05/6/09 Art in the 21st Century
I’ve been recovering from knee surgery and can’t get into the studio to work. So instead I am watching the PBS TV series titled, Art in the 21st Century. This four season series offers over 4 hours of artistic inspiration per DVD, 4 seasons, or 64 hours of filming overall. This gives me a way to stay involved in the art world while not being mobile.(This would also be a great series for anyone experiencing “artists block.”)
This series focuses exclusively on contemporary art in the US. with selected artists revealing their inspiration and methods behind their work. Through interviews with the artists, the film shows them at work and gives us an opportunity to peek into their lives of creation and exhibition.
Each DVD is broken into themes and a particular artist is chosen whose artwork fits that theme. I am as attracted and interestied inthe themes as I am the artists’ work. I enjoy the themes because I title my artwork, create work in series and give names to exhibitions and I find it interesting how the directors broke the artist body of work down into themes.
Two examples…
SERIES ONE: SERIES FOUR:
Place Romance
Identity Protest
Spirituality Ecology
Consumption Paradox
This series has introduced me to many new and lesser known artists whose work and style of working I am not familiar with. This sereis has opened my mind to new ways of seeing, observing, working and thinking.
I was most impressed with the interview of photographer Sally Mann, best known for her large scale, black and white photographs of her young children and more recently of landscapes of death and decay. I knew her work from my days as a photojournalist and landscape photographer. We share a deep relationship with the land and use the land and its natural beauty as a theme in our work.
