Viewing Images Online and Ashley Bickerton

By Mackenzie Erin Beltz, October 3, 2014

Although I’ve always had a healthy appreciation for Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, it wasn’t until I saw it in person that I truly fell in love1. A photograph just couldn’t represent the thick, emotional brushstrokes characteristic of Van Gogh’s paintings; this is a work that needs to be seen from all sides to be truly understood.
Another common misconception about art is that a photograph online, print, or other reproduction can accurately represent a work. As explained by Tiarna Doherty, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Chief Conservator2, “Art in photographs looks two dimensional. Going to an exhibit you see the work differently.” This is especially applicable to popular contemporary art mediums, such as collage or installation. When viewing a photograph online, one may not be able to view the work from all sides, preventing the viewer from understanding the three-dimensionality.
In addition, it is often difficult to know if you are viewing an accurate representation of color and texture. When viewing work online, your best option is to go to the website of the museum that houses it, or the artist’s own website. A quick google search (here) of Murillo’s Two Women at a Window shows that representation of color and texture can vary greatly depending on the source. In contemporary art, which often features vibrant colors and exciting textures with symbolisms central to the work, this is especially important. There is no equivalent to going to a museum and seeing art in person. Many museums have free days (Penn State’s on-campus Palmer museum is always free), so take an hour or two to check one out. Besides, a little art break is good for the soul.
As I stated earlier, collage is a medium that is incredibly difficult to accurately represent online or in prints. So, please understand that although the following works are bright and exciting online, they are better in person!
Ashley Bickerton was born in Barbados in 1959. He moved to Hawaii with his family as a young teenager, became a US citizen in the 80’s, went to school at CalArts in California, spent 12 years in New York as an adult, and now resides in Bali, Indonesia.

Bickerton’s career was kick-started when he was included in a four person show. The four artists, Bickerton, Jeff Koons, Peter Halley, and Meyer Vaisman were given the name the “Fantastic Four” and credited with being key members in the creation of the art movement, Neo-Geo, which is short for New Geometry. Neo-Geo, also called Smart Art, Simulationism, and Post-Abstract Abstraction, is a vaguely defined reevaluation of earlier art forms, drawing from Minimalism, Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism, and Op Art.

Gauguin’s here: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/49.58.1

Ashley Bickerton shares similarities with French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin. Gauguin traveled to Tahiti to escape “everything that is artificial and conventional.” He thought he’d be inspired by the island’s simplistic way of living, but upon arrival, discovered it was just as Westernized as the society he had left behind. Bickerton’s flight from New York to Bali was similar. However, the artificiality he was trying to escape was the New York art world. He said that after he became famous, people who had once ignored him were clamoring for his attention, and he rejected the superficiality of it all and moved to Bali. He created a series of mixed media works titled Junk Anthropologies that emulate Gauguin’s Two Tahitian Women and his other paintings from Tahiti, to depict the “tropical apocalypse” that is Bali. His model is primarily his Tahitian wife, Cherry Sarawasti.

1
I own a large print of it, but after careful deliberation, decided not to join the countless ranks of college students who have it command-stripped to their dorm walls.

2
http://museum.blogs.wm.edu/2012/11/09/modern-contemporary-art-and-its-misconceptions-a-behind-the-scenes-look-into-african-american-art-harlem-renaissance-civil-rights-era-and-beyond/