week 12 videos

Week 12 Video Blogs Andy Warhol:Images of an Image I have been fascinated with Andy Warhol’s soup cans for as long as I can remember so I decided to watch this video to gain further insight into his work. It added to the knowledge about Warhol and Pop Art that was presented in the text. Several of the things I learned about the artist included: that he really wanted to be a tap dancer, he first worked as a commercial artist when he began experimenting with advertising images that he had a dark side that reflected on plane/car crashes, suicides and electric chairs, and he began mass producing his work to make money. This video explored the production of the work Ten Lizes, a study of Elizabeth Taylor. Warhol was fascinated by celebrities and treated them as commodities. It was interesting to watch the process of silk screening and how prints can be reproduced using varied colors with the same image. It was also interesting to learn that Warhol published a magazine and was an art journalist who covered race riots, the moon landing, and the cultural revolution in China. Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art of the 50s and 60s This video explored six different works of art representative of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. This added depth and understanding to the text in that I gained more insight into Abstract art and I also find it helpful when painting are explained in detail. The first work was Franz Kline’s C+O. It was interesting to note that Kline started as a figurative artist and then became an abstract painter. He strove to evoke emotion in viewers by creating action painting. He considered the process a part of the work and the question of “Where to stop?” lies in when the experiment is complete. Frankenthaler’s Mountain and Sea was unique in that it was painted on cotton cloth and the texture can be seen and becomes a part of the work. Morning:The Springs by Wilhem de Kooig used color to suggest meaning. It was very interesting to view the change in his style from his earlier work, Women One, and to his paintings in which nothing is recognizable. Jasper John’s Flag as well as some his later works were described as defying the logic of art history. I learned that Rauschenberg was actually the father of the Pop Art movement that began in the 20th century and Andy Warhol was actually the son. This is the description of the work The Texan, presented in this video. The notion of combining representation and abstraction was presented in Girl with Hair Ribbon by Lictenstein. The artist’s approach to painting was mechanical and when the viewer looked closely the image was actually lost. Uncertainty: Modernity and Art I chose this video to gain more knowledge in the area of Modern art. It added to the information presented in the text. The basic key concepts presented was that modern art is contemporary society’s version of the Delphi Oracle the wanting to know ourselves, that it communicates chaos, anxiety and uncertainty, art changes as everything changes and reflects what we are. I learned that Hitler actually staged art shows. I also learned that Abstract Expressionists were outcasts because they had attitudes, they were fighting for meaning in a consumer driven society. Pop Art emerged as people looking at their own disillusion and striving to be opposite. It was interesting to see how art is being created in China. It was also revealing to see Watteau’s work and what it had to say: life is sordid, society is corrupt, and art reflects the present. Hockney on Photography I chose this video to learn more about photography as art and because I didn’t remember the name Hockney being mentioned in the text or any of the other videos I watched. I felt this greatly added to the text in the area of photography and gave a great insight to this artist who possessed very diverse talents and interests. He gravitated from drawing, to photography, to using modern technology (fax machine) to theater art. In all his works he endeavored to challenge perspective and encouraged viewers to take a step back, a technique he employed in his work. It was fascinating to see how he created a work using a collage of pictures. He also used this technique, collage, to create cubist pictures. He explained how technology at first hindered his work, because it was costly to developing pictures, to enabling his work as technology reduced the cost of the process. I thought it was genius when some of his photos were destroyed in processing that he used the note from the fotomat explaining their error in the spot where the pictures were to go. It was very interesting to watch his career go back and forth between mediums and especially in photography as he adjusted to the use of different types of cameras.