February 10, 2014
Project 1 Research

C.M. Coolidge

The first artist I’ve chosen to research is Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, famous for his painting entitled “Dogs Playing Poker”. I chose this artist due to the content of my own piece for the first project, namely rendering of vector images for dogs who will simultaneously display a subliminal message. The quirky and comical style which Coolidge employs utilizes realistic proportions and details, allowing the context to create the humor.  According to New York Times dotcom, Coolidge “bounced around the northeastern United States and Europe, trying his hand at myriad trades: he ran a drug store, founded a bank, painted street signs, drew cartoons, taught art.” Art history dotcom also takes note of the remarkable fact that Coolidge made surrealist paintings a full half-century prior to the movement. According to Dogs Playing Poker dot org, C.M. Coolidge, nicknamed “Cash”, was born on September 18, 1844 to Nathan and Martha Coolidge, who were successful farmers living in upstate New York. Their farm and home was located on Hoyt Street between the small towns of Antwerp and Philadelphia, New York. Again, the website states that “Cassius's parents were old time Quakers and, inasmuch, strong abolitionists.” Alison Cooney accurately captures that which was most effective about Coolidge’s style. She is recorded on New York Times dotcom as having said that “people who dismiss Coolidge as ‘kitschy art’ are missing the deeper dimensions of his work. ‘People don't think of it as having another interpretation,’ she said. ‘It's a humorous, ironic take; a jab at middle-class America; another way of poking fun at ourselves.’" Dogs Playing Poker is actually a series of images, but “Pinched with Four Aces” is perhaps the most captivatingly humorous. It depicts the dogs playing poker as usual, with a rich background containing alcohol and cigars, in which dogs dressed as police officers appear to have interrupted the party. This image stretches the imagination even further than the others, as it the police dogs it portrays appear to be standing on two legs. The dogs that were gambling stand on the opposite end of the canvas, with faces turned dramatically towards the police dogs, whose piercing glare meets theirs. The central image most powerfully captures the guilt and fear evoked by the scene, as a lone dog attempts to escape the room, looking only out of the corner of his eye to make sure that no one detects him. Anyone who has so much as seen a scolded dog will instantly recognize the expression on the central dog, though it is cleverly used in a very different setting than would occur in real life. The image instantly evokes alongside it a small whimper, signifying that the dog has not gotten its way. This painting conveys anthropomorphism to a brilliant extent, in which all of the very serious emotions instantly lose their grip upon the viewer as one contemplates the absurdity of the situation.

George Rodrigue

(https://www.artbrokerage.com/Blue-Dog-George-Rodrigue/prints)

George Rodrigue, who unfortunately passed away just a couple of months ago, was born and raised in New Iberia, Louisiana, and best known for his Blue Dog paintings , which catapulted him to worldwide fame in the early 1990s, according to George Rodrigue dotcom.  Rodrigue’s Blue Dog has remarkably simple and easily identifiable features, including bright yellow eyeballs and pointed outstretched ears. According to New York Times dotcom, George Rodrigue, whose career as an artist started with “dark and lush landscapes of his native Louisiana bayou, shifted abruptly, and profitably, when he began a series of portraits of a single subject: a melancholy mutt that came to be known as Blue Dog”. The New York Times article goes on to mention the source of Rodrigue’s iconic canine image: his dog Tiffany. The website states “Mr. Rodrigue found his model in his studio: a photograph of his dog, Tiffany, who had died. She was black and white in reality but became blue in his imagination, with yellow eyes. She was also a she, but she could become a he — or, for that matter, whatever else a viewer was prepared to see.” According to George Rodrigue himself, the dog was originally called Loup Garou, but after it was merely called “the blue dog” in passing conversation in a show in Los Angeles, he began to change his perception of the work, in addition to the name (YouTube). Rodrigue would intentionally place the Blue Dog at eye level, so that’s piercing gaze, always facing the viewer, would convey a sense of humanity (YouTube). He also notes, in this same video, that the dog’s position never changes; he is always sitting, facing towards the viewer, which was a mystery which Rodrigue was still trying to solve (YouTube). I choose this artist, in part because he is another individual working with dogs repeatedly, which is helpful as I prepare to do the same in my first project. I was drawn to the Blue Dog due to its concise, effective imagery. I hope to create an equally simple and iconic image; the dogs I depict will also face the viewer with piercing eyes. While there is no overt manipulation of the individual psyche through the medium of painting the Blue Dog, the image does have a profound psychological effect on the viewer based upon preconceptions of the colors and animal rendered. Dogs are typically thought to be friendly and loyal, and the color blue is normally regarded as peaceful, perhaps extending towards being sad. Yet something about the Blue Dog’s wide open eyes suggest fear more strongly than either loyalty or sadness. It is commonly said that the eyes are the window to the soul, and with yellow’s traditional association with fear, it is not surprisingly that my, and most likely others’ initial impression of Blue Dog is that he is paralyzed by fear and panic. Rodrigue’s image evokes a sort of request that distance be kept between oneself and the dog, almost as though the dog were human and reaching to pet or otherwise physically interact with it could result in hostility. The white fur which trails down the middle of his face invokes in me a sense of age, and with it, wisdom. Thus, the Blue Dog takes on a dynamic personal dimension which far transcends the brushstrokes on canvas, and this is what I aspire to accomplish in my work.

Works Cited
C.M. Coolidge
New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/14/nyregion/14DOGS.html
Art History: http://arthistory.about.com/cs/namescc/p/coolidge_cm.htm
Dogs Playing Poker: http://www.dogsplayingpoker.org/bio/coolidge/bio1.html

George Rodrigue

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/arts/design/george-rodrigue-artist-who-painted-blue-dog-dies-at-69.html?_r=0
Video Interview with George Rodrigue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrtyYW8_osc

03/03/2014

Project 2 Research

For this artist research my goal is to point to two artists that capture the main idea I am attempting to convey with project #2; this idea will capture the offensive and exclusionary nature of political and religious pundits who ostracize others from their platform of power. While the mediums these artist use may be very different from my own, it is the similarity in concept that I feel to be most significant. Neither of the works discussed are inherently sacrilegious per se, nor is it the intention that my upcoming work should be considered an assault on religion as much as it will be a means of expressing the inherent controversy of the political and theological atmosphere.

David Wjnarowicz

I was drawn to this artist due to the controversial film he created entitled “A Fire in My Belly”, with sound provided by Diamanda Galas, which made an impact on the art world through its criticism of religion. Particularly eerie and evocative was the sound provided throughout the 4-minute clip. Reading selections from Leviticus 13 and 15, the female singer dramatically repeats the word unclean, and carries with it a sense of divine judgment, condemnation, and shame. The shame perhaps points to David Wjnarowicz's sexual orientation, or, more likely, that in tandem with having AIDS, two circumstances which have prompted fear and repulsion from many. His short film evokes precisely the religious and political tension that I wish to emulate through my work, though without blatant sacrilege.

This short clip includes the images of ants racing across the miniature figurine of Christ, as well as male frontal nudity, which apparently begins to masturbate. This imagery is deeply challenging to conservative mindsets, which view such openness about sexuality to be immoral. The viewer must set aside personal convictions in order to evaluate the video for the effectiveness of its visual qualities. The piece would not enjoy the same level of success without sound, because the audio serves to unify the otherwise disparate visual information. The video depicts numerous images of blood; the sounds which repeat in the background are composed of drums and simple vocal noises. The woman who reads from Leviticus yells dramatically, shrieking at some points, and gives the longest pronunciations to the word unclean. Christ is depicted numerous times, and in all of these appearances he suffers, in some instances on the cross, in others walking to it, and in all of the images he is wearing the signature crown of thorns. The images of Christ are not particularly reverent; while his death, suffering, and apparent martyrdom are clearly depicted, notably missing is his resurrection. This correlates with the overall mood created by Wjnarowicz’s work; there is only death awaiting him, with no hope of renewed life. The slabs of meat carried off seem to indicate Wjnarowicz’s personal suffering. AIDS patients were reviled and repulsed, as though they had a disease which could be acquired through physical contact, in much the same way that many feared the effects of touching someone with leprosy. Much of the imagery also relates to Dia de los Muertos, which again relates to the hopelessness of oncoming death as a result of AIDS. The masks, also relating to Dia de los Muertos, evoke tremendous fear as they flash between black flashes. The video ends with the destruction of an eyeball, and subsequently the world, which is in keeping with the hysteria created by the AIDS crisis.

Wjnarowicz does not necessarily try to insult religion as much as he tries to explain the hardships and persecutions he encountered in his life as a result, in part, of religion. The destruction and death portrayed in the video reflect Wjnarowicz’s mood as a result of the ostracism he faced.

Robert Mapplethorpe

I chose this artist because of the remarkably controversy surrounding his artwork. He dared to be different, and dared to contradict the notion that our lives are simple, ordinary, and clean. Mapplethorpe felt that artists were stigmatized for trying to convey the complexity of reality. His images make many uncomfortable, some to the extent that politicians have tried to censor his works, yet the intense reflection the photos cause forces the viewer to evaluate the world in a different way. Several viewers of Mapplethorpe’s work engaged in deep debate, ranging from the nature of sexual intent to the role the government may play in censorship to the definition of art.

Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs are predominately taken in black and white, and depict highly evocative, sometimes erotic imagery. The fact that Mapplethorpe’s images are regarded as pornographic is irrelevant to his desire that they be considered as quality art. While the images were designed, in part, to arouse, this was not the full intention or extent of his work.

His work entitled “Embrace” taken in 1982 depicts an African American and Caucasian male hugging without shirts on, which is tame compared with some of his other works. The image evokes racial and sexual tensions, drawing the reader’s mind to the problems of racism and homophobia prevalent in that time as they are today. This photograph appears to make time stand still. The fact that the film is rendered entirely in black and white serves to heighten the obvious differences in skin color between the two people. It is also noteworthy that they are both male, as Americans tend to view masculinity in a manner averse to watching men embrace. The viewer is not able to see the men’s faces because the men rest their heads on one another’s shoulders, an act common when the embrace is triggered by sadness. It would not at all be surprising to suspect that two minorities, facing years of hardship and vilification, would feel a great deal of pain. The men are alone, accompanied by neither other people nor furniture nor imagery on the wall behind them. The viewer therefore has no other potential focal point within the scene. The two men are pressed very closely together, with no visual space between them, and their hands are open, allowing their fingers to caress the backs of the other.

Image Citations:

"A Fire in my Belly" Picture: http://www.spacesgallery.org/files/blog/101217wojnarowicz.jpg

"A Fire in my Belly" Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFEJsOFy8P4

"Embrace" 1992: http://artobserved.com/artimages/2013/10/Robert-Mapplethorpe-Embrace-1982-via-Thaddeus-Ropac.jpeg

04/02/14

Project 3 Research

For the artist research for project 3, I have selected Anthony McCall, British artist born April 14, 1946 in London. McCall was inspired to make art by a beam of light produced by a cinema projector (whitelinehotels.com). His practice spans across multiple disciplines, including film, sculpture, installation, drawing and performance art (artabase.net). Artabase.net notes that McCall “was a key figure in the avant-garde London Film-makers Co-operative in the 1970s” and the films produced from this period consisted of documentation of outdoor performances which made “minimal use of the elements, most notably fire” (artabase.net). McCall began his “Solid Light” film series after moving to New York in 1973, and continued making art until the end of the 1970s, in which he refrained from making further creations for over 20 years (artabase.net).
The “Solid Light” series has an interesting conceptual impact on the viewer; McCall observes the manner in which viewers are tempted, even when they know better, to touch the light as though they would receive a tactile response (he does so in the video displayed below). McCall seeks to utilize time to trick the eye (as indicated by the video below) and does a remarkable job doing so. The light gives the impression that it is motionless, yet it is changing all the time, in addition to its deceptively immaterial nature. Against an absolutely black background the light penetrates through the darkness in an overwhelmingly harsh and dramatic fashion.  The figures that maneuver through the piece lose all detail, becoming black silhouettes amidst a light so thick that it appears cloudy. There is a surreal otherworldly vibe as one observes a figure emerge from the light encased in darkness. The harsh contrast of light resembles that of an animation or comic book image more than daily life. The light is unlike much of normal experience, and so conveys an almost supernatural presence. The minimalist style in which each of these projects are created and displayed prevent the viewer from having a visual or spatial means of distracting him or herself from the pervasive intensity of the experience McCall facilitates. As McCall noted through the attempt at touching the light, the works take on a level of significance which is created in the mind of the observer, whose imagination runs wild when placed in such an environment. One work in particular, “Long Film for Four Projectors”, made in 1974, creates stunning angular beams which encompass anyone walking through them, and makes the figure appear as though he or she were floating in an otherworldly realm.

The “Solid Light” series relates to my own ideas in that I intend for there be a seemingly otherworldly force from above, one which forces the viewer to look upwards with a profound sense of awe and mystery. As an aspiring animator, I too have created and will create light relationships which are seemingly unnaturally intense. In particular I am drawn to cartoons such as Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series, in which dramatically contrasted light and darkness served to create an atmosphere of fear and mystery.

The second artist I’ve selected for my artist research is Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and his project entitled “Solar Equation”. Born in Mexico City in 1967, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a faculty associate of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, with a B.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal Canada, which he received in 1989 (lozano-hemmer.com). He has made many commissioned large-scale interactive installations such as the UN World Summit of Cities in Lyon in 2003, and he was Mexico’s first representative at Venice Biennials and Triennials in Istanbul, Liverpool, Montreal, New Orleans, and many other locations (lozano-hemmer.com).

 “Solar Projection” is a fascinating work that suspends the world’s largest spherical balloon (which is still 100 million times smaller than the actual sun) in the air and uses five different projectors to project onto it a simulation of the sun with various motions, sunspots and flares (lozano-hemmer.com). The balloon’s surface is constantly changing through live mathematical equations and observatory imagery from NASA (lozano-hemmer.com), and the nighttime atmosphere in which it is displayed draws attention as an experiential anomaly. It truly appears as though there were a small sun orbiting throughout the sky at night. Lozano-Hemmer intended, and succeeded, in creating a romantic yet mysterious image that attracted large crowds of amazed spectators (lozano-hemmer.com). The miniature sun gives an ominous aura, as though its closeness and visibility at night were a sign of impending doom. In this way, despite the intent Lozano-Hemmer had on creating a romantic atmosphere, this image has an unsettling nature to it. However, any qualitative work of art ought to be subject to some level of debate, and perhaps it is the unfolding of my fear of the unknown that causes me to regard the image in the way that I do. In any case, “Solar Projection” will likely create an experience within each viewer which captures their relationship to the sun and to mystery.
Lozano-Hemmer’s work relates to my ideas in that I would like to present an image that looms and encourages the viewer to look expectedly from above, with an expectation of change or potential interaction. The sun often is associated with significant symbolic and religious ties due to its essential role in creating life on our planet. The sun commands a certain level of reverence and amazement regardless of one’s belief system. I would also like to create an object that feels foreign, otherworldly, impressive, perhaps even mildly frightening.

Works Cited

Anthony McCall: http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/1530-anthony-mccall

http://www.whitelinehotels.com/blog/anthony-mccall/

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/bio.php

Image Citations:

Anthony McCall video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4FDLc2HbAY

"Solar Projection": http://wilsonanastasios.com/2010/06/04/sun-spots-before-my-eyes-rafael-lozano-hemmer-at-fed-square/

"Solid Light": http://www.pinterest.com/pin/278308451946247329/