Philosophy of Art

Art is an essential form of expression. The way in which people create art and view art differs greatly. Throughout this course, I have had a better understanding of my aesthetic. I would generally look at a piece of art and think it was beautiful and that was why I liked it. Now I can say I like this piece of art because....I am able to make a case for why one art piece is better than another, in my own opinion as well as with a set of specific criteria. I have thoroughly enjoyed trying to get into the artists' head to try and figure out what they were thinking when creating their piece, I did this mostly at the Tate Modern. I liked the Saatchi gallery, with its display of Middle Eastern art with a feminist perspective. I also enjoyed the displays at the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, the Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster exhibition and the JMW Turner exhibition, respectively. I found that analyzing one's own aesthetic is a bit difficult, but as the course progressed, I had a better understanding of art. Being able to appreciate and understand various art forms is a wonderful thing.

Geocaching Fun!

Geocaching is a wonderful way of exploring various cities. Geocaching in London allowed me to visit places that I probably would not have visited on my own. I have really enjoyed geocaching, despite how frustrating some of the multi-cache finals were, I had a lot of fun. Finding physical caches were a bit difficult and require a lot of stealth. An example of a great geocaching adventure, was the Greenwich geocache. It took us to the Royal Observatory where I learned that Prime Meridian is not where the Prime Meridian is labeled. This geocache took us to the real location, just few hundred feet away. It was nice to geocache because it takes you everywhere, and many of the geocaches that we did as a class teaches you a lot about the history of London. An example of a geocache that had some history to it was the geocache about the Roman Wall which led us to several parts of the Roman wall that still exist. Geocaching is not just about finding, you can also place geocaches, which I find is a lot more complicated. Our class geocache was a lot of fun, but gathering all the information needed to create the cache is very time consuming and requires some innovative thinking. I am glad to have learned of geocaching, it is great thing to do while traveling, and I hope to continue geocaching as I travel the world in my future travels.

Master-Pupil Evaluation

Master-Pupil Evaluation
When looking at these two sketches, I believe that the drawing on the left belongs to DaVinci and the one on the right belongs to the pupil. The sketch on the left is superior to the one on the right, according to Rosenberg's Criteria of Excellence in Art, because in regards to form, the subject is much more realistic and has more depth. The lines are more distinct and the eyes are much more detailed and expressive in the drawing on the left. Both are great sketches, but the DaVinci sketch is obviously the superior of the two because it clearly shows a more accurate, rich, and expressive portrait of a woman.

Rostropovich and Yo Yo Ma

Ludwig van Beethoven composed Cello Sonatas No. 4 and No. 5 simultaneously in 1815, during a time in which he experienced a period of ailments and difficulties which included his deafness. Sonatas no. 4 and no. 5 were composed seven years after his sonata no. 3 for cello and piano and clearly belong to Beethoven’s last creative period (Wiki). Since then, there have been many variations and interpretations of Cello Sonata No. 4. Two variations include one by Rostropovich, the other by Yo Yo Ma.

Both Rostropovich and Yo Yo Ma perform Beethoven's Cello Sonata No. 4, and with both you get two different interpretations of the same song. When listening to the Rostropovich interpretation, I can imagine it being played alongside a silent black and white film. It is as if the cello and the piano are having a conversation, bantering back and forth. In that sense, the Rostropovich interpretation would help narrate the silent film. The Yo Yo Ma interpretation is much different. It is softer and more harmonious than the Rostropovich interpretation. Yo Yo Ma performs a much gentler version of the Sonata and at a slightly faster tempo than Rostropovich.

Romeo & Juliet at the Globe

Romeo and Juliet is most commonly known as one of William Shakespeare's great tragedies, who knew it could be a comedy as well. I have seen several different versions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and the production at the Globe Theatre was once again a new take on the classic. Most often when seeing Romeo and Juliet productions, it is very dramatic and much more serious. The production at the Globe was much different, it was much happier. All the scenes had a lighter tone, even the death scenes did not feel as depressing. Shakespeare's structure of Romeo and Juliet included switching between comedy and tragedy, most productions have a very tragic focus, whereas the production at the Globe emphasized much of the comedy. It wasn't what I was expecting when I went to see Romeo and Juliet. I went to the Globe Theatre thinking I would be standing and watching a very serious rendition of the play. Surprisingly, I liked this happier version of Romeo and Juliet. I really enjoyed the performers emphasis in the comic relief, those who played Mercutio and Benvolio were great. In the end, however, I found Juliet to be a bit annoying, and Romeo was very expressive. Overall, I found that the play was really well done.

The British Museum

The British Museum's Great Court

The Great Court at the British Museum is something to marvel at once you step into the British Museum. In December of 2000, Her Majesty the Queen conducted the formal opening of the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court. It is two square acres, enclosed by a magnificent glass ceiling. The Great Court increased public space in the Museum by forty per cent, allowing visitors to move freely around the Main floor for the first time in 150 years and visitors can now choose from a number of different approaches to the galleries. The first thing that I noticed as I walked into the Great Court was the spiraling staircase that leads your gaze up toward the incredible ceiling. The Great Court's glass and steel ceiling is more than just a ceiling, I find that it's like another piece on display in the museum. It's design is reminiscent of a jigsaw puzzle. The Great Court is a wonderful part of the British Museum, I especially enjoy the Roman style features within the the museum.

The Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs
In my various visits to the British Museum, I always make my way to the Parthenon Room. Ancient Greece has always been quite intriguing. The metopes that depict the "battle of Lapiths and Centuars," were interesting. The Centaurs have faces with animal features, and are armed with tree branches while the Lapiths fight nude, some armed with a sword. Each piece depict a different part of the battle. Despite their damage, the sequence of sculptures is a great piece of art.

Bloomsbury Group

The Bloomsbury Group was an interesting group. It is difficult to determine who was actually in the group, every source that I looked at had varying members. The Bloomsbury Group was a group of friends and relatives who lived in or near London. According to Wikipedia, Their work deeply influenced literature, aesthetics, criticism, and economics as well as modern attitudes towards feminism, pacifism, and sexuality. Its best known members were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, and Lytton Strachey (Wikipedia). I have listed the members of the group as listed at Tate.org.uk and Wikipedia.org, their respective addresses were found at english-heritage.org.uk.


Helen Anrep (Art supporter)
Became involved with the Bloomsbury circle in 1924-5 when she met Roger Fry at a party at Vanessa Bell's studio.

Clive Bell (Art Critic)
Resided in 50 Gordon Square with his wife Vanessa

Vanessa Bell (Artist)
Lived at 46 Gordon Square with her 3 siblings, later she resided in 50 Gordon Square with husband Clive

Quentin Bell
Son of Clive and Vanessa Bell. Spent much of his childhood at Charleston and went on to become a writer, artist, and art historian.

E.M. Forester (Novelist and Essayist)
Lived in Arlington Park Mansions

Roger Fry (Artist and Critic)
1913-1919: Roger Fry’s Omega Studios at 33 Fitzroy Square

Duncan Grant (Artist)
1907-1911: his studio at 22 Fitzroy Square during this time
1907-1911: resided at 26 Fitzroy Square with John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes (Economist)
1916-1946: lived in 46 Gordon Square

Lady Ottoline Morrell (Literary Hostess and Patron of the Arts)
Lived here: 10 Gower Street, Westminster

Lytton Strachey (Biographer and Essayist)
1909-1924: resided in 51 Gordon Square

Leonard Woolf (Critic)

Virginia Woolf (Novelist and Essayist)
1907-1911: lived in 29 Fitzroy Square

The Photographers' Gallery

Maurizio Anzeri's collection was quite interesting. In his work, he stitches into the surface of black and white, found portraits. He adds physical and psychological layers to each of the portraits. What I can see from his work is that he tries to portray another element of the person in the photograph, whether it be a way to mock them, or a way to bring out an attribute that can't easily be seen. For the picture to the left, what I see that he added in the stitching is a monkey, what that means is completely up to interpretation.


Walead Beshty's abstract photograms were particularly intriguing to me. He creases and rolls photographic paper to create abstract photograms that explore a separation of the physical and image world. Walead Beshty's 4-sided pull was extremely abstract, with 4 different layers of inter-meshing with each other to create a scenic piece. Walead Beshty’s large-scale photo-graphic works are abstract images that tell the story of their own making. Produced by folding and processing light-sensitive photographic paper, the works develop patterns of angles, creases and folds.


Catherine Yass' series Damage was quite interesting as well. She treats her film transparencies according to their subject matter. She drowns, burns and scrapes colour transparencies of urban scenes, taking the subject matter as the inspiration for its destruction. The scenes of waterways are drowned or representations of gas towers are burnt. The way in which she explores her photography is quite different, but it provides a way of exceeding a simple photograph.

Jack the Ripper & the Victorian Underclass

Jack the Ripper is a name given to an unidentified serial killer who killed most of his victims in the areas of Whitechapel, which has been known as the slums of London. The victims were women earning income as prostitutes. London, especially the East End became increasingly overcrowded, and this resulted in the development of a massive economic underclass. This poverty drove women into prostitution. As stated in Wikipedia, in October 1888, the London Metropolitan Police estimated that there were 1,200 prostitutes "of very low class" resident in Whitechapel and about 62 brothels. The economic problems were accompanied by a steady rise in social tensions. "Different social classes can be (and were by the classes themselves) distinguished by inequalities in such areas as power, authority, wealth, working and living conditions, life-styles, life-span, education, religion, and culture" (The Victorian Web). Along with Britain's huge population increase came rapid urbanization which was stimulated by the Industrial Revolution. The large numbers of skilled and unskilled people looking for work kept wages down to barely subsistence level. Available housing was scarce and expensive, resulting in overcrowding. These problems were magnified in London, where the population grew at record rates. Large houses were turned into flats and tenements, and as landlords failed to maintain these dwellings, slum housing developed (wikipedia, victorian era).

Information found at:
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/Class.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era#Poverty

Aesthetic

What's my aesthetic?

That is a very difficult question for me to answer. I find that many different types of art appeal to me, however, they do have something in common. I find that I enjoy art that I can connect to emotionally, I also enjoy art that represents something, that conveys a message. The message does not need to be clearly conveyed, but to have some type of purpose to the artwork is what needs to be there for me. If there is a message as well as an emotional connection to a piece of art, in my consideration, it makes it great art.

In the Turner/Rothko Exhibit, I enjoyed Turner's work better than Rothko's. I found that Turner's watercolor pieces had some similarities to Rothko. However, I found that even in what seemed to be a very abstract watercolor painting by Turner, you could still make out what he wanted to portray. I did not particularly care for Rothko's work. I sat in the Rothko room, and examined his paintings, I understood what he wanted to portray but I found his pieces were interesting but not captivating, they did not draw me in. There was no depth in any way in his paintings. In many of Turner's pieces, they reminded me of photographs, in the way that he framed the images. I enjoyed most of his pieces because you can see the detail and depth of the artwork, I also enjoyed the several pieces in which he painted the lighting into the piece, such as the one to the left. I found that if you compared his oil paintings to his watercolors, you wouldn't think they were done by the same artist. How I saw it was that his watercolor paintings were a completely different style than his oils.

Regent's Canal Infrastructure

Why was Regent's Canal built and what was it used for?
I believe that the canal was used to ship goods locally in London. The Regent's Canal was built to link the Grand Junction Canal's Paddington Arm with the Thames at Limehouse. It was opened in two stages, from Paddington to Camden in 1816, and the rest of the canal in 1820. When building the canal, there were two serious setbacks and a shortage of money which delayed the completion of the canal. First there were design failures, then the embezzlement of funds. The canal was also short of water supplies. Due to the water shortage, it was necessary to dam the river Brent to create a reservoir to provide for the canals, and so several basins were built over the years.
The goods carried on the Canal was principally coal and building materials. The main center of trade was the Regent's Canal Dock, this was a point for cargo to be unloaded onto canal boats. Cargo from abroad, was unloaded there and continued its journey on barges. The City Road Basin was the second most important traffic center, handling incoming inland freight. The opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838 actually increased the tonnage of coal carried by the canal. However, with trade lost to the railways, and more deliveries made by road, the canal unfortunately fell into a long decline.
Today, the Canal has become much more public. An increase of cyclists and pedestrians on the canal's towpath has created a different route for commuters.

Information found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent%27s_Canal as well as, http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/history/regents.htm

Aesthetics Dinner at Tas

This Tuesday, for class, I had dinner at TAS, a Turkish restaurant in Bloomsbury Square. This was the first time I have ever had Turkish food. When walking through the doors to the restaurant the first thing that I noticed was the decor. It was simple, clean and white. I really enjoyed the simplicity along with the calm soft music playing.
I really enjoyed all the different starters that they provided. The starters consisted of Humus, Zeytin Yagli Patlican (aubergine, tomatoes, garlic, peppers and chickpeas cooked in olive oil), Tabule (chopped parsley salad with tomatoes, onions, cracked wheat, olive oil and lemon juice), Manca (spinach with fresh yogurt served with garlic), Zeytin Yagli Bakla (fresh broad beans, coriander, red & green peppers, dill, garlic, olive oil served with yogurt), Sebzeli Kofte (ground chickpeas and broad beans tossed in spices, deep fried and served with tahini sauce), and Borek (filo pastry filled with feta cheese and spinach). They were nicely displayed as well as quite tasty. I liked the humus the best. The Manca starter surprised me because it had a mint taste, but it was good. For the main course, there were several choices, Karides Guvech, Kalamari, Turlu, Ispanakli Patates, Karisik Izgara, Mousakka, Tavuk Sis, Eksili Kofte, and Tavuk Guvech. I chose the Karides Guvech which was prawns cooked with garlic, tomatoes and mushroom. It was delicious, I ate it with white rice which balanced the sour, tart taste of the sauce. Along with the food we had a choice of the house wines, thanks to Dr. Manley. I'm not a big fan of wine in general, but it was nice to try and the white and red wine weren't that bad.
Overall I enjoyed the food, however I wasn't too thrilled with the waiter for our table. In general, it's not good for a waiter to reach across someone's face to place things on the table or to rearrange place settings, and this occurred throughout the dinner. I didn't order sleeve with my dinner. Despite the waiter, I enjoyed my dinner at Tas, the food was delicious.

National Gallery

I attended the National Gallery for class and searched for several benchmark pieces listed for us to find. There were several paintings for us to choose from, including paintings by van Eyck, Leonardo DaVinci, Van Gogh, and Seurat to mention a few. At the National Gallery, the painting that I found most appealing to me was The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger. This piece is extraordinary in several ways, first in the way that the artist was able to display the skull as somewhat of an optical illusion. The way in which the skull is rendered is meant to be a visual puzzle for the viewer. Second, this painting is a double portrait, containing a still life of several objects and the display of the skull. This piece shows two different men and their respective ideals, the man on the right dressed in clerical clothes along with various religious instruments, while the man on the left is dressed in secular clothes along with objects to measure time. Having the two men together in this painting is perhaps a symbolic representation of a unification of ideals. The skull is an obvious representation of death and mortality. Momento mori, it is a reminder that we are all mortal and that death is something that was all have in common. The term memento mori is one of a few latin phrases that I enjoy. There are several different translations of the phrase such as "remember that you are mortal," "remember you will die," or "remember your death," but they all share the same purpose, which is to remind people of their mortality.

A Little History

Plague, fire, and cholera have greatly affected the history of London. Geocaching is one of many ways to take people to these significant locations that inform the public of these events. The plague had a huge impact on London. The Great Plague was an epidemic in England that killed an estimated 20% of London's population. Historically known as the bubonic plague, was a disease transmitted through a flea and carried by rats. It was remembered as the "great" plague because it was one of the last outbreaks in England. The first geocache that our class took part in led us to the location of the memorial of the Great Fire of London. The fire burned for three days consuming more than 13,000 houses and 436 acres of the city. The Monument was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, to commemorate the Great Fire of London 1666. The monument is 202ft. in height, which is equal to the distance westward from the backhouse where the fire originally broke out. Another location this geocache took us was to the John Snow Pub. This was where John Snow discovered the source of cholera which was devastating this particular area of London. He found that the water from the water pump was contaminated, and today at this site the location of the water pump is indicated by a red curb. If it wasn't for geocaching, I probably would not have gone to these sites and learned about these events. Geocaching is a wonderful tool that can give you an interesting tour of London, or any other place in the world. It is great way to learn things about London that you usually wouldn't know unless you were a Londoner.

Saatchi & Tate

For class I went to the Saatchi Gallery and the Tate Modern, both of which displayed contemporary art. I really enjoyed going to both, the Saatchi had feminist art from Middle Eastern view. The Tate Modern had many different types of contemporary art and massive gallaries, I will definitely need to return to view everything. Here are some pieces that I found most interesting.

Saatchi

Untitled (2008) by Ahmad Morshedloo

This painting had three fully robed women along with three leisurely dressed men. The women contrast with the light colored men and background in their black robes. I really appreciated the message that this painting portrayed, and how it was portrayed. What I took from the contrasting figures is that it emphasized the barrier and inequality between men and women. The women are fully robed where the men wear whatever they please. Off to the side of the painting there hangs a chain which I interpreted as a symbol of oppression.

The Deer (2004) by Michal Cole

This piece was very interesting. As I walked through the gallery, this piece made me stop and stare. It shows a woman wearing a leather deer mask. When looking at the piece, I didn’t know what to think, I mainly wondered why the artist chose to have the woman wear a deer mask. After reading about it, I liked it even more. This piece is one in a series that portray a personal interpretation of the women. The artist shot the photos in the women’s home in the clothing of their choice. The mask is their inner animal. I liked this aspect the best because the mask becomes a tool which allows the women to explore more about themselves.

Like Everyday Series (2000-2001) by Shadi Ghadirian

I found this series very clever and humorous. I really liked the way she portrayed the stereotypical role of women in society. She makes it very clear that women are objectified and are seen as household objects. These pieces show that women have been reduced to cooks and cleaners with the use of a cleaver, strainer, broom, cheese grater, iron, pan, and kitchen glove.

Tate Modern

The Unilever Series by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

I really enjoyed this series. I liked every aspect of this series, especially how she had it set fifty years in the future and had the science fiction theme. It allows you to interpret everything as you want to see it. When looking at the red piece in the series, Flamingo, I found that what you see is not always what you get. As well as, things are what you make them. I would say that that piece was my favorite of the series. I also liked looking at the books on the beds realizing that I have read several of them, including, but not limited to, The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin.

Yay!

Yay, I made a blog just for London!