Shepard Fairey @ ICA

Friday April 17 we will see the Shepard Fairey Exhibition at the Boston Institute for Contemporary Art on the waterfront. We will depart from campus at 1:30, arrive at the museum at 2:30, and look for an early dinner in the area after the exhibit.

Before Friday, read the following article about Shepard Fairey that appeared in the NY Times.

Guest Artist Holly Hughes

On Friday, March 27, we will have guest artist Holly Hughes come to give a brief talk about her artwork and review our class projects. I have known Holly since I was an undergrad, and studying abroad in the RISD Pont Aven program in France. She is a great painter and critic- having worked in many different painting styles and taught for a long time at RISD.

Read an interview with her here.

Barnaby Furnas

Barnaby Furnas uses a variety of painting techniques and materials to create intense images and effects. His recent exhibit at Marianne Boesky contained a number of portraits but past work has included giant pour paintings as well.


See the video.

Is art part of evolution?

See this author Denis Dutton's interpretation of art as a part of evolution.
The interview was broadcast on NPR.

Naomi's 5 Favorite Paintings

Andrew Wyeth
1948
"Christina's World"
Tempera

Alphonse Maria Mucha
Czechoslovakian Artist
1860 -1939
"Summer"
Art Nouveau


Claude Monet
1873
"Soleil Levant"
Impressionism
Wassily Kandinsky
1911
"Composition IV"
Abstraction

Karl Shmidt Rottluff
1918
"Madchen Aus Kowno (Girl from Kowno)"
Woodcut

7 Days 7 Paintings

We can work on paintings in a number of different methods as well as speeds. At certain times, it may be advantageous to plan and work slowly to develop an idea and then execute it. At other times, we may need to break out of that structure and work quickly and intuitively. Creating paintings at a faster pace will activate different artistic skills as well as provide us with an opportunity to test many ideas.

For this project, you have been supplied with 7 small masonite panels to create one painting each day for a week. Technically, it’s not necessary to start and finish one painting every day- and some people may prefer to start several at once. There are no stylistic, thematic, or subject restrictions and it is not necessary to be consistent in any of these ways, so you may shift from style to style. It may be useful to plan if you have many ideas, but the goal of this project is to uncover what you may be attracted to artistically in a less conscious way. Bear in mind that we will use these experiments as a springboard for your independent projects immediately afterwards. While these paintings are more experimental, they should still represent a high-quality product at the conclusion of the week.

Consider
What artistic skills do we use when creating paintings quickly?
How can we use the painting medium in order to create work at a faster rate?
Afterward, what consistencies do you see in the 7 paintings either stylistically or content-wise?
How can these paintings help us to test ideas and decide on longer projects?

Materials
All.

Look at
Karl Baden
Artist photographed himself every day for 20 years.

*****

Painting Without Paint
Project due Friday March 13

Blog posting
Due Tuesday March 17, 1 pm
Create a written response, and create it as a comment under the project post in response to the following question. Your response should be a thoughtful and well-written description. 200 words.

• What did you define as the essential qualities of Painting? Why?
• How did these qualities influence the way that you devised your project?
• What did you notice about the process for creating it? Reflections upon completion?
• What did you observe in your peers’ work?

Jessica's Favorite Paintings

Pope Innocent X, Diego Velazquez (1650)
















Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, Francis Bacon (1953)




















Girl before a mirror, Pablo Picasso (1932)
















Tower of Blue Horses, Marc Franz (1913)





















Girl and Solider at Bethlehem, Banksy (2007)