Happy Birthday, Jackson

Happy birthday to Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock, who was born on this day 99 years ago. See some of his best-known works in the Museum of Modern Art collection.

Farewell, Olmec

This week, a crew of specialists is hard at work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Resnick Pavilion deinstalling Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico. [lacmavideo]

Xavier Cázares Cortez, Brian Bress and Allison Alford

Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art

January 24– March 5, 2011

Artists' reception: January 26, 6-8pm

Lecture on Maya Calendar at CSULA

Salvador Dali

I just finished watching one section of a four-part television series detailing the lives and works of Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol by Alistair Sooke on YouTube. The Salvador Dali documentary is the one I chose to watch first. I didn't realize he was involved in films and commercials. The commercial he did for Alka Selitzer was interesting when he plunged his paint brush into the women's chest and explained how the medicine flowed through her whole body using paints and a flower to describe the satisfying effect of the medicine. It had me wondering what he was going to do next, especially with that crazy white superhero costume. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owJFJxHVNuc

In my opinion, Dali was doing more than just selling a product, he was giving the public media Surrealism. This is fascinating because he takes Surrealism and applies it to everything he does. Wherever Dali went Surrealism followed.

Surrealism is trying to get into the subconscious mind. Dreams were one of the vehicles to get into the subconscious mind in order to draw out what is hidden or suppressed. Although Dali was a master in the Surrealism movement, he becomes obsessed with certain objects and people that he painted more than once. Just to name a few, his wife Gala, lobsters, eggs, and weird shapes that are replica's of rocks off the coast of Cadaques Spain were seen in a lot of his paintings. These objects and people I just mentioned aren't hidden in your subconscious mind, I think Dali was a genius in order to put together the "reuniting conscious and unconscious realms" in a way that the viewer is put in a subjective position to interpret what he sees
according to his own experiences in life.

I think Salvador Dali's contribution to the arts is amazing. He set the path for future artists to justify their different techniques and ideas in the arts.

Ruben Cimental

Here is the YouTube link to watch BBC Modern Masters four-part series: It's worth your time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtEdmPGLZnM&feature=related

The Janitor - HyperRealism?

The Janitor, a sculpture by Duane Hanson, that was completed in 1973, is still leaning againt the wall. The sculpture looks so human, that people can't keep their hands off him. This impulsive desire by the public to touch The Janitor, has caused the cheif conservator, Jim DeYoung, at the Milwaukee Art Museum, to react against the damages and repair. He reported, "For a while, the museum tried a motion sensor, until it got to be a game for kids to see how close they could get before the alarm sounded and a security guard came running." Jim Stingl, in his article in the Journel Sentinel wrote, "Over the years, people have stolen his wristwatch and pens and a pipe from his pocket, or added new ones. A child was caught unzipping the janitor's fly to "see if there was anything in there." There isn't, but for the record he's wearing white Jockey briefs.

The question is where are these kids parents? It's one thing to have one eye on your kids running loose in Chucky Cheese, but quite another to have them playing unattended in a Museum. This past year when I went to the J. Paul Getty Museum I saw kids there, but I got the impression that everyone sort of treated the place with a sense of awe and respect.

Instead of placing a barrier around The Janitor, the Milwaukee Art Museum has decided to hang a sign telling the public "Please DO NOT Touch the Art" which has reduced the temptation. This sign takes away from the HyperRealism of Hanson's work. Signs are great next to paintings and sculptures to give the history, biography, or date, but to put a sign next to a HyperRealism sculpture takes away the curiosity to determine whether it's real or not.

The Getty Museum had an attendant in every room where the paintings and sculptures were at, making sure the public behaved properly. I'm not an expert in museums, but I thought that having an attendant in every room was a good solution, to have the public realize that we were not in any ordinary room.

Happy New Years!
Ruben Cimental

Reference
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/37550119.html