Week 6-Landscape and the Sublime

'Wanderer in the mists' (1818) Caspar David Friedric

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'Untitled #2" (2002) Richard Misrach

 'Untitled # 394-03' (2003) Richard Misrach

Richard Misrach's photography reflects the concept of the Sublime, from the Enlightenment.

Research Misrach's work by reading about his intentions, and also by looking at the work. Then answer the following questions;

1. Define the Enlightenment, including its context (time and place).

The Enlightenment is generally described as taking place during the 18th century and is centred in France, Like the Renaissance, the values and ideas that developed during the period of the Enlightenment are described as having a major influence on current ways of thinking in the West and therefore the production of contemporary Western visual culture.

According to Hamilton(1992), the new ideas were accompanied by and influence in their turn many cultural innovations in writing, printing, painting, music, sculpture, architecture and gardening, as well as the other arts. Technological innovations in agriculture and manufactures, as well as in ways of making war, also frame the social theories of the Enlightenment.(p.23)

 Hamilton, P.(1992). The Enlightenment and the birth of social science, in Hall, S.& Gieben B. (eds.), Formations of Modernity. Cambridge: Open University Press (p.23)    

2. Define the concept of the Sublime. 

The sublime is  the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation. The development of the concept of the sublime as an aesthetic quality in nature distinct from beauty was first brought into prominence in the 18th century 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime






3. Explain how the concept of the Sublime came out of Enlightenment thought.

 Enlightenment thought suggests that oppression and domination are residues of the feudal past and will eventually fade away. ... distinction between terror (linked to the sublime) and horror.The concept of the sublime came out of the enlightenment when it was in the 18th century when people began to think more of they way world was ruled through the rules of the government, rather then the rules of their religion.





4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work. Include some quotes from art critics and other writers who have written about his work.  
 

His picture of a lone couple on a beach can be vaguely unsettling: their isolation underscores their vulnerability, and the photographer's long-range viewpoint is clearly that of someone watching.

The photographs are, in a word, stunning: the largest measure 6 by 10 feet and are so detailed you can read the headlines on a beachgoer's newspaper. To create the pictures, Misrach used a view camera that holds 8-by-10-inch negatives, which, he says, "give you a level of definition that you'd never get with a 35-millimeter camera." He scanned the negatives into a computer, and sometimes digitally removed people, heightening the feeling of isolation. When he was satisfied with an image, it was burned with lasers onto photographic paper that then went through a chemical developing process.

Misrach says the new work is of a piece with his focus on people and the environment. But, he says, "it is much more about our relationship to the bigger sublime picture of things."

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-beach.html

5. Add 2 new images of his work to your blog.

On the Beach Series, 2002

 Richard Misrach

 

 Pyramid Lake,1988

Richard Misrach

6. Describe how does Misrach's photography makes you feel. How does it appeal to your imagination?

 

I love photography as art, I find it very relaxing to be able to look at photographs Pictures of places we have been stirs up memories and makes me want to go again. Being moved or inspired by the things around you and enjoying them through photographs makes things real, like a place I have always wanted to visit but not had the chance yet. It appeal to my imagination because Misrach's photography is much more about our relationship to the bigger sublime picture involves in the nature. 

7. Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.

 

James Turrell (California, 1943) is an internationally acclaimed light and space artist whose work can be found in collections worldwide. Over more than four decades, he has created striking works that play with perception and the effect of light within a created space. His fascination with the phenomena of light is related to his personal, inward search for mankind’s place in the universe. Influenced by his Quaker upbringing, which he characterizes as having a ‘straightforward, strict presentation of the sublime’, Turrell’s art prompts greater self- awareness though a similar discipline of silent contemplation, patience, and meditation.

http://www.bodegacolome.com/museo/biografia-de-james-turrell.php?lang=en

8. Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.

 9. Reference your sources (books and websites).

 

 

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/friedrich/
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/misrach_richard.html 
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/misrachinfo.shtm

National Gallery of Art - Richard Misrach: On the Beach