Britart movement 1990s

Britart movement 1990’s:

Brit Art was a movement that began in Great Britain during the 90’s that gained international recognition and acknowledgement. The movement was called YBA (Young British Artists) who exhibited together in warehouses and factories. There form of art was mostly about creating controversial art that made people think about things – maybe demystifying objects and reintroducing them in a complete new concept of art. One of the most famous artist from the YBA is Damien Hirst known for his series of dead animals (sheep as well as a tiger and a cow) that were preserved and exhibited as an obvious symbol for death. Hirst’s work mostly revolved around the subject death and is preliminary seen in all his exhibitions and installations. He isn’t just known for his art pieces but also for his inappropriate comment about September 11 with congratulating the terrorist organisation to showing everybody that America is vulnerable – he regretted his comment a year later and apologised to the world. An interesting fact about Damien Hirst might be that he first got rejected from Art College but after taking a Foundation Diploma course he studied Arts at the Leeds College of Arts, he also studied at Goldsmiths, University of London where he studied Fine Arts.

His first famous piece that got known worldwide was when he first exhibited at a warehouse exhibition and displayed a shark that was preserved in formaldehyde – hanging in a vitrine. Some of his art was called to “disgusting” and controversial that the New York health officials banned some of his work and it wasn’t shown in New York. Damien Hirst seems to have had and still has a liking for showing dead animals preserved and displayed in different ways – there was an art piece entitled Mother and Child Divided and the art piece actually consisted of a cow and a calf cut into different pieces and displayed in different cabinets. He also had an art piece where he showed rotting animals.

The YBA was also knows for its shock art and its sometimes rather “disgusting” exhibitions. On the other hand the YBA artists showed a boldness that had never been there before in art – it was about shocking people and there seemed to have been no limits in what is okay to create and when art is not art anymore because of its subject. 

Visiting a museum for Modern Art: MARTa

Yesterday I went to visit a Modern Art Museum close to where I live. I’ve heard a lot about it in the past and my art teacher from school always wanted us to go but I never wanted to because I haven’t been the biggest fan of modern art so far, but after reading about more of it during the projects I felt like it was a good time to break this cycle of not going to modern art museums and I went. There were three different exhibitions in the museum and it was definitely an interesting experience. I knew that the architecture of the building would be a very interesting thing to look at in itself without having seen any of the exhibits inside. And it was just like that. The entrance was very impressive and the whole building had a great dynamic.

Image from http://img.fotocommunity.com/images/Architektur-Fotografie/Architektur-bei-Nacht/MARTa-Herford-a25505041.jpg (Accessed 9 Jan 2012)

The roof was build in different shapes and forms flowing out of the building and it didn’t only make the outside  much  more engaging but the inside with most of the light entering through windows in the roof.

                   Image from                                                                                                                     http://www.aknw.de/presse/downloads/tag-der-architektur2009/bilder-gross/Herford_1331_MARTa.jpg (Accessed 9 Jan 2012)

The first exhibition was called “Personal map (to be continued)...” by Nezaket Ekici and it consisted of different installations, a lot of them were video installations with music that the visitor could listen to, photographs and material that played a role in making her art as well as one piece of actual “live” art. While I was looking at her art I came up with a few questions and there are a few things that I really wonder about. Her art involved lots of physical action e.g. being completely dressed in white and then lighting candles that are stuck to a plate on the ceiling and the standing underneath it waiting for the hot wax to drop on her body – I am not sure what that specific art piece was trying to express and I read about it in the book that was supposed to explain the reasons for this art piece but unfortunately I couldn’t figure out why she did it – and to be quite honest to me it looked more like self destructive behaviour and if that is what makes modern art modern art then people shouldn’t pay for going to art museum and rather join volunteering work at a psychiatric institution and they would probably see as much self destructive behaviour as I felt I have seen in the exhibits yesterday.

Maybe it’s only modern art that is displayed in Germany that is so stereotypical for what I think about modern art as it was the main influence about modern art that I had in the past so far – said this – I still wonder why modern art seems to need to be disgusting, shocking and disturbing to be recognised and exhibited. Everybody is complaining about the world and how “ugly” and destructive it became and I wonder why art doesn’t want to be opposite to that statement and why artists don’t just create something more light-hearted and more positive – I am not saying that all modern art has to be depressing but from what I’ve experienced it is pretty much just like that. And about some works of art I wonder who would really like looking at it – do the artists from today even work from their heart or if the art is really a mirror to their soul – are they all just depressed black holes in a big universe?

People who are visiting modern art museum in Germany also seem to follow some kind of stereotypical role model – the majority of these people is dressed in black, flat shoes, short hair, colourful reading glasses, the same facial expression trying to force an interesting look on their face. I have noticed all these tiny details and I wonder if that is a resemblance of the people the artists wants to reach out to with his or her work. Why do these people resonate with this kind of modern art?

I really hope that not all modern art is like this and that there is more to this generation of artists because I think what the world needs is not more depressing art and black holes in the universe we rather need positive feelings expressed and more stars added to the universe and the night sky. 

Notes

I was just researching works of art for the exercise that I did yesterday but wasn’t satisfied with and it is fun so far – I designed my own ground plan and it is much easier this way. I found this amazing sculpture artist – his name is Ron Mueck and his sculptures are over life size sculptures of heads, bodies in different situations –very inspiring!

Ron Mueck Seated Boy

 Image from http://neosurrealism.artdigitaldesign.com/modern-artists/?images/midsize/fine-art/seating-boy.jpg (Accessed 5 Jan 2012)

Project 1 Exercise: Exploring modern art

Project 1 Exercise: Exploring modern art

Surrealism:

-          Began in 1920s

-          Surprise and unexpected ways of presenting a subject

-          Developed form Dadaism

-          Wanted to free people from false rationality

-          Dream analysis was a bag part of the movement – believed that dream was a big part of art

Surrealism and politics and social change:

-          Artistic idea and political change is what they wanted

-          free revolution

-          anti-colonial revolution

-          Embraced anarchism?

The Golden Age of Surrealism:

-          Dali and Magritte were the most famous artists from the Golden Age

-          Recreating normal objects into an environment that isn’t usual for it and then moving it away from its original purpose and creating new meaning with it

-          Combination of depictive, psychological and as said above the estrangement of objects, abstract

Examples of Surrealistic Art:

Rene Magritte (1964) The Son of Man (oil on canvas) Private Collection

Image from  http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/images/ReneMagritte-The-Son-of-Man-1964.jpg

(Accessed 4 Jan 2012)

Rene Magritte’s art has been used for book cover, CD covers, postcards; it has even been used in advertisements for brands like Huge Boss.  His art look familiar as almost everybody has already seen bits and pieces of his work – he is famous for using apples as a dominant feature in his paintings as well as not showing the face of the person he is drawing.

For example:

Rene Magritte (1928) The Lovers  (oil on canvas) New York: Museum of Modern Art

Image from http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/921/w500h420/CRI_215921.jpg (Accessed 4 Jan 2012)

Creating some sense of intimacy but that being separated by the fabric covering up their heads – separation of intimacy – what did he want to say? Maybe they wanted to be lovers but weren’t allowed to be lovers? Maybe those two were a couple, maybe married but they kept things from each other that might be why there is no real intimacy. Hiding true feelings/ identities? Is there something that they are both not saying – or not allowed to say? Does is represent death?

After doing some research: Magritte’s mother drowned when he was still young and he watched her body being fished out of the river – a nightgown was covering her face. That might explain why in a lot of his paintings faces are covered up by some sort of object whether it be fabric, apples, flowers, et cetera. Magritte didn’t agree with the explanation of trying to cope with his mother’s death he only pointed out that his images were visual art of mystery/nothing/dream – Magritte wondered if people are reading too much into art – instead of just letting it be art they interpret images and sculptures.

References:

Web pages:

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3692&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_Man_(Magritte)

Bibliography:

Murray, P. And Murray, L. (1997) Dictionary of Art and Artists. Revised 7^th ed. London: Penguin Group

The next exercise that I’ve been working on was the “Finding affinities” one and I have to say that it looked easy at first but when I started looking at ground plans I realised that it would be more than I thought it would be. I finally found a ground plan that satisfied me and because while reading in the big book about architecture and the International style I had laid an eye on the Villa Savoy and it was great that I found a ground plan to work with – I enjoyed looking at paintings, sculptures and furniture. This was actually the first time I actually looked into furniture a little more and I found it very interesting what I found – for example finding the Astor Hotel magazine rack was great I love the design and it fits perfectly in the living room of the Villa. What I also enjoyed was the difference between the art that was displayed in the public areas of the house e.g. foyer, living room, terrace and the difference to the paintings that were hanging in the mast bedroom and the dressing room where the paintings became more abstract and colourful. I enjoyed this exercise but I also found it quite hard as it was something where I wasn’t a 100% sure of what I was doing. But I feel like it would be great to actually see the art pieces that I chose hanging/standing in the Villa Savoy. I am actually not completely satisfied with my report about the house - that's why I am thinking about doing it again...

Research point

Research point

Seurat’s painting technique: “pointillism”

-          Small distinct dots of “pure” colour (on palette, colours weren’t mixed but kept separate)

-          Blending of colour dots into various colours

-          Colours were used in system of colour wheel

-          Most paintings with pointillism technique are done with oil paint (reasons for using oil paint: thickness and because it doesn’t run down the canvas)

-          Short even brush strokes, every stroke separate from another one

 Seurat was more working-class than other Impressionist artists and although his political stance isn’t certain some speculates if he was involved with the ideas of Diversionists as this could explain why he “developed” a new painting technique that is called Divisionism/pointillism.

References:

Web pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisionism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism#cite_note-artcyclopedia-0

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/pointillism.html

I am now going to annotate a Post-Impressionist painting and I was looking forward to this annotation and I am very excited now to choose a painting. I chose Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and I found it very interesting to do some research on the background and look at things that Van Gogh wrote to his brother it is very fascinating to see what was going on in the mind of such a great artist. I am also still very fascinated by the fact that Van Gogh made about 800 paintings in his life time and 70 paintings within the 70 before he committed suicide.

I decided to do my virtual town house visit to Haworth Parsonage as I admire all the books that the Bronte sister wrote and I am very excited that the house where they lived can be actually visited I didn’t know that that was possible. As I am a lover of those classical novels I can’t wait to dive in to their home and see where they came up with their amazing stories on longer winter evenings. 

Project 4 Exercise: Depicting everyday life

Poppy Field in Argenteuil, 1873, Claude Monet, Musée d’Orsay (oil on canvas)

Image from http://colalexgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1304431309-17.jpg (Accessed 2 Jan 2012)

Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881, Renoir, The Phillips Collection Washington (oil on canvas)

Image from http://www.artunframed.com/images/artmis59/renoir31.jpg (Accessed 2 Jan 2012)

They are very attractive images to the viewer as for the choice of colour, scenery, subject. It shows the cheerful life without any worries, just a pleasant time with friends in a beautiful setting. Everybody looks happy and it is still the idealised version of a life even today. The first image by Monet doesn’t tell the viewer anything about city life but it shows a harmonic scene, a woman and a child, probably mother and daughter walking through a field of poppies.  A house in the background and blue skies underlining the light-hearted atmosphere. The painting from Renoir tells the viewer more about city life although it isn’t set in a public place e.g. restaurant etc. But it shows the general idea of how communication and getting together in the 19^th century looked like. Men and women both dressed in formal clothes except for the boats men. Enjoyment of food and wine, laughing and drinking. I am wondering what the woman on the right who is covering her ears means to this painting – if it is an indicator of something deeper in meaning that the image shows when you first look at it. 

Notes

I just finished annotating a realist image and analysing a painting of a historical event and I have to say that annotating became more fun with every image I annotated so far as I start knowing more about the background of things and for me art becomes more interesting when it transfers from Romanticism to Realism and I am about to start reading about Impressionism which is one of my favourite art periods and it is very interesting to not only get a glimpse of things and bits and pieces of art history but to actually understand the context and how one art period transferred to another one and how it was influenced by different things and how every art period also wants to express something else. It is a lot of fun doing this! I still have a hard time with reading about architecture and photography as I don’t know much about it and I mostly went to museum to see actual paintings from different art periods rather than looking at architecture and photography from back then.