Module 13 Project 4

In creating the exhibit I was incredibly excited because that is something I personally have always wanted to do.  Even with doing so online, I felt as though I could have made it incredibly better given more time.  I have always wanted to curate my own art show and I even have thought about doing so in my very own attic since I have a lot of friends that create artwork, as well as myself.  I wanted to do artwork I knew I would actually be interested in rather than stuff I was just picking randomly.  As well as having an extensive knowledge on the artwork and artists themselves.  I feel given the opportunity to perhaps do this in real life, that I would have the chance to sit with the artist themselves and work with that, or at the very least someone that is dealing or representing their art in some way.  So I figured I would do Robert Mapplethorpe since he is my favorite photographer.  I find his work to be incredibly interesting and also intimate.  I first wanted to pair his artwork with the photography of Guy Bourdin, a well-known fashion photographer and pioneer for Vogue.  However getting these two artists to work together was just not going to work.  Bourdin's photography is vibrant and has surrealism to it, whereas Mapplethorpe's work is shot in black and white and artistic, however not to the level of Bourdin's.  So in coming to this obstacle I realized I needed another artist to make this exhibit work the way I wanted it to.  I began to think of who in my head I could compare and contrast Mapplethorpe with.  Warhol crossed my mind simply due to the subjects of his photography.  I knew both were interested in pop culture and portraiture so I thought this would be the perfect match.  In collecting artworks, I began to see the similarities more and more within their work and perhaps even their artistic process.  It was very exciting to me to find that they have been compared already within the art world without me even really knowing that prior.  I had a lot of fun creating this exhibit because it has been something I have been wanting to do and it gave me a blueprint that perhaps it is something I can accomplish and get good at if I actually try it in reality.  Definitely time consuming however.