Student curatorial opportunity!
Have you walked by the current exhibition on the second floor of Argyros Forum and wondered who comes up with these things? Who writes those exhibit labels? What does a curator really do? If so, this is for you! The Escalette Collection of Art and Chapman’s Curatorial Department are offering an opportunity for Chapman students to curate
Contemporary Art vs. Modern Art
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “modern” is defined as, “of or relating to the present time.” The word “contemporary” is defined as “happening or beginning now or in recent times.” While these definitions may appear to be similar or even nearly identical, in terms of art genres, they are very incongruent. The modern art movement began in the 1860’s
Happy Thanksgiving!
Packin’ Heat (an original poem by Chandana Srinivas, student art collections assistant) With summer gone, a fall season comes anew, this frost brings about morning dew. From carved pumpkins, to wreaths made of pine, open your arms to all kin alike. Let the gravy simmer, the turkey broil, let your sauce fizz, and fill your
Pop! Goes the Easel...
After WWII, Atomic power and new technologies changed the entire dynamic of how art was perceived. Mass culture took over formality and breached subject matter conventions. This revolution is most commonly known as the Pop Art Movement. The term “pop” comes from the word “popular.” It is not a reference to Pop’s popularity, but to its focus
From Sanskrit to Art
Victor Hugo Zayas’ paintings are, what I like to call, ‘samatva’. ‘Samatva’ in Sanskrit means in balance. This concept is ever more prominent in Zayas’ painting Illuvia. With dark tones and thick brushstrokes, Illuvia is a balance of observation and abstraction. Zayas paints the cityscape as it is, but also distorts the fixtures by changing the tone, color,
The Art of Writing about Art
For the final post in The Art of Writing about Art series we turn to the newest work to enter the Escalette Collection: Soo Kim’s hand-cut paper That was because this year will of course go on (2014). Like Mary Corse’s Untitled, with which we began, Kim’s relief sculpture in paper is a study in
The Art of Writing about Art
With Ann Hamilton’s Warp & Weft II, mundane materials (paper, ink) and mundane subject matter (a textile, drawn thin) expand in the imagination to the level of the sublime. Philip Pedersen (Senior, Screen Acting/English) and Jacob Walker (Senior, Screenwriting/Television) were drawn in by the painterly lithograph’s subtle pull, and attempted to find adequate metaphors to
The Art of Writing about Art
Baldessari’s Discontent? II Like Rebecca Malkin, Junior Communication Studies major Raphaelle Canaan also sees discontent in Baldessari’s Accordionist (With Crowd) of 1994. However, in her reading that discontent is counteracted by the accordionist’s autonomy, leading her to argue that the work ultimately has a positive message. Faces in a Crowd Baldessari’s Accordionist (With Crowd) shows
The Art of Writing about Art
Baldessari’s Discontent? Part I For their first formal analysis assignment, several students in ART 261 chose to write about John Baldessari’s 1994 lithograph Accordionist (With Crowd). Grace Jones (Freshman, History) explains why determining meaning in Accordionist (With Crowd) is so challenging: “Each face in the “crowd” is concealed by a large, colorful dot, giving viewers
The Art of Writing about Art
In ART 261 students are introduced to the objects, theories, and methods of the study of the history of art from the Renaissance to today. The first assignment for the class is to write a formal analysis of a work of art. Formal analysis is the backbone of art writing, whether it be art history,