Tag: art history
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Turner at the de Young
This weekend I managed a visit to San Francisco for the show J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free. Since it was the show’s last day at the de Young, the crowd was intense. Luckily for me, the crowds were thinner around the watercolors and unfinished works. I was particularly interested in his study titled…
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David Hockney artist talk
David Hockney gave an excellent artist’s talk at the Getty on September 10, 2015. I was so inspired that I talked it up to everyone I saw the next day. (A few hear the same pitch on the day after as well.) Skip to 7:14 if you don’t need a refresher on Hockney’s artistic credentials…
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Fore-edge painting
This is the sketchbook in which I try to draw world maps (without looking at references). The results are pretty humbling, so I looked at a map for the painting. I almost have this process figured out. The painting is enjoyable, but gilding the edges is still giving me grief. Fore-edge decoration (by other people…
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An illuminated souvenir
Last year I had the chance to visit Barcelona, which of course translated into a pilgrimage to as many of Antonio Gaudi’s projects as possible. I expected to admire his Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, but I underestimated just how moved I would be by the experience. As is typical, I have no mementos of…
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Toying with History master post
Toying with History by Colleen Wampole Abstract and Introduction How history repeats itself Quantity of representation Quality of representation Means of representation Conclusion and Works Cited
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Toying with History: Conclusion and Works Cited
[This is the final part of a thesis paper about the series Toying with History. Here is the master post.] Conclusion I began this artistic inquiry by asking whether or not the present is dependent on the past. After assessing sexism in contemporary politics and creative fields, I conclude that changing our traditions will only…
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Toying with History: Means of Representation
[This is part five of a thesis paper about the series Toying with History. Here is the master post.] Knowing history might free us from repeating it unconsciously, but it does not free us from it entirely. Certain events and cultural artifacts will linger. What we can do is change what they signify to us.…
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Toying with History: Quality of Representation
[This is part four of a thesis paper about the series Toying with History. Here is the master post.] Omission inflicts all the evils of censorship: it stifles first action, then words, and finally thought itself. Censorship is even harder to detect when masked with a simulation of representation. Examining the state of gender parity…
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Toying with History: Quantity of Representation
[This is part three of a thesis paper about the series Toying with History. Here is the master post.] Before familiarizing ourselves with the quality of women’s role models, let us examine the quantity of women’s representation. It is well and good to know the history of feminism and resolve not to backslide, but we…
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Toying with History: How history repeats itself
[This is part two of a thesis paper about the series Toying with History. Here is the master post.] In any critical comparison of the present and the past, it is de rigeur to mention philosopher George Santayana’s much-quoted claim that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (qtd. in Schwartz…
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Toying with History: Abstract and Introduction
[This is the first installment of my final MFA thesis paper. The master post is available here.] Abstract I use my paintings to playfully invite serious conversations. The series Toying with History examines representation through a feminist lens. I began this series with the following question: to what degree are women still misrepresented in our…
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Predicting the future: A spectrum of irony
[ Last summer my MFA class was tasked with predicting what in five years we would describe as the quintessential art of 2014. What, with the benefit of hindsight, will today’s art world look like? It’s an interesting, albeit quixotic, mind game. Here were my thoughts. ] Identifying trends in your field is simply part…
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Old stuff: more costumes
[Edit: I found this March 2014 post from about older work languishing in my drafts folder. I am no longer working with such crowded compositions, nor on 11 x 14″ papers. I only post this now in the interest of completion within this research blog. More carefully edited thoughts on the matter appear in this…
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Wiley’s “Economy of Grace”
There’s a fantastic video about Kehinde Wiley’s current series (An Economy of Grace). I’ve mentioned this painter several times before, but this mini documentary provides more process details than the books or websites I’ve seen. Incidentally, this summer I finally saw his work at the Brooklyn Museum. I was glad to finally see his…
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Spring critique 2014
This Saturday I presented this term’s artwork for review by my peers and professors. Here are a few photos of how it was arranged for critique. I’ve been asked to explore more display options. Cutting them out and presenting the dolls in site-specific installations was one suggestion. Removing the black mat boards was a…
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Expression in portraiture
Over last four months I painted an absurd number of self-portraits. Their number stemmed from my struggle with reducing an entire person to a single expression. It should be straightforward. We all know the formula for your standard snapshot: you look at the camera and paste on a cheesy smile (unless you grew up in…
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Play and fantasy
[ The first two parts of this essay can be found here and here. Some images and detailed description of this final section have been omitted pending permission from the individual to whom it refers. ] Collection #2 “To my way of thinking, knowing an object does not mean copying it–it means acting upon it.…
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Confronting and kowtowing to the canon
[ part 2 of the essay which began “To Thine Own Self Be True” ] Collection #1 ”Shades of Santayana! Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it; ergo, those who can remember the past may overcome it? What does it mean, in a society replete with simulations and reenactments, to overcome…
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To thine own self be true
[ Then again, consider the source. ] Selfies are easily dismissed as narcissistic or kitschy, but the urge to self-define is neither new nor unimportant. The convention of using physical likeness to express individuality applies along the continuum of portrait images in visual culture: it links lowbrow selfies to high art portraits of Rembrandt. By…
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Highlighting women as creators (via paper dolls)
My recent paintings experiment with and assess the personal impact of the artistic canon. In superimposing the art historical canon over my own paper doppelgänger, I engage in a form of portraiture similar to what Svetlana Alpers refers to in The Art of Describing as the “historiating portrait” (14). Such figures “are distinguished by looking…
Colleen Wampole 