Albright-Knox Art Gallery

After perusing the Albright-Knox, I found myself leaving both inspired and dumbfounded. It made me realize that although I have a good idea of what artists are doing today, I saw many amazing works by artists I had never heard of. I'm always so familiar with new artists in the music world, and I hope to reach that same level with artists in the art world.

Works that made an impact on me:
1. Electric Flower (1965) by Werner Philips
2. The Desk in my Studio (1969) by Clayton Pond
3. Noise (2006) by Joe Goode
4. Before After Now (2008) by Tom Friedman
5) The Whiteness of the Whale (1957) Sam Francis
6) The Cremaster Suite (1994-2002) by Matthew Barney

Of all of these, this color print by Matthew Barney from his Cremaster Suite had the biggest impact on me:I'm not sure I would like to have this hanging above my bed, but it definitely made me look. I think what's so successful about this photo is that you can immediately create a story around this character...Where do they live? Why is its mouth bloody? The fact that Barney himself is playing this character makes it even more complex. What is he saying about his personal character? For me, this is the kind of work that sticks in my head.

Works that I felt a connection with:
1. The Unentitled Graces (1978) by Jess
2. Mississippi Gottdam (2007) by Mark Bradford
3. Toledo Blend (2003) by James Esber
4. #254 Drawing (Tracings from Sunset Blvd) (2007) by Ingrid Calame
5. Father of the Bride (1999) by Cecily Brown

Of all of these, I felt the greatest connection to this mixed media collage on canvas piece by Mark Bradford: This picture really does the piece no justice--at 102" x 144", I stood in front of Mississippi Gottdam for a good amount of time. On first impression of this work, it reminded me of water, with bits of debris mixed in. While dirtied water with debris would usually not be appealing to me, the piece had serene quality to me. I've always been drawn to artworks that have a certain flow to them, and I like for my own work to have this quality.

Works I would like to know more about:
1. Airship with Apples (1968) by John Carter
2. Julian and Suzanne Walking (2007) by Julian Opie
3. Three Color Sentence (1965) by Joseph Kosuth
4. If You See Anything Interesting...(2007) by Mads Lynnerup
5. You (2001) by Joseph Grigely & Amy Vogel

Of these works, the piece I found I would most like to research and understand more was this work by Julian Opie:This piece, a computer film on LCD caught my attention--it was so simple with such a strong message. After doing a little bit of research I found that similar works by Julian Opie have been installed in certain city spaces. I would like to know more about the reactions viewers have had to this, and the research the artist did in mimicking the way men and women walk.Where did the artist get their inspiration?