FNAR 377 Exam 2
Arte Povera
"impoverished"/poor art a style and movement in art originating in Italy in the 1960s combining aspects of conceptual, minimalist, and performance art, and making use of worthless or common materials such as stones or newspapers, in the hope of subverting the commercialization of art.
moire pattern
"secondary and visually evident superimposed pattern created when two patterns overlap" but they aren't limited to forms in motion. A type of graphic interference pattern that seemingly appears out of nowhere when lines, stripes, grids or curves align unexpectedly in a design.
Frederic Jameson
(American literary critic, b. 1934) Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, 1984 the author offers a critique of modernism and postmodernism from a Marxist perspective.
Jean-Francois Lyotard
(French philosopher, theorist, 1924-1998) The Postmodern Condition, 1979 the author analyzes the notion of knowledge in postmodern society as the end of 'grand narratives' or metanarratives, which he considers a quintessential feature of modernity. Lyotard introduced the term 'postmodernism', which was previously only used by art critics, into philosophy and social sciences, with the following observation: "Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives"
Michael Fried
(formalist critic, b. 1939) • Greenberg was his mentor • "Art and Objecthood," in Artforum (1967) critical of Minimalism for its literalness and "theatricality" Stella's work interpreted as both minimalism and formalist depending on who was looking
Politics & Art
-The photography of the civil rights movement -The vietnam war
Postmodernism (c.1970-present)
-pluralism; acceptance of many viewpoints, experiences, and styles -questioning singular, definite meanings, identities (constructed in a context as opposed to being natural) -questioning traditional values of skill, genius, and originality -validation of non-"high" art forms (crafts, video, performance, folk, street art, etc.) and interdependence of art & advertising; "new depthlessness" (Jameson) -Intermixing of high and low & different styles and time periods (appropriation - taking something from another source, borrowing; pastiche - mix of references that has no clear meaning)
Modernism (c.1890-late1960s)
-universalism and metanarratives -reality, truth, meaning: knowable, definite -avant-garde: always pushing something new and original; belief in progress -High Art remived from the common bourgeois (middle-class) experience and mass culture -Greenberg's formalist "purity" and the autonomy of art
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
A French phenomenologist; wrote Phenomenology of Perception, 1945
"A New Spirit in Painting," 1981 Royal Academy, London
A New Spirit in Painting was the title of a major exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in 1981. It attempted to sum up the state of painting at that point. It was an early response to the new currents that appeared in both painting and sculpture around 1980, and acted as a launch-pad that brought these developments to public attention. The term new spirit painting became used particularly in Britain and is useful in that it also embraces aspects of new painting at that time that do not fit quite comfortably into the category of neo-expressionism, such as the American painters David Salle and Eric Fischl and in Britain Paula Rego, Stephen McKenna, Steven Campbell and the abstract painter Sean Scully.
Postmodern Architecture
A reaction in architectural design to the feeling of sterile alienation that many people get from modern architecture. Postmodernism uses older, historical styles and a sense of lightheartedness and eclecticism. Buildings combine pleasant-looking forms and playful colors to convey new ideas and to create spaces that are more people-friendly than their modernist predecessors.
Sol LeWitt, "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art" (1967)
According to LeWitt, the most important aspect of Contemporary Art is the "idea of concept." The planning, decisions, and concept are determined prior to beginning to create the work. The execution is simply a routine or duty. It is not the main focus nor is it what contributes value. In fact, the skill of the artists is not relevant. The idea is what drives the piece and creates value. It becomes a machine that makes the art. Conceptual Art is not theoretical. Instead, it is intuitive, purposeless, and involved with the processes of the mind. Contemporary artists aim to make their works mentally engaging rather than focusing on making them emotionally or optically engaging. Because of this Contemporary Art is typically "emotionally dry." This does not mean that the art will be boring, though. It simply means that viewers should not expect an emotional experience from the work. It does not really matter what the work looks like, and the work does not even need to be made visual. Conceptual Art does not have one definite meaning which should be the same for every viewer Conceptual Art is supposed to engage the "mind of the viewer rather than his eye or emotions." This relates to the idea of concept being the most important aspect of Conceptual Art. By engaging with the mind of the viewer, the artist is able to make the concept the main focus. If he had engaged with the eye of the viewer, opticality would have been the focus. If he had engaged with the emotions of the viewer, any expression conveyed in the artwork would have been the focus. The aspects of a piece now mean different things in relation to Contemporary Art. Color, shape, texture, and surface no longer tell a deeper story and, instead, operate solely as functions of physicality. These aspects should not distract the viewer from the idea of concept. Thus, the art should be created in the simplest, most economical way possible.
Not really minimalists
Agnes Martin and Tony Smith
Deconstructivism
An architectural style using deconstruction as an analytical strategy. Deconstructivist architects attempt to disorient the observer by disrupting the conventional categories of architecture. The haphazard presentation of volumes, masses, planes, lighting, and so forth challenges the viewer's assumptions about form as it relates to function.
Neo-Expressionism in Germany (Neuen Wilden)
An art movement that emerged in the 1970s and that reflects the artists' interest in the expressive capability of art, seen earlier in German Expressionism and Abstract Expressionism. Die Neuen Wilden (The New Wild Ones) was an informal group of young Neo-Expressionist artists active in Germany from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s. Taking a cue from German Expressionist art of the early 20th century, Neo-Expressionism was bold, raw, brutish, spontaneous, messy, vital, emotional, sensual, antimodern, antiprogressive, and at times nihilistic, denying any meaning in life. Led by the radical German artist Georg Baselitz, Neo-Expressionists challenged Minimalism and conceptual art, which were popular at the time, rejecting the detached objectivity and intellectual pretensions of those movements. Intentionally male-dominated, Neo-Expressionism promoted the idea of the artist as hero. It also marked a return to the human body as a subject of art and to historical and mythological imagery. Though international in scope, with centers of activity in Italy, France, and the United States, Neo-Expressionism flourished most notably in Germany.
International Style
Archetypal, post-World War II modernist architectural style, best known for its "curtain-wall" designs of steel-and-glass corporate high-rises.
Brutalism
Architectural style characterized by bold forms, harsh proportions, and rough materials such as exposed concrete, steel and wood.
Body Art & Performance
Art in which the human body is used in art and "as" art
The body in the 1960s and 70s
Context: • Vietnam War, 1955-1975, (escalation of troops began 1965) First "living-room war" • Anti-war protests • 1968 assassinations of MLK and RFK • Civil Rights Movement, 1950s60s
Early Feminist Art
Context: • 4 "Waves" of Feminism and their foci: - 1) late 19th-early 20th century (suffrage) • 19th Amendment (adopted August 18, 1920) - 2) c. 1960s-1990s (sexuality, reproductive rights, ERA; "essentialist") • 1970: 50th year anniversary of the 19th Amendment • Reproductive rights: First oral contraceptive available, 1960; Roe vs. Wade, 1973 • National Organization of Women, est. 1966; Woman's Studies programs est. mid-1970s • Publications: Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, 1963; Ms. Magazine, est. 1971-72; Our Bodies, Ourselves, booklet, 1970 & 1st commercial edition, 1973 - 3) mid-1990s (questions universal womanhood and simple categories; more global, multicultural) - 4) 2000s (gender equity; intersections between marginalized groups—gender, race, age, class, ability, sexual orientation) Goals: - Assert previously ignored or suppressed female perspectives and experiences - Challenge male-dominated Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Conceptualism • Early Feminist Art: Strategies - Body imagery - "Women's work" - Use of various personae (goddess, stereotypes)
Critical Theory
Critical theory is a social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole. It differs from traditional theory, which focuses only on understanding or explaining society. in art history: is often borrowed from literary scholars, and it involves the application of a non-artistic analytical framework to the study of art objects. Feminist, Marxist, critical race, queer, and postcolonial theories are all well established in the discipline.
Minimalist Light Works
Dan Flavin was an American artist and pioneer of Minimalism, best known for his seminal installations of light fixtures. His illuminated sculptures offer a rigorous formal and conceptual investigation of space and light, wherein the artist arranged commercial fluorescent bulbs into differing geometric compositions.
Germano Celant
Germano Celant was an Italian art historian, critic and curator who coined the term "Arte Povera" in 1967 and wrote many articles and books on the subject
"New Image Painting," 1978, Whitney Museum, NY
New Image Painting is also referred to as New Image Art. It is a vague term made popular in the late 1970s and is highly associated to the artworks of contemporary artists who have a strident figurative style and uses cartoon-like imagery along with somewhat abrasive handling that is mostly influenced by Neo-Expressionism. The term New Image Painting was given weight in an exhibition that was given the same title held at the Whitney Museum in New York in 1978.1 The New Image concept marked the return of the arts to painting after a time when a big part of the works of contemporary artists had been focused on conceptual art, installation, and performance. New Image Painting is closely related to Figuration Libre of France, Transavantgarde of Italy, Nuovi Nuovi also of Italy, and Neo Expressionismus of Germany.
Linda Nochlin, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" (1971)
Nochlin argues that feminists react to the question of the essay by attempting to simply answer it. They "swallow the bait, hook, line and sinker, and...attempt to answer the question as it is put" by trying to come up with worthy examples of women artists throughout history. They search for women artists who have been insufficiently appreciated, who have been forgotten, or who they believe they can make a case for. However, Nochlin argues that this effort is problematic because it does "nothing to question the assumptions lying behind the question." Nochlin believes that the question itself seems to suggest that women are incapable of greatness and, thus, attempting to answer it reinforces its negative implications. Nochlin claims that all women artists cannot be categorized by their shared qualities of femininity; she explains they do not share an "essence of femininity." There have been no great women artists because the arts have been "stultifying, oppressive and discouraging" to women. In fact, the arts have been this way for all people who are not middle-class white men. The issue is not that women are not as talented because of who they are. The true issue lies in institutions and education, which favor men and create barriers for women. The odds are stacked against women from the beginning, so it is miraculous that any women have been able to achieve excellence in male-dominated fields, even if they are not considered "great." According to Nochlin, there are misconceptions, assumptions, and misleading ideas that have shaped the study and practice of art and Art History and have contributed to the issues concerning women in the arts. One of these misconceptions is the myth of the "Great Artist." This myth suggests that the Great Artist has "within his person since birth a mysterious essence...called Genius or Talent, which, like murder, must always out, no matter how unlikely or unpromising the circumstances." Having this Genius is what leads to someone being classified as a Great Artist. However, this misconception is problematic because myths, like this one, are not 100% truthful and they reflect the attitudes enveloped within them. Art historians place far too much emphasis on the Great Artists and too little emphasis on the social and institutional structures that influenced the artist. By simply focusing on the Great Artist theory, one could say that there have been no great women artists because women do not possess the Genius necessary to be great. By focusing also on the social and institutional structures, one can see that there are other factors that have prevented women from becoming great. To help resolve these issues, Nochlin suggests we ask other questions about the social situations and institutions in which artists live and operate to better understand what shaped and limited their practices. The few women who did achieve "pre-eminence" or a degree of success in art, despite all the obstacles, often shared a key feature. The vast majority of them had fathers who were artists or had a personal relationship with a "dominant male artistic personality." This characteristic is also common in male artists, but it occurs almost without exception in successful female artists.
Baudrillard
Suggests media representations can become a form of hyperreality, which become more real than reality itself. In this sense, the media don't reflect reality, but actively create it.
Anti-form (Process Art)
Term associated with a group of artists working in the United States in the late 1960s who embraced chance and other organic processes in the creation of their minimal sculptures Influences by Beuys
Femmages
The name American artist Miriam Schapiro gave to her sewn collages, assembled from fabrics, quilts, buttons, sequins, lace trim, and rickrack collected at antique shows and fairs. a word invented by us to include all of the above activities as they were practiced by women using traditional women's techniques to achieve their art-sewing, piecing, hooking, cutting, appliquéing, cooking and the like--activities also engaged in by men but assigned in history to women
Dematerialization
The process in which fewer materials are used in the creation of a product
"Zeitgeist," Berlin 1982
The years was 1982, seven years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Christos M. Joachimides, a Greek art historian, and Norman Rosenthal, from London's Royal Academy, organized what was arguably one of the most historically significant global painting surveys of the 20th century. "Zeitgeist" was the term chosen to define the title of this momentous exhibition. Held in the center of Berlin at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, a former arts and crafts museum of the Prussian State, "Zeitgeist" brought together 45 of the worlds' most driven and symbolically heroic artists of the moment. Using Joseph Beuys as a springboard and catalyst for an ever-widening perspective of personal liberation and mythos within the spirit of the times, painting was brought once again into the global forefront of intellectual, spiritual, cultural, political, and ethical concerns. Truly, the only analogy that I can conceive of with regards to the cohabitation of these 237 paintings (with few sculptures) is 'possibly' the giant tigers of the Roman Coliseum padding their throbbing claws on the hot pit of the dry ground as they roamed with assured sight and strength. Combining the best of the American and German Neo-Expressionist painters, along with the Italian Transavantgarde painters, "Zeitgeist" gave the world the opportunity to witness an artistic tsunami of painterly possibility. As it should have, it raised a political and philosophical debate of unprecedented scale within the artistic intelligentsia of the moment.
Poststructuralism
a broad term that refers to social theories that question structuralism's search for deep structures and that focused on individuals and local differences. In geography, many poststructuralists focus on how marginalized groups view and use landscapes
Gestalt Psychology
a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts
Metanarrative
a single, overarching interpretation, or grand story, of reality
Deconstruction
a type of critical postmodern analysis that involves taking apart or disassembling old ways of thinking
Pluralism
acceptance of many viewpoints, experiences, and styles
Functionalism
aesthetic value is completely determined by and therefore reducible to practical function
Modernist Architecture
an architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form should follow function (functionalism); an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament.
Minimalism (late 1950s and 60s)
an art movement in sculpture and painting that began in the 1950s and emphasized extreme simplification of form and color Minimalism is an artistic movement that occurred during the late 1950s and 60s. The movement reacted to Abstract Expressionism, as well as the expansion of popular culture and consumerism. Other art contexts that influenced minimalism include Pop Art, Neo-Dada, Greenberg's view of Modernism, and Duchamp's readymades. The time period was also influenced by the historical context, which included the turmoil of the 1960s as seen through the Civil Rights movement, the Cold War, communism, the Vietnam War, and counterculture. Minimalist artists were searching for alternatives to what was considered mainstream. These artists were "self-consciously renouncing recent art they thought had become stale and academic" (The Art Story, n.d.). The theoretical context of Minimalism included gestalt psychology, which related to the ideas that humans perceive things as a whole and that the mind works in patterns. Empiricism, which emphasized what is right in front of the viewer, and phenomenology, which referred to how humans are conscious of the things around them through their bodies, were also prevalent theories of the time. The prevalence of consumerism and distractedness caused minimalist artists to focus on heightening awareness. The forms and qualities of minimalist works included simple organization and geometry, grids, boxes, multiplicity, repetition, seriality, and standardized, factory-made materials. Minimalist forms were also often environments in that they dealt with real space. The goals of minimalist works included creating a focus on the relationship between the object and the viewer, which was meant to heighten awareness of space and create an experience for the viewer. Minimalist artists also removed self-expression from their work. This was part of their reaction against the Abstract Expressionists. They also reacted against Greenberg's view of Modernism by creating work that was not medium-specific. All of these forms, features, and goals aligned with the Minimalists' desire to move away from art that they deemed to be too personal and toward art that relied on "literal presentation and [a] lack of expressive content" (Extended Learning Institute, n.d.).
MOMA exhibition, 1965: The Responsive Eye
an exhibition of more than 120 paintings and constructions by 99 artists from some 15 countries, documenting a widespread and powerful new direction in contemporary art, will be on view at The Museum of Modern Art from February 25 through April 25. Directed by William C. Seitz, Curator of Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions, the exhibition was announced in I962 and has been in preparation for more than a year. As Mr. Seitz points out in the accompanying catalog*, these works exist less as objects to be examined than as generators of perceptual responses in the eye and mind of the viewer. Using only lines, bands and patterns, flat areas of color, white, gray or black or cleanly cut wood, glass, metal and plastic, perceptual artists establish a new relationship between the observer and a work of art. These new kinds of subjective experiences, which result from the simultaneous contrast of colors, after-images, illusions and other optical devices, are entirely real to the eye even though they do not exist physically in the work itself. Each observer sees and responds somewhat differently.
Simulacra
an image or representation of someone or something. simulations of reality
Situationist International (1957-72)
an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. The intellectual foundations of the Situationist International were derived primarily from Libertarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, particularly Dada and Surrealism.[1] Overall, situationist theory represented an attempt to synthesize this diverse field of theoretical disciplines into a modern and comprehensive critique of mid-20th century advanced capitalism.[1]
Conceptual Art
art in which the idea presented by the artist is considered more important than the finished product, if there is one.
Earthworks/Land Art
art made and displayed outdoors, call attention to the landscape, associated with growing environmental concerns of the 60s and 70s, often site specific
Donald Judd
artist-critic wrote "Specific Objects," in Arts Yearbook, 9 (New York, 1965) • "new three-dimensional work" and "specific objects" • "A work needs only to be interesting. Most works finally have one quality." -complexity is asserted in a simple form--the "whole thing made according to complex purposes;" • "It isn't necessary for a work to have a lot of things to look at, to compare, to analyze one by one, to contemplate;" "the things as a whole, its quality as a whole, is what is interesting." • that experience of the object in space is in itself enough—it does not need to allude to something else or express or tell a story. They are "non-relational" works. • Why be so open-ended? - Remember Greenberg and those "limitations?" - Ad Reinhardt and the end of painting?
"Documenta 7," 1982 Kassel, Germany
documenta 7 was the seventh edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. his exhibition, Rudi Fuchs, the Dutch artistic director of documenta 7, hoped to restore the "dignity" of contemporary art—not by emphasizing its sociopolitical responsibility, but by focusing on the aesthetic "autonomy" of art. Thus with documenta 7, Fuchs unleashed a kind of "dialectical countercurrent" to its predecessors, in which art was presented above all as a medium of social change, both within the system of art and in "real life."
Hyperreal
extremely realistic in detail. exaggerated in comparison to reality. an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies
Op Art (Optical Art) - late 1950s and 60s
is based on creating optical sensations of movement through the repetition and manipulation of color, shape, and line.
Post-Minimalism
late 1960s Post-Minimalism refers to a general reaction by artists in America beginning in the late 1960s against Minimalism and its insistence on closed, geometric forms. These dissenting artists eschewed the impersonal object for more open forms.
pastiche
mix of references that has no clear meaning Mix of incongruous parts; artistic work imitating the work of other artists, often satirically
avante-garde
new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or the people introducing them.
Frank Stella
pinstripe paintings
entropy
rate at which all matter decays a measure of the disorder of a system
Intertextual
relating to or involving a relationship between texts, especially literary ones. the shaping of a text's meaning by another text. It is the interconnection between similar or related works of literature that reflect and influence an audience's interpretation of the text. Intertextuality is the relation between texts that are inflicted by means of quotations and allusion
Seriality
repetition of (often geometric) forms; use of repetition/multiples
Appropriation
taking something from another source; borrowing
Universalism
the philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have universal application or applicability
Eclecticism
the process of making your own system by borrowing from two or more other systems
Historicism
the strong consciousness of and attention to the institutions, themes, styles, and forms of the past, made accessible by historical research, textual study, and archaeology
formalism
the study of art by analyzing and comparing form and style—the way objects are made and their purely visual aspects.
Semiotics
the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation
Guy Debord
was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International.
Phenomenology
we are conscious of things around us through our bodies
Empiricism
what is in front of you - direct knowledge the view that (a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses, and (b) science flourishes through observation and experiment.
Robert Morris
works were easily understood; viewers interacted with objects in space; phenomenology; heightened awareness of perception of the objects in space
