1) What is the gist of Kandinsky's essay "Concerning the Spritual"? Kandinsky seeks to displace the spirituality of religion to the activities of making art,thus shifting the focus to the formal aspects of a work rather than its religious content.
2) What was the controversy concerning Chris Ofili's painting "Holy Virgin Mary"(1996) ?
In 1999, Mayor Giuliani,thought the work was disrespectful of the Catholic religion and tried to have city funding cut for the Brooklyn Museum.This attempt at censorship ultimately failed.
3) How might the paradox of globalization be affecting the production of art today?
Advocates of globalism,like Thomas Friedman, see an equalizing effect where emerging technology and shifting economic trends create a new model of political and cultural exchange while opponents feel that the gap between rich and poor is expanding and that the needs of individuals are secondary to those of multinational corporations.This duality is evident in the art world where some exemplify the breakdown of cultural differences like Do-Ho Suh,in the piece titled "Who Are We"?(2000), while some like Tracy Moffatt reinforce identy issues by pointing out the tragic fate of Australian aborigines in her film "Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy",1989.
4)How can one "read"the work of Anish Kapoor ? Heartney associates a kind of Eastern looking spirituality with the reductive aesthetic of Minimalism.In the massively monumental "Cloud Gate",2004, a seamlessly distorted reflection mirrors everything around it in a topological form that has no beginning or end, an apt metaphore for our apparently endless universe.
5)What's next? Cornelia Parker in her piece "Mass(Colder Darker Matter),1997 displays the charred remains of a church struck by lightning by suspending the blackened fragments in a cluster reminicent of of the shape they might have occupied before there miraculous transformation.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Graduate Art Seminar Week 14
1) How would you compare the body/performance art of Carolee Schneeman with that of Marina Abramovic?
While both artists were part of the feminist art movement of the 1970's and used nudity to undermine some commonly held conventions about female sexuality, Heartney argues that their approach was diametrically opposed. While Abramovic "uses her body in ways that accentuate self-control, physical endurance, and risk", Schneeman's performance is more "Dionysian" in its unfettered sexuality.
2) Compare the work of John Currin to that of Lisa Yuskavage.
The work of John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage use the element of kitch and satire in depecting the figure. Currin seems to be making references to painting styles and techniques past masters, as Yuskavage parodys the objectification of women.
While both artists were part of the feminist art movement of the 1970's and used nudity to undermine some commonly held conventions about female sexuality, Heartney argues that their approach was diametrically opposed. While Abramovic "uses her body in ways that accentuate self-control, physical endurance, and risk", Schneeman's performance is more "Dionysian" in its unfettered sexuality.
2) Compare the work of John Currin to that of Lisa Yuskavage.
The work of John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage use the element of kitch and satire in depecting the figure. Currin seems to be making references to painting styles and techniques past masters, as Yuskavage parodys the objectification of women.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Week 14
In the book, "Criticizing Art", Terry Barrett suggests using four criteria for writing about art. First,describe the work, it's subject-matter,medium,and form as well as including some information about the artist,location and dates of the exhibition.Secondly,interpret the work.What is it about? Can one place it in the context of other art work and influences? Third,judge the work .This may include an assessment of the worth of an object based on certain criteria such as Formalism or Instrumentalism or a combination of criteria chosen by the critic.Fourth, place the work in the larger context of critical theory. Try to develop a point of view,and generate meaning through interpretation.In a group show,look for themes,as well as noting how the work was selected and by whom.Try to increase appreciation by maintaining a generally positive tone.Careful observation can improve ones' knowledge of art and its place in our culture.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Graduate Art Seminar Week 13
It would seem that we are on the cusp of "A Brave New World", where Utopian dreams have been shattered,and technology is bringing changes faster than we can measure,much-less foresee the consequences of environmental degradation,genetic engineering,and suburban sprawl.The idea that technology will save us has devolved into the feeling that the world is out of balance.War is still the driving force behind many technological advances,and money still rules.In a "Post Human"future,evolution may be the survival of the richest.Perhaps this is no different than it ever was,but it provides plenty of fodder for the artists and commentators of today.
In our world,deformation,decay,and chaos are the flip side of birth,growth,and regeneration and are equally valid subjects of artistic exploration.In fact,deformation might be a more important subject today regarding the various impositions we placing on the planet and in light of the adulation of the young and beautiful in our culture.Many artists through the ages have shown an interest in death and disease and have sought to subvert the accepted idealization of forms.The reading on Freak Photography made many interesting observations,where Diane Arbus mixed documentary and high art and brought some of the seamiest aspects of popular culture to our attention.
In our world,deformation,decay,and chaos are the flip side of birth,growth,and regeneration and are equally valid subjects of artistic exploration.In fact,deformation might be a more important subject today regarding the various impositions we placing on the planet and in light of the adulation of the young and beautiful in our culture.Many artists through the ages have shown an interest in death and disease and have sought to subvert the accepted idealization of forms.The reading on Freak Photography made many interesting observations,where Diane Arbus mixed documentary and high art and brought some of the seamiest aspects of popular culture to our attention.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Graduate Art Seminar Week 12
How has the use of narrative changed in contemporary art? In the past,important religious or historical events were usually the subject of narrative art. Today any idea no matter how important or mundane is worthy of investigation. The way a story is told can be more meaningful than the content of the narrative. In the modernist tradition narration and representation were removed to focus on the formal elements of a work in defiance of the historical norm. Representation and narration are linked,especially in photography, cinema,and video. Critic Craig Owens uses the idea of the palimpsest as an allegory where events and characters have layers of meaning. Heartney believes this leads to illegibility as opposed to modernism's "mythology of coherence",and notes that Roland Barthes, in his essay "The Death of the Author" puts the emphasis on the reader or viewer to give meaning to the "text". This is the case in the work of many contemporary artists whose vague and disjunctive stories offer no obvious way of interpration.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Review of the Armory Show
While a lot of interesting art was on display at the Art Dealers Association of America's 2010 Armory Show, it was at its core, a trade show. The talk was who sold what for how much. This event is more about money, personalities, and politics than anything else. The recent Damien Hirst show "End of an Era" came to mind. A large head of a bull with a large gold disk between gold horns in a gold tank of formaldehyde reminded me of the scene in the "Ten Commandments" when Moses came down from the mountain and found the Israelites worshiping a golden calf in an orgy of excess. What is a young idealistic art student to think? If you are in it for the money, you need to cultivate the right connections.
At the Pierogi booth, Jonathan Schipper, turns the art world on its head by inverting two classical figures and suspending them from a chain. These two figures in the piece called "To Dust" 2009-10 face each other like the characters in a Greek myth.
Robert Irwin's "4 Fold" 2009, light sculpture at the Nyehaus booth consists of two deep blue columns of light and various shadows and reflections surrounding it, $95,000.00.
In Matthew Chambers piece, "Noble Rider of Sound"2009, a large oil and acrylic painting on canvas, bands of color intersect and overlap, weaving to create a dense cluster of tones that have depth and movement.
A large painting titled "Thoughts on a Monsoon Morning/Orange Room" 2007 by Irene Fish is an expansive interior view of a light filled space notable by its birds eye vantage point composition. This was at the Locks Gallery booth.
I could go on, but I suppose some of my feeling about the show is sour grapes, if I had the money to collect, or could profit from the sale of expensive art work I might feel different.
The Armory Show on Park Avenue was also a mix of contemporary and 20th century artists works. A Milton Avery painting was priced at over a million dollars. I did discover some artists that I had previously over looked. Thomas Chimes, David Rabinowitch, Ray Johnson, and Conrad Marca-Relli are among those whose work I would like to be more familiar with. Next year, who knows?
At the Pierogi booth, Jonathan Schipper, turns the art world on its head by inverting two classical figures and suspending them from a chain. These two figures in the piece called "To Dust" 2009-10 face each other like the characters in a Greek myth.
Robert Irwin's "4 Fold" 2009, light sculpture at the Nyehaus booth consists of two deep blue columns of light and various shadows and reflections surrounding it, $95,000.00.
In Matthew Chambers piece, "Noble Rider of Sound"2009, a large oil and acrylic painting on canvas, bands of color intersect and overlap, weaving to create a dense cluster of tones that have depth and movement.
A large painting titled "Thoughts on a Monsoon Morning/Orange Room" 2007 by Irene Fish is an expansive interior view of a light filled space notable by its birds eye vantage point composition. This was at the Locks Gallery booth.
I could go on, but I suppose some of my feeling about the show is sour grapes, if I had the money to collect, or could profit from the sale of expensive art work I might feel different.
The Armory Show on Park Avenue was also a mix of contemporary and 20th century artists works. A Milton Avery painting was priced at over a million dollars. I did discover some artists that I had previously over looked. Thomas Chimes, David Rabinowitch, Ray Johnson, and Conrad Marca-Relli are among those whose work I would like to be more familiar with. Next year, who knows?
Whitney Biennial 2010
While the Whitney Biennial has no obviously discernible theme, certain ideas of why this group of artists were chosen to represent the state of American art at this time begins to emerge upon reflection. Its scaled back scope , and insular aesthetic is placed in a historical context by the inclusion of "Collecting Biennials", the 5th floor showing of work from post annuals and and biennials on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. Begin 1932, the show was an annual event until 1973, alternating sculpture and painting each year where in lieu of prizes, some works were bought for the museums permanent collection. To further historicize the 2010 show, the catalog lists all the artist who ever participated, by year and reprints various reviews from The New York Times.
This show is less political than some recent shows and according to its curators, Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari, is based on a "personal modernism" wherein a rediscovery of the "experimental nature of the artistic endeavor and politics within the self" are needed "in order to understand our role in a larger social and cultural transformation".
Apparently, modernism is alive and well as indicated by the inclusion of the paintings of Sara Crowner. Her large sewn and painted canvas pieces are, according to the curators, reconstructing the styles of earlier movements and creating a dialogue with traditions of craft and the handmade.
Susan Frecon's large red paintings are also in the modernist tradition where color and quality of the paint, surface texture and luminosity of forms create a tension and balance that have faintly architectural references.
The lovely, intimate, sparse but brightly colored landscapes of Maureen Gallace seemed somehow out of place in the Whitney. Perhaps they are a parody of an earlier American Modernism, again implying that all styles and forms are valid areas of exploration.
In the same vein are the large ink on paper flower paintings of Charles Ray. These brightly colored pieces are almost caricature and have a slightly disturbing unfinished quality that comes from their placement on the page and the amount of unpainted space. I think the act of painting these must be important in a meditative zen way.
Other paintings of note include works by Scott Short, R.H. Quaytman and Storm Tharp. Scott Short's process of copying copies many times reduces an image to a textural pattern that he then copies meticulously in paint creating an evocative image that involves mechanical deconstruction with a painterly process. R.H. Quaytman's silk screened photographs combined with oil paint uses optical patterns and layers of references to other artists to create a kind of montage of personal motifs. The disembodied characters inhabiting the paintings of Storm Tharp seem to have one foot in another world, perhaps the subconscience. These haunting portraits are literally drawn out of the puddles of wet ink, some areas well defined while others remain vaguely obscure, that reminds us of our own partially formed nature.
The curators use of the bridge and fence metaphor is aptly reflected in Robert Groovenor (untitled, 2009) piece that is formally architectural in nature and based on the relationship of the the main elements, a red flocked bridge that is furniture related in its color and texture and a screen like "fence".
Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Hannah Greely are both using quotidian objects to make sculptural works. Hutchins, in "Couch For a Long Time, 2009", covers a couch from her childhood home with newspaper articles about Barack Obama and placed ceramic objects on it that seem to act as surrogates for people, while Greely in "Dual" (2005-9) creates a dingy scene from a bar and apparently copies or makes objects that mimic the real thing.
Another bridge piece that combines the sculptural object with video is "We Love America, We Hate America" by the collective called the Bruce High Quality Foundation. An ambulance-hearse that projects a montage of film clips onto the windshield, part history, part pop-culture, part spoof and part critique of the art world makes one realize that art can be fun and entertaining while providing social commentary.
The photography of Nina Berman, and Stephanie Sinclair are strong on social commentary as well. Berman's "Marine Wedding" is a heartbreaking portrait of former Maine Sargent Ty Ziegel, disfigured in the Iraq war,it is intimate and disturbing. In the hard to look at series "Self-immolation: A Cry for Help (2003-05) Sinclair documents the brutality and despair of women and girls who are suffering from self-inflicted woulds committed to expose domestic violence.
Ultimately, the video works are the most compelling part of the Whitney Biennial 2010, among many interesting pieces a few stand out for me: Kerry Tribes's piece on memory, Shannon Hays "Parole" and Ari Marcopoulos's "Detroit" 2009 where two kids improvise on electric guitars pedals. A filmed rant by Marianne Vitale is at first abrasive but after a few minutes the irony and humor become apparent.
While this Biennial may be a bit underwhelming, it never the less has enough merit to justify the time and expense involved and raises some important questions about the nature of artistic endeavor and the socio-economic system called the art world.
This show is less political than some recent shows and according to its curators, Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari, is based on a "personal modernism" wherein a rediscovery of the "experimental nature of the artistic endeavor and politics within the self" are needed "in order to understand our role in a larger social and cultural transformation".
Apparently, modernism is alive and well as indicated by the inclusion of the paintings of Sara Crowner. Her large sewn and painted canvas pieces are, according to the curators, reconstructing the styles of earlier movements and creating a dialogue with traditions of craft and the handmade.
Susan Frecon's large red paintings are also in the modernist tradition where color and quality of the paint, surface texture and luminosity of forms create a tension and balance that have faintly architectural references.
The lovely, intimate, sparse but brightly colored landscapes of Maureen Gallace seemed somehow out of place in the Whitney. Perhaps they are a parody of an earlier American Modernism, again implying that all styles and forms are valid areas of exploration.
In the same vein are the large ink on paper flower paintings of Charles Ray. These brightly colored pieces are almost caricature and have a slightly disturbing unfinished quality that comes from their placement on the page and the amount of unpainted space. I think the act of painting these must be important in a meditative zen way.
Other paintings of note include works by Scott Short, R.H. Quaytman and Storm Tharp. Scott Short's process of copying copies many times reduces an image to a textural pattern that he then copies meticulously in paint creating an evocative image that involves mechanical deconstruction with a painterly process. R.H. Quaytman's silk screened photographs combined with oil paint uses optical patterns and layers of references to other artists to create a kind of montage of personal motifs. The disembodied characters inhabiting the paintings of Storm Tharp seem to have one foot in another world, perhaps the subconscience. These haunting portraits are literally drawn out of the puddles of wet ink, some areas well defined while others remain vaguely obscure, that reminds us of our own partially formed nature.
The curators use of the bridge and fence metaphor is aptly reflected in Robert Groovenor (untitled, 2009) piece that is formally architectural in nature and based on the relationship of the the main elements, a red flocked bridge that is furniture related in its color and texture and a screen like "fence".
Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Hannah Greely are both using quotidian objects to make sculptural works. Hutchins, in "Couch For a Long Time, 2009", covers a couch from her childhood home with newspaper articles about Barack Obama and placed ceramic objects on it that seem to act as surrogates for people, while Greely in "Dual" (2005-9) creates a dingy scene from a bar and apparently copies or makes objects that mimic the real thing.
Another bridge piece that combines the sculptural object with video is "We Love America, We Hate America" by the collective called the Bruce High Quality Foundation. An ambulance-hearse that projects a montage of film clips onto the windshield, part history, part pop-culture, part spoof and part critique of the art world makes one realize that art can be fun and entertaining while providing social commentary.
The photography of Nina Berman, and Stephanie Sinclair are strong on social commentary as well. Berman's "Marine Wedding" is a heartbreaking portrait of former Maine Sargent Ty Ziegel, disfigured in the Iraq war,it is intimate and disturbing. In the hard to look at series "Self-immolation: A Cry for Help (2003-05) Sinclair documents the brutality and despair of women and girls who are suffering from self-inflicted woulds committed to expose domestic violence.
Ultimately, the video works are the most compelling part of the Whitney Biennial 2010, among many interesting pieces a few stand out for me: Kerry Tribes's piece on memory, Shannon Hays "Parole" and Ari Marcopoulos's "Detroit" 2009 where two kids improvise on electric guitars pedals. A filmed rant by Marianne Vitale is at first abrasive but after a few minutes the irony and humor become apparent.
While this Biennial may be a bit underwhelming, it never the less has enough merit to justify the time and expense involved and raises some important questions about the nature of artistic endeavor and the socio-economic system called the art world.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Graduate Art Seminar Week 6
Graduate Art Seminar Week 6
Bourriaud notes that Marcel Duchamp heralds a kind of nonlinear modernity that is closer in form to that now taking shape than the twentieth-century modernity, that postmodernism claims to surpass. He says Duchamp sensed the danger of "progress" in art, and,asserted that art was "a game between all people of all times" rather than a relationship with the present.
This implies a consideration of what came before and what came after the production of a work art, be it a physical object or an event that is rooted in the present,and can only be perpetuated through memory, or the use of replique,(replication) which takes on its own form of physicality such as a theater production or recording device. "The art of post production is a product of this notion of replique...the work of art is an event that constitutes the replication of and reply to another work or preexisting object; distant in time from the original to which it is linked,this work none the less belongs to the same chain of events."
Bourriaud implies this diminution ("diluting it in time"), is ridding the work of its character as a historical fetish. He mentions Bertrand Laver, Bruno Peinado, and Sam Durant as artists who are using a" form of replique to place work in the "cultural chain" of events.
Music would seem to provide a model for this type of contemporary art where work "is no longer defined as the end point of the creative process but rather as an interface, a generator of activities." Bourriaud uses the evolution of the dematerialization of the global economy as a model for this process of devaluation of property and shift to "short-term access between servers and clients operating in a network relationship"(Jeremy Rilkin).
I do not yet understand how galleries and artists profit from these relationship networks.Perhaps they all keep their day jobs in a time when acquisition is be replaced by a "generalized practice of access to experience." This sounds a bit like theater, where the shift from tangible ownership to temporal experience evolved eons ago as a form of communal storytelling.
Bourriaud quotes Peter Sloterdijk as saying "all things must be reevaluated in terms of their transportability" and cites the Exodus as an event where God was transcoded from stone to parchment , monument to document,a diaspora of forms, that require a translation among people that will give rise to a "new common intelligibility".
Bourriaud notes that Marcel Duchamp heralds a kind of nonlinear modernity that is closer in form to that now taking shape than the twentieth-century modernity, that postmodernism claims to surpass. He says Duchamp sensed the danger of "progress" in art, and,asserted that art was "a game between all people of all times" rather than a relationship with the present.
This implies a consideration of what came before and what came after the production of a work art, be it a physical object or an event that is rooted in the present,and can only be perpetuated through memory, or the use of replique,(replication) which takes on its own form of physicality such as a theater production or recording device. "The art of post production is a product of this notion of replique...the work of art is an event that constitutes the replication of and reply to another work or preexisting object; distant in time from the original to which it is linked,this work none the less belongs to the same chain of events."
Bourriaud implies this diminution ("diluting it in time"), is ridding the work of its character as a historical fetish. He mentions Bertrand Laver, Bruno Peinado, and Sam Durant as artists who are using a" form of replique to place work in the "cultural chain" of events.
Music would seem to provide a model for this type of contemporary art where work "is no longer defined as the end point of the creative process but rather as an interface, a generator of activities." Bourriaud uses the evolution of the dematerialization of the global economy as a model for this process of devaluation of property and shift to "short-term access between servers and clients operating in a network relationship"(Jeremy Rilkin).
I do not yet understand how galleries and artists profit from these relationship networks.Perhaps they all keep their day jobs in a time when acquisition is be replaced by a "generalized practice of access to experience." This sounds a bit like theater, where the shift from tangible ownership to temporal experience evolved eons ago as a form of communal storytelling.
Bourriaud quotes Peter Sloterdijk as saying "all things must be reevaluated in terms of their transportability" and cites the Exodus as an event where God was transcoded from stone to parchment , monument to document,a diaspora of forms, that require a translation among people that will give rise to a "new common intelligibility".
Monday, March 1, 2010
Graduate Art Seminar Week 5
Bourriaud speaks of topology as a geometry of translation.Topology is the study of the properties of figures or solids that are not normally affected by changes in size or shape, this usually is the surface structure or the arrangement of parts of an object. Translation, in this sense,is the "transition from one condition to another...thus it refers to movement,to the dynamism of forms, and characterizes reality as a conglomeration of transitory surfaces and forms." Topology is a model for the study of the sociological phenomena we know as art.
Bourriaud defines "precarious" as a right of use that could be revoked at any time, and compares it to the life span of commodities whose decreasing usefulness affects our perception of the world. To me,this precarious aesthetic seems to be about risk, and while these seem like precarious times, I suspect inhabitants of any period would share this sense of urgency.He quotes Hanna Arendt as saying "an object is cultural to the extent that it can endure; its durability is the very opposite of functionality." This dichotomy between the enduring and the functional is rejected by Bourriaud as failing to apply to contemporary art work. No fixed forms, fragility, and a sense of the ephemeral are all qualities of this aesthetic precariousness. Urban chaos and a wandering journey become metaphors for the type of response we feel when regarding the work of many current artists.
The parade is a type of journey-form cited by Bourraid as an example of art that is not rooted in the material, but rather an event that occupies a "time-specific" place. He gives many examples of artists whose works convey this sensibility of the explorer,
Monday, February 22, 2010
Graduate art seminar Week 5
Bruce Hill
The Caribbean is an example of cultural diversity created as an unintended result of colonization by mixing of African,European, Native American and Asian people over time.Creolization is the "interaction or transactional aggreat of these "cultural wanderings",and as such, makes a good model for the ideas put forth by Bourriaud, that emerging in the space left by the breakdown of a unified modernist cultural overview,is an "altermodernity" that he defines as a process of exchange in all directions.
Bourriaud equates modernism with a passion for ralicality.Twentieth century's avant-garde movements were,at the core, about purification,elimination of the old and creation of the new, whereas post-modernists are more interested in using what ever signs and styles they need by borrowing freely to suit specific situations.
A common theme, used throughout the Radicant,is the idea of the journey, traveling, or wandering as a metaphor for the mixing or exchange
of ideas and cultural forms.Bourriaud argues against cultural determinism,and asks in effect, what are the processes by which the individual artist and social formations create,or change each other. His artist is a nomad willing to inhabit existing forms and change them to suit the moment. He compares this to the botanical family of the radicands, which develop their roots as they advance,and adapt to new environments.
Art becomes an act of translation, the displacement of meaning from one form to another,a form of negotiation better served by the installation than by medium-specific work. "The radicant takes the form of a trajectory or path,…not a stable, closed and self contained identity," rather it is "movement that ultimately permits the formation of an identity".
Victor Segalen seemed ahead of his time when he focused on the historical narrative of marginalized peoples. Segalen coined the term "exote" as one who experiences diversity without romanticizing it and travel to return to one's self.
Bourriaud compares the radicant aesthetic to the links of a chain rather than a fixed or static image.
Bruce Hill
The Caribbean is an example of cultural diversity created as an unintended result of colonization by mixing of African,European, Native American and Asian people over time.Creolization is the "interaction or transactional aggreat of these "cultural wanderings",and as such, makes a good model for the ideas put forth by Bourriaud, that emerging in the space left by the breakdown of a unified modernist cultural overview,is an "altermodernity" that he defines as a process of exchange in all directions.
Bourriaud equates modernism with a passion for ralicality.Twentieth century's avant-garde movements were,at the core, about purification,elimination of the old and creation of the new, whereas post-modernists are more interested in using what ever signs and styles they need by borrowing freely to suit specific situations.
A common theme, used throughout the Radicant,is the idea of the journey, traveling, or wandering as a metaphor for the mixing or exchange
of ideas and cultural forms.Bourriaud argues against cultural determinism,and asks in effect, what are the processes by which the individual artist and social formations create,or change each other. His artist is a nomad willing to inhabit existing forms and change them to suit the moment. He compares this to the botanical family of the radicands, which develop their roots as they advance,and adapt to new environments.
Art becomes an act of translation, the displacement of meaning from one form to another,a form of negotiation better served by the installation than by medium-specific work. "The radicant takes the form of a trajectory or path,…not a stable, closed and self contained identity," rather it is "movement that ultimately permits the formation of an identity".
Victor Segalen seemed ahead of his time when he focused on the historical narrative of marginalized peoples. Segalen coined the term "exote" as one who experiences diversity without romanticizing it and travel to return to one's self.
Bourriaud compares the radicant aesthetic to the links of a chain rather than a fixed or static image.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Week 4 pictures
Mike Kelly "Horse dance"Jason Rodes "Untitled"
Cornelia Parker "Anti-Mass"
Jassica Stockholder "Untitled"
Liam Gillick "Untitled"
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Graduate Art Seminar
Week 4
Bourriaud asks, in writing about Liam Gillick, "at what point in the development of the industrial process did mechanization destroy the last traces of human intervention"? Gillick's work has a stageset like quality that invites viewers to participate in creating a narrative that proposes alternative possibilities to those put forth by commonly accepted notions of historical succession. This creation of new scenarios is evolving and built on layers of association of various objects and structures.Gillick's piece "Assessment Think Tank"1997, seems to reference minimalism in its form and color, but is propelled along another narritive path by its use of parody in its nameing.
What is the gap between production and consumption? Production and consumption are the flip sides of the same coin. Bourriaud uses the analogy of the DJ, who uses dubbing to make "linkages through which the works flow into each other, presenting at once a product, a tool, and a medium." Marx, according to Bourriaud, wrote "consumption is simultaneously also production." A product is defined by its use. We are all agents of cultural re-appropriation just by the act of listening, reading, watching and participating in the multi-faceted culture of today.
How is the use of subversion aiding in the transformation of critical attitudes? Subversion implies trying to change or use the existing structure from within.Raising questions about our perception of current or past events makes one aware of the impossibility of objective analysis and leads to the belief that there are only interpreatations.Simulationism,appropriating,and dubbing,reject the modernist myth of originality in favor of celebrating the use of ordinary objects in works of art,thereby proclaiming that intention and context form the basis of meaning in art.
How did the Duchamp's use of the "readymade" change the way we use art? Bourriaud quotes Duchamp as saying "it is the viewer that makes the painting". This implies that the interaction or process of regarding is the core experience in art. In essence, it's not what you see but how you are seeing it.This again implies that intention is the basis for determining if something is to be regarded as art.Eleanor Hearlney suggests that rather than elevating common objects to the level of art,Duchamp was knocking art off its pedestal and into everyday life where it is more useful. What is the role of the artist today? Among other things,Bourriaud sees the artist as a mediator between various divergent points of view.By creating scenarios that require more activity and accountability from viewers/consumers,art is evolving toward a more socially respon sible,interactive tool that we can employ to reinvent,or reflect upon, our society.
Week 4
Bourriaud asks, in writing about Liam Gillick, "at what point in the development of the industrial process did mechanization destroy the last traces of human intervention"? Gillick's work has a stageset like quality that invites viewers to participate in creating a narrative that proposes alternative possibilities to those put forth by commonly accepted notions of historical succession. This creation of new scenarios is evolving and built on layers of association of various objects and structures.Gillick's piece "Assessment Think Tank"1997, seems to reference minimalism in its form and color, but is propelled along another narritive path by its use of parody in its nameing.
What is the gap between production and consumption? Production and consumption are the flip sides of the same coin. Bourriaud uses the analogy of the DJ, who uses dubbing to make "linkages through which the works flow into each other, presenting at once a product, a tool, and a medium." Marx, according to Bourriaud, wrote "consumption is simultaneously also production." A product is defined by its use. We are all agents of cultural re-appropriation just by the act of listening, reading, watching and participating in the multi-faceted culture of today.
How is the use of subversion aiding in the transformation of critical attitudes? Subversion implies trying to change or use the existing structure from within.Raising questions about our perception of current or past events makes one aware of the impossibility of objective analysis and leads to the belief that there are only interpreatations.Simulationism,appropriating,and dubbing,reject the modernist myth of originality in favor of celebrating the use of ordinary objects in works of art,thereby proclaiming that intention and context form the basis of meaning in art.
How did the Duchamp's use of the "readymade" change the way we use art? Bourriaud quotes Duchamp as saying "it is the viewer that makes the painting". This implies that the interaction or process of regarding is the core experience in art. In essence, it's not what you see but how you are seeing it.This again implies that intention is the basis for determining if something is to be regarded as art.Eleanor Hearlney suggests that rather than elevating common objects to the level of art,Duchamp was knocking art off its pedestal and into everyday life where it is more useful. What is the role of the artist today? Among other things,Bourriaud sees the artist as a mediator between various divergent points of view.By creating scenarios that require more activity and accountability from viewers/consumers,art is evolving toward a more socially respon sible,interactive tool that we can employ to reinvent,or reflect upon, our society.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
List of Post isms (ongoing)
Post Modern
Post Colonial
Post Feminism
Post Formalism
Post Expressionist
Post Structuralist
Post Deconstructuralist
Post Marxist
Post Abstract
Post Humanist
Post Industrialist
Post Vietnam
Post 9/ll
Post Pop
Post Conceptualism
Post Neo-Expressionist
Post Dada
Post Relational
Post Colonial
Post Feminism
Post Formalism
Post Expressionist
Post Structuralist
Post Deconstructuralist
Post Marxist
Post Abstract
Post Humanist
Post Industrialist
Post Vietnam
Post 9/ll
Post Pop
Post Conceptualism
Post Neo-Expressionist
Post Dada
Post Relational
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Bruce Hill
Grad Art Seminar - Week 3
Walter Benjamin assignment
Benjamin argues that "aura" is a unique element of a work of art that is eliminated by mechanical reproduction. His concept of authenticity seems to be based, not on any intrinsic aesthetic qualities, in a work of art, but rather on external attributes such as "its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be", physical condition and line of ownership. A work of art is detached from the domain of tradition by substituting a plurality of copies for uniqueness, but is "re-activated" by the ability to meet the viewer in ones own particular situation. Benjamin states the "aura" of a work has its basis in ritual, the location of its original value.
To Benjamin, mechanical reproduction in film especially, gave the viewer no opportunity for contemplation, which he viewed as a school for asocial behavior. Distraction better allows the mass to absorb a work of art, rather than being absorbed by it. For the mass, collective experiences, with less association with bourgeois power structure was preferred. "The greater the decrease in social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public." "Exhibition value" is increased by technical reproductions of an art work to such an extent that a qualitative transformation takes place.
For a socialist, art should have a social function. When the "criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed." Art should be political rather than politics being artistic, according to Benjamin.
I would say the sue of computers, digital media and internet are changing the ways we sue and perceive art. This was prophesied by Paul Valery and quoted by Benjamin, "....so we shall be supplied with visual or auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign."
Grad Art Seminar - Week 3
Walter Benjamin assignment
Benjamin argues that "aura" is a unique element of a work of art that is eliminated by mechanical reproduction. His concept of authenticity seems to be based, not on any intrinsic aesthetic qualities, in a work of art, but rather on external attributes such as "its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be", physical condition and line of ownership. A work of art is detached from the domain of tradition by substituting a plurality of copies for uniqueness, but is "re-activated" by the ability to meet the viewer in ones own particular situation. Benjamin states the "aura" of a work has its basis in ritual, the location of its original value.
To Benjamin, mechanical reproduction in film especially, gave the viewer no opportunity for contemplation, which he viewed as a school for asocial behavior. Distraction better allows the mass to absorb a work of art, rather than being absorbed by it. For the mass, collective experiences, with less association with bourgeois power structure was preferred. "The greater the decrease in social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public." "Exhibition value" is increased by technical reproductions of an art work to such an extent that a qualitative transformation takes place.
For a socialist, art should have a social function. When the "criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed." Art should be political rather than politics being artistic, according to Benjamin.
I would say the sue of computers, digital media and internet are changing the ways we sue and perceive art. This was prophesied by Paul Valery and quoted by Benjamin, "....so we shall be supplied with visual or auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign."
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Bruce Hill
Graduate Art Seminar - Week 2
The Modern Art Movement, is generally thought to have begun in the mid-nineteenth century in western Europe amid a background of social and political upheaval. Like the larger movement of modernism it is characterized by ideas that emphasize the individual. Industrialization and urbanization were ascending while the importance of religion and artistic patronage were on the decline. The rise of a middle class created a new market for artists and craftsmen free to choose the subject or content of their art. This is manifest in the rebellion against the art academies and the eventual abandonment of "realism". This was very liberating to artists who mostly continued to work in traditional mediums. Issues of "quality" and artistic merit were and still are being debated. A cycle of movements an counter movements was the result of the ego driven rebelliousness against the established order of the day. The abandonment of a clear subject matter eventually led to the formal elements of art, such as composition, line, value, shape, schale and qualities of the medium to be considered as content (ex. a painting is about paint). This related to the ideas that quality or beauty is inherent in the object. The idea of fromalism is usually associated with the art critic Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, who promoted the wrok of mid-century artists: Jackson Pollock, William DeKooning, and Mark Rothko, and other abstract expressionists. Eventually, the reduction of painting and sculpture to its most essential elements brought about a amovement known as minimalism, perhaps best illustrated by the black paintings of Ad Reinhardt, and the cubes of Donald Judd. Art critics like Greenberg and dealers like Leo Castelli, became king makers in the art world, where art becme a commodity for well off collectors and museums, but other forces were at work.
In the 1960's pop artists like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein and others, blurred the distinction between high and low culture. In, Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post Historical Perspective, the author Arthur Danto credits Warhol with "the end of art", a point maked by some as the end of modernism as a art movement. Obviously, modernism is not dead, but has been somewhat defanged by the advent of post-modernism, a movement that seems to have provided a new liberation for artists. While modernism venerates the artistic genius and the notion that certain truths are universal, post-modernism, like the post-structuralists, find truth relative and see arbitrariness in nature. Post-modernists seem to be more electic in their choice of media, more concerned with popular culture, and an awareness that aart has a socio-cultural context, an ability to sample, appropriate and assemble art ou to the detris of our world, for whatever shifting purposes one might need. Much feminist art seems to embody mony of the charaacteristics of post-modernity's pluralistic sensibilities and willingness to take on certain cultural and political issues. The idea that an artwork can have multiple interpretations based on the context of the viewers' experiences seems to have gained institutional credence. Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, and David Salle are among the artists that are appropriating objects and ideas from the past and placing them in a new context.
In naming the art of this time, I will engage in a little borrowing by calling it "Multi-cultural Neo-pluralism". It began in pre-historical times when Cro-Magnon and Homosapien crossed paths. The main principle of this movement is adaptability. No major critics of the movement have emerged yet to m knowledge, but some of the main charcteristics or important aspects might be an interest in: storytelling or narrative imagery, exploration of process, mapping, accessing the subconcsious, making or building things, humor, movement or transition.
Graduate Art Seminar - Week 2
The Modern Art Movement, is generally thought to have begun in the mid-nineteenth century in western Europe amid a background of social and political upheaval. Like the larger movement of modernism it is characterized by ideas that emphasize the individual. Industrialization and urbanization were ascending while the importance of religion and artistic patronage were on the decline. The rise of a middle class created a new market for artists and craftsmen free to choose the subject or content of their art. This is manifest in the rebellion against the art academies and the eventual abandonment of "realism". This was very liberating to artists who mostly continued to work in traditional mediums. Issues of "quality" and artistic merit were and still are being debated. A cycle of movements an counter movements was the result of the ego driven rebelliousness against the established order of the day. The abandonment of a clear subject matter eventually led to the formal elements of art, such as composition, line, value, shape, schale and qualities of the medium to be considered as content (ex. a painting is about paint). This related to the ideas that quality or beauty is inherent in the object. The idea of fromalism is usually associated with the art critic Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, who promoted the wrok of mid-century artists: Jackson Pollock, William DeKooning, and Mark Rothko, and other abstract expressionists. Eventually, the reduction of painting and sculpture to its most essential elements brought about a amovement known as minimalism, perhaps best illustrated by the black paintings of Ad Reinhardt, and the cubes of Donald Judd. Art critics like Greenberg and dealers like Leo Castelli, became king makers in the art world, where art becme a commodity for well off collectors and museums, but other forces were at work.
In the 1960's pop artists like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein and others, blurred the distinction between high and low culture. In, Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post Historical Perspective, the author Arthur Danto credits Warhol with "the end of art", a point maked by some as the end of modernism as a art movement. Obviously, modernism is not dead, but has been somewhat defanged by the advent of post-modernism, a movement that seems to have provided a new liberation for artists. While modernism venerates the artistic genius and the notion that certain truths are universal, post-modernism, like the post-structuralists, find truth relative and see arbitrariness in nature. Post-modernists seem to be more electic in their choice of media, more concerned with popular culture, and an awareness that aart has a socio-cultural context, an ability to sample, appropriate and assemble art ou to the detris of our world, for whatever shifting purposes one might need. Much feminist art seems to embody mony of the charaacteristics of post-modernity's pluralistic sensibilities and willingness to take on certain cultural and political issues. The idea that an artwork can have multiple interpretations based on the context of the viewers' experiences seems to have gained institutional credence. Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, and David Salle are among the artists that are appropriating objects and ideas from the past and placing them in a new context.
In naming the art of this time, I will engage in a little borrowing by calling it "Multi-cultural Neo-pluralism". It began in pre-historical times when Cro-Magnon and Homosapien crossed paths. The main principle of this movement is adaptability. No major critics of the movement have emerged yet to m knowledge, but some of the main charcteristics or important aspects might be an interest in: storytelling or narrative imagery, exploration of process, mapping, accessing the subconcsious, making or building things, humor, movement or transition.
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