Mod 11

I watched the video about Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the '50s and '60s, and the one on Picasso and Matisse. I selected the one about abstract expressionism since I am generally drawn toward that kind of artwork, and I chose the other about Picasso/Matisse since I feel like my knowledge on both of their backgrounds is lacking a little bit.

The video about abstract expressionism/pop art started off at a much different point than what I expected. Some of the artists seemed hard for me to connect to what I think of what I hear the words "Pop Art", but they did all eventually tie together and relate to one another. Jasper Johns was interesting to me, I've seen his word at a gallery before though I cant think of where and I dont know that I looked twice at it since I didnt know much about him as an artist or his process. Knowing how much goes into his seemingly simple looking works makes it much more meaningful to glance at. Encaustic painting is not something I really knew about but seems like a really neat technique, the texture that John's had in his pieces when working this way really made a great impact on the final results. Andy Warhol was obviously featured on this video as well, since Pop Art cant be mentioned without mentioning him. They spoke a lot about his techniques and specifically the piece he did with Robert Rauschenbergs image, The Texan. A quote they mentioned really stuck with me, "I dont know where the artificial stops and the real begins", and I feel like thats something that can really be seen and felt in a lot of his work.

The video on Matisse/Picasso really covered a lot on their backgrounds and their careers from start to finish. It was interesting to see how different they were style-wise when they both started out, and how they eventually really started to feed off of and learn from each other even borrowing techniques and "lines" in some cases. 

Both films were pretty interesting and informative, though the one about Picasso/Matisse was much easier to watch and follow. Seeing real footage of both artists was very cool, and almost makes it easier to connect to their work once you know a little more about their past. Matisse working on the Chapel at the end really wow'ed me, and Im curious to know more about that and whether or not it still exists.