Curran, Caschera, Mauro Art Blog

Enter the dragon by Giuseppe Caschera

2010-05-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

This article is about the definition of beauty. A quote from the text that really explains the main thesis is, "beauty is always strange". I believe this relates to the saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What one person considers beauty another may see it has the total opposite. The author tries to explain that beauty is familiarity, something that one can relate to. People usually relate beauty to something exciting and happy.

Artists Thinking Outside the Box by James Curran

2010-05-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

After seeing the many different ways that artists express themselves this semester I now realize that art is a much broader word then simply painting and sculpting. Installation Art is something that I would have never thought fell under the auspice of art. One of the most recognizable installation artists is Judy Pfaff. In her most recent exhibit Pfaff created a piece of art from tree roots. She created meaniing with the roots by painting them in neutral colors, mostly black and white. The finished product was a sight to be seen. Painting them in these colors really helped to highlight the many intricate details of the tree roots.

My Favortie Peice of Art From This Semester by James Curran

2010-05-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

Over the course of this semester we viewed many different pieces of art by a lot of unique artists. Many of these artists were eccentric and produced art that I typically would overlook. My favorite piece was "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" by Damien Hirst. Although I only like selected works from his collection, this one is my overall favorite. This piece features a Tiger Shark preserved in formaldehyde in a vitrine. It is currently located in Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This is my favorite artwork because I have never seen anything like it before. The shark gives the impression that it is living and is even a little threatening. If I was ever to see this in real life I would probably be a little intimidated by the massive size of this animal.

Truth of Contemporary Art by Giuseppe Caschera

2010-05-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

Peter Plagens talks about how contemporary art is not mainstream. Meaning that modern art works have not attracted the amount of attention that art gained in earlier history. Contemporary is mostly stationary objects which does not attract a lot of attention that videos and live performances attract. Unlike movies that are readily available, contemporary art in its original state are not offered as much. If someone wanted to see the original art work they would have to go to the exhibit and and get the effect that the artist intended the viewer to get. Contemporary art is not itended for large audiences, since artists are not making art to show for large audiences. Artists infact want one person to come and see their work and then pay a lot of money to own it.

Susan Sontag by Giuseppe Caschera

2010-05-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

I was very enlightened after reading Susan Sontags explanation on interpreting art. It is clear that sontags does not approve of breaking down pieces of art into components and trying to examine its meaning by breaking it apart, She describes this has being stifling just like fumes from an automobile. She describes this method of interpreting art as impoverishing or to deplete the world in order to set up a shadow world of “meanings.” I believe what Sontag is trying to say is that what we interpret a piece of art to be is not the true mealing, in fact art is not intended to be interpreted. Art is intened to portray the relaity in which the artists see the world and nothing more. She claims that in order for art to avoid interpretation, art may become parody. Or it may become abstract. Or it may become (“merely”) decorative. Or it may become non-art. Over all she is opposed to interpreting art.

The Tang Museum Exhibit BY Giuseppe Caschera

2010-05-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

The Tang Museum exhibit of the Opener Series, was my first art exhibit experience. There were thirteen watercolor paintings along with the most fascinating piece of installation art called the "La Montana Ruso". La Montana Ruso means the Russian Mountain. The art was created by two Cuban men named Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodriguez, who are also known as the Los Carpinteros, which translates to the English meaning, The Carpenters. La Montana Ruso is basically a very long bed with a red mattress that curves up and down as if it were an actual roller coaster. It was very eye catching, although i did not know what to make of it. It at first made me think of my experiences with riding roller coasters and going to theme parks. Another piece of art that i was particularly fascinated with was the basketball hoop painting. I'm not sure the actual name of the painting although it seemed as if the basketball hoop was bouncing up and down like an actual basketball. The paintings for the most part were fairly large which makes it easier in my opinion to get a better grasp of what the artist is trying to portray. Overall the exhibit was very interesting, and a wonderful experience.

For the Love of Art or Money by James Curran

2010-05-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

There is a serious divide within the art community. Artists such as Damien Hirst are highly recognizable and very successful financially. While there are artists like Hirst whose work is highly valued, there is a good sized portion of the art population who are happy simply making art. Not all artists are in this game for the money. Some of them actually really enjoy creating pieces of art. Now I am not saying that Hirst does not enjoy his art, rather I am pointing out that some artists are content with simply being artists. Which artists are more respectable that is a question of personal opinion. Personally I prefer artists who are not as mainstream or as high priced as Hirst. Artists who continue to work even though they are not becoming self made millionaires, in my opinion, are more dedicated and more genuine.

The Tang at Museum by James Curran

2010-05-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

Opener 19 by Los Carpinteros is the newest exhibit at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College. It features the work of two artists Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes and Dagoberto Rodriguez Sanchez. Their work takes every day objects that are common in Cuban life and repositioning them. The men live on a commune with other artists who have similar artistic styles. My two favorite pieces at the exhibit were "La Montana Rusa" and "Jardin Frances". Both of these featured beds but in unusual ways. The first piece has beds arranged into a roller coater like structure. This made me think of the wild rides that my dreams sometimes take me on. The second painting has the beds arranged to look like a garden. This made me think of how peaceful both my bedroom is for me and how serene gardens can be. Before this I had never been to an art exhibit before and I thought this was a great experience. I enjoyed this smaller museum enough that I would even give larger museums a chance.

Collecting Things by James Curran

2010-05-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

When I was younger I was quite the hoarder. I had many collections and they varied greatly. I had collections of legos, power rangers, magic cards, and pogs. One collection that I still have to this day is my massive amount of baseball cards. Collecting baseball cards has been something of a tradition in my family. At my grandmother's house she still has all of my father's and uncle's collections of these cards and currently my mother has my collection at our house. In my youth I was so enamored with these cards that I organized by team and kept them in binders to properly display them. It shows how old I am nowadays because some of the teams that I have cards of are no longer teams anymore.

Doris Salcedo's "Kraken" by Giuseppe Cschera

2010-04-26T20:41:00.001-07:00

The Kraken is it a mythological beast from deep under water or an art exhibit at Turbine Hall. Doris Salcedo is well known for her Crack in the floor at the Turbine Hall. Its quite literally a crack in the floor, which directs everyones attention from the massive space of the Hall to the concrete floor. It symbolizes the danger of crossing borders of ideals especially on racism. It is the epicenter of catastrophe, and the aftermath of hatred. The crack will eventually be sealed but it will always remain in the floor, just like an ugly scar that will never go away.Her work encourages us to confront uncomfortable truths about our history and about ourselves.

Vic Muniz By Giuseppe Caschera

2010-04-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

Vik Muniz began his career as a sculptor in the late 1980’s after relocating from Brasil to Chicago and later to New York. His early work often involved visual puns and jokes. His most famous work from this period is his Clown Skull, a human skull that has an attached round nose like feature similar to real clowns. he also created replicas of leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa out of Jelly and peanut butter. He creates a lot of art from different materials that you would not normally think of using. Materials such as Sugar were used to create pictures of children. Everyone is used to the fact that many artists use paint and a brush to create masterpieces however Vc Muniz as broaden the usage of many unusual types of materials.

Collection as an Art by Giuseppe Caschera

2010-04-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

I have had few collections throughout my life however there is one that i still have today. I currently have a collections of many rare coins from all around the world. I started this collection purely because of the monetary value that i could gain from collecting rare coins. Although to day i am more interested in the history that they carry especially commemorative coins minted in memory of significant historical events, such as wars, and accomplishments of leaders. There is also something that is instilled in us at a young age to hold money in high regard because it brings us so many things, this another reason why i started my collection for its monetary value. I believe this is very similar to why people collect all forms of art, simply for its its uniqueness, originality and of course monetary value

Should the Artist Be Praised or Committed? By James Curran

2010-04-26T16:19:00.001-07:00

In today's world art is a very vague term. Art is still used to describe timeless classics such as "The Mona Lisa" and "The Scream". Art is so broad of a term that Marcus Coates even falls under it's jursidiction. Coates is known for his self proclaimed ability to talk to animals. There are some people who are dying to be his curator and others who want to be his psychiatrist. How this insane behavior can be considered art is betond me. The overwhelming majority of people who communicate with animals are considered crazy. So far this semester I have been pretty accepting of what can be considered art, but at this point I have to draw the line. I cannot call Marcus Caotes an artist, nor do I view anything he does as art. Personally I believe he should be looked at by a doctor.

Eccentric Artists by James Curran

2010-04-26T16:01:00.001-07:00

Many people believe that the best artists are not exactly all there upstairs. During the course of the semester we have seen some really bizarre artists with exetreme lifestyles. The strange behavior of these artists varied greatly. We saw artists whose vision was to have people watch them live, another artist filmed himself doing things such as digging postholes, and perhaps the wierdest was an artist who wore animal skins. One question I had was does these artists strange behavior make them more popular? Humans are naturally drawn to things that are strange and foreign to us. Are these artists truly like this or do they behave in an odd manner to draw attention to themselves. Personally I beleive that these artists are not putting on a show. They would most likely act the same way they do now in any situation. The unique personalities that accompany these artists definitely draws additional attention to them, but this is no more then a positive side effect to how the artists choose to behave. It is not an act, rather a life choice.

Marcus Coates by Louis Mauro

2010-04-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

Marcus Coates is a strange man. He dresses up in animal pelts and makes animal noises, this is how his art is done. He wears animals pelts on his head and body to further connect with animals. He has a hat made out of a skunk, he wears this and pretends he is a skunk. He also has a full body deer suit that ties to his wrists and a hood for his head. This is cool looking suit, however this guy goes a little too far with it. He also has conversations with animals, or at least tries to as he calls out to animals in noises I have never heard before. Sometimes the animals don't talk back or do what he says, but it's okay he just waits until another animal comes around. Nowadays this is considered art.

Collectors items by Louis Mauro

2010-04-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

When I was young I used to collect a of different things. Some things were started by me, others were handed down to me. For example my grandfather used to collect baseball cards and he passed on his collection to me. I never really got into baseball cards but I did like to collect stuff as a kid and still do today. Marbles, pokemon cards, and pogs were just a few things that I used to collect as a child. I still have my pogs and marbles from when I was young, my pokemon cards I gave away once I had completed my collection. Even now as a young adult I still collect things. I now collect match book from different restaurants, bars, and hotels basically anywhere that has a custom match book. I as am collecting pop tabs. One thing I find interesting is that people collect for different reasons. Some collect to get all the corresponding pieces to a complete collection. Others collect things that would make it impossible to complete a collection. Others collect for monetary gains. Other collect for the simple fact that they cannot get rid of things now matter how useless. Whatever the reason collecting is fun and everyone on the earth does.

David Hicky By Giuseppe Caschera

2010-03-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

Value vs true value is the topic of discussion in this audio recording by David Hicky. Hicky claims that artists take pride in their work and this pride will be a major factor of the intrinsic value of the art work. However when someone just creates a price of how much a piece of art is worth just to make money, it creates an unjust value that is far from the true value of the art. There are a lot of artists that love money more than they love art. What he's pointing out is that there has never been a better time to act honestly and become an icon of virtue and if you do, you will indeed stand out. In todays art world, prices are created with the intent to make a large sum of money, and what Hicky points out is that this was not always the case. Originally art was valued by the creativity, and originality. Today that sense of value is clouded by a motivation to get rich.

Custodians of Culture by Louis Mauro

2010-03-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

Dave Hickey first starts out saying there is a change in the art culture with is apt to be compared with Dr. J who would call fouls on himself and always played by the rules. In the art world whatever "rules" there were, they are no longer around. In the world there are people that like art more than money. In this same world we have artists that like money more than they like art. The art world is not for money, famous artists did not make a lot of money. They did it the passion of art. Artists now are selling their pieces for a ridiculous amount of money. It is from creating fake value. Art dealers pride themselves on their ability to assess value, not create it. Nowadays pieces of art are more like the fashion industry, as the customer is paying for a brand name. Damion Hurst is one of the most over paid artist. This is because he is a big name. Just like the fashion world art is being bought based on the name not the quality of the art work. Unfortunately the room was very hot, and the audience members did not have any questions as it was too hot in the room.

Do prices determine good art? by James Curran

2010-03-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

Dave Hickey points out that there are some people who love art more then money, he goes on to say that there are also some artists who love money more then art. There is a recent phenomenom that modern art is selling for insanely high prices. This trend has started to influence how people view art. Outsiders loking into the art world assume that because it is expensive it is the pinnacle of art. Artists such as Damien Hirst and Giacometti recently each sold a peice of art for over 100 million pounds. Prices such as these have set the bar for what other peices by these artists have been established as. Following this line of thinking collectors are now paying for the name rather then the art itself. This trend can be easily be compared fashion. Today most people pay more money based on a name brand then on the quality of clothing. The art world is on a slippery slope and it will take a lot for this period to change. Change of this magnitude will require art collectors to stop paying such absurd prices for art. After this is accomplished people will be able to go back to appreciating art for art, not for how much money someone paid for it.

Art in the Courtroom By Louis Mauro

2010-03-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

Artists can be sued for many things. In class we learned about how artists can be sued when they use other artists work to make their own. It is a lot like making a remix of a song on your computer. It is easy to do but it is illegal. There are also a few other things that artists cannot do without risk of going to court. First off is the The Right Of Publicity. This applies to many celebrities as their image and name was commercial value to them. The second one is Appropriation Invasion of Privacy, which is the same as the first except for the normal (non-celebrity) person. Intrusion Invasion of Privacy is the third one where people are have an expectation of privacy such as their home and an artist disrupts that privacy. Fourthly we have Defamation and False Light Invasion of Privacy is where you either make a false statement about a person or you do something that damages the person's reputation. Lastly we have Disclosure Invasion of Privacy, which is where you do something to defamation someone but it turns out to be true and embarrassing to a reasonable person. Artist need to be aware of the laws because one false move could land them in court.

Logorama by James Curran

2010-03-21T17:38:00.000-07:00

"Logorama" by Francois Alaux, Herve de Cercy, and Ludovic Houplain features a world created solely of business logos. The short film follows characters such as the michilen man, Mr clean and the AOL icon around the city. The film is very unique and also very funny. Its fun to follow the film to see the many different logos that are put in. Down to every minor detail logos are used to replace everyday items. Possibly the funniest characters are the two michilen men who are cops tracking down a criminal at large, Ronald MacDonald. After initially watching the film I went back and watched it again to see all of the logos that I missed the first time around. "Logorama" is a thoroughly entertaining peice of art that I would highly reccommend.

Jackson Pollack by Giuseppe Caschera

2010-03-04T19:04:00.001-08:00

My first impression is that these paintings from artist Jackson Pollack, are very unique. What I mean by unique is that there are no shapes, faces, or objects that attract a viewers attention striaght of the bat, thatmost painting I see have. The whole canvas is filled with excitement, with no space left untouched. I will be honest and say that there is no unique skill that needs to be learned or onbtained to create such a piece of art. All these paintings consist of are splatterings of paint in no pattern or consistency. Any one could create one of these painting and and pass it of as an original Pollack painting. At first glance these paintings seem to be the result of whats happenes when a four year old comes into contactt with paint, a complete mess. It does not seem that there is any talent or skill involved when creating them, Though I will admit these paintings are very intriquing to the eye.

Although, as I did a little of reasearch on the famous artist behind these paintings, I began to appreciate them more. Jackson Pollack was knowed to have a serious drinkiing problem that cuased permanent brain damage. It seems to me that he was a very troubled human being. There many shots of Pollack standing over the canvas that he laid over the floor, and looking at his body languange you can understand the work invlovle in producing these abstract paintings. These painting are very original since pollack intriduced his “drip” technique

After looking at the paintings again, my interpretation became a little more clear. It was a portrait of Pollacks caiotic emootions. There is so much going on within the painting that the I could not focus one part of the painting. My eyes were constantly moving, eager to see the next angle. The painting is not trying to depict a scene, yet an intense emotional feeling in which Pollack had no other way of expressing it. It is also said that he painted while being drunk, which he was most of the time. Perhaps he felt that the world around him was too caiotic to handle sober, so he drank. I believe in order to understand his paintings you must first understand the artist and how they view reality. For me when I look at the paintings it makes me wonder what emotions drove someone to create such an original piece of art.

The paintings are very fascinating to look at, although in real life the paintings are very large, so I am not able to get the full effect. I can only imagine how the size of the canvas painting would change any viewers experience.

Installation Art by Giuseppe Caschera

2010-03-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

After being introduced to installation art, I realize that art can take many forms than just paint on canvas. i have to admit that my favorite form of contemporary art is installation. Installation art is more hands on and involves constructing large pieces of work made from material such has welded wire as well as material found in nature like natural tree roots. Judy Pfaff is an interesting artist who used actual tree roots and painted them black and white and used them as installation art. The process that she went through in order to prepare the actual roots was a large undertaking.They had to cut the roots into sections and later put them back together. There is a sense of roughness in her art that seems to radiate a calming sense of emotion. http://www.judypfaff.org/gallery/album32

Against interpretation by Louis Mauro

2010-03-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

While reading this article it made me think about art and what I feel about it. For the most part I like art that is unique in nature but, also it has to be pleasing to the eye. Unless there is some deeper meaning that can be derived from it. This article is against looking at art on a deeper level, trying to interpret the art. Why does art have to mean anything? Because peoples need to interpret art it drove artists to develop abstract art, then non-art. Art is something that can mean one thing to one person and another thing to someone else. That is why I like art. It can be seen as anything if you look hard enough. I do not think that art should be interpretated. It should be used to enjoy as a form of enjoyment to people. The article explains that art is not meant to be examined or interpreted.

Larry Poons | The College of Saint Rose by Louis Mauro

2010-02-28T19:48:00.000-08:00

Lawrence Poons, better known as Larry Poons, is an abstract painter. He was born in Tokyo, Japan, with his initial focus on becoming a professional musician. He enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1959. He also studied at the Arts Students League of New York. He rose to prominence in the 1960s with paintings of circles and ovals on solid, which would often be brilliantly colored backgrounds. This paintings gave the impression that there was movement in the painting. This artist will holding a gallery at The College of Saint Rose from Jan 31 to March 21. In these paintings he weaves colors together to give a sense of movement and the painting is not always even, there are bumps and grooves where paint goes its own direction as it has a mind of its own. These paintings are very interesting to me as, the artist is not afraid to go literally outside the portrait to create art. The fact that his paint is not even and it has bumps and places where paint is protruding is a main selling point for me.

Who are we to determine meaning? by James Curran

2010-02-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

There are many people in today's world who make a living as art critics. Their job consists of judging art and determining it's meaning. Basically they are looking at a peice of art from an outsider's perspective and attempting to explain what the artist was trying to say. Some people, such as Susan Sontag, argue that the only person who can accruately one hudred percent identify exactly what is going on with the art is the artist themselves. While viewers may be able to pick up some of the context clues of the meaning of a peice of art, until the artist themself affirm their belief it is all speculation. These assumptions about interpretation are not limited to art genres such as painting, sculpture, and photograpy. Sontag points out that this trend of interpretation is applicable in a broader context in everything from literature to music to film. Ultimately interpreation should be treated as opinion and not concrete facts. AS viewers of art people should realize that the best interpretation of a peice of art can come from only one person, the artist.

Jacek Yerka by Louis Mauro

2010-02-17T22:05:00.000-08:00

I chose to dissect a work Jacek Yerka. He was born in Poland in 1952. Yerka studied fine art and graphics prior to becoming a full-time artist in 1980. While studying, he resisted the constant pressures of his instructors to adopt the less detailed, less realistic techniques that characterize so much of contemporary art. He however stubbornly continued to work in the classic, meticulous Flemish style he still favors to this day. It was his teachers who eventually gave in, finally recognizing their determined student as a brilliant although troubling talent. His works have been exhibited in Poland, Germany, Monaco, France and the United States. The work that I chose to view is a scene of a car that has animalist qualities looking out of some sort of cave that have plants on the upper and sides of the cave. This animal mobile is a cross between an old 1950 car and an alligator. The skin of the car is made of alligator scales with a long tail that is resting behind the car. It has one wheel showing and one alligator leg. The farther the car is in the cave the more animalistic it is. Its passenger door is ajar and you can see the inside door panel. On the floor of this cave there are spare car parts that look as if they were broken off of the car. The car is looking out at a blue sky with a few clouds and several part animal part airplane beings. They are much smaller than the car. There is a line of them leading off into the horizon until it is impossible to determine how many their actually are in the sky. The airplanes have very small features that are animal like. They are not obvious as the car’s animal features are as the planes are small, and farther away. I am still unsure if they are part animal part plane. However keeping with the theme of the picture I assume they are. If they are not part animal part plane from a different world, they could be normal planes that are coming to attack the part animal part car beast as it is different then the normal planes. The car which has its door open could be a sign of hospitality to its part animal part plane friends that are coming to visit. Also on the car are exhaust pipes behind its rear leg. This cave looks to be in the middle of a very dense forest as the floor of it is not visible through the canopy and top layers of the trees. This picture makes me think about how this thing came to be. Did an old 1950 automobile get lost in the jungle and it slowly turned wild by the jungle. This picture also makes one think about ones perceptive about what type of world we are living in and how it could be different we never invented things such as cars and house, and to this day still lived in cave as our prehistoric ancestors did so many years ago.

Damien Hirst I got an Idea for you by Louis Mauro

2010-02-17T21:43:00.000-08:00

As you all know Damien Hirst created a diamond encrusted skull with over 8,600 diamonds on it. With that about of bling one must ask how much is the asking price for a art piece of such standards? $20 million? $50 million ? Actually the asking price is $100 million. This gives me a great idea. I do not have the start up money but if Damien Hirst by some wildly slim chance reads my blog, I only ask for 1% of the selling price. Ok ok my idea is that you take an entire human body and put diamonds on it, but first you dip the skeleton in liquid gold. You will have a gold plated skeleton encrusted with diamonds. For an art piece of that order I would say the piece would be priced around $1billion.

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Art Pays by Louis Mauro

2010-02-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

I was very interested in the walking man sculpture by Giacometti. Being an accountant, I like to look at numbers and figures instead of just words all day. This art piece was sold for $104.3 million. That just blows my mind. I cannot even imagine that much money in one place, let alone it being paid for a sculpture. This piece broke the previous record of $104.2 set my Pablo Picasso's 1906 portrait "Boy With a Pipe." This makes me think that if we have $100 million to pay for just one art piece why do we have starving people all around the world?

Paul Phfeiffer by Giuseppe Caschera

2010-02-17T21:27:00.000-08:00

Art comes in many shapes and forms. For Paul Pfeiffer video editing is his calling. He is an up and coming American video artist. Phfeiffer edits out objects, people, and other things from selected videos he has taken. His work seems very time consuming has he goes through each slide of the video and erases the objects. One of his works is called "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" which is a series of photographic images of a basketball game, which all the players except one have been edited out. All you see in this video is one player moving about.

In some of his work there is a unique effect that, which he calls a happy accident. There are several videos in which he could not edit out all the objects correctly and the viewer can see some of the motion of the people that were edited out. It seems like an illusion, or a ghostly image. Some of the videos are quite entertaining to watch as objects seem to be moving and floating in mid air. The question is, do these videos fall into what we call contemporary art? Some may call it utterly insane to waist so much time in erasing objects from videos and then call it art. Although we cannot argue that it isn't unique, which indeed it is. His videos do makes see things in a different perspective by making us focus on certain aspects of the video.

Jeff Koons by Louis Mauro

2010-02-17T21:24:00.000-08:00

After looking at a few of his artworks it got me thinking about what these sculptures are made out of. It looks like a very shiny balloon, that is twisted into shapes of dogs and rabbits and other little animals. I have come to the conclusion that it is made out of metal or some type of steel. I do not know the meaning behind these object I like looking at them. Some art is not nice to look at and it is abrasive to the eyes. This picture is pleasing to the eyes!!

The Price of Art by James Curran

2010-02-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

People outside of the art community are often shocked by the prices that art is valued at. There are some people that do not even consider today's most expensive peices, art. Recently Alberto Giacometti's "Walking Man" set a new record for the most expensive peice of art. It was bought for 105,000,000 dollars by an anonymous buyer. This peice was vastly undervalued at 18 million by experts. People struggle to explain how people can pay so much money for a peice of art, but ultimately art is just like anything else if someone wants it bad enough they will pay for it. For an outsider this may be hard to understand, but rationalize in the same way that car collectors spend exorbitant amounts of money on antique cars or guitar enthusiasts purchase famous guitars. If someone is passionate about something and has no price limit, they will fight and bid for what they want.

Damien Hirst: Artist or Manager? by James Curran

2010-02-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

For many people art is hard to define. In the case of Damien Hirst it is not a case of whether his work is art or not, it is who should be given credit for his pieces. The two pieces of art that this statement is most pertinent to are "The Physical Impossibility of Death In the Mind of Someone Living" and "For the Love of God". In both cases it was Hirst's idea to create the piece, but it was through the work of others that the finished product came about. Hirst oversaw the making of his art, but he played a small role in the actual day to day work. This is not a new phenomenon, many artists have some of their more meticulous work done by their students. Ultimately it is left up to the viewers to determines Hirst's title. Personally I believe he is an artist because the work is his brainchild and he dictates what it looks like.

What Makes Good Art by James Curran

2010-02-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

There are many forms and mediums of art that people struggle to define as art and are hesitant to refer to it as art. Many people look at a painting once and immediately decide if they think it is good or bad. In her article “What Makes Good Art” Margot Livesey argues that to properly understand art and appreciate it we, as viewers, must view it multiple times and be open to new ideas. The artist that I find most unusual is Piet Mondrian. Mondrian was a Dutch painter who contributed to the movements known as De Stijl and Neo-Plasticism. He was born in 1872 and died in 1944. During his life he lived in the Netherlands, Paris, London and New York City. Mondrian created more then fifty paintings during his lifetime and six of them are located in major collections around the world.

His work was often composed of bold colors and strict horizontal and vertical lines. The uses of these lines often cause his work to appear grid like. Mondrians paintings also usually only contain the three primary colors red, yellow, and blue. His most famous paintings are “Composition in Red, Yellow and Blue” and “Broadway Boogie-Woogie”. The latter was created in 1943 and was inspired by New York City’s grid system. The Boogie-Woogie section of the title refers to Mondrian’s favorite style of music.

At first I struggled to define the “Broadway Boogie-Woogie” as art. It seems very basic and lacks the usual grandeur that I often associate with art. I usually tend to write off some of the more abstract paintings because I do not understand them and their message is not always immediately obvious to me, like it is in more mainstream art. After further researching the painting and discovering what inspired Mondrian to paint this in such a rigid structured fashion I started to appreciate it more and more. At its very basic, New York City is a large sets of grids that intersect one another through various horizontal and vertical lines. Mondrian captures this and takes it a step further by including the primary colors of red, yellow and blue. The use of these colors helps to reinforce the musical theme that Mondrian ties into this painting. Boogie Woogie was type of piano Jazz that was extremely popular in New York City at the time that Mondrian created this piece.

The fact that the music is rooted in New York also helps to tie the painting into the grid system which it is based on. This piece of art by Mondrian is something that I typically would have dismissed had I only looked at it once. As a result of my research and not giving the piece more chances I slowly began to realize that it is a work of art and I noticed the beauty that can be found in its simplicity. Ultimately I found a new art form that I enjoy within a style of art that I had previously not given a proper chance