Art Assignment Thoughts

The Art Assignment video I was shown, showed the hosts Sarah and John Green making imprints of various items including a broken up book (paper towns), lemons, and broken up toys. as they were making these imprints they discussed some artworks which were submitted made from much more impractical items one of which being a human being. As they showed these imprints they talked about how the different patterns of the same imprint over and over again were the most interesting parts of the artworks, and how Simple imprints of toy cars could make up entirely different pictures based on the assembly of said imprints.

Juxtaposition in Modern Art

Juxtaposition is the contrast of two colors put beside each other in an art piece a good example of this is in these two paintings done by Sammy Slabbnick ("Uptown Girl" and "The Discovery of Modern Art") 
http://img2.archilovers.com/story/efce859338064e77b7bd93341900b4c7.jpg
These paintings show juxtaposition through the contrast between older style (black and white) photos and more modern (coloured) pictures.The juxtaposition is even more evident as the old and new photos are directly placed upon each other making it easier to see the comparison between the old and the new.

Art 21

For my observations on the art 21 video I watched the art in the twenty first century season 7.
 The first observation from an artist said she "didn't like to focus on the symbolism it puts to much meaning into it." "I like to focus on what it is in a concrete way". What I think she meant by this is if you focus on the symbolism of art you can lose focus on the actual art piece and the imagery. The next speaker suggests the best kinds of artworks are the ones which are at a point where " people are unsure if it is still an art piece" which implies that to her the best kinds of art are the ones which are boundary pushing and are truly unique.

 The next artists which spoke talked about the modernization of art in today's society with one artist using photography stating "we use machines to see for our machines". While he was making this statement it showed several shots of two balls (both the size of medium SUV) which helped show how many modern art pieces rely on machinery in order to get the perfect angles. Upon further review of this artist it showed him to be Trevor Paglen who often uses photography on landscapes as well as having very geography based artworks. This helped to put into context the extent at which machines help him with setting perfect angles and finding geographical patterns.
some examples of his work are as such:

Trevor also uses long exposure in order to capture light trails making shapes and circles.
The rest of the video goes on through various artists with them all answering what art is to them and why they enjoy it. The artist's answers are mixed in with pictures and video clips of their artwork effectively showing how the definition of art varies from artist to artist.

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Bus Art (ideas)

For the bus art assignment I have looked up some possible ideas with regards as to what type of style I would like to use. Whilst looking I saw two styles of artwork on buses both have a similar style with regards to brighter shapes on a blank white backdrop. i like this style as it brings out and compliments the brighter colours used even brighter shades of grey and black stick out against the white.

Ideas for Theme Project

For my theme project i will be doing my paintings based on the theme of isolation. The first painting I will attempt to do will be the all is lost painting of a cargo container adrift in the Indian ocean with storm clouds coming into view. For my next Painting I would like to do a Lone Stallion or maybe a stag with a bright non textured background such as in these paintings (with regards to a bright low texture background).

this will have a big change from the previous painting which contains a single inanimate object. I also like the variety which this style of painting would bring to the project keeping variety whilst also keeping to the theme of isolation. A stallion or stag would also be a much easier animal to paint as my mother has experience drawing and

  My last art piece will touch on surrealism with a house being on a lone island with bridges being burnt around it.

Planning

I am planning on having a week period for preparation on each painting this practice week will be followed up by a working week in which I will actually be painting the draft and then the final painting it is highly likely this schedule will change to conditions but I am hoping to keep pretty tightly to it.  

Surrealism Art Period

Beginnings and Influential Members

The Surrealism art period started around 1924 with the publication of Le Manifest du Surrealism by Andre Breton.In the book Andre Breton describes "psychic automatism" which is a means of self expression through writing or art. Psychic automatism is when artists delve into subconscious thought which helps artists break the barriers of logical thought also freeing their works of other taboos and inspiring ones imagination. Paintings which came from this time period often use normal objects in abnormal ways changing the viewers perspective on said objects. The surrealism art period also had many influential and eccentric artists such as Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Pablo Picasso, And Man Ray. The surrealism era ended around 1950.

Common Themes

A common theme throughout almost all Surrealism paintings is abstract visuals to explain subconscious ideas and thoughts.

Another theme is to use very simple visuals  and objects but “stripping ordinary objects

Surrealism was often considered destructive of normal barriers in art.

The Paintings I observed

Son of Man

}Son of Man was painted by Rene Magritte who was a major figure in the surrealism art movement. When Magritte made paintings he focused more on the thoughts and emotions the painting would evoke rather than overall appeal of the painting Son of Man is no exception this painting appears to be a self portrait of Magritte with an apple in front of his face. The reason for why Magritte added the apple is to make the viewer think of what is behind the apple invoking a natural curiosity towards what we cannot see.  

Landscape with Butterflies

Landscape with butterflies is done by Salvador Dali and shows off his style of paintings with many oranges and bright reds. This painting has a major sense of juxtaposition between the colours of the “red wall” and the butterflies and sky, as well as the geometric lines of the landscape and the organic lines used to create the butterflies. The meaning of this particular painting seems is deeply connected with Dali’s connection between God and the double helix of DNA which were often found in his paintings showing a drab landscape depicting God in average life.

The Human Condition

The Human Condition is another thought provoking painting done by Rene Magritte. This painting is meant to create the illusion of reality in a painting which is often used by Rene to trick the viewers brain. Rene does this by making the viewer imagine the painting in the picture is of the outside however there is no proof the picture depicts the outside as it doesn’t really exist (the outside portion covered by the painting).

Effects of Surrealism on the World

Surrealism had some affects on society and the economy but because of bigger events which took place during this time period (such as the great depression and WWII) it is harder to see these effects. Surrealism had a big influence on other forms of art however, art forms such as film and fashion took heavy influence from the surrealism era having created dream like movies and fashion with nods to artworks such as "The Persistence of Time" and "Lobster Telephone".