Art Is Us Lecture #9

Isms is in!

Philippe Halsman The Dali Atomicus SurrealismAre dreams the only true reality?

Images Of The Mind: Imagine that!

Real?Try to smoke it!

Ambiguity of form.Can dreams be translated?

Reality? Dali Persistence of Memory

Can you find feet in these images? Hint: Be negative.

Dali Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach

A face or bowl of…?

A dog or landscape?

Dali Nelson

Plagiarism?

Miro The Tilled Field

20th Century cross-pollenization

Mondrian: Composition in Red, Blue and Yellow

De Stijl/Neo-Plasticism: Reasoned arrangements and condensations of primary (?) colors and shapes.

Mondrian Broadway Boogie

Action Painting: A visual choreography of an artist’s interaction with paint and color.This is a presentation; not representation

AbstractExpressionism

A visual record of the inherent qualities of paint applied in achoreography of drips and pours.

The final conclusionof Art For Art’s Sake

Jackson Pollock

A myth maker who proclaimedthat the only valid subject matter is that which is tragic.

“Without monsters and gods,art cannot enact a drama.”Rothco

An Age of Proclamations

“A colorist he is not!” Dick Nelson

Should we trust the art critic?

Motherwell Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110

Can My Six-Year-OldDo Better?

If this is a statement,what does it state?

De Kooning Woman

De Kooning Gotham News

Reshaping post-war frustrations with a new expressive vision. Does this rationale “FLY”?

Reason

Passion

Josef Albers: Homage To The Square Hans Hoffman: The Gate

Op Art

AbstractExpressionism

Andy Worhol Campbell’s Soup

Pop Art

Familiarity breeds…?

Quality control!

Claes Oldenburg Hamburger

Oldenburg Eraser Seeing the familiar in an unfamiliar way

Soft Bathtub

What does our ART tell us about “us”?

Patriotism Or Patronizing?

Contemporary Icon: Let’s run it up the flagpole and see if it flies!Jasper Johns

The visual elementsare upstaged by concept.

Illustration or fine art?

Thiebaud: Three Machines

OP ART Is this all there is?

Bridget Riley Movement In Squares

Albers Homage to the Square

1 + 1 = 3The interaction of color

Nelson: Homage To Albers Learning Never Ends Albers

Vasarely Optical Illusion

Is permanence a factor in art?

Ralph Goings Ralph’s Diner

Photo-Realism It’s all an illusion

When paint mimicsphotos which mimicoptical reality…(literally speaking)

Now, this is truly taking dictation!!

A synthesis of Pointillism, Photo-Realism, Op and Intuition Chuck Close

A visual statement with two verydifferent realities.

One is seen at a DISTANCE; the other at CLOSE range

What’s APortrait?

Close…..Up?

Distant Viewing?

Your spatial preference?

Art: An observation

Art and plants thrive in fertile soil. For some, art is only there for the picking. They plant and harvest endlessly, with little thought of replenishing or rotating the crop.

But there are those artists and patrons who replenish, and in so doing, harvest a crop rich in both tradition and insight.Their soil encourages new growth and a mutation of endlessvarieties of new visual and tactile experiences.

And then there are those who plant a new variety of seedwhich germinates to become esoteric concepts. Their soil bears abundant fruit, rich in verbal, philosophical, socialand political pronouncements for a chosen few. This crop is not a feast for the eye or touch of a hand, for such qualities are no longer recognized by these authors or theirsupporters.

Visual/tactile art is not literature, music or dance. Whatmakes it unique is its ability to communicate visual ideas.When the visual/tactile experience no longer serves as theprimary means of communicating, it may be an art form, butone whose definition serves another master.

© 2009 Richard Nelson

1. Humanism. L R N B a. The world as it is.

b. Contrapposto pose.

2. God Dominated Society. L R N B

a. Stylized.

b. Idealized.

3. Capturing the climax of the story. L R N B

a. Plane composition,

b. Painterly.

THE FINAL EXAM

4. The roots of Romanticism.

L R N B

5. Portrays the significance of reality.

L R N B

6. Art For Art’s Sake.

L R N B

Reason

Passion

Classic

Hellenistic Ideal

World as it is

RenaissanceBaroque

Climax

Anti-climax

Linear

Painterly

Florentine

Intimate

Closed form Plane

Recessional

Clear edgesLost edges

Venetian

Time stopped

Time in fluxOpen form

Art Is Us: Final Assignment As we conclude nine weeks of exploring the ever

expanding definition of art, we might find it

enlightening to measure our behavioral changes,

if any, resulting from the experience.

 

Assignment #1: Select a single work of art which,

as a result of this experience, has had the greatest

impact changing your understanding and appreciation

of art. It need not be your favorite, but rather an

important stepping stone in your quest to reach beyond

your previous shoreline.

 

Patti

Cézanne Still Life with Basket of Apples

Valerie,Jill

Manet Olympia

Holly

Mycenaen Octopus Vase

Steve

Picasso Guernica

Sheri

Cycladic head

Elizabeth Ann

van Gogh

Jill

Goya The Third of May 1808

Art Is Us: Final Assignment 

Assignment #2: Read the following articles and write out

any comments or questions which the two articles prompt.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art

(read the introductory section and as much of the rest as

you'd like)

2. Why the Art World is a Disaster by Roger Kimball

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Why-the-art-

world-is-a-disaster-3178

(read all of this)