Marcel Duchamp - Fountain

Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain is a very intriguing piece of artwork that we have looked at in class. Taken a first glance, it appears to simply be a urinal, but when looked at closely it can bring a variety of meanings and emotions a viewer. He had taken such an unusual everyday object out of its everyday environment and made it into an art piece.

Duchamp created the piece in 1917 after purchasing the urinal. He positioned it so it would lie flat, which is a way people do not regularly encounter urinals. This kind of art from is called a “readymade”. This means that he didn’t actually create the urinal itself; he simply chose it to be his piece. What people see when they look at this piece is entirely up to the viewer. Some people will look at it and take it simply as it appears, a urinal. Some people may see it as a way of Marcel Duchamp poking fun at the world of art. He may have done this to show that anything could be considered art. After researching Duchamp’s background, I saw that he was part of an anti-art cultural movement in New York City. He could have done this perhaps in a joking manner. Other people look at this piece and see more than just a urinal. Since the piece is lying on its side, the curved edges and top resemble a picture of a woman with a veiled head. Others find beauty in the curves of the porcelain. Another interesting aspect of this piece is that he signed it R. Mutt. There have been many questions as to why he did this. Was he trying to hide his identity? Is R. Mutt a real person? What exactly is the meaning of writing R. Mutt? This is just another interesting twist on an interesting piece.

Whatever Marcel Duchamp’s reasoning for this piece is, he has definitely stirred up controversy. There have been many interpretations and arguments over what is to taken away from this piece, and that is exactly what makes it art. People will always be talking about what the piece means or why it was done in the first place. There is no absolute answer and this artwork facilitates conversation and questioning. Why did he choose a urinal? Does it symbolize something? In my opinion, he just took an object that he felt was the furthest from what someone would consider art, and sent it to an exhibit. The fact that so many people have found different position to take on his artwork and feel so strongly about it, is precisely what makes this art.

Jean-Michel Basquiat - Gold Griot

Jean-Michel Basquiat is a Brooklyn native born in 1960; Basquiat lived a very short life and died only twenty seven years later from a drug overdose in 1988. His work was very appealing to me because unlike many other artists his style is very unique. Basquiat’s career began by painting graffiti in and around New York City. He would later transition into a nineteen eighties neo-expressionist style of artist. His mixed nationalities of Haiti and Puerto Rico had influenced the young artist to speak fluent French, Spanish, and English from a very young age.

The piece of art that I would like to examine was created in nineteen eighty four and is called the Gold Griot. The art piece is an acrylic and oil paintstick on wood design that now rest in The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica. The picture can be found under the title of cultural identity on the website of the Brooklyn Museum. I have had some trouble actually understanding why this piece reflects this theme however. I find this piece of work to be very interesting because it is not on a canvas but rather on a ten foot by six foot plank of wood fence. The piece shows a black oil painted character with his arms up in the air. His face consists of any colors and his body is outlined with what appears to be a skeleton and ribs. It is very different than any other piece of art that I have ever seen before.

After doing some research on this specific piece of work I found that this painting was created in what is called Basquiat’s middle period. This time period was noted by multi panel paintings and individual canvases and seemingly unrelated imagery. Paintings of this time period in specific show Basquiat’s pride in his black identity and identify with historic and contemporary black figures and events. Many paintings of this time reflect Basquiat’s interest in Rauschenberg. Many of these painting received poor critical reception but are (iconographically) complex and the process of painting together influenced each other’s later works.

What is Art?

Last week in class (1/28 – 2/1) we discussed various pieces of art in order to get a better understanding of what exactly is art. At first I thought it would be simple to place a definition on the term of art. However, at the end of the week I had discovered that art really has no exact definition and that art is something that will continuously evolve with time. For example, we discussed pieces of art from artists such as Jackson Pollock, Damien Hirst, and Andy Warhol.

Jackson Pollock has always been an artist who has stood out in the contemporary era. People often claim that his works of art look so easy that anyone could create them. What the average person may not understand is the amount of complexity and layering involved in developing a masterpiece such as “Lavender Mist”. Pollock would lay the canvas’ down on the floor where he would pour his paint and emotions onto the canvas giving his paintings an ecstatic life of their own. When you look at a Pollock your eyes tend to drift across the whole canvas, focusing on the unbelievable depth and breadth of the two dimensional canvas.

When Damien Hirst’s art work involving a shark who had undergone taxidermy was brought up in class it seemed like a relatively odd concept. Especially when the report said that it was the second shark used to insure the life of the artworks message. I was left very confused about how this was considered art at all. Personally, I felt as though it should be in the Museum of Natural History instead of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After the report I just accepted it as a form of art that I do not understand and left it as water under the bridge. Then, Hirst’s piece titled “For the Love of God” was shown. I was shocked to say the least. It is an innovative idea, but an extremely costly one. All costs aside Hirst made me continue to wonder; what is art? And who are artists? It’s amazing to me that he was able to gather an array of individuals in order to make an idea such as these come to life. He must have been a very inspiring person to get people to follow through with his outlandish ideas.

Since we have spoken about Andy Warhol already I will not go into too much about the artist. I would just like to know if Warhol received any money from companies such as Campbell’s or Brillo after he created his art work and how much their sales increased as a result of these iconic pieces of art.