The Misinterpretation Of Blue

For my final field trip and project I chose to take the alternate choice of using the MoMa’s permeate collection to create my own exhibition. The theme I chose to exhibit was the color blue, not only is blue my favorite color but I like the way one uses different shades of blue to mean or express different feelings or emotions. When most people imagine blue the first thing to mind is sadness or feeling down because society has associated those emotions to it, ex. Feeling blue, I want this exhibit to show blue can express more than that one single emotion but displaying works of art that span the entire spectrum of human emotion.

To give a small sampling of my exhibit here are 3 pieces that I think describe my theme pretty well. To start things off I picked a piece that I wrote about in my first field trip reaction to MoMa, that piece is “727” by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. The piece is an anime inspired creature riding a wave in an ocean set to the style of old Japanese art. The color blue is used throughout the piece, the water is blue and is show as strong and a force of nature that is not to be reckoned with, as well as the creature whose body is also blue is shown in the same light. My second piece is a well-known piece by Vincent Van Gogh, that piece is “Starry Night”. Throughout the entire piece the color blue is used in different shades but they all help paint this sense of emotional tranquility. The blues used in the sky with those from the town below give the person a sense that at least for this night the town is at peace and will sleep with no disruptions. Finally I wanted to show that the color blue can be used outside of paintings to show emotion, in the case of the “vase” made by  Koloman Moser it has an appearance of being old due to the brown lines that separate what looks like pools of blue spots surround the entire vase. One can see that paired with some flowers this could make a room pop or give it that eye catching center of attention a room need to be complete. This is just a small sampling of what my exhibit hopes to showcase the full exhibit will be below for your full enjoyment.

 Takashi Murakami, "727",1996, Paintings & Sculptures 

 Roman Signer,"Board",1980,Media & Performance Art

 Tobia Scarpa,"Bowl",1960, Architecture & Design 

 Fernand Leger,"Exit the Ballets Russes",1914,Painting & Sculpture 

 Salvador Vali, "Illumined Pleasures",1929,Painting & Sculpture 

 Jacob Lawrence,"flood",1940-1941.Painting & Sculpture 

 Kaj Franck,"Kilta Storage Container",1948, Architecture & Design

Lester Beall,"Light-Rural Electrification Administration",1937,Architecture & Design  

 Philip Taaffe,"Necromancer",1989-1990,Painting & Sculpture 

 Jack Youngerman,"Ram",1959,Painting & Sculpture 

 Unkown,"Silver Streak Iron",1946,Architecture & Design

 Maria Lassnig,"Untitled",1998-2001,Drawings

 Koloman Moser,"Vase",1902,Architecture & Design

 Claude Monet,"Water Lilies",1914-1926,Painting & Sculpture  

 Vincent Van Gogh,"The Olive Trees",1889,Painting & Sculpture 

Vincent Van Gogh,"Starry Night",1889,Painting & Sculpture 

Field trip 6

For my final field trip and project I chose to take the alternate choice of using the MoMa’s permeate collection to create my own exhibition. The theme I chose to exhibit was the color blue, not only is blue my favorite color but I like the way one uses different shades of blue to mean or express different feelings or emotions. When most people imagine blue the first thing to mind is sadness or feeling down because society has associated those emotions to it, ex. Feeling blue, I want this exhibit to show blue can express more than that one single emotion but displaying works of art that span the entire spectrum of human emotion.

To give a small sampling of my exhibit here are 3 pieces that I think describe my theme pretty well. To start things off I picked a piece that I wrote about in my first field trip reaction to MoMa, that piece is “727” by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. The piece is an anime inspired creature riding a wave in an ocean set to the style of old Japanese art. The color blue is used throughout the piece, the water is blue and is show as strong and a force of nature that is not to be reckoned with, as well as the creature whose body is also blue is shown in the same light. My second piece is a well-known piece by Vincent Van Gogh, that piece is “Starry Night”. Throughout the entire piece the color blue is used in different shades but they all help paint this sense of emotional tranquility. The blues used in the sky with those from the town below give the person a sense that at least for this night the town is at peace and will sleep with no disruptions. Finally I wanted to show that the color blue can be used outside of paintings to show emotion, in the case of the “vase” made by  Koloman Moser it has an appearance of being old due to the brown lines that separate what looks like pools of blue spots surround the entire vase. One can see that paired with some flowers this could make a room pop or give it that eye catching center of attention a room need to be complete. This is just a small sampling of what my exhibit hopes to showcase the full exhibit will be below for your full enjoyment.

Works Cited

Takashi Murakami

“727”

1996

Vincent Van Gogh

“Starry Night”

1889

Koloman Moser

“Vase”

1902

Chelsea Galleries Reaction

   During this field trip we were asked to go the many art galliers located in Chelsea, this is a new experience for me because the only art I have ever seen has been in muesum and as many of you know they are non-profit. Galleries on the other hand are all for profit and it interested me how diffrent it can be. The assignment was to pick one exhibition i would like to "purchase" and another i wouldn't spend a dime on. The David Zwirner Gallery featured the artist Yan Pei-Ming and the works on display were ones that I wouldn't mind having on a wall in my house, on the other hand when i went to the Tanya Bonakdar where Ernesto Neto was displaying his works they were something I would not take into my house if they were offered to me for free.
  Yan Pei-Ming's exhibt of black paintings had 2 that really caught my attention, those being "moonlight" and "all crows under the sun are black". Both of those works are done in completly diffrent shades of black and its amazing how from afar you cant really see anything but smudges but when you take a moment and really start to look into the painting you get a real appreication for all the details and hard work that went into using one color to show many diffrent things. These are pieces of art that if my funds allowed i would buy not to resell at a later date but just because i enjoy the pieces themselves.

  On the flip side when i saw Ernesto Neto's works specifically the "grub measure" and "the sun lits life, let the son" both of these pieces in my opinion were just space wasters. Maybe i just dont get it or its not for me but nothing about these pieces caught my attention and make me want to buy them i just kept thinking why would anyone want this in their house. The size of it was another issue i had with it, unlike a painting where one could store these pieces were massive and oddly shaped to the point that on top of buying them one would have to spend money to have it properly displayed in ones house, too many issues for something i dont even like.

Works Cited

Yan Pei-Ming

"moonlight"

2011

Yan Pei-Ming

"all crows under the sun are black"

2012

Ernesto Neto

"grub measure"

2012

Ernesto Neto

"the sun lits life, let the son"

2012

Design in Our Lives

Our last field trip we revisited the MoMa and were asked to view an exhibit that specialized in the design arts. Our goal was to find works that showed either a high or low functionality factor or ergonomics. There were two entire installations that caught my eye the moment I saw them and made me want them in my own house. The first of these was the living room set up that had its pieces made up off glass and metal, the functionality of the room was pretty high everything worked the way it was meant to be without having to go out of your way. To go more into detail there was this table that was a single piece of glass, it was simple and served its purpose while standing out enough but not to the point its cumbersome. The materials of metal and glass also gave everything a clean look that few other materials bring.
Right next to the metal and glass exhibit there was what I believe to be the opposite of those materials, that material was plywood. There were chairs, tables, and sofas, bed frames, all made out of this material that is known for being light and flexible. I would have never though it would make good material for everyday use such as a living room set. There was this one specific chair that used the flexibility one as come to associated with plywood and use it to make the base 4 twisted pegs. Both of these exhibits showed to me that they not only looked good but also were highly functional.
Now not all pieces of design art are as functional as what the description says. There was this piece by Ron Gilad “wall piercing”, its exactly what it says it’s a circular led lamp that is installed by piercing your wall. That sounds good and intersting but once you see it in action one can see where it goes wrong, since it sticks out of the wall the chance of someone running into or something getting caught becomes very visible. At least what it lacks in functionality it makes up in originality. The second exhibit that in my onion had a very low functionality factor had to have been the “Designs for an overpopulated planet: foragers “ the moment one looks at the exhibit questions start to arise because nothing looks like anything one has ever seen. At this moment one goes and reads the descriptions only to look back up and see if what your reading is in fact the description for the piece because you see no way how its supposed to do that. For example there were there’s two giant tubes that one would insert into ones nose in order to smell the ground and flowers better, why would one even want that and then why make it so big that makes it cumbersome. Over all both of those exhibts showed little to no functionality. Even though an object may lack functionality one can still look at it and applaud it for the creativity and work the designer put into it

MoMA PS1: The Good, the Bad, and the Misunderstood

Upon reaching MoMa PS1 one can tell how different it is from its much bigger and sophisticated counterpart MoMa. The place gives out a vibe that its willing to put out pieces that will make you question whether what your seeing is really considered art. Going in with the mindset of revisiting my opinions of good,bad and misunderstood art, made this trip interesting. Due to this mindset i spent a lot of time on each piece , more than I usually would because I was trying to really understand them, even though that didn't really happen most of the time.

As i walked throughout the different rooms looking for something to catch my eye I was pleasantly surprised when I entered a room with speakers set up all around it. The room was Janet Cardiff's "The Forty Part Motel", the speakers were set up into section around the room making a circle of sound, the interesting part of this exhibit was how each individual group of speakers were emitting different sounds. You could only hear this if u walked around and stood in front of the speakers, but at any moment you could take a step into the circle and you would hear this Chorus singing a beautiful song. Personally the song relaxed me so much that I wouldn't have minded getting a bed in there and taking a nap. At that moment I realized this is good art, it not only sounded good but it made me think beyond what I saw like how this was set up and does this song have some sort of meaning. On a final note the amount of planing and details needed to set this up in order for it to work properly has to be considered a work of art on its own.

After going around the museum i couldn't really find any piece of art that made me feel "wow this is art" until the people i was walking with reminded us of the exhibit that on the third floor that was deemed graphic. I could honestly say the entire exhibition of Clifford Owens : Anthology to be bad art. The subject matter didn't bother me but it made me keep asking why is this art, the one piece that caught my eye was and made me shake my head was "Anthology (Glenn Ligon) " it was literally a photography of a man urinating , i tried to look at it in many different ways but all i came out of it was someone using the bathroom and taking a picture. That to me is the perfect defection of bad art because one an try to understand it and try to formulate why but in the end its just a guy pissing on the street.

After that exhibit, I made my way back into Darren Bader : Images exhibit. The room with the Iguana blew my mind trying to understand it, inside the room theres am iguana its cage and thats the only thing that made sense but around it there was a oven or dishwasher with a melted pizza inside of it next to it there were two small statues of what looked like Buddha's. That alone was worth of it being my misunderstood piece but to solidify its hold on that theres a croissant on the floor as well, I keep asking my self and people around me if this was one whole exhibit or were they different. Honestly it wouldn't have helped to know thats how confused that room was to me. The artist him self could explain it and I think still wouldn't be able to fully grasp it.

Overall this was an experience that will stay in my mind for some time. While not everyone will agree with my choices for good, bad and misunderstood art, thats okay. The point of any art is to evoke emotion and not everyone is going to feel the same way since we as humans have experienced many different things that will affect our view of the world.

Works Cited

Janet Cardiff

" The Forty Part Motet"

40-part sound recording (14 mins) 40 speakers

2001

Clifford Owens

"Anthology (Glenn Ligon)

3 C-prints

2011

Darren Bader

"Iguana Room in Images"

(Forgot to copy info)

Art and Identity: The Museum of Modern Art

During our trip to the museum of modern art we were asked to find pieces of art that expressed different forms of identity be it a historical , cultural , or individual. We were to look at works from the contemporary gallery exhibit that showed works from the 1980s to now and the Cindy Sherman exhibit. Personally i didn't find anything form the Cindy Sherman exhibit to my personal liking so all of the following artworks are from the Contemporary exhibit.

The First Piece of work that caught my eye was an "untitled" piece from the series Dear Painter , Paint for me by Martin Kippenberger (1981). In this piece we see what seems to be a urban city corner where someone has thrown out a couch an da man in a suit is sitting on it. When i saw this i imediatly thougt about its historical identiy not just because of the objects around that respresnt a past era but more of how this captured the feeling of how slow this era was compared to the one we live in now. The sidewalks are empty , the streets arent packed with cars , what i belive to be a bussiness man is just lounging on a couch that was thrown out. Compared to how we live now there is no way any pf this would occur because of how fast everything has become in our curent time, maybe we all have to just sit down and realize all the things around us before we pass the by.

As I moved along the exhibt this piece from Ashley Bickerton named "Tormnented Self-Portrait" (87-88) caught my eye , as i stood there staring at what was in front in me for a good 10 mintues it final hit me these were all the things the person whos self portait was made of they used in their everyday life. At the moment i realized what better way to show Individual idenity, usually one would think it would involved a person but this was so much better. The logos of the products give one an inside look to a person we will never meet and never see their face but we will know their favorite cigarette brand and their hobbies.

The final piece that drew me in was one by Takashi Murakami named "727" (96) , the moment one lays eye on it one knows that its heavily influenced by Japanese's culture and thats what cultural identity is about. The painting itself reminds me of many a manga I've read in my life (manga is a type of Japanese comics) that alone made me like it since i am a avid fan of them. The more time i spent looking i started to realized that not only was it showing the current culture of japan by the little magna monster but the background is one that i have seen in so many other Japanese works from ancient times. This piece not only makes the view identify with the current but also incorporated something from its past so its not only making use of cultural identity but of historical as well.

This was my first time going to the MoMa and i will say i will be going back to further explore what it has to offer. Going with the goal of looking for and finding works of art that showed the diffrent ways to identify itself helped me not only keep focused but look beyond just the painting or photo, it made me think the time period this as created, what was going on in the world during that time, and where was this person from. This trip not only taught me something but it made me look forward to all our other field trips.

Works Cited

Martin Kippenberger

"untitled" (from Dear Painter, Paint for Me)

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

1981

Ashley Bickerton

"tormented self-portrait"

synthetic polymer paint,bronze powder and lacquer on wood , anodized aluminum,rubber,plastic,Formica,leather,Chrome plated steel, and canvas

1988

Takashi Murakami

"727"

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas board , three panels

1996

Narrative Digital Collage

This collage represents what i used to daydream about when i was younger.Everytime class would get boring i would enter this mind state and relax, during this time in my life nothing was more fun then playing video games and being able to play in a bouncey castle (to this day if i could find an adult one i would rent it ASAP).