Alex Katz

January
1993
Aquatint

10:30 AM
2007

Oil on Canvas

Dancer Triptych

2011

Oil on Linen

Sarah

2011

Silkscreen

Grey Umbrella

1979

Lithograph on Arches Paper

"Alex Katz is a leading figure painter of the new realism movement in the contemporary art. He is best known of his realistic portraits of friends and family, notable for their relaxed attitudes and uncomplicated bearings. In the late 1950s, he found himself among a growing number of artists dissatisfied with the then-dominant stream of abstract expressionism, with its emphasis on formal abstraction. The rebellion against abstract expressionism, which continued through the 1960s, took several forms. The most celebrated was the pop art of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and others, who sought to mine the mother lodes of media imagery and consumer culture for the content of their art. In contrast to the pop artists, with their emphasis on the consumer icon, a number of painters in the mid – to – late 1050s, including Larry Rivers and Alex Katz, had begun to find their own inspiration in the literal rendition of human figures. Katz’s paintings from the late 1950s to the present have been characterized by such literal, yet expressive, portrayals of human figures. Stylistically, his figures are simplified in form, but not in caricatured or rendered grotesque. On the contrary, one of the hallmarks of Katz’s figures is their apparent normalcy. "

http://rogallery.com/katz_alex/katz-biography.htm

Renee Cox

Black Leather Lace-Up, 2001
















Untitled (from Black Desperate Housewives), 2007

River Queen, 2005

Hott-En-Tot, 1994

Liberation of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, 1998

The reason why I chose to blog about Renee Cox was because of what I read about her use of the body in her art to portray African American culture. Renee Cox is a Jamaican-American artist and photographer raised in New York, which is where most of her work is located. Most of her famous work includes photographs of her portraying African American stereotypes. For instance, Hott-En-Tot the photograph featured in the book, she is nude with a fake butt and breast stripped to herself. The parts are over sized which portrays the stereotype of African American having big butts and breast. Another photograph she did that intrigue me was her River Queen piece which is of a lady sitting on a rock in a river. I feel it was named river queen because in black culture many Afro centric people may refer to women as black queens. All in all this is a phenomenal artist because of her portrayal of African American culture and beauty through art.

http://reneecox.org/

Robert Gober

 Untitled Leg, 1989-1990
Beeswax, cotton, wood, leather, human hair


Untitled, 1998
Wood, steel, latex, enamel paint


Untitled, 1999-2000
Plaster, beeswax, human hair, cotton, leather, aluminum pull tabs, enamel paint


Melted Rifle, 2006
Plaster, paint, cast plastic, beeswax, walnut, lead


Distorted Playpen, 1986
Painted wood






      "Robert Gober's meticulous sculptures explore sexuality, relationships, nature, politics, and religion. His work is often based on memories from his childhood or on familiar subject matter from around his home or studio. Sinks, doors, cribs, chairs, and body parts recur in his oeuvre."

       Gober, born in 1954, is very accomplished in the art world. He's most known for his pieces that are full-sized room installations. He always makes them in his studio by hand. It is not uncommon for him to include theatrical lighting or running water in his work. He is most well known for all of his work having excruciating detail.

http://www.matthewmarks.com/artists/robert-gober/

Chuck Close.

Brad Pitt, February 2009-Photograph on Crane Portfolio Rag Paper


George W. Bush, November 2004-Composite Photo
Emma, 2002- Japanese Style Woodcut


Kate #16, 2005- Pigment Print
Self Portrait, 1967-68- Oil on Canvas

"The remarkable career of artist Chuck Close extends beyond his completed works of art. More than just a painter, photographer, and printmaker, Close is a builder who, in his words, builds "painting experiences for the viewer." Highly renowned as a painter, Close is also a master printmaker, who has, over the course of more than 30 years, pushed the boundaries of traditional printmaking in remarkable ways.

Almost all of Close’s work is based on the use of a grid as an underlying basis for the representation of an image. This simple but surprisingly versatile structure provides the means for "a creative process that could be interrupted repeatedly without…damaging the final product, in which the segmented structure was never intended to be disguised." It is important to note that none of Close's images are created digitally or photo-mechanically. While it is tempting to read his gridded details as digital integers, all his work is made the old-fashioned way—by hand.

Close’s paintings are labor intensive and time consuming, and his prints are more so. While a painting can occupy Close for many months, it is not unusual for one print to take upward of two years to complete. Close has complete respect for, and trust in, the technical processes—and the collaboration with master printers—essential to the creation of his prints. The creative process is as important to Close as the finished product. "Process and collaboration" are two words that are essential to any conversation about Close’s prints. "

*Works Cited

-http://www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/life/index.html

Chuck Close: Man & His Life.

September 27, 2011

Jörg Immendorff

1998 -- Back to Front

(oil on canvas)

1990 -- Society of Deficiency

(oil on canvas)

1988 -- Solo

(oil on canvas)

1984 -- Café Deutschland

(oil on canvas)

1983 -- All's Well That Ends Well

(oil on canvas)

Jörg Immendorff is a neo-expressionist artists is best known for his work with contemporary German paintings. He was most influenced by his professor at Düsseldorf Art Academy. His breakthrough came when he started his series of "Café Deutschland" where he created several of painting that involved the political and social aspects of Germany during its turmoils. Most of his paintings that I chose depicted the physical and emotional components of the people struggling with the changes of their government.

Source: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/jorg_immendorf.htm

Rona Pondick

Loveseat, 1991

Wax, shoes, plastic, wood, and lace

Ram's Head, 2000

Yellow-blue stainless steel

Dog, 1998

Aluminum Bronze

Spiral, 1992

Shoes, leather, and polyester stuffing

Monkeys, 1998

Stainless Steel

Rona Pondick, who was born and still lives in New York City, studied at Yale University School of Art. Rona Pondick’s work has been exhibited internationally and is in numerous public collections all over the country. Pondick has received many different awards and grants, some including the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and the Guggenheim Fellowship. Rona Pondick’s artwork varied in materials used, and I most enjoyed the artwork relating to animal/human hybrids and tree/human hybrids.

The Body (Paul MCCarthy's Mutant)

I find Paul McCarthy's sculpture of the "mutant" to be one of the most abnormal/abstract sculptures I have seen in a while. It looks like a deformed armless bobble head of Alice Cooper, and for that found it to be the most unique artwork throughout the chapter other than Matthew Barney's drawing/painting of the catwoman for Cremaster 3 which was a project he worked on from 1994 to 2002 consisting also of five feature length films exploring the process of creation which I found very intriguing.