1. Georgia O'Keefe. Cow's Sk
ull: Red, White, and Blue,Oil on canvas; H. 39-7/8, W. 35-7/8 in. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1952
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. "Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue," is said to be one one of O'Keeffe's most famous works, although I had never come across it before. I really enjoyed this because I am currently using a bear skull in my piece. This is one of her earliest studies of a single animal bone isolated from its natural environment. I appreciate the skull and the backround she uses to display it and the isolation it portrays. Despite its Southwestern subject matter, the painting was most likely done in Lake George during fall 1931. The cow's skull was one of several bones O'Keeffe had shipped East the year before, with the intention of painting them. I also wanted to paint the bear skull but unfortunatly can't becuase it is my fathers and he didn't want me to "destroy" it. Georgia left the skull in its natural color which makes it even more interesting with the background design. The interesting shapes and textures of the bones and their natural play of positive form and negative space repeatedly inspired her. She saw in their jagged edges, worn surfaces, and pale color the essence of the desert. Met's websites description states, "O'Keeffe was able to create compositions of extraordinary simplicity that can be appreciated on many levels. "Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue" is masterful, both as an eloquent abstraction of form and line and as a symbolic image that raises issues of nationalism and religion."
2. Jim Dine. Bedspring, 1960. Mixed-media assemblage on wire bedspring, 57 1/2 x 74 3/4 x 11 inches. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM.I love this sculpture's interweaving of collage and wire. I also appreciate art that is from old things that are then turned into new art, such as this bedspring. During the early 1960s Jim Dine was part of a loosely affiliated group of artists—including Red Grooms, Claes Oldenburg, and Lucas Samaras—who extended the gestural and subjective implications of Abstract Expressionist painting into outrageous performances, known as Happenings. Inspired by John Cage’s radical approach to musical composition, which involved chance, indeterminacy, and an emphatic disregard for all artistic boundaries, they sought to transgress preexisting aesthetic values. I'm really into exploring sculpture and playing with these idea also.
3. Roy Lichtenstein. Stepping Out, 1978. Oil and magna on canvas; 86 x 70 in. THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. I was drawn to this piece because I usually think of Lichenstein's art as the comic strips of his Pop Art. But these characters are more abstract then the perfect female paintings I have seen, and remind me of a Pop Picasso. His usual restriction to the primary colors and to black and white through his thick black lines. Lichtenstein here depicts a man and woman, side by side, both stylishy dressed. The male is based on a figure in Fernand Léger's painting "Three Musicians" of 1944 (Museum of Modern Art, New York), but seen in mirror image. I think the title, Stepping Out is appropriate because Lichenstein is stepping out in different art directions with the borrowing of "Three Musicians" and the Surrealistic women depicted by Picasso.
4. Daniel Lee. Transfiguration, 2008 archival ink jet print 37.5 x 49.5 inches. OK HARRIS. Lee uses software to combine human portraits with animal features, he creates blended digital images that are startlingly lifelike. Though image editing tools make such obvious manipulation possible, they also allow subtle yet powerful adjustments that are completely invisible to the viewer. I appreciate his imagination and ability to use photoshop in such strange and amusing images. I am jealous of people who are able to create such amazing things with adobe programs and wish to learn to understand them better.
Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawing #260, 1975. Chalk on painted wall, dimensions variable. THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART. LeWitt produced more than 1,200 wall drawings which is very impressive. This reminds me of the chalk drawings of Keith Haring that have been preserved and even erased. I think it is awesome that this installation fills a single large gallery and is kept safe from nature and human destruction. The work's subtitle helps to describe the installation: "on black walls, all two-part combinations of white arcs from corners and sides, and white straight, not-straight, and broken lines." Although LeWitt's wall drawings evoke the tradition of Italian fresco paintings, they have established a distinct tradition of their own, in linear designs, created by LeWitt.