"Faking It" A photography show at the Met

The other day I saw a very interesting show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org entitled "Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop."

"The urge to modify camera images is as old as photography itself—only the methods have changed. Nearly every type of manipulation we now associate with digital photography was also part of the medium's pre-digital repertoire: smoothing away wrinkles, slimming waistlines, adding people to a scene (or removing them)—even fabricating events that never took place."

Before I visited this exhibit I had copied some old black and white photos of old-time movie stars in different settings.  I then photographed myself, cut and pasted my head onto the body of some of the actresses and then copied them on my printer.  Thus I had manipulated the photos and below are some of the results:

Shades of Gray (not the book)

    The last class I had before the super storm Sandy reeked havoc on the area had as a theme "interiors using shades of gray."   One of the artists whose interiors I have always loved is Matisse.  His use of color and pattern was a hallmark of his work.  Using his imagery I made a black and white copy of one of his very colorful paintings, mounted it on black board, added collage, removed some areas with a straight edge blade, and using pen and ink filled in some areas as well.  Without bright colors, his painting takes on a very different feel.  

A Political Collage

"Map" and "Globe" were themes for the last two classes.  For maps,  I decided to cut up one of Africa and glue the countries haphazardly on a black ground emphasizing how little we know of this continent.  I added imagery of African American woman that was transferred onto packing tape which gives an indistinct image further emphasizing how vague our knowledge is of the people and the continent.

For "Globe" I decided to make another political statement using some imagery I found of Osama Bin Laden.  I cut and pasted his head on a background of hot air balloons seemingly floating in the sky.  Although he looks rather benign I did place one of his heads upside down next to the flag of the United States.  The other flags represent many countries involved with terrorism directly or indirectly.

A Trip to the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia

Recently my daughter and I went to see the new home of the Barnes collection www.barnesfoundation.org in Philadelphia.  Between 1912 and 1951, Dr. Albert Barnes collected post-impressionist and modern paintings.  He then had a gallery built in Merion outside of the city to house his collection.  Not only did he assemble paintings, but he also amassed African sculpture, Asian art, antiquities, industrial art, jewelry etc.  He hung these pieces together in a very specific way and called them ensembles.  In order to see his collection in Merion, one had to make an appointment.  Now that the collection has been moved to a new beautiful museum in the heart of Philadelphia, it is easier to see the work although an appointment can be made on line and is suggested.  I was overwhelmed by the depth and beauty of this collection and I highly recommend a visit.  Below is just a small sampling.

Van Gogh

Cezanne

Matisse

Hansel and Gretel revisited - an Assemblage

At my class last week we were given an assignment to use "homely" objects perhaps within a box.  A while ago I had started to decorate a box with paint and floral paper.  Then I left it alone until last week.  I had completed several earlier assemblages using the fairy tale themes of "Rapunzel" and "Sleeping Beauty."  For this project I decided to revisit "Hansel and Gretel."  The little figures which are actually salt and pepper shakers were found at an antique dealer in Ithaca.  The twigs are real.

Below are my versions of "Rapunzel" and "Sleeping Beauty".

Corrugated Paper

This past week our assignment was to create a collage out of corrugated paper.  Honestly, this did not particularly interest me.  However, instead of ignoring the assignment and doing something altogether different, I decided to challenge myself and work with a material that I had no great love for.  I remembered a Picasso exhibit that I saw a while ago where he used that material in his creation of a guitar. His corrugated paper collage is featured above.

I set to work and my collage is shown below.

Transforming 2 Dimensions Into 3

In my last blog I wrote about a visit to the Whitney Museum and how I decided to do a two dimensional collage inspired by the polka dots that artist Yayoi Kusama uses in many of her pieces.  The theme of my art class this past week was white on white again.  This time, however,  the assignment was to create a 3 dimensional artwork.  With that in mind I chose to recycle my 2 dimensional piece and create an assemblage.   I had a glass covered square rosewood box that I painted white using several coats of acrylic paint.  I then pasted my original collage inside the box and added painted wooden spherical shapes.  Finally, using gloss medium I sealed and shined up the outside.  Voila a new piece!