Week2

This is a painting
http://www.drublair.com/comersus/store/tica.asp

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http://www.helnwein.com/werke/leinwand/bild_142.html


Basically. . .
Author as Producer by Walter Benjamin
- Political tendency. Advancing means of production. Collaborative to support proletariat. Spread authorship. Organizational characteristics


Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos
- Art is superfluous. Ornament is primitive. Smooth without elaboration is cultured.

Photography Vs. Painting by Osip Brik
- Photography is significant because of its opposition to painting. Photographers should capitalize on these advantages of speed, cheapness, accuracy. It can be fine art too. It will replace painting.


The pictures above are paintings that look very close to a photograph. Brik says that photography will inevitably come to replace painting because of its accuracy, cheapness, and speed. However, paintings like those above would seem to challenge that notion that painting cannot achieve in accuracy what photography can. It may be faster still to take a photograph of those models, but I would argue that photography possesses its own limitations in terms of accuracy and color. A painter may represent a scene as closely as it appears to the visible range of the human eye, whereas a photographer is limited to the range and characteristics of each film type. Another example is that of long exposures. In film, long exposures warp the color or stretch motion (ie. movement of stars). A painter may choose to preserve the accuracy of colors seen at any time of day or lighting condition.


Loos argued that ornament is an attribute of the primitive or less cultured, and that with the evolution of culture, people will come to realize that ornament is surplus and not only unnecessary but also unappealing. If this is the case, it does not seem to have manifested yet, as the success of Miro, Kieth Haring, Banksy and Basquiat may indicate. These artists work in a "primitive" style or are derivative of if not straight graffiti.
I also found it hard to believe that ornament brought him no joy in life. Throughout the reading, he expresses his preference of one smooth object over that of an "ornamented" and elaborate one. However, even things without elaboration or shells and jewels are products of a conscious design choice and express a certain "artistic" choice.