ARTH340-Midterm

Another pioneer in International Style: Ludwig Miës van der Rohe Germany, later the U.S., 1888-1969

"less is more"

Andy Warhol (1928-87) Andy Warhol American, 1930-1987 Very eccentric artist (blank expression, silver wig, lacking in depth of thought); Personal mostly put-on; made a Pop image of himself; Studio in NY known as "The Factory"; Typical: repetition of common objects or celebrities; Comment on impersonal mass production?; Known for paintings and silkscreens, but also avant-garde films (of "mundane" things, often lasting several hours) Also a pioneer of video art;

Andy Warhol (1928-87)

ENVIRONMENTAL ART An broad area that covers a wide variety of art forms (see diagram below), including Earthworks, BioArt, EcoArt (Ecological Art)

Environmental Art

Christo (Christo Javacheff, American, b. Bulgaria 1935) and Jeanne-Claude (French/American, b. Morocco, 1935-2009)

-ENVIRONMENTAL ART (other)

Adrian Piper (American, born 1948) -Art and Racial Politics Known for her "Story Quilts"; • Work stems from her own experience as an African-American woman; • A strong feminist, she often fought against racism and sexism; • Work can be critical, but also celebratory;

Adrian Piper

Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, and The Feminist Art Program

woman should be treated same with man equal but than different 다른 페미니즘과 다르다.

"I am not trying to make facsimiles of photographs. Neither am I interested in the icon of the head as a total image. I don't want the viewer to see the whole head at once and assume that that's the most important aspect of my painting. I am not making Pop personality posters like the ones they sell in the Village. That's why I choose to do portraits of my friends-individuals that most people will not recognize. I don't want the viewer to recognize the head of Castro and think he has understood my work."

Chuck Close

Conceptual Art idea is paramount; Minimalist had reduced form, Conceptualist remove form's significance, goes beyond art object to the idea (often expressed through signs and language)

Conceptual Art

David Wojnarowicz 1954-1992 (pronounced Voy-nar-uh-vitz) Artist, AIDS advocate, then AIDS victim; First gay artist to be forcefully critical of response to AIDS Crisis in the U.S. in the 1980s; Worked in film, installation art, sculpture, photography, video, performance art, painting, collage, drawing, and writing (very good writer); Recent Controversy: His work A Fire in My Belly, a video from 1986-87 Made in part due to the death from AIDS of his mentor and partner Peter Hujar; In late 2010 part of an exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery Work removed after protest by The Catholic League and members of Congress

David Wojnarowicz

*David Wojnarowicz. A Fire In My Belly. 1986-87/ 2010 Original video made by Wojnarowicz back in the 1980s An array of images collaged or montaged together; The film's first, 13-minute section portrays the streets of Juarez, Mexico; • we see livestock in streets; • headlines are included and they point to violence • we also see professional wrestling matches and bloody bull-fighting and cockfighting. • We also see monster masks, falling coins, gun-toting puppets, arguing children and a burning map of Mexico; • Basically portrays a society of poverty and violence; The second section is seven minutes long • Still a Mexican theme, but now Wojnarowicz himself appears; • He sews his lips together with red thread. • Also see various images of pain and suffering: people with amputated limbs, dried up dead bodies, a masturbating man • And Saint Bernadette of Lourdes appears; she is killed in as a sacrifice. Meaning: • Have been seen as suggesting things related to homoerotic and AIDS, • but A Fire in My Belly also works on a universal and humanistic plane. • Wojnarowicz was catholic; he attended Catholic school in his youth while hustling in New York City, • the film uses religious symbols, such as a crucifix, and uses those symbols to comment on how the ideals of the religion have been corrupted; his statement isn't precisely clear, however. • The ants crawling over the crucifix symbol is ambiguous; he didn't say exactly what he meant by this, • Perhaps the soldier ants symbolize the repressed people, working together to respond to patrolling cops seen throughout the video; • Or, the carpenter ants represent the spiritual brethren of Jesus; Jesus was a carpenter. • Sewing bread: could symbolize separateness and an attempt to restore; could also symbolize that oppressed people are ignored (silenced); also, the breaking of the bread could symbolize the Eucharist. From http://www.laweekly.com/2010-12-30/film-tv/david-wojnarowicz-s-a-fire-in-my-belly-comes-to-l-a/ David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly Comes to L.A. Censored by the Smithsonian, now at the HammerBy Michael Joshua Rowin Thursday, Dec 30 2010 The footage lasts barely a dozen seconds. Yet its powerful imagery — of ants crawling over a crucified Jesus, from artist and activist David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly (A Work in Progress) — has caused an art-related uproar not seen in this country since the National Endowment for the Arts and "Sensation" controversies of the 1990s. Originally a 20-minute film, A Fire in My Belly was created by Wojnarowicz in 1986-87 as an expression of his outrage and grief over the AIDS epidemic and his own HIV diagnosis (the piece was considered unfinished when the artist died of AIDS complications in 1992). In October the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, D.C., created a four-minute re-edited version of the film (with an added soundtrack, taken from the Wojnarowicz papers at NYU's Fales Library, of audio from an ACT UP demonstration) for an exhibition titled "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture." It was quickly met with protests from Catholic League president Bill Donohue and expected Speaker of the House John Boehner, who trained their sights exclusively on A Fire, the former deeming it "hate speech" and the latter calling it "an outrageous use of taxpayer money and obvious attempt to offend Christians during the Christmas season." A month after the exhibition's opening, the Smithsonian removed the film. The institution claims not to have caved to pressure from the religious and political right, and defended its action by saying, "Attention to this particular video imagery and the way in which it was being interpreted by many overshadowed the importance and understanding of the entire exhibition." The art community, however, has been extremely critical of the move, with the Andy Warhol Foundation (a "Hide/Seek" co-sponsor) announcing a withdrawal of funds to the Smithsonian until A Fire in My Belly's reinstatement, and museums and galleries nationwide — including Los Angeles' CB1 Gallery, REDCAT, LACE and Gallery KM — defiantly showing the entire film. One of the first to take up the cause was the Hammer Museum, which moved to screen A Fire the day after it was censored in Washington. Showing the original version of the film, chief curator Douglas Fogle tells the Weekly, is as much an aesthetic stand as a political one. "In an era where reductive punditry has replaced thoughtful critical analysis, it is more and more important for cultural institutions to be a place where the viewer is respected enough to be able to make up their own minds after encountering a painting, a sculpture, a film, a photograph, a drawing, a performance or an installation," Fogle says. Fogle believes the Smithsonian's significant federal funding led to A Fire's removal. Like the other art organizations screening the film, he refuses to let the institution off the hook for avoiding a First Amendment battle. "It was so sad for me to find out that the National Portrait Gallery had betrayed this trust in our audiences," he says. Even viewed in light of the recent controversy, A Fire in My Belly likely will mean different things to different audiences; it's a complicated and unsettling film, not the obvious provocation church and government authorities would have the public believe it is. Wojnarowicz's silent Super 8 images comprise a portrait of a country as much as of himself. The film's first, 13-minute section surveys the streets of Juarez, Mexico, where livestock pass through intersections, headlines blare reports of daily murder and a heavy atmosphere of violence finds expression in gaudy professional wrestling matches and bloody bull- and cockfighting. Wojnarowicz constructs a dense montage of dark, disparate images that comment on the main "story." Shots of monster masks, falling coins, gun-toting puppets, feuding children and a burning map of Mexico evoke an impoverished, horror-show society in which masculinity becomes prey to destructive and cannibalistic impulses. The second section — seven minutes long, distilled into four for the re-edit — links the Mexican theme to more personal concerns. Wojnarowicz himself appears, sewing his lips together with red thread. Various images of corporeal passion and anguish follow: amputees, desiccated corpses, a masturbating man, an immolated Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. All these invite homoerotic and AIDS-related readings, but A Fire in My Belly also works on a universal and humanistic plane. In the rich tradition of Catholic art (Wojnarowicz attended Catholic school in his youth while hustling in New York City), the film compares religious longing with the physical desire and corruption it attempts to transcend. In this regard, the insects crawling over a suffering Christ remain ambiguous symbols, either soldier ants (animal-brothers to the repressive, patrolling cops seen throughout A Fire) or else carpenters (the spiritual brethren of Jesus). The generated associations are myriad, the inspired emotions troubling and complex. Thanks to museums currently rallying to Wojnarowicz's defense, they can be fully experienced rather than opportunistically demonized. He felt, with reason, mortally embattled, and the video is filled with symbols of vulnerability under attack: beggars, slaughtered animals, displaced bodies and the crucified Jesus. In Wojnarowicz's nature symbolism — and this is confirmed in other works — ants were symbols of a human life mechanically driven by its own needs, heedless of anything else. Here they blindly swarm over an emblem of suffering and self-sacrifice.

David Wojnarowicz.

#Lichtenstein. Drowning Girl. 1963 Comic book imagery (from dramatic comics); • Conversation bubble (here a thought bubble)• Flat color (lines used to suggest form, some shading);• Ben-day dots• Stylization (e.g., the waves) Altered from original: much larger scale; dots become red on white background (not read as pink); Original or derivative?; Meaning? Comment on how women are portrayed in comic books and elsewhere (e.g., helpless without a man, totally focused on him)?

Drowning Girl

EARTHWORKS and Land Art(same) : outdoors, making use of the land or outdoor environment; natural decay often an aspect; some in remote locations, others in populated areas;

Earthworks

Eduardo Kac (pronounced "Katz"; b. Brazil, 1962) lives, works in Chicago; known for: 1) interactive net installations 2) Bio Art; In 1990s began series of projects he calls: Transgenic • art form that draws on genetic engineering to create unique living hybrids

Eduardo Kac

Modern Architecture Important 19th-century developments: cast-iron, then steel-cage construction; prefabricated parts, invention of the elevator

Modern Architecture

Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-56) -Abstract Expressoinism(a development of abstract art that originated in New York in the 1940s and 1950s and aimed at subjective emotional expression with particular emphasis on the creative spontaneous act ) -ACTION OR GESTURE WING OF ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM -action painting developed method of dripping, slinging paint onto unprimed canvas; Used house paint and house paint brushes;

Jackson Pollock

Jasper Johns American(b. 1930) More of a precursor to Pop than was Rauschenberg; Some aspects (painterliness) of Abstract Expressionism, Also Pop elements; Common subjects: American flag, targets, letters, numbers Using common objects gives Johns freedom to concentrate on other things (paint application mainly). John's once said he liked to work with "things the mind already knows. That gives me room to work on other levels."

Jasper Johns

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) -CONCEPTUAL ART as with many conceptualists, uses words; commonly combines photograph with text; - has been a witty commentator on the art world;

John Baldessari

Joseph Kosuth (American, b. 1945) CONCEPTUAL ART key conceptual artist; move beyond art object to idea;

Joseph Kousth

Minimalism Also called Primary Structures; "ABC Art" Primarily used in reference to sculpture (although it can also refer to painting) and involves strictly geometric, elemental forms;Artists who wanted to reassert the physical reality of the art object over-against meaning and expression (which were the focus of Abstract Expressionism) Characteristics: • reduced form; geometric; • industrial, machine-made aesthetic; • lack of artist's touch; • normally a lack of bases (placed directly on gallery floor) • no content or meaning intended; Logical result of Modern abstraction?

MINIMALISM

Mark Rothko (American, 1903-70) COLOR-FIELD PAINTING "I am not interested in relationships of color or form or anything else. . . . I am interested only in expressing the basic human emotions more passive; not action-oriented; broad areas (or fields) of color areas of softly diffused color; soft or irregular edges; 2 or 3 rectangles of color, one layered on another; meaning extremely important to the artist (resented pure formal criticism of work);

Mark Rothko

MODERN ARCHITECTURE Important 19th-century developments: cast-iron, then steel-cage construction; prefabricated parts, invention of the elevator Modernist architects were very idealistic; They hoped that the style would bring affording and good housing to all people. Modern architects shared a "strong sense of social responsibility in that architecture should raise the living conditions of the masses." —H.J. Henket, "Modernity,Modernism and the Modern Movement, in H.J. Henket, Utopia: The Challenge of the Modern Movement (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers), 10. • Modernist architects believed that buildings could improve the lives of modern people • and that's not just limited to functional improvements in their lives; also spiritual improvement; • In general, the style had been very successful; • The public began to associate the style with prosperity and progress. They started thinking that this could be applied to public housing in the cities.

Modern Architecture

Philip Johnson(Ame) Began as a modernist; • one of the author's of the book International Style: Modern Architecture Since 1922, which gave the International Style its name. • In the 1970s he switched to a postmodern style.

Philip Johnson(Ame)

PHOTOREALISM: (mainly 1970s) Realism returns in Post-Minimalist period, but often in new forms; Photorealism a specific kind of realism: • paintings from photographs, • often made to look like photographs (with monocular perspective, out of focus areas, natural distortions characteristic of photographs;

Photorealism

POP Art Pop artists celebrated commonplace objects and people of everyday life, in this way seeking to elevate popular culture to the level of fine art

Pop Art

Postmodern Architecture: Reaction to cold, impersonal nature of Modern Architecture; "more is more" rather than "less is more" Modern building methods and materials, but not modern in: • use of decorative elements; • reference to past styles of architecture; • complexity okay; • as with Pop Art, wanted to re-connect with popular culture (with Main Street) Many styles develop (time of eclecticism and pluralism) • Pomo architects tied together in common dislike of modernism and a desire to move away from its suffocating grasp; • Postmodern in its decorative aspects (bright color, non-functional columns) and reference to classical architecture (columns, architraves);

Postmodern Architecture

Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) NEO-DADA in the United States (Origins of Pop Art): Reaction to abstraction of 50s and 60s; Precursors in 1950s: Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns; heyday for pure Pop Art: 1960s; criticized severely by critics (especially the formalists who loved Abstract Expressionism and Second Generation Color Field art) for pandering to lowbrow taste of public;

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Smithson (Amer.) -ENVIRONMENTAL ART earthworks & land art) major artist in this medium; began displaying organic material in containers (in the museum or gallery); then began producing Land Art pieces;

Robert smithson

Pop Art(in the U.S) Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97) Work based on comic book imagery

Roy Lichtenstein

SECOND-WAVE FEMINIST ART • Sometimes called "Difference Feminism" (women are equal to but inherently different than men) • Fought for equality in the home as well as the workplace. • Women and men are of equal value in society, but also different. • Common belief: Essentialism (the idea that there are essential ways of approaching art, and life, that women tend to share; women have a special viewpoint that distinguishes them from men; this is what ties them together as women); [no consideration of gender fluidity, transgender identity, etc. at this point] In art, the essentialist attitude tended to be that female artists approached things from a perspective that was uniquely female, and different from the approaches and attitudes of male artists. • We find this attitude in quite a bit of writing about the art of women at this time. • For example, art critic Lucy Lippard writing in 1976: "There are exceptions on both sides, but whereas female unease is usually dealt with hopefully, in terms of gentle self-exploration, self-criticism, or transformation, anxiety about the masculine role tends to take a violent, even self-destructive form." • Just fighting for equality within the patriarchal system only served to maintain that inherently unequal system; that system needed to be changed. • Reproductive rights became a key focus. The right to an abortion throughout the U.S. happened at this time (Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973); Equal Rights Amendment also introduced (although still not passed); Title IX established; etc. • Feminist of this time sought to challenge the omission of women from the history books and from art history texts; push for more inclusion. • The unique perspective of women was emphasized. • There were differences in viewpoints during this time; in the early 1960s the movement split into two groups: 1) Equal Rights Feminists and 2) Radical Feminists. The Equal Rights feminists were mostly concerned with gaining equal rights in the workplace and in the home. The Radical Feminists called for a more dramatic shift away from the patriarchal structure of society. Radical Feminists were also more concerned with lesbian rights. They also tended to be a bit more diverse.

Second-wave Feminist Art

Tony Smith (American, 1912-80) Minimalist Sculpture

Tony Smith

*Kusama, Sex Obsession Food Obsession Macaroni Infinity Nets & Kusama, 1962 Despite the embarrassment of some critics, her work catapulted her into fame; • Her notoriety rivaled the famous Pop artists such as Andy Warhol. • She enjoyed the attention; • she is naked on one of the phallic-themed sofas that she had produced; • She's also surrounded by macaroni pasta pieces; • repetition and sexual theme are common in her work; Creating a repetitive maze similar to her Infinity Net works; She's also heavily made up in 1960s style; wearing high heels; • This work has also been interpreted in feminist terms; • She is perhaps attempting to conquer her own aversion to sex and the male body; • She's also nude, like an odalisque on a couch, perhaps recognizing her own self as an object of male desire; • Notice the polka dots on her body; she often uses that motive; The dots on her body tie her into the work; she is an integral part of the work. • Later on she'll use her body and the bodies of others in performance art. This foreshadows that a bit.

picture of liying on the bed