Rene Ricard

For my Art Journal assignment I wrote on an article about Rene Ricard. Ricard was known for his
contributions to art criticism because he wrote in a style that was more accessible and personal. Here is an excerpt from his article "The Radiant Child":

So what defines the art look? When people say Jean-Michel looks like art, the occult significance of the comment is that it looks like our expectation of art; there is observable history in his work. His touch has spontaneous erudition that comforts one as the expected does. In the first gallery piece I saw by Jean-Michel (as distinct from his Tag SAMO) the observable relationship of his drawing to past art alienated me as immediately as it gratified. The superbombers in the same show, with their egregious lack of art history, had the repellent appeal that commands self-analysis in the viewer (me). I didn't want to miss the boat. When you first see a new picture you are very careful because you may be staring at van Gogh's ear. Then I stopped caring about what the pictures should (and might later) look like; regardless of what Jean-Michels look like now, they are transmitting signals that I can receive, that are useful, and finally the graffiti bomb style looks like what it's about and what it's about is packaging.

Rene Ricard was also a poet and an artist who would write some of the words of his poetry on top of painted images.

Defining Modernism

Like most things in art I find it difficult to actually define what Modern art is. I do know however that Modern art began as a way to criticize the art of the past and to push the limits of what art really is. Because of these intentions tend to have an "it is what it is" attitude. A Modernist painting would be all about the paint. It simply has the color of the paint, the shape of the paint and it doesn't look like much more than paint. This is a stark contrast to the goals of painters of the past who would do everything they could to create the illusion that the paint was not paint but a landscape or a person or whatever it was that they were painting. This is what made Modernism so important to the path that art has taken.

Making it Small in Hollywood Reponse

Response to this post: http://397issuesincontemporaryart.blogspot.com/2016/09/httpwww.html

I really think that these things are important for us to remember both as artists as well as teachers of artists. I often get really discouraged when I don't like something that I make and I think I need to be better at continuing to make things anyway.

I think that this is also important to teach students that they can and should create and make things even if they think they are bad at it and that they can get better at it. I also liked in the article when it says it is "important to find a community of people you respect." It talks about how this is important for learning from your mistakes and I think this is what an art classroom should be. A place where you are safe to create and to fail sometimes but also a place where you can receive constructive criticism and learn how to correct those mistakes. If we can make a classroom where this can happen then this is how we will be able to teach art most effectively.

Aesthetic Autobiography