Two page critical review of the exhibition at the Howard Yezerski Gallery:
http://www.howardyezerskigallery.com
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Boston, Massachusetts 02118
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Kevin Cummings
ReplyDelete10/29/2011
Howard Yezerski Gallery
John O' Reilly
On my visit to the Howard Yezerski Gallery in South Boston, I noticed a series of works by John O'Reilly. As I read one of the artist statements, I noticed that he is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago. I feel his series in this exhibit can be defined as modernism. This is because he uses different images to produce just one piece.
This particular artist statement was next to a small black and white image that didn't really go with the whole series, but the whole exhibit was divided up onto three walls, so the series that were hanging on the same wall could go together. The artist has carefully selected several images for each piece and used both photographs and paintings to construct his work.
What all of his pieces had in common was they were all photo montages (collages). Each one dealt with texture and had several layers. Each of the series focused on different themes. These consisted of nature, and the human form.
John uses a lot of texture, colors, and shapes in each piece. Each piece having a different color scheme.
The way they were displayed into different themes was nice, but the whole exhibit could be one series as well. I say this because like I stated above, they all share a common theme.
Mcgrrath - i thought this reading about was very interesting on her view on edward weston. she talked about marxism is genderless and universal l which i didn't think it is. when she talked about marxism i didn't know that marxism played a role in westons work. i also didn't know that fetishism and voyeurism also played a role which i though was interesting because i didn't know that before.
ReplyDeleteAvgikos - she talks about cindy shermans work and i though it was interesting on how she questions about can photos be porn. and if pornography can be photography which did raise the question which i thought it was interesting.also feminism and voyeurism plays a big role in cindy shermans work.
Kevin Cummings
ReplyDeleteTheory and Crit
11/2/2011
Edward Weston
I really enjoyed reading what Edward Weston had to say about photography and art. I agree that one must keep his/her equipment simple and not get all tie up with technology.
In the beginning, when photography first came on the scene, people didn't understand how a photograph could be art and those who went out and spent the time learning how to make a photograph, had no history to look at to make a better image. Today, we can look at images taken from the early years and decide if it was a good image or not and if so, take information such as lighting, poses, etc and produce a similar image. As photographers, we are often criticized for our work if we call ourselves artists, because we are not using a paint brush, pencil or some other object that we hold in our hands. Instead we use a mechanical device, which sees and captures the scene faster than our brains can handle. It is in the darkroom, (or now computer) that the art work happens. We must use our brains to get the image the way we saw it when we first clicked the shutter.
Roberta McGrath
Roberta McGrath really gets to the point about nudes and sexuality in this essay. Who is she to say that men need to see a nude woman to be satisfied? I can look at a photograph of a nude woman and look at it as a piece of art, not an erotic photograph. What makes me (as a man) satisfied, is seeing my friends and family succeed in life, overcoming obstacles they may face.
I don't think Edward Weston photographed nude women to get a "thrill". He saw them as canvases and fine pieces of art that God created. If women don't like the fact that there are nude photographers out there, then don't pose nude. You don't have to look at a piece of art just because it's there, walk past it.
Jan Avgikos
Comparing Weston to Cindy Sherman, I would say that it is Cindy Sherman is the maker of porn images. Although they may be dummies. It is the way she poses them and the props she uses. The language in this essay really gets that message across. Jan uses very strong language and I was taken aback by the descriptions of some of the work.
Even though photography has been male dominated, there are more and more women photographers and we can't criticize men if they want to shoot nudes, because women are also shooting the same genre. As a society, we need to look at the artist as individuals and not as a whole. We are trained to think that a male produced such images, because of history, but this is not the case anymore.