Visual Art Midterm Review

Visual Art Midterm Artists:

El Anatsui
Banksy
James Turrell
Do-Ho Suh

Vija Celmins
Ai Weiwei
Zaria Forman
Josef Albers
Mark Rothko

is a Latvian American visual artist best known for photo-realistic paintings and drawings of natural environments and phenomena such as the ocean, spider webs, star fields, and rocks

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Vija Celmins

pronounced VEE-ya SELL-muns
Born: 1938 (age 85 years), Riga, Latvia

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Vija Celmins

Chinese contemporary artist and activist.


The handmade 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape.

AI WEIWEI

The title, Forever Bicycles, alludes to the Forever brand (Yongjiu)—a company based in Shanghai whose mass-produced bicycles flooded the streets of China during the artist's childhood yet remained financially out of reach for many. Large-scale outdoor sculpture incorporating 1,200 bicycles.

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AI WEIWEI

Born: 1982 (age 41 years), South Natick, Natick, MA

Nationality: American

​ USES CHALK PASTELS AND WORKS ONLY WITH HER FINGERS.

ZARIA FORMAN

Josef Albers
(1888-1976) is considered one of the most influential abstract painters of the twentieth century, as well as an important designer and educator noted for his rigorously experimental approach to spatial relationships and color theory

Born: March 19, 1888, Bottrop, Germany

Died: March 25, 1976, New Haven, CT

Periods: Modern art, Geometric abstraction

Education: Bauhaus

Nationality: American, German

Following the Bauhaus's closure under Nazi pressure in 1933, Albers emigrated to the United States. He taught at Yale. His work has influenced most modern architecture. He was the first artist to have a Solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York

Best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular regions of color, which he produced from 1949 to 1970.

Mark Rothko

Was a student of Josef Albers

Latvian-born American abstract painter

Died	February 25, 1970

Emerging from post-independence art movements of West Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, Anatsui gained prominence in 2002 when he began using his distinct bottle cap weaving technique to create large-scale assemblages. He is from Gana but works in Nigeria. He is 79 years old and shows his art all over the world.

El Anatsui

Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation.

****Be sure to know the story of the shredded art that was sold at auction.

Banksy

A mural on the wall of a bombed building in Irpin, Ukraine

Banksy’s Shredding Artwork Is Auctioned for $25.4 Million at Sotheby’s

“Love Is in the Bin,” was resold. It had been partially shredded after it was bought at a Sotheby’s auction in 2018.
Recently sold for 25 million $.

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“Love Is in the Bin”

James Turrell's



Roden Crater

click "Roden Crader" to see video

Born: 1943 (age 80 years), Pasadena, CA

Known for: Installation art
Skyspaces & Roden Crater

Turrell's architectural installations heighten the viewer's awareness of light, sky and the activity of perception.
During sunrise and sunset, colored lights illuminate the walls and contrast the natural skylight in the oculus.
Started in 1974, the Skyspace series has grown to include nearly 90 unique installations around world.

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James Turrell's Skyspaces

Do-Ho Suh’s work Floor (1997-2000) consists of sheets of glass supported by the raised hands of 180,000 miniature plastic figures representing both sexes and different races. Although fragile entities in themselves, together the tightly packed figures were capable of supporting the weight of the viewers who walked across the piece. The work suggested the tension between a national identity built upon a culture of individuality, as in the US, and one that celebrates the collective, as in Korea.

Do-Ho Suh
installation artist from South Korea

Do-Ho Suh
installation artist from South Korea

His work is often about the individual vs the collective society. Materials range from sewn fabric, military dog tags, resin.


*The loor piece is also Do-Ho Suh's

Nationality: American, German

Died: 1976, New Haven, CT

Periods: Modern art, Geometric abstraction

Education: Bauhaus

Josef Albers

Latvian-born American abstract painter
died 1970

Mark Rothko

James Turrell

Born in 1943 in California- he is 80 years old and there are 90 Skyspaces around the world.

Chinese Contemporary artist
As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights.

AI WEIWEI

American
Makes large scale realistic pieces using chalk pastels and her hands. Her goal is to raise awareness about the impact of global warming.

ZARIA FORMAN

Latvian-American

Makes paintings and sculptures about nature that is photo realistic.

VIJA CELMINS

​Ghanian living in Nigeria

Uses recycled materials and works with villagers to create large scale works.

EL ANATSUI

South Korean
Living- 61 years old

Individual vs the collective

Do-Ho Suh

From Bristol England
Anonymous
Political Graffiti -
Shredder piece sold for
$25 million!

​​Banksy

Visual Art Midterm Artists:

El Anatsui
Banksy
James Turrell
Do-Ho Suh

Vija Celmins
Ai Weiwei
Zaria Forman
Josef Albers
Mark Rothko