Blog Reflections

1.       My expectations were that I could learn a way to see the meaning of art and the way to what an artist is trying to express. I think they were met because I have a better understanding of how artists use art to express things. Also how critics and curators decide on what art to buy and what to not, and how they separate them in genres.

2.       I still think art is the same as in my original posting. I’d still define as something someone creates to show or express something.

3.       I still have a love of Van Gogh, but I’ve seen other artist now who catch my interest especially the lowbrow artists. I wouldn’t call them my favorite but I do rather like them, probably because their images aren’t abstract and that they use pop culture to express things in their artwork, and create images that aren’t  completely realistic still have enough realism to be recognizable as something. And also that they are very free with their colors and ideas. 

4.       I liked the online course, in fact I’m taking another next semester. I didn’t have an opinion because this was my first online class, but it was a good experience overall.

Self Portrait

I virtually toured the National Gallery in the UK. 

Screen shot of website

Self-Portrait at age 63. Rembrandt, 1669

Self Portrait at the Age of 34
1640, Rembrandt

Self Portrait in a Straw Hat
after 1782, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

Picture of me

Self-Portrait

1)      I chose the three pieces I did because there from what I have noticed, seem to be fewer self-portraits of female artists than men. Therefore I chose the one of woman, seeing as I am female, so it’s much easier to use that perspective. The Rembrandts were chosen because I’d only seen the one of him as a younger man, and it was interesting to see him much older and how he had changed with time. So I put them together to compare them.

2)      I used pencil because it is a media I often chose and it’s one I have the best control over, therefore I thought I could get the best product from it.

3)      The challenges I faced were my lack of skill at drawing human women. I am pretty good at drawing men, but I have a hard time doing the softer features of woman. To overcome this I tried using a harder lead, I started with a 3H pencil and used that and then outlined with an HB one. I also made sure to make eyebrows thinner and slim the jaw. It also helped to keep the pencil extremely sharp to not make too thick lines.

4)      It represents me in that is a realistic drawing of me. It is what I mostly look like, so I went for the more literal than symbolic representation of myself.

5)      I used value in the shading, line in the construction of it and my glasses, and shape for the glasses also.

6)      I liked looking at other self-portraits, but did not really enjoy drawing myself as I kept getting frustrated with it.

7)      I think the final artwork is ok. It certainly isn’t my best, but for my lack of practice and hesitance going into it I think it turned out alright.

Links

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rembrandt-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-34

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/elisabeth-louise-vigee-le-brun-self-portrait-in-a-straw-hat

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rembrandt-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-63

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/

Project Four Refelection

This project I did like any other. I spent time thinking about the theme, which changed according to what was available on the resources given. My first idea was to be about art made about Revolutions, but I was only able to find a few in the archives and none of the ones I wanted when I had it in mind. The second idea was politicians but that would be boring, even to me, who is a history major. So I looked through the galleries and found this picture of a Russian Dance, which I rather liked, and looking through I saw many drawings of dancers. I chose to one about them, because I love drawing and looking at pictures of them because of how they move their bodies and amazing. And also great anatomy practice. The anatomy of each of the images was beautiful as well. Also there was images from all over the world and time periods which I liked that diversity, and that there were dances depicted in all sorts of media, not just paintings. So I went through being particularly chosey when looking at the images. There were so many, so I chose ones that would show multiple dance types and media types. And ones that would cover different cultures and worlds, not to mention time periods. The problem I ran into was that there were very view of men, so I made sure to use them in there, to cover all dancer types. After the choosing it was just a matter of explaining why and what I though they meant.

Module 13 and 14 Video Review

1.      The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art It is a form of art that is extremely different from any other art form, but it is hard to classify what is lowbrow since there is no one form of it. There is a variety of things that factor in and the only similarity is that it is very different from classic art. It started around the 40’s. This art type is very much into pop culture scenes an extreme expression and representation. The main idea is to tell a story without having to guess it, for it to be right there clear as day. It is not accepted in most art museums and is there is considered to be no value in it. The inspiration comes from TV, comic books, propaganda posters and music.

BBC Culture show: Tate Modern is 10! These explain how Tate Modern Art took off. That there was a huge change in the art world. Eventually many began to see this art as art and not this weird collection of random objects. It especially became a large deal when Queen Elizabeth visited and gave a speech at the museum despite not being known for her love of modern art. It is one of the largest modern art museums today. The Tate Modern is the most visited modern art museum and attracts thousands of people a year.

An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art explained that Philippe de Montebello was one of the longest directors of the Metropolitan Museum, and in the time he got over 84000 pieces of art for the museum. He even managed to get an extreme rarity a Vermeer painting. Today the museum has over a million pieces of art that expands all genres of art, including fashion, where the museum started out as only European art. The video also explains how new pieces of arts are brought into the museum and how it is decided on what to buy.

2.      The videos helped in that it explained how you classified things and what fit in with specific themes or genres. Also how certain typed of are classified in the modern world.

3.      I found them interesting in how curators remain very aloof and try to see value in all arts ignoring their own personal favorite style. The lowbrow art video was particularly fascinating for me and I find that art style much more appealing than the pop art or minimalism. In fact I found that art style just as interesting and amazing as classic art, both are very appealing to me.