Why not sneeze-Marcel Duchamp

This sculpture is a ready made sculpture made in 1921. He considered it to be ready made because the original object has been alter by Marcel. This sculpture is composed of a bird cage with 152 white cubes made of marble. The cubes resemble sugar cubes. The sculpture also has a thermometer, a piece of cuttlebone and a tiny porcelain dish.An explanation for the piece given by Duchamp involves the coldness of the marble cubes, the "heat-giving" properties of the sugar cubes, the thermometer evaluating temperature, and the sneezing that can result from cold. In commenting on the title Duchamp pointed out that there is a "dissociation gap" between sneezing at will and sneezing against one's will.

Robert Rauschenberg

Erased de Kooning Drawing was created by Robert Rauschenberg in 1953. In this "drawing" Rauschenberg erased a previous drawing created by William de Kooning in an attempt to push the boundaries of are. De Kooning intentionally chose a charcoal and pencil drawing to make Rauschenberg's job harder. It took two months and dozens of erasers, but de Kooning's drawing is still somewhat evident. Rauschenberg presented this as an art object because erasure is included in the realm of art. I chose this piece of art by Rauschenberg due to its controversial nature. There is a debate over what is considered art and Rauschenberg pushes those boundaries with this piece. 

Robert Rauschenberg- Signs (1970)

   

   One of Robert Rauschenberg's artworks that I am very fond of is called Signs, and was constructed in 1970. When the events of the 1960's came to a close, Rauschenberg created this collage as a summery of all that it contained. Entering the new decade, Rauschenberg's artwork is a perfect collaboration of historical events that were important during the American Era. Images include John F. Kennedy to represent his assassination, along with Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy. I think its important that depressing and negative parts of the decade are important to be expressed because they are a crucial part to American history. The art also includes an astronaut to represent a man landing on the moon in 1969.

Donald Judd

I chose the corner chair by Donald Juud because I enjoy the simplicity of the work he does. Most of his works involve the use of squares or rectangles in different dimensions that he puts together. This sculpture in particular is minimalist due to it being constructed of 5 pieces of wood. This is definitely a contemporary work of art.

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois is an amazing artist who is famously known for her sculptures, but also her drawings. She was born in 1911 in Paris and moved to New York in 1938, where she then started studying art. At first, she began creating wooden sculptures, by over time she developed a love for working with multiple mediums. This piece, titled Rabbit was created in 1970 and was made using Bronze. Its dimensions are 23.25 x 10 x 6 inches.

Duchamp

With Bicycle Wheel, he launched the concept of the “readymade” which is an everyday object that is art because the artist says so.  The readymades are widely viewed as the birth of conceptual art. Yet given that, a century later, we’re still not done with the “but is it art?  Since the artist say it's art i t is considered art.  His works were very shocking given they day they came out.  I like this piecer because if you glance at it you can tell it is machine like  but in realty its not a machine its a bike. 

Constantin Brancusi

Brancusi was a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer. He was one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and is called the patriarch of modern sculpture. This piece is called "Fish" and was done in 1926. The fish is supported by a circular disc which is a "pool" and allows it to be rotated. When viewed from a certain angle it is so thin it almost seems to disappear. The "fish" is made of bronze and the "pool" is made of metal and the stand is all wood. Since the circular stand is metal you can see the reflection of the fish like it was an actual pool of water.

George Segal- Depression Bread Line

The sculpture that I chose is by George Segal. It is titled "Depression Bread Line. The reason that I chose this is because I think that it depicts a very real time in American history and it is an important part of history that we must not forget. There is real detail in the sculpting of the people waiting on the line. What i get from them is cold, tired and hungry. Something that most people were probably feeling during the great depression in America. The sculpture was created in 1999.

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder wanted to create abstract painting that moved through space is what led him to his moving, motorized works. "A Universe" has two spherical shapes that travel at different rates during a 40 minute cycle. Calder had in interest in astronomy and compared the moving parts of this sculpture to the solar system.   This sculpture was an important step that got him to his constellation series.

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas was a French sculptor, painter, and much more from 1834-1917. He considered himself a realist. More than half his works were images of dancers. The dancer above is made of bronze and found in the Met in NYC. I really like this piece because it represents dancers of all styles even though he titled it the Spanish Dancer. As a dancer myself I find this a pose most dancers do know and practice. The dancer looks elegant and relaxed in this piece.

robert rauschenberg

Sor Aqua (Venetian) was made by Robert Rauschenberg in 1973. It is made of a water filled bathtub, wood, rope, and a glass jug. The dimensions of the sculpture is 98 x 120 x 41 inches. It is currently on display on the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The inspiration for this sculpture was from Rauschenberg's experiences in Venice, a "floating city". In the words of The Museum of Fine Arts "In ennobling an ordinary bathtub Rauschenberg conjures an air of grace in decline." He mimics the canals with the water, and the aging city with rustic beams. Rauschenberg is a master of metaphor in every fine art he worked through, such as dance, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and performance.

Louise Bourgeois

This sculpture, known as Arch of Hysteria, was made by Louise Bourgeois. It was created in 1993 and was placed in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This sculpture was made out of Bronze and polished patina. I chose this sculpture because the color of it (gold), makes it stand out compared to her other sculptures. I also enjoy that this sculpture had a shadow that adds to this work of art. The shadow gives the viewer a different view of the sculpture. Apparently, this sculpture was about how psychoanalysis around the time of Freud, believed that hysteria women would have body contortions similar to this human figure in this sculpture. This sculpture is impressive because Bourgeois was able to create a realistic human body out of bronze.

Auguste Rodin

This piece is called “The Martyr” or “The Little Martyr” by Auguste Rodin. Rodin was a famous French sculpture who was lived between November 12^th, 1840 – November 17^th, 1917. This piece was completed in 1885 and is a plaster sculpture of a naked dead or sleeping woman. Originally this piece was a study of a figure that was on Rodin’s other famous work, “The Gates of Hell”, which was later removed form the piece. I chose this piece due to the depiction of agony it represents. The body is contorted in such a way that shows a burden of suffering, and I think Rodin captured this beautifully. The sculpture now resides in Musee Rodin in Paris.

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder was an american artist during surrealism. He introduced the element of movement into sculpture through motorized works and mobiles. Calder also created static sculptures called stabiles, as well as paintings. He used wire to created three dimensional line drawings of people and animals called linear sculptures. He shifted from this to do abstract work with wire to create figurative and portrait pieces to "draw in space." This sculpture is called goldfish bowl
and is made of wire. Calder made this sculpture in 1927.

Brancusi

Constantin Brancusi was a controversial sculptor in his time because he thought that being real was more than something looking like nature. He created unexpected shapes that comically portrayed their titles. With his unusual sculptures, Brancusi challenged the world to reconsider what sculpture was and how they see it. Previous sculptors had been very technical until Brancusi chose to create non-representational sculptures completely with his hands and tools instead of casting. I chose to look at his sculpture "The Kiss" because I found it interesting that it is almost a complete rectangle brick, with only a little bit carved out of it and you can still tell that it is two people kissing even though they are not as detailed and "human-like" as previous sculptors. 

Final Blog

Post a sculpture from one of the artists from the final slides.
Marcel Duchamp  "The Waterfall"

Damned Women

Damned Women

Damned Women is a sculpture created by Auguste Rodin between 1885 and 1890 as part of his The Gates of Hell project - it appears on the upper right as the counterpart to The Fallen Caryatid^[ It shows two embracing women, which is the theme of lesbianism, which at times appears in his images of paired women: The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Damned Women (1885), and Illusions received by the Earth.

Final Slides

Rodin

     This piece was created by Auguste Rodin during 1908, just 9 years before his death in 1917. The sculpture was entirely carved out of stone and its dimensions are 64x29.5x31.8 cm. In this sculpture you can clearly see two hands, both right, beginning to embrace each other. At first this piece was named The Ark of the Covenant, but was renamed The Cathedral in 1914. It has been rumored that Rodin had a fondness of hands, therefore he isolated them from a body into their own sculpture. On the side view you can see that Rodin left space in between the hands, as "the role of air had always been extremely important for him."

Rodin

The Gates of Hell  was commissioned by Rodin in1880, but he didn't complete this sculpture until 1899. This was actually supposed to be the gates of a museum but the museum was never built.  Due to the failure of the museum, Rodin never finished the sculpture as he planned to. In 1925 eight years after Rodin passed the bronze casts of the plaster model were created.  I chose this piece by rodin because of the elaborate work he did and how no matter what you believe in the gates to the under world could look like this. 

Young Girl with Flowers in her Hair

Rodin made this in 1870 out of terracotta. I like the expression on the girl's face and how it portrays innocence. It is very detailed and looks lifelike. The flowers in her hair look intricate. I like how he made her nose shiny and gave her eyebrows.

Rodin

Auguste Rodin created this sculpture, the man with the broken nose between 1863 and 1864. I enjoyed this sculpture because it wasn't a perfect reflection of someone beautiful or a goddess. It was different and realistic. It showed a rough rugged normal person of that time and leaves you with the question of how did he brake his nose. 

The Gates of Hell

Rodin was commissioned for The Gates of Hell in 1880, but did not complete the work until 1899. The piece was a commission for the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, but the museum was never constructed. Due to the failure of the museum, Rodin never finished the sculpture as he planned to. This piece is said to rival Lorenzo Ghiberti's bronze doors for the Florence Cathedral. The bronze casts of the plaster model were not created until 1925, eight years after the passing of Rodin. I chose this work solely because Rodin worked on it for almost 20 years. The detail is elaborate and makes you imagine if there are "gates to hell" despite your beliefs. Rodin was an admired sculptor and I think this piece captures his work as a whole. He was dedicated and extremely talented, as exhibited in this piece.

Rodin- The Thinker

I chose this sculpture because I was interested in researching about it. It has become a popular image, but I was not too sure about it. Auguste Rodin created "The Thinker", inspired by Dante who is known for his famous books such as the Inferno, and the Divine Comedy. Rodin was influenced by Michelangelo, which you can see by the characteristics it displays, such as his strong stance and the aesthetic "The Thinker" gives off with his dynamic pose. The one thing with this sculpture, is that his right arm is twisted and seems uncomfortable positioned on his knee.

Rodin

 

Danaïd by Auguste Rodin was created in 1890 and was originally supposed to be a part of a larger piece, Rodin's "The Gates of Hell". The figure is also known as "The Spring" and depicts part of a mythological story, in which the daughters of Dananos, (Also known as Danaïds) were forced to carry jugs of water to fill up a bottomless barrel as punishment for killing their husbands on their wedding night. This piece truly captures the anguish and exhaustion of the woman, showing distinct difference of the smooth texture of skin and the rough texture of the rock on some parts of the sculpture, while the skin and rock seem to meld together on other parts of the sculpture. The sculpture can also been seen as a landscape in itself, the woman's spine the outline of mountains and her hair as a waterfall. It has also been described as an "Overturned vase", with water-like hair spilling out of it. The sculpture is both beautiful, absurd, and leaves you looking back at it again and again for a new interpretation.

Rodin - The Kiss

Auguste Rodin, full name Francois Auguste Rene Rodin was born November 12, 1840, Paris, France. He was a French sculptor of sumptuous bronze and marble figures. His work was considered by some critics to be the greatest portraitist in the history of sculpture. The Gates of Hell commissioned in 1880 for the future Museum of the decorative Arts in Paris, which remained unfinished at his death but resulted in two of Rodin's most famous images: The Thinker and The Kiss. His portraits included monumental figures of Victor Hugo and Honore de Balzac. Rodin's inducing popularity is evident by the numerous posthumous casts of his sculptures that continue to be made.

Auguste Rodin- The Gates of Hell

The Gates of Hell is a monumental sculptural that was inspired by many things but one in particular was a scene from the Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Rodin work on and off on this project for 37 years, until his death in 1917.Rodin pictured that people would walk toward the work, perhaps up a flight of stairs, and be overwhelmed frontally by the massive gates, similar to the experience of hell that Dante describes in his Inferno. Rodin stated that for a whole year he lived with Dante having him draw the eight circles of his inferno. I really liked how Rodin incorporated his original sculptures and others into this monument. All the sculptures show some emotion which I feel like goes with the theme of “The Gates of Hell”.

Rodin

This sculpture was created by a French man named Auguste Rodin. This work of art is known as "Eve" and Rodin started this in 1881 with the use of bronze. He was not able to finish it for awhile because his original model was pregnant and could no longer model for him. It was casted in 1910 with bronze and in 1918 it was transferred to Musee Rodin. The goal of this sculpture was to have this statue "Eve" and another statue of his known as "Adam" to stand outside "The Gates of Hell" (another sculpture of his).  If you examine this sculpture you can notice that she does not look comfortable by the way she holds herself. For instance, her body is twisted and she is hiding her face. I took her body posture and facial expression as if she was humiliated, scared, or in pain. Before I knew the meaning of this sculpture, I immediately related it to todays society about body image. I saw this as a girl afraid to notice her body because she was ashamed of it. 

Bernini

This piece was created by Bernini in 1643 and is named Fontana del Tritone. Pope Urban VII commisioned the young sculpture to create this piece and it now lays in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome.  The piece features Triton, a mythical god and king of the sea, who has a four dolphin type tails. A conch is to his lips as if he is blowing out, and this is where the water for the fountain is released. This piece is one of Bernini's first "free-standing" pieces and is in a baroque style.

Bernini

Gialorenzo Bernini, is known as "one of the greatest sculptors of all time"- specifically during the baroque era. His sculptures are best known as being caught during an act of movement or action, and would leave his art all around cities; anywhere from church interiors to public fountains. His major works can be found at Piazza Navona, Galleria Borghese, and Santa Maria della Vittoria. My favorite sculpture of his is located at Piazza Navona, and is titled Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. I love the water aspect to it, and how intricate it is with having many life-like people. 

Bernini was born in 1598 in Italy. He was perhaps the greatest sculptor of the 17th century. The Damned Soul is a marble sculpture. There is another sculpture that goes along with this one called the Blessed Soul. This sculpture shares details with Bernini like the eye brows, forehead, and mustache. It is a self portrait of Bernini, making faces in the mirror as he imagines the torments of Hell.

Bernini

I chose Bernini's sculpture of David because of the differences in his vs. Michelangelo. In Berninis, David appears in the midst of the battle against Goliath, whereas Michelangelo's doesn't include the fight or Goliath. Here Bernini portrays a lifesize David with clothes and in battle. This is different from Michelangelo's, because in his, he created the David with more of a serious face, and without any clothes. Both variations of the David are made out of marble. Today this sculpture remains in Rome.