Art Appreciation test #4

Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

1997. fluid and flowing movement.

What mediums are traditionally associated with craft (as opposed to art)?

Ceramics, glass, fiber, metal, wood

Where is the Aqua Tower located? What is its purpose?

Chicago. to create a green and sustainable place of living

Postmodernism

A term used to describe the willfully plural and eclectic art forms of contemporary art

cantilever

An architectural form that projects horizontally from its support, employed especially after the development of reinforced concrete construction techniques.

Describe Chihuly's collaborative art-making process

An important aspect of Chihuly's work is the collaborative process of fabricating the glass pieces and installing the sculptures on site. Most of his pieces are formed around an inner "skeleton" or armature. This metal structure forms the basic shape of the work and serves as its structural support. Each blown glass piece is individually packed and carefully shipped to its destination. There, the pieces are unpacked and the installation process begins.

What is the connection between mathematics, crochet, and marine organisms?

But it turns out there is a very good reason why we are crocheting it because many organisms in coral reefs have a very particular kind of structure. The frilly crenulated forms that you see in corals, and kelps, and sponges and nudibranchs, is a form of geometry known as hyperbolic geometry. And the only way that mathematicians know how to model this structure is with crochet. It happens to be a fact. It's almost impossible to model this structure any other way, and it's almost impossible to do it on computers.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Petroglyph Park

Direct allusion to the Blue rider of Kandinsky and Marc. 1986. Pastel on paper. Private collection. Everything in the painting refers to lost peoples. Postmodernism

Chicago as the birthplace of modern architecture

Frame construction started there. most impressed C. R. Ashbee, a representative of the British National Trust, when he visited America in 1900: "Chicago is the only American city I have seen where something absolutely distinctive in the aesthetic handling of material has been evolved out of the Industrial system."

What are the environmental and educational aims behind the Coral Reef Project?

The Wertheim sisters began the Coral Reef project out of concern for the ecologically fragile Great Barrier Reef, one of the natural wonders of the world, located off the coast of Australia. Already in decline, scientists predict that continuing pollution and climate change will devastate the reef in the coming years.

Why is the building called "Aqua Tower?"

The name 'Aqua' was assigned to the building by Magellan Development Group LLC. It fits the nautical theme of the other buildings in the Lake Shore East development, and is derived from the wave-like forms of the balconies; the tower's proximity to nearby Lake Michigan also influenced the name.

What features of the Aqua Tower make it an example of "green" or sustainable architecture?

The overall design is the cumulative result of responses to specific conditions of density, environment, and use.

How has recent legislature in Arizona contributed to the crisis of the border region?

heightened the socio-cultural conflict

How are Mexican cultural icons, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe, retablos, and milagros incorporated into the works of artists who focus on border issues?

images of lupe uses her cloak, broadsides are used, materials-- images are also reminiscent of Mexican retablos, devotional images of holy figures, such as Christ, the Virgin, or saints, which are painted on sheets of tin, milagro sequence above warns travelers of the dangers of the desert and of the treacherous crossing.

Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Women of Avignon)

-In this work, Picasso radically altered the traditional female nude. She is no longer soft, warm, curvy, and inviting to the male viewer. Rather, her form is jagged, sharp, deformed, and frightening. Though the models strike provocative poses reminiscent of the traditional nude, their expressions and the treatment of their bodies is uninviting. Picasso further departed from convention by showing a group of prostitutes; like Manet, he did not try to hide their identities by calling them goddesses. (Avignon refers to the red-light district of Barcelona, Spain.) His depiction of the prostitutes in such a harsh, uninviting way was especially disturbing to viewers. Even Picasso's friend and fellow painter Georges Braque compared the experience of viewing the piece to "swallowing kerosene and spitting fire." -Picasso was very much intrigued by the tribal arts of Africa, especially African figurines and masks, so much so that their simple, geometric shapes and patterns influenced the way he treated the human form. Not only this, but Picasso actually inserted African masks into the composition, placing them on the two female figures on the right. With this gesture, Picasso has demonstrated the technique of appropriation--a technique that would later become one of the most popular tools for artists of our own century. -By inserting African masks into the scene, Picasso has taken them out of their original context where they may have been used in a traditional, tribal ritual, and placed them in a contemporary, Western context to adorn the faces of prostitutes. Due to this change in context--and change in the audience--the masks lose their original meaning and take on other kinds of meaning here

Yasumasa Morimura, Portrait (Twins)

-Morimura's work is a photograph that has been digitally manipulated on a computer. -The most obvious--and startling--compositional change is that the female Olympia has been replaced by a cross-dressing male. Other smaller details have been modified by Morimura. By modifying the bed sheet with a Japanese crane motif and replacing the cat with a Japanese lucky-cat figurine, Morimura imbues his work with emblems of his home country. -Let's explore the significance of the work's title, Portrait (Twins). Morimura asks us to consider in what ways the two people depicted are "twins;" how are they alike? Upon closer inspection, we notice that not only is Olympia played by a man, but the maidservant is also played by the same cross-dressing male, which is Morimura himself. The artist has twinned himself to play both roles. Why do you think he did this? Are the two characters "twins" in another sense? Perhaps we should first consider Morimura's source: are Manet's original two characters "twins?" What do they both have in common? Well, they are both women. And, historically speaking, they are both "slaves" in the sense that their subordinate roles in life are a product of a (white, male, Western) society that perceives itself to be dominant.

the glass works of Dale Chihuly

-Rotunda, Chandelier. Glass. Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

-Saar presents us with three distinct versions of Aunt Jemima from different historical periods. The figurine itself (originally a notepad holder) is a blackfaced, caricatured representation of the mammy figure. Saar replaced the notepad with a picture of a jolly mammy holding a child, which the artist identifies as being mulatto (mixed white and black heritage). Finally, Saar "wallpapers" the background with advertisements for Aunt Jemima pancake mix. This later image presents a lighter-skinned Jemima whose black features have been de-emphasized. With these elements, Saar's appropriation of images has already begun; by taking these found items out of their original context and mixing them up in different ways, we have already started to see the images and what they represent in a new way. -Next, Saar further amends the Aunt Jemima figurine by placing a toy pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other. At the center of the figurine, Saar adds the image of a black fist--a symbol of the Black Power movement, which expressed African Americans' willingness to use force to achieve their liberties. Saar's appropriation in effect "liberates" her Aunt Jemima by arming her with tools of empowerment; she is liberated from racial oppression and from traditional gender roles that had long relegated black women to such subservient positions as domestic servants or mammies. In this work, images that had once been used to belittle and disempower blacks have been transformed through an appropriation to become symbols of empowerment and liberation.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House

1909. South Woodlawn, Chicago. Reinforced concrete. Canteliever.

Daniel Libeskind, Denver Art Museum (Frederic C. Hamilton Building)

2006 -backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, Libeskind's design consists of a series of geometric volumes inspired by the peaks and valleys of the mountain range.

Jeanne Gang (Studio Gang), Aqua Tower

2010. 82 stories. Captures and reinterprets the human and outdoor connections that occur more naturally when living closer to the ground. Its distinctive form is achieved by varying the floor slabs across the height the tower, based on criteria such as views, sunlight, and use.

How is craft distinguished from fine art, historically and today?

Historically, the main difference between art and craft has been functionality. Crafts have typically been regarded as functional objects, in that their primary value resides in their practical use. Craft objects, such as silver utensils, ceramic vessels, and woven quilts may have a simple or an extravagant design, but they differ from a painting or sculpture (both considered "high art" or "fine art" objects), because their primary use is practical--we use them to eat and drink, to keep warm, etc.--rather than aesthetic.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater

Kaufmann house, Bear run, PA.1936. most famous modern house in the world.

Margaret Wertheim's Coral Reef Project

Like Chihuly's projects, we might consider how the large scale of the crocheted coral reefs takes the project out of the realm of craft. The reefs have no practical use. When compared to grandma's crocheted doilies, the Reef's presence is more than decorative. Filling large gallery spaces, the reefs' commanding presence draws our attention to the importance of the ecological issues at hand.

Why does Chihuly's biographer describe him as an artist rather than a craftsman and his work as art rather than craft? What is the advantage to portraying Chihuly in this way?

Now that you have learned about Dale Chihuly and his work, recall our discussion of the stigma of "craft" and its impact on the art world. Skim this biography of Chihuly by Curator Davira Taragin and think critically about the way Taragin describes Chihuly and his works. In Taragin's biography of Chihuly, the curator uses language that encourages readers to accept Chihuly as a fine artist and his work as fine art as opposed to craft. Can you pick out a few instances in which she describes Chihuly or his work using "fine art" terminology? Consider the possible motives behind her choice of language. In other words, what's the risk in calling Chihuly a "craftsman?"

What are the aims of the Guerilla Girls?

The Guerrilla Girls do research and gather facts on museums, galleries, art schools, and private collectors and then use this information to create posters that reveal startling statistics through wry humor. They paste their messages all over, on billboards, around cities, near museums and galleries, and on the web. They've traveled throughout the U.S. and internationally, exposing discriminatory practices in the art world.

What is the stigma of the word "craft" and how does it affect craft artists and institutions?

The success of art institutions, the buying and selling of art, and an artist's prestige can suffer from the label of "craft," which has become a stigma in the art world. Two examples: Above are images of an annual exhibition called SOFA. This exhibition features the works of contemporary artists who work in traditional craft mediums (glass is most prominently featured in the images above). All the works are for sale, and the exhibition typically attracts large crowds of interested buyers with fat wallets. What does "SOFA" stand for, you might wonder? It's an acronym for Sculpture, Objects, and Functional Art. Kinda sounds like they're dancing around the "C"-word, doesn't it? Had they called the exhibition "The International Crafts Exposition," the show would not have been nearly as successful, as prestigious, or as profitable for the artists. Another example involves the former American Craft Museum in New York City, which was founded in 1942. About a decade ago, the museum began having difficulty getting funding from donors. They found that wealthy donors were not keen on shelling out big bucks to support something that, to them, wasn't "fine art." Such funding, however, was essential to keeping the museum in operation. In 2002, the museum decided to change their name to the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD). The name change made all the difference. A significant increase in funding has since allowed them to purchase a new, larger building in a better location, in turn tripling museum membership and doubling admissions and retail revenue from the museum gift shop.

Why do some artists bring guerilla tactics to the art world?

The term "guerrilla" is associated with warfare. It usually refers to small groups of soldiers that harass the enemy with surprise attacks, including ambush and sabotage. These small groups are often used in covert operations because they have good mobility and can get in and out of a situation without being noticed.

What do the Guerilla Girls and JR have in common?

they both use guerilla tactics to bring light to certain issues

Define the term "appropriation" and know how artists appropriate images/symbols in their work.

to alter the meaning of images and symbols as they are transferred from one culture to another

What are the aims of street artist JR?

uses guerrilla tactics to inspire social reform. He travels to war-torn places, areas with ongoing conflict, ghettos, and slums all over the world to photograph the people living there. The people he photographs typically have very little voice in society--the marginalized and underprivileged, which often include women and children. He enlarges his photographs to an enormous size and pastes them all over the cities in which the photographed people live, on the sides of buildings and other structures.

How does Libeskind's design for the Denver Art Museum relate to the natural landscape? To its immediate surroundings? To contemporary art it houses?

uses the Rocky Mountains, the work is in the middle so viewers have to walk around it

What aspects of the immigrant experience do the artists of "The Border Project" exhibition address?

what the immigrate journey is, how they suffer and die, looking for a better life