chapter 2
TRANSCRIPT
the art of being artless
ART111
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1927
Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907
Walker Evans, Self-Portrait, 1927
Walker Evans, 42nd Street, 1929
Walker Evans, Mother and Children in Doorway, Havana, 1933
Walker Evans, Subway Portrait, 1938
Dorothea Lange, circa 1920s
Dorothea Lange, Dust Bowl Migrant Mother, Nipomo, CA, 1936
Dorothea Lange, Child Living in Oklahoma City Shacktown 1936
Dorothea Lange, Scene along Skid Row Howard Street, 1937
Bob Ross
Vintage Paint-by-Number Painting
Andy Warhol, Do It Yourself, 1962
100-year old Grandma Moses painting at her farm, 1960
Grandma Moses, 1956
Grandma Moses
Lee Krasner, Birth, 1956
Lee Krasner in her studio
Franz Klein in his studio
Franz Klein, New York, 1953
Willem De Kooning in his studio, 1950s
Willem De Kooning, Woman and Bicycle, 1952-3
Jackson Pollock in his studio
Winston Churchill plein air painting
Winston Churchill, The Blue Room, 1948
USA, c. 1930, from Thomas Walther Collection
Vintage Double Exposure Snapshot
Vintage Snapshot
“But a deeper issue may be our new equation of art with perfection, an equation hastened by the spread of technology. We now expect flawless recordings by musicians, perfect photographs by artists. We have easy access to all this, which means that, as in so many other aspects of life, we prefer to cede these endeavors to professionals, figuring we can't do them as well, as if something like art is worth doing only if you do it like a professional. Art isn't about perfection. Before cameras, travelers sketched so that they could record what they saw on trips, as souvenirs, in the same way that bourgeois families, in the days before recordings, used to listen to music by making it themselves at home on the piano or singing in the parlor. There was a more intimate connection between the amateur musician or artist and the professional, because amateurs had firsthand experience. What's lost today is not just the accidental masterpiece but also that sense of art not as a remote commodity but as something we all make. “
Interview with Michael Kimmelman
Read:• Chapter 2, “The Art of Being Artless”
Respond on Verso:• Reflect on the reading.
Respond on Flipgrid:• Find a photograph that is deeply meaningful to
you. Share the photo & describe its importance. Bring the photo to class next week to share.
Respond on Instagram: #art111happyaccidents• Take 10 photographs this week of moments
that you wanted to remember…for their beauty, importance, etc.
• DO NOT edit them! Be content with “happy accidents”