There is no assigned reading this week (the linoleum reading isn't due until after spring break), but I am asking you to complete another research assignment and post it here. This is due Wednesday, March 2nd by 1 pm. Follow the guidelines on the website.
http://www.rosekorberart.com/artists/item392.htm
ReplyDeleteArtist: William Kentridge
Date: 2004
Material and size: drypoint 19.5x24.5cm
Title: Thinking Aloud (Small Thoughts): Falcon and Dove
This print looks almost separated into two. On the left hand side there is the black falcon. On the right hand side, the white dove. Underneath them are standing tiny little figures. They look human but it is difficult to tell. They look male. The man on the left is wearing a melon shaped hat the one on the right seems to be taking a photo of him with an old camera. Back to the dove, it is turning its back at the viewer, giving it an impression of passivity. Whereas the falcon is facing the dove and the viewer and is taller. He seems dominant.
I personally chose this print because when I first stumbled upon it, it really hit my about how I was feeling/ at my first glance I recognized the white dove I could be: nice, sweet, calm, passive female, submissive. But also the black falcon I could be: mean, strong, active, and dominant. It is hard to say what Kentridge exactly meant in his print but that is how I felt when I saw it and it reflected my mindset of the moment. If I had to give his meaning of this, my best guess would be that he is discussing power relations. The little men dressed as Bourgeois are tiny and there power is irrelevant to nature such as the birds but even in nature there is a presence of power relations: female vs. male.
http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=70907
Artist: Elizabeth Catlett
Title: Harriet
Material and size: Linoleum-cut print 46x38.3cm
Date: 1975
This linoleum cut is a representation of Harriet Tubman, a leader for black women’s rights but most of all she played an incredible role in the fight against slavery. In this print we see her in the foreground energetically pointing her finger to the right of the print. She is or showing something or leading the rest of the women in the background of the print. Her body language is so strong. She has convictions and she will fight for them. The background is composed of other black women; one is even carrying her baby. They are listening to Harriet and no she is the leader. Harriet is even carrying a stick. Maybe it is to protect them from what might come or perhaps more to attack those who are not listening. Either way it is to fight.
I chose this print because it spoke to me. It jumped to me as a great representation of people fighting for their rights. It seemed like an amazing activist representation, like an homage.
http://www.ville-ge.ch/mah/index.php?content=3.2.1.1.1.1.&id_eve=368&langue=eng#
Artist: Georg Baselitz
Title: Sitzender (Man sitting)
Material and size: linocut 79,5 x 61 cm
Date: 1982
I chose this image because I just love it. I love that it is so disturbing and weird and creepy. Also it is familiar because my one of my friend’s parents has one of his works. On this larger than what we are mostly use to, we see a man screaming. He is also upside down. It is harder to say more about the composition as it is just a portrait of a man. What is extraordinary is that he is upside down. This required a little research but I came to understand that Baselitz was to start a figurative artist. And when working in the 70s around the pop artist and the minimalist, figurative did not really have its place. He had to work in an original manner in order to find his place in this world and he did so by creating his figures upside down. Why? Well because from afar the lines are blurred and we do not see the figure but an interesting work of line and space.
Artist: Jo Ogier
ReplyDeleteTitle: Morepork (Ruru) on Fossils
Medium: Woodcut on Harakeke Paper
Date: 2007
Link: http://solandergallery.co.nz/files/images/Morepork%20on%20Fossils%20-%20Jo%20Ogier.jpg
One of the reasons why I was so drawn to this piece is because the artist actually makes her own paper as well. The color of the paper and how it interacts with the colors of the print creates such a beautiful and gentle effect. The naturalness of the material she uses also highlights the naturalness of the subject matter in the print itself. I also enjoy when a background pattern is used well in a print and I think here it was used successfully, as it adds a nice softness to the piece as well as a sense of depth. It doesn’t detract from the owl in the front at all but instead adds focus to it, both visually and figuratively. What Ogier is expressing in this print, I feel, an appreciation of both the strength and fragility of nature. At the same time the owl looks commanding and delicate. Ogier appears to be drawing attention to the need to protect and enjoy the natural world around us.
Artist: Jacob Rolfe
Title: Moon
Medium: Screenprint
Date: 2007
Link: http://solandergallery.co.nz/files/images/Moon%20-%20Jacob%20Rolfe.jpg
I enjoy it when you can look at an image on multiple occasions and each time there is something new to see. The first time I saw this print, I just enjoy the composition of whimsy of it. The second time I looked at it, I saw the face that is in the middle of flowing designs. I like that there are so many things going on in this piece but it doesn’t seem overwhelming or cluttered. One of the reasons that I think it works is also that there isn’t a lot of color in the piece, which balances the overflowing nature of the objects on the paper. The harsh darkness contrasted with the softness of the white space gives the eye a break. I think Rolfe is dealing with issues such as emptiness and simplicity and finding meaning in seemingly random events.
Artist: Damon Kowarsky
Title: City II
Medium: Etching
Date: 2006
Link: http://solandergallery.co.nz/files/images/damon8.jpg
I love everything about this print. I love the colors. I love the composition. I have no clue why, but I really love huge blank, white spaces in art especially when it divides the piece. The reddish orange colors in the buildings are also really beautiful. The crisp simplicity of this piece is so clean and refreshing. I actually liked this piece so much that I look at other prints done by this artist and he has such a breathy simplicity in his work that still is so exact and I think it’s great. I feel like Kowarsky can look at the outside world and then translate what he sees into something that captures the essence of what he sees but still has a unique and individual feel. With architecture especially, it’s nice to see something that captures the idea of the building but portrays it in a very more stylized fashion.
Artist: Lise Dahms
ReplyDeleteTitle: Canna
Description: 12 x 9" monotype 1/1
Time: around 1960’s
http://www.caprintmakers.org/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=79&Itemid=30
In this print there is a more solid image of flowers with a shadow of the flowers in the background. The colors stick to greens and browns with pink and red highlights. The shadow of the flowers in the background is represented by more of the pinks, which gives the image a dreamlike quality. The artist discusses how her style is supposed to reflect the human memory, which becomes very apparent in this print. The blurriness of the image, and ghost like nature, gives the flowers a glow and mysterious feel. I like how the print is organic in form and style. The colors are very organic as well as well as the composition. I like this print because it is esthetically pleasing, while representing an idolized vision of nature. The print also looks very realistic for such a grainy and faded picture. I also like the playfulness of the print as the flowers intertwine in the background and the bright pink pops out in the foreground. The image draws the viewer’s eye up and to the background, which creates several focal points. The print is successful because it has many elements that make it interesting and a beautiful view for the audience.
Artist: Mike Kimball
ReplyDeleteTitle: Golden Span IV
Description: The southern approach to the Golden Gate bridge San Francisco, begun in 1934 and completed in 1937. This print features elements of the engineering drawings incorporated into the composition. Multiple drop monoprint.
http://www.caprintmakers.org/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=88&Itemid=30
This print depicts the Golden Gate bridge, with the blueprint in the background, and ghost printed numbers overlaying the entire image. The image has many geometric elements while incorporating organic colors. The background is in grey, black, and white. Then the image of the bridge is in natural colors. Finally, the image of a four and three are printed lightly on top of the entire frame. The artist is known for using abstraction and real representation creating an interesting contrast. By using the fundamental parts of the bridge against the organic forms the print gives the viewer a lot to look at. The contrast is striking and while having softer colors. I personally like this print because it uses urban and natural elements combined sending a strong message to the viewer. I also like the color palette because it separates the geometric shapes from the more organic ones in the print. Although there are very separate layers the image is not too chaotic. The incorporation of different images works well in this print because one image does not distract too much from the others.
Artist: Roy Ragle
ReplyDeleteTitle: Self-portrait with Shroud of Anxiety
Description: 12x 10" Foil monoprint relief from the Dia de los Muertos Series, 1993.
http://www.caprintmakers.org/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=109&Itemid=30
This print is extremely unique because it is a representation of a self-portrait from the artist himself. The artist used foil to make an impression of his face, then inked it and ran it through the press. In the image there are outlines of his face while incorporating the image of a skull. The print is in grey, black, and white. The print looks like an impression of a face, however it looks more like a skull with a looming sense of death. The area around the skull shows the lines and imprints of the foil used for the print. Because the foil gives a crackly and decaying look, the image’s theme of death is very apparent. By using indentions in the foil the print is given a sense of depth that looks concave to the viewer. I like this print because it is from an unusual technique. The print has so much texture for what looks like only a few layers. The image has no eye-catching colors, which make the viewer focus of the details in the print. The theme and content of the piece surrounds death, but the image itself has a sort of charisma, which is very intriguing to the viewer.
1. Leona Pierce, Bicycle Pull, 1950-61, Woodblock print
ReplyDeletehttp://www.contemprints.org/exhibitions
I fell in love with Leona’s print the moment I saw it because of its playful and youthful nature. This print, like many others of Leona’s, was a depiction of children at play in the streets of New York City. I was fascinated by her work not only because of she carved it out of wood, which is extremely difficult to do, but also because she used positive and negative space in such an interesting way—cramming all the detailed little buildings in the background and leaving over three fourths of the image for the children to roam around in on their bicycles, carefree. I also liked that her print was simple and used only black ink because I thought it added to the olden day feeling of the print and made me think of newsprint and newspaper boys on their delivery route in New York City in the 50s.
2. Title: Bridge Burner A
Media: Linoleum cut relief
Artist: Adam Martin
Year: 2010
http://www.highpointprintmaking.org/exhibitions/2010/coop_winter/22.html
The second piece I chose to research was “Bridge Burner A” by Adam Martin. Unlike Leona’s piece, I did not immediately fall in love with this print due to its aesthetic qualities. In fact, I didn’t really “love” the print at all. But there was something evocative and intriguing about it, something that made me want to know the meaning behind the print, and that is why I chose it as my second piece. Although there is no text that says exactly what the meaning behind the print is, my intuition tells me that Martin had a girl in his life who betrayed him or hurt him to a point where he could no longer be her friend, he depicted that “burning of the bridge” between them in this print.
3. Artist: Ellen Kieffer
Title: Transition 6
Media: Monotype, 16” x 20”
http://www.caprintmakers.org/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=87&Itemid=30
Of all the printmakers I’ve researched, Ellen Kieffer is my favorite by far. Not only is her work gorgeous, soulful, dynamic, and pleasing to the eye, but it also has deep meaning behind it. Kieffer uses bold, bright hues of pink, purple and yellow in all of her prints. Starting from the center with her yellow ink, she layers these colors in a circular manner from light to dark, allowing each color to bleed into the other and create a luminous effect as if the yellow ink was actually light pouring through the page. Out of her transition series, “Transition 6” is probably her most simple print, however, its luminous appearance and inspiring message spoke to me and gave it dominance over the rest of Kieffer’s artwork. This was the message: “Energy infuses us with new ideas, new passions, new hopes and confidence in the knowledge that all things are possible. This harmony allows us to be aware of the wonder of being alive, the wonder of growth, the power of change. That resolution draws upon the transitional experience to bolster the self.”
Models Wait
ReplyDeleteDrypoint & monotype
Meg Bussey
2010
http://www.highpointprintmaking.org/exhibitions/2010/coop_winter/02.html
After noticing how this image has soft lines like that of pastel works, I wondered how this effect could be created. It turns out that the print was created with the drypoint method, which produces substantial blurred lines. I like that the artist probably chose this method in particular, in combination with monotype, to create the hazy, dream-like quality of the image.
A slow moving mass of matte black goes to the beach to reflect on life with an enlightened friend, or, light lumps arrangement 1 from the series sour jokes
Screenprint
Miles Mendenhall
2010
http://www.highpointprintmaking.org/exhibitions/2010/coop_winter/12.html
This screenprint is impressive because it uses a range of tones from white to black and the boundaries of these tones are seamlessly blurred. Having tried the wash technique with a 50:50 mixture of screen filler and water, I know how difficult it is to achieve such precision when trying to partially block the screen to create gray tones. If this is how Mendenhall created the print, it must have taken many trial proofs. Even if the image was a photo-emulsion, the blurry quality is something difficult to achieve when squishing ink through a screen.
I chose this print because I liked how the composition is a reversal of the normal crisp foreground/blurred background rule. Even with the closest object being less in focus than the object in the background, a sense of depth is successfully created.
Selvage
Photopolymer relief
Frances Lloyd-Baynes
2010
http://www.highpointprintmaking.org/exhibitions/2010/coop_winter/10.html
This image was created with a technique called photopolymer relief. I did not know what the photopolymer part implied, but one I researched it, it seemed self-explanatory. In this method, a plate is coated with a light sensitive material and exposed with a negative image (much like the photo emulsion screenprinting technique). Then, the plate is rinsed with a solvent, and the unexposed areas of the plate are dissolved. This sounds like an interesting method, but very toxic as well.
I chose this image because I like that it has a photographic quality, but still is not perfect, and therefore has the character that many prints inherently do.
I noticed Pat Brokaw’s work immediately because of her vibrant colors and extensive texture evident in her body of prints.
ReplyDeleteNorth Coast Midnight
Edition of 6.
North Coast Midnight was the first print to catch my eye, merely because it reminds me of my work and what I would like to accomplish with my printmaking process in the future. I love the detail of the ocean and the realistic texture the cutting of the lino has given her. I enjoy the idea that the artist can only manipulate the material so much, but after that you must rely on the material itself to give you a successful finished product. I find the color palette here aesthetically beautiful, the heavy contrast between a vibrant yellow along side a pink. It reminds me of a peaceful setting, one that I would like to be in!
Aspen Grove
Print alone.
I enjoy the close up angle Brokaw presented these trees in. She is clearly emphasizing the texture of the tree bark as an essential part in her print and I find that to be particularly interesting. I think the analygous color palette present in the background really allow for a realistic presentation of a forest, while the deep white and black textures in the trees create a center of emphasis. Honestly, I feel that achieving texture in 2-dimensional art is very impressive. This piece successfully presents realistic textures of trees.
Dancing in the Street
Edition of 8.
Dancing in the Street appealed to me because it demonstrated a unique contrast between black and white that is quite realistic. It reminds me of a casted shadow while walking down the street. I have always found shadows extremely interesting, how they are a perfect mirrored image of real objects in space. This is what we create in printmaking, as well. A mirrored image of our creation, that is essentially a “shadow” of our print plate, whether it be a lino block, wood block or collagraph. The silhouette figure has abstract qualities because there are no features evident, however displays a realistic interpretation of a female form. I enjoy the combination between abstract and realism.
Roy Ragle
ReplyDeletePortrait of Roy
24x36’’ woodcut from the self
http://www.caprintmakers.org/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=109&Itemid=30
I love this print because it shows the detail and nuances of line work that can be accomplished with a woodcut. This print consists of one figure (self portrait) in the foreground and abstract lines and some human head studies in the background. It is mostly made with many fine lines (though the digital reproduction makes it difficult to see if this continues in the torso of the body or not). There is a certain eeriness to this print that I also found intriguing. This eerie nature is because of the skulls in the background and also the way the Roy’s figure is placed in the foreground. His head and body go off the page and his head is turned to the side, looking off into the distance. Also two handprints in the bottom of the print make it appear as if he is trapped inside the print, wanting to get out.
Hilary Williams
When Playful Afternoons Turn Into Years
Screen Print on Paper Limited Edition of 44
27”x21”
2010
This screen print I liked because it incorporates both photographic as well as hand drawn and abstract images. I also love the bright blue, yellow, and rose colors. The print has a lot of energy and whim to it, which relates well to its title. This print expresses a joy and energy about a certain place (San Fransisco, it appears) that the artist wanted to convey to the viewer, and I think she accomplished well.
http://www.caprintmakers.org/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=249&Itemid=30
Gustavo Mora
Caminata
Woodcut from series: Luz Transeunte
32”x46”
2009
This woodcut shows people (or characterizations of people) walking in the outdoors, which relates to the title Caminata (“to hike” in Spanish). I loved the child-like representations of the people. I also liked the monochromatic color scheme and how simple it makes his print. I feel like this also plays into the child-like feel of this print. For me, this print gives me the feeling that people are aimlessly wandering, and it makes me think of feeling lost or trying to find out who you are.
http://www.caprintmakers.org/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=244&Itemid=30