Andrea Zittel

One of the most interesting installation artists we have discussed this year I believe is Andrea Zittel. In the early 1990s, Zittel created art that would help her within her surroundings. She created functional objects that fulfilled the artist’s needs relating to shelter, food and furniture.  Zittel produced her first “Living Unit” which was a structure intended for living simple and compact. This structure measured 200 square feet and was put in her Brooklyn storefront apartment.  This creation became so popular by 1999 the Public Art Fund commissioned her to created a site for Central Park.  The same year Zittel created a 44-ton floating island moving across the coast of Denmark, she lived on it for a month experimenting in isolation.  In 2005 Zittel received the Smithsonian America Art Museum award and the Lucelia Artist Award. She now lives in California and is represented by the Andrea Rosen Gallery.

 - Conner - 

Bansky

I believe the most unique person/ topic we have covered this semester was that of graffiti art and Banksy. Banksy is a British graffiti artist, who identity is unconfirmed. His unique way of combining humor and graffiti with a stenciling technique helped to create his style of art. His work can be found on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. It is said he was the son of photocopier technician born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. He began his work in graffiti during the 1980s. His graffiti is also very unique in the way that he used stencils to create his works which helped to get him a part of a campaign on the London Tube System between the 1970s and 1980s. Banksy does not sell photos of his work directly but it has been seen that auctioneers will attempt to sell his street art on location leaving the winning bidder to have to remove it themselves.  Banksy extended his career by creating a film called "Exit Through the Gift Shop" made its debut in 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was released in the Uk on March 5. 

The Human Body as Art

Art is not just defined as a work of art with the addition of color, paint or figurines it also can be known for having human bodies to help portray your creative ideas. One guy that is known for having human bodies featured in his work is Spencer Tunick. Spencer is an American artist that is known for his installations of large numbers of nude people posing in artistic positions. These installations are often in urban locations around the world but he has created some woodland and beach works also. Tunick is the subject of three HBO documentaries. His models do not get paid and for helping in his work they get a photo of the work they were in.

 

Gillian Wearing an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artist, and winner of the British award The Turner Prize in 1997. Gillian also used human bodies as a form of art in her campaign she made in New York. Wearing would stop people walking on the street and ask them to write down something on their mind on a sign and hold it while she took a picture.  This campaign helped to show what people were going through and was a unique way of doing this.

Conner

The human body: a medium of art

Just like paint, or clay, the human body can be a medium by which an art piece is created. Many artists, including Spencer Tunick and Anthony Gomley, use human bodies as the central figures within their work. In class today, we viewed many works by Tunick in which many naked people are gathered together in various settings. Tunick stated that he just creates "shapes and forms with human bodies. It's an abstraction, it's a performance, it's an installation."One piece I felt had an emotional meaning was a photograph of many naked men within a New York City diner. The piece, titled "Positively Naked," is extremely realistic and touching. All of the men in the photograph are HIV positive, and must endure the various adverse social, emotional, and medical consequences of their disease.


Other artists, such as Gillian Wearing and Damien Hearst, have asked for more than just the bodies but also the active participation of their subjects. Hearst asked that identical twins throughout the world sign up to re-portray one of his works at the Tate Modern. Gillian Wearing created a series of photographs in which she asked random strangers in NYC to write down whatever they wanted on a sign. She then photographed the stranger holding the sign. She felt that the signs allowed the strangers to truly express their feelings. I believe that these strangers are so honest in what they write on the signs because they have rarely been asked to share their own feelings.



-Tina

The World of Art Collectors

When I hear the words "art collector," I envision rich, reclusive businessmen, socialites with an inherited fortune, and foreign ambassadors and royalty with superfluous money to spend. Herb and Dorothy are no Rockefellers, but this couple has amassed a great collection over many decades. The couple, a postal worker and a librarian, always had a humble salary, but presently has a worldly art collection. Herbert and Dorothy Vogel began purchasing mostly unknown art in the 1960s. Herb's salary was entirely donated to collecting art, and over the next three decades the couple had the works of artists such as Robert Barry, Pat Steir, and Lucio Pozzi. In the 90s, the couple had over 2,000 pieces in their collection. I greatly admire the Vogel's donating the majority of their collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., rather than auctioning their pieces for money. Their collection would now be worth millions of dollars, but the couple never even sold one piece. The Vogels are proof that monetary gain is not the central goal of every art collector within today's art world. They prove that art may still be collected simply to enjoy, not as an investment. 

-Tina

The Loss of the Museum

Once upon a time, museums were centers of intellectual growth and exploration. Children could let their minds wander as they traversed the museum's halls, expanding their imaginations and seeing new possibilities. Lately, museums have not been able to escape the commercialization of the art world. The Guggenheim brand is a perfect example of the transformation of museums into marketable commodities. The Guggenheim name encompasses various museums throughout the world. Each museum has a distinct architectural style inside and outside, and a profound amount of money has been placed into designing the galleries within. As the distressed art critic Robert Hughes points out, the inside of each Guggenheim museum is built much like a department store, designed to show off the art pieces just like department stores show off their goods. Such design certainly implies that the art pieces are akin to marketable commodities, emphasizing their monetary value. This emphasis places the real meaning of art in peril. However, I disagree that “departmentalization” of museums is an entirely negative trend. The architecture of the Guggenheim can itself be viewed as art work. The Guggenheim's commitment to a creative display of its pieces may simply increase the public's interest in art, rather than distract the public from the art itself. The museums offer lectures and tours by experienced artists, critics, and docents, as well as classes for teens and adults. The Guggenheim has certainly invested a great amount of money into increasing the public's participation in its exhibits. I do not believe it relevant that the Guggenheim's directors may have invested so much money to increase their own profit from ticket sales, rather than because of a genuine interest in increasing the public's interest in art. Regardless of their motives, the museum's directors have successfully increased the public knowledge of art. Departmentalization of museums creates the danger of solely emphasizing the monetary aspect of art, but such departmentalization has also helped increase the global scope of art.

-Tina

The Mona Lisa Curse

Robert Hughes, in his documentary "The Mona Lisa Curse," discusses the downward spiral of the art world. In his opinion, artists are becoming celebrities, and museums are becoming department stores. "Auction houses are the new arbitrators of taste." Hughes uses the arrival of Mona Lisa in New York City, under the presidency of JFK, as evidence of the profound change in art's meaning. When the Mona Lisa arrived in the city, people lined up to catch a glimpse of this famous piece. However, most people did not endure countless hours of waiting to experience an art piece with dense meaning. Instead, many simply wanted to view the piece for its popularity. They flocked to see a painting that is worth an incomprehensible amount of money in the art world. Thus, as Hughes repeatedly states throughout his documentary, Leonardo Da Vinci's cherished painting became a commodity, its value based on its monetary worth, rather than the deep meanings within the painting itself. The Mona Lisa Curse has proliferated throughout the art world, causing artists such as Damien Hearst and Jeff Koons to become global brands. An interesting point brought up in the documentary was the fact that the art world and the drug world are the only two markets within this country that are not regulated. Thus, auction houses have unlimited power. As the price of an art piece increases, auctioneers hold said piece in higher value. Therefore, higher-priced art pieces are often viewed as "good" art pieces, though this is not necessarily the case. "The Walking Man," a piece by renowned sculptor Alberto Giacometti, may best exemplify the increased importance of money in the art world. The sculpture fetched $104 million in a recent auction, being the highest bidding price for any piece in history. When looking at this piece, I do not understand how such a sculpture can be worth so much money. The bronze sculpture, rich in existentialist themes, certainly has deeper levels of meaning that make it a great piece of art. However, supply and demand, rather than the piece’s characteristics and meaning, seems to be the central reason for its high price tag. Works by Giacometti rarely appear in auctions, and many buyers had been waiting decades to buy the artist's work. The sculpture was truly a once-in-a-life opportunity for interested buyers, and the simple law of supply and demand created the highest bidding price in history.  

-Tina

Art Collecting

A popular part of art today is collecting it. These people are known as art collectors. They will go far and wide to fine their favorite piece of art. It is becoming more and more a thing to do people will go to art auctions or rummage sales and buy art pieces they enjoy and add to their already huge collections.

There are many tips to collecting art that have been but together by people interested in this field. These tips consist of buying art because you like it and because it moves you. Visit art galleries and learn from the staff members to enhance your education. Join your local art museum and nonprofit art centers. Attend Art Fairs and Art Expos. Read books on art collecting to further your knowledge about the field.

 

"Herb and Dorothy"

Two of the biggest art collectors in the world are known to be Herb and Dorothy Vogel. This husband and wife collected so much art they were the feature of a movie called Herb and Dorothy. This documentary film by Megumi Sasaki tells the story of two middle class collectors of art and the enormous and valuable collection they amassed. This film won the Audience Award in 2008 at the Hamptons International Film Festival. The film has made 97,651 dollars at the box office since July 13, 2009. In 1992, the Vogel’s made headlines having their whole collection move to the National Gallery of Art. Most of the works they had acquired major value making the collection worth several million dollars. Staying true to the love of art the Vogel’s never sold a single piece to breakdown the collection.

- Conner-