Kiwi, 9/24/09

This week we visited the Cornell arts museum which I thought was very interesting. We were able to apply what we have been reading and discussing in class to everyday images. Our class visited three exhibits; Michael Phillips and The Internal Method of William Blake, Andre Kertesz on Reading and Andy Warhol.
The first exhibit, Michael Phillios and The Internal Method of William Blake was an artist at the end of the 18th century. He was a visual artist as well as a poet. Blakes revolutionary technique was, facsimile copy which meant to be a perfect copy. All of the original plates of Blackes were lost in the 19th century so Phillips began to study how to reproduce them. Benjamin says a copy is not authentic. What is the first print? Is there really a first? Is it the plate, the first print, or the first drawing? Phillips plates were etched from a picture of Blake’s plate, so it is not that original. I thought that this exhibit was very interesting and the plates were something I have never seen before. However this was not my favorite exhibit.
The second exhibit was Andre Kertesz on reading. Andre Kertesz was the pioneer of the 20th century of photography. He drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army and was wounded. After that emigrated from Budapest to Paris to pursue his photography. He traveled to American, and made his living as a commercial photographer (1930’s-1960’s). After that he became bitter because he was had seperated himself from the higher art he loved. Then In the 1960’s he stopped doing commercial art. His archive was found and moved back into high art/ fine art. 1915-1970’s he had a range of photographs; that were from all over the world. His recurring theme is reading (quiet, personal, introspective). The Concept of surveillance; always being watched, like reality TV Many are on still life (inanimate object); which offers space for recreation of meaning. The whole world is text; these photos are text and are about text. If a lot of the photos come before the 1960’s do they fit in with postmodern critique of society? These arbitrary dates are meaningless. Many people argue postmodernism is just a continue of modernism. So why do we have to continue to organize and categorize this? Simply because history repeats itself. These items can help us structure our thought process. Art used to be taught sequentially, now it is taught in themes. So does this mean we cannot agree on postmodernism because we are already in it?
The second exhibit was probably my favorite because I thought that photographs were unique and different and I like how they all applied to the theme of reading. I guess I never really took the time to think of all the different ways we apply reading to our daily tasks.
The third exhibit that we visited was Andy Warhol who was known as a chaser of celebrities the curator thinks, without Andy Warhol there would be no Paris Hilton. He coined the term “superstars”
Famous not because of talent, but photographed with the right people, they demonstrate a larger than life persona. For example, Edie Sedgwick. Being famous for being famous. Andy Warhol was known for breaking the rules or art. His postmodern sketches equaled Polaroid, which he would call his studio “the factory”. We also discussed how Warhol’s artwork came from the environment of kitsch. His work as the curator said was, “kitsch mass-produced”, inexpensive image into high art.
Overall I thought the museum field trip was a lot of fun and I thought that it was very beneficial, because it helped me to better understand the readings that were assigned in class. I enjoyed this field trip a lot and I hope we will have more to come.