London, Day #7

Today was a bit more laid back. On Thursdays the class is split into two groups, so that it is easier to talk about writing about art. One group meets in the morning (10-11) and the other group meets in the afternoon (2:30-3:30). I am in the second group. In the middle of all of the seminar shindigs, we had two lectures by a professor from Goldsmith's College in London. She is from Germany originally, and she is extremely passionate about art.

Our lectures were on British art, which means either art that was made by people who were born in Britain, or art that was made by people who came to Britain (especially artists).

Some of the highlights included...

Stephen Willats who does some really cool chart/map-based pieces.


Julien Opie, who is most famous for doing the album art for the band Blur. Here is an earlier work by him.


Grayson Perry, quite the character, and also maker of these incredibly deep vases. The content deals a lot with feminism, domesticism, and also themes dealing with childhood trauma and rape.


Ian Davenport


Anya Gallacio

and Damien Hirst (of course)

After that we had our seminar. The seminar consisted of reading art exhibit reviews in magazines and then breaking them apart in a way in which we understood how they were written, and what are some things to consider when writing an exhibition review. We were then given a list of four galleries, one of which we should attend, and I think our next seminar will be about putting those writing tips into practice (Whether or not, I will most likely still write reviews for exhibitions I go to on the Mills Art History Society Blog).

In the evening I met up with an acquaintance of my parents. She is very kind and we had a wonderful time just sitting and talking. I had a couple of drinks and then went home! C'est fin!

If you want to see some of my own personal photos, you can check them out on facebook here. I think you can see the album even if we are not facebook friends. Also, I am doing an art project while I am here (or the start of one) in which I take photographs of my teddy bear (that I've had since I was born) in front of famous buildings, works of art, etc. and posting them online (but they will also be turned into another form of art). You can see those photos (later tomorrow as we are starting tomorrow) at her blog which is here.

Thanks for reading!

London, Day #6

Today we had one lecture in the morning about appropriation and installation art. It was very interesting as these are two more art fields that I am a bit unfamiliar with (With the exception of Barbra Kruger and Felix Gonzalez Torres).

One of the coolest installations that was mentioned was an installation by an artist named Rebecca Horn. The installation consists of a piano that is hung upside down, and after a specific time period (like 15 minutes) all of the keys fall out and make a big sound.

Here is an image:
Another installation artist whose work I really liked was Vito Acconci. It's called Bad Dream House, and there are several different ones. I could not find an image of the one that was built inside of a gallery space, but here is an image of one outdoors that sort of has a similar vibe:

Also here is a work by Boetti, "88 Maps Embroidery." It's a really interesting piece, and I'm sorry I don't have a better image of it.

Here is a work by Tracy Emin, it's entitled "Everyone I have Ever Slept With 1963-1995." The piece is both an environment and an installation, which is cool when the two intersect.

After our lecture we went to the Tate Modern. We decided to walk there from Bloomsbury by way of Somerset house (so the other ladies could see the Ai Weiwei heads). It took a while, and of course we got caught in the pouring rain, so from the waist down we were all soaking wet. When we finally arrived at the Tate Modern we only spent an hour there (so I am going back again on Friday and maybe even once more after that). We split into two groups, and I was with the group that also had my professor. We walked into several of the galleries and looked at works in comparison, had discussions about curatorial choices that were made in certain spaces, and then we were also shown works we had to study. After we had looked at many works like this, my teacher took us to see the new re-installation of the Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds, "Just for Alyssa," he said. Then when we got there he asked me to talk about the Artist and the work, and so I did. I mean I was quite proud of myself, but I didn't want to stay on my high horse for too long, so I just smiled when I was done for quite some time.

When we were done at the Tate Modern, we took the Tate Boat (which goes from Tate to Tate). It's about a 15 minute ride, and then we arrived at the Tate Britain. There we saw an environment piece entitled "Coral Reef" by Mike Nelson. The piece made me extremely uncomfortable. It was a series of bunker-like spaces that were behind several doors (it was very much like being in a maze where almost every door opened and there was not really a clearly marked exit). In each of the rooms there were weird artifacts like clown masks, playboy magazines, communist manifestos, semi-automatic guns, muslim prayers. It was a very odd space and I felt extremely uncomfortable, so I left. It was kind of like being in a horror movie where you knew there was nothing that could pop out at you, but you didn't know what you would find next either. Not my thing. Most of the people in my class loved it, however, but I was willing to be honest. I think it's an incredible installation, but only for that, I don't like it beyond having respect for the artist's work.

After that, one of the ladies in my group introduced us to a British friend of hers, and he showed us around the area. We had a nice sit in the park, and it was very relaxing.

Then I went home and made yummy pesto with Gnocchi, and celebrated Ai Weiwei's newfound freedom (YES! He was released on bail today!!!!!!).

Tomorrow is all lectures and no play, but then I am going to have drinks with a woman that my parents know, so we'll see!

London, Day #5

Today was quite interesting. We started off the school day with a lecture about Assemblage and Environment art, two forms of art which I am not too familiar with. I learned a lot, and I'm very interested in the conceptual side of both kinds of art, but I can't say that I love either form as much as other forms of art that I like. I definitely now have more respect for artists like Arman and Allan Kaprow, but it's more of a "would I recommend you check out their work" type of situation. I think that they are both worth reading about, and if one is studying contemporary art.... that is when it is necessary. Unfortunately these guys didn't make the kinds of works that stayed intact forever, so all we have left are photographs of what was going on at that time. I'll just share a photo of Allan Kaprow's "Yard" from 1961.

We discussed an article that Allan Kaprow wrote about the art of Jackson Pollock, and it made me realize that their works are not so dissimilar. A quote (and I'm not sure if my teacher read this verbatim or if he paraphrased) "Pollock's choice of enormous canvases served many purposes, chief of which is that his mural-scale paintings ceased to become paintings and instead became environments." The point here is that if you are standing close to a Jackson Pollock painting, you cannot see either end straight on, and so it engulfs your visual field, becoming a thing that surrounds you in a way, hence an environment.
Here is my personal favorite piece by Jackson Pollock (THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME I PROMISE YOU). Blue Poles Number 11, 1952

After this lecture we had a lecture by a visiting lecturer (one who will be giving many lectures to us). Her lecture(s) were on Conceptual art, and the Return to Painting in art in the late 1970's/early 1980's. I personally struggled with her lecturing style. She showed some incredible and interesting works, but her "slide list" only gave us the names of artists, and no names of the actual works she was showing us. A hard way to learn art history if you have no point of reference. Some of these artists have made thousands of works (like Cindy Sherman, although I am quite familiar with her bodies of work) so pinpointing just one can be difficult.
One of the artists she mentioned that I had never heard of before was Mary Kelly, a woman who decided to thoroughly document her son's life, including putting his diapers on display. Some of the photographs, however are quite beautiful, and I really enjoyed looking at her work (and I wil do some further research. Here is a photo of her with her son. You may think it is not art at first glance, but in a way isn't everything?
"Recording Session" from Post-Partum Document, 1973-1979

She also talked about artist/photographer Victor Burgin, who I found to be very provocative. In some of his works he took photos of, say..., factory workers, and then superimposed a quote from vogue magazine about the 'new style'. You should look up some of his works, see what you find interesting. Another photographer whose work I quite enjoyed was Guy Bourdin. I don't know the title of this work, but I think it is very funny. It's nice to see an artist with a well-developed sense of humor.

In the return to painting section, our lecturer spoke about painters like Basquiat, Polke and Baselitz (all of whom are well-represented by Google images). This brings me to the second half of my course day, where after lunch, we went to four different galleries in 2 hours.

All of these Galleries are in the West End of London, between Piccadilly Circus and Green Park tube stations. The first gallery we went to was "White Cube" which had new-er works by Georg Baselitz. I was captivated and mortified by his work, I mentioned him in the previous section, so you've probably already seen his work. I will probably write more about Baselitz at another time. The second gallery we went to was Thomas Dane, where there was a 7-channel video installation called "Beggars" by Kutlug Ataman, the work was very interesting. It featured video loops of seven different "beggars" in the streets of Istanbul. Some of them confronting you with their hands or speaking to you (no sound, however) and others just lying on the street with one hand out from their body, cupped. The reason why I say the work is interesting because if we had encountered any of these people on the street, we may do one of three things, walk by without even looking at them, or glance at them and walk away, or glance at them and give them 5p. The videos make one confront a situation they usually would find themselves in. The other thing the audience doesn't know is whether the people are actors or real people being filmed in Istanbul, one student mentioned that if they are not actors, what is really happening is an act of voyeurism. I certainly felt voyeuristic.

The third gallery was called Haunch of Venison. There they had several installations by Giuseppe Penone and Richard Long. Two artists who do pseudo "Land art" meaning they are fully inspired by nature, and usually work with only natural materials, or things inspired in part by natural materials. Some of the works were beautiful, others were hauntingly beautiful. Although I felt a bit sad in the whole of the exhibition because it's not always a beautiful thing to see nature outside of nature. The fourth and finally gallery (I hope you're exhausted reading this because I was exhausted doing it) was the Frith Gallery which featured work of Callum Innes. I was extremely intrigued by his process, but the outcome was only interesting to me after learning about the process.

Tomorrow we are going to the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and on the Tate Boat!!

Art Notes 6/20/2011

Maurice Denis, "Talisman," 1890

Denis said about painting: "Before it is a picture of a war horse, a nude woman, or the telling of a story, the painting is essentially a flat surface with colors."

Of course this reminds me that I haven't shown you one of my favorite paintings of all time, which is also a Denis.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, "Street Scene (Friedrich Strasse in Berlin)," 1914

Piet Mondrian, "Tableau 2," 1922 and "Broadway Boogie Woogie,' 1942

Kenneth Noland, "Turnsole," 1961

Do-Ho Suh, "Floor," 2001

Jackson Pollock, "Going West," 1935

Lee Krasner, "The Seasons," 1957

London, Day #4

I didn't write yesterday because literally nothing happened. I decided to just stay in since the Wimbledon tube was closed.Today, however, I have a ton to write about, so I'm going to post about my day here, and then do a separate art post.

I woke up again this morning around 4:30 am. I don't know why that seems to be the magical time, but it is. Then I tried going back to sleep, my body wouldn't have it. I'd open my eyes thinking they'd been closed for two hours and only fifteen minutes had passed. Eventually I just got up, got ready, had a more leisurely breakfast than I think I would have had (with my friend Zoë over video chat) and then I got on the Tube.

Now since my tube stop is at the end of the line, getting on and off at my station is fabulous. It's everywhere else that sucks. I got off to transfer to another train, and I couldn't even get on the first train that came through because the people were packed like sardines. Eventually I got to my school and I was quite relieved. I waited a bit in the park across the street from my school as I was quite early, and then I proceeded to check in/register.

My teacher is from France, and even though he has a French accent, I seem to have no problem understanding him. His dissertation was on art of the 1960s, not my forte, and so I feel like I will learn a lot from him. My class is 99% female, as in there is only one male in my class. Not too far off from my usual educational environment, so I guess I'm not complaining, but that seems to be the issue in other courses as well.

Today was extremely different from what I presume other days will be like. We had three lectures, plus an informational lecture on resources, and I can assure you all that I will spend more time out of the classroom at least two days of the week (out of the four days we have class/week). The first lecture was given by the professor, and he had some very interesting things to say about modern and contemporary art. He brought up points that I hadn't thought of before when referring to modern and contemporary art, and also arguments that I could see myself posing to people who say "I don't get it, what does it mean?" After his lecture, we went our separate ways for lunch. I walked aimlessly through the streets of London, I was hungry but not sure what I wanted. I ended up turning on a shadier tree-lined street and wound up in The Building Center. I had a delicious toasted tuna sandwich, and then proceeded to explore this incredible building. I didn't want to be late getting back to class, however, so I really only looked at the London Olympics plans which were very interesting.

After lunch, we had a guest lecturer who talked about art from 1945-1960. Her ideas are sort of centered around the artists Hans Hoffman, who I am quite unfamiliar with, but the post-lunch happiness coma got the best of me, so I wasn't paying my best attention (I did, however, take notes). Then we had an informational session in which the librarian came and told us about our library resources, and then the IT guy told us about using the internet, printing and copying, etc. After that informational lecture, we had our third and final lecture about Pop art. I really enjoyed this lecture because I have always felt quite uninformed about Pop art, and I feel that now I have a greater understanding of the genre. I couldn't sit here and write an essay about it, I just no longer feel like an idiot.

Post-that I finally had a chance to talk to some people in my class. There is one girl who goes to CCA in Oakland, what are the chances? She seems pretty cool, and I think her focus is photography, so that should be nice. We had a glass of wine with our professor, and a few other students, and then my real adventure began.

One of my goals this week was to go see the Zodiac Heads by Ai WeiWei at the Somerset House. It was about a 20 minute walk from my school, but it turned into 50 minutes when I walked several steps in the wrong direction. I almost gave up and went home, but I pushed through and I am so glad I did because the sculptures are amazing. I feel that they are perfect where they are currently standing, and I don't see why they have to go down in a week, but I hope I can convince some of my classmates to walk back over there with me later this week and we can all discuss it. When I told my professor I was going to look at the Zodiac heads, he told me that my homework was to report back. He must think I'm some kind of Ai WeiWei scholar, but I certainly am not!

The reason why I did this trek, also, was because the tube stop closest to it is on my line to Wimbledon. So when I was done, and thoroughly soaked from the rain, I hopped on the tube and waited the 18 dull stops home.
Bought a steak, carrot and potato pasty upon exiting the tube, went home and enjoyed every last bite.