Jeff Koons is one of the most controversial artist in the modern art world. His artworks are mostly appurtenances of childish holiday celebrations such as Easter eggs, Valentine hearts, ice-cream sundaes, etc. All of those kiddie kitsch are scaled up, covered in glossy, colorful materials. In critics’ eyes, his works are banal, trivial, meaningless, are “affront to great tradition” of art. They believe Jeef Koons is able to sell those ridiculous pieces and became famous because of his sale experience, not because of the art itself. They criticize his endorsement of selling, advertising, marketing, and commercial life in general. Jeff Koons, instead of defending himself, admits that he completely believes in the power of marketing and media.
Products of the culture economy take on the appearance of artwork but are in fact dependant on industry and economy, meaning that they are subjected to the interests of money and power and producing a profit “The whole world is passed through the filter of the culture industry” . To Adorno the production of art and consumerism is driven and shaped by the logic of capitalist rationality, meaning consumer products are created on the basis of whatever will sell best.
You go pick one either because the picture is better or you saw the commercial the other day and you want it. During the length of this paper we will talk about two important writers, Kalle Lasn the writer of “The Cult You’re in” and Benoit Denizet-Lewis the writer of “ The Man Behind Abercrombie & Fitch”. They both talk about similar topics that go hand and hand with each other, they talk about the consumers “Dream”, how companies recruit the consumers, who cult members really are, how people are forced to wear something they don’t want, and about slackers. What is the dream we all have? Think about the main things that you strive for in life.
Though people can look into color and composition, others can still even look into the source of the art itself. Cole goes deeper, delving into the source of the art, looking in particular into the idea of cultural appropriation and the view a person can give others. Though it is good for people to be exposed to different opinions of a group or an object, sometimes people can find it difficult to tell the difference between the reality and the art itself. Sometimes art can be so powerful that its message stays and impacts its audience to the point where the viewer’s image of the subject of the art changes entirely. Cole brings up an important question about art, however. Art has become some kind of media for spreading awareness and even wisdom at times, but in reality, “there is also the question of what the photograph is for, what role it plays within the economic circulation of images” (973). Cole might even be implying that Nussbaum’s advertisement can sometimes be the point of some media, and that sometimes the different genres of art can just be to make someone with a particular interest happy. One more point that Cole makes is that “[a]rt is always difficult, but it is especially difficult when it comes to telling other people’s stories.” (974) Truthfully, awareness and other like-concepts are difficult to keep going when a person or a group is not directly involved.
These mediums range from photography, graphic design, and re-appropriated magazines; however, she mostly known for her work using her graphic design skills along with the use of re-appropriated pop culture photos to illustrate twenty-first-century consumerism and ideals. Her work could be described as editing modern advertisements with slaps of (font) text on them to make a statement that criticizes Western ideals (Independent). This medium is vital to what Kruger works within. By using appropriated magazines and pithy phrases, she is able to express a dialog with the people of today because it is relatable. Kruger understands her audience. She captures the human mind in a few words. She understands that society has long had a short intention span and she capitalizes on it.
Mays claims that Modern Art’s very philosophy is based on freedom from tradition and the removal of the artist’s hand and therefore immediately disqualifies the crafts with their antiquated, ideals. He equates art--the educated eye, with intellect and craft--the intimate hand, with popular culture. In other words, artists can make well crafted work on the condition that they don’t enjoy themselves too much and craftspeople are tolerable so long as they stay out of Modern Art’s intellectual domain. Believing the craft community to be lacking the necessary ingredients for intellectual prowess, Mays also blames craft critics as well as the community at large for being too friendly and and encouraging
1. The court decision for Rogers v. Koon ruled that Koons “String of Puppies” sculpture was a direct copyright infringement of Roger’s “Puppies” photograph. I agree with the decision of the case because there were high levels of evidence supporting obvious motives to plagiarize the photograph. The least Koons could have done was give credit and recognize it especially since a majority of the content was Rogers’s original work. By not intending to give credit at the art gallery and not letting purchasers be aware of the original, this shows intentions to maliciously deceive others as if he had original ownership. By stressing and trying to capture almost exact areas, and exhibiting it at the art gallery, this demonstrates he tried to pursue
Fairey, an American Artist from South Carolina, graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1992. During his young adult years, Fairey “realized his desire and interest in the street art culture and graffiti movement” while he was working in a skate shop as a part-time job. As seen and described in his documentary, Obey Giant, Fairey’s first piece of work, the Andre Posse, was the sticker he used as an example to teach his friend about printmaking. This sticker once simplified and made into what today is known as the Obey logo. Fast forward to the presidential election of 2008, Fairey produces the Hope poster. The poster almost immediately turns into a global icon which is still recognized and even derived from today. This is the second art piece, to be discussed in this essay. Shepard Fairey’s Artwork, and Shepard Fairey’s influence on the world, each with their own various sub-topics such as the global iconography and impact within the means of copyright law. These pieces stress that from the smallest pieces within an artist’s portfolio to the largest can have a major impact on the world around us.
With the rise of industrialization, globalization, and mass production, the manufacturing productivity has been dramatically increased and accordingly the availability of consumer goods. And with the rise of the mass media, various products have been targeted on broad groups of consumers. Consumerism, which is propelled by a system of mass production and high levels of consumption, has been one of the themes in art works from twentieth century till now.
This chapter focuses on how the immediate social context shapes popular culture. This includes artists, animators, television writers/actors, and musicians (to name a few) who actually create popular culture and how the context of their work doesn’t always govern what they produce. Within popular culture, there are three realities to consider: the technological constraints, the organizational apparatus, and the legal system. With technological constraints, it deals with the production and manufacturing of popular culture. The organizational apparatus consists of the structure of which popular culture is promoted and sold. The legal system relates to how the whole process is regulated. Examples of the legal system can be seen with copyright laws and how they impact the content of music albums, which is why albums nowadays don’t have free samples of other songs. With the organizational apparatus, what the people receive is mostly a
Furthermore, He considers the dominant of the marketing negotiations between an artist and its client th...
...e fulfilled with manufactured goods created by capitalism. This thought can be an extension and progression of Benjamin, who argues that art subjects the working class to conformity because, as consumers, they enjoy simple capitalistic distractions. Though something that is never mentioned by Horkheimer and Adorno is a form of art being taken back from the dominant ideology as a form of protest against the upper class. Benjamin uses the example of Dadaism and a type of “anti-art” movement. He believes that art can cause a shock to the individual that would not be an ideological distraction. Benjamin argues that art does not need to follow an ideological format but certain people, like Dadaism, can create to promote thinking and not passivity. In contrast Horkheimer and Adorno argue that the culture industry creates to feed the masses the ideology of the upper class.
...d a strong impact on the artists of the 1960’s and 1970’s, including Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons and its impact has extended to the contemporary arts, which have yet to be fully assessed (USA Today Magazine 2005). More than just an expression of the subconscious, Surrealism redefined the future of art, fashion, and popular culture. While it is said that Surrealism died when Breton passed away in 1966, its effects are still felt today. We experience Surrealism in our daily lives with the steady flow of disconnected images, seen most evidently today in advertising. Surrealism has taught us not only to tolerate, but to appreciate the strange flow of discontinuities. This lesson is monumentally important living in an increasingly multicultural and heavily media-based society where there is a fusion of different images and sounds being experienced in every facet of life.
For Banksy, the prevailing public mood is ever-changing, molding itself to the situations of the present. Simultaneously, the ideals which shape his art are products of his childhood which may have been associated with issues with authority figures. A radical and progressive propagandist, Banksy is an enigma to his admiring audience and his critics alike, and his persistence on anonymity is to thank (Ellsworth-Jones, 16). Banksy’s anonymity adds to the mystique that surrounds his persona not just as a street artist but also as a performance artist. Even if it is not a conscious attempt at mythologizing, the persona he has created ends up being mystical in a manner that is intriguing to the general public. Whether he is aware of the impact of this or not, the elusive mystery of a person’s identity tends to mythologize the subject (in this case, Banksy). By maintaining his identity a secret, his art perpetrates the “myth” of the “real identity” of Banksy, “the man behind the wall”. Serving both as the propaganda and the propagandist, Banksy strives to delve the world into stark awareness by attempting to awaken them to the crumbling culture established by corporations and establishments. He calls for no members and work independently of an organization because that degrades his ideals, making him hypocritical. However, all that is still speculation
The future of digital art promises many new alternatives to traditional artwork. Digital art offers a whole new perspective on the way people see and perceive art. For this reason, people across the globe have varying opinions on whether or not digital art should be accepted into society. This technological based art allows people to express themselves through art created using a computer. People who can’t draw traditionally can turn to digital art as a way to convey their inner thoughts and feelings. Likewise, more advanced artist can sell their extremely realistic pieces from hundreds to thousands of dollars each. New and exciting advances are coming about when it comes to displaying digital art, and this may strengthen its market it the long run. Digital art although extremely controversial, provides a new way of expression and allows for a whole new market to evolve.
Art is everywhere whether one likes it or not, and can be appreciated in the smallest of ways. It’s absolutely necessary for the growth of a society and its people. It’s mainly used for businesses today to either raise people’s opinions of their company or sell a product. For example if you go to the marketplace and you pick up a gallon of milk the first thing you may see on that gallon is a picture of a cow or the same milk being poured into a glass in a way that captures the eye and makes you think “wow that looks great!” This is the most common use for visual art today and often makes people “miss the point” of what it truly means (Why Art Matters, 1). Advertisement is one of the biggest fields in then visual arts and shapes the way we see a product as well as the choices we make on such judgment. This is where the illusion comes in making the visual arts, a potentially harmful thing. The illusion of it comes from what’s true and what’s made up or “altered truth”. A company could make their product seem way better than it really is essentially tricking people into buying it. One example is when you go to a fast food restaurant and you see signs of perfect looking sandwiches when in reality they don’t look like that. Most people don’t see any illusion but when they do it’s hard for them to see the other side of things, the ones that aren’t “stretching the truth”. People today tend to see that kind of advertisement as normal. In fact, it kind of helps with things like morale by making things seem much more worth it and just all around nicer. So there for the arts are the very “soul” of a successful business.