WEEK 9

1.Chuck Close is a surrealism artist,but Claude Monet is a Impressionist.
2.American artist Chuck Close has been a leading figure in contemporary art since the early 1970s. Best known for the monumental heads he has painted in thousands of tiny airbrush bursts, thumbprints, or looping multi-color brushstrokes, Close has developed a formal analysis and methodological reconfiguration of the human face that have radically changed the definition of modern portraiture.
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting.
3.Celebrated as one of the most influential figurative painters of our time, Chuck Close has remained a vital presence by focusing exclusively on portraiture, a genre often under-recognized in contemporary art. Since the 1960s, Close has used his inimitable style of realistic painting to portray a wide range of subjects, including friends, family, fellow artists, and himself.
"On the water a few roses water lily, adorn
Bud red thoroughly, color and luster, such as strawberry sort bright-coloured,
A white flower petal edges. Look ahead, again
A bunch of flowers into a floating parterre embrace,
As if the garden three color as the butterfly pansy/fly out, like
Convergence on the wings of blue, sat on this piece of water flowerbed.
Say it is water flower bed. In fact, it is heaven flower-bed... "
4.they are all used a lot of colours to make their paintings to be colourful.
   they are all oil paintings.
   they are used the nonrepresentational colours to to describe a specific object.
5.chuck's work is belong to surrealism wrok.but Monet's work is belong to impressionist.
  chuck 's work was doing people's faces,Monet's work was doing the natural  view.
  they are used different colours to describe the object,Chuck was used thunder-and-lightning colours,Monet was used caliginous colours.
6 .I prefer   Monet's work ,I think his works make the people feel how beautiful the natural it is !and how colourful the world it is ! At the same time let people feel peaceful .chuck's work make me uncomfortable and I think I may don't like the surrealism works.
7.Monet is one of my favorite artist,his works will be classical forever I think.
8yes,I'm done with it.


Reference:       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close

                           http://www.chuckclose.com/

                 http://www.famouspainter.com/claude.htm

                     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet

WEEK 8

1. The importance of the design and construction

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a  museum modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain.
The museum features permanent and visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists. One of the most admired works of contemporary architecture, the building has been hailed as a "single moment in the architectural culture" because it represents "one of those rare moments when critics, academics, and the general public were all completely united about something. The curves on the building were to appear random. The architect has been quoted as saying that "the randomness of the curves are designed to catch the light". The museum's design and construction serve as an object lesson in Gehry's style and method. Like many of Gehry's other works, it has a structure that consists of radically sculpted, organic contours. Architect Philip Johnson called it "the greatest building of our time".

 Eiffel Tower is located in Paris, France. It was constructed between 1887 and 1889 to be the entrance way to the 1889 World’s Fair and to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Gustave Eiffel’s design was chosen unanimously from among 700 that were submitted to the World’s Fair design competition.The Eiffel Tower was to remain in place for just 20 years, but its antenna saved it from being demolished in 1909. Telegraph companies were using it at the time, and since then, it has become part of France’s communication system, including its radio and television services. The tower has also become a symbol of Paris. It is the most recognized monument in Europe and many people think it is an architectural masterpiece. Over 200 million people have visited it since May of 1889. In 2000, a new lighting system was installed and a nightly light show has added to its appeal for both Parisians and tourists.

 2. Significance of the materials

The pig iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125 metre square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is constructed of a complex steel frame with sinuous stone, glass and titanium orthogonal and organic volumes. The titanium cladding used is half a millimeter thick, each piece is unique and has been designed with the aid of a state-of-the-art 3D design computer programme. The volumes are linked by glass curtain walls for light transparency. In some of the more curvacious and irregular exhibition spaces within the museum the floor is constructed of cement with curved and twisted walls. Before Gehry chose to use titanium sheathing, 29 different materials including stainless steel, copper and aluminium were considered for use.


3.significance of the designer

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most famous structures in the world. It was named after Alexandre Eiffel whose team of engineers designed it. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel's company won the competition and so the the Tower became known as the Eiffel Tower. However, it was Morris Koechlin, an employee of Eiffel that designed the thousand foot structure. His first design for the tower was rejected by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel as it was very plain and lacked 'class' and it was only after adding more graceful, ornate features that Eiffel decided to enter it for the competition. Eiffel also stated that he would finance the project to 80% of the cost of construction. The original idea was for the tower to be dismantled after a twenty year period. However, it was so well built and engineered that it was decided to leave it in position.

Designed by Frank O Gehry, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain is one of the most  innovative, architectural landmarks of the 20th century. With it's titanium exterior and sinuous curves it provides a fine backdrop to the extensive exhibition of contemporary art, travelling exhibits, sculpture and art installations.   The tower, rising in an asymmetrical curve, looks like it might be a raised drawbridge or some sort of crane for handling freight. It turns out to be a purely sculptural element of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, a building of such brilliant innovation and esthetic triumph that it has been called a twentieth century Chartres.

4.function for which each was built

The Eiffel Tower structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the tower has been used for radio transmission. Until the 1950s, an occasionally modified set of antenna wires ran from the summit to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars. They were connected to long-wave transmitters in small bunkers; in 1909, a permanent underground radio center was built near the south pillar and still exists today. Since 1957, the tower has been used for transmission of FM radio and television. Originally, Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years (when ownership of it would revert to the City of Paris, who had originally planned to tear it down; part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily torn down), more than recouping his expenses, but as it later proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened its doors to the public on October 19, 1997, the new museum was making news.  In the late 1980s the Basque authorities embarked on an ambitious redevelopment program for the city. By 1991, with new designs for an airport, a subway system, and a footbridge, among other important projects by major international architects such as Norman Foster, Santiago Calatrava, and Arata Isozaki, the city planned to build a first-class cultural facility. In April and May of 1991 at the invitation of the Basque Government and the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, Thomas Krens, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, met repeatedly with officials, signing a preliminary agreement to bring a new Guggenheim Museum to Bilbao. 5. Function now-has it changed? The Eiffel tower has changed color six times since is construction. It is repainted every 7 years. The nineteenth coat of paint will be added near the end of 2008. Each repainting requires 60 tons of paint and takes 15 to 18 months to complete. The Eiffel tower is in fact painted in three different shades, which grow lighter towards the top and are designed to match the Parisian sky. The tower was originally constructed with four restaurants on the first floor. Each served a unique variety of food: Alsatian, Russian, English-American and French. In 1937, this floor underwent its first overhaul, resulting in two restaurants in place of the original four. In the 1980s, these restaurants were remodeled again to create the "La Belle France" and "Le Parisien." In 1996, these two were merged to create "Altitude 95," which is currently undergoing another renovation and will reopen in 2009. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is one of the most important ingredients in the plan to redevelop the city of Bilbao. The plan, involving a number of major projects conceived by some of the world's most prestigious architects, includes the work now in progress to increase operational capacity at the city's port, the revamping of the city's airport, a new Conference and Performing Arts Center, the construction of a metropolitan railway and a new footbridge crossing the river at Uribitarte. The unique Museum is built on a 32,500 square meter site in the center of Bilbao. On one side it runs down to the waterside of the Nervión River, 16 meters below the level of the rest of the city of Bilbao. One end is pierced through by the huge Puente de La Salve, one of the main access routes into the city. The building itself is an extraordinary combination of interconnecting shapes. Orthogonal blocks in limestone contrast with curved and bent forms covered in titanium.

Reference:   http://www.guggenheim.org/guggenheim-foundation/architecture/bilbao

                   http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Bilbao.html

                   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower

Week Seven

1. What and when was the Industrial Revolution?

Answer:
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the times. The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. Most notably, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth.

2. Research both Modernist paintings in order to comment on the subject matter, form and style used to celebrate the machine and motion in each painting. Answer the question in 2 parts for each painting.

Answer:
RMB City is a virtual city in the online world of Second Life, planned and developed by Beijing artist Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy). Launched in 2008, and open to the public since January 2009, RMB City is a platform for experimental creative activities, one in which Cao Fei and her collaborators use different mediums to test the boundaries between virtual and physical existence. As a laboratory for investigations in art, design, architecture, literature, cinema, politics, economy, society, and beyond, RMB City is constantly nourished by new and innovative projects, and supported by leading international art institutions and networks. As a model of avant-garde urban planning, it traverses the boundaries between past and future, real and virtual to link China and the cosmopolitan contemporary world.


3. Research Cao Fei's RMB City (2007-9)  in order to comment on this work in more depth.
Answer:

4. RMB City is described as a utopia/dystopia. Comment on what these terms mean, and how they can be applied to the work.

Answer:
Throughout the “construction process” and actual operation period of RMB City in 2008, the Serpentine Gallery in London displayed its progress in a dedicated physical space. Since then, RMB City has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and institutions around the world.
Virtual institution- and individual collector-“managed” buildings inside RMB City will hold regularly-changing exhibitions and events open to all Second Life users.

After much anticipation, RMB City opened to full public access in January, following construction since the summer of 2008.RMB City is an art community in the 3-D virtual world ofSecond Life and was realised by Beijing-based artist Cao Fei as a public platform for creativity.

Second Life is as an online platform that has amassed 14 million registered users. Participants create a parallel reality in which to live out their dreams. Each user is represented by an avatar, a digital figure that they can customise and control. Cao Fei has constructed a virtual city that will continue to grow and change over its two-year run with the participation and support of leading international art institutions and creative practitioners.

The project explores the potential of an online art community, seeking to create the conditions for an expansive discourse about art, urbanism, economy, imagination and freedom.

One of the first art projects taking place in RMB City is Master Q’s Guide to Virtual Feng Shui by Huang He, a young artist who brings the ancient Chinese spatial methodology into the new virtual metaverse of RMB City.

Reflecting on China’s recent urban and cultural explosion, the architecture of RMB City is an amalgam of ancient and modern Chinese icons from the panda to the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.

Reference:  http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/georgians/industrial/industrialisation.html

                   http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victorian/vindust.html

                    http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2008/05/cao_fei_rmb_city.html

                   http://www.journal-online.co.uk/article/6296-cao-fei-rmb-city

Week Six

1. What and when was the Enlightenment?

Answer:
The Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason or the Age of Rationalism, was a period during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when European philosophers stressed the use of reason as the best method for learning the truth.
(http://www.enotes.com/history-fact-finder/eras-their-highlights/what-was-enlightenment)



2. Define the concept of the Sublime.
 
Answer:

sublime

in literary criticism, grandeur of thought, emotion, and spirit thatcharacterizes great literature. It is the topic of an incompletetreatise, On the Sublime, that was for long attributed to the 3rd-century Greek philosopher Cassius Longinus but now believed tohave been written in the 1st century AD by an unknown writerfrequently designated Pseudo-Longinus. 

Following 'the discoveries of geography within reason' this was one thought to be an intellectual basis that the sublime carried. The main concept was to simply convert the subject matter of humanistic ideas and social development to landscapes to finally the presentation of a landsscape and man.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sublime)

3. How did the concept of the Sublime come out of the Enlightenment thought?

Answer:
Enlightenment thought suggests that oppression and domination are residues of the feudal past and will eventually fade away. ... distinction between terror (linked to the sublime) and horror.The concept of the sublime came out of the enlightenment when it was in the 18th century when people began to think more of they way world was ruled through the rules of the government, rather then the rules of their religion.

4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work. Add some more images of his work.

Answer: His works are represented in more than fifty major museum collections around the world. Richard Misrach is one of the most influential and prolific artists of his generation. 

Misrach has had one-person exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Musee Beaubourg, amongst others. A mid-career traveling survey was organized by the Houston Museum of in the collections of most major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In fall 2010, on the five-year anniversary of Katrina, the exhibition “Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 2005]” made its debut at the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Misrach)


5. Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.
Answer:
James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York. His parents were Quakers. His father was an aeronautical engineer and educator. His mother trained as a medical doctor and later worked in the Peace Corps. Turrell obtained a pilot's licence when 16 years old. He subsequently flew supplies to remote mine sites and worked as an aerial cartographer. He received a BA degree from Pomona College in perceptual psychology in 1965 and also studied mathematics, geology and astronomy there too. He received a MA degree in art from Claremont Graduate School, University of California, Irvine in 1966.^{(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Turrell)}


6. How does Misrach's photography make you feel? Does it appeal to your imagination?
Answer:

I love photography as art, I have lots of photographs around my house, some of family, some of places we have been and some by other photographers. I find it very relaxing to be able to look at photographs. Having photos of family around brings up memories and keeps them close. Pictures of places we have been stirs up memories and makes me want to go again. But pictures that other photographers have taken are interesting because I am seeing the scene or subject through their eyes, and appreciating it for what they have captured. It’s a more real type of art, like I can just step into the photograph and be somewhere else. A complete get away or escape from whatever I am doing at the time. Being moved or inspired by the things around you and enjoying them through photographs makes things real, like a place I have always wanted to visit but not had the chance yet.

7. Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.
Answer:

Sublime image