Contemporary artists - Ackermann, Andre, Applebroog, Arevalo, Acconci - Essay Example

Contemporary Artists Art is a fascinating the scope of which is beyond the limits of our imagination. Only an aesthetic mind person can obtain pleasure from the elegance of an art since it is highly associated with human emotions. So a good artist will always be an artistic mind person who finds beauty from all objects around him. However, such a person may not necessarily be an artist because creation of an art is something beyond that skill. Art and artists existed always from the very origin of human history to this electronic century. This paper will specifically discuss the achievements of some contemporary artists like Rita Ackermann, Carl Andre, Ida Applebroog, Javier Arevalo, and Vito Acconci who contributed much to the world of contemporary art. Rita Ackermann Rita Ackermann, the Hungarian- American painter was born in 1968 at Budapest in Hungry. She completed her basic training from University of Fine Arts Budapest and flew to New York in order to achieve higher degrees in painting from the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. Even though Ackermann mainly concented in paintings and drawings, she was also interested in T-shirts and skateboard designing. She is a well known contemporary artist who challenged all traditional concepts of painting and depicted contradictions of human nature on her canvas. In her early stages of painting, she focused on the seductive notions of pubescent girls and their conceptual transitions of nymphomania in various phases of their lives. She also tries to enlighten a plethora of social factors which influences or inspires these mental abnormalities. Similarly she bases pornographic ideas in her paintings with the intention of reflecting mental variances in human values and relations. In her opinion, attraction of music and other art performances influence her a lot in the works. Ackermann’s “work is often most striking where it most closely resembles something we have been seen before” (Schjeldahl). Most striking thing is that she can handle any types of work with great brush controlling and mysterious notions; it makes her great in the world of colors. Women characters and their varied faces of life were the essence of the majority of her pictures. She has also done some social responsible works which show the horrible impacts of violence, unethical political practices, and woman abuse. Angryboy is one of the famous works of Ackermann which greatly reflects her capacity to show magic with brush and paint. Carl Andre Carl Andre is a skilled American minimalist artist, born in 16th September 1935 at Quincy in MA. He became famous on the ground of excellent sculpture work. He worked as freight conducting person from 1960-64. The ordered nature of work helped him to develop an artistic concepts and skill in sculpture work. But in this period he did not create any sculptures; on the other hand, he concentrated in writing. Through his extraordinary version of art, he proves that art can be created even from disposable substances. Varied nature of environment and diverse human emotions are reflected throughout his work. Andre’s closeness to the environment inspired him to do his sculptural work with maximum pure elements of the nature. There are huge differences in spiritual and material aspects of his work on the account of ‘harmony, proportion, and pure order’ (Rites). Andre’s work, Equivalent VIII had created large controversy in western countries as a result of wastage of public money by Tate Gallery with its purchase. It is possible to his act of divergence from the traditional concepts of sculptural works if we critically observe his work. He tries to bring innovative notions in the field of minimalism and often it produces some confusion in the field of sculptural art. Andre had deep knowledge in mathematics and physics which helps him to shape varied symmetry and pattern for his work. Even though there are several criticisms toward the sculptural symmetry of Andre; no doubt, his works are outstanding as it reflects the scope of geometric minimalism. In addition to his geometric combination of artistic notions, he also gives great emphasize on the moral decay of humanity. However, his works are stamped in the history of sculpture on the ground of either familiarity or notoriety. Ida Applebroog Ida Applebroog is a prominent American painter and was born in Bronx in U.S on 11th November 1929. Applebroog’s many works are considered as precious and added in the public collections of United States. Similarly she has written some books on various issues. The works include Are You Bleeding Yet. She presented her masterwork ‘Monalisa’ in an exhibition conducted in United States which is created out of her 150 drawings. Often, her paintings turned to be mysterious to ordinary people since many of these reflect the mythical notions; but this style helped her to achieve critical assessment on her works. A single painting of Applebroog expresses large ideas more than a thousand pages writing does. Similarly, she can efficiently deal with any mode of drawings whether it is related to sex, infancy, illness or mere uncertainty. It is also noticeable that she gives much significance to sex and mental variances in sexual concepts through her paintings. For this purpose, she mainly focuses on female characters in order to bring the inevitable facts of women’s restricted freedoms in the male dominated society. Sexual elements in her works must be critically scrutinized through the microscope of spiritual ideology of sex rather than a mere physical observation. In addition to this, she tries to bring out the social and ethical problems related to child abuses, regular murders, or gang rapes. “Through the lens of humor, irony and stage-setting her work reveals the strange and strong bonds between our public selves and our private follies and fears” (Jones). She always uses comic like paintings in order to highlight issues which have some social significance. In the recent ages she adopted some more simplified methods of drawing that express vast ideas and embrace technical elements to present the works digitally. Javier Arevalo Javier Arevalo is a well known medicinal innovator who was born in North Peru. He started his art practice from primary classes itself and later went to Academy of San Carlos for higher studies. He has won many awards such as Art Award Nuevos Valores, Mexico City for the great contributions in the field of art. His family had traditional heredity in the field medicine which helped him to know the causes and symptoms of various diseases. They mainly dealt with Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic drink used for its psychotropic properties. Averalo’s grandfather had an ardent interest in him and he explained everything about the working of Ayahuasca to his grandson. Even though he gained adequate knowledge from his grandfather, his ambitions were beyond mere practice of treatment. Therefore, he went to jungle for a deep research of medicinal plants. The strong desire and systematic hardwork helped him to deal with medicine as an art and thereby he became a valuable doctor for his patients within a short period of time. Even then, his unabated thirst for developing new means in medicine influenced him to continue his innovations. He adopted a method of treatment which was purely based on nature since he believed that plants had an immense power in the treatment of diseases. According to Averalo, ‘every plant has a spirit’ (Charing). It is precise that he mainly treats his patients by the application of logical psychiatric ideologies rather than with a medicinal approach. However, he could reflect infinite possibilities of medical concepts which make him outstanding among contemporary artists. Vito Acconci Vito Acconci is a U.S artist effulges in the field of landscape architecture. He was born in New York on 24th January 1940. He turned towards video art by focusing his own body as the subject matter for his work in order to get a trial run in the landscape architecture. The wider conceptual scope and beauty of some video galleries persuaded Acconci to transform his interests from poetry to the world of vision. In addition to this, the poetry has too much restriction to express his broader ideas and notions. The Seedbed is one of the famous pieces of works evolved from the creative mind of Acconci. He dedicates his body and soul completely to the process when he is in the workshop of a new art creation. Similarly he shows some behavioral abnormalities while the formation of the art in progress and this devotion helps him to produce many intelligent works. As Lockwood states, “he believes that home is a place of sanctuary, but it is also a very confined space that will eventually swallow you up unless you break free” (Lockwood). His work, Following Piece is based on this concept and it becomes one of his ever shining works. Likewise he always notices to ensure the participation of the general public since he deems that no art works will be perfect unless it gains active public involvement. So, in order to accomplish this mission, he framed a work with welding several cars in which people can sit. However, his innovative notions of modern sculptural works make him famous in New York. Conclusion Each of the contemporary artists we discussed above is of unique professional characteristics. However, among them, Rita Ackermann and Ida Applebroog are lady painters who demonstrate a lot of similarities in their works. Both of them give prominence to the explicit sexual notions in their works with their major focus on highlighting the declining human values. On the other hand, Carl Andre is a sculptural artist who has deep knowledge in the geometric ratios that he applies in his multifaceted creations. He has a good faith in the future of humanity which he discloses through his works. The fourth artist, Javier Arevalo is someone different from all others because he heals people by the application of self-developed medicine, methods, and treatment concepts. Finally, the landscape architect, Vito Acconci is man intoxicated with art; and art constitutes his soul and all. Obviously, all of them are characterized by innovative concepts and strong desires. Works Cited Charing, Howard G. ‘Interview with Ayahuasca Mestizo Shaman Javier Arevalo’. Dec 2, 2010. Web. 20 Nov 2010. Lockwood, Karl T. Vito Acconci Biography. 2004. Web. 20 Nov 2010 Princenthal, Nancy. “Ida Applebroog”. Art in America. March 29, 2010. Web. 20 Nov 2010. Rites, Martin. Carl Andre Equivalent VIII. Web. 20 Nov 2010 Schjeldahl, Peter. “Teenarama: Rita Ackermann”. Art Net. n. d. Web. 20 Nov 2010 Read More