week 15 video blog

1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
 

Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T. J. Clark

• "writing about visual art is much tougher than writing about literature or music". He reads the work of music critic Tovey to remind himself "how to be relevant".
•  Greenberg comments in his early suspicion of modern art and his unfixed notion of mainstream. He and T.J. Clark discuss prejudices in art criticism and the best art of the last 50 years, which Greenberg feels has been predominantly abstract.
•  he calls America’s post-WWII “culture boom.”
• Greenberg comments on his own writing from the 1940s as well as the place of personal taste and aesthetics in art criticism.
• Greenberg comments on T.J. Clark's position that art criticism must involve some sort of argument about the basis of the critic's judgment
• Greenberg comments on T.J. Clark's position that art criticism must involve some sort of argument about the basis of the critic's judgment, which must involve history. They discuss the place of value judgments in modern criticism.

Greenberg on Pollock: An Interview by T. J. Clark

• Critic Clement Greenberg remembers Jackson Pollock in the 1940s when he was told Pollock would one day be a great painter.
• In the summer of 1947, Jackson Pollock paints his first spatter-drip piece. When he received the Guggenheim Award, Pollock explains that he will pain large, movable pictures that will function between the easel and the mural.
• The element of size was not critical to the historical placement of Pollock's paintings. More important was Pollock's departure from the contained, boxed characteristic of modern paintings.
• Pollock moved away from containment and orderliness (though Greenberg argues that there are all kinds of orderliness).
• Pollock himself rejected some of his canvasses. Was this because of the nature of his technique? Greenberg argues that the paintings simply failed not because of technique but because they simply failed to the eye.Jackson Pollock's "drip" paintings can be characterized as Apollonian rather than Dionysian. No one has successfully explained what makes a painting succeed or fail.
• Jackson Pollock did not achieve fame as much as he did notoriety. He might sell one picture a year. A double-paged spread in a magazine and a film made about him were not Pollock's ideas.
• At the end of his life, Pollock said that he didn't take enough time looking at the Impressionists. Greenberg argues that if Pollock had lived longer and stopped drinking, he would have recovered. An early death was a romantic ideal for Pollock.

An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance

• The Renaissance is marked by a renewed enthusiasm in the arts and many Italian artists contribute to its development. Giorgio Vasari writes the "Lives of the Artists."
• Giotto is one of the first artists to revive the realistic style of the Romans by using perspective found in architecture and landscape.
• Donatello's sculpture, "David," is standing in “contrapposto.” Even though the figure is standing on one leg, it appears balanced. Nudes reflect the beauty of the human form.
• In "Adoration of the Magi," Botticelli incorporates his patrons, the Medicis. "The Birth of Venus" celebrates the beauty of the human form and uses techniques learned from preceding artists.
• Da Vinci applies science and math to art. In "The Last Supper" the figures appear naturally in their surroundings. Applying "sfumato" to the "Mona Lisa," da Vinci blurs the edges of the forms.
• In the sculpture "David," Michelangelo drives for perfection, creating a powerful symbol of the Republic. The painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Florence represents man's relationship to God.

The Critics: Stories from the Inside Page

• Media artists express their negative opinions about critics.
• Criticism can also be fun for readers and viewers.
• Criticism of media arts improves the media in general.
• A "New York Times" book critic takes pride in promoting new, good books, but asserts that there are many bad books being written.
• Professional critics often find themselves acting as reporters, too.
• Criticism takes a wider view. In this segment, a critic criticizes critics while appearing to be making commentary on the film "Pearl Harbor."
• Emotional impact is part of criticism as it helps make a persuasive argument either in favor or against the art or artist.
• The best critics start with their depth and breadth of knowledge.
• Critics understand the media artists they write about and help their readers come to those same understandings. Critics understand how to apply their critical tools appropriately, such as the applying the elements of country music only to country artists and not to hip-hop.
• "American Idol" is a synthesis of a number of entertainment elements.
• Critics study their medium carefully, take notes, and work to get their reviews or criticism correct.
• How do critics choose what to write about? Book critic Maureen Corrigan and music critic Brian Mansfield discuss their processes of choosing and eliminating material to write about.
• The Internet provides a new and diverse forum for critics and their followers.
• Often associated with negativity, criticism is actually the practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting, or even evaluating literary or other artistic works

The Colonial Encounter

• Dahome art is visually beautiful, but it is often ignored as art and treated as craft.
• the Dahomian exhibit consisted of a group of thatched structures, suggesting that there was no civilized infrastructure.
• Three figures from the 1900 Paris World Fair represent the three aspects of African people.
• The Algerian exhibit is symptomatic of a much larger transformation that took place at the end of the 19th century. This was the transformation of travel into tourism.
• Europeans justify the pornographic nature of photographs of indigenous as scientific and artistic study. In the eyes of the women, however, is a refusal to appear satisfied with their treatment.
• The French created a dichotomy between the Dahome and Algerian exhibits. Though today the former French colonies are independent, they are still linked politically and economically with the West.
• In a contemporary display of Palestinian costumes, the contemporary political context is integral to the display. The display exposes cultural erosion as well as resilient transformation in light of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

Jackson Pollock

• Michael Fried and T.J. Clark agree that Jackson Pollock is an enormously important modernist master who raises many questions with his work.
• He strongly dislikes the description of art in vulgar existentialist terms.
• Michael Fried's early modernism stemmed from a rejection of the existentialist concept of action painting. T.J. Clark is also weary of existential melodrama but as a social historian has been concerned with relating art to other human action.
• Even with a certain level of agreement T.J. Clark and Michael Fried offer accounts that pull in different direction partly because of the problem of adequately describing Jackson Pollock's work and relating defined terms to the artist's intentions.
• Michael Fried and T.J. Clark are both committed to a historical way of looking at art and realize they are redefining the terms with which they speak of Pollock's work to reach a place of agreement over his historical importance.

2. Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Criticism project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.

Yes I think that these videos help my understanding of the project, because I now know how a professional critic critics an art work.

3. What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to understanding of art criticism?

I enjoy watching these films because yes they do add dept to my understanding of the art criticism. I now understand that they use a basis in which they critic works from.  I now understand the reasons in which you need to go in viewing a piece with an open mind. Try no to have a prior judgment on the artists or the work. Watching these videos helped, however I wish we were assigned them earlier in the semester prior to other art criticism assignments.