Assignment JASPER JOHNS + POST WORLD WAR 2
Watch "Art in the Western World: The Aftermath" on youtube (25mins) http://youtu.be/L5pFbx0cF74?list=PL8Jz61TGii_HbjuNIRUSpKFLn0lUzfiqx
1. Summarise Text 2: Jasper Johns Prints 1968-1980 (given out in class: see Felicity to get your copy)
2. Answer reflective questions in response to
the video ‘Art in the Western World: the Aftermath’ (available on youtube + shown in the lesson)
Part 1: Summarise Text
Use the resources provided to you in week 1
& 2 to summarise the given text.
Submit:
·
1x written summary of 300 words minimum for part 1 (typed), summarizing
the text in your own words and using full sentences and paragraphs (no bullet points).
·
Summarise the key ideas, issues, points or themes.
·
Present your work typed and printed with a TAFE cover sheet (with part
2)
·
Discuss what you imagine these ideas, issues, points or themes mean to
in relation to your visual art practice (what is possible?) at the end of your
summary.
Due Thursday 4pm, Week 7. (*This date has been reviewed and rescheduled
from the original assessment document)
Part 2: Answer reflective questions
Read the text below before writing your answers to the questions.
This is intended to make you think; and there are no ‘right or wrong’ answers.
Paintings in the Renaissance show a need to
depict content be it religious, historical or mythological subject matter. This
depiction of specific representational content relied on the audience to be
familiar with the subject, which excluded much of the uneducated population.
Art after the Renaissance, artists made
paintings which assumed no educated knowledge of the viewer such as landscape
and genre paintings which used the expression of colour rather than religious
or classical ideals of form & content to represent an idea. For example,
Romantic painter Turner used colours and brush strokes to portray atmosphere
and fleeting sensations of a sublime landscape and narrative.
Later the Impressionists took painting to
analysis: they analysed the chemistry and psychology of colour; the application
of paint, new technology and pigments. Seurat employed scientific studies in
optics and the study of colour to create pointillist paintings.
All of these movements and styles had one
thing in common; they heralded the depiction of known objects, representational
of the world.
Then as a reaction against this
establishment, artists began to see painting as a form of expression or emotion
itself and rejected forms drawn from observation in favour of
non-representational imagery. The Fauves chose colour according to their
feelings “wild beast” within them, The surrealists made ‘automatic’ drawings, the
abstract expressionists created works from their immediate internal experience
of the present.
This can be seen to be a rejection of the
imitation of nature and asserting an independence from the perceived visual world;
which was (and still is) controversial with the public & artists who paint
known subjects. The debate becomes “what is art?” or “why is that art?”; you
may have heard many times in response to viewing an abstract piece “I could do
that my self”.
Russian Abstract Expressionist Wassily Kandinsky witnessed major events of war, scientific discovery, Europe on
brink of war Russia at edge of revolution.
“When religion, science and morality are shaken, and when the
outer supports threaten to fall, man turns his gaze away from the external
world and toward himself. The elements of the new art are therefore to be found
within the inner and not the outer qualities of nature.”
1.
Why do you
think this approach is taken for some Abstract Expressionist artists?
2.
Do you think
this type of introspection is to satisfy the artist or the viewer?
3.
What
relationship does art now have with society?
4.
Thinking
about the practice of abstract expressionism in the 1940-50s and the idea of
creating non-representational artwork through pure expression; do you think
that art has become accessible to everyone? Why?
5.
Do you think
anyone can create a work of art? Why?
6.
Where do you
place your value in a work of art?
7.
In the
Reading “Jasper Johns: Prints 1968-1970” we read that he practices printmaking.
The author, Christine Dixon, states,
“for all modern artists, the
dialogue between a unique object and its reproduction in multiple is a central
argument about cultural authenticity. Multiple copies of one image, such as the
original print… serve to disseminate the artist’s idea.”
Do you think
it is still true that today, the idea that a print (rather than a unique or one
off image / sculpture) reaches a wider audience? Explain your answer.
8.
Thinking
about the signs and symbols from our western culture that Jasper Johns uses in
his artworks, how much do you need to know about the artist (Jasper Johns) to
understand his work?
9. Christine Dixon asks, “As for all visual art encountered directly, the primary value is
sensory. How does Johns’s imagery fall upon our eyes and our minds?” Respond
to this question.
10. What questions does the idea of producing
multiples (eg: printmaking or digital prints) of one image raise in terms of
value of a work of art?
Due Thursday 4pm, Week 7.
Submit:
·
Your answers to the questions (include the questions), typed and using
full sentences and paragraphs (no bullet points).
·
Minimum word count = 200 words for part 2.
·
Present your work typed and printed with a TAFE cover sheet (with part
1)
Helpful Resources:
Websites
Bauman, 1989, Art of the Western World –
Episode 17: The Aftermath, TVS Television Ltd, New York, viewed 9 August 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5pFbx0cF74&index=17&list=PLxO9GeRLfUk93LIfuPhWo7AaFdqGli4Xq
Magazine Articles
Dixon, C, 1997, Jasper Johns: Prints
1968-1980, National Gallery of Australia, 5 April-13 July 1997, Australia.
DVD
Abstraction: The Painters World (available at
TAFE NSW RI Library, Wagga Wagga) no reference information available.
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