Damien Hirst

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

I chose this work because I like its title although it is a very long title.  I did not understand the 
work when I first saw it. I even questioned why it is art. I did not like his using of animals to make his art work. Some of his work make people feel sick. Then  I started to look for information about his work. I still can not say I like them but I think  I understand them better now. 

This work is about death, about fear. Hirst said " You try and avoid death, but it's such a big thing that you can't. That's the frightening  thing isn't it!" He used a real shark to force you to see death, to face  fear. Is it art? There are a lot of arguments about Hirst's work. I think it is his way saying what he wants to say weather you like it or not. He found a way which no one else used to express himself, to show you death, fear and pain. The effect is so strong you can't ignore it. I think this is enough. The artist used an effective way to express himself, and to tell the truth. 

Some said this work successfully pushed the boundaries of contemporary art. Like Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" was regarded as a very important work in art history. Weather is it art or not, I think time will tell. Great artists are always looking for new ways to express themselves. 

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Anna King's talk

Today, Anna King came to college and gave us a really nice talk. Siobhan showed me her work last year. At that time I was nor sure about all her empty buildings. When I was doing my visual communication unit this year, I went back to look her work again and I found a lot of interesting things. I enclosed her work as my artists research and I said I like the way she paints, I like the loose bushes and the sketch lines. Today seen a lot of more work which are not on her website. She talked through her work and told us her thought behind the work. I think that is very helpful. After she explained about her work I think I understand them more and can see more from her work.

She emphasised how important discipline is. And I have heard this from other artists' story as well. I think it is a very important but difficult thing to follow. You have to be really strong inside and believe with no doubt about what you are doing.  I think I like her. She looks very soft but I think she is very strong inside! Everybody must have the time of struggling. Somebody give up and somebody continue. Difference and reward will show at some point of your life.

She said she was lucky with her career. But oppertunity only given to people who prepared.

She has an artist's eye. She sees things which we would normally look. She brings the things people ignored right in front of you and shows you the beauty in them. I guess that is maybe one of the reasons she successes.

I was going to ask if she only paint what she see or if she make up things. She said she added on and took off things. So there is a question appeared. We see the beauty about these empty and rustiness in her work,and the colour she used make statement too.  But they might not be like that in the real place. I know she is not copying things and I understand she is transferring a kind of feeling she has about these places.

 With this question,  I looked at her website again just now and found two short videos on bbc website. The video showed very clearly that how a sense transformed to a painting. So now I think she wants to say there are beauty in these empty buildings. Faded colours, rustiness, broken things, are all telling a story. When you are there on your own, you are cut off from the busy world. And she got so much inspiration from them. When you see the real places and then see her paintings, you realised a lot more how her paintings are.

From her talk I think her intention is pure. It is about art , not about commercial. I like her and I like her work.

The Story of Modern Art

Borrowed  this book for don't know how long, finally read it all!  used dictionary a lot! I could not understand everything but I think I have a better understanding about modern art now. I have a better awareness about what had been happening in the morden art world. In the book I had seen a lot of different kinds of art work which made my mind opened more. It shows how artists influenced by each other and how the big invironment influence artists' work. Lots of great art works had been criticised before they became widely accepted and recognised. Artists had been questioning, trying, and looking for new ways to express themselves and this will never be stopped.

There are still a lot work in the book I could not understand. I am still asking "why "and want to know the meaning and the answer. But I guess this will make me keep going and eventually I may get an answer or there is no answer! In the book, it said " some art speak, some art shout, but the best art needs to be questioned a little and listened to a lot." At this stage of my study, I still think a piece of work should have its meanings, it should transfer some information to the viewer if it comes from the artists' heart even though I understand not all art have to be serious. But even if it tells a joke, it still tells something. So how can you say it means nothing ?

Last week we watched a short video about Sara Lucas. When I saw the name on screen I remembered I had seen a picture of one of her work when I did my research on Surrealism. It was an old mattress, bucket and light bulbs etc and it is about sex. I don't think I like it. All the work we saw on the video again very sexual. I don't have a problem with the motif. And I like to see people can think so differently. I like the half body form and showing the sculpture from its back. I guess Sara Luca is very famous in comtemprary art. She must have stronger voice than ordinary people. What is she want to tell from every piece of work in this exhibition? I just think, with such a high recognised social statue you can do more than talking about sex! It is what I think at this point of time anyway.

Rembrandt the three crosses

The three crosses is an etching and dry point painting by Rembrandt. It is considered the most dynamic prints ever made. From the information I found there were five stages. I found images for stage 3 and stage 4. There is dramatic difference between these two stages.

This is stage 3. Very bright light came though the sky (or haven), Figures are all very clear and vivid. It  is such a great work. Every figure is in different position, doing different things and has different expression. The middle part is a lot lighter than other parts which makes the main character stronger and more focused.

Stage 4 changed dramatically. It is a lot darker than stage 3. The bright light from the sky darkened. A lot of vertical lines added. The foreground  blurred, a lot of figures were removed. The person on the right side cross was merged into the shadow. Even if the whole picture darkened, the main character was enhanced and more focused. 

Generation exhibition

About two weeks ago,  we went the National Gallery in Edinburgh to see the Generation exhibition. It was really good to see some real work as most of the time, we only see images on computer.

I like the On Form and Fiction room by Steven Campbell. When I first went in, I didn't know where to look, I just felt the whole room was very beautiful, especially with the music and the lights. I walked around, had a roughly look. Then I walked around again but slowly, trying to see each of his paintings and drawings. The individual work is beautiful, but I more liked the way how the whole room was installed.  It reduced the weight of each individual work but enhanced the installation as a whole.

Another work I liked was the six clay portraits by Christine Borland. She asked six different sculptors to create a portrait for the same person by giving them the same Information. The outcome was six completely different portraits. I liked her idea and I was sure the outcome was what she expected. This work reflects the fact that how we look at things affects what and how we understand. It is fascinating that artists always questioning and finding ways to identify the truth. And I think this is a very pure intention.

The work I like most was the Callum Innes' Exposed painting. The whole room felt very calm. The color was beautiful. The orange was so bight and felt cheerful. The paint remove method creates depths and lights inside the painting. I watched two short videos about his studio in Edinburgh after the exhibition. His studio was very big, very neat and clean like his paintings. He also does water colors. He demonstrated how he apply paint and constantly washed his bush.I guess to keep his bush clean is very important.

I am looking at Rothko at the moment. They both paint on large canvas, using rectangles, using layers of paint. But the feeling of their work are completely different. Rothko's work feels less controlled although I am sure everything was under his control too. His edges were rough, there were hidden lights in his painting. The depths and the way he mixed color make you feel a kind of uncertainty. While Innes' painting are very neat with hard edges. He uses bright  colors. His work make you feel calm and certain. He said his work are not abstract, they are figures to him which I cannot quite see it that way at this moment.

Eduardo Paolozzi

Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005), British sculptor, collagist, print maker, filmmaker and writer. I found a lot of his collages and sculptures are very interesting.

no title, screen print on paper, 1967

This work maybe is not the best to represent Paolozzi. I chose this one because I like the color and the way how he put them together. The color is very striking. Different colors together can create different effects. I think he must deeply understand the color theory. By using colors in different ways, he successfully create a lot of layers on a flat surface. We can clearly see there are 8 layers at the background and the rectangle is on top of them. There are two diagonals in the rectangle and two half diagonals. We can see black is at the bottom, then gold, then blue. I am not quite sure about the red though. By slightly change the direction of the lines, visually we can see some sections are lower than others. For example the two green section in the rectangle. One is lower than the other one. The purple triangle looks like  on top of the red. Then a gold line beside creates a balance on this section. At the right side, he created lots of small squares. I feel these squares calm the whole image down and also add balance to it. I like this work, looks simple, but the way to put the colour together is very complicated.  There must be a lot of thought behind it. 

Vollard suite

 Vollard Suite are 100 etchings produced by Picasso between 1930 and 1937. I did not know these work before. When I looked through them, the work are just astonishing. It felt  like that a lot of them were based on some kind of story. Without knowing the background story, it was quite difficult to understand to tell what these are about. But just too the work itself, I really like them. 

  

Young sculptor at work Etching, 23 March 1933

This is the first image I saw when I Google it. The title tells us what is happening. I can hardly believe this is etching. The lines are so simple apart from the flower vines. From practice I know anything looks simple, it won't be easy to produce. This requires very high drawing skills and very deep understanding of human body. It is just incredible that a few lines can form a human body. And if you look at the man's face, full of emotion. How can a few lines make his eyes looking so deep? The sculpture, eye closed, beautiful but motionless, again, very simple lines. She must make the young man thinking about the women he loves or he is actually making a sculpture of her, He is in pain, missing her. Again, simple lines, but you can feel the weight of his left hand holding the knife as if he is curving all his love and pain into this sculpture. The vine connects the two figures together. It is beautifully shaped, adds romantic feeling to the image and implies a beautiful future.  I like this work.