Contemporary Art in Manhattan: Art Ravels
I googled “art blog” because I needed one to write a review, and came across a Huffington Post article that stated five art blogs that I should be reading. I decided on reading the five blog, Art Ravels by Linnea West, since it was a blog on Contemporary Art, something I have experienced already. Another reason was that at the time of the visit, there was a post about sheep in a gas station, which I will discuss later, that amused me.
Linnea West is a Fulbright Fellow, researching contemporary Hungarian art during 2012-2013. She has lived in New York City for six years and has been writing the blog since 2008, which includes her thoughts on New York City culture and her travels. Her site is simple, filled with many photographs per page on the art she reviews, on top a marble surface background. Her posts are normally very short, but provide a deep understanding of the background of the art and its relevance to New York City and society as a whole.
Art isn’t the only thing she reviews on the site. Most of the newer posts take place in Chelsea, before that it was foreign cities, and before that was a long review on a book titled The Worry Book by Robert Benton and Harvey Schmidt. This review illustrated her interest in books as well as art, because she discusses her feelings before finding the book. She also had images of graffiti from Serbia, which appears to be more of about being a thought provoking piece for the reader. It did succeed as it provided an opportunity to compare two forms of graffiti.
Linnea West does include a tab that emphasizes that she is a freelancer, and is available for a variety of tasks, from editorial to website designing. However, this information is not forced upon the readers as it can be easily ignored by not selecting the tab.
The site is definitely curated as it contained more self-taken images of lesser known works of art. This is also what makes the blog unique, as foreign works are not portray and shown as often as localized art. After perusing this blog, it is understood why this blog has been referred to in news sites. This site shows you rare glimpses of art that would normally never be seen by the laymen.
