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.

London, Day #2

Today was generally less artsy than yesterday, although the weather itself was an entirely new art form to me.

Woke up at 4:30 in the morning and was a bit furious about that, I haven't seen 4:30 in the morning in ages, but when you're this far north, it seems more like 6 in the morning. At 11 pm this evening there was still light in the sky.

So basically at that time I just lazed around for a bit and finally went down to have some breakfast.
Ate the four cheeses again and this time I think I can list them:

-English Cheddar (A bit different from American Cheddar, but still good)
-Double Gloucester with Spring Onions and Chives (So delicious)
-Red Leicester (I think it may be my favorite of the bunch, but I bought a whole second package so I can eat them as much as possible to find out)
and
-Wensleydale with Cranberries (Not my favorite, but good still, it was great with apples this morning)

After breakfasts, my hosts left to go to Sweden, so I've the whole house to myself. I decided to go into town and look around in some of the shops, pick up a couple of things. I first went to this little art store that we passed in my short introduction to Wimbledon yesterday and I bought some matryoshka tissue paper, it's very cute. Then I stopped into the book/magazine/stationary store and bought a folder for any paperwork I may need for school, and some cute notecards with a sort of watercolor poppy motif.

I then pressed on to Whittard and bought several teas, plus the "Time for Tea" tin set they sell (it is too adorable to pass up). After that I stopped at an electronics store and bought an alarm clock and some batteries. It was kind of a surreal experience. They basically have all of their stock stored away in the back, and what you do is you look through a paper catalogue or computer to find what you are looking for, and then you order it in the store, and then you wait for your order to be ready (mine took 3 minutes). Kind of odd, not something you would usually find in the states.

My first grocery trip went quite well. I went to Sainsbury's and bought some delicious looking things. It's really very nice that I will have a kitchen while I am here, because I hate the idea of being fed cafeteria-style food every day or eating out every day. For lunch I bought a sort of pasta salad that had a tomato and herb sauce, red onions and cheddar cheese (would have preferred mozzarella or parmesan to be completely honest) but it was still good. For dinner tonight I made myself some smashed potatoes, boiled peas and a chicken breast (which I bought pre-roasted at the store).

Everything is within walking distance which is nice, the tube stop is about 7-10 minutes away from my house, based on how quickly you walk, and the neighborhood seems pretty safe. The houses are very close together, so I've already met one neighbor on one side, and the other one I'm sure I will meet soon enough.

As far as art goes, Jack Smith died recently, so why not say something about him. Smith was one of the co-founders of what was called The Kitchen Sink School, a name that the press gave to them based on the styles and objects used in their works (as in everything but the...). His earlier work is sort of pseudo-realist, and very interesting indeed, and his later work is certainly more abstract.

In other art British art news, The Tate Modern has returned 10 tons of Ai Wei Wei's sunflower seeds to one of their gallery spaces.

London, Day #1

I know this is an art blog, but I promise you, even though I am tracking my days in London on my art blog, I will mostly be writing about art.

So "Day #1" is technically a combination of Thursday and Friday of this past week, as I sort of spent a bit over 24 hours getting to London, and then once I arrived here I sort of didn't sleep right away. So the next 48 hours and begin:

First art encounter: Philadelphia airport.

My study of art history has led me to love and understand the need for public art. Usually the scenario consists of a building or public space being built, and the city having a requirement of art in front of or inside of that space. Airports of the world (well at least some of the ones I have seen) have been consistent in revealing incredible works of public art by local artists of the area. As I was taking the electronic walkway to my gate, I came across two very interesting pieces of public art (well there were more, but I only remember the names of two).

The first is a series of sculptural pieces by the art team of Ralph Helmick and Stuart Schechter entitled "Impulse." The piece spans several different spaces, and is made up of many individual sculptures of birds that are suspended in a way so that they create the shape of another bird. The other part of the piece consists of wall labels as you zoom by the work of art that identify each of the individual bird sculptures in the piece. There is an image from below here, and a semi-alright video here (that for some reason halfway through cuts off from looking at the sculpture and zooms in on some women crossing the video-er.

The second piece was really interesting. It was a clock, functional, that was made using the help of some green beer bottles. The clock is made by Rick Stanley and his son, or a team referred to as Stanley Clockworks. The piece is one of a kind and quite extraordinary. You can read about it on their website here. And below are a couple of photos I took.

Once I arrived in London, I was picked up by the family whose home I am staying in while I'm here. I am living in Wimbledon, so we drove a bit of a ways to get there from Heathrow. We had a very lovely lunch which consisted of me trying four kinds of English cheese, all of which I loved very much and am looking forward to eating them all again. (Names to come).

Skip ahead a bit to dinner where I had the pleasure of dining with the artist Ian Southwood, who does incredible photo-realist paintings. His daughter, who I also met, is currently in art school, and apparently has just won a sculpture contest and her work will be displayed in front of the Wimbledon tube station!

So for a first day, it was all very artistic and interesting. Day #2 will consist of exploring more of Wimbledon, buying some groceries, and writing lots of postcards, so I don't have to worry about them for too much longer.

xoxo