Blog 12: Video Reviews

Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the '50s and '60s

1. I chose this video because these decades both seem like an exciting time for art since there was lot of interesting history being made during this time. I was also interested in learning more about pop art.

2. The space which figurative paintings fill is quite different than the space that abstract paintings fill. When we travel into the ideas of an abstract painting we have to look deeply into it. We travel towards it in imagination but it meets us half way. Franz Kline was an abstraction artist living in New York. When Kline began to reject figurative paintings, he seemed to reject all elements that might recall it by association. In his early work in the 1950's Kline restricted himself to purely black and white. He was interested in the neutrality of black and white and their interrelation. He is not just painting black on a white canvas but he paints the white just as he paints the black. The way we perceive black and white is the same idea of how we interpret depth and surface. Mountains and Sea was painted by Helen Frankenthaler in 1952, it went on to influence a whole generation of American artists. Mountains and Sea consists of pale colors. The shapes are indeterminate smudges and blotches. The illusions to real objects are too vague to gain attention. There is an overall fascination and mystery with these colors and illusions that come out of the surface. Willem de Kooning paints, Morning: The Spring, a work that is unrecognizable but brings a lightness to its abstract shapes. Wind, sunlight, and reflection come through the colors and off of the painting as everything flows together weightlessly. Much of the painting is monochrome except in the bottom corner where the bright yellow figure jumps away from the picture. In 1954, an artist named Jasper Johns took the stars and stripes and created a piece called Flag. Before Johns created Flag he went through a streak where he destroyed almost all of his previous work. Flag was a new beginning and the turning of a page for this artist. Looking hard at this piece you begin to see it differently and to question its significance. Johns was known to choose subject items that were found in the every day world that had become invisible and wanted to bring them back to life through his art. He took these subjects and made them interesting, beautiful, and interestingly seductive to the viewer. The colors of flag are bold and simple, they are merely symbolic. Andy Warhol paints a portrait of his fellow American artist Robert Rauschenberg, titled - The Texan: Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg. This painting includes the portrait 28 times in one work. The image shown of Robert is tough and private, but not specific. Andy Warhol is undoubtedly know as pop art's most famous son, but Robert Rauschenberg is actually said to be the father of the movement. It seems this piece is Andy Warhol paying homage to the father of pop art. Pop art embraces the rhythyms, images, and textures of modern city life. This portrait of Rauschenberg displays each picture in rows of lines. Warhol had developed a silk screening techniques to produce multiple images. Roy Lichtenstein: Girl With Hair Ribbon is the last pop art piece we see in this video. This work shows a brightly painted girl looking over her shoulder somewhat surprised or maybe upset. She is seductive with her half open lips. Lichtenstein uses a mechanical painting style. He uses areas of blank canvas with dotted colors to create patterns that make up the girl. This image is both simple and sophisticated. The abstract pattern takes over the entire painting. The details are very vital to this piece and take over the whole for the viewer. The way he chooses to convey his ideas is amusing and powerful.
3. This video related closely to chapter 22. The pop art section in the chapter talks a lot about Andy Warhol, icluding a biography page on him and we also see Lichtenstein in the text as well. The artists of pop art really brought excitement to the art world with their new creative techniques and important messages to convey.
4. This film was really helpful to expand on the art of the 1950s and 1960s. It was nice to "meet" some of the artists that worked around the time of Warhol and Lichtenstein and how they compared. It was also interesting to learn about the Rauschenberg piece. I learned that he was said to be the father of pop art and I thought it was interesting that Warhol created The Texan piece as sort of a tribute to him.

Hockney on Photography
1. I chose this video because most of the other videos we've watched have been more about painting so I thought it would be interesting to hear more about photography. After reading the summary on the video page it sounds like this man made a transition from painting to photography so it should be interesting to hear his story and see his work.
2. This video is about the career of David Hockney. He was a great painter from Britain who developed a strong skill for photography. Listening to Hockney speak about cameras you can immediately feel his love for his craft. He clearly got into photography because of his fascination of the chemical process and experimentations a camera could bring. He began with a polaroid camera in Los Angeles. His work is incredible. He describes his piece that features Bill Brandt. It is a series of 49 polaroids laid out in a large 7 x 7 square. Each polaroid is evenly spaced to show Bill Brandt sitting with a woman. He uses the polaroids to create these grids that take the medium to a whole new place. Vogue magazine did a 40 page spread with David Hockney in 1985. This was really cool to see because not only did we see some of the pieces hanging in a gallery but the video was also able to show a copy of the magazine. Hockney explains one piece from this project with a chair. The chair is created with a series of images of different parts of one chair that are collaged in a way to use all the individual photographs to show one chair. Hockney explains the perception of this chair and how the linear perspective might take you one way but goes on to explain that his idea was actually with movement. He saw one side of the chair one way as he approached the front of the chair and then kept walking to see the other side of the chair. The image isn't suppose to be like you're just standing in front of a chair but movement is created. Hockney from then on was fascinated with perspective. One of the coolest things Hockney did was take photographs of his own paintings. The video shows him taking a picture of a painting of a vase of flowers he did but he left the real vase he was using to paint from beside his painted piece. He then used the camera to see his painting a different way and make his painting even more realistic.
3. This video connects to chapter 22 in the text. The video and the second half of chapter 22 explain how art has evolved since the eighties and how the digital realm has changed the world of art. David Hockney was like any other painting artist until he got his hands on a camera and his work went in an entirely different direction. With Hockney's work it is interesting to learn where the world of painting and photography intertwine. Hockney went back and forth between painting and photography on different projects to allow him to develop his projects in a stronger way. He would paint from pictures he had taken or photograph his paintings to see them in a different way. Hockney was adamant about always looking in a different direction.
4. I really enjoyed this video. It was probably one of my favorites from this semester. It is incredible to hear David Hockney hear about his experiences and ideas and thought process as he was creating his photographs. His passion about photography just pours out of him in a really genuine way. This video definitely taught me a lot more about photography, cameras, and printing. It also gave me more insight on perspective. 

Art Gallery Visit # 2

Burchfield Penney Art Center Thursday, July 25, 2013

Step 1: The Exhibition- Let There Be Light

                                     

Theme: Light. Including wielded lights, the opportunity to explore lights, to manipulate lights, and control lights with your voice. There was also photo booth for an interactive piece of the exhibit.

Step 2: The Gallery

This type of track lighting was used throughout the gallery. Upstairs they had 2 large cut outs in the ceiling for the natural light to come down from above. 

The walls were white in the majority of the gallery as you see in the top picture. Some walls popped with a dark gray color as you see in the bottom picture which also shows the rotunda in the background that was tiled in a brick like pattern. The Margaret L. Wendt gallery was the only section of the center with all dark gray walls and there was one exhibit in a dark room with all black walls.

Materials used in the interior architecture included wooden flooring, drywalls, tables, and chairs.

The movement of the viewer flowed very well. When you first walk in you can either go left or right. I went left and viewed the John R. Oishei Foundation and Anthony J. Sisti Galleries which included all of Charles Burchfield's work on the entire left side of the center. Toward the back of the center is the East Gallery which included The Douglas Kirkland Photoshoot: Marilyn. I circled back around through the R. William Dolittle Gallery and Margaret L. Wendt Gallery before going upstairs to the Charles Cary Rumsey Gallery and Sylvia Rosen Gallery which were almost entirely open expect for one wall separating the two even though all the work upstairs was by the same artist.

Step 3: The Artwork

As you can see in a few of the pictures I posted from previous questions and then this photo show how the wall artworks were organized. They were all even spaced about 2 feet apart from each other and about 4 feet up from the ground. The areas that included sculptures had boxes that matched the walls spaced scattered through out the gallery with one sculpture on each box. The size and height of the box was based on the size of the sculpture.

This wall is from the Douglas Kirkland photoshoot: Marilyn. This was in the East Gallery and was the only place where the wall artwork was organized differently than what I explained in the last response. Each gallery held a theme or was consistent of work from just one artist. This wall shows very similar artwork because they are all pictures of Marilyn Monroe from one photoshoot, so they are incredibly similar. The Margaret L. Wendt gallery was completely dedicated to women so the works were similar in that they all fell into the same idea of women, women's rights, and the history of women. Upstairs was the display of Ellen Steinfeld's collection. All of her work was very similar with the same bright colors, shapes, and techniques used in every piece. This included wall artwork and sculptures that both matched each other. (Pictured below)

 

The artworks were very different from gallery to gallery. For instance, Charles Burchfield's work was mostly scenery, oil paintings, and drawings of cities and buildings. But then I would move to the photoshoot and see no paintings and now just photographs. Then I would move to the back of the gallery and see a large ceiling to floor sculpture made of bags. One room included sound and repeating video footage and then I would move to the gallery dedicated to women. So, they definitely organized the artworks by putting similar pieces together but it was moving from section to section where you saw the large differences between different kinds of art.

The artworks were al framed differently. Some had light wooden frames, some had black metal frames, and some had large bronze, textured frames.

The artworks are identified and labeled with these small cards printed with the artist, title of the work, year, and medium. A lot of them also had the name of the person who donated the work to the center.

The proximity of the artwork to each other varied from each gallery. Most of them as I mentioned earlier were about two feet apart from each other. Some of the photographs as shown in the Marilyn exhibit were a lot closer together and the sculptures were a good distance away from each other so it was easy to maneuver around them and view them.

Step 4: Art Criticism Exercise 

Ellen Steinfeld 

Nine Small Steps, 2009

Watercolor on Paper 

Courtesy of the Artist

Description: These shapes remind me of flowers and leaves.

Formal Analysis: The first thing I notice with this painting is the value and contrast. There are a lot of different colors used through the piece that are bright and whimsical but there are also touches of dark and black that cause your eyes to move around. Balance is created through the nine separation lines and the unity of the types of shapes that are used. The most crucial element in this piece is line as the lines create shapes and paths through different angles and curves. 

Bracketing: There is no kind of iconography that stands out to me with this piece.

Interpretation: This artist had many works on display all with the same type of colors and techniques throughout her paintings and sculptures. I believe this artist is trying to bring joy and hope with her work as the colors liven up the room and give a happy feeling. 

Patricia Carter

Allegory of a Surrogate Mother, 1998

Oil on Canvas

Gift from the artist

Description: This painting shows an African American woman in maid like clothing wearing an apron as she stands on a checkered floor in a blue room. Behind her is a picture on the wall. The picture shows her from the hips down with two infants at her feet.

Formal Analysis: Line creates a black and white checkerboard floor and separates the floor from the wall. The wall jumps out of the picture with emphasis created by the bright blue color. Form brings curtains pulled back and hanging down the sides of the picture. 

Bracketing: It seems this piece is representative of the African American history. The African American maid is taking care of the house and the children even in the modern world there are still stigmas and stereotypes.

Interpretation: I feel like the artist was trying to say that minorities are still sometimes used in the wrong ways. The picture in the background says to me that this woman works hard for a family taking care of someone else's kids and cleaning someone else's house. 

Virginia Cuthbert (1908-2001)

Self-Portrait, c. 1941

oil on board

Gift of Virginia Cuthbert Elliott, 1994

Description: An artist works in a studio painting a picture. Surrounded by brushes, canvas, frames, newspapers, and paint, the woman is staring straight out of the picture with a stern look on her face.

Formal Analysis: Balance and proportion definitely play a role in this piece as the woman because the center and her work is balanced around her. The proportions seem very realistic judging by the size of the woman compared to the table and dresser in the background along with the size of the brushes and everything scattered on the table.

Bracketing: I don't believe there is an iconography with this piece. 

Interpretation: I think the artist was trying to say a lot about herself as this was a self portrait. I can only imagine what an artist would go through trying to portray herself through her craft. I feel like this really said a lot about her personality. The colors are dim and subtle, her facial expression is vague and she is completely surrounded by her work. This was obviously a woman who lived to paint and was focused on her skill. She did not want to portray herself with a great big smile and in her prettiest dress but in a natural element of her life. 

I thought it was very interesting to visit the gallery and purposefully look at the exhibition from a different perspective. My first art visit I was very focused on looking at each piece of art that I never did take a step back and think about the type of questions we investigated for this assignment. It was nice to look at the gallery as a whole and take a step back to think about the arrangements and flow of the entire collection at the center.

Blog 11: Video Reviews

Dada and Surrealism

1. I chose this video because a couple of the other videos were unavailable. I wrote about these movements in the discussion post and thought that this video could expand on the text even more and hopefully show some great examples of pieces from these movements.

2. The first Dada artist presented is Kurt Schwitters. He has said he wanted his own art to embrace everything in the world. He began calling his type of work, "Merz" as he wanted to stand apart from cubism, dadaism, and futurism. We then learn about Hanna Hoch, a Berlin artist who wanted to use dada to attack a society she detested. Her piece, "Cut with the Kitchen Knife" is a photomontage from 1919. She used 50 well known faces from politics, business, art, and sport as she mutilated and cut them up to put them out of context and stir up chaos. The importance of the dada movement was to keep up with the changing world and the way europe was changing. The political and cultural standing is mutilated by dadaism art. We next learn of George Grosz who used anger as an essential part of his dada art pieces. He was known for painting his entire face while and sitting in a cafe to play the part of a character he created, "the saddest man in Europe." His paintings of the city of Berlin lead people to feel trapped in the city and stuck as prisoners. We then explore Surrealism through the work of Joan Miro and his work Dutch Interior I. This work simply looks like a series of shapes, colors and lines combining and intertwining. Within the details there are clues as to what is actually happening as a person playing guitar comes to view. The idea of surrealism includes that there are different ways to look at a picture. One of the most famous surrealist artists, Salvador Dali is then introduced with his work, The Burning Giraffe. He set out to explore the darkest regions of the human subconscious and imagination. We see the stick like figures in a very small space locked into the painting. Dali's imagination shows a world that does not make any sense. Although we can make out the shapes to see a woman and a giraffe, the actions are completely unrealistic. The setting and background shows the decay of the world. The last artist we meet in this video is Man Ray. We see his surrealism piece, "La Fortune" from 1938. Man Ray was able to bring a new unfamiliar kind of beauty to his art. The meaning within this painting is very obscure and does not fit into any one interpretation. 

3. This video is a great extension from the Dada and Surrealism section in chapter 21. The video allows us to see 3 great artists from both movements and explain the ideas and history in some of their works. 

4. I liked how this video was set up and went through short clips to explain six different artists that we part of similar movements and how their art brought controversy to the world around them. It was nice to see the pieces they were famous for and have some further insight into how these works could possibly be interpreted. 

The Impact of Cubism

1. I chose this video because I still don't feel like I could really define cubism so I was hoping the video could give me more information and examples to understand cubism and the artists that were apart of this time.

2. Cubism was influenced by the works of Cezanne, African tribal art and the art of the liberian pennisula, Cubism the most influential style of the early 20th century. This nonclassical way to represent form and space. We see Juan Gris' The Breakfast Table from 1915. We see the newspaper representing the times of the war and as it lies on the table there is a sense for a troubled morning. We see that life will carry on whether it is war time or peace time. Next, Marcel Duchamp's, Sad Young Man on a Train from 1911 shows us a painting of dark lines but no man. The artist claimed this piece to be a self portrait. This piece brings a sense of movement which causes the idea of evolvement over time. There is a mechanical era that would explain the train traveling. Next, we meet Robert Dulaney and his piece, Champ de Mars from 1911. The first view of the painting leaves you wondering of the subject matter until it is explained that the inspiration included the eiffel tower and the surrounding apartment buildings. This is clearly a stressed interpretation of the tower as it is painted from the artists' own memories and perception. Dulaney was mostly about abstraction in his work and representations often have to be explained by their titles. Sonia Dulaney is another cubism artist that is known for her piece, Electric Prisms. This largely colorful piece brings a sense of harmony through primary and complementary colors. Considering the whole pictures there is an established sense of direction through a formed spiral leading your eyes from the outside into the middle. The next artist, Kazimir Malevich brings us the piece, An Englishman in Moscow. This painting shows us an English man's journey through Moscow presented as a scrapbook or collage like work. There are many shapes surrounding the man such as a fish, a red arrow, scissors, and then there are words saying "partial solar eclipse." Approaching this painting you see the style as cubist but the story with in this work explains something else. Malevich wanted the viewer to experience displacement by shocking the unexpected eye. He wanted the viewer to look for a meaning separate from the accepted logic. Lastly, we meet Umberto Boccioni. Who was a futurist with his work such as Farewells. Boccioni joined the futurists in 1910. He was interested in the chaos and distractions of modern life. He was intrigued by atmosphere and strong emotions evoked by bold colors. He uses the unrealistic colors of expressionism and the multiple perspectives of cubist paintings in his work but none of these techniques could provide the idea of movement he was looking for. He combined what painting had taught him with the up and coming new ideas of the cinema. This imaginary world conditions our perception of reality. The scene is very complex as there are so many different points of view to focus on one main point. 

3. The video and text both touched on Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselle d'Avignon from 1907.  Both the text and video explain the beauty of cubism as it is like linear perspective in that anyone could do it. Cubism offered artists an opportunity to rethink the representation of form and space.

4. This video was similar to the dada and surrealism video in that it went through a series of artists and expanded on ideas of one of their famous cubist pieces. This was helpful in learning to dissect a work and that there is always more than what meets the eye. The video brought in additional artists and works that were not introduced in the text to broaden my perspective of cubism art.

Art Exploration: Exploring Line

1. With your dominant hand, create a drawing of the opposite hand.
2. With your non-dominant hand, create a drawing of the opposite hand.

1. What was it like using your hand as subject matter for a drawing?
Using my hand matter as a drawing was okay. It was nice that they were right there in front of my face and I could really look at the details and see them up close and from all angles. At the same time, it made me really judge mental of my hands!

2. What media did you select- pencil or charcoal? Why?
I chose to use pencil because I am not very comfortable with drawing and have never really used charcoal before so I decided to stick with a medium I use on a daily basis and had on hand.

3. How did it feel to create a drawing with your non-dominant hand?
It was really awkward and I felt like my left hand was so weak because I had trouble getting it to do what I wanted it do! It was kind of shaky and not as smooth as I was able to make lines with my dominant hand. I wrote the words on my drawings because I was trying to work the muscles in my non dominant hand by writing letters before I tried to draw in the details of my hand.

4. Compare and contrast your final drawings. Do you think they are successful studies?
I feel that my drawings are overall successful. You can tell that they are hands but they are not 100% realistic. They still have a cartoony-look to them and the drawings are really flat. In the example given on the assignment sheet the hands really look life like and three dimensional with the shading but I was not able to achieve that same type of outcome.

5. Would you consider using your non-dominant hand to create artwork in the future?
I barely like to use my dominant hand for creating artwork! I would have to do a lot of practicing with my left hand before I considered trying to draw with it. I would probably go back to step one and develop the fine motor skills in my left hand the same way I did with my right hand, rows of ABC's and drawing basic shapes and tracing!

Blog 10: Video Reviews

Buddhism

1. I chose this video after reading Chapter 19 and the summary on the video page. Although I have always heard about Buddhism I am unfamiliar with the type of art that goes with Buddhism other than the few sculptures I read about in the text.

2. Buddhism began in India with an extraordinary man named Siddhartha Gautama who was born in 563 BCE. Gautama was very well off born into a rich family, but when he entered the real world he saw people sick and dying. He began to meditate to find a different way for the world. When he awakened, he saw the world in a different way and Buddhism was born. Bodh Gaya is the birth place of Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains. The Shakarama is the place where Buddha walked and contemplate the ways of life. The temples are granite and carved with the teachings of the Buddha. Buddha believed people should "be lamps unto themselves" and find their own way. He was known to speak out against authority in hope of change. The key to Buddha's teaching is the Tahnha, the extinguishing of all desire fore pleasure, position, and possessions. These preoccupations feed the ego and get in the way of being part of the world. Many followers of Buddha were inspired by this new way to look at the world and were surrounded with support, it was the golden age for Buddhism and it began to sweep through India until Buddha died. After his death Buddhists spilt into two groups: The Monks, Hinayana(Little Boat) and the rest Mahayana(Big Boat.) Sanchi became the center for Buddhist art and architecture. One of the finest of monumental architectures are the stupas. Stupas were created with stories told on stones. The gateways to the Great Stupa in Sanchi are all covered in symbols that represent aspects of the Buddha's life such as the Bodhi Tree and a riderless horse.

3. This video coincides with chapter 19 in the section about Buddhism and its art. The text and video both explain the beginning story of Buddha and the famous stupas in Sanchi. The video is able to add to the architecture of the stupa by showing more details around the gateways and the details within the carvings. It also gives an opportunity to follow the paths around the stupa through the camera. 

4. This video was a good summary of the history of Buddhism. It added on to the reading in the text but I still am unsure of how I would explain Buddhist art other then the carvings on the temples and stupas and then the statues of the Buddha. 

African Art: Legacy of Oppression

1. I chose this video because when I was looking through the videos, the picture on this video reminded me of the work in Chapter 18 of the terra cotta head and I thought it would be interesting to see more pieces similar to this one and more examples of African art. 

2. The world's largest collection of Central African Art is in Belgium at the Tervuren Museum. The huge range of styles that are seen in African art stem from the mix of 250 different cultures in the same region. African art such as the masks, have an immediate impact on the viewer as they can be startling and bold. In the beginning of the video we are shown many different African masks and statues, all of which show strong emotion and represent abstract ideas which in turn are represented with abstract forms as the figures do not look like real people. The African art tells really strong stories or are meant to provoke specific emotions such as the masks to scare young men to respect their elders. But, also there are detailed sculptures to represent their time in slavery. Belgium soldiers would bring back African pieces for their museum, but they also put live African people on display to show an uncivilized villages and civilized villages where hundreds of people came to see them. African art tells the stories of the horrors they endured from the Europeans. 

3. This video relates to Chapter 18 in the Arts of Africa section where several African art pieces are pictured. The video really explains the exaggerations you see in the faces and bodies in African art and also explains the stories and meanings behind some of the pieces which is meaningful to know there is more to discover when you look at pieces similar to these.

4. This video was brief but gave a good insight into the art of Congo and African art. It was interesting to hear the story of how the pieces were brought to the museum in Belgium and even how the African people themselves were put on display at the museum. While the video explains that their art depicts the pain they had endured, it is really easy to see when you go back and look at the art after hearing some of the stories that formed their history and how they represented feelings and actions.

Blog 9: Video Reviews

The Drawings of Michelangelo

1. I chose this video after reading the summary on the video page. It mentions that the video has preparatory drawings of some of Michelangelo's famous works. I thought this would be interesting to see one of the world's most famous artist's drafts and how his paintings developed from their original sketches.

2. In the British Museum has 90 of Michelangelo's drawings for students to study. The first sketch the video shows is a 500 year old drawing of the body of Adam, which eventually became the center painting in the vault of the Sistine Chapel. These drawings allow us to see the way Michelangelo created a drawing and how he developed his skill of reproducing images of people on to paper. It is interesting that they even have this many of his draft sketches because Michelangelo was said to be a perfectionist and although he was drawing all of the time, he destroyed many of his sketches that were not good enough in his eyes. I thought one of the most interesting things from the video was learning that Michelangelo served an apprenticeship for Domenico Ghirlandaio. The video was able to show draft sketches of an idea Ghirlandaio was working on when Michelangelo was just 12 or 13 years old. They then compared Ghirlandaio's sketch to a sketch Michelangelo had done for The Three Crosses. They were so similar and almost exactly the same kind of sketching. But, the video explains that Michelangelo was known to deny his debt to Ghirlandaio and would not want these comparisons to be made. Michelangelo also began sculpting and was able to develop this skill on his own. One of his most famous sculptures is in Florence and is of David. It was immediately known as a masterpiece and he became an inspirational symbol for the city. 

3. This video related to the readings in chapter 16. The text pictures Michelangelo's works David and Dying Slave while it explains how deeply Michelangleo studied anatomy and had even dissected corpses. He had to gain all of the knowledge he could about every element of the human body so that he could transfer that into marble but still create a look of flesh and muscle. While the video explains that Michelango learned to draw and paint from from Ghirlandaio, he taught himself to sculpt. Chapter 16 also shows the interior of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome. While the text explains the four years Michelangelo put into painting the ceiling from a scaffold 68 feet about the floor, the video was able to show the beginning sketches of the ideas Michelangelo was gathering before he actually started work in the Vatican. The video also really added depth to the portion of the Sistine Chapel shown on page 370, the Creation of Adam. The video explains this painting as "Michelangelo creating God, creating Adam." It was really interesting to learn the details of how Michelangelo worked to create a lifeless man reaching out to receive life and how differently the body would lie with all of the details and expressions.

4. I was happy I chose to watch this film because it was really interesting to see another side of such a well known artist. This video really connect to the section on Michelangelo in chapter 16 and I really connected to both because when I was 15 I had gone to Spain, France, and Italy. So it really brought back a lot of memories of being in the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel and seeing the statue of David. I really would like to go back now that I have gained so much more knowledge about art and art history and architecture because as much as I enjoyed my trip, being only 15, I didn't have as deep of an appreciation as I think I would have now after learning so much more about the artists and history.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

1. I chose this video after watch the Michelangelo video because in my mind they are two of the most famous artists I can think of and am interested in finding some of the similarities and differences between them. I know they were both Italian and lived at the same time so now that I have learned so much more about about Michelangelo I am curious about Leonardo da Vinci.

2. Leonardo da Vinci was said to have extraordinary gifts from infancy with a true passion for drawing and an unstable temperament. When he is older, Leonardo moves to Florence and his father puts in him a studio of the renowned sculptor, painter, and goldsmith Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo began to develop a strong perspective and gain a great understanding of proportion of man and other animals. He is the first to use landscape as the main center of a drawing. While he is working under Verrocchio, he is one day tasked to paint an angel within one of Verrocchio's works and the video explains that Verrocchio is humiliated by his apprentice's skill and decides he is unworthy to touch a brush ever again. Leonardo's genius does not just come through his skill of painting but his way of philosophical thinking. The video goes through many of Leonardo's works including The Virgin on the Rocks, The Last Supper, Study of Human Proportions, Virgin and St. Anne, and Mona Lisa. He also experiments with mechanical inventions to explore machinery. He becomes an artist of machines and an artist of science. He is determined to understand the essence of man and takes part in secret dissections to study the human body. It is interesting in the explanation of Leonardo creating The Last Supper in that although he worked nonstop and for days at a time, there were times he did not even pick up a brush. He strongly believed in reflection and that an artist needed to think. 

3. This video related to chapter 16 in the text where we learn about the High Renaissance in that Leonardo da Vinci is named as the "Renaissance Man." Leonardo competed with Michelangelo during this time but da Vinci was an all around genius who had mastered not only painting and sculpting, but he was also an inventor, architect, mathematician, scientist, engineer, and musician. His brilliance is evident in his careful rendering of perspective. While Leonardo is quite the perfectionist, both the video and text explain his failure to complete works and many projects were left unfinished which leaves an aura of mystery left in his work. 

4. This video deepened my understanding for Leonardo da Vinci and who he was as a person and an artist. I was curious in the comparison of da Vinci and Michelangelo but it is clear that Leonardo da Vinci had a long list of skills and was that of a genius. The video explains the story of the city of Florence commissioning a Fresco for the Lord's palace to commemorate the battle of Anghiari. Leonardo wishes to create a glorious work to show the brute stupidity of war. He then learns that his rival, Micheangelo is to paint a fresco on the opposite wall in the chamber. The day Leonard begins to paint, rain and other problems ruin his work that he planned to leave as a legacy for himself and he decides to abandon the work. It is too bad that this project did not go as planned because that would have been really interesting to have the opposite sides of the chamber painted by the two artists. 

Blog 8: Video Reviews

More Human Than Human:

1. This video was the required video.
2. The key concepts within this video were the way the history of art depicts human beings. When our ancient ancestors began creating images, they were able to tell the story of their world differed from our world today. The image of the human body dominates our every day life through pictures and film and within the world of art. The world's most popular and influential images of the human body don't actually resemble real human beings. "The Venus of Willendorf" statue that is hundreds of thousands years old was found by the Nomadic people and was only 10 centimeters high, small enough to be carried around. This lady is considered to be one of the first clues as to why the art form of the human body is so misconstrued. Her breasts, stomach, hips and thighs are all grotesquely huge. There are no arms and no face but was made deliberately with care and skill. There was some kind of reason for the exaggerations on parts of the figure's body. This idea continued throughout history in many types of art. A brain scientist, Professor Ramachandran, studies the clues to research why artist may have done this. He began to study this idea with seagulls and their chicks. As soon as the chicks were born, they tap their mother's beak for food. Scientists were convinced that the chicks were not aware that the beak was their mothers, but instead were stimulated by the red stripe on the beak. Scientists were able to test this idea by using a yellow stick with a red stripe on it and exposing it to baby chicks. Sure enough, the chicks tapped the stick. When scientists added more than one red stripe to the stick, the chicks were even more excited and tapped more vigorously. This idea connects with the early art of the human body. Artists exaggerated parts of the human body that they were stimulated by.
3. This video relates to the readings in the text because of all the pieces of human bodies we have read about. While I believe that the Greeks and Romans were known for highly idealizing the human body when creating statues and paintings, we can know understand some of the history of how this perception began. It is clear that earliest artists since the beginning of time have exaggerated the shape of the human body.
4. This video was really interesting, especially the study with the seagull chicks and how an exaggeration of a stimulus overexcited them. I thought this made a lot of sense in connection to "The Venus of Willendorf" sculpture and why the artist who carved her may have embellished some areas of the body while totally leaving out others. Society is filled with unrealistic images of human bodies and although I have always recognized this, I never thought too much into why or how it began. This video did a great job of going back so far into history to really find clues and similarities in different artists works through different cultures that really led to the fact that people have always created unrealistic images of the body. The type of society we live and the type of values that society has is the way we depict the ultimate idea of the perfect body.

Beyond the Classical: Byzantine and Later Greek Art
1. I chose this video because I thought it might connect to the Byzantium section in Chapter 15, which I found to be interesting and was curious to learn more about that Byzantine architecture.
2. The key concepts of this video were how the Greek Orthodox Church had a profound impact on the culture and art. The new religious stories provided new material to paint. It was during this time that the church encouraged the destruction of many of the classical Greek paintings and sculptures. They were moving on from the idealized figures of Zeus and the infamous gods and were now more interested in the Virgin Mary and patron Saints. Byzantine art had a great influence on modern contemporary art. The Byzantine art was carried on through later Greek Art in that it was combined with different influences to create pieces that were more modern for the Western world. These pieces kept the trend of centering the main focus of the piece. The Greek and Roman Empires provided artists with much inspiration as they were surrounded by the architecture and culture. The video explains the birth of Neoclassicism through visitors of the Greek and Roman ruins that wanted to attempt to rediscover the glories of Greece and bring that back to modern Europe. This is where we see connections between building such as the British Museum and the Greek Parthenon.
3. This video related to the text by showing a variety of examples of the Byzantine art and continuing the history of this time that wasn't elaborated on in the text. The text explains the icon type of art that was developed during the Byzantium where portraits or specific kinds of images of a sacred person were portrayed at a specific event. The video was able to expand on this idea by introducing the artists of this time and their work that fit this description.
4. The way this video really expanded on my understanding of Greek architecture and the Byzantine art was through the examples of different works. But I thoroughly enjoyed the explanations of Neoclassicism which I found to be very interesting. I really appreciated the idea of Neoclassicism being able to respect the past and bring it to the modern world without copying it.

Blog 7: Video Review

Prairie Style, Frank Lloyd Wright:

1. Frank Lloyd Wright changed Americans opinions of living in average styled, "boxed" typed homes and introduced a new way of living into wide open spaces. He wished to have buildings blend in to the natural world surrounding them without harming the environment he was building on. He began in the Chicago area with single family homes around 1904. Instead of a layout like standard homes that had each room really separated from each other, Wright developed a layout that had a really open flow to it. Wright wanted to create a lot of open living space and open up the home to let in the light from the windows. With the low, horizontal ceilings your eyes are more likely to look out and around to provide you with the experience of the surrounding area. The most important part of the Wright houses were that they were part of the land, not just on the land. It is impressive that Wright was able to leave his legacy and his ideas of how to change homes into open, organic spaces for new architects to build upon. 

2. This video connected with the text spot on because in Chapter 13 there is an Artist Bio on Frank Lloyd Wright. While in the text we were given some of the background information on who is was as a person, the video was really helpful in showing his earliest work and it was really cool to follow the cameras through a tour of the home. The text mentioned some of Wrights large-scale, commercial buildings but the video was solely about his work on single family homes. I would be interested to see some of his public buildings.

3. I really enjoyed this film because it did a wonderful job explaining the prairie style house and what is meant by Wright's ideas of a home blending into the natural surroundings. Before reading this chapter I wouldn't have thought about some of the architecture within this type of home but it was really interesting to learn about the horizontal ceilings and how the low height of them would cause your eyes to look out and around at the land through the large windows. It also helped me to understand different layouts within a home. Most homes I have visited are very separated by walls, but this style home was very open and flowed from  room to room in a way that made a lot of sense.

4. I chose this film after reading Wright's biography in the text and because I have heard about him before so I was curious to learn more about his homes. I actually just watched a show on TLC called "Four Houses" and one woman that showed her home had a Frank Lloyd Wright style home that wasn't built by him but was worked on by one of his apprentices and it was a really cool house in Georgia so that was also in the back of my mind when choosing this video.

Architecture: The Style of Design:

1. Large cities are exploding with skyscrapers. As space around the city runs out, architects are forced to build up. Skyscrapers are huge buildings made up two distinct parts, the super structure and sub structure. Buildings this large require a very special foundation that will ensure its stability. The foundation not only has to support the weight of the structure itself and its living weight once it is filled with furniture and occupants but more importantly the wind. The taller the building is, the more the force of the wind can be dangerous. The video also introduces the idea of technology equipped homes. A computerized house will allow home owners to control their whole house with just a computer. While the computer systems can be very sophisticated; wake you up, make the coffee, warm the water for your shower, and open the curtains on the window, they can also be very expensive and is not available to everyone. Technology brought to occupants of public buildings can really improve daily life through computers but it is still up in the air as to whether or not it is a priority. 

2. This video related to the text in different ways. One similarity was about the use of concrete. Concrete was used as a construction material since the work of the Greeks and the Romans and is now used everywhere in our modern world. The video also talked a lot about skyscrapers which were also part of the reading. Page 287 in the text shows sketches for steel-frame and balloon-frame construction of steel beams to create the shell for these types of large buildings.

3. I learned a lot of new information from this film. Mostly about steel and the construction of skyscrapers. While the text questioned, "How high is too high?" and "How much airspace should a building consume?" the video also added the problems that the wind can cause with buildings that large. I can't imagine the planning that goes into building a skyscraper with so much at stake. It is insane to think of the thought that has to go into planning a foundation that will support a huge building and withstand the wind. There is no room for error when you are putting a building in the middle of other buildings and thousands of people walking through it and around it.

4. I chose this film because after the Frank Lloyd Wright video which was my first choice, none of the other titles really jumped out at me so I just went down the list and picked the next video. After watching the first few minutes I thought that it looked interesting and was curious to hear about the smart houses.

Blog 6: Video Reviews

Through the Eyes of the Sculptor
Sculptor, Emmanuel Fillion, had a love for stone from a young age. His love for stone developed into gaining skills to carve stone and then eventually full blown sculpting. I found it impressive that at just 15 years old, Emmaunuel received a scholarship to study stone carving and majored in the restoration of historical monuments. I honestly didn't even know that they had people who studied something that specific. I liked the part in the video where they showed the restoration of the bridge in Paris. The whole process was really fascinating and I can't imagine the patience and skill these carvers must have. Throughout the video, there is a lot of relation to the readings from the text. Emmanuel talks about the importance of aesthetics in the piece, the materials and stones used to create sculptures, and the importance of planning so that the piece will be strong. An idea is first visualized as a drawing and then made into a clay figure. The clay figure allows for the creative process to take place and changes to be made. From the clay sculpture, a silicone mold will be made by dividing the piece into parts. The mold takes all of the details of the clay and allows for the sculptor to pour the plaster into the mold to achieve the same model as the original clay piece. Plaster is a temporary stage between the clay and the marble. This video has definitely given me a deeper understanding of sculpting because I was able to watch the steps of creating a sculpture. It was also interesting to learn about the different types of stone, where they come from, and how they test the stone before they start to carve into it. I was also really interested in the way they transported the stone in Michelangelo's time. It was insane how they were moving those extremely heavy, very large blocks down into the shipyards with the men holding ropes and using logs to roll them down. It just looked so incredibly dangerous. It was amazing that they even had men in the video that actually had that job and lived through that time. I couldn't believe they even lived through it, especially since they had started such a dangerous job at just 12 years old.

Glass and Ceramics
This video was interesting because it actually showed how glass is made in extreme detail. The video is right, glass is everywhere, and it is just one of those things I never thought too much about as far as where it comes from. The beginning of the video was amazing when they showed the man molding the glass into like a glass dish. He was spinning it and molding it like crazy, swinging it all around and cutting into while it cooled until it took shape. The art of glassmaking is unreal. Ceramics were tied into the video well by the explanation of the quality of the finished product. It was interesting that a very pure clay fired at 1,400 degrees celsius produces fine China, while most ordinary clay is fired at 1,100 degrees celsius produces bricks or floor tiles. I always wondered what made fine China, "fine" and more expensive. This video tied in well with the readings from chapter 12. While the text explained the creation of glass and ceramic pieces, it was very helpful to have the visual that came with the video. The firing is what determines the final state of the finished product. The most important phase of production. Simple shaped objects like plates or tiles are created with the process of dry pressing. The glaze is the coating that completes the objects with a similarity to glass, it gives the object a smooth and glossy finish. The colored glazes really bring the ceramics to life when they are painted and decorated. This was interesting to me because my mother was very into ceramics when I was in elementary school. She had molds that she would pour clay into and create the piece and then she would paint them. We had a kiln in our garage so she did all her own firing and glazing. When I was younger I never cared too much about the process at the time but watching this video really brought back the memories.

Installation Art
The installation art video was no longer available when I went to view it. Films on demand just kept telling me to update my playlist.