Week 11 Video Review

The first video I chose was Greenberg on Art Criticism : An Interview by T.J. Clark. I had no idea who either Greenberg or T.J. Clark were prior to the video, but I figured it might give some sense as to what art critics are thinking about when they critique a work, and how there own personal tastes or prejudices may interfere with an objective judgement or critique. I think one of the main issues discussed by Greenberg is his belief that art is more difficult to write about than literature or music in the sense that art cannot be pinned down by the "score". I think this belief is based on the increasing intellectual and philosophical development of art, and in particular from artists like Picasso, Miro, or Jackson Pollock who push the envelope into new realms of visual presentation. I found it interesting when Greenberg compared himself to other art critics of the past, and concluded that these were "better minds" that just happended to be limited from the resources available to them at the time. I liked how Greenberg described good art as created from the "whole being", and the taste of the viewer as being directly related to world experience and the ability to assimilate everything around us. I think this is part of the problem presented to art critics - the world and access to information is constantly changing, and as Greenberg states in his interview about the work of Jackson Pollock, even the critics can be wrong from time to time.

I chose Greenberg on Pollock because I never understood the work of Jackson Pollock, and was hoping to maybe discover something that I was missing, either intellectually or visually. I think even Greenberg has a hard time describing the work of Pollock, as he at one point rather assuredly referred to Pollock as Daenycean, while later admitting that he may have in fact been Appolinean ( and I'm not sure what either means, really. I'll have to look it up later ). Greenberg seems to appreciate Pollock's style, a procedure of paint application which didn't "cut", or break the plane. He also credits Pollock as a visionary in his attempt to show us the future of painting in murals, while still embodying the eisel style. However, I personally have an issue with labeling Pollock's work as visionary or even "relevant" as Greenberg himself would say. While the procedure of Pollock's style may have been unique, I think there is almost an inevitable outcome to be reached from a limited pallette of colors being repeatedly splashed or dripped across a canvas. The seemingly orderly finish, a feature which Greenberg states is essential to a good piece of art, I think can be easily manipulated through various layers of paint. Honestly, I tend to think that Pollock's "orderly" outcomes from a unique style can be achieved by anyone, even those among us with little or no artistic talent, who is willing to get a big messy. I am almost tempted to clean out my garage, lay down some plastic and a large canvas, and prove my point. I am sure I will try this at some point, just as I am sure that I will one day have a clean garage...

I chose the video of Michael Fried and T.J. Clark conversing about Pollock's Lavender Mist because I still wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something. This video focused mainly on the agreements and differences between the two critics concerning the work of Pollock, yet the conversation was to be based on the mutual understanding of Jackson Pollock as a major modern master of art. Fried and Clarke reach the ultimate conclusion that Jackson Pollock represented a new breakthrough for the intensification of the painting surface; that he was a pioneer in pushing the realm of abstraction to the unknown point beyond even the non-representational. While I admire this quality, and think that my own art can benefit from constantly pushing myself beyond the limits of my imagination, I tend to think that the energy created in Pollock's work is overrated, and tend to agree with Greenberg when he ends one of his interviews by saying that Pollock "was full of shit just like everybody else."

Art Curator Exhibit

The art curator project was a good experience and opportunity to review some works I had seen or studied previously, but have not seen in a while. It was also exciting to come across some works that I was not at all familiar with, especially works from Alexandre Cabanel. My theme for the project was Artist Rivalries throughout history, so in doing some research I came across some more interesting facts that I was not previously aware of, such as the close working and personal relationship between Matisse and Picasso. This project definitely gave me a new appreciation for the job of curator, which seems like it could be a bit overwhelming, yet rewarding in the end.

Video Reviews: Week 10

In  many ways, each video helps us to gain a better understanding of the issues surrounding the art world, and in particular the curators of museum who decide what to display. The video Lowdown on Lowbrow highlights this point, as certain artistic movements may be stimulated from the seemingly arrogant or "highbrow" nature of the intellectuals in the art world, or those, like the curators, who decide what artworks should be widely viewed by a particular audience. In this case the lowbrow form of art, also dubbed pop-surrealism, was influenced by the returning veterans of WWII and the artwork painted on their planes or seen with the development of hotrods and motorbikes. The leaders of this movement, including Big Daddy Roth, Robert Williams, and Robert Crumb, would inspire a new generation of comic book and album cover artists continuing to enjoy their free-thinking, anti conceptualist rebellion against the intellectuals of the art world. The growth of the internet would eventually help to liberate these liberators from obscurity, and give this "uncultured" movement a valid appreciation and respect among the highbrows.

The video that most directly related to the current project is Display of Modern Art: The Tate Approach, which discusses in some detail the ideas behind the arragement or organization of exhibits within the museum. The thematic approach of Tate, where works were organized into four sections of landscape, history, still life, and nudes, differed from the chronological approach of the MOMA. Grouping together numerous works of varying styles helped to give those viewers who were not educated in the history of art a better undersatanding of what they were looking at. In this sense the Tate Museum, like the lowbrows, were helping to break down that intellectual barrier that turns many people away from appreciating works of art. The simple, thematic approach of the Tate may be why the museum has attracted huge crowds since its opening and has become the most popular modern art museum in the world.

George Eastman House: Picture Perfect celebrates the history of art, technology, photography, and motion pictures. The house is the mansion of George Eastman, developer of the Kodak camera, and today serves as the oldest photography museum in the world. The innovative and forward looking spirit of Eastman led to the creation of a portable and easily accessable camera that transformed photography, and which would eventually lead to the development of film at the heart of motion pictures. The museum is a collection of 14,000 photographs which show an evolution from the camera used as a means of documentation to its limitless uses of the imagination. The video relates to this project in that it joins together an appreciation of a specific medium as art with a respect for the visionaries like George Eastman and the technological advancements throughout history which helped to make these works possible.

This sense of history to be considered by the curator is seen in the video Bones of Contention: Native American Archeology. This powerful video discusses the ongoing battle between Native Americans and scientists over the display and research of the bones of Indian descendants. Tribal leaders see this act of recovering Indian skulls and bones as a form of desecration and disrespect, while the scientists argue that the subsequent research may help to understand medical problems of the past and more effectively treat the diseases of the future. The curators of museums which exhibit these bones as artifacts of history are caught in the middle of a revival of Native American cultural identity and affiliation. As history shows the racial overtones and usage in collecting skulls from tribal terrirtory, I found it easy to be swayed by the argument against the collection of such remains, especially when there still exists tribal factions and organizations throughout the country which are willing and able by custom to accept these remains and bury them with the respect they deserve. It reminded me a bit of the Parthenon debate we had discussed earlier, and I think this relates to our current project as we need to be mindful of these issues of cultural identity and history in our presentations.