Conceptual Art

27/09/17

Whos afraid of Conceptual Art? 

The BBC Documentary 'Who's Afraid Of Conceptual Art' explores the meaning behind many artists conceptual artworks as well as exploring their ideas behind the piece itself and conceptual art as a whole. The idea of conceptual art has always confused many who view it because the artwork seems to be normal ordinary objects from day to day life. The idea of conceptual art stems from the idea that art began to become objects and objects began to become artworks. The works are designed to make people think and come in numerous forms; still life objects, living sculptures, poetry, words or live performances. They can also be vey controversial and the public can not always understand what the meaning behind the artwork is.

Piero Manzoni was an Italian artist best known for his ironic approach to conceptual art and a few of his most known artworks include Artist's Breath, Artist's Shit and Line 1000 Metres Long. His works were seen to be 'making fun' of museums and art gallery's for their seemingly simple and ridiculous concepts towards art. In May 1961 Manzoni created an art piece in which 90 tin cans wee filled with 30 grams of faeces. While the idea is controversial, the pieces are said to be the exploration of the relationship between art production and human production.

Another controversial artist shown in the documentary was Marry Kelly who created a 6 part conceptual art series titled Post Partum Document which explores the first 6 years of her mother-child relationship with her son. She used unusual material as canvases along with personal accounts of her relationship with her young son. The series sparked controversy due to her choice of canvas in part 1 of the series; used stained nappy liners from her own son accompanied with a log of everything her son had ate that day.Each of the six-part series concentrates on a formative moment in her son’s development of language and her own sense of loss.

Another artist shown in the documentary is Robert Montgomery. He is a London based poet and artist who used light, public billboards and 'fire poems' to convey messages and poems in particular public locations. His poems are emotional and people can interpret their own meanings behind the poems to make them meaningful to them. Montgomery is quoted in the poem saying " I can touch the hearts of strangers without having to meet them face to face".

Sketchbook

Sketchbook

Use of texture. Newspaper for background, fine liner pen to create dots.

Observational drawing of a shell. Use of colour and line.
Materials used: Oil pastels and fine liner pen.

Observational drawing of stick. Use of texture and line. Book paper to create texture in the background and fine liner used for drawing

Left: Observational drawing of TV. Use of texture, Lines and colour. Materials used; Newspaper crossword, Felt-tips, Fine liners, pencil and chalk
Right: Observational drawing of lamp. Use of line and tone. Materials used; fine liner and pencil

Art That Changed the World

Art That Changed the World

Starry Night- Vincent Van Gogh- June 1889

The infamous Starry night by Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most popular and most recognised works of Van Gogh. It is an oil painting created in June 1889 and shows a view of a village out of van Gogh's asylum window just before sunrise. The painting is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1941.

The painting itself has changed the worl as it it more of an abstract, crazy almost insane looking style and allows the person viewing to have their own feelings and interpretation on the painting.

Personally I think that the painting shows Van Gogh's mental state during his stay at the asylum and shows an element of madness, insanity and an extraordinary view of a simple view of a village from a window. 

Induction Work

Induction Task

For my induction task i decided to create small pieces of pointillism depicting different images. Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image. I took inspiration from this idea along with the techniques used in pointillism tattoos.Pointillism tattoos are the heirs of two different types of arts. First, the traditional hand-poke tattoo art, and then the pointillism. Pointillism is an artistic technique of painting using dots to create images and shadings. To create this effect I used different sized fine liners ( 0.8, 0.5, 0.3, 0.2 and 0.1) to create small dots of different quantities and different saturation to create tone, depth and texture.
My first drawing is of a hairless cat. I decided to draw this image because a hairless cat has many wrinkles in their skin as well as piercing, large eyes which I wanted to show through pointillism, as well as their large detailed ears. Many view hairless cats as being "ugly" or "the ET of the cat world" due to them having very short, almost invisible hair, wrinkly skin and abnormally large ears and eyes ; contrasting to their cousins in the cat family with "cute" fluffy fur. To me hairless cats have an unusual beauty and are also known to be intelligent, inquisitive and extremely friendly.


 For my second drawing I created and black and white mandala and incorporated pointillism shading into certain areas.Mandalas are circular designs symbolizing the notion that life is never ending. Many mandalas have spiritual significance to an individual or group of individuals. I created multiple different sized circles with a pair of compasses and started to draw petal like shapes.









I also used the same technique to draw a moth in front of a geometric shape with red pen. One of my biggest fears is moths so decided to incorporate my fear into my art; to show how fear can be beautiful and a natural emotion that shows ourselfs we are human.