Artist Spotlight: Fred Wilson

Fred Wilson

Wilson is an artist to who doesn't use his own hands to make his creations, instead he relies on other people to do that for him. But what he does use is his creativity to piece together his exhibits just the way he wants them. His unusual juxtapostion of objects causes the viewer to question the limitations of cultural institutions and how they have changed interpretation of historical truth and artistic value. His works are very different, but they all are creative that I find interesting to say the least.

Artist Spotlight: Walker Evans

Photography: Walker Evans

Walker Evans was a great photographer who never really had his due. He worked for Farm Security Commission to document the effects of the great depression. After his work with them, he later went on to publish a book, "Let Us Now Praise Great Men", which followed the lives of three farming families. This documentation led to the peak of his career. I enjoy his subject matter, and his use of the camera, the angles, and tones. I think it really captures the period of the depression, and the hardships that must have been felt by everyone. 

Artist Spotlight: Annie Leibovitz

Photography:Annie Leibovitz

Annie started her career shooting for the Rolling Stones magazine. Her work was different, and inspirational that she eventually made her way up to shooting for Vanity Fair, a popular womens fashion magazine. Today, her works can be seen and recognized all over. She has worked with famous actors and icons of our day. I love her work, and find it to be very inspiring for myself. 

Artist Spotlight: Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas

Degas beautiful artworks are among my favorites in the art wold. The use of color to create depth, and form has always been a inspiration to me. I also love his subject matter, which is mainly dancers. Degas captures the beauty and grace of movement flawlessly. 

His style is referred to as impressionism, though Degas preferred to think of himself as a realist. He played with all sorts of mediums, but his primary work is mostly with paintings. 

Artist Spotlight: Ansel Adams

P H O T O G R A P H Y

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams is a inspiration to me in my black and white photography class. His use of tone amazingly brings out so much depth into his pictures. His most famous work was in the Yosemite valley, which eventually led to the founding and creation of the Yosemite National Park. 

Film: American Visions, Age of Anxiety- Robert Hughes

I enjoyed the film a lot. I thought it had a fun way, an honest way of depicting each artist in its feature. My favorite part was when Jeff Koons was questioned about his work, and whether he sculpted or not. Overall, the film was informative, covered a lot of topics and artists and further expanded my experience into the world of art world. 

Featured Artists: 

James Turrell

Jeff Koons

Louise Bourgeoise 

Donald Judd

Richard Sierra

James Rosenquist

Just to name a few....

For the Assignment:  Ed and Nancy Keinholz

*Edward used found objects; materials he would find in a alley, a trashcan, or even a flea market. He used these materials to confront the viewers with questions of human existence, and inhumanity in the twentieth-century. By showing the inhumanity that has happened not only recently but in years past shows the historical context that's implied, while presenting it in a contemporary setting. 

*I think they show there meaning by how they're represented in the piece itself. For example, one of the pieces uses a bullet, which is housed in a cut-out of a cross. The meaning I interpreted was that there is inhumanity in everything. It's also ironic in a lot of ways, especially for this piece because many religions are opposed to violence, and murder. But from what I gather, the bullets meaning isn't a peaceful one, but rather an omen that even when we feel safe with what we believe, something can always happen because we, as a people, can be unpredictable.

  

Edwards pieces are usually viewed in galleries or museums. But they're not placed in a boring room, the piece takes up the space usually, and creates it's own room in which to present its context. They are almost like mini stage pieces, parts of something you would see in a play on stage. Sometimes the have molded people, furniture, just about everything. Whichever way it's set up, each piece is set up to describe and show it's purpose for being there. 

I think the site that the work is set up in really has no meaning until that meaning is created through the artwork itself. The context for which the piece was set up to show, gives it all the meaning it needs. Yet the meaning of the actual piece is always debatable, and subjective to each viewer who happens to pass by. I personally needed some more information in order to figure out what was actually being represented.

Artist Spotlight: Louise Bourgeois

 Louise Bourgeois

Louise has an interesting style that very unique to her as an artist. Her work is something one can pick out from a gallery just by a mere glance if you've heard of her before. French-born-American, she moved to America later on to pursue a career in her artwork. Most of her works are meant to be "uncomfortable" to look at, but that's the raw reality that she's presenting. It's emotional and forces the viewer to take a step back, and think about feeling in a piece that's merely representational. 

Arch of Hysteria

Her work includes both painting and sculpture, and she often uses organic materials such as wood, marble, and also steel, bronze and plastic.

Some of her best known works include “Araña” (1994), (spider), a work inspired in the maternal figure. She has various spiders all over the world, the original made in steel and marble, and nine more in bronze.

"Seven in bed", above, used fabric, wood, stainless steel and glass as it mediums. 

Janus Fleuri, Bronze

I really enjoy all of her works, the one above, like many of her other works makes me feel uneasy. I think that's mostly because I'm not really sure what I'm looking at, but contextually I understand it's possibilities. That's one of the main reasons I enjoy her works so much.