Art in Raw Form

Films are a large part of our lives here in America where we depend on them to do when we’re bored with nothing to do, or when the snow or rain is falling. We all use movies as a common way to go on dates and be with friends. However, there has become an abundance amount of movies that we can all enjoy throughout our lives. Although not all movies are interesting to all viewers depending on their personality and what they like to watch. I can say for myself that a film that I really enjoy would be “Mean Girls”. In the two thousand four film “Mean Girls” there is a sense of entertainment that helps in combining all the aspects found in a classical film. Classical films having a entertaining and dramatic plot, and a excellent cast.

The figure 1.120 on page 123 of Gateways to Art depicts a 3 dimensional piece of art called Monogram. Inside the work includes mixed media with taxidermy goat, rubber tire, and a tennis ball. The work was done by Robert Rauschenberg from Sweden. There is strong emphasis on the goat, making it the focal point of the mass. The installation of the tire is wrapped around the goat’s torso, while the goat is mounted onto the center of the wood frame. The size of the work is monumental compared to other works of art. The subordination of the painted half of the work prevents the viewer from looking at the plain pieces of wood. The span of the mount stretches diagonally across the frame. The addition of red paint brings a sense of luminosity to the work. There are illuminated letters printed of the wood pieces that draws attention to the left half of the piece. The text says Rauschenberg created the work “as a symbol of himself as a rebel and outcast.” The goat relates to a religious perspective as goats used to be offered as a sacrifice by Christians to God. This work was so odd at the time because it was not a sculpture or painting, making it unique in its own way.

Both Laura Mulvey and bell hooks describe the idea of the “gaze” in film. In both of the theories presented by Mulvey and hooks, the “gaze” is the way in which viewers are subjected to a particular perspective because of their social standing. In Mulvey’s case, she argues that the “gaze” in which the audience is forced into is that of the “male gaze” while hooks argues a more nuanced “gaze” including the “oppositional gaze”. While some of Mulvey’s argument is accurate, hooks argues that it leaves out important other factors, in particular, race. Both arguments have many similarities and differences, and can be seen exemplified in many films, such as Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It.

I have never seen the movie Pleasantville, which is what we watched this past week. Since I have never watched it before it was hard for me to have any prejudices towards the film. I do like the actors that were cast in this movie but that didn’t make me prejudice towards anything regarding the movie. I really didn’t know what to expect with this movie. The black and white made me wonder if it was going to be good because I have not seen very many black and white films. Nonetheless, having no prejudices and not really knowing what to expect this movie was pleasing to watch.

Although the best reasons for “going to the movies” are to be entertained and eat popcorn, understanding a film is actually quite complex. Movies are not only a reflection of life, they also have the capability of shaping our norms, values, attitudes, and perception of life. Through the media of film, one can find stories of practically anything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Movie-makers use their art to entertain, to promote political agendas, to educate, and to present life as it is, was, or could be. They can present truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether. A movie can be a work of fiction, non-fiction, or anything in-between. A film is an artist’s interpretation. What one takes away from a film depends upon how one interprets what has been seen and heard. Understanding film is indeed difficult.

Kehinde Wiley is a New York based artist whose paintings focus on the themes of empowering black men and combining classical and contemporary styles.

While the movie can fill our hearts with mirth and laughter, there are uncertainties and disapprovals that coexist. Controversially,

How often is it that you watch a movie and you feel uneasy or sad but the movie is actually a good movie; award winning good? Precious is one of the only movies that makes me feel that way no matter how many times I watch it. The movie Precious was actually a bestselling novel written by Ramona Lofton also known as Sapphire; in 1996; then directed into a movie by Lee Daniels in 2009. The movie takes place in Harlem, 1987 it is about an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child whom is invited to an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a different path.

“The audience for a movie of this kind becomes the lowest common denominator of feeling: a sponge.” So wrote Pauline Kael in response to The Sound of Music, blaming the victims when it was still politically correct to do so. Looking into Hollywood's dollar-sign eyes quickly explains how the film industry sidestepped laying prostrate at Kael's hemline, and yet how often have shameless tearjerkers really run the table at the box office in this millennium? Do modern audiences still need their catharsis delivered via the safety of chosen trigger warnings? Has the nobility of the collective cry been mitigated by just how many actual life opportunities we've been dealt?

The movie is based around the character, Precious. A 16-year-old girl growing up in Harlem who has lived a life full of sexual, physical, and verbal abuse, ridicule, illiteracy, and overall tragedy. While she was verbally abused by both parents and sexually abused on a daily basis, resulting in two children, she begins attending a special school to earn her GED. Though she is 16 years old, she is able to only read at a 1st grade level. While in the program she forms a close bond with her teacher who she regularly confides in. Throughout the film, Precious displays her abysmally low self-esteem and thinks very little of herself. She states at one point that “she will never amount to anything, and is worthless” (Precious). Her teacher works to get to the bottom of the idea Precious holds of herself, and helps push Precious to evaluate that construct. Precious grows intellectually and as a person, in the end realizing those negative views she held were not true. Ultimately, empowering her, changing her reality, and helping her to build up her confidence that was sorely

No artist expresses more freedom than the brut artist of the 20th century. Many of this work was based on perception and interaction that came from different surroundings from which the artist was exposed, and the work was not properly recognized to the believe of being work of a much lower quality. This essay will primarily cover Chapter seven, eight, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen from the book Raw Creation Outsider Art and Beyond. It will also cover some of the artwork form the book mainly focusing in composition.

Shepard Fairey’s piece titled Pay Up or Shut Up is a representation of the role that money or your role in society dictate the power of your speech. This piece of art by Fairey was released in May of 2015. It is a screen print on cream speckletone paper.

I chose the Michel Saloff-Coste abstract art for my piece. The artwork made me think of a busy market type street thronging with people of all different backgrounds. My piece is meant to convey a person getting up in the morning and walking down a bright street like this where there is lots of music from different places, all mixing together. I imagine it sort of like an open-air market in a big city, with everyone playing their own music. I opened with two different brass track solos. I felt that the bright, almost celebratory feel very much illustrated the ‘person’ of my piece heading out ready to face the day. After this it goes into a conga beat with a string bass playing a repeated eighth-note pattern. This establishes the ‘groove’ of

From an intimate perspective, art is a fundamental experience. It springs from the inborn passion of the man to build a medium of expression of his inner life. It is immaterial whether the basic thrust of these feelings arising out of a anguish cosmic, or of the need for play, or the desire to express in signs and symbols the unconscious of a desire repressed. What is certain is that the art arises with the need for expression of the man. In this sense, the term reproduction, which can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is applied.

I stand on the dense carpeted floor barefoot. My toes curl and uncurl through the fibers as I bounce slightly to the music filling the room. It has a strong bass that somehow simultaneously calms me down and makes me excited. I fiddle with the brush in my hand. The bristles are half coated in cadmium red acrylic paint. The canvas in front of me is half bare and waiting for me to add more color. I dip my brush in my paint cup. It is an old thick plastic cup permanently stained with various other paints after years of use. I enjoy how worn it is though. It shows how long I have been painting and feels almost like an art piece in itself.