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.