Hi Folks.
You can enter your paragraph of response to our reading as a "comment" below. If you have a problem, feel free to bring a hard-copy version to class instead.
We will meet in the classroom (Art 120) at 3.00 and walk down to the Foundry to look at work.
Thanks
Shannon
13 comments:
Instead of food fights, down at the foundry we have hammer fights, bring a helmet.
if you like, you can bring some small object to smash with my big red object transformation machine. Soda cans squish to about a 1/4 inch in thickness. I just broke the lifting mechanism, hopefully I can get the thing rebuilt and working again by 3:00. Alternatively you might bring a small fire responsive sculpture for interaction with my most recent creation. wood the thickness of popsicle sticks works quite well.
I like this book a lot because it’s very imaginative, informative and interesting. I recall the methods, skills and theories about painting and sculpture that I learned in my early art education and find they are quite different from even contradictive to the theories in chapter 1 of The Critique Handbook. It is exciting to hear these new ideas which break the rules that I have being followed for many years. “To many students, thinking about composition in terms of triangles and the golden rule feels like being forced to learn a dead language that no one speaks anymore.”P16.
However I still believe that the classical rules or dogmas are important for beginners to build a solid foundation.
Anyway, I love to see those reinterpretations of many concepts.
I enjoyed reading chapter 1 of "The Critique Handbook". As for myself, it was a great reminder of how many levels and from how many angles an art work is/can be viewed. I was particularly interested in the section written about the "painting's internal logic", specifically, "Line" (pg.15). I was reminded of a conversation I had the other day with Andy Munio about another graduates students investigation of "mark making" and how a "mark" is "made". The "mark" can be as seemingly insignifacant as "..a stick pulled through sand...", but the implications behind the action can tell so much more. I started to think about the power, and possible consequences of such a simple gesture. It kind of fucked with my head, but I liked it.
I thought this chapter laid out a very concise and methodical description of basic issues and characteristics that one should consider when viewing and critiquing works of art. At this point in the game, i.e. grad school, we should all have a pretty decent understanding or how to critique work. Of course, as humans, we are not perfect and yesterday’s skills are today’s blurry recollections. I found this chapter a helpful reminder of what I already know and of what I should make greater effort to consider. I won’t go into my particular feelings about what considerations I believe are more important than others; I’ll save that for our studio visits. I’ll simply close by saying that I believe art to be a philosophical discipline as well as a technical practice and that anything we can do to increase our ability to articulate our thoughts will only make us stronger artists and lend strength to our work.
Lucid and spirited entries... the territory of form bravely surveyed.
Going over this text on a regular basis is a friendly reminder of what is important in my work. On PAGE 23, the LAST paragraph of Surface Gesture, and Process is still the most resonate, but I also related to the following section on Surface as Evidence of an Act. The "surface of a painting is where it all happens" and "image is transmittable, the surface isn't. It is singular." -Mike
I love reading this book because it gives me a lot of information and methods about recent artists thinking. Compared to traditionally thought, materials take more important role than image or form. There are more possibilities of the materials or ways in the contemporary art work. This book shows what the critique is: it's a fact-finding mission as to the artist's process and materials.
the first chapter is a good refresher on the language of art, a redefining of terms. It reminds me of philosophy texts where it is necessary to define words, to define words; so that we can drag ideas from out of the ether to the ground and give them a sound beating.
The reading was very, very informational for me. I wish it was something I had read in my undergraduate classes or even in my first couple of semesters here at SJSU. The reading explains how to examine work, how to approach it, which is something so elementary, yet, something that was never really taught to me as a step by step instruction. I have sat in many critiques and picked up information that way, but never was a book presented to me so it was very important to me. What I also found helpful was the definition of vocabulary words and just regular art vocabulary that I hear on a daily basis. The reading really helped clarify some cloudy terms…(I know, I should be on top of the vocab at my level, but…this book is a very good start!).
First chapter was good. The topics covered we may already know, but I haven't heard it so well put before. Makes art easier to explain to a beginner or outsider.
Some Quick Thoughts
“Can formal choices make a work compelling enough… that empty content isn’t an issue?” This is a question that comes up in my work because the content isn’t always clear to me.
The lack of clear content can produce free association during critique that can impair critical dialog.
Terms like painting and sculpture are merely communication tools to express broad concepts of art.
My recent canvas work is an object. The work is the canvas, the fan, and the process. The canvas seems to work best because it is pre-made, simple, lightweight, and very portable.
I tend to let the materials lead the work, I choose the materials and follow there direction. I explore the formal directions using the materials as my light
In chapter Two, the author interpreted many complications related to the meanings of a work. It expanded my thought and understanding of the abstract work a lot. Since I spent long time on learning drawing and sculpting figurative work before, I know the meaning of the work mostly from the gesture of the figure . " Indeed, form carries with it an emotional content. An abstract form can suggest figurative gesture. Gesture can also be explored in abstract work through movement of the viewer's body or eye." " Gesture is also present in work when the act of its making, that is, the artist's gesture--remain evident in the form". So meanings of the work is not simple anymore. It comprises so many factors ( like culture, material, color, size.... ) that we can consider.
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