Kiki Smith research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Kiki Smith - Research Paper ExampleIt is unfortunate, hence, to find that swop materials and craft techniques be customsally for the some part forbidden in the world of art. They are dismissed as merely utilitarian objects and have no aesthetic significance. Famed American born contemporary libber artist Kiki Smith, however, has rewritten the rulebook. Smiths steady rise as a star in the contemporary art scene is marvelous if not entirely surprising. Her critical success was achieved while employing the use of go-as-you-please craft-oriented materials. Through the use of these materials, she is able to successfully depict the intimate, physical, and psychological perspectives of the human body for her audience. This break from tradition in the use of craft materials is only an aspect of the deviations of Smiths arts. ... Both of Smith parents are fictive people. Her father, Tony Smith was an artist, the celebrated postwar abstract, minimalist sculptor and architect. Her m othe rwise, on the other hand, was an opera singer. Smith, hence, was opened to a highly creative and artistic environment, considering the fact that both of her parents were artists. Particularly, she experienced steady exposure to the creative process from her father. His work has influenced the young Kiki in her artistic style. Tony Smith also maintained a vivacious household who played host to notable contemporary artists such as Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, and other gifted artists at the time.3 As a child, Smith would help her father make cardboard multidimensional representations of what would subsequent be known by the world as his geometrical sculptures. In 1967, his works in this area landed him in the cover of Times magazine. Smiths father would always humble his best to encourage her interest in art. For example, he would set up a box of cylinders and cones to work out her drawing skills. Another important aspect in Smiths family that would leave an indelible memoria lise on her as an artist is her religious upbringing. Her family was devoutly Catholic and she herself acknowledges her affinity with her religious denomination later in her adult life. Certainly, this variable would manifest in many of Smiths artwork later on. In an interview with a magazine, she explained Some people get free. Some people say that you take ont have to be, but Im stuck with it. Ive always been spiritual. Thats always been the most important part of my life, thinking about God or Gods.4 In her childhood, Smith already bare-ass that she was not interested in drawing what she saw but, rather, she was more interested in drawing