Louise Rönnebeck, Harvest, 1940

o   Commissioned almost 1200 murals for post offices in the USA

Lester Beall, Light, 1937

-       Public art was seen worthy of government aid

o   Graphic design was important in terms of education

o   Art as a way of telling people what to do

o   Important people contained to consume things in order to keep industry moving

-       Immediate visual story

-       Rural Electrification Administration:

o   Individuals didn’t have to pay for electricity themselves

-       Posters like this about the benefits of electricity instead of burning wood, coal

o   Allowed for farming purposes à makes farms more productive

-        Light bulb stands for enlightenment

o   you can do activities in the evening, more efficient, life is enjoyable if there’s light

-       Red, white, and blue, inclusion in America à good for you and good for the country

o   you have to do your part and consume electricity so the economy doesn’t fall apart

-       Made a number of these types of posters underscoring this is the good thing to do

o   Used to persuade the public and promote change

Ben Shahn, Jersey Homesteads detail, 1937-38

-       Other murals in the piece were about the workforce… productive with equipment’s which promotes development and building

Reginald Marsh, The Park Bench, 1933

§  A way out of the economic crisis was dramatic change in government style, communist ideas were “floating around”

Isabel Bishop, On the Street (Fourteenth Street), 1932

o   Seemingly purposeful

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936

-       Referred to as the “ideal Madonna” --> absence of the male figure increases vulnerability and the feeling that they are “all alone”

Alexandre Hogue, Erosions No.2: Earth Mother Laid Bare, 1936

-       Sobering form of the land that looks exhausted and ruined  --> disturbing painting of land

Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930

o   “Heart of America” important region to celebrate America

Thomas Hart Benton, City Building, 1930 (detail from mural, American Today)

-       (Associated American Artists) AAA forms in 1934 --> made cheap reproductions of key works so people can own reproductions in their homes which instilled values and culture

Gerald Nailor (Toh Yah), Untitled, 1938

-       Commissioned for the Indian Affairs Exhibition but refused,  it is mocking and making fun of the white characters, making them seen pretentious, they are represented as larger than the other characters --> being critical about the white population who comes in to buy these works without trying to understand the histories and importance of the works

Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm, Number 30, 1950

o   Conveyed the making and mindset of Abstract Expressionism --> mythologizing Pollock as a freedom seeking postwar individual, a tormented artist-hero/outcast

o   Ritual aspect of applying the paint “type of choreography” à trance of activity

-       Overly romantic notions about native American culture, informing the way he works and draws from these cultures

-       Invited people to his studio --> but would not do work while they were there “explosive personality”

-       Clement Greenberg: the most developed work at the time, he was a critic that people listened to 

o   Prolific writer

o   Most important painter because of creative thought --> this put pressure on Pollock to live up to this reputation --> more than he could handle, went back to being an alcoholic, characterized similarly to James Dean, Elvis Presley 

o   Medium being very medium specific (wood, canvas)

-       Influenced by surrealists and automatism: entering the studio and just creating, “open-ended composition”

-       His death added to his “heroic figure”

Mark Rothko, Yellow Band, 1956

-       Interpretation is up to the viewer  --> you become one with the painting

Robert Motherwell, At Five in the Afternoon, from the series Elegy to the Spanish Republic 1950

-       Ethical then aesthetic, without ethical consciousness a painting is only about placement

George Tooker, Subway, 1950

-       Tooker was a homosexual man and was hiding himself as to be gay in this time was to not conform

Normal Lewis, Harlem Courtyard, 1954

-       Work fits in with the movement, but his racial identity does not

Louise Bourgeois, Pregnant Woman, 1947-49

-       similar to Cycladic figures

Lee Krasner, Untitled, 1949

o   Pollock becomes a heroic figure à people are more interested in what works there are left of his… not interested in hers

William de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52

-       “Women irritate me” –Kooning

Jasper Johns, Flag on Orange Field, 1957

o   Inspired by Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg, Odalisk, 1955-58

-       Carries us through the city everyday… a mode of unconscious/divided attention, it does not recognize beauty or ugliness, but is simply just there.

Bruce Conner, Looking Glass, 1964

o   He re-edits it and puts it to a musical soundtrack à beginnings of the music video

Edward Kienholz, The Illegal Operation, 1962

-       Difficult to find appealing art

Roy Lichtenstein, Eddie Diptych, 1963

-       Don’t come with the anti-establishment messages

Andy Warhol, Twenty-Five Coloured Marilyn’s, 1962

-       “When you see a gruesome picture over and over again it doesn’t really have any effect”

James Rosenquist, F-111, 1964-65

o   People made a living out of things that were destructive

James Turrell, Catso Blue, 1967

-       Seeking to “see ourselves and understand the mechanisms of sight and individual perception à phenomenon of light

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970

-       Constantly changes with water levels, materials move over time as a result of the movement of the water

Donald Judd, Large Stack, 1968

-       “A work only needs to be interesting”

Carl Andre, Aluminum and Magnesium Plain, 1969

o   Perhaps minimalism is an anecdote to pop art

Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait, 1968

-       Abstract quality up-close, only come in to focus when you step back

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965

-       Use of text, no technical skill

Vito Acconci, Trademarks, 1970

-       Photography and video played an important role in preserving the works for historical memory and documentation

Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1970

-       These materials break down and change states à dramatically altering what they look like over time, material that wasn’t meant to last

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974-1979

o   Over 400 individuals who donated time or materials to the work… why is only her name attached to it

Joan Semmel, Through the Object’s Eye, 1975

-       Female centered experience à opposition to the traditional female view

Carolee Schneemann, Interior Scroll, 1975

-       Shocking work, but important in terms of breaking through barriers of criticism

Miriam Schapiro, Mary Cassatt and Me, 1976

-       Wants to place herself in an artistic genealogy with them

Ana Mendieta, Imagen de Yagul, (Image from Yagul) OR First Silueta, 1973

-       Celebrated the body as a primal source of life à she cast herself as an Earth goddess to express her longings to return to her homelands

Yolanda Lopez, Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe, 1978

-       “Ethnicity more than gender has shaped their identity”

Faith Ringgold, the Flag is Bleeding, 1967

-       Blood drips, giving a potential reading of violence

David Hammons, Injustice Case, 1970

o   Abuse of civil liberties

Robert Colescott, George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from American History 1975

o   Relates to the song of towers by Aaron Douglas

Melvin Edwards, Afro-Phoenix, No. 1, 1963

-       Welded bolts, chains, scissors, knives, wires, and nails as metaphors to represent the horrors of slavery and racial violence in America

T.C. Cannon, Collector #5, 1975

o   A way of inserting Indian art in art forms within a lineage of art forms

Maya Lin, The Vietnam Veterans War Memorial, 1980-82

-       “Rubbings” to rub loved one’s names and have something to take home from the memorial

Richard Serra, Tilted Arc, 1981

o   Is art only made for a section of the population?

Julian Schnabel, VITA, 1984

-       “Too carefully hyped in terms of self-promotion”

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Horn Players, 1983

-       Idea of branding oneself and the crown as a significant goal of his work à to be important

Jeff Koons, St. John the Baptist, 1988

-       Made a limited addition set – increases the value

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground), 1989

-       Often phrases use to accuse the viewers “you” and “we” calling the attention to the position of the viewer

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 211, (Historical Portraits) 1989

-       Nothing is more elevated than other, there are just as many representations of idealized beauty in art as in other media

Carrie Mae Weems, Mirror Mirror, 1987-1988

o   Interested in interrogating racism in the media or that linger in office jokes

Jenny Holzer, Truisms, 1982

-       Many are critical of society and consumerism à types of messages that stand against advertising in public space

Krysztof Wodiczko, Projection, 1988

-       Unwanted by the institutions à the attack must be a surprise “when the architecture has its nightmares”

Andres Serrano, Piss Christ, 1987

o   If a black person makes provocative images with racism is it racist?

New Deal for the Arts (The Great Depression)

o   Large scale capitalism returned USA to levels of production, consumption, and employment   

Social Realism

o   Depiction of poverty and despair

Abstract Expressionism

o   Out of the 1950’s we see how American values become solidified

Hans Namuth

-       Invited people to his studio à but would not do work while they were there “explosive personality”

Colour Field Painting

-       Interpretation is up to the viewer  à you become one with the painting

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Lee Krasner

-       Moves between them, they are in conversation with one another, one did not take from another

§  Inspired by Rauschenberg

Allan Kaprow, 18 Happenings in Six Parts, 1959

-       Inspired Claes Oldenburg’s “The Store”

Pop Art

-       British Independent Group: similar to pop art, but didn’t catch on because consumer culture was not at the same height as consumerism in USA

Minimalism

-       Artist: Donald Judd, Large Stack, 1968

Frank Stella

-       Putting emphasis on objects

Michael Fried

-       Accused artists of embracing object hood of art à contrasts with the timeless abstract expressionism that exists in a separate world from the one we live in

Sol LeWitt

o   Driven by a set of principles he’s interested in visualizing

Photo Realism

-       Abstract quality up-close, only come in to focus when you step back

Conceptual Art

o   Show included a photograph of a chair, a dictionary definition of a chair, and an actual chair

-       Example: refer to Allan Kaprow’s Happenings from 1959

Earth Works

o   Framing these spaces as “simple” or “timeless”

Site Specific

Site Specific

-       Constantly changes with water levels, materials move over time as a result of the movement of the water

Feminist Art

o   Example: Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground) from 1989, or Cindy Sherman’s film stills which she takes on various roles and examines links between female images and identity

Judy Chicago 

(and Miriam Schapiro, in front of Womanhouse, 1971-72)

o   Over 400 individuals who donated time or materials to the work… why is only her name attached to it

Black Art Movement

-       Other examples include David Hammons Injustice Case, Robert Colescott George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from American History, Melvin Edwards Afro-Phoenix No.1…

Culture Wars

§  She said she would not have won it if it was not a blind competition

Neo-Expressionism

-       Eclectic and energetic

Post-modernism

-       Modernism was about innovation… (post-modernism undermines this)

Appropriation

-       Made a limited addition set – increases the value

Activist Art

o   She rented the spectacular signboard in Times Square so her embodies messages and stark typefaces evoked the voice of authority and exposed absurdities/inconsistencies of language, media manipulation, and contemporary value systems

Body Art

-       Photography and video played an important role in preserving the works for historical memory and documentation

Funk Art

-       No concern for technique, no pretension, no care about durability, and little care about the final form

Anti-Form

-       These materials break down and change states à dramatically altering what they look like over time, material that wasn’t meant to last

Regionalism

-       Examples would be American Gothic by Grant Wood, and City Building by Thomas Hart Benton

Dorothy Dunn

§  Rug has abstract designs à these later influenced Abstract Expressionist artists