Special Edition: Art Museum Visit

    On April 2nd, we took a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago on a three hour tour with our professor. During this tour, we were suppose to find what we thought were the best pieces and what we thought were the worst pieces in the museum. Obviously, these opinions are entirely my own and what I deem appealing and not appealing in art. 

    For the piece that I found to be the least appealing to my senses, it would have to be the first piece by Marcel Janco titled, "Composition with Red Arrow." I found this piece as my least favorite because overall I don't like the style or how it's been composed. All I see in the piece are a bunch of shapes encased by a brown border with weird textures all over the place. Whenever I look at it, I think of how anyone could've created it but somehow this artist beat me to it and now has a piece in an art museum. That kind of frustrates me and therefore adds internal hatred and makes it the worst of the worst for me. I'm sure there are some redeemable qualities about this piece like how the artist used plaster and casein on burlap and then mounted on cardboard as his medium. For me, I think that's innovative and different then your typical oil paint on canvas you see everywhere. Other than the medium factor, I don't really enjoy this piece in any way. The only time I would recognize it would be exactly for this reason, to express my feeling about my least favorable piece in the art museum. 

    For the piece that I found to be the best overall, it would have to be, "The Banquet" by Rene Magritte. I find this painting to be my favorite because I enjoy how the orange sky and the sun contrast with the dark trees. Rene Magritte is one of my favorite artists in surrealism and I think that plays a factor into why I enjoy this painting so much. Even if it wasn't for this particular artist, when I walked around the museum, this painting stood out to me because of how it was composed. The contrast between the sky and sun with the trees makes it appealing but also, the frame that borders the piece is beautiful as well. When you see this painting in person, it's of an average size. Not too big and not too small but the frame is pretty thick and extravagant and I think it gives the piece that much more depth than if you used no frame for the painting or used a basic frame. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece that much that I can say it's one of my favorite pieces at the Art Institute of Chicago. Not sure if it's a permanent piece at the museum or not but I'm pretty sure i've seen it a couple times when I visited the museum and hopefully it's there for many years to come so I can keep fawning over its beauty. 

    Finally, I will just compare and contrast the two pieces. The comparisons I can make between the Marcel Janco and Rene Magritte pieces would have to be they both utilized some type of subject matter in their artwork. Marcel Janco wanted the red arrow to be the center of attention and thus, he placed it in the middle of his canvas and Rene Magritte did the same by placing the orange sun in the middle of his piece. I feel like they both composed their artwork very similarly in how they placed each object within the frame of their pieces. Making the objects be dead center always creates some controversy with people because some say it's a safe way to compose a piece and others really like having objects dead center. I always liked paintings that had subject matter dead center because it allows my eye to go directly there and not create some sort of awkwardness for me to look at. That's why I think having the artists place their objects dead center in these two pieces really worked out for both the artists and creates a comparison for two completely different styles of art. The differences between the pieces would have to be that obviously one piece to me is a lot more intricate in detail than the other. I think Rene Magritte's piece has a lot of contrasting colors that are quite vivid and bright, whereas, Marcel Janco's piece has dull colors that are muddled with the background. The artists also used different mediums within their artwork. Marcel Janco used plaster and casein on burlap and then mounted on cardboard as his medium and Rene Magritte used oil on canvas. One could say that Marcel Janco's medium was creative and innovative while Rene Magritte played it safe with oil on canvas.

    Overall, both pieces have appealing and less appealing factors played into them and it's really the viewers' opinion on what they deem to be the best and worst artworks. For me, Marcel Janco's piece was my least favorite and Rene Magritte's would be my favorite piece. They both have many comparable factors played into their pieces, as well as things that make them complete opposites. I really enjoyed my time at the Art Institute of Chicago and was glad to be a part of this tour in which I learned a lot from my professor and my peers. 

Week 15: Documentaries

    During our last week of class, we watched two different films. One being Comic Book Confidential and the other being Exit Through the Gift Shop. Both films focused on artists and the work that they had created. Obviously the films are quite different because one is entirely devoted to comic book artists and the other focuses on artist Thierry Guetta.

  One artist from the film Comic Book Confidential would be William Gaines. William Gaines wrote such comics as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Science and Two-Fisted Tales. The comic book I remember vividly from the film would be Tales from the Crypt because of the horror type illustrations drawn throughout the comic book. The illustrations include a lot of details and hand drawn aspects to them as oppose to the artwork of Thierry Guetta from Exit Through the Gift Shop. Thierry's artwork borderline looked much like a reproduction of the famous artist Banksy. Most of Thierry's pieces had a pop-art feel to them. Unlike William Gaines, Thierry's artwork seemed to include less details and something made through the use of stencils and that could be easily reproduced.

  Obviously the major contrast between the two artists would be one is a comic book artist, so his artwork mostly focuses on illustrations and the other is a street artist with works of art made through stencils and other mediums. The comparisons between the two artists would be they are both pretty well known in their own genres. People who are heavily into comic books, would know about William Gaines while those who are into street art would know of Banksy and then that of Thierry Guetta. I think as far as artwork goes, both artists utilize color very well within their pieces. Thierry Guetta's pieces are very over-exposed with color with all the bright colors. William Gaines uses very simple colors within his comics that suit them very well.

Overall, these two artists are very different within the realm of art because William focuses on comic books and Thierry focuses on street art. They do share similarities with the use of color found in their artwork and how they illustrate the images they've created. Both films are a good watch and I'd definitely recommend them.