Joan Miró

 

•  "Joan Miró i Ferrà  (April 20,1893 – December 25,1983) was a world renowned Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist who was born in the sea port city of Barcelona." 

•  "In 1925 Miró’s work took a decisive turn, stimulated, according to the artist, by hunger-induced hallucinations involving his impressions of poetry." This is an interesting way he tapped into his creativity.

• Although his sculptures are very schematic, they are not without references to real things. Joan Miró said, “For me a form is never something abstract. It is always a sign of something. It is always a man, a bird, or something else. After looking at his art more viggorously and researching him, you notice these connections, such as the bird. He always creates an object that barely resembles what he is trying to get the viewer to see, but he creates an object that feels like what he is representing. The metalwork in top of this next sculpture, "Personnage Gothique," really feels like a bird the way that it is perched on top of the piece.

• "Through the juxtaposition of disparate objects, surrealist artists such as Miró sought to evoke surprise and stimulate associations in the mind of the viewer. With its multiplicity of suggestive forms, "Personnage Gothique" embodies Miró's lifelong concern with richly imaginative imagery that he said was 'always born in a state of hallucination.''
•  After research I found that he was trying to portray, a bird, atop, a camera, atop something that represents a donkey. I only saw the bird before I researched the meaning, and i have more of an understanding now, but ts hard for me to connect the sculpture to a donkey and camera.
•  Although I love this piece, although I agree with this comment that I ran into during my research. "While I can see the bird imagery and sort of glean something that looks like a camera for the 'flash' part, 'Gothic Personage' doesn't really seem to fit the bill. The actual resemblance that I saw was vocalized by a woman walking by who pointed it out to a young girl she was holding hands with by saying 'Look honey, it's a giant vagina.'"

 

•  Before researching this piece I was a bit confused by it, as I was with is other work, but I knew enjoyed using birds so I did notice the bird. I really enjoy this piece, but after researching the meaning i have more of an appreciation of it.
• "The bird is an essential motif in Miró's iconography. The Sun Bird does not suggest flight or the ability to fly or even movement, but rather it plays the role of intermediary between the sky and the earth. The solid, consistent mass of the base holds it to the earth by the force of gravity. A fallen moon forms the wings and links the bird to the celestial world."

 

• This is one of his pieces that really confused me, because he claims to reference real things and I don't see any.  This is a very visually appealing piece, with the color choice, and the way the two peices interact.
• After some research I found the name of the sculpture, "Lovers playing with almond blossoms". The name explains it all, although its hard to see, he wanted the viewer to feel the joy that  Lovers playing with almond blossoms would experience with this piece. I really did feel warm inside when I first saw this sculpture, maybe not the exact way he wanted the viewer to experience it but i feel that this peice was sucessful in portraying what he wanted.

Sources

• http://seeker-of-revelation.deviantart.com/art/DC-Personnage-Gothique-Oiseau-Eclair-313082177

• http://www.nga.gov/feature/sculpturegarden/sculpture/sculpture2.shtm

• http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artwork/2935

Artist Review #2

Mel Bochner 

• Mel Bochner is an American conceptual artist, that resides in New York. A lot of his work is simple, and or very colorful.  He throws colorful words on objects and calls it art. In my opinion any one that has half a brain can create art just as well as Mel Bochner. I honestly don't know what he is trying to communicate, but whatever it is, I find it very dull and uncreative.
• He uses very basic materials for a very basic concept. In his "Blah Blah Blah" piece he uses thick colorful letters, in a 3D frame. His choice of materials makes you focus on the three "Blahs," and I have no idea why anyone would want their viewer to focus on three idiotic words that aren't even real words.
• My overall  impression of this guy is that he is uncreative and makes very dull artwork. I feel like this art would be something that a teenage girl would put on their wall, and it does not interest me in the least.
• He relates to this weeks theme because he is an artist I hate, I don't like anything about is artwork. The fact that this guy was success full makes me second guess being an artist.

"Blah Blah Blah"

"The Joys of Yiddish"

" Rules Of Evidence"

Work Cited

• http://www.melbochner.net/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Bochner
• http://www.artnet.com/artists/mel-bochner/

Project 1

•  The basic idea of my piece was obviously a rib cage, but by adding the heart in the center I wanted portray the act of living. The heart is an essential part of living, and the ribcage is the what protects the heart. When I was creating this piece I wanted the viewers to experience the rougher side of living. Life isn't Just daises and butterflies, sometimes life is rough, and not that  beautiful. I attempted to portray this in my art by leaving the masking tape rugged, dirty and why I chose to use mostly the nastier color of masking tape over the white. I also left wire exposed and sticking sharply out of the back of the spinal chord.
• The materials that I used to portray the ruggedness of living was wire, cream colored masking tape, and PVC pipe. I learned how to use wire and tape to create a piece of three D art. I wasn't aware of this art form before this class, and I really enjoyed working with these materials.
• After the critique and analyzing my project, I came up with a few ways to enhance, and better my piece. If I did this project again I would have connected the heart to the rib cage, and not hung it from the ceiling. The point was brought up that the wire that was attached to the heart was distracting. Another element that took away from the piece they I would change was how I abruptly ended the spinal chord. I should have added a smaller piece that gradually ended the spinal chord, it looked unfinished the way that I have it now.

Sketch / Planning Process