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Distress

Sherman studied visual arts at Buffalo State College, which is where she discovered painting, and quickly moved from painting to photography. She said she discovered photography after having a lack of creativity involved in painting; she felt as if there wasn’t much to say through painting.

“I was meticulously copying other art and then I realized I could just use a camera and put my time into an idea instead.”

Her photography typically consists of portraits of herself in different costumes. A famous piece of work she has is titled, “Complete Untitled Film Series”, which is a series of black and white photos of herself, posing as an actress of certain foreign and Hollywood films. Additionally, Sherman has designed fashion ads for Marc Jacobs, and she’s taken a stab at film. She worked on her first film as a director in 1997, entitled Office Killer, which starred Molly Ringwald. Cindy Sherman– quite the talented renaissance lady, if I do say so myself.

Cindy Sherman

The Art Guys consist of two artists, namely Michael Galbreth (originally from Philadelphia) and Jack Massing (originally from Buffalo). The team is based currently in Houston, Texas–formed when the two met in 1983 at the University of Houston. The two employ a plethora of different art forms, such as sculpture, painting, drawing, performance art, installaton, and video. So, as a team, they contain a an artist blend of mediums– basing their motifs off absuridities of the modern world. They have had a large selection of exhibitions in many different museums, including: Tampa Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and much more.

The Art GuysThe Art Guys

As for his artistic style, his sculptures often include pieces from nature, such as flowers, twigs, leaves, pinecones, icicles, thorn, snow, etc. The same motif goes for his photography. He has won numerous awards– including the Northern Arts award, Scottish arts council award, Yorkshire Arts Award, and more.

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy

Exam Question:

Summarize a few of the concepts noted in chapter 5 about some goal setting strategies.

1. Linear perspective is a mathematical system for projecting the apparent dimensions of a 3D object onto a flat surface–> otherwise known as the picture plane. The book describes a picture plane being comparable to a window overlooking a street in the city.
2. A vanishing point is a point at which objects completely disappear. Sets of parallel lines come together at vanishing points as they become distant, which creates the appearance of deep space.
3. Overlap is the easiest way to create a suggestion of space in a piece of work, and it works especially well when combined with the technique size variation. Even a small variation in size can enhance the illusion of space. Definition is another way to suggest space. The book explains that sharply focused shapes tend to advance in your vision, while blurred shapes seem to recede in the distance.
4. Amplified perspective is the exaggerated use of linear perspective to reach a dramatic presentation of the subject of the piece. Typically, this type of perspective is created by using an atypical viewing position, perhaps bird’s eye view.
5. Fractured space is an illusion of space created when more than one viewpoint is combined into one image, creating a look of “fractured” or broken up layers of space. Not to be confused with layered space, which is when the foreground, middle, and background are very clearly defined areas.

Exam Question:

Explain how at least four different approaches to the illusion of space was used to create the Disney cartoon Mulan.

“Compelling art to me is a name carved into a tree. Sometimes a rock soaring through a plate of glass can be the most beautiful, compelling work of art I have ever seen.”

Barry McGee, sometimes known as Ray Fong or Twist, is a grafitti artist and painter from San Fransisco. He graduated from the San Fransisco Art Institute in 1991, with a degree in painting and printmaking. His subject matter comes with a pessimistic tone–mainly about urban lifestyle. His images are mainly very iconic, showing figures and scenes from street corners, etc. with exaggerated contrast and abstracted backgrounds. He gained much success in 2001 after being involved in some major exhibitions, and so, a lot of his street art has been stolen since then.

There was slight controversy behind a self portrait McGee created for the tongue of an Addidas shoe– it is a yellow background with black painted outline of his face. Asian-Americans disputed that this image has a racial connotation because of the features of the figure. McGee argued, however, that it was a portrait of him as a young boy. Who knows.

McGee

McGee

Ann Hamilton

Ann Hamilton, born in Lima, Ohio, is a contemporary American artist with quite a few accomplisments and achievements up her sleeve. She is largely known for her installations, textile art, sculptures, photography, printmaking, video, and video installations. Hamilton studied printmaking at the University of Kansas, and then went on to receive her MFA at Yale University in sculpture. Impressive, huh? Additionally, she taught at the University of California in Santa Barbara and went on to reveive the MacArthur Fellowship in ’93. In 1999, Hamilton was the American representative at the Venice Biennale (a large art exhibition held in Venice, Italy), where many of her works focused on slavery and oppression in America. She also won the Heinz Award in 2008 for Arts and Humanities. Not to mention, she had a widely-known installtion at the Gugeinheim Museum in NYC in February 2009.

One infamous and highly creative piece of artwork she completed was entitled the “Toothpick suit”, where she layed out thousands of toothpicks over a suit, which she then wore, and had photographs taken. She has a thing for combining organic material with random objects, not to mention the combination of the spoken or written word and visual art.

Hamilton--> Installation

Hamilton

Basquiat, also known as SAMO, was born December 1960 in Brooklyn. He died an early death because of drug abuse as the first African American painter to gain international fame, on August 12, 1988 in Soho. He first gained popularity in NYC as a grafitti artist. His artist name, SAMO, referred to his observation that grafitti artists keep doing the “same old shit”, and so began his legacy as SAMO. However, during the 1980s, he became a highly successful Ne0-expressionist painter. Unfortunately, his success caused an inevitable increase in his drug use. As the cash flow increased, Baquiat increased his heroin intake, eventually causing his overdose related death. As for his paintings–for the most part, the subject matter is fairly gruesome–bloody skulls, etc. There are traces of racism awareness in most of his work, also.  He uses a lot of bright colors; which is an excellent contrast to his gory details.

Basquiat

Basquiat

Kerry James Marshall

Marshall, born in Alabama, raised in Los Angeles, with a degree from Otis College of Art and Design. He is largely known for using the Civil Rights movement and depictions on African American history and popular culture as subject matter for his pieces of work–whether it be paintings, sculptures, etc.  Something to be noted about his paintings is the sharpness in the color of skin on his figures. There is an intensity in color to note the illogical fear associated with dark skin tones in our society. Very powerful. Marshall now resides in Chicago, where he recently taught at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinios.

Marshall

Kara Walker is a contemporary artist, born in California, though raised in Georgia. She received her undergraduate degree from the Atlanta College of Art, and she attended grad school at the Rhode Island School of Design. Influenced by her father’s work as an artist at the tender age of three, Kara immediately knew what she would do with her life.  Her collection of work largely focuses on race, gender, and sexuality. She is predominantly known for her large black cut-paper silhoutte pieces. She started working on these images in 1993 while attending RISDE. For Kara, the simplistic cut-outs of the black human form represent a cartoonish figure. They are simply reductions of human beings, and there are implications of racial stereotypes involved, as well. In her own words:

“I was really searching for a format to sort of encapsulate, to simplify complicated things…And some of it spoke to me as: ‘it’s a medium…historically, it’s a craft…and it’s very middle-class.’ It spoke to me in the same way that the minstrel show does…it’s middle class white people rendering themselves black, making themselves somewhat invisible, or taking on an alternate identity because of the anonymity … and because the shadow also speaks about so much of our psyche. You can play out different roles when you’re rendered black, or halfway invisible.” ^{(pbs Art21 blog)}

She also recently started using an overhead projector at her exhibits, so that when people are viewing her work, their own shadows become a part of the story.

The subject matter is typically gruesome with a lot of conflict and images of hostility and anger. She uses ideas from literature– a lot of which comes from 19th century slave depictions of the South, like Gone with the Wind or Uncle Tom’s Cabin. My favorite quote from her, describing the subject matter of her work, simply because I can relate to her mindset is: “it’s two parts research, one part paranoia hysteria”. Classic. You have to know your history to portray something at such a large scale, and you have to be creative about it.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg, a Texas-born contemporary artist, originally thought of himself as a minister, and eventually a pharmacist, believe it or not. He joined the marines in 1947, which is where he discovered his talent for drawing and his passion– his ability and desire to recognize an artistic viewpoint in everyday settings. He studied art in Paris, and then moved on to North Carolina when he became uninterested in the art scene of Europe at the time. It was in North Carolina that Rauschenberg discovered exactly what he could bring to painting; but little did he know he was about to become an artistic revolutionary, so to speak.

He was a fan of pop culture and uninterested in the pretention involved in Abstract Expressionism, and this led to his new form of painting. He used atypical materials to begin his artwork. For example, inking the wheel of a car and running the wheel over canvas paper. He called this new form “combines”, in which he collaged different materials to create this kind of pop culture look. In this way, he was able to make useful commentary on society. Through this new form, he was able to mold his way into art history forever. And, in 1998, the Guggenheim Museum in New York held its largest exhibit to date, having four hundred of Rauschenberg’s works on display.

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg

Rauschenberg