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Tag Archives: Art and Society

Drawing as Theater / Presence as Provocation: Kentridge and Abramovic at MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art in New York currently hosts retrospectives of two idiosyncratic and uncompromising living artists, Yugoslavian born Marina Abramovic and South African William Kentridge.  The two artists could hardly be more different from each other, but each has followed the path of art as something deeply personal and necessary. Marina Abramovic emerged as [...]

Hair as Art: Edisa Weeks

As a child, dance artist Edisa Weeks attended Quaker meetings with her family. These meetings involved group meditation and sharing, conducted without leaders or hierarchy. As an adult artist, she found herself in a field defined by elitism and a rigid division of roles. The artists were expected to demonstrate their skill, passion, and cleverness [...]

Time Favors Craft Over Concept

This essay by Kiwi Art Prof Denis Dutton appeared today on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times.  It’s well worth a read: Has Conceptual Art Jumped the Shark Tank?

Why Art Doesn’t Pay

Well of course, art pays if you’re Damien Hirst, and music plays if you’re Madonna, and acting pays if you’re Brad Pitt.  But all of the creative professions have the same system, in which a small number of stars become fabulously wealthy and famous, while the vast majority working in the field barely get by [...]

Meanings of the Nude

Why is the naked human body such an enduring focus of art?  Of course the image of the human form excites our mirror neurons, and can express all aspects of the human experience, but it could usually do that just as well in clothes.  Art students study nude models in order to see the structure [...]

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