Exam 2 Issues in Contemporary Art
Rosalind Krauss
"art is a spectrum" creates a diagram to help identify through different variations of sculpture. EG: art works that blend into landscape
Nomadic site-specificity
"our relationship to a site is always changing due to social, economic, and other cultural factors" •1980's and forward • can be constituted by transnational movement itself: migration, tourism
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970.
*Earthwork & Marked Site* he manipulates nature -likes humans with nature the symbol, the spiral (universal & ionic symbol), is directly linked to the growth cycles -the spiral both opens and closes, always moving, always active -this piece is ephemeral, meaning one day it will disappear completely
Alice Aycock, Project Entitled "The Beginnings of a Complex..." 1977
*Site Construction* made for documentation
Christo (and Jeanne-Claude), Wrapped Reichstag, 1971-95
*axiomatic structures* burned by nazis
Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting: Four Corners, 1974
*axiomatic structures* fascinated by rapid rate of residential explosion in NYC -> gentrification "an architecture"
Michael Heizer, Double Negative, 1969-70
*marked site & earthwork* "there is nothing there, yet it is still a sculpture"
Christo (and Jeanne-Claude), Running Fence, 1976
*site construction* only up for a few weeks, known for over top sculptures
Richard Serra, Tilted Arc, 1981-89
12ft high x 120ft wide, made of steel • Hot, rolled Core-Ten steel • 12 feet high, 120 feet long • Imposing sense of weight, off-kilter objecthood • Site-specific (conceptualized, designed and scaled precisely to a specific location)
What decade is primarily associated with this kind of artistic practice?
1960s-1970s
The "expanded field" of sculpture
Anything is Sculpture "Sculpture in the Expanded Field," in which she defined the structural parameters of sculpture, architecture, and landscape art through the precise diagram. Through this diagram, she defines what sculpture is and shows that "sculpture is rather only one term on the periphery of a field in which there are other, differently structured possibilities" (Krauss 38). Sculpture: manmade,not shelter (Judd) Marked Sites: natural, shaped by artist (Smithsons Spiral Jetty) Site Construction: architectural char, landscape materials (Alice Aycock's BEGINNINGS OF A COMPLEX) Axiomatic Structures: building/but not, arch turned art (Gordon Matta Clark's SPLITTING: FOUR CORNERS or Christo's WRAPPED REICHSTAG)
Détournement
Appropriation that destabilizes or questions the original meaning of an image, object or text • A term popularized by the Situationist International (1957-1972) • symbolic theft
What is appropriation?
Appropriation: the strategic removal of image, object or text from its original context and placement within a new context • Interrogates notions of originality, authenticity, and authorship
Land art
Art, often monumental in scale, made in and with the natural materials of the landscape Art that is tied to landscape or natural materials. often temporal and site specific. interested in relationship between humans and their environment Originated in 1970
Anish Kapoor, Cloud Gate, 2006
British, think about Space & Reflection
Judy Baca and SPARC, Great Wall of Los Angeles/History of California, 1976-present
Celebrates different races
How has appropriation as an artistic strategy changed from 1960 until today?
Centuries-old aesthetic strategy, but increased significance with the intensification of reproducible media and commodity culture.
Martha Rosler, Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful (Balloons), 1967-72
Focus on beauty of space, additive collage to contrast, goal is bringing war home to Americans
Gunter Demnig, Stumbling Stones, 1993-present
German, Monument, bronze plaque to remember WWII victims
What might be some possible relationships between appropriation and public art?
Interrogates notions of originality, authenticity and authorship Often paired with collage or montage as artistic technique
Chicana/Chicano/Chicanx
Mexican-American, 1st gen Americans with Mexican parents
Pastiche
Mix of incongruous parts; artistic work imitating the work of other artists, often satirically Shift away from the project of détournement in late capitalism (after 1980) Appropriation that obscures, disregards or challenges notions of originality and progress in an image, object or text Apolitical, neutral, ambivalent or ambiguous Not citational in nature Formal blending, smoothing or shattering of original and new contexts; embraces ornament or embellishment Signature style of appropriation in the postmodern period
Robert Smithson, A Nonsite (Franklin, NJ), 1968
Nonsite* American Artist interested in natural landscapes and their architecture. Used geometric shapes and filled with collected natural materials.Rocks taken from "between indoors and outdoors.
Kryzsztof Wodiczko, Works, 1988
Polish, projection mapping, images of power
How do public art and site-specific art compare and contrast?
Public art can express community values, enhance our environment, transform a landscape, heighten our awareness, or question our assumptions. Placed in public sites, this art is there for everyone, a form of collective community expression. Public art is a reflection of how we see the world - the artist's response to our time and place combined with our own sense of who we are.
What is public art?
Public art is an umbrella term which includes any work of art purchased with public funds, or which comes into the public domain (by donation, or by public display, etc.) irrespective of where it is situated in the community, or who sees it.
What does the term "site-specific" mean?
Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork.
Architecture- Not- Architecture
The first artists to explore the possibilities of architecture plus not-architecture were Robert Irwin, Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra, and Christo.
Public Art
Works of art that are designed specifically for, or placed in, outdoor spaces or areas physically accessible to the general public. • Site specific sculpture • Monuments • Guerilla art/street art/graffiti • Murals
Mural
a large painting applied directly to a wall or ceiling surface
Monument
a structure erected to commemorate persons or events
Site-construction
architecture and landscape
Land Art
art that is tied to landscape or natural materials. often temporal and site specific. interested in relationship between humans and their environment
Site-specificity
artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork.
Earthworks
artworks created by altering a large area of land using natural and organic materials. Earthworks are usually large-scale projects that take formal advantage of the local topography.
Marked sites
landscape and manmade
Site-specific art
makes its meaning through the location the art is on
Landscape — Not-Landscape
marked site
Not-Landscape — Not-Architecture
sculpture
Landscape — Architecture
site construction
Axiomatic Structure
sits on boarder of architecture and far out there
Social Practice
social involvement with activities supporting/producing belief
Institutional Critique
strain of conceptual art practices that highlight institutional power structures and subvert traditional systems of display and exhibition
Archive
the collected records of an organization, institution, or public person
Appropriation
• Appropriation: the strategic removal of image, object or text from its original context and placement within a new context • Centuries-old aesthetic strategy, but increased significance with the intensification of reproducible media and commodity culture. • Interrogates notions of originality, authenticity and authorship • Often paired with collage or montage as artistic technique
According to Harriet Senie, what was the controversy around Tilted Arc? Why is this controversy important and how does Senie suggest it might it have been avoided or mitigated?
• Art education as the crucial key for the successful placement of public art (299) • The role of the political in public art (General Services Administrator William Diamond as the party responsible for Tilted Arc's removal) (299) • "Must the most powerful art experiences still be reserved for museum spaces and therefore primarily elite audiences? If Tilted Arc was impossible at Federal Plaza, are we to conclude that there is no room for a pure art experience in the public spaces of what is still considered one of the major art centers of the Western world?" (301) • Any time art concerns are less than primary, we end up with something that is not primarily art and then we shall all—the art, the public, and history—be the poorer for it. (301)
What are some of the ways that the success or failure of a public artwork is measured?
• dependent on the notion of the public for some part of its meaning/signification
Agnes Denes, Wheatfield: A Confrontation, 1982
• turned landfill into wheatfield • wanted to get people thinking about land • no longer there
