Video Blog: Mod 13

1.       Some of the concepts that I learned from the “Lowdown on Lowbrow” video includes how this art genre evolved from pop culture in the 1950s and 60s. Rock and Roll, surfing, tattoos and comic books are some of the things that have inspired Lowbrow art. The imagery of Lowbrow art includes a lot of action, humor and sexuality. It can look surrealistic, yet does not have the same philosophies of surrealism. Some of the artists that began this style were Robert Williams, R. Crumb, Shag and Braineater. Though this art has been rejected by the contemporary art world and museums, it has gained popularity and growth over the last 40 years.

The main concepts that I learned from the video “Displaying Modern Art: The Tate Approach” include the success of the Tate Modern Art gallery’s opening in 2000 and the unique way that it displays its modern art collection. Instead of the usual chronological way things are grouped in museums, the Tate groups art thematically with art from many different eras together. Some of these themes were derived from 17^th century academy genres of art including, Landscape, still life, history and nude.  The goal of the thematic display is to channel our reactions to the paintings.

In the video “Bones of Contention” I learned that the bones of Native Indians have been collected by American archaeologists since the 18^th century. This is a clear evidence of the genocide and racism against the Native peoples. In the 1970s a Sioux woman named Ann Pearson first spoke out about her outrage for this injustice to her people. This began re-patriotriation laws that outlawed collecting these bones and returning bones from museum collections. This has created much contention between archaeologists and Native American peoples. Archeologist and DNA scientists believe that much more can be learned from these artifacts, while Native people just want their ancestors and oral history to be respected.

                The last video “Great Museums: An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello” discusses thoroughly the history of the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York, specifically the last thirty years it was directed by Phillip de Montebello. He helped to extend the museum to twice its original size, acquiring art from all over the world. The video also discussed the process of how artifacts are acquired, the conservation, storage and installation of all pieces.

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The Lowbrow video related to creation of my Art exhibition project because it made me think of different contemporary art types that are not seen in main stream museums that perhaps I could explore putting in my own” exhibition”. The video on the Tate Modern Gallery helped to give me new ideas on how to group works of art and think about the effect the works have when juxtaposed together. The video “Great Museums” reminded me that art from all over the world and throughout all of human history is important and could be incorporated into my own exhibit.

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 3. I liked most of the videos and believe they certainly brought depth to my knowledge of art and museum curation. I did not like the “Bones of Contention” video; while it did focus on an important social issue that relates to museums, I did not see it’s relation to art exhibits.