Image Making Ecology Rachel Scott CMNS 325 February 9, 2011

Transcription

1 Image Making Ecology Rachel Scott CMNS 325 February 9, 2011

2 A) Artists 1. Marcel Duchamp: Marcel Duchamp ( ) was a multi-genre visual artist 1 who rose to prominence as part of the Dadaist and Surrealist Movements and paved the way for later styles such as Pop [Art], Minimalism and Conceptualism. 2 Duchamp rejected the idea that art should be constructed merely to please the eye and rather aimed "to put art back in the service of the mind." 3 The aspect of his art that I have chosen to focus on is his use of appropriation through one of his best-known readymade works, L.H.O.O.Q. (1919). This piece is almost entirely conceptual; Duchamp simply added a moustache and goatee to a cheap reprint of Leonardo da Vinci s iconic Mona Lisa (c ). While Cubist artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque had incorporated collage-like, newsprint or other non-art materials in their paintings as early as 1912 Duchamp s daring act of appropriating objects mass produced and commercially available wholesale in order to eventually put them on display invited a radical reevaluation of art 4 The idea for this piece was technically simple, in keeping with the philosophy of Duchamp and the idea of readymade art. The concept of readymade art is pertinent to Photoshop, a program in which one isn t even required to physically possess an image in order to appropriate it. 1 Stafford, Andrew, Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp, 2 Rosenthal, Nan. "Marcel Duchamp ( )". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2004). 3 Ibid. 4 Judovitz, Dalia, Drawing on Art: Duchamp and Company, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010, p. xv.

3 I used the layers and the lasso tool to create an appropriation of Duchamp s appropriation of the Mona Lisa. With the lasso tool, I cut out Duchamp s original moustachioed Mona Lisa and an image of Rrose Sélavy, Duchamp s female alter ego. I used three different layers: an untouched version of L.H.O.O.Q. as a background, a cut-out of Duchamp as Sélavy, and a cut-out of Mona Lisa as the top layer. Finally, after inserting Duchamp behind Mona Lisa, I used the lasso tool to fix inconsistencies between the two images. 2. Jackson Pollock: Jackson Pollock ( ) was an influential American artist whose name has become synonymous with Abstract Expressionism. Breaking away from accepted conventions in both technique and subject matter, Abstract Expressionist values flourish in Pollock s work: spontaneity, improvisation, and an emphasis on process. 5 Pollock saw gesture as crucial to his works; he is most widely known for the radical drip method which involved placing the canvas on the floor and pouring or dripping thinned paint on it, rather than using a brush or easel. 6 He was one of the first artists to create works with little discernable imagery, leaving the viewer to interpret the shapes and motions in order to find personal meaning. For this image, I took a photo of dead reeds that evoked Pollock s style. I used this photo as the image backdrop and adjusted its contrast, exposure and colour. Using a number of different brushes (including some downloaded splatter brushes) I worked with layers to experiment with different colours and effects. Though creating art through a 5 Paul, Stella, "Abstract Expressionism", In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2004) 6 ibid.

4 computer may run counter to Pollock s artistic philosophy, it was quite easy to create an image in his style using Photoshop s wide variety of brushes. Through this exercise, I gained a better understanding of the importance of process; as I added layer after layer, my representation came to resemble a more complete, personal expression. B) Stylistic Movements 3. Impressionism: The Impressionist movement (1860s-1880s) is most significant for challenging typical notions of visual representation through subjective perception. 7 While previous artistic movements stressed the importance of accurate illustration and skilled draftsmanship, the Impressionists sought to capture the feeling of a scene and draw attention to their own technical contributions to the viewer s experience, demonstrating the importance of the artist s vision in the image making process. 8 While pre-modern artists saw external reality as creation, and the artist as someone who analogized God s creation by uncovering the true, hidden reality behind the external reality, 9 Impressionism can be seen as the product of imagination in confrontation with reality Manghani, S., Piper, A., Simons, J., eds. Images: A Reader, London: Sage Publications, 2006, p Samu, Margaret. "Impressionism: Art and Modernity". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2004) 9 Elderfield, J., Reed, P., Chan, M., eds. Modern Starts: People, Places, Things. New York: Department of Publications, The Museum of Modern Art. 1999, p ibid, p. 186

5 From a technical standpoint, Impressionists were concerned with manipulations of colour intensity and hue, the effects of light and variations of brushstrokes and painting techniques in order to adjust compositional depth. 11 To recreate an Impressionist style in Photoshop, I used a number of different effects. I took a photo in Stanley Park of a landscape scene I felt represented the work of Claude Monet ( ), a name that has become synonymous with the movement. I experimented with the Art history brush and different image adjustments in colour, brightness and contrast. I applied several filters including the Spatter and Fresco filter adjusting brush size, detail and texture with each. I used Selective Colour detailing and adjusted the hue and saturation. Lastly, I used the smudge tool to customize certain areas. 4. Cubism: Cubism ( ) was an artistic movement that explored a fragmented view of the world. Cubists would study individual elements of their subject and reassemble them in ways that only partially represented the original. 12 Like Impressionism, cubism dealt with the concept of subjectivity, but by reinterpreting space, made for significantly more abstract works. To represent this movement, I have used Photoshop to compile a single face out of several different photographs of the same person, taken from different angles. The concept of a portrait that uses several different viewpoints reflects the style of Pablo Picasso s early Cubist works ibid, p Delahunt, Michael, Art Lex Art Dictionary: Cubism, image. 13 Elderfield, J., Reed, P., Chan, M., eds. Modern Starts: People, Places, Things, pp. 95, 127

6 To create this effect I combined elements of these photos on multiple layers and treated each with a different filter or effect, to accentuate the differences between them. I also incorporated found images into the background, to enhance the spatial disorientation of the piece. By placing each part of the face on a separate layer, I was able to manipulate the shape of the final image and create a more abstract, multi-perspective creation. C) Genres & Techniques 5. Collage: Collage is an artistic technique which involves the use of pieces from different contexts to create a fragmented whole. Though the concept of collage was referenced in Cubist works (and may date back to the earliest applications of paper) 14 collage art was most prominent in the Pop Art movement, proving to be the ideal method for conveying the way that daily life has become immersed in pop culture and commerce. Though a number of Pop Artists used collage, the technique was central to the work of Richard Hamilton, whose work used commercial images themselves to reflect society s obsession with consumer goods. 15 Taking my inspiration from Hamilton, I composed a collage in Photoshop experimenting with different elements including layers, the lasso tool, noise, opacity, colour, contrast and the liquefy tool. The layering function in particular allowed me to reorganize the elements of the collage instantly, something that would have be a labourious procedure for an artist creating a collage out of paper. 14 Greenberg, Clement, Collage, Art and Culture, substantially revised from an article in Art News, September, 1958, 15 Foster, Hal., On the First Pop Age, New Left Review, January February, 2003,

7 6. Still Life: Still Life is a genre that began to thrive in European painting during the 1600s. In general, still life painting was thought to reflect the rise of urban societies, which brought with it an emphasis on the home and personal possessions. 16 The Still Life genre later became an important part of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements, through the work of Paul Cezanne and Henri Rousseau, who used the tabletop as a venue for experiments in perspective, colour and texture. The process involves rendering the unremarkable inanimate articles of daily life in the spirit of portraiture. Still Life invites the viewer to consider the beauty of daily life, in distinct contrast to previous notions of art, which tended to favour historical and religious content. Still Life painting places heavy emphasis on spatial composition and representation of the objects at hand. 17 Though it is associated primarily with painting, Still Life can also be the subject of sculpture or photography. I took inspiration from artists such as Paul Cezanne, Joan Miró and Giorgio Morandi to go about creating a Still Life work. The process of setting up and choosing how to arrange my subject matter was particularly important in this work. I experimented, taking photos from different angles and re-arranging the photo contents in the process. In Photoshop, I used image adjustments in colour, contrast, and exposure. I applied a Fresco Filter and adjusted details within the filter. Additionally I used the Art History Brush to define certain areas and create a more painted look. 16 Liedtke, Walter, "Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, ", In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2003) 17 Elderfield, J., Reed, P., Chan, M., eds. Modern Starts: People, Places, Things, p. 313

8 Bibliography Delahunt, Michael, Art Lex Art Dictionary: Cubism, image. Elderfield, J., Reed, P., Chan, M., eds. Modern Starts: People, Places, Things. New York: Department of Publications, The Museum of Modern Art Foster, Hal., On the First Pop Age, New Left Review, January February, 2003, Greenberg, Clement, Collage, Art and Culture, substantially revised from an article in Art News, September, 1958, Judovitz, Dalia. Drawing on Art: Duchamp and Company. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Liedtke, Walter. "Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, ". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2003) Manghani, S., Piper, A., Simons, J., eds. Images: A Reader. London: Sage Publications, Paul, Stella. "Abstract Expressionism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2004) Rewald, John. "The Impressionist Brush." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 32, no. 3 (1974) Rosenthal, Nan. "Marcel Duchamp ( )". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2004). Samu, Margaret. "Impressionism: Art and Modernity". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2004) Stafford, Andrew, Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp,