Big Think

tim hall on July 28, 2009, 10:44 PM

Great question James. We have evolved into a shock society. Some generations have grown up with the thought of making a statement needs a shock factor or in the graphic arts world “make it pop.” That is fine but first it needs reason and a place to go. As far as Da Vinci’s spirit. I have not seen the greatness of spirit in art since Winslow Homer, Gustav Klimt, Dorothea Lang, and Hopper. Of coarse there was the gang at the Push Pin studios from the 50s through the 70s. I have been looking for some great action out of China. In the past when economies have sudden new found growth, new interesting art raises it’s head. I think the western world is stuck in shock art and shock fashion. The all mighty dollar is in the drivers seat instead of spirit and order.

I am working on an impressionist oil called the Plight of the Native American. I have divided the canvas in half and depict a native American holding a bottle of alchohol on the left and a portion of a red and blue striped flag on the right along with a partial greek column. The idea is to have two scenes on the same canvas but tide together in their story and achieve balance and conflict at the same time.  It is very much in Winslow’s stye of stroke and charater. Alot of fun. i hope it works for me. Ha! Ha!

Orion Jones on August 17, 2009, 8:46 AM

Hey guys, one thing that seems to go out the window when art becomes very conceptual—which I think means the expression of an abstract idea, e.g. doing philosophy without realizing its actual implications—one thing that goes out the window is political art.  I’m just looking for something that considers contemporary ethics, not as in, “try to articulate an idea by some contemporary ethicist through your art”, but rather, “how do you feel people treat other people (ethics) in our time”?  I find political cartoons on the internet and in print media—I’m not sure how I feel about them.  They probably deserve more credit than they get because they usually express a valid criticism of whatever their subject is, usually a government, but they don’t seem to carry much weight.  They’re something you laugh at before you turn the page to read the next article.  I wish they had a greater status attached to them!  

I’ve got to plead some ignorance on this one living in Barcelona, but I don’t know of any American artists who are really considering the ethics of our time.  Good god if you know someone, please clue me in! 

I’ve just looked at the blog of the Pompidou Center, a contemporary art museum in Paris.  Well, it’s in French, and it’s specific to the theme of the museum at the moment which is women in the museum’s collection.

Another good website might be NY Arts Magazine.

tim hall on August 20, 2009, 5:23 PM

Orion,

From what I am grasping from the American artist is that his/her motive is to create a piece or series that effects emotion. But then somewhere in the middle of the project, gets their ego involved, especially when knowing it is to be presented on this vast media. Our great claim to individualism has been carried past it’s original intent and is now causing social stress that shows up in our work.

The masters of political art were the Cubins. Stalin hired poster art from there to keep the most advanced propaganda machine running of all time. Whenever, I have a political piece to do, I first go back and study the Cubin’s poster art.

Viewing information on the net and viewing hard copy are two different mind sets. The mind set on the net is to get through as much information as possible. So POP has more value than illustration.

The greatest thing that artist need to understand about the internet is that it allows for millions more things to be viewed in one setting and the viewer’s mind set is such. I am an illusrator and I can’t recall political cartoons on the net, because I am only interested in volumes of what everyone said. But I always recall them in hard copy.