5.7 presentation

David:
Your presentation was very fascinating and I enjoyed listening to your ideas. I think it's interesting to think about the infinite possibilities of what the draftsman could produce. I think it would be cool if Lewitt provided the same set of instructions to more than one group of draftsmen and then compared the two finished pieces.

Presentations: May 7

1. David: I found this very interesting about this art being more mystical than rational, it's like a leap into the unknown, you explained it very well. Lewitt's open cubes and the use of the three prime colors and the three secondary colors was very interesting as well. I also liked the part about the paintings in the walls of the room that once, painted, were painted over and gone forever. I think my only suggestion is to also talk about his career later on in his life. Very good topic and presentation.

Presentations 5/5-5/7

1.) The Video art presentation was extremely interesting to me. I enjoyed the unconventional topic as it was fresh and very informative. The thesis was well formed and the evidence was dynamic, in particular to the different video art clips shown. I enjoyed how the presentation incorporated different avenues of video art: the rehearsed cough, artist staring at audience, and the 8 second delay piece. All different cases supported thesis impeccably. My question is in regards to the performance of the artist staring at the audience, as a effort to demonstrate the attention span of an individual focusing on an actual artist. Was the audience informed on the purpose of the piece? Loved it!

2.) I enjoyed the focus of the graffiti presentation. The history was presented well and supported thesis correctly, however how exactly will the graffiti pieces pertain to the thesis? I mean are you going to focus on specific graffiti pieces or give a general overview of the practice?

3.) The Lewitt presentation was unique to say the least. The topic seems to be quite broad and alot can be done with the paper. I applaud your effort to refute the argument we read in class early on in the semester. My question pertains to Lewitt's concept of art, he felt as though his vision should be comprehended and done by other artists..however how was this exactly his art? The final product would be an interpretation of what another artist thought his work should be (I guess this statement refers to Lewitts broader descriptions left for other artists). Also did any of the artists that physically painted Lewitt's work in the museums actually get any recognition?

Lewitt In Progress

I thought your presentation was very engaging and you had a very interesting topic. I like that you had a completely different view of Sol Lewitt from anything we've learned and it will be interesting to see how you use your facts to support your thesis. The video you showed in class of one of the museums working on his producing his paintings was shocking because I didn't realize how complicated the instructions were and how Lewitt would keep erasing parts of the paintings in the instructions. You definitely will have an awesome essay to read.

Presentations

David: Your presentation on Sol Lewitt was very interesting. It took a different approach to his work than anything we read or discussed this year. The comparison to the frescos was particularly interesting to me. One thing I have always wondered about Lewitt is if he at least sketches or somehow simulates what the instructions will reproduce before he releases the instructions.

presentation 5/7

David: LeWitt is really an interesting artist. I was very fascinated by open cubes when I first saw it. Your examples of wall drawings are very intriguing too. One point I noted was how you talked about the artwork being beyond the artist, this is very curious contradiction to Warhol and some other artists who we like to talk about their life or intentions when we look at their works. What I did not quite get is why is relinquishing control "mysticism"?

5/5-5/7 Recap: Rothko to LeWitt

Kate: What a story! I find it ironic that he purposely set out to paint depressing and aesthetically unpleasant pieces for the elites who would dine at the Four Seasons, but still agreed to be commissioned. He hated them for their money while he himself was making money. This selection of paintings is very dull and undeserving of appraisal, especially after Rothko himself admitted the attitude he held towards the project. My question is, compared to other pieces by Rothko, how did the Seagram murals detour later collections? Does the popularity of the Seagram murals stem solely from the interesting narrative behind their making or are they outstanding for how they demand genuine contemplation from the observer?

Yiwen: Your presentation was very informative. Like Kevin, you have highlighted forms of art that are not exactly mainstream or commonly addressed in popular Art courses. I noticed that you don’t consider movies and film as video art. My question is: were a film to be produced with a small camcorder would you then classify it video art? Is there a time limit to video art clips? For your paper, I would suggest providing more history about video art, significant contributors, and recent developments in the practice. Great job so far!

Anita: I’m glad you decided to base your research on graffiti art. Personally, I feel this art form merits more recognition and scholastic incorporation than what it currently is given. I noticed that you focus on graffiti’s role in urban redevelopment and how it has altered the aesthetics of inner city neighborhoods. Will you be addressing a particular time period or providing a general history on graffiti art? I suggest, since you’re not addressing specific graffiti artists, to format your discussion on certain cities/communities.

David: Last but certainly not least. LeWitt is a character. I must say that your argument, a comparison between LeWitt’s instruction-production pieces and religious frescoes, is a bold and challenging one. With that said, and since you claim LeWitt had no religious motives when structuring his artwork plans, will your focus be on the architectural designs of the spaces in which his works and frescoes are exhibited? I suggest including in your paper how LeWitt’s work developed throughout his career. Are any of his works displayed outdoors? Has he made any sculptures or are his works all paintings? I applaud you for choosing such a deviant and egocentric artist.

Presentation 5/07

I'm glad you're doing LeWitt, when I was researching him for my discussion/presentation I found his stuff very interesting, complex, and somewhat difficult to sort out. Your thesis is very challenging but you seem to have a strong hold on your key points and what you are trying to prove. I think the Sentences on Conceptual Art seem to support your thesis a little better than his wall paintings do. I also think maybe you should explain how the mystical = the unknown... or is that just assumed?

Last Presentation

After reading your first draft, it was really nice to see the different types of wall drawings by Sol Lewitt. I think your thesis is interesting, bold, and thus could be difficult to defend, especially with Krauss and everyone else is on the other side. While Sol Lewitt's "Sentences" may suggest otherwise, I have to admit that my first instinct when you showed all of those pieces in the beginning was that he was aiming for something rational--they were all geometric, with lines and squares or triangles, and basic colors. This said, I understand where you are going, and your proposal is clear and should be successful, as long as you support it well.

last presentation

I personally don't really understand Sol LeWitt, but I think the comparisons you came up with are really interesting. I like the connection between the frescoes and LeWitt's works. I wonder where you are going with that. Also, what did LeWitt think when he knows that his art works will be covered with white paints after his exhibition is over? Do you think he was influenced by any religious thoughts? It's really cool that he didn't have the wall smoothed before he created his works; it adds interesting texture.

Presentations

Kate: Interesting topic. I like how you have focused on a particular art event to explore some of Rothko's paintings. I did want to hear more of a personal thesis, however. Also there was a lot of good info in your presentation but some of it was repeated in different sections.

Yiwen: You had a clear thesis, which is good. You also seem to have good knowledge of the subject matter. Your thesis could be better developed, though. One thing I thought was that you might want to focus on just one video artist. Acconci seems like an ideal candidate as he was a large portion of your presentation and a very intersting subject offereing a lot of possibilities.

Anite: Your paper would probably benefit from a scope limitation, you're tackling a lot of material. It seemed your thesis was about graffiti artists reclaiming urban space. Who are these graffiti artists? You glanced over that. I felt like I was left knowing only a little more about the subject matter. You can delve deeper.

Presentation 5.3

1.Rothko's paintings are very interesting, with all the vertical lines and color. He felt that Four Season wouldn't value his site specific pieces enough, why did he choose to hung up his art works there at the very first place? Just so he could “torture” the customers of Four Season restaurant? Personal, I think Rothko's paintings worked pretty well with the restaurant environment. Maybe you can talk about the different response when the same art work is displayed in the the restaurant and in the library.
2.The ability of attracting audiences' attention is a good concept. You might want to explain it more. Why are we being attracted to it, while other mediums don't have the equal power to do so? I don't really understand what you are trying to get out of the “Attention” about time. Are you suggesting that in such piece, three dimensions of time coexisted, and only video has the ability to do so? What is the relationship between video and psychological? Video materializes the objects/ people?
3.Street Art and Graffiti. The connection between Vandalism and graffiti's art works is interesting. What is the original motivation beyond the graffiti art? I personally do not like graffiti art, what is the primary goal the artists are trying to achieve? What are the effects graffiti art has that other art forms don't have?

Kate, Yiwen, Anita

Kate: The history behind Rothko's murals is somewhat interesting, but i didn't seem to hear an argument surrounding the topic. I think the story shows how much these abstract paintings can do to the viewer. I never would have imagined thinking of them as windows unless I stared at it for a while. I think you should focus on the viewer's actual experience, and the artist's intention, as they can end up being very different. I can just imagine diners at the four seasons thinking to themselves how lucky they were to be eating this close to a "real Rothko"! Isn't it ridiculous what ;fine art" has become?

Yiwen: Cough made us want to look more than if it were a real person, because it was unreal. However, the pointing one made us want to look away because it was uncomfortable, even though it was just a video. I think this is an interesting contradiction that shows the versatility of the medium of video art. Also, you talked about some performance art pieces, you should be careful to make it clear that you realize those aren't video art. perhaps you should refocus your essay on viewer's comfort level when viewing art, unless your current idea of attention span, time and the unreal is working out okay.

Anita: You said the language used by graffiti artists shows violence towards the city, like "bomb" and "burners", but you also said that those who make graffiti want to reclaim it? This is a little weird sounding. Why would they "attack" the city in order to put their own culture into it? This supports the negative stereotypes surrounding gangs and graffiti. Also, at the end you showed picture of suburbs, but that is not the "urban" redeveloped part where the graffiti is. Isn't graffiti on a person's home a different story from that on a city building full of elites? Lastly, one of the pictures you sowed was of graffiti on a train. How is writing on a train reclaiming the city? It's not even going to stay in the city!

Presentations May 5

Kate: If Rothko wanted the rich to suffer, why then would he take down his piece and move it to a museum? To make the less-rich suffer as well? And as far as Ms Hoy's reference to landscape/portrait goes, in what ways can Rothko's pieces be interpreted? Is this paradigm of orientation really just our means of grasping his art work by analyzing its relationship to traditional painting, since otherwise his art is so abstract that we supposedly don't have much to work with?

Yiwen: Thanks for making the class a physical experiment by having us watch a video and noting our attention span. It made me feel uncomfortable and I don't feel the results reflected the viewpoint you claim to take. The Time-Delay room really isn't as confusing as you say it is, unless of course the cameras have the monitors in view... because then the camera would delay an already delayed playback, which would then be rerecorded as it is played back in front of the cameras and delayed again. Now that's confusing. And how again was Vito Acconci video art? You seemed more to be focused on discomfort... art. Sounds more relevant to Chris Burden and violence art than to video art.

Anita: I don't know what city you were talking about, or if this was some generic scenario or something, since you weren't very specific. Regardless, you spoke of a city being rebuilt. You said that the graffiti was made to "take back the city" which is an act of possession, so this complicates the art's relationship to commodification in a different way; though the art itself isn't a sellable item, it is aiding in the possession of the city space. It seems like it might be more interesting to talk about the futility of permanently acquiring the city through graffiti art, since the "goal" is supposedly to take back the city, but since graffiti is easily painted over this is obviously an impossible task, and so maybe some of these tensions between time and materiality manifest themselves in the art itself? Also, just a thought, if the city wasn't owned by the graffiti artists to begin with, don't you think that rebuilding the city would be somebody else's way of taking the city back from the graffiti artists?

Presentations 5.5.09

Kate: I really liked how you incorporated the technical aspect of the paintings by both the use of colors and the use of vertical and horizontal lines. This being said, I think it would be great if you expanded on the idea and storyline behind the painting. I found the relationship between Rothko and the hotel to be one of the more intriguing aspects of the presentation and would love for it to be further explained.

Yiwen: Great set up on your presentation. It was a good idea to present each idea and then wrap it back into your thesis and main points. Your whole idea of this new generation of video art is something that I had never really processed. When I became more aware of this I immediately wanted to compare the main similarities and differences of video art compared to the more historic style of art. I think your thesis on attention span, time, and reality are all good angles, but make sure you can tie them all together cohesively.

Anita: I really like how you dug deep into the culture of graffiti art. I definitely agree with you that graffiti art is a form of anti-modernism. I am interested in seeing if there are two sides to the story on this issue. Do you feel that all graffiti art is done in bad taste and for the wrong reasons or do you feel that most graffiti art is done in good taste and for the right reasons? Or is it a combination of both.

MAY 5TH Presentations

Kate: I thought you Rothko was really interesting when I read your essay, but it was even cooler being able to see the actual paintings and the four seasons hotel that was supposed to host the paintings. I liked how you showed the grimness of the colors and discussed the vertical lines and the enormity of these paintings. I could definitely see how they would make people feel like they were trapped in a prison when surrounded by them. 

Yiwen: You had a very good presentation and you clearly pointed out what you wanted to prove in your essay. The video of the cough was a good example of showing how video is unreal and so produced to be something that it's in reality is not. It just shows how fake everything is and how disturbing it becomes when people push it to be real. I liked how every time you showed a piece, you would right after relate it back to your thesis and explain how it pertains to it.

Anita: Your subject on graffiti art was very interesting and different from the last presentation on graffiti art. I like that you focus on the irony of street art and economy. Making the graffiti mainstream defeats its whole purpose to be anti-modernist, anti-modern redevelopment, and taking back power. You have a lot to work with, good job!

Presentations

Kate: I think your topic is really interesting and that you can go pretty deep with it. I enjoyed learning about the history and complications behind the piece, as well as Rothko's inspiration for it from the library in Florence. The piece definitely reminded me of Rothko's chapel that we studied earlier in the year, with the whole idea of the use of open space, so you could probably explore this in your paper.

Yiwen: The points you made in your paper and presentation were very good, I think. I know that I was freaked out by the pointing video and the coughing one as well, so when you talked about the audience feeling uncomfortable and looking away, I definitely knew what you meant. I think I looked away after like 5 seconds. The Time Delay video was really interesting to me as well, and I think you could really get into the unique effect of this idea of a 4th dimension with all of the examples you proposed.

Anita: I think your thesis is very straightforward and easy to understand, with the whole idea of being anti-capitalism and against the mainstream. I think you should go even deeper to explore different types of grafitti from the types we usually see in urban streets and walls, such as the yes men or the billboard thing that we saw a bit of at the end. People have been trying to fight the mainstream through art for years, but I feel that grafitti is the only type that hasn't in some way given in to capitalism.

5/5 Presentations

Kate – I liked how you really incorporated this discussion of the location along with what artwork would result from knowing what the location might be like. I especially liked your comparison with the chapel/church in discussing how this theme transpired over to the Seagram murals. I think this should further be explained.

Yiwen – The whole time and attention captivating video art really caught my attention. I guess I never saw video this way – as a sort of challenge to my perception of art. I think it might not be such a bad idea to incorporate discussion about mainstream videos and how we’re okay seeing these – there’s no real sense of challenge or feeling weird although we are fully captivated by them, i.e. “most shocking videos”.

Anita – I would definitely include what Meredith brought into discussion at the end of class. If your take is that graffiti art is a way of reclaiming the urban space by literally taking over a space through art, then I would do a compare/contrast with what we’re shown in class.

4th round of presentation

Kate: Your presentation about the Seagull murals by Rothko was really unique. Rothko’s aim of “ruining the appetite” of those restaurant goers was really interesting. I wonder why four seasons hotel choose him to do the decorations. I think your paper would be really good if you can further discuss this mural and its site-specificity.

Anita: I am really convinced by your point on how graffiti art is a form of anti-modernism and how you supported your case with history of city-planning, etc. I also found how you differentiated graffiti-like art and real graffiti really interesting. Perhaps you would like to talk more about the concept of “making the place uglier than it already is” that some artists have. Also, I don’t quite get why they thought that creativity in art school equals to capitalism.

presentations on 5.5.09

Kate: You said that he said that he wanted to torture the guests of the Four Seasons Restaurant but then decided he wanted his pieces to have more committed audiences, so did he still create his pieces to disgust and torture even though he put them in a museum?
I also think that you should explain the significance of the horizontal and vertical paintings.

Jiwen: You said that video medium cannot capture what physically does not exist but with today's digital and computer graphics do you think that has changed?

Anita: You said that graffiti artists were purposely defying laws and making things ugly. Do you agree with Jazzmin in that some artists are making political points and rebelling against the ordinary?

Presentations 5/05

Kate - The story behind the Seagram murals is very interesting and makes for a good background for your paper. I think, in addition to the whole vertical vs. horizontal idea, the pt. of view and perspective of the paintings, how they were meant to be viewed, and it's importance in site-specificity is critical and could maybe be explored more.

Yiwen - The examples of video art you showed were very unique and thought provoking, especially the one about past-future split attention (Graham, i think?) Video definitely offers a new angle by exploring another dimension. I like that you discussed what video lacks too, despite all its cool new features.

Anita - I like that you took a new angle on the many street art presentations so far. I think comparing and contrasting graffiti with advertising (capitalism's art) is a good angle and approach to take in discussing the purpose of graffiti and uglifying the city.

Presentations

Yuen: Your topic on video art was creative and unique. I have watched some of Vito Acconci's pieces earlier in the year, and was ultimately too creeped out to pursue any further research of his work. I wonder why exactly 8 seconds was chosen for the dual room installation. Would any longer or any shorter not have had an optimal effect? I would be interested to see you explore the relationship between eye contact and attention span.

Anita: I liked your presentation on street art and graffiti. I thought it was especially interesting that some artists do not view their creations as art, yet purely as vandalism. This to me begs the question about whether these creations are ultimately considered art even though they were not made with the intention of being classified as art. If these pieces are vandalism can they still be art?

presentations 3

I liked the Rothko presentation because of its specific orientation towards particular paintings. I liked that a site specific location was picked and how it related to our class with a new spectrum. It was interesting that he wanted to make rich people feel uncomfortable, and i imagine that his art had made him somewhat rich. I agree with meredtih in that a connection to the rothko chapel would be a good way to compare the seagram 9.

The idea of video art was great. I thought the examples were all really interesting and the notion that the video allows people to continually stair without feeling uncomfortable. i thought there should be other connections int he presentation, maybe to the TV article we read or some videos of chris burden. I think film as a genre and not just film as art should be included. A video can discuss many things and including notions of past, present, future.

I thought this street art/ graffiti presentation was also good. I liked that it was different than the first graffiti presentation, and both were very good. this presentation highlighted the importance of graffiti as art being illegal, and legalizing it turns it into an institution taking away urban voices. i also like dthe idea of graffiti being free art for people to view. One does not have to be a rich high art lover to see graffiti in the streets.

Presentation: May 5

1. Kate: The Seagrum murals are very interesting about how the colors are and the height and how the artist put them in the restaurant to try to "ruin the appetite" of the people eating there. You explore how he was commissioned to paint for the 4 Seasons, but he created it for what he thought the vibe of the restaurant was, and later put his art elsewhere because the people were more focused on eating that viewing his art. I think this was very interesting and my only advice may be to talk more about the art as architechture, and how he justifies his art as that.

2. Yiwen: I really liked this topic, very unique and brought up things that I haven't thought about. I liked the thesis on the trade-off between extending the attention span of te audience and expressing the unreal. "The Cough" example was very good. I liked how you talked about the manipulation of time and how you showed us also what videos lacked. I was a bit unclear about the "unreal" part of your thesis though.

3. Anita: Street are and graffiti is a good topic. and teh question of whether it shouldbe considered vandalism is very controversal. I found it interesting when you said that this art being vandalism was one of the characteristics that makes it even better, and that where the work was chosen to be created at had a big factor on it (advertisement on a bulleton board vs. other random places that te graffiti artist choses). I think it was a very good presentation. Maybe you can also incorporate what was brought up when we looked at Jazzmin's presentation in relation to murals (in Alfredo's).

Presentations

Ryan: I really enjoyed your presentation about Andy Warhol, although I don't personally like him very much. After listening to the reasons behind his works, though, how he's trying to make a statement about mass production and consumption and the irony behind his Che and Mao pieces, it's difficult not to have some appreciation for his work. I found it really ironic that he's making what seems to be a critical statement about these things, yet he himself falls into the trap. You should really go into that in your paper...it's an interesting point.

Sierra: I thought your presentation was very well organized, which means your paper will probably be well-structured. You gave a very thorough compare/contrast between the two pieces, and it's always interesting to learn about how artists can spark controversy and then change society's view of things.

Brianna: I really liked how you used lots of different sources and genres to prove your point. The advertisements were outrageous to me. You had some great examples of objectification--the whole idea of the cutting off the women's heads from the photographs to put emphasis on sexual body parts in ads catered toward men.

Great Topic! The presentation of Andy Warhol was extremely interesting! I enjoyed the portion on Warhol's commodification of celebrities, it was very insightful and I hope that this research paper dives more into the subject. It was also ironic how communist political figures such as Che were being commodified, although their focal purpose in life was to fight against the act of consumerism. I expect this research paper to be well structured for the presentation was very cohesive and informative. A personal question of mine would be, it appears that Warhol generally uses the same silk screening method for his art works, thus why was the public so responsive to his art if it was somewhat monotonous throughout his years?

The Joan Miro presentation appears to have great potential to be a good research paper. The topic was interesting however the thesis was a bit ambiguous, appeared to be a biographical presentation. The fact that Miro painted women as monsters was intriguing to me, and perhaps the research paper should explain that in much more detail.

Olympia Edward Mant Presentation was wonderful. The thesis was well structured and concise. I enjoyed the dissection of both paintings and the detail explanation of what each symbol meant.

presentations 3

i found doing my own presentation to be incredibly insightful. I think using only pictures without any words besides the quote were useful because it forced me to think on the spot and thus conceptualize and articulate the material to my class mates in a different way. Thus, not only was i recieving insight from my peers, but listening to my own words proved to be useful. It made me realize what i needed to add to my rough draft to make it more cohesive. The thought about andy warhol as an icon himself will help me as well as the notiuon that the everyday objects that he created became iconic such as the brillo boxes.

I thought that the joan miro presentation was really cool, but a thesis definitely needs to be devised. What is funny to me is that i have seen many miro paintings and never once realized that they were representational in any way. I always just imagined them to be abstract to the point where only feelings were portrayed and not actual figures. However, i learned from the presentation that he was doing surreal depictions of mostly female bodies and stars, skies, and birds. I liked the presentation and the art work but i think something more defining should be said about Miro.

I wish i did not leave early so i could have critiqued the other presentations. Sorry. I'm sure they were great

Presentations 4.30.09

Ryan: I was waiting for someone to write a paper on Andy Warhol. His art is so interesting, and he is one of those artists whose lifestyle was so much a part of/similar to the production of his art. I would say you need to make your thesis a little more clear with the commodity topic. Make sure your argument is not something that is already pre-conceived about his style. I think it is widely accepted that he was depicting the mass consumerism of society at the time. Otherwise, good analysis of his different pieces.

Karen: Miro is a very interesting artist, and you definitely took on a challenge with your paper. I am interested to see what kind of claim you pull out of his pieces. I see some importance in the fact that you said he painted women in really ugly form. Maybe you could elaborate on the common themes in all of his works that you noticed.

Brianna: I really like your topic and it is definitely something that has taken over especially in terms of consumerism. I think you are onto something and possibly focusing on what Meredith suggested about the change in focus of different pieces as case studies: the gaze in olympia, to the naked body of the women in the D&G add, to the focus of specific body parts in the perfume ads. These are all incredibly interesting. The one thing I think you need to tighten up is what you analyze. You started out with artworks and paintings, then moved completely to advertisment which I think are two different genre's of art. If you want to include the older paintings, maybe you could look at really recent painting as well, not just advertisements.

4/30 Final Presentations

Ryan – I really like how you make the claim that Andy Warhol’s life takes on the meaning behind the painting. It’s indeed pretty creative and a claim that I honestly believe can only be made about a couple of artist.

Karen – Sorry for not being able to pursue your original thesis. I suggest you only change your thesis slightly but still pursue something around those lines.

Sierra – I greatly enjoyed your compare/contrast among the two paintings. I would definitely include some discussion on the name of painting but would continue with your idea on how these differences speak about society and our notions of nudity vs. nakedness.

Bree – I got a kick out your presentation. I like how you pursue this concept of “objectification” of women, but what about men? Do men equally get objectified as the consumers of women objectification? I think this would add a new dimension to your claims.

4.30 Presentation

1.The concept of how Andy Warhol created the cycle of art into commodity and commodity into art is really interesting. I believe that's what he's intended to do. You mentioned how he first put art into album covers, but what would you say about the album covers before him? They are not considered art? I see that you are linking this concept with consumerism, you might want to make it into a clearer statement. I kind of understand the connection but also quite puzzled at the same time. Other than that, I really want to read your paper 'cause I'm personally interested in this topic as well.
2.I see how you focused on Joan Miró's works, are you just demonstrating the transitions of his art style? or is there a further analysis behind it? maybe you can talk about what influenced him maybe?
3.Manet's Olympia, compare with Venus. changed of genre of nude art. I would not necessary say that the painting of Olympia took the sexual gaze away; it is still there though. Are you gonna dig into the feminism at the time? I really like Olympia, there's so much to talk about. It would be a very interesting paper. You might want to point out some evidence from the painting to prove that she is in a higher class.
4.Revolution of female nudes. I like your topic. I've always wondered that how the standard for female nudity change throughout times. So has female nudity always be objectified? How would you distinguish between “art” and “objectifying”?

Presentations

Ryan: Your subject matter was interesting but your thesis could be more focused. Art is commodity and commodity is art...but what's it all about?

Karen: Miro, yes. I wonder what you'll settle on for your thesis. As you know, I liked your last one.

Sierra: Your choice to focus on one work really helped you keep the scope tight. Your thesis, I think, is that Manet is reflecting something about society. This is a very broad claim, and it is probably applicable to nearly every artist. Maybe be a little more specific.

Brie: I think you have a lot of potential in your paper but that it hasn't been fully realized. What do you mean by "objectify?" This is an area which has received a lot of coverage so you may have to find a new way to approach it. It sounded like you had something you wanted to say...

presentations

Ryan - i like the idea of looking at Andy Warhol's work and how all of his work can be seen as a commodity but isn't that what he wanted when he produced his work? didn't he want to depict the consumer culture?

Karen - talked about Joan Miro. you talked about the fact that Joan used lots of women and birds in his paintings so that could be an interesting topic to explore in your paper.

Sierna- i really liked this presentation and i think that where you are going with it is really good.

3rd round of presentation

Ryan: Your presentation on Andy Warhol and consumerism was really interesting, especially the quote on how a coke is a coke, no matter how rich or powerful one is. I found your argument on the commodification of art, people and the artist himself really convincing. I would like to see what kind of silhouette screen Andy Warhol does of himself and whether it is different from what he did for the celebrities.

Karen: I can’t say that I know who Miro was before your presentation and it was really enlightening. I thought that Miro’s paintings looked closer to Cubism than Surrealism especially with Dawn Perfumed by a Shower of Gold 1954. I was kind of wondering why Miro chose to paint woman, birds, star and sky. What is the rationale behind his choice?

Sierra: Your comparison between Manet’s Olympia and Titian’s Venus of Urbino was really detailed, organized and comprehensive. I didn’t quite get the point about how Olympia having brighter lighting compared to Venus of Urbino makes it more like a scene in everyday life though.
Brianna: Your usage of Gucci, Dolce Gabbana and etc advertisements to compare with traditional paintings was really intriguing. To me, the most interesting point you made was that the ads pictured just the body and not the face so there is an absence of eye contact. Linking that to the power of the gaze in Olympia was really thought-provoking.

Presentations

Ryan: I liked your points on how Warhol's production of multiple prints is a form of mass consumption and the implications of that in relation to the art. I think you have some really interesting material with the last few slides on turning people, especially well known public figures, into consumer goods through art. I would be interested to see if there were any public reactions from any of the subjects and if Warhol got permission from any of his subjects beforehand.

Karen: The topic of women depicted as monsters is especially interesting and could be further looked into and analyzed. Why exactly is it considered beautiful to be a monster and how did this portrayal come about? How do people react to the fact that the artist is a male depicting females in this way?

Sierra: I really enjoyed your comparison of the two paintings, and I think you did a great job analyzing the differences and similarities thoroughly. The red arrows were a great addition to specifically show where the common points lied. I would be interested to explore the topic of the subject being a prostitute and what controversy existed from that.

Bri: Your presentation was very interesting. I liked that you were able to bring the concept around to modern times, consumerism, and advertising. The topic of the gaze, and inclusion of a face is a particuarly interesting subject matter and I would be interested to see if you could trace a series of images back to see how this has been used throughout recent times in ads and less recent times in paintings.

Presentations from April 30

Ryan: your topic was really interesting, I like the fact that your research with Andy Warhol's art revolve around the positive aspect of consumerism. I think your coca cola example was nice, how it is an item consumed by the poor and the rich.

Karen: In you presentation, you presented some very abstract art. I think Miro's paintings are difficult to understand, besides its themes of nature and women and stars. I thinks it's interesting how Miro uses such abstract and unconventional art to portray these simple nature-ish things.

Sierra: What were some of the publics' reaction to Manet's "Olympia"? You mentioned a lot of good points in your presentation, and made some good analyzes of the two paintings. You mention that his art was like changing the genre of nude art by revealing actually life situations, does his works also spans being just nude art?

Brianna: You covered a lot during your presentations. I thought it was interesting how you covered the change through time of how female nudity is used and portrayed by the public. I was wondering if you would be covering why there are these changes and its influences.

Presentations: April 30

1. Ryan: I like how your focus is very clear. Very good thesis and I liked the pieces you brought up, and how they relate to the commodification of art and the lifestyle of consumption. I really thought the quote about the coke was interesting: "a coke is a coke- all the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good."

2. Karen: You had a lot of art examples and explained everything well, and the purpose of the paintings, I guess the only thing you need to do is work on a thesis. But you have a lot of good information to work with.

3. Sierra: I really enjoyed your presentation. I liked it a lot, there's a lot of controversy and differences between these paintings that is just so interesting. I love this topic. There's so much you can use. Your presentation was very clear and organized, and I think this will be a very good paper.

4. Brianna: I liked this topic a lot. Interesting to hear about this in this way, about sexuality and consumerism and all the really bold and riske things that are used as advertisement, because apparently the products are as bold and riske. About the woman's gaze, I think incorporating the gaze more will be very good, because it seems to be the central thing.

Presentations 4/30

Ryan - I really like that you incorporated Warhol's lifestyle and his selling-out and how that was sort of his long-standing performance art piece. I also like the fact that through his screen-printing, Warhol could disguise race and take it out the picture -something that is such a prominent part of politics, celebrities, etc. I like that you're taking interesting angles about Warhol, and not doing a generic thesis on his critic American mass consumerism.

Karen - I can see why you wanted to focus your original thesis on Miro as a person in addition to his artwork. The fact that he tried hard not to be categorized into any art movement, and the transcendental quality of his work is very unique and thought-provoking. Maybe you can explore the nature and themes he depicts in his art work and any sort of trend that may have with his life/background, rather than his intentions?

Sierra - I really like that you really focused your paper on these two paintings, and are analyzing specific details (gaze, hand, etc). I also think it is good that you are tying all of this in to the history and what was going on in Paris at the time - petit bourgeuosis, and contrast the changing idea of passive vs. active beauty and its place in society.

Brianna - Like Meredith mentioned in class, I think a really good and consistent theme through all your works is the female gaze. It is also interesting how you started incorporating mainly fashion ads (vs. gallery art) -both are consumer driven works, but ad's are even more so. You could probably also explore the idea of the female nude in art for consumption and how that has evolved through time.

4/30 Recap: Warhol to Evolution of Nudes

Ryan: Andy Warhol’s life and work has always intrigued me to the brink of intimidation. Fortunately, you demystified him for me. I think your focus is very clear and I like that you arranged the works in your presentation to somewhat parallel their order in the Warhol exhibition at the De Young. I’m curious to know if the Brillo soap boxes are the only work he did in sculpture-form. I know that the sides of these boxes are also silkscreened, are you then arguing that whether he had created Brillo boxes or a silkscreen of Brillo soap (like the one he made with Campbell’s soup) that there is an overreaching theme of hyper-consumerism?

Karen: First I want to applaud you for choosing to research a Surrealist artist. I find that Surrealism is like Poetry; only the artist and the poet themselves know what’s going on. But Dali is even more complicated because his paintings are so loud and not exactly aesthetically-pleasing. I liked how you brought in the general theme about his characterizations of women. I’ve never heard anything more ironic. While he claims he admires female beauty, I find no other work that monster-izes woman more than his own. Since you had to redevelop your thesis, I would suggest you examine Dali’s focus on women and analyze the grotesqueness of female characterizations in his paintings.

Sierra: I really enjoyed your presentation for its clear focus and smooth transitions. You prove that there is much to say about a single painting and how social relations influence the scenes they depict. You have a strong thesis. The only thing I would add to your research is a brief summary on whether this reforming-the-nude attitude is exemplified in more works by Manet.

Brianna: From Holy Virgin to Disposable Sex Icon, it is surprising to see how the purpose of nude female artworks has changed over the years. Hyper-consumerism has allowed for sex to be used as an object for marketing, transforming the act itself from an intimate engagement to a public activity which earns social status. And this is very unfortunate. You have a great topic to work with. My only suggestion is that your research observe the same medium, either painting or photography. Or if you decide to keep a combination of the two, identify why photography is used today to reflect this notion of hyper-sexuality and consumerism.