Video Review

1.     For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Tate Modern

·      This museum is the most visited Modern Art museum in the world, with over 5 million visitors a year

·      This expansion of this museum also include hiring the first female director in Tate’s history, Francis Morris

·      The amount of female artists on display has risen from 17% to 50% with the new extension

·       Most art museums have a secret off location site where they keep paintings and other works of art that are not currently on display

·      it took over 200 million pounds to build the extension to the museum

Lowdown on Lowbrow

·      Lowbrow art began after World War Two with paintings of pinup girls on airplanes

·      Many artists in this movement are opposed to the name, as lowbrow usually means someone who is uncultured and has no taste

·      Sometimes these artists call the lowbrow movement “pop surrealism”

·      Basically, it is a populist art movement that depicts popular comics, punk music, and hot-rod cultures of the street. It also features many nudes of women, so much so that one man stated that it often gets mistaken for pornography.

·      Many museums and collects exclude lowbrow art because it is not considered “fine art” and is even sometimes said to not be a legitimate art movement

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

·      This documentary follows Philippe de Montebello, who served for 31 years as Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. De Montebello guided the acquisition of more than 84,000 works of art during his time at the Met

·      During his time at the Met de Montebello turned the Eurocentric museum into one that included art from every era, country and age

·      Before a work of art is purchased it must first be brought before a council of trustees. Then, a curator tries to persuade the trustees to buy into the piece for the museum

·      The museum stresses quality in every one of the pieces they acquire. Some manuscripts won’t even be considered for purchase unless they are in nearly perfect condition, tapestries are also way more valuable when they are not faded

2.     Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Exhibition project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.

The video on Tate Modern related most to my project because it was very inclusive to female artists. Honestly, I had chosen the theme of my gallery before I watched this video and a few of the prints I included in my gallery were also included in the Tate Modern museum. The Guerrilla Girls were featured in the Tate museum as “the conscious of the art world” I enjoyed this analogy because I included a lot of their protest posters in my gallery as well. I This video also relates to my project because they place special emphasis on including artists from all over the world, in my gallery I also included female artists from the Caribbean, Asia, and Mexico, I think it is very important to include many perspectives from many different people of color.

The video on lowbrow art didn’t relate to my gallery because it very rarely had any sort of feminist tone. In fact, many of the male artists painted very distasteful female nudes. There was even one painted that depicted cartoon looking doctors in an emergency room, every single male doctor was fully clothed, however, the female nurse had her breasts and butt exposed while working on a patient. Not to say that this art work doesn’t have value, but I just wouldn’t use it in my gallery, not unless it specifically fit my theme.

The video on the Metropolitan Museum did not directly relate to the theme of my gallery, however, I did learn a lot about how art is purchased and conserved. If I were to create my art gallery in real life, then this video would be extremely important. I would learn how to pitch each piece of art I wanted to a council of people who will decide the fate of my gallery.

3. What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to understanding of the art concepts you practiced while creating your curation project?

            I really loved the video on Tate Modern. It was interesting to learn about how and why the decision was made to expand on a famous modern art museum. This video added depth to my understanding of the curation project because it reinforced how important it is for museums and galleries to be inclusive to women and artists from other countries. One important quote I loved was when the director of the art museum commented on the increasing levels of diversity and said, “It is important to realize some of the best art does not just come from western Europe or north America.” This was amazing to hear because when looking at modern art we often overlook places like eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.

            I thought the video on lowbrow art was interesting. It was interesting to learn about an art movement I had never heard of before. For every other video we have watched in this course I have at least been familiar with the topic, but this video was completely new for me. I enjoyed learning about something new, even if it didn’t apply to my gallery. This video didn’t really add any additionally understanding to my curation project because none of the work they mentioned related to my theme.

The last video on curating in the Met was also very interesting to watch. I have been to the Met many times so it was very interesting to see how the art works were purchased and organized for the public.  It added depth to my understanding because I learned how art pieces are presented to a council of people who decide whether or not it will fit in the museum. I had no idea that art pieces are decided on by multiple people. I also thought it was interesting to learn about conservation of the arts and how important it is to preserve the quality of each work of art.