Theories

Clement Greenberg "Modernist Painting".
- Moderism includes more than just art and literature. It includes what is truely alive in our culture.
- Western civilisation is not the first to turn around and question its own foundations, but its the civilisation that has gone the furthest in doing so.
- Modernism criticizes the procedures themselves of what is being criticized.
- At dfirst glance the arts might seem to have been in a situation like religions. All tasks they could take seriously , looked as though they were going to be assimilated.
-Limitations that constitute the medium of painting- flat surface, shape, properties of pigment
- Manet's paintings became the first modernist ones by virtue.
- The Impressionists abandoned underpainting and glazing
- Western painting, insofar as it strives for realistic illusion, owes an enormous dept to sculture
- The flatness towards which modernist painting orients itself can never be an utter flatness. The first mark made on a surface destroys its virtual flatness
- Without the past of art, and without the need and compulsion to maintain past standards of excellence, such a thing as moderist art would be impossible.

Abstract Expressionism is an emotional and expressive form of painting that started in the mid 1940’s in New York. This type of painting was a great way of expressing feelings and communicating these thoughts and emotions through a large canvas.

My favorite abstract expressionist artists are Jackson Pollock and Hans Hoffman. When looking at their work it seems thrown together and rushed yet it was planned out. Pollocks art is more expressive that consists of paint slattered on large canvases. He stood over his canvases while they lay on the floor and he also became apart of his work as he walked through and over his paintings. Having this much movemennt and freedom allowed him to create art with strong meaning Hoffmans is more colourful and full of shapes such as squares and circles. His art focused on these geometric forms and the volume in his painting.
The aim of this new form of expressive art was to seek answers to the existance of human life and express this through the emotional artworks during this period after the war.



I found this assignment one of the hardest and i had to read Greenbergs text many times before i could actually understand what he was saying. I also found the movie a little dull and wasnt very interesting and much preferred the text over the movie.

Feminism

I have never really looked at feminism this closely and in depth before and it never occurred to me as to how differently women were treated in the art industry. When studying art in high school I never realised that there was this sexist opinion as many amazing artists that I like are women and they have made a name for themselves. As a young woman have seen and felt the bias or prejudice of being a woman and felt angry that people still have that naive perception on the world. I hear jokes made by young men such as “why do men like small feet on women? So they can get closer to the stove” and I know some men are actually joking around and have respect while others actually believe that women should stay in the home, either way it’s still a touchy subject even in the 21st century.

Reading Griselda Pollock’s text I realised that extent of sexism that was occurring during the past hundreds of years and still occurs today but women of colour were treaded much more harshly then white women. Feminism didn’t just affect sexism but also touched on people of different cultures and race’s too. Even today everyone faces some sought of racism.

I truly thought as a society we had past the sexist side of things until I heard that even in Australia it still occurs with only a small percent of women in high paying jobs and women are still paid less then a male for the same job. I feel that as a society we still need to move forward and seek out equal rights for all people because as humans we are all the same and therefore should be treaded that way. I honestly believe and see everyone as equal even if the rest of society hasn’t quite come to terms with this belief.

AWM

Two significant examples of technological change photography.
The first significant example of technological change in photography that I noticed was the actual size of cameras.
The first camera obscura was extremely large and would not have been easy to manoeuvre around.












During the 1940s camera were still very large compared to how they are today. This camera would be easy to move around but not as convenient as the look heavy and were expensive to use as “flash bulbs cost 15 dollars a pop”.












By the 1980s cameras were much smaller and lightweight making it easy to move around with them.










These cameras are from 2009/10. They have gotten smaller over the years but that hasn’t effected the quality of their images.













The other technological change is the quality of images.
This first image was produced from a camera obscura. The quality is very bad as it is very grainy.









This second image is from the 1940s. The quality is poor as the pattern of the paper can be seen in the image when zoomed in and the image is grainy.











The third image is from the 1980s. The quality is quite good compared to the images above and colour is used but isn’t very bright.













The last image shows the amazing quality of digital photography.









http://io-noi-aldo.sonance.net/blogpix/camera-obscura.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/image/88832833/original.jpg
http://www.mrmartinweb.com/images/camera/medium/graflex4x5.jpg http://www.digitalreview.ca/pics/Nikon_2010/Coolpix_2010_Camera_Line.jpg
http://www.pl.euhou.net/docupload/files/Tools/webcam/New%20ideas%20how%20to%20use%20webcam%20in%20school/obscura.jpg
http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/meyer-sam-1940.jpg
http://ephemera.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341ca18953ef00e553e2b2318833-320wi
http://tomiellenberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bird-1024x685.jpg

NGA - Permanent Collection

While viewing the permanent collection at the National Gallery of Australia's I chose my most and least favourite artworks. Every time I visit the NGA there is a different artwork that appeals to me. The artwork that appealed to me the most this time was in the Abstract Expressionist Gallery. The artwork is called “Pre-Dawn” 1960, by Hans Hoffman. Usually I’m not really into the work by the abstract expressionist as I have always felt it was really rushed and slapped together, but it isn’t until that you see paintings in person that you are able to really appreciate them.
When I looked at this picture of “pre-dawn” I don’t enjoy it as much as I can’t see the detail of the work it just looks like coloured squares and circles but when seeing it in the gallery its so big with so much detail, texture and the colours are so bright and eye catching.


Pre-dawn 1960
oil on canvas
183.9 (h) x 152.8 (w) cm
signed and dated l.r., green oil "60/ hans hofmann"
Purchased 1976
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://nga.gov.au/international/Catalogue/Images/MED/102786.jpg&imgrefurl=http://nga.gov.au/international/Catalogue/Detail.cfm%3FViewID%3D1%26MnuID%3DSRCH%26GalID%3D1%26SubViewID%3D1%26BioArtistIRN%3D16603%26IRN%3D102786&usg=__HpNrAbsKZGC7VNbHnBkguiEso2k=&h=300&w=249&sz=40&hl=en&start=4&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=B6-i5esHV6kY5M:&tbnh=116&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpre%2Bdawn%2Bhans%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2GGIE_enAU364%26tbs%3Disch:1

National Photographic Portrait Prize

I couldn’t make it the National Photographic Portrait Prize on the day as I had to work so I went and looked at the online gallery and selected my favourite and least favourite image. My favourite image was called “Zareth” by Scott Bycroft. I love everything about this portrait and how Bycroft has capture the relaxed stance and natural gaze of the Zareth. Also the image was in black and white which is my favourite sought of portrait photography. The light is hitting his face and hair very softly and the background isn’t distracting so my gaze explores the body but i keep returning to the dark piercing eyes.





An image that I really dislike is “Sisters Baking” by Hamish Gregory. The way he has captured these women is extremely unflattering. There is too much going on in the picture with the dog legs, slippers, containers and paper and it just seems messy. I feel that the shadows are too dark and her foot of the girl with her leg up is cut off. To me the photograph just seems likes it’s been done by an amateur who hasn’t thought about the composition of the work.



http://www.portrait.gov.au/site/exhibition_subsite_NPPP2010_9.php

Week 1

Introduction to Art Theory and Modernism
What is theory and why is it important?
-the history of photography
-it leads to practical
-a tool to develop visual and contextual analysis
-tool for enquiry
-some theories used in humanities: semiotics, Marxism, queer theory, psychoanalysis, iconography, critical theory
-“the masters tools will never dismantle the masters house”. Audre Lorde. Sister outsider, 1984.
-we don’t know what’s culturally embedded until we are pulled out of it.

Positivism
-refuses to engage with interpretation
-“Only facts”- from science as source of knowledge
-Founder: Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
-highly descriptive of formal qualities
-human behaviours follow laws/science
-descriptive account of art
-cultural, social and political contexts- not fixed

Critical Theory-contextualise and interpret
-politics of reception, power and ideology
-Interdisciplinary, not fixed
-away of looking and interpreting
-what we define as art, or opinion, different perspectives
-Production process- photographs don’t speak for themselves

Introduction to modernism-what is it?
-differences between “modern”, “modernity” and “modernism”
-how did modernist differ from romantics
-formalist and positive approaches to art theory


How we talk about art- art history and art theory-theory as discourse
-not neutral
-not impartial
-not universal

Assignment 2- Masters of Paris

La Carmencita 1890
John Singer Sargent
Italy 1865-Great Britain 1925
oil on canvas, 232.0 x 142.0cm

On the 24 of February the students of c.i.t photography headed to the National Gallery of Australia to see the Marsters from Paris exhibition. As I couldn’t make it Brooke Fisher from class A lent me the Exhibition Book she purchased. While reading through the book I came across John Singer Sargent’s La Carmencita and couldn’t look away.
Sergeant portrays La Carmencita as a confident, poised woman. This is shown through the positioning of her stance and face as she is shown looking down on the viewer.
A lot of lighting on the figure and detailed dress and shadowing in the background makes it hard not to focus all your attention on her. It’s almost a representation of how the audiences of the time would have seen her, on stage as she was a dancer and singer.

Resources:
http://jssgallery.org/paintings/La_Carmencita.htm
Dixon, C. Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay.