Mr. Bob's Middle & High School Art Room

Social and Political Issues in Art: inspired by Sara Gant, NC

Per our discussion and slide show of the images below during class, I would like to remind you that no matter what position you take on an issue, there will always be a counter balance.

Assignment:
Social/Political block reduction print (the process and examples will be in the next post) I just want you to think about your topic for now.

Objective:
You will choose an issue/cause you care deeply about. This issue should be something that is a concern in your society or elsewhere in the world. Here is a partial list of some of the issues you might want to consider: environment, racism, gender issues, child labor, domestic violence, discrimination, religious views, war, social-economic class, poverty, bullying, mental health, animal rights, gay rights…What issues do you CARE about? Have you been affected by an issue or know a family member or a friend who has? How did it affect them?

Project Description:
Your image may be subtle or in your face. Think about what point of view you want to depict (An animal being experimented on, for example, if you are for animal rights.) You project will be image based with possible minimal text. Think about your color scheme (six color limit).

Starting:
Spend time researching the issue you have chosen to speak about. Use paper to jot down images, quotes, or words that relate to you idea. You can borrow ideas from other images to help you develop your initial ideas, BUT YOUR WORK SHOULD BE YOUR OWN. Your sketches should be a visual record of the research and documentation that you have done.

Post Project Writing Assignment:
Write about your image. Answer a number of following questions in 2-3 paragraphs.
What is the reasoning for choosing your topic?
Why do you feel the way you do?
What are your arguments for or against your topic?
What or who has influenced your decisions and opinions about your topic?
What is the opposition to your issue?
How would/do you interact with someone who has an opposing view?
Can you see the opposition's point of view?
Is your artwork intended to offend?
Who would be offended?
Does an artist have a right to offend?
Critique your project:
Are you effective in getting your point across? How?
Is there a focal point (center of interest)?
How do you effectively use the Principles of Design?

Additional Resources: The Graphic Imperative Posters Propaganda Posters Justseeds.org

You Can Click on Image to enlarge.

Assignment

Thanks to your research you now have information regarding both the artist and artwork. Please read all the findings and then re-order the artwork from 1-20 (1 being your favorite-20 being you least favorite). Choose your top and bottom three and answer the following questions.

1. Did you order change from your original list in Assignment 1?

2. How does knowing about the artist or the reason why the artwork was made make a difference in your rankings? Or does it?

3. Do you think most artwork is made with a purpose other than just for the sake of the image itself? Why or why not?

4. Are you strictly a visual person, meaning do you solely judge a work of art based on how it appeals to your senses OR does meaning/story associated with the work of art play a role in the appeal of it.

5. After reading about all the artists, who was the artist you found the most interesting and why?

6. After reading about all the artists, who was the artist you found the least interesting and why?

PLEASE RESPOND TO THE QUESTIONS IN COMPLETE SENTENCES
and e-mail them to: bmedina@schutzschool.org.eg

Artist: Yves Klein

Title: Untitled

Date of artwork: 1961

Nationality of artist: French

Media of artwork: Painting of fire

Significant of artwork: In 1961 Klein got permission to destructive laboratories in America, where he used it very creatively. He got the idea to represent negative impressions.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein

Artist: Sirin Neshat

Title: Allah's Women Series

Date of artwork: between 1993 and 1997

Nationality of artist: Iranian

Media of artwork: black and white photography

Significance of artwork: the series of artwork discusses the most violent assumptions of an Islamic femininity. Seeing that the artist has grown up during the times of the Shah of Iran and was present during the peak of feminism then exiled and forbidden from going back home after the total opposite party had power and brought along oppression. She used this series of artwork to express the Islamic women's mute and concealed femininity. Her photographs show and tell what has been forbidden to show and tell.

Source: http://www.iranian.com/Arts/Dec97/Neshat/
www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1997.129.8

Artist: Jinoos Tayhizeden

Title: Rock Paper Scissors

Date: March 4, 2009

Nationality of Artist: Iranian

Media: Collage, newspapers and drawing

Significance: The artist wanted to mark the 30^th anniversary of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. They illustrated the gap between hope and reality by having the newspaper include article about the revolution.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/mar/02/iran-islam
Source: www.aarangallery.com/artist.php?oid=34

Artist: Georgia O'Keefe

Title: Ram's Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills

Date of artwork: 1935

Nationality of artist: American

Media of artwork: Oil on canvas

Significance of artwork: " I had looked out on the hills for weeks and painted them again and again—had climbed and ridden over them—so beautifully soft, so difficult. . . . I could see them—farther away—from my window in the rain. So I tried again. They seemed right with the Ram's Head. I don't remember where I picked up the head—or the hollyhock. Flowers were planted among the vegetables in the garden between the house and the hills and I probably picked the hollyhock one day as I walked past. My palntings sometimes grow by pieces from what's around." –Georgia O'Keefe

http://www.answers.com/topic/georgia-o-keeffe

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090908212804AA2lh9m

http://artfor365.blogspot.com/2010/01/95th-day-rams-head-white-hollyhock-and.html

Artist: Rene Magritte

Title: Golconda

Date of Artwork: 1953

Nationality of Artist: Belgium

Media of Artwork: It is an oil painting on canvas.

Significance of Artwork: Magritte himself lived in a similar neighborhood and wore the same type pf fashion as the men in the picture. Golconda was given by Rene’s friend. The fame it acquired through being the center of the region's legendary diamond industry was such that its name remains, "a synonym for 'mine of wealth'." Also the men seem to be floating like helium balloons (though there is no actual indication of motion), against a backdrop of buildings and blue sky.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golconda_(painting)

Artist: Gustav Klimt

Title: The Kiss

Date of artwork: 1908

Nationality of Artist: Imperial Austrian

Media of Artwork: Oil and gold leaf on canvas

Significance of Artwork: The Kiss is a discreet expression of Klimt’s emphasis on eroticism and the liberation therein. The Kiss falls in line with Klimt’s exploration of fulfillment and the redeeming, transformative power of love and art. The Kiss deviates from Klimt’s frequent portrayal of woman as the lascivious femme fatale.
Source: http://katebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=aerial&action=print&thread=2447

Artist: Zhong Biao

Title: Limb of Beauty

Date of Artwork:

Nationality: Chinese

Media: Charcoal and acrylic on canvas

Significance: Zhong Baio was a Chinese artist that using visual symbols caught China’s social reforms in his artwork. The image source of his artwork usually comes from experiences or symbols that relate to China such as the Cultural Revolution, sculptures representing china’s past victories, skyscrapers and other. Nowadays, with the development of technology, information has been received through art rather than through text. What makes Zhong Baio’s artwork distinguished is that he combines both familiar visual symbols, with cultural ideas. Zhong is not only trying to just have the symbols speak out for themselves in his artwork, but he wants to demonstrate the changes of the images through specific scenery.
Source: http://www.artscenechina.com/chineseart/artists/articles/zhongbiao.htm

Artist: Kathe Kollwitz

Title: Hunger

Date of artwork: 1925

Nationality of artist: German

Media of artwork: Print

Significant of artwork: She expressed her direct emotional experience in her art and found many different ways to represent the human body.
Source: http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425094525/115183/hunger.html

Artist: Bob Dob

Title: Hodads

Date of artwork: 2008

Nationality of artist: American

Media of artwork: pencil, paint on paper Significance of artwork: Hodads is a typical painting style of Bob Dob.Drawing of cartoons, the cigarette (a very important factor of his paintings), and especially the wasted demon on the floor.
Source: http://www.bobdob.com/?page_id=2

Artist: Man Ray

Title: The Gift

Date of artwork: 1921

Nationality of artist: American

Media of art: painted flat iron with row of tacks, heads glued to bottom Significance of artwork: It has been suggested that the nails embedded in the iron have an erotic significance. Irons being associated with female domestic work, the nails may represent the supposedly threatening sexual power of women.

Source: http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question84687.html

Artist: Carmen Lomas Garza

Title: Making Empanadas

Date of artwork: 1991

Nationality: Mexican American

Media of artwork: Gouache on cotton paper

Significance of artwork: The artwork shows a family cooking, or preparing meals. It is to be said she likes making paintings of family cooking or a family working together. It stands out in the perspective of the artwork. It slants towards the lower right.
Source: http://www.carmenlomasgarza.com/

Artist: Eric Joyner

Title: Donut Logic

Date of artwork: 2008

Nationality of artist: American

Media of artwork: oil on panel

Significance of artwork: this artwork is different/significant than his other artworks because even though all his artworks have robots in them but this one replaces human life with metallic robots acting like regular humans.

Source: http://www.imagekind.com/MemberProfile.aspx?mid=8137896f-d854-4fc5-9ab8-e12215d22f1f
http://www.artbabble.org/video/robots-artist-label-eric-joyner
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/01/eric-joyner-pai.html

Artist: Doris Salcedo

Title: Chairs

Date of Artwork: 2003

Nationality of Artist: Colombian

Media Of Art: Sculpture, chairs

Significance of Artwork: The artists purpose of stacking up the chairs in the space between the two buildings chaotically was to pay a contribute to the people who were killed in the guerrilla coup that took place 8 years earlier. I think it’s a good contribution to the space between the two buildings because it was so obsolete and depressing. Now when you look at the space if you walk by something will catch your eye.
Source: http://www.whitecube.com/artists/salcedo/

Artist: John Stewart Curry

Title: Tornado over Kansas

Date of artwork: 1929

Nationality: American

Media of artwork: Oil on canvas

Significance of artwork: This painting shows a family running away from a tornado. Many people from Kansas did not like the painting because they thought this painting made Kansas look like a dangerous place.

Source: http://gardenofpraise.com/art13.htm

Artist: Fernando Botero

Title: Woman Drinking with Cat

Date of Artwork: 2002

Nationality of Artist: Colombian

Media of Art: Oil paint, Canvas

Significance of Artwork: Botero answers that he doesn't draw fat people. He is not a "realistic" artist. We can see in all his paintings everything is fat or enlarged compared to something in front of him that he might be drawing. He likes to exaggerate. Botero such as other artists like Picasso likes to deform what he sees which makes him a rare artist due to his style and works of art.

Source: Why does Botero paint fat people

Artist:Umberto Boccioni

Title: Riot In Galleria

Date: 1910

Nationality of Artist: Italian

Media: hand painted oil on canvas

Significance: The artist wanted to respond to futurism since he was a futurist. The picture shows a riot that happened in the Galleria Vittoria in Milan.

Source: www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/boccioni_umberto.htm

Artist: Damien Hurst

Title: Away From The Flock

Date of Artwork: 1994

Nationality: English

Media: Steel, glass, lamb, formaldehyde which is a colorless poisonous gas

Significance: The artist is trying to focus on how sheep are animals that have been giving us food and warmth for hundreds of years. The title “away from the flock” relates to “to leave the flock” which is a religious term which means to leave behind the protection of the church.

Sources: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/h/hirst/hirst_flock.jpg.html%20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/87212?initial=H&artistId=6043&artistName=Damien+Hirst&submit=1

Artist: Banksy

Title: Untitled/Girl searching soldier

Date of artwork: (can’t find)

Nationality of artist: British

Media of artwork: stencil and spray paint

Significance of artwork: the significance in this artwork is that in real life the shoes should be switched because the soldier should have the power to search the pedestrian. His gun is lent against the wall so he is unarmed or not a threat.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy
http://www.briansewell.com/artist/b-artist/banksy/banksy-biography.html
http://www.popstarsplus.com/celebrities_bansky.htm

Artist: Pierre Auguste Cot

Title: La Tempete

Date of artwork: 1883

Nationality of Artist: French

Media of Artwork: Oil on canvas

Significance of Artwork: The painting is reminiscent of an earlier work, Spring, which was completed by Cot in 1873. This painting was subsequently acquired by John Wolfe after it was displayed with astounding success at the Salon of 1873. It is believed that the presence of Spring in Wolfe's collection was the impetus that drove his cousin, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, to purchase The Storm in 1880. Both paintings are of roughly the same dimensions and are evidently related in subject in the sense that both portray a young, nubile couple. It is from this therefore, that the two paintings are thought to form a symbiotic pair, where the success of the earlier work led to the creation of the latter.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Storm_%28painting

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci

Title: Mona Lisa

Date of Artwork: 1503–1506

Nationality of Artist: Italian

Media of Artwork: It is oil on poplar.

Significance of Artwork: Many critics note that Leonardo painted the most famous portrait of all time. The vagueness of the subject's expression, it is so important or enduring that people cannot fail to notice or be impressed from the composition and the delicate modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work. This painting was one of the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa