Artist Research

Artist Research

2D_Foundations

Thomas Green

Artist Research Papers

As part of the P2, integrated professional practices program at MCA, we will be conducting artist research to stay focused and current in our fields.   Researching artists and looking at what is going on in the contemporary art world is essential to your success.  Furthermore, researching historically important figures in Art and their contributions provides an important historical foundation for the work that is done today.  This semester we will be conducting artist research on a total of 8 artists, and writing artist statement for one of the projects that you will be doing this semester.

What to include in your research papers?

1.     `1. Bio-you may begin your paper by including pertinent information about the artist.  Where he/she was born, where they studied, important relationships that they may have had, and major exhibitions and achievements that they have made.

2.     2. Their work- How is the particular artist that you are researching classified (impressionism, pop art, german expressionism, etc.)  What are some of the distinctive characteristics of the work? Is it expressive, large/small, what materials does he/she use to create the work? What is the content or subject matter of the work? What is the form.

3.     3. Design-finally, discuss some of the techniques and principles of design inherent in your artist’s work.  How do they use line, texture, shapes, pattern, color, balance, figure/ground relationships in their work?

The Artist research needs to be a total of about one page double spaced 12point font.  On another page, you should drag pictures of the artist’s work to your word document for reference.  Print these out and paste them in your sketchbook.  You will need to save this document as you will be turning in the digital files to me as part of your midterm and final grade.   Do not research anime artists or artists that are not famous (your aunt that paints still life, etc).   Your artist should still be living.


SAMPLE ARTIST RESEARCH:

Keith Haring

            Keith Haring is an American artist who was born to Joane and Allen Haring in Reading, Pennsylvania on May 4, 1958 and died of AIDS in New York City on February 16, 1990. Though he was born in Reading, he spent more of his childhood growing up in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Haring graduated high school in 1976 and later was enrolled into the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh. He dropped out of this school after two semesters of attending. After this, Haring continued to study on his own and in 1978, he held his own exhibition gallery in the Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts center. In the same year of 1978, Haring went back to school, this time enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York city. Here he made friends with other artists such as Kenny Scharf and Jean Michel Basquiat.

            During Haring’s time in New York, he used his subway surroundings as his canvas for his art work. Though Haring was arrested on numerous occasions for vandalism, his artwork was seen by the many pedestrians and commuters of New York city. His genuine style included rays surrounding infants, figures dancing and other odd mixtures of people with television shaped heads. His style represented the subculture of the time and was a very influential for how people viewed his and other artwork to come. His style can be described as a simplistic pop art. His work is extraordinarily expressive and is both on the small and large scale. His graffiti could be portrayed from small signs to large vast walls in the urban areas of the city.

            In Keith Haring’s design, his largely incorporated techniques include line, shape, pattern, Negative vs. Positive space, and color to convey his forms and meanings. In his work he either chooses to cover the entire picture plane with shapes to form either rhythmic or random pattern; or he chooses a defined focal point and adds his many shapes around it to guide the viewer through the art work. His color choices are generally all prismatic and muted/