Creative Though & Artistic Process                                                                Gilliam

 

ÒTHE ACCIDENTAL MASTERPIECE: On the Art of Life and Vice VersaÓ

by Michael Kimmelman

 

            Our first unit of the investigation probes how artist think and how they produce art within the Visual Arts.   Michael KimmelmanÕs book, ÒThe Accidental Masterpiece,Ó will provide us with insights on these and other questions.  He has written 10 essays Òabout how creating, collecting and even just appreciating art can make living a daily masterpiece.Ó The text could serve as a centerpiece for an entire semesterÕs study.  As we want to consider other disciplines, we will use the class to help illustrate KimmelsmanÕs ideas as follows:

 

            You are to select three essays from the text that appeal to you.  Email your first, second and third choices to Stephen Brown by Tuesday, 1/27.  In a sentence or two, explain why you selected these particular essays.  We will divide you into 4 groups, each focusing on one of KimmelmanÕs essay. Depending on how your responses play out, we will endeavor to use your choices in the creation of the groups.

 

            On February 10 and 12, your essay groups will present the selected chapters as lessons for rest of the class.  Each presentation should be 20-minutes in length.  After your presentation, your group will engage the class in a discussion of the concepts you present. You will be graded on both your comprehensive treatment of the text and on your presentation.  Consider visual arts, music, creative text and drama as you present KimmelmanÕs essays to us.  Engage us in your subject matter. 

 

            This presentation is not an outline of the chapter.  Rather you are to identify the themes and conclusions Kimmelman presents.  Use  some of the artists he mentions to help illuminate his conclusions.  We want you to go deeper in your study.  FOR EXAMPLE, as you consider artist Yoko OnoÕs work, for example, what inspired her to create?  What music did she listen to?  What other visual arts were on the Òin sceneÓ at the time?  Who were the poets or writers that she must have read?  What plays were on Broadway, Off Broadway, in Regional Theatres and at Fringe Festivals, which she might have seen?  What was happening in politics at the time?  Fashion? Popular Art?   Create a collage understanding the atmosphere in which Yoko expressed her performance art?

 

            Not all the essays will allow an investigation as suggested above.  How you ultimately present your essay is up to you.  Framing it and dealing with the concepts will be an interesting exercise in itself.  We will have time in class to address your questions as you prepare for the presentation.  Each group will have a mentor for assistance.

 

            Everyone is required to read Chapter One, Introduction.  In it, Kimmelman discusses how the artist Pierre BonnardÕs relationship with his reclusive, fragile, and suspicious wife and model, Marthe, inspired his work giving it an unique standing in the history of art. For me, to ground and illuminate the text, I did a web search of BonnardÕs work.  I encourage you to use the internet to visualize the artists and movements discussed in the text.

 

Pierre Bonnard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bonnard

http://www.bertc.com/g5/index.htm

http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Art/Bonnard/Bonnard.shtml

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/bonnard.html

 

            Phil and I have prepared a Keynotes Response to the essays in the book.  You may find them of interest as you make your selections.     

 

1. The Art of Making a World 

            Everyone should read the Introduction.  We  will study this as a group so it should not be one of your three chooses.

 

2. The Art of Being Artless "Happy little clouds," painting by numbers, and personal cameras gave amateurs entry into art.  What is the function of art?  Do amateurs create art? This essay focuses on  the following to explore questions: Kodak, Bob Ross, Churchill

 

3. The Art of Having A Lofty Perspective What is art?  How about a urinal?  Duchamp proposed it as such!  Step away from the norm and figure out what art is to you. This essay focuses on  the following to explore questions: Duchamp, DADA, Cezanne

 

4. The Art of Making Art Without Lifting a Finger Ray Johnson committed suicide at the age of 67 (6 + 7 = 13).  The night before his death he stayed in room 247 ( 2 + 4 +7 = 13) at BartonÕs Cove Inn (the name contains 13 letters) and made his last contact with the world at 3:55 pm (3 + 5 + 5 =13).  He jumped off a bridge to drown himself at 7:15 pm (7 + 1 +5 = 13) in Sag Harbor Cove (13 letters).  Johnson did some odd things in the name of art! This essay focuses on the following to explore questions: Ray Edward Johnson, Yoko Ono

 

5. The Art of Collecting Lightbulbs  Do you collect things?  Coins?  Stamps?  Teaspoons?  Hugh Francis Hicks collected light bulbs.  In fact, he had 75,000 of them.  For some people it is making, for others it is having. This essay focuses on the following to explore questions: Hugh Francis Hicks, Charles Willson Peale, Wonder Cabinets

 

6. The Art of Maximizing Your Time ÒArt, not unlike raising a child, may entail much sacrifice and periods of despair, but with luck, the effort will produce something that outlives you.Ó  This essay focuses on the following to explore questions: Jay DeFeo, Eva Hesse, Charlotte Salomon

 

7. The Art of Finding Yourself When You are Lost Do you ever wish that you could separate yourself from all the distractions so you can get things done?  Frank Hurley was able to do thatÉsort of.  He took some of the most astounding pictures of Antarctica, but he and his shipmates were stranded in the Antarctica without hope of rescue.   His intense experience inspired his art.  This essay focuses on  the following to explore questions: Frank Hurley, John Tracy, Ray Materson

 

8.  The Art of Staring Productively at Naked Bodies ÒThe dancer Twyla Tharp wakes up every morning at 5:30 and take a cab to the gym – a trite ritual but, as she has written, Ô a lot of habitually creative people have preparation rituals linked to the setting in which they choose to start their day.  By putting themselves into that environment, they begin their creative day.Ó This essay focuses on  the following to explore questions: Philip Pearlstein, Hirschfeld, Chopin, Beethoven

 

9. The Art of a Pilgramage Have you traveled to a different city to see a touring exhibit in a museum, a first class theatre production, or taken a road trip to see your favorite band.  ÒThe pilgrimage itself can be part of the experience of a workÉ the time spent looking and thinking about a work is often proportionate to the effort made to get to it.Ó This essay focuses on the following to explore questions: Walter de Maria, Nancy Holt, JamesTurrell, Donald Judd, Michael Heizer

 

 

10. The Art of Gum-Ball Machines, and Other Simple Pleasures When you think of art what do you think of?  Monuments?  Depictions of great human emotion?  Sometimes art is focused upon simple joys, like gum-ball machines, cakes É,This essay focuses on  the following to explore questions: Horace Pippin Ellsworth Kelly, Chardin, Thiebaud

 

 

Assignment Due Dates: 

T 1/27             Essay Choices DUE to Stephen Brown.

W 1/28            Essay Groups will be assigned.

T 2/10 GROUPS 1 & 2

R 2/12 GROUPS 3 & 4