As we wave bye bye to the first year we also wave bye bye to this blog... sorry blogspot, but i've realized tumblr's better...

bitchfish.tumblr.com/candt

Repin

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire, 1880-91 (State Russian Museum)

Easter Procession in the District of Kursk, 1880-83 (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow)

Repin was a leading Russian painter in the 19th century. His work concentrated quite highly on his country of origin which was the Ukrain. Much of his work portrayed the dedication that he had for his country, often showing realistic paintings of important events such as moments within the Russian revolutionary movement.

Repins paintings took years to complete and involved an unbelievable amount of talent - typical of a 'high culture' piece designed for the rich and educated - yet even with these aspects considered much of his work was much more famous through its kitch form than any other. The mass produced kitch re-productions, allowed the peasants of Russia to obtain a piece of Russian history.

"Repin heightens reality and makes it dramatic: sunset, exploding shells, running and falling men. There is no longer any question of Picasso or icons" Greenberg, C (1939) 'Avant-garde and kitch' in Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (2000) ' Art in Theory: 1980 - 1990. Oxford, Blackwell. The masters of art such as Picasso were in no way a comparison to Repin (do not mistake this as an impression that they were not actually greats), but they had a different impression of what fine art actually was. Picasso's impressionism work showed an adapted form of the world, formed of untrue geographical shapes and colours. Whereas Repin painted the truth, only what was actually there. And this is what the Russian public wanted, the truth of their country, leading to the success of Repin as a kitch artist.

Norman Rockwell - The Saturday Evening Post cover

Talking on the point of the artist Repin as a true kitch artist -

"There is no longer any question of Picasso or icons. Repin is what the peasant wants, and nothing else but Repin that the peasant is protected from the products of American capitalism, for he would not stand a chance next to a Saturday Evening Post cover by Norman Rockwell."

Greenberg, C (1939) 'Avant-garde and kitch' in Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (2000) ' Art in Theory: 1980 - 1990. Oxford, Blackwell.

Although kitch is considered to be the modern 'high culture' the text above compares firstly the works of Repin and Picasso to each other, giving the impression that the work of Picasso is fake and less in value than that of Repin. Although this is an important and quite true point in the text it then goes on to then compare the work of Repin and Norman Rockwell, and then contradicts itself by indicating that Repin is now the fake one.

The Saturday Evening Post work by Norman Rockwell shows a trueness in a kitch form, the work does not have the traditional mass produced look to it even though it is for a national newsapaper. The viewer feels a connection with the everyday scenes and as though it is them, their friend and their family portrait which should be therefore taken out of the paper and framed and put on their wall. Very kitch.

Portfolio Task

Lecture Five

The Document

9th December

-Documentary practice

Purpose vs Neutral (it has value vs just a recording)

- Joseph Nicephore (1826) 'view from..' first known surviving photograph
- James Nachewey - never denies his intervention in the image
- Frances Frith - denied he had any intervention at all

i.e. photographer always influences what they are photographing
- William Edward Kilburn, 'great chartist...' 1848 - no influence, a historical fact - dangerous

Always have a reason for taking a photo even neutral photos
- Roger Fenton,1855, 'Into the valley...' - title makes you view the photo differently

The decisive moment
'photograph achieves at its highest distinction, reflecting the universality of the human condition in a never to be retrieved fraction of a second'- Henri Cartier Bresson France 1932


but
It is still influenced by the photographers eye
- Jacob Riis, 1888, bandits roast- all are aware of photographer- obvious construction
1887, 'a growler gang in session (robbing a lush)' all quite obviously staged
- Lewis Hine, Russian steel workers, Honestead, Pa, 1908 'child labourers in glass works, indiana'


FSA photgraphers, 1935- 44
- Director Roy Stryker
- Depression 11million unemployed
- Mass migration of farm labourers (oakies)
- The photograph as both photojournalism and emotive lobbying tool
- Included shooting scripts


- Margaret Bourke-White, 'Sharecroppers Home' 1937 - images of ads vs poor child
- Russel Lee ' Interior of a black farmers house' 1939


- Dorothea Lange, 1936, 'Migrant mother' compared to Raphael 'Mother and child'
- Walker Evans
- Robert Frank
- John Lamprey
- Carl Damman
- Cesare Lombroso ' portrait of melancholy' 1890


War/conflict photography
- Robert Capa 'Normandy, France' 1945
- Magnum group, founded in 1947, documenting times of historical importance all around the world
- Nick Ut, 1972, 'Accidental Napalm Attack'
- Don McCullin, 1968, 'shell shocked soldier'
- Robert Haeberle, 1969
- Willia Klein
- Bernd and Hilla Becher


Conceptual Art
- Richard Long
- Vito



Critical Realism
- Bertolt Brechtt, 1931

- Allan Sekula, 'fish story'
vs
- Andreas Gursky


- Jeff Wall
- Gillian Wearing, signs that say what you want them to say', 1922 - 1993
- Jeremy Deller, 'The battle of Orgreave' 2001

Lecture Four

The Mass Media and Society

2nd December

1. Characteristics of new digital media

2. Definition of and critical look at the mass media

3. Relationship between art and mass media

1. 'Late age of print'

- Term came from media theorist Marshall Mcluhan

- Age of print began around 1450

- Gutenberg's printing press fundamentally changed the world - created better communication

The role of the reader

- The electronic book - is it 'democratic'?

- reader takes on the role of the author

- new technologies gives reader more power - pushing theory forward

Computer Media

- The way we read has changed because of:-

hypertext

hypermedia - many media pictures, sounds etc

ables you to 'surf'' through knowledge

reading becomes more fun

- Often important information is missed as we skip through what we believe to be irrelevant - leads us to believe that we know all information

- Lost in information

2. Definition of mass media

- Modern systems of communication and distribution supplied by relatively small groups of cultural producers, but directed towards large numbers of consumers

Thinking critically about the mass media

- Negative

1- superficial, uncritical, trivia

2- viewing figure measure success

3- audience is dispersed

4- audience is disempowered

5- encourages the stats quo (its conservative)

6- encourages apathy

7- power held by the few motivated by profit or social control

8- bland, escapist and standardised

9- encourages escapism, seen as a drug which anaesthesises us

- Positive

1- not all mass media is low quality

2- social problems and injustices are discussed by the media

3- creativity can be a feature of mass media

4- transmission of high ad material

5- democratic potential

Artists use of mass media

- John A. Walker, art in the age of mass media

Key questions

Can art be autonomous (exists on its own in a vacuum)?

and

Should art be autonomous?

- Jackson Pollock

No social commentary

No represential meaning

Designed to be just a painting

'Elitest' art

- Thomas Crow, Modern art in the common culture

- Tony Abruzzo

- Warhol

Green coca-cola bottles (1962) - 'i consume therefore i am' consumer existence
Marilyns (1962) - uses 'anti art' colours, shown as mask like representation - opposite to true life where in fact she was a depressant drug addict.


-Repition of images in mass media desensitises us
- 'High and Low Culture' (high art and low art)
- When artists work is used in mass media it often benefits both sides - artis benefits from media etc (such as pears soap ad)
- Myra Hindley Painting (Marcus Hardy) caused high media histeria - painting possibly so famous because of mass media. Without the mass media she would have been forgotton like so many other criminals

Conclusions
1. New media is changing the way we consume and read text and images
2. Theorists of the mass media have different viewpoints seeing it either as
a) negative and a threat
OR
b) positive, pleasurable and democratic

Lecture Three

Advertising, Publicity and the Media
25th November

- Time Square, New York

Prime example of mass advertising

- Mass advertising - invades life/consciousness, people no longer have a choice but to view the ads as they are so in your face i.e. bill boards, tv ads, pop up ads etc

- Karl Marx 1818-1883 - 'Communist Manifesto' 1848, 'Das Kapital' 1867 (volume one)

- Critique of consumer/ commodity culture

In commodity culture we construct identities through the consumer products that inhabit our lives. This is what Stewart Ewan terms as 'the commodity self

- Judith Williamson author of decoding advertising

- Instead of being identified by what they produce, people identify themselves through what they consume i.e. symbolic associations (eg aftershave to sex appeal) trick consumer into believing (eg you will be more sex appealing if you wear this aftershave)

How does commodity culture perpetuate false needs?

- aesthetic innovation

- planned obsolence

- novelty (make us believe things that are untrue)

- (consider a level product design, something new and better i.e vinyls to cassettes to cd's to mp3's)

Commodity Fetishism

- Basically, advertising conceals the background 'history' of products. In other words the context in which a product is produced is kept hidden

Reification

- Products are givenhuman associations

- Products themselves are percieved as sexy, romantic, cool, sophistcatedm fun etc

- Frankfurt school (set up i 1923)

- Herbert Marcuse author of One Dimensional Man, 1964

- Seeks to make people unhappy with existing material possesions (i.e. the car i have isnt good enough), and potentially manipulates people into buying products that they don't need and don't even really want. Also encourages an addiction.

- Also encourages consumers, especially children, to want products and brands that they cannot afford, causing feelings of inadequacy and envy

- Victor Burgin