On the Vernacular of Beauty

David Hickey clearly describes the importance of using elegance in works of art in his essay titled "Enter the Dragon." Hickey needs time to distinguish between beauty and pretty, stating that beauty is something that attracts our eye involuntarily and activates our senses, while beautiful is the end of aesthetics that culture considers visually attractive. In a different light, any work of art will thereby hold immense ethical and political forces that can be harnessed for the owner's benefit. Any art which does not possess beauty in this century has the question of efficacy raised although institutions today also do not value arts which are considered efficacious by beauty alone thus artists today want to add more than just beauty by including honesty.

Hickey gives examples of artworks which have survived generations to generations since they have political agendas which have been achieved for example the “Madonna of the Rosary” by Caravaggio. One can agree with Hickey that an image, for example, should not just exist for being beautiful if it cannot change the beliefs of the viewer. It is irrefutable that each generation has its consideration of what beauty is. Therefore, Hickey ought to have acknowledged that as well by advising artists to consider the period and what beauty within that very period is, to relay what the viewers would want to consume.

Randy Kennedy, Profile of Bruce Nauman

Randy Kennedy writes about the profile of an artist, Bruce Nauman what can otherwise be referred to as the biography of the life story of the artist. He starts by telling about Nauman’s life after leaving Los Angeles and settling in the rural New Mexico. He introduces the artist’s story by telling about the almost normal challenges that he faced such as lack of good internet connection and poor cell services. Nauman’s wife, Susan Rothenberg, is also an artist and to be specific, a painter and they have stayed together in their big piece of land since 1989. Kennedy describes the nature of their house and its interior décor.

Mr. Nauman’s artistic works are described as those which are difficult to take or comprehend due to the nature of their complexities. In fact, one of Nauman’s fans once wrote that the works of Nauman have scared, angered, imperiled, controlled, and infuriated his viewers. From this writing alone it is evident that the pieces of art that Nauman does may not be those who are directly understood but rather those that mesmerize his viewers and may, therefore, need more elaboration from the owner (Mr. Nauman) to be understood.

Several other works have also been done by Nauman although seemingly Kennedy did not highlight them in the profile. Additionally, Nauman, as Kennedy writes, is one who liked working alone in his studio apart from specific days like Wednesday when his office assistant would be there. Before venturing into arts, Nauman, as Kennedy writes, seemed to have engaged in other business especially training cattle horses.





Randy Kennedy, Essay about Appropriation and Copyright

In this article, Randy Kennedy writes about a very important story which is critical in the discipline of arts. He writes about appropriation and copyright which is a legal issue in any form of art. He sets his story inside the offices of a law firm managed by David Boies and his associates and inside the office, there were several handmade photographs done by Richard Prince and which some of them were the foundations of the then highly watched copyright case ever to hit hard the fine art arena. The judgment delivered by Judge Deborah about the case sent a stern warning to several museums across America which exhibit fine art; Prince, however, appealed the ruling.

Copyright laws are created for protection and economic reasons. The owner of the artwork should be protected from the risks associated with copyright such illegal re-mixing and piracy while at the same time the protection motivates them to engage more in the industry for economic growth. Court cases about copyright issues increasingly pile up. One question which one can ask concerning the principle of “fair use” is how far one can go ahead copying someone’s work to transform it into something new. It is a challenging question to answer but as Ecclesiastes put it several years ago, “…copying should be allowed only to the degree to which it adds to or builds on what came before” (Kennedy n.p.), and therefore any extensive use should be considered illegal.

Ash Eliza Smith, Zapatismo in Cyberspace: an Interview with Ricardo Dominguez

The above is an interview between Ash Eliza Smith and Ricardo Dominguez, who is a renowned artist and an associate professor at UCSD, and revolves around Ricardo’s power of critical aesthetics, his works, and why the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was looking for Walter Benjamin. In 1992, Ricardo moved to New York City from Tallahassee since he wanted access to computers which were then critical to his work.

From the interview, most of the occurrences appear to have taken place in the 1990s. During this period Ricardo had developed an interest in the internet art. It is obvious that technology then had not advanced to give an opportunity to artists like Ricardo to explore further and therefore they had to find their way themselves. Ricardo also explains about the critical aesthetics which according to his explanation, were the crucial elements collectively needed to enhance internet art (otherwise referred to as the critical infrastructures) and they included the computers, electricity, and political infrastructure and they come together to facilitate art.

Concerning why Walter Benjamin is being pursued by the FBI and even the border patrol officers, it turns out to be a little funny and humorous. Ricardo explains about one special tool, the Transborder Immigrant Tool (TBIT) which is able to ferry “the spirits of someone” from a country to another. Ricardo tried to explain to the border patrol officers who had used the tool to cross the border, and they said Walter Benjamin and the officers noted him down. So the tool was imaginary, and the border patrol officers could not understand, and that explains why Benjamin Walter was being sought for allegedly “crossing the border” illegally. The interview unearths several instances and examples of what can be considered “art technology” and the advancement of technology has immensely being applied in the field of arts since the early 1990s.



Randy Kennedy, The Denial of St. Peter

Randy introduces his story by mentioning an Austrian Novelist, Thomas Bernhard who wrote about a musicologist named Riger in his work, “Old Masters.” Riger throughout the thirty-year period glued himself in a room at Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, staring at a portrait, “The White Bearded Man” done by Tintoretto. He also narrates that it is in this room that Riger met the woman he would later marry. Away from Riger and his contemplations at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, we are introduced to a portrait, “The Denial of St. Peter” by Caravaggio. The portrait exhibits St. Peter, who in Christian Religion was denied knowing Jesus when He was being crucified but a woman, right at the center of the portrait, informed the guard on the extreme left that Peter was a follower of Jesus. Just like any other work of Caravaggio, “The Denial of St. Peter” is a portrait of religious theme. The work is an in-depth illustration of how the Biblical Peter denied knowing Jesus, but after the cock crowed thrice, he remembered the prediction Jesus made during the Last Supper that he (Peter) would deny knowing him.