Art and Social Change

  Waste Land is a documentary by Lucy Walker, discussing the works of Vic Muniz. Vick Muniz travels to Brazil to work with the men and women who pick through the refuse, to be able to work and create art out of recycled materials. In his desire to assist the catadores also known as garbage pickers, and change their lives, Muniz finds himself changed as well. 

Vick Muniz, a Brazilian artist known for using uncommon and irregular materials to create portraits of marginalized people, set out to paint the catadores with the garbage that they spent their day sorting through. In deciding to turn the project into a collaboration he decides that all proceeds from the photographs he creates of the finished pieces go back to the catadores, which they can use to improve their living conditions, go to school, invest in the co-op, keep their trucks in working order and even build a library. The pickers report that the project has helped lift some of the social stigma surrounding their profession, and the Brazilian government is now using the film to promote recycling nationwide.  

The most important thing that I took from this film is that art can change the lives in small and great ways. Muniz learned that the people that he has worked with are strong survivors, he began to connect with them on a sentimental level, which influenced him to help them in any way that he could.

The power of art can change society.

                

Robert Gober

Rober Gober is an American sculptor, his work is often related to domestic and familiar objects, such as sinks, door, and legs; moreover he creates different types of sculptures including individual sculptures, immersive sculpture environments and a distinctive selection of drawings and prints. His work also has themes of sexuality, nature, religion and politics. His sculptures are handcrafted in very great detail, using realistic objects to make his sculptures seem life like. He has also mad photographs, prints and drawings. 

In one of his sculpture "Untitled (leg)" Is a copy of a mans leg using real human hair, bees wax, cotton, wood, and leather. 

Two works of 20th Century Art Styles, Cubism and Surrealism

Cubism: Pablo Picasso ( Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 1907)

This cubism art work represent five naked women who faces appear to be flat and inspired by African mask. Each figure is also depicted in a disturbing confrontational manner and none are shown to be feminine. Picasso used great geometric form to show the distortion of the females body. This offered idealized representation on female beauty. This painting is square to the eye which  disposes you to attend space and symmetry. Picasso also used lack of bright colors, only using nude and dull looks of color. 

Surrealism: Giorgio de Chirico (The song of love 1914)


This surrealism art work bring together bizarre and unrelated objects. The head of a classic Greek statue, an oversized rubber glove, a green ball, and a train covered in darkness, silhouetted against a bright blue sky. He also used atomopheric perspective in which the train looks smaller than it appears.  De Chirico created what he termed "metaphysical" paintings, representation of what lies "beyond the physical" world. Disguised in an atmosphere full of anxiety and sorrow, using mostly dark colors evoke the intense irrationality of a universe torn apart by WWI.

Allora & Calzadilla

Jennifer Allora was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1974. Guillermo Calzadilla was born in 1971 in Havana. Collaborating since 1995, Allora and Calzadilla approach visual art as a set of experiments that test whether ideas such as authorship, nationality, borders, and democracy describes today's society. In the video they talk about how they use forms in their art. Not just about the form of weight, scale and size of the art but showing forms of violence, oppression, genocide, and pollution. They decide how their art take shape in what they are trying to show in what is happening in today's society. They are also trying to get people to understand the aesthetic and its relation to politics has to do fundamentally with form, giving viewers another idea about form. By drawing historical, cultural, and political metaphors out of basic materials, Allora and Calzadilla’s works explore the complex associations between an object and its meaning.

Dada Art Collage

I Apologize if the picture looks weird. I did the collage on Publication and it wont let me upload the file to the blog. I did send the collage to your email for a better look. 

Impressionism/Post Impressionism.

Watching this lecture taught me about impressionism and post impressionism.Impressionism is a 19th century movement that originated with a group of Paris based artist who's independent exhibitions brought then to prominence during the 1870's and 1880's. Impressionist usually did not paint using and moral message. They usually had an understanding with using color theory, optics, and nature of light. For example optical painting is used in impressionism which is created through our perception of color. Impressionist like Claude Monet who placed many colors on the pallet and instead of mixing the paints on the pallet, they would literally just opposed them on the canvas, just opposing yellow and blue for example to make green. Impressionism is all about light and color. They also painted mostly directly from nature.

 In this painting "Water Lillie's" by Monet which was painted in the last moments of his life. He wanted to create something that has no edges or corners. You can see that he used the mixture of yellow and blue to make green, being that green is not a primary color. He also used the impression of light and dark. The water being light and calm reflecting the lilies.

Post-Impressionist used impressionistic techniques but took the style to a new level.  Post impressionism was the work or style of a varied group in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century including Van Gogh. Post- impressionist incorporated their paintings with more passion, emotion and expression. They also used color to communicate with the world, using certain colors to express their feelings. For example Van Gogh who was searching for a deeper meaning in their art, by exploring color, line, and form that led to the development of expression.

 In this painting by Van Gogh you can see that he uses different colors of blue to make up what the sky looks like in his imagination. he also didn't mix the colors of blue before putting it on the canvas. This painting seems to be an image that Van Gogh sees from his window. The swirls in the sky seem to be the wind blowing and the bright yellow dots could be the starts in the dark sky.  

Met Museum Reflection

This baroque painting “The denial of saint peter” was finished around 1610 by an Italian painter Caravaggio. It depicts peter denying Jesus, after Jesus was arrested. Peter is shown before a fire place, when a women accuses him of being a follower of Christ. The pointing finger of the solider and the two fingers of the women suggest three accusations and to peters three denials. In this painting Caravaggio contracts light to a dark background also having a dramatic effect on brightly lit areas. On the right side of the painting you can see that the dark contradicts with the light from left to right. The soldier wearing the helmet and armor appears from the left. He is turning his face to the maid where it appears to be getting swallowed up by the darkness. Whereas on the right side peter appears to have all the attention because of the brightness of the light on his face.  Caravaggio’s art work is a good example of baroque art because it shows how he used light and shade in a dramatic way, he also showed emotional expression in his characters.













This renaissance painting “The denial of saint peter” by an Italian painter Lorenzo Lotto, who painted mostly altarpieces and, religious subjects and portraits during the renaissance. This painting was finished around 1556. It depicts Venus and her son cupid in a beautiful setting with flowers and trees. This painting was to represent celebrating a wedding. The shell above Venus head and the rose petals on her lap represent her characteristics while the ivy and snake symbolizes infidelity. No one came to a conclusion of why cupid is urinating on Venus but some say it is a pure sexual act or it could be because of her infidelity.  This art work is a good example of renaissance art because of the lack of contrast between light and dark. Also there is a lack in facial expression. This painting also showed the interest in showing off the human body.