Jing Assignment #7

Portrait Photography: The medium of portrait photography offers the viewer a true picture of the subject and with portrait photography being the new medium replacing portrait paintings, it became more available to the masses, not just the wealthy anymore. Here, the portrait of William S. Burroughs was taken by Annie Leibovitz and is a true representation of its subject since his face is at the forefront and darkness surrounds him. It's interesting to note that Leibovitz viewed her work, photography, as a part of her personal life. She writes in her book “I don’t have two lives. This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.” This is perhaps the reason behind the success of her portraits. She is able to take someone else and capture such a personal aspect of them. Leibovitz was continually pushed by her former partner, Susan Sontag, to improve her work and she even inspired Leibovitz to expand into photography of world events and encouraged a visit to Sarajevo in 1993 during the war to document the tragic events.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/annie-leibovitz/life-through-a-lens/16/


Decisive Moment: This picture is a perfect example of snapping a photograph at the right moment. Henri Cartier Bresson knew the importance of the decisive moment and here, just as the man is jumping over the puddle of water, Bresson takes the photo just before the mans foot lands so we can see he is elevated above the ground and a perfect reflection is mirrored in the water below. This decisive moment idea was derived from text from the 17th century Cardinal de Retz "There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment." Bresson took this concept and applied it to his work, creating candid photographs and understanding that it was up to him to decide the perfect shot at the right time. Bresson has explained his transition from painting to photography: "The only thing which completely was an amazement to me and brought me to photography was the work of Munkacsi. When I saw the photograph of Munkacsi of the black kids running in a wave I couldn't believe such a thing could be caught with the camera. I said damn it, I took my camera and went out into the street." Bresson was a pioneer of photojournalism and documented people, places, and events around the world for Life magazine for three decades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson


Manipulated Photography: In opposition of looking for the decisive moment, Jerry Uelsmann has opted for creating art with photographs already taken. He calls this work "post-visualization" and creates pieces combining nature and the human figure or looking for images that may work together. Here the woman's face completes the curve of a mans fist and the viewer is left wondering if the woman fears this fist. With the age of digital photography and computers around us, Uelsmann still uses a darkroom and older techniques while creating his work because he believes these mediums help his creative process. Uelsmann is was a teacher of photography and continues to make his own work, but has always been inspired by his own imagination and wanted to share from within images that are unfathomable.

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


Casting: Casting as a medium allows an artist to create work through a mold, with the resulting piece left after the mold is broken away. Luis Jiminez's Steelworker above is an example of a fiberglass casting. The text helps explain that Jiminez intent with his work is to not only create sculptures reflective of the American culture, but also use modern materials of our culture like fiberglass. He is an artist who worked within his time and in the future his work will be studied and seen as an influence of the world around him. Clearly, from the video we can see that other influences of Jiminez's work is the help he gave to his father who was a sign painter and from my own perspective I believe the colors in his sculptures are derived from those vibrant signs and the vibrant colors found in Mexican culture as well.


Earth Art: The creation of earth art has a unique quality all of its own; it is able to change and transcend along with the nature around it. Above, Spire by Andy Goldsworthy is an example of earth art out in the elements of nature around it and Any understands the changes that his work includes and says "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit." Perhaps Andy's love of nature came from being a laborer on the farms around his home at a young age. He wants to work with nature as a whole and tries to limit his use of machinery in his work if he is able to.

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


Carving: Carving is a subtractive process and while working with stone or wood, an artist must understand the different types before beginning because wood and different types of stone pose different challenges with the medium of carving. Above, Pieta by Michelangelo is one of his finished carvings. The medium of carving sculpture employed by Michelangelo is undoubtedly linked to his residence after his mothers death. He stayed with a stone cutter and his family and with this he explains "Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, with which I make my figures." As an eager student, Michelangelo gave a gift of a wooden cross to the church in exchange he would be able to study the anatomy of dead bodies which was otherwise forbidden. This may have helped with his success in creating sculptures of the human body.

http://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo

Jing Assignment #6

Woodcut: The woodcut shown here, Junges Madchen, is by Emile Nolde shows us the unique result that a woodcut can produce. As the text notes, a woodcut enables the artist to use the contrast between light and dark to give the piece a more dramatic effect and thus the blunt lines give this work a sense of anguish and despair. Nolde was a print maker and carver, thus showing us that he would naturally create art from his learned trade. He was also interested in Van Gogh and the admiration is reflected in his different floral pieces. Nolde was a member of Die Brucke, a group of German Expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. In a nod to their heritage, the Die Brucke group used older forms of fine arts media, such as woodcut, which must have further pushed Nolde into creating woodcuts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Nolde
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCcke


Etching: Here, The Three Crosses, by Rembrandt truly shows the viewer the ability to create such an elaborate and detailed picture using this medium. Unlike engraving, etching enables the artist to create prints in a similar way to the medium of drawing because the artist is using a tool to "sketch" on the ground before applying the acid. With a claim of hundreds of drawings and etches along with thousands of drawings, Rembrandt's work is various and expansive, but his main objectives in art were landscapes, portraits, and biblical narrative works. Rembrandt came from a family with money and was able to become an apprentice to painter Jacob Van Swanenburgh giving him the opportunity to learn that medium. Rembrandt lost 3 children with his first wife and she eventually died from tuberculosis. This could make one question his ability to add such emotion and drama to his works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etchings




Encaustic: Jasper Johns is a contemporary artists who has successfully revived the medium of encaustic painting. This medium enables the artists to adhere other materials to the work and in the closer view of Flag from above shows us that is exactly what Johns did. We can see that there is newspaper included in this painting, but unless up close, it is not visible, but helps give the work a rough and rugged appeal. Johns is viewed as a Neo-Dadaist, giving the viewer popular and sometimes iconic images in his work, but using modern materials as well. Johns had wanted to become an artist since he was a child and his meanings in his work can be found in the process of the work itself.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/jasper-johns/about-the-painter/54/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Johns


Oil Paint: Vincent Van Gogh created 860 oil paintings and this piece, Red Vineyard, shares a commonality with his work including beauty and bold colors. The text tells us that oil painting gave artists a versatile medium that allowed for different hues and plays with light created a realistic look to the works. Van Gogh's childhood home life was centered around art and religion and this undoubtedly led to his work. After not becoming a pastor Van Gogh had stated his mission in life was to serve God as an artist and said "to try to understand the real significance of what the great artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, that leads to God; one man wrote or told it in a book; another in a picture."

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


Fresco: Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry, the North Wall is a modern fresco done at the Detroit Institute of Art and while it did receive much criticism at the time, Rivera's work captured the accomplishments of Detroit's auto-industry and showed the world what Detroit is built on, the workers, middle-class, factories, and industrial advancements. I personally believe the advantage of a Fresco is the ability to have large audiences view it and they can also do what this one did, represent populations and their achievements. Diego studied art from the age of ten and his communist ties helped lead to his controversial political works. His studies of Renaissance Fresco's gave him the idea to begin using this medium to capture the world around him and enable him to reach a large audience.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/diego-rivera/about-the-artist/64/


Watercolor: Charles Burchfield worked almost exclusively with watercolor and the painting here, with charcoal, is called Lightening and Thunder at Night. Watercolor is known as a medium that allows the artist to achieve expressive results. Burchfield's close friend, Edward Hopper, describes Burchfield's work and in his statement we can see why he used watercolors: "The work of Charles Burchfield is most decidedly founded, not on art, but on life, and the life that he knows and loves best." Watercolors clearly helped him convey his work to the audience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Burchfield
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/arts/design/25burchfield.html?pagewanted=all

Jing #5

Asymetrical:
"River Scene at Bennecourt, Seine" Claude Monet


Emphasis:
"Venus of Urbino" Titian


Repetition/Rythym:
"Filas for Sale" Charles Searles


Contrast/Variety:
"Resurrection of Christ" Rembrandt van Rijn



Visual Movement:
"Composition no. 16" Jackson Pollack


Scale and Proportion:
"The Birth of Venus" Botticelli

Jing Assignment #4

Tenebrism:
Rembrandt's is an artist who employed the technique of tenebrism often. Here, "The Night Watch" is a perfect example because while most of the painting is quite murky, there are contrasting smaller areas of brightness. These illuminated areas give the work a sense of drama.

Hatching and Cross Hatching: Choosing Rembrandt again as an example for the next technique, this self portrait shows examples of cross hatching, where the hatches are crossed at an angle by another hatch. Some areas of the portrait do appear to be just hatched though because they contain hatch lines with minimal to no cross hatches.


Primary Color Palette:
The use of the primary colors in this painting by Piet Mondrian against black and white was believed by the artist to be "the expression of pure reality." "Composition II with Red, Blue, and Yellow" was created to "match the spirit of the Russian Revolution."


High Intensity Color Scheme: Artist David Bradley fights for both the political and artistic rights of Native Americans and in this piece, "Indian Country Today," he uses a high intensity color scheme as if to show the heightened issues in our modern time.


Narrative:
The picture above is just a piece of the Column of Trajan in Rome. This column is narrative because it was constructed to celebrate the Roman Emperor Trajan's triumph in the Dacian wars and it actually depicts different battles that occurred over time. This particular piece is a battle scene between the Trajan and Dacian armies.


Optical Art:
Choosing another work of Bridget Riley's for an example of optical art, I found "Movement in Squares." Riley was at the forefront of optical art and her work induces a feeling of movement. She is well-known for using black and whites in her work, like the one above.

Jing Assignment #3

Outline: I chose to use another work by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith for an example of outline in a work since her art embodies this so well. Here, "War is Heck" shows an outline of a horse emboldened in black with what appears to be some sort of winged soldier riding on its back. The flat shape of the two-dimensional horse is conveyed through the outline drawn by Smith.


Implied Line: Here "The Tribute Money" created by Masaccio is a perfect example of implied line. Both Christ and another apostle point towards St. Peter who is extracting a coin from the fishes mouth. Interestingly, the painting also includes a vantage point above Christ's head and the building on the right side is done in a one-point perspective scheme as well. The text sums this up well stating "an extraordinary change in direction from the flat, motionless figures in the Middle Ages toward a fully realistic representation."


Expressive Line: This painting, "The Large Blue Horses" by Die grossen blauen Pferde is a wonderful representation of expressive line. I cannot help but feel the passion and emotion behind this work. Add to it the vibrant colors and it truly completes the work. The fluid yet bold strokes of the brush combined with color and the horses themselves project an image of strength.


Two-Point Linear Perspective:"The Flagellation of Christ" by Piero della Francesca gives a noticeable example of the two-point linear perspective created by an artist. The text even states that it is a "demonstration of the rules of linear perspective," with the left side of the painting a square and the right a rectangle. Through each of these shapes is a different perspective, one of Christ being whipped and the other figures on the right standing in a triangular fashion.

Positive and Negative Space: Another piece created by Donald Sultan is the "Aqua Lantern Flowers." This piece is another exceptional example of the use of positive and negative space. The floral aqua space that immediately stands out to the viewer in the foreground is the positive space and the black background upon which it lays is the negative space. The piece was created with enamel, tar and spackle on tile over masonite.


Axonometric Projection: In an effort to find an example of axonometric projection, I came across this design from another architect. His name is Richard Rogers and the title is "Patscentre Drawing." The image is the perfect example of parallel lines with the sides of the object at an angle of the picture plane. Nothing in it appears to be larger or smaller than one-another and its use is for architectural design and planning as well as engineering.

Jing Assignment #2

Idol- Not only has she become an icon in America and around the world, her generosity, spirit, and her magnetic personality make Oprah a true idol for many. Her face is one of the most recognizable African-American Woman and she is loved by many. Not only is she an icon visually, her actions are iconic as well like her favorite things, giving away cars, and even her booming voice is also highly distinguished.

Image/Content-



Iconoclasm- While on a smaller scale, this vandalism of church statues in Cheektowaga, NY shows that iconoclasm can occur anywhere. The culprit, a 30 year old homeless man believed he would be rewarded by God for destroying the so-called false idols.

Image/Content- Here, Italian painter Caravaggio depicts the actual moment when Christ called upon Matthew, who later became one of the twelve apostles and writer of the first gospel. To the unknown viewer, the painting doesn't appear to be religious because of the use of such an average setting in a dreary room. The use of light glowing in upon Matthew appears to be Godly and gives the impression that the calling itself was monumental.



Non-Objective- Wassily Kandinsky's "Composition X" is a great example of non-objective art. Some of the movement in the painting seems to present a subject, almost musical, but the colors and placement of shapes offer no explanation of any background information. Even the title itself gives no explanation, but maybe the "composition" can also be interpreted as fluid movement of music.

Abstract- Working alongside Picasso, Georges Braque created "Fruitdish and Glass" which is abstract. The images and words on the drawing suggest some fruit, but the use of stained wood, the appearance of foam, and the words "ale" and "bar" may suggest something else. It appears as though grapes and pears are in the picture, but the dish itself is distorted.

Representational- While some believe that artist Grant Wood may be poking fun at the rural midwest population of America with his painting of "American Gothic," it is actually a representational piece of an 19th century couple. Wood decided to paint a couple whom he thought would live in the cottage in the background. The stern faces and pitchfork represent hard labor and life in the midwest during this time. The clothing and home represent a time of that era.

Jing Assignment #1

First Role of an Artist:  Here is "The Hedgehog and the Fox," by Richard Serra located at Princeton University. The rust-colored steel sculpture is designed to do just what the text states: "to transform our experience of the world." Serra himself backs this up saying "Walk through it. It's not like a still life, where it's the apples on the table. The experience of the subject is the piece itself. Without the interaction, there is no piece." Imagine walking through and around the steel walls and your perception of light, the sky, and the view of the world outside will change. Another work done by this artists is located on page 48 of the text called "The Tilted Arc" which strangely was destroyed because some did not like the alteration it posed on the plaza around it. Serra's work has altered views of our environments with his work and made us look at our surroundings in a whole new way.

Works Cited: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2001/10/09/3531/

Second Role of an Artist: Here, the "Memory of Civil War (The Barricades)" by Ernest Meissonier, based on his own realistic observation, shows us an ugly aftermath of a workers riot which resulted in the National Guard overtaking Paris. Meissonier was a member of the National Guard and painted this picture to show the hostility of war and the results of it. The text explains that the painting has "been drained of all nobility" and leaves behind the results of riot. Meissonier painted the picture to depict and event from his memory and highlights the aftermath of civil war.



Third Role of an Artist: Making this structure functional, but giving it meaning is exactly what Renzo Piano did. It is called "The Shard" and its visual inspiration comes from the steeples of London's beautiful churches and the masts of the ships that once used to anchor in the Thames River. The glass triangular facets narrow and reach up to the sky, but never touch at the top. The buildings functional purpose is to prolong central London's community with  newer retail locations, offices, apartments, restaurants, and hotels habituating it. The height of the structure allows this in an already crowded section of the city and the building stands with 72 stories at about 1,016 feet. With both practicality and meaning embedded into this structure it is a perfect example of the third role of an artist.

Work Cited: http://www.dezeen.com/2009/08/25/the-shard-by-renzo-piano-building-workshop/

Fourth Role of an Artist: Here the "Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog" by Caspar David Friedrich, shows the artists personal feelings. Friedrich painted a lone figure in this painting, with no identity or even facial expression to read meaning. Forced to look at the surrounding landscape, the artist is sending the message of a feeling of lost and alone in the fog. The immense skyline is a reminder of how vast the land ahead is and the jagged rocks poking out of the mysterious fog show possible dangerous terrain too. The painting can be interpreted as a metaphor to life and its surroundings, sometimes we feel lost in life, even overwhelmed, with a fuzzy picture of what lies ahead. Friedrich's feelings about life were injected into this piece and he gave meaning to an ordinary landscape painting.

Aesthetics: Aesthetically, Vincent van Gogh's paintings are wonderfully pleasing to the eye. Here, "Starry Night Over the Rhone" depicts a waterside in the city of Arles in France at night. Capturing the nighttime scene with the beautiful glowing lights of the homes and the twinkling stars above the reflecting is a challenging task, but van Gogh truly captures the deep rich hues that only appear at night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bJOIqVAD-s

Kitsch: *This 2009 McDonald's commercial is not very aesthetically appealing. Questioning whether a commercial or song like this would sell a food product and I'd have to say no, but it may just be so "Kitsch" that it actually worked. The commercial was wildly popular and was followed by another the following year. The song is silly, but nonetheless sticks in your head and you find yourself singing it.

*I apologize for the link, while I could upload the video to Jing, the audio was slow and distorted. I hope this is OK. Next time, I will probably not use a video.