Blog 13&14 Reese

1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.  The Lowdown on Lowbrow:  West Coast Pop Art is a style that is reactionary, which was a style I found very refreshing.  I really found myself more stimulated by the works than traditional.  I guess it was more interesting.  Displaying Modern Art:  The Tate Approach:  The Tate Approach brings together many different artists with very different styles.  This was meant to differentiate between the different pieces.  Bones of Contention:  Native American Archaeology:  This was an awesome video!  When I was younger, my parents took me on a trip to visit the ancient ruins in Mesa Verde, which was a trip I will never forget.  I was amazed at all of the information we learned about this group of Native Americans.  How they slept, ate, played, and expressed themselves.  An Acquiring Mind:  Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art:  I was amazed by how much of the art must be restored before it goes on display in any exhibit.  The attention to detail that the curators had to put forth to pull of only one exhibit was fascinating. 
2. Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Exhibition project?  I think the videos definitely helped in the creating of my Art Exhibit project.  Viewing the videos helped me to better understand how art exhibits are put together. 
3. What is your opinion of the films?  I found the films to be very informative and helpful in understanding the concept of creating art exhibits.  Do they add depth to understanding of the art concepts you practiced while creating your curation project?  Absolutely, seeing how these exhibits are put together helped me in the creation of my own.  Having never setup an art exhibit all information was good information.  Any example of how a professional exhibit is put together is a very constructive in this process. 

Project #5 Reese

The curator project was very interesting, and one that I was not very confident I could pull off.  The first thing that I learned when trying to put this together was you can’t try to please everybody.  What I mean by that is you need to be happy with the end result.  If you’re happy with the end result then most likely viewers will at least appreciate it. 

            For this project, I decided to build by exhibit around my favorite element in art, which is nature.  Personally, I am fascinated with everything nature.  Nature is the oldest form of art in human existence, so its relevance to art is more so than any other element.  Choosing pieces for my exhibit was rather easy, because I used works from some of the most famous artists in the history of the world.  Monet and Di Vinci is just a couple of examples, but obviously stalwarts in the field of art.  The pieces that I chose represent many different elements of art from animal, to landscape, and humanistic. 

            The process of creating exhibit was challenging, but I feel that I learned a little about what it’s like to create one.  I know that I won’t be hired by any local art galleries to setup an exhibit, but I feel I was able to do an adequate job in my eyes.  The project was a great introduction to the hard work that is put into each and every art exhibit. 

Week 12 Blog Reese

1. Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.  I chose the videos Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art of the 50’s and 60’s and Andy Warho:  Images of an Image for this week’s video review.  The reason I choose to watch the video on Pop Art in the 50’s and 60’s was that I do not know much about art from that period.  I selected the Andy Warhol film because I have heard what an interesting man he was and knew little about him and his art. 
2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.  The most interesting thing I learned from this video was that Expressionism is not as much what you are seeing but what you feel.  In addition, Pop Art and Abstract artist works in the dark, each painting is an experiment.  The end is not necessarily the completion, but something he might build upon.  I learned that Andy Warhol made art of ordinary products such as, Coke bottles, soup cans, and actors.  I can see art in what he creates, but I find it hard to compare it to Monet. 
3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?  For me the videos always help to bring together the concepts that we cover in our reading each week.  I feel the reading gives us an idea, but the videos bring it to life. 
4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?  As I mentioned previously, I think the videos add depth to the concepts by bringing life to the topic.  Having someone in the film that has true experience in relation to the topic is far more valuable than reading it from the book.  I think the book is informative, but the videos are far more educational. 

 

Module 11 Blog Reese

 1. Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.  The reason for choosing the two videos I did have more to do with who it was than the style.  I choose Picasso, because he is viewed as an icon in the history of art, so to learn more about art history I thought I had better learn from the best.  The reason I chose my second video, The Mystical North:  Spanish Art from the 19^th Century to the Present, was I traveld to Spain a few years ago, so I have an affinity toward Spain’s culture. 
2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.  As little as I know about art I obviously have heard of Picasso, but I had never heard of the artist Matisse.  I was really impressed by how Matisse and Picasso paths crossed and how there encounter effected their individual styles.  In the video The Mystical North:  Spanish Art from the 19the Century to the Present, I learned that Spain had huge impact on architecture and much of their work is copied even today. 
2. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?  The videos relate to the reading because they allow you to see firsthand what the book cannot describe.  This is something that I always find hard to explain because it seems so obvious, but I think viewing the videos allows you to hear first hand from the experts how this work was created. 
3. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?  I thought both films were very informative, and they add depth to my understanding of each concept because the narrators or guests do such a great job explaining in detail the artists. 

Art Visit 3 Reese

I.                   The Exhibition

1.      The title of the exhibit was BEAUTY, LIFE, AND SPIRIT:  A CELEBRATION OF GREEK CULTURE

2.      The theme of the exhibition Beauty, Life, and Spirit:  A celebration of Greek Culture focuses on a selection of objects from the collection of the Buffalo Museum of Science that illuminates various aspects of life and culture in ancient Greece.  Several twentieth-century objects from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s Collection reflect the continued fascination with ancient Greek culture over the millennia.  The exhibition also contains two nineteenth-century icons on loan from the Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation. 

II.               The Gallery

1.      The lighting used throughout this Exhibition was direct light produced by florescent bulbs.  I particularly liked the way they utilized soft lighting throughout the interior of the cabinets.  Something I did not really consider until I got home and started to review all of my pictures was the amazing amount of natural light that poured through the windows in the room where the exhibit was on display. 

2.      It is hard to pin down the actual color of the walls in the exhibit, but the walls were a beautiful shade of blue, very similar to the color of the carpet in the oval office.  The base of the room was wrapped in a white trim that circled the entire exhibit. 

3.      The exhibit space was wide open, but in the center of the exhibit there was a cluster of oak colored cabinet, which held many pieces of art in the collection. 

4.      The flow of the room added to the quality of the exhibition.  One thing I was impressed with was how the many pieces of the exhibit were placed and how much thought and time goes into the consideration of this. 

III.            Questions about the Artwork

1.      I did not really notice any kind of specific organization throughout the exhibit, other than it was all from Greek culture and multiple artists from many different period participated in it. 

2.      All artwork was part of Greek culture or inspired by Greek culture. 

3.      The artwork varied from paintings, tapestries, carvings, stone and clay pottery, metal sculpture, and glass figurines. 

4.      Most of the displays were framed with wood within their display cabinets, except for the paintings which utilized painting frames. 

5.      The labels on most of the displays appeared to be a brass, copper mix, which contained the artists name, medium, date, and title. 

6.      All art was displayed within oak cabin, which were located toward the middle of the room.  There was one lone painting on the wall and an obscure sculpture along the far end of the exhibit room. 

IV.              

1.       Nassos Daphnis

a.       Monday in Greece

b.      Oil on canvas

c.       1938

d.      28 x 34 inches

e.      Broacher

f.        I am a big fan of natural landscapes, so this particular piece of art is right up my alley.  The artists utilize natural colors throughout the painting, which adds to the beauty of the painting. 

g.       The painting appears to be a natural landscape of a river with trees cascading alongside the river’s edge.  There are people on the water’s edge apparently washing something, but it is very difficult to tell exactly what. 

h.      The principals and elements used to the best of my knowledge are nature or natural.

i.        It is hard for me to determine what the artist is trying to say in the painting, but if I were to guess it has something to do with the people on the water’s edge and the work they are doing.

2.       Pablo Picasso

a.       Nymphs and Satyrs

b.      Glass

c.       1964

d.      Dimensions variable

e.      Broacher

f.        I think different figurines are an amazing example of artistry at its best.  Each piece is so unique, it I was amazed that they were crafted from glass, which is a very difficult medium to use. 

g.       This particular display is fourteen different blue figurines with varying shapes and sizes. 

h.      I think the artist is trying to say that he likes fictional characters. 

3.       Loutrophoros Amphora

a.       Ceramic and pigments

b.      Late fifth century BC

c.       11 4/5 inches

d.      This ceramic pot is an amazing example of artistry from the fifth century.  The images on the pot are completed in amazing detail and add to the beauty of the piece. 

e.      This particular piece displays a man and a woman holding hands.  I interpret as two people in love.

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African Mask Project Reese

1.      The three images I chose inspired me in many different ways, but no one was the driving force behind the inevitable design of my African Tribal Mask.  Each of the images that I found on the Internet gave me a general idea of what African Tribal Mask’s look like, and more interesting was the story of how they became part of the African culture.  When I set out to start this project I wanted to make sure that I created a Mask that was unique.  That was one thing I got from the different masks images I found, no one mask was ever the same.  Some of the masks were very colorful, others were very plain.  Materials that the masks were made from varied from wood, bronze, and other materials. 

2.      The most common elements and principals that I used during the creation of my mask were line and repetition.  One thing that I observed while researching African Masks was the designs were very consistent with the overall uniformity of the individual piece.  I know that the symbols have specific meaning for individual groups, but my inspiration came from feeling of what I felt looked good. 

3.      I’m not an artist, but this was a fun project, because I felt the creation was completely my own.  I used my examples as inspiration, but neither was the driving force behind the end results of my mask.  I think this project opened my eyes to a culture that I knew very little about, so I really appreciate the exposure to that, which is why I enjoyed this project so much. 

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