National Museum visit.

(24-5-2012)


This was a weird day.
Not much in the way of information was given out by Tess, well perhaps initially, but then we all headed into the building and shared some thoughts on the building and it's numerous aspects/features of which got me thinking whether or not it actually does appeal to me as a whole.


We all split up and went our own ways through the establishment. I myself was a little disappointed by it all now that i've been inside and had a proper look around. It was so much more fascinating and intriguing from my last visit when i hadn't yet unlocked the mystery of what lay inside..


Anyway, it was nice to get out n about again (as always) and great to see people from other classes that i don't regularly get time to catch up with.


Here are a few camera-phone shots from the day.




D.

Minimalism & Conceptual Art.

10/5/2012


Being a minimalist, i enjoyed today's class.


Similar to Abstract Impressionism, it is something that i once look at and frowned upon (most people still do), but i can see sense in it all now and like learning more about its origins and the philosophy of the artists who create it.


Notes from today:

• Russian Kasimir Malevich's painting Black Square in 1915 started it all.

• During the 1960's is when it flourished within the art world.

• Dan Flavin, Monument to V Tatlin - 1964

• Mies Van Der Rohe was quoted to say his famous line of "Less is more".

• A work of art should serve a minimal, yet functional purpose without unwanted decoration.

• Neutral, repetition, line, grids, perspective and balance were/are all common aspects of minimalism.

• Controversial within society and its critics due to its lack of subject matter and for the fact some artists would make use of everyday objects that were not created by themselves and display or incorporate it somehow in their work and call it art.

• Donald Judd was a successful sculptured of his day.

• Ab Reinhardt, from the black paintings 1966.

• Walter de Maria.

I was quite crook during class, couldn't stop coughing and sneezing, but this being the case, i thoroughly enjoyed Tess's presentation on this, because as i mentioned already i can relate to the beauty of a "less is more" mentality and try to live my life by it these days.

The relationship between minimalist art and traditional Japanese culture was something i felt was very interesting. Did the western world steal elements of Japanese architecture, design and zen teachings after the wars and then try to re-create it in this new art movement..? hmm i wonder. I can be quite cynical of us westerners sometimes, as i feel we stole a lot of things from the already established and mysterious ways of the eastern cultures.

Anyway, long live minimalism :]

D.

Bauhaus.

29/3/2012
(week 6)


I was away for this class presentation due to moving house, so never had a chance to get my head around it all until today - well hopefully i have...


Anyway, the movement commonly known as Bauhaus first came about in Germany during 1919 and operated until 1933. However many would say that it is still well and truly alive in today's society when relating to design and functionality of everyday items and buildings.


Its founder Walter Gropious was an accomplished architect, however the school itself did not initially have an established section for this. Nonetheless, Bauhaus was founded with the idea of creating a 'total' work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus and minimalist movements have certainly influenced modern-day architecture.

The school of Bauhaus was famous for its approach of blending handmade crafts, engineering and technology together to create objects for all to own and use.


Now that i think about it i can familiarise myself well with many things i have seen and used throughout my life that have strong Bauhaus characteristics.


I admire the ways in which architecture has been influenced by this movement, i can cert ainly recall a number of house-hold items and perhaps even a great deal of classic machinery (cars/planes/trains/boats etc) that are likely to have also been born from Bauhaus.


I see the sense in what Bauhaus was /is all about, i like how it balances bold, radical elements with stylish design. To be honest i think i am now getting a bit obsessed with trying to notice more of it as a get around each day. One might say it was a movement well ahead of its time, but one that the established world desperately needed in many ways.




The following photographs were taken by myself as an example of what i feel are buildings with Bauhaus-inspired characteristics.

This building is on Northbourne Avenue as you head
into Canberra from the north. It is a strong example of
Bauhaus due to its strong solid shapes, stylishly bold
design and glossy silver finish.
I really like driving slowly past this building every
time i travel along Northbourne Avenue :]

The ABC radio building (also on Northbourne Avenue)
 is a reasonably small, yet bold building design.

This very strong and prominent building is
on Mort Street, not far from the previous
two examples. It displays strong vertical
lines and a balance of colours.

Still nothing yet...

SORRY TESS, STILL NOTHING YET FROM ME REGARDING YOUR BAUHAS TASK. I HAVE ALL THE POWER-POINT PRESENTATIONS AND NOTES NOW - PLAN TO HAVE THIS COMPLETED BY FRIDAY THIS WEEK.


PLEASE DON'T FAIL ME  ':[






D.

Australian Art.

3/5/2012
(week 12)




Notes from today's class:


Major influences / most recognisable names at the time were Albert Namatjira (water colour) and Margaret Preston (painting).


These artists helped address issues of race, gender and identity in Australia in their own way.


Margaret Preston helped get art in Australia up and running thanks to all the influence she returned home with from her travels abroad. Which she shared with the artistic community within Australia.


There was a massive cultural change amongst white-man following the American consumerism boom. A large influx of immigrants came to Australia looking for a better life and work, but traditional aboriginals remained largely untouched and cut off from society. They were also still frowned upon by most people within society.


It was Rex Battarbee who would un-knowingly (or knowingly) train an aboriginal artist by the name of Albert Namatjira in water colour painting. Not sure how it all came about, but it certainly created a stir amongst the general public and the art world for they saw it as exploitation.


Once this raised a bit of interest, Namatjira ended up becoming a HUGE name in Australia and reached a celebrity status - mainly due to the hype of including an aboriginal as a recognised talented artist.


Society suffocated Namatjira and he was constantly on demand and overwhelmed by gifts from big companies of the day.


To his credit though, Namatjira loved being away from all this and was happy to just stick to painting "his land" - part of the Australian landscape that was free from any real human presence or impact from society.


His work demonstrated a high level of skill with the water colour medium, he painted freely and often with a simple setup out in the open. There was never any figures in his work, just all the natural elements that made up the landscape in front of him. I fully respect that.


-


Margaret on the other hand was the complete opposite to Namatjira.


She came from a wealthy lifestyle, mixed with people in high-society and was extremely well educated. Her skills as an artist were much like herself, strong, bold and adaptable.


Elements of numerous styles and movements from around the world can be found in her paintings. As we inspected a small number of her work within the National Gallery of Australia today, i noticed a strong influence from Japan and the cubist periods.


Her travels abroad, unlike Namatjira, opened her up to much influence and she made sure she demonstrated elements of each in her work from time to time and allowed it all to build into something she could attempt to then classify as being unique to Australia, because she was determined to give Australia it's own stand on the art world. Funny thing now is, as much as Margaret tried, Aboriginal Art is what is seen as our trademark (so to speak).


Another information-packed class, thanks Tess.






D.

Abstract Impressionism & US Nationalism.

3/5/2012
(week 12)




This morning's class consisted of another day at the National Gallery of Australia - always nice to get out i say.


Here are my notes from today:


Following on from the explosion of POP-ART, abstract impressionism returned to more of the traditional paint on canvas, but with a new twist (of course).


It was America's turn to take the title of 'the home of art' from europe.


No more traditional suitably sized paintings in a fancy frame, oh no, abstract impressionism was all about making big, bold paintings - often at mural-size. Quite fitting when you think of american culture - BIG, BOLD, BETTER THAN THE REST kind of mentality. This had quite an impact on Europe and the rest of the world.


Many European artists flocked to America in order to immerse themselves in the movement and with them came all their strengths, studies and skills from previous movements. Which of course then mixed together with this new sensation.


New York is the playground for artists, not Paris for now.


Hans Hoffman once quoted "A picture should be made with feeling, not knowing". This is how artists of the abstract impressionism movement approached their work, they would almost get lost in a subconscious state during a painting's creation - focusing more on just going with it rather than thinking and planning it.


Many artists like Mark Rothko aimed to let his work communicate with people's emotions.


Guggenheim / Jackson Pollock were big names of this era.


Pollock was somewhat of an idealistic figure for american art and this helped to boost the popularity of this new movement with celebrity-like status around the world. His radicalism invited artists to break down the constraints of being an artist working on a canvas sitting on an easel. He would often roll out a long sheet of canvas along the floor of his studio and just throw paint around, without fear of keeping it within the edges etc


Throughout 1947-1950 Pollock introduced the drip technique, which allowed paint to to freely end up where it ended up by way of various techniques that eliminated the brush (for example) ever making contact with the canvas itself. This new technique allowed a painter to focus more on the motion, the feeling flowing out from them-self and onto the canvas in a totally free and pure way without the distraction of perfect positioning and pressure etc. Imperfections were encouraged and embraced.


Barnett Newman was another strong figure during this period. As was Helen Frankenthaler. 


I would like to do further research into this movement, because before now i was under the impression that it was all just a bunch of drugged-up people throwing paint around and coming up with stories to support why it is considered art - if i may be so blunt :] Thankfully this course and Tess's detailed breakdowns are helping to open my mind up to all this and see it in a more positive way.






D.

National Portrait Gallery.

12/4/2012
(week 9)

Source: www.flickr.com/people/reecephotography/

Today our visual culture class was treated to a field trip to the National Portrait Gallery here in Canberra. It is one of only 7 "national" portrait galleries in the world, and the only one in the world specially built for portraiture.


I have visited the gallery twice before, once two years ago, and then again just the other week with my friend Tamzen to view the 2012 National Photographic Portrait Prize. Of which was why our class was visiting today. In addition to the main exhibition mentioned above, we took in and shared a group discussion about Nikki Toole's exhibition SKATER. Nikki's exhibition drew mixed reviews and ideas from myself and my classmates and it was interesting to hear and understand everyone's own individual take on it.


Anyway, i think everyone enjoyed going somewhere other than G103 today, it certainly was an absolutely gorgeous day to be out and about in Canberra, that's for sure! It was nice of Dru to shout me my first Mocha Latté swell which i enjoyed with him, Hayley and Tabitha outside the gallery café.


Nice day all round really and only a handful of photographs i either didn't "get" or found to be of no interest to me.






D.






Here is a list of the photographs that appealed to me:

Caravan Kids - by Jennifer Stocks.

Brought back warm memories of family holidays away and staying in caravan parks instead of motels.

Edmond Capon AM OBE - by Gary Grealy.

I admired the strength of the very contrasting light and shadow most.

Portrait of Margaret Olley in her Paddington studio - by John McRea.

Just a beautiful photograph of such a lady. Framing was interesting.

Peta - by Eryca Green.

A feel-good photograph, slightly too setup, but still an honest portrait portraying the right expression/mood.

The chess player - by Andrew Cambell.

Drew me in and caught my interest in a number of ways.

Ned - by Benjamin Lieu.

Ned himself, what a character, nothing more to add.

Eden - by Arianne McNaught.

A stirring image that drew me in the more i looked at it.

Noel Charlie - by Tobias Titz.

Really drew me into what emotions lay beneath such leathery-looking skin and a resilient man. Almost looked as if the subject was holding back tears / about to cry.

Surrealism etc

29/3/2012

(week 7)

I chose to miss class toady (sorry Tess) but only because i needed to finalise things with regards to moving from where i was living to where i am now living - and i had to do it all myself.

Perhaps one of my classmates will fill me in on what went down :)

D.

Early 20th Century Art.

(22/3/2012)




I enjoyed this class today.


Well done to everyone for the final little presentations too, they were all brilliant. Well done my group and a special thanks to Eliza for such a stirring discussion/debate :)


Here are a few notes from today's class:


Revolution - A time of great change for the modern world happened at the start of the 20th century. The introduction of some impressive inventions that would revolutionise society and help shape the future to be what we know it as now.

• the automobile
• passenger air travel
• ocean liners (Titanic)
• world war 1

However, a number of tragic events also came as a result of all this new technology.




Art movements of this period ?


CUBISM
made famous by Braque and Picasso.


A style in which artists depicted distorted reality and made the view question what exactly it was they were looking at. Defracted and Refracted imagery and elements of composition like in a collage.


Colours were often muted so as to not add additional complexity to the painting's already radical depiction of the subject matter.


Some question Cubisms relationship with photography...


The word Cubism came from Braque's painting "House at Estaque in 1909. Braque was influenced by Cezanne (see previous post on blog) and when you study the two artists you can see this is quite apparent.


Other influences of this era came from literature, music and plays. The release of Simund Fraud's book "The Interpretation of Dreams" in 1900 caused an uprising in society, because it challenged what people already knew/believed and trusted.


Picasso - was the initiator of mixed media paintings. He added elements of real-world things like newspaper, wall paper, fabrics etc to boost his work to the viewer. This was known as Synthetic Cubism and with time became what we now know as collage.




FUTURISM
Started in Italy and rose in population around the cubists. But was a short-lived venture.


Filippo Tommaso Marinetti - was the founding-father of Futurism and it was the only movement introduced by a written manifesto. Marinetti (a classic Italian man) was a flamboyant and driven individual with great strong connections and wealth.


Marinetti was flaunting speed, technology, violence, politics and all things amazing. Very much an Avant-Garde expression. He wanted to bring an end to traditional art and ban previous styles, its subject matter and the artists way of thinking. No more reserved works - he encouraged radical, energetic, powerful and flamboyant art.


Futurism also incorporated the use of graphical elements such as type and lettering more than ever before and experimented with how it could be used and laid-out across the canvas to totally bend any traditional rules of reference etc.


Bragaglia - Introduced a change of perspective to photography as well as scientific photography. He and his work was constantly present during Futurism and basically created his own style know as Photo-Dinamism.


Fortunato Depero - Photographic performance started to happen to free-up the unengaging poses of days gone by. He encouraged the subject to move their body, show expression and joy to add real life to their photograph.


Vito Acconci - Experimanted with light and shadows.


Jules Marey - Was driven to capture the locomotion of movement.


Edward Muybridge - joined in on the act with everyone else and was a key influence in the birth of motion picture (film).


Of course NADAR was around in this era and did his best to add a touch of his own self to the mix, just because he could :)


Futurism expressed movement in ways that photography of the time was also able to record. So the two have strong/similar results when you study examples of this visual effect. It all fell apart soon after WW2 though.




PRESENTATION IS UP ON E-LEARN.












D.

Class outing #2

(15/03/2012)


We met again today at the National Gallery of Australia for what was another informative lesson in art history. Thanks again to Tess's involvement with the establishment, we were able to utilise the small theatre within the gallery for a powerpoint presentation and group discussion.


Notes from this lesson:


Modernism - rose to status around 1855 in Paris. A time of great industrial revolution in France. It was a period where artists began to be seen as something of a status symbol. They also began to step away from tradition in order to explore other ways of seeing the world in ways most people found hard to accept. It is believed to be the birth of the "ism" movements.


Bold artists started to bush the boundaries of realism and expressive ways by freeing up their technique. Imperfections were now encouraged in comparison to those who came before them.


With so much man-made change going on throughout this period, many artists depicted dream-like worlds/scenes as a way of escaping it all.


The rise of Photography also had an affect on artists. As if they would lock themselves away from the world in an attic, driven to paint absolute masterpieces in protest. They found it to be obtrusive and a threat to their income, for people were now turning to the amazement of this new technology. Yet at the same time, artists used this in a positive way to push themselves to create new work in order to retain their reputation.


Fauves - was a style of working in an un-realistic way, with radical shape and colour.


Post Modernism - changed the perspective of view to bring new interest to the viewer. Shifting away from the classic centre weighted view of the world as seen in previous movements.


1853 - opened up a new cultural revolution for artists around the world thanks to the asian countries allowing foreigners into their harbours and also their way of life. This was well received by westerners and certainly inspired them to explore the styles witnessed in countries like Japan.


The Japanese style was simple, but effective. It offered radical new perspective and cropping of the scene within the artist's frame. Rich new colours were present and the sense of a story being told for future generations.


When asked about Japanese culture and it's art, Claude Monet replied "There is nothing useless about it". Being fascinated by Japanese culture myself, i can only agree with his comment.


In conclusion, the link between Photography and Art has and always will remain strong throughout time. They also continue to challenge and inspire each other. 






D.






Paintings that took my interest were:


Cezanne:

Hiroshige:

Monet:

Matisse:

Utamaro:

Class outing #1

(week 4)

Computer-generated image of the National Gallery of Australia
Architect: Andrew Andersons, PTW Architects

Image by David Duloy, PTW Architects

Today all 1st year students took time to explore The National Gallery of Australia with Tess, who in addition to being our lecturer also works at the gallery. So given her extensive knowledge of the gallery and her years of artistic study, this was truly a privilege.

The purpose of today's visit was to help us all grasp a deeper understanding of how ART in all of its forms conveys a message or meaning to the viewer. Tess also tried to familiarise us with the various movements and genres of art and how moments in history, advancements in technology and even changes within society has helped create inspiration to evolved art as we know it throughout time.

I often visit galleries and exhibitions of all kinds for inspiration by myself, so i benefited from today. Being part of a group of creative minds was great because i was able to take in what people had to say based on their individual comprehension of what was in front of us - it certainly stirred up my own creative thoughts.

The group i was a part of involved Angus, Subas, Kiki, Kylie, and Genevieve and our painting was one of Claude Monet's series on Waterlillies. Between ourselves we shared some fantastic thoughts and all was given to our classmates verbally in our presentation to which we received a positive response. Well done team :)

Again, I took a lot away from today's class and compliment everyone for the deconstructive explanation of a chosen painting as part of their group assessment. If that just made any sense.

D.

Research Task

Visual Culture - Theory
(weeks 2 - 3)




Oh no! The art-theory class.. everyone's favourite right ;)


I have previous knowledge and experience with all this thanks to my artistic background throughout high school and during my tertiary studies, but welcome the thought of learning new things from a new set of lecturers and class mates - and so far i have.


Tess is quite a character and i think i will enjoy her classes.


It was nice listening to her story during last week's class introduction process and great to be a part of some stimulating class discussions. Let's hope this continues as i always enjoy taking in people's thoughts and feelings on things - especially the power of an image.

_

This week's class involved us visiting the CIT's on-campus library.


I found this beneficial as i never had time for libraries during my school years because i was never much of an academic student. However, now that i have grown up and have a thirst for knowledge i plan to embrace it as best as i can.


We were set a task to complete before the end of class and it involved splitting into small groups to select an artist and their work from last week's presentation and write a one-page report/review on it and present for feedback.


I paired off with Natasha, Taylor and Lisa - we chose Australian artist Frederick McCubbin's work The Pioneer.

Frederick McCubbin

The Pioneer (1904)

I enjoyed working with them for this task as they were all very proactive and delivered some great information with which we then all combined our own input to create the following.

D.