Monday, March 15, 2010

Question 1 for Take Home Final

We've talked a lot about the "relishing," "appreciating," "interpreting," and "evaluating" modes, but not so much about the "placing" and "curating" modes. "Placing" is the technique of placing works of art together. This is not a happenstance activity. It requires a real sense of design. How would you, for example, "place" your favorite works of art in your personal space? What would you "hang" in your home? To answer this question, select no more than a half dozen works of graphic art (for which you can find images) and put them up on your blog telling how you would arrange them in your space. _______________________________________________________________________________________
The images that I would hang in my home would be:

1. Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night
Ever since I was in fourth grade, I absolutely loved this painting. Van Gogh's style was not like any other artist of his time and would paint in little brush strokes which I found (and still find) extremely fascinating. If I could, I would hang this painting in my living room above the couch that faces a window that opens to the front yard. I would place it there because this painting was painted by Van Gogh when he was in the mental hospital. He said this was the view outside his window so if one would stand outside my window and into the living room, this would their view.

2. Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper
Another work that fascinated me was The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. He chose to paint the moment that Jesus tells his disciples that one of them will betray him, which is a moment not every artist would paint. It is painted in such a way that if hung correctly, could look like another portion of the room (the continued lines of the walls and ceiling heading towards the vanishing point). Almost all of my family have a small painting of some kind of Last Supper hanging in their kitchen, so following my family tradition, this would hang in my kitchen to remind me of that tradition and that because of Jesus, we are here today.

3. Banksy's Panda (not the couch)
I would hang this picture of a stenciled panda by Banksy in my room, because as an artist myself, this is closer to my style. I love this stencil because the irony of a wild animal holding guns is hardly different (in my mind) than of a wild man holding guns. I chose this picture because I wanted to show where I would place this painting, but instead of a couch, imagine a bed (it's the closest I could get) - the arms of the chair being the head and foot of the bed. This would also help motivate me to become as great an artist as Banksy.

4. Paul Klee's Twitterring MachineI would hang this painting on the wall at the foot of my bed because in some abstract way, it reminds me of roosters crowing in the morning so every time I would get up from bed, this would be one of the first thing's I would see. I learned of this painting a few quarters ago in my Art History class and none of my classmates could guess what it was exactly, but I like it that way. It reminds me that not everything needs to make perfect sense in order for it to be liked.

5. Edward Weston's Photography
This photograph I would hang above my work place which would be against the furthest wall in the center of my room. I love the tones of grays and this photographs show's me that not everything is seen in just black and white, but not everything is in color either. The "waves" of the photo are also appealing and keep the eyes moving from one end of the painting to the other.

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