amamblog:

While the artist is commonly present in depictions of performance art, this presence is not intended as an exploration of the self as in self-portraiture. Instead, the artist’s body serves as a catalyst for ephemeral actions, preserved only through documents and photographs. Vito Acconci captures the use of his own body as an art-making implement in Kiss Off. For this work, Acconci transferred red lipstick from his own mouth to various parts of his body, which he then pressed onto a printing stone to be transmitted to paper. The artist is thus present not only in the photographic documentation of the act, but in his body’s literal inscription in the final work.

On view through July 29 in the exhibition Artists on Artists. 

Image:
Vito Acconci (American, b. 1940)
Kiss Off, 1971
Lithograph
Art Rental Collection Fund, RC1971.5 

amamblog:

John Martin is known for sublime compositions with tiny figures overwhelmed by catastrophic landscapes, carefully delineated architectural structures, and a virtuoso rendering of perspective. An accomplished painter and printmaker, Martin produced more than one hundred mezzotints after his own work. The medium’s rich tonal range suited the drama of subjects like The Fall of Babylon, which he engraved after one of his most important paintings. The hand-coloring attests the mezzotints’ popularity, as it was probably added by the publisher during a later issuing to mask areas of the plate worn by earlier printings.

Image:
John Martin (English, 1789-1854)
The Fall of Babylon, 1831
Hand colored mezzotint; re-engraved lettered print
Friends of Art Endowment Fund, 1974.60 

rlstars:

sin título by valerie chiang on Flickr.

amamblog:

The practice of making copies after another artist’s work has longstanding roots. During the Renaissance, artists were encouraged to copy art from antiquity, as it was believed that imitating great art was the best way to learn. This convention of studying and venerating the masters remained a staple of academic training for centuries. Artists working in non-Western modes of art-making also have a long history of looking to the ancient masters. In emulating the work of their predecessors, artists from cultures such as China and Japan learned valuable lessons about traditional techniques and style.

In addition to its pedagogical function, copying also has practical purposes. Prior to the age of photo-mechanical reproduction, artists often made prints after their own or other art works for book illustration or other forms of dissemination.

Francesco Bartolozzi’s print, after Benjamin West’s allegorical murals in the Queen’s Lodge at Windsor, celebrates British advancements in the arts and sciences under King George III and glorifies the Enlightenment values of reason and knowledge. On the right, a woman peers through a Newtonian reflecting telescope at the H-shaped astronomical symbol for the planet Uranus, which British astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered in 1781 using a reflecting telescope he built himself.

Image:
Francesco Bartolozzi (Italian, 1727-1815)
[after: Benjamin West, American, 1738-1820]
The Genius of Light Awakens Science and Art, 1789
Engraving with etching
Friends of Art Endowment Fund, 1982.96

amamblog:

For our final Sunday Object Talk of the academic year, Nicole Alonso (OC ‘13) will be discussing Claes Oldenburg’s outdoor sculpture and beloved Oberlin landmark “Giant Three-Way Plug (Cube Tap)” from 1970. The talk will meet in the King Sculpture Court before heading outside to view the Plug. You can watch a video of the installation of the Plug here.

The Sunday Object Talk will begin at 2pm. We’ll take the summer off, and then talks will resume in the fall.
 

Hmm. Is it just us, or has the plug shifted in placement from this photo? (We do know it was reinstalled just a few years ago.)

amamblog:

Marc Chagall was introduced to printmaking in Berlin in 1922, at the age of thirty-five. The autobiographical portfolio My Life marked the artist’s first serious foray into printmaking, and he completed this suite of etchings within three weeks. My Life drew on Chagall’s vivid memories of his childhood in the Russian village of Vitebsk, and included images of the artist, his family, his childhood home, and his neighbors. In this self-portrait, Chagall presents himself as literally comprised of these elements of family—represented by his wife, child, and parents making up his torso—and home—symbolized by the house balancing atop his head.

Artists have long turned to their own image as a subject. A means of self-exploration, self-portraiture allows artists to portray themselves according to their own wishes, sometimes focusing on their exterior likeness or on their inner personality. Self-portraits provide for more experimentation than portraits of others, since the artist has no external client to please. Many self-portraits are created as a form of self-promotion, intended to demonstrate the artist’s status and skill.

From the exhibition, Artists on Artists, on view through July 29.

Image:

Marc Chagall (French, born in Russia, 1887–1985)
Self-Portrait, no. 17 from the series Mein Leben, 1922
Etching
Gift of Hazel B. King,  1951.32  

amamblog:

In this playful image, mail artist Ray Johnson wittily presents abstract painters Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967) and Agnes Martin (1912-2004) as a pair of fried eggs. Johnson creates a pun on each artist’s name to emphasize their rhyming qualities, changing “Reinhardt” to “Reinheart,” and “Martin” to “Heartin.”

The exhibition Artists on Artists remains on view through July 29.

Image:
Ray Johnson (American, 1927-1995)
Ad Reinheart and Agnes Heartin, 1970s
Commercially-printed card with felt-tip pen
Ellen H. Johnson Bequest, 1998.7.55