On display among the works of 35 artists from 19 countries are drawings by Joseph Yoakum (1889-1972), a man of African-American and Native American descent who spent much of his life as a bill-poster for several circuses before picking up a pencil to record his memories in the form of imaginary landscapes, and another self-taught artist, Guo Fengyi, a retired factory worker from China who draws with ink on cloth and rice paper as a means of meditation and to create drawings that function as cosmic diagrams or healing devices.
3 comments:
I haven't gotten a chance to see the Carnegie International exhibits yet, but I am really excited to go. This article's focus was mostly on the success of Scottish artist John Kane, born in 1860, who had no formal training. This reminded me a lot of something I read when I was in sixth grade that has really stuck with me. I was researching Shel Silverstein and in one source, he talked about how he never had he didn't really have anyone to learn from artistically so his work was completely his own. I always found this really interesting. It sounds like Kane was able to benefit from his lack of formal training because he never felt limited by what he had been taught to. Personally, I absolutely see the value in a formal arts education, especially dependent on the type of work you want to do. But I think a lot can be said for artists who just learn from looking at art and going off their own instincts.
I never thought the international was a "hoity toity" exhibition of art for the culturally elite. In fact, I've always found the Carnegie Museum of Art to be a place that was accepting of all people. Unlike museums in New York, California, and the other big art cities in America, I've always gotten the feeling that the art museums in Pittsburgh strive to attract an audience from all walks of life. That aside, I do feel like the international has become a place for artists from all types of lifestyles and all corners of the world to exhibit their art to people who are eager to see great works of ingenuity and creativity. Joseph Yoakum is just one example of an artist who is new, up-and coming, and who is bringing something new and boundless to the world of art.
This was something I noticed when I went to see the International exhibit. There was art that felt like pretentious "hoity toity" art like an artist who drew shapes on their iphone and then painted them on canvas. But there is a lot of art there that I feel really speaks to people. It is not necessarily done with the most amazing skill but it somehow means more that it was done by people who taught themselves and were just creating what they wanted to.
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