Self portrait project

                           Selfish Portrait

                          Picture

                     
                          Ramon Mati Alsina, Self portrait  1875
                          MNAC  Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
                         

                           Paul Cezanne, Self Portrait with felt hat  1890
                           Bridgestone Museum of Art Ishibashi




                          
          I  chose the three pieces for individual reasons, starting with the one you don't see, "Yawning"  by Joseph Ducreux 1783, (file picture was to big to load). A picture of a stout man dressed in a red suit, think British soldier  in revolutionary war, arms stretched in a yawn, a wonderful variation on a portrait.  
         Paul Cezanne's self portrait was telling, an unassuming old man in a non-descript suit with a gaze that asks 'what are you looking at'.
         The most inspiring was by Ramon Mati Alsina, the look, the eyes and the incredible detail of the face was inspirational although it made my try incredibly simplistic.

         Pencil was the easiest medium it allowed erasing.

         The challenges, attempting to draw. Trying to overcome.

         My representation was not what you would want to use for a missing persons sketch.

         I used lines to represent the face and attempted to use shade of light to give depth to the image.
         
         There was some enjoyment in the process and the final product, which was at least not completely horrible, but I need a lot more practice to be satisfied with any self portrait.
        

             
        
                  

Mod 13-14 Curator project

            For my curator project I chose to show a brief history of landscape paintings and scenes. Beginning with the Romans, which were some of the earliest to be found by internet search, landscape scenes were merely a backdrop, often for depictions of various gods.  East Asian landscape art ,done frequently on scrolls or silk, tended to represent the best scenes of nature not necessarily any particular view.  European landscapes, post roman to pre renaissance seemed to be realistic in nature, but still a backdrop for the figures of the story.  The renaissance artists altered the perception of what a landscape could be by putting a greater focus on the landscape itself and how we view nature. The Hudson School style of capturing the beauty of nature I found appealing and is well represented in American folk art.  Christina's World was my last selection and it seemed to be a bridge between the beauty of landscape art and the appeal of a greater meaning to a work of art.    

Mod 13

1)  I watched two of the three videos, one as unavailable for viewing. These videos were the required videos and so there was no discretion.

 2) The first video on "LowBrow" art of the west coast was interesting for I did not know that there was such a genre.  I was however familiar with the style and some of the images in fact my neighbor practices this style and I will have to ask him if he is aware of its origin. The main concept of that video was that art is what it is not just what some whom have studied declare art is.
     The second video's theme was how much effort is put forth by some curators to present the art that is I guess considered '"HighBrow"  in a cohesive fashion and display in for the general public to view and enjoy.  

 4)  It was a good idea for the west coast to revolt against the elitism of the established art culture as many artists had to do in the past , such as creating their own salons for displaying pieces not considered worthy by the established schools and curators.  I believe it is true that some art work that is considered prized now was rejected when it had been created. Some would I am sure love to have some of the monies that are now paid for their pieces. 

Module 12

  1)   I chose the videos the Power of Art, Rothko and Hockney on Photography.  I was not aware of them or their influence on art so I wanted to check them out as modern artists. And always looking for ways to improve my photography.

  2)   The main focus of Hockney was how to use photos as a tool to produce pictures and art pieces. His use of multiple frames to produce a full size art piece was unique and very interesting. 
        Rothko took his art to a new level, producing pieces that were in need of discovery and study by the viewer to appreciate.  His stance against painting the murals for the Four Seasons restaurant gave him credibility and was a stand against the popular and excepted desire for patrons.

  3)   The videos were an extension of the concept of modern art, showing how the artists were trying to break out of the molds that they felt were harnessing them.


 4)  Both videos were interesting to view and gave incite to the working and mindset of the artists.  The works that they produced obviously had a great impact on the art world opened the doors to many artists as they seek acceptance of their own works.  

2nd Museum Visit the Burchfield Penny

1) There several exhibitions going on the main non permanent was the Portraits by Philip Burke.  This used up the majority of the exhibition space. The theme was bright water color portraits of famous or familiar people done in a fashion representative of the personality of the subject.


 2)  The gallery was an interesting use of the space and I believe well designed.  Upon entering the main hall you are immediately drawn to the dark grey wall ahead but to the left and the lighting that highlighted the picture and text on the wall, even though there are large watercolors of bright colors on the adjacent wall, a good use of  contrast drawing a viewer to the dark wall when everything else  is of  much sharper and brighter. There were different lighting schemes in different parts of the gallery depending on the exhibition, for the main area with the portraits the lighting was general to the space although directed at the walls.  In contrast the lighting for the Burchfield exhibit was much more focused on individual pieces.
       The color of the walls was a light grey and the ceiling white making it a very bright atmosphere.  That is why the dark grey wall stood as such a contrast.  The flooring was for the most part was white oak, with one carpeted area. The space did incorporate some brick work as a contrast to the ubiquitous drywall, and in that area the ceiling opened up to around a 40 ft ceiling leading you from the entry way to the main hall.
      

  3)   All the artwork was organized into groups of sub themes.  The sub themes of the portrait exhibit were of the fields of work the subjects were known for, such as musician, actor, politician, etc. the other minor exhibitions were given their own intimate spaces and broken in groups of similar themes, such as Burchfield's paintings were grouped together apart from his drawings and sketches on music.     
        The portrait's were not framed, just canvas on its wood frame, there were other pieces that had various types of frames depending on the artist. 
        In general for the gallery there were different types and interpretations of art works. The portraits were all similar in design, but the smaller viewing rooms had pieces as different as reverse glass paintings and sketch's depicting sound.

Chosen pieces

    Philip Burke, 2007 Rush Limbaugh, oil on canvas.

          I love this rendition of Rush, fire emitting from his swollen head.  The color of the flames are in contrast to the dark colors of his clothes and the placement of the cigar in front, a traditional symbol of power, reflects how the artist wants you to view his subject. A egotistical little man's enjoyment of starting fires, by the smile, with his small fist clenched at his side.

 

 Charles E Burchfield, Haunted Twilight, 1954-1962, water color and charcoal on paper.

         This is an example of Burchfield's impressionism.  The contrast of what could be a happy landscape portrait, the color scheme and shadows very much add feeling of being haunted. It does seem a little in contrast to the artist who relishes the outdoors and nature. In this perhaps he is reminding us that our casual destruction of natural places may result in this.     

 

 Philip Burke, self portrait, 2001, oil on canvas.

      An interesting portrayal of the artist by the artist, in contrast to the earlier self portaits that ere also on display.  The earlier portraits were life like, if distorted.  In this piece he appears as his most distorted subject perhaps the upper eye sees more with his brain than just with his eyes. The color use and the crocked paint brush draw your eyes to his, is he painting you. 

mod 11

 

1)  I chose to watch the "Mystic North" Spanish Art from the 19th century to present, because it was not a era or location that I new much about, although I found that I new some of them already.
     Expressionism was my second choice, again because I thought I knew little of this style and this time I was correct, most of their names I was not familiar with.


 2)  The key concepts of both films were similar, artists were experimenting and breaking away from status quo of the old masters.  Led by Goya in Spain paintings began depicting its subject's in a different light, such as true agony in his religious paintings and the horror of war from the point of view e everyday person lived and died through.  Artists such as Picasso and Dali took different paths but also broke away from there traditional training to produce their art with more impressionism than the earlier masters.
       In expressionism the artists seem to be giving more thought to how the piece effected your emotions using colors and distortions of the subjects than staying true to traditional notions of technique.  Both videos showed how artists were even more, the activist, showing the true results of war and the ills of the society of the time in a new way.


 3)  The videos gave a more in depth at the artist's in their time, such as when Goya lost his hearing to illness that he became a recluse and painted the walls of compound in black and depicted morose scenes on them.  The video on expressionism gave a much greater explanation to the work of those artists and their motivation for  expanding the realm of art in the way that they did.


 4)   Both videos were entertaining, the Expressionism video was a great introduction to works I had never seen before and also historical giving context to the work from the time.  The Mystic North reminded or informed me of how many great or famous Spanish artists there are and filled in the gaps of what these famous artists were famous for.

Ceremonial Mask module 10

  1)  I selected the first piece because I liked the smiling and laughing face that the Korean artist captured in this wooden mask. There were many happy faced Korean masks but the artist though the use of line patterns brought out the texture of the face giving the piece the look of real skin wrinkled by a smile.
       The second piece is from South America and I chose because of the quirky smile that has a whimsical appeal for a possibly not so serious of ceremony.  The artist maintains summitry in the mask by using appropriate scale from the face at normal and the side of the face with the crooked smile seem in proportion.  Also the color and shadow scheme give the face texture and depth.
       The third mask is also from South America and I chose because I liked the use of color.  Unlike some of the masks the colors used seem more organic not the garishness of the carnival masks, but a sense of rhythm and pattern.  The use of representative lines for the outline of the face and its overall structure allowed the artist to fill in the spaces with color yet still be viewed as obviously a face.

  Creating the mask was an interesting experience as a non art major it was a bit intimidating but I used the paint from a previous project and things  seemed to go alright.  I tried to use color give the mask its shape of a face and have a pattern to represent all the appropriate parts. The lines on the forehead try to give the mask more depth and character.  The hair gives the mask its 3-D effect and adds texture and the look of a ceremonial mask.