Denise Green: an Artist's Odyssey
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µ˙ Book Selection Winter 2013 Denise Green: An Artist’s Odyssey (University of Minnesota Press, 2012) In Denise Green: An Artist’s Odyssey , readers find a fascinating story that combines autobiography and biography, art history and criticism in a book that is accessible for both art enthusiasts and art world insiders. From humble origins in Brisbane, Australia, to Paris during the revolutionary events of 1968, to New York since 1969, Denise Green has forged a career spanning four decades across three continents, encompassing art making and art writing combined with business savvy. In addition to Green’s own writing are contributions by artists and art historians, critics and curators, including Anthony Bond, Richard Kalina, Frances Lindsay, Roland Mönig, Ingrid Periz, Peter Timms, Christof Trepesch, and Lilly Wei. Also featured is a conversation between Denise Green and Kerry Stokes, one of Green’s patrons and among the most prominent collectors in Australia. How to Use this Book Discussion Guide How to Attend MFAH Book Tours Creating bridges between the literary and visual arts is Bring your book for docent-led MFAH Book Tours that link what makes MFAH Book Tours unique. Books, whether themes and excerpts from the book with select works in fiction or nonfiction, are written in specific times, places, the Museum’s galleries, generate lively discussion, and reveal and contexts—just as the visual arts are created in specific new ways of looking at visual art. The two options for tours times, places, and contexts. are Scheduled Tours or Reserved Group Tours: This book discussion guide uses works of art from the Scheduled Tours : For individual readers or small circles of collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and friends, Scheduled Tours are on specific dates and times from collections around the world as points of departure throughout the season. Visit www.mfah.org/bookclub to for discussions of major themes in Denise Green’s An see the schedule. Reservations to [email protected] Artist’s Odyssey . The significance of place and time, are requested. abstraction versus realism, and the connections between images and text and between artists and their works of art Reserved Group Tours: Are you a member of a book club are among the central issues addressed. with 12 or more members? If so, read and discuss the book, then reserve a group tour by emailing [email protected] with your contact information, the number of participants, and two (or more) preferred dates and times. Tours related to An Artist’s Odyssey are available January 2 through March 31, 2013. 1 Building a Life: Place & Time Australia: Then & Now Paris: An Artist Arises New York (1969 to Present): Moved Born and raised in Brisbane, Denise While living in Paris and working at for a Man, Stayed for a Career Green describes a difficult childhood an administrative job, Denise Green Chapter 6 (pp. 104–139) relates Green’s and adolescence (pp. 69–73) which began to attend art classes taught evolution from young and idealist artist resulted in her leaving Australia. She by Millie Lachman (see pp. 90–96). to mature and confident businesswoman. remained connected to Australia with These classes incorporated a wide Consider the quotation from Alan help from compatriots including arts range of media and techniques. Roland at the beginning of the chapter: administrator Leon Pariossien (pp. Discuss the profound impact of “Having a career in the arts today 83–86), gallerist Christine Abrahams Lachman’s lessons about art and life requires being more entrepreneurial (pp. 86–88), curator John Stringer, felt by Denise Green. than an investment banker.” Is this true? and collector Kerry Stokes (pp. 140–161). How has Green’s relationship to What were some key steps Green took Australia changed? which resulted in a stable art career? Abstraction Versus Realism In her statement for a 1978 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Denise Green wrote: Although I introduce many elements specific only to the language of painting, the image makes the work specific to my experience. Even though I cannot describe concretely what the experience is, it is very close to who I am, what I am, what I do, what I think, what I read, and what I see. (p. 34) Can an artist produce a work of art that is, at once, universal and personal? Typically, we look at and talk about a work of art for what it has or what it visibly demonstrates—its medium, its style, its subject. But Denise Green underscores the opposite: “Artistic identity is formed as much by what you admire as what you reject.” (p. 15) Consider and discuss a work of art—any work of art—based upon what the artist has rejected. Some examples at the MFAH sure to inspire lively discussion include: Left to right: Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez, Black-on-Black Bowl , Native American, San Ildefonso, 1928, ceramic, the MFAH, gift of Miss Ima Hogg, 44.147. Feather Tunic , Pre-Columbian, Nasca, 100 B.C.–A.D. 700, cotton, feathers, the MFAH, gift of Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. and Fayez Sarofim in honor of Peter C. Marzio at “One Great Night in November,” 2007.1314. Johann Heinrich Fuseli, The Dismission of Adam and Eve from Paradise , oil on canvas, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, 1985.14. Constantin Brâncu s,i, A Muse , 1917, polished bronze, the MFAH, gift of Mrs. Herman Brown and Mrs. William Stamps Farish, 62.1. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris 2 Abstraction Versus Realism (continued) Travels in India, according to Ingrid Periz (p. 17), “opened up [Green’s] work to the exploration of abstract line and touch….” Anthony Bond (p. 52) adds, “She has travelled extensively in China and Sri Lanka and, importantly, in India looking at ‘ideas that become form’ and connect different cultures.” Look at the following works in the MFAH Arts of India Gallery, read the interpretive labels (see below), and discuss how “ideas become form”: Shiva Nataraja , India, Hindu, 13th century, bronze The MFAH, gift of Carol and Robert Straus, 73.77. Shiva, the destroyer, is also Shiva Nataraja, the god of dance and music. The fire and drum in his hands symbolize his dual nature of destruction and creation. As Nataraja, Shiva is usually framed by a flaming aureole, which is missing here, and dances with his right foot resting on a demon. The demon symbolizes ignorance, which he has stamped out, and the serpent entwined on one of his arms also represents ignorance, which he removes with his wisdom. Hindu deities are commonly shown with multiple arms and heads to show their cosmic nature. Subodh Gupta, Untitled , India, 2008, stainless steel The MFAH, museum purchase with funds provided by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund and Friends of Asian Art, 2011.546. © Subodh Gupta, courtesy Hauser & Wirth, London Subodh Gupta was raised in a village in the poorest state of India. Today, he is perhaps the most renowned Indian artist, but his rural roots are never far behind. Using the simple symbols of village life—aluminum pots and pans, squat stools, and dried cow dung—Gupta creates installations that comment on the mobility and consumerism of a rapidly modernizing India. “All of these things were part of the way I grew up. They are used in the rituals and ceremonies that were part of my childhood. Indians either remember them from their youth, or they want to remember them.” The shiny, stainless-steel surfaces of the containers in Untitled convey the gleaming, energetic, even frenetic pace of life in India’s major cities as tradition collides with the future in the 21st century. 3 Meaning: Images & Texts Different cultures in different times—from the ancient worlds to the present—have developed different writing systems. As Denise Green is both a painter and a writer, it is necessary to consider how images and texts function separately and together to transmit meaning through time. How do these images at the MFAH function as “image” and “text”? Left to right, top to bottom: Relief depicting Ankh-neb-ef (pair), Egyptian, Old Kingdom, Sixth Dynasty, c. 2150 B.C., limestone with paint, the MFAH, gift of The Brown Foundation, Inc., Nancy B. Negley, Mr. and Mrs. Meredith Long, Isabel B. and Wallace S. Wilson, and Mr. and Mrs. Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. in honor of Norna Sarofim, with additional funds provided by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund, 2007.384.1 and 2007.384.2. Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Allegory of Europe , 1722, oil on canvas, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, 1987.2. Cullen Foundation Atrium, Audrey Jones Beck Building, MFAH. © 2000 Aker / Zvonkovic Photography Hieroglyphic Inscription from Tablet Y , Pre-Columbian, Maya, 692, limestone with traces of paint, the MFAH, museum purchase, 64.38 and 64.39. Green offers a profound observation about the differences between how Aboriginal and Western people see: When the Aboriginal artist marks a circle on a rock, to Western eyes it may look like the incised depiction of a face. But to the Aboriginal people it is not simply a representation or picture of the ancestral being, it is the very presence of the being itself. (footnote 41, bottom p. 68) Standing before the following works at the MFAH, do you feel each is a “depiction” or a “presence”? Left to right: Shalako Kachina , Native American, Zuni, c. 1915, wood, cloth, feather, the MFAH, gift of Miss Ima Hogg, 44.485.1. Standing Male Figures , Tchitcheri, African, Moba (Ghana or Togo), early 20th century, wood and sacrificial matter, Collection of Frank Carroll, TR:444-98.1.