Module 15: Self Portrait

1. Why did you select the inspiration pieces?

I was unable to physically attend an art gallery, so I used the Google Art Project site to view different galleries for inspiration.

"Self Portrait"

Ramon Martí Alsina 1875

This portrait was drawn using conte stick and white lead on colored paper. It is from the art gallery Museu Nacional d'Art Catalunya (MNAC) of Barcelona. I selected this work as inspiration because I wanted to create a simple portrait that was in black and white. I was also drawn to it because of how his hair was drawn showing movement even though it is pretty dark. I also liked that the face was the focal point of the work, on a plain background.


 https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/self-portrait/tQEpJlCspdG8Hw

"Self-Portrait for Bedroom Painting No. 15"

Tom Wesselmann 1969

 

This self portrait was drawn using graphite on paper and is from the Chrysler Museum of Art gallery. I found this piece inspirational because it was created using similar media that I used. I wanted to visit galleries that contained more drawings rather than paintings. I also used this work as inspiration on how to portray eyes. His eyes in this photo are drawn with he pupils very dark, and it captures your attention when viewing it.

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/self-portrait-for-bedroom-painting-no-15/zwE_tneOe0e7nQ 

"Self-Portrait"

Charles Keeneabout 1845

 

This portrait was drawn using brown and black ink over chalk and is from the gallery of The J. Paul Getty Museum. I found this work inspirational because of its use of space. The portrait is very shaded and only the facial expression is portrayed in the artwork, and I wanted to create a similar piece. I also liked that the features were less defined and more blended and shaded.

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/self-portrait/TQFtBi8lttLhpw

Original Photo

Completed Self-Portrait

 

2. Why did you select the media to create your self-portrait?

I chose to create my self portrait with charcoal because I wanted it to be a black and white realistic drawing that allowed for shading. I have been trying to practice using charcoal more just for fun in my free time to get better at using it.

3. What challenges did you face in creating your self-portrait and how did you overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges for creating this self portrait was creating the eyes. It was hard to make
them "match", in regards to their shape and size. I practiced on a separate page before beginning the completed work.

4. How does this piece represent you?

This artwork represents me because it is simple black and white representation of me. I focused on portraying my features in a realistic way, emphasizing those that I particularly favor. For example, I have very long eyelashes, and it is something I have always been known for among  my family and friends. I wanted to be sure to portray them and my eyes as a focal point of the piece.

5. What elements and principles of art did you apply in this work?

One of the elements I applied in this work is the use of space. I really liked how the artworks I included as inspiration pieces utilized the space in the works, and I wanted to do something similar. I wanted my work to be just my face, so the viewer focuses on the features alone and the expression, rather than being distracted by the use of the space in the background. I tried to portray the eyes as a focal point of my face and ultimately the work itself by applying the principle of emphasis. I made the pupil dark and round as a center focal point to draw attention to them. I also used line and movement in the creation of my hair in this piece. The lines used portray movement down the face which guide the viewer's eye through the work and all of the facial features.

6. Did you enjoy working on this project?

I enjoyed working on this project because I have been trying to get better at using charcoal and drawing in general. I find it fun and kind of therapeutic to draw, even if major talent is not present.

7. What do you think of your final artwork? 

I think my final artwork is a good representation of my facial features, and it turned out much better than I expected. I think that more practice will allow me to get better at using charcoal.

Module 16: Reflections of AED 200

1. What were you expectations for this course and where they met?

My expectations for this course in the beginning of the semester were ultimately to learn how to understand and interpret works of art. I also hoped to learn about some famous artist and their most famous works, and be able to interpret the meaning of some of them. My expectations were definitely met, as I feel that we had the opportunity to discover artists and observe their works of art, especially through art gallery visits and the art curation assignment. The assignments were helpful in practicing the description and interpretation of different artworks. 

2. Now that you've been through this course, What is art? How would you define it now compared to your initial posting?

In the first discussion, I said that I believe art can be defined as an individual’s expression of ideas and feelings that utilizes their creative abilities and imagination. I would still define art in the manner, but I might add that art can be interpreted in and aesthetically beautiful in many different ways dependent on the viewer's interpretation of its meaning.

3. Who was your favorite artist in your original posting and who is your favorite visual artist now? If there is a difference, why do you think so? If you have the same favorite artist, why do you think so?

In the beginning of the semester I did not have a famous artist. Even though I was able to identify famous artists by name, I was not familiar with their famous works of art, the genre or much else. After taking this course, I could now identify certain artists' works, and be able to provide some insight in the genre or time in which they lived. After visiting the art gallery for the first time and completing the art curation project, I enjoyed viewing Edvard Munch's work, and Pablo Picasso's. I always found Picasso's work confusing and I didn't understand it, but the analysis of Guernica and the videos provided helped me understand him as an artist better. 

4. Now that you've completed this course, how do you feel about taking an online course? Is your answer the same as it was in your first posting? How is it the same or different?

In the beginning of the semester I had stated that i felt comfortable taking online classes as I have done so several times, and I enjoyed the convenience of being able to work on my own time. I still feel that it is beneficial for those who are able to manage their time appropriately and enjoy the ability to plan school at their own expense. 

Project #4 Art Curation Project

The process: 

In order to begin this project, I browsed the resources in the resource folder to view different artworks and decide on a theme for my exhibition. I decided to include artworks with a "love" theme because it was easy for me to interpret the meaning of these works and find some with similarities. Once I discovered several famous artworks, I studied the elements and principles in the paintings to try to determine how those specific elements helped the viewer see love, or feelings that come along with it. I decided to include only paintings in this exhibition to keep the artworks similar, even if the images portrayed were completely different. I also found several famous artists in the 1800s and 1900s had created paintings portraying love. I then created the PowerPoint after finding all the images I wanted to use. I used a red background for the slides because it is the color of love and passion. I used a mix of cursive fonts for labeling the artworks because it creates a romantic feel.

Module 13/14 Videos Review

1.       For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

“The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art”

•  Lowbrow was used originally by an artist Robert Williams and it used to mean lacking taste. It now has developed to have a meaning of its own
•  The dominating art from in the 1950s and 1960s was abstract expressionism. In the 1960s rock posters used several visual psychedelic colorful images combined with lowbrow images. They were shown in Europe during this time, but the U.S. refused to include them in any museums. It was perceived as art by “hippies on drugs”.  
•   Lowbrow always contains a narrative pun, where there is dynamics and always something happening in the art
• These types of artists had complete freedom to create art that doesn’t necessarily provoke thoughts from the viewers.
• The internet brought an awareness of new styles of art such as lowbrow.
•   In the late 70s, punk rock musicians became widely popular, and all these musicians had a fine arts background. Lowbrow art was expressed in record covers, rock band flyers, etc. Several times the musicians would be the ones designing the record covers, which allowed for millions of people to be exposed to their art when they purchased the records
• The Lowbrow movement blew up when a curator in 1986 began showing these types of art that are selling for much more money than art used to. 
• Over the past few years, lowbrow’s genre has changed and several art galleries are now open to showcase them

“An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan”

• The Met opened in 1870 with several European and Dutch paintings, but eventually the collection grew to represent all cultures and works of art 
•   Any work of art being considered to put on play in a museum must be approved by the director. Montebello has turned down several artworks he is unimpressed with.  A private employee meeting is held for the curators to present their findings in 5 minutes.
• It is difficult to eliminate personal taste completely as an art curator, but it is important to remain objective
• Curators are a part of portraying history, especially in the Met. There are nearly 100 curators and curator assistants who enhance and add to the Met’s collection.   
• When a museum acquires a work of art, it is the beginning of the discovery process.  Many works have been purchased for display without knowing anything about the artworks, like the country they were created in, who created it or who (if it’s a person) the art is portraying
•  Art conservation is crucial to the preservation of art history for the world. Sign of age is desired, and the art is not intended to look new or in perfect condition.
• The Met has one of the largest collections 17^th century Italian baroque paintings, and over half of them were acquired under the curatorship of Montebello
• Exhibitions planned in the Met all have themes. The can be large or small, broad, centered on an artist, movement, or time period

2.       Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Exhibition project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.

 

The videos relate to the Art Exhibition project because they feature interviews from art curators as well as assistants that help explain the job of an art curator. The interviews explain certain artworks and how they fit a theme or represent a time period. The videos show different artworks in exhibitions that center around a theme, and the curator explains how the piece was acquired and why it was needed for that exhibition.

3.       What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to understanding of the art concepts you practiced while creating your curation project?

I thought the videos were helpful in explaining what an art curator or an art curator assistant does when creating or adding to an exhibit. I thought the video about the Metropolitan Museum explained art curation in better detail and I was able to gather more information and ideas for themes for my art curation project.

Module 12: Video Reviews

1.      Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I selected the videos “Andy Warhol: Images of an Image” and “Uncertainty: Modernity and Art” because they seemed to be the most interesting out of the selection. I have heard of Andy Warhol and know he is very famous as a pop art artist, but I do not know much about his work. 

2.      For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Video 1: “Andy Warhol: Images of an Image”

·         Andy Warhol never wanted to be an artist growing up, and worked as a commercial artist up until the 1960s for advertising companies.

·         In 1962, Marilyn Monroe died, and Warhol created a whole series of Marilyn silk images, and these works made him famous. Eventually he was interested in another famous actress Elizabeth Taylor, and produced another silk image of her, and news stories revolving around her life.

·         Warhol constantly created works that repeated a cropped image over and over, eventually overlapping the images at the end of the work.

·         Warhol used silk screen printing to mass produce paintings to bring in more money, as he was very focused on becoming rich. Silk screen printing allowed his assistants or anyone else to help reproduce the images, and he didn’t have to work on the image every single time. He took Polaroid pictures of people, including his friends, and turned them into silk screen imagery.

·         Warhol bought a movie camera in 1963 and filmed hundreds of his friends in movies. He was obsessed by the idea of celebrities.

·         He also published his own magazine.

·         He became an international superstar by the 1970s. Rich clients would come to Warhol to pay for their portrait images.

 “Uncertainty: Modernity and Art”

·         The Industrial Revolution began to change man and machines, and modern life emerged. At this time, modern art was created.

·         The future civilizations will look back on our art and see a complete change in society and a break in art from the past. Most modern art is questioning and full of uncertainty.

·         Modern art began in the 19^th century and shows reality trembling, and reality completely transformed in the 20^th century.

·         Distortion appears to give new life old forms in modern art

·         Abstract Art is hard to understand and determine the meaning of a work of art. It is usually bigger and bolder.

·         Our museums are filled with uncertain modern images, rather than war heroes like museums in the past.

·         Consumerism has influenced Modern Art, and was first expressed in Pop Art. Pop Art expressed how we should live our lives in regards to our values constantly changing. As the world becomes more interconnected, people are becoming disconnected with themselves and how they should live their lives. Rather than turning to Greek Gods or art for the answers as we have in the past, we turn to advertisements. Shopping is how we attempt to find what we need to live our lives.

·         Religion is expressed differently in Modern Art, as it is known that every person does not believe in the same higher power, if any nowadays.

·         Any style or subject is acceptable in modern art and art now is a mass fascination. 

3.      How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

In Chapter 22, there is an artist section on page 508 that pertains to Andy Warhol. This section details his past and the video correlates this information in greater detail. The second video discusses how modern art is completely different from art in the past, and it reflects the changes that civilization has gone through industrially, and religiously. The text discusses modern art, pop art, and abstract art but the videos reiterate information while enhancing the material.

4.      What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

I enjoyed these videos because they were more informational than the text in regards to modern art now. It was interesting to see the reasoning for the huge change in art from the past to art now. It was a concept I had always wondered about but never knew why. I also liked that the video on Andy Warhol detailed the reading in the text by emphasizing his famous works, and discussing them and how they were made. Both of the videos were helpful in highlighting the themes of the chapters in this module in more detail with specific examples.

Module 11: Video Reviews

1. Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I selected the videos ‘The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19^th Century to Present’ and ‘Dada and Surrealism’, because they seemed the most interesting. I also wanted to know more about Spanish Art, and was curious about Surrealism concepts.

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Video 1: ‘The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19^th Century to Present

·         Goya is known as one of the fathers of modern art. He developed a dark, grotesque style after he was contracted a very serious illness that left him deaf

·         Goya painted a collection of paintings known as the black paintings. They were black in color and full of despair, death and dark themes. After these paintings were created, he lost his sight, and died.

·         In the start of the 20^th century, Antoni Gaudi, an architect, was the first great artist to emerge in Spain since Goya. Gaudi was the opposite of Goya. He created bright, beautiful mosaics that were inspired by God and Catholic past, and inspired future art.  

·         Picasso was inspired by time he spent in Spain, and his sexual experiences there.

·         Cubism was the coldest part of Picasso’s work, and was also largely inspired by the Catholic past. The faces he painted often resembled African Masks.

·         Spanish artists typically looked elsewhere for spiritual nourishment. Surrealism explored the mythic world, the mind, and dreams.

·         Dali visions were sharp, absurd and morbid. He claimed his museum was the world’s largest surrealist object, when really it is like a giant museum arcade. Dali gave us the language of dreams, and self-exploration. Dali made a painting of a civil war in 1936 that ended up being a prediction of a Civil War in Spain.

·         Picasso created Guernica, once again being drawn back to the religious past of Spain.

·         After the Civil War ended and the leader Franca died, art changed. Architecture was believed to hold the future for Spanish art in the beginning of the 21^st century.

Video 2: ‘Dada and Surrealism’

·         Schwitters began including elements of collage into his works in 1918. At the end of the World War, Dada was seen everywhere, but Schwitter did not believe that the technique was for him. He attempted to oppose the Dadaists with his works, although he is seen as one now. He founded a magazine Merz, as a way to display his works, eventually leading to all kinds of different elements being shown.

·         Hannah Hoch created art that was colorful, chaotic and scandalous, and was one of the last Dada artists. She created art with a focus on politics.

·         Grosz gained several enemies by creating his art, as he focused on subject matter like the dehumanization of the modern city or the methods of entrepreneurs or the schemes of politicians.

·         Joan Miro recreated a 17^th century painting as a parody. He played an important part of 20^th century surrealism painting with an emphasis on sheer visual poetry in his paintings.

·         Dali was a master of psychological suspense and studied the dream interpretations of Freud and patient records. He saw his pictures as allegories of psychoanalyses.

·         Man Ray was one of the Dadaists, but joined the Surrealists in Paris. He never wanted to paint anything realistic or descriptive. He was more interested in the idea of the painting than the actual painting itself.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

The videos relate to the readings in the text by highlighting similar concepts and themes. The section in Chapter 21 regarding Dada and Surrealism focuses on a few artists and their famous works of art that are also mentioned in the video. The video discussed other artists not mentioned in this section, and broke down a work of art into complete detail. Chapter 21 focuses on the modern world of art from 1800-1945, and the first video showed how art had changed over this time period. For example, many artists were influenced artistically by Spain during this time, even if they were from a different country.

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

I enjoyed that the videos discussed topics presented in the text in more detail. For example, the second video about Dada and Surrealism had separate segments that spent time talking about one specific painting in great detail. The narrator discussed the work of art and certain principles and elements the artist used to indicate an idea. I found this break down of concepts helpful, as it is easier than reading about it, and I think it will help me interpret art in the future.