Born in southern France, Bruno Catalano began to experiment with art and sculpture in particular in 1990. The more that he worked with sculpture the more he revealed a real desire to capture the viewer’s attention. Catalano does this by depicting like size figures with their middle sections missing, creating the surrealist effect of floating sections of art, as well as elaborate use of negative space. These sculptures are made of painted bronze. The first time I saw bon elf these pieces I was so confused in how it was floating in the middle of the air and it took me a few moments to actually understand what was happening. This piece shows how uniquely a basic human form can be depicted, as well as how effective the use of “in the round” sculpture can be.
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I was immediately drawn to these incredible sculptures by Ellen Jewett when I saw them. It is almost impossible to wrap my head around the fact that these are actually hand sculpted clay pieces. Ellen Jewett is a sculpture who credits most of her sculptural abilities to the close observation and fascination of animals from a very early age, saying that this gave her an eye for close details in an animalistic form. Everyone of these sculptures are sculpted by hand, including the armatures beneath the clay, and are painted by Jewett. This has relevance to class as we are just wrapping up our unit on culture, ending with a project on the environment. While Jewett’s works do show incredible ways of sculpting and techniques, the real reason I chose to highlight her work is because I just love them. The tiny details and wildly vivid forms created here are simply breathtaking.
In this project I used the form of a dress to show the relationship between nature and trash. The base of the dress is made from brown paper bags, and the details are moss, foliage, straw, stones, and trash bags. I am incredibly happy with the product of this project, as I put an incredible amount time and thought into this. My favorite part is the back of the dress, and I wish I had more of that particular the of moss.
In Karen Rosenberg’s article Brother, Can You Spare a Wall?: Thomas Hart Benton’s ‘America Today’ Mural at the Met, she writes of the history behind one of the most well known pieces of art form the 1930’s. Thomas Hart Benton’s “America Today” Mural depicts the entirety of the United States during the Great Depression, spanning from New York to the North and the South. According to this article the artist was known in his time as an outsider to the “popular” art of the time, abstract expressionism. This concept of being “outside” the art of the norm reminded me quite a bit of the previous connection post regarding the “Ism that isn’t.” Megan did an amazing job thoroughly analyzing this connection post and bringing in outside information, researching things she did not understand and bringing them to light. She writes about the relevance of history and context in the interpretation of art, which is completely relevant to the Benton mural as most of the figures depicted were criticized for their crude stereotypes. However when taking into consideration the time, many of the stereotypes were fairly accurate. Another major point of Rosenberg’s article was the fact that many people criticized Benton’s artwork for not fitting in with the current “ism” : abstract expressionism. One thing I though was interesting was that she mentioned it was believed that he also shunned them, not just the other way around. Megan relates very similar points to this by addressing the “isms” that have characterized the changing tides of art over many centuries, and that continue to change today. She wrote “Michelangelo and Da Vinci to Cezanne to Monet to Picasso to…now,” really showing just how drastically things can change. This is very relevant in how Benton was viewed in is time period as and outsider to the norm. However I think that it has proven both for and against the history and context theory, as it is even more well known now in a time well beyond what it so specifically depicts, yet is also a key tool on education and learning. Both of these pieces were very clear and easy to understand, and brought a great amount of information to the table regarding context and isms of art in American history particularly.
Gerhard Richter, born February 9, 1932, is a painter who created a series of enormous paintings called the Wald (Forest) Series. These paintings depict large scenes of the woods and trees, yet are abstracted. This includes variation and layering of many colors not traditionally associated with trees, as well and lines of counterchange. One technique he uses repeatedly is scraping and sliding the wet paint across the canvas with and enormous rubber brush. This gives a very looming and washed look. I completely love the unique take Richter puts on the classic landscape, and the very scale of these works baffle me.
In the early twentieth century America was considered behind in the avant-garde art movement, and the growth of modern style art in comparison to European countries where this art movement was beginning to flower. Instead, America was still prioritizing the Academy style of technical and studied realism and soft figures. Between the two articles, the Armory Show and the Ism That Isn’t, breakthroughs in the art world are hardly ever received without critique and skepticism. Modern art is no exception, with cubism, expressionism and more fragmented art, such as the explosive work Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), 1912, by Marcel Duchamp. This painting shows the phases of a nude woman descending a staircase from different angles and times. This painting was attacked fro its lack of realism or quality, and the strange mark was almost unknown before this time. Because to was so new, people were not sure how to react in a positive manner. Both of these articles show the similarities and connections between the progression of art and how the world reacts to this, as well as how they transition. They also both dress British art in particular, as well as how America and other countries follow and react to such.
The Saatchi Gallery is the attempt of a man, Charles Saatchi, to unveil the newest movement of British art, Neurotic Realism. Every time a new style of art presents itself, they all seem to bring a new element to the table. Neurotic Realism claims a link between psychology and the real (The Guardian, page 1) and combine both roughness with technique. My personal opinion is that “Isms” of art are not so much labeled and presented as styles and groupings that just sort of happen and present themselves indirectly. While it is possible to collect and control such a change, these evolution son art happen by themselves and become set in stone movements by themselves.
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