On this blog, we will explore several major aesthetic theories from realism to postmodernism and engage in a dialogue about the very nature of art. Key contemporary artists will be explored in depth as each theory is unpacked and examined.
Each response should be between 150-250 words in length. These are due on the date listed at the top of each entry,
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Discuss one artist from Fineberg Chapters 14 and 15 apply at least one theory (by a specific writer) from the Barrett text to a piece of their work. Due Monday November 14th.
I thought that Kiki Smith's piece that is presented in chapter 15 is a very interesting piece of work. During the 90's Kiki Smith worked mostly with the female body and created life size sculptures like "The Sitter". As the Fineberg text states, "The Sitter" has a sliced back that is revealing the inner tissue. Moreover, when looking at it, it immediately creates an emotional reaction and this is due to the way she is sat down, the way she has her hands placed and the scratches on her back. I believe that I can connect her piece with Nelson Goodman's theory from the Barrett text, in the expressionism chapter, as he talks about how understanding and interpreting an artwork helps a viewer understand the world. and in this specific piece, Kiki Smith is trying to make us understand something about the female body and thus about the world.
I think that William Kentridge is an artist that fits into the theory of postcolonialism. Kentridge came from South Africa and his work is very content driven and deals heavily with the native people of South Africa who were forced into being second-class citizenship under an apartheid set by colonizing Europeans. This apartheid was only recently abolished and Kentridge's work is very context-dependent on the atrocities that happened while it was being enforced. Frantz Fanon was one of the theorists of postcolonialism. Postcolonialism is the theory concerning the impact that colonizers have on the groups that they have colonized. This impact continues on in the country even after they have accomplished independent. The works of William Kentridge explore these concepts in a really interesting and in depth manner. His medium is also pretty amazing (using charcoal to make an animated film) and I think it gives his art a documentary type feel.
Jonathan Borofsky seemed to fit in with Expressionism to me, since most of his drawings are based on his emotions he feels during his "Counting Piece". For this piece he attempted to count to infinity, and after a couple of hours, he often found himself doodling when he hit a specific number. The gyst that I'm getting from Borofsky is that while he was counting he got into a trance-like state where he just let his mind wander to the shapes and designs which permeated throughout his work. I do find some inspiration in his work because of his abilities and way he made his work.
When I think of Expressionism I think of Louise Bourgeois. Her entire body of work as an artist is reliant upon the her personal experiences and the thoughts and feelings that she has when facing these experiences. Though her work often could stand on its aesthetic merit alone, to know her personal story is to better understand her creations. I believe that Collingwood’s theories concerning Expressionism could best be applied to Bourgeois’ art. Collingwood thought that artist can come to know themselves better through creating their art, and that artsts do not just “transcript raw emotion” but rather they transform these feelings into “communicative expressions”.
Haim Steinbach’s ready-made works epitomize the movement of Postcolonialism and the emerging discourse on commercialization. By assembling groups of found objects by color scheme, he draws associations between common objects that would not normally be noticed. His presentations of the various objects recall the shelves of retail stores, the repetitive and direct nature evokes the pleasure that comes with shopping and consuming in a capitalist society. Steinbach’s work and its message fit nicely with the writings of Jean-Francis Lyotard. His arguments are based in the new era of commercialized society; he believes that art should create new discourse and challenge the accepted norms of society. Steinbach’s work does this by recalling previous artists such as Duchamp, while using thoroughly modern and unique found objects.
I think Jenny Holzer is a good example of a postcolonial artist. She deals with feminism in her work. Not all of her work is feminist however much of it is. She uses phrases that she comes up with and creates art by placing them in certain ways. One of her pieces stood out to me as feminist because it says "I need to lie back to front with someone who adores me. " Because she is a woman this piece screams feminist to me. Dealing with the way women are treated is extremely content based. The fact that she uses words in all of her work and the words become her work proves how much her work is based around content.
Elizabeth Murray's work is very form based. When viewing her work it is very easy to focus on the colors and shapes in her pieces. For this reason, Greenberg's theory about formalism works well. Greenberg was all about art having no content. Art was not supposed to express but be a representation of formal elements working together in his view. Murray's shaped canvases are interesting formal elements that would benefit from a viewer looking at the work through a formalist lens. Her work can be looked at through an expressionist lens and it is not that her work does not express; however formalist lens would just be beneficial in order to grasp to complexity of the formal elements in her pieces.
Ann Hamilton’s Malediction, could be considered a cognitivist piece because the work calls for viewer interaction. Hamilton said she wanted the viewer to be “absorbed into the physical experience of the piece.” Collingwood thinks you cannot call something art until the viewer interacts with it. The viewer needs to contemplate and respond to the work. The entire installation and performance aims to create an atmosphere to trigger emotions. Also, Collingwood believed that emotion should be felt by the artist and the viewer then reconstructs the emotion of the artist through experiencing the work. Hamilton looks at every detail of the space and manipulates it for a specific mood. She considers details such as the sound and way the viewer enters the space. All these features contribute to her overall ideas about gender roles.
In Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin's "Zoo" performance association of the wall text and themselves within this cage is vital. This performance can be compared to Jacques Lacan's take on post structuralism; the division of language and objects. He says " a child's entry into language marks its transition from merely biological to human."Here they are labeled as "homo sapiens" and are caged like in a zoo; the only difference between us staring at them and themselves is language. Other than the development of text, we are "a group of mammals" "male and female."
Keith Haring's work was a direct response to what was happening in his life an the world around him. Through the scope of Haring's work he created a series of symbols and recognizable symbols which call out to viewers to form an opinion, to have an emotive response. John Dewey's philosophy of Expressionism can be used to analyze Haring's work. Dewey's theory prodominantly has to do with experience, which is qualified to be a learning experience. This learning experience is done by "an individual acts and responds to his environment [HEY LOOK A BLACKED OUT ADVERTISEMENT] in a continuos and developing patter. The individual as a part of the community uses symbols [HEY LOOK AT MY REALLY RECOGNIZABLE SIMPLISTIC FIGURES], expression, and communication to direct experience toward intrinstically fulfilling ends that give human existence value and meaning [NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT RELEVANT ISSUE I.E. SOUTH AFRICA AND AIDS]." Haring's work was for the everyman and about the everyman as Dewey describes in his theory.
I would classify Jean-Michel Basquiat's body of work as post-modern expressionism. His paintings have expressive movement and meaning. Basquiat seemed to strive in his creativity when he was under the influence of drugs, creating whimsical images often depicting himself-being a "black artist in a white world." Collingwood is associated with expressionism- through this theory; the artist expresses what he or she feels. The artist transforms their feelings into communicative expressions, Basically when they create the art work they are putting their feelings into physical forms.
I choose, Play With Me, by Mariko Mori to answer this question. In this work, Mori dressed herself up as a sexy cyborg and stood outside a Tokyo toy store. The title of the work is a word play for her identity as a robotic toy and also referring to “the fantasy of her sexual availability in a utopia of pure, unemotional sexuality”. The work fits in well with Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulation and simulacrum. Baudrillard believes that post modern society is so reliant on a representation that it has lost its ability to distinguish the representation from the original. In fact, Baudrillard claims that in post modern society, the representation becomes more real than reality. In Baudrillard theory, the rapid growth of mass media, communication, and consumerism in the eighties and nineties causes the individual sense of self to diminish. People constructed their sense of self through radio and television, which according to Baudrillard “bears no relation to any reality itself”. Mori’ work reflects this idea very clearly. The artist shared her thoughts about her costume piece that, “when you wear clothes, you become a personality, you become the clothes”. The artist constructed her sense of reality through her character as a robotic toy, her sense of individuality is lost during the time that she has on her costume. Her real identify overlaps with her “cartoon” personality making it impossible to distinguish one from another.
Jenny Holzer, famous for her numerous “truisms” that she put onto billboards, shirts, LED screens, and projectors fits into many different theories. Perhaps the most obvious (especially with such truisms as: “Romantic love was invented to manipulate women) is Feminism. She often uses sentences that refer specifically to expected gender roles or the powerlessness of women, however I think that she also relates to Cognitivism as there is something being expressed to such an extent that the viewer is forced into thinking about what the words mean and therefore to become aware of issues, perception, and feelings.
I thought that Kiki Smith's piece that is presented in chapter 15 is a very interesting piece of work. During the 90's Kiki Smith worked mostly with the female body and created life size sculptures like "The Sitter". As the Fineberg text states, "The Sitter" has a sliced back that is revealing the inner tissue. Moreover, when looking at it, it immediately creates an emotional reaction and this is due to the way she is sat down, the way she has her hands placed and the scratches on her back. I believe that I can connect her piece with Nelson Goodman's theory from the Barrett text, in the expressionism chapter, as he talks about how understanding and interpreting an artwork helps a viewer understand the world. and in this specific piece, Kiki Smith is trying to make us understand something about the female body and thus about the world.
ReplyDeleteI think that William Kentridge is an artist that fits into the theory of postcolonialism. Kentridge came from South Africa and his work is very content driven and deals heavily with the native people of South Africa who were forced into being second-class citizenship under an apartheid set by colonizing Europeans. This apartheid was only recently abolished and Kentridge's work is very context-dependent on the atrocities that happened while it was being enforced. Frantz Fanon was one of the theorists of postcolonialism. Postcolonialism is the theory concerning the impact that colonizers have on the groups that they have colonized. This impact continues on in the country even after they have accomplished independent. The works of William Kentridge explore these concepts in a really interesting and in depth manner. His medium is also pretty amazing (using charcoal to make an animated film) and I think it gives his art a documentary type feel.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Borofsky seemed to fit in with Expressionism to me, since most of his drawings are based on his emotions he feels during his "Counting Piece". For this piece he attempted to count to infinity, and after a couple of hours, he often found himself doodling when he hit a specific number. The gyst that I'm getting from Borofsky is that while he was counting he got into a trance-like state where he just let his mind wander to the shapes and designs which permeated throughout his work. I do find some inspiration in his work because of his abilities and way he made his work.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of Expressionism I think of Louise Bourgeois. Her entire body of work as an artist is reliant upon the her personal experiences and the thoughts and feelings that she has when facing these experiences. Though her work often could stand on its aesthetic merit alone, to know her personal story is to better understand her creations. I believe that Collingwood’s theories concerning Expressionism could best be applied to Bourgeois’ art. Collingwood thought that artist can come to know themselves better through creating their art, and that artsts do not just “transcript raw emotion” but rather they transform these feelings into “communicative expressions”.
ReplyDeleteHaim Steinbach’s ready-made works epitomize the movement of Postcolonialism and the emerging discourse on commercialization. By assembling groups of found objects by color scheme, he draws associations between common objects that would not normally be noticed. His presentations of the various objects recall the shelves of retail stores, the repetitive and direct nature evokes the pleasure that comes with shopping and consuming in a capitalist society. Steinbach’s work and its message fit nicely with the writings of Jean-Francis Lyotard. His arguments are based in the new era of commercialized society; he believes that art should create new discourse and challenge the accepted norms of society. Steinbach’s work does this by recalling previous artists such as Duchamp, while using thoroughly modern and unique found objects.
ReplyDeleteI think Jenny Holzer is a good example of a postcolonial artist. She deals with feminism in her work. Not all of her work is feminist however much of it is. She uses phrases that she comes up with and creates art by placing them in certain ways. One of her pieces stood out to me as feminist because it says "I need to lie back to front with someone who adores me. " Because she is a woman this piece screams feminist to me. Dealing with the way women are treated is extremely content based. The fact that she uses words in all of her work and the words become her work proves how much her work is based around content.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Murray's work is very form based. When viewing her work it is very easy to focus on the colors and shapes in her pieces. For this reason, Greenberg's theory about formalism works well. Greenberg was all about art having no content. Art was not supposed to express but be a representation of formal elements working together in his view. Murray's shaped canvases are interesting formal elements that would benefit from a viewer looking at the work through a formalist lens. Her work can be looked at through an expressionist lens and it is not that her work does not express; however formalist lens would just be beneficial in order to grasp to complexity of the formal elements in her pieces.
ReplyDeleteAnn Hamilton’s Malediction, could be considered a cognitivist piece because the work calls for viewer interaction. Hamilton said she wanted the viewer to be “absorbed into the physical experience of the piece.” Collingwood thinks you cannot call something art until the viewer interacts with it. The viewer needs to contemplate and respond to the work. The entire installation and performance aims to create an atmosphere to trigger emotions. Also, Collingwood believed that emotion should be felt by the artist and the viewer then reconstructs the emotion of the artist through experiencing the work. Hamilton looks at every detail of the space and manipulates it for a specific mood. She considers details such as the sound and way the viewer enters the space. All these features contribute to her overall ideas about gender roles.
ReplyDeleteIn Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin's "Zoo" performance association of the wall text and themselves within this cage is vital. This performance can be compared to Jacques Lacan's take on post structuralism; the division of language and objects. He says " a child's entry into language marks its transition from merely biological to human."Here they are labeled as "homo sapiens" and are caged like in a zoo; the only difference between us staring at them and themselves is language. Other than the development of text, we are "a group of mammals" "male and female."
ReplyDeleteKeith Haring's work was a direct response to what was happening in his life an the world around him. Through the scope of Haring's work he created a series of symbols and recognizable symbols which call out to viewers to form an opinion, to have an emotive response. John Dewey's philosophy of Expressionism can be used to analyze Haring's work. Dewey's theory prodominantly has to do with experience, which is qualified to be a learning experience. This learning experience is done by "an individual acts and responds to his environment [HEY LOOK A BLACKED OUT ADVERTISEMENT] in a continuos and developing patter. The individual as a part of the community uses symbols [HEY LOOK AT MY REALLY RECOGNIZABLE SIMPLISTIC FIGURES], expression, and communication to direct experience toward intrinstically fulfilling ends that give human existence value and meaning [NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT RELEVANT ISSUE I.E. SOUTH AFRICA AND AIDS]." Haring's work was for the everyman and about the everyman as Dewey describes in his theory.
ReplyDeleteI would classify Jean-Michel Basquiat's body of work as post-modern expressionism. His paintings have expressive movement and meaning. Basquiat seemed to strive in his creativity when he was under the influence of drugs, creating whimsical images often depicting himself-being a "black artist in a white world." Collingwood is associated with expressionism- through this theory; the artist expresses what he or she feels. The artist transforms their feelings into communicative expressions, Basically when they create the art work they are putting their feelings into physical forms.
ReplyDeleteI choose, Play With Me, by Mariko Mori to answer this question. In this work, Mori dressed herself up as a sexy cyborg and stood outside a Tokyo toy store. The title of the work is a word play for her identity as a robotic toy and also referring to “the fantasy of her sexual availability in a utopia of pure, unemotional sexuality”. The work fits in well with Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulation and simulacrum. Baudrillard believes that post modern society is so reliant on a representation that it has lost its ability to distinguish the representation from the original. In fact, Baudrillard claims that in post modern society, the representation becomes more real than reality. In Baudrillard theory, the rapid growth of mass media, communication, and consumerism in the eighties and nineties causes the individual sense of self to diminish. People constructed their sense of self through radio and television, which according to Baudrillard “bears no relation to any reality itself”. Mori’ work reflects this idea very clearly. The artist shared her thoughts about her costume piece that, “when you wear clothes, you become a personality, you become the clothes”. The artist constructed her sense of reality through her character as a robotic toy, her sense of individuality is lost during the time that she has on her costume. Her real identify overlaps with her “cartoon” personality making it impossible to distinguish one from another.
ReplyDeleteJenny Holzer, famous for her numerous “truisms” that she put onto billboards, shirts, LED screens, and projectors fits into many different theories. Perhaps the most obvious (especially with such truisms as: “Romantic love was invented to manipulate women) is Feminism. She often uses sentences that refer specifically to expected gender roles or the powerlessness of women, however I think that she also relates to Cognitivism as there is something being expressed to such an extent that the viewer is forced into thinking about what the words mean and therefore to become aware of issues, perception, and feelings.
ReplyDelete