Jerry Truong: Many Meanings

Artist Talk with Jerry Troung, October 2^nd

 4:45 pm at Boyden Gallery

If I was a curator I might not want to get one his works, at least not If I expect it to be temporary. This artist has a sometimes mischievous sense of humor.  He has works like “Flaccid” and “Manifest Destiny/Reveal the World” that have (and it would appear were meant to) left their mark on their former residences. Flaccid, a massive sugar sculpture intended to comment on the lack of a soul and so many pieces pandering to a professor at the school, melted and left a sticky spot on the gallery floor. The later was a sharpie installation, a material that is more than a little difficult to cover up. Of course this permanence is an aspect of the art, an interesting concept to all those who are not the gallery assistant who has to scrape sugar off the floor or find the budget for enough paint to cover up sharpie. Unless he cleaned up the sugar himself, in which case I applaud his dedication to making a statement and do not envy him the task.

Untitled (Bien Girl)  (Good/Sea/Change)

In this piece, we see both the artist’s love of polysemy and the way he draws inspiration from history. It is inspired by immigration of Vietnamese boat people and what happened to the stolen women when the Thai pirates attacked their boats. The polysemy of the word “Bien” means good, sea and transformation.

This is piece itself, is comprised of 5 paintings and a destroyed mannequin. The five paintings are divided as thus, 4 square paintings arranged 2x2 painted with bands of red of varying widths and edge quality, two of them appear to be almost completely red, while the other two have three alternating bands of red and white running vertically through the canvas. The fifth painting is a portrait rectangle and much larger than any of the square paintings. It faces them on the opposite wall and has three thin red bands running the vertical width of the painting. These paintings symbolize the flags of Vietnam and the United States.  In the middle of the room is a mannequin in two parts. One part is a slender and nude female torso, the other is a pair of legs, one unnaturally stiff and up right, the other almost sliced off and centered on the main piece. The mannequin pieces are a roughed white with a red line dividing each part in half. This mannequin symbolizes the Vietnamese girls who were stolen and sold into the sex trade. They lie abandoned between two sides.

Lớp/Vỏ (Layer/Shell or Crust)

This is another piece with many meanings and many inspirations, a common theme in Truong’s work. This piece was first inspired when the artist saw stories of bodies washed up after a Japanese tsunami. It then evolved to include being a remembrance of his uncle who died on the boat to America.  He talks about it on the sight discussing the many ways the past somehow “refuses” to stay buried. The piece is made of mud, wood and an outfit consisting of a Lacoste polo, Levis and a pair of converse. It is made to resemble an excavation.

See Also

December 14, 2012, Carving and Graphite on a Wooden desk, Jerry Truong 2013

In Waves, graphite on bristol paper, 2010

To Cryptics and Cynics, A Modest Proposal For a New Kind of Revolution, Vinyl on Polyester film, 2013

Logo Remix

I wonder what the artist was trying to say........ 

-E. Rader

Nearly finished I think

Nearly finished, I'm just going to add an arm shadow, re add the cord thats in the bottom of the original image and redo the right eye. I might also add highlights to the hair.

The apple isn't doing so well though, think I might stick with the original text

Update on Portrait Trace

Here's my work on Ilse Bing's Portrait with mirrors, just have the main figure and some mid-tones on the background left to do I think. Also I want to see if I can crop the image. If you want to see the original image, please check out this link
-> http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=44571    

Joseph McDermott: Of Deception and Desire

Joseph McDermott is USA based Digital media illustrator with an art history background. He works mainly in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. He is one of my favorite groups of artists, those inspired and paying their respects to art history. His work is inspired by pop artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Alex Katz (whose work is very vectory) and Jasper Johns. McDermott’s is a commercial artist whose work is often commissioned for advertisements and holiday cards in addition to his work for Be magazine.

Like Lichtenstein, McDermott uses a comic book style and often he uses Benday dots in his work. McDermott also has Lichtenstein’s sense of the absurdity and yet of deep meaning in dramatic moments taken out of context. In these paired images (McDermott on the left, Lichtenstein on the right) we see a similarity between both artistic techniques and source material. Both artists challenge the gender norms of their era but, where Lichtenstein parodies the gender expectations, McDermott directly challenges them as we see in the next two images. The one on the left is from a series of Valentines Day cards and the one on the right is from his portfolio on illustration.com. In the image on the left he challenges the very idea of a heteronormative relationship, showing two men in a romantic relationship together in a serious relationship. The image on the right is contrary to the idea of men being the only ones who cheat, and also adds depth to both relationships. I like the artist’s sense of humor, which you can see in his works like “Kickbackman” and the linked poster at the end of his post.

  
These following two images are Perrier advertisements; the left is the more contemporary McDermott commission for the Perrier , while the right is Warhol’s advertisement. I included these images to show the combination of McDermott’s influences and how another artist approached the same commission.

Lichtenstien image courtesy of MutualArt.com, Andy Warhol image courtesy of Design Party, Other images courtesy of Illustrator

Also by Joeseph McDermott

Viral Velocity (https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/quarterly/speed/viral-velocity-youtube-babies.html)

“Kickbackman”

Download a poster of one of his works at -> http://www.illustrationweb.com/PortfolioScrapbook.aspx?artist_id=3484

Benday dots: a printing technique in which many small primary color dots were used to create secondary colors and shading in a cheaper manner

Sources

"Joe Mcdermott ." LUMAS. http://www.lumas.com/artist/joe_mcdermott/ (accessed October 10, 2013).




"Joseph McDermott." Illustrator Artists, Illustration Agency, Art Illustrators and Agents. http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/JosephMcDermott/view (accessed October 12, 2013).

Dubrow, Marsha. "Pop's Roy Lichtenstein parodied but adored women, widow says at National Gallery." Examiner.com. http://www.examiner.com/article/pop-artist-roy-lichtenstein-parodied-women-but-put-them-on-a-pedestal (accessed October 14, 2013).

McDermott, Joe. "Joe McDermott Illustration." Joe McDermott Illustration. http://www.joemcdermottillo.com (accessed October 15, 2013).

Portraits

"The Desperate Man" Gustave Courbet

courtesy of Wikimedia commons 

Self portrait by Alice Neel

courtesy of earlywomanmasters.net 

"Man Reading a Book" Alberto Giacometti 

courtesy of MoMA

Self Portrait with Apron and Brushes by Anna Bilinska Bohdanowicz

Self Portrait, Man-Ray

courtesy of MoMA 

Robert Frank and his Leica, courtesy of a blog post by Eric Kim Street Photography 

Original photographer unknown

Charlotte du Val d'Ognes, Marie-Denise Villers
Image courtesy of the Met, which has a really awesome sure you can download this policy which I appreciate :)

"Self Portrait in Mirrors" by Ilse Bing
courtesy of MoMA

Vector Works

Here are my vector images, the first is the piece inspired by the musical piece played in class, the second is an image using more of the techniques that we recently learned. I cropped them in photoshop to get a nice stuttering halt to the "frequency" lines

Offput//Input - E.Rader

Violent Reds- E. Rader


It's very rainy today :)
- E. Rader

Vera Molnar : A Cognitive Process

"My final aim, in common with so many painters of history, is to be able to create valuable works of art in a conscious way. Conscious way does not mean in my opinion the suppression of intuition, but its reinforcement by a cognitive process; it does not mean that painting becomes a matter of logic. Art at its inception is essentially intuitive, it is in its elaboration that intuition needs control and aid by cognition."

-Vera Molnar

Vera Molnar (1924-) is a Non-figurative computer artist. She was born in Budapest, Hungary but has primarily worked in Paris. She started using her signature material in 1968. Molnar seems to see herself as a painter whose brushes are keystrokes. Her art is systematic. She is very interested in order, logic, and geometry. Unlike many modern artists, she does not aim to have a meaning behind her beyond the beauty and process of working with simple geometric forms. I choose to do this artist because her work 25 Carrès reminds me of an artist Professor Scheer introduced to me, Kazimer Malevich. This is an artist who I am even more interested in and identify with as I learn more about her work.

Computer Torah (1976)

Computer Torah is one of Vera Molnar's lovely Livrimages, Art Books she made. The word "Livrimage" is a combination of the word livre, which is French for book and image, which is something you see. The work is two sheets of tracing paper, about 11"x10" with each short end of the work is wrapped around a rod on each end, much like the Holy text it's named for. There are ten rows on the image that run parallel the length of the image and are each made of s "deconstruction of a module programmed algorithmically in complete concentric squares" that as the run along the image slowly dissolve into a single line" It is accompanied by the following definition of a Torah from "Le Robert", a French dictionary

"doctrine, education, law (...) name the Jews give the Pentateuch, especially the Law of Moses (...) Roll of parchment wrapped around two sticks, with the text of the Pentateuch copied by hand, according to strict rituals." (Translation)

This piece is a great example of what Molnar means by "cognitive" meaning. The artist shows the endless variations of the idea of a god and from that possibly understand a secret meaning and see the collective interpretation of this idea, not the emotion but literally the thought of such. I think that this really shows, what the artist's goal in art is, "To create work in a conscientious way". This piece seeks to question the idea of god in a global world; particularly in the way these rows eventually lose their complexity and become a single thought or line. Another element that highlights the pieces religious aspect is the way these lines almost lead the eye like rays of light, similar to the Stained glass windows of a cathedral

Hommage à Dürer (1989-2004)

The work is one of a series titled "Hommage a Durer". This particular one is made with 400 crossed needles crossed by wire and knotted thread on cloth covered plywood diptych painted with black acrylic.  It is nearly 3ft square. This piece is from her collection made in honor of the artist Albrecht Durer and inspired by his engraving "Melancholia I". This inspiration is most strongly seen in both the rhythm of the "Magic Square" in the engraving and in Molnar's piece.

Melancholia I itself is a highly identifiable work and much reinterpretation since it was created in 1514. This is not without reason, it is after all it's subject is Melancholia Imaginativa, the first of Agrippa's three Melancholia and the one he believed creative and types were greatly susceptible to, in which "imagination prevailed over mind or reason" and supposedly those afflicted with it were believed to be the most likely to go insane. Durer himself supposedly said before he made this masterpiece "what is beautiful I do not know". Certainly chilling, and sometimes identifiable words to many, Vera Molnar was likely one of those who identified with his statement.

Homage a Durer is similar to Malnar's first pieces of computer art in that it shows her repeated use of simple geometric forms and the "stepwise modifications" she uses to change them slightly from form to form. It's no surprise that this image caught Molnar's eye, despite being an allegory in addition being very much the opposite of her work content wise, it has many characteristics she values in her work including the magical square, a kind of math puzzle and intricate black and white working. Both works, despite being wildly different in what one looks at in the piece are strikingly similar in what one sees in the work.

Also Checkout

"Love-story (à l'ordinateur)" 1974, Photographs pasted on Cardboard, Vera Molnar

"Rien n'est changé; tout change" 1974, Livrimage, Vera Molnar

"Signature sur deux carrés" 2005, Acrylic on Canvas, Vera Molnar

"Moldrian" 1974, Plotter Drawing, Vera Molnar

Also you can view her Artist's statement here http://dam.org/artists/phase-one/vera-molnar/artist-s-statement

all images courtesy of the Digital Art Museum, except Melancholia I, which is courtesy of Wikimedia commons

Sources

"Albrecht Dürer: Melencolia I (43.106.1) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/43.106.1 (accessed October 6, 2013).

Molnar, Vera. "Artist and Computer - VERA MOLNAR." AtariArchives.org - archiving vintage computer books, information, and software. http://www.atariarchives.org/artist/sec11.php (accessed October 6, 2013).

"Vera Molnar." Vera Molnar. http://www.veramolnar.com/ (accessed October 6, 2013).

Baby, Vincent. "The Livrimages." In Vera Molnar, Inventory 1946-1999. Munich: Preysing, 1999. (Excrept).

"DAM - Digital Art Museum." Vera Molnar. http://dam.org (accessed October 3, 2013).

Moles, Abraham A., and Elisabeth Rohmer. Art et ordinateur. Paris: Blusson, 1990.

"MUSEUM RITTER - Vera Molnar." MUSEUM RITTER. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2013. <http://www.museum-ritter.de/sprache2/n679906/i804965.html>.