week 1: sustainability
‘Evanescent Encounter’, 2010, Jave Yoshimoto, Gauche.
Jave Yoshimoto created images of destruction using gauche. Using his art to create a message, he created a series named ‘Disaster’ that addresses environmental destruction.
The definition of the name tells a lot about the painting. The definition of Evanescent (“soon passing out of sight” “quickly fading or disappearing”), shows that the artist was alluding to the fact that the earth is disappearing due to the treatment of humans.
Published in 2010 there was no information on where it was displayed until a website named artworksforchange.com featured it in an online exhibition in 2020 to promote sustainability.
The artwork impresses me with the block colours. Showing an oil spill of a brown colour contrasting the bright yellow of the sand, the contrast of these colours show the beauty of the earth, compared to the oil that is being polluted into our oceans and causing a lot of destruction to our planet.
week 2: Identity
‘Hermaphrodite’, 1963, Allen Jones, Oil on canvas.
Allen Jones’ painting shows blurred lines within gender identity. Using art to create a message, it highlights a nuanced aspect of gender, suggesting there are aspects of the male and female in everyone.
The name of the painting; ‘Hermaphrodite’ (“an organism that possesses both male and female reproductive organs”), shows the theme of combined or blurred genders.
This artwork was published in 1963 and displayed in the Walker Art Gallery. Jones’ art is always subject to discussion as he creates artwork on controversial topics.
The image captures my eye as what you initially view is a messy blurred image, yet it actually shows aspects of the two genders. Also, the way he uses a bold black colour to separate the genders while they are also intertwined, suggests the blurring in between them both, they are not two separate things yet more of one thing with characteristics of both. Overall showing identity reimagined as one thing.
week 3: innovation/ provocation
‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’, 1907, Pablo Picasso, oil.
Creating a brand new style of art, Picasso’s style of painting uses the term innovation in a new way. In 1907/08, Picasso created cubism. Using oil paint, Picasso created a painting named “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” in the style of cubism; making the style of the painting innovative rather then the painting itself.
The painting was created in 1907 yet there was an issue when Picasso showed it to other artists as there was a sense of provocation when the artwork was seen. It sparked talks as the painting depicts prostitutes in sexual postures, simplified to a 2D painting made of geometrical shapes. Which was interesting as the innovative way of creating this painting in the style of cubism, created a lot of talk amongst people which resulted in the painting not being exhibited until 1916.
When looking at the way he uses these geometrical shapes to create the people within the painting, it shows how important this new style of art would become as it portrays people in a completely new way that no artist had done before. The fact that the translation and simplified version of naked women, outlines how controversial it was as even though people weren’t looking at the real naked features of a woman, they still thought the painting was risky. Which obviously was reflected through Picasso as he chose not to exhibit it until 1916.
week 4: communication
Volkswagen logo, 1937.
Volkswagen is a car company that was founded in 1937. Originating in Germany, it was named “Volkswagen” which translates to ‘people’s car’.
Originally, the company was under the control of German Nazi party, controlled by Adolf Hitler as he used it as a way of propaganda. During the Second World War, Hitler introduced the idea of an affordable, car that Germans would be able to buy. This was used as a way of persuading the citizens to like the Nazi party and follow their control.
The original logo incorporated the swastika, however, when the company was bought by America, they tried their best to distance the logo from the Nazi party. After many years, they struggled to sell the car due to the ties from the nazi’s and it was bought back by Germany, where they developed it to what it is today.
The colours in the current logo are used to show class, excellence and reliability through the colour blue and charm, nobility and purity through the white.
Creating my own logo
for this I decided to create my own florist company. I wanted to create something that was very bright and colourful. When deciding this, I decided that the hippie time period was what I wanted my logo to look like. A long with this, the name “flower power” is something that is associated most with hippies which give me most of my inspiration for the colour scheme and way I wanted my logo to look.
week 5: gender
‘We Can Do It’ / ‘Rosie the Riveter’, 1943, J. Howard Miller, unknown paint.
J. Howard Miller’s painting uses the image of a woman to portray a message to the world. Miller created this painting for the company “Westinghouse Electric” during the Second World War (1943) with the aim to boost female worker morale.
This artwork shows a woman as the main focus, rather than creating a sexualised image of a woman, Miller’s aim was to show the powerful, strong women that these companies needed them to work for. The focus of this painting is the stance the woman is in, showing off her muscles and portraying a more “masculine” image. This allows for the painting to uplift the women as it was more of a cry for help to get more women into the factories and show them that they are strong, rather than creating a more sexualised image of a women which was usually more common in art.
The term gender comes in as it is not only portraying a more masculine version of a woman, but it is also a painting with the target audience of plainly women.
week 6: place
‘The Legend of Giants’, 2013, Natalia Rak, spray paint and acrylic.
‘The Legend of Giants’ is a mural by Natalia Rak, painted in 2013. Painted as part of the ‘Folk on the street festival’, Natalia painted a mural based solely on the place where it was based.
For this painting, Rak took into consideration the location of this painting being in Bialystok, Poland where there was a tale of giants that used to roam in that area. It was explained that the giants would copy human behaviour and take care of nature. With this knowledge, she painted a large painting of a girl (giant) caring for a tree that is actually growing in front of the mural. This doesn’t only take into considering the location, but looks at the place of the mural and what surrounds it, for example, the tree that she uses to complete her artwork
(word count: 1,078 not including subtitles, 1101 including subtitles)
Bibliography
Artuk.org Hermaphrodite Allen Jones
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/hermaphrodite-98229
Artworksforchange.org Jave Yoshimoto portfolio
https://www.artworksforchange.org/portfolio/jave-yoshimoto-1/
Behance.net The Legend Of Giants
https://www.behance.net/gallery/11332311/The-legend-of-giants
Javeyoshimoto.com
https://www.javeyoshimoto.com
Moms.org Pablo Picasso Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79766
Pablopicasso.com Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
https://www.pablopicasso.org/avignon.jsp
Tate.org.uk Allen Jones
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/jones-man-woman-t01059
Thisiscolossal.com Natalia Rak
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/09/natalia-rak/
Wikipedia.org cubism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism
Wikipedia.org Volkswagen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen
Wikipedia.org We Can Do It
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Do_It!
