Turbine Hall

Part of developing an appreciation for art and projects is having a venue where great pieces can be displayed. No knock on the MET or the Louvre but Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern has housed some fascinating exhibits. Often using space and optical illusion to create magnificent works. For example, Doris Salcedo’s exhibit Shibboleth created a crack in the floor of the museum. This is completely counterintuitive to normal viewing at a gallery or museum. Rarely if at all is the work displayed on the floor of the build as it is typically hung on the wall. Also, it is different because a crack would normally be hidden from view not the focal point for guests at the exhibit. Another great piece of work is Test Site. This is giant plastic tube piping system that truly engages its guests as it doubles as a slide. This also provides several prospective of the art, while on the slide, watching someone else go down the slide, looking at the entire structure of the slide.  These are just two examples of the tremendous exhibits housed at the Turbine Hall.

Road Trip!

We went to the Albany Institute of History and Art and saw the exhibit titled “Graphic Design Get the Message.” Graphic design is a carefully planned arrangement of visual images and printed text. It conveys both meaning and message. The exhibit examined technological, commercial, aesthetic, and social factors through graphic designs, objects, and the history of design work from the Albany area. After examining these factors, viewers were compelled to address broader issues of national and international significance.
We saw one piece of the Walkway on the Hudson that stood out particularly to Mike. This is because he lives only a few minutes from the footbridge. His entire family has walked on it, but Mike has not because he claims he was always too busy with school. After seeing the work, Mike has vowed to visit the footbridge as soon as he graduates. The Walkway on the Hudson items/pictures are below.

 

Below is another piece in the gallery that moved us. We thought the class might think it is interesting as well. The poster is titled Do With Less So They’ll Have Enough. It was printed by the US Government Printing Office during WWII. As an econ minor and econ major, we both instantly thought of the “Guns or Butter” concept.

Evolution of Graffiti

          Street art is growing in popularity not only with the general public but the art community as well. Graffiti once a symbol of gangs, violence, and disrespect for the law is taking on a different meaning in some cases. While not all graffiti is street art; the growing popularity can be a helpful tool for the art world and general community for a couple of reasons.
          First this provides the public with “pure art” and what we mean by pure is that your reaction to the art is completely your own and only influenced by you and the artist. It has not been evaluated by some art curator or critic who immediately influences your view. It has not been located in a gallery in a certain section because of its likeness to other paintings or prestige. It is simply there in front of you completely raw and unfiltered. This allows people to think for them, which is pretty much always a good thing.
           The second positive aspect is it may “speak” to people that gallery and museum work does not.  Not all people are gallery goers and this provides another avenue for expression and contribution for art. It can also be used to spend positive messages in an oxymoronic sense.  Graffiti is historically used to send gang or hate message but it could be used to speak to inner-city youth about positive messages again providing an alternative to the tradition use.

Ok We are calling "BS" on this one

This course has undoubtedly opened our eyes to art forms we would have never even have heard of let alone understand. However, there comes a point as in any industry it is more a “BS artist” a fraud if you will then true to the profession. You see this in politics, in business, in education, in pretty much every field. That is how we feel about Fred Russell. Fred uses mainly already made objects and creates a lay he is there for using space as his medium for art. Maybe it is because we don’t know enough about this form of art but to us it seems to be stretching, the skill level threshold. We don’t see how Fred Russell is any different than an interior decorator. While his work may be appealing, exciting and even occasionally inspiring it is not fair to call him an artist. His work is supplementary to the art field. Without already appealing inputs and works Fred Russell can add little to no value. Other artists obviously need inputs as well, clay, paint a canvas, what have you but that is different. They are taking raw materials and creating something. Russell is arranging finished items in space. If that is the threshold then the Star Wars freak that is 40 years old and lives in his Mom’s basement setting up his action figures could be a world acclaimed artist. This is not to say  only the most difficult productions qualify as art but rather that there is a minimum threshold and sorry Fred Russell you did not make it for us.

The Common Lanuage of Beauty

Perhaps at the core of why we dispute “what is art” is that we dispute what is beautiful. The classic cliché is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some want to restrict it slightly more and say it is in the cultural conditioned eye of the beholder. Some argue still that it is a term similar to excellent or love that is simply overused and therefore undervalued. That being said I believe the beauty is something done well. This is a definition that is very broad allowing for a lot to be considered beautiful.  A thrilling catch in a baseball game, a flawless rendition of Ave Maria, Di Vinci’s Mona Lisa, or a breathtaking water fall are all beautiful and should be described as such. While it is important to not over use the word, under use can be just as damaging. Having a word that can encapsulate so much feeling, evaluation and emotion that is applicable to more than one area is a good thing. It will help build cultural understanding; a common language. So the baseball fan can understand the emotion felt by the opera fan after a “beautiful” performance of Phantom of the Opera. While the baseball fan himself may not be able to view the performance as beautiful they can understand do to the ability and difficulty it is considered “beautiful”. This world needs beauty let’s not attempt to restrict and over define the word.

Secrecy

Jill Magid’s “Authority to Remove” marked the last chapter with artists involved with the Dutch Secret Service. Her work is particularly moving because the Secret Service in and of itself is an intriguing organization. To adhere to budget obligations, the Dutch Secret Service asked Magid to create a piece of work for one of their facilities. Magid agreed to do this and explored the themes of secrecy by delving into the complex layers of fact, fiction, and role playing inherent to a government intelligence agency. She interviewed various secret agents to learn more about the organization. Her interactions were similar to those you would see in a James Bond movie: meeting in a public place, not knowing the face you are meeting, and then being tapped on the shoulder by a complete stranger. Magid conversed with the agents sometimes for hours. She pointed out that the agents appreciated the interaction. The agents saw Magid as an escape from their lives of secrecy. However, Magid realized agent interaction was not welcome by the bureaucrats, who saw her work as a threat to the organization's role as an intellegence agency. This is because, as the agents noted, a revelation of their identities would “burn their face” and thus endanger any missions implemented by the Dutch Secret Service.

Matthew Barney-Value Added without Appreciation

Perhaps one of the more challenging and uncomfortable is performance art. The reason for that is the medium does not sit on a shelf or hang on a wall waiting to be notice; but rather actively engaging you forcing a reaction. The CREMASTER series by Matthew Barney is a prime example of just how bizarre and somewhat haunting performance art can be. As much as we may hate this type of performance wish we could just turn it off and run the other way, it is important it is value added to the market place of ideas. As the course progresses we are finally beginning to understand what art is. Art is just like everything this. Art we like, art we don’t art we appreciate art we don’t think is art, art that is classic, art that is cheesy. But that is similar to music just because I can’t appreciate, enjoy and even consider heavy metal music it is still important. It contributes to the context and the frame work of how we evaluate not only art but ourselves and this give and take is extenuated best in provoking performance art piece such as Matthew Barney. The more we “peel the onion” the more value the work adds. Not just “I don’t like it” , but “I don’t like it because it creeps me out and unsettles me and I want art to make me happy”.  Again we struggle to see the brilliance of Barney he obviously has a talent and an important contribution to the overall field of art just not one we choose to enjoy. 

Signs

Gillian Wearing looks at the psychological impact of modern society. Her first major work is titled, “Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say” (1992-93). This series portrays psychology involved within different classes and cultures. Wearing takes pictures of various members of society. The people photographed include a policeman, a man in a suit, and an older looking couple. Wearing spontaneously stopped people on the street and had them write down a phrase then she took a photograph. Some of these pictures are actually very comedic, because it’s exactly what the viewer would not expect to be written. For example, a well shaven man in a suit is not expected to admit that he’s desperate. However, that’s exactly what his sign says. Another photograph has a man with messy hair holding a sign with a very insightful message. When looking at these pictures, the viewer suddenly becomes connected to modern society and culture.

Why You Should Buy Art

“I don’t begrudge the wealth or values, but I do believe that art is made freely and for more than those who can afford to own it,” says artist William Powhida, who created this absolute masterpiece. This artwork was selling for $20 for an edition of 200 on 20x200’s website. A college student first being exposed to this couldn’t get more out of it. It is moving! A business major sitting in an Intro to Visual Arts class on the first day is thinking, “Am I ever really going to buy art? For what reasons?” A college student is worrying about how much cash is on hand for the Keystone Lights and Crystal Palace this weekend. Now those are cheap and give you a good experience! However, access to great contemporary art is not always limited to high prices. In other words, all great art will not cost the same as your college tuition. People should buy art if they are looking for an experience. And if you don’t think you could come up with a motive, read through the 26 reasons and you will find something!

Art for Aesthetic or Investment Purposes?

The idea of collecting art is different to many people. Some people collect art for aesthetic purposes. Others collect art strictly for investment purposes. Alberto Mugrabi is a prime example of an art collector solely looking for a high return on his investments, or art. To him, art for aesthetic reasons and art as an investment seem like interchangeable phrases. The Mugrabis do not own a gallery or represent artists. According to the 2009 New York Times article linked below, the Mugrabis are private dealers who sell works in about 100 art auctions annually, or about one auction every three days. Alberto Mugrabi states, “We’re market makers. You can’t have an impact buying one or two pictures per artist. We’re not buying art like Ron Lauder – just to put it on a wall. We want inventory.” When he describes art like this, he is describing it in the way a hedge fund manager invests in commodities. A hedge fund manager will have a large holding in say, copper, to manipulate the price to appreciate.

Art has been a hot commodity on Wall-Street. The Bloomberg terminal, which Wall Street tycoons use for stock picking and economic analysis, actually has an art function where you could look up information on exhibits and artists. Finance majors use the Bloomberg Terminal in Siena College’s trading room to conduct analyses on various companies, commodities, economies, etc. The image below shows a snapshot of the computer image from the Bloomberg Terminal, showing recent information on the economic impact of art. Some people believe that the concept of art as an investment has gone too far. Others see it as an investment opportunity.

NY Times, Is Anybody Buying Art These Days?

Money Finds a Way

            Art has taken a long and twisted road to its place in the world today. The road has always been filled with greed however never as overtly as during the recent era of consumerism. The relocation and display of art works began as the spoils of war. It was a way for the victorious country to display the works taken from a nation defeated in battle. Museums were first constructed in the late 1800s. As can been seen by the MET and other museums they were often very impressive structures. The daunting and powerful appearances of these museums contributed to the art viewing experience. When one enters one of these structures it gives the feel of entering a very important area equivalent to that of a government building.

            Later came the growth of galleries which differed in many ways from museums. First galleries are often much smaller structures and rather unimpressive from the outside. The inside differs as well; it often highlights the more contemporary works of art. There are many critics of galleries however they are important in providing access to the public and a venue for art that otherwise would not be deemed worthy of museum space.
            Galleries and museums in fact complement each other. Galleries provide the access and place for “newer art”. While, museums continue to provide a standard and “weed out” fads and place the proper emphasis on movement and works as well as provide proper historical context. Simply put the gallery is about access the museum is about status. Despite complementing each other they also compete.

            Galleries breed collection, greed and according to many art critics the improper spike in the art market. While muesuems struggle to afford new works of art as a result. Art for some has lost its true soul and became about making money. Major works are now purchased by the independently wealthy and major shows sponsored by corporations. However, in the world today it is in no way unique to art. Take for example, college football’s bowl games. The Rose Bowl which is in its 97^th year is no longer the Rose Bowl but rather the Rose Bowl presented by Vizio. The best seats for the Rose Bowl? They don’t go to the most devoted and intense fans but rather expensive corporations that reward costumers and try to land new clients.

            Whether art or sports or some other genre it is an unfortunate reality of today’s world that money will always find a way to take precedent.  

Retroactive 1, 1964

Rauschenberg’s art deals with the question, “Why am I here?” As a WWII veteran and artist, he became a spectacular figure of American energy. He used silk screens to create a new type of history in a brilliant reaction to mass culture. In his 1964 collage Retroactive, Rauschenberg used magazine and newspaper images to symbolize an American culture overwhelmed by media during the Cold War. The military conflicts covered by television screens saturated the lives of millions of Americans. His blue image of the freshly assassinated president John F. Kennedy pointing his accusing finger towards the viewer invoked a moving emotional response. This picture shows JFK, the youngest president in US history, demonstrating aggressive and outright protective body language. After looking first at the picture of Kennedy, the viewer analyzes the top left picture of a parachuting astronaut. JFK’s initiatives to make the United States the first nation to go to the moon come to mind. Americans were lost in Cold War fears. The media may have exacerbated these fears, but the media did allow JFK to bring the nation together. The man helped prevent a feared nuclear holocaust that so many Americans saw as an inevitable reality. In 1964, someone may have asked, “Why are we here?” JFK could be the answer to that question.

The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei

There are approximately 100 million of them. The sunflower seeds look identical and natural but they are entirely artificial and unique. Every single sunflower seed has its own story behind it. The seeds are created through a rigorous process by Chinese workers. Some workers are very skilled and can paint many seeds per minute. Some workers are children just learning the steps. Families may paint seeds together or a young child may do it in his or her spare time before dinner. Regardless, the sculpture implements a thought-provoking mechanism for the viewer. When I look at it, I want to walk through the seeds barefoot like I am at the beach. I want to swim through the seeds. They look so real that I want to eat the seeds. But then I come back to reality and tell myself that they are not real. And then look at them again and my mind goes off in wonderland.

Performance Art

Performance art can be anything that involves the following: 1) Time 2) Space 3) Performance Body 4) a relationship between the audience and the performer. Marina Abramovic does a great job at touching all these categories in her work. I have two favorites – Rest Energy and Imponderabilia. Rest energy shows a women who is about to get shot straight in the face by a man holding a bow and arrow. This makes the individual experiencing the exhibit very uncomfortable. But making the individual uncomfortable is the exact point the artist is trying to make! Imponderabilia shows a woman trying to squeeze through a tight space between a naked man and woman. If this doesn’t make a person feel awkward, then I don’t know what would. But that’s the point of the performance art! Experiencing a gallery like that gets the blood going. Marina Abramovic’s work is an offshoot of abstract expressionism with no limitation in terms of human duress. Performance art is intended to express the human condition.

Ritual to Art

Mike Kelley takes ritual and makes art out of it. He started working with stuffed animals. He explained this at first as symbolizing his individual child abuse. He then evolved this idea as a presumption that all motivation is a form of some kind of oppressed trauma.

Kelley was born a Catholic but never was a true believer. He had an interest in the materialist ritual and not the personal religious side. One of Kelley’s videos portrays his view of the Catholic “ritual,” showing an acapella group singing to Mary. This could be seen as a sort of black humor.

Kelley built his career on the idea where his art is available to the laziest viewer but there to the more sophisticated viewer as well. In doing so, he makes something beautiful by confusing terms and categories; thus, producing a sublime effect or humor. This is what separates his art from folk art. His work underlines the social function of art as a negative aesthetic. If it was not a negative aesthetic, then it would not be art.

Small Art for All

Minimalist painting is often described as flat and emotionless. It is also very literal meaning a square means and represents a bunch of squares represents just that and not the artist’s inner struggle with four sided shapes. The naming of art typically becomes very general often drawn from the tools and resources used to produce the piece rather than the deeper meaning or inspiration. In fact in one of Robert Ryman’s works pictured to the right the title is “No Title Required”. It is simply a collection of wooden frames on white enamel painted walls. This may inspire great feelings in an individual and it may not. It may speak on an extremely deep and personal level to someone and it may not. However, for Ryman that is far from significant. “Painting is about pleasing” says Ryman when asked if he felt viewers need to understand the deeper complex meanings he replied “you don’t need to know the score of a song to like the music”. This simplifies art without reducing it. It is not denying there maybe some prophetic inspiration or message conveyed but it’s not a requirement to appreciate it.
            Another artist of the minimalist genre generates a great irony in her work. Vija Celmins on several occasions painted very small paintings of outer space. Vija uses a very small brush to add a little different touch each time over and over again. She makes a very slight impact on the work but over time creating a beautiful piece of art. On more than one occasion Celmins has completely painted over the piece in all black to start again feeling she “builds the work from the very beginning”. Celmins also enjoys working on paintings of a snapshot of ocean water and spider webs.
            The approach of minimalist art to simply amuse and not provoke deep conversation and thought in turn does just that. As individuals not very verse in the art world it is nice to feel you can appreciate art for its face value it’s art everyone can understand.

Message Received

While art may be timeless to many it certainly has evolved over time. As two individuals whose minds primarily function researching political trends and the stock market art is still a new subject. However, the more we learn the more we see a comparison to writing. Art movements are not always originally accepted in fact it is often just the opposite. New movements regarded as sloppy and lacking value. With the movement of time comes the change in perspective and appreciation. This is similar to writing, so many of the classics were initially banned and regarded as worthless, but now the cornerstone of higher education.

            While as students not strongly connected with the art field we can find a great deal of appreciation for Cory Arcangel we doubt art critics have the same amazement at his work. His work while at times random, for example, the creation of a Photoshop piece by predetermined numbers, truly sends a message. Again, as individuals of a business background the Permanent Vacation piece is the first thing I think of now when I receive an out of office reply. He invokes this idea that neither will ever communicate with the other one again the information forever lost in the endless dimension of cyberspace. This speaks to me because so much is lost over email in our world. The days of face to face communication is disappearing more each day as the reliance on technology increases.
            My favorite piece was the continuous gutter ball. Bowling for most is a social outing not a serious competitive sport. This work represents the metaphoric feeling we all receive in social outings from time to time even when we are not bowling. We go out with our friends and do something embarrassing we “rolled a gutter ball”.  We have a bad first date experience “we roll a gutter ball”. There is something encapsulating about watching repeated complete and total failure. The train wreck so horrific you cannot stop looking at it. While, his art may not speak to older more refined critics he certainly has hit home with us. 

Tired, Shitty Polaroids of Naked, Drunk Partying

      A friend of Joerg Colberg asked a question about Dash Snow’s art work - “What do his tired, shitty polaroids of naked ,drunk, partying say about anything?” Anyone new to art would undoubtedly ask this question after viewing some of Dash Snow’s works. One of his art pieces shows a man doing a line of cocaine off of another man’s penis. Another piece looks like it came straight out of a pornography magazine, showing a male and two females performing sexual acts on each other. Providing explanations to art is very difficult. After I looking at these works, one should consider Dash Snow general life experiences. Snow was a young rebel born into a privileged and art-loving family. At the age of 13, his family sent him to a reformatory-like school in Georgia. After two years, he returned to New York and lived by himself. He had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. He divorced his first wife and later had a daughter who he named “Secret Midnight Magic Nico.” Two years after his daughter’s birth, snow reportedly died from an overdose. By the time of his death, snow was a star in New York City. “What do his tired, shitty polaroids of naked ,drunk, partying say about anything?” He wanted to move the viewer. He created his art in the same way that he lived his life – through rebellion.

The Functions Assigned to Art and Baldessari

According to artist John Baldessari , the three functions of art are Personal, Social, and Physical. No piece of art can be assigned a specific function. It is difficult to assign on individual function to artwork because many pieces will touch upon all three. The physical function of art is most easily recognized. The physical function is derived from art of a piece that provides some type of service. For example, a Native American tomahawk weapon was created to be thrown into the flesh of enemies. The social function points out collective features of life in general. Art may address political or economic hardship as seen in works with pictures from the 1930s Great Depression. The personal function of art is the most powerful but most difficult to concretely explain. Two individuals who view an artist’s work may feel two different personal functions. These feelings could come from past memories of a loved one or other emotionally moving experiences.

Baldessari is especially interesting in his way of describing art. He first focused mainly on painting but eventually burned his work and made them into cookies – evolving the idea of art. He describes the common belief that all painting is art and art is all painting. However, art is more than that. Painting is redundant as an expression. Creativity dislocates redundancy.

Simple...yet Complex

         Jeff Koons has a very distinct approach and style with his art.
His most recent work at Versailles really accentuates Koons personal and unique approach to art .  Koons creations replicate things found in everyday life but add twists, sometimes subtle and sometimes overt to speak beyond just the art itself. For example, hanging in  Versailles is a work that resembles a inflatable lobster not uncommon at family pools.  However, it despite the striking resemblance to the plastic inflatable material it is in fact made of metal and other compounds. The way in which the lobster is painted one can envision the face of a French worker, which brings significantly more meaning to the fact it is hanging upside down by a steal hook.
           Koons and his group of artists only produce a small number of pieces per year because of the intricate detail and innateness of each work. Several days even weeks can be spent attempting to match the color from Koons computer printout concept to paint. Another interesting concept about Koons he rarely does any of the actual work with his hands anymore much of his role is conceptualizing the work and approving the progress as it is made. One may argue this makes him less a factor in the art. I disagree; it is not that he isn’t partaking in the production because he can’t physically perform the necessary functions at a high level. But rather in order to bring more of his concepts to life he trusts a team. In fact, he is doing the art world a favor by carefully training and developing highly skilled artists that one day may be able to take something very simple and make it yet so complex.

Evolving Standard of Beauty and its Impact

Hickey’s article “Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of Beauty” is extremely thought provoking. It seems that as long as we have had art in this country we have also had the constant debate on what is the appropriate level of censorship. Hickey touches on this when discussing public institutions displaying provocative paintings and the government’s desire to discontinue such a practice.  This is part of Hickey’s larger discussion on the role of beauty in art and what exactly the impact of art is on society.  The lens in which he writes the article is not as an evaluator of art in an aesthetic sense; but rather the carefully observant historian.  Hickey’s approach is to find what matters beyond the initial reaction to art.  What are the lasting impacts of not only the art itself but also what it causes us to do as individuals and a community. Now he does not only want the focus to be on our reaction as he rightly points out if it is too manipulated be criticism then the art is not doing anything rather we are the ones acting. However, his observation of the underlying impact and extent of art is very accurate. Art continually causes this country to question, think, and debate things such as values, principles, and morals. This is where the role of beauty comes into play. It becomes, as he identifies, “a war of words” to deem what is beauty what is appropriate, what is truly art and its purpose. While typically older generations feel threatened by the “provocative” new art, it is not all bad. Yes, we need standards. We cannot simply put any type of art up anywhere we want. However, continuing to debate those standards and evolve those standards is crucial because it is happening in every other aspect of our world. Society is not stagnant and therefore neither should our definition of beauty or role of art.

What is Art

Art is a message. The message is revealed through the artist’s work. This work may be ordinary to one and extraordinary to another. The simplest example can be seen in something we all have done. Everyone has played with crayons at some point in their early years. To most people, a four-year old’s work may seem far from a masterpiece. Most kindergartners don’t draw lily pads or starry nights. They find no meaning and can’t send a message through these entities. Instead, most kindergartners draw pictures of their parents or families. A parent will usually become touched when they see their child’s thoughts represented through that picture. Children are revealing that they love and care about their families. This message is incredibly significant to the parents who dedicate their lives to the wellness of their children.

When examining art through more complex examples, the fundamentals still do not change. The artist creates the art to send a message to the viewer or viewers. The art does not have to be expensive nor come from a famous artist. The artist’s message may be obvious or open to interpretation. This gives art the possibility of being so vast and so unique.

Another take on what is art....

        I think art is a form of expression. Art is a way to convey emotions, tone, and feelings. It is a subject area not unlike writing where it is as dependent on the observer or reader as it is the creator. While there are many forms of art not all are recognized by all individuals. Art is part of a cycle; it determines part of our perspective of the world and our perspective of the world determines how we view art. There should be a reaction when one views art, positive or negative, profound or subtle, appealing or disgust, it does not matter but art again similar to writing should have an impact on its viewers.

        Art may not have any value to anyone other than the artist. It may not be appreciated at the current time or ever. The most skilled detailed work can hang on a library wall passed by hundreds of times a day without a second glance. It may be produced in a second grade classroom with limited to no skill yet hung proudly on the refrigerator and cherished. All this being said it is impossible to truly nail down what art is in two hundred words. There is no bright line test but rather shades of gray as individuals continue to shape and cause debate to what the world views as worthy of the title art.