Bibliography for Oral Presentation

“‘Drip’ and ‘Emoter’ Tim Hawkinson.” art21, Nov. 2011, art21.org/read/tim-hawkinson-drip-and-emoter/

 “Family Resemblance Tim Hawkinson  Exclusive.” Art21.org, 10 Jan, 2011. art21.org/watch/exclusive/tim-hawkinson-family-resemblance-short/

“Art in the twenty first century,” season 2 Episode “Time.” 17 Sep. 2003.

“Zoopsia: New Works by Tim Hawkinson.” J.Paul Jetty Trust, www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/hawkinson/

“Mobius Ship.” Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2017. www.collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/75563/

“Tim hawkinson.” www.artseensoho.com/Art/ACE/hawkinson99/h3.html.
“Tim hawkinson.”www.artseensoho.com/Art/ACE/hawkinson99/h2.html

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Art is a diverse range of activities that express artist’s imaginative and emotional power. Art can be existing in many different forms such as painting, sculpture, music, drama, earthwork, metal work, graphic, illustration, photography, printmaking, sand art and such. Graffiti art is a form of a contemporary visual art that started in east cost American cities during late 1960’s. Graffiti art often refers as decorative imagery on a public urban environment. Graffiti artists make their artwork using spray paint, color markers, spray cans, stickers and industrial paints. Graffiti art is considered as vandalism and punishable as a criminal offense because of its nature. The documentary film called “Exit through the Gift Shop” is about Los Angeles based Frenchman, Thierry Guetta, who was obsessed with filming, and his journey to becoming an artist. Thierry Guetta’s obsession of filming made him to carry his camera everywhere and video tape everything. After watching his cousin, street artist knows as Invader, doing a street artwork, he got an idea to video tape underground street art movement. He has been filming and helping various street artists such as Zeus, Invader, Seizer, and shepherd Fairey. Then eventually he met the street art icon, Banksy. Banksy who is a camera shy artist let Thierry record him and his work under his conditions. Banksy realized that Thierry is not a real filmmaker; he is maybe “someone with mental problems who happened to have a camera.” However, Banksy discovers that Thierry Guetta is a very interesting character and suggested him to make his own art. Later on Thierry became an artist and called himself Mr. Brainwash as known as MBW. He held a grand art exhibition at Los Angeles in 2008 which sold out thousands of dollars worth artwork. This documentary film end with Banksy questioning the blurred line between what real art is and what is not.

A piece of artwork is stand out from something else because of its ability to express feelings and emotion, change general perception and values and, begin a discussion regardless its form or material. For example, Banksy’s elephant artwork in his 2008 Los Angeles show which is a camouflaged live elephant along with the white card given to visitors that says “Elephant in the room. The problem that we never talk about” represents the English language metaphorical idiom “elephant in the room.” Banksy’s this artwork supposed to symbolize how the problem of world poverty is ignored. However, according to the documentary film, American media could see only what right in front of them. The “Death of a Telephone booth” was a Banksy’s public installation which done in Soho, London 2008. The red telephone booth was crooked and had an axe attached to its middle area looks like somebody attach the telephone booth. Red painting drip from where the axe hit the telephone booth. People assume that this artwork represents the death of the telephone communication. Banksy’s this artwork established a conversation in two group of people; people who were amazed by the artwork and others who consider this as an act of vandalism.

Modern Art - Cubism and Surrealism

Cubism is one of the principle innovation that happened in early 20^th century which has been considered to be among most influential art movement in modern art. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque invented the Cubist style combining their shared ideas and influences. Cubism derived its name from comment made by one critic; critic said that the paintings were made out of little cubes. The cubist style emphasizes the flat, two dimensional space, complex negative and positive space, and multiple perspective breaking the visual world down to basic geometric shapes. Cubist painters emphasize their pictorial composition over their personal expressions.

The cubist painting called “Women with Pear” by Pablo Picasso is one of the several portrait painting of Fernande Olivier done by the artist. It is a size of 36 1/4 x 27 7/8 inches oil painting on canvas. He painted this painting during the summer of 1909 in native Spain where he spent time with his companion, Fernande Olivier. This painting is a basically a women’s above the shoulder portrait in an indoor environment. Two out of three of the picture plane is covered by the female figure. There is a green color curtain in the right side of the background. There is a table and pears on top of the table in the left side of the background. Picasso broke down Fernande’s face into a collection of geometric shape and radically reassembled it to show sense of human characteristics. The whole painting is a collection of pointy sharp geometric shape except for the pears on the table. The pears painted as round shaped objects contrast to the rest of the painting. Picasso chooses less saturated color or muted colors to paint this painting. He used geometric shapes and darker shade of colors to create shadows in the background.  Use of relatively warm color (yellow/brown) with green and shades of grey balance and unify the whole composition.

Surrealism is cultural movement which began in the mid 1920’s by a group of artists who were opposed to the direction of European culture. They proclaim the importance of unconscious mind, dreams, fantasies and hallucinations. Surrealist paintings featured element of surprise, desire to pushing out of boundaries and strangeness. This style emphasize on the mysterious, marvelous, mythological and irrational in an effort to make art. Surrealist artist used this style to express their uncensored basic desires and feeling in a dream like setting.

Giorgio de Chirico is famous for his enigmatic paintings and his influences for the surrealism movement. His painting “The Anxious Journey” is an oil on canvas painting.  The dimension 29 1/4 x 42 inches of this painting was made in 1913. Chirico arranged series of architectural arches in the space according to linear perspective. The middle part of the architectural structure painted in a right angle. Even though these arches set up according to linear perspective, its pathways don’t make sense. No one can see where these leads to because almost every one of arches filled with shadows. However, the archway to the left and right side of the picture plane show what is happening beyond them. Very little part of the wall and looming sky shows through the right archway.  The train engine which is running toward the brick wall at the left side gave a physiological and emotional tension. Chirico’s choice of colors is really interesting; because he uses the same color pallet for all of his work. This painting is a beautifully exemplifies the key characteristics of a surrealist painting.

Katharina Grosse and her work

          Katharina Grosse is a German artist who brilliant at painting and sculptures/installation art.  Her artworks vary from paper based paintings to 3D sculpture paintings. She grew up in an art friendly background and her mother’s influence helped her to become an artist. Her artworks are the results of her obsession of scale and colors. 

The public installation artwork called just the two of us is the biggest artwork done by Katharina Grosse. It’s a series of massive multi-colored acrylic on glass-fiber reinforced plastic sculptures installed in Metro Plaza Commons, downtown Brooklyn during the time period of October 2013 to September 2014. This is 18 piece sculptures which were created in the studio then reassemble at the MetroTech commons plaza. The inspiration behind this sculpture is the fascinating power of natural iconic images such as trees, soil, and landscape. This artwork looks like a volume floating through the forest at distance. The way colors painted on the sculpture gave a sense of motion around the strict inactive trees.  Those tall trees and big building gave a certain scale to the sculpture.  Colors, shape, and scale of the sculpture gave am eye popping feeling in the relatively dull environment.

 This beautiful massive sculpture was at Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas in 2013. She wanted to do an artwork that not uses the display space in the sculpture center. This sculpture was sitting against the wall in the negative space. Major part of the sculpture sitting inside the museum and the other part of this sculpture moving out of the space through the glass panel. One will see this sculpture as a massive movement of various colors from a distance.

Name of this painted sculpture is “I Think This Is a Pine Tree.” Katharina Grosse used acrylic on wall, floor, tree trunks and roots to make this artwork. She chooses unmixed colors to match accordingly with the quite dark space. She says that yellow color was important to her. Yellow color on the front of the artworks and yellow color on roots are completely different. Grosse took an object that everybody knows and turn it to a something else that has a feeling of mystery. During the interview Katharina Grosse explains how she came up with this artwork; she says, “Something has happened to the trees. We don’t know what it is. But they are not where they normally are.”

Photo-montage Assignment

Impressionism and Post Impressionism Art - Assignment 04

Impressionism and Post Impressionism are major moments in the art history.  In 1874, group of artists began to oppose academic doctrines and Romantic ideals and turn to paint representation of everyday life. This period is called impressionism. Impressionist painters took their canvases outdoor and tried to paint what their eyes catch rather than what minds know or interprets of a scene.  They made their paintings the way traditional painters would have made sketches of paintings; by painting quickly as possible. It’s called immediate perception technique. Landscapes and scenes from everyday life in different conditions are the main subjects of these paintings. This period is named after Claude Monet’s panting; impression, sunrise. Impressionist painters painted their paintings without personal or religious interprets. One can see naturalistic depiction of light and color, visible separate stroke and dabs of paints, and applied pure diverse colors placed next to each other among impressionism paintings.  

Post Impressionism period starts in about 1885 following the impressionism period. Post-impressionist artists believed in free interpretation of nature and, oppose the acts of impressionist’s artists. Post impressionism artist went in two different ways. Some went for clear formal organization and other toward personal expression. Post impressionism artists used strong lines in colors, flat color areas, unnatural hues, flattening out depth of space and strange composition in their paintings.

This painting is called Garden at Sainte-Adresse. It painted by Claude Monet in 1867 using oil on canvas. The subject of this painting is the view of the garden terrace at Sainte-Adresse, a seaside resort, over the sea. This painting is structured in three horizontal bands which are the garden terrace, the sea, and the sky. The gray beard person seated in the foreground is his father and other models consider as his relatives. This painting has a look of a sketchy. Shapes and forms don’t have sharp details. One can see separate strokes and unmixed paints all over the painting. He used different shades of blue to paint sky and sea. Pale blue colors and white in the sky give its natural atmospheric look. He used dark shades of blue paint moving waves in the sea. Monet used hot colors, bright red and yellow hues, on the foreground to make sense of contrast. He executed his techniques successfully to show sunlit and shadowy areas. The vanishing point of this painting is placed in the center of the horizon.

This post-impressionist painting is called Wheat Field with Cypresses. This 28 7/8 × 36 3/4 in size oil on canvas painting was done by Vincent Van Gogh in 1889. This is a portrayal of his perception and intensity feeling of nature. He used strong color lines all over the painting which gives a sense of motion. The tall dark green cypress tree provides a powerful contrast to the horizontal wheat field and sky. The oppositions of warm and cool colors provide the depth of space. The depth of space is flattening out in this post-impressionist painting. Warm foreground indicates that it’s painted during a bright summer day. One can see yellow hues among curvy clouds in the blue sky.

Renaissance & Baroque Art - Assignment 03

      Renaissance time period, 14 to the 16th century, consider as the golden age of art and science. In other words, it was the first step to the modern age. The word Renaissance means “rebirth” or “reawakening.” It started as a cultural moment in Italy then spread around the world. Their new philosophy based on humanism, inventions, new techniques, and rediscovering of old age’s literature and artwork helped to create brilliant artworks. Linear perspective, depth of space, correct proportion and scale, and brilliant colors are the characteristics of renaissance period. After the Renaissance period, the Baroque period began with the influence of Renaissance artists. The Baroque period which ran from about 1600 to about 1700 has more variety of styles than Renaissance period. Baroque arts recognize for its uniqueness state of extreme drama and emotions. High contrast, intense light and dark are the popular characteristic of baroque art.

      This painting, “The Birth of the Virgin,” by Fra Carnevale is painted in 1467. Carnevale used Tempera, oil and wood to make this beautiful painting. This painting is a one part of an original altarpiece of the church of Santa Maria della Bella at Urbino; and the companion part of this painting, “Presentation of the Virgin,” is in the museum of fine art, Boston. The dimension, 57 x 37 7/8 in. of this painting is a religion based art. The artist recreates the birth of the virgin, Madonna, with his own style. Canevale place the main subject matter, the virgin and the newborn baby, in the focal center of the painting. St. Anne, the mother of the child, lying on the bed nude partially dressed, surrounding four women. It’s seem that mother is ready for visitation. The infant baby is standing on the washbasin while midwives were bathing her.  The foreground is occupied by idealized women who were caught in the action. One women lead her child by her hand and two other women greeting each other by hand shake or a handclap. The slow, gentle moments of these figures creates a unified and realistic balance to the whole scene.   Background and the middle ground on the left of the painting have various human and an animal figure with market place landscape indicates it is a middle of a regular day. Human and animal figures were painted in a correct scale and proportion. Details of clothing and jewelries are very delicate. The huge, smooth gray stoned architectural structure is decorated with geometric patterns and Roman/Greek relief sculpture. Carnevale has executed the one point linear perspective brilliantly in this painting. However, open entry way and church interior caused a bit of puzzled perspective. He also used overlapping plane to show the depth of space. The artist used deep blue sky to balance the whole painting with the huge gray colored building.  Shadows of the human figures and architectural structures suggested that the light source is in the left to the center. Overall this panting has a soft but sharp look with a complex setting of composition.

       This is a painting by George de la Tour called “Penitent Magdalene.” This beautiful 52 1/2 x 40 1/4 in size painting created around the year 1640 with oil on canvas. This is a one version of the same subject done by George de la tour, and also known as the “Magdalen with Two Flames.” Subject of this painting is Mary Magdalene; a biblical figure who witness crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. La Tour’s well executed chiaroscuro technique brings dramatic emotional and realistic look to the painting. He also used symbolism to represent the subject and her story. The skull on her lap represents the mortality. Her spiritual enlightenment is shown by the candle. Mirror represents the vanity. Magdalene’s clothes, pearl earrings, jewelries and frame of the mirror indicates that she’s a women of means. Mary Magdalene sits by the small desk facing the mirror, but gazing far beyond it. Her posture shows that she’s in a chain of deep thoughts. Viewer cannot clearly see her face to understand the expressions and mood. Which is leaving the viewer to imagine Mart Magdalene’s expression and feelings. Primary light source, the candle, casts the geometrically correct shadows on background and foreground. One can almost see the movement of the candle light and can feel the texture of the fabric, the metal mirror frame, the skull and her jewelry. His composition skills shown by this natural and photo like big painting. This painting has the most of baroque style characteristics such as high contrast, intense light and shadow, and, extreme emotions.

Element and Principle of Art - Assignment 02

Artists use many techniques to unify their great artwork. Balance, variety, linear perspective, atmosphere perspective, directional force, scale, and proportion are the several techniques use by artists. The balance of an artwork can achieve through either symmetric or asymmetric. Linear perspective is simply how the object in the space appear to the eye; which in another word the point of view.  Artists use atmospheric perspective, scale and proposition to create the illusion of depth of field. 

This painting is created between the years 1481-1482 in high renaissance period by Pietro Perugino. This brilliant painting’s name is “The Delivery of the keys to Saint Peter,” and it’s located in Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. This painting shows the moment when Christ gives the keys of the heavenly kingdom to the kneeling St. Peter. In this particular painting, Perugino used linear and atmosphere perspective to create the depth of space. The background has three architectural structures and vanishing point place at the door of the middle one along the horizon. Objects appeared in the close range has dark and bright colors, and objects in far distance like mountains painted in pale blue color. Perugino also used overlapping plane to show who’s in the front and who’s in the back of the group of people. Three architectural structures are painted in symmetric balance. However, painter uses warm and hot colors and complex/simple, large/small forms in the foreground and the middle ground to balance the painting asymmetrically.

Asymmetrical balance is not like symmetric balance which is the near or exact matching of left and right side of an artwork. Asymmetric balanced artworks don’t have same left and right sides. Instead of making left and right side the same, artists use various elements such as shapes, colors, forms and value to balance the gravity of an artwork. For instance, warm colors, complex and large forms have more visual weights compared to cool colors, simple and small forms. The painting attached below is a great example for an asymmetrical artwork.

 This painting painted by Johannes Vermeer during 1662 -1663 and, it’s called “Woman Holding a Balance.”  Focal point of this painting is the women holing a balance; a large complex form which is in right of the center. Painter balanced the painting by relatively large plain empty area to the left. The large dark blue form (shadowy form) is balance out the warm colored small bright area.

Scale is size relation of one to another and placement in the picture plane. It can change the meaning of an artwork. Scale is often used to create a visual illusion. However, ancient artists used scale to represent the importance of their subject matter or theme. For example, Egyptian pharaohs are look bigger compared to other figures in Egyptian paintings.  This painting called “Personal Values” by Rene Magritte is an example that showing how scale can change the meaning of an artwork. In this painting, abnormal sized everyday objects are placed in a room without a proper order. These everyday objects are a comb, a matchstick, a bar of a soap, a wine glass and a shaving brush. The scale distortion of these objects made viewers to think about relationship with their personal items. . If these objects were painted in their normal size, this painting wouldn’t be this interesting and alter the meaning. This would be just another painting. 

Egyptian and Greek/Roman Art - Assignment 01

      Egyptian and Greek civilization have contributed great and glorious artwork to the world.  Egyptian and Greek/Roman art have similarities and differences. Using authority figures for artwork, use symbolism is several similarities between Greek/Roman and Egyptian arts. Egyptian art was oriented toward religion and Greek/Roman art based on philosophy. Egyptians used nudity only for servants and children. However, male and female nude portrayals are common in Greek and Roman style. Disproportion, symmetry and geometric clarity are the characteristics of Egyptian art. On the contrary, Greek/Roman art are realistic, detailed, emphasize emotions and not based on any symmetry.

     This Greek Sculpture Known as “Kritios Boy” made out of marble in 480 BC. This is a Standing male nude sculpture. It’s in a formal still position; however, shows potential for a movement. This sculpture is a great example to show the Greek art’s characteristic of realism and detail of human sculpture. Kritios boy has the correct proportion and naturalism of male body shows their understanding of human body as a whole system. Just as prof. Harmon says Greek sculptures are “product of actual observations and mathematical calculation.”  Unlike other marble sculpture, this artwork’s eyes have been hollowed out. This artwork’s smooth volume represents the Greek’s ideal of the athletic male body. 

This Egyptian sculpture’s name is colossal statue of King Menkaura. This belongs to the Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Menkaura 2490–2472 B.C. and found in Menkaura Pyramid Temple, Giza. His headgear and clothing identify him as a royalty or the ruler or authority. Also the cobra on the head piece shows the royalty and divine authority. King’s clothes and headgear have geometric patterns to show clarity. Sculpture is in a stiff and formal seating position. King’s head built much smaller compared to its body and whole sculpture based on symmetry. This Egyptian artwork didn’t give out strong emotions however, expresses the supreme control and facial features shows the maturity and distinguishing royalty of pharaoh from normal people.  

About Me

Hi, my name is Peter Dilshan and I am an international student at LaGuardia community college. I’m from Sri Lanka and my major is Computer Science. My interest in technology is the reason for my choice of major and my future career path. Also I am a photography hobbyist. I started to draw and paint at very young age and grew into a good painter over the years. However,  I gradually fall apart from painting during the high school years. Now I'm channeling my creative energy into my work of digital design and photography. I select introduction to Art course to brush up my knowledge of art, heightened the connection to art and learn something new and different to level up my photography skills and style.