Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Take Home Final Writing Assignment


I want to mention a variety of artists in this paper. Many of these artists are mentioned in “digital currents: art in the electronic age” and some are not mentioned in this book but are relative to specific movements in art history. Many of these artists have helped develop the type of cultures we find in society today. For example Keith Haring who was a type of graffiti artist that placed many of his work in New York subways with gestural images. Haring’s cartoon like style that represented some kind of political or current event. Haring used a number of different mediums from chalk, to acrylic. Haring’s Urban style can still be seen in many images in advertisements and on the internet. The Television is such a complex device and to alter its functionality is not the easiest of tasks. Of course you can take a magnet and alter the displayed images on the screen but to have simultaneous currents running through a certain amount of televisions in sync with one another takes a lot of time and alteration. Nam June Paik is the Godfather of video art. The ability to build sculptures out of television can take a lot of time and patience, but for this neo-Dadaist has taken it on full-time. These fathers of art are examples of hard work and success in the art world. Other Artists including Rauschenberg have put in so much work into media art. Robert Rauschenberg’s Bed in 1955 is one of his combined pieces of work exploring the realm of art at a different level. This piece shows a personal level for Rauschenberg with the type of materials he used. Real clothe materials such as a pillow, blanket and sheet give dimension to the piece. This piece is relative to the common materials we use daily. Many Americans that sleep on beds relate. The expression through the strokes of oil paint, pencil, and toothpaste give a dreamy like feature where one can lay and dream radical events using imagination. The use of modern materials and putting them together depicts the era of when this art reformist evolved. It is said; he also used finger nail polish symbolizing sexual activity Bed represents. There are many functions to a bed, even though this piece is not functional. A bed can be symbolic to comfort and security but the way Rauschenberg has reconstructed this piece, it can take away those feelings. Rauschenberg has taken it out of context and made it his own.


Such as Rauschenberg related Neo-Dadaist, Jasper Johns helps usher in the scene of American Pop Art with his series of flags. Three flags, 1958 bring different levels of imagery. This piece is relative to the freedom of speech and patriotism of America. It shows three different levels, one on top of the other, varying in size. This, to me, can be symbolic to the level of freedom that America has today, large is high-class (more freedom), small is lower-class (less freedom).. John’s creative use of a “prefabricated image” tells worth of the American flag which is a post war popular image and all Americans are familiar with it. This could bring favor of other American artists attracting attention. This piece has a representation of political power that the government has and the power this country has over others. New York City being the popular place for art, won the “war” of art over Paris.
The influence of John Cage’s 4’33’’ piece has combined the element of sound with art. It has changed the normality of music, art, composition in various ways. Cage has literally taken sound to a relevant level of understanding. This is musical expressionism that has visual commodities, use of modern materials and it isolates sound. Cage discovers a different way to listen to your surroundings. This piece has taken treated silence as a non-existing thing. It is a type of phenomenon or breakthrough. I think Cage proves that as long as we are living sound can never stop, or does it ever? 4’33’’ in progress can be controversial to full-length music composers. Those who are unfamiliar with the tonality and reason probably would be baffled and not understand the meaning. “If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four, if it’s still boring, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all”.-John Cage.
European artists were in an era of personal expression and shaping different experimental movements. In the 1950s modernists were using various objects and combinations of painting and sculpture. The inspired movements from Futurism, Surrealism, Dada, post-impressionism, cubism and expressionism evolved into different types of art. The alterations of these movements developed other inspired one from artists who were already familiar with the previous. Fluxus was introduced as another way to blend different types of media or intermedia art. Artists like John Cage (U.S.). Marcel Duchamp (France), George Maciunas (Lithuania/U.S.) and Allan Kaprow (U.S.) have ushered in the movement of fluxus to where it is today. John Cage’s experimental music in 4’33’’ has gained popularity among upcoming artists. “The Happenings” revealed a new type of self-artistic influence. It encouraged artists to be self-reliant and simple in their performances. Fluxus helped form attitudes to style. It took others outside of their norm and opened up a view of art from other perspectives. The Fluxus era brought the mixture of abstract theatre or expressionism in visual arts and manipulation of sound in music. Nam June Paik (Korea) famous for Television as a media is a great example of taking a mass produced object and twisting and rearranging its use as normality. Paik’s concert performances were different from what would be heard in a Phil harmonics orchestra but it brought deep thought to the ways we can use objects to create sound and also its visual forms.

The Nouveau Realisme movement introduced in 1960 brought together the reality of life and art. Yves Klein (France) was the famous for his monochromes and the way he brought art to real life. Klein developed work as Anthropometrie del’epoque bleue as a live performance using human beings (women) as his brush to perfect the precise stokes that were needed for his piece. This movement brought the light to “New Realism” or “Today’s Realism” as Klein called it. The artists in this era came together opposite of their style. The postmodern war movement of political assemblage of imagery was to display the happenings of today incorporating as the work. The decollaging of commercial objects and images were produced to be presented and to stay anonymous of it. The reasoning could be that the artists did not want their works to be noticed apart from the others. They wanted to make a point of bringing curiosity to Paris and other who analyze their works. If it be other deep reasoning is beyond my understanding but it made a mark on the history of art.
For artists like John Cage, Yves Klein, and Allan Kaprow they inspired the art world in all aspects. Europe, America and other countries have been inspired by these artists. The artists have taken others out of the realm of existence to other levels. They have taken the meaning of life and made it their own through their produced works. The flow of their production has opened a world of possibility and action. The Relative movements have opened so many possibilities to the digital movement that is a rapid and growing technology. Technology continues to play a vital and important role in the art world. Since learning more and more about the history of art it helps young artists like me appreciate the new movements especially in society as a mass culture. Art today I feel is more appreciated and accepted with public art particularly having more recognition. Graffiti to projected imagery to online control over these projected projects and even propaganda. Artist’s like Krzysztof Wodiczko, with “Projection on the Hirshhorn Museum” is an example of public art. Art in the 21st century continues to develop as there continues to be more possibilities.

Electronics are rapidly changing making the convenient possibilities more accessible. When cell phones first came out they were a huge success now everyone is carrying a laptop or easily has access to the internet through their iPod cell phones etc. Online resources continue to develop opportunities for others to interact with one another through networking. Creating web based exhibitions, online video Montage like ‘Man with a Video Camera’.(http://dziga.perrybard.net/)As the electronic age rapidly grows it leaves a curious feeling of what level comes next? Or how can we grow from here? The more education is offered to explore the possibilities of saving resource and production everything will become so accessible it is unsure whether it will cause harm or help aide our sources of living in the future. I hope that technology will only go so far as to artists should know when to stop and not demoralize human nature and to don’t over altar the natural creations that have been given to us.

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