Episode 31: Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock makes for an interesting artist to start a discussion of the value of art. As an abstract expressionist, Pollock created gigantic paintings that incorporated his "Jack the Dripper" style.

Lavender Mist, 1950

Pollock's work method

While Pollock was a trained artist, these paintings were done with experimental medium... particularly house paints and cardborad. Not so great for archiving, Pollock. Still, there was a Pollock that sold for $50 million dollars...

In step Teri Horton. This 73 year old trucker found a "Jackson Pollock" for five dollars at the thrift store. Since then, she's been trying to get the painting authenticated.

While she's received offers in the millions already, she's looking for the big 50 in the front of all those zeros and half the art world agree that she has, indeed, found a Jackson Pollock.

What do you think? Pollock or Knock off?

Why I Dig Art History: Marie

There is a genre of novels that are considered dystopian. They take place in some future time when the world has either had or is coming to some kind of Armageddon. The characters in these books often learn about the betrayal of their government or the fact that while they lived in some "perfect world" there were things they were ignorant to.

One common thread many of these authors use: a lack of history. Either the people are hidden from their own history or it's distorted, but there is a truth in this approach that I think we can all learn from--our history is a part of what makes us who we are. A large part, actually. Our history tells us where we came from, what we can expect, and helps us in that daily battle of understanding who we are. Art history is the same for an artist's identity as any other type of history.

Alright, so you may think I'm being a little dramatic, but think about it... the artists who are most successful have someone else they were looking towards in one way or another. Picasso knew his history well enough to be influenced by Van Gogh. David was influenced by Caravaggio, like many others before and after him. There was an entire division between groups of people who preferred Ruben's style and another who followed the style of Poussin. Even visionaries knew what went before them; it's what made them able to analyze what had been done and see where their contributions could add to the genre.

Another reason I continue to dig through the writings of artists that have gone before me is the fact that so many times, I need their words of wisdom. While reading Edward Weston's Daybooks (at least the 80 pages I got to read before school took over my life), there was an experience that I really connected with. Weston talks about taking his portfolio to Alfred Stieglitz --a famous photographer from the generation before Weston. Now keep in mind, Weston was the photographer of Modernism. He was doing work that helped elevate photography to an art and he was a mover and shaker. During this early experience, however, Stieglitz took print after print, tossing them into the trash.

Weston took the experience and learned from it. He was humble and took the criticism and I believe the advice he was given about giving attention to every little detail was what helped improve his future work. This came at a time when I was struggling with what seemed to be an onslaught of evidence towards the lack of ability in my own work. I took comfort in knowing this has occurred to photographers much greater than myself.

I hope every artist out there is able to find some other artists that they can connect with, and if you're not an artist, I hope it can help you understand where these artists were coming from. And, of course, keep the history alive by sharing your insights!

Until next time!

Marie

Looking Back: Movements of the 20th Century Revisited

We have a treat for everyone! Courtney Davis has come to the podcast (our first *ahem* celebrity). As usual, here are the images you can enjoy seeing as you listen.

Night Cafe Van Gogh: Post Impressionism

The Red Room Matisse: Fauvism

Madmoiselles d'Avignon Picasso: Analytical Cubism

Chair Canning Picasso: Synthetic Cubism

Armored Train Severini: Futurism

The Fountain Duchamp: Dada

L.H.O.O.Q. Duchamp: Dada

Persistence of Memory Dali: Surrealism

Marylin  Warhol: Pop Art

Campbell Soup Can Warhol: Pop Art

Free Ride Tony Smith: Minimalism

Don't forget to check out UVU's International Study Programs. There are Art History and Photography programs going to London, Paris, and Barcelona as well as a study abroad focused on Renaissance and Baroque art in Italy. Information about the programs for the summer of 2013 will be up soon!

GIVE AWAY!!!!

We're pretty excitied, we've hit a milestone in our humble oppinion! 20,000 hits on the blog! Woo Hoo!!! We've come a long way since our humble beginnings and we want to celebrate!

In honor of our 20,000 hit here on the Arts and Facts blog, we are giving away a free art poster of Van Gogh's, "Starry Night".

To enter our give away you must do three things.

1.) Comment on this post.
2.) Join the Arts and Facts Blog
3.) Like our Facebook Page

The drawing will take place on June 20th!

PS. Bonus points for submitting a podcast suggestion on either Facebook or here on the blog!

A Baffling Series of Events: Kenna Likes Art History!

Don't get me wrong, world history is great. All those cultures and wars and politics and whatnot. I've taken a fair amount of history classes in my day, I've watched a fair amount of historical documentaries, I've even read books on the subject. And I've quite thoroughly enjoyed all of it. It's great, really.

But here's the thing: if you were to ask me for a sampling of my historical off-hand knowledge, I wouldn't be able to tell you diddly-squat. Zilch. Nada.

But why not?(as you may be asking yourself) If you really are as well-read as you claim to be, surely you could at least give us the cliff-notes version of what started WWI? Or a summary of the USSR? What about the Mongols? Tell us about the Mongols...

I'd love to, but no-can-do, friends. I read it, listen to it, study it, and none of it sticks. Names, dates, places...none of it sticks in my brain no matter how hard I try. My brain is like Teflon when it comes to world history.

And then I took my first Art History class. And everything changed... (*insert magical harp music*)

Now I find myself looking at paintings and recognizing things like chiaroscuro, contraposto, and tenebrism. Not only recognizing them, but remembering and understanding what those words mean and where they come from.

Now, much to my surprise, you could pick a random year and if I can think of a work of art or artist from that decade, I can extrapolate and tell you what was going on in the culture at that time, the socio-political structures being questioned, and innovations that were being made.

This all sounds very strange...why Art History and not History in general? (as you may be wondering)

Well I'll tell you!

(*insert crickets chirping*)

I really don't know.

As much as I would love to be able to impress people with random tidbits of information concerning the general history or our planet at dinner parties, I will have to settle for being the nerdy gal at the table whose only conversational contributions revolve around art (and sometimes in desperately obscure ways, I confess).

I have taken the time to theorize on this phenomenon, and here are my conclusions:

• Perhaps I gravitate to Art History because of the visual aspect. Being able to look at a picture, an image, and break it down to it's formal qualities and then relating those qualities to a time period, seems like an easier way to memorize dates and places.

• Perhaps it has to do with the creative aspect. I love drawing and painting and have great appreciation for literature. Studying the history of the evolution of human beings' creativity possibly sparks a part of my brain, inspires it to retain information, in a way that the history of The American Civil War simply does not.

• My final theory is that art provides a more vivid look into the minds of the people belonging to a certain time period. Their art provides us with insight as to what they were concerned about, the issues they were fighting over or defending, their hopes and fears and even examples of their every day lives. The art they've left us is a visual representation of their psyche, their imagination, their emotional state.

What other subject of study can give you that?

I'm interested to know if you are interested in Art History for the same reasons, or if you have reasons of your own. Why do we care about Art History, of all things? Totally open forum here. Let's discuss!

~Kenna

Episode 30: War Photography

Happy Memorial Day all! (At least to our U.S. listeners...) Thank you for your patience in us getting this episode up and running. We promise not to disappoint, though, and we have a longer episode... so enjoy!


As a part of recognizing this day, we had photography professor Travis Lovell help us in a discussion about the photographers behind the images--many of which have become icons in our culture.

 

During the Crimean War (the first war with photographer Roger Fenton), the set up to get images was nothing short of massive. If photographers complain today about having to cart around a bag of things, it might be good to remember early photographers had to not only carry their gear, but also their darkroom with them!

Because the collodion processes being used took time for set up and exposure, the images from the Crimean war were often staged. They were also meant to be propaganda to show all those nay-Sayers back home what a noble and purposeful war this was! (In case you didn't know, the Crimean war was England's Vietnam...)

Alexander Gardner

Rebel Sharpshooter by Alexander Gardner

The Civil War, also, was more aftermath than action pictures for the same reason. You end up with a lot of questionable staging, such as the pictures above. One was taken where the soldier died and the other, his body was moved to another location for a photo op. Which do you think is the original?

Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal

The Kiss by Alfred Eisenstaedt

World War II  brought about some of the most patriotic and well known photographs.

General Loan Executing a Viet Cong by Eddie Adams

Children running from their burning village. Nick Ut won a Pulitzer Prize for this image.

Vietnam was open for photographers and journalists, which resulted in future wars being more greatly censored. Photographers, too, learned the power of images. Eddie Adams hated his own photograph because of the negative view the public had towards General Loan after this image became public.

Survivor of Hutu Death Camp James Nachtwey

Many war photographers continue to highlight incidents that are not only newsworthy, but help to inform the public about things they don't see and that happen in and as a result of war. There are other images, such as those at Abu Ghraib*, which are now taken by soldiers themselves, While not all are like this, it gives us a different view of war based on what the soldiers see day-to-day.

If you find the developments of photography interesting, watch the video here, where Travis also discusses with the team from Framed Network the history of photography. You can also see some of the work Travis produces on his website.

*We discuss these images on the podcast, but because of the disturbing nature of these photographs, we will allow you to search those, if you are interested.

Looking back! (Lost Pieces of Art Revisited)

With summer, we are still working out the flow of getting episodes to you. Thank you for your patience! For now, we thought we'd bring back an old episode and make it available to you on the podcast. So listen on the right, look over the images (again or fir the first time) below, and be looking forward to a new episode on May 23rd!



As the title of this episode indicates these pieces are...well... not really around anymore. What we do have for you to look at here are either sketches and illustrations of what we believe it may have looked like according to written record, photographed replicas, and even other examples of the artists' work discussed.

Babylonian Gardens

The Babylonian Gardens were not only beautiful, according to legend, but being in modern-day Iraq, would have also been an amazing feat of architecture with its intricate irrigation system.

 The Colossus of Rhodes is another piece that only lives in written record. The image on the left is how it was thought by some historians to have been built, though the image on the right is probably more accurate in terms of the statue being more contained.

Primevera by Botticelli

While the pieces discussed in the podcast were lost and we can't even account for what their subject matter would have been prior to the fire, this is an example of the typical Botticelli mythical scene that would have been viewed by Savonarola as sinful and needing to be destroyed.

Sir Henry Irving

 Mary wasn't very forgiving of this actor who cut up his painting because he wasn't pleased with what he saw.

Stonebreakers by Courbet

This was the one piece that we still have record of thanks to photography! The original was destroyed in transport to safety during WWII.

The image on the left is a piece by Graham Sutherland, a painter who did a portrait of Winston Churchill that was destroyed by Churchill's wife. She didn't like the weakened state it showed him in, so today all we have left are paintings and photographs such as the one on the right, showing Churchill as the leader we remember him as.

What pieces of art do you wish we could have seen?

If you have topics in art history you're just itching to hear more about, leave us a comment or email us at: uvu.artsandfacts@gmail.com.