Week #12 - Video Blog

1. Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.
• I chose Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the '50s and '60s, and Andy Warhol: Images of an Image, because the 50’s and 60’s was something I could conceptualize. It was my parents era and and visually I know that I have seen pieces from that time, in life outside of a museum. I chose the film about Andy Warhol, because I wanted to know more about him specifically. It is a name that I recognize but an artist I know little about.

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
• In the Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the '50s and '60s, the key concepts that I really took away was why the art from that time took on the form that it did. The mood of the world, and the fact that artists were interested in creating art that had not been created before, which is in part responsible for abstract technique.
• In the Andy Warhol film, I felt like the presence of art in marketing, media , and the everyday were really apparent. I was struck by Warhol's statement that department stores were the new museums.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?
• The videos I chose really provide a more in depth accounting of the way that the artist connected to the world and insight about why certain art became predominant and poplar. I also appreciated the evolution of art especially warhol’s art to interpret the world, actresses, advertisements, etc. in a way that took them from everyday items to art through his unique view and techniques. Especially silk screening.

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?
• I really enjoyed both of the films, I was surprised that I like the Warhol film more that I liked the Abstract Expressionism one. More so than the book the film provided information about the mood of the world that the artist were in an some of the outside influences that influenced the works. Additionally, the video about Warhol did a good job of really depicting how and why his art was so different and revolutionary. It gave me a better understanding and respect for the pieces that I had maybe previously thought were rather unimpressive copies of someone else's work. For example the art of the actresses, being based on someone else's photograph, or the copied images of food labels or advertisements being retooled by warhol and presented to the world as his own art. I now really grasp that his art was the interpretation of these mondaine or ordinary things.