Friday, June 08, 2007
Solving complex problems with simple designs
Design for the other 90%, the currrent exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York City, takes as its starting point the following quote:
“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”
—Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises.
Take a look at the exhibition’s website to find out how simple it can be to bring life-changing solutions to the world’s disadvantaged.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Italian “Divisionists” at the Guggenheim
Today I read about an art movement I’d never heard of before: the Italian “Divisionists”, so called because they borrowed some color techniques from the French Pointillists; but then, true to their heritage, they constructed a new approach based on the long tradition of Italian painting. There’s a current exhibition of their work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. When I looked at the website, I was really intrigued and drawn in by the “highlights” paintings that are shown there. Looks as if this exhibition merits a visit!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Hanoi’s exciting art scene
I just came back from a fascinating trip to Southeast Asia, including ten days in Vietnam. We found the art scene in Hanoi to be particularly exciting, with lots of galleries showing young artists’ work, like the Mai Gallery which has several branches in the old quarter of Hanoi. Much of the art is evocative of the people and landscape of this endlessly interesting country.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Helpful Hints for the Artist #8
Composing a Landscape
When you are looking at a landscape, it may be a problem deciding where the “edges” come, where the picture should begin and end. An easy solution to this can be a homemade viewfinder which is nothing more than a piece of card with a rectangular hole cut in the middle. Alternatively the viewfinder of a camera can be used. And it is always worthwhile to bear in mind that pictures can be vertical (known as “portrait” shape) instead of horizontal (“landscape” shape).
This will help you see not only in composition but also in relating the elements to each other, helping you to see in tones rather than shapes. Sometimes tones seem to be overwhelming, and it helps to half-close your eyes, so that although the details is lost the broad masses are more easily differentiated.
Perhaps most important, remember that when drawing landscape—or any other subject, for that matter—put down what you can see and not what you know is there. Rely on your eyes and the messages they’re sending you.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Ground-breaking exhibition of feminist art hits L.A.
Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, a new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, is a must-see for anyone interested in the effects of feminist art on much of what is now called postmodern art. According to Holland Cotter writing in the New York Times, “Feminist art, which emerged in the 1960s with the women’s movement, is the formative art of the last four decades. Scan the most innovative work, by both men and women, done during that time, and you’ll find feminism’s activist, expansionist, pluralistic trace. Without it, identity-based art, crafts-derived art, performance art, and much political art would not exist in the form it does, if it existed at all.”
The show presents works by an international list of 119 artists, most represented by work from the early 1970s. Works on display range from figure painting to fabric sculpture to video and performance art. It’s a fascinating historical survey as well as an enticing look at the ongoing influence of feminism on art and culture in general.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Museum visits without leaving home #3
Today, let’s take a virtual trip to Amsterdam, where the venerable Rijksmuseum will open its doors to us. As we wander around, we can see video panoramas of a number of the galleries. Then, we can access the Museum’s collection and explore it by sorting the works of art in a number of different ways. We can choose paintings by theme, such as “Moral of the Story”, “Love and Sex”, or “Struggle and Strife”. We can look at all the works by one artist, or select from an encyclopedic listing of all the subjects, artists, and art objects in the collection.
The Museum’s website also offers a unique feature, called the Rijkswidget (click on “Collections” first, then choose Rijkswidget). It’s a desktop download that offers a new work of art to view every day, and includes details about the artist and his work. What a great way to start the day!
Friday, February 02, 2007
A New Look at New York’s “Master Builder”, Robert Moses
Robert Moses had a remarkable career as New York City’s parks commissioner from 1934 to 1960, and as leader of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority from 1934 to 1968. During his long reign, he oversaw a radical transformation of New York through the construction of bridges, expressways, and public parks, and the clearance of vast areas of slums. Although Moses has been seen as a caricature of a ruthless bureaucrat, a new exhibition presents an opportunity to see his achievements and his battles in a more balanced way.
The exhibition, “Robert Moses and the Modern City”, is being shown at three locations: the Museum of the City of New York, the Queens Museum of Art, and the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University. Through images, models, and scholarship, the exhibitions delineate Moses’ successes—highway projects that integrated cars and nature, a number of well-designed public pools, and the renovation of Central Park; as well as his dark side—displacing many families and destroying functioning neighborhoods. In the end, the viewer realizes that the issues facing cities today are not that much different than those Moses faced: choosing between a respect for the past and an embrace of the future.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
FAS Alumna Pam Rice goes from strength to strength
“Kids on Beach” by Pam Rice
(click to enlarge)
Pam Rice has a full and varied career in the world of art. In addition to her “day job” as Vice President of Design Services at an advertising agency in Chicago, where she oversees the firm’s creative operations and manages their programs in design education and training, she is enjoying increasing success as a fine art painter. In June, she will have an exhibit of her work in Chicago, showing her new work—including the paintings reproduced here.
In whatever spare time she happens to have, Pam gives back to her community. Recently, she was honored because of her annual donation of time, talent, creativity and devotion by designing the Annual Report for Family Service of South Lake County. Each year, Pam spends approximately 80 hours to complete each report. In five years, that adds up to over 400 hours of donated time. “Her dedication gives Family Service a clean, professional look in everything we do.”
We’re proud of you, Pam!
(Please click on the images to enlarge)
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Velazquez takes London by storm
We’re just back from a week in London. One of the highlights of our stay was the exhibition at the National Gallery of paintings by Diego Velazquez. In the final days of the exhibition, you could hardly see the paintings for the people—but it was worth braving the crowds to see so many wonderful works by this outstanding Spanish painter, gathered together for a limited time.
Velazquez is known mainly for his portraits of the Spanish royal family in the seventeenth century, but as this exhibition demonstrates, his range was wide, and his genius lay in his ability to create a compelling sense of the physical and psychological presence of the people he depicted.
Visit the exhibition website and enjoy a close look at these compelling masterworks.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Museum visits without leaving home #2
As noted here before, a number of museums around the world have detailed, informative, and interactive websites that are almost as good as visiting the museum in person.
The Louvre in Paris, for example, has a marvelous site (with English version easily available) that offers visitors a real look inside, including virtual tours of the entire museum, “kaleidoscopes” of images on a variety of visual themes, and “spotlights” on some individual works of art, like the Mona Lisa.
All that’s missing is a glass of wine at a sidewalk cafe!
