The Placing of the Art and Environmental Composition - Assignment Example

Art Theory Paper Modern art has taken new trends and made art to be at a newer level. Traditional art movements are slowly fading while new schools that have taken newer forms have also been established. The end of the Second World War was a defining period for new artistic movements. New materials and media were tasted by artists who opposed the traditional rules and schools of art movements. New forms of art in sculptures and paintings such as structuralism, futurism, and many others which have taken new forms have emerged. New Work Artists have embraced these art forms which are diverse in nature and also thematically. Jacques Ranciere and other western philosophers who have studied the emergence of new art have termed these form of art to be against the traditional forms of art, which is paintings and Sculptures. These forms of art as Ranciere states are always in opposition to the old schools of art. The emergence of this artistic trend tries to oppose formal or customary practices in artworks that delineated paintings, drawings and even sculptures. In his article titled problems and transformations of critical art, Ranciere explores these art forms which he terms as critical art. He proposes that critical art is more concerned about the function and not the form. Hence this type of art wills always exp-lore the themes or issues in society and not how the artwork was produced. In doing so, Critical art tends to break the rules that have been established for different kinds of schools that defined classical artworks. Artists such as Hung Liu have used art in the form described by Ranciere. Hung Liu can be categorized as being Critical art. Her art is not only political but critical of classical art movements. Ranciere states that the opposition of critical art to the classical forms of art does not criticize these pieces but tries to oppose the methods of classical works of art in modern art. The methods employed by New Art artists do not also conform to the classical schools and art movements. This paper explores how Hung Liu, one of the most famous American Chinese artist has exploited and reflected Ranciere’s proposition and contextualization of critical art. Hung Liu is a Chinese American Artist who was born in china in 1948. Hung Liu moved to the US in 1984 and then returned to China 1990. It was while in china that he discovered the art of mural paintings. Hung Liu‘s Art work uses varied medias in producing masterpieces.. Her main field of art includes Painting, print work and also drawings. Hung Liu’s work takes the form of critical art. His work is transformational and it tries to raise awareness on various themes. Her background has a big influence in her work. Hung Liu’s style of painting and print tries to infuse contemporary and ancient Chinese culture in tackling issues to do with politics, the girl child, social problems, the Chinese society, the migrant and immigrant plight, the rural Chinese life and other social problems in Chinese and western modern life. Culturally, Hung Liu tries to raise issues in the society using her paintings. Most of her paintings depict the rural life of the Chinese people. Her work of art that she did before the moving to the US was concentrated on the rural life of the Chinese people in paddy fields where she had worked for four years. Using print as a media, Hung Liu reflects the life of the rural people and their suffering. She captures the culture of the Chinese rural worker. In her 2000 painting titled by the rivers of Babylon, Huang Liu uses oil on canvas to capture the rural life of the Chinese people and the culture of poverty. Her paintings have employed the contemporary techniques in capturing and passing a message that is transformational. This is one of the ways in which Ranciere says modern art has taken. By using Chinese images in her paintings and print, Liu identifies with her Chinese culture and she is able to communicate the issues in the culture. Hung Liu’s work is presented on various materials. She uses canvas and oil to depict and create forms that tell and carry political themes. Her art form has also employed other backgrounds such as wood, linen clothing, paper and also wood. Her print work involves assemblage of different parts that are captured from photographs. She has used photos of old Chinese people in her print work with a signatory round shaped paintings that have come to be known as her unique signature. In creating this new forms, Hung Liu deviates from the normal painting movements which were characteristic of old and classical painters.  Liu's paintings are also seen to be drippy and have evidence of linseed oil wash to make them even more beautiful. Her form deviates from the normal and the general structural art paintings. Critiques argue that her form and style is critical and against the Chinese socialist realist art movement that most Chinese artists and academicians have always employed. As Ranciere puts it, New Art form is always political and form and aesthetics are destroyed. This is a major point that reflects in her paintings. She employs the oppositional tactics that Ranciere proposes in his work. Hence the theories that Ranciere Liu’s artwork links with the general art world as it reintroduces and reinvents old forms of art. Most of Liu’s modern paintings are done with mural art forms. Mural art from the 7th and 8th BC of china are quite evident in Liu’s work. She has fused images of these Murals and those of western images of 18th and 19th century to come up with strong historical compositions about the Chinese culture. This method is transformational in the modernistic and post modernistic era. Many painters and artists have adopted this style of art to try and come up with messages that convey and communicate in a better way compared to classical art movements. Rancieere describes these new trends as a form to oppose the old classical movements of art in the current context. Theoretically, Hung Liu applies critical art characteristics in her compositions. As theorized by Ranciere, this form of art tackles issues that are basically political. When politics appears in a work of art, issues of aesthetics are always shallow. Theoretically, paintings use imagery and symbolism to communicate information. Abstract forms are deeper as they require interpretation. As stated by Ranciere, that theoretically, politics and art have two different aesthetics. Politics has its own aesthetics and so does art. In trying to depict politics or informational art, the creator always tries to handle two fields of aesthetics. Hung Liu paintings contradict the aesthetics of art. He uses symbolism and sometimes images to reflect on political issues. Resident alien is Hung’s Liu’s most famed painting. However, the painting or the piece of work employs other forms of such as merging a painting and a print image to come up with a clear and political message on the plight of Asian American Immigrants in the US. Through the merging of these two forms, Hung Liu manages to bring forth new dimensions on how a work of art can be used to create interest and also awareness to a certain issue. The work, resident alien symbolizes the passport of an American Asian and shows how the American Society segregates against the Asian immigrant society. His politics or themes in the pieces of Art are oppositional to the politics that are seen to be repressive. Her other works deal with the politics of China. Liu portrays the emptiness of communist china under Chairman Mao Tse Tung in her paintings such as Modern times in the Cultural Revolution Clocks. This is an example of political paintings that try to tackle the issues of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Politics is a major topic in Hung Liu’s work. She manages to talk about international and national politics in her paint and print. Hung Liu’s other paintings also raise questions on gender disparities. Her position as a contemporary painter was emphasized through her masterpiece painting known as MU Nu or Mother and daughter. In the painting, Liu uses space and color in a more formal way to come up with a depiction of how women or the girl child is disadvantaged in the society. As proclaimed by Ranciere, critical art is hugely influenced by the creators own background. These include such issues like race, gender, social class, age, and many others. Being female, theories about critical art as postulated by Ranciere emerge in the paintings such as Mu Nu. Feministic issues are reflected in most of her work as she has experienced issues to do with gender in her society both Chinese and American. The message of this paintings and prints is usually strong by using forms that are clear or quite eye catching. In Mu Nu, a woman who is bending and a gal who is also walking while bending are tied together by a rope. This painting is highly symbolic to the theme of feminism. Critical art is [political and hence in depicting this, the theorize extended by Ranciere are commonly identifiable in Hung Liu’s Work. Her art is oppositional to the oppressive political systems as shown through the other paintings in her collections such as the Cultural Revolution clocks. Hung Liu’s background has had a big influence on the subject and style of his paintings and print. Born in 1948, just before the period of the great revolution, Huang Liu experienced a tumultuous childhood in the era of Chairman Mao Tse Tung. Events in her life such as the wars that china fought, issues on communism and the life of peasantry were some of the things that Huang Liu’s childhood encountered. In her collections, there is evidence that she started painting at an early age while tackling various themes, which in the context of Ranciere, are political. During her childhood, her parents took her to rural china where she worked in paddy fields and experienced the first hand life of peasants for more than four years. This experience influenced her work in championing for the rights of the poor and the rural Chinese. Her experience in Communist china during the Cultural Revolution has also weighed heavily on her work bringing to the forefront pictures of diverse political subjects enshrined in print and painting. Issues that reflect the political tensions are reflected in her paintings that also depict the evil and the effects of war. In 1984, Liu managed to travel to the US where she went to pursue and further her studies ion art. It was while in US that she experienced the constant problems faced by Chinese and other Asian Americans. Problems of immigration and race profiling reflect in her paintings and print work. Being a female and contemporary artist also played a big role in her depiction of her identity as a woman. She handles feminism in her work as it is a central theme amongst women artist. Her discovery of 7th BC mural paintings in China in 1990 influenced a current crop of art that has become a central style of her work. She merges murals to create new forms that combine classical figures with modern day figures. This style has proved to be very effective in creating her as a unique artist. Conclusion Ranciere addresses the issues of critical art and its problems. However, in his analysis and theorizing he defines elements of critical or contemporary art. In summary, Ranciere considers critical art to be more of political or oppositional or transformational. Critical art or contemporary art is shown or theorized to be more informational and less aesthetical when it comes to structural issues involved in art. The form and the methods of the painter or sculptor are less considered, while the message or the transformational message is more evident. Critics have considered Hung Liu to be one of the most influential Painters of the modern times from Asian- American descent. Her workers are transformational and there is clear evidence that the theories that Rancier Proposes have largely influenced her work. This paper has reviewed and shown how Hung Liu has managed to use the theories proposed by Jacques Ranciere in his work. Works Cited Moser, Joann. “Conversations with Hung Liu.” American Art. Vol 25, No 2. Smithsonian Institution, 2011 Ranciere, Jacques. “Aesthetics and its Discontents.” New York: Verso, 2009 Name Instructors’ name Course Date Part one Thesis summary statements In his article, Donald Judd tries to describe new art by contrasting it to the movements of painting and sculpture. He also describes the commonness in the diversity between new art and the mainstream art movements of painting and sculpture. He gives the simple clarity that the new work art which is mostly three dimensional is not a movement but a form that tries to go against painting and sculpture, however not the past paintings and sculptures but the present or in the present context. Umberto Eco’s piece, poetics of open work looks at how instrumental music works have been left to the individual performer to play them. In his paper eco tries to show the differences between the musical communication forms at the present and the traditional classics performance. Eco states that the performer as at his discretion to play the composition in his own way by interpreting the composer’s instructions while at the same time giving his own judgment on the form that the composition takes during performance. He illustrates his argument with various works composed and performed by different people. Jacque Ranciere’s article Problems and Transformations of critical Art delves into how the new form of art commonly known as critical art tries to build itself. Ranciere argues from the perspective of the functionality of critical art as a school which is political as it tries to establish itself as an agent of world transformation. He argues that critical art tries to build on understanding or functionality while killing appearance of the art itself or its form. Part two Question 1. Roland Barthez, From Work to Text piece explores the changes in literary works while at the same time trying to define the3 difference between the term work and the term text. These differences are important in defining an object in the new Context. According to Barthez, the word text has become fashionable and hence has been used sometimes mistakenly. Barthez says that the word text has more meaning and its is a literary movement from the object of work to the new Object of text which has always been misused. In his introduction, Barthez states that his essay is not an argument about text but it is primarily an approach towards the meaning of the word text. The first approach of towards defining the word text is that the term is not an object. Also the term work cannot be an object that can be computed chronologically. That is these two words cannot be defined as work being classical and text being modern. The main difference between the two is that work is a fragment that occupies the space of a book while text is a methodological field. Hence work can be seen in bookshops and even other places while text is the process itself of demonstrating a certain subject according to certain rules. Work can be held while text can only exist in terms of language and in the movement of a discourse. He also says that text is not the decomposition of work but it is the work which is the imagination of the text. In brief, text cannot stop because it is a movement that can be found across a work or many works. According to Barthez, another approach towards the term text is that it does not stop or contained in genres. He says that the text has a subversive force against old classifications such as novel,, poetry, philosophy, mystic. A single text may appear in all these categories. According to Barthez, text goes to the limits of enunciation. Work on the other hand can be classified in a genre. For example, a collection of Bastilles poetry. Hence the text to him is paradoxical. The text also can be approached, experienced or even be a reaction to a certain sign. However the work is signified. In other words, a work acts as a general sign representing institutional categories while the text is an infinite deferment of the signified. The term text is also shown to be an irreducible plural and not in terms of meaning. The text does not interpret but it’s dissemination. The plural of the text always opposes text to work. The work is also shown to be caught up in the process of filiations or it is postulated hence it can be determined as a consecution of works themselves and conformity of the work of the author. Barthez also states that the work is an object of consumption which leads to many to recognize a literary piece in terms of its quality. The text on the other hand, decants the work from its consumption normality. The text hence requires that an individual tries to distance between reading and writing. Question 3 An example of a sculpture that is more or less environmental as described by Judd is the sculpture called the Ghost of Huia. These sculpture was commissioned in September 23rd 2011 at the roundabout near Square Edge in Palmerstone North City. The bronze sculpture was created by renowned artist Paul Dibble in memory of the extinct birds commonly known as Huia. The birds were last spotted in 1907. The work is a sculpture that can be described to be more environmental and open and extended. The sculpture is 2.3 meters high. In describing the sculpture as an environmental object, it is clear that the sculpture is a three dimensional object that can be classified under new work art. The work uses bronze and iron in its assembly of parts. The bird itself is made from bronze which is one of the most commonly used materials of New Work art as described by Judd. The bird sculpture is then placed on top of a round iron ring which is in itself a work of art. As a new art sculpture that is open, the emphasis that the creator puts on the broad scale falls within the environmental sculptures as described by Judd. The Sculpture is wide compared to the real Huia Bird. These is perhaps because of the subject of the sculpture is environmental and this is because the creator was conveying the theme of extinction. The large size of the sculpture enables the people to see it clearly. Another distinct features that makes the sculpture more environmental is the type of materials used. There is a mixture of material in the three dimensional composition which is common in new work art. To create an object, the stand is made in a three dimensional ring made of iron. These stand is circular in shape which is a trend used by abstract artists. The placing of the art also contributes hugely to it being a more environmental composition. The sculpture was commissioned in the open at a roundabout with a natural environmental background behind it. This is a major contributing factor in making the piece more environmental. The open environment in the center of the city helps place it strategically for all the people in the city to see it. The theme or the subject of the composition becomes purely an environmental one. That is the theme of extinction. The composition tries to raise awareness on the subject of extinction. The sculpture itself saliently resembles the Huia bird. The composition is not a full representation of the original Huia bird. The form and shape of the bird that the creator depicts is totally different from the original bird. As Judd explains it, New Art works do not conform to the traditional compositions that always tried to imitate the figures that they were creating. The New Work art is more concentrated with raising awareness and not following the rules of form hence the objects will always appear to use imagery. This makes the sculpture to be open and extended to more interpretations. The sculpture is actually in opposition to the rules of the movement of arts. Read More