EXAM #2 – Study Guide – Value of Art

(Revised October 30, 2019)

Visual Arts Vocabulary and Terms

1. Elements and Principles of Design (see booklet) 2. The Four Traditional Roles of an Artist 3. Subject Matter and Content 4. Representational, non-representation, and abstract 5. Ethnocentrism 6. Utilitarian Function 7. Element of Design and Principle of Design

Powerpoint Notes

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago (1974 – 1979)

• Each settings represents a particular woman’s accomplishments • Many settings display a vulva (external genital organs) • The vulva produces “gives life” and receives “pleasure.” • Equilateral Triangle = represents equality • Heritage Floor = represents over 2300 additional women on porcelain tiles • Wing 1: prehistory-Classical Rome; Wing 2: Christianity to Reformation; Wing 3: American Revolution to Women’s Civil Rights Era • https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/the-brooklyn-museum-judy-chicago-dinner-party-1131506 • https://hyperallergic.com/455572/judy-chicago-responds-to-criticisms-about-the-dinner-party/ • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvBx7bmzbNU (10 mins)

The Holy Virgin Mary (1996) by

• Theme: Spiritual/Religious • Abstract • Putti/Cherubs = little naked winged baby angels • (ARTICLE) https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/global-culture/identity- body/identity-body-europe/a/chris-ofili-the-holy-virgin-mary

• ARTICLE: Sensation • When the personal collection of British advertising executive and art collector went on tour in an exhibition called Sensation in 1997, viewers should have known to brace themselves for controversy. The show presented a cross-section of shocking work by a brash new generation of “,” including, for example, ’s portrait of convicted child-murderer Handley, and pornographic sculptural tableaux by . In London, the museum was picketed from day one, but the media attention eventually ushered in record turnouts.

In October of 1999, Sensation opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where it was Chris Ofili’s iconic painting, that incited the most heated debate. Mayor Rudy Giuliani threatened to close the city-funded institution on the grounds that this artwork was offensive to religious viewers. Two months later, the painting, which rests upon two large balls of elephant dung, was desecrated by an elderly visitor who smeared white paint over its surface, claiming that the image was “blasphemous.”

At first glance it seems easy to discern why the painting raised a few eyebrows: the inclusion of real shit and collaged pornography might be enough to offend conservative viewers. However, Ofili’s work is more nuanced than it appeared to his detractors; the piece reflects on art historical precedents while addressing identity politics, religion and pop culture. To grasp its complexity, one must look beneath the surface—as dazzling and shocking as it may be.

Iconic or iconoclastic? Set against a shimmering gold background comprised of carefully placed dots of paint and glitter, the central figure in Ofili’s painting stares directly at her beholder, with wide eyes and parted lips. Her blue gown flows from the top of her head down to the amorphous base of her body, falling open to reveal a lacquered ball of elephant dung where her breast would be. Collaged images of women’s buttocks surround the Virgin; cut from pornographic magazines, they become abstract, almost decorative forms that refuse to signify until confronted up-close. The two balls of dung beneath the canvas are adorned with glittering letters spelling out the work’s title. Formally, the use of gold and the front-facing Virgin link the work to Medieval icons, making the vulgarity of the pornographic images all the more stark. Yet, the artist claims that the sacred and the profane are not always opposed, even in traditional religious art:

As an altar boy, I was confused by the idea of a holy Virgin Mary giving birth to a young boy. Now when I go to the National Gallery and see paintings of the Virgin Mary, I see how sexually charged they are. Mine is simply a hip hop version.

Race, religion, and representation It is perhaps Ofili’s final statement above that indicates the source of his critics’ anxieties. As Carol Becker has explained, Ofili is “transforming the Holy Virgin into an exuberant, folkloric image. (...) probably most controversial of all, he made his own representation of the Virgin, defiant of tradition.”[2] The “parody-like African mouth” and exaggerated facial features call attention to racial stereotypes, as well as to the assumed whiteness of biblical figures in Western representations. Ofili’s icon asks us to confront the possibility of a black Virgin Mary. Other works express Ofili’s interest in black culture more explicitly: paintings like the Afrodizzia series and No Woman No Cry make references not only to hip-hop and reggae but also to contemporary racial politics.

The triumph of painting While his works pay homage to iconic black celebrities such as James Brown, Miles Davis, and Muhammad Ali, they are also just as much about the act of painting. With their psychedelic patterning, bright colors and textured surfaces, the images express Ofili’s desire to “get as deeply lost as possible in both the process of painting and the painting itself.”[3] From his beginnings, the artist was passionate about the medium, even as painting grew out of favor in the wake of postmodernism. He enrolled at the Chelsea School of Art where he developed an expressionistic style, but his work really started to mature after an oft-mythologized trip to Africa. Ofili was born in Manchester, England to Nigerian parents. When he was awarded a British Council grant in 1992, however, he ventured not to their home country but to Zimbabwe, in southern Africa. There, he was inspired by the abstract motifs found in San rock painting; these graphic marks found their way into the swirling backgrounds of his later compositions.

In Zimbabwe he also discovered elephant dung, and experimented with using it as an aesthetic medium, sticking it onto the surfaces of his canvases. As he later recalled, “it was a crass way of bringing the landscape into the painting,” as well as a nod to modernist art history through the dung’s status as a found object.[4]

The following year, back in Europe, Ofili was already at work with his new material. He staged a performance in Berlin and London entitled Shit Sale, a nod to the American artist David Hammons’ Bliz-aard Ball Sale of 1983, and later produced a work on canvas simply titled Painting with Shit on It, from which his mature style eventually emerged.

Combining visual pleasure with a conceptual practice Ofili’s work is as formally-motivated as it is political. The artist did not only return to painting, he returned to decoration and visual pleasure, at a time when art was expected to comply with the more cerebral aesthetics of postmodernism. Perhaps his attraction to gaudy bright colors, earthy materials and glittering surfaces, paired with the highly conceptual stakes of his project, reflects another blending of sacred and profane, regarding the conservatism of the art world. By incorporating high and low art forms, historical narratives, religion and pop culture, The Holy Virgin Mary represents a deeper inquiry than the spectacle of Sensation would imply.

Text by Allison Young 1. Quoted in Jonathan Jones, “Paradise Reclaimed,” Guardian, magazine section, 15 June 2002. 2. Carol Becker, “Brooklyn Museum: Messing with the Sacred” in Chris Ofili, Rizzoli, 2009, p. 84. 3. Chris Ofili, quoted in Judith Nesbitt “Beginnings” in Chris Ofili, London: Tate Publishing, 2010, p. 15. 4. Chris Ofili, “Decorative Beauty was a Taboo Thing”, interview with Mario Spinello, Brilliant! New Art from London, exh. cat., Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1995, p. 67.

 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/283373  https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/global-culture/identity-body/identity-body- europe/v/room-1990 (video)

Piss Christ (Immersion) by Andres Serrano

 Subject Matter = crucifix submerged in urine or yellow liquid  Content = religious, political, and social  Artist’s View o engage the viewer in visual and intellectual discussion and thought o Piss Christ is about Jesus’ followers; not Jesus o Urine is an anti-thesis (contrast) of spiritual cleansing o Yellow tones symbolizes dignity, and red represents love  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/sep/28/andres-serrano-piss-christ-new-york  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNJIloJiBKE (10 mins)  https://melmagazine.com/conservatives-still-pissed-about-piss-christ-b3abeeca77bd  http://thefineartdiner.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-does-piss-christ-mean-why-is- it.html

“Racing” Sideways by Nikolai Buglaj

• From left to right, their skin color changes from white to black, even as their clothing changes from black to white, a double version of the traditional “value” scale. • The runners are moving forward uniformly, all equally “making progress.” But this equality is an illusion. • Left to right, our “values” change. They reveal themselves to be governed by questions of race (skin color) and class (clothing color, i.e., “white collar,” “blue collar”). • The artwork reveals the lack of progress America has made in race and class relations in this country. • http://www.valweb.org/Nik/NIKUMDNJ.htm • https://paulding.instructure.com/courses/71192/pages/chapter-6-more-value

Michelangelo’s Pieta, 1498-1500

Study Notes:

a. (SUBJECT MATTER) Both Mary and Jesus are very realistic and detailed, giving the Pieta a truly humanistic look at classical beauty. Mary and Jesus were created very humanistic. b. (SHAPE) The sculpture altogether is in the shape of a triangle. The triangle shape was used to represent the Holy Trinity, symbolizing God being the three aspects of religion. c. (VALUE)The value of the shading on the Pieta affirmed the humanistic features of Mary and Jesus. Mary’s drapery falls down very smoothly but still shows that gravity is pulling it down with the shading and layers. Jesus’ ribs are deeply indented to give a hue of how the light would have hit his ribs at the time. d. (TEXTURE) And lastly, the smooth texture of the entire sculpture gives it a presence of calm and harmony. Although Mary’s drapery is very detailed and almost gouged in some areas, the texture of the Pieta is very smooth with almost a look of softness. e. Michelangelo used formal elements like texture and shape to focus the viewers’ attention on the religious and tranquil aspect of the situation. f. Source: http://newrenart.com/michelangelo-and-the-pieta/

• The body of Christ is different from earlier pietà statues, which were usually smaller and in wood. • The Virgin is youthful, and in repose, rather than the older, sorrowing Mary of most pietàs. • PIETA means “a picture or sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Jesus Christ on her lap or in her arms.” • She is shown as youthful for two reasons: God is the source of all beauty and she is one of the closest to God, also the exterior is thought as the revelation of the interior (the virgin is morally beautiful). • The Pietà with the Virgin Mary is also unique among Michelangelo's sculptures, because it was the only one he ever signed. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdXmygDQCNc • http://www.italianrenaissance.org/michelangelos-pieta/

A Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

 https://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starry-night.html  https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889/  https://smarthistory.org/van-gogh-the-starry-night/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz908BHg55Y  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMerSm2ToFY

Fallen by Jane Hammond

 Visual Loss  The leaves in Fallen form a vivid field of intense color  The metaphor of a fallen leaf as a symbol of a life lost.  Hammond intends that each viewer first experiences the piece as a familiar encounter with the beauty of nature and only after connects it with loss.  The leaves have no overt connection to the symbolism of patriotism or protest, and thereby avoid making an explicit political statement on the war.  Source: http://www.genderacrossborders.com/2009/12/17/visualizing-loss-jane- hammond%E2%80%99s-fallen/

 http://janehammondartist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/hammond-fallen-statement.pdf