Hanging Tree (Post 9)

Andy Goldsworthy created this piece called Hanging Tree as part of a series for a park. There were three pieces in total, all made from felled trees in the park. This particular tree is called the hanging tree because it is embedded into the stone wall around it and suspended above ground. The finished product almost gives the illusion of looking through a window. On the other hand, to me it almost seemed to represent the death of nature. The fact that the tree is in the ground and in a rectangular shape seems to suggest death.

Diamond Skull (Post 8)

Damien Hirst's Diamond Skull was a very controversial piece when he first made it. The main issue people took with this particular piece of artwork is that it is an actual human skull. While on one hand this raises the question of respect for the deceased, it can also be pointed out that Hirst just modified an otherwise old tradition. The decoration of skulls is not uncommon in some cultures. Yet another issue raised with this piece is that the skull sold for a million dollars. Aside from the fact this again brings up the issue of disrespect, it also indicates that art is something material, to be bought. The fact that Hirst sold the skull for a million dollars seems a bit excessive.

Niki Lee (post 9)

Niki Lee

Ohio Project of 1999

This image shows Lee in a barn laying on hay with a male figure and a dog. This picture portrays the life of a southerner, who may own the barn in which they are laying or he could work on the far in which the barn is located. Niki Lee poses herself to look like she is an a relationship with the male in the image and has suited herself in dirty overalls and a flannel shirt to represent how we see farmers and those who work on farms. Lee has set herself up to respresent a small town farm girl with her love or maybe even a relative, just to give a nice story of a scandal to her photograph. She also plays into a little bit of the Dukes of Hazard with the bleach blonde hair with the flip style. This image could have been taken to portray a couple photo, or it could just be a random snap shot of two people taking a rest in the shade of a barn after a long days work.

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois
Cell
Mid 1990s

Louise Bourgeois is 98 years old and still produces work. Her works are usually sculptural in nature, and she has worked with a variety of media over her 60+ year career. Her themes range from anxiety, sexuality, interpersonal relationships and definitions and expectations of femininity. Her cell series focuses on feelings of entrapment and anxiety on both a personal and societal scale.

Her work is significant when it is put up against the timeline of american art from the 1940s on. She knew of the Surrealists but did not follow their avant garde style, she embraced organic form and shape when the art world centered on geometric abstraction and minimalism. Her work has stayed true to her own personal message in all the years she has been working, regardless of the greater attention she has been receiving the longer she works.

Cindy Sherman (post 8)

Cindy Sherman

Sherman is a renowned artist known for her style of photography in the category of 'film stills'. She photographs herself in many different scenes, and as figured that resemble famous characters or actors, both male and female. She also used her work to demonstrate the issues of modern life such as abuse, rape, the role of a woman, etc. She is not afraid to show the dark side to modern living and push the boundaries of comfort with the human body. This picture however is a more subtle take on her Untitled series of film stills.

In this photo Sherman is posed with her hand on her chin and is looking directly at the viewer with a frightened yet provocative look on her face. She creates a small amount of sexual tension between herself and the viewer through her eyes and how they make contact with the viewers. Sherman seems to be portraying an upper class woman in this image due to the style of clothing, she also looks as if she seems to be representing a female figure similar to that of Lucille Ball, from the TV show "I Love Lucy". This overall is a very powerful image, because it is like Sherman is telling a story through he expressions, mainly her eyes. There may also be some significance to the reason that she is not centered in this image, like the women of this time and how they were more on the side of their men, and the men were the main focus, and the money makers, while the women were just there for support and to work on the home.

This painting is called "Capitalist Realist."  This was painted in 2002, but is a pop art painting that is reflecting the United States influence on WW11.  The top image is the B-52 bombers and the nuclear weapon.  Our military power and status seems to be a joke when next to the Coco Cola design.  The Coca Cola stands for mordern pop culuture.  This can be represented as mocking modern pop culture.  This paining is about WW11, which is serious issue, but pop culture would be more worried about having a coke.  Basically I'm saying the Coca Cola symbol is mocking popular culture because it is a useless object for society, but thats the way U.S. consumers are.  The bottom portion of the painting is a poke at high or fine art.  Jackson Pollock's Autumn Rhythm Number 30, 1950.  Pollock was one of the most influencial abstract expressionist during this time.  He pushed limits of the human hand's part in making a painting.  He would let the paint fall from the brush instead of a brush to canvus direct relationship.  Some claim the style was adapted for military design of weapons. 

"Mountains and Sea" by Helen Frankenthaler

One of Helen Frankenthaler's most famous paintings is "Mountains and Sea." She creates beautiful paintings that look as if she uses watercolor paint and painted very delicately. To achieve this effect, Frankenthaler drew lines and poured some type of fluid over them so the lines would smear and spread and looked washed away. Many of these works appear as a bunch of abstract watercolor stains.

She is an abstract expressionist painter and intended for this particular painting to be a landscape inspired by a trip to Nova Scotia. However, it can easily be seen as a still life rather than a landscape. The objects in the painting are nondefinable, which is why the piece is not easily seen as a landscape, although the green and blue might be a symbol for a vision of land and water. The colors are vert pastel and delicate, making the painting beautiful, yet odd because it is too distorted to see any distinct images, even though she draws lines around the edges of some of the smears she creates.