AH393 Midterm 1

Roy Lichtenstein

1962. Oil on canvas. Controversial piece as "why is pop art at the met!?" A single sphere with patterned, variously directional semi-circular grooves Represents abstraction as the elimination of three-dimensionality and a landscape context It's the neutral background that diminishes the three-dimensionality The black and white is a dramatic style, referencing Piet Mondrian's works Lack of perspective Freestanding form

Francesco Clemente

Abbraccio (Embrace), 1983, Pastel on paper Sensuality & the self Bodies, often self-portraits, swim through the fields of color, embracing & consuming one another Rober Storr describes "confusion of sexual preference & sexual function" Arms, legs, fingers, tongues, even tails intertwine & enter bodies w/ a languid, dreamlike grace Bodies/body parts seem to multiply & even bloom as they caress one another. Spring, growing colors. The red and yellow show heat and warmth of the body.

Sherrie Levine

After Walker Evans: 7, 1981. Gelatin silver print Conceptual artist Single image, appropriated in it's entirety Raises questions about the intention of the artist and the meaning of the work Meticulously ordered room suggests the dignity of its resident Demonstrates photography's role in the pursuit of social justice Walker Evans--> Result of an encounter b/w depression era poverty and 20th century avant-garde aesthetics Commitment to challenging myths of originality and conventions of artistic creation She rejected the idea that photographs could lend us into reality -> only an IDEA of reality, attacking the glorification of authenticity.. pictures are somewhat owned by nobody Processes of reproduction, postmodernism --> critique of authorship/originality Rephotographing an image in a catalogue which is already somewhat compromised (quality is worsened in each photographed)

Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (kids of survival)

Amerika VIII, 1986-87, watercolor, charcoal, synthetic polymer paint, & pencil on book pages on linen He's part of group material Develops an aesthetic consisting of elegant abstracted symbols that related to lit & life Life in South Bronx Horns --> Response to Franz Kafka's novel, Amerika Protagonist in this novel searches for freedom/work but is fronted w oppression unified and chaotic, elegant and furious

Martin Wong

Attorney Street(Handball Court with Autobiographical Poem by Pinero) 1982-84, Oil on canvas Wong produced art that reflects lives shaped but not defined by the official visions of American life Urban landscape & a painted poem Pictures a graffiti-emblazoned wall overlaid with a text in sign language Opposing contrast between illustration and decoration Pinero-> self-conscious combination of the language and culture of Puerto Rico & New York = Nuyorican poetry. Basically reflects all the different languages and cultures that NYC embodies The entire scene appears to be double framed-> in the bricks and also in the wood Scenes of daily life in the lower east side become settings for the transcription of words from the neighborhood

Yoko Ono

Cut Piece, 1964, Performance at Yamaichi Hall, Tokyo Activate Audience - Performance Art Comment on Violence Stereotype of East vs West Feminist statement Embrace of the Fluxus interest in simple acts --> cutting clothes. The more her clothes are cut, the more political the piece becomes. Men are more likely to cut larger pieces while women cut much smaller Interplay between the social and the individual Giving vs taking

Anslem Kiefer

Dein goldnes Haar, Margarete (Your Golden Hair, Margarete) , 1981, oil, acrylic, emulsion, charcoal, and straw on burlap Avoids figurative representation in favor of allusions & synecdoche (using a part of something to express the whole) Monumental landscape of a barren field, applies straw who represents the body of an absent lover Margarete is a symbol of the German nation, unfathomable immediacy of Nazi cruelty Black arcs of paint, suggesting a dark-haired, living Shulamite

Ross Bleckner

Departure, 1986, oil on canvas Paints large scale abstractions with subtle variations in color and pattern saw painting as a means to reckon w/ the compromised and compelling history of modernism borrowed heavily from op art, experimented w graphic patterning to create optically surprising and often emotionally wrenching effects combined a trancelike rhythm of stripes w/ a sensual application of paint as the eye moves across the pattern, it is stalled by dissolving passages of paint, as though the clean lines and optical pleasure of op art are being interrupted by the tactility of Neo-expressionism these disruptions invite the viewer to explore the depths, both visual and metaphorical, of the painting suggestive title transforms a repetitive pattern copied from the past into a dirge for personal loss that casts a pall over the optical pleasure created by bleckner's paint theme of mourning? floral border ... urns/ blood cells

Judy Chicago

Dinner Party, 1974-79, white tile floor inscribed with gold with 999women's names; triangular table w/ painted porcelain, sculpted porcelain plates, & needlework --> these materials are significant, domestic, associated w/ work of women Educate viewers about women's roles in history and the fine arts The Dinner Party was a reinterpretation of the Last Supper Many of the plates had motifs of butterflies and vulvas She worked w/ a team of women to wrest the expressive mechanisms of culture from the grip of men 39 named female "guests of honor" collectivity, she kept her name despite group effort, consciousness-raising, feminist (second wave feminism) post-modernism development is thru feminism art

Georg Baselitz

Eagle in the Window, 1982, Oil on canvas neo-Expressionistic figure painting Anxiety-ridden narratives, absurd by painting his subjects upside down Potency of the image, deformations Resembles a screaming baby Ambiguous interior, aggressive paint handling Expressionist terror & painterly catharsis in an environment overseen by the authority of the German state (symbolized by the eagle) Vigorous and bold color

David Salle

Gericault's Arm, 1985, Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Increasingly readable narratives --> no so much Neo-expressionism, invites controversy Salle avowed his art participated in the meaningless and even pronounced it "dead" even though its presented referencing to sex, art, and popular culture Based on manipulating existing imagery, layering materials drawn from softcore pornography. Frustrated critics with "there is no correlation b/w images. no narrative. no nothing" Two images of a woman's body, underwear pulled down below her thighs, arms raised and lifting a cut-off T-shirt to just below her breasts Head is cut off by the frame in the 1st case & is cut off by severed limbs in the next Is it sexual submission & violence w/ a high culture twist?

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Grillo, 1984, Oil, acrylic, oilstick, photocopy collage, and nails on wood (in four parts) neo-expressionism play b/w brushwork & passages that evoke history, drawing, diagram, graffiti deals w/ scale, catch some things, but gotta get up close to actually see some of the smaller details "Modern primitive" Art is truthful, "orphic" and even "fundamentally black" Various painterly languages appear across the surface There are kooningesque flourishes and linear scratchings that echo cave drawings or the paintings of Cy Twombly There are fields of color applied in broad brushstrokes balance the white and black that evoke absence and erasure Nails punctuate the boundaries of the panels There are lists & notes that catalogue thoughts ~stream of consciousness~ Favors schematic & often skeletal figures in which contour is asserted over form & color Drawing that suggests a stuttering, halting, & aggressive figuration/countered w/ children's art Is it about general concerns, or is there more specific content?? The thoughts probably allude to more specific concerns

David Hammons

Higher Goals, 1986, Poles, basketball hoops, and bottle caps "art is the process, once it becomes finished work, it becomes a political object, & it's not even art anymore" Addresses african-american culture, African aesthetics, & American economic politics. Work consists of telephone poles decorated with bottle caps applied in geometric patterns reminiscent of African beadwork & textiles & at the very top (40ft tall) are basketball hoops Boundless spiritual quality that hammons finds outside of the studio Hes an artist, an athlete, and a serious sports fan The work is also anti-basketball--a critique of the cult of the sport that feeds African-Americas men with a fantasy of success that is rarely achieved & only @ significant cost to the wider education of the community a very ACTIVIST piece Malcom x had speech where there was a similar statue the year before Basically conveys the SUBLIME quality of a well-placed jump shot, the audacity of racial pride, and an exhortation to young men to strive for a future more accessible than a jump shot at a 40-foot-high hoop

Krzysztof Wodiczko

Homeless Vehicle Project with David Lurie, 1988-89, Aluminum & mixed media were begun and developed in conjunction w/ the homeless people who were to use them Elaborate, large shopping cart provides user w/ storage space, shelter, & mobility Exposes the startling relationship between the needs of the homeless & those of the housed both have possessions to protect as well as health & security issues to consider exposes dramatic and morally unacceptable obstructions for the homeless An interviewee discusses how he collects bottles to recycle for money as well as how the vehicles should permit visibility & a ready exit so as to reduce the risk of being attacked or crushed in a garbage truck An attempt to make issues & people who are otherwise momentarily visible

Sherrie Levine

Lead Chevron: II, 1988, casein on lead reduces her compositional activity to copying the mundane patterns of chess and backgammon boards, but her medium is highly unusual: casein, a milk-based paint w/ a history extending back to ancient Egypt and conveying an organic quality, is applied to lead, which provides the work w/ a sensual and surprising presence brings together geometric abstraction & games, sensuality and criticality, history & contemporaneity resists being reduced to illustrations of a theoretical or political point by introducing the very element that Duchamp had excised from his readymade and that textbook reproductions can not replicate--the artist's touch

Andy Warhol

Muhammad Ali, 1977, Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas Gestural portrait shows a "New Spirit in Painting" & can be read as critical commentaries on painting's expressive language Warhol reduces the gestural brushstrokes to conventional markings as repeatable as the photographic image Assertive presence Abandons "art civilization" he looks at his brushes like a gorilla looking at a knife & fork, digs in with his hands, smashes the plate & makes a big mess" Ali is ready to punch, the orange color is contrasted with its opposing colors, purple and blue. The one of the left mimics him as a tiger, one with stripes, ready to pounce. His eyes are set on the prize.

Jeff Koons

New Shelton Wet/Dry Tripledecker, 1981, 3 vacuum cleaners, acrylic, fluorescent lights Formally akin to minimalist artist Judd's boxes Minimalist / pop koons packed more tradition into his objects though immaculate newness, vacuums in sealed boxes intended to be expressions of confinement, purity, life and death "breathing machines" which explores issues of personality, self-hood, & the psychological state tied to immortality koons compared the vacuum to the Virgin Mary, to invoke the emotional / spiritual power of popular culture Commodities --> name for goods in a capitalist system in which they fulfill functions but also their intangible satisfactions relating to status or sentiment that they provide Impossible to tell if the art was intended as Marxist critique or capitalist praise of its subject matter Artists faced the challenge of balancing critique of the art world w/ their desire to participate in it

Pepon Osorio

No Crying in the Barbershop, 1994, Installation General metaphor of communal experience and as a specific emblem of personal memory Abandoned barbershop in a Latino neighborhood He filled it in HIS characteristic manner, w/ materials relating to the upbringing of latino men there are signs of the growing male, posters of heroes, and portraits of loved ones chairs were decorated w/ all sorts of objects --> baseballs, Puerto Rican flags, baseball caps, hair-picks--> all giving substance to stereotypes of latino machismo There are also feminine attitudes and emotions in the barbershop-> chairs have lace doilies, plastic flowers, garlands, & dolls The walls have photos of baseball players, musicians, and father figures, which are painted pink There is sound & sight, on small video monitors set in the headrests of each of the 5 red-velvet chairs, of men crying At the heart of this male world was sensitivity and emotion In the midst of all this machismo was cathartic sweeping

Jackson Pollock

Oil on Canvas, Autumn Rhythm, 1950 #30 Pollock used pour and drip techniques (unorthodox creative process) on a canvas laid out on the floor Shifted avant garde from Paris to New York Represents the extraordinary balance between accident and control There is no central point of focus, every inch of surface is equally significant Size is significant, assumes scale of the environment --> its heavy, graceful, buoyant, swirling Spontaneity was a critical element... no accident though as he controlled the flow of paint. He started first with black lines and then moved onto white and so forth

Louise Lawler

Pollock and Tureen, 1984, Cibachrome Photograph of the juxtaposition of a Jackson Pollock painting and fine china Artistic production is always a collective endeavor, it isn't simply artists who produce aesthetic significance and value, but an often anonymous contingent of collectors, viewers, museum, and gallery workers--& ultimately the cultural apparatus in which these positions are delineated Clash between formalist fine china and abstract painting; the colors jump off one another quite well How do these two art pieces interact? (associated claims of formalist purity-clement, abstraction) The opportunity for objects to become different once again / representation

Wadsworth Jarrell

Revolutionary, 1971, Acrylic on canvas Portrait of African-American activist Angela Davis, the subject's body, clothing, and the space around her vibrate with words: "black, beautiful, revolution, resist" and long lines of Bs and Rs. Loose fitting blouse. "I have given my life to struggle" Colors of pink, orange resembles 60-70s. "Shine" was not a word found in art establishment-sanctioned texts about formalism or the history of avant-garde. (that's the point y'all!!) It was a term coined by black-art theorists for exclusive use in relation to black art "we want things to shine, to have the rich luster of a just-washed fro, of spit shined shoes, of de-ashened elbows, knees, and noses" A point between absolute abstractions & absolute naturalism Forms combined to produce images @ the very point where letters/words join to deliver a message abt the world

Robert Smithson

Spiral Jetty, 1970, black basalt, limestone rocks, earth, and salt crystals, Great Salt Lake, Utah LANDART, relationship b/w culture & nature Landscape that has nothing to do with beauty or picturesque Radical process art proposal Not "what does it mean" but "how does it work?" Sometimes visible sometimes submerged depending on water level Chose the location b/c of the blood-red sea color and its relationship to the primordial sea Site for testing bombs Great salt lake actually drained in a spiral shape No fixed form High salt content, salt crystals growing Water level changes, art site, ephemeral Pilgrimage to get out there Interested in the anti-pastoral beauty & industrial remnants It was as if the mainland oscillated with waves and pulsations, and the lake remained rock still

Julian Schnabel

The Death of Fashion, 1978, oil, plates, and bondo on wood This is an accumulation of broken plates. Neo-expressionism Thick oil paint has been pushed over the fractured surfaces. This diverts the attention to the irregular shards Gold cross coated in brown that goes all the way door, resembling a sword that is puncturing something, possibly the plates. The cross means life and death OF fashion. There is a sense of impulsivity + sensuality = organic, fleshy paint Filled with cheap red and yellow plates Title suggest both physical violence and superficiality Self-expression Disappearance of emotion

Group Material

The People's Choice (Arroz con Mango) ~what a mess~, 1981, 13th St. Community was not viewed as subject matter but rather as collaboraters A response to "unsatisfactory" ways in which art has been produced, distributed, taught in America For those who are not well versed in the language of fine art and those who are / interested in theory Multiplicity of meanings that surround any single social issue Inspiration from Dada and Fluxus traditions, art out of the everyday Push against elitism, dismantle hierarchy authorship & originality Used art and the art industry to write a history of something that had been obscured by the mass media

Mike Kelley

The Wages of Sin & More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid 1987, stuffed fabric toys and afghans on canvas w/ dried corn; wax candles on wood and metal base compromise b/w commodity / everyday waste he appropriated, purchased, re-presented, enlarged, copied, and arranged-all proven strategies of the appropriation & commodity artists

Colab

Times Square Show, 1980, Collage by Terise Slotkin. Installation in Times Square, New York Colab meetings sought refuge in a third art world, one dominated by the everyday concerns of urban life and the invention of aesthetics that responded to them (Basqiat was a part of this clique) NYC= 1. hothouse for intellectual discourse & political critique(former); rooted in the entrepreneurial insight & energy of a new generation of gallerists, proved its importance as an engine turning contemporary art into an economically valuable & culturally visible product "First radical art show of the 1980s" Run down-four story structure became home to graffiti, murals, sculpted rats, printed weapons, slogans, etc. "critical art practice needs to do more than merely reflect reality" Social issues being addressed important, but pleasure was also an important part of the scene. Art was made for display in nightclubs as much as galleries Tall about the venue, deliberately went to timesquare References to cutting-edge art of the previous decades, from Picasso to fluxus "A critical art practice needs to do more than merely reflect reality" Debate that because graffiti fits in too well with its surroundings deems it as not art at all?

Ashley Bickerton

Tormented Self-Portrait (susie of arles), 1987-88, mixed media but includes synthetic polymer paint, bronze powder and lacquer on wood, aluminum, rubber, leather, steel and canvas composed w/ logos looks like a box that has been custom-designed to hold lab equipment, firearms, musical instruments rubber tarp rolled below it (additional protection) titled self portrait, name down below not harsh signature like pollock, susie arles' most tormented self portraitist -> Vincent Van Gogh avoids all pictorial references brand names function like artifacts the artist and his subject are nothing more than the sum total of what can be communicated by a brand name

Peter Halley

Two Cells with Circulating Conduit, 1985, Acrylic, Day-Glo acrylic, and Roll-a-Tex on canvas contrast of technological and social as well as aesthetic roots form of electrical circuitry, urban grids, cell blocks, were symbols of the networks of communication and power in contemporary society refers to the history of geometric abstraction from the early 20th century modernists to the more recent minimalists architecture in the international style, relates to the Piet Mondrian and the Russian revolutionary painter kazimir Malevich the proper placement of horizontal and vertical lines and blacks of primary colors allowed artist and viewer to reach an intellectually and spiritually productive life Donald Judd? makes the argument that forms, like commodities, do not have a single, essential significance, but rather take on different meanings through use and context

Richard Prince Appropriation art

Untitled (Cowboy) 1995, Ektacolor photograph, Functions at a more emotional level, like Jeff Koons, which lies outside of the customary taste-range of the art-buying public Captured in rich, luminescent colors, amplified through Prince's rephotographing process, the cigarette-ad cowboy excites as much visual pleasure as he exudes macho allure Prince's work celebrates the aesthetic tastes of those usually excluded from high art, such as commercial artists and lower-middle-class white Americans Reveals how appropriation is used as an aesthetic tool Rugged individualism Opposes jack goldsteins, leaves brand/logo out

David Wojnarowicz

Untitled (One Day this Kid), 1990 juxtaposition of image and text coming of age story delivered in matter of facts as you read it becomes more violent, especially on the right side of the child who appears oblivious to his future destiny "one day" stops the words engulf him, as if they are soon to take over

Cindy Sherman

Untitled Film Still #35, 1979, black & white photograph Demonstrates the flexibility of appropriation in engaging issues of authority, identity, and gender Characterized by insecurity and would use costumes & props to photograph herself posing in scenes reminiscent of European & Hollywood movies Captures strength & vulnerability, suggesting Sherman's melancholic vision of what it was like for a woman to grow up in America at the time Movie scenes would attract a wide audience Results brought a sense of playfulness & sentiment to contemporary art but also the critical lens of contemporary theory Has hidden button, self-shutter, image is of artist, she does it ALL

Keith Haring

Untitled Subway Drawing, 1983, New York Subway Socially engaged, graphically concise, & highly expressive The subway drawings were a way of taking possession of public space & becoming involved in the everyday activities of ordinary people He defaced advertisements to draw attention to stereotypes and sexism in media images, but shifted towards more playful chalk-drawn versions Haring demonstrates his ability to cover huge surfaces w/ intricate patterns & exuberant references to sex & death, pleasure Commitment to the blurred boundaries separating art & entertainment Subway drawings were often whimsical and fantastic in nature

Barbara Kruger

Untitled(We don't need another hero), 1968, Photographic silkscreen/vinyl Feminist artist who explores the "male gaze". Her goal was to subvert the typical use of imagery in advertising with her huge word and photograph collages The girl is dressed in 1950s theme Boy appears to be the little brother Traditional American Values Resembles an ad for soap or cereal Set the piece up in billboard locations where messages about money & power were regularly delivered -> challenged the status quo on it's own turf Draws attention to the fact that our physical surroundings like the media, actively generate meaning She describes her work in the realm of "time passing, but seldom of particular events" *appropriation*

Donald Judd

Untitled, 1968, stainless steel, plexiglass (modern material) Minimalist Boxes claimed real space as its own rather than a painting on the wall, put right on the ground, removes hierarchy, geometry Anything suggested from one part of the work was born out of the whole -> relationships between dimensions, materials There are no mysteries or any unique POV that would explain the piece There are no complicated patterns, symbolic arrangements, etc Only lay references to its commercial suppliers rather history or other artists The box is emotional and mystical --> unpredictable effects anti-illusionistic, transparent made by a fabricator authorship? ^^ which ultimately comes from design spontaneity, unlike pollock & other action paintings

Willem de Kooning: Abstract Expressionist

Woman 1, 1950-52, Oil on canvas, Abstract expressionism Clement Greenberg: Formalism --> Daily life having been deemed unworthy, artists were instructed to look instead to his or her materials. "The excitement of their art, lies most of all in its pure preoccupation with the invention and arrangements of spaces, surfaces, shapes, colors, etc". Kooning merges abstraction & representation. Painting comes off as grotesque(more joyous) and frightening yet has much vitality. Because it is a singular woman, it kinda dates back to traditional art, not as abstract. He uses abstract detailing though. Others saw it as objectifying women and violent. It is an encyclopedic display of the physical possibilities of paint, ranging from thick to thin, rough to smooth, and opaque to translucent. There are many different hues. Rough black lines distinguish the vigorous brushstrokes. Vague background. Blank stare. Harsh grin. *Harold Rosenberg-Action painting** Drew from advertising magazines, such as the smile. Individuality in distinct brushstrokes, abrupt transitions b/w colors, raw appearance --> speaks to action painting b/c emphasis on brushstrokes Is the brushstroke affiliated with the artist? Worked on it over time Figure dissolves into the color/brushstrokes Authorship conveyed through handling, New York school, like Jackson Pollock

Haim Steinbach

supremely black, 1985, plastic-laminated wood shelf; ceramic pitchers; cardboard detergent boxes re-presenting merchandise room-sized installations has vigorous & chaotic energy produces aesthetic pleasure w/ means shaped by the supply + demand of the marketplace as much as by his art-school training finds meaning where it might escape others conceptual artist who reveals metaphorical relationships among manufactured and handmade objects that he chooses and arranges in particular formats New York / Israel are melting pots unlike Duchamp (porcelain urinal) who plucks a single object from the mass of everyday things and thereby making it into "art," he treats objects as members of a large community of inanimate things that have their own peculiar life people don't see detergent in people's homes as "wow a consumer family" but rather as a more personal thing