Non Western Art Exhibit

 Here it is, the last blog of this class. I have definitely enjoyed all the research and the look into art in general and it opened my eyes to many forms of thinking, art, and even in the realm of art history, which I generally am not interested in. 

I will be focusing today on Native Alaskan artwork. I am what you call a "transplant" to Alaska, however I have decided this is my home and will never leave. One of the things I appreciate most about Alaska is the welcoming diversity of the Native Alaskan tribes and its peoples. While I know that they have suffered their own trials and tribulations, Alaska would not be the place it is without the influence of the tribes of the First Peoples.

Tlingit Totem Pole, artist and year unknown, USA

    There are many tribes in our great state of Alaska. While a lot of Native Alaskan art will be similar, they cover a large amount of land and if you pay attention, you can start to notice differences and differences in content and influence. The Tlingit is primarily in the southeastern handle of Alaska. Much of their artwork is in the form of woodcarving, such as the totem I posted above. Totems have many different reasons.

Untitled Bead Work, Brenda Mahan, 2017, USA

    Here we have bead work from an Athabascan Woman. It is stitched onto hide. Possibly moose or caribou. It is colorful and seems to be more for decoration that to commemorate something. The time it took to make the piece must have been insane. I honestly love this type of work because it is both simple and intense due to amount of beads and color coordination.

Unknown Inupiaq Art

    Inupiaq artwork also leans more towards carvings, as they make their work out of available material, which may be walrus tusk, whale bone, or even fossils washed up on the shore. I have noticed a lot of the created figurines are more based around the people which I believe shows a large sense of community and love for their culture and people in their community. 

SOURCE:

 Waterbury, Barbara. “Tlingit.” Stonington Gallery, 7 Nov. 2016, stoningtongallery.com/tribe/tlingit/#:~:text=On%20Tlingit%20Art%3A,healing%20conducted%20by%20the%20shaman.

Post Modern Art Exhibit

 In today's blog, I will be focusing on Postmodern Art, our generation of art. While I do enjoy modernism more than Postmodern, I wanted to analyze three artists from our era in an attempt to appreciate it more than I currently do. The three I will be observing is Ahmed Mater, a Saudi artist, Han Sai Por, a sculptor from Singapore, and Barbara Kruger, and American Conceptual Artist.

Ahmed Mater

"Talisman - X-Ray Blue"
by Ahmed Mater, 2009, UAE 

    Ahmed Mater was born in 1979 in Saudi Arabia and grew up in an area a little more isolated from the strict religious thoughts on the more populated areas in Saudi Arabia. He is a Doctor and has medical training and you will often see this in the two pieces I bring you today. Both involve an x-ray, however they are both created differently and have a different tone. Talisman - X-Ray Blue is a mixed media piece that includes a chest x ray as well as a thick border that represents something more traditionally Arabic. While I have no clue what it says, I think it is beautiful. I've always enjoyed the cultural arts of the Middle East from my few "trips," to the area. Here the focal point is the x ray in the center, and the primary color used throughout this piece is a tan. Around more of the letters or designs, there is a fade of blue making it look like an ink stain or smudged ink to me. It would resemble the doodles and notes of a doctor, maybe. My wife seems to really enjoy this piece of work, and I think it would look good in our bedroom. 

    The second piece I will be looking at is Evolution of Man. It is no surprise to me that Ahmed would have at least one piece of work that revolves around gas. The middle East, most notably Saudi Arabia, has a huge economy based around the sale and export of oil, and on top of that, we use it in the manufacture of everything. In this piece we see a blue x ray transform into a gas pump. It appears that the person in the x ray may be holding a gun to his head, further signifying the notion that people are killing themselves for the resource. It's all black and blue in the piece making it fairly simple to look at, however the contrast from the black and blue is beautiful. This would definitely be used as a political/economic gesture.

Evolution of Man by Ahmed Mater, 2010, Saudi Arabia

Han Sai Por

Art Tree by Han Sai Por, 2006, Singapore

Han Sai Por is a talented sculptor who does a lot of work for public spaces. While I feel there are many works of art in public that make no sense, I see immense beauty in the work of Por. Art Tree, which resides outside of the Luxe Museum in Singapore is appropriately located. It seems like the kind of piece that would welcome you into a museum or place of learning. The trees resemble something like frog legs to me, which I find interesting, or maybe even an exaggerated version of palm trees. There are perfect lines going around the diameter of the "trunk" area then at the top each sculpture curves and has four fingers reaching out. The granite is smooth, other than the lines, which offers a physical contrast in the texture.

Seed by Han Sai Por, 1995, Singapore

 Por has a series of sculptures called Seed. Her installments in this series are all over, and have spanned over decades. They are all modeled after some sort of plant seed, or appear as if they should be. They are all immaculate and smooth, and normally made with marble. I do personally love this series, as I believe plants are important to our world and seeds are quite literally the beginning. They are a wonderful three dimensional portrait of the beginning of plant life. I would love to see this whole series around a garden.

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Know Nothing, Believe Anything, Forget Everything)
by Barbara Kruger 2014, USA

You Are Not Yourself 
by Barbara Kruger 1981, USA

    My last analysis is of the artwork of Barbara Kruger, a US born feminist artist. Her artwork is not what I would call normal, even for post modern standards. They look a lot like some kind of newpaper or magazine ad, however they usually have some sort of dark tone. You Are Not Yourself features a broken mirror with a sad reflection in it. I do not know the circumstances that inspired this piece, however it can be said that the person in the photo did not like their reflection, or hated something about themselves. Maybe they had been acting against their personality and beliefs, or a traumatic event changed them. In the Untitled work, we can assume that this has to do with the information consumption of the current era. What is pictured looks like a woman undergoing some sort of treatment with a device pointed at her eye. Perhaps she is being forced to look at some possibly false information. I honestly am not sure how I feel about both of these pieces. They feel to me to be some sort of cover from a mid 2000's young adult novel cover. Some I would probably read.

SOURCES:

Unknown. “Biography.” Ahmed Mater, www.ahmedmater.com/biography.

Unknown. “Artist Profile.” Han Sai Por, 13 July 2018, hansaipor.com/artist_bio/.

"Barbara Kruger Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. 2021. TheArtStory.org

Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf

Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors

Available from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/kruger-barbara/

First published on 01 Oct 2012. Updated and modified regularly

[Accessed 15 Apr 2021]

Early Modern Artwork

 Today, my blog will focus on the artwork of three different African American artists of the Early Modern era of artwork. The three artists I will be looking at are Horace Pippin, a WW1 veteran who sought to show his experiences through art, Aaron Douglas, who was one of the most prominent Harlem Renaissance artists, and Lois Jones, an artist and teacher whose career lasted about 70 years. All three can be considered pioneers of art in a time where segregation was alive and well in the United States. All three artists made a name for themselves and paved the way for many young Americans.

The Ending of the War, Starting Home by Horace Pippin 1930-1933, USA

Horace Pippin was a self taught artist from Pennsylvania, who also fought in WWI. His above painting, The Ending of the War, Starting Home, depicts a time from the war where he got shot and injured. While the overall painting is much more simplistic in nature than much of the artwork we have looked at in the previous weeks, it does not detract from the delivery of this piece of work. It has a lot going on, ultimately chaotic in nature. It depicts a trench with Soldiers engaged in battle, with explosions all around. To me, this does display his vivid memory of the event. The explosions and chaos of the piece can invoke some sort of fear or confusion. To me, it does invoke this feeling. The pallet used creates a feeling of foreboding. Dark grays and browns in the forest, and the light grays of the potential storm clouds above. I enjoy this piece a lot. I would love to see it in a museum dedicated to WW1. I believe it captures the tone well. It does not over embellish war as much of the art of the past has.

Let My People Go by Aaron Douglas c. 1935-1939, USA

The title alone describes the entire tone of the piece in itself. While slavery was not around in the 30's, racism and segregation was very much alive at the time. The piece seems to picture a storm, tsunami, and a man being attacked by men on horses. The people in the painting are shapes, silhouettes instead of detailed human figures. This allows the story to be told through the actions and flow of the figures instead of small details. Layering of colors is used to distinguish between near and far, the darker the image, the nearer the subject. I do personally enjoy this piece and see it as something that would be seen on a mural in a city downtown. The use of purples and yellows is something I enjoy, as I am a fan of these two colors working together. 

Les Fetiches by Lois Mailou Jones 1938, France

The last piece I will be looking at is a piece by Lois Mailou Jones, who created art from the early 1900's to her death in 1998. The work uses contrast and shapes heavily to make this piece come together. It has a solid black background and has many exotic masks, which Lois became familiar with while she was working with a costume designer in high school. This piece definitely showed the potential of the artist who would end up lecturing in many countries around the world. I do believe that the distinct style of this piece would be great to be shown in a school to show students a different way of producing paintings.

SOURCES:

Sailsman, Kaycia. “7 Prominent Artists Of The Harlem Renaissance In NYC.” Culture Trip, The Culture Trip, 11 Feb. 2016, theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/7-prominent-artists-of-the-harlem-renaissance-in-nyc/.

Yau, John. “Seeing American History Through the Art of a Black WWI Soldier.” Hyperallergic, 23 Aug. 2019, hyperallergic.com/514440/seeing-american-history-through-the-art-of-a-black-wwi-soldier/.