Ragged Cloth Cafe, serving Art and Textiles

I nearly forgot to post today and I have some questions that I’ve been gnawing on for a while.

One of Pablo Picasso’s sculptures, in Paris, France

What medium or media did you work in as an artist before you started in your current medium? Do you ever feel the need to explore another medium? Do you feel that it adds something to your current medium to make periodic explorations into other related or unrelated media? Continue reading ‘Multiple Media (jane davila)’

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Peru last month I was all set to discuss a form of folk art commonly found among the indigenous people of the Andes mountains, as a form of recognition and remembrance. As I began writing I realized that the underlying theme of the art (political protest and social commentary) is more universal and deserves a broader view. So… my topic got a heck of a lot bigger.

Peruvian Arpillera – potato harvest

Continue reading ‘On Art and Political Protest (jane dávila)’

French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) has studied taste in relation to socio-economic class and education. His aim was to give “a scientific answer to the old quesions of Kant’s critique of judgement, by seeking in the structure of the social classes the basis of the systems of classification which designate the objects of aesthetic enjoyment.” One of his books, Distinction: A Cultural Critique of the Judgement of Taste, uncovers clear links between class and preferences in art, music, film and theater. His empirical results “show that despite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people’s artistic preferences (e.g. classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly correlate with their social position.” (wikipedia) Many artists have successfully marketed to what Bourdieu calls “low taste” and Clement Greenberg called “kitsch”, artists like Norman Rockwell and Thomas Kinkade.

Artistic taste has also been studied by artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid. They surveyed thousands of people from all over the world and, with great irony, created a collection of the Most Wanted Paintings and Least Wanted Paintings by country. Komar and Melamid ask “What would art look like if it were to please the greatest number of people?” Their research shows surprising global similarities, a dislike for the color chartreuse and abstract art, and a strong preference for the color blue and representational landscapes. The survey results were used to create paintings to represent the likes and dislikes of the majority of respondents. For example, what most Americans want in a painting is a landscape with water and mountains, predominantly blue, with a wild animal and a historical subject. The result is a peaceful landscape with George Washington near a river with deer wandering by.

America’s Most Wanted Painting Continue reading ‘“Taste” in Art (jane dávila)’