Week 13 & 14 Video Blog

The key concepts in the first video, "Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art" include the influences behind this style of art. Those influences include comic books, B-movies, rock n roll, surfing, hot rods, and Cold War images. Lowbrow is also known as "pop surrealism" and relates to Abstract Expressionism. Lowbrow also lead to the rise of female artists who contributed to the era of this art. This video didn't really relate to the theme of my project, which is Romance, but it did give me an idea on how to interpret the images of lowbrow. I thought this film was interesting and even though it didn't directly relate to my topic, it did help me understand different concepts of art that curators focus on to be successful. The second video, "Displaying Modern Art" focused on the intellectual and aesthetic issues associated with the display of art. This video also focused on the styles of exhibits, especially in museums and in the Tate Gallery. Modern Art is a very interesting style of art and does relate to many things in the modern world today. This video mildly related to the creating on my project because I need to connect all of the artworks I found to the theme of Romance and this video showed different approaches on how to do this. I learned a lot from this film about why curators do the things that they do and the reasoning behind why exhibits are set up the way they are. The third video, "Bones of Contention" focused on the remains of more than 10,000 Native Americans, found at archaeological sites across the U.S. They are now found in museums such as the Smithsonian. Tension between scientists, historians, and museum curators and Native American groups as the bones take on central role in war of alternative perspectives. The topic didn't relate to my project but the idea behind the curators "job" related to the creation of my project. I thought this video was interesting because I didn't realize things like this were happening and how discriminating it is to Native Americans. The last video, "An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello and the Metropolitan" focused on the famous art curator, Philippe de Montebello. He was a director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 31 years. He guided the acquisition of more than 84,000 works of art, demanded innovation in conservation techniques and oversaw the doubling of the physical size of this cultural institution. This video helped me to learn and understand what I should be looking for when I am interpreting the art works for my project. This video was very educational and interesting because I got to see all the different areas in which art is examined and places around exhibits and it was informational to see all of the different innovations for art curators now.