Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
West's art, although it is crafted is a kind of 'found' art, and his desire to demystify the process of artistic creation is yet another reason he brings the gallery owner into the process of artistic manufacturing, such as by asking the museum's director what color the Chameleon color of the walls and chairs will become, as the work moves from place to place. West classifies his fundamental artistic philosophy as along the lines of the schools of what he calls that "adaptives," which holds that "if the form is useful, then it's beautiful.
After all, in most ancient, primitive societies, art's form and function were one: a plate was not decorative, even though it might be highly crafted: the dining ware it had a purpose. West makes a similar claim about the art of today -- that it be functional as well as artistic, and art is found in the functional works of our own society. West's adaptivist philosophy has deep, personal roots: "When I was fifteen I went to Rome, and because I was alone there I went to the Spanish Steps, where you could meet people. It's the same in many Italian towns and cities with the fountain in the middle of a central square and people sitting around having conversations. From that experience came this ideal of sitting in the art, like a goal of sitting in the clouds: sitting in the art consuming life. It's perhaps a bit hippy-ish: not to participate in society but to have this art as life.
" In some of West's earlier works such as his 1998 Untitled (Internet Bed), his examination of the objects of everyday life looked more radical, as this involved a deconstruction of an ordinary bed, setting the frame upon a snarl of cables and wires: "It's hard to lie on, hard to use, impossible to clean, but it's Art, and it's tuned to the right channel...
" its caption reads, with deliberate irony, and the crafted and artistic nature of the bed is more evident. The irony of Chameleon from 2002 is far more subtle and the chameleon-like colored chairs and table could actually be used for practical purposes, and thus a more...
Chameleon is not merely a deconstruction it is a constant reconstruction of a scene that both implies conformity, utilitarian consumerism, and a kind of choice, if only by selecting a new color. "Heidegger believed that our understanding of being in the world can be found when objects that we use every day fail to function," but Chameleon questions what happens when things do function, in this case that of a perfectly color-coordinated kitchen table that can be sat upon, yet which challenges the viewer in its ever-changing, eternally adaptable and homogeneous conformity.
Works Cited
"Exhibitions." Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal. Last update May 25, 2009. May 27,
2009. http://www.macm.org/en/expositions/63.html
"Franz West." Artseensoho. May 27, 2009.
http://www.artseensoho.com/Art/ZWIRNER/west99/w1.html
"An Interview with Franz West." Art Exhibitions, LAMC (Lost Angeles County Museum of Art). May 27, 2009. http://www.lacma.org/art/fwestinterview.aspx
"Untitled (Internet bed)." Artseensoho. May 27, 2009.
http://www.artseensoho.com/Art/ZWIRNER/west99/w2.html
"Exhibitions," Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal, Last update May 25, 2009, May 27, 2009, http://www.macm.org/en/expositions/63.html
"Exhibitions," 2009
"Exhibitions," 2009
"Exhibitions," 2009
"Franz West," artseensoho, May 27, 2009, http://www.artseensoho.com/Art/ZWIRNER/west99/w1.html
"An Interview with Franz West," Art Exhibitions, LAMC (Lost Angeles County Museum of Art), May 27, 2009, http://www.lacma.org/art/fwestinterview.aspx
"An Interview with Frank West," 2009
"Untitled (Internet Bed,)" artseensoho, May 27, 2009, http://www.artseensoho.com/Art/ZWIRNER/west99/w2.html
"An Interview with Frank West," 2009
Art History And Contemporary Art The world is a complex place and the old, outmoded, Eurocentric way we look at politics, economics and culture (art) may not be the right way to conceive the new order. Globalism describes, in fact, the increasing unification of the world through economic means (reduction of trade barriers, support of international trade, and mitigation of export and import quotas). They goal for globalization is to increase
Modern art in the Asia-Pacific region reflects the rapidly changing geo-political landscapes, as well as becoming increasingly integrated into architecture and urban planning. In the Asia-Pacific region, the art of the 21st century can be large scale and includes ambitious installation projects as well as graphic art, graffiti, and urban art. Although influenced by European trends like abstraction and surrealism, the art of the Asia-Pacific region is dedicated to communicating
PS1 When Gertrude Stein mused that it is not possible to be both modern and a museum, she foresaw some of the most pressing challenges facing institutions like PS1. Being modern means presenting, and possibly also marketing, contemporary art that has yet to stand the test of time. Curators are prone to the vicissitudes of passing fads, personal biases, and the politics of their interpersonal connections. Because of these challenges, it
Modern Art Contemporary and modern art has been characterized by increased focus on significant aesthetic and political work of artists across the globe. As a result, contemporary art is largely different from conventional work because of the shift in focus on elements of art. Actually, art has undergone significant changes throughout its history as a result of different influences across different time periods. Some of the major influences of contemporary
Arts The American poet and art critic John Ashbery, in what is perhaps his most famous poem ("Soonest Mended"), sketches what he has described as an "everybody's autobiography," in which his characteristically postmodern approach to narrative style (leaping from comic strip to novel to abstraction in this passage) seems to question the value of the very concept of "information": And then there always came a time when Happy Hooligan in his rusted
Arts In "The Berlin Key," Latour discusses the way in which simple objects can acquire suddenly "the dignity of a mediator, a social actor, an agent, an active being" through use. This is a version of aesthetics which imagines the artwork as automatically playing a role as a sort of symbolic token whose exchange value exists in transfer between artist and viewer, or between one viewer and another. Locks and