HOME | DD
napoleoman — Dr Pangloss
Published: 2008-04-24 03:54:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 4214; Favourites: 37; Downloads: 137
Redirect to original
Description
brownie points to whomever can guess who Dr Pangloss is?21"x36" on Arches
Charcoal (vine and pitt) and Ink
I HATE making art with "a meaning," but I had to for this class...
Related content
Comments: 25
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
great composition! also i really like the way you left the character's left side (left forearm and right foot and also his face) somewhat unfinished, with the guiding lines and all it feels like it's actually his veins/arteries and gives it all a more alive aspect
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I read Candide this year and had a blast with it. Satirists back in the day never failed to disappoint. "A Modest Proposal" comes to mind.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
That's great, I know entirely what you mean, having to do art with a meaning, same thing with higher-level L.A. [Essentially uni LA 101 in high school]. Didn't know who that is but I guess it's from Voltaire's 'Candid', guess I really'm going to have to read it now-for ages I've been looking at it sitting on my Hist. teacher's shelf and thinking that I should pick it up. But then class starts so... Anyhow, real nice fluid motion with the arms there, perfectly illustrates just how much he cares with how he tosses the pic at you. One question though-his right foot looks a bit odd is that just me? I think it may be just because of a stray line off the third toe but I don't know. Overall it's a great drawing with the perfect 'meaning' and the toe is so superficial I don't even know why I'm asking.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
HIS right or OUR right (being his left)?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
His right, left side of the paper, sorry. It's the one just sticking out from under the knee-man I would like to be able to draw even semi complex patterns like crossed legs. Actually I guess that would be his left leg, on the right side of the paper. I think what it is is a guiding line on the second toe that makes it look sorta liek it's way too long but I've had a nasty migraine for most of the day so I might just be imagining it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
"brownie points to whomever can guess who Dr Pangloss is?"
you?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Mr "everything is for the best this best of all possible worlds". I also named one of my cats Pangloss, although ironically he was one neurotic, twitchy little thing. Clever though.
Kick ass drawing, dude, powerful expression. Malevolent nihilism at existentialist angst.
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
though that is not actually the meaning behind it
My message is far more simple. I hate making art WITH a message, but being that I had to for a class, I chose to make a piece expressing my annoyance towards such. I used Dr Pangloss to create an allusion to philosophy (and so to art with meaning).
I also chose Pangloss because I figure few people will get the message, which I would prefer since it is the aspect of art I hate.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hmm. All art has an effect though, and through that effect, meaning, whether you intend it to or not. I assume it's specifically semiotics and over-loaded symbolism you're objecting to?
Since Dr Pangloss is known for a very specific philosophy (Voltaire's caricature of blind optimism in the face of ridiculously overwhelming fate) I don't agree that a reference to him extends to philosophy and semiotics in art in a wider context.
To me it looks like an illustration of Candide himself at the end of the book when they're all penniless with nothing but a patch of land to toil over. Dr Pangloss is still optimistically philosophising but Candide "just don't give a damn". All you can do is work hard, live a good life and hope to stay healthy.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
lol, well I definitely do not object to your association of the piece with the ending of Candide and the work being more illustrative. I actually had not thought about it at all.
Perhaps I should clarify my disapproval. The art I hate is where the concept alone justifies it as art. For instance, there is a woman whose exhibition was her bed, dirty panties, and used condoms. This was heralded as art and sold for $150 million. THAT is the type of stuff I disagree with.
Personally I only enjoy art that is aesthetically interesting, and if I feel I am being bludgeoned in the face with some "artsy-fartsy" meaning, then I drop out and "don't give a damn."
Lastly, I definitely see your point about the reference to Dr Pangloss being too specific to allude to philosophy in general, but I NEVER make art like this, and I HATE making art like this... so naturally my attempt to do so would fall short on many levels, lol.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
"My bed" by Tracy Emin, it won the Turner Prize exhibition in 99. You might prefer to think of 'conceptual art' as being more akin to marketing and advertising (which might be part of the reason for mistrusting it). It's about selling an idea, preferably an outrageous one, by whatever means necessary. The most successful 'conceptual artists' have certainly had a disproportionately high ratio of business skills to classical artistic ability.
Unfortunately 'concept' is unavoidable, even when you only mean to convey aesthetics. This is because people are conditioned to view a certain media in a certain way. The media contains a message in itself, and people respond to the message of the media before the content gets a chance to speak. In other words, the manner in which you say something is more significant than the words you use. This strongly applies to art also.
So, with Emin's bed, it's about the bed being in the gallery in the first place, about what a messed up crazy nutter she is to show it, it shouldn't be there, there's pregnancy tests, vodka, eurgh... all the things you can't help thinking when you see it - that's the point. Where as, if it were a painting, you'd have to interface with it in the same you interface with every other painting, before you even consider what it's of. This is why, whether or not we like or even acknowledge it as art, conceptual art is powerful.
The Medium is the Massage by Marshal McLuhan was written in the 60s... I hated it when I first read it, but it was revelatory when the point actually sunk in. On my foundation course I only wanted to draw and was sick of the tutors trying to get me to find meaning in junk (literally). I became to sick of it all that I switched ended up doing a CompSci degree instead. In that time I knew I couldn't spend the rest of my life programming so I did another degree in Illustration. It was still useful to have that early art college experience where I really had to fight it out with the 'arty fartsy' crowd. Even if you despise what they turn out, they're not doing for no reason – it's worthwhile getting inside their heads, if only to disagree more fully.
I think it'd be worth you considering this question from the ground up, because if you could channel your thoughts on conceptual art and actually use it, combined with your drawing ability, it could be a massive strength.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I understand that the art is being made for a reason, but I personally do not consider it art. Art, like "My Bed" or Duchamp's "Fountain," I personally believe to be more in the realm of philosophy, and as you stated "It's about selling an idea." Isnt that what philosophers do? I may be completely wrong about this, but I feel the problem is that somehow art and philosophy, though once separate, have been merged.
And Im not saying that conceptual art isnt important. I believe it always vital to question fundamental beliefs, tradition, whatever. However, I simply dont think it is art, but instead philosophy.
I do always appreciate an excellent arguement, and I think we simply have two different valid opinions on a rather controversial issue.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
that was quite interesting to read
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ha ha. You too know of the good Dr Pangloss I see!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
amazing work. i love the arms and hands. so full of expression! great job!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
correct. He is one and the same
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
