The Safety Valve

Use an artwork or two from the Fineburg text as examples in your response to this quote from artist Daniel Buren: "Art is the safety valve of our repressive systems. As long as it exists, and, better yet, the more prevalent it becomes, art will be the system's distracting mask. And a system has nothing to fear as long as its reality is masked, as long as its contradictions are hidden." 

Due Monday, November 7th

Given all the political and social unrest in the 60's, it seems logical that art would go through a transformation, too. What clear connections do you see between some of the demonstrations, riots and youth movements particularly from '68 and the trends in contemporary art of that time?

Feminist Theory as Postmodern Theory

How does feminist theory connect to the other postmodern theories discussed in Barrett's last chapter (i.e. postcolonialism, poststructuralism, etc.) ? Use Nochlin's piece as your source for feminist theory in your answer.

Due Monday, October 31st at 12 noon. 

Expand on your assigned discussion question from today's class through an interpretation of one of Doris Saledo's or Carrie Mae Weems' works. Due Wednesday, October 26th by 12 noon.

Discuss two works of art, one that fits any definition of Modernism and another that you can interpret through any of the theories from the chapter on postmodernism (Barrett). Describe how these works fit these theories and provide links to images. Due Monday, October 24th.

Unraveling Danto

Think again about the work we saw at OMA today and consider the paragraph in Chapter One of Danto's "The End of Art" which begins halfway down on page 13. It starts, "The sixties was a paroxysm of styles..." and ends with "You had, in brief, to turn to philosophy."

1. Can you think of any of the objects in OMA that could be used as an example of what art is? Could it be the ONLY example? Why or why not?

2. If postmodernism means that you cannot teach the meaning of art by example, as Danto claims, how do you teach it? By what means?

We will share our answers in class on Monday. Please complete two journal pages on this post.

Diana Folsom Class Visit

What engaged your attention/imagination most actively during Diana Folsom's class visit last week? Was it the mention of "California Flow Painting," or Jorge Pardo's gallery designs for LACMA? Were you intrigued by the intersection of Formalism and Expressionism in Ms. Folsom's work? Or was it the feedback she gave you on your visual journal that was most engaging?

This blog post is due Wednesday, October 12th by noon. Journal entry for this post will be reviewed on November 2nd.