Week 2: writing about art

Lennart Deelstra

No Venus in the underground of London

The London underground has refused an art where you can see a Venus of the 16^th century. The artifact is a part of a publicity campaign for an exposition in the British capital.

“Every message of advertising where men, women or children are shown in a sexual way, is prohibited.” That is the motivation of the London underground based on their own official regulation.

The Royal Academy is displeased: “It is ridiculous that we can’t show a piece of art that’s 500 years old.” The president of the commission of culture of the British government, John Whittingdale, gives also his opinion about this issue. He thinks the decision is idiot: “It is unthinkable that this old masterpiece could give offence to someone.”

Stef Heivers

Our next subject for our blog is Art. I picked a subgenre of art: pop-art. I’m not really a person who likes art, but pop-art fascinates me in a certain special way, so I’ve chosen to pick something about pop-art.A very famous name into British pop-art is Peter Blake. Probably a lot of people don’t know him. Maybe when I tell you his most famous work, you’ll might know him. His most famous artwork is the design of the sleeve for the Beatley’s album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As a matter of fact, he’s a good friend of the beatles and they admire his artworks, so that’s why they asked him for this job. Watch out! Not only the Beatles admired his work, he also did a lot of work for other various artists.

So let me tell you a little bit more of his career. In the late 50’s he was seen as one of the most popular pop-art artist of Britain. He was even kinda overloaded by work: he did a lot of exhibitions and he was frequently asked to make some sleeves for several artists (Oasis etc.)

For the people who don’t know what I’m talking about, let me explain you what pop-art is all about. As a matter a fact pop-art is the name of a visual art movement. It founds its origin in the 1950’s in Britain, so as a matter of fact Peter Blake was not only one of the most popular pop artists, he was also one of the first. Pop-art is a very expressive art. The most important characteristic of pop-art is that there are a lot of banal or kitschy elements of a popular culture used in the artwork. It’s a little bit hard to define pop-art in a few sentences, but I’ll add a picture to my blogpost, you’ll might understand what I mean.

http://www.chess-theory.com/images1/12705a_peter_blake.jpg

The following artwork is from who else but Peter Blake. Now I hope you kinda know what I mean by pop-art.

Corneel Keimes

Arty farty

Art is a very extensive item which has many different categories. Almost everyone has a different view and opinion on art. Some say literature is an art, others say paintings or statues are art. Even others say that even graffiti is an art. I think this is all a bit too vague to really point out what really is art and what is not.

If I look at my own preferences, or definition, of art. I have to say that to me, art is something that was created in a time when it was renewing and never seen before. Like the paintings from Rubens or those of the caveman from the prehistory. Or buildings like the Hagia Sofia or the temples from the Aztec civilization. Even music from Mozart or The Clash. Things that change the course of a culture towards something new and exciting. But sadly, al has changed today.

Today, I believe that too many things get the title art. Like for instance the pictures from Spencer Tunick or the latest exhibit of Paul McCartney. To me, that is not art. It’s rubbish. It may contain a message, although I wonder what it is in the case of Spencer Tunick, but this just doesn’t work for me. Everything that has no obvious message is called art, even when it really means nothing. It is almost as if no one can really define art and that is what makes it so incomprehensible for people. So it sounds obvious to me that we all define art as what we think is art and not what they tell us that art is.