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Kara WALKER:
Slavery!! Slavery!! Presenting a GRAND and LIFELIKE Panoramic Journey into Picturesque Southern Slavery…
Cut paper & adhesive, 12 x 85 ft, Installation, 1997
• Figurative abstraction
Borrows some techniques, e.g lighting, from theater set design
• African American artist turns traditionally "sweet" early folk art form of silhouette on its ear to tackle troubled history of slavery/race in this country |
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Kara WALKER: A Subtlety*, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby….35 x 75 x 26 ft. Site-specific, temporary large-scale sculpture as 1 element of larger, temporary installation. Sugar over polystyrene foam, alternative media, 2014
Created on-site in the old Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn (before building's demolition.) Critique of history of slave plantation workers (& more recently, of low-wage factory workers) who provided processed sugar to the Americas & Europe
Largest of a group of figures. This immense Sphinx-like figure the central piece. Some smaller (melting chocolate & molasses) figures surrounded her
(*A subtlety was a medieval term for figurative sugar treat) |
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James TURRELL:
Roden Crater
• SW view of cinder cone volcano artist purchased before setting out decades-long, ongoing project. Site is near Sedona, Arizona
• Pristine interior spaces within crater (lit by day-and starlight) being developed by construction crews working under artist's direction
• Example of artist favoring a heroic (god-like) scale |
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James TURRELL:
Roden Crater, near Sedona, Arizona, 2000 to present (Ongoing construction)
• View of East portal entryway to crater• Crosses genres: sculpture & architecture & Land Art
• Use of light, including moonlight
(Among media used in this artwork, artists says in his statement he "gathers in starlight 3.5 billion years old.") |
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Mark TANSEY:
Action Painting II, oil on canvas
• Humor (art school jokes) & retro sources & monochromatic thin paint all typical of his work
• Paintings are large-scale, recalling grand heroic historical canvases of previous centuries |
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Mike & Doug
STARN
(or
Starn Twins) :
Whitney Museum, NYC, temporary installation
Collaboration
Non-archival taped layers. Purposely distress surfaces of photos, scratching w/ tools
Note appropriation of Renaissance painting of Dead Christ in framed photo, lower right |
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Mike & Doug
STARN
(or
Starn Twins):
Big Bambu, Temporary installation, roof of Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, 2010
• Alternative materials. Cross-over to architecture
• Climbers hired to construct piece out of bamboo poles & commercial colored bungee cords
• Twins share creation & credit for all work |
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Robert SMITHSON:
Spiral Jetty, basalt, salt crystal, etc. Land Art/ earthwork, Great Salt Lake,
1500 ft. long spiral, 1969-70
• Site-specific work (still extant) Appearance varies greatly w/ water level
• Early, influential earthwork a major piece of 20th century art. Questions art as commodity (as something to be bought & sold).
• Artist playing on larger stage than museum/ gallery allows. Artist as hero.
Alternative processes: earth movers etc
Deceased |
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Kiki SMITH:
Ribs, clay, ink, thread, nails,
22 x 17 x 10 in.
Could be seen as example of Fragmentation as trend in contemporary art & as example of Abstraction
Note contemporary trend to not hide structure in this raw presentation |
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Kiki SMITH:
Beeswax & microcrystalline wax figures on metal stands, 64 in. & 70 in. high
• Anti-heroic, anti-Romantic view of The Body a trend in contemporary art
• Psychological content drives much of contemporary art
Strict categories break down in contemporary art, as in her studio practice, which includes many diverse 2d & 3d media & processes |
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Cindy Sherman:
• Two separate staged works
• Her work crosses boundaries between photo and performance art. Plays w/ fluid notions of history, of gender, of personality & other identity issues
• Influences include art history, theatre, gender studies, etc.
Postmodern sensibilities evident in piece at left where artist fights the illusion she has worked so hard to create by not concealing the (theatrical costume shop) prosthesis |
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Cindy SHERMAN:
Film Still No. 7, Gelatin silver print,
8 x 10 in.
• In experiments that began while still an art student, artist adopts various personae in setting up her photos. She serves as director, actor, stylist, photographer
Series influenced by mid-century b/w glossies Hollywood film publicity shots distributed to local movie houses |
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Edward (or Ed) RUSCHA:
Those of Us Who Have Double Parked, pastel on paper
• Illusionism (in suggestion of an overhead light shining on ground)
This challenges his otherwise very flat treatment of the Picture Plane in this non-objective series of text phrases. Artist challenging what constitutes drawing or painting
• California artist frequently presents apparently nonsensical phrases open to interpretation. They may suggest narrative to some viewers
• Mines popular culture (including typography of the period) |
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Paul McCARTHY:
Blockhead Blueprint
Studies for Blockhead
Instructions for commercial fabricators
Example of artist whose practice crosses boundaries & includes sculpture & installation & small-scale architecture, drawing & performance art |
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Paul McCARTHY:
Blockhead
• Inflatable, large-scale outdoor sculpture. Figurative abstraction
• Appropriation (of Disney character Pinocchio)
• Irreverent artist (who studied art at U of U) converts pop subject matter in his work which uses diverse media & processes |
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Mary Ellen MARK:
Jesse with his Dog, Gelatin silver print
Artist as social critic. Calls attention to plight of poor & dispossessed, asking viewer to question contemporary society
•Note formal design elements |
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Mary Ellen MARK:
Laurie in the Ward 81 Tub, Oregon State Hospital, Gelatin silver print
From the Confinement Series (her portraits of institutionalized women)
Artist as activist, as witness, a chronicler of her times who spotlights the plight of the disadvantaged in society
Privacy concerns, including the right to informed consent, among issues raised by her work
Deceased |
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Robert MAPPLETHORPE:
Thomas, Gelatin silver print
• Staged photo
• Artist influenced by classical notions of beauty, and by classical art itself: a visual quote of Myron's Discobolus (The Discus Thrower)
• Influential gay artist lauding the male form. Many of his models part of his 1980s NYC circle. Titling each work in series with model's name opposed historical notion of model as passive hireling, as insignificant part of artist's creative process. Deceased |
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Maya LIN:
Avalanche, tempered glass, wood
• Example of sculpture moving off the pedestal. Installation challenges notion of art as commodity
(i.e. something to be bought, as opposed to something to be experienced)
Pattern, abstraction |
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Maya LIN:
Water Line, aluminum tubing, paint,
19 x 34 x 29 ft. Installation, 2006
• Example of categories breaking down in contemporary art: architect who does sculpture, in this case a piece which reads like a large drawing
Industrial material
the grid (manipulated here)
• She first came to prominence when, as a Yale student, won competition to design Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC. Controversial design only later embraced by vets & others |
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Barbara KRUGER:
It’s a Small World (but Not When You Have to Clean It)
Temporary, large-scale installation takes art out of gallery & into the street.
Artist as social critic
Artist has been influenced by, and has by now become an influence upon, contemporary graphic design |
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Barbara KRUGER:
Your body is a battleground
• Uses commercial processes e.g. adhesives/ Text usually a feature (as is this black/white/red palette.)
Feminist artist takes political stance in much of her work, rejecting notion of art & politics as being separate realms |
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Jenny HOLZER:
Living Series, enamel on metal
Artist uses commercial signpainters. Small work in this series posted (without permission) in various urban locations
Works feature text, often w/ social commentary
Artist as citizen, as scold |
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Jenny HOLZER:
Living Series, enamel on metal
Artist uses commercial signpainters. Small work in this series posted (without permission) in various urban locations
Works feature text, often w/ social commentary
Artist as citizen, as scold |
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Damien HIRST:
Spot Mini, (found object) auto with vinyl graphics
• Prominent member of Young British Artists group who dominated the art scene end of 20th century
• Pattern, applied to found object. Part of a series using same pattern on non-objective paintings & prints on more conventional (canvas & paper) surfaces
• Assistants make possible large-scale projects in assorted media, often with artist providing concept & approval but being hands-off re execution |
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Michael HEIZER:
Double Negative, Mormon Mesa, Nevada, 1969-70
2 removals of earth, 240,000 tons each
• Sculptural approach to landscape
• Works on heroic scale
• Land art. One of series of elaborate, long-term, ongoing construction projects in Nevada desert. (Ongoing other building projects in desert are examples of crossover-to- architecture.)
• Alternative tools: earthmovers, etc.
• Lower image is aerial view |
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Nan GOLDIN:
Nan, One Month After Being Battered, Cibachrome photo, 30 x 40 in., 1984
• Self-portrait. Artist boldly faces viewer, w/ title providing narrative |
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Nan GOLDIN:
Ric at Restaurant, NYC,
Cibachrome photo, 30 x 40 in.,
• Body of work documenting a particular slice of contemporary society
Artist chronicled lives (including the travails) of her circle
Specific characters & moods captured in her photo series |
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Robert GOBER:
Beeswax, pigment & (an alternative material) human hair, 1990
Trends in contemporary art's consideration of The Body evident here
include:
• fragmentation
• anti-heroicism, anti-Romanticism
• fluidity of gender, of identity |
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Lucian FREUD:
Naked Man, oil on canvas72 x 54 in.
Anti-heroic (anti-Romantic) treatment of The Body
Representational. Treatment of 3d space adds to unease of viewer
Deceased |
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Lucian FREUD:
Reflection (Self- Portrait), oil on canvas, 22 x 20 in., 1985
• Influential UK artist (intrigued by rendering the human figure, even in decades when considered unfashionable, a less-than-worthy subject for contemporary art). Grandson of Sigmund Freud |
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Walton FORD:
Fallen Bough, watercolor/ gouache (i.e. opaque watercolor) /ink/ pencil
• Known for draftsmanship & traditional notions of beauty in meticulous large- scale works on paper Influence from 19th century artist James Audubon
• Environmental concerns. Piece laments extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, once plentiful in US |
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Walter DeMaria:
The Lightning Field, Stainless steel poles over 1 mile x 3300 ft expanse, New Mexico, 1971-77
• Site-specific (ongoing, still extant) installation
• Could fall loosely into Earthwork (or Land Art) category in use of natural elements (& in playing on grandiose scale). Artist as god-like hero
• Lightning & landscape considered as part of media and process
• Such experiments resist notion of art as commodity (i.e. a product to be purchased) |
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Christo & Jeanne- Claude:
Running Fence, Temporary installation, 1976
• Veiled fence 24 miles long, extending across hills of California's Sonoma & Marin Counties, ending in Pacific Ocean
• Proposals to landowners, political authorities, etc, in years-long process required to receive permission to
eventually mount such projects |
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Christo & Jeanne- Claude:
Wrapped Reichstag (Parliament Building, Berlin), 1971-1995. Temporary installation
• Polypropylene fabric with aluminum surface and blue polypropylene rope
Collaboration between couple w/
large numbers of assistants |
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CAI Guo-Qiang:
Head On. Installation. Glass wall & 99 life size replicas of wolves fabricated from papier mache, plaster, fiberglass, resin and painted (found-material, alternative material) goat hides
• Illusion of movement
• Pattern
• Visual metaphor (Could be read as comment on environment…extinction of species, etc…or as reference to alarming speed of change in his native China |
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Jonathan BOROFSKY:
Hammering Men, steel, 1982
Installation view. Figures also exhibited as solo sculptures, eg one installed in front of Seattle Art Museum
• Kinetic. Figurative Abstraction
• Many of his works explore: What does it mean to be a worker? a man in today's world?
• He keeps tracks of sequence of his art-making history by prominently labeling surface of every piece w/ a number |
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Christian BOLTANSKI:
Personnes
Temporary installation (w/ found object clothing) at Grand Palais, Paris, 2010
• From series on the Holocaust (in recalling the collecting and cataloguing of personal effects taken from Jews & other victims) |
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Christian BOLTANSKI:
Theatre d’Ombres, Installation
Simple fabricated cut-out puppets (wood, cardboard, etc). Slide projection & fan
• Light as alternative medium
• Kinetic art (w/ fan providing movement.) Folk art influence seen in
this particular figurative abstraction |
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Tina BARNEY:
Marina and Peter, c. 1997
• From series of portraits of father/daughter at various ages in same locale. This photo years after notably less grim shot of same father/child/room.
• Subjects captured in their natural habitats |
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Tina BARNEY:
Marina's Room, 1987
• Series of color photos by photographer acting as a kind of anthropologist, documenting her upper- middle class urban "tribe".
• Psychological portraiture. As a series of these 2 characters, forms a narrative. |
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El ANATSUI:
Awu, aluminum liquor bottle caps & copper wire, 187 x 252 in., 2009
Patterns recall traditional African woven cloth designs
Born Ghana, works in Nigeria
Found-object (alternative) material
• Artist depends on assistants to make these large-scale, wall-mounted metal works |
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Layla ALI:
Artist's book. Much of artist's work is small, intimate in scale…which goes against contemporary trends
• History of race in US (& other issues of abuse of power) drive most of her imagery. In series, authority figures (parents, police, clergy etc) viewed
w/ suspicion |
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Layla ALI:
Artist's book. Gouache (opaque watercolor) on paper, 13 x 19 in., 2002
• Simple, hard-edge, figurative abstraction can appear innocuous at first glance |
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