GlobalismGlobalismThe information AgeChapter 15The last chapter for Intro to Humanities

ExistentialismJean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)Basic premise: the idea that existence precedes

essence, that one’s material being exists prior to and independent of any intrinsic factors.

Each individual is the sum of his or her actions.Condemned to be free, each individual bears

the over -whelming burden of total responsibility.

Being and Nothingness 1943

The Cold WarBerlin Wall – divided East and West GermanyKorean War (1905-1953)– divided North and

South Korea, Soviet Union and United States, 3 million Koreans died, mostly civilians

Vietnam War (1964-1973)- 50 thousand Americans died, 15 million Vietnamese died, US withdrew and communist Vietnam was established.

Collapse of Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall 1989.

MAYA LIN

THE VIETNAM’S VETERANS MEMORIAL, (1982)

•Names of the 57,939 Americans who were

killed in the Vietnam

War.

End of ColonialismMohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) – Hindu, led India’s struggle for independence from Great Britain. Peaceful protests against colonial oppressionFollowers were called “Mahatma” or ”great souls”His program of nonviolent resistance, including

fasting, and peaceful demonstrations, influenced subsequent liberation movements throughout the world.

1947 India’s independence, one year later he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who opposed his conciliatory gestures toward India’s Muslim minority.

Racial Equality Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

(1929-1968)Protestant pastor and civil

rights activist who modeled his campaign of peaceful protest on the example of Gandhi.

As president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King served as an inspiration to all African –Americans.

Assassinated in April 4, 1968

Oscar Graves, 1982, Dr. Martin Luther King

Detroit MI

Art and SocietyArt as a social tool used to help change

society

Social and Political issues

Art by and for minorities (issues of gender, race, sexuality)

Betye Saar

Attack on the icons of commercial white culture

Betye Saar (1926– ), The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972. Mixed media

Kara WalkerUsed a more

subtle and complex approach to matters of race

She suggests that liberation is an on going process

Kara Walker (1969- ), A Work on Progress, 1998. Cut paper and adhesive, Installation

Kara Walker (1969- ), Slavery! Slavery!, 2000

Gender EqualityGermaine Greer (1939-) The Obstacle Race:

The Fortunes of Women Painters and their work (1979)

She explains the scarcity of women artists:There is……no female Leonardo, no female

Titian, no female Poussin, but the reason does not lie in the fact that women have wombs, that they can have babies, that their brains are smaller, that they lack vigor, that they are not sensual. The reason is simple that you cannot make great artists out of egos that have been damaged, with wills that are defective, with libidos that have been driven out of reach and energy diverted into neurotic channels.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still

#35, 1979, Black-and-white photograph

Sherman plays different roles in her photographs (dressed in

costume) -

Not a Self-Portrait

Feminism - Questions how women have been portrayed in movies, photography, art

Photography shows the shutter release cable on the

floor (artist took her own photograph)

Aware of the extent to which commercialism shapes identity, she creates photographs that deftly unite word and image to resemble commercial billboards. The artist calls attention to the controversial issue of abortion in contemporary society

Barbara Kruger, (b.1945)

Barbara Kruger (1945– ), Untitled ("Your body is a battleground"), 1989. Photographic silkscreen on vinyl

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am),

1987, Photographic

silkscreen on vinyl

Look of Advertising

(Kruger worked as a graphic designer before

becoming an artist)

Deceptiveness of Media’s messages

“I think, therefore I am” - Philosophical

statement by Descartes

ALL VIOLENCE IS THE ILLUSTRATION OF A PATHETIC STEREOTYPE, (1991)

BARBARA KRUGER

JUDY CHICAGO

A room-sized sculpture consisting of a triangular table with 39 place settings, each symbolizing a famous woman in myth or history. The feminist counterpart of the Last Supper, pays homage to such immortals Nefertiti, Sappho, queen Elizabeth 1, and Virginia Woolf.

THE DINNER PARTY, (1974-1979), 48 x 48 x 48ft.

Sexual Identity

Aids Memorial Quilt, 1996

Represents the movement for body-conscious politics and socially responsible art that animated the last decade of the 20th century.

String TheoryBrian Greene (b.1962) describes a multidimensional

universe in which loops of strings and oscillating globules of matter unite all of creation into vibrational patterns.

Chaos TheoryFinds that universal patterns underlie all of nature and

repeat themselves in physical phenomena ranging from the formation of a snowflake to the rhythms of the human heart.

Human GenomeBy the year 2000, molecular biologists were able to

ascertain the order of nearly three billion units of DNA.Language Theory

Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), that all forms of expression and all truths in are dominated by the modes of language used to convey ideas.

American Precursors to ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

In western art, for the first forty years of the 20th century, the further you were away from Paris, meant the further you were from the art world. American art was far from cutting edge. It evolved sluggishly from historical paintings to landscapes and agricultural genre scenes.

Flashes of brilliance did occur here and there and the artists that provided these flashes were very influential in what was to be the art movement that changed the epicenter of the art world firmly from Paris to New York.

George Bellows, Stag at Sharkey’s, 1909

Oil on Canvas36 1/4x48 ¼”

The Cleveland Museum of Art,

Thomas Hart Benton He considered

himself to be a “Regionalist” artist. His work seems to be highly influenced by Baroque. An Illinois native, he painted his live in the Navy and daily life in the ship yards of Norfolk VA. This lead to epic scenes filled with many workers and lots of machinery.

Cut the Line 1944I really wanted to find a size for this, but couldn’t… :(

Benton hated Avante Garde art. He didn’t like anything that was going on in Europe and considered himself very conservative amongst some of his peers in the art world. Eventually became the teacher of Jackson Pollock.

Wreck of the Ol’ 97

Train 1943 29x46”

American Social Realism

American Realism came from a backlash American Impressionism, many artist wanted their art to represent their current day America.

Thomas Pollock Anshutz

The Ironworkers Noontime

1880 Oil on Canvas

Robert Henri was a teacher out of PAFA (Penn Academy of Fine Arts, Phila) who, with some other

friends, started the Ash Can School. This was a group of painters who wanted their paintings to be ‘realistically

ugly’. Street scenes and realistic urban landscapes were a cornerstone for this movement. Above is a

painting by a teacher of Henri’s named Thomas Anshutz.

Ash Can School

Everett Shinn,

The Fight

Robert Henri, Snow in New York George Bellows,

Cliff Dwellers,

1913

John French Sloan"Six o'clock, Winter" 1912

The Ash Can argued that ‘life is beautiful,

this is what life actually looks like.’

Edward Hopper

Rooftops 192612x19

Watercolor on paper

Hopper, a realist and another member of the Ash Can School is easily the most famous member to come out of the movement. Hoppers early work was in American Impressionism, but later, his palette darkened and he became intrigued with indoor painting and urban realism.

Nighthawks,1942

New York Movie 1939

Automat

Hopper

What it is…Abstract Expressionism is a

painting movement in which artists typically applied paint rapidly, and with force to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions.non-geometrically, sometimes applying paint

with large brushes, and looks as if to be an accident but is really quite planned.

Made New York the center of the art world, and was often called the “New York School”.

•Abstract Expressionism was the first art movement to influence artists over seas, rather than vice versa.

•Artists wanted to establish their independence from European surrealists

and other art trends.

European artists began moving to America during WW II.

The main result of the new American fascination with Surrealism was the emergence of Abstract Expressionism.

Produced in New York roughly between 1940-1960.

Jackson PollackOcean Greyness

1953

History…

Arshile Gorky was the artist to put this movement into motion, because his art ideals were obtained from Surrealism, Picasso, and Miro.

Emphasized the depiction of emotion’s rather then objects.

Paintings consisted of shapes, lines, and forms meant to create a separate reality from the visual world.

“What was to go on the canvas was nota picture, but an event.”

Critic- Harold Rosenberg

Hans HoffmanRising Moon

European InfluenceEuropean Surrealists obtained their notion of

the unconscious mind, from Sigmund Freud.

Many Americans at this time, derived Carl Jung’s theory- the “collective unconscious” holds that beneath ones private memories, is a store house of feeling and symbolic thoughts.

With all the European influence, Abstract Expressionists sought universal themes within themselves.

One of the two techniques for Abstract Expressionism was known as Action Painting.

A style of painting which paint is spontaneously dripped, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather then being carefully applied.

Willem de Kooning- Paris Review1979

Action Painting

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)Influenced by Mexican muralist painters,

and Surrealism.Canvases were usually on the floor, or the

wall where he dripped or poured on the paint.

Used knives, sticks, or towels instead of brushes.

Occasionally putting sand, broken glass, or other matter, into his paintings.

Resulted in direct expression and “Action Painting”.

Jackson Pollock

Shimmering Substance

1946

Jackson PollockEnchanted Forest

1947

Jackson Pollock Lavender Mist

1950

“I have no fears about making

changes, destroying the

image… because the painting has a life of its own.”

Jackson Pollock

3 Factors in work of the 1940’sIntense childhood memories of

Armenia, prime subject matter.Growing interest in Surrealism.Many discussion with colleagues

about Jungian ideas.Jungian analysis is a specialized

form of psychotherapy in which the Jungian analyst and patient work together to increase the patient’s consciousness in order to move toward psychological balance and wholeness.

Arshile Gorky (1904-1948)

Waterfall- Arshile Gorky (1943)

•The unstructured

shapes, and drips of paint hint at

the fluidity of the Waterfall.

Arshile Gorky - One Year the Milkweed

1944

Willem de KooningA pioneer in Abstract

Expressionism.Tried to capture energy

and emotion through Action Painting.

Alternated between abstract and figural painting.

Blended traditional forms, with a sense of uncertainty.

Willem de KooningWoman I

1950-1952

Willem de KooningPink Angels

1945

Willem de KooningBlack Friday

1948

Willem de Kooning

Women III1952

Willem de Kooning, Excavation, 1950

Franz Kline (1910-1962)His works around

1946 had a Cubist structure, or were abstract.

Around 1950, he made large calligraphic paintings in black and white.

In 1958, Kline introduced color in some of his works.

Franz KlineFigure Eight

1952

Franz KlineNew York, N.Y.

1952

Franz KlineUntitled

1958

Color Field PaintingThe Second Type of Abstract Expressionism

paintings.

Paintings with solid area of color covering the whole canvas.

Meant to be seen up close, so the viewer is immersed in color.

Mark Rothko(1903-1970)

Asymmetrical blocks of color, and painted the edges of his canvases, then displayed them without frames.

Titles were unimaginative leaving the interpretation up to the viewer.

Mark RothkoRed, Orange, Tan

and Purple1949

Mark Rothko Orange and Red on Red

1957

Kenneth Noland(1924-2010)

First to stain canvases with thinned paints.Appeared as pure

and saturated color.

Made concentric rings, and parallels, in relation to the size of the canvas.

Kenneth NolandHeat1958

Kenneth Noland

Back and Front1960

SculpturesDavid Smith is one of the most famous

Abstract Expressionism sculptor’sHe created large, steel geometric sculptorsHis motivations were similar to that of the

paintersHis most famous sculptors are his Cubi series

David SmithCubi XIX

1964

What it InfluencedCreated a whole new way to look at art

Influenced later art movementsPop ArtMinimalismTachisme

Once you “got” Pop, you could never see a sign the same way again. And

once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way

again.

--Andy Warhol

Pop ArtPop Art was an art movement in the late 1950s and 1960s that reflected everyday life and common objects. Pop artists blurred the line between fine art and commercial art.

Brillo Soap Pads Box, 1964, AWF

“Pop Artists did images that anybody

walking down the street could recognize in a split second…all

the great modern things that the

Abstract Expressionists tried so hard not to notice

at all.”—Gretchen Berg.

Three Coke Bottles, 1962, AWF

The Pop artists moved away from Abstract Expressionism which was the “in” style of art in the 50s. The Abstract Expressionist evoked emotions, feelings and ideas through formal elements such as: • Line• Color• Shape• Form• Texture

Jackson Pollock, Number 4, 1950Carnegie Museum of Art;

Gift of Frank R. S. Kaplan/ARS

Pop Artists used common images from

everyday culture as their sources including:

Roy Lichtenstein, Masterpiece, 1962

• Advertisements

• Consumer goods

• Celebrities

• Photographs

• Comic strips

Pop Artists used bold, flat colors and hard edge compositions adopted from commercial designs like those found in:

•Billboards

• Murals

• Magazines

• Newspapers

Campbell's Soup II, 1969, AWF

Pop Artists reflected 60’s culture by using new materials in their artworks including:

•Acrylic Paints

• Plastics

• Photographs

• Fluorescent and

Metallic colors

Robert Rauschenberg, Retroactive II, 1963

As well as new technologies and methods:

Claes Oldenburg, Floor Burger 1962, Claes Oldenburg

• Mass production

• Fabrication

• Photography

• Printing

• Serials

Pop art was appealing to many viewers, while others felt it made fun of common people and their lives. It was hard for some people to understand why Pop Artists were painting cheap, everyday objects, when the function of art historically was to uphold and represent culture’s most valuable ideals.

Listerine Bottle, 1963, AWF

Andy Warhol was one of the most famous Pop Artists. Part of his artistic practice was using new technologies and new ways of making art including:

• Photographic Silk-Screening

• Repetition

• Mass production

• Collaboration

• Media events

Andy Warhol, Brillo Boxes installation,

Warhol appropriated (used without permission) images from magazines, newspapers, and press photos of the most popular people of his time

Silver Liz [Ferus Type], 1963, AWF

©2006 Life Inc.

Warhol used the repetition of media events to critique and reframe cultural ideas through his art

Jackie paintings, 1964, AWF

Warhol took common everyday items and gave them importance as “art” He raised questions about the nature of art:

Knives, 1981, AWF

What makes one work of art better than another?

Brillo Soap Pads Box, 1964, AWF

Pop artists stretched the definitions of what art could be and how it can be made.

“The Pop idea, after all, was that anybody could do anything, so naturally we were all

trying to do it all…” ---Andy Warhol

photo by Hervé Gloaguen

The art world today reflects many of the ideas, methods and materials initiated by the Pop Art movement.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled, 1991Courtesy: Mary Boone Gallery, NY

In Untitled, 1991, Barbara Kruger uses the iconography of the

American flag and hard edge graphics to pose a series of provocative questions about

American cultural values.

In Rabbit, 1986, artist Jeff Koons cast a mass-produced inflatable Easter bunny in highly polished stainless

steel. The sculpture became iconic of art in the 1980s.

Jeff Koons, Rabbit, 1986, Jeff Koons

New realism (Super-realism)

American Art Movement in late 1960’s – 1970’s

Extension of Pop Art (similar subjects, but different style)

Highly detailed and realistic (sometimes called Photorealism)

Audrey Flack, Marilyn, 1977, Oil over acrylic on

canvas

Influenced by realism in photography

“I studied art history, it was always the

photographs, I never saw the paintings, they

were in Europe”

Marilyn Monroe – references to her death

(clocks, hourglass)

Still Life “Vanitas” painting - symbolism

relating to “emptiness”

Airbrushed (commercial photo retouching tool)

Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait, 1967 – 1968,

Acrylic on Canvas (8’11” x 11’2”)

Large Scale Portrait Paintings

based on Photographs

Avoided creative compositions,

flattering lighting, and facial

expressions

Duane Hanson, Supermarket Shopper,

1970, Polyester resin and fiberglass polychromed in oil with clothing, steel cart, and

groceries

Made plaster molds from real people

Stereotypical “average” Americans

“The subject matter I like best deals with the familiar lower and middle class American types of today.”

Sculptures sometimes mistaken for real people

Site-specific Art / Environmental ArtProgressive Movement developed in the 1960’s in

USA

Increased concerns about environment (pollution, litter, urban sprawl

Challenges traditional assumptions about art

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Running Fence (California, USA), Pink woven synthetic

fabric, 1972 - 1976

5.5 meters high

40 Kilometer long nylon fence

Environmental art project

Artists claim that the art has no meaning.

Their goal is to create something beautiful

and to see the landscape in a new

way.

Money raised by selling their

preliminary drawings

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970,

Black rock, salt crystals, earth, red water (Utah, USA)

Manipulated the earth the create an

environmental sculpture

“enduring power of nature”

Inspired by the location and the

molecular structure of salt crystals that

coat the rocks

Spiral Jetty under water

Neo-ExpressionismMovement in 1980’s inspired by German

Expressionists and Abstract Expressionists

Reintroduced human feeling back into art

Large scale painting

Thick, encrusted surface (highly textured)

Re-examination of German History

“Nigredo” means black (symbolic meaning)

Anselm Kiefer, Nigredo, 1984, Mixed media (including natural

materials – straw and lead) on paper (11’ x 18’)

Francesco Clemente, Francesco

Clemente, Oil on Canvas, 1985

Clemente’s work draws inspiration

from Expressionism and Surrealism

Self-Portrait

Two sides of personality / “inner

self”

Francesco interested in connection of art

to spirituality

Post-PopAmerican artists in 1980’s still influenced by Pop

Art from the 1960’s

Consumerism and Popular culture

Humor

Jeff-Koons, Pink Panther, 1988,

Porcelain sculpture

Magazine centerfold with

well-known cartoon character

Commercialism / Consumerism

Kitsch (bad taste)

“everything wrong with

contemporary American society”

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1985, Mixed Media on

Canvas

Keith Haring (1958-1990) started by

drawing in NY Subways (related to Grafitti art /

Street Art)

Keith Haring friends with Andy Warhol

East-Village New York style

Art for “the people”

Keith Haring in his “Pop Shop”

in New York City

Adidas shoe with Keith Haring designs

Joseph Beuys, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead

Hare, 1965, Performance art

Performance artSacred ritual

“the condition of modern humanity”

Head coated with honey and covered

with gold leaf (spiritual power)

Laurie Anderson, O Superman,

1985, Performance Art

Anderson wrote music and lyrics

Experimentation with sound (electric

violin and synthesized voice)

Feminist art combining

elements of pop art, pop music,

World music, dada

Montri Toemsombat, Performance, 2003,

Performance at the Venice Biennale (Italy)

Art inspired by Buddhism

Critical of Thai culture

(materialism)

Ritul / Meditation

Literally wearing text (text on

clothing, text and tattoos)

Artist is interested in

relationship of fashion to art

Technology and Art Video, Digital Imagery

Artists started experimenting with video in 1960’s

Looking at an image in a video monitor / screen (related to Renaissance idea of looking through a frame into a picture)

Element of time

OriginsArtists began

experimenting with video since the invention of the television.

Wolf Vostell was the first artists to include working television sets in his 1959 assemblage “Deutscher Ausblick.”

Wolf Vostell, Deutscher Ausblick, 1959. Click on

image or copy link to view. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJq9eh6QsBg

HistoryAndy Warhol and Nam

June Paik were the pioneers of the Video Art movement.

Warhol created films in his factory using 8mm, 16mm cameras and screened them for friends.

Warhol's films included were “Sleep”, “Eat”, “Empire”, and “Chelsea Girls” which are now considered part of the genre.

Andy Warhol

HistoryWith the invention of

the Sony Portapak in 1965, the first portable video recorder, artists were able to instantly record visual ideas for their work. Sony Portapak

1965

HistoryNam June Paik

(1932-2006) was one of the first artist to obtain a portapak, and created the first video art piece titled “Electronic Video Recorder”.

Nam June Paik

Well-known Korean-born video artist who moved to New York

Experimented with electronic music (collaborated with Japanese artist)

“Time collage” combining painting, music, Eastern philosophy, global politics, technology, etc.

Nam June Paik, Global

Groove, 1973, Video

Still

Video Art Versus Film Making Video Art before the digital age could be

recorded and played back instantly. Where film once it was shot had to be developed then edited.

Video art does not need actors, dialogue, or plot.

The video artist is concerned with exploring the medium itself, or to use it to challenge the viewer's ideas of space, time and form.

Jenny Holzer, Protect Me From What I Want, 1988, LED Electronic Signboard (Times Square, New York

City)

Social Consciousness

Uses advertising

format to deliver messages

Art in Public Spaces

JENNY HOLZER

PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT, (1986)

Bill Viola, The Crossing, 1996,

Sound / Video Installation

Slow motion video with fire and water (the

elements)

Relationship to Religion (Viola interested in

World Religions)