Ai Weiwei Underway

Ai Weiwei, Safe Sex, 1986

Influenced by readymades of Duchamp, Warhol, Rauschenberg and Johns.

Citizens' Investigation on Sichuan earthquake student casualties, 2009

"To remember the departed, to show concern for life, to take responsibility, and for the potential happiness of the survivors, we are initiating a 'Citizens' Investigation.' We will seek out the names of each departed child, and we will 

remember them."

Well,... I started making a blog post on Ai Weiwei's art, since we've learned so much about his life and process..... but then I found this post about his Hirschorn Retrospective and I realized we should just use this. :) 

Documentary in Art

3/24 Presentation/ Time: Documentary/Evidence

Watch Art 21: Sugimoto, Dion, Ford

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz

Jeff Koons, New Hoover Convertibles, New Shelton Wet/Drys 5-Gallon, Double Decker, 1981-1986

Price Realized (Set Currency)

• $11,801,000
• Price includes buyer's premium

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

Tiger shark, glass, steel, 5% formaldehyde solution
213 x 518 x 213 cm
Charles Saatchi

David Teniers (1610-90) Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Picture Gallery in Brussels, c. 1651. Oil on copper, 105 x 130 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Samuel Morse, The Gallery of the Louvre, ~1831

Gerard Boersma, The Circle, 2008

Thomas Struth, Museo Del Prado 6, Madrid 2005
C - print mounted on UV Plexiglas
69 7/8 x 85 3/8 x 2 3/8 inches

Thomas Struth's shot of crowds at the Prado, c. 2005

Thomas Struth, Musee du Louvre, IV, 1989

Antoine Wattteau, Signboard of Gersaint, 1720

Collections:

Alexander Isadore LeRoy du Bard

Polar Bear, 1976, Hiroshi Sugimoto, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, purchased with funds 

"The task of the Artist I think: Through my transformation of how I see things to show everybody, it makes imagination possible." Hiroshi Sugimoto

A Stem of Delicate Leaves of an Umbrellifer, circa 1843-1846, 2009, Hiroshi Sugimoto, toned gelatin silver print.

Queen Victoria, 1999, Hiroshi Sugimoto, gelatin silver print. 

Hiroshi Sugimoto, from the Theater series, early 1980's

Mark Dion, 

Mark Dion, Landfill, 1999-2000
Mixed media, 71 1/2 x 147 1/2 x 64 inches. 

Mark Dion, Neukom Vivarium, 2013

Mark Dion Marvelous Museum, 2010

“I don’t care if people call it art or not – that’s really not my question, you know. As far as I know that question was solved…Duchamp’s urinal was you know, complacently sitting in MoMA before I wet my first diaper.

So those are not my issues; what I care about is, ‘is it interesting?’ Am I making a contribution to visual culture that’s engaging, that brings up questions, that produces dialogue and discourse?” Mark Dion

Walton Ford, Madagascar (Elephant Bird), 2002

Walton Ford, Passenger Pigeons, 

"The dreamlike quality gave me all this room to pack it with all narrative" That seems to happen independent of the fact that this thing was crashing down." Walton Ford

Walton Ford, 

Walton Ford, Installation view of Tigers of Wrath, Brooklyn Museum, 2007

"I wanted to make the largest watercolors ever. Ultimately that because fun all by itself. Sounds like I have all these intellectual reasons for painting these things but ultimately I want to paint a sexy monkey and a big elephant with an erection.... big overwrought emotion, melodrama... I am a maximalist...." Walton Ford.

pieter hugo, abdullahi mohammed with mainasara, lagos, nigeria, 2007, c-print

pieter hugo, abdullahi mohammed with mainasara, ogre-remo, nigeria, 2007, c-print 

pieter hugo, mummy ahmadu and mallam mantari lamal with mainasara, abuja, nigeria, 2005, c-print

S

for next time: critiques

Satire

I've always enjoyed using beauty and seduction as a way of engaging people with 

Yinka Shonibare, Odile and Odette, 2005, color film

"To be an artist, you have to be a good liar. There's no question about that. If you're not, you can't be a good artist. Basically, you have to know how to fabricate, how to weave tales, how to tell lies, because you're taking your audience to a nonexistent space and telling them that it does exist. " Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare, How to Blow up Two heads at once, 2006
how does headlessness function here?   

Yinka Shonibare, Scramble for Africa

Yinka Shonibare, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews without their Heads, 

thomas Gainsborough, MR. and Mrs. Andrews, 1750

Maurizio Cattelan, La Nona Hora, 1999

Maurizio Cattelan, Him, 2006

Add caption

The Guggenheim retrospective

Maurizio Cattelan,  Super Us, 1996

Maurizio Cattelan, Bidibidobidiboo, 1996

‘‘The thing about this award on some levels is that my work ... all of it has this first impact, the sort of impact of spectacle. It’s beautifully made, strong, aesthetic, so people are interested in that and it draws them in, and then they get interested in the idea. It takes a while to get to the idea. It’s not easy. So this award says, 'We get it, we get what you’re trying to do, we’ve gone beyond the surface, we can see that there are ideas underneath, and these ideas are about the opportunity for connection’.’’

Patricia Piccinini, The Young Family, 2002

Silicone, polyurethane, leather, plywood, human hair