Portrait (Futago) by Yasumasa Morimura

This is Portrait (Futago) by Yasumassa Morimura, a Japanese pop artist. When I first looked at this painting, the first thing I thought of was Manet's Olympia. The resemblance of the overall composition of this painting to Olympia is uncanny. I also found it interesting that the two subjects here are actually Morimura himself playing both the lady laying down and her servant. Originally, the subjects in the Manet's Olympia are both females but Morimura blurs the gender differences by using his mastery of make-up and prop placement to make himself look like a woman. Honestly, if he didn't have the chest of a man, he would have had me fooled.

ear on arm

This is aptly titled "Ear on Arm". It is by performance artist Sterlarc. It comments on the ever shrinking barrier of privacy and the constant integration of technology into the personal lives of humanity. This piece will be later fit with a transmitter that other people will be able to listen in on. The vetern performance artist is fearless, truly, in his attempt at calling out the injustice nature that technology sometimes presents.

Jug Self Portrait

Jug in the form of a Head, Self-portrait was produced in glazed stoneware early in 1889 by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin.I found it interesting because in the sculpture he is a bloodied, severed head with a missing ear. This is because he just experienced two traumatic experiences in his life. One of these was Van Gogh hacking off his left ear and the other was the beheading of a criminal. I just thought it was cool because I haven't seen too many self-portrait sculptures and this one is weird because it is actually a cup.

The Conversation

Murnau Street by Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter, and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first modern abstract works. He started painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30.

In 1896 he settled in Munich and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He went back to Moscow in 1914 after World War I started. He was unsympathetic to the official theories on art in Moscow and returned to Germany in 1921. There he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then moved to France and became a French citizen.

Outdoor Cafe

I chose Outdoor Cafe by van Gogh because I saw similarities in this painting from another one of his paintings, Starry Night.  The sky looks swirled here, just as it does in his other painting.  I like this painting because the yellow is so vibrant it is almost glowing.  The cafe is the glowing aspect of this picture, and it highlights people enjoying the scenery and others' company.

Darktown Rebellion by Kara Walker

I chose Darktown Rebellion by Kara Walker because I found it to be very unique. The artist made this in 2001 and it is cut out paper and projection on a wall. She drew out characters on black paper, cut them out, posted them on the wall and then used projections to make a scenery behind it to tell a story. I found this to be very unique and interesting. There is so many different stories you can tell without even moving the characters, just by changing the projection behind them. I also liked how her characters were so detailed while just being all one color.



Lost in Translation

keith haring

Boxer is a 1987 sculpture by Keith Haring. It currently stands in Germany, and what was particularly inviting was its linearity. Such linearity, however, is countered by its inherit boldness. The arms, stretching through, show that war, battle, fighting, is not to be glorified. Violence impacts both sides of the piece, showing how ubiquitous violence's affects are.