Kramer's Spontaneous Art

Featured and organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Romare Bearden’s collection is one that appreciates and depicts life for what it really is. Bearden did not like abstract expressionism. Instead, he made many collages depicting life with different perspectives, allowing the viewer to see reality, but also try to figure out the true meaning that Bearden meant to portray in the collage that was not directly seen by just looking at the picture. These collages were made by “Cut and pasted printed, colored and metallic papers, photostats, pencil, ink marker, gouache, watercolor, and pen and ink on Masonite” (MET Museum). Bearden liked telling narratives within these collages involving Harlem life. Whether it was on the streets, inside

Throughout the centuries, there is no definite definition for art therapy. It is hard to define art therapy because of the broad populations that art therapy can be integrated in. Many art therapy pioneers concentrated in different areas and they developed their own theories within their concentration. Therefore, it is hard to define what art therapy is. According to the American Art Therapy Association (AATA, 2014), art therapy is a professional field uses art-making in a therapeutic setting with populations who experience illness, trauma and for those who seek personal development.

Elliott Erwitt is a street photographer born in Paris from Russian immigrant parents (Erwitt, 2011). This essay will not focus on his biography but rather put emphasis on his work. Elliott Erwitt is known for his spontaneity when taking snapshot and passion for the human condition (Magnum Photos, 2011). He also has a very sharp sense of humor that is without a doubt reflected on his work. Elliott Erwitt has also a particular affinity for dogs and kids (Erwitt, 2011). It is said that the challenge is to be able to recognize the work of a particular photographer based on specific characteristics distinctive to him (Magnum Photos, 2011). As a matter of fact, Elliott Erwitt’s snapshots all have distinguishing

“Street art is omnipresent in urban streets and is a rish source of inspiration for artistic creativity. . . It possesses the aesthetic voices of the ordinary and enables resistance for the marginalized. Banksy’s street art, in particular, can guide students to think about various social and political issues and to reflect upon the immediate, if not unjust, world in which they live, to transform that world, and to

His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humor with graffiti done in a distinctive stenciling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.

Roy Lichtenstein’s art ‘investigates modes of representation - the visual properties of style and reproduction’. (Weitman 1999 p.46) Lichtenstein was fixated on advertisements and comic strips. These modes of

With the age of 102, Kramer is the oldest dancer, poet, artist and costume designer. This artwork entitled “The inner stillness…”

Uelsmann’s work was not well received in the photography community. His creations were not considered photography; however, he was well received in the art community. John Szarkowski hosted a solo exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967. Uelsmann was considered “iconoclastic” and “set out to convince critics that photography offered alternatives to the conventional “purist” sensibility…” Uelsmann debated that photos could “evoke elusive states of feeling and thinking triggered by irrational and imaginative juxtaposition” (Kay). Uelsmann has succeeded in finding a following among photographers and artist alike. In the past forty years, Uelsmann’s work has been exhibited in over 100 solo shows throughout the US and overseas. He has permanent instillations in museums worldwide (Taylor). Uelsmann’s photos are now revered for their original technical form as well as their surreal matter (Johnson).

Jean-Michel Basquiat emerged from the punk scene in New York as a street-smart graffiti artist. He successfully crossed over his downtown origins to the international art gallery circuit. Basquiat’s work is one of the few examples of how an early 1980’s American graffiti-based could become a fully recognized artist. Despite his work’s unstudied appearance, Basquiat very skillfully and purposefully brought together in his art a host of disparate traditions, practices and styles to create a unique kind of visual collage. His work is an example of how American artists of the 1980’s could reintroduce the human figure in their work after the wide success of minimalism and conceptualism.

In her short story “People-Watching” from 2014, Julia Gray tells the story of Kajsa and Paul, two students who are both taking the Introduction to Drawing module at the art school of UC London. In connection with their studies they have been sent out to do some people-watching.

Spiegelman has now illustrated art as a child with a mask mouse on. This drawing of Art conveys to the reader that he sees himself not only as inadequate, but also not authentically Jewish as well. As Art speaks to Pavel, he continues to take this form. He also confirms to Pavel his feelings of inadequacy by explaining once again “No matter what I accomplish, it doesn’t seem like much compared to surviving Auschwitz” (44).

The work of art selected by the Artist David Wojnarowicz is a series of twenty-four black-and-white gelatin silver prints known as “Arthur Rimbaud in New York”. David Wojnarowicz was a New York City artist and AIDS activist. He identified himself closely with the French Poet Rimbaud. They led similar lives and lifestyles in that they both came from broken homes and found solace and at times anger through their art. Both Rimbaud and Wojnarowicz had feelings of being denied freedom; they both ran away from their harsh reality and both were homosexuals. Their lives spanned over a hundred years apart but Wojnarowicz identified himself closely with the angst that was Rimbaud. The black and white prints have a grimy appearance to them showing a bit of antiestablishment and alternative lifestyles in hard New York. Wojnarowicz style used collage imagery. His method was similar to the artistic process assemblage. This process brought together two or three-dimensional compositions using other objects. In these series of work, this method is subtle and used in print. The prints themselves are of a friend of Wojnarowicz’s wearing a mask that showed the face of the French Poet Rimbaud. These prints were photographed in many different areas of New York. In the example of one of the prints in the series (3/6), the image is of a friend wearing the mask of Rimbaud and showing themselves as lovers. The image fused the French poet’s identity with modern New York urban

Since the start of his professional career, LaChapelle's work has attracted the attention of many other artists, celebrities, journalists, and regular people. I first noticed his work on advertisements in magazines several years ago. I immediately felt drawn to his images- they are photographs I could stare at for hours, playing out in my head the story each photograph is telling and what it says about the character

The nature of Banksy’s work is iconoclastic in the way he blatantly designs images to rebel governmental authority or depict the failings of

His images are rich in detail, and there is not a thing in the frame—not a stain, not a lampshade—that he does not carefully select. And yet, this abundance of detail is balanced with a striking lack of information—the settings are ordinary (a suburban kitchen, a living room, a dark street corner)—and, more importantly, the frame is de-contextualized: we