Artist of the Week - Jean Paul Gaultier

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier:  From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art closes February 12, 2012

GO SEE IT!!!!

I just have to make a post about this exhibit.  It is just spectacular!  The way the show is hung is amazing and so perfect for the incredible fashion in the exhibit.  When you step into the first gallery, there is a virtually animated image of Jean Paul along with the other mannequins.  It is an eery virtual presence, but I thought it was just marvelous and mesmerizing.  I was fascinated with this technological aspect of the exhibit.  

As we wandered through the show, I noticed the conversations the viewers were having about the show.  They were animated!  People that were next to us, who we didn't know, were striking up conversations about the work they saw.  I've never really seen so many people talking and interacting with the work quite like this show.  I think perhaps it's because we all wear clothing and can relate to what we see (either thinking we could or couldn't wear a particular fashion statement).  I really loved seeing so many people marveling at the time, effort and money that was put into each piece.   Watch the video below to get a tiny glimpse of the exhibit.

As a textile artist, I sewed a lot of my clothes in junior high and high school.  During my weaving career, I had a line of handwoven clothing I sold, though I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I've always loved fashion and as I came to the end of the exhibit (for my second time), I said to my husband, "I just don't push the fashion envelope like I used to!"  It seriously makes me want to play (though my closet needs some new pieces to play with!) more with my clothing.  We'll see.  I suppose I marvel at how much fun he has had as well as how fearless he is in his art.  As an art teacher, I just love this exhibit of divergent thinking!  I am always encouraging my students to think more divergently - his divergent thinking is to the power of 10!!!   A great inspiration, Jean Paul absolutely rocks the catwalk!

Art Club - DMA Art Installation

"Below the Surface - Above the Surface", Art Club Installation

OK - I know! If you check out my blog, you are probably wondering - wow!!! Why all the pictures? Simple - I am really proud of the thirty 9th & 10th grade students who are in our school's art classes and art club and worked their hearts out - mostly after school and on a couple of Saturdays, to complete this wonderful art installation that is currently on display at the Dallas Museum of Art. The exhibit is part of the Young Artists Exhibition in conjunction with the museum's annual Ball, and we were lucky enough to be asked to participate in the project.

The theme this year is "Coastlines: Images of Land and Sea" which inspired a full fledge exhibit by the museum as well as the student artwork. Our students installation is entitled "Below the Surface - Above the Surface" and shows the dark and light sides of the sea. Davy Jones is rising out of his watery grave and is reaching to the light side where the mermaid rests on a floating chunk of a sunken vessel. An ominous sea monster is surfacing around the figures and the ship. The sky is transitioning from a storm to a breaking sunrise with the choppy waters becoming calm and serene. The sand castle features a lovely poem that tells the tale, nestled in the sand and shells of the beach.

The students really outdid themselves! From concept to completion, they used brains and brawn to create their art. They cast their own bodies in plaster strips (for the life sized versions of Davy Jones and the Mermaid) - I know because I had to cut them out of most of their casts! The canvas backdrops (each side 10' X 10') were stitched, primed and painted spinning off Thomas Cole's painting of the Ox Bow, but other storm and sea visual references were utilized for them to create this beautiful sea and sky (which is painted out of house paint).

The Connecticut River Near Northampton, Thomas Cole, 1846 Oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York, USA

They used paper mache to create the VERY realistic looking sea monster tentacles (complete with suckers!) and created a sand castle that never gets washed away by the ocean. The ship and raft were built out of cardboard. It was installed yesterday afternoon, and we take a DART train field trip to the reception tomorrow afternoon. 13 other schools have student artwork in the exhibition and I encourage the reader to visit the museum during the dates of the exhibition 4/15 - 4/25/2010. This Friday, 4/16, is the DMA Late Night - if you are attending the festivities, be sure to check out this fantastic display of student artwork from around the metroplex!

Davy Jones, Wrecked Ship, Sea Monster and the Mermaid

Davy Jones

Sea Monster Tentacles

The Sand Castle and it's Poetic Tale

Dallas Museum of Art Technology Teacher Workshop

Janine Antoni Lick and Lather 1993 (made of chocolate and soap)

I'm attending a great workshop at the DMA designed to help teachers incorporate technology into the classroom. This workshop is focused on blogging. Blogging is so much fun! I LOVE using it in the classroom and this year I have used it more than I ever have before.

As part of this workshop, we have been exploring the Center for Creative Connections. The museum changes the focus of materials regularly and the space allows visitors to have a more tactile experience with materials that artworks are made from. There is lots of stuff to touch!

The label for this piece says: "Through intimate acts and her choice of materials that will eventually disappear, the artist confronts her relationship with herself." There is a lot to consider here: the body is constantly changing through cellular replacement and the regeneration of organs and systems; we change every single minute of every single day; these materials are common and precious (have you ever NEEDED soap or chocolate and they weren't available at that moment?); both materials are plastic (meaning they are pliable and formable) and can be either inexpensive or expensive; the sculpture uses an additive process (adding the material to create the artwork) and a subtractive process (taking material away to change the artwork); how do we use additive and subtractive processes in our lives; how successful are we in the relationships we have with ourselves? Consider these ideas in regards to your own relationship with yourself - are you:
Nurturing
Expanding
Controlling
Protecting
Questioning

What ideas or questions are generated for you?

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.

08/09 Academic Decathlon Image #4

Olmec Figure Sitting, with Spread Legs, Olmec Civilization, 2000-900 B.C., Low-fire earthenware, 9 1/2 x 8 3/8 x 5 in. (Pre-Hispanic Art)

This small sculpture has a mystery about its function, perhaps it had a special ritual use. The Olmecs made megalithic heads that are compelling and powerful. But this seated figure is also typical of their sculpture. The figure is soft and natural - almost boneless - and is genderless. The body is compact and sturdy looking and the face expressive and detailed. Made of earthenware, it was created using an additive sculpture technique then fired to make it hard. Because clay can crack if it dries out too quickly, the artist made small perforations in the eyes, nostrils and navel that provided air vents during the firing process. This hollow figure is somewhat rare in relation to the figures sculpted from stone.

Check out the "Seated Ruler in Ritual Pose" that the Dallas Museum of Art has in their collection. Compare the two: do the postures and materials communicate different ideas? How do simple marks create expression? Consider this statement from the Museum's info about this piece: "As one of several objects deposited in a burial cache, a greenstone figure such as this may have signified the renewal of life, especially when it was coated with cinnabar, a mineral whose red color represented the life force of blood." Do you agree with this thinking? We may never know all of the answers - even the scholars can only theorize about some of these ideas. All the more reason to do your own surmizing!! Click on the Post title to visit a site about the Olmec culture - it's packed with information!

Art History DMA Late Night Olaf Eliasson Art Adventure

Okay - so for those who don't know, some of my Art History students and their friends met me at the Dallas Museum of Art Late Night (let me give a major shout out about that fabulous experience) to have a "learning lab" about art. We go to check out different parts of the museum (the permanent collection and special exhibits) at the once a month event in order to expand our study of art, but most importantly to see the art up close and personal.

Sooooooo......I asked my students to come to the blog and comment on their Friday night art experience. Guys - PLEASE DON"T make a comment until you go to his website and check out more of his work (it's linked in the post headline)! It is an INCREDIBLE body of work!!! (Oh, and a word about Eliasson's website - it is SUPER simple - a grey screen with links in white text. No visuals appear on the homepage - you have to go to images and continue clicking on the white text links until you got to the image list. The spareness of his website is a big contrast between the visual saturation of his work.) AND, check out the video that features an interview with the artist on his exhibit "Take Your Time" at the DMA.

How does seeing a larger selection of his work affect your opinion? Can you imagine being "in" those other pieces after your experience?

Here's my response to his work and the experience - I really loved it! Being bathed in colored light is a magical experience. Isn't it cosmic that we are studying Gothic stained glass windows and the Divine Light they produced? How did the light make you feel? Could the light Eliasson creates be considered "divine"? Our guide, Ms. Marvel, spoke about how his work reaches across Art History - can you make any other connections to work or cultures we have seen previously? I have a penchant for shiny things, so the glass and mirror installations caught my eye. I had no prior knowledge of Eliasson's work, so the experience was new and fresh for me as well.

We ended on the note of whether his work (or other work of the same ilk) is art or not. How is his work art (or not)? And, if you don't think it is art (which is a legitimate response by the way), why would a museum consider it to be art? How is conceptual art differenct from representational art? It was an awesome night, thanks again for taking time to come to the museum with me - I can't wait to hear what you have to say about it!?

DMA Visit & AP Art History Extra Credit!

LOVE the Dallas Museum of Art Late Night events! In AP Art History last Thursday, we took a glance at Indian miniature paintings, I donned a sari and we had an Indian Feast! Just the thing we all needed at the end of the six weeks. Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting is opening at the DMA Nov. 18 runs until Jan. 27. Any of my students who visited the DMA Late Night Fri., Nov. 16 or who visit the exhibit can respond to this post (make it juicy!) and you will get extra credit!

Late Night at the Dallas Museum of Art

Tonight is Late Night at the DMA - free concert by Los Lobos and
the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibit. Hope to see you there!