Bor/Nat Art as Advocacy Lesson Recap and Homework

"The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful." --John Cage.


Recap

Today we took a look at what it is that makes a "beautiful" or "ugly" image. We started by looking at a project by the Russian emigrant artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid called "The Most Wanted Paintings." In this project, the artists conducted surveys regarding what people like and dislike about art, and created the "Most Wanted" and "Least Wanted" paintings for several countries, and the web.



We talked about whether or not we liked the images. Some students enjoyed the "most wanted" paintings, others hated them. Komar and Melamid's site has a section of letters they have received in response to their project, which is worth looking at. People seem to hate the project!



We also talked about the web's least wanted painting (above), which contains intensely layered art- related signs. This is worth thinking about: Why would people hate this art-referencing image so much?

We discussed what the results of the survey tell us. Megan suggested that people like images that they are comfortable with. We then briefly discussed how we can play with people's "comfort zones" to get our message across. I showed a couple examples from the British "street artist" Banksy:



We discussed what out own "least wanted painting" would be. Some students spoke more of the ideas behind the art they like and don't like. Others mentioned specific visual elements. It seemed that some students' least wanted visual elements sounded attractive to other students.

We talked about about decreased attention spans in society, and ways that you might try to hold people's attention. Bor pointed out that the way art is displayed greatly affects the way it is perceived. He showed this photo of an exhibition by the group NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst):


Homework

Your assignment (due Monday) is to create an image that you hate. You may use any medium or combination of media, (drawing, photography, collage, etc.) to create your own "Least Wanted" image. You must be sure that you do not like your final product.

Supplementary Materials

• More from NSK: Was Ist Kunst? (What Is Art?)
• Two documentaries on NSK: Predictions of Fire and Laibach: A film from Solvenia-Occupied Europe NATO Tour
• Salvador Dali's Christus Hypercubus (seen in the web's least favorite painting) and some other interesting Dali paintings:
• The Metamorphosis of Narcissus
  
• The Temptation of St. Anthony
• The Girl At The Window
  
• Tonnie said he liked art that allowed him to imagine the artist painting it. This might not be what he was talking about, but it made me think of these images:
• The Human Condition by Renee Magritte
• Drawing Hands by M.C. Escher
• A few more images to consider:
• Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'Avignon (The Prostitutes of Avignon)
• Manet's Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe (Lunch in the Grass)
• This picture by Daniel Mercadante
• This photo and this photo of an installation by Pixnit
• Courbet's L'Origine Du Monde (The Origin of the World)
• The Holy Virgin Mary, by Chris Ofili (a Black Virgin Mary splattered in elephant feces).