Module 11, a different direction of art

The two videos I selected this week were "matisse and picasso" and "dada and surrealism.  The first I selected based on the fact that I'd heard of picasso.  The latter was selected based on randomness :)

Matisse and picasso was an interesting video, and differed from many of the other videos that focused on two artists because of the relationship that the two had.  In most cases, famous artists appear to deal with or interact very little.  In the case the they do interact, it is typically not the most friendly of cases.  Matisse and picaso had a very strong relationship.  During some times, they were close and actually conversed with eachother about their works.  Other times, they would communicate from a distance.  One may see the others work and mirror it, or compose a work of a complimentary nature.  Their art was unusual to me, and I wasnt really aware of picasos style.  To me, the unnatural appearences in these two artists work is not very appealing.  It's seemingly lower quality then many of the more realistic works we've been seeing.

Dadaism is very unique.  I've seen some modelling expos that appear to have been an offshoot of this type of art.  They were a hodgepodge of smaller statues and trinkets, combined with smaller gears and other mechanical items, all combined together and then painted into blend them all.  This seemed similar to the idea of dada'ism without the political element. 

The video on matisse and picasso went very in depth about the relationship between the two, while the book made little mention on this.  On the subject of dada'ism and surrealism, the videos paid special attention to many of the artists personal.  It showed and explained how some artists personality fir well with their work, while others lived lifestyles completely devoid of the expressionism that was showcased in their art.  Also, the videos mentioned a lot of the political cannotations that were evident in the work while the book went less into this type of detail.

The two videos I selected for this weeks video review were hinduism and budhism.  I originally selected the budhism video because I was interested in seeing if the mini budha statues I've seen were really based on something and how they came about.  Also, I was interested to see if there was any connection made with the art and sculptures from the Mediterranean and India.  The other video I selected was Hinduism.  I guess I figured that it would compliment the hunduism video and maybe fill in some gaps that were left open or compliment the other.

The budhism video was unique in that it really showed a religion that kind of originated out of nowhere.  True human belief in humanity and a unique perspective on our existence and how subjective we can be.  The art that was shown was relatively simplistic in nature, and really represented the religion itself very well.  I found the temple designs to be thought out, and while ordinary and seeminly bland, possesed a true balance and correspondence with the overall theme of the religion.
 
Hinduism on the other hand was much different.  Some of the temple designs were extremely complex in nature.  I was pretty skeptical about the statues with all the sexual themes right on the temple.  This seemed very out of place to me, as I've never really drawn any type of sexual messages out of the idea of religion.  Their art was also shown in some of the rituals that they performed.  There was a certain method to their rituals that was adhered to from the physical body motions to the actual display. 

I didnt really find too much to focus on in the artistic area besides the temple design that was displayed.  The book focused more on smaller detailed works rather than looking at the religion at a whole and the life and culture behind it.I did like these films and felt they provided a view on many aspects of religious art and history that has not yet been portrayed in any of the other topics covered so far in this course.

This was an interesting project...I'm not much of an artist myself, so I was pretty worried with how this was going to come out, but I'm not as horrified as I thought I'd be.  It's weird to draw your hand...we use our hands so much, focusing on it is almost like focusing on an object....but it's not because really it's you.  When I switched to drawing with my non dominant hand, I kept wanting to just put the pencil down and use my normal (right) hand to draw in the details and stuff.  It was kind of frustrating but also kind of a neat exercise. I'd say it was pretty successful, but I wouldnt really use my off hand in the future unless I put a lot of practice with it first and trained my brain to be able to use my left hand.