Magical words

News:
Monet is deeper than old impressions (Waldemar Januszczak – The Sunday Times)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/world/monet-is-deeper-than-old-impressions/story-fn30267p-1225930231978


Description:
An exhibition of the first major retrospective of Monet’s work for 30 years is launched in Paris until January next year.


Comment:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/world/monet-is-deeper-than-old-impressions/story-fn30267p-1225930231978

If Monet’s artwork will be on show in Sydney, will you go and see? If you are a art lover, you will definitely go there. I will as well.

So, as the photo showed above, we can know the influence of Monet is still a major one in art industry. The photographer photographed not only the long line in front of the building, but also the posters of Monet outside to clearly show what exactly people are queuing for.


Yes, near everything readers expect is included in the writer’s piece. Sometimes, I really admire the specific words Januszczak uses to describe a scene.


Spell
… it spells money and huge crowds of enthusiastic visitors…
First, I am not sure about the exact usage of it and look it up in a dictionary. When it is used as a noun, it can mean “great attraction, fascination, etc caused by a person or thing; strong influence”. Similarly, as a verb, it can delivere the same meaning.


Tattoo
… for art lovers who believe that… and that the best art tattoos itself in the imagination…
We all know tattoos and how it is planted in the body. Here, the writer uses simile to humanise what art lovers think art is. When I read this sentence, I can see a strong argument conveyed from it and its importance in art lovers’ mind.


Parallel structure
… bigger Monet: a poet, not a realist; a dreamer, not a witness; a heart, not an eye.
Parallel structure is one of the most difficult techniques in writing, at least in my opinion. You need to think of corresponding words, similar word form, and smoothly connect the sentence or phrase. In the story, the writer writes this sentence after introducing the expression of Monet’s work, and concludes a bigger Monet from his point of view. After reading it, I can feel the power of these simple words and it persuades me.


I am doing a persuasive writing piece now and I always find hard to find appropriate word to describe what I want to say. Maybe, when I read more, I will know some techniques.

Nothing is meaningless

News:
An Artist’s Alfresco John Hancock (Colin Moynihan)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/arts/design/18momo.html?_r=1&ref=arts


Description:
It is about a piece of street graffiti which has exited for 4 years with a minority of people noticed.


Comment:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/arts/design/18momo.html?_r=1&ref=arts

When you are walking on the street, will you look forward or look down? Will you notice there may be something on the floor? I seldom notice.

When you first see this photo above, will you notice there is a trait on the floor? When I first see it, I cannot figure out what this means and get confused.


As expected, in the beginning of the story, the journalist writes like that Although it has existed for four years, the paint line has escaped most people’s notice. What is it? What does it mean? Who create it? A series of questions are coming after. However, the writer did not answer these questions right away, but uses some other passersby’s quote (how they think) to continue the mystery.


This is a long piece of street graffiti which gets a lot of controversy, such as legal issues. As a result, when interviewing the artist, he is not willing to reveal his name. The writer tells the readers this kind of massage. It is not important, on contrast, we know better the artwork, not about its meaning, creation process, but also the story behind it. That is what the readers have expected.


After reading this story, it reminds me of a conversation with a professional journalist. He has emphasized many times of different voice to make the news objective. In this story, I can see that. In the end of it, the writer continues to use people’s voice and comment to expend the influence of the artwork, especially the artwork itself is a controversial topic. The comments are very interesting and reflect the situation in that city to some extent. For example, the writer writes that Others suggested that it was part of a code between drug sellers and users. I can imagine according to his words and applaud for people’s ideas. Moreover, in my opinion, the reason why the writer writes them is to deliver the idea that many people will have thousands of interpretations of it, so it is your interpretation now. As for me, I really like the leaving space for the readers to think by themselves, whatever it is. 

Simple but rich

News:
Resurgent Agitprop in Capital Letters (Dorothy Spears)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/arts/design/29kruger.html?ref=design


Description:
This is about Barbara Kruger's and her current artworks in art galleries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/arts/design/29kruger.html?ref=design

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/08/29/arts/KRUGER-5.html

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/08/29/arts/KRUGER-1.html

Comment:

Each artwork will represent some meaning anyway, just in different ways and styles. Some will use content, some will use composition, others will use colour. In Kruger's show, she loves white against a black background most.

The author use a strong negative sentence instead of a flat narration to open the story, It's hard...... not to see it as a critique of ...... Between the words, the author did give us an image of what her artwork is like in the museum, the style, the color, the content, right to the points of the exhibition. It is about consumption and in Kruger's view, the desire behind wanting and shopping is not limited to the power elite but we're all more and more in thrall to consumer culture. I can feel the charm of those simple words because we are becoming that kinds of people and do feel that way. And that's what makes an article a good one.


With the introduction of the exhibition, the author went deep into Kruger's life experience and career. The connection flows and it answers the questions why the author says that her work is global focus, why she will use this way to present it and the steps she changes in her career.

All her artwork is observation, not nostalgia, the author wrote and observed that the style of her work changes with the development of new technology and her archives are replaced with digital ones. I, especially, like the ending quote the author uses, We don’t need mirrors anymore. We look at ourselves on YouTube. We look at ourselves on Twitter. It’s ‘This is what I’m doing now'. The readers feel so familiar with these social networking tools those days and this observation is not about her artwork, it's all about what the trend is in the future.

Through the writing, we can see that how the author asks questions based on its angle and how the author presents it. We can not only feel the ideas the artist wants to deliver, but also think of the habits we are changing --- what the big impact that digital technology makes.