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EXPERIENCE: VMFA Field Trip     //     11.19.2018

11/27/2018

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Howardina Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen
Reflection - Serendipity and the Shape of Random
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Among Pindell's wide variety of works, spanning mediums, styles, and focuses there remains constants - both intangible and material. Her use of transparent materials such as vellum and acetate spans styles, as does her use of hole punches and photos. However, what I found to be the most interesting continuity throughout Pindell's work was her use of serendipity, and the idea of random. 
    To be honest, I have often hated the word "serendipity" or "serendipitous." I've thought of it as a pretentious cop-out for the lazy artist who puts too little thought in to their work, and expects the viewer to do the hard work of decoding and analyzing a piece of "art." To me, "serendipity" meant "chance," and "chance" meant laziness.
     However, Pindell has changed my mind - somewhat. I no longer deplore the concept of serendipity. I will, of course, still loudly assert that serendipity and chance are often used by the lazy artist in an attempt to make the viewer believe that some higher power is at work, or that because by mere chance (or really the rules of physics) a dash of paint happens to be shaped like a rabbit, the artist was conveying some meaning.
     Over the course of her career as an artist, Pindell consistently used serendipity, and never more so than in her works on acetate over a television. Not only did Pindell create the majority of the work before she incorporated chance, but when she did add an element of chance, she did so methodically and with intent. Pindell was very clear about what she wanted from a piece of art, and how the chance that she incorporated accentuated or added to the meaning. Pindell's art clearly shows the time and thought that went into each work. There were no truly random parts of her art. There was a chosen random, a curated random. Yes, there was random, but with intent.
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Here you can see a continuity - in Pindell's use of transparent materials overlaying a background.
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Here is another continuity of materials, this time of hole punches used in different ways on a surface.

Abstraction and Mark Making
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Early in the Morning, James Rosenquist, Oil on Canvas and Plastic, 1963, VMFA
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Ocean Park No. 22, Richard Diebenkorn, Oil on Canvas, 1969, VMFA.
It's very difficult to draw a line in between Abstract art and non-objective art, however, I think the basic rule of representational vs not representational works quite well in general. I think that as long as an object in a painting or artwork can be consistently identified by different people, I think the work counts as abstract rather than non-objective. Once an object becomes so deformed or changed that it can no longer be recognizable by the majority of people, then it counts as non-objective. Works where there are definitely objects, but its unclear what those objects are, should be, in my opinion, classified as non-objective. The two works here are pretty clear. Rosenquist's work clearly has some representational aspects - the legs and the orange, while Diebenkorn's work has no recognizable objects, remaining clearly in the non-objective field.

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Untitled, Mark Rorthko, Oil on Canvas, 1960, VMFA
The VMFA placard on Abstract Expressionist Art separated Abstract Expressionism into "Action Paintings" and "Color Field Paintings." Kooning and Pollock created examples of Action Painting, and Rothko and Newman are known for their Color Field Painting. Abstract expressionism really includes art made in the 40s and 50s that combined a host of global influences with a desire for expression through art without representation, and a focus on spontaneity. Rothko's work focuses on expression through the layering of colors, and the subtle variations that painting with thin layers creates in the finished work. 

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Untitled, Frank Kline, Commercial Oil Based Paint on Canvas, 1955, VMFA.
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Claustral, Morris Louis, Oil on Canvas, 1961, VMFA.
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Synopsis of a Battle, Cy Twombly, Commercial Oil Based Paint and Wax Crayon on Canvas, 1968, VMFA.
The first work I've chosen is one by Frank Kline. Its really clear how these marks were made - quickly (though not without thought) and with what feels like a sense of urgency. they were made quickly with a large brush in straight lines - or maybe even a paint roller. Morris's work shows a much more slow and patient work. While it still has a feeling of action, you can almost see the slow vertical movements that it took to complete these overlapping colors. Finally, the Twombly work has a massive amount of motion and energy to it, with scribbled diagrams and numbers, indicating an almost frantic process. 

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Lemons, Donald Sultan, Latex Paint, Plaster, Butyl Rubber on Vinyl tile over Masonite, 1984, VMFA.
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17th Stage, Keith Noland, Acrylic on Canvas, 1964, VMFA.
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Isis Ardor, Jules Olitski, Acrylic on Canvas, 1962, VMFA.
     Donald Sultan's Lemons has a very closed composition, looking down at the lemons without any cropping. In fact, it almost creates a triangular composition, somewhat similar to old religious art. Sultan also uses color and contrast to emphasize the lemons, and really pull the lemons off of the background and away from the bowl under them. He also completely excludes form from his lemons, making them just a flat color that adds the the contrast between the lemons and the more realistically rendered bowl.
     Noland's work, 17th stage has almost a flipped version of Sultan's composition, with an upside down triangle occupying the canvas. Here Noland uses repetition and pattern to emphasize the shape, directing the eye downward toward the point of the triangle. This work focuses on the elements of shape and color, using those almost exclusively. There's clearly a sense of motion caused by the repeating pattern - almost a driving force.
     Finally, Olitski's piece, Isis Ardor, has a more circular composition, radiating out from an off-centered lopsided circle. Like the others, this piece also makes use of color and shape and contrast between colors, however, the composition is very different. Unlike the others, its cropped by the frame, drawing the viewer into the painting, rather than allowing them to spectate from afar. I find the irregular circles somewhat unsettling, but I think they make the composition as a whole more interesting and gives the piece more motion. 
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Process: Old Master Copy. "Final"

11/12/2018

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Here is the final (official) process post for this project. I put an enormous amount of effort into this drawing, and despite the extreme incompleteness of it, I was very satisfied with The parts I did accomplish. I copied every single line as exactly as I could, and while I can see errors and misplaced lines, the effect overall is very much the same as Dürer's. Looking back and forth between the two, they look really quite similar, and each major point - the spaces between major lines, thick blots of ink, areas of light and dark - pretty much lines up. 
Over the next couple weeks I want to continue to work on this and finish it up. I think I've done the majority of the most difficult part - the overlapping lines in the back of the neck and the hair - so the rest should go a little more smoothly. I'm satisfied with the part that I've done, and I would just like to see this project finished.
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Experience: Amanda Adams and Japanese Aesthetics

11/7/2018

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I absolutely loved this lecture. I found it incredibly inspiring and I left it wanting to draw and think and learn more about it and so much else. 
Unfortunately, I missed the Lunchtime Lecture last year on Wabi-Sabi, which I was very disappointed about because I love Japanese art and design. 
At this lecture, however, it wasn't really an interest in the topic that drew me in, it was a more emotional connection. Wabi, Sabi, and Yugen made complete sense to me, and it felt somehow completely natural. I think without knowing it, I had almost adopted similar ideas of Aesthetics as the Japanese seem to have, and this presentation showed me how similar they really were.
I also really resonated with Tanizaki's ideas and writing. I was extremely impressed with his capability to convey emotion and aesthetic interest through writing in a completely unique and new (to me at least) way. His essay seems much more powerful BECAUSE it is not a 'traditional essay' in the modern sense of the word. To me, the simple phrase "in praise of shadows" is the perfect summation of everything he says, describing elegance, beauty, simplicity, and tradition. His stress on shadows and darkness, as well as imperfection in the mechanized age felt instinctive and innate, and as soon as I looked at the images Amanda Adams showed, I understood.
The one frustration I had was with defining Wabi, Sabi, and Yugen. These ideas are so ethereal and almost tempestuous in nature that they resist definition. Maybe in the Japanese language, these words have clearer meaning to the speakers, but in English, perhaps the less elegant language, they simply do not convey enough meaning and weight to be able to say that they do the ideas they represent justice.
Wabi, Sabi, and Yugen are complicated concepts, but they feel native and natural and perfectly right.

I found this video about Kintsugi, which is the repairing of damages that took on artistic value in Japanese art.
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Process: Old Master Copy. Inking

11/7/2018

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Thus far, inking the Dürer copy has been successful but slow.  I had some trouble at first with Dürer's mark due to the angle of the pen. Whenever I was trying to make a mark that was thicker or heavier at the top, the pen would catch due to the curve of his mark. In some of the pictures below you can see some of my practice.
Probably the hardest part of this process is honestly just looking at the lines and figuring out where each line goes. There's such a high density of lines overlapping, especially in the part I worked on between the 4th and the 6th, and just seeing where they go is quite a challenge.
Initially, I had been penciling in most lines as I went to make sure I got the proportions just right, but because that took such an excessive amount of time, I've moved away from that and have tried to just freehand most of the smaller, less important lines. It can be more frustrating because mistakes are permanent, but because there are so many of the lines, no mistakes will really stand out unless you compare the drawings at each line. However, I am very proud of the work I've done. Every single line (except one that I forgot and there isn't room to add it in) is in place, and overlapping with the same lines in the same places as the original. 
One more frustration of this project is the scale. This piece is massively bigger than the original, which is only 8.2 inches by 5.8 inches, so the width of the pen relative to the paper was much larger for Dürer. This essentially means that on my copy, there is much more white space relative to inked space because the pen is so thin. I've tried to fix this by going over lines multiple times to make them thicker, but it's still not quite right, and it changes the effect somewhat.
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Process: Old Master Copy. Drawing

11/7/2018

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Honestly, I really enjoyed the drawing of this piece. I was sick the first day we worked on these, so I started out a little behind and only got my paper set up with its 10x10 grid (maybe a little excessive) on the second day. However, that small grid made the drawing a lot easier to do and I think made it nearly impossible to have any major mistake in proportionality. I do have to make sure I strike a balance between making sure things are in the right place, and getting through the drawing to the next phase. However, overall, I am very happy with how the piece is going, and I like Albrecht Dürer even more now than I did before starting this.
Unfortunately I don't have a picture from my first day of work, as it was only the grid that I finished.
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