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.

Vernacular of Beauty

What is good and what is beautiful? The most important aspect of art is how the art makes the viewer feel. Some art as i mentioned in previous posts, is not always the most appealing to look at, but in some ways it can move a person and give them a reaction that makes it worth while looking at. This is what should make a piece more valuable and not the appearance of some pieces which we no can be gory, etc. Reading Hickey's excerpt allowed me to get an inside look of what a professional art critic expects out of a great work.

Beauty and It's Effect on the World

In the article " Enter the Dragon; On the Vernacular of Beauty" by Dave Hickey, he discusses beauty and what it has done to the world. Although I have to admit I found this article to be a bit wordy and scrambled and I had a hard time following it- I thought that there were good messages behind his article. Hickey feels that beauty is the beholder to what makes a person drawn to art, what makes a person feel something when looking at art, and what makes art sellable. He points out that many people who want to buy art are focused on the aesthetics of the work and not really the meaning behind it. Beauty gives access to the art world to all regular people and he advocates the famous saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Hickey was recently published in Newsweek as being "The Bad Boy of Art." (Dave Hickey: The Bad Boy of Art)

The Business of Art

When looking at a piece of art, many people look at it as a moving piece of work that is full of meaning and beauty. What many don't realize is that there is another reason that artists do their work besides to make art- and that is to make money, and to find fame. Money can be viewed as an impurity of art. On the website http://arts-careers.com there are many different ideas and articles about how to be a successful artist in terms of money making. They talk about teaching art, and how to make money through art shows. One artist we discussed in class seemed very monetary driven. Jeff Koons is a very successful artist who uses art as commodities and represents culture through that. He produces his work in a factory with many workers and machines. In the video we watched in class, one of the people working in the factory says that he hasn't really seen Jeff do any hands on activity in a while. Koons describes that the process of art is a metaphysical one- meanwhile he just makes sure that his factory is running properly. He seems to hold himself at a very high level and his success as an artist has made his ego bigger. He puts himself on a pedestal, literally and metaphorically, as he made a sculpture of himself. 

Controlling a Huge Canvas

It amazes me how a person can create such an intricate piece of art on an extremely large canvas. When standing far from the canvas it is easier to get a sense of where certain aspects should go but when you get within inches of the large canvas it must be easy to lose track. Alison Watt is a Scottish painter who was given a unique chance of becoming the youngest women to be given a solo exhibition at the Scottish national Gallery of modern art. She constructed 12 huge paintings all by herself which consisted of white fabrics. If you take a more analytical look, to make the fabric look real she incorporated many different kinds of whites to bring the true colors out in the shading and other sections. When I first viewed her finished work I was very impressed. The detail that she put in to each work was incredible and the focus required to paint that large amount of area amazed me. Some artists such as John Koons hires a team of artists to take turns and paint each individual section of his large paintings. To have the ability to paint such a large canvas humbles me and makes me appreciate the work Miss Watt has done for her exhibition.

Accidently Art

When artists go to the studio every day the things they work on can get quite repetitive. The amount of creativity that is put into most art leads artists to thinking for hours on end of their next major piece. One particular contemporary artist, Bruce Nauman was born in 1940 in the state of Indiana. Half way through college he found that business was not right for him and instead he elected to follow his true passion of becoming an artist. His work that is seen in many museums reflects a way of thinking that has progressed from his board mindset. When in his studio, he believes that everything he is doing while he is there can be considered art. This includes eating, breathing, walking, literally everything. Some may think of this as being a stretch, but if you think about it he does have an interesting point. He thinks of art as being any activity one does. If you think this is strange his work may come across as even stranger. One specific piece of art that caught my attention was his mice movie. At night he would set up a video camera and record what happened throughout the night. The next morning Bruce would sit and watch the video for hours and after quite sometime he noticed that the more he looked at nothing the more he noticed movement amongst the screen. He saw this as being a way to relax because when you focus on one part of the screen you may miss movement in another part of this screen. This he proclaimed is art and when I did what he suggested I knew what he meant and I found it very interesting so I can agree with saying that it was indeed art. His work inspired me to think more about the subtle things that may actually be a form of art.

Can Art be Taught?

I believe that many students, professors, and teachers on all levels would believe that the definition of "teaching", "education", and "art" are all three terms that have no boundaries. In my opinion what makes a good educational setting is that the students are motivated, challenged, and engaged. So now can art in specificity be taught and learned?  And should art be considered one of the main subjects in education along with math, science, and english? I feel that many educators, artists, and lovers of art would all have different feelings on this matter. Personally, I feel that the history of art should be taught, art tells a lot about the time period that you are focussing on. Looking at different types of art, and the lives of the artists, can show a lot about what was going on socially, economically, politically, and religiously. The appreciation of art in all its different forms; painting, sculpting, music, videos, photographs, etc. is something that I feel makes people more worldly in a sense that they can see differences among time, culture, and all different demographics. I feel that the teaching of art can get a little questionable with art now a days with conceptual art and commercial art. I believe that the definition and description of conceptual art can be delivered to a student, but that it shouldn't be necessary to look at someone's art such as Dash Snow whose pictures display sex and drugs. To have knowledge about a person's art and be aware of it, is different than being fully educated in it.

What is Beauty?

According to www.dictionary.com beauty is "the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.),a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest)." Throughout time the idea and picture of a "beautiful" woman has changed. In the 1960's there were many different ideas and views of beauty going around. For example Marilyn Monroe was a sex icon, known for her curves. But many feel that by today's standards she would be viewed as "fat". Elizabeth Hurley said  "I've always thought Marilyn Monroe looked fabulous, but I'd kill myself if I was that fat.'' Another key figure of beauty in the 1960's was model Twiggy. Twiggy was known for her boyish slender figure, and big eyes that caused a sensation in the fashion world. 

The "Beauty" of Art

When creating pieces of art most artists look to make something that they can be proud of and please the eyes of the people who view their work. Whether it is the different use of color, symbolism, etc., all paintings tend to have a unique item that makes them differ from other works. Frida Kahlo created a painting that aimed to have more meaning than beauty strike from it. The oil canvas painting depicts a women lying in bed in a state of isolation from the outside world. Coming from the women’s mouth is a stream of red that almost looks like vomit and at the end of this stream there is skulls, dead animals, and other grotesque things.
This painting must give people mixed emotions because although it is a masterpiece of art, can this piece really be considered, “Beautiful”. This painting cannot put in the viewers head a sense of happiness or allow one’s mind to be attracted to such a painting. Some claim that pieces of art of this caliber have helped change how critics see paintings as being beautiful. From paintings such as these, beauty is now reflected on how the viewer feels after viewing the piece. If viewers feel emotion and get struck by the piece the art can be pronounced as a beauty. Art is an interesting topic because it can be portrayed in ways that may be contradicting, but art itself can truly be breath taking.

Art or Business

There have been many changes in the field of art in the past hundreds of years. One of these changes strikes me as being very different from most of the normal new trends and styles that come in the art world. This change has to do with the purpose of having art. Most artists take long periods of time to create their pieces and use much creativity to construct there masterpieces. In recent times the business aspect of art is starting to come out in some artists. One could argue that Damien Hurst may be more of a business man than an artist. This all comes from a recent piece of his entitled, “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”. This conceptual piece of work was created by purchasing a shark and preserving it in a tank to be viewed by guests of museums. Professionals were hired by Hurst to use techniques such as the use of formaldehyde to ensure that the shark will not rot out. Is this art? Who is the real artist? One may think that nature itself that created the shark may be most responsible for its natural beauty or was it the professionals whose job was to preserve the animal the real creator of this piece. None the less, millions of dollars later the shark has become a piece of art and it is Hurst who is reaping the benefits.
“Shark” allows the viewer to get a unique up and close experience with what very little people have seen in reality. The beauty of the fish is truly amazing and gets people to think about life and this is what makes this piece truly amazing.

Before Andy Warhol's Commercial Art

Before Andy Warhol was known for his commercial art, he produced and sketched shoe's. Warhol moved to NYC to pursue a career in fashion magazine illustration. He really enjoyed when he needed to paint shoes for the magazine and then developed more prominence in the art world with his gorgeous designs of high heel shoe art.

Perspective Art

There are many artists and critics who can give us a greater idea and definition of perspective art. Arthur Danto an art critic, believes that we have reached the end of art in the 1980's. Danto says that the line between art objects and regular objects has dissipated. Danto from seeing Andy Warhol's brillo box's and the idea of consumerism of making ark, believes that anything can be art. The pure form of beauty still attracts him, but he also believes that you must look behind the paint, and look at the philosophical meaning behind the work. Damien Hirst a British artist did the artwork "The Physical Impossibility of Death of Someone Living" that was recently put into the MET. He was part of the "Brit Pack" and was discovered over night. His work took a shark and preserved it. It plays on human emotion and its about death and danger and creates conditions for the work of art. The original shark started to not look as preserved so they re-did it, but it was ok because with conceptual art, anyone can recreate the idea, its your confrontation with the piece of work. Another person who can give us an idea of what perspective art is, is Milton Glazer. He was known for his graphic design. He took a look at what is art, and what is not. He said that art is important as a survival mechanism, you are respected as an artist and it is the most powerful instrument for survival. Art makes you reengage reality of what you think things are and what it actually is. He defines beauty as what moves us to attentiveness. And yet another person who gives us another perspective is Jonathan Jones, he blogged about if great art can make you ill. It is called "Stendhal" syndrome and its a physical reaction to art, especially in Italian art, because the beauty of Italian art is addictive.

What Do You See?

What is art? Marshall Duchamp strongly tested this idea by making an attempt to broaden the types of art seen in museums. When Duchamp purchased the urinal which he later named "fountain", he saw more than just what the piece was normally used for. He rotated the piece around and it transformed the urinal from looking like something you would see in a restroom to something that is seen in a garden. He wanted to make a point to art critics that it's not just about the art itself but more importantly about what the viewer takes away from the art.


Marshall Duchamp's radical piece puzzled critics all over the world. It offered a new way to look at art and have you're own opinion on what you see. One critic, Guardian Art Critic Johnathan Jones, shared his views on a video which was streamed over the internet. He saw this piece of art as having similar looks to statues of the Virgin Mary which both have close shapes toward the top of each. When he first mentioned this idea I was shocked because I only saw the shape of the piece looking like a fountain. After observing and letting my imagination take over the more i saw the comparison that Jones made. This piece of art changed the whole process in which people look at art. No longer is a piece so conceptual, but now it has transformed into a more contemporary view.

Conceptual Art

Conceptual art is art where the ideas or concepts behind the work take precedent over the actual aesthetics of the work. Conceptual art "is what it is". Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was a French American who was very playful. He challenged conventional art by taking a urinal and putting it in a gallery and named it "Fountain". He questioned how we looked at art, he made us realize its not what the artist makes but how the audience responds. His work reeked havoc. "Fountain" was meant to taunt his avant-guard peers. 

In conceptual art the actual "skill" of the artist gets murky due to the fact that you are looking past the aesthetics and looking for the meaning behind the art. This in turn questions the idea of materials, and how can texture add to material of the painting. The viewer of the art creates your own answer to the artwork, its personal due to the fact that we have our own criteria and taste. 

Fun facts about Marcel Duchamp- For about a decade, he stopped making art to live out his lifelong passion of chess. He achieved tournament status. 

“The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem... I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.”-Marcel Duchamp