The Faces Series - Thomas Mallard

Entry by: Eric Schaible

Artwork is not something that comes natural to me. I don’t typically like it, mostly due to the fact that I just don’t understand it. For example, I am using three of Thomas Mallard’s drawings, which combine to make a series called A Year of Faces. Upon first glance of these drawings, it is hard to me to make out anything of significance except that each woman’s face is distorted, with the left side of the drawing being lower than that of the right. There also looks to be the number 2 dividing each side of the face. It is not until I began researching this artwork, then I found out the true meaning of it.
Thomas Mallard is a man who is well versed in the life of art. He has received schooling from UC Berkeley for art but has also done work in dance, sculpture, etchings, and silk-screenings. With much of his life being dealt with computers, he experimented on and off with drawing and designing. One of his biggest influences over time has come from the work of Pablo Picasso. Interestingly enough, after looking at a few of Picasso’s paintings, it seems as if the disfigured face may have actually been copied. Whether or not this is common place in the art world is out of my knowledge, but I did find that to be quite fascinating. Another form of his inspiration comes from a desire to capture the emotions felt by many people, as shown in the faces series.
These drawings are meant to show people as complex, dualistic, and with a wide variety of physical features. This series was drawn in public, where he used people passing by as his subjects. He wanted to be able to show how people acted in their own environments without any type of influence on their behaviors. Actually analyzing these drawings took some explanation from the artist. Each drawing has more shading on the left side, which makes the viewer realize that there are actually two subjects. The reason for the two mixed into one actual face is to highlight the fact that there are many opposites about people. Such ideas of male vs. female and black vs. white are all supposed to observations by the viewer. By drawing these in public, he is able to draw one subject head on, while the profile of another person is used.
As a casual observer of these pieces, it is hard to formulate an opinion as to whether I think that they should be considered special or not. The faces, at first glance, merely look to be split in the middle with a disfigured emotion. However, after taking note from what the author wanted people to observe, I can realize that there are subtle pieces that cannot be seen unless there is time taken to understand the piece.

John Pedlow's Essay

The contemporary artwork that I choose to look at was Alexander Calder’s sculpture Flamingo. I find that metal sculptures are one form of art that I truly do not understand what so ever. I guess you could say that this has something to do with my extremely limited knowledge of art as a whole. Also though growing up I when the word art was mentioned I thought of painting and most likely Picasso or Van Gogh just because they are two of the most commonly known painters. That said though Flamingo is not your average metal sculpture, there is just something about it that catches your eye right off the bat. This very well could be the bright red color that is not typical of metal sculptures or its extreme size in the middle of Chicago, but there is definitely something that catches your eye about this sculpture.
This sculpture is the only sculpture that I can remember (and I haven’t seen that many) that was aesthetically interesting to me. To me the color of the sculpture is what initially catches my eye because it is not the color you expect to see when you think of metal sculptures. After that the actual shape of the sculpture is interesting to me, I do not quite understand why the shape catches my eye as much as it does but there is something about it that intrigues me. That is one of the reasons I took this class however, because I want to develop more of an understanding of art so that I can appreciate it later in life.
Alexander Calder was the artist who sculpted Flamingo and he was born in 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and lived until 1976. He was a third generation sculptor and his grandfather was the man who sculpted the figure of William Penn that sits atop the dome of city hall in Philadelphia. However Calder was more mechanical driven at an early age and studied mechanical engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. After receiving his degree in 1919, Calder held a number of jobs until he tried his hand at art. He gained fame for his sculptures and mobiles over time and his fame peaked in the 1970’s, which happens to be the era that Flamingo was created in. Flamingo was created unveiled in 1974 in Chicago. This sculpture is a massive 50 ton work of art and is made up of steel and is located in Chicago’s Federal Plaza. I hope to at one point after taking this class to be able to look at a work of art like this and at least try and be able to understand it.

Taking Issue with a Contemporary Art Piece

Posted by: Casey LaChapelle



In doing some research on the Internet to find the perfect painting or sculpture that I didn't understand, it dawned on me that as long as I can remember, I turned my nose up to modern/contemporary paintings. I have downright found them unappealing. Growing up, my great grandfather was a painter, he did this for a living and I, still to this day love his work never understood why people would look at a piece of contemporary artwork and believe that it was good.
The given reason above is the main premise on why I decided to take this class, as I would like to me more educated about art as a whole and not sound or think so naive when it comes to good art. I finally came up with a painting that I look at and say to myself, "I just don't understand what is going on here". It is titled "Blue Vase" painted by José Manuel Merello. Merello is a Spanish born artist who states that his work has some Picasso in it, but likes to add that this is mainly his own style. He is also a self-taught artist who has paintings shown throughout the world.
In looking at this picture (appendix A) at first glance all I see are a bunch of heavy strokes on a canvas that a typical elementary student could do. Although I don't find this art beautiful or interesting, after looking at the piece for a period of time it began to dawn on me that art is truly in the eye of the beholder. No one person will look at art in the same exact way.

This type of painting is Merello's style. In looking at his other works, you can see a distinct pattern in the way he creates his paintings. They all have a distinct look about them. The painting that I chose, "Blue Vase", is very distinct because although there is so much going on around the featured blue vase in the painting, one thing sticks out and that is the blue vase in general.
It took me some time to realize Merello's style, but when I did it began to make sense to me. All of his paintings have one thing that is in the center, the focal point that the viewer automatically sees, at which point all of the other strokes and things in the painting mold together to form sort of a natural boarder around that one point.
I hope that in taking this class I will be able to distinguish between different artists and not have such a closed mind when it comes to different types of art that I may not be accustomed to.