Chapter 3: The Fair

• I really enjoyed the part where she talks about the relentless boom in the art Markey is a topic of conversation.  “When is the bubble going to burst?” “We can’t answer that question here?” Then an older collector said, “Nothing goes on and on” he then goes on to talk about how he has spent two million dollars in collecting. The one line that really resonated in my mind was, “A bubble misunderstands the economic realities,” “only a century ago, no one had a car. Now people have two or three. That’s the way it’s going with art.”  Which is very true to our times now. For example, back in the 60’s the new technology that was sweeping the nation was for a house to have one TV. Nowadays besides the 10 TV’s in your house and car, your phone is also a TV. Which just shows how commodity has been forced down the consumers throat to the point of no return
• I thought it was funny when she talked about how tight the security was that the Art Basel even had its own Jasper John in the form of Seglot. AN unmistakable Frenchman with the extravagant helmet of hair transformed himself, with the help of Hollywood makeup artist, into a bald man entered the fair on a shipper’s pass. Basically pulling a mission impossible scheme to slip into the fair. But it’s all rumors, according to the phone call she makes. 
• Another part I enjoyed was when she was introducing LA gallery collectors Blum & Poe. One of their artists used to call them “Double or Nothing” referring to their symbiotic relationship and the confused setup of the gallery’s early days. When I told Blum, a catholic boy from Orange County, that a rival dealer had complained that there was “way too much dude” in the gallery, he shrugged and said, “I guess they mean we’re macho, testosterone-driven, hard drinkin’. Yeah well, we’re raw.” This kind of makes me think of this art fair as like a total male infested Frat Party that advertises itself has a great time to meet girls. And when you get there, hoping to meet someone cute and nice, you are greeted by a bunch of Vienna sausages. 
• When she talked about Blum explaining the installation of Takashi Murakami’s 727-727 painting really made me believe this book as more fiction than just a non-fiction account of the art world. It was like she was foreshadowing the chapter about Murakami and how hard Takashi worked on the painting leading to many of his staff to quit. 
• I liked the part about how she talks about The Ruebells a Miami based collector group, and how beside the art they collected from the 1960’s they are more interested in “emergent” art. She says this is a term that is indicative of the changing times. I liked how people in the 1980’s got uncomfortable with the word avant-garde, causing them to use the euphemism cutting-edge. This makes me laugh that because they didn’t want to seem like old farts they needed to adapt to the basic theme of the 80s, which was to make up new and more interesting names to describe older movements to make them seem fresh. 
• I thought it was funny when she asked the couple if she could shadow them through the fair to observe their buying. They freak out at her screaming, “Absolutely not!” “That’s like asking to come into our bedroom” further supporting the thought that people are crazy about collecting art. 
• The part where she asked Poe who bought the Takashi painting and after he says he cant tell her she asks how much it was bought for. “One point two million, but officially one point four.” She then talks about the discrepancy between the real price and the PR price, which is, a embellishment compared to the shamless whoppers told by other dealers. It reminds me of the way that someone would advertise that there product grossed more money than it actually did or set their price at a ridiculous level, to either convince consumers to buy it because if they have the money they think they are part of an elite group or scare the competition into matching the price or just quit the race.

MFA Graduate Schools

So even though i am probably not going to Grad School after i graduate, compiling this list has opened my eye to the possibilities that are out there for me if my initial career fails.

Enjoy.

School of Art Institute of Chicago

Master of Fine Arts in Studio- Photography or Film, Video and New Media

Each semester, MFA students select from more than 100 graduate faculty advisors in SAIC representing myriad disciplines, approaches, and intellectual positions. As the main component of their studies, MFA 6009: Graduate Projects allows students to develop their work with faculty who guide them through an informed dialogue around content, form, theory, and professional practice.

Rhode Island School Of Design

MFA-PHOTOGRAPHY

At RISD photography is seen as an ever-changing set of technical, conceptual and aesthetic conditions that exist within a broad social and cultural context. Our students develop visual and critical expertise through course work, seminars, independent studio investigations and critiques.

RISD's Photography professors are accomplished working artists, scholars and educators with a passion for both teaching and their own studio work. Visiting artists, curators, critics and gallery directors also regularly critique student work and/or make presentations, and state-of-the-art facilities allow for the exploration of film-based and digital photography, digital video and multimedia production.

The School Of Visual Arts IN nyc has many grad programs i am interested in.

MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media-The graduate program in photography, video and related media at SVA brings together traditional and digital lens-based arts. Students in the photography graduate school are encouraged to explore ways they can utilize new technology to engage creative potential and advance in their fields.

MFA Social Documentary Film-Documentary films have helped shape our history and, more importantly, the stories we tell about ourselves. This program guides and supports emerging artists to explore fully the social documentary film form and, in so doing, to find innovative ways to examine and communicate the core experiences and events that define us.

MPS Digital Photography-The School of Visual Arts Masters in Digital Photography is an intensive one-year degree program that addresses the technical and creative needs of professional photographers, photographic educators, and visual arts professionals who are looking to advance their skills in digital image capture, asset management, and high-quality output. The program welcomes those who wish to embrace the challenge of mastering the latest tools and techniques to create technically perfect and aesthetically compelling images.

Yale University School Of Art

PHOTOGRAPHY(MFA)

Photography is a two-year program of study admitting nine students a year. Darkroom, studio, and computer facilities are provided. Students receive technical instruction in black-and-white and color photography as well as nonsilver processes and digital image production.

The program is committed to a broad definition of photography as a lens-based medium open to a variety of expressive means. Students work both individually and in groups with faculty and visiting artists. In addition, a critique panel composed of faculty and other artists or critics meets weekly, as well as for a final review each term, to discuss student work.

Montclair State University

STUDIO (MFA)

in Studio Art is a 60-credit program designed to prepare students for careers as practicing professional artists. Comprised of a diverse group of students who share in a vision to explore, synthesize, innovate and create, the rigorous MFA program is a full-time two-year in-residence program that fosters opportunities for critical discourse in an environment where individuals can collaborate or work independently and make meaningful contributions to contemporary culture. A professional degree for studio artists, the MFA is also usually required for college-level teaching

Midday at the Museum: Battle For The Zimmerli

It twas a rainy October Day. I ventured out to the fabled Zimmerli Museum in search of knowledge and power. I chose this venue primarily for the soviet photography exhibition, which displayed a lot of social documentary themes. I am very much interested in the way documentary photography can capture so much emotional texture that isn’t staged or posed and depicts real life all at the same time. I study the framing of the images, what was left in the frame and what subject matter works best. I hope to use this information as a guideline when I begin to work on my thesis.

The first artist I look at is Boris Mikhailov. He is known as being the founder of Soviet Conceptual Photography. I can relate a lot to his work in the sense that he is interested in people and the things they do. I am always interested in what people are doing when they are living out their daily lives in public places. The nervous ticks that they try to hide, the nonchalant butt-scratch or nose pick, and the crazy bag lady that just spews out nonsense to herself. Witnessing these moments I then think to myself, what is actually going on in their minds? Are they having a good day, do they hate their marriage and wish they could find someone younger and less controlling... or are they thinking, “ Why the hell is that guy staring at me?”

His photos, in some way, capture this essence of “wanting to know more”. I really like how he chooses images that document the passage of time that are then transformed into artistic renditions of those documents. Two images that resonate in my mind are from his superimposition series.

I like how, through the use of superimposing, he creates a kind of painterly photo collage that seem very surreal and dreamlike. It is almost as if he is combining social life with commodities and objects creating an abstract reality that blurs that line that differentiates painting and photography. I like this series more so than his other ones because it is more artistic and abstract at the same time. This is something I am very much interested in experimenting with for my thesis.

Next on the menu is the work of photographer Valdimir Kupriyanov. I am just amazed at how almost every artist I have seen has had at least some kind of aspect that interests me greatly. In this case its how Vladimir claims to have been interested in photography because of its “objectivity”. What he means by this is that photographs both have the special ability to show reality as it is in all its materiality, and also show its distinction between paintings in a non-subjective way. After I read that I gasped and whispered to myself, “I think I just found the basis to my artist statement and thesis. Laugh Out Loud. I really like his series entitled, BELOGORODSKAYA Region 1983-85. The way they are arranged in diptychs reminds me of a cinematic feeling you would get when you would look into those portable movie players that you had to put your head over it and look through the viewfinder.

The two images seem to be slightly complimentary with each other but from different aspects or point of views. This reminds me of my own work in which I also displayed my images in a diptych creating a dueling sense of emotions. I then added sound to the images that I created myself from what I was experiencing from the images.

Moving along in the gallery you come upon the work of Fransico Infante. I am very much interested in the group he started with his wife called ARGO, which occupied them with creating kinetic art and artificial environments. Especially in the concept, that was conceived in this collaboration, “artifact”. The whole explanation of what an “artifact” is interests me greatly- which is a thing made by a person and thus autonomous in the relation to nature. Such an object interacts with nature, at the same time revealing itself.” After I read that I kind of had an understanding of what “artifact” meant, but then I kept reading on and was furthermore explained. “The exceptional importance of this momentary artistic event established the camera as a means and as a technical instrument, which allows the artist to fix chosen moments. Photography here is used to capture and convey the feeling of mystery and infinity of the world that rules the artists consciousness.” I know this is a lot to write from the wall text but this one paragraph really resonated in my mind and helped me understand where they were going with the photographs and also something I might try and achieve in my photography. I really liked how this is basically at first just a document of kinetic art or earthwork but through this momentary artistic event of photography the physical work can be conceived in a way that either fools the viewer or affects them. The ones that really achieve this greatly are these.

This one looks like it was just a regular picture of land water and the horizon line that someone has pasted a circular image on top of it. In actuality it is all real objects being captured in a way that makes them question your beliefs.

The last artist of the exhibition is quite possibly my most favorite. Alexander Slyusarev’s work is very close to what I want to achieve in part of my thesis project.

I really like how his images consist of normal everyday objects that through the use of shadows and light reflections create an abstract pattern that alters a viewer’s reality. This is inspiring me to actual focus on using the shadows and lights and reflections that are around the objects I photograph and use them to enhance the visual appearance of the image. I just love how they are so simple yet are filled with so much beauty from the abstract shapes that are created in the frame of the picture.

Even though it was a small exhibit with only four photographers, each one had their own specific style of creating photographs that I will take in and put into my arsenal.

Blurring the Lines between Painting & Photography: the last minute gallery visit story

            Our assignment was to find a gallery of our choice that we had an invested interest in.  I went searching for this invested interest and at first had my eyes set on the exhibition at the Zimmerli. I was even set to go and realized they are closed on Mondays. So I had to do some last minute clutch gallery searching.  Just when I was about to give up I stumbled upon this one gallery via my iPhone.  Bruce Silverstein Gallery on 24^th street it said.  The two artists that where being exhibited had work on the website and from my tiny little screen they both looked like paintings and at first I was very disappointed. As you may know I’m not too fond of painting. No offense. But on closer inspection of the work it turns out both artists are Photographers. Photographers that I myself would have an enormous amount of invested interest.  The gallery closes at 6 and I got out of work at 515 so I had to run to catch the F train to 23^rd street and then for the first time in my life took a bus to 9^th ave. I ran the rest of the way to 535w and got there at 535pm which was more than enough time to soak in the wonderful large format prints of both Todd Hido & Nicolai Haowalt.

First I will talk about Nicolai Haowalt’s “Car Crash Studies” piece, which is a photographic study of cars that have been involved in severe and fatal accidents.  I really enjoyed how the series goes back and forth from being a documentation of the wreckage and an abstraction of it as well.  My favorite ones were the close-up of the slashed metal body of the cars, which turn into an abstract landscape that is filled with vivid color and amazing texture. You can’t help but think how beautiful they are without stopping yourself and thinking of the pain and agony that was suffered to create them. The close-up color plains remind me of my last project I did with the close-ups of man-made and natural objects around me. This is also part of what I will try to achieve in my thesis with imagery.  

The next artist in the gallery was Todd Hido. He was exhibiting his series “A Road Divided” which Hido focusing on the American landscape.  A quote from the press release explains why he is my new favorite photographer.  “Crossing the double lines’ between painting and photography” This entire statement explains what I really love about photography and what it can do.  This is also what I have been trying to do with my last few projects and hopefully try to achieve with my thesis. Photos that do blur the line between painting and photography, creating landscapes with vivid colors through the use of a lens rather than the use of a brush.  I also am very intrigued at the way he went about shooting these images. By using the vantage point of his car seat and shooting towards the surrounding area out in front of him. It almost feels like he is going on a journey and capturing whatever crosses paths with him. His photos are filled with so much emotion that you can’t help but get an eerie and creepy vibe from them.  I also love the way that the condensation on the window causes parts of the image frame to be out of focus or not recognizable.  They are also very cinematic and remind me of shooting with slide film and put stuff on the slide to create a hazy dream like state when projecting them.

In the end it was yet again another successful and inspirational gallery visit for the third straight time in a row.  Now I am left to wonder what will be in store on my next journey off into the city.

 

Jeffrey John Masino  

The Studio Visit

Here are my 11 favorite quotes and passages i thought were interesting in the chapter "The Studio Visit"

1. The driver is wearing white gloves and a surgical face mask. He looks like an extra in a bioterrorism B movie, but here it's the sartorial norm for those with colds and bad allergies. On the back of his seat, a sign informs us that our driver's hobbies are (1) baseball, (2) fishing, and (3) driving.

2. When blum & poe opened in 1994, the partners sold Cuban cigars out the back of the gallery to help make ends meet.

3. Murakami then turned the tables on the big brand by pulling it into his own oeuvre with a series of paintings that consist of nothing but the multicolor LV pattern. "the vuitton paintings are going to be important later on," declares Poe. "People just don't realize it yet. They look at them as branding and that's boring, but they're as 'superflat' as anything he's done," he says, using Murakami jargon to refer to the way the artists works flatten the distinctions between art and luxury goods, high and popular culture, East and West.

4."when people think of artists studios, they imagine Jackson Pollock dancing around a canvas"

5. Two women had laid the second and third paintings flat on a long trestle table. One sat cross-legged on the floor with her eyes two inches away from the pictures edge. She had a thin round bamboo brush in her left hand and a q-tip tucked into her hair. The other, an artist named rei sato, knelt on the floor, reaplying platinum particles. They were all wearing standard-issue brown plastic sandals and white cotton gloves with the thumbs and foreingers cut out. No one had more the a speck or two of paint on his or her clothes. They worked in silence or in their own iPod worlds. When I asked Sato of there was any room for creativity in the work, she replied, "None at all."

6. While the sega corporation has Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo has Super Mario, Kaikai Kiki was named after the mascots that appear on it's letterhead and cultural goods. Kaikai is an anodyne white bunny, while Kiki is a wild three-eyed pink mouse with fangs. Both characters have four ears each, a "human" pair and an "animal" pair, suggesting that the company is all ears.

7. I liked on page 193 when she is brought to the temporary merchindise showroom where she found Mika Yoshitake shuffleing through 20 items of merchandise.

8. The part where she talks about going to murakamis slick headquarters. "it was at least an hours drive, past more rice paddies and light industrial facilities, over a major river and along an elevated highway engulfed in soundproof fencing to the plush neighborhood, not far from the designer stores of roppongi hills. Once there, we ascended to the studio in an elevator. When the doors drew apart, we faced a stainless steel and glass door for which a fingerprint scam and a four digit pin number were required

9. Murakamis answer to her question about what he did not like about the American pop artist. He answers very warholian and goes on to mention and refer to warhol alot. It's interesting to see how they are very similar yet vastly different.

10. "The bomb that landed on Nagasaki was originally destined for the town where takashi's mother lived. He grew up being told, 'if kokura had not been oust that day, you would not e here.'"

11. Lastly I would like to include a few quotes from the last two pages of the chapter.
"Unfuckingbelieveable!"
"it's entertaining as fuck. So entertaining that it may backlash," says Poe. "I just hope it fits on the plane when it's crated. At the moment we've only got two inches of clearance."
"I'm happy with OVAL BUDDAH but thinking to next change. Not ambition. Really pure feeling. Instinct. Next work must be much bigger. Much complicated. That is my brain. "

My Interview With Rudolph Chery

I sat down with over the weekend and had a conversation with him about his work and his experience at Mason Gross.

R: Hi, my name is Rudolph Cherry. I’m a graphic designer and when I came into Mason Gross what I anticipated to do was—I wanted to do animation, but being that the fact that Mason Gross didn’t have animation, I took up graphic design. Since animation and graphic design, they sort of go hand in hand, almost. So, I got some work to show and, yeah. That’s about it. So, let’s see my work. So, my first year—I did a painting freshman year; I didn’t really know too much about painting, never really hold a paintbrush in a day in my life other than when I was five years old, but that was like watercolors, so…Yeah, so, here’s some of my work in painting class.

J: So, what I think is that painting, you know, sometimes is not as appealing as photography, but, your style of painting, the animation background, the use of the colors, and the craftsmanship that you have, you know, that it looks like reality almost, or, like in comic book type things, I really like that.

R: So, I did painting, and then I also like to draw. So, there’ll be days when I’ll just be sketching and I’ll go back and look at my sketchbook and be like, “Wow, that looks good. Let me see if I could try to improve it, make it look better.” So, I made a little sketch of a butterfly ‘cause I was bored in class. So, I did that and when I did that a girl saw my sketchbook and she was like, “Wow, I like your butterfly.” And, she liked it so much she wanted it to be a tattoo. So, this was the butterfly that she got. And, some more drawings that I did…

J: What is going on in your work? What would you like to achieve with your work?

R: Basically, I just want people to take the time to look at it and just give their emotion, their reaction to my work ‘cause I think that within the self that’s a fulfillment. Just getting a good vibe knowing that other peoples reviewing your work. That, to me, that’s satisfaction. So, that’s motivation; just having somebody look at your work and really taking the time to look at your work. This was some album covers that I did for some people. Again, using my graphic design skills. I use typography and some things I took up in some of my design classes. Like using Photoshop, using Illustrator, stuff like that. What I did was I basically sketched out what kind of image and what the album cover was gonna look like and how it was gonna look like ‘cause the person that I was doing the album cover with…he basically told me his ideas so I was like, “Okay, let me go ahead and sketch it out.” So, I sketched it out, showed him, and started looking at some images on the Internet and found some that related to my sketches and put it all together and came to this.

J: What themes do you usually use in some of your work?

R: The themes that I use…I don’t really use any themes. But, I guess looking at my work I tend to use colors that you won’t normally see other people using. Like just crazy colors that don’t really go with each other.

J: What are some of your influences?

R: I would say music ‘cause every time I sketch or do any other work I tend to listen to music. I feel as though I see a picture with music. So, with music I was able to really listen to the words, listen to the sound, the rhythm, the beat and get designs from that. And, I’ll say music: that’s one influence and I’ll say looking at fashion, like magazines, and stuff like that.

J: Now, we’ll get to finish with a discussion of your plans for thesis.

R: As of right now, I don’t really have any plans for thesis but, I’m definitely sketching and just trying to come up with some ideas. That way, I’m able to go ahead, get an idea—okay—work with a concept and put the idea and the concept together to form a good work to show for the exhibit that people can understand and people could enjoy when they see it.

J: Do you want to do something similar to what you’ve done in the past or do you want to try to do something more or reach out to other type things, like maybe include some type of sound with your piece? You should look into some of the artists that use sound with some of their paintings or their photos.

R: Well, I think with the exhibit and everything what I’m trying to do basically is to elevate into the next level. And, basically, look at all my work in the past and try to become better and just try to evolve because I still feel as though I’m still trying to find my style, like my own style. And, other people, I guess, they could probably agree with me because this whole thing, like coming to college, coming to Mason Gross: that’s the reason you come to college, to try to find yourself. And I think by being in Mason Gross, majoring in graphic design, I think that I’m learning to find my style, find where I fit into the whole art world.

Perspiring In Chelsea

On a hot and sunny "Fall" day i ventured out yet again into the city in search for intellectual input from the glorious galleries of Chelsea. Unlike our current weather, cold and windy, it was an unusual hot and sunny friday morning which caused me to sweat while gallery hopping. My goal was to visit all the galleries we were assigned too. Unlike a Museum where you most likely should spend at least 2-3 hours soaking in all of the artwork and exhibits on every floor and what not, i have come to realize that the galleries in Chelsea really dont work like that at all. For the most part they are usually just a small studio loft that on the outside just looks like a industrial warehouse, but on the inside it is filled with white walls and art pieces. At the time of my visit i was somewhat on a tight schedule and only had about 3 hours to visit each gallery. To recapture the essence of my trip my responses will be in chronological order of what galleries i went to.

My journey began at Aperture, one of my favorite galleries in Chelsea. They were displaying the exhibit, Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscapes in Photography and Video Art. The overall theme of the exhibit was that each artist was somehow showing a different approach to traditional landscapes as art and in this case within the country of Netherlands. I liked how through the use of photos and video they depicted the Netherlands landscape as being very man-made and artificial. The first piece that caught my attention was by GERT JAN KOCHEN entitled ENSCHEDE. I really liked his idea of how ones memory influences the perception of a landscape of a disaster area. Not necessarily capturing the exact moment of the catastrophe, which he has said as being too similar to journalist photographs, he is more interested in the aftermath and rebuilding of the area and how over the course of time the memory of the original landscape begins to fade away. I myself enjoy how photos can display the passing of time through the images. Particularly in specific details in the landscapes that change from photo to photo. This is something that i would like to utilize in my thesis some how wether it be with my images or sound piece.

I also enjoyed HANS AARSMAN's DUTCH SCENES. I liked how he went about photographing his images, rather than directing the subject matter he was interested more so in capturing the randomness of the world around him, letting himself be guided by whatever happens around him.

Next was the work of BAS PRINCEN and his piece ARTIFICIAL ARCADIA. I liked his idea behind the photos which were his interest in the way people spent their leisure time in different landscapes that normally wouldnt seem to offer any kind of interest to them but are used in todays culture as the backdrop or venue for different types of leisure activities.

The work by GERCO DE RUIJTER that was being displayed was possibly one of my favorite in the whole exhibit. The fact that he attached a camera to a kite and takes the photograph of the landscape from a high altitude by remote control is amazing. I really enjoyed these photos as they captured the landscapes in a way that turned them into abstract images that remind me of paintings and are formed by the shapes, patterns, and textures that are in the landscape itself. These reminded me of my past work i did last semester with the close up photos.

There was so much to take in at this exhibit that i kind of felt overwhelmed but in a good way. There was at least one thing in each set of images that i either loved, appreciated, or was inspired by. Some of the other notable pieces I liked were, MARNIX GOOSSENS: REGARDING NATURE in which i liked the way that he would photograph the way that culture and nature flow into each other seamlessly creating this mixture of natural beauty with man-made artificial decor.

Two artists that i thought where similar in what they were trying to achieve with their work were WOUT BERGER and JANNES LINDERS. Both of them where fascinated in capturing the beauty of landscapes that where either polluted wastelands or industrial areas untouched by man-made planners. This is something i am interested in doing for my imagery for my thesis but focus more on finding these polluted or industrial wastelands in new jersey.

The last piece i enjoyed was by CARY MARKERINK & THEO BAART: SNELWEG>HIGHWAYS IN THE NETHERLANDS. I am very much interested in their argument that the highway is its own environment that can be experienced in a positive way rather than a negative or polluted way. I also agree that a highway not only connects two places but creates its own vibrant emotion and feeling that you experience.

After completing my stay at aperture i went off to find the next galleries. I will now describe the rest of my trip through photos and brief responses to what i thought of each one.

Juergen Teller exhibit was the next place i went to. I was slightly interested in what he was trying to achieve with these photos, Placing the nude models next to the sculptures trying to show the similarities and differences between the two and how one is more humble and the others are more glorified.

The next gallery i went to was Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Which was showing works by painter Enoc Perez. It was quite a departure from the past two exhibits of photos, and even though i don't enjoy painting that much anymore, i did like how his paintings represents an optimism of a utopia but in the end fails to achieve that. Also I was interested in what i found outside the gallery as well.

I then went to the Andrea Meislin Gallery which was showing the breathtaking photos by Jed Fielding. They consisted of his trip to a blind school in which he captured the different people who where blind. The photos where very eerie especially the details in the facial features specifically the blank muddy eyes.

I also enjoyed the James Turrel exhibit with the holograms with its interactive mirrors and illusions.

Overall i very much enjoyed this gallery trip and felt that it helped me with some of my ideas for thesis.

in song,

Jeffrey John

The Crit

Here are the most interesting quotes and passages i found while reading the crit. Overall i really enjoyed the chapter. I could relate to many of the things she described in the crit because i myself have experienced them during the many crits i have attended in my 5 years at Mason Gross.

1. -"I'm Sitting alone in F200, a windowless classroom with cement walls in which long-life fluorescent lights cast a gray glow. The CalArts building feels like an underground bunker meant to protect those within from the mindless seductions of Southern California sun. I survey the thin brown carpet, forty chairs, four tables, two chalkboard, and lone jumbo beanbag, trying to imagine how great artists get made in this airless institutional space" pg 43
2. -i liked her quote about what a critique is by saying, "Group critiques offer a unique-some say 'Utopian'- situation in which everyone focuses on the student's work with a mandate to understand it as deeply as possible. Crits can also be painful rituals that resemble cross-examinations in which artists are forced to rationalize their work and defend themselves from a flurry of half-baked opinions that leave them feeling torn apart. Either way, crits offer a striking contrast to the five-second glance and shallow dollar values ascribed to works at auctions and fairs. Indeed crits are not normally considered art world events, but i think that the dynamics in this room are vital to understanding the way the art world works
3. "falling apart in a crit is not as shameful as one might expect. Intellectual breakdown is an essential component of CalArts pedagogy, or at least an expected part of the MFA student experience." this reminded me of past crits i have attended that i was witness to some awkward breakdowns and verbal fist fights with teacher and student that in some ways does help the student in the long run. Later on the same page she says, "Everything goes to pieces in the first year and it comes together in the second year. Often the people who are making sense are the ones for whom it hasn't started working yet. They've still got all their defenses up. Sometimes the person is simply ineducable and there is nothing you can do."
4. Another passage i enjoyed was when she interviewed John Baldessari and ask him the Post-Studio crit that he started at CalArts among other things. "One of his motto's is, "Art comes out of failure," and he tells students, "You have to try things out. You can't sit around, terrified of being incorrect, saying, 'I won't do anything until i do a masterpiece," When i asked how he knows when he's conducted a great crit class, he leaned back and eventually shook his head, "You don't know," he said, "Quite often when I thought i was brilliant, i wasn't. Then when i was really teaching, i wasnt aware of it. You never know what students will pick up on." Baldessari believes that the most important function of art education is to demystify artist: "Students need to see that art is made by human beings just like them."
5. The part where she displays two different perspectives on Group crits was very intriguing. On one side you have art critic Dave hickey who is quoted as saying, "'My one rule, ' he says in his freewheeling southwestern drawl, "is that i do not do group cirts. They are social occasions that reinforce the norm. They impose a standardized discourse. They privilege unfinished, incompetent art." He also goes on to say that, "I don;t care about an artists intentions. I care if the work looks like it might have some consequences." On the other hand you have Mary Kelly, a feminist conceptualist who thinks its fine for artists to have crits where they give an account of their intentions. She also hosts different types of group critique where the only person who is not allowed to speak is the presenting artists. "Never go to the wall text. Never go to the artist. Learn to read the work." In her view, works of art produce arguments, so "when you ask and artist to explain it in words, it is just a parallel discourse." "moreover, artists often don't fully understand what they've made, so other people's readings can help them "see at a conscious level" what they have done." She then goes on to describe the importance of the preparedness of the work and how everyone must empty their mind and be on the right frame of mind before they are able to proceed with the critique. Another important thing she brings up is when she says, "The most crucial question is when to stop, so she asks, 'Is this in the text? Or is this what you are bringing to it" She stops the interpretation at the point when she things "we might be going too far"
6. The paragraph on William E. Jones talking about critiques is also very interesting. "He feels they prepare students for a professional career because 'negotiating interviews, conversations with critics, press releases, catalogues, and all texts are part of the responsibility of the artist," When artists are put on the spot, Jones feels, it helps them 'Develop thick skins and come to see criticism as rhetoric rather than personal attack."
7. Some quick quotes i liked from the passage where she talks about what students want to do when they finish their MFA. -"What to do when finished? That's the big question. Go back to Australia and drink. I don't want to teach. Id rather waitress"-"MFA stands for yet another Mother-Fucking Artist"-Thornton also says that "Two or three of the lucky ones will find dealer or curator support at their degree shows, but the vast majority will find no immediate ratification. For months many of them will be out of a job."
8. When she visits on of the MFA's studio and is describing it i am reminiscent of the studios at Mason Gross. "all the door have been accustomed sized with over sized names, cartoon numbers, collages, and even bas-relief sculptures. "every grad has a space of their own that they are allowed to use twenty-four hours a day. I live in mine. You re not supposed to, but a lot of us do"
9. "creative is definitely a dirty word," sneered one of them. " You would not want to say it in Post-Studio. People would gag! It's almost as embarrassing as beautiful or sublime or masterpiece." For these students, creativity was a 'Lovey-dovey cliche used by people who are not professionally involved with art." It was an 'Essentialist" notion related to that false hero called a genius." This is apparent in some crits where the only thing some people say about the artwork is that it is creative or pretty.
10. Lastly i also liked her passage on page 69 where she talked about the importance of friendships within an artist circle. interviewing Michael Craig-martin she found that, " For art students, the people who matter most are the peer group." Artists need "friendships within a build critique" as a context for the development of their work." He then goes onto to explain , " If you look at the history of art," he maintains, "all the renaissance artist knew their contemporaries. SO did the impressionists. There was a moment in their lives when they were all friends or acquaintances. The cubists were not simply individual geniuses. Their greatest works happened in conjunction. Who was van Gogh's best friend? Gauguin."