The Integrated Arts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Integrated Arts - Essay Example Collections are often secretive, sometimes fetishistic, and can consist of the mundane and disposable, fragments of nature or urban waste (Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p. 190-192). Art through the eyes of an artist represents the different moods, features, and aesthetics of the contemporary world. The same cannot be said of the spectator, who like many before and after him, see art as a piece of sexuality and provocation. Any discussion on art brings one noting the Greeks. The Greeks during the high classical age (470-430 BC), created standing sculptures of human figures, carved out of limestone and marbles, adapting seventh century Egyptian models. These sculptures were stiff, rigid, decorative, subordinate elements of tombs and temples rather than true sculpture. The range of depictions on heroic nude male (often in athletic contests) and draped female figures were prominent1. Each figure of the period reflected the artistic marvel and importance to this form of art. The sculptures were true living representations of the lifestyle and culture enjoyed by the prominent people of that age. In continuation on the subject of art and artists, this paper focuses on two distinct artists and their way of presenting contemporary world to their audience. First, the paper looks at the works of Fred Wilson and Conceptual Art, and then it's the turn of Judy Chicago and Feminist Art. Fred Wilson is a2.0 Fred Wilson and the Conceptual Art Fred Wilson is a conceptual artist; he doesn't paint, sculpt ortake photographs as he used to, but works with museums, culling through their collections and selecting objects to make his point. He arranges these exhibits against the backdrop of selective wall colors, display cases, lighting and wall labels to communicate with his audience. At an exhibit for the Maryland Historical Society, he juxtaposed fine silver service with slave shackles, and four period chairs lined up to observe a whipping post. He was more than convincing in conveying the message of white oppression over the black; the refined products of white society such as the silver service and chairs against slave shackles and whipping post. Wilson uses the objects to great effect, and this particular exhibit strongly reflected the white society's oppression of the black community. Most of his exhibitions harbor on racism. As a conceptual artist, Wilson takes pain to gather as much relevant material as possible from dif ferent places, and then using his artistic excellence, recreates images that has a longstanding impression on the viewer. In the 'Colonial Collection,' Wilson mocks a museum display, using a row of street-bought African masks with their eyes covered with pieces of the British flag. In a display case in front of the masks are insects and lithographs showing the British infantry fighting native Africans. Wilson has been quite critical of museums and the way they projected artifacts. In many cases, museums have kept materials of historical relevance from public viewing or importance. In 'Old Salem: A Family of Strangers,' 20 or so color photographs of cloth dolls made by blacks during the 19th and 20th centuries were left undisclosed from public viewing from the collection of a southern museum. Wilson has left no stone unturned to