de Kooning, Queen of Hearts, 1943-46, Abstract Expressionism (Early de Kooning)

• Discomfort of the body
• Painting we identify with
• We become her, and sympathize her.
• We gain a relationship with her, not the reaction to her.
• Using female to express himself: Female is the self
• Female = Alter Ego
• Psychological and Physical
• de Kooning was an alcoholic, because of his anxiety.

de Kooning, Asheville, 1949, Abstract Expressionism (Gesturalism)

• Chaotic, Loud, Anxious, Nervous
• Recording his anxieties and nervousness.
• "Painting never makes me feel peaceful or pure"
• In response to Pollock painting to feel pure harmony.
• For himself; expressing his anxieties.

Gesturalism: signifigance is in the gestures and how they make you feel

de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-1952, Abstract Expressionism (Gesturalism)

• Goes back to Figure because Greenberg said it was passé; doesn't want Greenberg telling him what to paint.
• Inspired by women in magazines; mouths (suggestive)
• Series begins as the ideal companion, then turns into enemy.
• Huge Breasts, Snarling mouths, Inflamed nostrils
• Paint handling varies: it is sensual in places, and angry in others.
• Paint handling is Expressive and Expressionistic/
• Anger belongs to both the subject and artist
• He told Elaine that the paintings were about her
• Blue at the bottom of the painting = water, and the figure is standing in water.
• Deep and profound paintings of his anger and frustration.
• Levels of "Woman I"
• Elaine (open relationship with de Kooning)
• His mother (wouldn't tell him who his father is)
• Himself (maybe in earler phase, painting the woman within him: self portrait)
• Irritation with beautiful women (record of that frustration)

Still, Untitled, 1946, Abstract Expressionism (Color Field)

• Abstractions of rugged landscape and Abstractions of the person that kind of landscape requires.

• Essence of Still: Self Portrait (the landscape and of the self)
• He is the ideal pioneer; rugged and manly
• Paintings have power to affect you (make you like him).
• Will have a liberating effect on you
• Make you feel rugged
• Identify with the qualities and are inspired by these qualities.

Rothko, Homage to Matisse, 1953, Abstract Expressionism (Color Field)

• Not just formalism, he is interested in expressing basic human emotions.
• Tragedy (Doom)- Apollonian
• Ecstasy- Dionysian
• Emotional beyond formal element of shape/color.
• Rothko really wants to communicate. He wants to be connected. 
• ISSUE WITH MODERN LIFE (SEPERATION)
• Function of religious life to bring us together -Not Transcenent painting. Meant to address your mutuality.
• Purpose Duality- Dark and Light
• Refers to Matisse in 2 ways
• Role played by Matisse played in his mature work.
• Counterpoint: how we know Matisse (paintings take us to paradise)

Newman, Cathedra, 1958, Abstract Expressionism (Color Field)

• When you stand in front of it, it envelopes you
• Should stand 18 in. away
• Numbs thought
• The stripe= You (small, limited, vertical) Abstraction of the human figure
• Expanse= Universe
• "Cathedra" =Throne of God
• How you are supposed to feel; what Ezekiel was feelin in front of the throne of God
• Illustrating an Idea, but do not create an idea; they do not work.

• Sublime feeling of standing in front of the awesome. Mirror of yourself.

Louis, Tet, 1959, Minimalism (Post Painterly Abstraction)

• Color on canvas that addresses the Eye
• Ultimate 1.5 second paintings: appreciate and move on. (nothing to get)
• Pure essence of painting color is color.
• Remove space; Space represents the world.
• Purpose: aesthitic pleasure "Pure" 
• no life, expression, or figures take spectator out of this impure world into pure painting transcending life. 

Stella, Die Fahne Hoch, 1959,

Minimalism (Hard Edge)

• Hand of artist has been eliminated
• Painting about itself, not the artist.
• Not just a painting about a painting, a painting about this painting. 
• Inside is about the outside, and outside is about the inside.
• Rectangles are depicted shapes, and come from the literal shape.
• Shapes are 3 in because that is the depth of the canvas. 
• Hermetically sealed- against the world
• Simple, clear, definite -not Clear!
• Title is from the Nazi marching song; relating the aim of th Nazi's with his aim at modernism.
• Interested in purity; impurities of Jews (insensitive) and eliminating impurites of modern art (simple, clear, and definite).
• ELIMINATION OF MYSTERY: what you see it what you see, NO metaphors.

Judd, Untitled, 1962, Minimalism (Hard Edge)

• Edges and shapes = Clarity, very hard edge.
  
• Shapes are clear, the number of them is clear.
• Didn't like closed boxes, didn't like the mystery.
• Judd was the leading hard edge scripter.
• Clear, Simple; Quest for purity
• Sound of painting= Silence
• In a white cube gallery; would work better next to nature to be able to compare textures and qualities.

Morris, Untitled, 1965, Minimalism (Hard Edge)

• Greenbergian- took color off of statue
• "Color belongs to painting, shape belongs to sculpture"
• Personal qualities: His associations are meaningful (about a woman)

Haacke, Grass Grows, 1967,

Minimalism (Materials and Process)

• Watching grass grow over the time of the exhibit is the work of art.
• Defintite; grass grows.
• Clear and Simple

Kosuth, Box, Cube, Empty, Clear, Glass, 1970, Minimalism (Materials and Process)

• Popular among critics, not the public.

Serra, One Ton Prop, 1969, Eccentric Minimalism

• About the material; 4 steel plates, life size, arranged in a house of cards.
• About the nature of steel: how hard it was, how tough it was, macho (strong tough, dangerous)
• It was amount HIM: ruggedness, strength of the material (reflected him)
• Alter-ego of the artist: Personal statement- self portrait.
• His father worked with this material, so he, himself worked with steel
• RESPECT the material, RESPECT him. 
• Not about you, just his self portrait.

Hesse, Hang Up, 1968, Eccentric Minimalism

• Looked like it is just about materials
• These works were self portraits- about her WEAKNESS
•   “I want to make something good out of the misery I always feel”
• Broken and bandaged frame (Hurt self)
• Empty frame (Infertility)
• Steel cable omes from frame and hangs on floor (Absurd and Indefinite)
•  Alter- ego

·         Hesse developed a brain tumor from working with the lethal materials

Diebenkorn, Girl Looking at a Landscape, 1957, New Figuration (Bay Area School)

• Enjoying the landscape onto the pacific
•  Pure Painterly element
•  Element of Realism: She is the STAND-IN for YOU    
• YOU are the SUBJECT
• Put yourself in her place
• Feel what she feels: calm, nice, relaxed 

Katz, The Bather, 1959,

New Figuration (New York School)

• Picture of Ada (wife) against the landscape
• Ada is always blank and calm
• Minimalist esthetic to quiet, empty, clear
• EMPTY of EMOTION – against the feelings of abstract expressionism
•  Turning the volume down to SILENT
• Paintings FOR: CITY people
• Relief from New York– loud, cluttered, confused and relief from feeling

Neel, Pregnant Maria, 1964,

New Figuration (New York School)

• Belongs to the Tradition of the Erotic Female Move
• She is in that position for HER
• She is the subject – not the object

Pearlstein, Female Nude Reclining on Bentwood Loveseat, 1975, New Figuration (New York School)

• Nudes= objects of art
• He signaled his interest in having his painting thought about in relation to other nude paintings.
•  He is contradicting that tradition: he is focusing on the FOOT
• The tradition was focusing on the beautiful (foot is not beautiful)
• Between the beautiful and the ugly
• Chair = beautiful, he focuses on the ugly (foot)

Purpose is AESTHETIC – for the lucky few

(those with sophisticated taste, have to know older paintings to appreciate)

Segal, Subway, 1968,

New Figuration (New York School)

• Important that they aren’t painted.
• They look empty of color- it accentuates their feelings of emptiness (loneliness)

Paik, One for Violin, 1964, Neo Dada (Fluxus)

• Event Card: Take a violin and smash it.
• Simple Event Score
• Charlotte Mormon performed this one and a man ran onto stage to prevent the smashing saying it could go to a poor student. She smashed it on his head.
• Cage didn't like Mormon's performance, because it was supposed to be light hearted and fun. Fun for everyone. 

Ono, Cut Piece, c. 1968, Neo Dada (Fluxus)

• Performance piece- emphasis on PERFORMANCE
• Event Score: she sits on a stage with scissors; audience is invited to come on stage and cut a piece of clothing off. 
• Serious and Tense
• About pacifism and trust; demonstrations that people can be trusted.

Kienholz, State Hospital, 1964-1966, Neo Dada

• Have to look through window of a door to see.
• Strapped to bed, covered in mucus, cloudy brain.
• Cloudy brain; only thing on the mind of the person s the condition they are in.
• One of his job was in a mental hospital; this showed what was going on.
• Social commentary to promote better treatment.
• For everyone.

Rauschenburg, Black Market, 1961, Neo Dada 

• Participatory Artwork; 4 clipboards, each had a number with paper.
• Box below containted objects; take object and leave a new object; draw a picture of the object you left.
• Audience created the Art. They made the meaning.
• Audience stole all objects, and paper.
• Rauschenburg said that is fine if that is the art they wanted to make.

Rauschenburg, Spring Training, 1965, Neo Dada

• No preparation; Performance Art: more complicated than Fluxus.
• Begins in the dark, his son brings in a chest with land turtles w/ flashlights attached to their backs.(watch lights move slowly for first 1/2 hour)
• Rauschenburg carries dancer around the stage.
• Women in bridesmaid dresses offer audience saltine crackers.
• Indeterminate, Chaotic, Life is interesting the way it is.

Johns, Target with Four Faces, 1955, Neo Dada

• Made him famous
• Acostic- pigment mixed with wax
• Painting began as a collage- newspaper elements
• Bits and pieces of newspaper can still be soon through the acostic
• For: an ELITE audience that will take the time (devoted) and has enough brains 
• “I did not want my work to be an explosion of my feelings”
• Saying he HAS FEELINGS that he doesn't want to expose
• But, he will let you in on them if you take the time
• Doesn’t cover this up entirely- still some exposure (like exposure of newspaper)
• About the issue of AIMING
• His AIM= to hide his feelings from the public (but this acknowledges that he has feelings and is conscious of them)
• About HIDING
• Eyes of faces are hidden; Eyes are windows
• Covering up that which you don't want to expose
• Target= empty
• Rejection of Abstract expressionism
• Quiet, silent, impersonal (break from Abstract Expressionism)

Johns, Painted Bronze, 1960, Neo Dada 

• Based on two conceptual levels:
• Inspired by a famous quote made by deKooning about Castelli, saying he could sell anything, even a couple of beer cans.
• Behind the joke is something more personal.
• One can is closed and heavy, the other is open and light
• Open/Light can: “Florida” is written on it (reference to Rauschenburg: being lighthearted and happy; and moving to Florida after he and Johns broke up)
• Closed and Heavy: represents Johns
• Double portrait of Rauschenberg and Johns separating.
• Not exposing his feelings and pain, but you can see this if you take the time.
• Not expressing his feelings, but will open up to those that get it.

Artwork about art

Subject of his work is ultimately DEATH

Johns, Souvenir, 1961, Neo Dada (Assemblage)

• Image of Jasper Johns on a plate
• “Souvenir”- something you keep that is important
• Souvenir written on the painting so that you know it is something important.
• The memory belongs to HIM- important to him
• If flashlight shines on the rear view mirror, you can see what’s on the painting
• If you work hard you can see what is important to him
• When you look in the mirror you see BLACK paint; Black=DEATH

Warhol, Campbell's Soup Can, 1962, Pop

• Art world in 1960 was homophobic, so his advisors told him not to portray gay subjects in his art
• He did not give up gay subjects- he just hid them
• Meaning=both a symbol of American supermarket AND meant gay through his associations with “Camp”
• Gay subject for HIM= Camp (meant gay for him because of the drawing he did on the can)
• Symbol of the American supermarket
• Celebration of what is cheap, good, and wholesome
• Businessman artists engaging in business
• He mass produced paintings with the Silk-screen method.

Warhol, Dick Tracy, 1961, Pop Art

• Part of Warhol's face he hated the mose: his nose.
• Nose is behind the hat in the original; Warhol disfigured nose.
• Also he weakened the chin; both nose and chin are changed to essentuate the ideal qualities of the hero (Dick Tracy) contrast
• Contrast between hero and sidekick (ideal and funny looking)
• Self Portrait: Dick Tracy= beautiful boys; represented objects of desire, and envy (wanted to be handsome, wanted the handsome men)
• Contrast between real and ideal self portrait
• Above black line= Crewy Lou's breast (has a crew cut/butch; gives lesbian pupular name butch) Crewy Lou is a lesbian and the villian.
• Warhol identifies with all three subjects; Gay, Funny Looking, Handsome/Ideal
• E= Eve gets all the blame for the fall (Crewy Lou)
• religious reference that he smuggles in because it isn't accpetable just like homoerotic.
• For HIMSELF: confronting himself (what he wants and who he is)
• Sophisticated language using child language.

Warhol, Elvis I and II, 1964, 1964, Pop Art

• Used silk screen for mass production
• Thought to be a celebration of Hollywood films; Warhol loved Hollywood films, LOVED the STARS
• "Flaming Star" Elvis movie poster
• Cowboy= Gay (gun and holster)
• For straights: Hollywood and Stardom
• For gay: references Gay erotica
• Purple pants; Red lips
• Took pleasure from sneaking gay work into art

Warhol, Ambulance Disaster, 1964, Pop Art

• Takes image and repeats it; source photo is transformed into painting. 
• Transformed death into Art; given shapes and form when contrasted with other images.
• When you see an image over an over it loses its initial effect. Empty feeling is what Warhol is searching for. Aesthetic numbing.
• Coping with anxiety; didn't produce for market, because the dealers wouldnt show them. 
• Produced for himself; Europeans were the first to show

Warhol, Mao, 1973, Pop Art 

• Mao is an enemy of capitalism; Nixon goes to China in 1972 (opens relationship with China)
• Over silk screen of face uses abstract expressionism over face (expressionism; personal expressionism)
• Mao is against personal expressionism, turns him into his own enemy.
• You can buy any size, any color, turns him into the embodiment of Capitalism.
• Celebration of Capitalism

Warhol, Last Supper, 1985, Pop Art

• begins as a commission, begins making many for sale.
• last supper "one of you will betray me" 
• religion meant a lot to him; carried a bible in pocket.
• Sunday he paints the big paintings.
• "sunday painter" joke
• Accusing these people of Betrayel
• reaction of christ: forgiving (not angry)
• forgiving image
• Focus on Communion; he never went to because he had to face confession and he couldn't do it. 

Lichtenstein, Look Mickey, 1961, Pop Art

• His first pop painting
• People were respectfully shocked by this painting
• He makes the choice to do this scene bc it is an INTERESTING choice
• “the big one” = the breakthrough (style that will finally get him attention)
• Both subects are HIM “me”- represent two different psyches
• Donald= one side of the psyche- maybe this is it! Maybe I hooked the big one!
• Mickey= other side of psyche saying “that's pretty stupid”
• Do this for SELF PROTECTION
• Allowed to have your fantasy, but yet you are protecting yourself if it doesn't happen
• He has formally changed the image: simplified, strengthened colors, clarified
• Changed to what he finds more aesthetically pleasing

Lichtenstein, Girl with Ball, 1961, Pop Art

• Ad- Come here for honeymoon or vacation
• He has CLEANED and EMPTIED her
• Clean, elegant, graceful curves
• Tightened in the foreground
• Change expression: empty
• Subject= a classical bather
• Clarifying, elegant, simple, clean- to create a CLASSICAL esthetic- considered himself a “classicist”
• Not only emptied Ads, he also emptied art

Lichtenstein, Drowned Girl, 1963, Pop Art

• Chose this because it made him realize comic artists are sophisticated, and he wanted to draw our attention to that reference
• He said in those works, I DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE SUBJECT
• He only cares about FORM
• For AESTHETIC purpose
• He flattens, simplified, clarifies, improves
• He did not empty the subject
• He changed the word “Mal” to “Brad”
• “Brad” = alter-ego
• He is playing out his romantic fantasy
• He wanted women to love him like the women in the comics loved Brad
• He is interested in forms, but when he says he is ONLY interested in forms, he is lying and hiding the truth
• Truth= he is playing out his fantasies
• Not only are there emotions there, there is the entire store there
• All images clearly make reference to the entire story

Lichtenstein, Masterpiece, 1962, Pop Art

• Was in his first big Castelli Exhibition
• Produced on the Eve of his Castelli show
• Fantasy on the Eve of the show “The big one”
• Fantasy= that everyone will love his work and he will get the girl

Lichtenstein, Wham!, 1963, Pop Art

• He has Cleaned, Simplified, Strengthened the source.
• Taken the diagonal and made it more horizontal. Tighter and stronger
• Stronger- more Wham
• Emotionally constipated- could only express himself by other works
• Anger towards his ex-wife
• Playing out a Revenge Fantasy
• At the end of WWII he was in the Navy- trained as a pilot
• Revenge fantasy of Lichtenstein the pilot killing ex-wife

Wesselmann, Great American Nude, 1961, Pop Art

• Abstracted playboy nude- Gave playboy a HIGH art reference to playboy
• Taking the conception of LOW art and raising it to HIGH art
• Cat= high art reference to “Olympia”
• Painting= Modigliani- artist of the erotic nude
• For: a sophisticated (HIGH ART) audience- will recognize cat and Modigliani reference

• Wife of deKooning
• Very sexually independent
• Created many problems in marriage
• Openly had affairs with several men

• soft, pretty Clifford Stills. Beautiful Clifford Stills painted by ROTHKO
• Rothko saw “Organisms” expressing the principle of all organisms
• Fundamental: Dionysian Will to LIVE (Life)

• Most important of the Greenbergian critics to appear in the 1960’s
• Organized an exhibition called Free Painters – Frank Stella (met at Princeton)
• They would go to New York and listen to Clemet Greenberg Speak

Neo-Dada

            -New Dada

-John Cage

-4’33” Performance

-Cage’s most famous neo composition

-Playful, fun performance for non-aesthetic pleasure

            -Conceptualism, assemblage, performance

Allan Kaprow’s most important essay

Pollock leads us to HAPPENINGS

• Founder of Fluxus
• An art that is “Simple, Amusing, and Unpretentious” Unpretentious, concerned with insignificancies, requiring no skill, having no commodity of institutional value, obtainable by ALL produced by ALL
• Most important aspect= Event Scores by George Brecht

• Fluxus
• In common with Minimalism à conceptual (experience of the idea), very simple
• Minimal conceptualism= very pretentious
• Life is raw material- its what you make of it to get a reaction out of people

• Work that is both painting and sculpture
• Greenburg hated them: painting should be painting, sculpture should be sculpture
• This is an impure hybrid
• It is okay if an artist works with art but they have to make it art. But, Rauschenberg left the junk as junk because he ACCEPTS the junk (chaos)

• organized by Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg, Olson
• Celebration of life AS IT IS- a bunch of uncoordinated events happening at the same time
• Cage danced with dog following him, Olson played the music
• (See Worksheet- “off the wall”)

• the woman who shot Andy Warhol- she was angry with him bc she gave him a script for a movie called “Fuck” and Warhol lost the script.  
• She firmly believed he stole it and was going to steal it and use it.
• He was pronounced dead at the hospital, and an Italian at the hospital recognized him and they saved him

• Portrait made in order to say something FLATTERING about YOU to the MEMBERS of your SOCIETY
• Images for your living spaces that say something about YOU
• Photographs were made, and flaws (blemishes) were taken out – make you look famous