Richard Avedon Darkness and Light

Caught this movie the other day. Helped me understand how photography is used to distort the truth as well as narrate the photographers motive.

Alex Bag

Google Art Project

Today I spent several hours in the Google Art Project which allows you to tour through many major museums throughout the world such as Berlin, Germany, and NYC. I am still gathering inspiration for my thesis and I find museums to be a very fitting place for my research because my thesis will consistently revolve around the question "what is art". Museums are important to answer this question because they stand to be as the only definitive place that dictates what is art and what is not. For example on the internet anyone can put anything on it and it is not dictated, and even on the street anyone can tag a street corner or post a picture, but in a museum everything is regulated and voted in and it is restricted to a certain group of people. This group of people also relates to my thesis because it regards fame, for example there are millions of artists who would love to have their work displayed in a museum such as the MOMA or the MET however fame and money plays a factor into who can get their work into the museum, which shows that this choice is not always based on whose work is the best but rather who is the most popular.
One of the characters I want to reflect through the thesis is loosely based on myself and my struggles a young artist and how coming to NYC has influenced my perception of art.

Inspiration

As a requirement for the class I recently set out to the MOMA museum to find inspiration for my thesis project. As I have stated before my thesis will surround many topics regarding young people and how our connection to social media and a society that is fueled on pop culture has lead to our constant drive and desire to be famous. Something that has become very interesting to me is the idea of linking fame to art so I viewed the work in the MOMA museum of the artist turned celebrity of Andy Warhol. I have done much research on Warhol from last semester and what I am most interested in, in his work is more his stature as an artist rather than the work himself. To further this idea I viewed the work of his moving image segments in the MOMA museum for 2 reasons.
1. To further inspect how I can use video and different video processes in my own work
2. To see what is so special about Andy Warhols films
These films are done over a period of time and are not particulary compelling, they demonstrate the use of time in video, recorded at a real time speed. For example here is footage from Empire.



What I find more interesting than the actual footage is how acclaimed Warhol has become because of this work and how his status and status in general leads to the popularity of work. For example if I made this very same piece it would not only be rejected as a project,  but it would also not make its way into a museum. This shows that the correlation between good art and what is put into a museum is slim and what matters more is who can get their work into a museum.