The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art
1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
~Lowbrow has a negative connotation to it.
~It was originally know for it's pornography.
~Surrealism artists had a strict codification and would have mock trials to decide whether or not to throw an artist out.
~Rock posters was how Lowbrow art became accepted.
~It was first accepted in Europe and was snubbed in the US.
~Cartoons and comics were a huge influence to Lowbrow.
~Internet opened up opportunities for artists to reach a global population.
~Lowbrow artists are accessible to the public, unlike other genres of artists, and interaction with them can add to the public understanding and interest.
~Canadian artists often need to visit the US to become recognized.
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1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
~In 1897 the Tate Gallery opened.
~The collection is fragmented.
~I like the cut up house from Niagara Falls called Bingo, Niagara Falls.
~Tate curators have selected 4 organizational themes with categories added to each theme.
~The intention of the Tate Gallery is to be temporary.
~Their is a contrasting display between Monet's "Water Lilies" and Richard Long's three works being displayed in the same room.
~Monet's "Water Lilies" have an almost calming effect while looking at them, in contrast, Long's work seems to almost be screaming at you.
~Each room is self-contained and has nothing to do with the room you just left.
~By breaking the art down into themes/categories, it makes it much easier to start, stop, and return to the place in which you left off.
~Categories are meant to have most pieces move interchangeably between the rooms.
~Pieces are hung deliberately so you challenge their placement.
~Design of the Tate's rooms and pieces are almost as though put together for people with short attention spans.
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1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
Bones of Contention: Native American Archaeology
~During a new highway construction, the remains of 26 white people and 1 Indian mother and child. The white people were put into caskets and reburied into a local cemetery, and the Indian mother and child were taken by archaeologists for further study.
~Maria Pearson went to her "Chief," the Governor of Iowa, and asked that the remains of Indians stopped being dug up and be returned to them for a proper burial.
~After that law passed, laws in other states popped up all over, but California was especially sensitive to Native Americans and their plight and carried stiff penalties for those who have human bones in their possession.
~David Van Horn spent $18,000 to defend himself after finding bone fragments at an archaeological site and then identifying those as human bones. After the lawsuit, he got out of archaeology and opened up a bar on the east coast.
~Museums and colleges across the country were ordered to give back the bones of Native Americans.
~Samuel Morton was a racist doctor who studied the skulls of different races. He measured the sizes of the skulls and concluded that Caucasians had the biggest skull thereby making them the "most intelligent," and African Americans had the smallest, and therefore were the "least intelligent," Native Americans fell into the middle.
~4000 skulls were obtained from Native Americans in 1868 and given to museums.
~18,000 Native American remains were discovered in the Smithsonian. In 1990 there was a law passed that said the remains must be returned to the Native Americans for proper burial.
~The Lakota tribe will take any and all remains that can't be identified based on their skull measurements. They feel that the remains should be handed over to them right away without any documentation.
~Due to their oral traditions, Native Americans don't need to know what the archaeologists are trying to provide.
~Rheumatoid arthritis was thought to be a fairly modern disease, but ancient tribes located along the Tennessee River showed signs of having the disease, and then it seemed to spread to Europeans probably through trade routes. It is possibly caused from a microorganism or maybe an allergen. The source is still unknown.
~Scientists and doctors are coming together to study the bones to try and compare it with modern diseases.
~ There does seem to be evidence that rheumatoid arthritis was around long before trade routes between the Americas were established. This throws out the previous theory.
~Not every tribe is against the archeologists' studies. The Omaha tribe had a partnership with the college so as the college learned from the remains, that knowledge was shared with the Omaha. All of the remains have since been buried, but the Omaha felt as though they learned about their past. The Omaha were part of the widespread "boarding schools" where the children were ripped away from their families and punished severely if they were caught talking in their native language, or doing anything "Indian." The archaeological studies that were conducted, gave them back a part of their history that was missing.
~There is now a Native American museum that has opened in NYS.
~I will visit that museum!
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1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
George Eastman House: Picture Perfect
~The whole history of the camera to video is in one building, the George Eastman House.
~The museum is located in Eastman's 35 (*conflicting information ~ later on in the film it says that he constructed a 50 room... Not sure which is correct*) room mansion and you can see the story of his life unfold before your eyes.
~14,000 photographers work are contained in this museum.
~William Jennings was the first person to capture lightning on a camera.
~The first camera to be sold in the US was bought by a doctor in 1840 for $76.
~The progression of the camera to make it user friendly and a household item.
~Kodak was a name Eastman came up with by using the first letter of his mother's maiden name, which was Kilbourn. He used that as a first and last letter, and then played around with vowels and consonants until he found a name that was east to pronounce.
~Kodak is an internationally famous product.
~In 1888 he produced a pre-loaded camera with the ability to take 100 photographs that costs $25.
~In 1900 he invented a camera that cost $1 called the Brownie.
~The brownie was made for 70 years and had 150 different styles.
~Items have been restored as what it would have been like in his time.
~Films are not forever, and need to be restored.
~Color videos were made by making 3 videos at the same time ~ red, blue, and yellow.
~George Eastman took his life in 1932 after finding out that he had a debilitating disease.
2. Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Exhibition project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.
The way the videos relate to the project is showing us that there are more options available to us if we just look for them. It also shows the trials and tribulations that artists can experience when trying to find a museum or show for their work.
The Tate video was especially interesting because they had categories within their themes, which is almost what I am doing. It also reinforces what one of the people said on the YouTube videos that we had to watch.
George Eastman House: Picture Perfect is more like what I want to do. Ultimately, I would like to combine professional and up-and-coming artists in my show.
3. What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to understanding of the art concepts you practiced while creating your curator project?
I really liked the Lowbrow video, it showed interesting bits of information that I didn't know.
The most powerful video for me was: Bones of Contention: Native American Archaeology. The problem with this video is that I don't relate to it in an art sense, but rather relate to it in a deeper way. I understand all sides, but one of the first things that jumped out at me was that the white people were dug up, put into caskets, and reburied right away. In contrast, the Native American mother and child were sent away to have her bones studied. I really don't understand the logic in that. If you want to learn more about your "past" ancestors, then why would you not look at ALL bones that are come across? This video while I truly liked it, I simply don't relate to it from and art perspective.
I really liked "George Eastman House: Picture Perfect" and definitely want to visit that museum too! I looked up the cost of a membership, and it is only $35 for students for the year! It also includes a members only tour in August that you can go up into the attic, and down into the basement. The video was really interesting because it showed mostly archived footage both in photograph, as well as, video format.
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