California Museum of Photography (Extra Credit)

California Museum of Photography

More American Photographs, the name of the exhibit being shown at the California Museum of Photography. Twelve contemporary photographers were commissioned to travel the United States, documenting its land and people. The exhibition presented the resulting photographs alongside a number of the original images by FSA photographers.

The photographer of the below photo is Dorothea Lange, she was born in 1895 and sadly contracted polio as a child, leaving her with a lasting limp. After adapting to her impairment, she believed that her downfall increased her empathy for those who also drew the short end of the stick. Her photographic career began at a New York portrait studio in 1914, and she studied at Columbia University under Clarence White. She then moved to San Francisco to do freelance photography, until 1919, when she opened her own portrait studio. During the Great Depression, however, fewer people had money to spend on portraits, and Lange moved to Taos, New Mexico where she began work with several of the New Deal projects.

This powerful portrait depicts the weariness of a hard existence in poverty. Florence Owens, the migrant mother of the title, crouches in the front of the photo flanked by two of her children, their faces hidden.The viewers attention is directed to the mothers eyes, which seem not to be looking at the camera but to be directed outward, perhaps contemplating a very uncertain future with little hope.

Dorothea Lange

Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California, 1936

Courtesy the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Katy Grannan

Untitled, Bakersfield, California, 2011

Archival pigment print. Courtesy the artist and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures. To create an illusion of motion, the drum is spun; the faster the rate of spin, the smoother the progression of images.  A viewer can look through the wall of the zoetrope from any point around it, and see a rapid progression of images. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion. Because of its design, more than one person could use the zoetrope at the same time. The zoetrope was invented in 1834 by William Horner, who originally called it a Daedalum ("wheel of the Devil").  It was based on Plateau's phenakistoscope, but was more convenient since it did not require a viewing mirror and allowed more than one person to use it at the same time. The zoetrope is the third major optical toy, after the thaumatrope and phenakistoscope, that uses the persistence of motion principle to create an illusion of motion. Among other early animation techniques such as the flipbook, the zoetrope shows groundbreaking knowledge of the basic idea behind moving sequences: when individual frames in a sequence are viewed quickly enough, the human eye cannot see the staccato jumps between images. This basic idea is the foundation for advanced animation techniques, stop motion animation, and film. Finally, in 1895, modern cinema was born.  Once moving pictures could be projected on a large screen, optical toys such as the zoetrope became used less and less frequently

(Photo I took while at The California Museum of Photography)

(Display of historical cameras)

#1 Art

Art & Audience

      In the past art work was defined by what the audience wanted or the person who commissond or payed the artist to produce it. Art works were not left up for interpretation they were just what they were. As the world evolved so

did the art industry, not only was the world expanding so did our thoughts of what we thought art could be. Now that so many people have set out to be a known artist, whether it be in painting, drawing, photography, ex., almost anything can be defined as art. With these new advancements changing the audiences perspective, is there still opportunity for shocking artworks.
     In the 15th century artists did not get to paint what they wanted. Paintings were used, in a way like a photograph, to preserve someone or something in that moment in time. The reason for this was based upon the audience, whom did not look at the painting as art but rather a way to remember a face. The audience decides what the artist produces, if the audience boo’s a band at a concert its because they don’t like the music. It is the same for a piece of art work, unless people like what they see, they wont buy it or applaud it. The same goes for the artist himself, if he isn't getting good feed back on a piece, he changes it.
     Art today, in my opinion, isn't decided by the audience anymore. The artist himself is left to decide what he wants to get out of the piece, sadness, loneliness, happiness, anger. That is why I believe the relationship between artist and audience is ever-changing depending on who the artist wants to impress, himself or the person looking on. The definition of art is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power." But in my opinion art is what decides what kind of person you are going to be, whether you are observing a piece or creating one, it is all up to interpretation. So there is no set explanation of art because as we grow and change so does the way we interpret it.

Ron Mueck's 'Mask II' - a widely-exhibited self-portrait of the artist sleeping (2001-2)

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). Last Supper, 1495-98. Tempera and mixed media on plaster. 

Da Vinci was commissioned to paint The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.



Citations:
1. Getlein, Mark. Living With Art . ninth edition. new york, NY : McGraw-hill companies, 2010.
20-23. Print.
2. Schuessler, Jennifer. "Who's the Shockingest of Them All?." Newyork Times [new york, NY ] 5 10 2012, n. pag. Web. 15 Sep. 2013. <www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/art- shock.html?_0 

The Getty (Extra Credit)

The Getty Villa and Museum

During this semester while I have been taking this art history class I have also been taking a beginners stage design class. We were required to go on a field trip to The Getty Villa for a play called Prometheus Bound. While there we had the time to go through the entire museum as well. I took multiple pictures while I was there because I knew we would need them if we wanted extra credit for this class. I came across many interesting pieces, most of them being greek influenced statues, but the main exhibit was showing art work from the ancient egyptian time period. I found this specific exhibition to be so interesting. Not only was there pure gold jewelry, and ancient war weapons, but they had an entire mummy on display. Going into this day I wasn't expecting to have the opportunity I did, but I am so happy I went into the museum because I got to see some amazing art and have my first museum experience be in one of the most popular museums in california.

(Picture taken by me while at the Getty Thursday, 19 September , 2013)

Cycladic sculpture made of marble: Pregnant Female Figure, attributed to the Schuster Master, about 2400 B.C. 16 in. high. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 90.AA.114

This female figure with crossed arms is typical of the sculpture of the Cyclades in the mid 2000s B.C. Scholars have divided Cycladic sculpture into groups indicating stylistic and chronological advancements. This nearly complete figure has stylistic traits of both the Spedos and Dokathismata types, such as the obvious curve of the top of the head, the deep groove between the legs, and the prominent angular nose. The somewhat swollen belly of the figure may indicate pregnancy. As preserved today, most Cycladic figures appear almost minimalist, but their original effect with painted facial features, hair, and occasionally jewelry, was quite different. On this figure, only traces of red paint remain on the forehead. The reason I chose to look deeper into this sculpture was because when I was admiring it I had a hard time imagining it being anything but just a small sculpture. To me it looked like it lacked detail and imagination, I found myself wondering if this was the only one made or if it was once part of a large group all meant to serve a purpose or to be seen as one whole piece. Sadly I didn’t find a whole lot about this specific figure, but I did find basic background and I will know if i come across any Cycladic sculptures in the future and hopefully they can lead me to more information on the individual pieces.

(Pictures taken by me while at the Getty Thursday, 19 September , 2013)

The Mummy of Herakleides, which is a Roman-Egyptian mummy burried in Egypt in about 150 A.D, emphasizes the traditions of both the Roman art style and the Egyptian tradition of life after death and their practices of caring for the dead and protecting them in the afterlife. This Romano-Egyptian mummy combines the millennia-old Egyptian tradition of mummification of the dead with the Roman tradition of individualized portraiture. The blending of these two traditions was characteristic of the ethnically and culturally diverse population of the Roman province of Egypt. The Roman style of portraiture, is done with most the emphasis on the upper body and expression of the face and gestures, this being very evident in this depiction of Herakleides.

52 (Extra Credit)

52

On December 7th I visited the Riverside Art museum to see Sue Mitchells exhibit “52”. Mitchell was born in ’52, has 52 favorite trees, and just finished a 52-week art sabbatical. Sue  took her 60th year off in hopes of jump starting her long delayed artistic career. The resulting exhibit, "52", is a two-gallery show that reveals the final outcome and process of her self-directed year of study. Entering into what Mitchell refers to as her “Third Act,” she experienced a growing need for a deeper sense of fulfillment and personal exploration. In the first room of the exhibit there was her actual art pieces, they were solar etchings of the 52 Montezuma Bald Cypress trees that line her favorite part of Riverside’s Fairmount Park.

 

This room-size diary, journal, sketchbook, scrapbook is really amazing to see, very rarely do you have the opportunity to see nearly every detail of what someone was thinking or doing while creating artworks. It amazed me that she did so much more than study 52 trees within the park. She examined the animals, the rocks, and even the recurring visitors who wanted to help keep the park clean and safe. The one section of the journal room that really caught my eye were the pictures of the animals that were dead. It made me realize I don’t visit a place in nature enough to witness any distress or horror, which to me is amazing because I have lived in oregon my whole life and have always thought of myself as a kind of “tree hugger” but obviously i didn't pay attention to the details. Sue really loved this place within nature to be there to witness all nature has to give… and take. I noticed while walking through that same room that under each month there was a ziplock baggy that held small tokens, weather it be a pencil, a credit card, or even coins. It made me wonder what significance it had on her during that time and how those materials may have helped her along in her journey.

I had the chance to talk with Sue about her art work and the journey she took to create this exhibit. She told us that this “art thing” wasn’t what she always wanted to do, she had other plans. She started by majoring in biology and hoping to be a teacher, but she soon changed deciding that her life was moving in a new direction and she wasn’t one for the competitiveness of the fellow biology majors. Years later she ends up creating art that inspires people to open their eyes, to not close themselves off to just what’s right in front of them. Sue told me that this journey was really for her, she wanted to make herself look harder, even over examin what was surrounding her. Sue Mitchell gave me inspiration for not only my future endeavours with my art but for life, she told me to keep a “journal” much like she did, not just during the time i am trying to make artwork but all the time. I love the idea of being able to retrace your steps, weather it be words, pictures, drawings, or tokens. Memories are a luxury that people often lose, so why not record your life the way you want to be remembered and the way you want to remember it?

(Photo taken by me at the Riverside Art Museum)

(Photo taken by Sue Mitchell)

(Sue Mitchell in the “Journal” room of her exhibit)

(Us at the exhibit- Jasmine left, me right)

(Sue in Fairmount Park)

#10 The Burial mask of Tutankhamun

The Burial Mask of Tutankhamun

King Tutankhamen (or Tutankhamun) ruled Egypt as pharaoh for 10 years until his death at age 19, around 1324 B.C. Although his rule was notable for reversing the harsh religious reforms of his father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, Tutankhamen’s legacy was largely negated by his successors. He was barely known to the modern world until 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter chiseled through a doorway and entered the boy pharaoh's tomb, which had remained sealed for more than 3,200 years. The tomb's vast hoard of artifacts and treasure, intended to accompany the king into the afterlife, revealed an incredible amount about royal life in ancient Egypt, and quickly made King Tut the world's most famous pharaoh.

The death mask(or burial mask) of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun is made of gold inlaid with colored glass and semiprecious stone. The mask comes from the innermost mummy case in the pharaoh’s tomb, and stands 54 cm (21 in) high. The emblems on the forehead (vulture and cobra) and on the shoulders (falcon heads) were symbols of the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt and of divine authority. The vulture Nekhbet and the cobra Wadjet protected the pharaoh. The Egyptian vulture is a tool-using bird. Egyptian vultures are specialists in egg-eating. They are among the only known birds in the world to use stones as tools. They will repeatedly strike at an abandoned ostrich egg with stones, then use their beak to enlarge the hole and penetrate membrane. Then it feasts on the oozing interior of the egg. In ancient Egypt the vulture is considered to be nearer to God who is believed to reside above the sky. Much like the Vulture The ancient Egyptians worshipped the Cobra and used it as a symbol on the crown of the pharaohs. It is used as a protective symbol, the Egyptians believed that the cobra would spit fire at any approaching enemy.

Artifacts from King Tut's tomb have toured the world in several blockbuster museum shows, including the worldwide "Treasures of Tutankhamun" exhibitions. Eight million visitors in seven U.S. cities viewed the exhibition of the golden burial mask and 50 other precious items from the tomb. Today the most fragile artifacts, including the burial mask, no longer leave Egypt. Tutankhamun's mummy remains on display within the tomb, his layered coffins replaced with a climate-controlled glass box.

Tutankhamens gold funerary mask

found in the king's tomb, 14th century BC

  

Tutankhamens gold funerary mask

found in the king's tomb, 14th century BC

King Tutankhamens Treasures

found in the king's tomb, 14th century BC

#11 The Price of Art

The triptych picture by Francis Bacon, Three Studies of Lucien Freud, is now the most expensive art work ever sold at auction, having reached $142.4 million during Christie’s contemporary auction in New York on november 12th. The Balloon Dog (Orange) by Jeff Koons is now the most expensive art work by a living artist ever to sell at auction, having sold for $58.4 million. For more than a month, Christie’s had been billing the sale as a landmark event with a greater number of paintings and sculptures estimated to sell for over $20 million than it has ever had before. The hard sell apparently worked, Nearly 10,000 visitors entered its galleries to preview the auction. The sale totaled $691.5 million, far above the high estimate of $670.4 million, becoming the most expensive auction ever. Of the 69 works up for auction, only six failed to sell. All in all, 10 world record prices were achieved for artists who, besides Bacon, included Christopher Wool, Ad Reinhardt, Donald Judd and Willem de Kooning.

In May 2012, Christie's sold Rothko's Orange, Red, Yellow for $86.8 million, a record for any contemporary artwork at auction. Christie's also has an iconic Andy Warhol, Coca-Cola (3), estimated to sell for $40 million to $60 million. The Warhol auction record is $71.7 million for Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), sold in 2007.  "La Rêve (The Dream)" is one of Picasso's most sensual and famous paintings reaching 155 million in a Private sale , depicting her lover Marie-Therese Walter sitting on a red armchair with her eyes closed. In 2006, Steve Wynn agreed to sell the painting to Steven Cohen for $139 million, but the sale was cancelled when Mr. Wynn accidentally damaged the work. Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” was sold for 119.9 million making That painting the most expensive painting ever sold at auction until it was surpassed by Bacon's "Three Studies of Lucian Freud". The work is the most colorful of the four versions of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece 'The Scream', and the only one still in private hands.

In my opinion all of these art works selling for record breaking prices makes sense, except Jeff Koons’s Balloon Dog. To me what Koons does isn’t his own art work, now if he were to give credit to all of his factory workers who help produce these, unimaginative copies, then maybe i would give him a little more credit. When it comes to art I believe that using a previous idea for inspiration is fine, but not directly copying something and then selling it for millions. I have a hard time with modern art because there is this idea of it being ok to just “copy and passed” so to say, meaning artist think that its within their artistic licence to recycle older works of art or even products we buy everyday to call it their own. There is never a limit to what we can create from our own mind, so why not pull from within yourself rather than take the easy way out and re-make a previous work.

Edvard Munch

1893

Oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard

Jeff Koons

giant balloon Dog Sculpture

Francis Bacon

Three Studies of Lucian Freud

1969

#12 Jacques-Louis David

In 1793, the violence of the Revolution had dramatically increased until the beheadings at the Place de la Concorde became a constant, leading a certain Dr. Joseph Guillotine to invent a machine that would improve the efficiency of the ax and block and therefore make executions more humane. David was right in the middle of the trouble. Early in the Revolution he had joined the Jacobins, a political club that would in time become the most vicious of the various rebel factions. Led by the ill-fated Georges Danton and the infamous Maximilien Robespierre, the Jacobins (including David) would eventually vote to execute Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antionette who were caught attempting to escape across the border to the Austrian Empire.

At the height of the Reign of Terror in 1793, David painted a memorial to his great friend, the murdered publisher, Jean Marat. As in his Death of Socrates, David substitutes the symbolic forms of Christian art for more contemporary issues. The Death of Marat, 1793 an idealized image of David's slain friend is shown holding his murderess's (Charlotte Corday) letter of introduction. The bloodied knife lays on the floor having opened a fatal gash that I beleive functions, as does Marat's very composition, as a reference to the entombment of Christ and a sort of reference to the wounds Christ is said to have received in his hands, feet and side while on the cross.

By 1794 the Reign of Terror had run its course. The Jacobins had begun to execute not only captured aristocrats but fellow revolutionaries as well. Eventually, the remaining Jacobins were executed or otherwise imprisoned. David escaped death by formally declaring his abandonment of his activities and was locked in a cell in the former palace, the Louvre, until his eventual release by France's brilliant new ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte. This Corsican had been the youngest General in the French army and during the Revolution had become a national hero by waging a seemingly endless string of victorious military campaigns against the Austrians in Belgium and Italy. Eventually, Napoleon would control most of Europe, would crown himself Emperor, and would release David in recognition that the artist's talent could serve the ruler's purposes.

Jacques-Louis David

Oil on Canvas, 65" x 50 3/8

1793

	Oath of the Horatii Jacques-Louis David
	1784
	Oil on canvas