Art as a Spiritual Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Art as a Spiritual Practice - Essay Example When practiced properly and with full attention it can prove to be a staircase to where one wishes to go. It can show you the way towards consciousness if the person is seriously interested. And here art refers to any kind of a creative act; whether it be drawing, painting, pottery, sculpture, or even performing arts such as dancing, singing or acting. Each of these activities requires proper concentration on the part of the performer and cannot be taken as a joke if one really wishes to attain proficiency and work out professionally. And when one is serious regarding art he may be able to look at it as a spiritual discipline. Ann Biddle was a dancer who expresses her spirituality through such means. She had had a tough early life and she was always interested in God and spiritual disciplines, such that she looked for them in her talents. She danced, acted and chanted. And in each of these activities, she was able to find the spirituality she had been in search of. In fact, she even got some ideas for her work when engrossed in spiritual practices. Another example is that of Willi Singleton who understood pottery as a form of spiritual practice. He did not look at pottery as something through which he supplied people with pots and plates; in fact, he gave his work a totally new meaning and found spirituality in it. When he is working he experiences a meditative transformation and thus this practice becomes a meditation for him. Lydia Garcia is yet another lady who found spirituality in art, wood carving in her case. Her marriages did not bring her much happiness and she let go after three marriages and looked for spirituality. She admits that whenever depression visited her and she felt low it was a spirituality that helped her regain comfort and confidence.  

Managing high performance work teams and leadership effectivenessjob Essay

Managing high performance work teams and leadership effectivenessjob satisfaction - Essay Example Leadership is a critical part in the field of management. The consequences of poor leadership in an organization would include increase costs, damage to relationships and loss of trust. It is therefore imperative to have an effective leader in an organization to achieve goals and attain success. Effective leadership separates the successful organization from failed companies . But what is effective leadership Defining leadership is very complex. There exists a lot of meaning for leadership, along with theories and models to describe them. Leadership is the process of influencing others to accomplish an objective and the manner of guiding an organization to become consistent and unified (Briner et al 1996). Leadership capitalizes on individual strengths to fulfill the roles of the position. Effective leaders perform in a proactive manner. They also maintain a balance between the internal and external forces at play in the organization. Effective leaders today are very different from leaders from the past. The time has passed and the environment has changed. Today, leaders must have the capacity and capability to lead complex organization in a global setting and proportion. The trend for leaders now is to demonstrate visionary thinking with the ability to execute the vision. He must hold the highest standards of ethics. He should develop other people in different levels, while understanding the business as a whole and building influential relationships with customers and stakeholders. Pioneers of effective leaderships includes Peter Drucker. He searches for answers on what makes an executive most effective. To be effective means that leaders must manage their time, focus on people's contributions to create results, build on strengths, set priorities and make effective decisions (Drucker, 1967). Stephen Covey (1992), a leadership guru, provided insights into facing daily challenges by employing the concept of principle-centered leadership. Jim Collins (2001), a business consultant, defined the five level leadership hierarchy. These are: Level 1-Highly Capable Individual; Level 2-Contributing Team Member; Level 3-Competent Manager; Level 4: Effective Executive; and Level 5-The Leader. Peter Senge (1990) points out the need for an organization not only to adapt to a changing environment, but also to go beyond adapting to a generative learning approach that allows for growth. Building an organization where people are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their future is the key responsibility for leadership. He identified the need to have a learning organization. Margaret Wheatley (1992) looked at how new discoveries in quantum physics, chaos theory, and biology challenged our way of thinking about organizations. She showed that the old models of leadership, such as hero-leader or leader as individual, stands in the way of the organization's innovativeness and effectiveness. She predicted that the ultimate destination of an organization is the realization that teams are capable of being self-managed where the idea of leadership may be different. High performance teams are a product of the learning organization concept and the idea of self-managed teams. This team can work on its own. Senge and Wheatley innovated the new concept of team-based leadership. High performance teams are created with a mission that have developed their own set of norms or rules, which is written as a team charter. The team members have clearly designated

What was important to women in the past Essay Example for Free

What was important to women in the past Essay In the early 20s, things like getting married at an early age while you were still at your prime, building a family, buying a house with a white picket fence were important. Then in the 30s, getting married and having a family was still the most important thing, but also perhaps becoming a socialite and presenting a good imaging. *NOTE: It may be important to note that women were always expected to keep up appearances or be perfect and project the right image. At this point, having a career was relatively not important In the 60s is when women started getting out there and looking for jobs. Although having a family/husband was still important, women started getting jobs. However, the jobs they were getting were not like the mens they mostly had jobs like secretaries, teachers, nurses (jobs that have become stereotypical. ) As time progressed, the importance of having a career and being independent grew among women. We definitely saw this in the early 80s with women starting to break into the business world. The importance of this to women was shown in movies and music of the 80s. Even in fashion, we started seeing women dressing like men I. e. blazers, pants instead of skirts, ties careers, independence, and equality became even more important. During the 90s and up until today, women still find family important, but they recognize that personal stability, independence, education and your career are #1. * NOTE We see this belief in magazines like Cosmopolitan magazine as images as successful working women are portrayed. -women dont care as much of the image they should portray as much as in the past even though the pressure to do so is still there. -now women look for things like pay equality. -in the future, I think career will be even more important, in addition to making money. -this ambition can, in turn, only be good for the economy because women will get into the usually male dominated fields that usually pay the most women will be able to generate more money for companies. Past/ Present/ Future opportunities women had/will have (edu. /jobs/to make money. ) In the past, definitely, women were not expected or encouraged to continue their education after high school; therefore, their opportunities were limited. Nonetheless, the chance to go to school was still available as far back as the 20s. Career-wise, even if a women did go to university, for example, she was expected to take the jobs for women, like a teacher. There were hardly any female doctors, scientists, lawyers In that sense, those opportunities were limited. Obviously more educational and career opportunities have risen over the decades. Now there are chances for everyone. BUT, some stereotypes still exist of, women not belonging in the tech world. That may limit possibilities of advancement. In the future though will change because weve already stared to see it happen slowly but surely. Progress Development Report When we first started our task list of the things we wanted to talk about in our I. S. U. we decided to include the following points: womens roles at home, their roles in society, what was important to them, how did they make money, their knowledge of the work force, education/opportunities, knowledge of innovations, and obstacles to overcome. However, as we thought about how we were going to organize this so that it would flow coherently and be interesting to read, we decided to focus on one task point and pull other ideas from our other points that would correlate. We decided to select the question, What was important to women then, what is important to them now, and what will be important to them in the future? By doing this, we can accurately create a comparison of how their roles at home and in society have changed by revealing womens changing priorities. Also through personal accounts, statistics, historical findings from books and the internet, we will set the stage, or describe what was going on at the time to answer the other questions like the obstacles women had to overcome ( ie.Unequal pay ), or education and opportunities (ie. The growth of their opportunities or lack their of. ) Our group decided to answer the question of what women find important to not only present the project in a more interesting way and not just report the information, but to make it more personal. So far, we have had success in our change in organization for we are finding it much easier to systematize the information and that is, in turn, making our assignment all the better.

Influences of Technology on Contemporary Abstract Art

Influences of Technology on Contemporary Abstract Art In order to establish an informed understanding of how contemporary abstract painting is situated in the art world today, this dissertation will investigate how painting has been questioned by artists since the 1960s. It will discuss how contemporary artists have been influenced by the expanse of the technological world and how they are influenced by or reflect upon this in their paintings. Another important area of discussion will be the work of contemporary artists whose abstract paintings dont appear to have adapted to technological change and dont seem to reflect transformations in contemporary culture. These are painters who are still continuing to create paintings about paint itself and are exploring what can be done with the material alone. It is important for this dissertation to begin by defining the modernist art movement and the arrival of creative thinking that brought abstract painting into history. The theories thoughts and ideas of critic Clement Greenberg will be discussed in order to set into context the work of abstract painting. Greenberg was an influential art critique during the twentieth century, who introduced an abundance of ideas into discussion around painting from the 1930s. In particular this dissertation will address Greenbergs statements about the importance of purity and flatness in modernist painting. The dissertation will then examine how the supposed end of painting provoked discussion in the1960s, addressing how the artist Ad Reinhardt explored paintings definitions. It will also be important to assess how the advances in technology and the popularisation of image have affected painting. This will then lead into a discussion about the work of a selection of contemporary artists who have conti nued to make paintings after the medium was pushed aside by critics. What has always developed the medium of painting is not only the artists individual passion and enthusiasm to explore the vast possibilities of using paint, but also the artists interest in displaying their conceptions, thoughts and feelings visually. Artists have repeatedly attempted to push their practice to new levels, break boundaries, and depict their philosophy through the use of paint. The communication between an artist engaging with a painting and the paintings audience interpreting the artists intentions or making an interpretation of their own creates a unique language of painting. It is this language that poses questions about painting and its context within contemporary culture and history. These questions will be evaluated in this dissertation in order to establish if and how abstract painting has developed since modernism. Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) is a significant artist of both the twentieth and twenty-first centauries whose artworks have questioned the role of painting through almost five decades. His personal writings and responses in interviews are a valuable resource and a record of his artistic intentions, subject methods and his overall questioning of the medium of painting. His work is particularly interesting as it moves between abstraction and figuration and it addresses the merging of painting and technology. Richter also works with paint in an abstract nature where he uses no representational imagery to depict his thoughts. This dissertation will study the artists developing body of painting and pull out the key questions he asks about painting through painting itself and discuss them in relation to modernism and to the artwork of younger contemporary artists. The first younger Contemporary painters work that will be discussed is that of Nicholas May (b.1962. His artwork uses an experimental painterly approach with the paint material. When talking about his work the dissertation will refer to art critic James Elkin and his ideas about the language of painting, exploring what paint can do on a canvas as a material. Whilst analysing Mays work it will also relate back to Greenbergs views on modernism and the concepts that have been lost and brought forward into contemporary painting. Another contemporary artist with a similar working method to Nicholas May is the John Moores painting prize 2010 exhibitor GL Brierley. Through Comparing his work to Mays and referring to modernist concepts this dissertation hopes to achieve an understanding of how these painters works fit into the art world today. Contemporary artist Carrie Moyers work is similar to Nicholas May as it contains alchemic experimental elements, flatness of the picture plane but graphic elements suggest her influence from the digital, she studied graphic design as an M.A. influences from that but later took a painting course MFA. Her use of glitter. Feminist writings interested in female artist today. Fiona Raes painting will also be of interest. Paintings are influence from the digital, Use of Photoshop to create paintings. Discussing the questions formed by these artists creative intentions, subject methods and sources of painting will form a discussion on the status of abstract painting and the artist in society today. Looking at how abstract painting was defined during the modernist era and how it has progressed over the years to present day. The following chapter will discuss where abstract painting came from and the ideas and theories of Clement Greenberg. Chapter One: Greenbergs Theories on Modernism. Clement Greenberg sets out to define the importance of abstract art in his first manifesto written in 1936 for the magazine The Partisan Review entitled Avant-garde and the Kitsch. Here he discusses for the first time concepts behind the modernist art movement. Greenberg viewed western painting up until the early 19th century as limited. The works had become stagnated and werent moving forward, they were stuck using the same techniques and form. They used skills in perspective and chiaroscuro to form deceptive illusionistic realities on the canvas. As impressive as this was as a technical skill there then became an urge for something new, to go beyond this way of working and to challenge the material and process of painting. Greenberg described this repetition as Alexandrianism that he defined as a motionless academism in which the really important issues are left untouched because they involved debate, and in which creative activity dwindles to skill in the small details of form wit h all larger questions being decided by the standard of the old masters, therefore with this nothing new is produced.  [1]  From this Greenberg defines the cultural importance of Avant-garde culture as stated: It has become amongst the signs in the midst of the decay of our present society that we some of us have become unwilling to accept this last phase of our own culture. In seeking to go beyond Alexandrianism, a part of western bourgeois society has produced something unheard of heretofore: Avant-garde culture.  [2]   Western societies were still recovering from World War one amid the Great Depression, with Nazism rising in Germany and the beginning of World War two approaching. Western societies at this time were stuck between two wars in a depression that followed a large increase in unemployment and bankruptcy. This decay of society heavily influenced artists and their paintings during the avant-garde movement. Modernist painting opened up art to all social classes and was a revolutionary art form that created the avant-garde culture. Painting before the modernist movement had been typically aimed at the upper class and only available for the bourgeoisie to view. The bourgeoisie is the class of people who owned and still own the means of production in the country capitalist, who exploit labourers for their own capital gain. The avant-garde artists abstract paintings scandalised the bourgeoisie by not displaying things as they are. Instead paintings were progressive, moving on from traditional realist painting and chose to use innovative forms of expression.  [3]  Artists began questioning the medium of painting and started producing works that formed a language of its own. Using painting they could visualise the subconscious and depict the world around them on canvas in a way that had never been done before. Although artists were opposed to the bourgeoisie capitalist values, they relied on these people for art funding. The avant-gardes stable source of income was provided from privileged among the ruling class, from which it thought of itself to be cut off. Greenberg described this as an umbilical cord of gold that has always remained attached. (Cite art in theory pg 542) Today artists find themselves in a similar position where they are often reliant on funding from galleries and the art establishment in order to produce and promote their artwork. This can lead to the artists work being restricted by gallery guidelines or what critics, collectors and the power figures of western art deem fashionable in contemporary art. Later in Greenbergs writing Modernist Painting written in 1960 he refines his definitions and explores themes further. Greenberg promotes in this essay the purity in painting in which he explores the restrictions of the medium of painting. The idea of purity in art and painting is that the art should continually move forward to improve itself by moving away from the use of imagery like that of the Renaissance. Instead Painting should move towards the two dimensional qualities of abstract painting.  [4]   Greenberg described this change in perspective in the following statement: Realistic naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; Modernism used art to call attention to art. The limitations of the surface, the shape of the support, the properties of the pigment were treated by the old masters as negative factors that could be acknowledged only implicitly or indirectly. Under modernism these same limitations came to be regarded as positive factors, and were acknowledged openly.  [5]   By deliberately drawing attention to the natural flatness of the canvas in a work of art, the artists have created a new perspective for the viewer to look towards the painting. In modernist painting the viewer is not meant to appreciate the deception of anything but instead admire the act of painting itself. The artist is freely acknowledging the processes limitations of trying to apply visual depth to a two-dimensional surface. Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko began a serious pursuit for flatness in their painting, aiming to create an infinite space on the canvas using a flat layer of colour and shape. Focusing on the images and content of a painting according to Greenberg was a negative factor, he believed for art to be pure and have clarity the subject matter must be thrown out and the emphasis should be put on the painting instead. Where as one tends to see what is in an old master before one sees the picture itself, one sees a modernist picture as a picture first.(cite modernist painting) This he believed was the best way to see any kind of picture and that modernism imposed it as the only and necessary way. Greenberg acknowledges in his essay Modernist Painting that the art of sculpture is by its very nature a three-dimensional form. Painting However is applied to a two-dimensional surface, modernist artists were inspired by that attribute, so rather than attempting to disregard it they embraced it. (cite MP) The artist Ad Reinhart (b.1913-1967) sought to achieve the ultimate modernist painting that contained definitive purity and flatness on the canvas. He took this tendency towards abstraction and simplification in modern art to the extreme when he created his controversial black paintings during the last ten years of his life. The next chapter will discuss Reinhardts definitions of painting and his belief that he had created the last painting. The chapter will also discuss the shift of painting from the limelight to background in art culture, as advances in technology and social interest change during the 1960s. Chapter Two: The End of Painting? Abstract painting No.5 (1962) is an example of the ‘black painting style which Reinhardt is best known for. The canvas appears to have a uniformly plain blue-black surface, an art piece devoid of colour and light. Seen up close however, the carefully painted layers reveal small amounts of blue, yellow and red. These colours form an underlying grid of different coloured squares, divided by a green central horizontal and a central vertical band that resemble the simple shape of a cross. Each of these colours were mixed with black oil paint to give a matt surface quality. (ref Tate modern) In an interview with Bruce Glaser, published in 1966 Reinhart discusses his black square paintings. He believed that there can be only one painting during one time and his were the only valid ones. In this interview he explains that he was trying to make the last ever painting. He also pronounces that his paintings were not about the materials or ideas and that each work he was working on always related to what he previously created. He believed art should be expressionless, clear, quiet, dignified and timeless (cite art as art pg13) in the following statement Reinhardt explains his ideas further: The one direction in fine or abstract art today is the painting of the same one form over and over again. The only intensity and the one perfection come only from long and lonely routine preparation and attention and repetition. The one originality exists only where all artists work in the same tradition and master the same convention.  [6]  (cite Ad Reinhart Art as Art art in theory. or Reinhardt art is art page 823.) By repeating his black paintings he believed he was creating works that considered truly the ultimate modernist pure form and paintings that had been developed as far as they could possibly go. Reinhardts paintings were formalist which meant the context of the work including the reason for its creation was not necessary; the only important factor was the paintings literal form. It can be argued that Reinhardts paintings contributed to the end of modernist painting. Greenberg wrote in his essay modernist painting his acceptance that The flatness towards which Modernist painting orients itself can never be an absolute flatness.(Ref) He claimed that the instance paint touches the canvas, some depth or form has been created, therefore the canvas ceases to remain flat. He uses the artist Mondrian as an example of how a simple mark on the canvas can create a kind of optical illusion that suggests a third dimension. CG, MP (1960) pg90). S. This optically according to Rosalind Krauss: was thus an entirely abstract schematized version of a link that traditional perspective had formally established between viewer and object, but one that now transcends the real parameters of measurable, physical space to express the purely projective powers of projective level of sight. (cite Page 29) She then continues to say that the most serious issue for painting in the 1960s was not to understand its objective features, such as flatness and material surface, but its specific mode of address and to make this a source of new conventions. (Page 29.) Therefore the 1960s brought art into a situation where the concepts and ideas in a piece of art had taken precedence over the aesthetics of the object calling the end to modernism and brining art into the post-modern age. Professor Anne Ring Peter states in her essay painting spaces that The experiments of the 1960s and the 1970s had moved art into a post-medium condition (Rosalind Krauss 1999 cite pg 32 ). In which traditional arts past categories have been diminished by new interdisciplinary overlaps, and the modernist discourse on the specificity of disciplines has been over taken by the new media and their seemingly tireless potential for re adjustment, technology updating and the generation of new hybrids. Therefore painting is seen as restricted because of its simple and old fashioned materials with its thoughts being changed to the past because of its traditional origins it derives from. Pgs 123/124 CPC Paintings were now seen as dull and boring whereas the new media appeared more exciting, futuristic and popular. Peterson then states that: It is widely agreed that the cul-de-sac of painting was caused by the modernist attempt to preserve the discipline from contamination by other kinds of art and culture and restricts its activities to what the formalists regarded as its primary task: to explore the formal aspects of painting, on the theory that all painting is basically about painting. Pgs 124 CPC Through the arrival of new technology and bombardment of visual imagery this Cul-de-sac or dead end of painting placed it in the background of the art world, with more artists using new media and technology to express their ideas and perspectives through art.. Reinharts black paintings are therefore a great example of the modern paintings purism having reached an end. The following chapter will discuss Gerhards questioning of painting through his personal art practice from the beginnings of the 1960s. Chapter Three: Gerhard Richters Questioning of Painting. Gerhard Richter is a master technician and maker of painting having created both figurative and abstract artworks since the 1960s. During this time there was an upheaval in art criticism where painting was considered to have developed as far as it could go; therefore it was no longer the dominant art practice in society. Many artists were using new materials and methods to explore their ideas and perspectives of the world like performance art, body art, installation, video and conceptual but Richter chose to continue using paint. In his notes 1962 Richter sums up brilliantly where his passion for painting and creating art derives: The first impulse towards painting, or towards art in general, stems from the need to communicate, the effort to fix ones own vision, to deal with appearances (Which are alien and must be given names and meanings) without this, all work would be pointless and unjustified, like Art for Art Sake.  [7]   In this statement Richter is rejecting the modernist notion of Art for Art sake he believes that work with no meaning or purpose is pointless. Richters practice communicates his perspective of the world around him through his expression and questioning of painting. Richters work can be described as not fitting with any one genre moving between abstract and figurative or combing the two, one paintings form is a response to another. Richter believed that as soon as something turned into an ism, it ceased to be artist activity. He believed fixed categorisations of paintings do not serve matters of creativity. Restricting creative flow confines artistic practice and stops work developing. (cite384/5) His artwork therefore questions the art establishment and his painting in context with that.. It can be said that the artists personal development and exploration through painting is more important than how the figure heads of the art world decide to define it. Richter criticises the artists that are so consistent in their development, he never worked at paintings like a job. When artists were encouraged to make a consistent body of work or make a conscious progression from one area to the next Richter acted oppositional. His work progressed through his desire to try something new and fun. (cite384/5) If an artist needs money they may work towards a show, they may then produce works that fit into the guidelines of the gallery or collector. This work does not contain genuine artistic creativity and is a forced part of the artists art practice. Richters work moves away from convention and shows his personal development.. Modernist artist Ad Reinhardt believed that art work should be consistent and repetitive with one work of art leading into the next (cite art as art interview). Richter disregards Reinhardts modernist idea showing a progressive move from modernism. Before 1962 Richters artwork consisted of Representational paintings. In 1962 his art practiced moved to his first set of paintings based on photographs. This was due to the radical change in belief at the time about what art is; ‘that it has ‘nothing to do with painting, nothing to do with composition, nor with colour Photographs are and were in the 1960s seen in abundance everyday, Richter was inspired when he saw the photograph in an new light which offered him a new view, which he believed was free from all the convention he had associated with art. It had no style, no composition and no judgement. pg4 Therefore It was only natural for Richter in the aftermath of the avant-garde to abandon the world of painting objects and turn to the investigation of refined forms of perception in photography. Written in Richters statement in 1967 he talks about how â€Å"we have arrived at a point where we trust reproduced reality in the form of photograph more than we do reality itself. pg 47 This perception of the world is brought to the public by the media through the camera lends. Richters work forms a critique of how the mass media influence our thinking through the photographs in news papers, posters and advertisements. Richters collection of work atlas†¦. In an interview with Robert Storr in 2002 Richter discuses his painting Blurred table an oil painting of a table where the paint has been speared over the images disguising it. The photo for table came from an Italian design magazine called Domus. His initial approach to the photograph was to copy it realistically, but when he had finished painting it, he was dissatisfied with the result so pasted parts of it with newspaper. He was dissatisfied because there was too much paint on the canvas therefore he became less happy with it, so he over painted it. Then suddenly it acquired a quality that appealed to him and he felt it should be left that way. cite p259 This artistic development happened by chance and he learned from it then developed the medium and process to develop work further. He destroyed or over painted many pictures during this time, he wanted to draw the line from his older paintings, indicating that these earlier paintings were in the past and so he set table at the top of his work list. cite p259 Richters paintings 1965 Boy baker and girl baker were initially blurred by him to fix cracking in the painting but he got angry with it and smudged the oil paint about. Table was the first blurred painting, what provoked him to smear the image was as he describes it I painted it very realistically, and it looked so stupid. You cant paint like that, thats the problem Therefore the blurring technique started out as he describes it as either a technical emergency-cracking-or, a conceptual emergency pg382/383 His wiping away of a painting brings into question what makes a good or bad painting? Richter answers this by saying and that development in an artists practice by accident not by the convention of what is the right way to d it It is interesting that Richter felt the need to destroy his own work, what was so imperfect about the perfect picture? As a technique to give paintings an effect deliberately and also to wipe out paintings he found ugly therefore creating the painting with a status of its own. It is also interesting how obscuring the viewers vision of the piece lets them become more intrigued in the image. Through these works Richter questions the importance of colour and its effect on a painting. Richter believes that if you hang his grey paintings next to red or green the grey turns into a different colour each time, this made the paintings aesthetic when he didnt want them to be. His grey paintings intended to take the object in the photograph away from its natural colour which creates an artificial operation intending to distance the object. He believed the first artificial is taking the photograph. pg 54 Through these Photo Paintings he sets up a Post Modern dialect between Modernism and the 1970s. His expertise in the language of painting displays the fate of art in technology through his creation of photo paintings; these works combine painterly abstraction along with mechanic photography. Showing influences from modernism but also developing from it. Abstract paintings From grey to colour†¦ sep 1977 pg 94 For two years he had been working on a different idea from the grey pictures . He decided to start in a totally different direction as he felt this couldnt go on any further. on small canvases at random he put illogical colours and forms assorted. He called them ugly sketches the total antithesis to the grey paintings they are not legible, because they devoid of meaning or logic if such a thing is possible, which is an interesting question itself. This question opened up a new door into a world of his abstract paintings. From the 1970s Richter started to create his larger abstract paintings, In 1973 during an interview with Irmeline Lebeer, (pg 72 ) Richter is asked why he thinks people wont be interested in his abstract paintings. His responds to this was that this type of artwork puts him in a trap, because the public are used to seeing his realist better-known paintings. He is worried that his abstract works will look like mere scribbles to the public. 72 It is interesting that Richter challenges Greenbergs enthusiasm towards pure painting. page 93 through his abstract cage paintings These could be viewed as purist modernist style paintings purely about the flat colour and form however in a letter to Benjamin H.D. Buchloh in may 1977 Richter says that what makes me sick above all is when the describers build that up as pure painting, completely denying the value of the object. Firstly I have said pure painting -if it could ever exist- would be a crime and secondly, these pictures are valued solely and uniquely for their stupid bumptious object content. This naturally includes the effective recording of the painters blind, ferocious motor impulse, as well as the maintaining of a semblance of intelligence and historical awareness through the choice and invention of motif. page 93 t This twists the paintings that are so important to him which he says I have nothing to say and I am saying it twisting it round into we have nothing to say and we are not saying it these purist ideas are like that of Greenbergs modernism and this shows Richters progressive development in thinking since then. Richter is still practicing the painting today. Since the 1960s technology has advanced even further, we are in a time in the western world where the internet is in almost everybodys home the digital has taken over and the influence on painting has developed it further. The next chapter discussed the work of younger contemporary artists who are creating paintings in contemporary practice. Chapter Three: The Work of Younger Contemporary Artists. The artist Fiona Rae became in the public eye during the 1990s with her use of colour shape , flatness of the picture plain hybrid use of technology with paint Fiona Rae. Does her work loose something because it makes it easier to understand because of the figurative elements or is it just more pleasing to the eye and less confusing? Or maybe they add to the confusion. Or the confusion gives it more meaning? Its all in personal perspective when looking at the canvas. Greenberg purity in painting mentioned earlier. Absence of form gives s a painting more meaning. What Paint does in contemporary art above all mediums are engaged with the material and has a language of it own. The purity of painting describes of an earthly medium playing with the material ruined by technology? Artists who use Photoshop what does this do to painting? Fiona Rae. Compare to Nicholas May†¦ Digital looses the genuine experimental element tried and tested on the computer. Visually biased not a true record of thought with paint. First see it on the comp then try and replicate it. Not learn from it adjust it and edited on canvas till it is how the artist feels it should be. Maybe then the computer is the record of thought a technological one less about the material itself but about the colour and shape and that aspect of form composition. Maybe my view is biased because I personally enjoy works where you can see the application of the paint and the surface. Flat plain colour painting has been done before but so has the other, maybe more to learn from the other than the flat. The computer is the record of the thought and brings a whole new element into the paint. Does this push the medium or destroy it? Forms a new Hybrid? New is goodright? Nicholas Mays work involves stuff In the article ‘Intention, Meaning and Substance in the Phenomenology of Abstract Painting Professor of Philosophy Dale Jaquette discusses the writing of Gertrude Stein, a critique and commentator on culture in particular modern abstract painting. Stine is fascinated by the visual possibilities of oil paint applied to a surface. It is something she finds intriguingly to admire. According to Stein â€Å"The existence of the oil painting itself is the thing that draws us powerfully, whether as representation or abstract image.â€Å" Jaquette believes that paintings do have this effect to draw us in. Stine continues to say That: when we experience painting especially but not uniquely it fascinates us because it not only reveals the world as seen by the artist but, perhaps more obviously, and, in the case of abstract art more purely and essentially, because it reveals the artists mind, the artists outlook on the world and conceptual framework, history background, obsessions, preoccupations and in a personality. pg 41 para 2 People believe that there is more talent in representational painting, however representational painting is a depiction of something other than the artists themselves. Every splodge splash brush mark and controlled abstraction is the interpretation of the artist a view of their perspective trying to capture an emotive, So it does more than just representing something that exists. Does repeated exposure to abstract art wear thin? What has been interesting is no longer what was free expression has it grown old? Has the medium been pushed so far it can no longer express anything new? pg 48 What was exciting and new pushing boundaries cant anymore because we have become desensitised by the work. Fischer pg 49 What was shocking during the avant-garde cant be done now to create similar reaction. Its not revolutionary and has lost its voomft†¦ Has painting run its course? Jaquette suggests the value of abstract painting its not to illustrate†¦ pg 51 Why abstract arts are important. link to Richter†¦ What does GR say about the feeling of paint and what that does? Jacs view on Elkin/ My view on Elkin. pg 53 Its is the Art Historians and the critiques that decide what happens with painting. Elkins emphasises the role of the painter. They are entranced by the qualities of the paint and by the challenge of trying to make paint do what they want it to down when applying to the surface, in both figurative and abstract painting pg 54 para 3 This is why in contemporary day with all the other ways to express ideas they choose paint. Nicholas May link with the writing s of Elkin and Richters approach to abstracts. The fascination cant die in the individual thats why painting will live on! Nicholas May his experiment an Influences of Technology on Contemporary Abstract Art Influences of Technology on Contemporary Abstract Art In order to establish an informed understanding of how contemporary abstract painting is situated in the art world today, this dissertation will investigate how painting has been questioned by artists since the 1960s. It will discuss how contemporary artists have been influenced by the expanse of the technological world and how they are influenced by or reflect upon this in their paintings. Another important area of discussion will be the work of contemporary artists whose abstract paintings dont appear to have adapted to technological change and dont seem to reflect transformations in contemporary culture. These are painters who are still continuing to create paintings about paint itself and are exploring what can be done with the material alone. It is important for this dissertation to begin by defining the modernist art movement and the arrival of creative thinking that brought abstract painting into history. The theories thoughts and ideas of critic Clement Greenberg will be discussed in order to set into context the work of abstract painting. Greenberg was an influential art critique during the twentieth century, who introduced an abundance of ideas into discussion around painting from the 1930s. In particular this dissertation will address Greenbergs statements about the importance of purity and flatness in modernist painting. The dissertation will then examine how the supposed end of painting provoked discussion in the1960s, addressing how the artist Ad Reinhardt explored paintings definitions. It will also be important to assess how the advances in technology and the popularisation of image have affected painting. This will then lead into a discussion about the work of a selection of contemporary artists who have conti nued to make paintings after the medium was pushed aside by critics. What has always developed the medium of painting is not only the artists individual passion and enthusiasm to explore the vast possibilities of using paint, but also the artists interest in displaying their conceptions, thoughts and feelings visually. Artists have repeatedly attempted to push their practice to new levels, break boundaries, and depict their philosophy through the use of paint. The communication between an artist engaging with a painting and the paintings audience interpreting the artists intentions or making an interpretation of their own creates a unique language of painting. It is this language that poses questions about painting and its context within contemporary culture and history. These questions will be evaluated in this dissertation in order to establish if and how abstract painting has developed since modernism. Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) is a significant artist of both the twentieth and twenty-first centauries whose artworks have questioned the role of painting through almost five decades. His personal writings and responses in interviews are a valuable resource and a record of his artistic intentions, subject methods and his overall questioning of the medium of painting. His work is particularly interesting as it moves between abstraction and figuration and it addresses the merging of painting and technology. Richter also works with paint in an abstract nature where he uses no representational imagery to depict his thoughts. This dissertation will study the artists developing body of painting and pull out the key questions he asks about painting through painting itself and discuss them in relation to modernism and to the artwork of younger contemporary artists. The first younger Contemporary painters work that will be discussed is that of Nicholas May (b.1962. His artwork uses an experimental painterly approach with the paint material. When talking about his work the dissertation will refer to art critic James Elkin and his ideas about the language of painting, exploring what paint can do on a canvas as a material. Whilst analysing Mays work it will also relate back to Greenbergs views on modernism and the concepts that have been lost and brought forward into contemporary painting. Another contemporary artist with a similar working method to Nicholas May is the John Moores painting prize 2010 exhibitor GL Brierley. Through Comparing his work to Mays and referring to modernist concepts this dissertation hopes to achieve an understanding of how these painters works fit into the art world today. Contemporary artist Carrie Moyers work is similar to Nicholas May as it contains alchemic experimental elements, flatness of the picture plane but graphic elements suggest her influence from the digital, she studied graphic design as an M.A. influences from that but later took a painting course MFA. Her use of glitter. Feminist writings interested in female artist today. Fiona Raes painting will also be of interest. Paintings are influence from the digital, Use of Photoshop to create paintings. Discussing the questions formed by these artists creative intentions, subject methods and sources of painting will form a discussion on the status of abstract painting and the artist in society today. Looking at how abstract painting was defined during the modernist era and how it has progressed over the years to present day. The following chapter will discuss where abstract painting came from and the ideas and theories of Clement Greenberg. Chapter One: Greenbergs Theories on Modernism. Clement Greenberg sets out to define the importance of abstract art in his first manifesto written in 1936 for the magazine The Partisan Review entitled Avant-garde and the Kitsch. Here he discusses for the first time concepts behind the modernist art movement. Greenberg viewed western painting up until the early 19th century as limited. The works had become stagnated and werent moving forward, they were stuck using the same techniques and form. They used skills in perspective and chiaroscuro to form deceptive illusionistic realities on the canvas. As impressive as this was as a technical skill there then became an urge for something new, to go beyond this way of working and to challenge the material and process of painting. Greenberg described this repetition as Alexandrianism that he defined as a motionless academism in which the really important issues are left untouched because they involved debate, and in which creative activity dwindles to skill in the small details of form wit h all larger questions being decided by the standard of the old masters, therefore with this nothing new is produced.  [1]  From this Greenberg defines the cultural importance of Avant-garde culture as stated: It has become amongst the signs in the midst of the decay of our present society that we some of us have become unwilling to accept this last phase of our own culture. In seeking to go beyond Alexandrianism, a part of western bourgeois society has produced something unheard of heretofore: Avant-garde culture.  [2]   Western societies were still recovering from World War one amid the Great Depression, with Nazism rising in Germany and the beginning of World War two approaching. Western societies at this time were stuck between two wars in a depression that followed a large increase in unemployment and bankruptcy. This decay of society heavily influenced artists and their paintings during the avant-garde movement. Modernist painting opened up art to all social classes and was a revolutionary art form that created the avant-garde culture. Painting before the modernist movement had been typically aimed at the upper class and only available for the bourgeoisie to view. The bourgeoisie is the class of people who owned and still own the means of production in the country capitalist, who exploit labourers for their own capital gain. The avant-garde artists abstract paintings scandalised the bourgeoisie by not displaying things as they are. Instead paintings were progressive, moving on from traditional realist painting and chose to use innovative forms of expression.  [3]  Artists began questioning the medium of painting and started producing works that formed a language of its own. Using painting they could visualise the subconscious and depict the world around them on canvas in a way that had never been done before. Although artists were opposed to the bourgeoisie capitalist values, they relied on these people for art funding. The avant-gardes stable source of income was provided from privileged among the ruling class, from which it thought of itself to be cut off. Greenberg described this as an umbilical cord of gold that has always remained attached. (Cite art in theory pg 542) Today artists find themselves in a similar position where they are often reliant on funding from galleries and the art establishment in order to produce and promote their artwork. This can lead to the artists work being restricted by gallery guidelines or what critics, collectors and the power figures of western art deem fashionable in contemporary art. Later in Greenbergs writing Modernist Painting written in 1960 he refines his definitions and explores themes further. Greenberg promotes in this essay the purity in painting in which he explores the restrictions of the medium of painting. The idea of purity in art and painting is that the art should continually move forward to improve itself by moving away from the use of imagery like that of the Renaissance. Instead Painting should move towards the two dimensional qualities of abstract painting.  [4]   Greenberg described this change in perspective in the following statement: Realistic naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; Modernism used art to call attention to art. The limitations of the surface, the shape of the support, the properties of the pigment were treated by the old masters as negative factors that could be acknowledged only implicitly or indirectly. Under modernism these same limitations came to be regarded as positive factors, and were acknowledged openly.  [5]   By deliberately drawing attention to the natural flatness of the canvas in a work of art, the artists have created a new perspective for the viewer to look towards the painting. In modernist painting the viewer is not meant to appreciate the deception of anything but instead admire the act of painting itself. The artist is freely acknowledging the processes limitations of trying to apply visual depth to a two-dimensional surface. Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko began a serious pursuit for flatness in their painting, aiming to create an infinite space on the canvas using a flat layer of colour and shape. Focusing on the images and content of a painting according to Greenberg was a negative factor, he believed for art to be pure and have clarity the subject matter must be thrown out and the emphasis should be put on the painting instead. Where as one tends to see what is in an old master before one sees the picture itself, one sees a modernist picture as a picture first.(cite modernist painting) This he believed was the best way to see any kind of picture and that modernism imposed it as the only and necessary way. Greenberg acknowledges in his essay Modernist Painting that the art of sculpture is by its very nature a three-dimensional form. Painting However is applied to a two-dimensional surface, modernist artists were inspired by that attribute, so rather than attempting to disregard it they embraced it. (cite MP) The artist Ad Reinhart (b.1913-1967) sought to achieve the ultimate modernist painting that contained definitive purity and flatness on the canvas. He took this tendency towards abstraction and simplification in modern art to the extreme when he created his controversial black paintings during the last ten years of his life. The next chapter will discuss Reinhardts definitions of painting and his belief that he had created the last painting. The chapter will also discuss the shift of painting from the limelight to background in art culture, as advances in technology and social interest change during the 1960s. Chapter Two: The End of Painting? Abstract painting No.5 (1962) is an example of the ‘black painting style which Reinhardt is best known for. The canvas appears to have a uniformly plain blue-black surface, an art piece devoid of colour and light. Seen up close however, the carefully painted layers reveal small amounts of blue, yellow and red. These colours form an underlying grid of different coloured squares, divided by a green central horizontal and a central vertical band that resemble the simple shape of a cross. Each of these colours were mixed with black oil paint to give a matt surface quality. (ref Tate modern) In an interview with Bruce Glaser, published in 1966 Reinhart discusses his black square paintings. He believed that there can be only one painting during one time and his were the only valid ones. In this interview he explains that he was trying to make the last ever painting. He also pronounces that his paintings were not about the materials or ideas and that each work he was working on always related to what he previously created. He believed art should be expressionless, clear, quiet, dignified and timeless (cite art as art pg13) in the following statement Reinhardt explains his ideas further: The one direction in fine or abstract art today is the painting of the same one form over and over again. The only intensity and the one perfection come only from long and lonely routine preparation and attention and repetition. The one originality exists only where all artists work in the same tradition and master the same convention.  [6]  (cite Ad Reinhart Art as Art art in theory. or Reinhardt art is art page 823.) By repeating his black paintings he believed he was creating works that considered truly the ultimate modernist pure form and paintings that had been developed as far as they could possibly go. Reinhardts paintings were formalist which meant the context of the work including the reason for its creation was not necessary; the only important factor was the paintings literal form. It can be argued that Reinhardts paintings contributed to the end of modernist painting. Greenberg wrote in his essay modernist painting his acceptance that The flatness towards which Modernist painting orients itself can never be an absolute flatness.(Ref) He claimed that the instance paint touches the canvas, some depth or form has been created, therefore the canvas ceases to remain flat. He uses the artist Mondrian as an example of how a simple mark on the canvas can create a kind of optical illusion that suggests a third dimension. CG, MP (1960) pg90). S. This optically according to Rosalind Krauss: was thus an entirely abstract schematized version of a link that traditional perspective had formally established between viewer and object, but one that now transcends the real parameters of measurable, physical space to express the purely projective powers of projective level of sight. (cite Page 29) She then continues to say that the most serious issue for painting in the 1960s was not to understand its objective features, such as flatness and material surface, but its specific mode of address and to make this a source of new conventions. (Page 29.) Therefore the 1960s brought art into a situation where the concepts and ideas in a piece of art had taken precedence over the aesthetics of the object calling the end to modernism and brining art into the post-modern age. Professor Anne Ring Peter states in her essay painting spaces that The experiments of the 1960s and the 1970s had moved art into a post-medium condition (Rosalind Krauss 1999 cite pg 32 ). In which traditional arts past categories have been diminished by new interdisciplinary overlaps, and the modernist discourse on the specificity of disciplines has been over taken by the new media and their seemingly tireless potential for re adjustment, technology updating and the generation of new hybrids. Therefore painting is seen as restricted because of its simple and old fashioned materials with its thoughts being changed to the past because of its traditional origins it derives from. Pgs 123/124 CPC Paintings were now seen as dull and boring whereas the new media appeared more exciting, futuristic and popular. Peterson then states that: It is widely agreed that the cul-de-sac of painting was caused by the modernist attempt to preserve the discipline from contamination by other kinds of art and culture and restricts its activities to what the formalists regarded as its primary task: to explore the formal aspects of painting, on the theory that all painting is basically about painting. Pgs 124 CPC Through the arrival of new technology and bombardment of visual imagery this Cul-de-sac or dead end of painting placed it in the background of the art world, with more artists using new media and technology to express their ideas and perspectives through art.. Reinharts black paintings are therefore a great example of the modern paintings purism having reached an end. The following chapter will discuss Gerhards questioning of painting through his personal art practice from the beginnings of the 1960s. Chapter Three: Gerhard Richters Questioning of Painting. Gerhard Richter is a master technician and maker of painting having created both figurative and abstract artworks since the 1960s. During this time there was an upheaval in art criticism where painting was considered to have developed as far as it could go; therefore it was no longer the dominant art practice in society. Many artists were using new materials and methods to explore their ideas and perspectives of the world like performance art, body art, installation, video and conceptual but Richter chose to continue using paint. In his notes 1962 Richter sums up brilliantly where his passion for painting and creating art derives: The first impulse towards painting, or towards art in general, stems from the need to communicate, the effort to fix ones own vision, to deal with appearances (Which are alien and must be given names and meanings) without this, all work would be pointless and unjustified, like Art for Art Sake.  [7]   In this statement Richter is rejecting the modernist notion of Art for Art sake he believes that work with no meaning or purpose is pointless. Richters practice communicates his perspective of the world around him through his expression and questioning of painting. Richters work can be described as not fitting with any one genre moving between abstract and figurative or combing the two, one paintings form is a response to another. Richter believed that as soon as something turned into an ism, it ceased to be artist activity. He believed fixed categorisations of paintings do not serve matters of creativity. Restricting creative flow confines artistic practice and stops work developing. (cite384/5) His artwork therefore questions the art establishment and his painting in context with that.. It can be said that the artists personal development and exploration through painting is more important than how the figure heads of the art world decide to define it. Richter criticises the artists that are so consistent in their development, he never worked at paintings like a job. When artists were encouraged to make a consistent body of work or make a conscious progression from one area to the next Richter acted oppositional. His work progressed through his desire to try something new and fun. (cite384/5) If an artist needs money they may work towards a show, they may then produce works that fit into the guidelines of the gallery or collector. This work does not contain genuine artistic creativity and is a forced part of the artists art practice. Richters work moves away from convention and shows his personal development.. Modernist artist Ad Reinhardt believed that art work should be consistent and repetitive with one work of art leading into the next (cite art as art interview). Richter disregards Reinhardts modernist idea showing a progressive move from modernism. Before 1962 Richters artwork consisted of Representational paintings. In 1962 his art practiced moved to his first set of paintings based on photographs. This was due to the radical change in belief at the time about what art is; ‘that it has ‘nothing to do with painting, nothing to do with composition, nor with colour Photographs are and were in the 1960s seen in abundance everyday, Richter was inspired when he saw the photograph in an new light which offered him a new view, which he believed was free from all the convention he had associated with art. It had no style, no composition and no judgement. pg4 Therefore It was only natural for Richter in the aftermath of the avant-garde to abandon the world of painting objects and turn to the investigation of refined forms of perception in photography. Written in Richters statement in 1967 he talks about how â€Å"we have arrived at a point where we trust reproduced reality in the form of photograph more than we do reality itself. pg 47 This perception of the world is brought to the public by the media through the camera lends. Richters work forms a critique of how the mass media influence our thinking through the photographs in news papers, posters and advertisements. Richters collection of work atlas†¦. In an interview with Robert Storr in 2002 Richter discuses his painting Blurred table an oil painting of a table where the paint has been speared over the images disguising it. The photo for table came from an Italian design magazine called Domus. His initial approach to the photograph was to copy it realistically, but when he had finished painting it, he was dissatisfied with the result so pasted parts of it with newspaper. He was dissatisfied because there was too much paint on the canvas therefore he became less happy with it, so he over painted it. Then suddenly it acquired a quality that appealed to him and he felt it should be left that way. cite p259 This artistic development happened by chance and he learned from it then developed the medium and process to develop work further. He destroyed or over painted many pictures during this time, he wanted to draw the line from his older paintings, indicating that these earlier paintings were in the past and so he set table at the top of his work list. cite p259 Richters paintings 1965 Boy baker and girl baker were initially blurred by him to fix cracking in the painting but he got angry with it and smudged the oil paint about. Table was the first blurred painting, what provoked him to smear the image was as he describes it I painted it very realistically, and it looked so stupid. You cant paint like that, thats the problem Therefore the blurring technique started out as he describes it as either a technical emergency-cracking-or, a conceptual emergency pg382/383 His wiping away of a painting brings into question what makes a good or bad painting? Richter answers this by saying and that development in an artists practice by accident not by the convention of what is the right way to d it It is interesting that Richter felt the need to destroy his own work, what was so imperfect about the perfect picture? As a technique to give paintings an effect deliberately and also to wipe out paintings he found ugly therefore creating the painting with a status of its own. It is also interesting how obscuring the viewers vision of the piece lets them become more intrigued in the image. Through these works Richter questions the importance of colour and its effect on a painting. Richter believes that if you hang his grey paintings next to red or green the grey turns into a different colour each time, this made the paintings aesthetic when he didnt want them to be. His grey paintings intended to take the object in the photograph away from its natural colour which creates an artificial operation intending to distance the object. He believed the first artificial is taking the photograph. pg 54 Through these Photo Paintings he sets up a Post Modern dialect between Modernism and the 1970s. His expertise in the language of painting displays the fate of art in technology through his creation of photo paintings; these works combine painterly abstraction along with mechanic photography. Showing influences from modernism but also developing from it. Abstract paintings From grey to colour†¦ sep 1977 pg 94 For two years he had been working on a different idea from the grey pictures . He decided to start in a totally different direction as he felt this couldnt go on any further. on small canvases at random he put illogical colours and forms assorted. He called them ugly sketches the total antithesis to the grey paintings they are not legible, because they devoid of meaning or logic if such a thing is possible, which is an interesting question itself. This question opened up a new door into a world of his abstract paintings. From the 1970s Richter started to create his larger abstract paintings, In 1973 during an interview with Irmeline Lebeer, (pg 72 ) Richter is asked why he thinks people wont be interested in his abstract paintings. His responds to this was that this type of artwork puts him in a trap, because the public are used to seeing his realist better-known paintings. He is worried that his abstract works will look like mere scribbles to the public. 72 It is interesting that Richter challenges Greenbergs enthusiasm towards pure painting. page 93 through his abstract cage paintings These could be viewed as purist modernist style paintings purely about the flat colour and form however in a letter to Benjamin H.D. Buchloh in may 1977 Richter says that what makes me sick above all is when the describers build that up as pure painting, completely denying the value of the object. Firstly I have said pure painting -if it could ever exist- would be a crime and secondly, these pictures are valued solely and uniquely for their stupid bumptious object content. This naturally includes the effective recording of the painters blind, ferocious motor impulse, as well as the maintaining of a semblance of intelligence and historical awareness through the choice and invention of motif. page 93 t This twists the paintings that are so important to him which he says I have nothing to say and I am saying it twisting it round into we have nothing to say and we are not saying it these purist ideas are like that of Greenbergs modernism and this shows Richters progressive development in thinking since then. Richter is still practicing the painting today. Since the 1960s technology has advanced even further, we are in a time in the western world where the internet is in almost everybodys home the digital has taken over and the influence on painting has developed it further. The next chapter discussed the work of younger contemporary artists who are creating paintings in contemporary practice. Chapter Three: The Work of Younger Contemporary Artists. The artist Fiona Rae became in the public eye during the 1990s with her use of colour shape , flatness of the picture plain hybrid use of technology with paint Fiona Rae. Does her work loose something because it makes it easier to understand because of the figurative elements or is it just more pleasing to the eye and less confusing? Or maybe they add to the confusion. Or the confusion gives it more meaning? Its all in personal perspective when looking at the canvas. Greenberg purity in painting mentioned earlier. Absence of form gives s a painting more meaning. What Paint does in contemporary art above all mediums are engaged with the material and has a language of it own. The purity of painting describes of an earthly medium playing with the material ruined by technology? Artists who use Photoshop what does this do to painting? Fiona Rae. Compare to Nicholas May†¦ Digital looses the genuine experimental element tried and tested on the computer. Visually biased not a true record of thought with paint. First see it on the comp then try and replicate it. Not learn from it adjust it and edited on canvas till it is how the artist feels it should be. Maybe then the computer is the record of thought a technological one less about the material itself but about the colour and shape and that aspect of form composition. Maybe my view is biased because I personally enjoy works where you can see the application of the paint and the surface. Flat plain colour painting has been done before but so has the other, maybe more to learn from the other than the flat. The computer is the record of the thought and brings a whole new element into the paint. Does this push the medium or destroy it? Forms a new Hybrid? New is goodright? Nicholas Mays work involves stuff In the article ‘Intention, Meaning and Substance in the Phenomenology of Abstract Painting Professor of Philosophy Dale Jaquette discusses the writing of Gertrude Stein, a critique and commentator on culture in particular modern abstract painting. Stine is fascinated by the visual possibilities of oil paint applied to a surface. It is something she finds intriguingly to admire. According to Stein â€Å"The existence of the oil painting itself is the thing that draws us powerfully, whether as representation or abstract image.â€Å" Jaquette believes that paintings do have this effect to draw us in. Stine continues to say That: when we experience painting especially but not uniquely it fascinates us because it not only reveals the world as seen by the artist but, perhaps more obviously, and, in the case of abstract art more purely and essentially, because it reveals the artists mind, the artists outlook on the world and conceptual framework, history background, obsessions, preoccupations and in a personality. pg 41 para 2 People believe that there is more talent in representational painting, however representational painting is a depiction of something other than the artists themselves. Every splodge splash brush mark and controlled abstraction is the interpretation of the artist a view of their perspective trying to capture an emotive, So it does more than just representing something that exists. Does repeated exposure to abstract art wear thin? What has been interesting is no longer what was free expression has it grown old? Has the medium been pushed so far it can no longer express anything new? pg 48 What was exciting and new pushing boundaries cant anymore because we have become desensitised by the work. Fischer pg 49 What was shocking during the avant-garde cant be done now to create similar reaction. Its not revolutionary and has lost its voomft†¦ Has painting run its course? Jaquette suggests the value of abstract painting its not to illustrate†¦ pg 51 Why abstract arts are important. link to Richter†¦ What does GR say about the feeling of paint and what that does? Jacs view on Elkin/ My view on Elkin. pg 53 Its is the Art Historians and the critiques that decide what happens with painting. Elkins emphasises the role of the painter. They are entranced by the qualities of the paint and by the challenge of trying to make paint do what they want it to down when applying to the surface, in both figurative and abstract painting pg 54 para 3 This is why in contemporary day with all the other ways to express ideas they choose paint. Nicholas May link with the writing s of Elkin and Richters approach to abstracts. The fascination cant die in the individual thats why painting will live on! Nicholas May his experiment an

Explore the different ways the poets describe the city of London in Ess

Explore the different ways the poets describe the city of London in their poems. Explore the different ways the poets describe the city of London in their poems. You should consider the poems equally and use the texts to support your ideas. The poems ‘London’ by William Blake and ‘composed upon Westminster Bridge’ by William Wordsworth are both a description of the same city, however they both take opposite viewpoints when describing their own perception. In the poem ‘London’, Blake takes a negative view of the city. He presents the people as being unhappy, in the first stanza he talks of â€Å"marks of weakness, marks of woe† this suggests misery and perhaps failure. The negativity is emphasised by the repetition in the sentence and the alliteration on the w. Wordsworth however sheds a different light on the city, immediately showing appreciation. He uses some quite royal and perhaps religious language such as â€Å"majesty† and â€Å"temples†. This is a suggestion towards the beauty underneath the normal images of London, portraying the city as being like a kingdom. It brings in the idea of belief, opposing the idea of â€Å"weakness† in Blake’s poem ‘London’. In this poem, Blake talks of a â€Å"black’ning church† this suggests poverty and destruction. Blackened literally by the smoke and pollution in the air, and perhaps blackened metaphorically by the misery within the city. The colour black immediately brings bad thoughts to the mind, thoughts of danger and despair. On the contrary, Wordsworth appeals to the reader’s senses by describing the sun as â€Å"bright and glittering in the smokeless air†. This differs dramatically to Blake’s description as it brings a bright sense of colour to the mind and a feeling of warm... ... is there a different perception of the city between the poems, but a different time of day, and a different effect on it’s readers. Both poems end on incredibly different notes, Wordsworth sums up the splendour of London using the line â€Å"and all that mighty heart is lying still†. This suggests that the peace in the city is always there, even when the bustle of the city awakens. ‘London’ however, ends with a negative tone, speaking of a young prostitute; this creates a very emotive and powerful end to the poem. Outlining the distressing view of the city. In comparison, although both poets are relating to the same place, they describe them as being totally different, based on their own opinions. This could be because of the time of day or perhaps because of their own experiences but their imagery both shed totally different light on the city of London. Explore the different ways the poets describe the city of London in Ess Explore the different ways the poets describe the city of London in their poems. Explore the different ways the poets describe the city of London in their poems. You should consider the poems equally and use the texts to support your ideas. The poems ‘London’ by William Blake and ‘composed upon Westminster Bridge’ by William Wordsworth are both a description of the same city, however they both take opposite viewpoints when describing their own perception. In the poem ‘London’, Blake takes a negative view of the city. He presents the people as being unhappy, in the first stanza he talks of â€Å"marks of weakness, marks of woe† this suggests misery and perhaps failure. The negativity is emphasised by the repetition in the sentence and the alliteration on the w. Wordsworth however sheds a different light on the city, immediately showing appreciation. He uses some quite royal and perhaps religious language such as â€Å"majesty† and â€Å"temples†. This is a suggestion towards the beauty underneath the normal images of London, portraying the city as being like a kingdom. It brings in the idea of belief, opposing the idea of â€Å"weakness† in Blake’s poem ‘London’. In this poem, Blake talks of a â€Å"black’ning church† this suggests poverty and destruction. Blackened literally by the smoke and pollution in the air, and perhaps blackened metaphorically by the misery within the city. The colour black immediately brings bad thoughts to the mind, thoughts of danger and despair. On the contrary, Wordsworth appeals to the reader’s senses by describing the sun as â€Å"bright and glittering in the smokeless air†. This differs dramatically to Blake’s description as it brings a bright sense of colour to the mind and a feeling of warm... ... is there a different perception of the city between the poems, but a different time of day, and a different effect on it’s readers. Both poems end on incredibly different notes, Wordsworth sums up the splendour of London using the line â€Å"and all that mighty heart is lying still†. This suggests that the peace in the city is always there, even when the bustle of the city awakens. ‘London’ however, ends with a negative tone, speaking of a young prostitute; this creates a very emotive and powerful end to the poem. Outlining the distressing view of the city. In comparison, although both poets are relating to the same place, they describe them as being totally different, based on their own opinions. This could be because of the time of day or perhaps because of their own experiences but their imagery both shed totally different light on the city of London.

Nebosh Igc Study Notes

Element 6 Page 1 of 6 Describe the general principles of control and basic hierarchy of risk reduction measures that encompass technical, behavioral and procedural controls? General Principles of Prevention: There are some general principles of prevention that can be applied to eliminate hazards and reduce the risk in the workplace. These principles rely on the correct selection of technical, procedural and behavioral controls. 1. Avoid risk: 2. Evaluate risks which cannot be avoided 3. Control hazards at source: 4. Adapt work to suit the individual 5. Adapt to technical progress 6.Replace the dangerous with the non dangerous or less dangerous 7. Develop logical overall prevention policy 8. Give priority to collective protective measures over individual protective measures: 9. Give appropriate information, instruction, training and supervision to employees. Avoid Risks: Where possible Evaluate risks which cannot be avoided: Through the risk assessment process Control hazards at sourc e: By going to the source of the problem directly (e. g. if there is noise hazards in the workplace tackle the source of the nose> Adapt work to suit the individual:By applying good ergonomic principles to job and workplace design (by job rotation) Replace the dangerous with the non dangerous or less dangerous: By substituting one hazard with something less hazardous e. g. replace a corrosive chemical with one that does the same job but is classified as less irritant and less harmful Develop a coherent overall prevention policy: By consistency using the same approach across the whole organization Give priority to collective protective measures over individual protective measures: By creating a workplace that is safe for all rather than relying on measures that only protect one worker at a time e. . install a guard rail rather than rely on PPE. Why do instruction, training and supervision form a part of safe system? Give appropriate information, instruction, training and supervision to employee: So that workers have the necessary background information to make correct choices. IGC-1 Element 6 Page 2 of 6 When selecting control options form these general principles of prevention you should be aware that preventive measure can be categorized as: 1. Technical 2. Procedural 3. Behavioral General Hierarchy of Control The following elements make up the general hierarchy of control: 1. . 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Avoid risks Elimination / substitution Reduce exposure or the time of exposure Isolation / segregation Engineering controls Safe system or work Training and information Personal protective equipment Welfare Monitoring and supervision Avoid risks Risk avoidance is simply to avoid completely the activity giving rise to the risk Elimination / substitution If a hazard can be eliminated then the risk created by the hazards disappears. For example hazardous substances can sometimes be replaced with materials which do the same job but present no risk to health.Reduce exposure or the time of exposure If the degree to which a worker is exposed to hazard can be reduced then that worker is far less likely to have an accident with that hazard. For example an engineer who spend all day working on machinery with hazardous moving parts is more likely to suffer injury than the engineer who spend only an hour of their working day to exposed to the same hazard. Isolation / segregation Isolation: The aim her to isolate the hazard physically so that nobody is exposed to it e. g. coustic enclosure of a noisy machine to reduce the noise exposure; guards around moving machinery to prevent contact Segregation: refer to the idea that certain hazards must not be accessible to unauthorized workers e. g. in a workplace with radiation hazard only authorized person should have access only What do engineering controls do? Engineering controls IGC-1 Element 6 Page 3 of 6 Engineering control involves use of an engineering solution to prevent exposure to the hazard. Engi neering control also refer to the inclusion of safety features that ensure that the item is used in correct way.For example interlock switches are fitted to moveable guard on machinery to ensure that when guard is open the machine will not work but guard is close it will. Safe system of work Safe system of work procedure helps to eliminate hazards or minimizes the risk associated with them. Training and information Training is instrumental in enabling employees to become competent. Personal protective equipment Equipment or clothing that is worn or held by a worker that protects them from one or more risks to their safety or health. It is duty of employer to: ? ? ? ? ? Supply suitable PPE where risk cannot be controlled by other more effective methods Ensure that when tow more items of PPE have to be worn together they are compatible Provide suitable storage for PPE Provide information instructions and training to workers on the PPE they will wear. Enforce the use of PPE Replace or repair damaged or lost items. Welfare Welfare facilities include the provision of toilets, washing facilities, clean drinking water, rest area and clean place for eat meals. Monitoring and supervisionMonitoring: For maintain surveillance over something by periodic observation or measurement and inspection to ensure that they are using prescribed safe working method. Supervision: Refers to routine inspection and surveillance or workers but concern direct line management authority to control behavior Define a safe system of work? SAFE SYSTEM OF WORK: A safe system of work is a formal procedure based on a systematic examination of work in order to identify the hazards. It defines safe methods of working which eliminate those hazards or minimize the risks associated with themResponsibilities of Employer: It is the responsibilities of the employer to develop safe systems of work with the involvement of both competent persons and employees who will be carrying out the work. These safe sys tem must be documented. IGC-1 Element 6 Page 4 of 6 What is the difference between technical, procedural and behavioral controls? Technical, procedural and behavioral controls: As safe system of work will involve all the elements of control that we identified ealrlier in the general hierarchy of control 1.Technical or engineering control 2. Procedural control 3. Behavioral control Technical or engineering control: Applied directly to the hazard in order to minimize the risk, this may involve fencing or barriers of different kinds to isolate workers from hazard. Procedural control: The way, in which work should be carried out in relation to the hazards, They specify the exact tasks involved their sequence and the safety actions and checks which have to taken. Behavioral Control: How the individual worker acts in relation to the hazard e. . good housekeeping or using PPE Development of a safe system of work: Safe system of work usually developed using the process of task analysis, whi ch involves breaking work down into a series of steps so that hazards can be identified and risk controlled at each step using technical, procedural and behavioral controls. Once developed, safe systems must be implemented and monitored to ensure continued effectiveness. Describe what factors should be considered when developing and implementing a safe system of work?When developing a safe system of work it is important to consider that 1. 2. 3. 4. PEOPLE: Who is the SSW for what level of competence or technical ability should they have? EQUIPMENT: What equipment will be worked on? What safety equipment will be required? MATERIALS: what materials will be used or handled the work? Who will waste dispose of? ENVIRONMENT: in what type of environment will the work take place? Useful acronym SREDIM can be used to identify the hazard associated with every step of work 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.Select the task to b analyzed Record the steps or stages of the task Evaluate the risk associated with ea ch step Develop the safe working method Implement the safe working method Monitor to ensure it is effective. IGC-1 Element 6 Page 5 of 6 Explain the role and function of a permit to work system? Or What is permit to work? Permit to work system: A permit to work system is formal documented safety procedure forming part of a safe system of work which ensures that all necessary actions are taken before during and after particularly high risk work.A permit system formalizes the control of high risk work to ensure that all the risks have been identified all the precaution put in place and that appropriate information has been communicated to all relevant parties. What are the key elements of typical permit? There are four main sections to a permit to work: 1. Issue 4 Cancellation 2. Receipt 5. Extension 3. Clearance / return to service Explain the need of emergency procedures and the arrangements for contracting emergency services? Or What is the main objective of an emergency procedure? Emergency Procedures:Importance of developing emergency procedures: An organization should develop emergency procedures to deal with foreseeable incidents such as: Fire, bomb threat, spillage of a hazardous chemical , release of a toxic gas, outbreak of disease, severe weather or flooding and multiple casualty accident. Emergency procedures: These procedures should cover the internal arrangements for dealing with the foreseeable incidents which will include; 1. Procedure to follow 2. Provision of suitable equipment 3. Nomination of responsible staff 4. Provision of training and information 5. Drills and exercises 6.Contracting the emergency services Procedure to follow In the event of a fire normal practice for worker to exit the building and go to assembly area but in bomb thread this will be opposite person has to go inside the building and away from the windows Provision of suitable equipment IGC-1 Element 6 Page 6 of 6 If there is a fire suitable fire extinguisher are available and proper PPE wear by the person involve in fire fighting Nomination of responsible staff In case of fire there need for fire wardens and fire marshal who will tell to occupant of building about safety instruction in case of fire.Provision of training and information Workers will only know what to do in case of emergency if they have training and information Drills and exercises Emergency procedure should be practiced to ensure that people are familiar with action they might be expected in case of emergency Contracting the emergency services (first Aid) Describe the requirements for and effective e provision of first aid in the workplace? First Aid Requirements: An employer must make appropriate first aid provision for his employees. This will include ? First aid facilities ? Equipment ?Appropriately trained personnel. What factors might need to be considered when determining the first aid provision for a workplace? First aid coverage: To determine what first aid provision to make an employer will have to undertake an assessment which should consider various factors such as: ? The general risk level of the workplace ? The hazards present in the workplace ? Accident history ? The presence of vulnerable persons ? The number of workers in the workplace ? Work patterns and shift systems of workers ? The geographic location of the workplace ? The spread of the workplace IGC-1

Kentucky Fried Chicken Case Study Essay

The case focuses on four major topics: (1) analysis of the fast-food industry from both a domestic and an international point of view; (2) the development of KFC’s business strategy from 1992 to 1996; (3) an analysis of KFC’s investment strategy in Mexico and Latin America; and (4) the Mexican peso crisis of 1995. This case begins by analyzing the strategic changes that took place in Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation (KFC) as it moved through a variety of ownership changes from the 1950s through the 1980s: (1) KFC’s founding by â€Å"Colonel† Harland Sanders in 1954; (2) the sale of KFC to Jack Massey and John Young Brown, Jr., in 1964; (3) Heublein’s acquisition of KFC in 1971; (4) the acquisition of Heublein by R. J. Reynolds in 1982; and (5) PepsiCo’s acquisition of KFC in 1986. As such, the case provides an opportunity to examine issues related to corporate diversification/ acquisition strategy and business portfolio management. The case also discusses the U.S. fast-food industry and its international dimension. It also examines KFC’s international strategy with a particular focus on Mexico, providing a vehicle for discussion of risks and opportunities of doing business in a foreign country. Some of the Strategic Issues and Discussion Questions for This Case Include: 1. How did different corporate parentage-under Heublein, R. J. Reynolds, and PepsiCo-affect KFC? 2. What motivated the three international corporations to buy KFC? 3. Can you identify any added value that each of these three firms brought to KFC? 4. What are the driving forces in the fast-food industry? 5. Using the five forces model, assess the strength of each force within the fast-food industry. 6. Complete a SWOT analysis for KFC.  7. In what ways is KFC positioned to take advantage of the industry’s key success factors? 8. What are the major strategic issues surrounding KFC’s decision to expand or freeze growth in Mexico?