chapter 2

the art of being artless

ART111

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1927

Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907

Walker Evans, Self-Portrait, 1927

Walker Evans, 42nd Street, 1929

Walker Evans, Mother and Children in Doorway, Havana, 1933

Walker Evans, Subway Portrait, 1938

Dorothea Lange, circa 1920s

Dorothea Lange, Dust Bowl Migrant Mother, Nipomo, CA, 1936

Dorothea Lange, Child Living in Oklahoma City Shacktown 1936

Dorothea Lange, Scene along Skid Row Howard Street, 1937

Bob Ross

Vintage Paint-by-Number Painting

Andy Warhol, Do It Yourself, 1962

100-year old Grandma Moses painting at her farm, 1960

Grandma Moses, 1956

Grandma Moses

Lee Krasner, Birth, 1956

Lee Krasner in her studio

Franz Klein in his studio

Franz Klein, New York, 1953

Willem De Kooning in his studio, 1950s

Willem De Kooning, Woman and Bicycle, 1952-3

Jackson Pollock in his studio

Winston Churchill plein air painting

Winston Churchill, The Blue Room, 1948

USA, c. 1930, from Thomas Walther Collection

Vintage Double Exposure Snapshot

Vintage Snapshot

“But a deeper issue may be our new equation of art with perfection, an equation hastened by the spread of technology. We now expect flawless recordings by musicians, perfect photographs by artists. We have easy access to all this, which means that, as in so many other aspects of life, we prefer to cede these endeavors to professionals, figuring we can't do them as well, as if something like art is worth doing only if you do it like a professional. Art isn't about perfection. Before cameras, travelers sketched so that they could record what they saw on trips, as souvenirs, in the same way that bourgeois families, in the days before recordings, used to listen to music by making it themselves at home on the piano or singing in the parlor. There was a more intimate connection between the amateur musician or artist and the professional, because amateurs had firsthand experience. What's lost today is not just the accidental masterpiece but also that sense of art not as a remote commodity but as something we all make. “

Interview with Michael Kimmelman

Read:• Chapter 2, “The Art of Being Artless”

Respond on Verso:• Reflect on the reading.

Respond on Flipgrid:• Find a photograph that is deeply meaningful to

you. Share the photo & describe its importance. Bring the photo to class next week to share.

Respond on Instagram: #art111happyaccidents• Take 10 photographs this week of moments

that you wanted to remember…for their beauty, importance, etc.

• DO NOT edit them! Be content with “happy accidents”