Blog Post #10

Zhang Hongtu
Pingliang, China, 1943
Anonymous(song)- Van Gogh P, 2013
Oil on canvas
Private Collection

The artwork I have chosen for the last blog post is a painting within the Queens Museum by Zhang Hongtu (1943) entitled "anonymous (song)- Van Gogh P". The canvas includes a landscape but the scenery being limited within a circle. The circle may have been used as a window as well emphasizing the objects in nature same as Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" canvas. A combination of Van Gogh's painting along with Hongtu's selected landscape from China. Hongtu uses cool and warm tones as Van Gogh's technique of brushstrokes. In the foreground on the bottom right holds a small scale of tree's with a combination of brown and orange leaves close to the edge of the cliff. Going down the cliff to the left involves a trail of rocks with a tree or a shrub peeking out. Disconnecting from land includes a body of water. Hongtu uses the paintbrush to go criss-cross depicting the movement of the water around the rocks. The chaotic waves clashing against the large rocks, the rocks are positioned in order from the smallest rock to the tallest as if it reached the sky. The background illustrates the same setting as Van Gogh's painting. A large yellow moon and star in the sky with brushstrokes surrounding them as if they were illuminating along with three faded stars scattered around behind the curved cloud. Outside the frame on the bottom right consists of Chinese writing that may be lyrics as said on the label.
The reason I chose this artwork by Zhang Hongtu is the way he used a style by a western artist Vincent Van Gogh along with Hongtu's own presentation of his native land. By the looks of it Hongtu may be influenced by Van Gogh, "The Starry Night" is a popular painting and with Hongtu's own personal twist is interesting, a hint of a previous painting and a landscape from China. Before enrolling into this course, Art and Society, I wasn't as interested in art or if I did get a chance to go to a museum I'd just glance by each exhibit. With the assignments given, art is everywhere it can be accidental or the way one interprets an object to just giving something a meaning. Sine the course is over I do appreciate art. i look forward to visiting other museums and i'll feel prepared or cultural and given someone my own interpretation on an exhibit. Also, I became interested in other artists for instance Zhang Hongtu and Henri Matisse. Further in the future I want to experience artist's I haven't heard of or learn more about the person. 

Blog post7&8

Original

Checking In

Hair salon at the street corner

Here near the Sun? 

Defy Science

Teeny, tiny race car

Green roads

Abandoned house across 

Hats shaped like ice 

Sophistication

We're no strangers

Spaceship home

Totally

Party like a scientist

Big head, eyes and no hair

Spaceship 

We’re real.
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.laer er’eW

 pihsecapS

riah on dna seye ,daeh giB

tsitneics a ekil ytraP

yllatoT

emoh pihsecapS

sregnarts on er'eW

noitacitsihpoS

 eci ekil depahs staH

 ssorca esuoh denodnabA

sdaor neerG

rac ecar ynit ,yneeT

ecneicS yfeD

 ?nuS eht raen ereH

renroc teerts eht ta nolas riaH


nI gnikcehC

Translated- Flipped over, reflected, and written backward from a text generator on the internet.

creative project #1

I decided to draw a representation of how I view myself but also including a strangers perspective of me, from that I divided a face in two halves. The left of the face is an owl along with my current short hair on top. I believe I best represent an owl from my lack of interaction with others, I pay attention to detail, and I don't speak yet keep my ideas and imaginations in my head. My reason for adding the short hair is to show its still me but there will be occasional moments when someone will make it obvious and show a confused or glaring look if I'm a female or male from the way I dress and my decision on the haircut I chose. Glancing over to the right is my past self with long hair. Sure I did love my long thick hair but I ask, Why do women have to represent themselves in a way to show its acceptable? This is how a woman should behave, act, dress, and look. There is pressure on a female in today's society. We're neglected or told to step down from our strong propositions which is why I draw a closed mouth on the right of my face. I'm quickly judged on my appearance but can't they forget for one second and just know that I'm a regular person just like your sister, girlfriend, friend,  and peer. Going back to my past self on the right I also drew a thought bubble showing my interests and what kind of person I am. My piece relates to Stuart Hall,cultural theorist, sociologist believes stereotyping reduces, essentializes, naturalizes and fixes difference. My idea relates to Stuart Hall's idea, from the pre-conceived idea of how a woman should act and dress.  

El Museo Essay #2

Dear Rodriguez Calero,

I recently visited El Museo Del Barrio and was profound of your work from the way you expressed your belief and culture into your composition. Taking a stroll around the museum and witnessing your exhibits I noticed the use of your work incorporating bold statements. From the use of color and distorted figures it has the viewer to pause and understand or relate what you're trying to communicate. These exhibits are something I haven't come across from museums I've encountered, your work, its unique and the way you express them relating to today's society. A display that caught my attention is a collage by Rodriguez Calero titled Picture of Inner Clarity (1997). The canvas includes the monochromatic use of red and shades, with geometric shapes, and a boy in the center with blood on his face with a circular frame around him. I questioned myself "Why would she title this canvas but the appearance is represented in a opposing way?" Although others might interpret this acrollage differently my idea on this is the frame surrounding the boy covered in blood is a window or a portal. Seeking more details from the work of art, what are the engravings around the child? Coming back to the boy, the blood I believe to be is restraint as well pain. A time someone goes through at a certain point in their life resulting to being complicated to find clarity. I have a few questions I'd like to ask you. Is the acrollage something your hinting to the observer of what you personally feel or what we all sense? What influenced you to portray this particular work in a dark way?  Why not make it noticeably obvious or simple? What is the purpose of the geometric shapes surrounding the boy? Is it a way of being suffocated or does it symbolize our issues being overwhelmed and the child is us when it was uncomplicated. What is the child in the acrollage suppose to represent? Is there one specific interpretation or does it depend on an aesthetic emotion from the observer? Overall, I found this exhibit interesting as well you didn't make it seem overly religious. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Joanna Castelan  

blog post 5&6 A taste of home

Title:A taste of home
Artist:unknown
Date: Unknown
Geography/Culture:Mexico
Medium:glass,leather, and soldering iron
Dimensions:H.9"x L.3"x W. 2 3/4"
Source: Gift to my father from my grandfather

At first I didn't know what I had in my home that would be passable to be in a museum. Surely it's not older or from an important era nor person. I didn't make this bottle but the object in my perspective gives a deeper meaning. What I have put in display is a glass bottle covered in leather along with soldering iron burned onto it is from the city my father was raised in, Mexico. I decided to name this object A taste of home  .  I recall  at a young age when it was my first time visiting Mexico at the time when I was soon to go back to the U.S.  My father, sister, and I were in a shop watching a woman quickly design the bottle. Personally it was interesting watching how quickly she designed it as well how each bottle had a different design that she had in display. This bottle is for storing in tequila, its a strong alcoholic drink that is well known from Mexico. It was a gift my grandfather gave to my father as a fare well gift since he came back after years along with grandchildren. Looking at the bottle reminds me of a time in childhood when I first went out of U.S territory as well the time I've spent with the family from my fathers side as to sight see.

The older an object may be as well from a different nation it obtains a higher value, objects that are irreplaceable. In Europe, there are museums that contain priceless original lines of different craft, guarded with care, visited by careful tourists and small number of special students (John Cotton Dana: Summaries/Selections from The Gloom of the Museum,1917-Why Museum Building are Temples and Palaces) Museums should have pieces to be admired which what a museum should be. John Cotton Dana says, "Art museum objects were not chosen for their beauty or for their help they might give in developing good taste in the community, but for their rarity, their likeliness to objects found in European  museums, and for all their costs." To me the object I posted as my artwork is just a title but the label obtains a deeper description of why I think its valuable.

Metropolitan Museum Essay

      

The two works of art I chose for this blog are close to 100 years apart. At first I took a quick glance on these exhibits and assumed these artist's just wanted to capture a specific scene but after reading the label of the artwork on the left it came to result of being more on the darker perspective and the artwork on the right  perceive to be in value of dark and light. I became more concentrated on these exhibits because you don't have to express an emotion and/or mood in a exaggerated way to just let someone know that's what you have to feel but to think about it and know why the artist made it in a certain way. The artwork on the left is a painting(oil on canvas) by Kay Sage titled Tomorrow is Never (1955). On the right is a photograph ( transferred to salted paper print from paper negative) by John Beasley Greene titled Antiquities in the Museum at Cherchell, Algeria (1853-54). Although they represent two different images and are produced from different mediums they both give a familiar melancholy emotion.

Tomorrow is Never is an artwork produced by Kay Sage, one of the most important women of surrealism. Surrealism rose to its attention in the 20th century from artists or writers from combining unrelated images and events in a strange and dreamlike way. Kay Sage used her works of art to represent her state of mind. This painting and like others portrayed her as being lost and complicated. Kay Sage utilized a monochromatic use of grey also the rigid use of lines on her building and the inside the use of twisted ad uncomfortable layout. The sky used value of darkness approaching but I also noticed at the bottom foreground gave the same notion but from the wave of mist was a sense of uneasiness,despair and loneliness. From using certain colors and imagery it gave a certain feeling that she wasn't stable. In 1963, Kay Sage committed suicide. The photograph on the right, Antiquities in the Museum at Cherchell, Algeria represents three roman sculptures dug out in Algeria. The Cherchell Museum houses are considered to be at some of the best examples of Roman and Greek antiquities on the African continent. Even though it is a photograph which is portrayed to be two dimensional, the concentration of the sculptures especially in black in white gives the dimension to the photograph. In my perspective I see an outline of wings where the headless woman is sitting. The woman placed in the middle is the highlight of the photograph. Speaking of the headless woman there is a dark shadow above her head but its in a oval form slanted to portray the missing head. The sculptures are missing their body parts but it also demonstrates for it to still having a life and representing the memorable part of the era.

I perceive these two exhibits to depict a forlorn emotion. Kay Sage's painting gave a deeper meaning of her difficult part in life. Sage only painted the construction of buildings I believe it represents her mask and the inside of either being drapes or a curved sculpture may mean of just being placed there. Overall these buildings are incomplete and barely standing. In the background show less and less, glancing at the right of the painting is just a stick which is a loss of hope. This brings back to the photograph from the wings and the missing head. The woman is just in a corner of a room and left against an unsteady wall along with the other sculptures, shes alone. There could have been two landscapes and point out the difference of the era and techniques or the photograph of different perspective and the use of the medium but these two works of art grabbed my attention, I guess from its dark, deep meaning. From all the interpretation I don't see why it shouldn't be in the Metropolitan Museum.  

Dancer

Henri Matisse, Dance 1, 1909,Oil on canvas.

This oil painting portrays the movement of women effortlessly dancing around in a circle.The description of this artwork on google art project states it was effortlessly done but it also shows an image of joy and energy but yet daring. Matisse shows movement from two women on the left emphasized of them being larger along with their legs to the breasts then continuing to the women on the right leaning and fading.I believe the artwork is representational, I notice the faces of the women express a free and joyful appearance but their not looking up to the viewer but they are beautiful from any type of motive. Even though the artwork is simply lacking detail of the human body but it does demonstrates what men or what women are seem to be portrayed as. Although its not as realistic of what were used too in a way it is because it is what a woman has always been demonstrated as from way back till present.  The artwork shows the assets of what someone would concentrate more or defining a woman. "And so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman. She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life. Her own sense of being in herself is supplanted by the sense of being appreciated as herself by another". Although Henri Matisse could have done the artwork of the women in clothes in my perspective he may have done it to also show that women also bring passion or beauty to anything they desire or what anyone would portray any woman.

blog post#3 The constraint of a generation

Always strolling down the same path to get to school and never completely focusing on a small detail that can give a meaning. Waiting for the red light, I noticed students have left their garbage in a corner. What is beginning to pile up are the coffee containers and wrappers of snacks. Before I would just look at this scenery of just plain trash but after several lessons in art philosophy and art history I came to conclusion you can give something a deeper meaning. This captured moment shows a glimpse of college life. A grab and and go daily lifestyle we become accustomed to. College students highly caffeinated and making poor food choices that some can relate to gaining a few pounds. I first I thought the twigs and leaves coming out the concrete was out of place but then I gave it some thought and came into conclusion that this plant symbolizes after all those difficult days studying and completing assignments to pass each semester will pay off and have the student develop into a highly educated individual. I decided to title this photo "The constraint of a generation". The pressure to accomplish in college from exams,presentations, and research papers to later on determining what beholds in the future. Who knows how it'll be in the future if it'll become easier to pass by college and job opportunities will increase or will there be a higher rate of competition because everyone will get the same resources.  From the Starbucks cup on a stand to the plant coming out the concrete are the dominating pieces to the background being just a daze.

blog post#2

 I decided to use this artwork I came across in the Whitney Museum of American Art untitled by Berenice Abbott. I was randomly searching through exhibits that are displayed for this museum and this photograph grabbed my attention to just admire the beauty that shows some pictures look better in black and white.The visual element that caught my eye in the photograph is value. Berenice Abbott took this picture and transferred it to gelatin silver print. The light coming from the chandelier to following the flow of the stairs and meeting up to a vase. Because of the lighting slightly faded in the middle to reflecting off to the floor emphasizes the furniture. My opinion for this photo I believe has perfect proportion. The foreground which is the chandelier, middle ground the motion of the stairs giving a calm mood meeting the vase, and the background I will consider to be the sculpture where it may be a bit hidden from the shadow of the light. The exhibition may be flat but the placement and lighting give it depth. My impression of this picture gives off a vintage elegance type of vibe. Looking at the picture it reminds of how moderation came to change its style throughout time. I may not have existed in 1938 but I do get the sense of how it would be to be in a classical atmosphere.