Art of the 20th Century: Andy Warhol (1960s)

Andy Warhol’s Pop Art is exactly that and is an important offshoot of popular culture ,in his own way, Warhol is a cult legend for his work and his zany character. His screen prints use color to create high contrast. Using high contrast Warhol created images that literally pop and his artwork was and is ‘hot’ in more ways than one. Warhol was an icon of the 20th century whether he was designing a soup can label or depicting of Mao Tse Tung. Warhol’s work is iconographic. Today, in the 21st century, his art is still a ‘hot’ item and a focal point of pop culture. (Chap.31-Art)

Images & Thought- Surrealism and the Modern Thinker

Salvador Dali’s surrealist works mark significant changes in thought as well as in visual concepts and perception. In many ways changes in visual perception can either lead to or indicate changes in thought. Dali’s use of optical illusions and purposefully abstract principles create paintings with an intellectual interest in their ability to suggest concepts or ideas.
Galatea of Spheres, painted by Dali in 1952 and was surprisingly ahead of its time in its use of repeated overlapping shapes to create form and shape to display one image. Although this could be said of a mosaic, Dali’s work stands out because in many ways it appears and draws on modern ideas of computer graphics and a more advanced understanding of shape and form in sketching and painting as a visual technique. In this way Dali captivates his viewer visually while at the same time playing with new, innovative ideas that overcome the pure photographic depictions of realism, or the complete spontaneity of free form art work that can often leave something to be desired in terms of realistic depiction of human form or the natural environment. In conclusion, thought + realistic depiction = Dali and Surrealism.(Chap. 31 Art)

From Reflections: Photographs from the Moscow Times (1992-2002): Storming of the White House

This photograph depicts Russian soldiers attacking the Russian ‘White House’ on the orders of then President Boris Yeltsin. The Russian parliament meeting there in 1993 was strongly opposed to President Yeltsin’s government and policies. Just a year earlier Yeltsin had began his ‘Shock Therapy’ program to rapidly privatize Russia and in the year this photograph was taken a new Russian constitution would be passed giving along with a referendum calling for early elections both measures that would give Yeltsin unprecedented control over the Russian government. The use of force against the Russian Parliament symbolizes Yeltsin’s ‘blowing away of opposition.’ The storming of parliament shows Yeltsin’s victory in the struggle between parliament and the presidency over who would take precedence and greater control in the new Russian constitution and government.
President Putin, Yeltsin’s hand-picked successor, led a government perceived by Western Powers as anti-democratic and bordering on authoritarianism. Putin, under the Constitution supported by Yeltsin, had significant control over parliament and opposition parties in government and was a former member of the KGB. Today, President Dimitry Medvedev retains that power under the Russian Constitution and is allied with Putin, the current prime minister of Russia. In 2008, an amendment to the Russian Constitution lengthened the presidential term from four to six years and lengthened the congressional term from four to five years. Opposition parties in Russia were unable to prevent the signing of the amendment or to gain the year long discussion of the amendment that they felt was required by law. Russian Opposition Parties significantly sighted the lack of a constitutional court like the U.S. Supreme Court as one obstacle to fairly abiding by the laws of government and further allowing the Russian President power over the Russian parliament and government. (Chap. 31 Art)

Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1113655.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6584481.stm
http://www.answers.com/topic/constitution-of-1993
http://www.answers.com/topic/referendum-of-april-1993
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/30/AR2008123000839.html
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/reflections/reflect-exhibit.html

On Patrick Buchanan’s ‘America Held Captive to Utopian Ideology’

A stronger environmental focus and limitations on oil well drilling and nuclear power are not an impediment to economic progress ,but rather a sign of progress. The U.S. desperately needs to transitions to alternative energy sources to wean the country off of fossil fuels and provide sources of power that neither place the U.S. at the mercy of Middle Eastern foreign policy or pollute the environment in which people live. It is important to note that China’s Three Gorges Dam “the largest power source on earth” produces energy using hydroelectric power, a renewable resource that creates minimal amounts of waste and Carbon Dioxide Gas emissions.
Buchannan’s claims that the U.S. “cannot defend her borders are simply unfounded. Antiterrorism measures have made U.S. borders even more tightly controlled and have caused tension between the U.S. and people from other nations because of that strict, overbearing control. If Mr. Buchanan is alluding to ‘illegal’ Mexican immigration, then perhaps he should touch on poor immigration laws and an unwillingness of many American to accept the Mexican immigrants working and living inside the U.S. as contributing members of society who deserve to be recognized as such under the rule of law. While it is founded that the U.S.’ s ‘War on Terror’ has put the U.S. in a situation where it cannot decisively ‘win’ the war and has caused the U.S. to take on large debt, the invasion of Afghanistan was an act of retaliation in the aftermath of September 11 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq was motivated by U.S. oil interests. If Mr. Buchanan would like to criticize anything it should be the U.S.’s dependence on oil and Americans reluctance to quickly and progressively adopt alternative, renewable energy sources rather than to allow further oil and natural gas drilling.(Chap. 31- In-Class Response)

Caddell's Return from the Bush (1945)

In this painting one is called to see the desolation of war and also a primitive almost animalistic depiction of man through the depiction of natives. There is something eerie about the man looking out over the empty land perhaps the sticks are the remains of his village. The dark colors in the sky are foreboding. The viewer wonders, “Will the man take revenge?” One sees most in this work the empty desolation of the world. There is a strong sense of loss, in the space and emptiness of the work. The depiction in its colors presents a kind of grief-stricken desolation that echoes the desolation of war. The viewer can almost become lost in the work, seeing not what the man pointing is seeing ,but what the man standing silently looking out over empty space and desolation sees in the destruction of his world. The man ape-like gnawing on a stick in the foreground suggests the primitiveness of the people and of the scene. The viewer almost cannot help becoming one with the primitive man and the man silently contemplating the destruction, desolation, and nature (represented by the mountains and sky in the background) of his world.(Chap. 29-Art)

George Grosz’s Hitler in Hell

In this work one can see the skeleton’s piled up beneath Hitler in the foreground. On the right there is a decaying body and around Hitler in the background is what looks like a kind of cloud or river of red. Hitler is holding a sponge to his own head perhaps where he shot himself. Ironically Hitler does not appear tortured in death. The painting suggests Hitler’s responsibility for death and shows his own final punishment as death. In a sense it seems as if much death has been ended by Hitler’s death. Yet there is no revenge in the after life, not torturous punishment, only many many skeletons and the decaying body of Hitler beside the decaying body of an unnamed man. In this way there is created a kind of insignificance in Hitler’s death as he sits besides a nameless man and is surrounded by skeletons. Hitler appears almost to have a headache as he sits eternally surrounded by death. (Chap. 29 Art)

Nuremburg Trials: Fair?

As a student, I often find myself confused by the Nuremburg Trials. Hitler committed heinous acts in his treatment of the jews during World War II ,but at the same time Stalin killed huge numbers of his own people and yet because the U.S. and the U.K. were allied with Stalin in World War II there were no war crime trials against Stalin. I often feel conflicted and find it hard to view the trials as fair and objective yet at the same time recognize the horrors and atrocities committed by Hitler's Regime.