Back to School Update: Art History 210 - Visual Arts Modernism

I'd been looking forward to taking an Art History course in Modernism last Fall with mixed feelings. It was a huge amount of work but I really enjoyed it and learned more than I anticipated. I came away with a much better understanding and appreciation of Modernism.

Our instructor gave us a fun bonus assignment at the end of term to create two self portraits reflecting Modernism movements.

The first one drew on the concepts of Synthetic Cubism. It was made from found objects from my studio. The intent was to make the image as flat as possible but with interesting figure/ground effects (e.g. the eyes).











The second, entitled "My Morning Coffee" references the Gutai movement - a post-war Japanese movement which rejected traditional mark-making with a brush and moved towards performance art.This piece references one of the predominant contemporary North American rituals (and a personal vice) –  coffee drinking. It utilizes an unusual medium (coffee grounds). It is about the body and action rather than the final product. As I proceeded making marks I realized that I could not recall ever signing my name with my feet, so the piece became about that. Finally, it was a lot of fun, albeit very messy.