Basquiat & Warhol (Short Essay #1) by Raven D.

  Both contemporary artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat have made an influential impact on the modern art scene with their work. Basquiat and Warhol even had the chance to collaborate together during their careers in the 1980s. They both have similar yet different approaches in artistic style and overall creating art. According to Joanne Finklestein in The Art Of Self Invention, she states “Contemporary culture is a form of social instruction that can evolve beyond its original inception.” (Finklestein, 12) These documentaries provided more insight into how they viewed the world through art and how others they knew viewed them. 

  Andy Warhol was a huge innovator of the Pop Art movement. His biggest inspiration was pop culture. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, impoverished living with his two brothers and parents who were Slovakia immigrants. At a young age, he was diagnosed with the neurotic disease of Sydenham chorea. To cope with his struggle he turned to art and the glamorous world of Old-Hollywood as an outlet, cutting out pictures of movie stars from magazines. According to Joanne Finklestein’s The Art of Self Invention, it states that “The organic relationship between popular culture and personal values is impossible to link causally yet equally it is impossible to deny. The prevailing features of the moment do not mechanically influence us in a one-way coercive direction but neither do they leave us untouched. In this way, popular culture is like a rapid and continual series of switching points where mass-mediated images and messages become absorbed into everyday habits and then, at other times, are displaced and sidelined.” (Finklestein, 16) In the documentary, it’s mentioned how he always dreamed of going to Hollywood. Later on, during his career as a commercial artist in the late 1950s, his admiration for pop culture was still evident. He made his work colorful, vibrant, modern and commercial in homage to culture; introducing Pop Art to the art world. He’d use art mediums such as watercolor paint and ink. While his techniques were traditional, he’d produce his art mechanically so he reproduced as much as he could in his line of commerce art. 

   According to John Berger in Ways Of Seeing, he states that “Consequently a reproduction, as well as making its own references to the image of its original, becomes itself the reference point for other images. The meaning of an image is changed according to what one sees immediately beside it or what comes immediately after it. Such authority as it retains is distributed over the whole context in which it appears”. (Berger, 29) The style of his work provided new meanings of figures praised in the media. Some of Warhol’s famous works were Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962), Marilyn Monroe (1962), and Coca-Cola (1962). He enjoyed fame just as much as he adored those he would pay tribute to in his work. Despite this he still had a public and private persona of himself, even endured battles such a drug addiction and discrimination for being gay. Andy Warhol’s work left a lasting impression of his bold and eccentric nature as a person and an artist.


   Jean Michel-Basquiat was an artist that was a huge innovator of contemporary art. His biggest inspiration was human anatomy. He was born and raised impoverished in Brooklyn, New York by his mother who was Puerto Rican, and his father who was a Haitian immigrant. During his early childhood, he expressed a talent and interest in art. After experiencing a car accident as a child and was injured, he started studying Grey’s Anatomy. He never attended art school but would read a lot of books and visit art museums. Other artistic influences he immersed himself in were Jazz and Classical music along with Donna Summers. At the early start of his art career in the 70s, he left home and did graffiti art and paintings that would invoke ideas about personal values and beliefs. He’d tag his work as ‘SAMO’ which meant the idea of belief. After his work was recognized in the SoHo, New York scene, he would choose to separate art from the artist. He was being referred to as SAMO didn’t want to be since it wasn’t him just the theme of his art. He wanted to be known as Jean Michel Basquiat the artist.

   Basquiat’s art would consist of colorful linework of figures and motifs. The art mediums he would use are painting, drawing, and collage. His art style and methods were intricate yet abstract, making the viewer want to dissect the meaning of any of his pieces. Some of his famous pieces are Scull (1981), Crown (1983), Trumpet (1984), and Dustheads (1982). Other influences that he would incorporate in his art were politics and African history, since he was biracial and hardly seen it showcased in art. In John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, it states that “When we ‘see’ a landscape, we situate ourselves in it. If we ‘saw’ the art of the past, we would situate ourselves in history. We are prevented from seeing it, we are being deprived of in the history which belongs to us” (Berger, 11). He felt that African history was never portrayed realistically and regally in modern art, so he contributed to changing that. Also in doing this, he didn’t want to be known solely as a ‘Black artist’ believing that “Any artist known for being a part of a social group, has their opportunities (in a box)” and how “A great artist is more than a black artist”. This would also cause traction of racism, which he feared. He was very humble when it came to fame, not caring too much about money, and just wanted to create. Jean Michel Basquiat’s work didn’t shape him as a person but defined him as an artist that was introverted, passionate, and brilliant.

Works Cited:

• Finkelstein, Joanne. The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. I.B. Tauris, 2007.
• Berger, John, et al. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. British Broadcasting Corporation, 1990.

 

Voting Weekly Selfie

 Kirillos Samuel

Art 242: Self I As Image

Professor Doris Cacoilo

I call this securing the bag (election)! I made sure these ballots do not get harmed on my way to dropping them off at the ballot box... and good thing I did, the election was a success ;)

Kiro's Flag Self Portrait Project

 Kirillos Samuel

Art 242: Self I As Image

Professor Doris Cacoilo

Flag Self Portrait Project

    For my Flag Self Portrait project, I wanted to create a piece that showed a little bit of everything that makes me who I am. I decided to make something more abstract and have many colors and waves to it. Two flags are portrayed in this project, my flag which consists of my hobbies and the people that I cannot live without and at the same time I wanted to incorporate the flag that made me who I am, and in the center background there lies the Egyptian flag. The experience is creating something that is cultivating the true meaning of self, and in the words of artist Dahlia Elsayed, “this is my way of marking the experience”. It was very fitting to have my project highlight my Egyptian roots as Dahlia’s father is also Egyptian and her name is a traditional Egyptian name which made it even more so fitting to have these two links in the project. In a work that featured Dahlia Elsayed, we read, “For writers, and for artists in general, a lot of things start with the personal”, said Elsayed…” This is important as this project focuses on me for the portrait portion and people and my hobbies for the parts that are for the personal portion of the project. These images which are included in my flag all make up who I am. Starting off from the far top left corner, my family. They play a vital role in who I am and the mental strength I have learned to acquire comes from them. The picture right under is me while recording. Singing is a major hobby for me and recording and releasing religious music is something that calms me in the worst of times. On the top next to the family picture is a picture of my next hobby, traveling! I have a deadly fear of flying but that has not stopped me from visiting places that I have been dying to visit. Under that one is a picture of me in my home country, Egypt. At the beginning of the semester, I described to the class the feeling of being in the desert in front of the Great Pyramids and it is just a surreal feeling with the sheer size of the pyramids and it makes a person wonder how they were built. The extreme heat with the dry desert was a day I will never forget and that is why I included it in my flag project. Right next to right on the bottom is another picture of that day and it is a selfie with the biggest pyramid of the three, the pyramid of the Pharaoh Khufu. On top of that picture, there is another picture of people that are really close to me and it is a picture of my friends. They are always there in times of trouble and they play an important role in my life. Next to that picture is a picture with the ones that live in my heart and it is with my nieces and my nephew. These little people put a smile on my face like no one else is able to do and without them, there would be no me. The last picture on the bottom right is another hobby of mine, acting. Acting is an escape for me to explore other personalities and make people learn and laugh all in one sitting. The picture is from a play in which I was a man who turned to drugs and lost his life in the end, it was an important role as it showed the effects of drugs and this is one of my favorite hobbies. The project which is inspired by the ideology of Dahlia Elsayed was one that was very fun to create and play with. She was known for creating work that showcased her internal and external experiences and by connecting them together she was able to create beautiful work. In the same sense, I wanted to use my personal experiences through hobbies and people close to me to create this flag project. 

'Society of The Spectacle' Quote Analysis (Short Essay #2) by Raven D.

In Guy Debord’s The Society of The Spectacle (1967), he theorizes how society is influenced and conditioned in various ways to conform to certain ideals of living. Considering the way that COVID-19 quarantine increased the use of social media 

Q1 - ‘The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images.” (4)

• Social Media is overall used to universally connect with others. Lives are depicted in posts or statuses (i.e: text, photos, videos) of what a person makes known online. In prior to the pandemic, social media was already in common use for communicating with others and absorbing content but now it’s even more reliant during these times where face-to-face contact is restricted. People are more active online than ever; whether it's to stay in touch with loved ones, attend work zoom meetings, sit through google classroom sessions, or just escape the reality of it all. I believe that the use of social media has become less optional due to current events, it’s more obligatory to be online so you’re not missing anything. During the earlier days of quarantine people would share their experiences in how they’re dealing with it, ranging from pictures, videos, or posts of activities. We’re universally connected with each other through this experience in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak, sharing our experiences throughout it. In general, when using social media, we connect with others through content that’s relatable or interesting to us. Anything you post online could possibly come across another person’s radar. Debord believes that the spectacle is driven by images that evoke communication and relations amongst others. 

Q2 - “The spectacle cannot be understood as a mere visual excess produced by mass-media technologies. It is a worldview that has actually been materialized, that has become an objective reality.” (5)

• Social Media is authentic to a certain extent but mostly superficial. There are ideal ways of living such as luxury, that is heavily encouraged. For example, Instagram is used to share photos and videos of people’s best moments. It also encourages the concept of success through physical appearance or fame by influencers, celebrities, and trends overall. In the case of the pandemic, almost everyone isn’t living how they ideally would be. Usually, the function of the spectacle through social media glamorizes and dramatizes reality but during this time, it constantly reminds us of the actual bigger picture of reality. I believe that Debord is saying that the spectacle is filtered with materialistic values that we as a society consume so much of which makes it harder for us to distinguish reality most of the time.

Q3 - “When the real world is transformed into mere images, mere images become real beings — figments that provide the direct motivations for a hypnotic behavior. Since the spectacle’s job is to use various specialized mediations in order to show us a world that can no longer be directly grasped, it naturally elevates the sense of sight to the special preeminence once occupied by touch: the most abstract and easily deceived sense is the most readily adaptable to the generalized abstraction of present-day society. But the spectacle is not merely a matter of images, nor even of images plus sounds. It is whatever escapes people’s activity, whatever eludes their practical reconsideration and correction. It is the opposite of dialogue. Wherever representation becomes independent, the spectacle regenerates itself.”(18)

• The influence of social media often creates goals and expectations for those who aren’t necessarily wealthy or privileged. The act of being someone that you're not only enforces escapism more than actual change. It tends to push people away from reality which causes a lack of relatability. It makes us seek what we don’t have and undervalue what we already have. According to Joanne Finklestein's The Art of Self Invention, it's stated that "The self is thoroughly sentimentalized; it is variously seen as a Doppelgänger, interior diary, portable touchstone, and inner voice that we rely on to...make sense of our circumstances. At the same time, it is a source of anxiety; after all, we know how much we style ourselves to meet the occasion, how fully we calculate the risks, and view the other with an evaluative eye. Presumably, others are doing the same, and given the ubiquity of self-presentation we are often curious about whom we are actually meeting in the public arena and whom we can trust". (Finklestein, 14-15).  Throughout the pandemic, some people have taken the time to reinvent themselves, whether it be learning a new skill, redisocerving an old passion, or changing their entire wardrobe. The idea of change is encouraged by the spectacle in seeing different identities all across the media. For example, if a video went viral you'll have people who crave the same success or feel inspired by them, so they'll try to remake their version of it. In regard of Debord's statement, he means that the spectable being  so abstract it's an escape from  reality while it still feeds into the idea of change. When a one person represents themselves and starts a trend the spectacle is broadened to that idea.

Q4 - “As long as necessity is socially dreamed, dreaming will remain necessary. The spectacle is the bad dream of a modern society in chains and ultimately expresses nothing more than its wish for sleep. The spectacle is the guardian of that sleep.” (21).

• Anything that is made necessary by the spectacle, will always be a want. It's a common belief that we exist to solely work until we're no longer able to function rather than live life. If you're not making moves or being productive you'd be considered as inferior to those that do. Some people would refer to this as the 'Rise and Grind' mentality, where a person regardless of their circumstances constantly hustles by all means necessary to have a stable living, provide, or stunt on others. Its definitely influenced by the lifestyle of social media influencers and celebrities, whereas most worked for what they have and others didn't do as much to be as successful as they are. This reminds me of how our society created these expectations for my generation and the following to achieve certain milestones at a certain age, especially with how the world is advancing with more opportunities than before. Even in the time of the pandemic, the expectations are still present but more challenging to accomplish with everything going on. Debord is saying that as long as there are rewards, possibilities of a higher living and overall betterment for oneself, society will remain in this work cycle towards those desires.

Society of the Spectacle

“The Society of the Spectacle” may have been written in 1967 but it's still very relevant today. Because Guy Debord’s descriptions of how human social life is now consumed by technology and images, his work is often seen as a prophecy of the dangers of the internet age now upon us. In the era of social distancing, former simple pleasures, like travel, seeing friends, etc has halted. We’re forced to transform our homes into hubs for work and play. Life is now almost a simulation. Such a lifestyle can affect our appearance and perception of the world and ourselves, just as Guy Debord predicted. The book speaks about how human beings have become so technology-driven that they have forgotten to actually live through their experiences. 

“As long as necessity is socially dreamed, dreaming will remain necessary. The spectacle is the bad dream of a modern society in chains and ultimately expresses nothing more than its wish for sleep. The spectacle is the guardian of that sleep.”

"Socially dreamed" means something that is collectively and unconsciously accepted and perpetuated by the members of society, as a result of the society itself so the realm of necessity is a social dream considering that it is alienated and separated from itself in the spectacle. So as long as the idea that things could not change remains a fundamental aspect of the fabric of society, dreaming becomes necessary for society. I interpret this to mean that due to the rigidity of the current social paradigm, human consciousness as a participant in society, needs a way to undermine the rigidity in which it is complicit and compliant with and subjected to. This occurs through dreaming.

“Separation is the alpha and omega of the spectacle. The institutionalization of the social division of labor in the form of class divisions had given rise to an earlier, religious form of contemplation: the mythical order with which every power has always camouflaged itself. 

Separation, alienation, false consciousness, etc., is everything (alpha and omega) to the spectacle. This is where it starts and where it ends. It exists to separate us from living life truthfully and authentically, which would materially require us to get rid of the capitalist means of production. If the spectacle can separate us from meaningful practical existence, both from thinking about it and actually living it, then it can prevent us from challenging capitalism. 

The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images.

The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have replaced relations between people. "The spectacle is not a collection of images," Debord said, "rather, it is a social relation among people, mediated by images." The spectacle wouldn’t be a big deal if it was just a bunch of images sitting in the corner with no meaning. What’s significant about the spectacle is how it modifies and distorts social relations. The main ones being those between the working class and the capitalist class. The spectacle serves to distract us from our exploitation in our capitalistic society. It makes the relation between capitalist and lower working class seem like one that isn’t exploitative. Even worse, the spectacle keeps us from even thinking about this relation. Considering that “Society of a Spectacle” was a book created by Guy Debord, it would be important to note that he was a Marxist and his work displays his beliefs and criticism on capitalism. 

“The images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudo-world that can only be looked at. The specialization of images of the world has culminated in a world of autonomized images where even the deceivers are deceived. The spectacle is a concrete inversion of life, an autonomous movement of the nonliving.”

Reality is no longer something we directly participate in. Our social reality is now the never-ending stream of images that we sit back and gaze at. TV and movies are especially passive media-forms. Social “reality” is now something we experience at a distance insofar as we are mere observers of the spectacle and this is now the rise of the “autonomous image”. Contemplate about how our social media avatars, the images of ourselves, contain more social “reality” than the selves we actually are. Our images are more “real” than our real selves. All of these “autonomous images” get networked together and transform life into the life of nonliving images. If you think that the spectacle isn’t needed in our lives, then just think about how it would be if we lost the internet, TV, movies, etc. The world would collapse as we know it. Why? Because the spectacle is our world.

'Beauty Beyond the Eye of The Beholder' by Raven D.

In creating my project, I was inspired by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald’s work. Their style consists of vibrant colors or elements that complement the model and accentuate their presence in the piece. For my portrait I chose to adorn the background with sunflowers since it's my favorite flower, taking inspiration from Wiley’s style of using floral accents in his backgrounds. For this project, the materials I used were foam board, acrylic paint, glitter glue, stickers, and magazine cutouts.

My project addresses the themes we’ve been discussing such as how fashion and media influence identity, culture, and societal norms. In my piece, I’ve painted a self-portrait of myself and made a collage out of mixed media within the lens of my glasses. The reason why I chose to make that specific accessory into a collage is to represent and address the exposure of outside influences from the media of fashion and beauty standards. I’ve collaged magazine cutouts of models in fashion and beauty advertisements along with text that society would describe it as. I noticed in a lot of these advertisements, they would mostly consist of non-POC models and hardly any black or POC ones that don’t have features closely resembling Eurocentric ones from face to body type. There was one picture of four models, three of them are non-POC and only one appears to be a POC. I specifically included this in the collage to show how scarce diverse representation in the fashion and beauty industry is. Also how the media has always presented these as the ideal beauty standards, which can be damaging to people’s view of their appearance if they don’t fit them. According to Joanne Finklestein in The Art of Self Invention, she states “Consumption, advertising, fashion and the display of possessions are inextricably attached to the processes of self-invention” (Finklestein, 160). Aside from aesthetics, I was hugely inspired by Wiley and Sherald’s work because of their purpose in creating to showcase and empower Black people in art. Finklestein has stated that “Since then the spread of visual cultures has been rapid and the prominence of the image has made the technical and aesthetic realm of art, design, and representation all the more important.” (Finklestein, 6) 

Representation is and always will be important especially with the way the media construes the world, we need more of it. From learning about other artists such as Carrie Mae Weems, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, and Amy Sherald who’ve used their art to be the empowering Black representation that we see less of in the art and media world, I’ve truly felt inspired to do the same when I create. Thomas stated in an article titled The Photographed, Collaged, and Painted Muses of Mikalene Thomas by Hyperallergic journalist Carey Dunne that, “By portraying real women with their own unique history, beauty and background, I’m working to diversify the representations of black women in art.”(2) If we see less representation in a certain space we should create add to that space or a newfound one of what’s underrepresented. From what I’ve seen in recent years for modern, the emphasis on inclusiveness and representation is more present than it was before. In Ways of Seeing by John Berger, he states that “We never look at just one thing, we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves”. (Berger, 9). It’s just the beginning and more work needs to be done in creating spaces for representation in art and media.

Performance Self Portrait Kirillos Samuel

 Kirillos Samuel

Art 242: Self I As Image

Professor Doris Cacoilo

Performance Self Portrait 

John Berger 

Quotes 1: "Women are depicted in a quite different way from men - not because the feminine is different from the masculine - but because the ’ideal" spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him."’

Quote 2: “We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves”

Ana Mendietta 

Quote 3: “It’s about theater. It’s about capturing moments through various forms of documentation. 

Oppositional Gaze:

Quote 4: "One learns to look a certain way in order to resist."  

In our society, adhering to what's common is king. Many times we fear doing what makes us happy and go with the wave that is trending. If we do not adhere to the norm then it is a brutal showdown between those adhering to the norm and yourself. The clash includes names, degrading and the beating of one's morals. The victim is the one that deals with the beat down and lives with it throughout their lives. For my self portrait project, I decided to give these forms of beating a turn in the spotlight. From things that I have been told myself to things I have seen being told to others either on the internet or in person. My images depict myself as the portrait piece and standing with words and ideas that people use to put down one another. Words that describe the human body, whether it be criticism for being too fat or being too skinny, too tall or too short. For this reason I included a quote from John Berger that talks about women's bodies being criticized to fit the viewers preferences and how people create a bar with which they compare each other and mock.

For my second image, I show words that people use to put down those that are different than they are and this sometimes causes these victims to feel like they are not worthy of life and think of suicidal thoughts. The first line in the second image is a line which was told to me when I was nine years old when a woman stopped in the middle of the street after realizing I was an immigrant and proceeded to yell across the street to my 9-year-old self, “Go back to you F***** country!”. At the time, I did not take it heavily because I did not know why she was saying this. However, to this day I never forgot the line and now after realizing people are constantly being put down by others, a feeling of being furious engulfs me that I did not speak up.

For the third image, I wrote words that cause great controversy and especially during the last couple of years in our nation. These cause great heated topics because many people put in their opinion and input. There is never a consensus as people always go for what benefits them, and no one thinks of the happiness and thoughts of others. Humans put each other down and never think twice on it. These topics are major issues that are in our country and around the world. From the words of Berger, “We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves”. I feel like this ties into this image as they are all connected in some way. All these words are connected in that they come mostly from the same mindset, either discrimination or personal opinions, they come from people who are not willing to respect their fellow humans and I believe art is a perfect way to spread awareness to these social-political issues.

How can we solve these issues and how are they related to art and performance? These issues can be made easy to understand using art. Art gives the guidelines for which one should view the issue and gives the viewer the freedom to translate based on their morals and beliefs. With the words of Ana Mendieta, “It’s about theater. It’s about capturing moments through various forms of documentation.” This is how we ought to explain issues to people who might not be willing to hear a conversation and give in to debate regarding these views. In the Oppositional Gaze review, we read that "One learns to look a certain way in order to resist." This is how our society functions but it is harmful to the individual. Everyone is created equal, therefore, we should all be kind and accept one another and even though adhering to society might allow for an individual to fit in socially they might be hurt on the inside. And not adhering to the social norm might cause a person to be alone however, they win back themselves. Art and performance send direct messages, they extend past being images or art pieces and they become a way to change the world. One step at a time, by being kind and loving towards each other.

Austin Short Essay #1 Basquiat & Warhol

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol are two iconic artists who have contributed to the world through their art. Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn New York on December 22, 1960 to parents who are Hatian and Puerto Rican. Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on August 6th, 1928. Two different artists born in two different era’s come together to make a powerful friendship. Basquiat has always been a creative person and discovered his passion for art through a tragic car accident where he suffered internal injuries at the age of 8. While recovering in the hospital his mother gave him a copy of grey's anatomy book which was filled with drawings of our anatomy and from there Basquiat became inspired to be an artist. After his parents divorced due to financial issues, Basquiat's life became unstable. He moved in with his abusive father who hurt him so bad that he had to walk with a cane also, he’s been to five schools. Basquiet’s artwork touches on a variety of themes such race, identity, social injustice and even religion. Andy Warhol who became a close friend and mentor of Basquiat is also an iconic artist who has made his impact already. Warhol is the pioneer of pop art and gathered idea’s from pop culture and incorporated it into his pieces. 

Basquiat was a fresh face in the art industry and made his name after having a get together for his art and having made over $200,000 because of his paintings. Fame played a big role in his life and he has gotten many opportunities because of it. As his name began to grow he began to get more attention and even dated madonna. Andy Warhol had so many highs in his careers, he worked with so many high fashion magazines that put him on the map. It was alleged that Warhol became friends with Basquiat because his career was starting to die off and they profited off of eachother. Andy started off with abstract illustration and used things that he loved to inspire his paintings. For example he loved campbell soup so he put it in his painting and it is now considered one of his iconic pieces. Basquiat’s art was unique based on graffiti, it was trendy and conveyed deep messages.  

“The compositional unity of a painting contributes fundamentally to the power of its image, it is reasonable to consider a painting’s composition. But here the composition is written about as though it were in itself the emotional charge of the painting.” (Berger 13). I believe that this quote is saying that the composition of a painting makes it more powerful. I believe that Basquiat used emotion in his painting when talking about different issues that he believes in. After Basquiat passed from a heroin overdose they released many of his paintings that he created moment’s before his death. A Lot of them were very dark and depressing when explaining the emotional state that he was in. “ In this way, popular culture is like a rapid and continual series of switch- ing points where mass-mediated images and messages become ab- sorbed into everyday habits and then, at other times, are displaced and sidelined.” (Finkelstein 16). Popularity is the upbringing and downfall of many people in the public. Basquiat enjoyed his fame and all of the perks that came with it however, it also was a part of his downfall in a way. There was a time when his art was not selling like they used to and he turned to drugs to get through it. Andy Warhol used popularity and pop culture as an advantage to get people engaged in his art so I believe it helped him as well. “The uniqueness of every painting was once part of the uniqueness of the place where it resided. Sometimes the painting was transportable. But it could never be seen in two places at the same time. When the camera reproduces a painting, it destroys the uniqueness of its image.” (Berger 8). Basquiat was a very spontaneous artist and created using anything and everything. His artistry was unique and definitely reflected his state of being, his paintings are so unique and would be hard to see its true value through a camera lens. Andy Warhol's art was not just illustrations but they were an experience that had to be seen in person in order to grasp the full concept. “Images were first made to conjure up the appearances of

Nashira Banks Essay #2

Nashira Banks

Spectacle essay

·         “Nay, sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness.”

•         The diversity and the contrasts are appearances of a socially organized appearance, the general truth of which must itself be recognized.”

Explain: These two quotes work hand in hand with each other. In the world that we live in there is a lot of pressure on image, materialistic things, and trends. From photoshop to plastic surgery it helps people try to achieve this “perfect” image. However, this “perfect” image sets unrealistic beauty standards that can be dangerous and possibly cause self esteem issues, eating disorders, or encourage people getting plastic surgery. There is a side-by-side picture that I found of Zendaya. Workers of a magazine photoshopped a picture of Zendaya for the cover of the magazine, making her waist and thighs to look even more skinny. And Zendaya took it upon herself to release the original image saying that the photoshopped image creates unrealistic and unhealthy beauty standards.

•          “The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.”

Explain: Society today lives people live their life’s though social media. Which is not a bad thing, but people should have boundaries of what could be on social media and living in the moment. Or what should be on social media and what should stay private. With everything people put on social media we may think we know someone based off their pictures on social media. Or worst find out private information about someone based off their pictures because they were not too careful.

•          “It is the sun which never sets over the empire of modern passivity. It covers the entire surface of the world and bathes endlessly in its own glory.”

Explain: This quote reminds me of nature and being outdoors. In times were people are stressed or feel pressure, being outside for fresh or just a walk can help calm the mind.

Genessy’s Final Picture

 

"Stained" Kirillos Samuel Final Project

Kirillos Samuel

Self I As Image FA 2020

Final Project (Oral and Written Presentation)

                                                                            “STAINED”

First Stage

Second Stage, Filling in the skull

Adding some Background

Kiro “STAINED” (2020)

Kiro “STAINED” (2020)   Eyes from Mickalene Thomas

From the smear from Basquiat

Kiro “STAINED” (2020)

Kiro “STAINED” (2020)

Jean-Michel BasquiatJean-Michel Basquiat

Painting (1982)

Mickalene Thomas (2014)

Mickalene Thomas (2014)Mickalene Thomas (2014)

    For my final project, I wanted to do something new and innovative; something out of my comfort zone. I decided to use spray paint on a canvas and use the work of two artists and combine their techniques and see if it was possible to create something with meaning behind it. The subjects of my piece were spray paint, disfigurement, life, and death. I wanted to include one male and one female artist in this project and use them as inspiration and see if I can incorporate both their techniques together to create something pretty to look at. The artists that I chose to follow their techniques and styles were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mickalene Thomas. To begin the project, I looked at the type of way that the artist did most of their pieces. Basquiat started out his career by spray painting in New York under the name SAMO. Basquiat was my favorite artist that we talked about in the semester, I used the same technique which was spray painting a part of the human anatomy on a canvas. While Basquiat’s painting “UNKNOWN'' featured a full detailed skull, my painting featured some more disfigured features to honor the collages that were widely known to be used in Mickalene Thomas’s work. I started off by laying down sticky notes to give me the shape of the skull then filled it in with black spray paint. Then, I added some slashes through the eyes and mouth which is something that was seen in many of Mickalene Thomas’s collages. To make the project have my touch on it I added some of my favorite designs which include a galaxy-like background. I added stars in the form of paint splatter, and this is the “life” aspect of the project. The eroded and slashed skull represented the “death” aspect. The painting has a screaming yet silenced mood to it and I believe that this represents me as a person and as a new artist. I believe that many of us go through tribulations and trials yet sometimes hide it from the public to make people believe that we are fine when in reality things might be amiss. Through this painting, I believe I let out a lot of emotions and anger and let it dictate my canvas. I believe the background is soothing while the main subject is obscured and deformed. This self-portrait is not an artwork that incorporates me physically like my previous projects, but it is something that includes me emotionally. The project can be portrayed by the viewer using any emotion that they may relate to. Whether that be the life or death aspects that are included in the art piece. This is important since I believe that the media plays a large part in how society functions emotionally. How people view themselves is influenced by the media’s representation of what is socially accepted and what is the norm. However, I believe my project does the opposite. It allows the viewer to reference any emotion that they wish and reflect and give it meaning based on their story. In Debord’s piece Society of the Spectacle, I found meaning in the verse that reads, “In a world that is really upside down, the true is a moment of the false.” That ties into my project as I believe we are all in a world that is upside down in this current time and the true or the positive aspect that we create comes out of the false or the state of being upside down that we are all in now. I gave this art project the title, STAINED.