Week 8 - Video Blog review

The first video I chose was “Dance at the Moulin de la Galette”. I was interest in it because I have become very interest in France art, and Auguste Renoir seems to have had a major influence on the artistic culture of late 19^th century. The painting seemed to me as a painting that stood for Paris and all its pleasures. It depicts a scene in Paris of the people dancing, laughing, and just having a good ole time at the Butte Montmartre. What I like about the painting is that you feel as if you’re right there with people. It also is a very intimate piece, as Renoir does a good job of making all the actions of the towns people look very realistic. You got to believe that this piece is one of Paris most influential works because it is so well but together. The video tied in with the text because it shows how influential French art was during this time, before the globalization movement of the art capital to New York City.

The next video I chose was “Matisse and Picasso” video. The video was based on the different styles of each artist and how their style made them so famous. Some of the key concepts were that Matisse traveled the world and often took very little with him in search of artistic inspirations. Matisse struggled to find his latest paintings a great deal of the time. Picasso was more of an impulsive artist and would find your influences on the fly. He spend a lot of time in his studio and drew inspiration from what was around him. Picasso also grew bored quickly, so it wasn’t uncommon that he changed styles more than most artists. At one point, Picasso skipped over Fauvism and focused his mind on Cubism, which he would be known as the leader for. Both artists had there own style and it showed in on the canvas. With the text, I focused more on Picasso because I enjoyed his style more than Matisse’s. But it was interesting to learn more about his methods and the history behind him because the text only talked about so much.

The next video I chose was “Dada and Surrealism”. In the video George Grosz was seen as a political satirist. He came from a lower-class background, which didn’t provide him with many opportunities going up. His situation developed overtime into a great deal of bitterness directed towards the government, soldiers, lawyers and priests. The picture titled "Pillars of Society" was geared to be a picture of evil men, when it is clear the enormous social range gave off a satirical element to it. This ties into the text because of the book’s general definition of Dada that society had gone mad and refused to make sense or provide aesthetic comfort of refuge. It was sort of the “anti-art” which put emphasis on irrationality, chance, irony, childness, and absurdity. The video put it in perspective because it gave me the visual of just how Dada and Surrealist artists worked.

The last video I chose was “Uncertainty: Modernity and Art”. It focuses on how modern life evolved out of old ideas, much similar to how modern art evolved out of older styles of art. Basically, the key concept is really just how uncertain modern life can be at times. It talks about how more modern art changes with modern life through different styles such as Abtract Expressionism and then Pop Art. We live in an ever-changing environment, its natural for things to change. The video went on to explain examples of how art has changed. For example, the Industrial Revolution helped move along modern life with the changes in technology, and in turn this directly affected the way art went about. It was above to gain influences from other cultures now due to globalization. This ties in with the text because globalization played such a major role in how art evolved. If we were never to have known how the cultures in Europe or Asia viewed art, we would have never seen a change. It’s a great thing to gain knowledge from these other nations because it benefits everyone in the end.

I fell like every time a Video Blog assignment comes up it does help me out a lot. There is only so much that the text can portray, so its good to see a visual aid to help me understand the material more. I’m a more visual learner anyways, so videos and the pictures in the books that go with the readings is what benefit me the most. The book might get dry, but the videos are there to give me the assistance I need to learn the material.