Alfred Gell And The Art Nexus

Art galleries are essential to the art world, however, is not the only source for audiences to view art. To begin with, art and artwork is defined as the application of human skill, creativity and imagination. Taking this into consideration, individuals need to examine the nature and purpose of art galleries as a facility to collaborate, organize and display a collection of artworks. As art however, is any expression of human creativity, its presence is not bound to art galleries and is evidently present in the world around us be it in photographs, the internet or even in graffiti.

In today’s society, we are constantly being bombarded with visual art forms. Whether they be classical paintings from the Renaissance, a towering and modern skyscraper, or even a cheesy 90’s R&B music video, they all have one thing in common. According to Carolyn Dean’s definition, these would all fall under the category of “art by intention.” In her essay “The Trouble with (The Term) Art” she advocates a distinction between art by intention and what she deems “art by appropriation.” The difference is that one work was created with the intention of being consumed for visual pleasure, while the other was not. However having been educated in the Western school of thought, many art historians cannot help but project their rigid definition of art onto civilizations that may have

In a world that has become immune to accepting all types of art, Marya Mannes believes we have lost our standards and ability to identify something as “good” or “bad”. In her essay, “How Do You Know It’s Good”, she discusses society’s tendency to accept everything out of fear of wrongly labelling something as being good or bad. She touches on various criteria to judge art, such as the artist’s purpose, skill and craftsmanship, originality, timelessness, as well as unity within a piece rather than chaos. She says that an individual must decide if something is good “on the basis of instinct, experience, and association” (Mannes). I believe that by using standards and the process of association, we will be able to judge what makes an art piece good in comparison to others. However, Mannes forces me to consider the difference between what may be appealing versus what is actually good, and when deciding which art we should accept, which is truly more important. I believe that “good” and “bad” are two ends of a large, subjective spectrum of grey area. It is possible for a piece of art to be good in some areas and bad in others, and if something does not live up to all of our standards, it does not necessarily mean it should be dismissed. Thus, I believe my personal standards for judging art are based on which my standards are largely based on the personal reaction evoked from a piece of art. Though I agree with Mannes’ standards to an extent, I believe that certain standards, such as evoking a personal response, can be more telling of if a piece of art is good as opposed to its timelessness, or the level of experience of an artist in his/her craft.

Big name artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat both started out as graffiti artists. Haring kept his characteristic marker drawings in his rise to fame, while Basquiat went the modern art route, ignoring his beginnings. Both artists would end up selling their art for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today, both graffiti and street art is used by ad companies, and as author Claudia Walde recognizes, “Ad agencies have long recognized the potential in harnessing authentic aspects of street culture to create cutting-edge campaigns…” (Walde, 6). Today, street art is also carried directly to consumers through the internet, particularly social media. With platforms like Instagram, and plenty of people looking for an artsy snap, pieces can be posted all over the internet, with very little involvement from the actual artist. It seems that no matter what the differing opinions are, people (particularly younger generations) subconsciously see the art for what it is. Street art’s attractiveness to young people ties back into the idea that street art is intriguing because of its spontaneity and apparent

Aside from the Brooklyn Museum, the only museum I had been to in the last four years would be the Met Breuer. As I was instructed to visit the Diane Arbus exhibit at the Met Breuer, I imagined the same type of scenery any museum would look like; high ceiling, large frames, and a collection of detailed and colorful work. It occurred to my surprise when instead I saw an identical collection of same sized frames, of just people, in what seemed to be black and white. As I took a deeper glance, I noticed almost none of the people photographed were smiling. It appeared that they were candid photos, yet they all looked directly at the camera. Arbus’ photos were drawn to unusual public places and scenery in black and white with some surreal contrast portraits. I noticed the raw images of peculiar people often brought focus on those who may be the outliers of their society; transgender, dwarfs, nudists, circus clowns, and even children. There were various particular themes that struck a chord with me, however, among the many images I came across during my search, I found Arbus’ portraits on transgender people provoke the most emotion and intrigue. The wide variety of each portrait as well as the ways she chose to portray them told a story of both lives and culture within her lifetime. Being particularly interested on transgender people, I was captivated with the complexities of her work and the way that she transcended so many boundaries which constantly had me question the theme she

Throughout human history people used to capture the reality of their time, express their feelings and share their impressions by copying both literally or figurative the mundane. The so-called artists have had different impacts in society all along the centuries. Only a few are currently taught in school, although the reverberation of their work is still impregnated in XXI Century. Nowadays, the term ‘artist’ can be used in reference of painters, sculptors, writers, singers, choreographers and other professions whose production are considered valuable culturally speaking. One of the main problems is that their work produce such a magnificent impact on the audience the artist is set aside and usually forgotten as a person, so they feel their rights to be violated.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is critical of how our culture values and judges artwork because of the degree to which expectations and others’ beliefs manipulate our interpretations of reality. The documentary demonstrates this phenomenon concerning art, but it also applies to all subjective experiences. Through Thierry’s opening gallery Life is Beautiful, Exit Through the Gift Shop shows how expectations and conformity manipulate our experiences.

Richard Prince had an art show consisting of an installation of enlarged photographs from his Instagram feed, New Portraits. They came from many different accounts on Instagram and were being sold for up to $100,000 at an art fair in New York. He established his whole career on the practice of appropriation. His refinements of the initial works and the complications of fair use have been major contributions to his positive legal state. However, the most significant changes to the photos in this installation are comments left under them. New

This brings us to our discussion of the meaning behind photography, especially the difference between perceived intention and the artist’s actual intention. If someone were to consider Eads ' numerous selfies, one might assume that she has lost touch of her authentic identity and is struggling to build real relationships, as Lucie Hemmen, a Santa Cruz clinical psychologist argues in the article (qtd. in Yadegaran). It is arguable that Lucie

Barbara Kruger's work has, and continues to leave a legacy on the world's ideological perspectives. Barbara scrutinizes the hackneyed society standards of consumerism, greed, sex, religion, and gender. Causing much controversy over her blunt, and sometimes vulgar artwork, Kruger is not one to shy away from mass media judgement. Taking a closer look at Barbara's childhood and early training, her brand of artistry, and how the world responds to her unparalleled pieces is the key to gaining insight as to who she is. Barbara Kruger is unequivocally an icon of postmodernism artists. But before Kruger had a flourishing career, she had a beginning.

Matthew Ritchie and Susan Rothenberg are both flourishing artist’s that have set forth numerous collections of artwork. Each piece that they have created are based off of different experiences they had throughout their life. Although most of their artistically creative career continues to grow, many pieces that have been established individually by the two were developed using many different techniques, structures, and thoughts.

The first detail that relays Walker’s message is her choice of medium. By making her sculpture a room, Walker is providing the audience a refreshing way to look at art and engaging the audience to become a piece of the work while exploring the strange and fascinating objects surrounding them. This use of medium while engaging the audience to interact

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the first EOS Rebel SLR camera, Canon, a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions, has partnered with Grammy Award winning record producer Swizz Beatz to give a voice to undiscovered artists. In keeping with Canon’s new “Rebel with a Cause” initiative, which profiles modern day rebels who challenge convention in their own unique way while capturing causes near and dear to their hearts (through the eye of a Canon Rebel DSLR camera of course), the producer, born Kasseem Dean, chose to showcase artistic talent that may have otherwise fallen under the radar of the notoriously introverted art community through the #TheUnknowns hashtag. With a focus on breaking down the art world's self-imposed boundaries, Swizz and Canon curated the work of unknown artists and brought their work to the masses, projecting them on the facades of the Brooklyn Museum

Professor Mondloch first briefly discussed the concept of interface in the context of art. She argues that the way we see and experience art works “is as important as what we see.” To illustrate her argument, Professor Mondloch used Bruce Nauman’s Live-Taped Video Corridor as an example of how our experiences of an art work can become its meaning.

“Untitled” by Paul Kuczynski also contains satire, however the author of this portrait uses satire to depict the theme of isolation, instead of misery, poverty, ruin and neglect. This simple, yet thought provoking picture, shows a man looking through a periscope that is shaped like the Facebook symbol, to see through a window above an open door. The door is not barricaded in any way, shape or form, so the man is able to walk outside and see what is going on in the world first hand. Instead, he chooses to stay inside by himself and view the world through Facebook. Through “Untitled,” Kuczynski conveys the message that social media interaction is overtaking physical interaction. People are more likely to go on social media to find out what is happening than to go out and experience it themselves. Kuczynski’s painting greatly showcases that even in its simplicity.