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Bill Viola Research Paper

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Graham Lewis Professor Kristov Kluetsch 20th Century Art 5/6/15 Introduction – Bill Viola was and still remains to be a world renowned artist for his work in the visual arts and more specifically film Viola was one of the first to make the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art His exhibitions were so successful and so popular that some even drew in crowds upwards of 340,000 people Working thesis: Bill Viola’s video installation of The Quintet of the Astonished serves as a breaking point for art because of Viola’s ability to so successfully portray and convey the complexity of human feelings. First Paragraph – Bill Viola’s background Studied visual art at Syracuse University in New York and received his BFA in 1973 Lived …show more content…

Created first series of works some of which were shown on television Invited to show his videos to La Trobe University in Melbourne Australia by arts director Kira Perov in 1977 Not a year had passed and the two were married She joined him in NYC They then began working together as well as traveling together They then lived and worked side by side, she became his creative manager/assistant/guider Developed his style of video art Capturing emotion Focusing on human experience Lots of his works have Eastern and Western influences Viola had a large amount of video installation exhibitions throughout his life which led him to being as influential as he is and Second Paragraph - “The Passions” ongoing prject The work and its portrayal The video is an intense tableau of shifting and momentary figures Part of an ongoing series called “The Passions” Began in 2000 Focuses on tackling one of the oldest problems in art How to convey power and complexity of human feelings Using technology he examines the manifestations of emotion Through silence, extremely slow motion, and psychologically gripping depictions of the faces and bodyies of his performers Third Paragraph – The Quintet of the Astonished how it was …show more content…

Ed. Marilyn Zeitin. Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Texas., n.d. Web. 06 May 2015. Ross, David A., Peter Sellars, and Lewis Hyde. Bill Viola. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1997. Print. Townsend, Chris, and Bill Viola. The Art of Bill Viola. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. Print. Viola, Bill, and Deirdre Boyle. Bill Viola: Survey of a Decade. Ed. Marilyn Zeitlin. Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1988. Print. Viola, Bill, Peter Sellars, and Hans Belting. Bill Viola: The Passions. Ed. John Walsh. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum in Association with the National Gallery, London, 2003.

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