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Interpreting Art : Reflecting, Wondering, and Responding

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E>»isa S' oc 3 Interpreting Art Interpreting Art Reflecting, Wondering, and Responding Terry Barrett The Ohio State University Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, IA Madison, Wl New York San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogota Caracas Kuala Lumpur Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal New Delhi Santiago Seoul Singapore Sydney Taipei Toronto McGraw-Hill Higher Education gg A Division of The McGraw-Hill Companies Interpreting Art: Reflecting, Wondering, and Responding Published by McGraw-Hill, an imprint of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright ® 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw- Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 34567890 DOC/DOC 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 ISBN 0-7674-1648-1 Publisher: Chris Freitag Sponsoring editor: Joe Hanson Marketing manager: Lisa Berry Production editor: David Sutton Senior production supervisor: Richard DeVitto Designer: Sharon Spurlock Photo researcher: Brian Pecko Art editor: Emma Ghiselli Compositor: ProGraphics Typeface: 10/13 Berkeley Old Style Medium Paper: 45# New Era Matte Printer and binder: RR Donnelley & Sons Because this page cannot legibly accommodate all the copyright notices, page 249 constitutes an extension of the copyright page. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Barrett, Terry Michael, 1945- Interpreting Art: reflecting, wondering, and responding / Terry Barrett, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7674-1648-1 (alk. paper) 1. Art Criticism. I. Title. N7475.B275 2002 2002029910 http://mhhe.com For Susan Contents List of Illustrations xii Acknowledgments xiv Introduction xv Valuing Art xvi Valuing Interpretations of Art xvii Consequences of Interpretation xvii The Centrality of Interpretation xviii Multiple Interpretations, Voices, and References xviii Visual Culture xvix A Western Emphasis xvix Logic of the Chapters xvix About the Author xxiii Chapter 1 • About Interpretation: Rene Magritte 1 Rene Magritte, The Postcard 2 Interpreting Out Loud 3 How Does The Postcard Fit with Other Works by Magritte? Suzi Gablik’s Magritte 13 Other Scholarly Interpretations of Magritte’s Work 19 Magritte and Everyday Interpreters 30 Summary and Conclusions 35 Chapter 2 • Multiple Interpretations of One Work of Art: Edouard Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergere 38 Edouard Manet 39 Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass 40 Manet’s Olympia 41 Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergere 43 Paris in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century 43 The Folies-Bergere, Paris 44 The Barmaid in A Bar 45 The Mirror 46 The Bar 47 The Man in the Top Hat 48 The Form of the Painting 48 Readings of Narratives in the Painting 49 Conclusion 52 Chapter 3 • Interpretation and Judgment: Controversial Art 56 Religiously Controversial Art: The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili 57 Sexually Controversial Art: Paintings by Eric Fischl 64 Ideologically Controversial Art: Illustrations by Norman Rockwell 68 Racially Controversial Art: Kara Walker and Michael Ray Charles 75 Kara Walker 77 Michael Ray Charles 78 The Controversy 82 Conclusion 84 Chapter 4 • Interpretation and Appreciation: Abstract Painting 87 Aesthetic Attitude 87 An Overview of Abstraction 88 Terms 88 History 90 Willem de Kooning: Two Women Series 93 Subject Matter and the Subject of Women 96 Sean Scully’s Paintings 99 An Intentionally Restricted Vocabulary 100 Conjunctions of Opposites 101 Scully’s Biography: Natural and Aesthetic 103 Appreciating Scully’s White Robe Out Loud 105 Interpretations by Teenagers 107 Conclusion 108 Chapter 5 • Interpreting Old and Foreign Art 111 Material Evidence and Explanation of The Feast of the Gods 113 Old Art and Current Relevance: Paintings by Johannes Vermeer 119 Building New Meaning from Old Art: High School Students, Lucas Cranach, Cardinal Albrecht, Saint Jerome, and Arnold Schwarzenegger 122 An Ideological Interpretation of Old Paintings by John Berger 124 Foreign Art 129 The Temple Dharna Vihara in Ranakpur 129 Conclusion 137 Chapter 6 • Interpretation and Medium: Photography 139 Selectivity 140 Instantaneity 148 Credibility 151 Sally Mann: Immediate Family 153 Credibility and Immediate Family 154 Instantaneity 155 Selectivity: Subject Matter and Immediate Family 155 Selectivity: Form and Immediate Family 159 Conclusion 160 Chapter 7 • A Sampler of Interpretations 162 Interpretations of Edward Hopper’s Paintings 163 Who, What, When, Where, Why? 163 Mark Strand on the Paintings of Edward Hopper 164 “Cape Cod Evening,” a Short Story by Ann Beattie 166 A Poem about Hopper’s Nighthawks by Joyce Carol Oates 112 Interpretations of Rain, a Dance Choreographed and Performed by Bebe Miller 173 Interpretations and Popular Culture 179 David Carrier: The Aesthetics of a Gary Larson Cartoon 179 Spalding Gray Interprets “Bad Words” 180 “Girls, Girls, Girls”: A McDonald’s TV Commercial 181 Henry Giroux, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Aladdin 184 Interpreting a Building 188 On The Table: Interpretations of Tables and Tableware 189 Denotations, Connotations, and a Rolling Stone Magazine Cover 192 Conclusion 195 Chapter 8 • Principles for Interpreting Art 197 Artworks and “Aboutness” 198 Artworks and Meaning 199 Interpretation, Language, and Understanding 200 Feelings and Interpretation 204 Interrelated and Interdependent Activities of Interpretation 205 Multiple Interpretations 206 Ranges of Interpretations 208 Meanings and Artistic Intent 209 “Right” Interpretations 215 Interpretations and World-Views 215 Interpretations and Interpreters 216 Objects of Interpretations 217 Art and the Social World 217 Art and Other Art 218 Criteria for Interpretations 219 Individual and Communal Interpretations 220 Better Interpretations 225 Admissibility of Interpretations 226 Seeing for Ourselves 227 Notes 229 Bibliography 241 Credits 249 Index 251 Black-and-White Illustrations 1-1 The Two Mysteries, Rene Magritte 8 1-2 Fifteen drawings, Rene Magritte 13 1-3 Les promenades d’Euclide (Euclidian Walks), Rene Magritte 18 1-4 Le domaine d’Amheim (The Domain of Amheim), Rene Magritte 20 1-5 La Geante (The Giantess), Rene Magritte 22 1-6 La Tentative de Impossible (Attempting the Impossible), Rene Magritte 27 1-7 Chateau des Pyrenees (Castle in the Pyrenees), Rene Magritte 29 3-1 Sleep Walker, Eric Fischl 65 3-2 Triple Self Portrait, Norman Rockwell 70 3-3 Saying Grace, Norman Rockwell 73 3-4 Girl at Mirror, Norman Rockwell 75 3-5 Eat Dem Taters, Robert Colescott 76 3-6 Camptown Ladies, Kara Walker 77 3-7 Gone: An Historical Romance of Civil War as it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of Young Negress and her Heart, Kara Walker 78 3-8 (Forever Free) REWOPETIHW, Michael Ray Charles 79 3- 9 Cut and Paste, Michael Ray Charles 80 4- 1 Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter, Pietro Perugino 91 4-2 Willem de Kooning, photo by Rudolf Burckhardt 94 4-3 Woman Accabonic, Willem de Kooning 97 4-4 Heart of Darkness, Sean Scully 102 4- 5 Paul, Sean Scully 103 5- 1 The Feast of the Gods, engraving from Seroux d’Agincourt 116 5-2 The Feast of the Gods, reconstruction of the first alteration by David Bull 117 5-3 Young Woman with a Water Jug, Johannes Vermeer 120 5-4 Head of a Girl (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Jan Vermeer 121 5-5 Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Southeast High School Students, Barbara Kinney’s art class 123 5-6 Venus, Satyr and Cupid (formerly Jupiter and Antiope), Correggio 125 5-7 Susannah and the Elders, Jacopo Tintoretto 126 5-8 Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time (Exposure of Luxury), Agnolo Bronzino 127 5-10 The Temple Dharna Vihara in Ranakpur, India 131 5-11 Loka-purusha, Jain manuscript illustration from Samgrahanisutra, Camoby, 1604 133 5- 12 The Linda and Yoni, large copper Linga-Yoni stands on a plinth alongside the Ganges River 135 6- 1 Border Crossing, Luis Jimenez 140 6-2 Horse, Deborah Butterfield 141 6-3 Chip and Battina, William Wegman 142 6-4 Fading Away, Henry Peach Robinson 143 6-5 Pepper, Edward Weston 145 6-6 Untitled, Jerry Uelsmann 146 6-7 Untitled, Garry Winogrand 147 6-8 A Quasar Portrait, NASA 148 6-9 Behind the Saint-Lazare Station, Paris, Henri Cartier-Bresson 150 6-10 Sunday Funnies, Sally Mann 154 6-11 Dirty Jessie, Sally Mann 157 6- 12 Candy Cigarette, Sally Mann 159 7- 1 Video still from proposed McDonald’s commercial 182 7-2 Pier 11 in the East River, Henry Smith-Miller and Laurie Hawkinson 188 7-3 Tea Leaf Ironstone China, and Variants, Collection of Dale Abrams 191 Acknowledgments My dream of writing a book about interpreting art started to become a reality over dinner in a restaurant in Columbus with Jan Beatty, who was at that time my editor with Mayfield Publishing Company, which was subsequently bought by McGraw-Hill. Upon Jan’s departure to another position, Joe Hanson, art editor for McGraw-Hill, graciously took on the project as one of his own and saw it to comple¬ tion in a very pleasant fashion. Thanks to the production staff at McGraw-Hill: Jeanne Schreiber, Robin Mouat, Sharon Spurlock, Emma Ghiselli, Brian Pecko, and David Sutton. Thanks to the following reviewers; Carole Henry, University of Georgia; Thomas Larson, Santa Barbara City College; Sally McRorie, Florida State University; Keith Dills, California Polytechnic State University; Mary E Francey, University of Utah; Marcia Eaton, University of Minnesota; Rita Irwin, University of British Columbia; and Kathryn Coe, University of Missouri. Jim Hutchens, chairperson of art education at Ohio State University, supported this book by providing an environment conducive to writing.
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