There are three main functions of art. These include personal, social and physical functions. The most obvious of these functions is art’s physical purpose. When you see art in a museum placed in a certain way or in a certain section, it is serving a specific function. Architecture serves a physical function and is seen in an aesthetic sense as well. Art can depict social conditions as well. Realist painters and photographers capture these moments that can vary from war to depression to times of happiness and economic boom. Art can be used in politics and governmental issues as well. We use methods such as political cartoons and satire to react to these social changes and to the current events of the world. Art can serve purposes on a personal level as well. Artists feel in control of his of her work when they are creating it. They have control over the way it is viewed and how people react or respond to their art. Art can bring both order and chaos to the world but ultimately it has the power to keep us together as a species.
Jeff Koon notes art is about the acceptance of others; art comes to the world as a metaphysical process. He composes his images on the computer and then others help paint them. I thought it was really interesting when one of his workers noted that they use one hundred and twenty swatches just for Popeye’s fist in the first image we see. We see a few of his pieces in the museum. When looking at the bear and the policeman we must embrace this power of art. There is a moral responsibility that comes with it. We also see his piece of the boy pushing the pig. This relates to his urge to move forward in life and to make work. His pieces in Versailles are about detail and enjoying this intricacy of his work. The floral piece outside of Versailles is a rare piece of work for him, but the entire thing is done so mathematically. We see the workers placing each flower in a specific place that reinforces this idea of detail and intricacy.
Koon brings up an interesting point that although images can change and the ways of making them can change, the purpose or reason behind making work remains the same. He hopes that his viewers are committed to making something as well and moving forward. Artists are greatly affected by what is going on in their world. Like Hickey, Koon feels beauty is dead in the art world and has been replaced. Art has turned to the dark side; beauty is rougher, harsher and more in your face. Regardless, Koon agrees that art needs to keep you thinking about the work and cause you to think in different ways.
John Baldessari, as an artist, finds the idea of painting to be redundant. He feels there is more to art than painting, that there is more meaning. He took all of his work he previously created and had them cremated to ashes. He makes the joke that he made cookies out of these ashes, yet only one person ever tried one. He also talks to us about a piece he is working on where he wants to make a brain in white with a blue background, to give this illusion of a cloud. Baldessari describes this piece as ambiguous. Another piece that caught my eye is when he covers the faces of the buyers and the price tags. He describes these people as those who decide his future while he is in the studio.
Baldessari is very interested in exploring different rituals and systems that work. He explores different visual techniques and makes them a personal function of art. He gets bored very easily and does not like to be bored. By working with these new systems and exploring all different types of art and techniques, he keeps himself entertained. Baldessari notes that an artist must have a necessity to make a piece of work for their own personal function, rather than making something while being dictated by the ideas of what fine art is supposed to be. Like Koon, he believes art should create alternate ways of working and seeing things.
-Kristen
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