ORAL PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Source #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs6GkV4SfWE (William Kentridge documentary)
Source #2: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/william-kentridge
Source #3: http://nladesignvisual.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/william-kentridge-1955/


ARTIST: William Kentridge 

START: Introduce William Kentridge's background
(Speak about the idea of apartheid)
-How his background is important & how it ties in with his work.

SLIDE ONE:  Explain the Kentridge's influence.
Expressionism, Propaganda, the political interest in Africa, political interest with African-American's.

SLIDE TWO: "The Pit" Series, Picture of MonoType (1979) early work.
Explain his influence by theatre, experimented with the notions of theatrical representation of space.

SLIDE THREE: "The Domestic" Scenes Picture of Etching, (1980) early work.
Explain the idea of self-identity.

VIDEO #1:  1987, William Kentridge's exhibition
Explain how this influenced his animation films.

SLIDE FOUR: (1998) Silkscreen of three themes introducing his animations
Art in a Stage of Grace, Art in a Stage of Seige, Art in a Stage of Hope.

(introduce)- - - - 1989, Kentridge made series of nine short films "9 Drawings for Projection"- - -

VIDEO #2: 
FIRST ANIMATED FILM: " Johannesburg. 2nd greatest city after Paris"
Explain the theme of: violent oppression.
Explain SOHO character

VIDEO #3: "Felix in Exile"
Explain the characters of FELIX & Neglected wife.

WRAP IT UP: Explaining the techniques of these animated films
Themes he discussed.

MOMA: ROBERT GOBER

       Few days ago I recently seen Robert Gober's exhibit "The heart is not a metaphor".  I was blown away. It was such a interesting experience, I should say. Robert Gober by the way is an American sculptor. Actually over the past years, Gober's sculptures have been known to become more complex in terms of both technically and iconographically. Gober as well uses cast of existing sculptures and combines them to create provocative hybrid just like this piece. What intrigued me was as soon as I walked in the exhibition I saw a man's leg protruding from the wall. Gober does create more realistic human pieces that you would soon see throughout the exhibition and kinda intensify's the room and can actually make you feel uncomfortable.

      Another part of the exhibition that I really enjoyed was these two rooms that consisted of two different wallpapers. One of the rooms consisted a wallpaper of a white man who appears to be asleep in a small bed who appears to be dreaming of a black guy hanging from a lynching tree. My interpretation was Gober was trying to bring upon the issues of gender, race, and really social injustice. Making it a background Gober shows how it's become a part our lives, it has become our background. And being in this room actually made me feel a bit uncomfortable and emotional but in a good sense.  

  

      The other room consisted of  male and female genital wallpaper. What was really interesting is that Gober really test's sexuality and takes something that is taboo and reveals it to the world. Something that is uncomfortable, he takes it to a another level. What was also interesting was analyzing people and seeing how uncomfortable people were to be in a room like this. But Gober shows how this is a part of us. And it shouldn't be hidden, but should be explored and re-examined. To think about this subject matter in a different perspective 

      Overall seeing "The heart is not a metaphor" was such a unique experience and lead me to many open questions. Robert Gober comes across the some themes of sexuality, religion and race. Robert Gober takes art to a whole different level and shocks the audience and even makes them feel uncomfortable. Besides that, I have never seen any sculptures like Gober's as you can see below. I am looking forward to more exhibiton's from Robert Gober and I recommend anyone to really go see it!

MOMA: SURREALISM

One of my favorite types of artwork has always been: Surrealism. I actually came across one of my favorite surreal artworks of all time at MOMA and that would have to be " The Empire of Light II" (1950) by brilliant surrealist Rene Magritte!  Now as you can see the top portion of the painting shows sunny day with bright sky with white clouds signifying daytime, while the bottom part of the painting shows dark lighting signifying night time. What I truly love about surrealism is it kinda reveals the irony of something that we can be so oblivious about. This is such a well-known and brilliant piece. Magritte takes something so simple and transforms it. This scene is subtlety surreal! It looks like a photograph (reminder this is a painting!!) yet it is surreal because of the sky.

POSTMODERN & GLOBAL ART

MARINA ABRAMOVIC

             If you know me Marina is actually known to be one of my favorite contemporary artist of all time. I was so estatic to see her first on the list among many other brilliant artists.. From ART 21 a segment of Marina Abramovic on "History", Marina discusses the insights into her artistic vision as well as her personal life and how that has affected her as an artist. If you don't know Marina Abramovic is Yugoslavian artist whose work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. What is interesting as an artist is her ability to create a relationship between the performer and audience. She creates a real life experimental experience which is completely one of the most breathtaking things to ever watch. Marina has used her own body as a vehicle, pushing herself beyond her physical and mental limits and at times risking her life in the process! Marina creates performances that challenge, shock, and move us in all different aspects. Emotionally, physically as an artist and person. 

         Marina Abramovic believed that solitude was important for an artist. To have solitude away from the studio, home, family, or friends. That an artist needs to allow silence to enter. Marina felt performance was a tool that she used to express herself. She embraced repetition and challenges. Marina states every performance she tries to challenge herself more and more. To reach new levels and play around with our human-spirits.  She felt it was important for an artist to have a tool. Marina abramovic also believed being an artist is a huge responsibility. Marina always believes in three groups that she has to always accomplish as an artist. The first group is: the artist body: which is where she performs infront of  an audience. Second: The public body:  This is where the public can perform for themselves and get experience. Third: the student body: which is where she transfers knowledge for the younger artists.

 -" An artist should look deep inside for inspiration" Marina Abramovic has never ceased to amaze me. She inspires artist, including me, that we can reach these kind of levels within us if we only cease to believe. Because she is one of my favorite artists, I always recommend to watch " The Artist is Present" a documentary that Marina Abramovic has made and I promise it will take your breath away!

BEAUTY VS YOU (DADA COLLAGE)

Early 20th Century

1. DESCRIBE A DADA ARTWORK?

"MONA LISA"

                         -LEONARDO DA VINCI                            

                                                          "L.H.O.O.Q" -

                                    MARCEL DUCHAMP

During the early 20th century, after World War 1, a strong movement started to happen. This huge event started to changed millions of peoples lives, including artist and their views on politics. This started the Dada movement.  Dada artists both embraced and critiqued modernity. This included critiques about our new technologies, films, newspapers, even advertisements. Dadaist's believed in subversive and revolutionary ideals. According to Art Factory, " Dada or dadaism was also a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political, and cultural values of the time. It embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theater, dance, and politics" Dada was more of protest movement that was happening during this era. A perfect example would be this art piece called" L.H.O.O.Q" which is a work of art by Marcel Duchamp. Now this piece is known to be " Mona Lisa" which was originally created by Leonardo da Vinci. However Duchamp creates his own version of it. As you can see Duchamp drew a mustache and a goatee. This is actually one of the well known act of degrading a famous work of art. Actually if you pronounce the title in French, it spells out " She has a hot bum" very odd right? Duchamp's goal was to lead his contemporaries to challenge the usual standards set out for artwork in the public eye. Referencing to this piece, he wanted to continuously challenge what the public perceived as art. He expressed his notion by creating this piece to show that art does not always have to be beautiful. Duchamp took this piece of beauty and transformed it into something unconventional. Not only did Duchamp create a piece that shocked viewers visually, he created something that forced his audience to think about what they were seeing. Just like this piece! What do you think it truly means? 

2.WHAT WERE THE INFLUENCES OF JACOB LAWRENCE?

Jacob Lawrence is known be one of the most important artist of the 20th century. His influences came from the African American history. He is known for depicting important moments in African American History by using narrative paintings. He as well created such a unique American vision that affirms the place of ANY individuals in our society and honors the struggle for true independence. Jacob Lawrence was known to be a " Expressionist". This work by Lawrence is called Builders Number #1. We see a male sitting on a workbench surrounded by so many tools and fasteners.  He is alone and reflective, weighing the projects ahead.  If we look closely at his expression we can really picture his emotions. In this piece Lawrence really captures the labor lifestyle and the social struggle. Overall Jacob Lawrence did call his work dynamic cubism, meaning he was interested in simple shapes, bold colors, and patterns. And we can actually see a bit of these qualities in this piece. 

Impressionism & Post Impressionism

IMPRESSION

During the 19th century, a art movement started happening. Artist during this time created a new visuality, a new way of seeing the world. Started to see about the nature of fugitive light falling on surfaces. Artist started to convey the passage of time, changes in weather, and other shifts in the atmosphere in their canvases.  And these type of artists were happened to called  "Impressionists" and their paintings became known as "Impressionism." Impressionism is about modernity: its faster pace and various improvements in the quality of daily life. It's about the little middle class activites. Such as shopping, vacationing, strolling, waiting, or even walking your dog. Impressionism is about life lived in bursts of brief encounters in the city. It's about faster speeds, quickly moving clouds, the nature of fugitive light, daytime/ night time settings. And impressionist George Seurat shows a perfect example by this painting called A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. If we take a look here we can see really the nature of fugitive light just by the shadows he's painted. As well as we can see a  real day-to-day activity in our everyday lives. We can see a patch of beautiful vibrant colors and scattered sunlight oozing from this painting. We really see a change of art and how artist such as impressionist started to break from the normal traditional european paintings. By re-analyzing tone and color, capturing the ever-changing effects of light on the canvas.

POST IMPRESSIONISM 

During the late 19th century, impressionism started to pave it's way for post-impressionism. Now post impressionist painters started to explore different directions and approaches to painting without concern about the appearance of their subjects. It started to pave it's way for the development of modern art!  Compared to impressionist painters,  post-impressionist painters were not concerned with the objective appearance of their subject matter or how it looked at a different time of the day. Post impressionist painters started to largely concentrate on the personal emotions and concepts of the individual artist. It was a slower process and more of an involved methodical process. Post impressionism started to use geometric forms to portray its subjects while impressionism used small thin brushstrokes that gave the painting softer edges. This painting is " Portrait of Doctor Gatchet" painted by one of the most brilliant artist Vincent Van Gogh. If we look at his eyes they're drooped with sadness. As well as his skin tone appears to be kinda abnormal and shallow. We as well see lines of colors swimming around and through the doctor which was also a unique a technique Van Gogh had. 

Assignment #4

RENAISSANCE ART 

Renaissance art was the first to use perspective in their work. Throughout the 15th century, artists studied the natural world in order to perfect their understanding of such subjects as anatomy and perspective such as artist Fillippino Lippi. This painting is labeled "Madonna and Child"  which was painted by Lippi during 1457-1504. The idea of "Madonna and Child" was actually a very common theme during this time. However some qualities we can get from this painting would first be the perspective. We see a sense of horizontal perspective. Even with the baby, we see more humanistic features. As well as the form we see a balance between vertical and horizontal. We witness a very simple, yet flat background, nothing too dynamic. As for the clarity comparing to Pre-Renassiance, we visualize more vibrant sharp colors. The Renaissance era allowed art to develop and mature far beyond the traditional and conventional religious subject matter to replicate human emotion and realism in art. As well as praise of the human figure and nature, realistic linear perspective and the association of light and shadow.

BAROQUE ART

During the 17th century Baroque artist made a whole new different style of art. Baroque artist started to create more intense and dramatic artworks that sought to draw the viewer into the image such as one of the most brilliant artist Michelangelo Merisi Carvaggio. Although he is usually known as the best, he really is one of my favorite artist that really intrigues me the most. This painting is labeled The Denial of Saint Peter which was painted by Carvaggio during 1610 ca.  From analyzing this painting some of the qualities of Baroque art was their dynamics.  progression, and apprehension. The technique of powerfully using distinction of light and shadow and a never-ending quantity of space. This painting is a perfect example. Carvaggio perfectly captures a beautiful stillness here.  Baroque art qualities consisted to be more dramatic and emotional. Artists were famous for showing an individual's personalities, passion, emotions and thought merely through their facial expressions. We can get a sense of a story going on here through peter's gesture with his hands. We can really visualize how intense the situation is by his facial expression, if you look closely, even his tears.  Baroque art I believe was a form of exaggerated Renaissance style art.

Renaissance & Baroque Art

1) WHAT IS HUMANISM ?  

One of the big changes in the Renaissance was in the basic way people thought about things. As you can see above this painting is Venus and the Lute Player by artist Titian and Workshop. 1565–70 Figures became more life like, scenes from common life were more often portrayed, and the themes portrayed became more liberal, a bit more humanistic. Artist Titian reveals the true nature of humanism.here. Actually during this time, men desired more heavy women. The bigger you were meant the richer you were. From this painting we can get a visual sense of humanism from the way her body was painted. 

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2) WHAT ARE SOME QUALITIES OF JAN VAN EYCK PAINTINGS?
 

     Jan Van Eyck is known to be one of the most significant Northern Renaissance artist of the 15th century and I can see why! Nevertheless this portrait "Jan de Leeuw" painted by Eyck during 1436 reveals some of the amazing qualities that he had. Van Eyck exploited the qualities of oil as never before and completely took it to another level. By looking at this portrait, we can see a sense of pure glazed colors which in some ways it feels kinda modern in a way. It's very detailed and it's super realism. His beautiful form of light and shadows create a really extraordinary atmosphere and  exudes their presence in a holy and earthly environment. Van Eyck really  allows us  to really get absorbed into the individual personality. 

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3) DESCRIBE THE QUALITIES OF BAROQUE ART IN AN ARTWORK OF YOUR CHOICE!

          Renaissance painters and sculptors were among the first to use perspective in their work. This allowed them to give more realism to their creations. However, this focus on adding depth to their work has made paintings and sculptures seem to lack emotions and failed to capture the emotions that it should depict. That wasn't until the 17th hundreds Baroque artist such as Caravaggio took art to a whole new level. This painting is "Medusa" which was painted by Caravaggio 1598. What's unique about this is he painted it on canvas that was applied to a wooden shield. Now you can definitely see a major difference on the dynamics compared to the qualities of Renaissance art. For example Caravaggio heightens this combination of life and death through Medusa’s intense expression. We see her wide-open mouth exudes a silent but dramatic scream and her shocked eyes which makes one really visualize, see more of an perspective. Caravaggio's Medusa comes across as very human, which is very interesting. From this painting we can get a sense of how Baroque art is compared to  Renaissance art was more dynamic, dark, and dramatic. More humanistic. 

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Artist / Origin	Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848–1894) Region: Europe

1. HOW DOES AN ARTIST CREATE ASYMMETRICAL BALANCE? 

What is asymmetrical? A Symmetrical balance is when everything is perfectly and evenly balanced out. For example if you were to fold a picture in half you'll see that the other side is exactly the same. However what is interesting is that a asymmetrical balance refers to a design that has dissimilar elements but still appears balanced. Now dividing a picture in half won't have the exact same elements however the elements they do have are varied and seem to balance one another out.  As you can from this painting, "Paris Street, Rainy Day 1877" by Gustave Caillebotte. Caillebotte brings the photo to life by careful manipulation of angles, cropping of figures, and placement of objects. Following the asymmetric rhythm of the umbrellas Caillebotte has scattered throughout the scene. Although we don't see a symmetrical balance within the painting, the colors, the geometric order, monumental figures and the dramatic perspective employed by Caillebotte seem to offer a very unique image, as if we can easily step right into the photo. 

2. DESCRIBE SEVERAL WAYS USED TO UNIFY AN ARTWORK?

Unity is when elements of a piece is combined with an overall texture, pattern, repeated theme, shapes and contrast. Unity occurs when all of the elements of a piece combine to make a balanced, harmonious, complete whole.  This painting "Going Home" by Jacob Lawrence balanced the quality of unity and variety. If you look closely Lawrence established visual themes with the lines, shapes, and colors of the train seats, figures, and luggage, and then he repeated and varied those themes. You can notice a varied repetition in the green chair seats and window shades. This piece uses the quality of unity and completes a whole  through the effective use of the elements and principles of design.

3. HOW DOES SCALE CHANGE THE MEANING OF AN ARTWORK?

The Scale size of an artwork can change the dynamic's and intensify the meaning behind it. Scale art is an art form in which artists actually can create artistic pieces that are either miniature in size or larger than life. Just like this recent new amazing artwork called "EYE" in Chicago, Milwaukee  done  by artist  Tony Tasset. It is about 25-feet foot tall! Large pieces of public art like this artwork EYE are a breath of fresh air in large cities. They’re often capable of evoking a sense of place on their own which is pretty awesome. Size always matters! When scale is used in an artwork, it can greatly influence the meaning of the work. 

EGYPTIAN ART

332-30 B.C

An important quality in Egyptian Art as you can see from the "Statuette of the God Anubis" was anthropomorphism . Which is where we can see a combination of human and animal characteristic features. As well as symbolism. This wooden figure symbolizes the god Anubis with a canid head on a human body. Anubis represented the patron god of embalming, guide of the Underworld. Which seems to be wearing a certain feathered costume of Egyptian deities. As you can see his body is very formal and can see a common gesture which would be the left foot forward. What I found very intriguing was how many works of  Egyptian art consisted of gods, goddesses, and Pharaohs, who were also considered divine.

 (480 - 323 BC)

This is one of the most famous statues in Greek Art which is  called "The Discus Thrower" by Myron.  This statue is a perfect example of how Greek art was more fascinated with the aesthetics of the human body.  The Greeks analyzed the anatomy of their male "hero" figures, teaching us how to portray muscles, bones, natural stance and athletic poses both in sculpture and 3-like demensional art. As you can see here the Greeks wore no clothing when they practiced sports, and the sculptor could observe their 

beautiful, strong bodies in every pose.

 When comparing Greek Art and Roman Art, The Greeks often represented the gods in their art, in an effort to express the ideal form of beauty, physical strength and power. For the Romans, however, art had a more practical function. Artwork was primarily used for ornamentation and decoration. As you really anaylze Roman Art they preferred to sculpt historical events and important people.If a Roman statue is idealized, it is probably a statue of one of the many Roman emperors, who were considered to be divinities. A perfect example would be this statue which is "Augustus of Prima Porta" which was constructed to symbolize the Roman victory over the Parthians in 20 B.C.  As we can see here we see more of a formal position.  Looking from this statue we can sense how he was a symbolic leader and powerful.