Art Now Quiz 1
Catherine Opie (Sandusky, OH 1961)
"Being and Having" series, 1991, series of closeup portraits of butch women with fake facial hair. The photos are tightly framed with almost confrontational gazes, meant to signify that there is no essential self and that gender is performative. Opie was inspired by Hans Holbein, 16th century portrait artist who used bright backgrounds - a formalist in this regard. She wanted to photograph iconic and radical people and characters of the San Francisco LGBT community, highlight the performative side of the community, offset the sorrows and stigma of the AIDS crisis. Opie is a lesbian and fine art photographer who does series work. She got her BFA at San Francisco and her MFA at Cal Art.
Kerry James Marshall (Birmingham, Al 1955)
"Great America", 1994, Acrylic and Collage on Canvas, (103 x 114 in), National Gallery of Art works with large-scale, multiple figure paintings Play the game at a mastery level, make blackness a color itself that does not have to be flat; society has constrained ideas of what art should be painting as a platform for an idea, looks back to the past to put yourself in history, make also make yourself relevant to the present
Adrian Piper
African-American conceptual and performance artist, provocateur; believed that art could be a catalyst for change Cornered, 1988, installation, single-channel video, 2 framed birth certificates, table, chairs, dimensions variable, collection at Museum of Contemporary Art speaks in a calm tone, makes viewers question their assumptions about race, holds viewers captive. makes you confront your prejudices. My Calling Card #1 Assistant to Sol Lewitt (conceptual artist)
Institutional Critiques
Artists and collectives who work to critique how art is made, produced, displayed, and marketed. The Guerrilla Girls: anonymous collective, protesting the underrepresentation of women artists in galleries Pests: artists of color counterpart to the Guerrilla Girls; issues of tokenism "we are artists just like your gifted white boys"
site-specific art
Artwork that is created for a specific place, and draws its meaning from that place. Example: Roden Crater by James Turrell, Unmoored by Mel Chin
Charles Ray, American sculptor, public art
Boy with Frog, 2009, cast stainless steel sculpture, 8 feet tall, was placed at the mouth of the canals in Venice Ray is a figure artist who plays with scale and humor, referencing the classical myths and tradition
Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain 1997
Designed by starkitect Frank Gehry The museum itself is a work of art in its own right, fluidity in the lines of the building gives you the feeling of moving through space attention to the way light comes into the building; strayed away from the white cube look of modern galleries
Glenn Ligon (Bronx, NY, 1960)
Double America, 2012, Neon & Paint, National Gallery of Art Ligon is an American multimedia artist, he works with text and photo to explore themes of race, construction of race, and the legacy of slavery. In one series, he rephotographed Mapplethorpe works to simulate a dialogue with the arist posthumously.
Robert Mapplethorpe, 1946
Exhibition cancelled at the Corcoran Gallery of art, 1989. Contemporary artists protested the museum, except Mel Chin, who sided with the students. Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, images considered pornographic or obscene. Died of complications from AIDs. The Mapplethorpe foundation funds exhibitions and artwork, especially photography, and funds research for AIDS/HIV.
ready-made
Found objects and materials used in art; Laib used pollen for his work. Marcel Duchamp used a urinal for his art.
Wolfgang Laib (Germany, 1950)
Hazelnut Pollen, 1986. Pollen gathered by artist, hand sifted into a square on concrete. Ephemerality, immersive experience. Laib is a conceptual artist, with interest in impermanence, fragility and spirituality (mediative experience of Mandala by monks) Inspired by ancient Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu.
Identity
Identity is COLLECTIVE and RELATIONAL; Roland Barthe's "Death of an Author" argued that no text has one single meaning, the originator is not the authority. Skeptical of singularity, focus on how people are influenced by outside forces, as a member of social groups.
Carrie Mae Weems (Portland, OR 1953)
Kitchen Table Series, 1990, 20 photos in Gelatin silver print, 27 x 27 in Staged tableau looking at relationship between a black man and woman. Explored the domestic relationship dynamics through the kitchen table, as well as the role and place of a woman. Each photo contains its own story. The viewer is placed at the end of the table, almost like they are eavesdropping. This series grew out of the photography movement in which photographers act more like directors.
Cai Guo-Qiang (1957, China)
Large-scale drawings, installations & performance events using gunpowder, fireworks, Chinese herbal medicine, computers, vending machines Inopportune: Stage One, 2004, nine identical white cars suspended to look like a carbombing. Content matters! Borrowing Your Enemies Arrows, 1998, found object ship recovered from a river near his hometown. Referencing story from ancient Chinese war general Zhuge Liang, where they would trick enemy with scarecrows to collect weapons. Boat with arrows suddenly looks like a bird, symbolizing human's relationship with gravity.
Hung Liu (Jilin Province, 1948)
Liu grew up during great political upheaval, including the 1949 revolution by Mao Zedong creating the People's Republic of China. Liu was sent to the countryside for "reeducation," and eventually became a national celebrity after being on a popular children's program. Loom, 1999, 80 x 110 in, SF MOMA (reproduction of famous image, painted over with oil on canvas, depicts woman at work on loom surrounded by birds) Liu's work in oil on canvas/mixed media is large scale and contains strong feminist sentiments. It also has references to Chinese culture, the West, and History. She uses found-objects in her work, such as the reproduced image in Loom.
Meschac Gaba (1961, Cotonou, Benin/Amsterdam)
Museum of Contemporary African Art this is an installation, not a museum; "Game Room, Religion Room, Marriage Room, Bookstore" installed in Tate Modern, 2013; wanted to create a community, interactive and participatory space Gaba felt marginalized by expectations of African art, didn't want to make "crafts" Is a conceptual descendant of Marcel Duchaump The "museum" is a snapshot of his personal history and identity
Expansion of art scene
Occurred after 1980, across the globe there are more emerging artists; growing commercial field; influence of tourism.
Formalism
Post-WWII critics and avant garde artists championed the idea that form is greater than content. Formalism is limited in its ability to interpret the artist's inner vision, as shown by 1960's pop art movement. Focus on properties of specific media and technique, general language of traditional aesthetics (ie; role of color composition)
Iconography
Refers to the symbols in a work and what they all mean together. Kehinde Wiley and Hung Liu are examples of artists who use icons to convey meaning in their artwork.
Culture wars in 1980's - 1990's
Should public funds be used to support the arts? LGBT artists, Maya Lin. What is art?
James Turrell
The Light Inside, 1999, Neon ambient light, 132 x 246 x 1416 in, large-scale art, fills the room. Emphasize a feeling ephemerality, thinness of light and makes you aware of your perceptions. Roden Crater, 1977-Present Turrell's largest project, bought an extinct volcano in remote area near Grand Canyon in AZ to open up sky spaces, record celestial events with "naked eye telescope"; spirituality, looks like you can see the Earth moving. Financed project by ranching. A place between the Earth and the Cosmos. Part of the Land Art Movement of the 1960's, effort to decommodify art and make it an experience in nature. Turrell was raised Quaker and built meeting houses with open ceilings.
Richard Serra
Tilted Arc (1980), cor-ten steel, 12x120 feet, large art; in Federal Plaza in NYC but was removed because people hated it, didn't see it as art, ugly, in the way. Serra had it destroyed and placed in storage because he felt that it could not be placed anywhere but in the Federal Plaza in order for it to have its meaning.
Mel Chin (artist) and "Unmoored" (2018)
Unmoored, sculpture of ship mast with Swedish singer Jenny Lind, ribs of a whale, placed in Time Square and look through VC to see ships sailing above you. Draw attention to climate change and provoke question "how will you rise up?" Chin is looking to the future but also looking to to the past of NYC when commerce and trade started to rise. Chin also created "Fundreds" to bring to Congress as statement about Flint, MI water crisis.
Santiago Sierra
Workers who cannot be paid, remunerated to remain inside cardboard boxes (2000), card board boxes and tape people sitting inside the box were political refugees who are legally not allowed to be paid for their work; Sierra paid them to sit there
Globalization
cross-fertilization of ideas, flow of ideas, money, goods across borders art market has grown, fairs and biennials in major cities for art BUT accessibility for everyone is an issue, as well as homogenization of culture
Identity Politics
debate on values, ethics, and meaning of art around identity; the beliefs and activities of those who target racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of sexism
pluralism
everything goes; can't point to one single influence that defines contemporary arts
deconstruction
meaning lies with the reader, time, and context
influence of the internet
net art which only exists on the web; film/video/photography as an art form;
post-modernism
our identities are constructed by by our environments - media, popular media, our social groups
James Luna (1950, CA)
performance/installation artist, Luiseño & Mexican American; Identify with Native American heritage, works to weave in culture and break stereotypes by flipping them on their head. The Artifact Piece (1987, San Diego Museum of Man); he was the exhibit, labels beside his body explained physical/emotional scars, show that Native Americans exist in the present.
simulacra
reference to Plato's Republic, we've lost a sense of reality; we deal with things through a lens of mediation, we're disconnected from a true reality
Nikki S. Lee (Kye-Chang, Korea, 1970)
self portrait photographer, gender and identity as constructed. Goes into communities, immerses herself, and assimilating to the culture. There is no essential identity, identity is relational and constructed The Ohio Project, 1999, Fujiflex print The Hip Hop Project, 2001, Chromogenic print The Hispanic Project, 1998, Chromogenic print
