Week 16 Review Of Course

1. What were you expectations for this course and where they met?
My expectations were to better understand how to navigate Angel, Gmail and Blogger and yes they were met.  I now am much more comfortable with Angel and how to use it.  I also learned a lot about interpreting and understanding art.

2. Now that you've been through this course, What is art? How would you define it now compared to your initial posting?
I would agree with my original post that art is anything that evokes a feeling inside of you.  It could be visual art, musical, abstract or an installation.  There is really no limit on what could be classified as art, it just depends on the viewer and how they perceive the piece. 

3. Who was your favorite artist in your original posting and who is your favorite visual artist now? If there is a difference, why do you think so? If you have the same favorite artist, why do you think so?
Van Gogh was my favorite artist from the original postings and I have to stick with him.  I love his style and use of color in his works.  There are many artists that I have learned about over the semester that I do like also, but something about Van Gogh just mesmerizes me.


4. Now that you've completed this course, how do you feel about taking an online course? Is your answer the same as it was in your first posting? How is it the same or different?
I feel more comfortable with taking an online course.  My opinion is different because of how this course was set up.  The requirements and expectations were clearly given to us and whenever I did have a question or problem either you the professor or another student was willing to help me solve the problem, which eased a lot of the stress of taking an online course.

Week 15 Self Portrait

Rembrandt Harmensz

1658

Oil on canvas

Height : 133.70 cm

Width : 103.80 cm

 Arnold Böcklin

1872

Oil on canvas

Height : 75.00 cm

Width : 61.00 cm

Vincent van Gogh

1887

Oil on board

Height : 40.80 cm

Width : 32.90 cm

Stephanie Mongielo

Self Photograph

Stephanie Mongielo
Collage
Self Image
2011

1. Why did you select the inspiration pieces?

I chose these pieces because they all had a mysterious feeling to them.  Each piece was unique yet had certain aspects in common with the other pieces.  I chose Arnold Böcklin piece because I liked that he depicted death in his self portrait, because I feel as if it makes it more realistic.  It is the truth of life, that death is always around the corner and we’ll never know exactly when it will come.  I chose Rembrandt Harmensz because his hat interested me; actually both Rembrandt Harmensz and Vincent van Gogh both depicted themselves in their self portraits with a hat on.  I found this very interesting because when I think of people drawing a self portrait I generally don’t think of the accessories that they add to the work. 

2. Why did you select the media to create your self-portrait?

I decided to make a collage because I felt as if it was the best way to represent different sides of myself.  I also wanted to give it an abstract feel.  I enjoyed making the collage too, looking for different pictures and segments to put together to get the look I wanted.  It took me awhile of pairing up pictures and adds to decide which pictures worked best together.

3. What challenges did you face in creating your self-portrait and how did you overcome them?

The challenges I faced was finding the proper images that I felt fit together and created the look that I was going for.  I had to match up different images and rearrange the ones I liked until I created an image that was satisfying to me.  

4. How does this piece represent you?

The piece represents me because it shows me in different ways.  It shows that I’m unique and original, yet still in touch with reality and modern style.  

5. What elements and principles of art did you apply in this work?

I used a variety of elements and principles in my work.  You can see how I used variation in the different sizes, colors and shapes of paper I used to create the collage.  Yet, my piece still comes together with unity because it still in away is symmetrical because I have two eyes, ears, a nose etc.  This piece also uses color to draw attention to various parts of the piece.  I also used shape to create my facial expressions and I used line to create an interesting dynamic to the piece, which helps keep the viewer interested.  

6. Did you enjoy working on this project?

I did enjoy working on this project.  I found it fun to really think about and explore different ways of representing myself.  Not only did I have to represent myself as I am today, but how I see myself in the future as well.  I enjoyed looking at and rearranging different images to decide what I liked the best, and what represented me the best.

7. What do you think of your final artwork?

I’m proud of my final artwork.  I think it is well put together and does a good job at representing who I am.  It is unique and original yet, still can relate to everyone who views it.  I think that all together my project is a great representation of who I am as a person and who I desire to become.  

Week 15 Peer Review Critique

1. Which project did you review?
I reviewed "Defining Color Schemes" by Jessica Noble.  

2. Why did you select the Exhibit you critiqued?
I selected this exhibit because I thought that the theme was similar to mine.  I opened a variety of other students works and browsed the pictures and the titles before deciding that this was the one that most interested me.  

3. What challenges did you face in writing the critique article and how did you overcome them?
The challenges I faced was just getting started.  I didn't know where or how to start so I started with the end and worked my way to the beginning.  It was easier for me to judge the exhibit and write recommendations on how to improve it, then continue to describe and analyze the piece.  
 
4. How do you feel about critiquing your peers work?
I didn't mind critiquing my peers work.  I know it is all meant to be constructive criticism and help to improve their work and my own.

5. Would you like to read the critique your peers wrote about your Art Curation Project?
Yes, I would like to read the critique written about my project.  I think that it would be very helpful and informative.

6. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your finished article and why?
I would rate it a 7, because I felt like I wasn't sure what else to say.  I also had a difficult time with relating the exhibit to current events, movies, books etc.  

7. Did you enjoy working on this project?
I enjoyed making the project more so than critiquing my peers work.  

Week 15 Video Blog Review

1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

2. Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Criticism project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.

3. What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to understanding of art criticism?

Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T. J. Clark
Greenberg thinks that writing critiques about art is harder than literature or music. He talks about the Partisan Review. He was suspicious about modern art being made of “wild man”. He admitted to letting his preferences out about modern art. He says he didn’t think about it as mainstream. He said that he would accept anything that was good and that his preferences were knocked around a little bit. He said that abstract came about and he had to accept the fact that the best visual art has been predominantly abstract; admitting that he doesn’t like that it is this way. He said that after WWII there was a culture boom and art really took off. He said that great critics of the past like Ruskin and Sylvester were not philosophical but they knew the nature of good judgment. I didn’t really find this video helpful, I feel like it talked a lot about a time I couldn’t relate too. They talked a lot about his preferences and history and I don’t even know who he was. I found the video hard to understand and hard to follow. I would have liked for it to have had closed captions so that I could have read along and maybe better understood.

Greenberg on Pollock: An Interview by T. J. Clark

He remembers Jackson Pollock and how in the 1940’s he told Pollock that one day he’d be a great painter. During the summer of 1947 Pollock painted his first spatter drip piece. He was awarded the Guggenheim Award and talked about how he was going to paint large movable pictures that would function between the easel and the mural. Pollock critiqued his friends painting for being merely easel paintings, but ironically his pictures were merely easel paintings as well.   Pollock knew that his works weren’t murals and he knew that they were just transitional works from easel to mural. Size wasn’t important to the placement of Pollock’s paintings, what was important was his departure from the contained, boxed characteristics of modern paintings. Pollock changed from containment and orderliness. Greenberg thinks that there are different kinds of orderliness. Pollock rejected some of his works because they were not pleasing to the eye. Pollock chose this way of painting because of the way the paint broke the plane and cut through the piece. His technique released the requirements of his wrist elbow and shoulder. Pollock drip paintings were considered Apollonian not Dionysian. Artist during this time felt isolated and alone in the art world. Many museums bought his paintings, but Pollock stayed a solitary figure. Artists wanted fame, to be exposed in magazines and newspapers, and money to have a better life. Pollock didn’t reach fame as much as he did notoriety. He realized his work wouldn’t be accepted as painting. At the end of his life he said that he didn’t take enough time to look at the Impressionists. Greenberg thinks that if he would have lived longer he would have recovered his career. This video was a little better than the previous one, but still didn’t really help me with my critique. The monotone of their voices just made me want to fall asleep. It was also so old, that it was hard for me to connect to what they were saying. The most interesting part was looking at some of the examples of Pollock’s works. Not one of my favorite movies we have had to watch this semester. 

The Critics: Stories from an Inside Pages
Media artist have negative opinions about critics.  Critics do get the general public to think.  A Washington Post critic thinks of his work as lighting the way to his readers.  Film critics help people get the most out of their money when going to see a film.  Criticism cant also be bun for readers and viewers.  Critics of the media arts improves the media in general because the critics keep artists on their toes, and sometimes critics provide the break needed for an artist to make it big.  Book critics are very influential and they have the ability to really benefit new writers.  A New York Times book critic enjoys promoting new, good, books but agrees that many bad books being written.  Critics who are successful enjoy what they do and some of them develop their love for reading and enjoying plays and shows as young kids.  A music critic is passionate about his work and wants the world to see his same love for music.  Critics are often reporters too because they both report and comment on different performances and works.  Critics write subjectively and objectively.  A review is an informed opinion and a criticism is more analytical.  Reviewers write for people who are unfamiliar with a certain type of work and a critic expects that a reader is already familiar with the work.  Superior criticism is described as how well is makes its argument and how useful its insights are.  Emotional impact is part of criticism as it makes a persuasive argument which is either in favor or opposition of the art or artist.  Effective criticism needs logic, emotional support and personal credibility of the critic.  Critics must understand the artists and help the readers understand them too.  Critics know how to used critical tool appropriately.  They break the particular media used into different components.  There are six skills of critical thinking.  Using these skills artists evaluate and draw conclusions which leads the reader to agree or disagree.  Good critics write well constructed and written.  They change their voices when talking to a different type of audience.  Superior Criticism needs critical thinking, good writing, and choosing the right material.  The best criticism also talks about cultural issues.  Critics work in different media genres but there are also genres inside of genres like plays, and then humor.  The internet provides a new way for critics to share their works with a wider group of followers.  To become a critic you must learn to write very well.  Critics must go to college and then they start at the bottom, learn the ropes and discover the gold standard.  Criticism is often thought to be negative, but it is actually the practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting and evaluating literary or other artistic works.  This video provided a great example of what a critic was.  It also talked about the differences between an art critic and a review.  This video was helpful in figuring out exactly what a critic was in general in many terms besides just art.  I found this video very helpful and it provided al ot of good examples about different types of critiques especially art.  

An Introduction to the Italian RenaissanceThe Renaissance is described as a new enthusiasm in the arts and many Italian artists contributed to developing it. Giorgio Vasari was the author of Lives of Artists which were biographies. Ancient Romans made art with natural beauty that is until the Barbarians conquer their Empire. Artistic endeavors travel east to the Byzantine Empire who had concentrated on religious themes. Giotto was an artist who brought back the realistic style of the Romans by using perspective found in architecture and landscape. Ghiberti was an apprentice of Giotto and created beautiful door panels of the scenes of the Bible from Genesis with a realistic vision of the human form. Donatello sculpture of David is standing on one leg, but it appears balanced. Works of nudes helped show the beauty of the human form. Paolo Uccello created new views of human figures and animals. Masaccio’s figures showed physical and psychological depth. Piero della Francesca in the Madonna and Child he experiments with contrasting light and dark to create a sense of depth, which the technique is called chiaroscuro. The Catholic Church used art to convey Christianity. Botticelli also created the Adoration of the Magi where he incorporates his patrons the Medicis. The Birth of Venus shows the beauty of human form and uses techniques that he learned from artists that were before him. Leonardo da Vinci applied science and math to art. In the Last Supper the people appear naturally in their surroundings. He applied a technique called sfumato to the Mona Lisa which blurred the edges of the forms. Raffaello was influenced by da Vinci and was considered to be the master of composition. He painted The Transfiguration in controlled balanced structure. I liked this video much better than the previous two.  It provided explanations and critiques about different are pieces and it was interesting.  The people talked with enthusiasm and the background changed.  This video kept my interest and helped me understand more the value of artists learning from the predecessors and about critiquing.

 The Colonial Encounter: Views of Non-Western Art and Culture

Dahome art has aesthetic beauty, but is ignored as art because it is treated as a craft.  The Paris World Fair ran for 8 months in 1990.  During this time colonial factions exposed the underlying nationalism of the event.  Half of the event space was for French Imperialism and the rest represented other nations' colonies.  There was a contradiction of Colonial Images during the 19th century and early 20th century.  They were not coherent or consistent.  The images of the Dahome at the 1990 World Fair were a group of thatched structures, which suggested that there was no civilized infrastructure.  Images of African people showed violent behavior toward each other, which enhanced the idea that they were savages who might turn against the Europeans.  This was how colonialism was justified.  There were three figures in the World Fair that represented the three aspects of African people, and they still remain in the exhibit today.  A symbol of Dahome that was displayed at the fair is in the form of stylized shark.  The shark symbolizes their determination to protect their shores.  The Algeria Exhibit was treated differently than the Dahome because they had a much longer history of colonization than the Dahome.  The country's exhibits are displayed in two palaces.  With the rise of tourism the Algerian exhibit is a part of a much larger transformation during the 19th century.  The Romanticized Algeria showed portraits of Algerian women which increased their familiarity to a public audience.  The pictures promoted the conflation of dance with the promiscuity in Arab women.  There was actually indigenous men and women on display in cages with exotic species of animals, while nude.  This was among other types of sexual exploitation of Indigenous people.  Europeans took pornographic images of these women and justified is as scientific and artistic.  Yet, the women refused to be satisfied with their treatment.  The Colonial Exhibits were pseudo scientific and emphasized racial differences.  Material culture was devoid of meaning, but exhibits are devoid of information about cultural meaning of the objects within the indigenous cultures and people.  Exhibitions of material culture were displayed throughout the west.  They didn't show a connection with culture though and were evaluated through the eyes of the westerners are thought that they were seeing art and not material cultural objects.  The Palestinian Costumes exhibit was a contemporary political contrast which was important to the display.  The display showed cultural erosion and the resilient transformation during the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.  Indigenous material that represents culture on display as art in Western collections can be linked to an appreciation of decedents of original objects.  This video gave me a better understand of criticism by critiquing the art of indigenous people.  Some people view it as only a craft while others see it is as art.  This varying of opinion helped me realize the difficulty of a someone who critiques work.  Sometimes, you have to make difficult decisions while critiquing a piece, and everyone isn't always going to agree with you.  I thought this video was very interesting and was full of information.  There was a lot of history about Indigenous people and where and when some of the history about them was displayed.  I enjoyed and learned a lot from this video. 


Jackson Pollock: Michael Fried and T.J. Clark in Conversation

Michael Dried and T.J. Clark thought that Jackson Pollock was a modern master and Pollock raised many questions with his work.  They also stated that Pollock used a negative point of a reference for modern art.  Fried and Clark agreed that Pollock's importance in modern art have offered conflicting reasons.  Clark focuses on the historical role of modern art where as Fried's focus is on the independence of its aesthetic.  Fried despises the description of art in vulgar existentialist terms.  Fried thinks that Pollock's work is optical and opposed to tactical.  He did change his ideas because he thought it wasn't a constructive point of view.  Fried thought that early modernism started from a rejection of the existentialist concept of action painting.  T.J. Clark was nervous of existential melodrama but as a social historian he is concerned with relating art to other human actions.  Clark thinks that quality is the ability of a painting to articulate the conditions of human beings at that particular moment.  Clark and Fried think that Lavender Mist has different meanings.  This has something to do with Pollock's work and relating defined terms to the artist's intentions.  Fried and Clark thinks that what makes Pollock's work critical can't be separated from describing what he has done.  Fried and Clark agree on Autumn Rhythm and the need for historical accounts of Pollock's radical abstraction.  However, they agree that the history can't be separated from the pictorial quality.  Fried and Clark both think it's important to look at the historical way of looking at art and realizing they are redefining the terms about Pollock's work and that they need to reach and agreement about his historical importance.  I thought this video was helpful with proving an art critique.  I think it will help me write an adequate review.  I liked that they showed actual examples of Pollock's works, but I found the actual interviewing process a little dull.  It was better than the first two videos, but again wasn't my favorite.