Week 13 video reviews

I chose to watch Andy Warhol: Images of an Image because I have never liked Andy Warhol's art. I don’t know if it is because everyone else loves it or if it is just because I can’t make a connection with it, but I was hoping this film would help me to at least understand where the artist making advertisements, which makes sense in comparison to his later works of art. I also did not know that Andy Warhol was also a filmmaker and a journalist. The video also explains the silk screen technique, which is how many of Warhol’s works were actually made. This was interesting for me because I am currently using this technique in my fibers class. It makes sense that Warhol saw silkscreen images as a way to make money because the images can be easily reproduced. Overall, I thought this video was good because it gave more information about Warhol than the book and I have decided that I like the ideas behind his work. The concept of the immense power images have acquired in our society and the topic of American consumerism have always interested me.

I chose to watch Hockney on Photography because I am interested in photography and I took a class on it in high school.  I really enjoyed the collages made out of the Poloroid pictures - I actually like making collages myself.  What was most interesting about this video is it addressed the artist's thought process, rather than just a work of art in particular.  It was more a concentration on Hockney himself.  Rather than relating to this chapter though, I think this was more relevant to earlier chapters that focused more on photography.

I watched Uncertainty: Modernity and Art because I quite like modern art.  To put it simply, the main thesis of this video was that uncertainty what modern art strives to achieve.  Nothing is ever stagnant; I though this was very reminiscent of the chapters in the book this week, as globalization has really changed the way we look at art in so many ways.  I thought it was interesting that the video related all the way back to the Greeks as well.

Finally, I chose to watch Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the 50s and 60s because the title sounded pretty cool.  I thought the book was rather lacking, but this video helped to further cement the topics covered in the chapter.  What I liked most about this video was that it was different than most of the films that we have watched this semester – there were no interviews, just a narrator and various pictures.  That was a refreshing change. I thought Jasper John's "Flag" was really interesting.  It didn't seem out of the ordinary at first, but upon closer examination, you realize the detail that actually went into the piece.