Chapter 18

                  Arts of Islam and of Africa. for me this chapter was just so-so nothing really got me

   excited about but I am sure lots of people love this style it is just not for me with that said I choose

  two works of art to compare with each other the first one was Seated Couple.

              I found this piece to be pretty cool and I found their facial expressions to be very interesting
   they look like a very happy couple just watching a sunset or their children at play. I compared it to
   Spirit-Spouse

              which is the same style as Seated Couple but not as pleasing to me don't get me wrong I like this piece it is just missing something for me I guess it is the connection I felt with the Seated Couple
with their facial expression you could just feel the people that posed for them which I think is really cool. Like I said in the beginning of this, this was not one of favorite chapter but I was able to find two pieces I enjoyed.

What is beauty

             I thought Tuesdays class was very interesting we had a debate on what is beauty and we
 we even broke up into groups to come up with a way to describe beauty my group came up with beauty is that, that is pleasing to the senses which I thought was a great way to describe beauty.
we even spoke about Keates version of beauty, beauty is truth which I do not agree with sometimes the truth is ugly like Hamlet said one may wear a smile and yet be a villain.
We also had 3 painting to choose from to pick which one best fits the word beauty.

        For me the choice was easy I choose Birth of Venus I found this painting to be truly breath taking for me this work of art is beauty at it's best. I enjoyed Olympia but I did not find it near as beautiful as Birth of Venus and last and certainly lest for me was Woman and a Bicycle I did not like this painting at all but to each his own. Like I said in the beginning of this blog I really enjoyed Tuesdays class.

Chapter 19

Arts of East Asia:India, China, and Japan I found the art in this chapter

to be very moving and beautiful if I had to choose my favorite it would be the art

from Japan there is just something about it that moves me so I choose 2 sets of

artists from this group to compare to each other. 1st off was Utamaro's

Hairdressing

I compared this to Sharaku's Otani Oniji

Although they have a lot in common I really loved the Hairdressing I

found this piece to be truly breath taking I loved the colors used and the look

of the women they seemed at peace and the Sharaku piece just felt a little

scary to me. I just really was into the hairdresser and not so much into the

other go figure they are alike in a lot of ways but to me they could not be more

different but that is the beauty of art.

The next piece was Hokusai's Ejira in Suruga Province

I compared it to Hiroshige's Riverside Bamboo Market

I really enjoyed both these pieces like the 1st two they had a lot

in common they are both beautiful works of art with wonderful blends of colors

you could also see movement in the paintings they both seems to be alive which I

found to be very cool. I liked the Riverside a little more than the other because

it had a little more brightness to the colors which I really love. but as I said

in the beginning I really loved both pieces. for me this was a great chapter.

4 presenters and more on our next 2 projects

We had 4 presenters this week and all of them did very well and were very

interesting. first off we had a very weird artist named Damien Hirst he did a lot

of work with dead animals which I was not crazy about but he also had a beautiful

diamond skull which I really enjoyed it sold for 50 million pounds the most ever

paid for a piece of art from a living artist.

Next up was Matisse one of the most famous artists in the world I

found I enjoyed his sculptures more then I did his painting but that is just me

for me Matisse is OK nothing to go crazy over but once again that is just my

opinion.

Then was one of my least favorite artists Picasso let me be clear I hate

cubism but I do enjoy his blue period work but since he is to blame for cubism

I can not be a Picasso fan!

Last up was Ryoji Ikeda who was into light and sound I am not a fan

of his stuff I don't even see how this is art with that said I still think the

presenter did a great job.

Then we talked about our choices for projects 3 & 4 I think I am going to

do a photo thing and also visit the Bower in Santa Ana as my project so that ends

anthoer cool week in Art 100 with Glenn.

Chapter 20

Arts of the Pacific and the Americas not the biggest chapter in the

book but one of my favorites as far as the art goes you see I have always enjoyed

American Indian art which is in this chapter with the art being as different as

the people that were making it this was what I enjoyed the most about this chapter

the art work in this chapter shows more about the people and the times they lived

in then any other chapter in this book though the art work you could see how they

lived and the cultures they lived in which to me is very cool for a small chapter

it packed a big punch.

5 very different artists

we had 5 people present this week and each one picked a very different artist

then the one before them which made it very cool. our 1st one was on Keith Haring

he was a Graffiti artist Graffiti art is not my favorite but the presenter still

made it very interesting. the next artist chosen this week was Monet this is in

Glenn opinion the most important artist of all time the art work was beautiful and

the presenter did a good job. the next one was my favorite one of the night it was

on Goya he is one of my favorite artist as well in his later dark period. next up

was a report on Rene Magritte which had a very cool video along with the report

and the last one was very interesting as well it was on Daguerre who was the man

who changed how we take pictures he was the 1st person to ever photograph another

person how cool is that. I thought all 5 people did a great job we also spoke a

little about the Supreme Court case on GPS's and some of the things to chose from

for our next project thatwas about it for this week.

Chapter 21 The Modern World

This chapter to me had the best art so far. I really enjoyed several of the

artists and their work in this chapter so for the first time this year it was very

hard for me to choose which paintings I enjoyed the most. With all the great art

in this chapter to choose from picking to pairs of artist was hard but I choose

what I believe to be four great pieces of art. For my first pair I choose two

great war time paintings. The first one was Goya's Executions of the Third of May

this is a very powerful piece and I really enjoyed it.

I compared it to Delacroix's Liberty this also was a very powerful piece of art

I think it had a little more detail to it then did Goya's work so I liked this

one just a little bit more but once again let me say I truly enjoyed them both.

The next two are Courbet's The Artist's Studio which was a painting within a

painting which I thought was very cleaver. I really enjoyed the detail in this

piece it almost made me feel as if I was there which I thought was very cool.

I compared it to Manet's Le Dejeuner which I found to be as beautiful as the

Courbet piece it has a little more color going for it but not as much detail if

push comes to shove and I had to pick one it would be the Courbet piece it is

truly breath taking to me. Once again I really loved this chapter and it's

artists.

Termanal 5 and pot luck

This week we watched Terminal 5 it was about a art show held at JFK Airport

in New York in 2004. It was very interesting not only for the art in the show but

the terminal itself is a piece of Art.

It seems however that the show was doomed from the start it was curated by

Rachel K Ward who was very young and seemed to have bitten off more than she could

chew it was poorly ran and the show never opened to the public it was closed down

after the opening night private party because somethings were stolen from the show

and damages caused to the terminal itself.

It was a cool idea but it failed because of very poor planning.

We also had a pot luck it was OK but not even close to as good as the 1st one

we had. I also did my report on Leroy Nieman I hope people enjoyed it.

Leroy Neiman- Artist

Leroy Neiman-Born June 8th 1921 (American Impressionist)
Loved by the rich and poor, young and old the highly educated to the illiterate
his appeal has no ends.Best known for his brilliantly colored stunningly energetic
images of sporting events and leisure activities. He is also known for his charitable nature giving scores of his work to charitable organizations.

Some of the many awards that he has received are (1953) 1st prize in the Twin City Art show for oil paintings.(1986) Lifetime Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association.(2000) inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame.(2006)Sports Artist of the Year(ASAMA) HE WAS THE Paul Newman Award winner for services to the Arts and Children.he was also the official Artist for 5 Olympiads.

He was a teacher at the School of the Arts Institute in Chicago for 10 years starting in the early 50's he also had his work printed in Playboy in the early years of that magazine his part was called Man at leisure.

He is part Artist and part Journalist he was CBS artist for the Superbowl games
in a style long lost since the invention of the camera his drawings would bring the game to life with his drawings several times during the game CBS would cut in him and he would show the world his drawing of how he saw the game that is pretty cool his drawing were so powerful they would cut into the game to show you his work.

The Artists that were influential in his art development were Leonardo de Vinci also Rubens for his "spirt" and Tintoretto for his "space and also Fragonard for "feel" he blended all this to come up with his colorful and powerful style.

He also received several honorary degrees in Art from several different schools. I believe when all is said and done he will be remembered for not just his Artist skills and how his pictures brought life to the games he painted but that he was a great person giving so much to those who had less them him I think his heart is as bright and powerful as his painting are and that is saying something!