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Friday, January 16, 2009

Art History DMA Late Night Modern Art Adventure

"Cathedral", 1947, enamel and aluminum paint on canvas, 71 1/2 x 35 in., Dallas Museum of Art

I HATE not getting to go to a party that I planned! And that's how it turned out for this month's DMA Late Night excursion with my Art History class. Kudos to those who went and poor me that I had this stupid virus for two days. Oh well. Anyway, I have NO IDEA what Jenny took you to see, what you did, what you said or what you thought! So I'm dying to know! As extra credit for the next six weeks, make a comment to this post and tell me about YOUR experience! What did you learn? Inquiring minds want to know.

Since I wasn't there, I decided to create my own experience and chose the Jackson Pollock that the museum owns. If you are in the mood for something fun, click on the post headline for an interactive Pollock site - you can make your OWN Pollock painting. Every time you click the mouse, the color changes. Try it - it's fun! Technology is soooooo cool - and this is a fun, fun blend of technology with an art history story!

Jackson Pollock certainly rocked the art world in the mid-twentieth century. A student of Thomas Hart Benton, Pollock tapped into his own energy for painting in a literal way. He believed that new times (this was shortly after the dropping of the bomb) required new techniques and ways of expressing ourselves. As so many other art movements, Impressionism, Cubism, Dadism, Pollock's radical way of painting and it's end result (someone dubbed him "Jack the Dripper") stirred controversy. But he was in a group of other change makers - Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning - the Abstract Expressionists. Check out this great, informative website about Pollock to get a better sense of his place in art history. To see Pollock in action check out this video made in 1951 that Pollock narrates. There is another video that features clips from the 2002 movie "Pollock" starring Ed Harris.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jenny showed us what the DMA had over the Renaissance but mostly she wanted us to see from the impressionists onward so that we could connect them with what we were learning in class. She let us split up and pick a piece so we could relate it to the chapter we are on. Mrs. Miller you missed a great conversation with me, Glendon and Jenny when we argued over Rothko's Orange, Red and Red and how it looked like the background of a power point presentation. We argued over what was art and also the progression of art. Something I brought up was if you see Kandinsky's art you see how in an effort to express emotion through color instead of forms you see how impressionism ends up going into abstract art. Kandisnsky was trying to make the pictures evoke a certain feeling when seen, like synesthesia which apparently there was a speaker that was going to present on the subject but I couldn't stay longer. He tried to make the painting like a piece of music. Me and Glendon where on a more skeptical side to most of the modern art and Jenny defended it as a natural progression of art. I only agreed that it would serve for other artists to also question today's art and maybe go back to a more traditional form or at least answer the question of what can be considered art.

Anonymous said...

I really learned a lot about the Renaissance style artworks we saw at the DMA. Renaissance art is one of my favorite types, and it was really interesting to be able to see the progression from it to modern art. The modern pieces we saw were really interesting, and the different styles used is so incredible!

Anonymous said...

We saw pieces from the Renaissance period and I have to say that I really enjoyed this visit because the Renaissance is definitely an era with amazing wonderful art. We saw some of the pieces and discussed them and then we talked about Impressionism and Monet and again, it was simply wonderful because this period just had the most impressive artists, before the whole modern art thing, which to me just ruined everything but that's another story, and overall I really enjoyed the visit.

Anonymous said...

I really liked the cathedral painting because I really like the combination of the white and black because I don't really see the cathedral but I see other things that are hidden because of the usage of black and white

Anonymous said...

since i have seen jackson pollock, i have enjoyed his paintings
his line patterns, along with his color choices, makes the piece vibrant beyond vibrant
it's just intriguing to see how all the lines flow so well with each other
if any other change would be made to this piece, it would be to put some hidden message throughout the work( maybe something along the lines of "hope" or something)(and yes, similar to the google thing the other day).
i would definitely purchase this piece and hang it up

Anonymous said...

The Jackson Pollock piece is one I like because it has special and unique characteristics, apart from other pieces that are made by a random method. I like the choice of the black, grey, white, and coffee colors here because they are intertwined well. This creates the slight illusion that other colors are used, thanks to the contrast and close, subtle, and dispersed mixtures that shape the picture. The rhythm runs throughout the piece from line to line and my eyes could get lost in them. Also, the emphasis seems to be spread apart but focused on the top half of the painting with more going on. I like it because it would grab my attention from other works in a museum, and it is a piece I can explore.

Anonymous said...

Wow! I saw this when I was scrolling down the page, and I thought "I have seen something like this before," and I remembered that we had artist of the day about Pollok and someone else... I can't remember :\
But I agree with theRock about the colors. They do go well together. And I love how the colors can just POP out one time you look at it, then they blend in the next time you look at it. Very nice contrast :D

I also like Pollock's idea of change.I think that as time goes on, things do change, and it makes it fun if we try new techniques in doing so!

Oh ya! I like the energy and emotion of the painting too!

Anonymous said...

After looking at this painting for a while and trying to gain an emotional connection, I had made some interesting observations. The artist tries to leave all spaces covered. There is no center of interest, the entire painting remains as the main point. He used a lot of tertiary colors as well as a mixture of warm and cool. The black lines seem to jump out against the peach shaped lines that surround it. This painting is built upon the foundation of movement. The paint seems to flow easily in on going long lines. It also has no real shapes, the entire painting seems to just contain lines. The mood of the painting seems like an alert calmness brought on by his choice of colors. The thicker lines appear toward the top and are mostly the darker lines. The thinner lights are the lighter shades of color such as peach and white. It is a very abstract painting and in order to create this painting he seems to have used a controlled method of "drip." It was paintings like this that made him famous. Overall I really like it and think that this is one of the few paintings that might have suggested our new era of modern art. It is a very interesting and powerful piece.