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This week we continued our discussion about the art market and the shift from passion for art to passion for money.  We also discussed new types of art including street art and interactive pieces.

Bob Hughes continues to express his distaste for this change in art in “The Curse of the Mona Lisa.”  He notes that strategies are necessary in institutions and that when we see art as a spectacle, is distances itself from its context and it ultimately loses its meaning.  With this new craze of the art market, too much is expected out of artwork and too little is actually delivered.  He says that art now equals a checkbook.

When talking to other collectors, they state that they pick out pieces that call to them, or stand out the most.  This emergence of collectors and buyers changed the way artists produced their work.  The production process is now accelerated.  One artist in particular who gave into this mass production was Andy Warhol.  A collector described him as a “visionary artist of our time.”  However, Hughes sees him as an artist who transformed into a celebrity businessman.  He says he thought Warhol was stupid.  He had nothing to say and his work has become dry and repetitious.

I have to agree with Hughes a little bit on this subject.  I personally find Warhol’s pieces to be kind of boring because they are just a bunch of prints of the same thing pit next to one another.  I think it would be more interesting if he made prints like these but with different pictures to make up on large collage.  But hey, I’m no artist.

Hughes reinforces this idea that this modern art represents the death of something he once loved about art.  Art is supposed to give us coherent sensations that we don’t normally have.  It is supposed to give us a sense of clarity and intelligence.  However, from the 60’s and on, art became a way of simply making money.  It has been stripped of everything except its market vale.  Hughes points out that there is no point of art if it can’t tell us about the world we live in.  This just shows the power that money has and how out of touch we are with the world, but this is our world now.

While I understand Hughes’ frustration, he also cannot expect to hold onto the art world prior to the 60’s forever.  The world is constantly changing and evolving.  Although money has become a large factor in any part of life, he cannot expect art and its motives to stay the same forever.  I think that if he truly feels as strongly as he claims to feel, that along with his video he should go out and proactively work toward bringing art back to the way it was.  He may not be successful, but he might be able to get through to some artists so that he at least has some of what he once loved to hold onto.

Maybe Hughes would appreciate street art instead.  Although his taste seems more sophisticated, street art has a connection to artwork free from dictation by institutions.  There are no labeled texts and glass boxes around the work.  The artists work as a community to share ideas and create community spirit.  It is free from constraint, galleries and copyright.

I think street art is really interesting.  Not only does it create this sense of community, but it adds life and personality to the community as well.  It is an expression of the people that make up the community.  But, do things like graffiti count as street art?  I found this truck covered in graffiti while venturing through Union Square last weekend.  I thought it was awesome and it was a great expression of the artist.  However, I feel like most people see graffiti and other street art as vandalism and something that just makes the city look “dirty.”

However, even street art can be institutionalized.  The video shows us some works in Turbine Hall as interactive pieces.  These pieces are vast in size; the people walking around the artwork look like little dots on a map!  I thought these pieces were really interesting, especially the piece where the artist used metal bunk beds to fill the room underneath the huge spider part of the piece.  I would never have known that those were bunk beds if someone didn’t point it out.  I also think seeing the piece with the people walking around from up top really captures the immensity of these pieces and how much space it takes up.


-Kristen

For Better or for Worse?

This week’s discussion zeroed in on museums as the cultural treasures of the world.  These institutions are art bearers and like everything else, they have changed over time.  But the question at hand is, have they changed for the better or for the worse?

The art world controls how art gets seen and where it gets seen.  This art market directs the evolution of contemporary art of the world and every aspect connected to it.  Some issues we discussed were cultural exchanges.  Some countries such as Greece, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries have been asking institutions such as Yale and British institutions for their art back.  It is important to make negotiations while exchanging such pieces.  Otherwise, it becomes an issue of copyright and ownership.

According to the video, “The Curse of the Mona Lisa,” museums, art and the public have all changed.  Art critic Bob Hughes walks us through these changes.  Hughes has a tremendous amount of knowledge on art history.  He uses good judgment and his well liked by many artists. 

Bob Hughes showed us this crystal skull piece that is worth millions of dollars.  WHAT?!  Millions?!  That's crazy!  I mean I knew art could get expensive but I had no idea it could get THAT crazy.  He points out the shift in attention from appreciation of the art to money.  Now everything is about owners and buyers and how much each piece is worth.  We see art fairs such as The Armory Show, where thousands of people come to purchase pieces of art.  Are they really appreciating the art or is it simply about the exchange for money?  This type of art is definitely not the art Hughes fell in love with in the sixties.

Hughes mentions an artist to us by the name of Robert Rauschenberg.  This artist used silkscreen to create paintings on a panoramic point of view.  When pop artists began to focus on media subjects for art, Rauschenberg knew the way.  He was the original genius behind the silkscreen.  He also talks about a friend of his, Jim, who works with speed and amplitude in art.  I thought these pieces were particularly cool because of the vibrancy and the fact that there was a lot going on because of the speed in them.  They were really expressive and stood out to me as a viewer.  However, I did not really like Rauschenberg’s pieces.  While I agree that he is talented, I did not find them to be as interesting or captivating as Jim’s pieces.  But hey, I’m no art critic now am I?

-Kristen

Patience is a Virtue

Today, we continued our discussion of Installation Art.  We began by taking a peek at Ai Weiwei’s piece called “Sunflower Seed.”  In this piece, what you see is not what you really see; what you think you see it not what the piece means.  Each seed is may look like it is a real sunflower seed, but it is actually made out of porcelain.  Weiwei notes that when looking at this piece, some of the viewers pick up the seeds and even try to eat them, not realizing that they are hand crafted.

The seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape in the gallery space.  This piece carries personal associations with Mao Zedong’s brutal Cultural Revolution (1966-76).  Weiwei states that as he got more involved in art, he sensed that an individual has to set an example in society.  His art shows the relationship between the individual and the masses.  “Sunflower Seed” and the seeds themselves raise several questions regarding the role of the individual in society.  Are we significant or powerless unless we act together?  Weiwei sees art as a tool to set up new questions and to discover new answers.

We see the process of making the seeds all the way through to placing them in the gallery space.  There are thirty steps to making the seeds and over 1,600 people were involved in the process.  WOW!  This shows how artists work with mass production and they cannot work alone.  Artists like Weiwei have to rely on other collaborates to help him along the way.

I had no idea how intricate this process was, nor would I have thought that the seeds were porcelain unless I researched the artwork.  I think it is incredible the patience these workers and artists are.  Where does someone come up with such an idea?  Sunflower seeds would have probably been one of the last things to cross my mind.  Watching the workers go through all the steps was torturous because I was getting frustrated just watching.  I have no idea how they just sit there painting so perfectly for such a long amount of time.  It definitely made me realize how much patience I DON’T have.

Another Installation Artist we discussed was an American artist, Allan McCollum.  His inspiration and influence roots back to his uncle’s TV show called “Learn How to Draw.”  McCollum, like Weiwei, wanted to work with unique quantities.  He notes that a lot of emotion comes out of something so large.  You can either be in awe of what is in front of you, or run out of the gallery space in horror. 

McCollum became interested in people working in homes.  His piece “Shapes of Maine” displays the work of different artists in Maine, of whom he has never even met.  He shows us how he works with drawings on his computer, putting either four or six pieces together to form a unique shape.  He states that he would love to be able to make an object for every person in the world, but it is nearly impossible.  It is his hope that we as a large force can eventually agree on one object to represent everyone as a whole.

I think both Weiwei and McCollum are really depicting strong ideas within their artwork.  All of their artwork is carefully articulated and placed within the gallery space.  They put a lot of time and thought into what they are creating and placing in the space they have to work with.  Both artists touch upon this idea of individualism and coming together as a stronger force as well.  I think they both show this in their work because they come together with other people and have so much other help rather than working alone like some other artists.  Their pieces may not look very deep, but they represent something much more thought provoking than their literal appearance.  I think the time and effort put into these pieces is incredible and truly admiring.  It seems like such a simple idea to put sunflower seeds on the ground or to place drawings on tables, but there is so much more to these pieces than we know as viewers.

-Kristen

I Want To Try!

To continue our discussion about the performance arts, we zeroed in on a particular performer by the name of Matthew Barney.  Barney worked with interesting connections to the body, the shaping of the body, temperature changes and different tensions that tested the body’s limits.  He also worked with alter egos; this allowed him to act as both himself and another performer as this other person.  Barney takes himself on journeys both literally and figuratively with his body.  Some of his narratives are literally about him going somewhere while others include conflict, race or putting his body through certain things through his travels.

One performance we brought up in particular was his piece where he worked with drawing restraint.  He was dressed up in mountain gear and harnesses in the middle of a gallery space.  He had to navigate himself around while being restrained by the harnesses to try and draw on the walls of the space.  Barney had to force his body against this in order to reach the walls with his pencil.  This was his first show or performance piece with his body and he practiced this idea of resistance.  I found this performance to be the most intriguing because although it seems difficult and may be frustrating, it kind of sounds fun as well.  I think after a while I might give up, which is where I am definitely different than Matthew Barney.  But for the first few minutes I think it might actually be something fun to experiment with!

When watching a film regarding Barney and his work he notes that he considers everything he works with attractive even if he is repulsed by it.  We se his performance where he uses the ten horses, or five groups of two.  As a performer he is very focused and he works diligently to reach his goals.  Barney’s artist side did not emerge until later; his original plan was to become a plastic surgeon.  His coworkers note that he does not seem to have these fears that the rest of us do.  He views the world through images rather than through models.  With his alter ego, he can do and be anything he wants and assume these other identities.

Right before the conclusion of class we talked about another performance artist named Marcus Coates.  We saw his “interesting” performances where he trains himself to become an animal.  He says that he imagines himself going in a hole down into the center of the earth and if he cannot find any ideas down here, he calls out to the animals and birds for ideas.  His work is most definitely unique, but I could not get myself to understand where he was coming from.  When watching his performance, I was right there with the lady in the audience laughing.  He is so serious and into these animal calls, but something about it is just so ludicrous.  I definitely think that I’d be interested in Barney’s work before Coates’.

On Wednesday, we switched gears and moved onto Installation Art.  When viewing this type of art, we experience it by walking amongst the work.  There is no formal way that the work is seen but it works with changing space and the way we see what is in front of us.  Installation Art works with putting unusual things in a gallery space.  The viewer physically enters the work through this immersive, theatrical state.  We as viewers work as active space around the work as well.  This type of art can include paintings, video, sculptures or objects; you can work with several different mediums.  The work addresses the viewer directly in the space; they key to this is that there is the literal presence of the viewer.

One artist we discussed was Damien Hirst and his piece called “The Pharmacy.”  He chose to fill the gallery space with all of these objects and prescriptions, along with the four apothecary bottles on the counter representing the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water.  Another artist was Song Dong, who created this piece called “Waste Not.”  For this piece, Song Dong took every piece that was in his mother’s home in Beijing and recreated it in this gallery space.  This piece was very intricate and timely; there were so many pieces to the work it seemed almost impossible to put together.  Lastly, we discussed Jason Rhoades, whose work was very carefully orchestrated.  He would empty out things like garages, basements and spare rooms.  As we saw in some of his pieces, he would have neon words hanging in the space that just adds to the craziness of the installation.

I believe Installation Art is really fascinating.  It is so different and unique and I would never think to do any of the things that these artists do.  At first when I saw the pieces created by these men I really didn’t think much of it.  But as we discussed them and focused on the details of the pieces, I really came to appreciate the work and see just how much time and focus goes into these installations.  I couldn’t believe how many pieces went into the “Waste Not” piece and how much was going on in Jason Rhoades’ pieces.  I personally thought the piece by Rhoades where he had a table and then presents as chairs was really cool.  It was just so different and so out there but at the same time it worked.  It’s funny how stuff like that all comes together even when you think it would be really weird.  Even the piece where he has the giant donut placed next to the cheese is fun.  At first all I could think was “What the heck?”  But at the same time, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the work.  It was really something different, but I enjoyed looking at these pieces and discovering more about these artists.  My personal favorite is the neon lights.  I love neon and I think it gives so much life to everything, especially his art.  Before today I don’t think I even knew that Installation Art existed!  It is definitely something I don't think I would be good at, but I'd love to try it.  I wish my mind was that creative!