere different textures and materials to his paintings. Pablo Picasso was a spanish born artist, but who lived most of his adult life in France. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments made him one of the best known artists in the 20th century. Synthetic cubism started for Picasso in about 1912-1919, and it followed analytical cubism in which neutral tones were used but he took apart objects and analyzed them in their shape, he pasted wallpaper and newspaper clippings onto his artwork and made the first "collage" in fine art. In his synthetic cubism, Picassos art was built up from figures seen from different angles when they were viewed when taken apart or viewed from another angle all at the same time. He put pieces of paper and string onto his pictures. In one of his most famous paintings "Still Life With Chair Caning"(1912) was one of his first attempts at using different materials and textures and the idea of collages and different views of images. In this painting Picasso glued onto the canvas an oil cloth that made the back of the chair caning more real look . The edge of the painting was a rope instead of a traditional frame.

Appropriation Art, a Sticky Situation

Appropriation art is a relatively new from of art that helps artists feed of others creativity to make their own works. This art essentially means to adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects (or the entire form) of man-made visual culture. Artists involved although have to be very careful not to cross the line and commit forgery. If caught artist may see some jail time and loose respect from their peer artist. Copyright issues have been associated with this art until its creation in the early 1900's.
One recent artist, Sheppard Fairey, was recently sued for using a photo took by an associated press reporter and transforming it into a campaign poster for the Obama administration. This poster swept the nation becoming an iconic piece of artwork that resulted in the first African American to become president of the United States. The AP went after Fairey suing him looking for payment for the use of their work. The poster would not be considered copyrighted although if Fairey had used the photo to make a painting or drawing of it to use in the paper. This is why this form of art is sticky in some instances and artist have to be careful when creating their works. The movement of this form art has led to a distinct and interesting way of creating art.

Contemporary Art- A Second Glance

Before taking this class when I looked at some contemporary art I usually said, "that's not art a 5 year old could do that" but after being in the class for a few weeks I now understand there there is more to art than the mere idea of "beauty" and "talent." Jock Sturges, an american photographer best known for his pictures of adolescents caught my eye when researching contemporary artists. His work sometimes causes controversy when there is nudity. Sturges was born in 1947 in New York City. He worked in San Francisco for many years. He graduated with a BFA in Perceptional Psychology and Photography from Marlboro College and received an MFA in Photography from San Francisco Art Institute. He is a naturist and often takes pictures in California and in France. In Sturges Twenty-Five Years collection the picture Fanny taken in France in 1995 got my attention. The picture is black and white and is of a young girl crouched naked in the water. I was at first disgusted and felt bad for the poor young girl portrayed in the picture. Then after looking at more of Jocks works, and seeing that he is all about the naturalistic views of people and in natural environments I took a second look at the picture and began to see more than just a girl naked in the water. I believe that this picture shows how the girl is timid because she is hiding her body but also that she is proud because she is naked. The look in her eye shows power.

The Idea of Function

In class lately we have been taking a look at the idea of function in art. How we and the artist consider the piece in its context, how we adjust our perception of how you see things, when and where the artist came from. We look at identifying the artist and what they thought as they were painting or sculpting or recording their piece. We look at what it emotionally does to us when we look at it. There are personal, social, and physical functions and they could all overlap. In my Shaping of the Contemporary World History Class, Marcel Duchamps "The Fountain" came up on one of the slides of the power point presentation. I was taken back and delighted to see this because we had learned about it previously. Our teacher asked us if this was art. Majority of the class said no you cannot take a piece of ready made object and claim it yours and deem it to be artwork. To them the function of this piece was just part of the curriculum of the history class and they didn't find it beautiful. It didn't seem to serve much of a personal function to them, there didn't seem to be any form of pleasure or therapeutic value. It served as a social function in the way that it represented to our History class a political message, and social conditions and social change of the time period and place that we were looking at. Seeing that a piece of artwork can bring about different ideas, and functions, and feelings in many different people in many different settings I find to be interesting.

"Parasite"

After researching for a little while different paintings of contemporary art I can across one that particularly caught my attention. It was a contemporary painting by a young English artist Antony Micallef. His painting, "Parasite", caught my attention because of the unusual combination he chose for his work. Viewing the piece from a far distance it looks like a dark butterfly that has extravagant detail incorporated in it. After I enlarged the photo of the painting I realized that that detail was grayish bodies that were arranged to make the picture as a whole look like a butterfly. This puzzled me because it did not really make sense how you could incorporate such two different things into one piece.
When most people think about butterflies most would suggest that they get a warm spring-like feeling. Having these gray dark bodies make up the structure of the body throws everything off for me. It makes me wonder if the artist is trying to present a idea that although a butterfly is seen as good on the outside who knows what its thoughts are on the inside. Micallef created a brilliant piece that made me really think about the underlying message that he was trying to convey to his viewers. The piece way placed in the foyer of the Royal Academy. Micallef's work was also shown in exhibits around California where many well known stars purchased his work for large price tags. The works that make you consider what the artist was thinking are the works that make art truly amazing.

The Pursuit of Art- Personal or Not?

To pursue something is to seek to attain or accomplish a goal. So when an artist is pursuing their artwork what is their ultimate goal? Is it to make money, to shake up society, to send a message, or is it personal? Artist Vija Celmins is all about the process of art, for example she has been working on a painting of a cosmic scene for over a year. She sands over the panting and has done that nine times and tries to articulate it at the time she is currently doing it, and if she loses the idea or image that she is currently trying to articulate which she deems sometimes does happen, she redoes it. In this process the painting becomes a memory and a dense feelings at the end. She always has an image of what she would like to do and she builds the art from the beginning. She builds on a painting and the changes that occur is directly related to what is going on in her own life. She often repeats images such as an ocean and does it in different materials. She is all about labor and craftsmanship and the process of art. Celmins isnt looking to have a certain product at the end of her painting, her process is personal and its about representing what she is thinking and feeling at the time of doing the painting.

Drinking Art

Getting lost in Art

During class we get the unique opportunity to look into how art is formed through the use of various techniques by different artists. Each seems to strike me a little differently and this particular artist, Vija Celmins, struck me in odd sort of way. Celmins spends a large portion of her time in her studio creating very intricate works such as her space paintings or her paintings of the local harbor. The finished product makes the viewer have to look at it twice to see if the painting is a photo or an actual painting because the detail is so extraordinary. All her works she claims she has to build in order to get a good texture to start her painting. Often times she uses sand paper to give the work a more real appeal to it. All this preparation and tedious work brings out an amazing result that really draws the viewer's attention. The thing that drew me to these pieces was the result of moving your head closer to the painting. I felt as though i was moving closer to the picture and that i was moving among space. This was a feeling that caught me by surprise because if you look at the work from a far distance the meaning behind it does not jump out at you as much. This is a unique way of creating art because I feel that the more this artist focuses on the smaller detail the more meaning it can have to a person like myself.