Art 21 Project - Joshua Castle

Creators of Aesthetics

Art 21 ProjectBy: Joshua Castle

Barry McGee

Installation view at UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2000,Deitch Projects, New York; dimensions variable

Barry McGee is very inspiring because he sees potential in artwork where other people might see trash. Through his childhood and still to this day Barry practices graffiti on anything that he can get his hands on. Although it may be vandalism to some, Barry insists there is a story about a person behind every mark of graffiti. The image above is an example of Barry putting hand drawn pictures inside of frames and creating a mural with the frames. All the different images together creates a clustered feel as if you were looking at graffiti art on the streets of Baltimore.

“I like that personal touch where it's a lot like graffiti.“- Barry McGee

Joshua Castle, Wax on Canvas, dimensions 8” X 10”

I chose to respond to Barry McGee’s art work with a piece that, I feel, represents love to all people. In my opinion, McGee enjoys Graffiti because he enjoys displaying his talents to individuals who might not be fortunate enough to go to a Studio or a famous art gallery. He puts his work out to the public to be seen and to inspire others. McGee inspired me to create a Rastafarian image that was made from melting colored wax and crayons onto canvas. From seeing McGee’s work and knowing his intent to spread enjoyment to others I wanted to make art that displayed love.

Ardeche Gorge, Chauvet, France, c. 30,000 BCE. Corbis/Sygma

The artwork shown here relates heavily to Barry McGee’s artwork. I consider McGee’s artwork to be modern day wall art whereas, in this image you see historical wall art that is found in caves. In this cave art the artist uses gradations of color just like McGee does in his work. The artist scrapes the wall in order to show a deeper white contrast behind the horses. McGee does the same thing with graffiti art when he uses different colors to make the words or images protrude. In contrast, however, McGee does not portray the sense of realism like in this image, but more a form of cartoon art. Research suggests in this cave art, “the artists’ desire is to imitate the actual appearance of the animals represented.” Although there are few differences in these art forms, both artist have the intention for their art to be seen for years to come.

Lari Pittman

Operetta, 2006, Regen Projects, Los Angeles; dimensions 86 x 102 inches

Lari Pittman creates art that is very psychologically strange as if you were experiencing hallucinations. Pittman does a very good job at using features inside his artwork to symbolize love or violence. In this piece that I chose, Pittman creates the most chaotic visual scene I have ever viewed. Things such as an alien-like figure that has a staff as a body, and a mirror-like cutout in the wall of the background. Pittman created many dimensions within this piece by cutting the frame in two(top and bottom) and having two different scenes. Pittman added another dimension by including the alien man in both sections of the work as if everything else is in the background.

“They demonstrate the complementary nature of beauty and suffering, pain and pleasure—and direct the viewer’s attention to bittersweet experiences and the value of sentimentality in art.”

In order to construct art that would correlate with Lari Pittman’s artwork, I wanted to take a picture that was psychologically strange or hallucinogenic. The picture I created above is a shot I got of myself skateboarding. The intriguing thing about this picture is the way that I seem almost “ghostly” or transparent. It is very evident that the skateboard is performing a trick above the sidewalk but the person riding the board is not completely visible. I enjoyed the inspirational art of Pittman and wanted to respond with a similar image in the form of a picture.

Joshua Castle, 2014, Baltimore, MD, dimensions 5” X 7”

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937. Oil on canvas, 11 ft. 5.5 in. X 25 ft. 5.25 in. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. John Bigelow Taylor/Art Resource, NY. 2007 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

In the art work above, Pablo Picasso created “Guernica” to portray violence that had been occurring during the Spanish Civil War on April 26th 1937. This image reminded me of Lari Pittman’s work because of the heavy use of distorted figures as well as the violent scenery. In this picture it looks like Picasso draws a plethora of caricatured heads to portray different emotions. You see the man on the right that looks like he is terrified because he is being eaten by himself and the man next to him who seems to be curiously looking into a basement window at all the madness going on in this scene. At first glance, you might not notice that each character plays a vital role in forming the scene. Upon further review, notice that each character is related to one another to tell a story.

Robert Mangold

Robert is an artist who typically creates abstract paintings, but is heavenly concerned about his line work. Robert also considers himself to be very romantic. Out of his whole collection of artwork, I believe this piece sums his romanticism up the best. He did a great job at using his very creative line work to create a heart shape inside of an open ring. The lack of symmetry is important in a lot of his work because it allows the viewer to draw a variety of conclusions from one figure.

Ring Image C, © 2012, The Pace Gallery, New York; dimensions 96 inches diameter

Joshua Castle, Line 3, 2014, dimensions 8” X 10”

This artwork I created agrees to Robert Mangold’s preference of art. In order to show the same lack-of-symmetry as Mangold’s, I painted two lines in the upper right hand corner. I also decided to use three shades of a light orange color to create unparallel lines within the orange color. In the past, I never saw abstract art to be appealing but, as I began creating lines and thinking about what would “look right” the art form became a puzzle and my goal was to find the perfect lines to complement the rest of the piece. Robert Mangold is very inspiring because he mixes simplicity and fine line work.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Composition II with Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930. Oil on canvas. 28.5 X 21.25 in. 2010 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust, c/o HCR International, Warrenton, VA, USA

In order to “purify the spirit,” Piet Mondrian thought he needed to “purify the art” first. In his abstract paintings, such as this art, he used straight, vertical, and horizontal lines, along with primary colors to express “pure reality.” I think this is similar to Robert Mangold’s, Ring Image C, because of each of there ability to draw emotions. Mangold is a romantic artist and uses his work to express his personality on his art work. Mondrian gives off the same vibe in the work because of the way the colors draw out the lines and represent the purity of the art work.