Interpreting Art - Artwork Analysis

THE ARTWORK:

James Rosenquist's F-111, a huge 86-foot artwork from 1964-5, was recently re-installed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In this blog entry, we will learn about and analyze the artwork. On Saturday, April 14th, you should make every effort to attend the school trip to MoMA where we can see this gigantic work in person. I will be on the trip.

THE ASSIGNMENT:

Watch the video and read the article below, then respond to the questions. You must enter two comments; 1) A comment in direct response to the video and reading, posing a hypothesis about the meaning of the artwork, and 2) One response to another students' comments. These comments are due BY 5PM WEDNESDAY APRIL 4th. I will be involved in the conversation, and will blog in response to your comments and questions.

NEXT WEEK:

Bring in three images you would like to juxtapose to create meaning or narrative. The images must be printed out from the Dell Color Laser printer (not your printer at home). At least one image must be your own photograph, a family photograph, or a photo taken by you.

Read:

http://www.moma.org/

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/conversations/2012-02-15/james-rosenquist-f111/

Watch:

Images:

James Rosenquist, F-111, (American, b.1933), 1964-65. Oil on canvas with aluminum, twenty-three sections, 10 x 86'

Interpreting Art - The Critique

Review your reading from"The Critique Handbook". We have been having critiques all semester, but this is a good time to start focusing on their function, and how to make them productive and useful.

In "The Critique Handbook", Buster & Crawford discuss the relationship of form (size, color, texture, shapes - what an artwork LOOKS like) to content (what an artwork MEANS and how we respond to it).

In the two versions of a portrait by Picasso pictured below, how do you respond differently to the formal aspects in each? And then further, how do you interpret the mood of the subject, or the feelings that painter has about the subject differently? What if, as on page 4 of your reading, the titles were different? How does the face read differently when it contrasts with its background, as opposed to when it is the same color scheme as the background?