Marlon 1986
Silk Screen on Linen
Unlike his other pieces, this silk screen is a black and white photo printed onto a piece of linen. Without the stylistic bright colors and unrealistic representation of a celebrity, this piece is striking for its realistic quality. Granted, it is a glamour shot of this Marlon character, wearing a tilted hat and sitting on his motorcycle. The neutral shade of the linen on which the black and white image is printed becomes the color pallet of the piece. It has an old fashioned feel due to the grainy resolution that results from screen printing in general and more specifically screen printing onto an uneven surface.
Being an artist myself, with a focus on graphic design and geometric abstraction, the off-centeredness of this print chipped at my OCD tendencies to have perfectly straight and centered lines. With a large canvas and a large image, one might expect the artist to center the image so that it becomes the focal point of the canvas. However, for stylistic reasons, Warhol places it off-center to the right hand quadrant. Although I have no explanation for this decision, it illustrates Warhol’s interest in process. It also brings up the idea of how a viewer reacts to a piece. This piece caught my eye due to the way in which it aggravated me. Art does not always have to be visually pleasing. Rather, it has to convey some message, emotion, or display some concept that is unexpected.
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Warhol Museum
Reflected (Zeitgeist Series) 1982
Acrylic Silk Screen
Entering into one of the bigger spaces in the gallery, you cannot help being drawn to this piece. Printed on a tall and very long canvas, the size alone is impeccable. Then you realize that the actual silkscreen being repeated is tiny in comparison to the canvas it is printed on.
Horizontal stripes of the most primary shades of red, green, and blue serve as the background over which the black silk screen is printed. Having no prior understanding of what “zeitgeist” means, (using the trusty Oxford English Dictionary, Zeitgeist is defined as: The spirit or genius which marks the thought or feeling of a period or age) I assumed it was some piece of machinery, such as a lie detector, which records data through a series of repeated lines. However, upon returning and discovering the true definition, I am left wondering what the image, with its vertical lines and single horizontal line at the bottom, really is. It must be of some significance to society, culture, or one of Warhol’s common themes because it was repeated so many times and then given a name alluding to its “genius” and significance to the atmosphere of the time.
Returning to the composition of the piece, the seamless repetition of the process of silk screening the same image over and over, in a bold and completely opaque shade of black, deserves attention. Fitting together like a puzzle, the math and understanding of space demonstrates the skill with which Warhol has mastered his craft. Not a single print is partial and, without an understanding of his process, one might assume that, rather than a small screen repeated over and over, it is a large screen repeated in three rows corresponding to the underlying colors. Although the overbearing shade in view is the bold black of the print, the primary colors mentioned above poke through giving the image a different look as the stripes of color change. Even after a deeper investigation has revealed to me that I do not understand this piece as I originally thought I had, it does not diminish the lasting memory this piece has had on me out of the entire museum.
Acrylic Silk Screen
Entering into one of the bigger spaces in the gallery, you cannot help being drawn to this piece. Printed on a tall and very long canvas, the size alone is impeccable. Then you realize that the actual silkscreen being repeated is tiny in comparison to the canvas it is printed on.
Horizontal stripes of the most primary shades of red, green, and blue serve as the background over which the black silk screen is printed. Having no prior understanding of what “zeitgeist” means, (using the trusty Oxford English Dictionary, Zeitgeist is defined as: The spirit or genius which marks the thought or feeling of a period or age) I assumed it was some piece of machinery, such as a lie detector, which records data through a series of repeated lines. However, upon returning and discovering the true definition, I am left wondering what the image, with its vertical lines and single horizontal line at the bottom, really is. It must be of some significance to society, culture, or one of Warhol’s common themes because it was repeated so many times and then given a name alluding to its “genius” and significance to the atmosphere of the time.
Returning to the composition of the piece, the seamless repetition of the process of silk screening the same image over and over, in a bold and completely opaque shade of black, deserves attention. Fitting together like a puzzle, the math and understanding of space demonstrates the skill with which Warhol has mastered his craft. Not a single print is partial and, without an understanding of his process, one might assume that, rather than a small screen repeated over and over, it is a large screen repeated in three rows corresponding to the underlying colors. Although the overbearing shade in view is the bold black of the print, the primary colors mentioned above poke through giving the image a different look as the stripes of color change. Even after a deeper investigation has revealed to me that I do not understand this piece as I originally thought I had, it does not diminish the lasting memory this piece has had on me out of the entire museum.
The Warhol Museum
Steve Wynn 1983
Silkscreen on linen
Belonging to Warhol’s collection of celebrity silk screens, this two canvas piece captured my attention with its air of glitz and glamour. Painted in my personal favorite combination of black and gold, this piece utilizes a technique that is unique to the process of silk screening from a photograph: inversion. By flipping the negative of a roll of film, the highlights, meant to be in lighter shades, become the darker shades and vise-versa. The left hand canvas had a gold background and the subject was printed in black, the right hand and inverted image had a black background and the subject was printed in gold. This technique goes a step beyond Warhol’s usual pop-art style.
As like any student of art, I have been desensitized to Warhol’s pop-art portraits, having seen and studied so many of them. However, upon walking into a room full of them, this one was different. Not knowing the subject of this piece, Steve Wynn, with his striking features, I was distracted by this subtle change in style. Rather than presenting a celebrity face, this piece introduced me to a new side of Warhol that was, not only inspiring, but refreshing in a sea of pop-art style portraits.
Silkscreen on linen
Belonging to Warhol’s collection of celebrity silk screens, this two canvas piece captured my attention with its air of glitz and glamour. Painted in my personal favorite combination of black and gold, this piece utilizes a technique that is unique to the process of silk screening from a photograph: inversion. By flipping the negative of a roll of film, the highlights, meant to be in lighter shades, become the darker shades and vise-versa. The left hand canvas had a gold background and the subject was printed in black, the right hand and inverted image had a black background and the subject was printed in gold. This technique goes a step beyond Warhol’s usual pop-art style.
As like any student of art, I have been desensitized to Warhol’s pop-art portraits, having seen and studied so many of them. However, upon walking into a room full of them, this one was different. Not knowing the subject of this piece, Steve Wynn, with his striking features, I was distracted by this subtle change in style. Rather than presenting a celebrity face, this piece introduced me to a new side of Warhol that was, not only inspiring, but refreshing in a sea of pop-art style portraits.
The Warhol Museum
Police Car 1983
Acrylic Silk Screen on Linen
Awkwardly hung somewhere between bellybutton and knee level, this piece caught my eye with its bright, but not particularly complementary, colors and the obvious statement it makes upon first glance. This is a police car.
The gradation of lines, transitioning from thin to thick, in a royal blue against a Barney The Dinosaur purple, screamed 80’s to my 90’s child mind. The angular line drawing of the car and the stylized font used to convey the unsubtle message across the top jumped out to me in graphic “pop.” Simple, yet eye catching, I could picture this image being reproduced multiple times in an array of color combinations while still being able to hold onto the original visual impact. Once again, Warhol has isolated a single aspect of the current culture, removed it from its usual habitat, and made it into a piece of art accessible to anyone, from a 6 year old child to an 80 year old man, who has lived in this country.
Acrylic Silk Screen on Linen
Awkwardly hung somewhere between bellybutton and knee level, this piece caught my eye with its bright, but not particularly complementary, colors and the obvious statement it makes upon first glance. This is a police car.
The gradation of lines, transitioning from thin to thick, in a royal blue against a Barney The Dinosaur purple, screamed 80’s to my 90’s child mind. The angular line drawing of the car and the stylized font used to convey the unsubtle message across the top jumped out to me in graphic “pop.” Simple, yet eye catching, I could picture this image being reproduced multiple times in an array of color combinations while still being able to hold onto the original visual impact. Once again, Warhol has isolated a single aspect of the current culture, removed it from its usual habitat, and made it into a piece of art accessible to anyone, from a 6 year old child to an 80 year old man, who has lived in this country.
The Warhol Museum
Trash 1976-1986
Gelatin Silver Print, sewn with thread
Walking through a room of Warhol’s gelatin silver prints, a common theme of repetition and subject matter that make carefully planned out patterns, the most striking was Trash. In this piece, the camera captured a section of what appears to be a trash dump. However, upon further investigation, the individual pieces of trash – food wrappers, a Tropicana orange juice carton, newspapers, a paisley printed rag, tin foil, and a shoe magazine – collectively become a glimpse into, not only the time, but the culture from which the photo was taken.
True to Warhol’s style, this single image is repeated four times and sewn together in a relatively sloppy style to show process and to emphasize an industrial and consumerist society. Although relatively busy, the focal point of each of the four prints is a bright white shoe magazine. Having entered into this museum with a thorough understanding, not only of Warhol as a person, but of his style and interest in consumerism and production, this piece seemed to epitomize Warhol as an artist. Taking a pile of trash, repeating it four times, sewing it together to make it a single piece, and then presenting it to the viewer: although not silk screened or drawn, this is Warhol. The repetition of this cluttered image could not help but be imprinted in my head.
Gelatin Silver Print, sewn with thread
Walking through a room of Warhol’s gelatin silver prints, a common theme of repetition and subject matter that make carefully planned out patterns, the most striking was Trash. In this piece, the camera captured a section of what appears to be a trash dump. However, upon further investigation, the individual pieces of trash – food wrappers, a Tropicana orange juice carton, newspapers, a paisley printed rag, tin foil, and a shoe magazine – collectively become a glimpse into, not only the time, but the culture from which the photo was taken.
True to Warhol’s style, this single image is repeated four times and sewn together in a relatively sloppy style to show process and to emphasize an industrial and consumerist society. Although relatively busy, the focal point of each of the four prints is a bright white shoe magazine. Having entered into this museum with a thorough understanding, not only of Warhol as a person, but of his style and interest in consumerism and production, this piece seemed to epitomize Warhol as an artist. Taking a pile of trash, repeating it four times, sewing it together to make it a single piece, and then presenting it to the viewer: although not silk screened or drawn, this is Warhol. The repetition of this cluttered image could not help but be imprinted in my head.
Friday, September 19, 2008
From Work To Text: Summary
Roland Barthes’ From Work To Text explores the role and contrasts of “work” and “text” in a changing literary culture. Important to this comparison between previous conceptions of work and text and current conceptions are the schools of thought from which they are emerging: Marxism, Freudianism, and Structuralism. Claiming that these new sociological and psychological conditions, in combination with older disciplines of thought, produce the current interdisciplinary perception of literature. Barthes’ goal in this essay is to illustrate two conceptually different terms that are commonly misunderstood through an explanation of the changes in critical thinking.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
From Work to Text: Outline
1. The difference and relationship between the work and the text
a. Work
i. Fragment of substance
ii. Physically held
iii. Occupy space / time
b. Text
i. Methodological
ii. Process of demonstration
iii. Held in language
c. Reality vs. the real
i. One displayed (work)
ii. One demonstrated (text)
2. Text is created by mass communication and collection of ideas
3. Text requires language
a. Text is symbolic
i. Conception / perception / reception
ii. Relies on relationship between work and language generated by it.
4. Text is an explosion of the work
a. Investigation into language behind the work
i. Citations
ii. References
iii. Cultural languages
5. Work assumes direct relationship between piece and creator. Text does not
a. Work
i. Determination (of work by world)
ii. Consecution ( amongst works)
iii. Conformity (to the author)
b. Text
i. Network or web of ideas
ii. Relationship to author can be broken. Not dependant
6. Consumer society:
a. Work is consumed
b. Text joins together the actions of reading and writing
i. Text can be played
ii. Collaboration of ideas
7. Text: pleasure of consumption
a. Text cannot be recreated or reproduced
a. Work
i. Fragment of substance
ii. Physically held
iii. Occupy space / time
b. Text
i. Methodological
ii. Process of demonstration
iii. Held in language
c. Reality vs. the real
i. One displayed (work)
ii. One demonstrated (text)
2. Text is created by mass communication and collection of ideas
3. Text requires language
a. Text is symbolic
i. Conception / perception / reception
ii. Relies on relationship between work and language generated by it.
4. Text is an explosion of the work
a. Investigation into language behind the work
i. Citations
ii. References
iii. Cultural languages
5. Work assumes direct relationship between piece and creator. Text does not
a. Work
i. Determination (of work by world)
ii. Consecution ( amongst works)
iii. Conformity (to the author)
b. Text
i. Network or web of ideas
ii. Relationship to author can be broken. Not dependant
6. Consumer society:
a. Work is consumed
b. Text joins together the actions of reading and writing
i. Text can be played
ii. Collaboration of ideas
7. Text: pleasure of consumption
a. Text cannot be recreated or reproduced
Close Readings: Barthes From Work To Text 2
Barthes states that the Text is “radically symbolic” in the representation of ideas presented by the language surrounding a work. Since the conceptual discourse surrounding a piece is not a physical object, like the work is, the text must, therefore, be symbolic and representational of the ideas. This means that, while the text makes the piece what it is, the piece is also a symbol of the discourse surround it, which would not exist if not for the work itself. This also speaks about the use of references and the unoriginality of the language surrounding the piece. All the ideas are brought together to form the text and, therefore, the text is a symbol for all of these pre-existing concepts.
Close Readings: Barthes From Work To Text
“Lucan’s distinction between ‘reality’ and ‘the real’: the one is displayed, the other demonstrated; likewise, the work can be seen (in bookshops, in catalogues, in exam syllabuses), the text is a process of demonstration, speaks according to certain rules (or against certain rules; the work can be held in the hand, the text is held in language only exists in the movement of a discourse.” (157)
The point being made by Barthes in this excerpt of From Work to Text is crucial in understanding the difference between work and text with regards to a piece of visual art. Text, being a collection of ideas and language formed around the concepts behind a work, is demonstrated through the social and historical context represented or associated with the piece. Rather than a physical object, like the work, text is an ever-changing dialect that is highly specific to the viewer and the viewers’ social and historical context. An interpretation made about the physical art object that is the work is what Barthes is calling the text. As Barthes says, the text is demonstrated while the work is displayed. Therefore, the text cannot be reproduced because social, cultural, and historical context (being ideas in language) cannot be reproduced.
The point being made by Barthes in this excerpt of From Work to Text is crucial in understanding the difference between work and text with regards to a piece of visual art. Text, being a collection of ideas and language formed around the concepts behind a work, is demonstrated through the social and historical context represented or associated with the piece. Rather than a physical object, like the work, text is an ever-changing dialect that is highly specific to the viewer and the viewers’ social and historical context. An interpretation made about the physical art object that is the work is what Barthes is calling the text. As Barthes says, the text is demonstrated while the work is displayed. Therefore, the text cannot be reproduced because social, cultural, and historical context (being ideas in language) cannot be reproduced.
Monday, September 15, 2008
In class writing 5 / interpretive project 1
Eco’s essay, Thomas Hirschhorn’s Cavemanman, and the Carnegie International: Life On Mars exhibit can be directly correlated in their exploration into the intentionality of the artist to anticipate and incorporate the viewers’ expectations, be they domestic and plausible or historic and relatable, in answering the inquiry into the realness or fakeness of an image. Eco’s reference to Disneyland as the absolute fake, Hirschhorn’s use of large scale reproductions of books, and the piece Unknown Forces all create a distance between the viewer and the piece in that they establish that these things are not real and therefore, should not be interpreted as real.
1. estabilishing fakeness // establishing replication
a. Contemporary art
i. Representational
1. Sensationalizing
a. Historical reconstruction // religious celebration (p13) > REAL
b. Contemporary art sensationalizing the concept that his is FAKE > NOT REPRESENTATIONAL
c. Theatrical representation // violence of info (16)
ii. Not trying to be “real”
1. Falsehood has justifications (17)
b. Replication
i. “sense of fullness” > “more and more”
1. determination to represent the real as best as possible
a. comes with intention to REPRODUCE
ii. cavemanman
1. there’s always a distance between viewer/artist/piece because this is not real > but relatable.
a. Consumerist society is relatable therefore able to be represented
2. Anticipate viewer’s understanding that this is not real.
a. Not representational
i. Not created in realist or naturalist style
b. Expectation allows artist to manipulate what viewer sees, their interaction.
c. Unknown Froces > video of real people. Doing something real. But the situation is not real. The viewer knows that this is not documentary.
i. Established understanding of fakeness
1. Relateable because real people. But not learning or relating to
d. “Actually in these museums the idea of the ‘multiple’ is perfect (39)
i. fetishistic desire for original forgotten when establish right away that this is fake
1. this makes the copy perfect
1. estabilishing fakeness // establishing replication
a. Contemporary art
i. Representational
1. Sensationalizing
a. Historical reconstruction // religious celebration (p13) > REAL
b. Contemporary art sensationalizing the concept that his is FAKE > NOT REPRESENTATIONAL
c. Theatrical representation // violence of info (16)
ii. Not trying to be “real”
1. Falsehood has justifications (17)
b. Replication
i. “sense of fullness” > “more and more”
1. determination to represent the real as best as possible
a. comes with intention to REPRODUCE
ii. cavemanman
1. there’s always a distance between viewer/artist/piece because this is not real > but relatable.
a. Consumerist society is relatable therefore able to be represented
2. Anticipate viewer’s understanding that this is not real.
a. Not representational
i. Not created in realist or naturalist style
b. Expectation allows artist to manipulate what viewer sees, their interaction.
c. Unknown Froces > video of real people. Doing something real. But the situation is not real. The viewer knows that this is not documentary.
i. Established understanding of fakeness
1. Relateable because real people. But not learning or relating to
d. “Actually in these museums the idea of the ‘multiple’ is perfect (39)
i. fetishistic desire for original forgotten when establish right away that this is fake
1. this makes the copy perfect
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