#julie lecture

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Art in the City - New York

Now with the extra fear of deadlines! 

The first big lecture back after reading week, we were all rearing to go! Today's lecture was on a topic I was eager to learn about as it would be beneficial to my poster as I’ve decided to research into New York and Keith Haring after visiting the exhibition at Tate here in Liverpool.

Throughout these lectures there has been a running theme as to why cities became these epicentres for art and New York was no different, cheap accommodation, art dealers and galleries, art schools and their networks. However, one thing stood out to me that I don't think has been mentioned before: music. Cue fanfare. I think it’s interesting to note that all these artists in New York would have been going around the same clubs listening to the same music and creating wildly different artworks. And that this has been occurring throughout history.  

As are looking at one city, it’s a given that we scour through many artists and movements and today was no different, though I also like that about the lecture it’s a rush of information, a skim reading, but there's so much that there will always be an artwork or artist that catches your eye for you to research up yourself. In today’s lecture that for me was Edward Hopper and American realism painter which caught my eye because of the cleanliness of his painting ‘Nighthawks’, there isn’t any clutter you would expect there to be and similarly in his other works I’ve seen they all seem to have this emptiness and quietness about them which I can’t help but be drawn to.

Other art movements we looked through today was Abstract Expressionism and it’s colour field paintings, Roy Lichtenstein and postmodernism and the Spiral collective made up of African American artists during the 70s.

Kenneth Noland, Drought (1962)

Overall the lecture was a great start to the 2nd half of the semester.

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Art in the City: Liverpool

Today I managed to arrive earlier than last week and after we (the Art History gang students) moved seats and merged with the Fine Art students I used the very fun pull out table that’s under my seat for the first time. 

Following on from last week we continued to look into Art in the City this time art in Liverpool which looked over the Pre-Raphelites as well as the arts and craft movement. Within these two movements, we went over the key ideas of each and surveyed a number of artists. I found it interesting that we as humans always seem to be looking back on a time which is not our own, that we idealise although wasn’t perfect as we like to think of it. Just as the Pre-Raphelites looked back on the medieval times and the mythos and legends of King Arthur and Camelot, we create media that looks nostalgically at the 80s and omits the less than idyllic parts about it.

We also mentioned the culture of artists moving away from their home towns/cities to find it big in London which I had never thought of before but in retrospect makes sense. I find it a melancholy thought that artists need to move away at all and can’t find the amount of fame in London elsewhere, it gives the impression that your work is lesser than those in Lonon which is undoubtedly not true.

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Art in the City: London

The third lecture of this module was upon us and is perhaps the one where I have had the most knowledge on the subject beforehand. I always appreciate how these lectures are designed chronologically as through that it is easy to see where the developments come in and how they impact the City.

Such as this week we started off looking at the effects of industrialisation and how art reacted to that. Such as in the ‘Great Exhibition’ in 1851 at the Crystal Palace which championed industry vs the Romantics such as J.M.Turner who were opposed to industrialisation and it’s effect on the natural countryside. Next,  we moved into the 50s with pop art and Richard Hamilton’s ‘ Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?’ which comments directly on consumerism and clearly shows our acceptance with industrialisation into our daily lives. 

Richard Hamilton ‘ Just what was it that made yesterday’s homes so different, so appealing? (upgrade), 2004 ‘

Closer to the present day we also discussed the YBA’s and the accessibility with cheap studio and exhibition spaces that played a role in their fame. As well as this we talked about art being turned into a commodity and how it affects the economy. Which is something I’ve only thought about on the surface level as I know many people can be appalled by how much art can go for at auction and whether it should be something that you can put a price on in the first place is a contentious topic. I think that area of art is what puts many people off, the price of a painting feels like it’s telling you how much you should care about that particular painting when many people don’t understand why it should cost so much compared to other things, it alienates them. Within that, we also mentioned Tracy Emin’s ‘Everyone I’ve ever slept with’ and about how she won’t re-make it for any amount of money.  

Tracy Emin ‘Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963 - 1995′ Detail (1995),   

Finally, we spoke about the different reactions to art based on Location such as the backlash against Chris Ofili’s ‘The Holy Virgin Mary’ when exhibited in America vs in the UK and likewise with the immense backlash against Marcus Harvey’s ‘Myra’ in the UK vs in America. Harvey’s work, in particular, was chilling after Julie explained the context behind it and it also brought up many questions behind the moral ethics of art. This whole lecture was highly immersive and really made me really think about the logistics of the art world, moral but also made me want to look up more of Tracy Emin’s work because she seems real badass.

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Tuesday 22nd October

Day visit to Tate!

This morning on my walk down to Tate I listened to episode 1 of ‘Fire in My Belly’, a podcast about significant and forgotten LGBT+ artists, this episode was about Keith Haring and his life which I wanted a little context on before visiting the exhibition. I arrived just in time when everyone was putting their bags into lockers and ventured up to the 4th floor. The talk in the morning was extremely interesting, the guide presenting it was also very fun and you could tell he enjoyed and knew what he was talking about. I enjoyed learning about Harings life and the atmosphere that he was living while creating his art, it feels like a whole different era but at the same time there are similarities to our age now as if nothing has changed. After leaving the surprisingly hot room I was eager to see his work and it’s developments. 

The first thing that struck me was the difference in the curation of the exhibition compared to the other floors in Tate. The whole atmosphere of the floor was very impressive, the way it was curated overall was fascinating, the use of space specifically. I liked the way it was never quiet, there was always music or voices coming from somewhere that invited you into the atmosphere. Another favourite part of mine was the videos and photo reels dotted amongst Keith's works, they all make you understand a hint of what it was like to live in the atmosphere that he lived in, which I think is vital when exhibiting an artists life works; especially for me who wasn’t around to know what it was during the 80s, they allowed me to understand the environment and the context surrounding Haring’s work. I especially liked the photo-reel of club 57.

By the end of the exhibition I really felt like I understood Haring and who he was like as a person which I think without the extra things alongside his work you wouldn’t have felt that. Especially in the last section at the end of his life when the aids crisis was at its peak when you had the videos of the marches and interviews alongside the drastic change in Keith Haring’s art it really brought you into that atmosphere. Overall this was a great visit and a brilliant exhibition in which I stayed until it was just me and one of the fine art students so I would say it’ll be hard to beat.

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Art in the City: Paris

Ahh, Paris the city of both light and love and the epicentre of art - at least until the World Wars. The lecture started off with helpful information about the academic posters we need to create for this module and how they’ll be marked.

Following on with the theme of how the city influenced an artist or art movement, today we looked at Paris and the impact of art schools, art spaces and independent art dealers in particular. During this lecture, we mainly looked at 20th-century artworks and the society in Paris at the time which I think can be greatly romanticised and so needs to be looked at in context and in comparison to today.

As we were looking at Paris we of course looked at the impressionists who I love dearly such as Monet and Whistler who I hadn’t heard much of before entering Uni but I now admire his work greatly. I think what I love so much about impressionism is not just the way it looks and feels but how scandalous and rebellious it was at the time when to us now it is mundane which just makes me think of that in future the things we see as scandalous now maybe will simply be the norm. 

One of the things I really appreciate about Julie’s lectures is their focus on the whole truth. By example in this lecture is when we were discussing the influence on African art and it’s appropriation by Picasso and his contemporaries. I’d not seen much if anything about this topic beforehand which I think highlights how we need to teach about the context surrounding artwork and not shy away from certain topics even if they could be hard to talk about.

Pablo Picasso ‘Les Demoiselles d'Avignon’, 1907 

 We ended up talking about surrealism and the impact of WW1 on art, I think when looking at art it can really show us part of a societies mindset at a particular time. Surrealism itself was in part born out of the horrors of WW1 which directly impacted Paris and France as a whole and this new idea of looking at Psychology and dreams, the impact war had on the minds of its people.   

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Bluecoat Visit

Our next gallery visit with the Art kids was to the Bluecoat which I was excited about as I had gone to the exhibition opening of Alexis Teplin’s 'It's My Pleasure to Participate' and was interested in knowing more about her artwork and the exhibition. 

After arriving and finding the rest of the art history gang we all chilled in the coffee area waiting for Julie to arrive though we all felt the overarching fear of our group presentations at the walker later (which went very well, Julie was very proud). After being split into two groups our group was shown around the aforementioned Alexis Teplin exhibition we ventured room to room and I learnt a lot about the context surrounding the work which I think in this situation it helped me understand artwork more but I think in other situations context isn’t always needed when looking at art though it does help.

The Bluecoat.

I really quite like the exhibition the mix of paintings, the fabric hangings, video installations and the sculptures worked well together and the space also is a nice exhibition space with all the natural lighting that can be allowed in. I found it interesting how manoeuvrable the space is and how drastically it can change exhibition to exhibition. The way this exhibition was set especially was meant to convey a living space which made sense thinking back to when I watched the performance and I think in that way is why it does feel relaxing and dreamlike in a way. What I was most drawn to within the different works was the colours, they are bright but also most of them weren’t deeply saturated which gave them this soft calming aura and something that I don’t think I’ve really seen in similar art. I can get lost in Teplin’s work though there are just so many colours and shapes to look at and especially with the fabric hangings there are different textures and patterns that made you want to touch them. 

It was nice to have the curator to talk to and ask questions to as we learnt quite a lot from him and what it’s like to create an exhibition and the work that goes on behind it. That way you gain another level of appreciation when walking around the exhibition and see it through new eyes.

The 2nd part of our trip there was about the history behind the Bluecoat as I never knew it was entirely funded by grants, donations and the businesses renting space on the lot also how pretty much everyone who works there are volunteers. It has such a rich history and I would definitely be interested in volunteering in there. Overall the Bluecoat is a different kind of gallery that I’d been in before especially compared to the Tate and the Walker but I do love the building and it’s exhibition space and will continue to visit it through my uni life.

Also afterwards me and a couple of coursemates went into the old bookshop near the enterance and they found a fiction book with my name as the title (which I obviously bought).  

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Globalisation & Emerging Cities

The last lecture of the module! 

So today was the last lecture for this module, it was also the hand in date for our posters so that’s one bit of stress unloaded although next week we have their presentations which are evidently hovering at the back of everyone's minds. Julie, however, is very good at calming everyone's nerves as she explained what will go on and how it won’t be as scary as we all are imagining it to be. I think after our Tate presentations it’ll be like a breath of fresh air.

Moving on with the lecture it was shorter today then it normally is but I’m sure everyone who stayed up late to finish their posters was happy with that. As the title suggests we moved on from looking at single cities and are looking instead at a small range of newly emerging cities and the part globalization had on that. We talked about the many features of a city that enable it to become great epicenters and how art factors into that such as how Galleries and art in general can help to build culture, turn the economy for the better and educate the population. And then we looked at real-life examples of this happening such as in Dubai and Shanghai which are two of the fastest emerging cities in the world. We also discussed how colonisation has affected other counties and how their cultural heritage has basically been stolen away from them meaning they while others have been given a head start they’ve been unfairly made to wait but are now building it back up through the idea of placemaking (which is a new term I’d not heard of before).

The Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi that’s currently in development.

This lecture in particular has been extremely eye-opening, learning about all these emerging cultures and how cities grow to become epicenters for that culture is important to know I think for us emerging art historians and people in general. Mainly because it teaches us about what goes on behind the scenes so we become less ignorant and more aware of what is going on in the world and what we can do to shape that.

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Introduction to module & Little snippet of Walker Gallery visit

Today was my first lecture on Art in the city, part of the Introduction to Art History module, in which I arrived just on time although it felt like I was late as the majority were already in the auditorium. [mental note - always arrive early]. The first part of the lecture was an introduction to canvas which though I had heard yesterday I still found helpful as it mainly just solidified it into my memory. We also got told our end goal of this semester: an academic poster with a five-minute presentation about how the city has influenced the work of either one artist or art movement of our choice as well as this weekly blog. Due the 3rd & 13th of December, respectively. [remember to jot down on calendar]. Then forth began the lecture on how cities become centers of cultural activity which I found immensely interesting as one thing led to another that then led to another creating these hot pot cities full of artists from all over, galleries, collectors and patrons. All forming this cycle that led to high cultural activity as well as wealth that just couldn’t be found in smaller towns or villages. Overall it was a clear explanation of why cities are the way they are and allowed me to see these differences in Liverpool compared to the small town I come from.

Before the visit, I had looked at the Walker Gallery website and was interested in looking at a few paintings.

Walker Gallery visit with Julie

Although the light rain pattered relentlessly against the hood of my jacket on my way to the gallery I found myself in optimistic spirits as I made my way inside the great pillared building. The Gallery overall had a warm atmosphere and waiting in the entranceway made me eager to explore the many artworks they had on display.

Our first stop after some difficulty with the lockers in the black hole of the cloakroom was Dante’s dream painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti around 1869-71 and as we explored the different rooms Julie explained to us the first steps we should take when reading a painting and that an iconography dictionary will be very helpful to have. After seeing more Pre-Raphaelite works we did our very first presentation which ended up going well though I was a little confused if we were doing it right or not. Overall a very nice day.