People Watching

Throughout this whole trip something that I have really been attracted to is how people move about. I think I really started to think about this when we were at Versailles when people were being herded through massive decadent rooms, filled to the brim with patterns and gold and art. This really came to my attention because the situation at Versailles was way over stimulating for me to deal with, and what made it a little bit easier for me is stepping back in the corner and analyzing the people and the space.
At Versailles, it was literally a massive herd being pushed through room to room.
At the Louvre it was similar, although much more breathing room, the thing there that was difficult to deal with was the massive tour groups. I felt like if I didn't move out of the way, they would trample me and then I would become a pancake.

Speaking of Pancakes, the Pompidou was really amazing. *note I will blog separately about the whole Pompidou experience soon*

Alberto Giacometti! My heart stopped for his works. His figures are really breathtaking, like they were craved out of thin air.

This is a small image of some of the figures he tends to create, although this piece wasn't at the Pompidou, this has had an huge effect on me.

It's these figures that I want to create.
So I began looking at people all over Paris, how the move through the subway, how the move on the street. Even how the streets are constructed for people to move through them. I began filming everything. Thinking that photography just would do me justice.

This is a film still I took of people moving throughout the Opera house. I have been filming the whole time here and I'm not sure what it will all succumb to yet, although these ideas of mass transit and figures in space are spinning in my mind.

Natalie_Picasso Reflection

Comparison at the Pompidou

While at the Pompidou I did a comparison on Pablo Picasso's pieces Fillet au Cerceau (1919) & La Liseuse (1920). Using the six scales I deduced that an underlying explanation for the pieces and the way they are composed is a reaction to the war and the end of World War 1. Pablo Picasso, among others began to revert back to a idealistic way of painting in reaction to the soldiers returning home scarred, battered, and often time missing limbs. I suspected that it could have been a sensitivity to the way his prior painting could have been conceived as too similar to depicting he reality of the time.

Natalie_Pompidou

Pompidou

The guts are on the outside. That is one of the more candid ways Eric described the Pompidou. Initially, when I saw the building from afar during our first week I was very skeptical about whether it would impress me or not. I thought I knew the reasons it was impressive to others. It seemed obvious that the curving tunnels on the exterior where some sort of nod toward the feats of modern architecture and that would likely attract less traditional minded people. However, I was pleasantly surprised about 5 seconds after walking into the amazing shadow of the building. 

The Pompidou is more than just guts on the outside. It is a way of building so the people that utilize the area feel included in the function of the facade. The architecture found a way to bring the outside to the people as a way to welcome them into the function, process, and utilization of the place as a whole. 

We saw the control a building has over its neighborhood here more than any other place we have been so far. In this area we saw the Pompidou centralize a neighborhood  by cementing its industrialized architecture next to a park and local restaurants. Together these things create a grid, a giant “square” where people are circulated from one thing to the other and can find a way to “exist” in a variety of interactive and healthy ways. Here we see it happening in modern architecture, a park with a pond, and a chapel that exists within the contemporary space. 

The "Squirrel" Cage as I would like to call it but technically the escalator housing which is exposed in clear glass outside of the building. AWESOME VIEW OF THE CITY! (see below)

Example of how the park with the old steeple interact with the landscape.  Here the Pompidou is behind me. 

Malevich Haters

During our visit at the Pompidou, I spent a majority of my time in the Suprematist gallery and meandering from room to room.  I looked at a painting by Malevich and eventually, a promotional invite by Calder.  I wanted to spend some time with Malevich because many of my peers don’t appreciate him visually or conceptually.  This was the first opportunity I had to see a painting of his in person.  I've never had any particular feelings on him, so I was hoping the experience would inspire something for me to bring back to all of the Malevich haters.

Seeing it in person was vastly different than seeing it on a projection.  You get a sense for the flatness, contrast, and less-than-perfect but not overly obvious craft.  The brush strokes are visible, but small and horizontal, cross is crooked, and the white and black shapes are smudged.  After reading some of the Suprematist manifesto, I learned that the white in the paintings represent infinity and simple geometry is a way of painting spirituality and to transcend the natural world.  Malevich believed that objects cluttered art and made expression more difficult.  His paintings were not empty, but “filled with the spirit of non-objective sensation.”  Without these objects and figures, his art loses political and religious ties that art so frequently holds, more so in his square painting, two above.

detail of lower left cross

In our discussion, we talked about the shape of the cross, it’s imperfections, the stark contrast of the black on white background, and the mysterious readings the shape gives off.  Because Malevich wanted to move away from political and religious associations, I feel as though his simple squares were more successful because the cross shape carries a lot of connotations.  This is likely why he moved towards the square, and it is what most people recognize him for.  

Now that I have spent a good chunk of time looking at actual Malevich work, reading his Manifesto, and discussing it, it’s craft, and it’s meaning, I certainly have a new respect for him, although he still may not be my favorite artist, perhaps I can convince the Suprematist haters to ease up on him.

Pompidou

Day 9

Today we went to the Pompidou, and I honestly had no idea what that was until we got there. When I realized it was the contemporary museum at first I was a little skeptical because normally when someone says contemporary the things that are shown are something similar to what we saw at Palais de Tokyo, which I know a lot of people liked, so I mean no disrespect to them, I just don’t normally care for that sort of artwork. To put this into context ill talk about that first day we went to Palais de Tokyo. 

As I walked into the gallery nearest the strange music happening in the basement, I noticed what looked like torn pieces of cardboard boxes on the wall. Upon closer inspection it turned out that they were in fact torn cardboard boxes on the wall. Just... torn cardboard boxes. Granted I couldn’t read the description that went with it, but it’s just not the kind of work I can easily get into. It doesn’t seem to have an obvious purpose and I just didn’t get it. Things like that just don’t hold my attention.

Upon entering the Pompidou, and more particularly, the floor we had been on I felt more comfortable. It felt a little familiar and like home. My grandma had been an artist and much of her work had a similar aesthetic to some of the works in the gallery. Abstracted and more geometric representations of regular objects was something she quite enjoyed. I realized that I liked it too, and this was the museum I would have liked to have spent much more time in. 

For my assignment I chose 2 pieces that I now realize are reminiscent of the sort of abstraction that my grandma liked so much. 

Vassily Kandinsky’s “Bleu de ciel” (Sky Blue) and a piece that I think it is made my someone names César called “Esturgeon” (Sturgeon). 

What initially attracted me to the Kandinsky painting was that from a distance you see the painting and you think that it’s a painting of tiny little creatures. As you approach the painting you realize that “Oh” it’s just a bunch of abstract pattern blobs. But then...as you stand there and look at it, the creatures start to re-emerge and you realize that the blobs are actually abstracted versions of animals!

I was able to find a fish, jellyfish, duck, and turtle. The rest are a little too abstracted to figure out. This got me thinking and I wanted to find another animal in the museum which was also abstracted but in a much more representational way to compare them. 

This is how I ended up finding “Estugeon”.

Which is an enormous sculpture of a sturgeon fish made of rusty, welded metal pieces. The piece is however much more recognizable as a fish, than any of the animals in the previous painting. 

I think what ended up tying these two together for me was that though the Kandinsky painting was of animals associated with the water those animals were out of their element and put into the sky. The same is true of the sturgeon fish. It was literally a fish out of water. I think between the two there is a theme of displacement or change and moving from one space that is comfortable to another. 

Overall, it was a very good experience but I was very sad that I didn’t have more time to spend in the museum. I spent most of the time on my assignment and couldn’t truly experience the museum to it’s fullest extent which seemed so full of pieces that I would have loved. 

NOTE: I would also like to clarify that I had both this blog and the next blog done before today but refrained from posting it because we had yet to do the presentations.

Also I added the conclusion today after thinking more about it. 

A day at Le Centre Pompidou

Le Centre Pompidou

(View from the top of Le Centre Pompidou)

Picasso was our point of interest in our main course discussion (May 26, 2013). After studying and critically analyzing a few of his works, our class was then asked to walk the halls of the Pompidou and seek out a work dating before the 1960’s.

She was enticing, yet eerily grotesque in appearance. I passed her by thinking there was another work I would have greater interest in. However, after circling the halls, there was a notion sitting in the back of my head telling me that I HAD to go back and look at her again. She deserved a second glance. Her name, Sylvia von Harden. As a journalist and poet in Germany, she wrote for many newspapers.

A German painter by the name of Otto Dix is responsible for the two works I studied at the Pompidou today. The first being Portrait de la journaliste Sylvia von Harden, 1926 – (English - Portrait of the journalist Sylvia von Harden, 1926) and the other across from her on a diagonal in the same space was Souvenirs de la galerie des glaces a Bruxelles, 1920 - (English - Memories of the Hall of Mirrors in Brussels, 1920)                                                

 (Portrait of the journalist Sylvia von Harden, 1926)

The enticement of Sylvia started with her gaze along with my first impression of her appearance. Sylvia looked like a personality, yet she is depicted in such an unattractive light. Understanding the “New Objectivity” and that it encompassed the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany was important.  The "New Objectivity" was during a time where the artists rejected any romantic idealism, a time of violence, sex, prostitution and filth physically and mentally. Otto Dix is well-known for his crude and realistic depictions of the grotesque/brutal elements of the World War One.

                                              (Memories of the Hall of Mirrors in Brussels, 1920)

Memories of the Hall of Mirrors in Brussels, 1920 - Literally Reflected this unattractive mentality and agressive nature of the time. The officer depicted in red, could stand for him being of devilish nature. The woman is exposed in this hall of mirrors multiple times in unflattering poses and profiles. The essence of "flith" mentally is exuded in this work. The colors play off well with Portrait of the journalist Sylvia von Harden, 1926. The curation of the entire room, was well composed with an underlying theme of sexual exposure and crude depictions of the figure for the time. 

Musée du quai Branly

I was really excited to visit Musée du quai Branly.  I did some research on the site and it’s influences prior to leaving the US.  I heard the architecture and the curation style described, but the Quai Branly is one of those places you have to see to believe. Our museums have a certain formula: rectangular rooms, level floors, quite atmosphere, bright, complimenting lighting.  The Quai Branly had none of that.  The architect, Jean Nouvel, didn’t want to create a traditional western museum that houses indigenous art, but also didn’t want to stereotype or parody these cultures by making the architecture primitive. It was a difficult task.

The inside of the museum is unlike any other museum I’ve ever been in.  The museum is dark, certain areas have sound, you can walk in between glass display cases seeing not only the artifacts right in front of you, but those in the rows behind, and the reflections of the artifacts you’ve already viewed.  You might come across little areas and hallways of isolation, displaying masks or full figures.  Strangely lit and creating odd reflections, the display gives off an eerie, spiritual feeling.  This was an interesting way of viewing museum objects.  Because you can physically walk around the mask and statues, you can confront them or you can become them.  Standing in front of the masks gives a strong, eerie, potentially violent feeling.  While you are observing the masks, you can watch people walk behind them, observe the masks, put it on so to speak, and become primitive.  

The museum forced the observer to engage and interact in a way the traditional museums do not.  While I found this interaction exhilarating, it is easy to understand how some are uncomfortable because the museum does provide a lot of sensory stimulation.

Day 9 - FROM CUBISM TO PURISM: The Philosophies of Abstraction By: Robert Matthiesen

So today we went to  Centre Georges Pompidou and Brancusi Studio I was only about to see one floor of the Pompidou. Along with how short the lines are it is a great place to start your trip off with. Along with the view from the top floor, it is a beautiful place to go. The art isn't my favorite but the colors were so beautiful and vibrant I liked it. 

Robert Delauny: La Tour Eiffel 1926

Pom Pom museum

Through out this trip I wanted to find history of graphic design through Paris. I wanted to see what trended through the years and how it has changed the way we see things. As a communication design major, it’s highly important to see what other countries besides the US communicate through imagery. Unfortunately, a lot of the places we attended to didn’t cater to such history. When I got to the Pompidou, I found a couple of interesting subjects that did serve as a history of graphic design.

Walking into a dark wing of the Pompidou, I found post WWII political propaganda. The posters and book wasn’t normal propaganda. It ended up being a revision of the Morse Code translated into a new secret code. After that, it was taking into poetry. What really caught my eye was the open book with the two pages. On the left, was a poem built into the letter “E”. Unlucky for me, the description of the page was in French so I couldn’t convey what it meant. I was looking on how the layout of the poem was, since when it comes to communication, a designer must understand how the eye leads to another section of a page, advertisement, etc. Then I looked at the second page, which was more graphics but had some poetry to it. I looked at that and see how it related back to the previous page. It had almost the same element of flow, but the illustrations switched gears up. In whole, the poems connected together not just by subject, but how they presented a flowing pattern.

Front cover of book

Open book with two pages

Personal sketched of the layout

I was just really excited to see this stuff. It may have been more on a fine art level, but the elements of communication design were present. 

But let's just check out the Kate Moss print outside the Pompidou. Ironically, the artist or whom evers name was right next to it was written as "Konny." It reminded me of back in the early 90's when Kate and Johnny Depp used to date. So I laughed.

Centre Pompidou : Why it's okay to cry at a museum, and why you should try it.

Allow me to explain.  I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the places we spent time in over the past week, some more than others, but overall, I took a lot away from them.  With that being said, I have been itching for something more contemporary.  Looking back hundreds of years has been valuable, and has enriched my sense of art history through first hand experience with the works only known in textbooks.  

However :

I haven’t been able to form an appropriate combination of words to objectively explain the mental and physical reaction to stumbling upon Plight by Joseph Bueys.  One can read as many wikipedia pages as they please, and page through art book after art book, but print media cannot translate the smell of several hundred dense rolls of grey felts, or the temporary deafness experienced by the lone viewer.  Images, though unmoving, cannot do justice to the stillness of an silent grand piano.  It is truly suffocating. 

First hand experience has been the most crucial aspect of my time in Paris.  Being among great works of art, I can understand their scale and context appropriately which paves the way for a critical response to the work.  Growing up in a college town, and living in a smaller city like Milwaukee, these amazing works of art rarely feel within reach, but my time in Paris has forced me to realize that my favorite works are real, physical things beyond an image or descriptive paragraph.  I better understand how attainable these first-hand experiences are. 

Keri - Pompidou & Brancusi Studio

Amazing building for modern art and a gathering place. Around the museum are shops, food stands, and my favorite gelato spot. The building is unique because it's inside out: The A/C ducts (blue), water pipes (green) and electrical conduits (yellow) are on the outside of the structure which leave the inside incredibly open. 

Sometimes they show movies on the side of the building and people bring blankets to the inclined area.

Going up! Great view!

After a group exercise to get the 6 Scale electricity flowing, we compared 2 works on the 4th floor (modern work from the era around cubism, abstract...) 

My first painting was Picasso's La Muse, 1935. I chose this painting because the colors were striking and I was curious as to who was The Muse.

La Muse, 1935

Summary:

Neighborhood - very open room, light colored walls, the whole room has Picasso's work

Site - two paintings hang on the wall with The Muse, the other is also a figure

Exterior - figures are larger than human scale, I first connect with the bright colors

Interior - setting is a studio, composition has 2 figures, a table, a vase, a mirror/frame, and cushion

Object - the female figure is half naked, working/drawing/painting as the second figure sleeps unaware

Detail - thick paint is applied and layered, colors on top of colors with thick but purposeful strokes

My sketchbook notes breaking down the 6 scales of La Muse

sketch

I noticed that the woman, vase, and object in the frame all had white coloring similar to each other.I interpret   the meaning as the muse paints and works on inspiration while the artist sleeps or is unaware. The framed pictures resembles the vase of flowers on the table, which I believe is what the muse is using as still life. 

Location in the room relative toeach other 

My second painting was L' Aubade, 1942. I translated L'Aubade to "a morning love song"

Summary:

Neighborhood - same room with all Picasso's 

Site - on a wall by it's self, lots of space around it

Exterior - bigger than life size, slightly looking up, seen from a bench in the room (above right)

Interior - setting is a room, possibly a bedroom, composition also includes two figures, both are given the same importance in terms of size

Object - the figure on the right is holding the instrument but not playing it, the scene feels more intimate than the other because the figures are looking out to the viewer, the reclining figure has flowing hair and is nude like many of his other female paintings, she seems relaxed: "Do you want us to continue?"

Detail - thinner paint application except for the white of the man's shirt

L' Aubade

sketchbook drawing

detail close ups

Summary:

Both paintings are about inspiration. The first gets inspiration from a muse while the artist is unaware and the viewer is just seeing the event from outside. The second seems to ask the viewer to be a part of this inspiration and the figures are waiting to be inspired to preform. (I did not immediately interpret the gazes as looking out to the viewer in this way, but the fact that he is not playing suggests there is something missing - he is not only inspired by the woman in the painting)

Brancusi

A few feet from the Pompidou sits the Brancusi muesum that houses his sculptures in an completely unique fashion. As a trade for all his work when he died, he required that his studio be reproduced exactly as he had it, and he designed the space to make sure it was exactly as he wanted it. Our job was to take a picture of the space and let it define what was so unique about this museum. 

The most striking thing besides the amount of work everywhere, was that sculpture seemed to be sitting on other sculptures. What was the art and what was the pedestal? 

Pompidou-Day 9

When we went to the Pompidou I chose to focus on three pieces—The first being Sonja Delaunay’s La Belle Busier, Kupka’s Compliment, and an video installation called Danse Serpentine by Anonymous. All three pieces were within the same room, the Musical Eye/Early Abstraction: Color and Light as Movement. I felt that all three worked well together because they not only played off of the other pieces within the room and the negative spaces that were created by the open exits/entrances, but that they were great transitional pieces to help guide the viewer in-between the two separate spaces. Within each painting there is a definite feeling of movement; whether it would be the first wave of static movement in Delaunay’s, the apparent vibration of Kupka’s painting, or the soft, fluid movement of the dancer’s dress, bleeding into different colors in the Anonymous video piece. I found the idea of creating a tangible artwork based off of an intangible sound extremely intriguing. Making sound visible in the manner of color, color blocking, blending, as well as the use of movement through the foreground, middle ground and background was such a smart decision on all three of the artist’s parts.

After the Pompidou we went for Crepe’s at Creperie Beauborg-SO GOOD. I had Crepes for every meal yesterday—I don’t think I could get sick of them here.