Vija Celmins

The random picture of this particular tree reminds me of  one of Vija Celmins pieces of art due to the randomness and lack of a point of reference. It appears that this work of art was chosen at random and is unimportant. Her work demonstrates a realistic view of nature and is a close engagement with the natural environment. If this were to be Celmin's actual art piece though, the surfaces would be more abstract and the details of the tree would be much more pronounced.

Dave Hickey: The Invisible Dragon

Dave Hickey's work titled The Invisible Dragon has truly ignited a debate about beauty within art as he calls for all readers to reconsider beauty and to reconsider the nature of art itself. Hickey's purpose of his writing is to move people to see that beauty as a means and not an end is what makes art powerful, what makes it interesting. Hickey explains how many people, specifically in most traditional views, have believed that art should sell itself through beauty, for if it sells it is commodity, but if it sells something other than itself it is advertisement. He also shares that he has found that art dealers only care about "how it looks" while new instituationally employed art professionals "really care about what it means". I agree with Hickey that this is what is truly more important, not to mention what is becoming more and more preferred in contemporary art forms. People don't just want to look at something beautiful, but to look at something that may first be confusing or scary or abstract and be able to draw something out of it: a realization, an emotion, an idea. This is what makes art beautiful, the fact that it is so much more than an inatimate object, but something that can provoke a movement in each and every eye that does not just look at it, but truly sees it.

Dave Hickey

Hickey seems to differ from most art critics in that he says it is not important what the actual art is saying, yet why a work is efficacious in the first place is as important as whether or not it is satisfying, is what he seems to portray. His argument essentially is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I believe that it depends on the direct one on one relationship between the viewer and the art work as well. Hickey suggests that beauty allows us direct access to art without the public over seeing. It seems as though beauty ultimately comes down to the pleasure in which one has with that object when engaging with it.

Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons is an American artist known for his reproductions of objects in stainless steel with mirror finish looking surfaces, such as the balloon animal above. He recreates these different objects by making them more than ten feet tall and also transforms them out of metal which creates a shiny balloon like appearance. His new generation art work consists of transforming objects into flawless surfaces and he also focuses on the morality of what it means to be an artist. Although these images appear a bit childish, I think they are extremely appealing to the human eye and its almost as if the simplicity, shiny nature of the object makes it so appealing. They appear to me like actual balloons that would be found floating in a parade.

New Art Forms

After going over the timeline of art and learning the different art forms that derived from different decades, I thought of the recent popularity of food art, particularly in the form of cakes. Today, many television shows portray bakers who specialize in the art of making cakes. Two shows that come to mind are Amazing Cakes and Cake Boss. I think these shows are so much fun to watch because the creations are unbelievable.  The time and effort that goes into making each cake truly shows through in the final product. The bakers are extremely creative in their work, given that the materials they have to work with are limited as they must all be edible. It's hard to believe that they are really cakes because I could never imagine cutting them up and eating them!

Bruce Nauman

Bruce Naumans work is characterized by an interest in language, often appearing playful and can be somewhat of a nuisance. Nauman's neon word-art seemed art-less to him at first, but he began to examine the parameters of art and the role of the artist; which ultimately resulted in strong emotional and physical responses and beauteous objects. By working with neon and light, Nauman explores how perception is shaped, and how logic and meaning are conveyed. His signs are mostly likely to be filled with irony and humor; aggressively providing the environment with the signs messages.

Francisco Goya & Lucian Freud

The Nude Maja is known as the first totally profound nude life-size picture of a women in Western art. The Nude Maja was never identified, but is thought to be a lady in which Goya had an affair with. During Goya's lifetime the painting was never publicly displayed. It was owned by Manuel de Godoy, the prime minister of Spain.

Early in Lucian Freud's career he experimented with Surrealism. His early paintings usually consisted of relatively thin paint jobs and depicted people, animal, and plants in unusual juxtapositions; positions that contrast each other or oppose one another (like the painting above). 

Frida Kahlo

The tragic story of Frida Kahlo has inspired the central theme og pain and passion in many of her art forms. When first looked at, her art can seem strange and scary, while also quite grotesque and in some cases even repulsive. However, she is an extremely interesting artist as there is a story behind her work. Frida had some medical issues in her childhood including polio and spina bifida. The major tragedy of her life came from a bus accident where an iron handrail pierced Frida's abdomen and uteris. Because of this she was never able to have children, which she portrays in some peices of her artwork. The remainder of Frida's life after the accident was filled with pain and as she was often subject to her bed, she painted as an outlet from her emotions rather than in hopes of creating something beautiful for people to hang on their walls and enjoy.

Andy Warhol & celebrities

Andy Warhol was one of the most important artists in the Pop art movement in America. Warhol became as famous as many of the celebrities he portrayed in his popular screen prints. Warhol frequently used silk screening; his later drawings were traced from slide projections. At the height of his fame, Warhol had several assistants who produced his silk-screen multiples, following his directions to make different versions and variations. Warhol used the same techniques– silkscreens, reproduced serially, and often painted with bright colors – whether he painted celebrities, everyday objects, or images of suicide, car crashes, and disasters.

Animal Art

Damien Hirst portrays an interesting take on art as death is a central theme in most of his work. Some of his most famous pieces include "pickled" animals which entails these creatures being cut in half to reveal their inner and outer appearance. To many, this may seem more like a scientific experiment or a way of studying the anatomy of such animals, but to Hirst, this is art. Being that Hirst uses ordinary animals, his works can be easily replicated (as was his Tiger Shark exhibition in 2006). Despite replication, Hirst has been claimed to be the richest living artist to date.

Interpretation

The title of the work

The use of the word "Dada" for the art movement, the meaning and intention of both the piece and the signature "R. Mutt", are difficult to understand. It is not clear whether Duchamp had in mind the German "Armut" (meaning "poverty"). Later in his life Duchamp commented on the name of the alter ego he created for this work: 'Mutt' comes from Mott Works, the name of a large sanitary equipment manufacturer. But Mott was too close so he altered it to Mutt, after the daily cartoon strip Mutt and Jeff then just R. MUTT. If  you separate the capital and lowercase letters you get "R.M" and "utt", "R.M" would stand for "Readymade" which is the fountain itself and "utt" when read out loud sounds like "eut été" in French. Together it means "Readymade once was, 1917". Word games like this are common in Marcel Duchamp's work. 

In December 2004, Duchamp's Fountain was voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century by 500 selected British art world professionals and in a February 2008 article Duchamp was said to of invented conceptual art.

The Fountain

The Fountain which was created by Marcel Duchamp (disguising his identity as R. Mutt) in 1917, appears to have had a significant effect on other artists and art forms as Duchamp takes an ordinary object of day to day life and labels it as art. Many people hold different thoughts and theories about what his piece portrays (some claiming it to resemble a veiled Virgin Mary in a praying position) while others believe it is what it is. Marcel Duchamp’s fountain was recreated by Sherrie Levine in 1991 with a gold finish:

It is possible that it was the work of Duchamp that has inspired contemporary design in restroom facilities such as this one in Chongquing, China: