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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Tag Archives: Loading the Canon

Loading the Canon #22: That’s Not What You Think That Is

24 Thursday Apr 2014

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Constantin Brancusi, Helena-Anne Hittel, Loading the Canon, Princess X

Loading the Canon #22 by Helena-Anne Hittel

That’s Not What You Think That Is

Here’s a photograph of a work titled Princess X (1915-16). I want you to take a good, long look at it. Ready? Go.

Princess

Yeah. It’s okay to feel what you’re feeling. “Helena-Anne. That’s a penis. Why am I looking at a giant penis?” I’m not saying that it doesn’t look like a penis. It totally does. However, as we’ve been taught from an early age, things aren’t always what we think they are. Case in point, this sculpture. What if I told you that this undeniably phallic-looking work of art is (supposedly) modeled after a photograph of a woman? Nobody was gonna get that on the first try. I didn’t, that’s for sure. That is the wonder of the works of Constantin Brancusi.

Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) was a French-Romanian sculptor whose concentration was, as you might be able to guess, abstraction. He attended the Bucharest School of Fine Arts and studied sculpture. After learning of the works of Auguste Rodin, Brancusi traveled to Paris in 1904, where his first major work, The Kiss (1908), was created. He became internationally notable after exhibiting in New York City’s Armory Show in 1913. Brancusi’s works after The Kiss, such as Sleeping Muse (1912) became even more abstract. Two of his works were at the center of artistic controversy-Princess X was removed from Le Salon de Indépendants in 1920 on the grounds of obscenity, and Brancusi’s later work Bird In Space (1923) was refused the classification of “art” by the United States Customs office in 1926. Brancusi’s studio and the works within was bequeathed to the Museum of Art in Paris at Brancusi’s death, on the condition that it would be installed in its entirety.

Bird

Now, a bit more about Princess X. The jury seems to be out on who this is, or if it’s even modeled after anyone in particular. Some allege that this is a portrait of French princess Marie Bonaparte. Most of the articles I’ve looked through seem to at least agree on a feminine figure, if not a name. Encyclopedia Britannica reads that Princess X is “a portrait of an imaginary person that takes on a curiously phallic form.” The information in the catalog of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (where a polished bronze version  is housed) says that Brancusi, infuriated by the comparison of his work to a phallus, “ insisted the sculpture was a portrayal of a feminine ideal,” while the Guggenheim’s past exhibition catalog states that it was modeled after a woman craning her neck to look at herself in the mirror. This specific catalog goes on to read, “The neck is exaggerated in order to convey the self-awareness of this gesture. Dissatisfied with this version, Brancusi carved back the superficial details. The head became an ovoid on an arching neck and the supporting hand is reduced to a pattern.” (See? I do my research!)

Art will confuse you. It’s going to happen. You will look at a piece in a museum or gallery that will defy all logic in your brain, and you might short circuit if you try to make sense of it on your own (this happened to me when I started studying surrealism). That feeling of confusion, to me, is part of what makes this artist’s works so much fun to look at. Given so little as a title, you, as the viewer, are invited to look again at the form Brancusi has presented. Princess Xbecomes a bit more human. Bird In Space becomes an overly-simplified view of a bird flying sideways. His works are brilliant in its abstraction and simplicity.

___________

Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) earned a B.A. in Art History at the University of Central Florida.

 

 

Loading the Canon #20: Juliet DiIenno

13 Thursday Mar 2014

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Helena-Anne Hittel, Juliet DiIenno, Loading the Canon

Loading the Canon #20 by Helena-Anne Hittel

Interview With an Artist: Juliet DiIenno

It’s not every day that your work, as a student artist, gets picked up by an institution, let alone a museum overseas. The planets aligned for Juliet DiIenno of UCF, though, and one of her pieces is now in the permanent collection of the Gaudnek Museum in Munich, Germany. DiIenno, a Clearwater, Florida native, studies Visual Art at the University of Central Florida with her identical triplet sister, who is a photographer. “We work off each other to reach new levels in our artwork,” she says. I recently asked her a few questions about her study of art.

Helena-Anne Hittel: How did your piece get picked up by the Gaudnek?

Juliet DiIenno: Walter Gaudnek asked me to make a piece. He was doing a series about the beauty of chapels, called The Chapel of Art. Along with the simple brush outline, it was made with a technique I (not so cleverly) call body painting, where I put the paint on my body and then press my torso against the canvas.

chapel

 HA: What medium do you most like to work in?

JD: Paint. In my recent years, I have begun to work in acrylic paint. I originally began to work with oils, but UCF does not have the proper ventilation. I have also began to experiment with using palette knives and even painting with my body, and so far I have enjoyed the result. That being said, I still love to try new forms of art, and this week I shall finish my first sculpture made with wood. Once I have learned how to manipulate a new kind of material, I really love combining different kinds of techniques and materials to make new kinds of artwork.

JD Driftwood

HA: When did you decide that you wanted to study art?

JD: At first, I thought that I wanted to study music. After years of practice, I realized that music was not the proper form of expression for me, because I was playing music that others had written, and therefore was expressing what THEY felt. I had tried to write my own music, but that took so long. I wanted something that I would immediately see and express myself in. That’s when I began to start making physical works of art.

JD Pegasus

HA: What inspires you to work?

JD: I am inspired by things that I see around me every day, which can explain why I have never stayed in a particular kind of stile for a long period of time. I am inspired by other artists, the water, the sky, my sister, conversation, history, my studies, etc. I have drawn a bit from everything.

HA: Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve created?

JD: As funny as it may sound, my favorite work is usually my most recent piece. So, right now, it happens to be the sculpture that I have been working on.

HA: What kind of message do you want to communicate through your artwork?

JD: I want the viewer to see my work and understand what I feel as I create my work, whether it is to question social structure and culture, or to reach peace within themselves. Each work that I have made so far is relatable to practically any viewer, and I want each of them to get something from my work.

More of Juliet DiIenno’s work can be found on her Instagram page, as well as the newest issue of UCF’s literary magazine, The Cypress Dome.

JD Sailboat

___________

Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) earned a B.A. in Art History at the University of Central Florida.

Loading the Canon # 19: The Appeal of De Stijl

27 Thursday Feb 2014

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De Stijl, Helena-Anne Hittel, Loading the Canon, Piet Mondrian

Loading the Canon #19 by Helena-Anne Hittel

The Appeal of De Stijl

20th Century Art History was probably one of my most favorite courses my last semester at UCF. I have quite the soft spot for modern art–modern, in the art world, described as anything from roughly the late 19th century to the late 20th century. I realize that’s not a terribly exclusive time frame, but if you’ve studied art, it’s almost hard to be such.

De Stijl (Dutch for “The Style,” or otherwise referred to as Neoplasticism) is, by far, one of my favorite movements. Led by Theo van Doesberg in 1917 Amsterdam, this movement was all about clean lines and simplicity. van Doesberg wrote the manifesto, stating the movement’s call for a universal aesthetic. It hints at constructivism and leaves no evidence of the artist in the work–no brushstrokes, no open canvas, nothing, even when given the fact that this art didn’t pop up out of thin air. It is graphic in its simplicity, with no narrative or emotional content, using only red, yellow, blue, gray, white, and black.

Perhaps the most iconic example of De Stijl is seen in the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). However, his painting career didn’t start that way. His earliest works were greatly influenced by the Luminist and Post-Impressionist movements, but he also experimented with Pointillism and bright, Fauvist colors and techniques. In 1911, Mondrian moved to Paris, where his art began to tend more toward Cubism (see Gray Tree, 1911).

Untitled 1

1914 saw Mondrian on a visit home to The Netherlands–and the beginning of World War I. Unable to return to Paris, he stayed at the Laren artist’s colony. Here is where he met Theo van Doesberg and co-founded the movement we know as De Stijl.

In 1918, Mondrian returns to Paris. This is when and where his work comes into the recognizable tableaus we still know today. Among these are Tableau II (1922),

Untitled 2

Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow (1930),

Mondrian_Composition_II_in_Red,_Blue,_and_Yellow

and, later on, Broadway Boogie-Woogie (1942-43).

Untitled 4

I haven’t really been able to find many who don’t at least respect Mondrian’s graphic style. Then again, I haven’t really spent much time outside of the Visual Arts Building at UCF (Room 111, all day, every day). This is the most memorable and essential figure of this movement.

True to the manifesto, Mondrian leaves no traces of himself in his work, other than the fact that he created it. Though the closest I’ve ever gotten to these works are lecture slides (and on 9” x 9” printout of Broadway Boogie-Woogie on your’s truly’s mortarboard), there are no brush strokes. The works of other artists usually betray their mediums of choice-especially when you get into Monet, Turner, Whistler and others like them. De Stijl sought to eliminate all of this. Every inch of this canvas was covered. Every line was crisp and razor-sharp. Colors were bold, whites were stark, blacks were sharp, and the entire effect grabbed your attention because it was so damn different from the marble statues and Van Goghs that one will usually associate with the word “art.” This is not just a few lines and colored blocks on canvas. These works inspired architecture and even furniture, à la Gerrit Reitveld. De Stijl was a way of life.

Piet Mondrian’s artistic tradition would go on to influence Russian artist Ilya Bolotowsky. His Vertical Diamond (no date found), as you might remember, was bought in 2012 from a Goodwill in North Carolina for $9.99.

Untitled 5

It later sold at auction for $34,375. UCF is lucky enough to own a few of Bolotowsky’s prints.

We continue to talk about different artists for different reasons. For instance, Duchamp makes me angry. Vehemently angry. An art history teacher of mine once described Fragonard as the artistic equivalent of Coke Zero–likable and satisfying, but not much substance. Once and for all, WHY WAS MONA LISA SMILING? Mondrian is simple and straightforward.

___________

Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) earned a B.A. in Art History at the University of Central Florida.

Loading the Canon #18: Iconoclasm

20 Thursday Feb 2014

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Ai Weiwei, Art is an Endangered Species, Helena-Anne Hittel, Loading the Canon, Margaret Zaho

Loading the Canon #18 by Helena-Anne Hittel

Iconoclasm

On February 17, Maximo Caminero walked into the Perez Art Museum in Miami, which was currently housing an exhibit of the work of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, according to The Times. Caminero picked up one of sixteen colored vases (from the work “Colored Vases,” dated 2006-2012) and let go, shattering it in the middle of the floor. The motive for this? Not enough local art in museums. Ai Weiwei hasn’t made any comments on the matter, as his Twitter and Instagram have been politely hushed up.

Ai Weiwei is an artist who has made his entire career around iconoclasm. He photographed himself dropping a Han Dynasty urn (“Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn,” 1995).

unnamed

His “Colored Vases” are most likely ancient Chinese pottery, now covered in paint.

unnamed2

Whether or not Weiwei would have cared about this destruction remains to be seen. Bear in mind, though, that this is a man who has no problem breaking things, no matter how old or valuable they are deemed. Nobody can say for sure whether or not this inspired Caminero’s actions.

While at UCF, I took many a class with Margaret Zaho. In the latter half of 2013, she published her second book, Art is an Endangered Species.

Zaho

This wasn’t just a maxim she kept repeating in lecture. This was, and has always been, the truth. Whatever the situation, things have gotten smashed to pieces, noses have been chiseled off (just ask Michelangelo’s Pietá), and works flat out destroyed because they were considered “degenerate.” Especially during World War II. The Monuments Men  and Saving Italy by Robert Edsel are great reads on the subject of saving cultural treasures. Hitler had requested that if he had been found during the war, all the artwork that the Nazis stole would have been destroyed. This was part of his famous Nero Decree, which called for the complete devastation of the Reich. Had this been enacted, we would have lost centuries of history, tradition, and culture. These works of painting and sculpture are not just mere artifacts. It’s a timeline.

I love local art. I love foreign art. I love art, period. A place without art, especially local, is no place I want to live. Let’s be reasonable here. Though I’ve never really experienced it, I can understand the frustration of your life’s work constantly going unnoticed. Van Gogh’s was never really valued until after he died, after all. This, however, doesn’t warrant smashing or otherwise destroying someone else’s work, at least, not in my eyes. Caminero destroyed Weiwei’s art as a way to get back at the museum for not showing local art, including his own. It sounds a bit, to me, like throwing a temper tantrum.

“Colored Vases” was estimated to be worth approximately $1 million. Part of what truly rankles me about this incident is that Caminero was actually apologetic after finding out the piece’s worth. The art and the artist didn’t seem to matter to him as much as the work’s monetary value. Would he have destroyed it if he knew how much it was worth? Caminero is quoted in an article on Hyperallergic as saying, “I didn’t know the piece was worth that much. I feel so sorry about it, for sure.”

Art is meant to make an impression. The act of making it makes as much of an impression on the audience as the finished product. To know that someone, however long ago, took this photograph, stood in front of this canvas, or cut this block of marble and poured their skill into it is definitely something else. To destroy another’s work because your own wasn’t noticed seems childish to me, but, like art, opinion is subjective.

___________

Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) earned a B.A. in Art History at the University of Central Florida.

Loading the Canon #17: St. Basil’s Cathedral

13 Thursday Feb 2014

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Color, Helena-Anne Hittel, Loading the Canon, St. Basil's Cathedral

Loading the Canon #17 by Helena-Anne Hittel

St. Basil’s Cathedral

I’m a huge Olympics fan. I wait as patiently as I possibly can to hear that opening theme and see the athletes of the world push themselves to the breaking point-some, unfortunately, literally do just that. This year, the Olympics call their stage Sochi, Russia. However, things haven’t gone as smoothly as we’d hoped. Hotels are unfinished, bobsledders got stuck in bathrooms (and an elevator), a ring malfunctioned at the Opening Ceremony, and the temperature is a bit too warm, melting skiing trails and half pipes into slush.

There are high points to these games, too. There are cultural segments presented throughout these events where we get to see a little bit about this massive host country. Siberia! Vodka! The Moscow Police Choir covering Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”–in uniform!

Today though, I cover what is, to me, the most iconic building in Russia-The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, more commonly known as St. Basil’s Cathedral. Or, if you like long names, Cathedral of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat.

basilsday

Construction began on this marvel of Russian architecture in 1555, under Ivan IV to commemorate his victorious military campaigns. The actual architect of St. Basil’s is unknown, but it is said to have been designed by Barma and Postnik Yakovlev. This cathedral features nine domes and two spires, all brightly painted, and is approximately 156 feet high. May I remind you-this was built in 1555. This was the tallest building in what would become modern-day Moscow, until the building of the Ivan the Great bell tower.

In 16th century Russia. In the snow. With no cranes. Yeah, I know. I still have trouble wrapping my head around it, too.

Sant_Vasily_cathedral_in_Moscow

The cathedral features eight smaller chapels arranged around a central core, though slightly asymmetrical to accommodate the apse attached to the main church. These chapels are dedicated to different saints and events in the Bible, and commemorate different campaigns. Each of these is topped with an onion-shaped, tin-covered dome, which may or may not have been the original shape. The originals were thought to have been simple, hemispherical domes. The cathedral, as a whole, was essentially a large wooden model encased in masonry. Decorative brickwork made up the outside of the cathedral, and, where this wasn’t possible, stucco painted to look like brickwork.

Then, there’s color. Oh, the color. From the 1680s to the late 19th century, St. Basil’s was painted, gilded, and decorated to the point where it started to look almost Seussian. The original color palate, in fact, was inspired by a passage referring to Heaven in the Book of Revelations. The Russian love for color exploded in the 17th century thanks to the availability of countless paints and dyes. It’s almost got the appearance of a big, impossible gingerbread castle. The insides are no less colorful, covered with countless motifs and murals. And not a stained-glass window in sight. Not bad, Russia, not bad at all.

StBasilsInt

​One thing to remember about Russian art and architecture is that although Russia is a big part of Eurasia, it was essentially in isolation compared to the rest of Europe. Influences of the Renaissance and Gothic architecture never reached this part of the continent. From St. Basil’s, we’ve learned a great many things. Not everything needs stained glass and flying buttresses and westwork towers, and not every holy building needs to be cruciform. You don’t always need to improve on the current trends to make something innovative. Sometimes, all you need is a little imagination.

___________

Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) earned a B.A. in Art History at the University of Central Florida.

Loading the Canon #16: I See Naked People

06 Thursday Feb 2014

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Loading the Canon #16 by Helena-Anne Hittel

I See Naked People

If you were to take all of your clothes off, it shouldn’t really surprise you what you’d see. You know by now what a naked man or woman looks like. Given this, why do people freak out over seeing another naked human being in a work of art?

To me, it’s all about presentation. This is where reading the labels at a museum is so important. I’ve seen lots of naked people. Granted, I knew none of them personally. Some of them might not have even been actual people, some of them were really nude models (fun fact! The woman featured in Manet’s Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe and Olympia is named Victorine! She most likely was a prostitute, but try not to hold it against her.) Yet, there they are, without clothes on. Depending on the subject of the piece, some make conscious efforts to cover themselves (for example, the Aphrodite of Knidos), while others really couldn’t care less. What’s considered as a classic naked male athlete to one person might be pornographic to another. As I’ve stated before, everything is subjective.

Let’s revisit Polykleitos’s High Classical creation, Doryphoros. As you might remember, this is a figure of a nude male athlete or soldier, and a canonical study of the human figure.

Untitled 10

Now, let’s introduce a Hellenistic work, The Sleeping Satyr or Barberini Faun. With this work, we’ve left our nude male athlete type behind. This is a follower of Dionysus (Bacchus, to the Romans, the god of wine). He’s all partied out, as it were, and we see him reclining on what looks to be a panther skin (also associated with Dionysus), asleep. He’s even got a tail! From one angle, it doesn’t look too racy.

Untitled 11

From another angle, though—

Untitled 12

Yep.

As stated before, many, many times now: Doryphoros is a canonical study of—in unison, now—THE NUDE MALE ATHLETE. He would have been holding a spear. He’s kind of like the stereotypical “sexy firemen” in calendars. Still (partially) in his “uniform”, but doing a job. The Barberini Faun, however, uncovers a more sensual side of things. Here, the figure is asleep, maybe even dreaming. The conscious mind is suspended, and the unconscious runs amok. He really doesn’t care that you’re looking at him, but you feel uncomfortable nonetheless. His sleeping/dreaming state leaves him vulnerable, and the position of his body is teasingly erotic. What if he was wide awake? His being asleep, therefore, turns you into a voyeur.

Now, let’s look at a completely awake, conscious nude—Edouard Manet’s Olympia.

Untitled 14

What do you see? Yes, it’s reminiscent of Titian’s Venus of Urbino.

K112625TITIAN 3

I could go into all the ways that they’re different or similar. Instead, look around. Here’s a naked woman, clearly a prostitute, reclining on top of her robe, on a bed. She wears a necklace, a bracelet, a flower in her hair, and one mule. The black cat at the foot of her bed, with its arched back, is symbolic—brothels were “cat houses.” A dark-skinned woman holds a bouquet of flowers, maybe from an admirer. The most important part, though, is Victorine’s face. She’s staring straight at you. She’s challenging you. She looks almost bored, but she knows you’re staring. Somehow, this acknowledgement of the viewer makes it less risqué, to me, anyway. By staring out of the picture plane at the audience, she defies you. Look at the placement of her hand. She covers herself, but it’s not as demurely as the aforementioned Aphrodite of Knidos (note hand placement).

Untitled 17

Manet’s Olympia is no longer about a nude female. With the look on her face and the placement of her hand, the woman with flowers and the cat on the bed, this becomes social commentary. This is Manet’s France, not merely a nude woman.

Context is absolutely everything. You might not love reading labels on a museum trip as much as I do, but what you’ll learn will keep you from immediately limiting what you’re looking at.  The way nudes are presented will give you clues. Art is open to interpretation, and art can see into us, as well.

So please, stop with the fig leaves.

___________

Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) earned a B.A. in Art History at the University of Central Florida.

Loading the Canon #13: I Was a Greek Goddess

14 Thursday Nov 2013

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Loading the Canon #13 by Helena-Anne Hittel

I Was a Greek Goddess

You’ve noticed it. It’s impossible to ignore. The magazines, the TV commercials-it’s everywhere. Skinny women and guys with rippling pectorals. We’re made to believe that this is what we should aspire to be. THIS is what you want.

Well, not way back when, it wasn’t.

Okay, so I may have lied to you a bit. The aggressively athletic male torso has been “the thing” since BC. The Egyptians were notorious for this in their art, which has been almost entirely consistent for millennia

pharoah

(excepting that crazy period when then-pharaoh Akhenaton moved everything to Tel-el-Amarna and introduced the principal of Ma’at, or truth, into the way he’s represented for posterity). The pharaoh, after all, was an all-powerful figure in Egypt. He was almost a god. The thought, then, was that he ought to be carved into stone or painted on walls as muscular and powerful. The women, by contrast, were made soft and curvy.

Egyptian Sculpture

Today’s Victoria’s Secret Angels would have sincerely worried them.

VS Wings

How was she ever going to survive childbirth?

The Greeks latched on to these ideas soon after. The athletic male developed in kouroi (free-standing nude male statues) from the Archaic period to Hellenistic. Fast-forward to Polykleitos in the High Classical period, and his über-famous Doryphoros (“spear-bearer”).

Doryphoros

Myron’s Diskobolos (“disc-thrower”),

Diskobolos

and Lysippos’ Apoxyomenos (“the scraper,”),

Apoxyomenos

all of those represented-even the gods-were idealized. Spear-bearer, in fact, was so loved, the Romans coped him and all of his friends into marble. They’re the only extant copies we have of this statuary, as most Greek originals were bronze (these were melted down for weapons later). We stumble upon our Spear-bearer later on in a palaestrum (a gymnasium, essentially. No more complicated words, I promise) in Pompeii. It’s like pictures of bodybuilders at Gold’s Gym. This was not only decoration, but an aspirational tool.

Women, however, are a bit more complicated.

The ancient female ideal, as mentioned earlier, was curvy. Large hips and rounded shapes meant that you could have all the babies you wanted and live to tell the tale. Evidence: the Aphrodite of Knidos.

Aphrodite of Knidos

There are no flattened abs or muscled legs, no dramatic cinches in the waist, and no “thigh gap” (talkin’ to you, “thinspiration” people). Here was a goddess personified and almost human, preparing for a bath.

Peter Paul Rubens’ women were another story. This was voluptuous on a whole other level. His Three Graces

Rubens_Peter_Paul-The_Three_Graces

and the portrait of his second wife, Hélène Fourment,

Helena Fourment in a fur wrap

are good examples of this. He did not idealize the women in his art because he saw no need to. This is where we get the term “Rubenesque.”

Then came the rise in popularity of the corset. This changes EVERYTHING for the female in art from 16th century Europe. Waists were cinched to within an inch of their lives, compressing bones and organs and making breathing difficult (medical diagrams of this fashion fad are scary).

The Harmful Effects of the Corset, illustration from 'La Vie Normale et la Sante' by Dr Jules Rengade (b.1841) c.1880 (colour litho)

Every woman of status wore a corset.

In the late 19th century, pen-and-ink illustrator Charles Dana Gibson created what came to be known as his “Gibson Girls,” combining the voluptuous woman with the fragile one. One’s curves, bust line and hips and the other’s slender lines and respectability bore the illustrations that created a standard image of the American girl.

Gibson_Girls_seaside

The point, then, is this. Fashions change. Ideals change. This is just an extremely cursory glance at beauty standards in the Western tradition, and already we see the male shape bulking up and the female shape slimming down as the years progress. There’s a huge constancy, one could argue, in the male ideal, but a fluctuation on the feminine side of things.

What was important to a man-that he appear powerful, athletic, capable and strong still seems to stick today. The child-supporting curves that made up what was important in a woman, however, did not. This is not your friendly, neighborhood art historian telling you that you are ugly because you don’t look like today’s superstickskinny tan girls and aggressively muscled men. This is merely an examination of how we must have gotten to these “ideals”. I’ve now put this word into quotations. Why? Because what one person considers art isn’t going to be the same as another’s preferences.!

ART IS SUBJECTIVE. It is human expression and a living timeline. “Here today, gone tomorrow” has never been a truer way to describe it.

___________

Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) is an Art History Major at the University of Central Florida and Intern at the UCF Art Gallery.

Loading the Canon #12: Ars Moriendi

31 Thursday Oct 2013

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Loading the Canon #12 by Helena-Anne Hittel

Ars Moriendi: The Art of Dying

Happy Halloween, Drunken Odysseans! Loading the Canon is taking a deathly turn today, as I examine all things… well, slightly morbid, actually.

Ars Moriendi

People have been making offerings to the dead since time began. They can be things as small as a few flowers to entire terra-cotta armies to protect you in the afterlife. Art historians love grave goods, because they say so much about a culture. Markers, tombs, statuary, pottery all seem to point towards an afterlife. The ancient Egyptians, for example, had some of the most lavishly given gifts buried with them (if you were of a certain station).

When given the words “ancient Egypt,” terms like “mummy”, “pharaoh”, “pyramid” and “sarcophagus” usually aren’t far behind (fun fact: sarcophagus translates to “flesh eater”). It’s true. The ancient Egyptians had, perhaps, one of the most recognizable burial cultures in the world. They were known for the preservation of bodies through mummification, gold funeral masks, colorful sarcophagi, and, of course, constructing giant pyramidal tombs to mark the graves of their pharaohs. The most recognizable (and intact!) of these is the Tomb of Tutankhamun, discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. This tomb, in particular, contained over 5,000 ritual and funerary objects, all of which are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Tut mask

The Greeks were well-known for their temple complexes, statuary, and pottery. Certainly the pottery. Vessels were used as household items, trade goods, grave goods, urns and grave markers. The Dipylon Cemetery in Athens, for example, contains graves from as early as 1200 BC to the Hellenistic Period. Many of these graves were marked with various large-scale decorative pottery. Different shapes also noted who was buried beneath each one. A krater, which is a large vessel out of which wine is served, was commonly used at symposia and therefore associated with men. Thus, this would most likely mark a man’s grave. Vessels such as a lutrophoros (literally, “Carrier of Washing Water”) were used fro a bridal bath before weddings, and would mark the grave of an unmarried woman.

Krater

The ancient Etruscans, predating the Roman civilization, had a similar idea as to what to put into a tomb. This idea, however, was made completely robber-proof. The Egyptian tombs held such expensive gifts and were so ostentatious, they basically waved a flag and called out, “Come loot me!” The Etruscans remedied this situation by carving all the objects they thought their loved ones would need, in relief, in the walls of the tomb at Cerveteri. Rob me now, sucker! I dare ya.

Etruscan

Fast forward to the Late Middle Ages. It wasn’t a “Dark Age”, and it probably wasn’t a bad time to be alive. It was just a short time. Religion was one of the most important things back then, and your faith dictated where you would go and what would happen to you. In 1415, a Dominican friar sought to make passing a little bit easier for the masses with the Ars Moriendi (roughly translated from the Latin as “The Art of Dying”). This text was a book of prayers written for the dead and dying and was published in two versions, with the shorter, more condensed version easily accessible by many. These were printed in black and white, but there were also hand-colored “deluxe” versions, if you could spare the expense. These books contained mostly illustrations for the illiterate masses, and could be read to you in Latin by a cleric.

Nobody really wants to die. I definitely don’t, but it’s like taxes: you really can’t avoid it. (Well, you can avoid taxes. It’s just recommended that you don’t.) The ancients knew this, too, but like today, they made cultural offerings to those they mourned. That way, when you woke up in your afterlife, you knew you were loved and it would be business as usual.

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Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) is an Art History Major at the University of Central Florida and Intern at the UCF Art Gallery.

Loading the Canon #11: Return of Third Thursdays

24 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Art, Loading the Canon

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Loading the Canon #11 by Helena-Anne Hittel

Return of Third Thursdays: By Design

Thursday’s offering at the Gallery at Avalon Island is both aesthetically pleasing and architecturally sound.

October 17th was the Downtown Arts District’s monthly gallery hop, Third Thursdays. If you didn’t attend this one, you’ve missed out. The Gallery at Avalon Island’s Patrick Greene curated a knockout show, composed of nine artists with various studios (all over Florida). The concept was one of pure design and composition. These artists focused on the line and structure in their artwork, how the materials interacted with each other, and the use of new and innovative materials and forms of art.

For instance, let’s look at the art of Henning Haupt. Mr. Haupt is a painter and professor of architecture at Florida Atlantic University. A few of his “Blind Drawings” were featured in this show. These might not look like thoughtful studies of line and plane at first. However, get a bit closer, and it’s easy to see. Haupt’s works, done in oil paint and crayon and drawn with his eyes closed, explore the division of space and the different ways in which it can be divided. His titles explain his intentions, too-there’s no room for confusion in “Verticals alternating Density and Width—Green, 2012.” Haupt’s works are both structured and free-form.

Another artist also explored division. Rachel Wronowski’s shadowboxes exhibit an almost stained glass-like quality, from the angular lines and compositions to the rich, bright colors. It’s like a Tiffany lamp in a little black box. Wronowski’s works pack all the color and plenty of backbone into small, visually-pleasing doses.

Art, though, comes in many forms, some even wearable. Case in point, Iris Ledesma’s structural and stylish jewelry. Her works feature leather and metal constructions. One leather piece in specific, a bib necklace, strives to work with the look of the female form. From her website: “This design family ventures to combine modern day stylings with a subtle flair of antiquity. The combination of hand worked, riveted leathers and concentric geometric design lends itself to an elegant accent line sure to accentuate the female lines.”

Art and design are one and the same. It’s nothing without composition. The materials it’s made of and the ways that they’re used are the basic components of the greatest works hanging in every museum. Those in The Gallery at Avalon Island are no different. From paintings done with a palette knife to the use of hibiscus and red wine as artistic mediums, art is rapidly evolving. It all starts with design

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Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) is an Art History Major at the University of Central Florida and Intern at the UCF Art Gallery.

Loading the Canon #10: Wrapping it Up

17 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Art, Loading the Canon

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Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Helena-Anne Hittel, Loading the Canon

Loading the Canon #10 by Helena-Anne Hittel

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Wrapping it Up

When you wrap things in fabric, they sometimes look more interesting. The essential shape of the object is more visible. Look at things this way. If you were to wrap a rock face in fabric, you’d see so much more. You could see the sharp points and the sheer drops and the overall shape of a coastline so much clearer under 1,000,000 square feet of grey fabric. Christo and Jeanne-Claude realized this, so, in 1968-69, they wrapped the coast of Little Bay, Australia.

Environmental artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude have collaborated on various projects since 1961, until Jeanne-Claude’s death in 2009. The team is perhaps most well-known for their wrapping of islands in Biscayne Bay, Florida, the Reichstag building in Germany, and Running Fence in California. This, however, is merely a small sampling of their projects.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76, Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1976 Christo

In 1983, Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped 11 islands in Biscayne Bay in hot pink fabric and called it Surrounded Islands. Though small in size, wrapping one is a daring undertaking on its own, let alone 11. With the help of 430 workers, the project was realized and on display for two weeks. I loved these images when I saw them. If you were to eliminate the fabric, the islands are a bit dark, even with a small spit of sand to outline it. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have essentially taken a bright pink highlighter and outlined these islands, showing everyone in the Miami area what these islands actually look like.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83, Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1983 Christo

In 1995, 12 years after their Surrounded Islands, the duo wrapped the Reichstag Building in Germany. This required over 1,076,390 square feet of fabric and took the work of 90 professional climbers and 120 installation workers. Even though the entire structure was essentially encased in fabric, the project still allowed for the building’s original use. This not only gave the viewing audience something new to look at, and left a little room for the imagination. After all, when all you can see is draped in fabric, there could be anything underneath.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971-95, Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1995 Christo

Running Fence happened before both of the aforementioned projects in 1976. Spanning 24 1⁄2 miles across California, the project took 2,152,780 square feet of nylon fabric and 42 months to realize. That said, this project remained for two weeks, and upon dismantling, all materials were given to the ranchers whose lands were used. Both rural and urban lands were used. This fence not only gave you the topography of California, it also seemed to serve as social commentary, visually and almost figuratively restricting the cities by way of the roadways it traversed (even though the roadways still allowed use). In this project, Christo brought together two different communities while also maintaining this separation.

Even after Jeanne-Claude’s death, Christo is still at work on Over the River, a project originally conceived in 1992. His latest endeavor is to suspend translucent, silvery fabric about 25 feet over 8 specific sections of the Arkansas River in Colorado. Visitors can see this project from cars, busses, and boats on the river itself. He’s not exactly wrapping the river here, but by covering it, he will create the same effect.

Over the River (Project for Arkansas River, State of Colorado) Drawing 2010 , 13 7/8 x 15 1/4″ (35.2 x 38.7 cm) , Pencil, pastel, charcoal and wax crayon , Photo: André Grossmann © 2010 Christo

If you were to wrap yourself in a blanket, you’d still see your shape underneath. What inspired Henry Moore in the air raid shelters of Britain inspired the environmental arts created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, on a monumental scale.

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Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) is an Art History Major at the University of Central Florida and Intern at the UCF Art Gallery.

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