Road Trip*

So, who's ready for finals?

Who's already anticipating a break from finals? Now we're talking! On Sunday, Dec. 12, GCVA will be hosting a trip to Cincinnati. We're going to make a day of it, see some great art and have some fun rounding out what has been a long (although fruitful) semester. Plans include:

• A visit to the Taft Museum, which will be hosting an exhibit of Goya's Los Caprichos prints (good stuff).
• A visit to the Contemporary Art Center to see the exhibit of contemporary art entitled Where Do We Go From Here? Selections from the Jumex Collection. I have already blogged about my excitement about this exhibit here.
• A trip to Jungle Jim's International Market and/or IKEA.

We're meeting at the department next Sunday at 9:30 am. We'll cover transportation; just bring some money for food and/or shopping. Bring your notes or flashcards to study on the ride if you need to, but don't miss out on this event.

If you'd like to attend, we'll need to know a head-count beforehand so that we can plan for it (and so that I can get certified to drive the GC van if I need to). Either comment here with your name or email me at jratlif0@georgetowncollege.edu by Monday, Dec. 6 to let me know if you are interested in coming. Spread the word to SODAH members.

*"Road trip" just sounds better than "field trip."

Exhibition Call for Entries: LVAA

LVAA's Regional Exhibition

Not famed (yet) as the Parisian Salon -- your participation just may do it -- the LVAA's Regional is the survey we should embrace and hope it to grow. It is a warm and wonderful event for the chill of February!

http://www.louisvillevisualart.org/2011regional.html

Another "Sensation"?

A few weeks ago, art gal posted a link about an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. entitled “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” This exhibit, which opened just last month, is the first of its kind to focus specifically on the representation of gay and lesbian identity and its impact on the arts in American history and culture. This week, the exhibit has come under fire by a couple of a top-ranking state Representatives (John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Eric Cantor (R-Va.)) as well as members of the public who are calling for the cancellation of the exhibition altogether.

As a result, the NPG has pulled from the exhibit a four-minute edited version of a video by artist David Wojnarowicz (A Fire in my Belly, 1987) which shows, among other things, a small crucifix with ants crawling on it as well as a nude male body. Contemporary art is certainly no stranger to this kind of controversy. This latest exhibit is only the most recent example of a long line of debates concerning the public display (and public funding) of works of art that provoke, offend, and otherwise disturb the aesthetic (or even "moral") sensibilities of segments of the population. The previous 25 years provide us with a litany of now-iconic artworks and their resulting controversies: Dred Scott's What is the Proper Way to Display the American Flag? and its contested display at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago; Robert Mapplethorpe's X Portfolio, which led to the arrest of Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center's director in 1990 on charges of obscenity and the Corcoran (also in D.C.) Gallery's decision to cancel its scheduled exhibit; Andres Serrano's Piss Christ and the debate over NEA artist funding; and the 1999 controversy over Sensation, which led to the temporary suspension of state funding to the Brooklyn Museum.

Controversies like these re-ignite ongoing debates about the role and/or responsibility of art and artists in society, the role of the state in supporting contemporary art, and the boundaries of social, aesthetic, and ethical propriety. What about the role and/or responsibility of the art museum as a public institution? As members of an art community, what are your thoughts on the subject? How do you respond to provocative, or even offensive, works of art? How do we reconcile and respond to accusations of "shock" that often reduce these works of art to meaningless "garbage"? How can we, as a society, still find meaning and value in works of art that are difficult to digest?

Here are a couple of links, one to an article about the current controversy and the other is to an op-ed peiece in the Washington Times. I'd love to hear others, especially students, weigh in on this topic.

Exhibition Call for Entries: Love and Things Like Love

LAL is accepting entries for Love and Things Like Love. Please see the attached flyer and visit

http://www.lexingtonartleague.org/calltoartist.htm#Love

Van Gogh Museum

While on route to Mexico, I had the opportunity to make a 6-hour layover/pit stop in Amsterdam. Because of the time constraint I had to make the tough decision between visiting the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. I final decided upon The Van Gogh museum. I may have missed out on seeing the work of Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn however I was able to gain a unique understanding and appreciation for the oeuvre de Van Gogh. The Museum showed the progression of Van Gogh as an artist from his naturalistic Sketches, to his First

attempt at a master piece, The Potato Eaters, and from his works inspired by Japanese art to his paintings done in the latter years of his life at St. Remy where he was hospitalized due to mental instability. It is always a different experience to stand in front of a piece of artwork that one has only seen through reproduction. What is more, taking the time to stand in front of works of art and copy the work of masters, learning from their use of color and shadows sheds life upon the hidden world of the artists. Two paintings that I particularly enjoyed were The Sower (1888) and The Boulevard de Clichy (1887).

The striking use of contrasting colors in the work of Van Gogh makes me think of his letter he writes from Arles where he talks about how he is not concerned about accurately portraying the color he sees in nature and is more concerned with making his pallet replicate the beauty he sees in nature. The vibrant yellow of the hay and the deep rich violets of the sower and the tree certainly communicate beauty.

The Boulevard de Clichy was painted after the beginning of the impressionism movement when Van Gogh stopped criticizing the movement and started eperimenting with the techniques of the impressionist. In this painting Van Gogh places strong colors close to each other in opposition modeled after technique of pointillism.

One thing that I did not realize about Van Gogh, prior to my visit, was the amount of writing that he did in his lifetime. He wrote over 800 letters, about life, art and society. It is humbling to see the great amount of passion Artists such as Van Gogh had in their pursuits of discovering life through his work. He saw beauty in the mundane things of life, observing the world around him through painting up until his death in 1870.

Three Opportunities This Friday

Robert C. May Photo Lecture @ UK,

Open Studio @ UK,

Open Mic, Open Walls @ the 930 Art Center, Louisville

The second Robert C. May Photo Lecture of the semester is this Friday in the UK Student Center, Worsham Theatre at 4 PM. Kael Alford will be speaking and showing her work as a photojournalist and war photographer. Her work will also be on display in UK's Art Museum from November 20, 2010-January 16, 2011.

Each year on the first Friday of December, the UK Fine Arts Department opens their doors to the public. It's a good chance to see what fellow students in the arts are up at a nearby university, meet and greet, and enjoy some food and music. Open studio is from 6-10 PM in the Reynolds Building, located at 349 Scott St (right off S. Broadway).

If you might be in Louisville and would like to show some of your work, the 930 Art Center is holding an "Open Mic, Open Walls" event. The 930 is a great space for art, music, writing, and even worship.

Here's a quote:

"The 930 is pleased to present an evening of creative sharing. In hopes to further our mission to encourage meaningful and beautiful art, music, and community we’re launching our first “Open Mic, Open Walls” event.

Many talented and creative people shy away from bringing their efforts out into the public realm. For fear of failure, or for lack of opportunity, much creative work gets left unheard and unseen. Open Mic, Open Walls hopes to create an atmosphere of encouragement to bring new art and music to the public surface.

This is an event for newbies, amateurs, and bigshots alike."

So I hope this Friday you find yourself involved in the arts. I plan to be.

Show More

More photos from Show It:

SHOW IT!

Thanks for all the people that helped the SHOW IT exhibition happen.  It looks great and the juror had a great time with all of the students she interacted with. She was impressed with our program and the work coming out of it.

 Here are a couple of shots from the opening, for those that couldn't make it.

Helen Levitt

Levitt did the bulk of her work from the late 1930's up to the 1990's. She shot mostly street life in New York City.

Starting out with photography she worked for a commercial photographer, but was inspired to do her own work when she bought her leica camera and began to shoot children and their chalk drawings that had become a part of the street culture in New York City.

The photos were published under the title "In the Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages, New York City 1938-1948"

Here is an example of that work. You can see more here

From what I have read about Levitt was that she just shot people going about their everyday life. When she started working in color a large amount of her work was stolen from her apartment in 1970.

After the robbery Levitt started over again and worked through the 70's on new pieces. Forty of the images from this body of work were shown in a slide show at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1974. This was a huge deal since it would have been one of the fist times photographs would have been shown that way in a museum, and it was one of the first exhibitions of color photography anywhere.

I really love photography that seems to have a sense of reality to it, photographs that capture more than just someone with a fake smile or a pretty face; photographs that capture something more that what is just in front of the lens, photographs that make some sort of commentary about the time, the culture or the place.

Here is an example of her color photography work. You can see more here.

Some information was taken from : lensculture.com

and... cameranaked.com