The museum of modern art paper

Cubism was one of the most influential visual art styles of the early twentieth. It began between 1907 and 1911. Its primary influence that led to Cubism was the representation of three-dimensional form. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint. Cubist artists depict the subjects from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. This is the Cubist art work collected in the Museum of Modern Art, “Girl with a Mandolin” created by Pablo Picasso in late spring 1910. This is an oil painting on canvas. The dimensions are 39 and half inches high by 29 inches wide or 100.3 centimeters high by 73.6 centimeters wide. In this image, the subject is a nude girl holding a mandolin and it only shows her the upper part of body, from her thighs to her head. Her head turns to her left so we can see a profile view of her face. And she is looking slightly downward at her mandolin, which she appears to be playing, holding the mandolin across the front of her body. The colors in this painting are shades of light brown, tan, yellow, and olive green. These colors seem close to each in color and they are all muted or dull. Picasso analyzed this nude figure, breaking it down into many squares, cubes, rectangles, and other geometric shapes. In addition, there is nothing at the edge of painting. It seems the cubes in the background gradually fade and disappear at the edge. The girl is outlined by cubical versions of her dress as shown on her right shoulder on the left hand of the painting. The passing outline of the areola under her dress is painted with more cubes to draw in the audience’s attention to what the painting is about. Her breast shows a curvature drawn away from the cubes. This clarifies the feminine aspect and who or what the painting is about. Her hair is drawn up in curls or a bun and the bending of her hair diverts effectively from every other cube in that it is drawn up and buoyant like a girl’s or a young woman’s hair. Her eye is another shape and, once again, is representing the pleasing feminine and fertile aspects of the subject. In this way even the mandolin blends into the aspect of the feminine, with its pear shape, before the instrument unites into remaining perfect mathematical cubes that compose its neck to be held upright by the subject.

Dada began in protest against the horrors of World War I, was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20^th century.The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. In addition to being anti-war, Dada was also anti-bourgeois and had political affinities with the radical left. Furthermore, Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism This is an art work of Dada style named “Indestructible Object (or Object to Be Destroyed)” by Man Ray in 1964. This one shown in the image is the replica of 1923 original and its dimensions are 8 and 7/8 inches length, 4 and 3/8 inches wide, and 4 and 5/8 inches height. This work consists of a brown triangular metronome with a photograph of an eye attached to its swinging arm. This artwork has two important elements. One is this metronome which is produced by the Quailite company commonly found in many homes and its box is made of wood but its internal elements are made of mental. Another element is a small cut out of a black and white photograph of a woman’s eye which refers to Man Ray’s lover, Lee Miller. Lastly, Object To Be Destroyed expresses that metronome is no longer a simple time-keeping device. It summons feelings of irritation over being watched, and powerlessness in the face of endless time. There is no means to stop the cycle, except to destroy the object itself.

Assignment #12

“Selbstportrat under plastik” is in 1972 painted by Maria Lassnig, one of the most important contemporary painters and can be seen as a pioneer in many areas of art today. In this portrait, Maria mainly uses cool colors to finish this painting. Light green mixed with blue as background. Using darker green as the color of her hair effectively distinguishes with the background and the subject when the painter uses a lot of same type of color. Maria is the one who focuses on expressing her internal world. She uses many green, grey, and blue that expresses the intense stress and despair. In addition, Maria mixes some cool colors in her skin color. However, there are some oranges shows on her cheek that can be a kind of comparison. Also, her head is covered by a plastic bag. The colors on her face seem to express her face is turning from red to green because she is feeling breathless. Therefore, this painting shows Maria’s condition of mind is confused, hopeless and depressive. Maria’s “Selbstportrat under plastic” brings a thought into my mind is most people nowadays are living in a stressful world. The huge press leads people to be difficult to breathe. The world and the society fill with hopelessness and passion is far away from us.

Assignment #11

bibliography:

 

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

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2014/04/ai-weiwei

https://artsy.net/artist/ai-weiwei

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/ai-weiwei

 Outline:

1. Introduce a brief personal information of Ai Weiwei

2. Explain what kind of art that he engages in and what he tries to influence. 

3. Show several examples of Ai Weiwei and describe their themes and elements. 

Assignment 9

 In “ART THOUGHTZ: How To Be A successful Artist", Hennessy Youngman ridiculously explains a couple of ways which have 98% guarantee to be a successful artist. The first factor he mentions is being “white” to help the art world. In addition, he declares being white males and white females are other essential factors to become a successful artist. He also illustrates that a painting of flower which is painted by white male is regarded as creating from formal elements. However, he explains if the flower is painted by black artist, this flower may signify institutionalized racism and oppression. In this video, he uses this topic to criticize the world including art world is dominated by white people. He implies the problem of racism restricts other races. As he uses flowers as his example shows that even though it is the same painting, people still have different views because of artists’ skin color. He expresses his dissatisfaction about racism.

Photo Collage

Postwar Modern Movements

 The artist in Art 21 that I would like to talk about is Ai Wei Wei, who was born in 1957 in Bejing China. The impression of  Ai Wei Wei gives me the feeling that he is an extraordinary man, architect, and activist. He is a true cultural provocateur, who works with passion, determination and conviction. His controversial status stems in part from wanting to tell the truth about the political regimen in China, and lack of freedom and democracy that their citizens experience on a daily basis. This is the reason why Chinese government pay a lot of attentions on him. Ai Wei Wei has various activities in the many different fields. He engages in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. In the video of Art 21, it took more focuses on the installation art. It shows the process of creating installation art that not only comes up with the idea from Ai Wei Wei, but also takes a lot people's time and works. From his artworks, I understand that he wants to express the desire of freedom. In the meantime, he expresses his dissatisfaction of the Chinese government an critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. Of course, his artworks are not all about politics. Some of arts that emphasize the imagination and combining with the traditional and modern elements such as his one of famous artwork "template".