At the Chelsea Gallery visit, I saw a variety of different styles of artwork. Some appealed to me and some I did not connect with at all. I wasn’t really a fan of the sexual, racy art since I found it slightly disturbing. I also did not connect to the political artwork’s messages, but I did find it stylistically interesting. I liked how he mixed the bodies and heads of the people he drew, but I felt like his paintings had too much going on at once for me to understand everything. It was like reading a book in one painting.
I also didn’t really connect to Brice Marden’s squiggle paintings. I did however appreciate how the four paintings in each room worked off each other, since they contained the same three or four colors, and each one expressed a certain color more than the next. The larger sized paintings were placed in the bigger room, and the smaller sized paintings were placed in the smaller room. This gave the effect of the painting not getting lost, like if the smaller ones were placed in the larger room. The fact that similar paintings were surrounding us on all four walls made us feel like we were entering Marden’s world. The purpose of the border on each painting allowed for the painting to not engulf us, but for us to become absorbed into the painting instead. I have noticed other abstract artists do not include borders so that the painting eats us up and we get soaked up by it, but this tactic made us focus more. I learned from his painting that by coloring over other colors and using shadows and different shading you can make some colors pop out while others recede in the painting. It is interesting that colors alone can express different dimensions as Marden has apparently proven.
I think most of us liked Kim Dorland’s art the best. His view of art was so enticing to me because the pieces weren’t only on canvas. He would glop paint on to make it three dimensional, a technique Kent Dorn did as well. His use of dead animals as his canvases was awesome. I think art is an expression of yourself and it is important when people surpass normal boundaries. The bright colors, ghostly figures, and arrangement of his artwork in the first room took my breath away, and I realized there were just so many things to look at. I feel that his use of feminine colors and glitter was interesting as well. I thought he was a female at first because of this, but I realize that he probably just saw all of the content that he painted having feminine qualities. I enjoyed the fact that he used purple string on the coyote because it gave the coyote color without using paint or having anything on the animals body itself. I liked how abstract and asymmetrical it was being on only one side of the animal.
Highline Park was really nice and peaceful, and I liked seeing the city from such a serene level. I definitely intend to go there again to relax. Although, I think the class’ favorite part may have been hearing the guy on the street referring to Professor Jablonka as our mother, and reminding us to take good care of her.
Nicole
