No.59 - L.H.O.O.Q., Marcel Duchamp (1919)

From The Guardian Portrait of the Week Series...A good image to continue our conversation about WHEN IS SOMETHING ART?

Who does art belong to? Is what Duchamp did plagiarism? Is it Art or destruction? (his image was created by defacing a postcard, not the real Mona Lisa...)

Jonathan Jones
The Guardian, Saturday 26 May 2001

Artist: Marcel Duchamp (1887- 1968), whose sense of humour first came to attention in 1917, when he submitted, under the name R Mutt, a urinal to a New York art exhibition. Duchamp anonymously defended R Mutt in a magazine, and gave a definition of his new art of the readymade: whether or not Mr Mutt made it with his own hand has no importance. He chose it. He took an everyday article, placed it so that its usual significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - and created a new thought for that object.

Subject: The Mona Lisa, painted in the 16th century by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), and the most celebrated portrait in the world.

Distinguishing features: The Mona Lisa's deep-set eyes and round face do not conflict with Duchamp's act of violence. The beard and moustache seem a completion. Duchamp said the Mona Lisa becomes a man - not a woman disguised as a man, but a real man. This hints at a different meaning from vandalism, for all the crudeness of those letters, L.H.O.O.Q., which sound out the French sentence: "She has a hot bum." This is not simply an attack on the mass-produced tourist icon the Mona Lisa had become, but rather an interpretation of it. Duchamp's Mona Lisa is a Freudian joke. Duchamp reveals, in a simple gesture, that which the painting conceals. But this is not merely an allusion to Freud. Duchamp uncovers an ambiguity of gender at the heart of Leonardo's aesthetic - that Leonardo sees the male form in the female.
This kind of hidden self-portrait is what Duchamp discovers in his rectified readymade. His Dadaist intervention redeems Leonardo's masterpiece from the banality of reproduction and returns it to the private world of creation.

Inspirations and influences: Andy Warhol also did several versions of the Mona Lisa.

Where is it? A version can be seen at Tate Modern, London SE1 (020-7887 8008).

Power and Glory: Court Arts of China's Ming Dynasty

Now at the St. Louis Art Museum!
February 22nd through May 17th, 2009

Power and Glory: Court Arts of China's Ming Dynasty is a landmark exhibition, as it is the first to showcase a full spectrum of extraordinary works made during the reign of an imperial house that ruled China from 1368 to 1644. A representative range of architectural fragments, archaeological materials, and decorative arts are featured in the exhibition, as well as paintings; ceramics; jade, gold and silver jewelry; metalwork; lacquerware; textiles; musical instruments; and woodblock printing. Many of the works have never been shown in the United States before.
With over 125 spectacular works commissioned by, or presented to, the imperial courts in both Nanjing and Beijing, the exhibition draws special attention to the hitherto neglected artistic, cultural, and technological achievements of the early Ming period, which established very high standards in terms of ingenuity of design, luxury of materials, and superb craftsmanship for the remainder of the dynasty.
The works in the exhibition have been drawn from China's finest museums—the Palace Museum, Beijing; the Nanjing Municipal Museum; and the Shanghai Museum—along with objects from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

http://saintlouis.art.museum/ming_dynasty/resources.php

Action/Abstraction Museum Exhibit

Action/Abstraction
Pollock, DeKooning,
and American Art, 1940–1976

The St. Louis Art Museum is proud to present Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976. Action/Abstraction features over 50 key works from major institutions and collections throughout the U.S. and abroad. Action/Abstraction features key works by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, as well as Helen Frankenthaler, Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Hans Hofmann, Jasper Johns, Lee Krasner, Norman Lewis, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, David Smith, Frank Stella, and Clyfford Still among many others. Action/Abstraction looks at the Abstract Expressionist movement and its legacy through the lens of Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg.

For more information, check out the St. Louis Art Museum's website. http://www.slam.org/ or more specifically http://saintlouis.art.museum/action_abstraction/about.php
The exhibition opens Tuesday–Sunday at 10:00 am. The last ticket entry will be at 4:00 pm Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Friday, the last entry will be at 8:00 pm.

See Ms. Ridlen for extra credit opportunities.

Beauty and Art

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

* What does this saying mean?
* How does it apply to our question “What is art?”
Address these questions by leaving a comment. Don't forget your name and hour, too.

What is Art? Aesthetics

In our class, we will be looking at art in four categories or strands: Art Production, Art History, Art Criticism, and Aesthetics. Aesthetics is a field of philosophy in which big questions are asked such as: What makes something “Art”? or What makes it good art?

When someone asks “Why is this art?,” they are asking a very complicated, but important question. They may be wondering about the value of an artwork or they might be responding to qualities in an artwork that they don’t like or understand. The real question they may be asking is “What is art?”

Develop a personal definition for “Art” that separates all objects into either “Art” or “Non-Art” categories. Leave a comment with your name, hour and definition.

Written Exam on Monday, December 10th.

Be prepared for your exam Monday.



Start by knowing the order of the color wheel...













Then, Be able to list the 7 color schemes:
Monochromatic
Analagous
Complementary
Triad
Split-Complementary
Warm
Cool


Be able to define each and create an example.

Use your Know Your Color Schemes! Review Pamphlet (the one with the Simpsons) to help study.