Bridget Riley

As we have gone through the semester I have come to realize that the art I tend to appreciate the most is simple and fun. I enjoy Pollock, Oldenburg, and recently discovered I enjoy Bridget Riley. Considering this is my last blog, I figured I would post about something I enjoy rather than a painting or book that I was not a fan of. When flipping through the pages of Chapter 37 in the book, it seems nearly impossible to miss the piece Current by Bridget Riley because of how it messes with your eyes.

Bridget Riley is known for what we call Optical Art, which pretty much just art that messes with your eyes. This form of art intrigues me. It fits the bill for the type of art I enjoy (it does not hold some incredibly deep meaning that one has to search for in order to appreciate) and it is fascinating to look at. You can stare are the painting and over time you start seeing different things as the painting begins to mess with your eyes. Some of the pieces trick your eyes into thinking the painting is moving on the canvas. Metropolitan 136 is another one of Riley's works that is fun to look at. Even just moving your head while looking at changes how your eyes perceive the image. 

I fascinates me how paint on a canvas is able to trick the human eye to where it appears it is moving. I couldn't imagine attempting to paint such an image. I don't understand how it is possible to look at the image long enough to finish it without your eyes freaking out on you. After staring at it for just a short time I have to look away because my eyes can't comprehend what is going on. On top of that, it would take a lot of talent and precision to get the detailed lines placed just as they are needed in order to create the desired eye-tricking effect. I find this to be a new and creative twist on art. It takes painting in a new direction that I definitely wouldn't have thought of taking it.  When I was younger I used to enjoy trying to find weird pictures online like these that would mess with my eyes, little did I know this was actually a kind of art. Bridget Riley/Op Art is another one to add to my list of art that I find fun and enjoyable. 

Claes Oldenburg

Usually whenever I look at art in the book I don't like it at first, but then as we discuss it in class it grows on me. The case is much different when I first looked at the works of Claes Oldenburg. I instantly loved it.The picture in the book is his gigantic sculpture of a clothespin standing up in the middle of the city.

 It is incredibly random, and I love it. It is probably due to my odd sense of humor, but I find his work to be quite humorous. He takes everyday objects that are so common we sometimes forget the exist, and puts an enormous sculpture of it in a random location. He didn't put the sculpture of the clothespin in a laundromat parking lot where it would be somewhat relevant to its surrondings, he put it in the middle of Central Square in Philadelphia. It is completely irrelevant to the location, which I think adds to the beauty of it. It is completely random, which makes it fun. The art we usually tend to talk about in class has a very serious tone and deep underlying meaning, so it is very refreshing to see art that is light hearted and fun. His work actually makes me laugh because it is just so random. For example his work below is like a giant went bowling in the middle of a park, it is great!

When we looked at the pop-art of Andy Warhol I really wasn't a big fan. I liked the simplicity of it, but it felt dull to me. Oldenburg on the other hand somehow creates things that are simple yet exciting. I don't think much thought goes into his works. It looks like he gets a random idea and goes with it. His "Dropped Cone" sculpture has to be my favorite. It is a huge ice cream cone that looks like it was dropped and splatted on the corner of a building... It is original and fun.

Giacometti

Realizing I haven't really blogged since mid-term, I figured it was about time to get blogging again. Flipping through the book at the works we have talked about I remembered my fascination with Giacometti's City Square. When I saw it I noticed the intense sense of solitude it gives, even though there are multiple figures within the same area. I get the 'alone in a crowd' feeling from this piece. The humanities book links Giacometti with existentialism, and at first it was unclear to me how sculptures could be linked to philosophy. It took a little thinking (mostly sparked by an essay question on the test) to make the connection of how Sartre's philosophies could be revealed in another artist's work.

Sartre's believed that 'existence precedes essence', and I actually can see that philosophy coming through in Giacometti's City Square. The whole 'existence precede's essence' philosophy implies that we are born with a clean slate, and as Sartre stated, we are who we choose to be. Basically what I get out of this is that we are responsible for who we are, we can't blame anyone for who we become, because ultimately it is our own choices that define who we are. The figures in  City Square appear to be the clean slate figures that simply exist, but have not developed their own identity yet. They are dark, bleak, and have no distinctive characteristics. Each figure also appears to be going in it's own unique direction, and will not not be influenced by the other characters. This seems to reflect Sartre's beliefs that we are responsible for defining ourselves by making our own choices; we are not defined by those around us. Whether or not Giacometti actually meant for his sculpture to reflect existentialism or not, I can see why the book links him to existentialism. Giacometti must have really liked using the dark and unidentifiable characters, because he uses them in multiple works. This picture below is his sculpture Three Men Walking, which looks an awful lot like City Square,  just with fewer people.

It seems a little uncreative to me to use the exact same figures for multiple works, but oh well I certainly am not artist. I still kinda like Giacometti's work, even though it seems a little bit dark and depressing.