Download the revised Thesis syllabus

Follow the link- This is the final version of the syllabus

Cecilia Vicuna Exhibition and Lecture

Click the image to see it larger

BFA Art Open

Entry Procedure  
Students may submit up to 3 works (ready to hang); No excuses; Work will not be juried if it is not framed and ready to hang with wire / L screw, D-rings, support on the back (for 2-D work), or proper installation procedures for 3d work. Film and video, please only send DVD formats with a written synopsis (attached) to entry form. DVDs must have title credits and must loop, No menus. If there are special installation procedures the student must help install their own work.

All work must be labeled individually on the back (refer to entry form) with, Name, Title, Medium, Size, Year completed. NO LABEL NO JUROR! Please fill out the second set of labels for the gallery inventory. You will attach one label to your work and turn one label into the gallery Two labels per entry of the same information.

Calendar  
10/06/09 – 10/10/09 by 4pm Deadline / Drop Off Dates TO MGSA GALLERIES  
10/13/09 – 10/14/09 by 4pm Acceptance Posted in Gallery (Work not accepted must be picked up)  
10/15/09 Exhibition Opens  
10/22/09 Reception 5pm – 7pm  
10/31/09 Exhibition Closes 


Download the Entry Form here 

Josephine Halvorson Lecture Tonight

33 LIVINGSTON AVE
ROOM 117
WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 23
6:30 PM

"Seven Days" reading- Chapter 2- "The Crit"

You should all have a copy of the required book, Seven Days in the Art World. By Wednesday September 30th, you should read chapter 2 and create a post about it.  We don't need you to review the book or the topics, but instead create a bullet-point list of 5 or 10 topics of interest brought up in this chapter.  These can be direct quotes, your thoughts, a circumstance, questions, or comments or any other point of interest.

Interviews

Take a look through the interviews with artists, writers and filmmakers on bombsite, one of our news and views links. These are all interviews of artists by artists which date back to the early 1980s, so they are a good model for what we are trying to achieve here. 

Also take a look at the short videos of artists discussing their work in their studios assembled by Independent Curators International. ICI also compiled Inside the Studio a very useful collection of interviews with some of the most interesting American artist from the last twenty years or so. In both of these examples we have an oral presentation of ideas.
 

Guidelines
You must record the interview. You should then transcribe it into written form. Don't just take written notes, you will miss too much.
 

You must go to your partner’s studio/workplace. Take some time to look around, don’t leap straight in. If they don’t have a studio then spread out sketchbooks and print outs, or pin up work. Don't just look at final pieces.

You must see the work your partner is working on at the moment as well as a selection of their older work

Ask open questions, why, how rather than questions that can be answered with yes or no.

If you only ask questions you only get answers. This means that you should aim for a discussion rather than a quiz

Start with a discussion of what you can see, with what is tangible and real.

Continue with a series of questions about why they use certain materials, forms, subjects.

Try to uncover themes, whether these are in materials, forms or subjects in their work.

Move on to a discussion of their influences, artists, writers, movies etc.

Look for themes and connections between their work and that of those who are influences.

Finish with a discussion of their plans for developing their thesis proposal. Where do they see their work developing over the next year?

Look out for further posts and examples.

White Cube

For background and further thoughts regarding our discussion on gallery space at our last meeting see this article in eflux journal

Positively White Cube Revisited and take a look at the original white cube article.

Chelsea Gallery Visits

You should pick at least 3 of these to visit and write and create a post about, though they are all very close to one another so I would recommend seeing each gallery.  Bring a business card back from each gallery you visit.

Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 540 W 26^th, Juergen Teller

PaceWildenstein: 545W 22^nd St- Maya Lin and at 534 W 25^th:James Turrell

Andrea Rosen Gallery- 525 W 24^th Josiah McElheny in main gallery

Mitchell, Innes & Nash, 534 W 26^th- Enoc Perez

Robert Miller Gallery- 524 W 26^th, Barthelemy Toguo

Aperture Gallery- 547 W 27^th- Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art

Andrea Meislin Gallery- Jed Fielding- 526 W 26^th

Che's Afterlife

the book I mentioned on the diffusion of Che's image is Che's Afterlife by Michael Casey. You can find info on Amazon. . 

If you liked the New Museum

Those who liked the New Museum building might be interested in another SANNA project for the Serpentine Gallery in London

social design network

A useful link for information on socially conscious design. The topics covered should give you some ideas and references for thinking about design critically, and writing about it. 

http://www.design21sdn.com/

Friday's Class

In the second part of the class on Friday we will have a gallery tour of the Hit it Big show and a talk with the curators on the logistics of putting on a group show like this in the Mason Gross Galleries. Make sure you attend the opening and see the show before that. Bring your notepads and make sure you have questions for our discussion.

Hit It Big: Welcome Back Show at Mason Gross Galleries

HIT IT BIG: Welcome Back Exhibition

Second Year MFA Candidates and Mason Gross Faculty/Staff

Special installations by Robert Melee and Damian Catera

Thursday, September 10 – Saturday, September 26, 2009

Reception: Thursday, September 17, 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Robert Melee Artist Talk: Wednesday, September 16, 6 p.m. room 117

Hit It Big, an exhibition of works by 16 second year MFA candidates and 22 faculty and staff members, will open September 10^th at Mason Gross galleries in New Brunswick, New Jersey.


For second year grad students, the welcome back show marks the midpoint of their graduate career and the opportunity to show their work alongside Rutgers faculty members.  Hit It Big represents all departments and includes examples of painting, sculpture, photography, video, and printmaking.


Participating Artists:
Allan Arp, Misti Asberry, Gerry Beegan, Jessica Bottalico, Brian Bulfer, Brian Campbell, Damian Catera, Paul DeMuro, Colin Edgington, George K. Ericson,LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dale Klein, Marketa Klicova, Gary Kuehn, Alan LaZare,Allison Lindblom, Ardele Lister, Leticia Luevanos, Toby MacLennan, Barbara Madsen, Matthew Marchand, Tony Masso, Anne McKeown, Diane Neumaier,Xenia Nikolskaya, Thomas Nozkowski, Raphael Montanez Ortiz, Matt Posey,Hanneline Rogeberg, Martha Rosler, Lisa Switalski, Jacqueline Thaw, Andy Webber, Stephen Westfall, Shane Whilden, Viktor Witkowski, John Yau, and Melissa Zimberg.



Robert Melee is a multimedia artist based in New York and Asbury Park, New Jersey. Intimacy, kitsch, sexuality, and subculture are integral themes of Melee’s work, and his photos, videos, installations, and performances blur the boundaries between private life and theatre.   Melee exhibits at Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York City

Art and design writing for artists and designers

We posted about Donald Judd as a model for artists writing about their work. Designers, film makers, photographers also do this, in fact we all do it to some extent as part of our practice. A great example of a designer/writer is Ellen Lupton who seems to produce a couple of books a year while also practicing as a designer and a design educator. She teaches a design writing course at MICA. Another new design criticism course is headed by Alice Twemlow at SVA. Both have some great links and resources, so check out their web sites 

http://www.elupton.com/writing/

http://dcrit.sva.edu/

Some of the relevant links are 

http://abriefmessage.com/ a collection of design comments with a 200 word limit

http://www.designobserver.com/ probably to most high profile design blog

http://www.dot-dot-dot.us/ an experiment in design writing 

Lupton includes general writing advice, for instance

http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/tburke1/beyond.html

A Bucket of Blood

If you missed a part, or want to see some or all of the A Bucket of Blood again, this video is the full length film. 

Reminder: We will not meet Friday the 11th

Hi everyone,  I just wanted to remind you all that we will not be meeting as a class on Friday September 11th.  Instead, you are required to visit The New Museum.  You must visit the museum before we meet on the 18th.  You should bring your ticket stub to class- this will count as attendance for Friday the 11th.

Also for the 18th- please start your blogs and email the address to me at meganeflaherty@gmail.com
Let me know the level of privacy you would like for your blog.

Create a post in reaction/review/relation to your visit to the New Museum.

You should also watch the video posted below by Alex Bag and create a blog post about it.

Please also post any reactions to the film we watched in class "A Bucket of Blood" by Roger Corman, 1959.

Have a great time at the museum! I look forward to reading your posts!  

On writing your blog posts and Donald Judd

Your blog posts do not need to be lengthy. Just a few sentences can be sufficient as long as your thought(s) are clearly expressed. The goal is to effectively explain yourself in as concise a manner as possible.

The iconic writings of minimalist artist and critic Donald Judd are an interesting example of how this can be achieved.

See these two articles on his writing style with a few examples of his reviews:
Conversation starter: Mel Bochner on the republished writings of Donald Judd
Look, See: Donald Judd Archives

For those of you who are interested, a book of these writings is available: Donald Judd Complete Writings 1959-1975

Blog privacy settings

You can decide whether or not you would like to share your blog with the rest of the class (as well as the rest of the internet via search engines). If you decide to restrict privacy settings, you must allow access for both Gerry and Megan by adding our email addresses (beegan@earthlink.net and meganeflaherty@gmail.com) to the "Blog Readers".

When you set up your blog, please email Megan your blog's web address and your level of privacy. For all those who wish to share their blogs with the rest of the class, we will post your links here.

For all of our protection, this blog will only be viewable by members of this course. We have not yet restricted the privacy setting but will do so once everyone is all set up on google.

This video will explain how to adjust your privacy settings.

Quick "how to set up your blog" video

Thesis Curriculum for the Fall

Here is a link to download a PDF of the fall course curriculum

If you do not have a google account, you will be prompted to create one. You will need this for your blogger account as well. You do not need to have a gmail address to do this- you can use your existing email address from any server.