Hello All,
Welcome to Senior Projects, 2013!!!
We will meet in room 205 at 6:40 at the beginning of each class.
The Syllabus for class can be found on Moodle.
Below, please find the first group of readings for class, beginning 01/23/2013.
This group of readings will be discussed in our second class meeting, 01/30/2013.
A thoughtful, critical response to the readings will be due by midnight on the Tuesday, 01/29/2013.
If there are artists you are unfamiliar with, I suggest you look them up before posting your responses.
Please post your comments in the comments section of this post by midnight, 01/29/2013!
Please begin each post with your full name, not a blogger nick name.
Please click on the "comments" button below and post your response.
Week 1: ARTISTS WRITING
01 Artist Statments - G. Brown.pdf
01a Philip Guston Talking, 1978.pdf
01b Eva Hesse.pdf
01c I am for an Art..., Claes Oldenburg, 1961.pdf
01d Bridget Riley - Untitled Statement, 1968.pdf
01e Robert Ryman - Untitled Statements, 1983.pdf
Optional:
01opt An Art History Professor Explains..., Ethan Ryan, 2007.pdf
01opt Writing About Visual Art, David Carrier.pdf
Andrea Thompson
ReplyDeleteGerard Brown’s writing on artist’s statements was helpful in showing a small variety, which will be helpful later on. It shows that there is not one formula that should be used, but that artist’s statements should reflect the artist and their work.
The other artist’s statements that were included in the reading all sort of fit into the categories he outlines, though they are so varied that they do not always fit completely into one or the other.
Reading Eva Hesse’s writing took 3 readings before it really started to make sense, but even then, some parts were vague, or worded in a way to be deliberately confusing. Still, it clearly is a reflection of her work and her personality, and is distinctive to her. It is also very fitting for the time it was written.
Oldenburg’s statement does the same thing. His statement is simplified, and is written in mostly everyday language. His large-scale sculptures of everyday objects relate strongly to this piece of writing.
Bridget Riley’s statement, on the other hand, is clear and to the point, which may help those viewing her work to more easily access it. Her works are stimulating, but are not a narrative, and her writing assists processing her work.
Robert Ryman’s writing also does this. His paintings, especially from outside the art world, are difficult to process. His writing though, allows the viewer to make more sense of what he may have been thinking when he created the work. It also gives him an opportunity to express his feelings about his influences and his personal philosophy.
Overall, the readings have made me rethink some of the artist’s statements I’ve written in the past and allow my personality and philosophy come though more strongly in my writing.
Leah Evans
ReplyDeleteSomething that we must come to terms with as artists is that at the end of the day, it is really the viewer who decides what our work is about. This is something I’ve been told by quite a few of my professors; that it doesn’t necessarily matter what my intentions are, because unless they are completely obvious in the work, they will be interpreted in a million different ways by different viewers. An artist’s statement gives the artist that much more control over how their pieces are viewed. For example, one might create a work of abstract art with (to the artists, at least) clear political intentions. However, without an artist statement to accompany that work, a viewer might have no notion that that was the artist’s intention. Gerard Brown sums this up perfectly in his article: “Failure to produce an artist statement that adequately articulates your objectives is admitting that those with ‘better verbal skills’ should have unlimited rights to re-make your work however their words will allow.”
I really enjoyed Philip Guston’s statement. As a painter, I really connected with some of the views he shares. His ideas about paintings being “thing[s] of the mind” and “a plane which is imagined” really resonate with my own views on painting. I like his style of writing, which seems to be more musing and stream of thought than anything else. It really gives the reader a small window to look through into his mind, and the way he thinks about his own works processes.
I found Eva Hesse’s letter quite depressing. As women, going to an all female college, I believe we can have a unique understanding of her views of the world as male dominated. We are lucky in the environment we are learning in, that being an environment which praises us as women and teaches us that we are fully capable of going out into the world and leaving our mark. I can only image how differently I would feel was I going to a school with men in attendance. Hesse’s artist statement is extremely powerful. In so few words she demonstrated her yearning to create meaning in her work that is something more. “What I want of my work I can eventually find. The work must go beyond this.” What I think she is saying here is that she knows what her art says to her, and what she is saying in her art, but she hopes that somewhere along the line the actual creation will take on a life on its own and exceed expectations by going above and beyond her original intentions.
Claes Oldenburg’s statement is a bit of an enigma to me. I enjoy the writing style, turning his statement into a piece of poetry. Some bits were certainly confusing to me, and overall I wish it was shorter. The statements he makes seem disjointed, and when I was finished reading it I actually felt somewhat unsatisfied, with no better understanding of his work than I had before reading.
I truly enjoyed Bridget Riley’s statement. It was clear and concise, and yet very personal at the same time. She manages, in a few short paragraphs, to share with us her process and her beliefs about her work. I found her statement “I work ‘from’ something rather that ‘towards’ something” an amazing insight into her processes. Her statement is actually quite inspirational to me.
Robert Ryman’s statement is also very straightforward. I believe this is the kind of statement that I am most drawn to; a statement that is clear, but has an almost narrative quality that makes it quite personal. I feel as though, instead of reading this statement, that Ryman is sitting in front of me talking to me about his work.
Regina Lamberti
ReplyDeleteResponse to Artist Statements
After reading just a few of the statements something that I have always thought to be true was confirmed. There is no right or wrong way to write an artist statement. As I finished reading the rest of the statements this was confirmed even more. There are few rules that these artists have all chosen to follow. The only rule that they all follow when writing their artist statements is that they talk about their artwork. I know that as a collegiate student I have to follow guidelines in order to finish assignments and receive good grades, but it is good to know that in the art world there is no one telling me that I can only write about my work a certain way or that I should not include certain things in an artist statement. I know that is kind of silly to say but it is my artwork and I should be able to speak about it as I wish. Whether it is speaking only about one piece of artwork, saying what you stand for as an artist, or starting by talking about the period of art that you were inspired by, what is stopping you from doing all three? I am certainly excited to write a new artist statement in which I write what I want to about what I want to after reading the statements of the artists provided.
Alexandra Waite
ReplyDeleteStatements Response
Artist Statements
I think one of the reasons I have been having so much trouble with writing my artist statement is because I was trying to write one statement that encompassed a little bit of all the types of statements given. I wanted to write globally, but provide specific examples, and be poetic and fluffy in my writing, yet concise, which I do not think is possible. I think because I am in the beginning stages of my life as an artist and I am trying to cater my work to such a broad range of people (everybody, haha) and a topic as big as “acceptance” I am most interested in the global statement. In terms of format, I like the Sol Lewitt speculative statement because my brain likes to organize everything and it is easier to list ideas then force them into a paragraph together.
Philip Guston
Guston’s piece intrigues me because I consider myself quite the “Chatty Cathy” and I have even considered the idea of doing a spoken piece as part of my thesis. One thing I think I definitely do in my writing (and I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing) is write the way I would speak. If most artist statements are a “business casual” on the formal scale mine is more of a “dress down day”
Eva Hesse
The only thing I think I want to take away from Hesse’s artwork is her passion. Some of these artist statements give you an idea of the artist’s work, but not so much their personality. As with the Guston reading, I can imagine this as more than a written statement, but a speech or spoken word piece. Even though Hesse possesses a lot of emotion in her writing it is wordy/poetic at times, especially in the statement at the end, and I think I would like my statement to be more direct.
Claes Oldenburg
I love this statement even though the beginnings of the sentences are repetitive. It’s long and I wouldn’t write this long a list and expect more than artist, critics, and art students to read it; however, it’s so fun. Oldenburg writing says some serious things in a way that is humorous and light-hearted which I have been trying to do, not in my writing but in my art. I also like, and this may be more of a content idea, that this statement can be for anyone. (It has an all-inclusive quality.)
Bridget Riley
I think Riley’s statement is successful at being broad. She doesn’t get too detailed in the actual pieces she is make, but rather her overall ideas on a topic, in this case opposition “contradiction and paradox.” I think this would fall under the category of a global statement, which, as I said above, is the type of statement I am interested in exploring.
Robert Ryman
Ryman’s explanatory statement was very easy to understand. I like that he is direct in what he is doing, why, and who his influences are. I do not think I would write such an explanatory statement at this point in my life because my style is not so specific that I can talk about just using paint in an abstract style. If I narrow down my materials and develop more of a distinct style that may change, but not now.