art"Tri"stic Commentary

Quite frankly, I define ‘canon’ as a group of works (artistic, literary, musical, etc) that have been asserted by an individual, or group of individuals, as being authoritatively great, meaning in some way or another they have shaped the development of that discipline. At face value, this seems quite simple. However, there are some problems in the foundation of this notion of ‘canon.’ The main issue, from which all of the other issues arise, is the fact that this definition of ‘canon’ leaves open a gaping space for subjectivity. It seems that having “the greatest” works of a discipline (in our case art) defined by one man (in our case Giorgio Vasari) is not the major issue in and of itself; it is the perpetuation and unchallenging of this definition of greatness that has caused so many problems. With one man’s definition will also come his personal ideals and biases. The perpetuation of these biases, indeed transforming them into the norm, has proved to be incredibly dangerous for the disciplines of art and art history. We are now at a crossroads where a reexamination of what was for centuries accepted without challenge is imperative for the credibility and survival of the discipline.

In our reexamination of the canon and in choosing what to include into a revised canon, or even whether or not the canon should exist at all, we need to take into account the very things that were excluded from Vasari’s methodology of defining greatness. He saw great art as purely the work of an individual genius, apart from all social and political implications. The artist was an island in his eyes. This is absolutely, preposterously unrealistic and why we have felt compelled to base an entire discipline’s canon on this wrongheaded thinking for so long, unchallenged, is beyond my realm of understanding. It seems commonsensical to me: we must take into account all aspects when looking at art: social, economic, and political. Otherwise, we are missing important pieces of the puzzle of the individual artist and his/her creative and aesthetic processes. In his essay in “Rethinking the Canon,” Michael Camille describes this stripping of “somatic richness” and all outside influences when discussing and viewing canonical works of art. He feels we must see the most important works of art as quite the opposite. “The truly exceptional work is one which registers, reacts to, and often redefines its particular historical circumstances.” I totally agree. He quotes Nadia Serematakis as saying that we must instead focus on the art’s ability to provide an “inundating experience of sensory flooding, shock, and multiplicity.” It is in this light that I will now introduce the work that I would like to include in the canon.

Die Erlkonig (also referred to as The Erlking) is a mixed media visual, auditory, and literary masterpiece that has been around for centuries. Originally told as German folklore/ghost story, the tale of the Erlking has now become quite popular in music, literature, and popular culture around the world. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote a poem entitled Die Erlkonig in 1782. It was a part of a ballad opera entitled Die Fischerin. Schubert later took Goethe’s text and used it as the program of his through-composed lieder (German art song) by the same title. The genius of Schubert’s work took the already horrifying tale of the fateful father-son ride through the forest and, by employing ‘visual’ auditory effects such as galloping triplets throughout to simulate the horse ride and four different characters, portrayed by one voice in different ranges and modes, transformed it into as close to a visual masterpiece as music and poetry can be. The song paints a picture in your mind as the story unfolds. Now, a man by the name of Ben Zelkowicz has created a stunning video to accompany the lieder. And it is the combination of Zelkowicz’s work, along with the implied masterpieces of Goethe and Schubert, which I would like to submit into our new revised canon.

Zelkowicz animated the folk tale using little more than beach sand, and Exacto knife, and a video camera. He painstakingly shaped the sand into images for each and every frame of the video, each of which only lasted for 1/12^th of a second of film. He even went so far as to vary the thickness and the texture of the sand with the variation in tonalities of the voice of the singer. Zelkowicz completed the video as his senior thesis at the CA Institute of the Arts under the guidance of artists Raimund Krumme and Jules Engel. Since its completion in 2002, the film has been critically acclaimed at film festivals across the nation. His work has been heralded as “extraordinary storytelling and artistry…Zelkowicz captures the nuances of emotion in the faces of his characters and by the end, the sense of sorrow hits hard…the film is a knock out.” (RES Magazine) The New York Film Festival Guide described it as “Hauntingly beautiful.” These are just a minute sampling of the positive reception of his mastery of the sand-animation film.

Why isn’t this work in the canon? The answer is simple. First off, the works of Goethe and Schubert would not receive much consideration from people like H. W. Janson not only because they are literary and musical, but also because they are grouped in that ‘art from North of the Alps’ cluster that is seen as much less significant than Italian Renaissance art. Also, the video, created in 2002 would never catch Janson’s eye because it is based on these Germanic works. He also places his emphasis on the “greatness” of paintings and sculptures. Video is a relatively new medium for the visual arts community.

I believe Zelkowicz has successfully provided us with a worthy continuation of a masterpiece into the realm of the visual arts. What started as a poetic masterwork became a musical masterwork. Now do we have a visual masterwork on our hands? I don’t think we can know at the moment. Only historical perspective will tell. However I do think that there is a very good possibility that this may be the case. I also truly believe that as our technology advances so must the artistic acceptance of the use of technology advance. We need to recognize film/video as having the potential to be great art. The majority of the time, film tells the story of a culture at a certain point in time. It also has the ability to quickly reach vast audiences in today’s world, thus potentially serving to facilitate a change, development, or swing in the culture. Referring back to earlier, is this not how we would now ideally define greatness? We must remember that we can no longer isolate the artist from their surroundings. And today, film (and television: the audiovisual) is the key component of the visual arts that effects how societies act and react to things.

Now while Die Erlkonig is a film delving into past historical themes and stories, it still must be included because, in our reexamination of the canon, we cannot forget to look into the past at neglected works. We cannot solely focus on the ‘here and now’ because I actually believe that historical perspective will serve us better in the long run in the creation of a canon than anything. Clearly, the story of the Erlking has influenced the Germanic culture greatly (German children still believe in the Erlking) so it should be included in the canon.

The Erlking (For the video excerpt)

Although the Taliban have been driven out of the Bamiyan Valley, they still managed to have left quite an astounding trail of physical and psychological devastation.

In March of 2001, the Taliban’s Mullah Omar reversed his former edict on Bamiyan’s famous collosal Buddha statues, calling now for total destruction.  Calling them religious objects of idol worhipers, of which radical Islam believes must be destroyed at all costs, in the name of Allah, the Taliban shelled the Bamiyan cliffs for days with artillery. They finally managed to finish the Buddhas off with large amounts of dynamite.  The cliffs, a famous tourist attraction and arguably Afghanistan’s most popular tourist destination, house not only the two largest statues of the Buddha in the world, but are also home to hundreds of caves.  The caves once housed Buddhist monks, the very monks who spent centuries building the Buddhas in the cliff face.  The interior of the caves are adorned with beautiful frescoes, now vandalized with Taliban shoe marks and covered in tar.  Many of these caves were destroyed with the Buddhas.

The Hazara people of the Bamiyan Valley have long been persecuted by the Taliban because of their history of Taliban opposition.  They do not see the attacks on the Buddhas as a religious conflict at all.  To them it is a matter of cultural terrorism.  The Taliban are set on humiliating them and destroying their cultural heritage.  The Buddhas have been a part of their identity for centuries (even though the area is now Islamic) and the cornerstone of the local economy (stimulating tourism, bringing up to 100,000 tourists a year) so what better way to devastate the Hazara than blow up their statues?

The international response to the atrocity was one of horror.  It was also one of irony.  In a country full of starving, war-torn people, the first thing that garners international attention is the destruction of archaelogical artifacts.  Are our priorities skewed?  Should we not be providing aid to these people instead of trying to rebuild the statues?  Or will rebuilding the statues provide the very economic stimulus, jobs, and morale boost that the Afghan people need?  I will explore these ideas in my paper.

This post will serve as a brief introduction/ summary for my “paper to come” on the subject.

While achieving laudable success as an artist in her day, despite what author Theodore Rabb coins as “double disabilities” (the fact that she was both a woman and an artist, during an age when artists were just beginning to recognize the fruits of their struggles for professional status), Artemisia Gentileschi had her fair share of struggles, especially involving her sexuality.

Her brilliant depictions of the Biblical stories of “Susanna and the Elders” and “Judith and Holofernes” served Artemisia, whether consciously or subconsciously, as means of venting her everyday struggles as a young woman.  These paintings (in the case of the Judith narrative, a series) paralleled Artemisia’s sexual struggles in a male dominated society/ world.

According to the date on the painting, she painted “Susanna and the Elders” a year before she was raped by Agostino Tassi.  It can be argued that, for some time before the rape occurred, she had been sexual harassed by men, including Tassi and his friends.

By looking at how Artemisia depicts Susanna and her situation ( in a markedly different way than her male contemporaries) I will formulate an argument stating that Susanna is in fact a manifestation of Artemisia’s personal feelings of innocence in the midst of sexual pressure.

Also, by examining her portrayal of Judith from the Apocryphal book of Judith, I will draw parallels between Artemisia’s and Judith’s feelings and actions.  I believe that Artemisia depicted Judith’s expressions with an absence of God and of the faith element not as a malicious attack on the Biblical subject, but maybe as an attack (subconscious?) on the patriarchal Church and other male depictions of the subject.  She was “humanizing” it, as Mary Garrard puts it, because the emotions were so real for her.  Many art historians believe that the Judith sequence serves as a series of self-portraits of Artemisia.

Because she painted it post-rape/trial, I believe she is portaying a victory over male forces.  In Artemisia’s case, Tassi was convicted and went to jail (and was released after only eight months) and for Judith, Holofernes was dead, her people saved from destruction, and Nebuchadnezzar’s patriarchal rule directly challenged.

Whether or not it is possible for a 17 or 18 year old to consciously be aware of these feelings, I don’t know.  However, I do know that great artists have an uncanny knack for giving subconscious manifestations tangible form.

Sigmund Freud’s name is synonymous with psychoanalysis. He is considered the Father of Psychoanalysis, since he basically invented it and its methods, along with “the Vienna school” of thinking in psychology.

Freud has been called “one of the most influential and authoritative thinkers of the twentieth century.” Almost all aspects of today’s psycho-analysis can be traced back to Freud’s developments in the field.

He was born in 1856 in Moravia. At the age of four, he moved to Vienna. He lived in Vienna for the rest of his life*. (*1937- He had to leave Vienna, after paying a large ransom, because he was Jewish and the Nazis annexed Austria so he went to England until they left.) He studied physiology and biology for many years then he went to medical school and became a medical doctor. In 1886, he married. He and his wife had six kids. They were both accomplished psychoanalysts so they opened a private practice, where Freud was able to conduct his clinical research, using his patients as subjects.

Freud’s ideas greatly influenced the field of art, especially Surrealism. Many artists purposefully employed his methods in their works (which kind of defeats the whole purpose of this stuff being ‘unconscious’ doesn’t it?). Freud looked at what artists painted as a window into who they were and what feelings they were repressing in their outward lives. Freud does this in his Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood, the first and last work of its kind (by Freud). While some critics find this to be a demeaning pathography of the great Renaissance man, I find it to be extremely interesting and hard to ignore. Freud presents compelling arguments for his positions and rebuts his critics gracefully.

In my paper, I will discuss how Freud looks at Leonardo’s life through the scope of his unconscious, focusing on the little misgivings and idiosyncrasies displayed by Leonardo throughout his lifetime and in his diaries. Freud especially focuses on Leonardo’s memory/fantasy of the vulture/kite visiting his cradle in infancy. This seems to be very important to Freud due to the fact that so little is known about Leonardo’s childhood. Freud explains how this fantasy can show us why Leonardo had homosexual tendencies and how it can give us insight into his childhood and early sexual repressions and explorations.

This book was absolutely fascinating. Wow. I recommend it. Get ready for a ride during my presentation Tuesday!

1.) Bibliography of Freud’s most important works:

Freud, Sigmund, (1900) The Interpretation of Dreams. SE 4-5

Freud, Sigmund, (1904) The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. SE 6

Freud, Sigmund, (1913) Totem and Taboo. SE 13, 1-161

Freud, Sigmund, (1927) The Future of an Illusion. SE 21, 3-56

Freud, Sigmund, (1930) Civilization and its Discontents. SE 21, 59-145

*SE = The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, 24 volumes, ed. by  James Strachey et al. The Hogart Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis,  London 1953-74.

For a complete list of Freud’s work, in chronological order, you can go to this link:

http://www.freudfile.org/selected_works.html

2.) Bibliography of the most important critiques on these works:

On The Interpretation of Dreams:

Fromm, Erich. The Crisis of Psychoanalysis. New York, 1930.

On The Psychopathology of Everyday Life:

Grünbaum, Adolf. The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique. Berkeley and Los Angeles:

University of California Press, 1984.

Other prominent Freud critics to look for are:

-Frank Sulloway ( http://www.sulloway.org/ ), E. M. Thornton, Jeffrey Mason, and Peter Swales who all attack Freud, not on individual works, but on grounds such as morals, a cocaine addiction, and biology.

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The Last Supper

I was inspired to do this project on the story of “The Last Supper” for several reasons. First and foremost, I am a Christian so I am very familiar with the story and have been for quite a while. It is a very interesting story and an important precursor to one of the biggest events in history: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Also, after reading Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code” my interest in Leonardo was perked. I would love to use this opportunity to explore the validity of Brown’s statements regarding Leonardo’s rendition of “The Last Supper” from the novel. The other work I want to look at is Dali’s “Last Supper.” He mixes in some elements of surrealism as well as putting some non-traditional spins on the story such as Jesus having blond hair.

The narrative itself can be found in the Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible. All four (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) contain accounts of the story so it should be interesting to reread them all and look for any similarities or irregularities between the accounts. The story can also be found in 1 Corinthians in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth.

As you can see in the paintings below, both artists depicted two very different renditions of the same story.

Blog Summary for Peggy G.

Wow. After basically arbitrarily picking to write about Peggy Guggenheim for my patron paper, I can definitely conclude that, without a doubt, she was a very interesting woman: a VERY interesting woman.

Basically Peggy (actually Marguerite but she preferred Peggy) grew up inside the walls and under the roof of an enormously wealthy Jewish family, although her father’s squandering of money and family relations left her in the “least wealthy” family sector. Both of her grandfathers, Jewish immigrants, came to America only to establish fortunes in the mining and banking industries, leaving fortunes to the heirs.

After Peggy’s father died on the Titanic, Peggy inherited $450,000. She left her stifled life in NYC to live in France where she married and had her only two children. In bohemia she grew to appreciate and eventually love modern abstract and surreal art. After her first divorce, she opened a gallery in London called the Guggenheim Jeune which ended up failing financially before the Second World War. Peggy moved back to NYC and opened another gallery name Art of This Century downtown. Here she promoted works from the most famous modern artists of the 20^th Century, including Jackson Pollock whom she patronized for 5 years before his real rocket to art-world stardom.

In 1946 she closed the gallery and moved back to Europe, settling in a palazzo along a canal. Peggy loved Venice so much that she made it her “home.” In Venice, she opened the palazzo to public display of her collection and continued to patronize painters until her death.

Now, when I say that she was interesting, I am not necessarily speaking of all of the aforementioned details about her life, although those facts are, of course, notable. No. I am speaking about how promiscuous she was and about how she embraced the adulterous lifestyle and image of “glamorous lightweight” in the art world. I lost count of how many affairs I had read about and how many destroyed marriages took place in her lifetime. I even read that in her late 50s she would sun bathe naked on her roof across the canal from the police station. Wow.

Well, whatever floats your boat Ms. Guggenheim. Or should I say, “gondola?”

Tags: arth303

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Comment time!

I think that the presentations today went well and they contained a lot of useful info that we can all use in our upcoming research. For everyone’s reference, I will give a short recap of the important parts of my presentation and post it here so it is archived for people to look if they feel so compelled…

Primary sources are very important in research because they provide us with an authority for determining the validity and factuality if historical events and dates. They will give your research a certain “higher” degree of credibility.

However, we will still encounter some obvious dangers when working with them such as inevitable human error and subjectivity. Examples include the fact that both Vasari and Bellori organize historical record by what they consider to be “best.” Also, van Mander recognizes possible problems when he addresses the fact that he couldn’t locate all of the exact dates for his subjects.

There are anthologies of primary sources out there so, once we locate those, we can easily find a huge amount of primary sources for research. These anthologies help us to trace source back to their “roots.”

Pay attention to the dates of publication because they will provide you with some insight into the reliability of the work and data. The dates will be relative to what you are looking for. Hence, if you want to learn about Picasso, don’t look in Vasari.

Also, watch the languages. Translations can sometimes mess things up b/c some languages use words and phrases that don’t translate exactly into other languages.

The audience is important too. It helps to explain why each author uses his/her methods and will also depend on what you are using it for: a research paper or light reading.

The tone of the writer provides the mood of the work. A more scholarly tone will obviously be taken more seriously than something conversational. And it always helps to know a bit about the authors themselves. Are they even interested in what they are writing about? Are they qualified? And how comprehensive was his research? If they were ardent and spent a lot of time and effort in their work, you will probably looking at a much better source.

Tags: arth303

Well, I have a couple of thoughts to throw out there regarding the administrative decision at Brandeis University to close their Rose Art Museum.

First off, my knowledge on the subject is obviously somewhat limited so all comments are based on the assumption that the university really had no “better” choice, in their eyes, than to close the museum in order to academically and fiscally keep their university on the right track.

Do I agree with closing the museum and selling off all of the art work to the highest bidder? Not necessarily. Do I think the money would help this apparently desperate and strapped-for-cash university if invested wisely? Yes I do.

Their website lists them as having over 8000 pieces in their permanent collection. These pieces could definitely generate some money. However, the money will likely not make much of a dent in their problem when you look at it in the big picture. The economic times will likely cause the art pieces to be sold at “bargain” prices to mainly wealthy collectors and large museums. Access to these pieces may, if in the hands of private collectors, result in very limited to nonexistent access for the public to ever see them again, which is a shame.

I think that this university has some big problems on the horizon. If they are willing to unanimously vote to close this museum, apparently a crown jewel on the forehead of the institution (at least according to the website), then what’s next? Varsity sports? They have nothing to do with “the academic mission of pursuing a liberal arts education.” Hey, you never know. Personally, I think instead of closing things down in order to gain a limited and finite amount of money, they need to look for ways to save by cutting back on superfluous luxuries for a while ( I know colleges have plenty). They can also raise tuition a couple grand; everyone else is. That will bring a steady flow of extra money into the university every year. What I’m trying to say is, there are other ways.

Tags: arth303

First off, I want to introduce myself on this first of many blogs for ARTH 303. My name is Chris Walker and I am from Stafford, VA. I am not an Art History major at UMW. In fact, I don’t even go here. I call Duke University my home. However, I am currently on a medical leave of absence so, since I am feeling better and am not allowed to return to Duke until this summer, I decided that I wanted to learn art history so I enrolled in this class. Fortunately, I can also transfer this credit back into Duke’s curriculum. My major is Earth and Ocean Sciences. Hopefully I can bring a different spin on art to the table. My art background involves an “Art/ Archaeology and Chemistry” class I took last Spring and a love for drawing. However, I also love to learn so hopefully I will fit right in.

Well, here is my first entry. Enjoy ….

Art history, to put it tersely, is the Story of Art.

However, like any good story, much more lurks beneath the surface. Quite simply, it’s not that simple.

The history of art can be likened to the history of human expression. Not solely the expression of the artist, but also the expression of the audience, as well as that of the art historian. Aesthetics dominates the realm of art.

It gives art meaning. It gives art wonder.

To me, the artist and the art historian are similar to a pilot and his or her copilot. Whilst the artist navigates through space and time, the art historian, sitting in the back seat, always a little further back in space and time, pays more attention to the details of the flight, the logistics. Now, obviously, the artist and art historian do not always work together in their endeavor. Many of them are centuries removed from each other.

Art history is also a very humanistic endeavor. I would have to agree with Panofsky when he likens art history to life science. I see art history as a science in its own right. Both involve calculated steps and procedures, working within a defined system. There are differences in the modes of investigation, as Panofsky points out. Scientists will use instruments to investigate while the art historian will use documents.

Because they are humanistic endeavors, science and art history both leave a level of mystery and intrigue out in the open. A level of uncertainty will always permeate the fields as long as questions still arise.

I particularly like how Gombrich defines the ever-changing social contexts of the art world as the “Ecology of Art.” As a science student, I see this “metaphoric” language as very clever and well-founded. Any time a field of study deals with human behavior, whether it be through artistic expression or through biology or psychology, human dynamics will always be involved. And as long as human dynamics exist within cultural systems, no one thing can be studied or isolated apart from another.

I see the art historian’s job as a search to find meaning in art work. Art history is an historical elaboration through thorough analysis within specific theory systems. These theories serve art history as tools for explaining human motives. This search for meaning employs many more tools including, but not limited to, intuition, dates, and cultural attitudes. Panofsky states that the art historian is more or less in the business of “re-creative art synthesis” and that their job is to “bear witness to artistic intentions.” I would have to say that I agree.

To me, the art historian is not merely a student of art, in the university sense of the word. They seek an aesthetic experience beyond simply learning. Art “makes them tick.”

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