Chapter 22 - Summary World Art PDF

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Art in Humanities Readings Outline Chapter 22 Readings for the study slides will be announced in the lectures.

CHAPTER 22: FROM MODERN TO POSTMODERN The abstract expressionists or the New York School -a group of painters -had many sources, but the most direct influence was Surrealism, with its emphasis on the creative powers of the unconscious and its technique of automatism as a way to tap into them. -but one element their paintings had in common was scale Action painting -There is no focal point, no “composition.” Instead, we find ourselves in front of a field of energy like the spray of a crashing wave Louise Nevelson -Nevelson was one of several New York-based sculptors whose work was associated with Abstract Expressionism. -She turned to cast-off bits of wood—odd scraps of lumber, fragments of furniture, broken pieces of architectural detail John Cage -whose writings and speeches suggested a different path for art to follow -should be “an affirmation of life Assemblage -combine paintings Allan Kaprow -visual art look to the lively art of theater for renewal. The composer’s friend Allan Kaprow followed through on that suggestion Happenings - eliminating the art object and staging events Pop Art - comic books, advertising, billboards, and packaging; the ever-expanding world of home appliances and other commodities Andy Warhol - Warhol began a series of works devoted to her almost immediately. Significantly, the image is not a direct portrait of the actress herself but, rather, a silkscreen reproduction

Artists: Andy Warhol - highly successful career as a commercial artist. Over the next ten years, his employers included most of the chic fashion magazines Photorealism - they began to paint what they saw there Minimalism - allow viewers to see “the whole idea without any confusion - Minimalist art did not reward the kind of looking skills that viewers had been taught were important, skills such as analyzing the composition (this was quickly done), appreciating the use of formal elements. Postminimalism - diverse trends of Postminimalism dramatically expanded -the ways in which art could be made, the materials it could be made from, and the kinds of objects and activities that could be offered and interpreted as art Process art - the meaning of a work embraced what it was made of and how it was made. - Process artists were attracted to unconventional materials. They were willing to surrender complete control, to embrace chance and unpredictability, and to create ephemeral or temporary works. Installation -spaces became widespread - installations were temporary works: an existing space was transformed for the length of an exhibition, then returned to its original condition. Performance art -Body art -in which the artist appears “live and in person” Land art or Earth art - yet another way in which Postminimalist artists sought to separate art from issues of money and ownership -artist intervenes in some way in a landscape. Conceptual art -art in which ideas are paramount and the form that realizes those ideas is secondary— often lightweight, ephemeral, or unremarkable -Conceptualism is not a style but a way of thinking about art Joseph Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs -same chair enlarged to life-size

-the form is secondary, for the style of chair doesn’t matter, any dictionary definition will do, and the three elements can be arranged in many ways.

Feminism and feminist art -Women art professionals organized to recover women’s art of the past, to push for more equitable representation in museums Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party -Confined to the domestic sphere, the vast majority of women throughout history had been limited to these expressive outlets Postmodernism -ideas about art that seemed to have been in place for much of the modern era were eroding and that something different was taking their place Appropriation -refers to the artistic recycling of existing images Neo-expressionists -for their work recalled the sincerity and emotional intensity of the Expressionist movement of early 20th-century Europe Glenn Ligon’s Untitled ( I Do Not Always Feel Colored) -“The act of painting is putting my voice in the text, but I think the act of the viewer is putting his voice there too -Each letter must be positioned and stenciled individually, and so details such as line breaks and letter spacing take on an expressive force Thinking About Art: The Guerrilla Girls -There is no way to determine how much influence the Guerrilla Girls have had in improving prospects for women and minority artists -The gorilla masks serve a double purpose. Of course, they protect the wearers’ identities, but they also put everybody else at a disadvantage...