Art: 21 Identity

When I first chose this video, I thought it would be about how art formed a personal identity. Once I started watching the video, I found out that I was wrong. The video followed four artists (Bruce Nauman, Kerry James Marshall, Maya Lin, and Louise Bourgeois). Each of them spoke about their experiences as an artist. Nauman spoke about how he became an artist because he had little passion for any other subjects and hated being repetitive. He also spoke about how accidents affected his art and made it better. His art was different from other forms because it was in a video format that others might think was a little peculiar. His favorite artworks were the pieces that made one question its function. The next artist was Marshall. Marshall was my favorite artist from the video because he explained why he did a certain thing and not just that he did it. All of his art was based on art from previous centuries. He liked to make old things seem fresh. He is known for his dark figures in his art. Some people questioned those dark figures, but he clearly stated that the blackness of the figures represented the beauty and power of the color black. He said that he was trying to reclaim the image of blackness as power. One of his influences was the artist Charles White. He remembered only reading about European artists in his art history books and White changed everything. His current project is reanimating unrepresented African heroes. The next artist was Maya Lin. She spoke about her project but never focused on why she was doing it. Besides her thoughts on her project in the park, Lin only spoke on how her works blended art and architecture. Many of her works were based on astronomy, naturally occurring phenomena, geology, and landscape. Bourgeois was the last artist. My favorite part of her segment was when she stated, "I am what I do with my hands." I felt that really expressed who she was and what she wanted to accomplish when creating something. In her segment, she talked about her memorial she had done for Jane Addams. She stated that the fragility of the hands represented the sensibility of the art as well as the personality of Jane Addams. Bourgeois felt a work of art didn't need to be explained. One should just be able to embody the emotion. Though parts of the video were dull, it was interesting. It might not have been on the topic of identity that I thought it would be, but it covered a lot. I learned a little bit about why art is the way it is sometimes. I would consider watching another episode of the Art:21 series.