From the Modern to the Post Modern and Beyond

34 FROM THE MODERN TO THE POST MODERN AND BEYOND ART OF THE LATER 20TH CENTURY

TEXT PAGES 1030–1091

THE ART WORLD’S FOCUS SHIFTS WEST

1. List two characteristics of so-called “Greenbergian formalism”: An emphasis on an artwork’s visual elements rather than its subject. Rejection of illusionism and a focus on exploring the properties of each artistic medium.

2. Why is it difficult to give a precise definition of the term “Postmodernism”? It is a widespread cultural phenomenon. It can be considered a rejection of modernist principles and accommodates seemingly everything in art. In contrast to Modernism, which may be considered to be elitist, Postmodernism is: A naïve and optimistic populism.

3. What is the attitude of Existentialists toward human existence? Human existence is absurd, and it is impossible to achieve certitude. Many existentialists also promoted atheism and questioned the possibility of situating God within a systematic philosophy. List three artists whose work reflects these ideas: a. Francis Bacon b. Jean Dubuffet c. Alberto Giacometti

4. Name the artist who referred to his art as “an attempt to remake the violence of reality itself”: Francis Bacon.

5. List two characteristics of the art of Jean Dubuffet: a. His scenes are painted or incised into thickly encrusted, parched-looking surfaces of impasto. b. Scribblings are interspersed with the images, heightening the impression of smeared and gashed surfaces of crumbling walls and worn pavements marked by random individuals.

6. What is Art Brut? Untaught, coarse, and rough art, done in the way that children or the mentally unbalanced would paint. 7. In what way does the sculpture of Giacometti, like the figure shown on FIG. 34-3, relate to the ideas of the Existentialists?

195 The figures can be seen as the epitome of existentialist humanity—alienated, solitary, and lost in the world’s immensity. They are thin, virtually featureless, and have rough, agitated surfaces.

MODERNIST FORMALISM 1. What major artistic style developed in the United States after the influx of refugee artists from Europe? Abstract Expressionism.

In what city did it begin? New York City.

2. Describe the way Jackson Pollock created his "gestural" Abstract Expressionist pieces. Using sticks or brushes, he flung, poured, and dripped paint (not just oil paints but aluminum paints and household enamels as well) onto a section of unsized canvas he unrolled across his studio floor.

3. List one way in which de Kooning’s work relates to that of Pollack: The brush strokes are sweeping and gestural and have the energetic application of pigment typical of gestural abstraction. List one way in which it differs: His subject is still figurative, whereas Pollock’s are wholly abstract.

4. What do the works of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko have in common? They have a quiet aesthetic and are emotionally resonant through use of color.

5. Describe the function of Barnett Newman's "zips." He intended the viewer to perceive the zips not as separate entities, separate from the ground, but instead as accents energizing the field and giving it scale.

6. What feelings did Mark Rothko hope to evoke with his large, luminous canvases? Basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, and doom.

7. How does Post-Painterly Abstraction differ from Abstract Expressionism? Whereas Abstract Expressionism conveys a feeling of passion and visceral intensity, a cool, detached rationality emphasizing tighter pictorial control characterizes Post-Painterly Abstraction.

8. Why was Ellsworth Kelly’s work known as “Hard Edge Abstraction”? His paintings have razor-sharp edges and clearly delineated shapes. They convey no suggestion of the illusion of depth—the color shapes appear two-dimensional. 9. What is Color-Field painting? It emphasizes painting’s basic properties. The emotional element is subordinated to resolving formal properties.

10. Describe Frankenthaler's soak-stain technique. She poured diluted paint onto unprimed canvas, allowing the pigments to soak into the fabric, resulting in absolute flatness. What effect did she want to achieve with it? The images appear spontaneous and almost accidental.

196 Name one other artist who utilized it: Morris Louis.

11. Name three Minimalist sculptors: a. Donald Judd b. Tony Smith c. Maya Ying Lin

12. In what way are the principles of Post-Painterly Abstraction related to Minimalist sculpture? The sculptors also strove to arrive at purity in their medium, in their case the three- dimensionality of the sculptural idiom.

13. What beliefs about art did Donald Judd assert in works like the cubes illustrated in FIG. 34-15? He sought a visual vocabulary that avoided deception or ambiguity that propelled him away from representation and toward precise and simple sculpture. A work’s power derived from its character as a whole, and from the specificity of its materials.

14. Briefly describe the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. (FIG. 34-16): It is a V-shaped wall constructed of black granite panels, beginning at ground level at each end and gradually ascending to a height of 10 feet at the center of the V. The names of the war’s 57,939 casualties and missing are incised on the wall in the order of their deaths. Who designed it? Maya Ying Lin. Why do you think visitors respond to it so strongly? It is not just an object to react to statically, but visitors relate to it as on a journey. Lin wanted to work with the land, not dominate it, and the sculpture is a “cut” into the earth, an initial violence that in time would heal.

15. In what way did David Smith's sculpture like the one on FIG. 34-9 differ from Minimalist works? Despite the basic geometric vocabulary, Smith composed his works in a way that suggest human characteristics. They are composed of multiple pieces welded together in a manner that is not organic like Minimalist works. He emphasized the two-dimensional surfaces, while Minimalist artists did not concentrate on the surface of their sculptures. 16. What type of art did Louise Nevelson create? Sculptures that combine a sense of architectural fragment with the power of Dada and Surrealist found objects.

17. How does the work of Louise Bourgeois’ Post-Minimalist work differ from the work of Judd and other artists of the Minimalist school? Her sculptures are groups of objects relating to each other, the “drama of one among many.” The sculptures refer strongly to human figures instead of purely abstract forms.

18. What is a "Happening"? A loosely structured performance whose creators try to suggest the aesthetic and dynamic qualities of everyday life, as actions, rather than as objects; they incorporate the fourth dimension, time.

197 Name one artist who specialized in Happenings. Allan Kaprow.

19. Who was John Cage? A composer and teacher (1912–1992) who encouraged his students to link their art directly with life. He was interested in the ideas of Duchamp and Eastern philosophy, incorporating methods like chance to avoid the closed structures marking traditional music.

20. What type of art did Fluxus artists create? Their performances were more theatrical than Happenings, coining the term “Events” to describe their works. Events focused on single actions. They were not spontaneous but followed a compositional “score.”

21. What sort of art was produced by Kazno Shirago and the Gutac group in Oasaka? They brought painting into the realm of performance, involving such actions as throwing paint balls at canvases or wallowing in mud to shape it.

22. Briefly state the artistic philosophy of Joseph Beuys. He wanted to make a new kind of sculptural object that would include “Thinking Forms: how we mould our thoughts or Spoken Forms: how we shape our thoughts into words or Social Sculpture: how we mould and shape the world in which we live.” I.e., a sculpture to stimulate thought about art and life.

23. What inspired the work of Jean Tinguely, and what sort of materials did he use? The notion of destruction as an act of creation. He made “metamatic machines,” motor- driven devices that produced instant abstract paintings. He programmed them electronically to act with an antimechanical unpredictability when viewers inserted pens and pushed the start button. He also made a piece designed to perform and then destroy itself. 24. What is meant by "Conceptual Art"? Art lies in the artist’s idea, rather than in its final expression; some Conceptual artists eliminated the object altogether.

25. What was Bruce Nauman’s favorite material? Neon.

What was his favorite subject? Language and wordplay.

ART FOR THE PUBLIC

1. What subject matter was characteristic of Pop Art of the 1960s? Consumer and popular culture and the mass media.

2. Name two artists who worked in the Pop mode in England.

a. Richard Hamilton b. the Independent Group at the Institute of Contemporary Art In London

3. Give an example of Jasper Johns' “things seen but not looked at”:

198 The American flag.

4. What are "combine" paintings? Painted passages interspersed with sculptural elements, a variation on assemblages, artworks created from already existing objects.

Who developed them? Robert Rauschenberg.

5. What distinguishes the works of Robert Rauschenberg from those of earlier Dada artists? The parts of Rauschenberg’s combine painting retain their individuality more than those in Dada collages. They are recognizable images and objects, appearing as a sequence of visual non-sequiturs.

6. What did Lichtenstein utilize as the basis of works like the one shown on FIG. 34- 30? Comic books.

How do his “benday dots” reflect the source? Benday dots were used in comics to create modulation of colors through the placement and size of colored dots. By using them in his paintings, Lichtenstein calls attention to the mass-produced derivation of the image.

7. How did Andy Warhol utilize his background as a commercial artist in creating "fine art" works? Warhol used a printing technique and a visual vocabulary that reinforced the image’s connections to consumer culture. Warhol not only produced numerous canvases of the same image but also named his studio “the Factory.”

8. Name the artist who created designs for gigantic monuments depicting ordinary objects: Claes Oldenburg.

9. Name two Superrealist painters: a. Audrey Flack b. Chuck Close

10. What type of art did Duane Hanson create? Life-size figurative sculptures that depict stereotypical average Americans, striking chords with the viewer because of their familiarity.

11. Name the leading American Environmental artist: Robert Smithson. Briefly describe his techniques. He used industrial construction equipment to manipulate vast quantities of earth and rock on isolated sites. He designs his works in response to the location itself.

12. For what type of art are Christo and his wife Jeane-Claude most famous?

199 They temporarily alter the landscape, by enclosing it, and buildings, in huge lengths of cloth. Their works are only on view for a few weeks.

13. Why did the GSA remove Serra’s Tilted Arc (FIG. 34-39) from the plaza in front of the Federal Building in New York City? Many members of the public complained that it was ugly and attracted graffiti, that it interfered with the view across the plaza, and that it prevented the use of the plaza for concerts. What important issues were raised by this action? The nature of public art, including the public reception of experimental art, the artist’s responsibilities and rights when executing public commissions, censorship in the arts, and the purpose of public art.

NEW MODELS FOR ARCHITECTURE: MODERNISM TO POSTMODERNISM

1. What form did Frank Lloyd Wright use as the basis for his design for the Guggenheim Museum (FIGS. 34-40 and 34-41)? The spiral of a snail’s shell.

2. What forms provided the inspiration for Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut (FIGS. 34-42 and 34-43) The shape of praying hands, the wings of a dove, and the prow of a ship.

In what way does Notre Dame du Haut differ from Le Corbusier's earlier works (FIGS. 33-63 and 33-64)? It is organic, a fusion of architecture and sculpture, rather than the strict geometry of his earlier works.

3. List two architectural metaphors used in the Opera House in Sydney Australia (FIG. 34-44):

a. The buoyancy of seabird wings. b. The sails of the tall ships that brought European settlers to Australia.

4. Who designed the TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport in New York City (FIG. 34- 45): Eero Saarinen.

What design motif did he use throughout the structure? Curvilinear vocabulary that suggests wings and flight.

5. What architectural style is represented by the Seagram Building in New York (FIG. 34-46)? The modernist corporate skyscraper and Mies van der Rohe’s idea of “less is more.”

6. What type of impression was the Sears Tower in Chicago (FIG. 34-47) intended to project? Intimidating and imposing.

200 What features of the building helped to create that impression? The tower’s size, coupled with the black aluminum that sheathes it and its smoked glass.

7. List three terms often associated with Postmodern architecure:

a. Pluralism b. Complexity c. Eclecticism

8. What historical styles are cited by Charles Moore in his Piazza d’Italia (FIG. 34-48)? Italian architecture, all the way back through to the time of Roman culture: the Greek agora or the Roman forum, the Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque. 9. How did Phillip Johnson’s style change in his AT&T Tower in New York (FIG. 34- 49)? He moved away from modernist severe geometric formalism to a classicizing transformation towards postmodernism. He moved from the rigid “glass box” to elaborate shapes, motifs, and silhouettes freely adapted from historical styles.

10. What aspects of Graves’ Portland Building (FIG. 34-50) can be considered Postmodernist? Capital-like large hoods on one pair of opposite facades and a frieze of stylized Baroque roundels tied by bands on the other pair; a painted keystone motif, and other painted surfaces; the assertion of the wall, the miniature square windows, and the painted polychromy.

11. How did Lionel Venturi’s work and writing depart from the Modernist axiom “form follows function”? He asserted that form should be separate from the function and structure and that decorative and symbolic forms of everyday life should enwrap the structural core.

12. What is the official name for the “Beaubourg”? The Georges Pompidou National Center of Art and Culture. Where is it located? Paris. What is significant about its structure? The anatomy of the building is fully exposed to the outside, as well as its “metabolism”: the pipes, ducts, tubes, and corridors.

13. What is meant by Deconstructionism? Using deconstruction as an analytical strategy, 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.

14. List six adjectives that describe Deconstructivist architecture: a. Disorder b. Dissonance c. Imbalance d. Asymmetry e. Unconformity f. Irregularity Name a building that illustrates those terms: Günter Behnisch’s Hysolar Institute Building at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

201 POSTMODERNISM IN PAINTING, SCULPTURE AND NEW MEDIA

1. Give one way that Postmodern artists challenge the Modernist emphasis on originality and creativity: They address issues of the copy or reproduction and the appropriation of images or ideas from others. 2. Jameson argues that the intersection of high and mass culture is a defining feature of: Postmodernism.

3. In rejecting the notion that each art work contains a fixed meaning, Postmodern artists are influenced by the ideas of Deconstructivist theorists.

4. Briefly characterize the style of Julian Schnabel: Neo-Expressionism. He was interested in the physicality of objects, like attaching broken crockery to his canvas in “The Walk Home,” which superficially recalls the work of the gestural abstractionists and Abstract Expressionism, but is also an amalgamation of media.

His work has been considered as a restatement of the Abstract Expressionist style.

5. Why is Susan Rothenberg charactgerized as a Neo-Expressionist? Her works fall in the area between representation and abstraction. The loose brushwork and agitated surface classify her as a Neo-Expressionist.

6. What theme is seen in many of Anselm Kiefer’s works? A reexamination of German history, particularly the Nazi era, and evoking the feeling of despair.

7. Why did Ofili’s Holy Virgin Mary (FIG. 34-58) elicit such a strong reaction? The Virgin Mary is surrounded by tiny images of genitalia and buttocks cut from pornographic magazines, and he attached clumps of elephant dung to the painting.

8. Name two artists who consider themselves to be feminist artists. a. Judy Chicago b. Miriam Schapiro

9. Who designed The Dinner Party (FIG. 34-59)? Judy Chicago.

What was it designed to celebrate? The achievements and contributions women have made throughout history.

What techniques were used to create it? A massive triangle, each side lined with thirteen place settings of identical utensils and individually painted sculptural porcelain plates with a long table runner covered with imagery that reflects significant facts about the life and culture of the “invited guests” (women from history). The table runners use traditional needlework techniques such as needlepoint and embroidery.

10. For what type of art is Miriam Shapiro most famous?

202 Huge sewn collages, assembled from fabrics, quilts, buttons, sequins, lace trim, and rickrack.

What did she mean by the name “femmage”? That women had been doing collages long before Picasso introduced them to the art world.

11. Who produced a series of film stills in which she transformed herself (FIG. 34- 61)? Cindy Sherman.

What issue was of primary concern to the artist? The way much of Western art has been constructed to present female beauty for the enjoyment of the “male gaze,” and in women’s images and identities.

12. To what issues does Barbara Kruger want her art to draw attention? The culturally constructed notion of gender and the strategies and techniques of contemporary mass media.

13. Name the artist whose works constituted “a dialogue between the landscape and the female body”? Ana Mendieta.

What feelings do her works evoke? Sensuality and spirituality, especially the spirituality inherent in nature.

14. What issue is of major concern to Kiki Smith? Who controls the body, and the socially constructed nature of how external forces shape people’s perceptions of their bodies.

15. Name three artists who used their art to explore issues involved with being African American women:

a. Faith Ringgold b. Adrian Piper c. Lorna Simpson 16. What issue did Melvin Edwards explore in works like Tambo (FIG. 34-69)? The history of collective oppression, such as lynching.

17. Name a Native American artist who uses cultural heritage and historical references to comment on the present: Jaune Quick-To-See Smith.

18. List three stylistic features of Leon Golub’s art that characterize his brutal vision of contemporary life:

a. Modeled with shadows and gleaming with highlights, the guns contrast with the harshly scraped, flattened surfaces of the figures. b. The rawness of the canvas reinforces the rawness of the imagery; Golub scraped off applied paint and dissolved other areas with solvent.

203 c. The figures loom over the viewers, with the viewer’s eye line at the mercenaries’ knees, and they are placed so close to the front plane that their feet are cut off by the edge of the painting, trapping them with the viewer in the painting’s compressed space.

19. What medium does Magdalena Abakanowicz use for her expressive sculptures? Fiber.

20. What subject was David Wojnarowicz exploring in the work shown on FIG. 34- 74? AIDS.

21. What artistic technique did Wodiczko utilize to draw attention to the plight of the homeless? Outdoor slide images projected onto a war memorial monument.

22. List six interests that video technology allowed Nam June Paik to combine:

a. Painting b. Music

c. Eastern philosophy d. Global politics for survival

e. Humanized technology f. Cybernetics

23. Name four artists who utilize computers and/or video in their work:

a. David Em b. Jenny Holzer

c. Bill Viola d. Tony Oursler

Which one uses digital video to encourage introspection and explore spirituality? Bill Viola

24. What is Jeff Koons exploring in works like Pink Panther (FIG. 34-81)? Contemporary mass culture, especially the kitschy and trite. 25. How does Tansey’s A Short History of Modernist Painting (FIG. 34-82) illustrate the ambiguities and paradoxes of Postmodernist Pictorialism? It demonstrates the artist’s consciousness of his place in the continuum of art history and also functions as a critique on fundamental art historical premises by creating metaphors of how painting has been addressed during different eras. 26. To what was Arneson reacting in his self-portrait known as California Artist (FIG. 34-83): A negative review by a critic that Californian art was provincial. In what way is the work a critique of the contemporary art world? By responding directly to an art critic’s comments, Arneson revealed his comprehension of the mechanisms (e.g. art criticism) people use currently to evaluate and validate art. 27. What is Hans Haake critiquing in MetroMobiltan (FIG. 34-84)?

204 Mobil’s sponsorship of the Metropolitan Museum of Art show “Treasures of Ancient Nigeria.” He implied that the sponsorship was driven by Nigeria’s being one of the richest oil-producing countries in Africa. More generally, he is critiquing the politics of art museums and how these politics affect the art exhibited and museum visitors’ understanding of art history. 28. Who are the Guerrilla Girls, and what is their agenda? A New York-based group of female artists who considers it their duty to call attention to injustice in the art world, especially what they perceive as the sexist and racist orientation of the major institutions. They hope to improve the situation for women artists.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What European political events and artistic movements influenced the development of American Abstract Expressionism? How? 2. Discuss the use of industrial processes in the work of David Smith, Julio Gonzalez, and Donald Judd. Which processes did each use and how were the processes related to the artist's esthetic concerns? 3. Compare Hamilton's Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? (FIG. 34-27) with Campin's Merode Altarpiece (FIG. 20-12). Discuss the compositional structure and the symbolism of both works, along with their cultural meanings. 4. Can you relate Judd's Untitled (FIG. 34-15) and Tinguely's Homage to New York (FIG. 34-24) , and Sherman’s Untitled Film Still #35 (FIG. 34-61)to the earlier traditions of Classic and Romantic art? How? 5. Compare the self-portraits of Cindy Sherman (FIG. 34-61), Ana Mendieta (FIG. 34- 63), Adrian Piper (FIG. 34-67), Chuck Close (FIG. 34-35), and Robert Arneson (FIG. 34-83) with earlier self-portraits like those of Judith Leyster (FIG. 24-49), Vigee-Lebrun (FIG. 28-13) and Rembrandt (FIG. 24-47). Discuss the techniques used by each artist as well as the view of the self that each presents.

6. Compare Francis Bacon’s Painting (FIG. 34-1) and David Wojnarowicz’s “When I put my hands on your body” (FIG. 34-74). What attitudes toward society does each represent, and how is each reflective of its time?

7. If you have Volume I, discuss the changes in still life depiction from the time of the Romans through the modern day. Select from the Still Life with Peaches from Herculaneum (FIG. 10-24), Claes, Vanitas Still Life (FIG. 24-55), Cezanne, The Basket of Apples (FIG. 29-41), Picasso’s Still Life with Chair-caning (FIG. 33-12), Warhol’s Green Coca-Cola Bottles (FIG. 34-31), abnd Hanson’s Supermarket Shopper (FIG. 34-36). What was the purpose of each art work and what techniques did the artists use to achieve those purposes?

8. What changes in social and religious attitudes are represented by the comparison of Puvis de Chavannes, The Sacred Grove (FIG. 29-42) , Rothko’s No. 14 (FIG. 34-8), Bill Viola’s The Crossing (FIG. 34-79), Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party (FIG. 34- 59), and Chris Ofili The Holy Virgin Mary (FIG. 34-58.

205 9. Recently, the International Style, which has dominated the architecture of the past fifty years, seems to have fallen into disfavor. What criticisms have been leveled against it? In your opinion, are they justified? Describe some of the alternatives that have been tried.

10. One reason for the stylistic similarity of International Style buildings, whether erected in Brasilia, Tokyo, Paris, or New York, is the architects' dependence upon intricate machinery to control the interior climates of their buildings. Do you feel that increasing reliance on complex technology is still justified in view of dwindling energy sources and the threat of accompanying economic and social upheavals throughout the world? What practical alternatives, if any, do you see?

11. In what way does the work of twentieth-century African-American artists Jacob Lawrence (FIG. 33-27) and Faith Ringold (Fig. 34-66) differ from that of nineteenth-century African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner (FIG. 26-46)? Discuss both the style and subject matter of each artist.

LOOKING CAREFULLY, ANALYZING AND RELATING Look carefully at the representations of two late 20th century high tech buildings: Rogers and Piano’s Pompidou Center (FIG. 34-52) and Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao Museo (FIG. 34-54) and write at least a page comparing them. Although they both emphasize the use of modern technology, the effects they create are quite different. How did the use of materials influence the visual effects each produced? Describe each building as fully as you can, and then relate the two buildings to earlier architectural traditions of Classical and Baroque. What earlier buildings might you relate them to? Explain the features that made you think of the relationship.