Art History - Neo-Dada and Proto-Pop PDF

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Professor: Isabelle Wallace...

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Thurs 12/1 

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AE Evocations of singular, individual creative genius, the gestural mark, brushstroke that was thought to be evidence of the artist’s physical body, these singular moments, most elevated way of making art in 40s and early 50s until Pollock’s death, lionized form of making art Then Warhol, essential removal of human touch, repetition being the antithesis of individuality and the singular thing Artists begin creating works critiquing abstract expressionism around the 1960s. Artists like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg start to make work that questions this celebration of authenticity, critique this ide of originality, is there an original idea? o Idea of originality and idea of creative “genius” as it manifests in the art world

Robert Rauschenberg (1925 – 2008)  Went to Black Mountain College  Bed, 1955 o Put bed linens on a bed, appropriation of the AE gestural brushstroke o Critique perhaps of the seriousness of that brushstroke or that it’s evocative of this personal connection to the artist  Canyon o Stuffed bird attached to the surface, pillow dangling, see recollection of the AE gestural brushstroke again that at one time was used in service to be this celebration of flatness o Appropriates the mark that was at one time seen as something personal, creative, genius and that celebration of flatness, he’s suspicious of that Jasper Johns (b. 1930)  Demarcate this shift away from modernism, Modernism as it plays out in America, and toward what's considered the post-modern o Hard to define, not only way it is defined follows: Think of what modernism was, which was work – highly original, personal works evocative of creative genius. Johns and R. highly suspicious of these notions, and they make work that reflects that. making work that bridged the gap between AE And pop – all surface, no connection to the real lived person/body o Proto-pop artist because he anticipates the work of Warhol, Liptenstein, but also neo-dadaist, new take on the idea of dada, scrutizes this and puts them in a new light  Numbers in Color, 1958, encaustic and newspaper on canvas, 5’ 6.5” x 4’ 1.5” o Wanted to draw attention to common things, things we see but don’t pay close attention to, bring to light and perhaps deify things that are ever present, things we already know – here, he chose numbers

o Representing this as art, he asks us to think of numbers in a different way, force the number – we know what they are, but the sight of the written number, but what is the idea behind a number? o Very thick and textured o Encaustic – comprised of pigment and hot wax, you have to work quickly with it o Makes a grid – idea of a shape, is a circle a tangible thing? o Looks hurried but it has to be ordered and designed – recall de Kunning and his help in codifying the gestural brushstroke meaning this haphazard connection to him, connected to his body o Johns as a neo-dadaist, gridded list of numbers, otherwise very banal thing, similar to Duchamp doing the same thing and yet do things to it to make it look like art, use gestural brushstroke, encaustic which has a lot of baggage and history similar to Duchamp I’m going to sign it and date it o Repetition makes things fall apart  Fountain looking at it so much in an art context that we can’t call it a urinal – new context mapped upon it whether it likes it or not in the same way that this number has been corralled by Johns, so the numbers as a ready-made as well o Brushstrokes and stuff – like Pollock to see his work is to be one with his body, personal vs. the numbers impersonal

Pop 1. Concerned with consumerism and popular culture (sought to undermine modernism) 2. Challenged the divide between commercial and fine art 3. Preferred simple familiar imagery, vibrant colors and “hip” or “popular” subjects  AE, modernism snooty, elitist, too difficult to understand, you had to be a person in the know to get it, alienating  So mid to late 50s, start making work that employed images from popular culture, i.e. comic books, advertisements, mass produced items, celebrities Andy Warhol (1928-1987)  Very in tune with consumer culture and the way advertising manipulates people and the way mass media affects people  Chose his subjects from popular shit, use of recognizable commercial images vs. individual objects of AE  Mechanical reproduction, print making in a factory format, silk screening, a way of de-individualizing the work of art, challenge the idea of the artist as a unique genius  Marilyn Diptych, 1962

o Image appropriated from Niagara, it was a still shot from the press for that film o She dies in 1962 o Image double removed from Marilyn, has been manipulated – not even a portrait of her, appropriated media image where she’s playing another part, extreme remove from real, lived Norma Jean o Woman I vs. this  Woman-ness, beauty as a consequence of repetition, removal of your actual self  Originality vs. repletion o Again when you repeat something so much, while it makes you remember, it makes for the falling apart, check how that burns Marilyn into our collective memory but also we only know this certain idea of her, we accept her at surface – happens all the time, look past the surface, be suspicious o Difference from being able to recognize something vs. knowing things of worth   

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Minimalism – phenomenology, thinking about how works appear and reappear constantly according to where you are Performance Art – ephemeral nature of art, dematerialization of the art object Conceptual Art – shifts for some into more of an idea and how do you manifest ideas o Vito Acconci, Following Piece Earth Art – problem where artists are going to find interest in intervening in the land vs. making objects in their studio, manipulating land for their own purposes, land and earth as art...