Week 6-Landscape and the Sublime

 'Wanderer in the mists' (1818) Caspar David Friedrich

 'Untitled #2" (2002) Richard Misrach

 'Untitled # 394-03' (2003) Richard Misrach

Richard Misrach's photography reflects the concept of the Sublime, from the Enlightenment.

Research Misrach's work by reading about his intentions, and also by looking at the work. Then answer the following questions;

1. What and when was the Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment is the era in western philosophy, intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centred upon the 18th century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority. Some scholars simply use the beginning of the 18th century or the middle of the 18th century as a default date

2. Define the concept of the Sublime.

The concept of the sublime is defined as the quality of greatness, whether is physical, moral intellectual, or spiritual. It is used to refers to things which nothing else can be compared with because of its greatness.
3. How did the concept of the Sublime come out of the Enlightenment thought?

The Enlightenment is held to be the source of critical ideas, such as the centrality of freedom, democracy, and reason as primary values of society. Which this starts to create the concept of sublime, people in the society starts to think things such as appeal and freedom is very important to them, so therefore the way how people think start to develop, and becomes sensitive to what they want, and their status.

4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work. Add some more images of his work.

Misrach’s work has a very unique way of taking photos; specially some of his photos are taken in a wide perspective and from a great height. His art work gives a very calm and still feeling towards viewers, making the image is very approachable to everyone.

 

 

Richard Misrach
Untitled 1132-04 [Flippers], 2004
chromogenic print

When I saw this artwork, it gives me the feeling which refers back the concept of sublime, making myself to blend into the image as being superior lifted up high as I was looking down on to the ground from a great height, making objects/humans in the photo looks tiny.

 

Pyramid Lake (at night), (2004) Richard Misrach

 

5. Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.

 

Somewhere in My Surreal Dreams : A Sus Pies, 2009

By: Luis Beltran

Luis Beltran is a Spanish digital photographer artist, he’s not only a photographer, but also a video artist; he created this artwork captured my attention once I had a glance on this image. This image gives a fantasy and a dream world feeling when I saw it, and also the idea of sublime as well, being on top of the city with the feeling of freedom. Especially the glowing flare in the middle of the girl, which gives me the idea of the girl, is the king/ the ruler of the world.

6. How does Misrach's photography make you feel? Does it appeal to your imagination?

His photography expresses to me as there are no end towards nature with his wide perspective photo images, just like referring to imagination, tells me that imagination are limitless,

7. Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.

8. Reference your sources (books and websites).

http://www.amerindianarts.us/articles/concept_of_the_sublime_as_an_aesthetic_quality.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_%28philosophy%29

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2008/misrach/misrachinfo_fs.shtm

http://www.edelmangallery.com/misrach.htm

http://iconolo.gy/archive/somewhere-my-surreal-dreams-luis-beltr%C3%A1n/1411

http://luisbeltran.megashot.net/photostream/p/0#photo_1705

Week 4- The social status of the artist.

Self Portrait in Fur Coat (1500)

Albrecht Durer

Knob (1997) Gavin Turk

Damien Hirst and Maia Norman (1995)

Albrecht Durer's 'Self-Portrait in Fur Coat' (1500) shows a significant change in the way that the artist views and portrays himself.Research the paintings by Albrecht Durer, Gavin Turk and Damien Hirst in order to answer

the following questions;

1. Identify aspects of Durer's self portrait that show a changing view of the artist's view of himself as an individual.

Durer is the first artist who is as the first to make self-portraiture a major part of his work. and in this self portrait painting, it has an idea combining of christ-like pose, and himself in the age of 28.

2. Explain how the artist's social status increased during the Renaissance period. Briefly explain why this happened.

He is not just a painter, but he also made numerous of other work with other media such as copper engraving and woodcuts. when he's in his twenties, his art work established his reputation over across Europe, and became the greatest artist of the northern renaissance ever since.

3. Comment on Gavin Turk's work in relation to individualism, status of the artist and egotism.

Gavin Turk created success during the 1990s, he became as one of britian’s infamous “ young British Artist “ and was included in the influential sensation exhibition in 1997.

During the period of 1990, he uses his signature and turns it into an artwork, which this idea has relation with individualism and egotism. I think that he uses his own signature has shown he has a really strong sense within himself, which makes him using his personal belonging as an artwork.

4. Comment on Damien Hirst's use of his work and the media for self promotion.

DamientHirst uses varieties of media in his artwork, one of them are by using dead animals as artwork which brings him to be recognized and became famous during the 1990s.

Since he has a really successful career in the art industry, he became really wealthy; during June 2007,

He made a very expensive piece of art work titled “for the love of god“, which was a human skull recreated in platinum and adorned with many diamonds. This brings a self-promotion by just having this artwork to be sold.

5. Find 2 images of work by artists or designers that reflects some of the ideas of individualism,self-promotion or egotism that have been discussed on this blog. Upload images to your blog, title and date the work, identify the artist/designer and comment on the work in relation to the question.

 Kenith Arnatt, 1972

I’M A REAL ARTIST

I think this black and white photograph has a very straight forward message towards viewers, it also has the ideas of egotism within this image; this is because the sandwich board which he is holding with the bold text " I'm a real artist " shows a very important part within himself, and also the word pronoun "I'm" is a really effective word to use to affect viewers and catches their attention.

self-portrait by Andy Warhol (1967)

This art work is a self portrait of Andy Warhol is a red and white silkscreen ink on canvas, it shows his hands holding near his chin, which gives a iconic image of the success towards viewers.

this image was created during 1967, which was at the height of Andy's career as the most important figure in American pop art. I think that this image shows Andy's individualism, this is because the whole images idea is base on himself, this artwork also shows self promotion with his face emotion in a simple and clean red and white colour gradient.

6. How do you think artists and designers are viewed in Western society today?

The designers and artist now are very individual in my opinion within the western society, what they tend to design now is to add in their own elements into the design which express egotism within their artwork.

Rather than to think what the world actually really need, individual design as such could only be just kept on changing the world, than to think back what the world use to look like.

Designer’s social status still plays a huge role in today’s world, I think the majority of people buying artwork would put the popularity of the artist in the front, art work comes second.

Nowadays artist doesn’t show much story towards each painting they paint, most of them are more into the visual art category in my point of view, not like the renaissance period where the artist shows a very depth story behind each painting.

Reference : 

Albrecht Durer : http://www.albrecht-durer.org/

Gavin Turk : http://gavinturk.com/biography/

Keith Arnatt : http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-177831123.html

http://radicalart.info/ego/statements/index.html

Andy Warhol : http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_new=45033&int_sec=2