Visual Arts Question Thread

[talitha_h]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has critic quotes for Picasso (Les Demoiselles and Guernica) as well as Ai Weiwei (sunflower seeds and Law of the Journey) or is able to give advice for finding. I'm doing different artists to my trials and over the past few weeks I've been spending so much time trying to find critic quotes but have only found a couple for each artist andI know I need a couple for each work if I want to do a conceptual framework question.

Thank you.

[dancing phalanges]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has critic quotes for Picasso (Les Demoiselles and Guernica) as well as Ai Weiwei (sunflower seeds and Law of the Journey) or is able to give advice for finding. I'm doing different artists to my trials and over the past few weeks I've been spending so much time trying to find critic quotes but have only found a couple for each artist andI know I need a couple for each work if I want to do a conceptual framework question.

Thank you.

Hi!

Sorry, only have info on Ai Weiwei... I used these quotes:

Ai Weiwei
•   "General Mao used to tell us that we can only build a new world if we destroy the old one." (Ai on Smashing a Han Dynasty Urn)
•   “protect freedom of expression."


Don't know what works you are specifically doing, but here are key ideas central to all his works:

•   Conceptual artist
•   Calls attention to human rights violations in China where free speech is not recognised as a human right.
•   Ai has spent time in jail, been put under house arrest and cannot travel without official permission as he is working within an authoritarian regime in China.
•   Therefore, his works are highly provocative as they criticise the Chinese Government’s role in widening the gap between the ideal and real in China.


Hope that helped

[beatroot]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has critic quotes for Picasso (Les Demoiselles and Guernica) as well as Ai Weiwei (sunflower seeds and Law of the Journey) or is able to give advice for finding. I'm doing different artists to my trials and over the past few weeks I've been spending so much time trying to find critic quotes but have only found a couple for each artist andI know I need a couple for each work if I want to do a conceptual framework question.

Thank you.

Hey! Just adding more onto dancing phalanges' answer above-

I don't have much critic quotes on Picasso since I pretty much referred to one quote per artwork but here are the quotes I used per work

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon:
- 'and it was meant to shock' (art critic- John Berger)

Guernica:
- [paraphrased] quintessentially Spanish (art critic- Jean Cassou)
- 'On a black and white canvas that depicts ancient tragedy... Picasso also writes our letter of doom: all that we love is going to be lost' (French writer- Michel Leiris)

Picasso in general
- 'The classical still life was dead' (art critic- Robert Hughes)

Sunflower Seeds
- 'It’s a work about mass production and repeatedly accumulating the small effort of individual to become a massive, useless piece of work' (
- 'China is blindly producing for the demands of the market'
- 'I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical' (Ai WeiWei)

Law of the Journey
- I do not have quotes on this work since it was never taught at my school and I only knew of the work post HSC! Surely there should be quotes about it online since it is fairly brand new.

Weiwei quotes in general
- ‘The timber is from demolished temples … the structure is chaotic’
- ‘History is always lost in interpretation. The moment is always lost’
- ‘Everything is changing and happening in such a dramatic way and it’s all reflected in Chinese art’
- ‘Certain areas, certain taboos can’t be touched. There’s still censorship there.’
- ‘Your own acts and behaviour should tell the world who you are and at the same time what kind of society you think it should be’

Hope this helps

[talitha_h]

Hey! Just adding more onto dancing phalanges' answer above-

I don't have much critic quotes on Picasso since I pretty much referred to one quote per artwork but here are the quotes I used per work

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon:
- 'and it was meant to shock' (art critic- John Berger)

Guernica:
- [paraphrased] quintessentially Spanish (art critic- Jean Cassou)
- 'On a black and white canvas that depicts ancient tragedy... Picasso also writes our letter of doom: all that we love is going to be lost' (French writer- Michel Leiris)

Picasso in general
- 'The classical still life was dead' (art critic- Robert Hughes)

Sunflower Seeds
- 'It’s a work about mass production and repeatedly accumulating the small effort of individual to become a massive, useless piece of work' (
- 'China is blindly producing for the demands of the market'
- 'I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical' (Ai WeiWei)

Law of the Journey
- I do not have quotes on this work since it was never taught at my school and I only knew of the work post HSC! Surely there should be quotes about it online since it is fairly brand new.

Weiwei quotes in general
- ‘The timber is from demolished temples … the structure is chaotic’
- ‘History is always lost in interpretation. The moment is always lost’
- ‘Everything is changing and happening in such a dramatic way and it’s all reflected in Chinese art’
- ‘Certain areas, certain taboos can’t be touched. There’s still censorship there.’
- ‘Your own acts and behaviour should tell the world who you are and at the same time what kind of society you think it should be’

Hope this helps

Thanks for this! I'll keep looking for law of the Journey quotes.

[angewina_naguen]

Good luck for everyone sitting Visual Arts today! Hopefully the essay questions are kind and no major surprises in the unseen section 

[talitha_h]

Hi, does anyone know when artexpress nominations come out? is there a set date?

[Caitlynk_22]

Hi, does anyone know when artexpress nominations come out? is there a set date?

Not all the major works have been marked yet, our markers only come to our school on the 1st and 2nd (Since we aren't in Sydney). So I'm assuming they'll come out mid- to the end of November

[beatroot]

Hi, does anyone know when artexpress nominations come out? is there a set date?

Hey! I got my ARTEXPRESS nomination email the week HSC exams ended and I got my ARTEXPRESS selection email 20 days later. So this should be similar to this year’s emails

[_Himani_]

Quick Question: What's the time frame for 'contemporary art'? Would something made in the 1980s be considered contemporary, or is it strictly last 20 years or so?

[angewina_naguen]

Quick Question: What's the time frame for 'contemporary art'? Would something made in the 1980s be considered contemporary, or is it strictly last 20 years or so?

Hey, _Himani_!

As a definition, contemporary means "belonging to or occurring in the present." From this, we can assume that contemporary art encompasses the "art of today", which I would assign to the 21st century. Basically, it would generally refer to art conceived in the last twenty years or so. In what context were you thinking of defining or responding to a question on contemporary art?

Usually when I discussed artworks from the 20th century onwards, I would label them as "modernist" (1890's ish-1940's) or "postmodernist" (1950's ish- now) and attach the movement it was from (Dada, Minimalism, Feminism etc.) to my analysis because I found this safer. It was also much easier to discuss aesthetics specific to the circling artistic traditions within those periods and respective movements. Would definitely recommend this as an alternative for more accuracy and depth in your study 

Angelina 

[nishta]

Hi all!

I didn't know where to post art essays for marking, so I'm just popping it over here.
I would love it if anyone could provide me with feedback and criticism

I was a bit stuck on the writing style and structure of art essays, as I had to keep on reminding myself not to fall into the English-style essays I've been doing. How are art and English essays different? What sort of structural differences are there, in terms of topic sentences and the like?

Thanks heaps 

[beatroot]

Hi all!

I didn't know where to post art essays for marking, so I'm just popping it over here.
I would love it if anyone could provide me with feedback and criticism

I was a bit stuck on the writing style and structure of art essays, as I had to keep on reminding myself not to fall into the English-style essays I've been doing. How are art and English essays different? What sort of structural differences are there, in terms of topic sentences and the like?

Thanks heaps 

Hello! Sorry for the late reply but I have your essay attached here with my comments. Overall, this is a beautifully written essay- you've provided evidence for every point that you made + provided historical context as well as art critics quotes. I think my main issue was just the thesis statement and the lack of intro sentence (that links back to your original thesis) for each of the body paragraphs. But besides from that, definitely a solid essay.

As for differences between art and english essays- the great thing with art essays is that the structure tends to be fluid. It's encourage to provide historical context for artworks for VA essays while in English essays they just want you to get straight to your point. Topic sentences and thesis statements are similar structure wise- with thesis statements in art, markers wouldn't mind if you were to repeat the question in your thesis statement (unlike in english where you'll need to use synonyms so that it doesn't look like you copied the question word by word). In art, you'll need to provide quotes/insight from art critics after you've done all your analysing of the work (unlike in english where you'll want to only stick with the text itself and not bring in other people's opinions of the text- if that makes sense?)

Hope this helps in some way

[nishta]

Hello! Sorry for the late reply but I have your essay attached here with my comments. Overall, this is a beautifully written essay- you've provided evidence for every point that you made + provided historical context as well as art critics quotes. I think my main issue was just the thesis statement and the lack of intro sentence (that links back to your original thesis) for each of the body paragraphs. But besides from that, definitely a solid essay.

As for differences between art and english essays- the great thing with art essays is that the structure tends to be fluid. It's encourage to provide historical context for artworks for VA essays while in English essays they just want you to get straight to your point. Topic sentences and thesis statements are similar structure wise- with thesis statements in art, markers wouldn't mind if you were to repeat the question in your thesis statement (unlike in english where you'll need to use synonyms so that it doesn't look like you copied the question word by word). In art, you'll need to provide quotes/insight from art critics after you've done all your analysing of the work (unlike in english where you'll want to only stick with the text itself and not bring in other people's opinions of the text- if that makes sense?)

Hope this helps in some way

Thank you so much! I will definitely be working on my intro sentences in future essays.

I really appreciate the time you put into reading my essay and giving feedback

[_Himani_]

Hello all,
With the essay for section two of the exam, how many artists should I be aiming to talk about? Is two okay, or should I be trying to use three? And with the artists, how many works is the minimum?
Also, at school, our teachers have never told us to include critics or quotes in our essays, but reading through some essays, I've noticed this a lot- should I find and include quotes and critic in my essay for the trial paper? 
Thanks, and good luck to everyone doing trials!

[nishta]

Hey!

From my experience, teachers are always looking for breadth of knowledge in visual arts. This means that you should have artists from a range of art periods with different mediums and issues that they look at.

So three artists is preferable over two, as you get to show off this breadth while adequately analysing their works in detail. The 45 minute time frame leaves a good amount of time for three solid body paragraphs.

I've shown my teacher an essay with just two artists and two of their works, and while this was perfectly fine, it does have the risk of being limiting in how much you can say, and the number of connections you can draw across paragraphs.

Again, this breadth of knowledge is shown through art critics. You're acknowledging other points of view, or affirming your own with reputable sources, so it strengthens your argument. They're also great in terms of showing audience reactions, as art galleries, critics, historians, sholars etc. are part of the audience. So I would include them in my essay intentionally and to strengthen my thesis, rather than for some extra marks.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your trial