Project 5- Portrait and Musuem visit

I selected the inspirational pieces because they looked like they showed a lot of emotion and meaning. While drawing my own portrait I realized how hard it is to show this meaning and emotion.
I choose to draw with pencil because this is the first portrait that I ever drew and figured pencil would be the easiest to work with.
The challenges I faced is drawing and shading. There are lines on my face in the picture I used but it was hard to represent these lines in the portrait. I put in lines and they just don’t look right I am not completely sure how to overcome this challenge.
This piece represents me because as you or anyone can see I am not a pro artist but I did try my hardest. I give the creators of portraits more credit after trying to create one myself, it is no easy task.
The biggest element that I noticed using was shading, and lighting. Lighting came into play when I was taking the picture of myself with my web cam and shading came big into play when I was drawing the portrait.
I can’t say I enjoyed working on this project I am just not the drawing or art type, but it was good to see how much work it takes to put a good portrait on paper.
My final artwork is the best work I could have but out for being an amateur. I could defiantly use some drawing coaching.

The first piece i used is Tam Gan by Robert Henri 1974 oil on canvas
The second piece i used is Milton Rogovin by Alec Soth 2004 color print
The third piece i used is La jeune bonne by Amedeo Modigliani 1918 oil on canvas

Final Discussion

My expectations were pretty much just to learn as much as possible and hope to do well.  I believe I have met these I expanded my art horizons as well as tried my hardest and I believe I am close to an A.  

I think art can involve anything that has a notion of creativity.  My initial posting said that art was involved in everything that is around us.  I would have to agree with both of the postings.

The visual artist that I first liked was Sangyup Lee the designer of the Chevy Camaro.  Come to think of it I believe he is still my favorite artist.  I just really like cars and that car in particular.

I have taken online courses in the past before so it’s not really a new thing for me.  With my work schedule online courses work out the best.  I would have to say my thoughts on online course are the same now as they were 4 months ago at the start of this course.

Art Critique

Chris Wolf

5/9/2011

Art Curator Project Review

            The project that I decided to critique is called “Back to Nature” by Christine Krolewicz.  It was publishes via angel web on 5/7/2011.  After looking through a few projects I came to Christine’s and decided to review it because I share similar interests with the theme of the project.  I enjoy the outdoors and really any activity outside in nature so it would be fitting that I would appreciate the art works related to this topic.  The outdoor scenes, pieces that were chosen, and explanations that Christine gave all drew me to her project.  The presentation is very neat and organized and would be really interesting to tour if this project was actually in a museum. 

            Christine’s project is well done she exhibited that she knows how to put the art in a way so the projects flows for the viewer.  She has an extensive explanation of each work displayed in her project as well as how the work relates to her project.  All the pieces that are displayed are properly sourced and all have the artist year and medium used to make it.  I enjoy the verity in the presentation because all the pieces were related to the same common theme but all type of art works were displayed like both sculptures and painting. The art that was in public places really caught my attention I did not rea3lise that all this art was displayed in such everyday places. This project was well thought out and just by looking at it you can tell alto of effort was put in to making it perfect.

 The first challenge that I had in critiquing this piece is that I have never critiqued artwork before.  I never was interested in art before this semester; I do not have the background in art so my understanding is simple and basic.       To overcome I viewed multiple videos related to the class and critiquing.  I don’t feel that comfortable critiquing others work because what I think looks good does not look good to other people.  Who am I or anyone for that matter to tell people how their art work should look.  The beauty of art is in the creativity and how is someone supposed to be creative if someone is telling them what to do.  I think with this project that I decided to critique I can relate to it and maybe Christine and I have similar views in art and maybe our critiques would be similar.   This project was a lot of work and I can tell Christine put a lot of time and effort in hers project and I believe that she gave it her all before she summited the piece.

I would enjoy reading what my classmate have to say about my project and how they think that I could have made it better.   I like being constructive criticized it make me focus more on what I need to improve.  Before looking at what others had handing in and completed I would have rated my project at a nine out of ten.  After looking at what my classmate handed in I would rate my project at a 7 or 8 when compared to other classmate’s projects.  I put a lot of time and effort forth in completely my project but others project were more organized and themes were better represented.  I did enjoy completing this project.  I liked it because I was able to see what curators at art museums must go through to put an exhibit together.  Before this project I thought that the art was just thrown on the walls but after seeing what goes into making and displaying art I give the museums a lot of credit.

Final Video Review

The first video Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T. J. Clark I learned some art history.  T.J. Clarks had an extensive career in art theory and analyzing art.  The film related to how he looked at analyzing art work and art projects.  This video was dry and boring and I really did not get much out of it.

The film titled Greenberg on Pollock: An Interview by T. J. Clark seamed much like the first video that we were required to watch. Pollock’s work and career really was incredible and he did some new things that had never been done before.  He can be credited for revolutionizing and conquering a new frontier.  I learned that it is different to critique more modern art.  The video was the same set up as the first video and was dry and boring.

The An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance video was better more interesting video than the first two.  I like seeing the history and the politics that were really the basis of the Italian Renaissance.  I did not realize that the arts of this time were really censored by the government and the works could really only contain certain material.  The influences that these artists had and the contests that they had to who could decorate the churches of these times are really interesting.  The amount of time that is required to create some of the pieces discusses is very mind boggling as well, I could not imagine working on a single piece for 20+ years. Yes this relates to my project because I like to see what is behind some of the pieces out there and what the influence for the piece could have been at the time of the creation.  I enjoyed this video it was very informative.

 The Critics: Stories from the Inside Pages was a quite lengthy video.  It was good to see the process and over view of how a critic reviews works whether it be TV video or art.  I see that the way things are criticized today is really biased and could be just one person opinion.  I don’t understand how these people make careers out of criticizing.  It was good to see how these professional critics look at things and is beneficial to look at their styles before doing our project.  This video was more information than was needed but it was interesting.

The Colonial Encounter: Views of Non-Western Art and Culture was the next video that I watched.  It was good to see the history on the world’s fair and how that art was displayed here.  The basis of criticism are prevalent here in this film and I learned that criticism is different depending on what time period the critic is looking at.  The video was a but over my head but was interesting.

  View Tutorial

Jackson Pollock: Michael Fried and T. J. Clark in Conversation was the final film that I viewed. This video discusses and depicts some pieces created by the artist Pollock.  This video is in the same category as the first two videos.  I did not really get anything out of this video.  I could not follow the critique of the work that was being displayed.  This helped my art critique in how not to critique a piece.        

Art Curator Final Project reflection

After completing my project on curating my own art exhibit i learned some valuable things.  The first thing is the amount of work that is required and that goes into an amateur exhibit.  I spent multiple hours just thinking about the topic that i wanted to base my project on.  I could not imagine the work and the pressure that goes into creating an exhibit at an art gallery.  The organization challenges were the biggest obstacle for me i just didn’t know the best way to display the different pieces, medias, and themes that i displayed in my project.

Video Review

Well first and foremost I think this is the most interesting and fun video that I have viewed for the entire semester.  The art in this video was just fun and I’m not sure if it relates to my project but I would like to incorporate the fun manner in which the art is displayed into my project.  The artists seam fun and that they are having a great time creating these pieces.  For a younger guy what could be better than naked girls, cars and sports that are in most of these works?  The main thing I learned was just the overview of the west coast pop art style of art I have never saw or heard of it before.  It reminds me a lot of like a family guy comedy art works.  My curation project is going to be a natural outdoors themed project and is really unrelated to this style of art.

The first thing I learned is that Tate is a modern well known art gallery that millions visit on a yearly basis.  It’s located in London and is the most visited art gallery in the world.  The Tate museum has had many well-known art exhibits displayed which is why it is so well known.  They have a unique way to display their pieces that captivates the visitor in with the art.  This relates to my project because I would like to display the pieces in my project much like the pieces displayed at the Tate Museum. This video was not as fun as the first one but it did convey a lot of good information.  They made me realize that the way that art is displayed can influence what the viewer sees in the art.

This video was about native American archaeology.  There are a unknown number of historical ancient Indians archaeological sites across the united states.  Uncovering these sites is like looking into the culture of the people from that time.  The uncovering reveals how these people lived their everyday lives, their religions, and how much they appreciated arts. These sacred grounds are dug up and persevered and displayed in museums.  The outdoor atmosphere and hunting culture of the Indians relates to the theme of my curation project.  This video was interesting but lengthy and boring but it did relate and reinforce concepts.

Prior to viewing the last video I had some preexisting knowledge from American history and the impact George Eastman had on America.  I believe he made a camera that the working class family could afford to purchase and take pictures with.  The George Eastman house is a museum that was created to display photographer’s works.  It is sort of like an art museum just with photos instead of paintings.  George Eastman founded Kodak and founded a art form and created a way to remember things and much of the history from that point forward has been displayed with photos.  This video for some reason kept cutting out on my computer and it was a shame because I enjoyed watching this video.  It could be that the video was more like a history lesson which I enjoy but it was a very interesting film. It relates to my project because perhaps I will display a photo as a part of my project.

Art Gallery #2

The title of the exhibit that I viewed was called Sonia Delaunay.  The theme of the exhibition that I viewed was displaying works and pieces from the artist Sonia Delaunay.

The lighting in the room housing this exhibit was really nothing out of the ordinary.  There were recessed lights in the ceiling pointing where all the works were displayed.  The room was not lit in any special way particular to the display of works. The colors of the walls were painting a no “frills” white paint. The area that the display was set up was your standard room there was not really any extraordinary objects or features of the room.  The galleria that displayed these work was set up to take the viewer around the room to view the works. 

The works were organized in a medium sized room and were displayed on the walls of the room. This room was exclusively housing the Sonia Delaunay exhibit.  There was quote that were displayed above the photos.  The art was similar in color and how it was all abstract and similar shapes and figure were displayed in the works. The works were all oil on canvas paintings and framed the same way.  The works were different in that they had different patterns and way that things in the works were displayed.  The artworks were displayed in frames with labels next or near by the works.  The pieces were fairly close to each other and some were displayed by their selves and other was displayed in patterns like the group that I have pictured.

What did you think of visiting the Gallery and purposefully looking at the exhibition from a different perspective - the physical space, the architecture, theme, etc?

I think the Albright Knox art galleria wanted to pay special tribute to this incredibly well rounded artist.  His work is so similar but unique at the same time.  No two pieces are alike but no two pieces are really different.  The artist leaves the viewer with a sort of mysterious feeling.  I think the works that were displayed sort of set a tone for the room and the gallery really did not have to alter the setting in which the works are.  The works give enough of a different setting and feeling in the room just by being on the wall.  I enjoyed viewing this display and it leaves me with some questions for the gallery and the artist.