Tang Teaching Museum

The museum that I choose to visit was the Tang Teaching Museum located at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. The museum was a very magnificent museum with a variety of some strange and interesting works of art. The artists of the different works had their own unique forms of art, and what they featured to be important and significant to audiences. There were three exhibits in particular that I viewed while visiting the Tang Museum. The first piece was called The Way We Weren't, an oil canvas painting created by Nicole Eisenmen. The second piece, Blow by Blow, was a sculpture made out of glazed ceramic, hydrocal plaster, and painted plywood created by Arelene Shechet. The final piece that I viewed during my visit was a piece called Type A: Barrier. It was a scuplture made out of reinforced concrete, created by the collaborative team of Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin. Each one of these featured pieces had their own meaning, and value, in which the artists were hoping to convey to the people.

The first piece, The Way We Weren't, attempts to explore the lives of people, both socially and pschologically. Nicole Eisenmen is trying to explore the emotions in which people feel in their everyday lives. Emotions are important, and the way we cope with them socially as well as psychologically are pictured within this piece in a variety of ways. Eisenmen's goal is to move away from the cultural norms based on gender and the interactions between men and women during the time. The painting seems to portray earlier times, in particular Impressionist times, when artists broke through the barriers of modern artistic values. Eisenmen shows how men and women can interact, and do the same things within society, and everybody is still content with life.

Nicole Eisenmen: The Way We Weren't

Arlene Shechet's Blow by Blow is a sculpture in which she is attempting to portray never-ending movement. Her piece portrays a variety of twists and puff out in different directions. The piece had a unique glaze to it, to exemplify the movements within the piece that may not have been seen normally. The why in which it shined in the light helped to show it off more. The piece contained hollowed out sections, bulges, and even holes. It appeared that the piece was tranforming, moving outwards and inwards in every direction at once.

Arelene Shechet: Blow by Blow

Type A: Barrier was a piece made out of reinforced concrete; it was literally a concrete barrier that was trying to symbolize protection and security. After the World Trade Center attacks, people everywhere wanted protection and security to make them comfortable within society and not have to worry for their lives. Barriers sprung up all throughout cities, and Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin portrayed the different structural forms of barriers. Inspired by different types of barriers, such as concrete traffic barriers, Ames and Bordwin created their own unique barrier. A curved 60 degree arc makes the Type A: Barrier moe attracting and alluring to people in the need for protection. People are akin to things that seem to supply better protection for them

Adam Ames & Andrew Bordwin: Type A: Barrier

Each Exhibit was very interesting and made you wonder about different things that exist within our society. The ways in which the different pieces makes you think is extremely interesting and extraordinary. I never thought that I would need to put a lot of thought into art, however, some things you really have to look at and think about what it is that the artist is trying to convey to you.

Works of Gillian Wearing & Vanessa Beecroft

Pieces of VB 08-36 ---Vanessa Beecroft

Two Images from Signs That Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs That Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say---Gillian Wearing

In the world today, there are so many artists that create great works of art. We know of the works of earlier artists as well, such as Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. However, these historical artists are known by many due to their impacts on the art world. Two artists that may not be know by many people are Gillian Wearing and Vanessa Beecroft. Both artists are very talented, and both relate their work to the public in some way or another. By comparing these two, it helps to create a better understanding of what it is they are trying to convey to their audience. Gillian Wearing was born in 1963, in Birmingham, but moved to London to attend the Chelsea School of Art. Her works emerged among various art exhibits in London, and came to help people discover more about individuals in society. Vanessa Beecroft was born in 1969, in Genoa, Italy. Her art seems to focus more on women, and is a type of performance art. Through her work she fuses conceptual issues and aesthetic concerns. Both artists attempt to introduce more characteristics of certain issues and those individuals and of those individuals that may be involved with those issues. However, it could not deal with any issue, but just the individual.

The early work of Gillian Wearing consisted of a variety of photographs picturing people holding up signs with some sort of writing on them. The piece was called Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say. This series of photographs did not receive recognition until 1993, however, when it did get displayed; large numbers of people took a liking to it. Wearing picked these people at random, and asked them to write their thoughts on a piece of paper, and then proceeded to take a picture of them. By doing this, Wearing is in a sense challenging the stereotypes of society. She is introducing new things about individuals to show that not all people fall into their common stereotypes in society. Wearing says herself, "A great deal of my work is about questioning handed-down truths." She is introducing things about people that the public as a whole doesn't recognize in their stereotypes of people.

Vanessa Beecroft's work focuses primarily on women. A lot of the women portrayed in her works are nude. Almost all of Beecroft's works focused on women, from her early works to her later ones as well. Her earlier works, referred to as VB 08-36, are presented in a book and focus on female models. She attempted to introduce people to the fashion culture that exists in the world. Fashion is something o importance to women, and she tries to convey that to people. The majority of women being nude help to exemplify their appearance and get people's attention. When people view her work, they raise questions about female representation. She is attempting to put women in a light, in a sense, superior to males when it comes to fashion and representation. Even her later works, such as VB 45 nd 48, focus on women and their sense of fashion.

Both Vanessa Beecroft and Gillian Wearing attempt to introduce the viewers to new characteristics of certain individuals. Although Beecroft focuses primarily on women in her work, she is still very similar to Wearing in what she is trying to convey to the viewers of their work. Beecroft is showing how women are important, and even better than men in things such as the fashion world. Women represent it much better than a man would, which totally goes against the stereotype of women, that men are superior in strength, knowledge, etc. Therefore, Beecroft is introducing people to the fact that women can be superior and do something better than a man could. Wearing says herself that she is attempting to go against the stereotypes of the world today. The images she takes of random people holding up their thoughts is her way of showing people that stereotypes do not always pertain to those people believed to be included in that particular stereotype. In her quote stated above, she states that her work is dedicated to questioning "handed-down truths," or stereotypes of the world. Both of these artists in their own way are presenting the stereotypes of society as wrong, or false. They show people that not every person falls into those given by society; that not every person has to fall into a stereotype pasted down to them throughout history either.

Custodians of Culture: Schoolyard Art, The Mona Lisa Curse

The piece that was listened to, which is titled "Custodians of Culture: Schoolyard Art: Playing Fair without the Referee" by David Hickey is very similar to "The Curse of the Mona Lisa" by Robert Hughes, the piece that we viewed in class. The Mona Lisa piece introduces the aspects of art, and how people dedicate their lives to finding the best work of art, with the most value. People want to find the "true value" of certain pieces of art. The Playing Fair without the Referee piece elaborates that there are many people out there that truly value art far more than money. Money is something that is very important to many, however, like the Mona Lisa video shows, people truly like art more than the money they have. Those who enter the art world are not entering it for the money they may receive from their works of art. They enter it because they want to create pieces of art that will truly mean something to somebody in some way. This is the reason why people buy works of art, the pieces they purchase has had some sort of effect on them as people. Both pieces, stated above, also mention in some way or another that creating art strictly for money is pointless. If you are not true to your artwork, and believe that it trully has value, there is no point in attempting to sell it. A piece of art with no good intention will have a pretty good chance at not selling in the art market.

Money has emerged as something that is hated amongst true artists that believe in the true meanings of great works of art. The speaker of the podcast, Dave Hickey, refers to the fact that money has extraordinary benefits, however, he sees no reason for it to be so important in general, especially in the art world. The speaker in the Mona Lisa Curse, Robert Hughes, agrees with such a statement, he makes this very clear in his video. Hughes hates the fact that price for a work of art has become more important then the actual meaning behind the work. Art was created to convey some sort of meaning or feeling, it was not created so that people could take it and manipulate it to be worth money. Hughes stated that "The price has to do with promotion and publicity, and not with the quality of the works themselves." He reassures that nobody cares about the quality of their works these days, they only care about the money they receive for them. By the beginning of the 1960s, starting with The Mona Lisa, buying art was not for meaning, but for financial gain. Hickey mentions the same things in his lecture, that being an art dealer today simply consists of sitting around waiting for a piece of art to come in, and simply giving it a random number to sell at. It consists of creating value, however, no "real" value.

Dave Hickey mentions in his lecture that art is no longer determined to have value by museum staffs, but by the communities. The people in the community decide what they believe to be valid, meaningful art. The community gives works of art "public virtue." However, he goes on to say that the ties between the museums and communities have been broken and no longer exist as much today. The reason for this in his opinion, much like Hughes' reasons in the Mona Lisa Curse, is what is referred to as "non-commercial" art. Examples of this would be arts like performance art and installation art. "Non-commerical" art means non-object based, which in turn means that the introduction of these types of art leaves the rules of value irrelevant. This meaning that no value rules can be applied to something that is an immaterial object.

The value of art is very important to men referred to above. Both Robert Hughes and Dave Hickey strongly disagree with the direction the art world has taken. The movement away from value and virtue to money and financial gain is poisoning the art world we know today. Art should be created solely because people want to have some sort of influence on those that view their pieces, the want for money should not be the contributing factor to art work.

Part Two of Midterm: The Duchamp Effect

Duchamp's Fountain


Duchamp's Nude Descending from the Staircase




Duchamp's The King and the Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes

Duchamp's Air of Paris

The Duchamp Effect is a collection of essays, and interviews with five different artists, throughout the course of the 1990's. Elizabeth Armstrong interviews artists Bruce Conner and Ed Ruscha in the book. The other three artists interviewed, Sherrie Levine, Louise Lawler, and Fred Wilson, are interviewed by Martha Buskirk. Each one of these artists have created their own form of conceptual art that is in some way related to the works of an earlier artist named Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp was born in France on July 28th, 1887. His influence on the art world was one that many people did not understand at first, his pieces appeared very absurd, and unusual. Although some were fascinated by Duchamp's effect on art, it did not receive much accreditation until later on. His pieces were associated with Dadaism and Surrealism, two very unique art forms. Dadaism was a movement that emerged during 1916 and lasted until 1922. It involved different forms of visual arts and literature, such as poetry and art theory, and also forms of graphic design. Dadaism attempted to reject war by dismissing the current standards of modern art. Duchamp's effect on artists is also thanks to surrealist ideas as well. Emerging in the 1920s, the surrealist movement included arts that included different elements of surprise. It is viewed by many as a philosophical movement. Each one of the artists mentioned above create pieces that in some way or another relate to those works of Marcel Duchamp, hence the name for the book, The Duchamp Effect.

Ed Ruscha is the first artist interviewed in the collection of interviews. Ruscha is asked whether or not he believes Duchamp has had an effect on the works of artists today. Ruscha responds by describing Duchamp as the reason for the revolt among modern art. Duchamp changed the traditional view, according to Ruscha; he discovered common objects and displayed how they could be forms of art. In one of Ruscha's pieces in 1965, Apartments, Ruscha introduces that something as simple as an apartment building with some cars in front of it is a form of conceptual art, much like Duchamp's Fountain piece, which simply pictures a urinal. Ruscha's Apartments, shows people what an apartment complex looked like in Los Angeles in the 1960s. The other artist interviewed by Elizabeth Armstrong was Bruce Conner. Conner describes Duchamp's effect as the very idea of questioning; meaning that when you look at Duchamp's work, it makes you question what it is that he is trying to convey to people. The questions that his work arise are good for people, it makes them think hard about that piece and determine what it is Duchamp is trying to show to you. Conner's The Bride presented in The Duchamp Effect truly makes a person wonder what the significance of such a piece could possibly be. The questions that arise introduce the aesthetic of the piece. It is so closely related to many pieces to many pieces of Marcel Duchamp's pieces, such as Nude Descending from the Staircase, and The Kind and the Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes.

Three other artists were interviewed by a different person in The Duchamp Effect by Martha Buskirk. The first was Sherrie Levine. Levine adopted the aesthetic Duchampian effect in her works as well. One piece focused on in particular in the book is her work, Black Shoes. It establishes ideas of Duchamp. Levine took her last pair of black shoes left from the seventy-five shows she sold at a shoe sale she held. When she decides to take the original readymade shoe and remake it into a fabricated readymade shoe, she is taking an object and exemplifying it's importance to her as a person. Many artists' works consist if the things or objects they value in their own lives, or things they believe others value. Artists portray what they believe to be important objects, and can show people their significance and relationship to the body. Duchamp mastered the idea of portraying different ordinary objects, and turning them into what he believed to be art. Louise Lawler took a different approach to the use of Duchamp's art; she actually used Duchamp's art. Lawler took a picture of Duchamp's piece, Air of Paris. Duchamp purchased an empty ampoule from a close friend, and takes it and turns it into a work of art. The empty ampoule is filled with nothing but air, and Duchamp shows that when it is carefully placed in say a musuem for people to look at, and it has nothing in it, leaving only air. Its not as fascinating as people expect it to be. Lawler takes this piece and took different pictures of it. Using black-and-white photo of the ampoule makes the shadows very prominent in expressing the piece. Playing with shadows in itself is use of Duchampian characteristics, in it's unusual appearance. The black-and-white further enhances the Duchamp effect. The last artist interviewed in The Duchamp Effect is Fred Wilson. Wilson was very different from other artists. He focused on the history of art. When he states that he focused on the history of art through introducing the different pieces in different museums. Wilson's pieces Installation at Seattle Art Museum and Mining the Museum are two pictures that focus on different exhibits in different museums. Wilson is attempting to introduce different aspects of art history and make people think about what event is being presented through is work, much like Duchamp.

Marcel Duchamp was a very inspiring individual to the art world that we know today. Many people do not relaize that the large variety of different forms of art was in large part made possible by him. He introduced things that weren't necessarily created, but contained artistic merit. Ed Ruscha saif this,"...he was a nonpainterly person in a painterly world, who was able to make his views be known without being an intellectual, being in fact a very simple man." Duchamp took himself about of the art world he presently lived in, and created his own art world through what he believed to be art.

Part One of Midterm: Performance Art

Michael Bosanko's Spider in the Desert

No name given for the piece. However, Patrick Rochon is the artist of this piece.

Eric Staller's image of the the city just before sunrise.

The art world is something that changes constantly throughout history, and remains to change today. Artists of all different time periods had their different concepts of what they believed to be art. conflicts have even emerged over among opposing groups arguing about what is and is not some form of art. In today's culture, creating new forms of art does not cause major conflict amongst people like is did preivously. Today, artists create what they believe to be their own forms of art. One new form of art that has recently emerged is art called performance art. Performance art emerged in the 1960s, and was viewed as anything that had action. Rather than just drawing painting a picture, or creating a sculpture, performance art attempts to make the artist think about what action is being presented or is taking place at that time. Creating your own form of performance art is not that hard of a thing for an artist to do. The piece of art that I will be creating is an art referred to as light graffiti. Light graffiti is a different, usual form of art, one that takes place in different areas, with different backgrounds. Some include pitch black darkness, in which the onlly thing seen is the bright lights, commonly called light painting, is the only thing seen. Others include backgrounds with lighted backgrounds. This piece features a baseball player hitting a baseball with his bat. The bat is just hitting the the baseball when the picture is captured. The force of the bat hitting the baseball creates a burst of color going in various directions.

The piece described above is a very unique piece of art, one that really catches a person in action, in this case, a baseball player. It tried to show people the excitement that comes with getting a hit in baseball. When a baseball player connects with the baseball, they know that they have gotten a good hit. It's just the way you connect with the bat. This piece in particular captures the intensity of the moment. The bat connecting with the baseball just right is an exciting thing, which is why there is a variety of colors going off in all different directions for the ball and baseball. The player's eyes are highlighted in red. While the rest of his body is outlined in blue, his eyes are a very bright red. The red eyes are there to show the focus in his eyes. He is determined to get this hit, and he is extremely focused on the ball. His eyes follow the ball from the time it leaves the pitcher's hand to when it hits off the end of his bat.

Many other artists practice this type of performance art. Graffiti artists are what people call them. Graffiti lighting is a very unique, easy way to exemplify the the excitement of a certain event that is taking place. People can get very creative with this form of art, and so whatever it is they want with it. Whether it just is taking a picture and adding the graffiti lights or it be actually performing an action with characters and lights. Some other graffiti artists include Michael Bosanko, Patrick Rochon, and Eric Staller. Micheal Bosanko's pieces deal with light interacting with its surroundings. Patrick Rochon on the other hand, uses light to illuminate those featured in his pieces through photography or video. He captures people in whatever stance they are in and illuminates them with different lights. Eric Staller takes his pieces and focuses every single on of them on New York City. He uses his art to emphasize the different locations in the city. He uses different, weird shapes to exemplify different places in the city.

The piece that was created and discussed above is an excellent example of graffiti art, making it an excellent example of performance art. Many different artists practice this form of art because it is so different, and fun. As seen, there are all sorts of different types of graffiti art. Each artist; Bosanko, Rochon, and Staller each have their own unique form of graffiti art. The piece with the baseball player hitting the baseball would probably be most closely related to the Michael Bosanko pieces. His pieces show different things doing different actions. However, it also includes some of Rochon's characteristics, in that the light exemplifies the baseball player that is hitting the ball. Graffiti art is a very awesome way for artists to get their point across to their viewers. The viewers are more attracted to this form of art because they are actually being entertained by some sort of performance. Performance art has the actual action that actual visual art lacks.

Contemporary Art

Contemporary art is a different form of art, one that many people would not consider to be art. Paintings, sculptures, music, and even poetry are things that most common people would classify as art. Art is something that contains a lot of different things, sometimes more things than meet the actual eye. Art does not have to be something that you make or do in a studio, it can be anywhere you want it to be. It can be whatever it is you imagine it to be. Art can involve actual action and participation as well. Contemporary art is a way to take art to another, higher level, a new level very different from other art forms.
Art known by many is not something that is very important. It's not important in the sense that nothing that comes from art would significantly change a society. There may be a society in which art is very important to the people within it; however, it does not physically change their lives in any way. Some may argue with such a statement, however, majority of people don't feel that art can have a change on the world we live in. Contemporary art changes this view of art to people. Contemporary art is a way for people to make art in a constructive way. People find themselves more engaged in forms of contemporary art. This form of art deals with much more than creations made inside the studio. It deals with more public content of life. It introduces people to the environmental and social aspects of life. There is a huge variety of ways for people to participate in forms of contemporary art. Clear to what the ideas of contemporary art are, what is an actual example of this type of art? A perfect example can come from an article on contemporary art called The Nature of Beauty in Contemporary Art by Suzi Gablik. In this article, Gablik writes about a friend of hers from Santa Fe, Dominique Mazeaud. Dominique initiates a project called "The Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande River." Her project consists of her going to the river, once a month, with a couple of friends and picking garbage out of the river. Each time she visits the river, she writes down her thoughts on the her experiences that day with her friends and the river itself. Overtime, her friends loose interest in the project. Dominique, however, still felt the need to go to the river and enjoy its company and beauty. Not even to pick of garbage, she continues to go to the river every month as if it was a friend of hers. This is contemporary art. Dominique becomes involved with her environment by visiting the river every month. The original notion of going to clean the river is forgotten. The only thing that she wants to do in the end is just be with the river and enjoy it's company. Contemporary art helps people get in touch with their inner self. It helps them appreciate things such as nature. With the appreciation of the world you live in, you appreciate life itself in the highest sense.
It is extremely important for everybody in the world to appreciate life for what it is, and thank God for such a wonderful gift. Many people today forget about how lucky they are to be here, living in this world. Contemporary art introduces these things to people. When people participate in forms of contemporary art, they come out of the experience with some sort of appreciation for what life has to offer for them. Life is full of surprises, good and bad. Knowing this, people should always be appreciative and happy of what they have. Although so many people are selfish and unaware of the great gift given to us, contemporary art attempts to show people just how lucky they truly are to be where they are today.

Art Comes in Unusual Forms

"One of the principle ways we can change our relationship to difficult art is by repetition. An unpleasant piece of music may, the sixth and seventh time we listen, reveal new beauty. If we study one of Josef Albers's seemingly simple paintings of different colored squares, the colors start to shift. Of course, difficulty doesn't always give way to revelation-sometimes what follows is, alas, frustration. But when it does, we get an additional sense of satisfaction: The arduous ascent has been rewarded with a panoramic view."


Art is not always presented the way you might imagine...Maybe you have to look further into it, and it's unusual characteristics.

Title: Midnight Jazz

Artist: Carl (no last name provided)

Art Type: Abstract

Time Period: Present day

Art is something that has, in a way, unlimited characteristics, in that there are so many things in the world that could be considered art. There is more to art than just painting a picture, or singing a song that you made up yourself. Art involves interpretation and imagination as well. What a piece of art does for you is extremely important. Also, how you interpret that piece of art is important as well. The piece above could be interpreted simply as a piece of paper with instruments drawn all over the place, with a contorted face present. However, there is more than meets the eye within this painting. To you, this piece could mean absolutely nothing, but to a musician, especially a jazz musician, this piece could be a life inspiring piece.

Midnight Jazz is a very unique piece, in the way that it is presented to those looking at it. Instantly you know that the piece is one that is presenting music, in particular, jazz music. The title itself states the word jazz. When looking at the work of art, one might conclude that the piece is very weird and unusual looking compared to a lot of other works that are straight forward and show exactly what it is it wanted to show. Midnight Jazz makes you look deeper into it to reveal what it is that it is trying to represent. Jazz is a distinct type of art music that in a sense is a array of instruments following a common repetitive beat. Midnight Jazz takes both the art of music and the art of actually painting a picture, and puts them both together as one. This being a perfect example, when a person first looks at this picture, how many would be the first to say, "There's two types of art in that painting." Not many would catch on such a thing. The artist wants those who look at this painting to think about the world of jazz and how important it is to people in the music world. Jazz in many senses transformed the music world upon its creation. Because jazz played such an important role in changing the world of music, it is important to address it and recognize it for it's true value. Within the piece of art, a face appears in between the instruments. The person within this piece of art appears to be playing multiple instruments. His eyes appear to be looking in different directions at the different instruments. One eye is focusing on the instruments to the left, while the other eye is focusing on the instruments to the right. However, the two eyes are actually one eye of two different people, both playing instruments. This piece is a form of abstract art. It appears that it is one person with one eye going a different direction, when really it is two people standing back to back, each playing an instrument. The other instruments appear to be floating in the background, but are actually just being played by other people behind the two standing back to back. Jazz is full of excitement and entertainment, which is what is presented in this painting. The vivid colors catch the eye, and help to express the excitement of the the painting. Although the instruments are not painted in extreme detail, they are still presented in a small assortment to show the variety of instruments involved in jazz.

Midnight Jazz is a perfect painting in the jazz world. In a sense, by viewing this painting, the artist shows you exactly what jazz is, and what it is that is involved with jazz. Jazz is full of things such as excitement, activities, and various instruments, all of which is portrayed in this work of art. Jazz is something that needs to be expressed with a lot of detail. This painting shows these details perfectly. As previously stated, the art of jazz and the art of painting are all portrayed as one.