Tuesday, April 23, 2024

A few contemporary artists of note

12 Famous Artworks by Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seeds, 2010, 10 tons of handmade porcelain sunflower seeds. 
Ai Weiwei: dissident, constant reinventor of himself as artist, brave activist, innovator. Learn more about him via the Documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, and learn more about this specific piece here. Chinese.

Smarthistory – Mark Dion, Neukom Vivarium
Mark Dion, Neukom Vivarium. exterior, 2006


Neukom Vivarium - Wikipedia
Mark Dion, Neukom Vivarium, 2006, interior with Western Hemlock nurse log. Learn more about this hybrid work of architecture, design, education,  sculpture, and horticulture here. American. 



Cao Fei: Overlapping Temporalities and Realities | | Flash Art
Cao Fei explores the impact of rapidly emerging technologies on human relationships. Learn more about her multimedia works here and watch some of her works here. Chinese. 

A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby' at the Domino Plant - The New York  Times
Kara Walker, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, installed at the Dominos Sugar Factory, 2014. Learn more about Kara Walker via an 8-minute NPR story here. American.



Rhythm 0: A Scandalous Performance by Marina Abramović
Marina Abramovic, Rhythm Zero, performance art, 1974. Learn more about this performance artist's long and intense career here. Serbian. 


lonnie holley art
Lonnie Holley's artwork's are just one of the entry points to his work as a sculptor, musician, educator, performance artists and activist. Check out this amazing short documentary about his life, art, and music. American. 


El Anatsui: Earth's Skin
El Anatsui, Earth's Skin, 2007, copper and aluminum. Ghana. Like Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui creates space for many to make his work 

 

Alfredo Jaar. The Silence of Nduwayezu, detail, 1997. 1 million slides, light table, magnifiers, and illuminated wall text. Table: 36 inches × 217 3/4 inches × 143 inches. Text: 6 inches × 188 inches. © Alfredo Jaar, courtesy of Galerie Lelong, New York. Chilean 

"I always try to incorporate an intellectual and emotional element because I like to create different entry points for the audience. I’m concerned about communication; this is my goal. I didn’t want to take the risk that this work would stay just on a visual level, so I needed the information. But obviously I agree that a lot of people might enter this place and just be overwhelmed by the scale of this representation."






Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Photo, Paint, Paris


File:Nadar-Self-Portrait.jpg
Nadar, Self-Portrait, about 1856


French photographer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar, would turn 104 this month, if he hadn't died about a 114 years ago. In Paris, about 1860, photography had just begun to bring to light many provocative questions about representation and art. (The word photography means light-writing.)

The characters interest me in part because of their connections to each other via work, love, family, rivalry, inspiration and play. You can see a few places the characters overlap in the 'photo-essay' below.

The Players, all as photographed by Nadar.


Nadar, Berthe Morisot, 1870


Nadar, Charles Baudelaire, ~1856

Nadar, Edouard Manet, 1865

Nadar in The Giant, the balloon he flew over Paris to photograph the city from above, "taking photography higher than any other art"

Not 
Félix but Paul Nadar, his son, released the shutter on this photo of Monet:

Paul Nadar, Claud Monet, 1899

And, for good measure, a painting of one of our players by another. Berthe Morisot is the grand-niece of the painter Fragonard  (we've looked at his painting The Happy Accident of the Swing)and the sister-in-law of Edouard Manet (who painted Olympia--which some call the first modern painting. .
Berthe Morisot with a bouquet of violets - Edouard Manet
Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets, 1872

File:Manet - Berthe Morisot ruhend.jpg
Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot , 1872

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Berthe_Morisot_Manet_Lille_2918.jpg
Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot , 1874

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1419/1320119605_ff5b3063b3.jpg
Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with a Fan, 1872


Edgar Dégas, Manet listening to his wife play Piano, 1870's

File:Mary Stevenson Cassatt.jpg - Wikipedia
Edgar Dégas, Mary Cassatt Playing Cards, 1884

Au musée du Louvre Miss Cassatt by Edgar Degas on artnet
Edgar Dégas, Au Musee du Louvre (Miss Cassatt), 1879

Edouard Manet | Portrait of Charles Baudelaire in Profile | The  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manet, caricature of Baudelaire, ~1865

Monet in his Studio Boat, 1874 - Edouard Manet - WikiArt.org


Manet, Monet in his Floating Studio, ~1874


Manet, Déjeuner sure l'Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1863
Monet, Déjeuner sure l'Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1865




Thursday, April 11, 2024

Las Meninas

 

 Making The Modern Artist: VelazQuez Maids of Honor

"Las Meninas" Introduction to The Order of Things, an Archeology of Knowledge by Michel Foucault.

This reading comes from French theorist Michel Foucault. Like most French theory, it deals in tiny details, and Foucault writes in a typically French style which constantly circles back around on itself to check for holes and to seek a new way of writing appropriate to the content (in this case, the way looking at and representing involve maneuvers of power). 


Las Meninas part one from betsy towns on Vimeo.
***After watching this segment, you may feel more confused when you felt upon first looking at the painting. Please be ready to describe in class what you thought the subject of the painting was upon first seeing it, and what you think it is now.

Watching the next segment, imagine having a painter represent you. How much power do they have and how much do you have as you pose? How much power does the commissioner have?


Looking at You Looking at Me from betsy towns on Vimeo.

***In your notebook, comment on the types of representation and types of space you see here. In the next segment, Foucault finally introduces the main characters, and explains how knowing their names can mislead you into thinking you know the subject of the painting. Before you watch it, make some notes about what you think the subject is now, if it has changed.

Pure Reciprocity from betsy towns on Vimeo.





Foucault does not explain specifically why he thinks the names of the characters don't matter. But he gives hints. Can you grapple with why he believes this, and why he would use this close reading of a painting as the introduction to a book about knowledge and power.





Velasquez, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor),  1656

File:Diego Velázquez - Queen Isabel, Standing - WGA24385.jpg

Velasquez, Portrait of Mariana, p. 154

Rembrandt's 'Artist in his Studio' Perfectly Captures the ...

Rembrandt, Self Portrait in the studio, 1626

Rembrandt's 'Artist in his Studio' Perfectly Captures the ...

fyi... the rembrandt is tiny, 9" high; the velazquez is giant, 125 " high!I think I've still made the rebrandt too big by comparison!

Vermeer, Allegory of Painting, 


Key Question: Can you make a case for why Las Meninas gets the title ‘first modern painting?’ What does your self-portrait look like?




 
MPmeninas
source



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/e/ec/20090225003243!Las_Meninas_mirror_detail.jpg


File:Van Eyck - Arnolfini Portrait.jpg



A discussion of The Arnolfini Portrait by Van Eyck
 8

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/e/ec/20090225003243!Las_Meninas_mirror_detail.jpg .

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Velazquez-Meninas-key3.jpg/350px-Velazquez-Meninas-key3.jpgKey from Wikipedia.
(1) Infanta Margarita Teresa of Spain
(2) doña Isabel de Velasco
(3) doña María Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor
(4) the dwarf German, Maribarbola (Maria Barbola)
(5) the dwarf Italian, Nicolas Pertusato
(6) doña Marcela de Ulloa
(7) unidentified bodyguard (guardadamas)
(8) Don José Nieto Velázquez
(9) Velázquez
(10) King Philip IV reflected in mirror
(11) Mariana, queen of King Philip, reflected in mirror
"These proper names would form useful landmarks and avoid ambiguous designations; they would tell us in any case what the painter is looking at, and the majority of the characters in the picture along with him. But the relation of language to painting is an infinite relation. It is not that words are imperfect, or that, when confronted by the visible, they prove insuperably inadequate. Neither can be reduced to the other's terms: it is in vain that we say what we see; what we see never resides in what we say. And it is in vain that we attempt to show, by the use of images, metaphors, or similes, what we are saying; the space where they achieve their splendour is not that deployed by our eyes but that defined by the sequential elements of syntax. And the proper name, in this particular context, is merely an artifice: it gives us a finger to point with, in other words, to pass surreptitiously from the space where one speaks to the space where one looks; in other words, to fold one over the other as though they were equivalents. But if one wishes to keep the relation of language to vision open, if one wishes to treat their incompatibility as a starting-point for speech instead of as an obstacle to be avoided, so as to stay as close as possible to both, then one must erase those proper names and preserve the infinity of the task. It is perhaps through the medium of this grey, anonymous language, always over-meticulous and repetitive be–cause too broad, that the painting may, little by little, release its illuminations." Michel Foucault, The Order of Things



http://www.wga.hu/art/v/velazque/08/0805vela.jpg

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ca/e/e4/PabloPicass...


Pablo Picasso, Las Meninas, 1957


Joel-Peter Witkin | LAS MENINAS (1987) | MutualArt


Joel Peter Witkin, Las Meninas (Self Portrait), 1987


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Eve Sussman, 89 Seconds at Alcazar, 2003
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Manolo Valdés, Las Meninas, 2007

Infanta Margarita 1659Diego Velasquez, The Infanta Margarita, 1659




Picasso, Infanta Margarita, 1957


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Yasumasa Morimura, Daughter of Art History, 1989




Julie Heffernan, Self-Portrait as Infanta ;Maria Teresa Dreaming Madame de Sade, 1999, oil on canvas, 67 x 58 inches



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