I would like to start off by saying I’m quite excited for this class. Hearing about many different art styles and learning about different artists is interesting for me. The reading for this week was about all different art styles. I felt this was appropriate for the first week since we theoretically don’t know much about art (or at least I don’t). The reading was an excerpt from the book “Art Theory for Beginners.” I thought it was interesting reading about all the different kinds of art. However, it was difficult to imagine what the reading was talking about. It would mention a lot of different artists and works that they did, but I couldn’t really imagine what it was talking about since it didn’t show the art that was being referenced. I would have much preferred having the cartoon drawings replaced with the artwork being referenced. I did enjoy learning about Duchamp’s readymade collection. I knew about Fountain, but I didn’t know there was a whole collection. I also thought it was funny that he was a judge in the contest that he entered Fountain in.
At one point during “Art Theory for Beginners,” the “museum without walls” is discussed. The idea, presented by Andre Malraux, was that museums affected the way that people saw art and through recreation and circulation of prints a sort of museum without walls was created. I’m not quite sure if I’m taking this in the way it should be taken, but what I got from it was that some art is not meant to be viewed in a museum. For instance, viewing Banksy’s street art in a museum would not be nearly as moving as seeing it on a building.
This idea ties in with the view of artist Margaret Kilgallen. In one of her interviews she talks about shop signs and how she prefers to see handmade signs rather than neon signs. Seeing a street sign in a museum would totally change the perspective on how it was viewed. In a museum, it would be seen purely as a work of art and everyone viewing it would know that’s what its purpose was. On the street, the sign is only seen as art for those looking for it, which makes it special and more appreciated for those who see it.
Kilgallen also talks about how she prefers handmade signs because of the personality it has. She says you can see the artist’s hand in their work. She also likes the imperfection of handmade work. No matter how hard someone tries to make handmade work perfect, there will always be something askew with it, which shows its beauty. This is why all her work is handmade. All her work has imperfections and her hand is shown in every piece.
Our guest speaker this week, Laura Vandenburgh, talked about drawing. She talked about how each artist has their own specific signature shown within their artwork, which ties back into what Kilgallen said. Laura discussed how drawing doesn’t necessarily have to be done with paper and pencil. She showed one artist who uses wires as a sort of art. You could walk around this kind of art and see it in so many different ways. You can’t do this with something drawn on paper. I would have never thought that this could be considered drawing. One of my favorite pieces was by Tim Noble and Sue Webster. They created a shadow of two people sitting back to back by shining a light on piled up garbage. I would have never thought of something like this. It is incredible that people can do things like this, create art out of garbage and shadows. Another piece that I liked was the walls that were covered in ballpoint pen drawings. I was in awe seeing this because I can appreciate the time that was put into covering walls with a tiny pen.
When Laura was talking about each artist showing their signature in their work, I thought of my friend Anthony. Sometimes, in his spare time, he likes to draw and I can definitely see his signature in each of the drawings he has done. So for this week’s visual response, I’m posting one of his drawings.
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