Chapter 20 - Arts of the Pacific and the Americas

Moai, or mo‘ai are human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Easter Island, Chile between the years 1250 and 1500.  The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most would be cast down during later conflicts between clans.

Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as Île Marchand and Madison Island. Above is A warrior of Nuku Hiva with a spear and a hand fan by Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau, 1813.

Ritual Mask. Aztec, early 16th century.

Johnnie Davis, Crooked Beak, 19th Century.

Masks are used for dance by many people of the Pacific Northwest mostly to tell tales of mythical creatures. They also had a long history in Meso America. 

Damien Hirst

                                                          Away from the Flock (1994)

The Child's Dream (1992)

Mother and Child Divided (1993)

I Want You Because I Can't Have You

A Thousand Years (1990)

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991) 

Chapter 21 - The Modern World

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Jupiter and Thetis

Eugène Delacroix, The Women of Algiers

Jupiter and Thetis, the subject is drawn from Homer's lliad, the Greek epic of the Trojan war. Ingres inherited the view that great art can be made only from great subject matter and that the greatest subject matter of all was history. The Women of Algiers which portrays three women and their servant. Compared with the cool perfection of Ingres ' careful drawing and glazed colors, Delecroix's technique is more freer and painterly.

Gustave Courbet, The Artist's Studio

Although a great many people crowd into the studio, the artist seems aloof from them. The intellectual appear to be on the right while peasants are on the right. I think this piece depicts status and wealth.

Berthe Morisot, Summer's Day, 1879

Summer's day and the two women seen here are an example of her style of work. A snapshot of life and admittance of fashionable and wealthy women. The palette is light, and so is the world around it, The ambience is calm and peaceful.

Chapter 22 - From Modern to Postmodern

Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe

Roy Lichtenstein. Masterpiece

Both pieces are works of pop art also known as American culture art. Andy Warhol is an artist that uses celebrity icons in his work as a form of mass media art and advertising.  Marilyn Monroe, a troubled film star was his inspiration and devoted his works towards her. Lichtenstein based his imagery on comic books, his works are larger frames of comic strips that are gear towards newspaper reproduction.

Gas Zappers, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung

Louis Bourgeois, Untitled 1996

Hung's piece is a form of digital art that depicts a series of online video games about climate change. The polar bear encounters a series of threatening environmental scenarios that he must get through. In Bourgeois work confronts aging with unpairing honesty. Her clothes from decades gone by are used to evoke  the passing of time.

Chapter 23 - Opening Up The New World

Atta Kim, Museum Project #149

Ernesto Neto, Leviathan Thot

I favor both of these pieces because of the fact the installation used. Leviathan Thot looks like the bottom of a desk filled with countless pieces of bubble gum stretched out and dripping. I like how the Museum Project is inspired by the Buddhism religion yet the subject shown seems to go against it by appearing to be trapped within its practice and beliefs.

Subodh Gupta, Very Hungry God.

Olafur Eliasson, 360-Degree Room fo All Colors

I find both of these pieces to be eerie and mysterious. Very Hungry God is a grinning symbol of death assembled with what seems to be kitchen appliances. Gupta was inspired by a disturbing story of a charitable organization in France distributing pork soup to the hungry knowing that observant Muslims and Jews could not eat it. All colors welcome viewers to step foot into into a slowly shifting panoramic cinema of spectral color. I like the viewer can imagine themselves in another world full of color and excitement.

Chapter 13- Architecture

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Taj Mahal, Agra, India

The architecture of the two both have a few similarities from their appearance. They both have dome shaped rooftops and four towers that surround the building. In my opinion I find the Taj Mahal much more appealing than the Hagia Sophia because when I look at the Taj Mahal I feel as if i'm looking at a mirage. It gives of a sense of lucidity and I can gaze at it hours on end while listening to a good shoe gaze album.

Hagia Sophia's appearance just seems bland, run down, and aged.

Moshe Safdie, Habitat, Montreal

Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania

Both are very unique and are surrounded by nature. Fallingwater appears to be so zen, tranquil, and relaxing that it makes you just want to go there for yoga and meditation, maybe even a lounging around and observing the nature that surrounds you. The Moshe Safdie looks like it was created a kids imagination using Jenga blocks, the overall appearance looks complex yet carefully arranged in a clean puzzling manner. I feel as if the building can tip over at any second.

Chapter 12 - Arts of Ritual and Daily Life- Part 1

Maria Martinez

A ceramic artist that has traveled from New Mexico to Washington D.C. who devoted a long lifetime to the craft of pottery making. She began her career as a folk potter and ended it six decades later as a first ranked potter international reputation.

OLOWE OF ISE

Olower of Ise was born in the Nigerian town of Efon Alaye, less than fifty from Ife, the holy city of the Yoruba. His work was known in England as well as in Nigeria. One of his elaborate wooden bowls with figures was brought back to England by a british visitor. 

Chapter 11 - Sculpture & Installation - part 2

Yayoi Kusama, Fireflies on the Water, 2002.

Kusama created a room that viewers enter to shut out the world. We enter it as we might enter our own imagination, where no one can follow. 

Louis Bourgeois, Red Room, 1994

Bourgeois  turns an idea inside creating a room viewers want to enter but cannot. The subject is the psychological scarring of her own childhood, which was spent with a mother she adored and a father she hated because his infidelity to her mother.

The similarities between the two is that both artists create a room out of pure imagination coming to life. Bourgeois room is somewhat simple to assemble as opposed to Kusama's piece that looks rather difficult to create. One room brings a almost lucid scenery while the other draws more emotions of anger and hostility.

Chapter 11 - Sculpture & Installation - part 1

Tilman Riemenschneider, 

Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon, 1495

A soft wood with a close, uniform grain, lime wood carves easily and lends itself well to Tilman's style. Mary stands in a gentle, informal S curve, as though she might move at any second. The infant Jesus is even more animated, and his body twists in a spiral motion.

Spirit Spouse, from Ivory Coast, Baule early 20th century

A formal pose and an impassive face are used to express the dignity of an otherworldly being. Baule belief holds that each person has, in addition to an earthly spouse, a spirit spouse in the Other World. If this spirit spouse is happy, all is well. But an unhappy or jealous spirit spouse may cause trouble in one's life. A remedy is to give the spirit spouse a presence in this world by commissioning a statue called a "person of the wood". The statue is made as beautiful as possible to encourage the spirit to take up residence within it, and it is placed in a household shrine and tended to with gifts and small offerings.

The similarities between the two is that both represent a spirit of life. The difference is that Tilman focuses more on a idol that is known more throughout the world than a culture of belief.

Chapter 4 - The Visual Elements - Part 2

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Gold, 1872
The use of the color blue shown here depicts overall calmness, blue contributes significantly to the subdued emotional mood of the painting. The strong stable vertical lines of the pier, the reassuring horizontals of the bridge and horizon shows tranquility.

                          Edward Munch. The Scream, 1893
The scream depicts negative emotions such as agony, horror, loneliness, and instability through the subject, colors, and lines. The scream is a silent one, the interior cry of a soul projected onto nature.


The similarities between the two is that they both show a sense of emotion. The difference is of the emotion each shows, one is a sense of tranquility and the other depression. James' piece shows emotion more so through the color blue, yet Munch's show emotion by the instability of the lines.

Chapter 4 - The Visual Elements - Part 1

Henri Cartier Bresson, Aquila Abruzzi, Italy 1951

Directional lines play an important role in this piece, every line leads an an object or person. These lines lead your eyes to a focus of what is happening, where people are going, and where things are placed. Our eyes followed most readily were diagonal lines I noticed.

Thomas Eakins, The Biglin Brothers Racing, 1873-1874

This piece here is stabilized by the long, calm horizontal of the distant shore and it's boat house. The two boats that appear in the back are the gentlest of the diagonals. Of the more noticeable diagonals that can be found are the men's arms and oars, you can see the power of their rowing.

The similarities between the two is that each piece of work is a snap shot of life and it's activities people chose to participate in. The difference between the two is that the directional lines differ from what the artist is trying to show is somewhat harsh and strong in the Aquila Abruzzo piece because of the colors. The lines appear to be black and solid yet the ambience is white. There are so many lines in this piece that your eyes don't know where to begin to look. Yet in Eakin's piece the lines that show the subject are placed right before, it isn't complicated like Bresson's. 

Chapter 3 part 2

THE NATURAL WORLD

A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), Jeff Wall, 1993

Jeff Wall’s A Sudden Gust of Wind was created after Hokusai’s Ejira in Suruga Provice in 1831.  A Sudden Gust of Wind has a scene that looks a little less windy and is missing Mt. Fuji. His version of this piece catches my eye more because it is realistic, vibrant, and full of detail.

Ejira in Suruga Province, Hokusai, from Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji, c, 1831

Hokusai’s Ejira in Suruga Province, I noticed that Mt. Fuji is out of focus and is just a vague line. The main focus of this piece is life among the rice fields for the workers as they search and obtain rice. I assume that the artist wants to show us that human life is much more important than something that isn't really living thats why Mt. Fuji isn't given much detail. The overall appearance is of this work is almost simple with very little detail.

The differences  between the pictures is obviously that Wall’s

work does not have Mt Fuji. Hokusai’s work is

drawn cartoon like while Wall’s is more life like.

The scene that both artists have captured is of still life.