On this blog, we will explore several major aesthetic theories from realism to postmodernism and engage in a dialogue about the very nature of art. Key contemporary artists will be explored in depth as each theory is unpacked and examined.
Each response should be between 150-250 words in length. These are due on the date listed at the top of each entry,
Monday, November 28, 2011
Use one of the artists from today's presentations to explore the notion that art has value to the society in which it is created. What is this value?
Walton Ford is an interesting example of this because his work is regarded very highly in both the contemporary art community as well as the natural history community. However it is mentioned in an article that he has more peers in the natural history community. To us his work may just look like realist paintings but he incorporates jokes and different metaphors that only someone as involved in natural history as he is would understand.
He is not only making statements on today's society but he also makes statements on how these animals were first treated and documented. Audubon's birds were all killed first. Ford makes references to this in his work. This is extremely valuable in the natural history community because they understand that.
Mark Bradford's work focuses on the issues/ themes that he has not only experienced, but what other people have experienced. His method for creating art has a focus on decolletage and collage, he takes away then adds back. Often using adds from walls in cities and paper as materials. He can be classified as an abstract expressionist, becuause he uses his art to communicate the ideas he has behind socio-political issues that the world has faced with politics, race, freedom, natural disasters. He knows a lot about abstraction and his work deals often with socio-political messages about underground communities. In particular, his piece "Scorched Earth" is about a riot that was the largest in Alabama, but still go very little news coverage. Another is his piece "Mithra", which is about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He often takes titles from songs that inspire him and makes them his titles of the pieces he creates. His work has value to the society in which it is created because that is his main subject matter, he raises societal issues through his expressionistic art.
I believe that Mark Bradford’s art has value to the society that it is created in because he seems to really consider and incorporate parts of his surroundings when creating. In his sculpture Ark, which was in an outdoor park in New Orleans, post Katrina, he used materials from the surrounding neighborhoods as his medium. The form of the sculpture is in the shape of an ark and conjures strong biblical imagery of Noah’s ark and the flood, a story which many in this area are sensitive to, since the calamity surrounding the happenings during and after hurricane Katrina. Another work of Bradford’s that really incorporates the society in which it is made and has value to that society is Ridin Dirty. Here again Bradford has collected his materials from the neighborhood that he is creating a dialog about. By using the materials from the specific neighborhood he is making a statement of the social and racial issues that run deep within this community.
Mark Bradford’s art stands out to me as an example of work with a valuable social message. His pieces incorporate contemporary advertisements and appropriated materials, which he uses to make statements about consumer culture, race, poverty, and current events. His work, “Mithra”, for example, uses a city grid and other elements to represent the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His other works use similar elements, all with the end goal of drawing attention to contemporary societal issues and under-represented minorities. While it is often whimsical or visually pleasing, his works have a deeper underlying message that contains darker elements of history and discrimination.
Mark Bradford’s work is important to the society in which it was created. He responds to issues in the neighborhood that the work is placed in. He is informed by his personal experiences, and refers to objects or signage that come straight from the environment he is in. Often, he appropriates material from areas nearby. Sometimes his work seems to reference crowds and the people who living in these map like landscapes. Also, he thinks about the underground economies and migrant communities and gives them life within his art. Sometimes, historical events and the people who participated in them are embedded within his work. He looks back to the history of a certain society and brings an events to life. His work features issues ranging from African American discrimination to the stock market crash but he comments on these problems in a way that makes the work important on a local level.
The value art provides is commentary and memory. In Ellen Gallegar's work we get a sense of both of these concepts. Her use of old advertisement images recalls the memory of that time. Her manipulation of these images provides a commentary. She references Moby Dick and creates a commentary on racism. The advertisements lend themselves to a commentary on gender and status as well.
Mark Bradford creates art that has value towards the society he lives in. The most obvious reason for that is that he uses scavanged materials in order to create his art, and the materials are gathered from around his neighborhood and the city of LA. Also, another contributing factor to that is that he produces his work because he comments on sociopolitical aspects of the american culture and society, and thus LA culture and society. He uses the city scape of LA repeatedly in his work in order to reference crowds and riots. moreover, he creates layers and this way references the layering of society and social classes, as well as racial layering. therefore he is defenetely having an influence on his community and society as everyone deals with the issues he presents everyday. everyone makes choices about the ways they interact with other social classes and racial groups.
Just like literature or theatre, art is a reflection of the culture that it is in. Artists, especially in the postmodern period tends to create works that challenge different social boundaries and norm; making people think more about the validity and legitimacy of our institution and knowledge. It provides viewers with an alternative perspective to the society that it is in. Ellen Gallagher’s work is a very good example of artwork that functions as a social criticism. She took pages from an ebony magazine and draw over faces of people in the magazine as well as giving them a new hairstyle. She is commenting on the discrimination against black people, how the product in the past was designed to make black skin becomes whiter. It is also commenting on the perception that white people are the ultimate race that people from other ethnicity should aspire to be like. Gallagher’s work makes us think more critically about the society that we are in and make us look at some of the things that we tend to overlook.
I think the work of Tim Hawkinson has value for the society in which it is created. His work references the common American fear of death and the role of the machine in the lives of contemporary american individuals. His work deals with the machine living on when the person has died. Can man really fuse with machine? Can a machine really take on the identity of an individual? The presence of the machine and technology has increased and become a dominant force in American life. I think that Hawkinson's referencing machines and identity make it meaningful for the contemporary American.
Walton Ford's work has value to the society he creates his work in for a multitude of reasons. On a superficial level, his highly detailed watercolors of animals serve to show a sort of natural history that documents these animals' existence. I think people really value artists who can create something so realistic and highly accurate because it flaunts a sort of dedication and sacrificed time that doesn't come across quite so clearly with many abstract, nonobjective art. On a further level, Ford's animals all have something somewhat off-putting and dark about them. I think this is valuable because it sort of shows the turn humanity is taking presently; everyone is involved in consumption to a point where it is hurting even ourselves, our economies, and our environments. In a way, I think Ford is capturing the psychological abnormality of society today.
Walton Ford is an interesting example of this because his work is regarded very highly in both the contemporary art community as well as the natural history community. However it is mentioned in an article that he has more peers in the natural history community. To us his work may just look like realist paintings but he incorporates jokes and different metaphors that only someone as involved in natural history as he is would understand.
ReplyDeleteHe is not only making statements on today's society but he also makes statements on how these animals were first treated and documented. Audubon's birds were all killed first. Ford makes references to this in his work. This is extremely valuable in the natural history community because they understand that.
Mark Bradford's work focuses on the issues/ themes that he has not only experienced, but what other people have experienced. His method for creating art has a focus on decolletage and collage, he takes away then adds back. Often using adds from walls in cities and paper as materials. He can be classified as an abstract expressionist, becuause he uses his art to communicate the ideas he has behind socio-political issues that the world has faced with politics, race, freedom, natural disasters. He knows a lot about abstraction and his work deals often with socio-political messages about underground communities. In particular, his piece "Scorched Earth" is about a riot that was the largest in Alabama, but still go very little news coverage. Another is his piece "Mithra", which is about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He often takes titles from songs that inspire him and makes them his titles of the pieces he creates. His work has value to the society in which it is created because that is his main subject matter, he raises societal issues through his expressionistic art.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Mark Bradford’s art has value to the society that it is created in because he seems to really consider and incorporate parts of his surroundings when creating. In his sculpture Ark, which was in an outdoor park in New Orleans, post Katrina, he used materials from the surrounding neighborhoods as his medium. The form of the sculpture is in the shape of an ark and conjures strong biblical imagery of Noah’s ark and the flood, a story which many in this area are sensitive to, since the calamity surrounding the happenings during and after hurricane Katrina.
ReplyDeleteAnother work of Bradford’s that really incorporates the society in which it is made and has value to that society is Ridin Dirty. Here again Bradford has collected his materials from the neighborhood that he is creating a dialog about. By using the materials from the specific neighborhood he is making a statement of the social and racial issues that run deep within this community.
Mark Bradford’s art stands out to me as an example of work with a valuable social message. His pieces incorporate contemporary advertisements and appropriated materials, which he uses to make statements about consumer culture, race, poverty, and current events. His work, “Mithra”, for example, uses a city grid and other elements to represent the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His other works use similar elements, all with the end goal of drawing attention to contemporary societal issues and under-represented minorities. While it is often whimsical or visually pleasing, his works have a deeper underlying message that contains darker elements of history and discrimination.
ReplyDeleteMark Bradford’s work is important to the society in which it was created. He responds to issues in the neighborhood that the work is placed in. He is informed by his personal experiences, and refers to objects or signage that come straight from the environment he is in. Often, he appropriates material from areas nearby. Sometimes his work seems to reference crowds and the people who living in these map like landscapes. Also, he thinks about the underground economies and migrant communities and gives them life within his art. Sometimes, historical events and the people who participated in them are embedded within his work. He looks back to the history of a certain society and brings an events to life. His work features issues ranging from African American discrimination to the stock market crash but he comments on these problems in a way that makes the work important on a local level.
ReplyDeleteThe value art provides is commentary and memory. In Ellen Gallegar's work we get a sense of both of these concepts. Her use of old advertisement images recalls the memory of that time. Her manipulation of these images provides a commentary. She references Moby Dick and creates a commentary on racism. The advertisements lend themselves to a commentary on gender and status as well.
ReplyDeleteMark Bradford creates art that has value towards the society he lives in. The most obvious reason for that is that he uses scavanged materials in order to create his art, and the materials are gathered from around his neighborhood and the city of LA. Also, another contributing factor to that is that he produces his work because he comments on sociopolitical aspects of the american culture and society, and thus LA culture and society. He uses the city scape of LA repeatedly in his work in order to reference crowds and riots. moreover, he creates layers and this way references the layering of society and social classes, as well as racial layering. therefore he is defenetely having an influence on his community and society as everyone deals with the issues he presents everyday. everyone makes choices about the ways they interact with other social classes and racial groups.
ReplyDeleteJust like literature or theatre, art is a reflection of the culture that it is in. Artists, especially in the postmodern period tends to create works that challenge different social boundaries and norm; making people think more about the validity and legitimacy of our institution and knowledge. It provides viewers with an alternative perspective to the society that it is in. Ellen Gallagher’s work is a very good example of artwork that functions as a social criticism. She took pages from an ebony magazine and draw over faces of people in the magazine as well as giving them a new hairstyle. She is commenting on the discrimination against black people, how the product in the past was designed to make black skin becomes whiter. It is also commenting on the perception that white people are the ultimate race that people from other ethnicity should aspire to be like. Gallagher’s work makes us think more critically about the society that we are in and make us look at some of the things that we tend to overlook.
ReplyDeleteI think the work of Tim Hawkinson has value for the society in which it is created. His work references the common American fear of death and the role of the machine in the lives of contemporary american individuals. His work deals with the machine living on when the person has died. Can man really fuse with machine? Can a machine really take on the identity of an individual? The presence of the machine and technology has increased and become a dominant force in American life. I think that Hawkinson's referencing machines and identity make it meaningful for the contemporary American.
ReplyDeleteWalton Ford's work has value to the society he creates his work in for a multitude of reasons. On a superficial level, his highly detailed watercolors of animals serve to show a sort of natural history that documents these animals' existence. I think people really value artists who can create something so realistic and highly accurate because it flaunts a sort of dedication and sacrificed time that doesn't come across quite so clearly with many abstract, nonobjective art. On a further level, Ford's animals all have something somewhat off-putting and dark about them. I think this is valuable because it sort of shows the turn humanity is taking presently; everyone is involved in consumption to a point where it is hurting even ourselves, our economies, and our environments. In a way, I think Ford is capturing the psychological abnormality of society today.
ReplyDelete