contemporary art

CONCEPTUAL AND EARTH ART

•    Transition from Minimal and Conceptual art was pioneered by Sol LeWitt.
•    Art became a philosophy; the idea of art can be expressed in any kind of language, and did not need to become an art object.
•    Conceptual Art changes the notion of Abstraction in that the art was no longer refers to reduction of form, but to Abstraction as an idea of its own sake.
•    Process Art focused on the Artist’s uniqueness in their works.
•    Process art extended minimalism and its fascination with systems by de-systemizing structured and worked against artificial perfection.
•    Earth art was a combination of minimal and process art. Combining elements from those movements.
•    Earth Art artists moved out from gallery spaces to work on the land. Their works are representational of expression and political reactions.
•    I understand that the transition towards postmodernism had brought some awareness to artists as they work under the impression of political and social issues.

 MINIMALISM

•    Installation art is temporary arrangement of objects in a space, usually a museum or gallery room. An installation can also be outside of the domains of the White Cube, in the open environment, far away from the artwork.
•    Installation is called site specific art, this artwork depends so much on the location and that is the only place the object can be shown.
•    The term minimalism was coined by Richard Wollheim.
•    Minimalism rejected the modernist aesthetics rules.
•    Minimalism is not a continuation of the progress of art, and is not part of the art tradition. Minimalist works don’t have relational parts to formal elements.
•    Minimalism was based upon systems that exist beforehand, and was the product of concepts.
•    Minimalist painting is conceptual and non-expressional.
•    I was surprised to know that Minimal Art is so much different from other kinds of art, it has limitations, yet minimal art is able to show so much meaning within a concept.
•    I don’t understand with the idea of Minimal Art being not related to formal elements when it is so limited.

 PERFORMANCE ART

•    Fluxus dated back from 1943-1979, founded by George Macinunas. This movement was impacted by philosophical change in Euro-American culture following the Second World War.
•    Fluxus spread through the world by mass media’s power in the society. However, this movement was less international than the previous movements, since Fluxus was an outside mainstream art movement.
•    The post war era produced dialectic of creation and destruction and preoccupation with the temporal dimension of art- the Act, the performance.
•    Fluxus challenged modernism as the art was only temporary, and it also has interaction with the audience. Fluxus art was hybrid.
•    Gutai developed anti art performances in Asia.
•    Fluxus and Gutai were influenced by mainstream art, especially the Abstract Expressionism. Abstract Expressionism was considered as a performance art instead of the painting itself.
•    These movements were neglected by art historians.
•    I was surprised on how several art movements were neglected by the art historians. I think that these movements usually have more interesting ideas and creativity.

Reading “The Body”
Our human bodies are a complex creation that define the way we interpret, experience, and perceive the world. It is not only our anatomy and physiology that distinguish us, but the common belief that we are animated by a soul or spirit within our bodies. At least, this is the predominant philosophy of western religions and, subsequently, can be seen reflected in western art. This, however, is not the case within postmodernism. In the world of postmodern art, the notion of the soul has been cast aside and the emphasis is placed on the body alone. It directs the focus to our process of sight, identity, and the condition of our emptiness. It highlights the materiality of our existence and the resulting social constructs, behavior and power relationships.
The Body can appear in contemporary art as figure or as concept. Many artists explore the issues of the body through other materials and forms by suggestion or a distillation of themes. The article provides the example of Maureen Connor’s <em>Thinner Than You </em>as an example. It is a sculpture exploring the pressures women face to be thin, represented simply by a stretched dress.
Historically the human figure has been elevated in art. In classicism, the ability to accurately capture the proportions was a favored sign of talent and ability. Figures were used to explore divinity and humanity and the relationship between the two.
Then and now, the body is a wealth of inspiration in form and content. With the power of gesture and expression, the movements of the body invent interesting shapes and forms. As content, figures have been used to comment religion, sex, politics, values, and identity. Even the physical actions of the artist’s bodies themselves have been granted importance. Jackson Pollack is a clear example in painting, and any performance artist whomever existed qualifies because of their incorporation of their person as part of the art process and result.
Women’s art in the late sixties and beyond reflected the fight for equality and liberation that was being pursued on a social and political level. At the same time, an awakening of female sexuality was present and a flood of bodily references and images emerged in art unabashedly. The woman’s anatomy was a commonly used symbol both literally and as subtle suggestion.
The psychological aspects of female sexuality that were originally explored in the 1950s by Alfred Kinsey came to fruition in the art of the 1980’s. Here the personal and social development  of sexual identity was incorporated in work. There has also remained a place for women to seek exposure in art for the pain associated with sexual abuse and violence to the bodies of the more physically vulnerable gender.
Contemporary artists in general do not shy away from revealing the upsets and atrocities of the human condition. They venture into the confusion and fear of our own mortality by unveiling the fragility of the human body. The birth of AIDS in the 1980’s particularly unleashed a representation of the body’s weaknesses and the reality of disease.
As we have developed more was to manipulate and mutilate the human body, art has also exposed this obsession. The advent of plastic surgery, botox, and unending obsession with age and vanity that has become fully supported by technology, did not go unnoticed in contemporary art either.
After reading this article, I have discovered that current technology has had a fascinating impact on the our relationship to the body. As Robertson and McDaniel put it, “We are creating realities in which material bodies do not exist.” Spooky. (I knew there was a reason I distrusted Myspace from the beginning!) In a  multitude of ways we have acquired the ability to “never be there.” Beyond the phone, we can now e-mail and text. On the internet, we can create fictitious or idealized identities and simply edit and cut and paste who we want to be or be perceived as. We letting media fill in for ourselves, and in this experience of the world, “life may be a subset of art, not the other way around” (McDaniel 255)

In their essay, Postmodernism, Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright explain the things that we need to know to understand Postmodernism. Postmodernism and Modernism overlaps each other and did not have the actual time of the transition. (Sturken and Cartwright 281). Postmodernism is more of a response to modernism; in a way that it questions every element in modernism, such as knowledge and the power of believing. The Postmodernist movement is more skeptical then modernism, especially on cultural authority. On the other hand, modernism was more power-oriented and future based in its theory. Postmodernism started to lose control of social structure and culture as well. The reason why Postmodernism lost control over culture is because there are no actual “truth” exists.  They started to question everything, and made them to lose their own identity.
Postmodernism became a questionable society, they doubt their own identity. Thus, this movement often described as a questioning of the master narratives or meta narratives, which according to Sturken and Cartwright, it explains the society as a whole, including religion, science, and other beliefs that are existing in the society. Postmodernism acts under the philosophical concept of a work, which includes idea of value, order, control, identity, or meaning itself (Sturken and Cartwright 282).  The master narratives explain the concept of life and one’s identity in a sense of culture and social status; these issues are being questioned by Postmodernism.
Postmodernism also rejects the idea of presence. Postmodernist believe the presence theory. The presence theory is when people directly interact and experience the world through senses and perceptions. The Postmodernism movement doesn’t believe on any kind of “direct” interaction. Postmodernist believed that any interactions that exist in the world are mediated through languages, images, and social forces. There are also another factors that support Postmodernism; they are ideas of pluralism and multiplicity. This movement rejects modernism belief of unity, as the world is filled with different and various elements. The idea of diversity examines the cultural authority issue, including the gender, race, and many other cultural matters.
Moreover, in Postmodernism, the artists often create artworks by reflecting their knowledge of art history. This idea is called, “Reflexity”. Postmodernism reflects on the old styles and borrowing them. The “Reflexity” concept became popular among the artists as they don’t need to come up with new styles, instead they can borrow the existing style and modify them. In “Reflexity”, there is also irony, which refers to the contradiction between literal and intended meaning. Irony can be seen as a context where appearance and reality are in conflict (Sturken and Cartwright 286). Reflexity grew into the style of referencing context, and later on Postmodernism has been involved in the originality issue.
The Postmodernism concept did not make a big deal out of the matter of originality. In fact, many Postmodern artists created works of art by copying the existing objects and combining them with another object. The aesthetic aspect has also become more important than the practical matter. This “unoriginal” concept can be explained with the fact that perhaps nothing new can be made (Sturken and Cartwright 291).
The other main element that forms Postmodernism is Pop Art, which combines parody and reflexity. These two aspects are commonly used in advertising. The advertising usually don’t show their products, instead they emphasize on social matter, which makes them known for their awareness that will attracts the consumers. The advertisers’ reason for this aspect is because the consumer has become more media literate, and they become more aware of the situation that happens in the society. Therefore, the media shows how they care towards the issues to attract the consumers.
According to these facts, I think that Postmodernism is more sophisticated movement than any other form of art. Postmodernism accepts creativities with no limit, even though it means that copying is ‘appropriate’. Postmodernism shows the increase the art knowledge through “Reflexity” and critical reaction towards social issues that concern the society. Postmodernism has brought us the new light in art, as well as in life.

Response to Reading 2.

Beat culture was a state of desperation that expressed by black Americans, but white Americans considered beat culture as the “cool” thing. According to the lecture, this fact was caused by the freedom that was shown in the beat culture. However, the white Americans did not know that this freedom was formed as a result of enforced segregation and exclusion from the larger mainstream society. The beat society was centered in New York and San Fransisco and was considered similar to Neo-Dada, which in reality they don’t have any close relationship. Beat culture for black Americans meant being alienated for racial reasons and for white Americans, it meant being alienated for social reasons. This fact surprises me how at that time the blacks and the whites shared the same Beat culture for different reasons. However, I don’t quite understand how both races could share Beat culture, when the blacks felt left out from the mainstream and the whites saw the beat culture as the “cool thing”.

Response to Lecture 4

Pop art has become a commodity; it was founded in England as a response to the influx of American popular art, which was a response to Abstract Expressionism. Pop art was unoriginal and was not spontaneous, as well as low culture. I was surprised to learn that Pop art was not a form of originality. It was more about to make ready-made objects appropriate as a work of art; I guess this factor makes Pop art stands out of the other art movements. However, there is one thing that bothers me, how come pop Art in America was a response to abstract expressionism? Abstract expressionism was the exact opposite of pop art and I don’t see how they related to each other.

Just a reminder that this article was not selected by any of you, so I did a summary myself. It is posted on O-space.  I discussed the Beat Culture and added to Fineberg’s definition of the Beats.  If you have any comments on this article, please post.  I am interested to read your thoughts.

That’s All Folks: Contemporary Art and Popular Culture- Nick Mirzoeff

From the 1920s on critics have connected art and popular culture.  Art became what is not popular culture.
“What, at any time, counts as an elite cultural activity or form, and what does not.”
Clement Greenberg writes in 1939 about Kitsch.  Art was the polar opposite of what was mass-produced.  Norman Rockwell was kitsch while abstract art was not.  Avant-garde art was the battle for survival of elite cultural values, which were threatened by capitalism and commoditization.
In the 21-century things are much different.  Rockwall is frequently exhibited in museums and “High” art was become part of popular culture.  The global art market keeps expanding and with it, art has become a commodity like gold.  Thus Greenberg’s vision was a failure.
Merzoeff theorizes that this “transformation of art into mass culture expresses what was really at stake in the hierarchical tension between art and popular culture-the maintenance of a certain view of history.”
Marxists viewed history as a forward-marching struggle between interests.  Thus the art world became a battle between capitalism and Marxism.  This view presumed that history had a story arc (beginning, middle and end) and that capitalism was nearing the end, while Marxist thought was just beginning.  America was the biggest capitalist society; therefore it would be brought down by Marxist ideology.
Greenberg believed that high culture was the place within a capitalist system where proper values could be safeguarded.  Thus, popular (low) culture was a debased derivative of high culture that was constantly trying to replace it.  This view started to disappear in the 60s, which was replaced by one, that was diametrically opposed to it.  The study of visual culture proposed that popular culture was the democratized version of high culture.
Stuart Hall writes in 1981, “Popular culture is one of the sites where this struggle for and against a culture of the powerful is engaged.”  It is not a sphere where socialism, a socialized culture- already fully formed-might be constituted.  That is why popular culture matters.”
Cultural studies began reconcieving popular culture in terms of gender, race, and sexual identity, while postmodern art discourse began examining art, art history, and exhibition.  The discourse left out most of the rest of the world, focusing primarily in New York, while globalist attitudes and thoughts began to emerge.
Walter Benjamin begins to theorize about Mickey Mouse and Charlie Chaplin.  He wrote in 1936 “The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility” He argued that Chaplin and Mickey tried to re-establish equilibrium in the world of human beings and the machine.  Film was both a product of the industrial machine age and a way that man could come to terms with it.  By using slow motion and close up the and other filming techniques the cold world of the film set could expand space and time.
The camera revealed a world the human eye could never before see.  Exemplified by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878.  Film opened up the unconscious and the dream world and brought them to the real world.  All of this relieved and brought a much need escape from the emerging fascist movements around the world.
Greenberg theorized that because of the rise of industrial capitalism the avant-garde art movements began to grow.  He wrote that artists “derive their chief inspiration from the medium they work in” it becomes the “imitation of imitating” Thus it countered the world of homogeny and “low” culture.  When a peasant looks at folk art his first impression is the same as that of the cultivated viewer looking at a Picasso.  Though the second look of the cultivated viewer reveals “The recognizable, the miraculous and the sympathetic.”  He believed that if an artist imitated the kitsch it could never overcome its inspiration as fine art.
Benjamin argued that through mechanical reproduction art moved from the 19th century’s “Art for art’s sake.”  Art when freed from the ritual purpose of the past it could now take on a new social function- that of politics.  Photography removed people from nature and replaced the “real.”  Film allowed the masses to be part of a collective viewership and response to the media.
However both agreed that the number one enemy of all culture was fascism.  Greenberg saw nothing that could be done in resistance. “We no longer look to socialism for a new culture-as inevitably one will appear, once we do have socialism.  Today we look at socialism simply for the preservation of whatever living culture we have now.  Thus socialism became a kind of living museum for high culture.  Interestingly unlike soviet and Nazi socialism he believed that art had no place in propaganda.  Benjamin a German Jew who escaped Nazi Germany believed that the fascist lead the masses into believing that they were in charge of their own country though “ownership” remained the same as before.
The two Marxists both agreed when it cam to opposing the Nazi governments.  During the occupation of France Benjamin committed suicide after trying to escape, while Greenberg became the voice of a new art movement.
After the war the landscape was changed.  America emerged victorious from the conflict and so did American high culture.  In their 1943 manifesto, Addolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko declared that American art must be “truly global in plane”, and it should be “tragic and timeless” and their kinship to archaic and primitive art.  This view was not embraced by all especially after the invention of the nuclear bomb.
During the rise of the Soviet empire Greenberg wrote of keeping art away from politics, while those scared of Communist tried to link abstract art with the soviets.  Meanwhile the CIA privately funded avant-garde exhibitions to demonstrate to the world the freedom available in the United States.
Abstract Expressionism was the dominant form of art in the US until the 1960s when Andy Warhol created “The Factory.”  Warhol presented a new worldview where one could not escape pop culture with his endless reproductions of soup cans and Jackie-O silk-screens.
His grids of images evoked the cells of a film reel, and it was not long before he started making his own films.  He demonstrated that the actors were not performing for the audience but responding the apparatus of the film making process.  Benjamin argued “Film makes test performances capable of being exhibited, by turning itself into a test.”  Warhol in fact made test films of everyone who visited his factory.  But he never finished them into a logically edited film.  He instead used minimum to no cuts in most of his films, allowing the viewer to experience the world uninterrupted by montage or other edits.  Case in point, his film Empire, which was an uninterrupted shot of the Empire State Building that ran eight hours long, and his film Sleep which was nothing more than a shot of a subject sleeping.
Warhol’s work began the post modernist movement.  Fredric Jameson wrote of postmodern works “Which foreground the commodity fetishism of a transition to late capital, ought to be powerful and critical political statements.”  He believed that Warhol failed to meet this criteria and he would later decry postmodernism as “an expression of late capital, rather than a critique of it.”  Jameson assumed that the 70s was the decline of capital rather than a new era.
However Jamson was looking at it the wrong way.  Warhol’s art was about sexual fetishism for the Queer perspective.  Deborah Kass writes that “He was the first big queer-boy artist and he really made these pictures of the inside of his queer brain, from the women’s shoes one.”
Warhol in 1964 did the work “Race Riot” which depicted the police attacks on the civil rights movement. And then “Electric Chair” which engaged America’s predilection for violence, especially towards blacks.  Warhol would then in the 1980s collaborate with black artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a graffiti artist and the first mainstream black artist.  They collaborated on the 1985 painting “Arm and Hammer II”.  In the painting a white arm holding a hammer is silk-screened by Warhol, while Basguiat paints a black man playing a saxophone.  The white arm is thought to represent the socialist movement of the worker, while the black figure represents according to Marry Rosler “A tamed entertainer-it’s like a minstrel show.”  In the past most minstrels were Anglo, and painted themselves black to perform.  So Basquiat was painting himself as crossover to the white world of the gallery space.
Hall writes in the late 80s about what made black culture so important at the time.  America had the dominant world power of the time after the fall of the Berlin wall.  He saw it as “A displacement and a hegemonic shift in the definition of culture – movement form high American mainstream popular culture to and its mass cultural, image mediated technological forms.”  The religious political conservatives are which had so government sponsored as an index of cultural freedom was intensely scrutinized.
Controversies erupted over the racially charged figure of Aunt Jamima, a large black woman with a headscarf, who was also the logo for a syrup company.  Jemima, who was originally a character in minstrel show, became the symbol of black servitude.  Joe Overstreet redesigned Jemima, the pop symbol as a black power leader with a machine gun.
By the 90s corporation took over multiculturism and integrated it into the consumer identity.  In 2003 an exhibition sponsored by Phillip-Morris and the National Endowment for the Humanities “Only Skin Deep” showed work that shaped what “Americaness” and who Americans are.  It consisted of photos showing Race and Radicalization and “refusing the choice to create an alternative cannon of minority artists or to dismiss race all together. The show is criticized for being nothing more than a tool of global capital.

Lecture #2

What I learned:
- Modernism begins with philosophy of Enlightenment. I think this is an interesting fact since I never knew that Art was closely related to philosophy and its development.
-Emanuel Kant: appreciates art by its formal elements, to be understood in terms of its form, detached from content and from individual reaction.
- Art changes from representation to abstraction.

What surprised me:
Art was expected to be in service of the ruling classes and reflected the dominant ideology. The value of art of its worth was measured in terms of how well the artist was able to fulfill the patron’s order. This statement surprised me since I never realized that artists work under the order of the patrons, I always thought that they made their own paintings and sells them to the patrons.

Question:
I did not quite understand the principle of formalism and its relationship to the statement “art for art’s sake”

Lecture #3
-Duchamp introduced the idea of readymade items as works of art.
- The meaning of a modernist works: Art meaning.
- Art was created by the artist’s Gesture or idea.
- There were several art movements that develop the idea of pop art, such as Neo-Dada and Low art.

Question:
I found this interesting statement by John Baldessari in the lecture, he said “If he’s right, and the rest of us are wrong.” And later on he burned down his paintings. What did he refer to by “right”? What did Duchamp prove to Baldessari that made him burned down all his paintings? I didn’t quite understand this part.