Blog Assignment Three.

Assignment:

After spending some time at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, ask yourself these questions:

Which artworks make an impact or impression on me? Why?

Which artworks do I feel a connection with? Why?

Which artworks would I like to know more about? Why?

As a future art educator, you should list at least five artworks for each question.

Response:
Which artworks make an impact or impression on me? Why?
I really enjoyed Gillian Wearing's "Album" series really made an impression on me. I thought it was really neat that she completely recreated, down to the button, portraits of her family members, with wax masks and wigs and the works. It was really neat to see how she could transform herself, but she left a small portion of the fact that it was all fake. She always left her eyes as her own, and would leave the wax mask around her eyes unfinished.

I was excited to see William F. Weege's work in the "Strange Brew" exhibit at the Albright. I had never seen his work before, but my printmaking teacher brought us over there to look at Weege's prints. Weege's prints are very cool; they are multi-layered and use groovy 60's colors, and the series at the AK has a pretty neat concept to the series as well.

Joan Miró is an inspiring artist that creates such interesting and lively works. His "Carnival of Harlequin" is a truly interesting and inspiring piece to look at. He really brings your imagination to life.

Jeanne Dunning has two pictures in the exhibit upstairs, titled "Tongue" and "The Blob 4". They were very intruiging to look at, and created a sort of disgusted sense in me. "The Blob 4" left me sort of disgusted, because it simply reminded me of a very obese person. While there is the impression of a small figure underneath the blob, it is unaviodable to make the connection between the image and an obese person.

Robert Motherwell's "Elegy to the Spanish Republic" is a very abstract piece that I have always admired. Motherwell's work alone is something that I have always admired. I enjoy his use of geometric yet organic shapes, and his stark contrast and bolder colors.

Which artworks do I feel a connection with? Why?
Giacomo Balla's "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash" is a painting that I have loved since I first sw it in Carol Hammond's AED 200 class. Seeing it at the Albright is always really wonderful. I love the pure sense of movement and speed I feel when looking at it. That, and I love dauschunds.

Giorgio de Chirico's piece "The Anguish of Departure" is a haunting piece that I really feel a connection to. It has this harrowing sadness that just envelopes me when I look at it. His use of colors, the empty landscape but for the two dark figures in back and the imagery of everything being dwarfed by the tall smoke stack all really create this wholly empty feeling and a sense of nostalgia.

Tim Hyde's "Untitled 'Indiana'" photograph is beautiful. I've always loved nght pictures of bare parking lots, surrounded by bleakness and blackness, with their streetlight illuminating only certain parts of their surrounding world. Hyde's photograph is a beautiful image of a warehouse or factory at night, which illuminates a thin and small horizontal plane of the entire image. The rest of the image is pitch black. Images like this remind me of the simple beauty in life.

McDermott and McGough's "In the Hush of the Night" piece is a piece that I love. I have an affinity for old noir movies and just older movies in general. There is something beautiful and sad about them, and this piece brought both of those feelings to me. With "THE END" in the top half of the picture and the woman laying in the bed and reaching out underneath... it's depressing and has a gripping sadness to it.

Which artworks would I like to know more about? Why?
Robert Rauschenberg's piece at the Albright Knox is something that I always admire and enjoy. Every time I walk around the Albright Knox, I stand and admire Rauschenberg's piece for a long time. I don't know too much about him or the piece, but I love the mixed media and how he displays everything.

There is a piece by Jess in the "Strange Brew" exhibit. It is a collage that is outstanding and incredible to look at. I've heard that his work is rather large and very involved, which would be incredibly interesting to look at. I'd like to know about him and his life, and why he chooses to work with such in depth collages.

Matthew Barney is... odd, for lack of a better term. He is incredibly interesting to me, although I know little about him. His works are hard not to look at and they really pull you in. His video with his wife, Bjork, was impossible not to watch for at least a few minutes.

The entire upstairs exhibit, titled Wall Rockets, was more or less dedicated to Ed Ruscha. There were a few of his works, as well as a lot of portraits of him. I'd be intersted into further looking into his work and what he has inspired amongst other contemporary artists.

In the "Wall Rockets" exhibit upstairs, Tom Lazzarini has a sculpture piece titled "gun(i)". It is a very stretched out looking gun, that is very interesting to look at. It creates such an illusion and a game of sorts when looking at it, trying to figure ou how exactly it looks the way it does. It is something you have to see. I'd be interested in looking into Lazzarini's process of how he makes his sculptures like that.