Comments on: Contemporary directions

By: ahova2ma

ahova2ma — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:11:47 +0000

I just visited rebeccas site on Andrea Ellen Reed and it was amazing! Racism is still alive and I think that her work will really open up peoples eyes in that subtle/totally in your face type way. I think people are really blind to issues that they don’t really want to deal with or don’t know about, and you can tell this by what the person commented in the exhibits book about ‘missing the point, if there even was one’. The images from “Sweet Struggle” I found far more striking than the ones in “The Last Pony”.

By: rkrau9tp

rkrau9tp — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:13:35 +0000

Today in the Washington Post there is an article about Andrea Ellen Reed’s show “Sweet Struggle.” It’s the second part of the article “Switching From Brush to Lens”, about two female artists with local shows: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402165_2.html
The brief article gives some insight into Reed’s controversial work and what the response has been from gallery viewers.
Going along with the discussion of contemporary female artists, the write up for “Sweet Struggle” is contained in the same article space as “The Last Pony”, a very different show by artist Lucy Hogg. Although, these women share the same gender and profession their work couldn’t be more different.

By: maoch

maoch — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:44:05 +0000

Have you guys gone to Andrea Ellen Reed’s site recommended by Rebecca? It’s amazing!

By: maoch

maoch — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:32:59 +0000

I’ve added a link here in my original post (see above). Laura…thanks!

By: ltene5ny

ltene5ny — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:41:28 +0000

Hey sorry all, the link I just posted isnt working…go to my blog to read the article!

By: ltene5ny

ltene5ny — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:39:01 +0000

Check out this article, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042000389.html, it relates to our recent class discussions.

By: kerryg

kerryg — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:24:50 +0000

During class, we were talking about the canon and the separation of female artists whether it is by museum, literature, etc. I think it would be worth it to discuss how well a museum like the NMWA or books like Slatkin’s have been as a catalyst for the study of female artists. I don’t really know the answer because in the 21st century, there is so much information available to us about female artists, even the more obscure ones. I know that part of Holladay’s impetus to create the NMWA was the lack of information about female artists. Can the bounty of information available now be attributed to her? Was it the work of Linda Nochlin, or a combination of all of these factors? Also, was this work done all at once or has it taken a lot of time…? Has the scholarship been careful and comprehensive if it has in fact been done quickly by art historians? Artists such as Michaelangelo or Leonard have been studied and considered by art historians for about 400+ years…do female artists deserve the same attention? I hope we can discuss this more next class!

By: roblog

roblog — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:23:45 +0000

One of the interesting commonalities I noticed in Tuesday’s class and in studying contemporary art, especially as it relates to women is an emotional emphasis on art, which is often described as “feminine.” Tracy Emin certainly falls into this category, as many of her works invoke the politics of contemporary heterosexual female sexuality and the resulting emotional stress it places on her (I wonder though how fair the term “feminine” is for this, considering “hypermasculine” artists such as Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock were trying to drench their works in emotion, albeit without such specific objective references.) I noticed that none of us chose female artists whose work is relatively independant from their gender identity (perhaps Elizabeth Murray or Jennifer Bartlett would be an example of that although “gender identity” is incredibly subjective).

By: heather

heather — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:24:58 +0000

A common theme I noticed from Tuesday’s discussions was how most people talked about whether or not their artist or topic had an agenda attached to it. Many artists represented were said to have political agendas or sexual agendas, as Dana previously mentioned, but we should add those with personal agendas as well, like Miyako Isiushi.

By: cogni7og

cogni7og — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:16:18 +0000

I agree fully with everything present thus far. It was very interesting to hear everyone’s approach to contemporary art and the many themes that linked to each other. With these themes, it is interesting to think about how the cannon could change if much thought was put into it. I really enjoyed hearing about placing women artist in the canon, not because of their gender, but because of the general reason of that they were good artists. It would be interesting to learn how one would approach a change to the canon and who would go into it.