Thursday, December 2, 2010
Reminder: Art For Lunch today
Join us at noon for pizza and discussion of art and music, led by Shawn McPeek. Meet in the lab at noon!
Critical Issues: Taste Classifies...(part two)
A few weeks ago I made a post that linked Pierre Bourdieu and the permanent collection at Harvard through a discussion of changing the face of the collection by adding portraits to show the complexion of the college community. I posed questions to the blog followers asking who you would like to serve as a representation of our institution and, further, asking what ways do you think that the art on the walls (however narrowly or broadly defined) classifies the institution.
This week, I've been asking students a different kind of question: If the college were to do something together -- as a community -- such as reading a book, what book would you select? Your choice could come from poetry or prose, fiction or non. Might you choose epic? tragedy or comedy for you Shakespeareans among us? novel, short story, or creative non-fiction? Would you select fiction, biography, spiritual, historical?
The choice should not be full of jargon or purely discipline specific and appeal to the widest possible audience -- students, staff, and faculty. Here are some of the responses that students have given (and I've provided links from amazon.com for editions that I've selected for demonstration purposes only):
Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist
Vandana Shiva's Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit
Bill McKibben's Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot
Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
John Gardner's Grendel
What book would you choose? And why? Please post here and let's discuss.
Photo pulled from Black Swan Books. If you've not been, you don't know what you're missing!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
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:
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."
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.
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!
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.
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.
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