The Getty

Most recently, I visited the Getty Museum, also very close to UCLA's campus.  The gallery we looked in was Gallery West which held some of the earlier pieces.  What I was most interested in were the Roman and Greek era pieces.  I was also excited to learn that the Getty is holding an exhibit of Greek Mythological pieces starting Nov. 19th and keeping it through Feb. 9th!  The photo to the left is our study group in front of one of the many sculptural fountains.

Having never been to the Getty Museum before, I was very pleasantly surprised by the workmanship and design of the museum itself.  Being in the presence of so many of the stone fountains and balconies-over which the Santa Monica pier is visible-made the visit much more enjoyable!

It is clear that the pieces of work the Getty family holds helped design the timeless architecture and landscaping that makes up the buildings!

As I said before, I was very interested in the Greek and Roman pieces; below are some examples of my favorites!

The two photos on either side are posts that helped me decipher the meanings behind the art work.  The Mythological Subjects poster especially gave me a little info about who I was looking at and why they were important.  The Romanticism to Symbolism post also informed me as to how certain symbols and early writings had made their mark subtly on the pieces in the gallery.  I am excited to use what these posts gave me, knowledge-wise, when I visit the Getty again during the Greek Mythology exhibit!

In week 2, I wrote about how the developing artists of the early Greeks started to connect math and science to their art.  A lot of this time's pieces had to be well thought through in order to produce a result.  However, as seen to the right, the artist left the mathematical accuracy behind and instead augmented the human form to create this slender statue.

It is very interesting to see which pieces seem to use mathematical thinking versus pure creative form to produce their masterpieces!

Hammer Time

Toward the beginning of the quarter, I visited the Hammer Museum just a mile away from UCLA's campus.  I would say that my favorite exhibit was the Armand Hammer Collection which is the permanent collection of art the museum keeps.  The majority of the works in this collection were hand-painted paintings which was so intriguing because, like Walter Benjamin says, original art is becoming harder to come by due to an increase of digital, mass-produced, artwork.   

In juxtaposition to the original pieces, the next room over held a mass of inkjet printed monochromatic blocks of color, and gradients of color.  These images, done by artist Degradés from 1986-2006, were clearly able to be reproduced, and therefore, mass-produced.  Anyone with a great printer could print the images he had printed, which makes the original oil paintings so much more valuable!

My other favorite exhibit held pieces showing the visual diary of Elizabeth and James Dixon (1840-41).  These photos were taken by M. Wellings, showing landscapes in Connecticut and as the curator writes "Welling's images shift back and forth between the past and present, creating a bridge that allows the viewer to move through time."  Like we talked about in our first assignment, the crossing over between two cultures is very interesting when applied to artwork-and Wellings has done a great job of connecting the two!


To follow are more pictures we took at the Hammer Museum:

Looping movie in the down-
staires gallery.

Great retro wood furnature.

Words printed on plexi-glass, top floor.

All in all, it was a great experience, and I look forward to having more time to explore the museum in more detail.

LACMA

Me at LACMA.

 On my trip to LACMA this month, I noticed a lot of pieces that used film culture to accentuate the exhibit.  The photo to the right is a constantly looping movie where artist, Bruce Nauman, instructs the person whose hands are being filmed as to which finger on which hand to move.  The exhibit was said  to be used to emphasize the lapse time between the mental; hearing of the instructions, and the physical; moving of the fingers.  Instead of pictures and text, the use of video exemplifies the point the artist is trying to make that there indeed exists a lapse period between the two!

 The photo on the left is of noir shots taken from Eadweard Muybridge's first dabbling in the making of films.  In high school, I learned a great deal about Muybridge so it was interesting to see his work as negatives rather than as a film.  The reason behind the first movie he made was to test to see, at any point during a horse's trot, if all four legs were simultaneously off the ground.  Although hard to see, in the third frame on the top, all four legs are airborne, he won the bet!

 Continuing with the use of film culture within art at the exhibit, the next photo is very clearly modeled after a noir movie where, during battle, all of the town is in chaos and a mother loses sight of her baby carriage.  The 30-second scene consists of different angle takes of the carriage rolling down a large set of stairs in the town!  To those who are familiar with the scene, and the fact that it inspired the cinematic technique of showing one short event from many points of view, this collection of black&white photos is very meaningful!

Of course, not the whole of LACMA had an association with film culture.  The photo above is a panoramic shot of a familiar-looking    iron sculpture done by the artist Richard Serra-another one of his pieces is out by Broad in the sculpture building!

Space!

The concent not insignificant.  Using the technology based after the film made by Charles and Ray Eames, on the website "Powers of 10," the creators give site-viewers a tiered view of a man from space.  As the viewers increase the power of 10 level of magnification, they can zoom out into space or in to see the smallest atomic makeup of the man's hand.  What is the most interesting thing about this interactive website is that the 10e19 power zoomed out into space looks almost the same as the 10e-11 zoomed into the man's hand!  This art lets us see that, whether were looking from thousands of light-years away at the Earth or so close at a man's hand that we no longer can se his skin, we are almost looking at the same image.

[The photo to the right is zoomed out from the man 10e19 times and the one on the left is zoomed in 10e-11 times.]

 To me, this is one of the most incredible pieces of interactive art because it demonstrates the concentricity and seemingly repetitive nature of the universe.  These images allow philosophers and scientists to pose even the deepest questions of space like: what if there are miniature universes within us all, as suggested by these two zoomed photographs.

The concentric circles of orbiting planets spiraling around the sun is an image that many artists use to inspire their space artwork because of the beautiful repetitive nature.   For example, mobiles and sculptures have been  based off the solar system by these artists.

Some artists, like B.E. Johnson, use the combination of photos taken from space and the computer to generate images of great expanses of space.  Below is an example of his work, that a corresponding webpage describes the great deal of work that goes into producing images like this to ensure accuracy.

All in all, this exploration of the universe we live in is being aided and furthered by art.  Without the outlet B.E. Johnson uses, artists couldn't propose space scenes like this or what space could one-day transform into.  Art, like the work done by the Eames scientist or the resulting website (http://powersof10.com) that came out from the movie, inspires questions of the univers and serves dually to entertain and educate the public!

"Powers of Ten. Based on the film by Charles and Ray Eames. An Eames Office Website." Powers of Ten. Based on the film by Charles and Ray Eames. An Eames Office Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. <http://powersof10.com>.

"BAM/PFA - Audio & Videocasts." BAM/PFA - Audio & Videocasts. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. <http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/podcasts/ATC/peljhan>.

"The Space Art of B.E.Johnson." Space Art, Astronomical Art, Advanced Concept, 3D Animation, Film. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. <http://imperialearth.com>.

http://img211.poco.cn/mypoco/myphoto/20090418/12/42153069200904181208441790192522636_021_640.jpg

"Bonestell.org - The art of Chesley Bonestell." Bonestell.org - The art of Chesley Bonestell. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. <http://www.bonestell.org>.

http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Space/Museum/VirtualTour/Image/w2.jpg

"Space Art @ Imperial Earth - Deimos Moon Base." Space Art @ Imperial Earth - Deimos Moon Base. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. <http://imperialearth.com/mars/deimosbase.html>.