Contemporary Artists and Their New Techniques - Essay Example

Contemporary Artists and their New Techniques Introduction Contemporary artists are a label that change and evolve from time to time depending on what is the trend and what is considered as past. Therefore, there are artists then from a given period of time who were considered contemporary but may no longer be contemporary artists today. While this is a given conflict of time and labeling, this essay will feature five contemporary artists who were alive within the last 50 years. Each uses a unique medium and will be discussed in this paper about their approaches, processes, concepts, documented works and my personal responses or observation about their works. Discussion: Roy Lichtenstein Roy Lichtenstein is a pop artists and contemporary of Andy Warhol. He used parody using old-fashioned comic strip. He was a teacher before venturing to Pop art based on commercial images such as advertisement painting focused on bard-edged figures. His 1961 Look Mickey used Be-Day dots or a technique comparable to Pointillism (Lobel, 33). Since then, he has produced more art works combining oil or Magana paint exemplified in Drowning Girl and the pop art diptych Whaam! He has influenced other DC comics artists (Lobel, 60). Liechtenstein is an iconography in pop art that until today amaze collectors and contemporary comic book fans. While he may be regarded by some as quite commercial for his techniques and use comic-style graphics, he is one artist to reckon with. Charles Atlas Charles Atlas is a filmmaker and video artist. In his online biography, Charles Atlas came from St. Louis, Missouri and born in 1958. Video art uses the video tape as a statement of exploration on the medium or against commercial, entertainment video and may not have any logical presentation or narrative plot except for juxtaposition of images and scenes (Knight, 49). Atlas worked both on stage, screen, museum, and television and also had video installation works. He is considered to have pioneered the “media-dance, a genre in which original performance work is created directly for the camera” (PBS, P 2) and worked with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for ten years. He collaborated with choreographers, dancers, and performers such as Yvonne Rainer, Michael Clark, Douglas Dunn, Marina Abramovic, Diamanda Galas, John Kelly, and Leigh Bowery. His four-hour montage “Television Dance Atlas” on Dutch television used dance styles of ballet, burlesque, and figure skating (PBS P 3). His video installation “The Hanged One” used rotoscopes, motorized mannequins, and theatrical lighting and may be considered evolving in its various presentations. He had been awarded three Bessie (New York Dance and Performance) Awards. His feature-length film “Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance” was Best Documentary at Dance Screen 2000. Charles Atlas lives and works in New York City and Paris. Another work "The Laugh of Number 12” features a video on a heap of cheap, used shoes which together with the “Hanged One” represent his foot fetish (PBS, P 13). The works of Atlas are vibrant, celebratory yet with dry, somewhat dark humor exploring on less candid moments and issues of life and human movement. His use of film as an exploration of visual and performing arts as well as video installation for mixed media are interesting and are almost narrative and stark. Enchanted Gypsy or Pixie The enchanted Gypsy’s last known location was in Eugene Oregon. In their Facebook profile, they claim to be “a small family-run fiber arts studio often nomadic in nature but currently settled in Eugene Oregon. We make felt boots, fiber sculpture, puppets and hats inspire by nature, myth and magic,” (FB, profile page).Judging on their page in the social network site, thousands follow and like them. They have actually sold hundreds of crafts and art works. Their fiber art uses felted wool, dyed, spinned, or both with leathers and other materials. They have made boots, life-sized dolls, miniature dolls, elf hats, among others. Gypsy or Pixie’s art has themes about fertility as depicted in many of her miniature dolls that are pregnant, breastfeeding or nursing, and even the Harvest Goddess. In traditional understanding, fiber art materials directly come from source such as plants or animals. However, many today use recycled or upcyled fiber and Pixie incorporates recycled fiber in her work from time to time. While some of Gypsy’s work/s may be considered as craft for following a pattern, highlighted here are her semi-life-sized or larger dolls made of wool. They directly fleece their sheep (EG, P 3), dye them and then, spin. In most of her or their bigger works, the themes are of fairies, banshee and sell them on festivals like the Faerie Worlds Festivals and hand-made site shop Etsy. One amazing fact about Pixie or Gypsy is that she and her family actually did lived like the literal gypsies moving from place to place, living in a bus for years. For a while, they have settled and tried to earn their college degree but decided that it was not the life for them. Since then, they have travelled or resettled in an area of their choice. They have been swarmed with orders but it has been quite a while that they were not active in their online sites or shop (Etsy, 2009). The works of Gypsy are enchanting and worthy of consideration. While theirs border on art and crafts, this paper would like to focus on their one-of-a-kind bigger works and describe these art products as genuine, significant on their own terms, and representative of a movement that may be contemporary. It is just sad to note that like so many other artists, Gypsy or Pixie has a difficulty in addressing a reality that is quite rash. Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor or a blending of both incorporated with set design, filmmaking, performance and other forms of the arts including religion (Smith, P 3). He has exhibited in Grand Palais in Paris for his 2007 Solo Show, and another in 2009 called “In the Beginning” which was a primal theatre work of plot-free music. In his recent Gagogesian Gallery show considered middlebrow art, it was seen as cathartic, either for its title “Next Year in Jerusalem” or its featured works of industrial and natural environment wastes, old bath tub, decaying metals, and his signature depressive if not destructive presentation. It was said that he was influenced by another artist Neo-Expressionist Gerog Baselitz, although a poem of Paul Celan was also traced as another inspiration (Monumenta, P 4). Kiefer uses natural soil, associated with his German motherland, but natural elements such as straw and desiccated bush flora are mixed with other burnt or materials representing destruction – reminiscent of an evil regime. In his New York show, he has featured a plain white gown but with hastily-jagged skirts as victim of shards of glasses, almost like ghost (Smith, P 7). The works of Kiefer are dark, representing casualties; aftermaths of war or probably, even madness and wasteland. They depict the tragedies of this earth, the sinister but important message noted by Smith, “Never Forget. Ever.” (P 9). Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta or more popularly known as Lady Gaga rose to prominence as singer, songwriter and performer with her The Fame album released in 2008 with singles Just Dance and Pokerface. Among her influences from image to performances are Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Madonna, David Bowie, and even Michael Jackson. Coupled with weird outfits in public appearances, Lady Gaga emerged as one of the most influential persons of 2010 (Pomerantz and Rose, P 1). Lady Gaga’s potent combinations of singing and performing skills that mixed her influences attributes could not have competed good enough with other celebrities if not for her constant snagging of paparazzis with her fashion (Lady Gaga, Bio). Conclusion: All contemporary artists mentioned in this paper are known until today with their own distinct style and presentation of their art, whatever form they may be. Art is a personal expression that when conveyed to an audience is already shared between the artists and the audience. The communication may be blurred, simple, or provocative, but the way art works touch their beholder will remain a strong connection that will keep artists revered, accepted or even disliked. Works Cited Knight, Julia (editor). Diverse Practices: A Critical Reader on British Video Art. University of Luton/Arts Council England, 1996. PBS. Art 21. 2010. Accessed from http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/index.html, http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/atlas/ Enchanted Gypsy. Fan Page. Facebook. 2009. Accessed from http://www.facebook.com/enchantedgypsycreations Enchanted Gypsy. Enchanted Gypsy – Travel Diaries. Blogspot. 2009. Accessed from http://enchantedgypsy.blogspot.com/ Etsy. Enchanted Gypsy. 2009. Accessed from http://www.etsy.com/shop/EnchantedGypsy/ Monumenta. Anselm Kiefer: The matter of history. Accessed November 2010 form http://archive.monumenta.com/2007/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=9&lang=en Lady Gaga. Bio. 2010. Accessed from http://www.ladygaga.com/default.aspx Loelo, Lobel. Image Duplicator. 2002. Pomerantz, Dorothy and Lacey, Rose. The Worlds Most Powerful Celebrities. Forbes July 28, 2010. Accessed from http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/22/oprah-winfrey-lady-gaga-twilight-business-entertainment-celeb-100-10-intro.html Appendix: Charles Atlas “The Hanged One.” Source: PBS Enchanted Gypsy Fiber Art: banshee puppet Read More