"Definition of Art"

"Andy Warhol is a genius!"-Danto

Today in class we discussed Andy Warhol again.  He is known as a Commercial or Pop Artist.  He is also one of my favorite artist.  I like his use of bold colors and how he turns like-life things into art.  Today we looked at his silkscreen Brillo Boxes:

"Brillo Boxes"

In the reading we talked about today, how we perceive art comes a lot from art historians.  Art critics judging the particular "artform" tells us if it really is art or not.  Reading someone else's interpreatation of an artwork can really influence our take on a particular piece of artwork.
In the picture to the right is a piece from Andy Warhol of using different takes on Marilyn Monroe's face.  Here I feel Warhol is trying to depict Monroe's different personality traits.  When I was in 10th grade I remember back in art class I did a represenation of this piece out of clay and paint.  As I stated above I like the use of Warhol's sense of color and how he mixes them all together to make each square that appears to look the same each look different and unique.

We also watched a video on Damien Hirst who is a British, Conceptual Artist.  He was known to have shifted the art market.  He is known for his famous "Shark artwork", where he preserved a shark and placed it on the second floor of The Met.  The preserving of the shark cost nearly $100,000.  In the video, Tinterow stated, "it is a powerful artwork..and it influences our emotions..".  I agree with this statement, although I have not seen the artwork up close and personal I imagine it to be very intimidating.  It must give the audience a one on one experience with a shark without the actual terror of being so close to a shark.  The image above is the front view of the shark with it's mouth wide open.  It's intimidating to see how big and wide the sharks mouth actually is and how sharp the teeth are.  This form of artwork is very different from a painting, drawing, sculpture, etc, it really puts you in the moment and you can definitely emotionally react to it.

"The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living"

We also watched a video on Milton Glaser, a Graphic Designer, who has dedicated his life studies to determining the difference between fine art and commercial design.  He stated that "art is a powerful instrument for survival".  He also stated and firmly believes through this studies that, "if it moves you to attentivness is it art, if it doesn't it is something else".  I have to say I agree with this statement, something has to attract you and pull you in for it to be considered art, or else it isn't interesting, and isn't art interesting?  I do feel as though anything really can be art if you use your mind, but it doesnt have to evoke some sort of emotion for you to relate to it.

(posted by Kaitlyn)