Art History IIInstructor Dustin M Price

Quiz 12:

As well as being a high-ranking chief, he was unquestionably one of the best Kwakwaka´wakw carvers ever. Who Is he?

Quiz 12:

As well as being a high-ranking chief, he was unquestionably one of the best Kwakwaka´wakw carvers ever. Who Is he?

Willie Seaweed or Smoky Top

What did we cover last time?

-Had Quiz 11

- Mesoamerica

- The Aztec in Mexico and the Inca in South America

- human sacrifice

- the Incas were the most brilliant engineers

- The Eastern Woodlands

- Wampum

-Potlatches

- Willie Seaweed

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-Artists have faced a number of major questions since 1950: What is art? Does it always have to be an object, is it an idea, or is it some combination of the two?

- In the period since 1950, artists have reconceptualized and reimagined art, producing radically new forms, content, ideas, and agendas

- They have addressed increasingly divisive and complex social and political questions for which there is no right or wrong answer

- Artists have raised questions about gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, class, death, colonialism, terrorism, violence, revolution, climate, globalization, and contemporary morality

- Instead of educating us by showing us the moral, or “correct way” this art challenges us to question our own morality, behavior, and complacency

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-Much of this art is difficult to look at and understand; we are frequently assaulted and accused by it

- It is rarely pretty, But today's art holds a mirror to contemporary life, revealing things we might not see or hear in any other context

-It forces us to confront ourselves in that mirror. We may not like recent art initially, but once we learn something's about it, we must admit that, at its best, it has the power, like all great art, to affect us deeply

- These artists are pure humanitarians, showing us what it means to be alive during this era and be a part of this (American) and global society

- What they use to ask us these questions may be shocking but the answers they individually provide us are worthwhile

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-In the early 1950’s a generation of young artists based in New York began to challenge the artistic assumptions of the Abstract Expressionists

- They felt art should be firmly anchored in reality, not in the amorphous expanses of human consciousness and awareness

- This artist rebelled directly against the ideology behind much of Clements Greenberg’s philosophy of what art “should be”

- Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg emerged as two of the most predominant figures in this new, New York art world

- They expanded the already wide base of intellectualism behind Abstract Expressionism, while cooling its overt passion and intensity

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-They made art that connected to and was inspired by the vastly expanding visual culture of postwar America

- These two artists also enabled, or started the discussion that would lead the next generation of artists interest in popular culture

- They also continued to expand the intellectual language of what possibilities art had left within it

- They also expanded on Duchamp’s readymade by introducing non-art materials into their work

- They also helped explore the performative aspects of art

- They were obsessed with making art the illustrated the tactile world

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-Assemblage: artwork created by gathering and manipulating two and/or three-dimensional found objects

- During the 1950’s 3 artists began introducing real world elements into there work instead of trying to only represent them

- Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and John Cage

- John Cage and Rauschenberg were dear friends

- John Cage taught for a time at Black Mountain College and like the aforementioned artists explored bringing in ambient noises (real world elements) directly into his music

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-John Cage was an incredible composer, artist and philosopher. He is often overlooked in art history texts.

-“In 1952, David Tudor sat down in front of a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds and did nothing. The piece 4′33” written by John Cage, is possibly the most famous and important piece in twentieth century avant-garde

- The piece 4′33” written by John Cage, is possibly the most famous and important piece in twentieth century avant-garde. 4′33” was a distillation of years of working with found sound, noise, and alternative instruments

- In one short piece, Cage broke from the history of classical composition and proposed that the primary act of musical performance was not making music, but listening”

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-“Process, object, environment and artist intertwine in Robert Rauschenberg's work. He embodies most of the ideas of this century's modern art, yet his powerful, idiosyncratic works are like those of no other artist

- Born Milton Rauschenberg in Texas in 1925, he received a sound art education. He attended Kansas City Art Institute in 1947, and then the renowned Academie Julien in Paris in 1948.

-His "combine paintings" of the 1950s combined, at first, paint and objects from his own past, but later included more "found" materials like photographs that had no personal connection with the artist.

-From the beginning, Rauschenberg's work contained nontraditional materials, was exhibited in a nontraditional setting, and refused categorization. “

Robert Rauschenberg Winter Pool, 1959

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-“Although he rejected the serious, self-important, personal emotionality of the abstract expressionist painters, his brushwork is expressive and emotive

- His incorporation of mundane objects-such as bed linens, license plates, or tires-into his assemblages heavily influenced the growth of pop art and neo-dadaism in the 1960s, but the effect is neither banal and cynical like pop, nor deliberately chaotic and negative like dada

- Unlike his contemporaries Larry Rivers and Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg's restless inventiveness makes his works difficult to categorize.

-As the name suggests, the Combines are hybrid works that associate painting with collage and assemblage of a wide range of objects taken from everyday life.

Robert Rauschenberg Pilgrim 1950

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-“Neither paintings nor sculptures, but both at once, Rauschenberg’s Combines invade the viewers’ space, demanding their attention, like veritable visual puzzles.

-From stuffed birds to Coca-Cola bottles, from newspaper to press photos, fabric, wallpaper, doors and windows, it is as though the whole universe enters into his combinatorial process to join forces with paint.”

- Lets discuss Rauschenberg's “Erased de Kooning Drawing” (next slide)

Robert Rauschenberg Canyon, 1959

Robert Rauschenberg Canyon, 1959 (detail)

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-Happenings and Performance Art

- In the 50’s and 60’s many artists argued the artistic process (the physical act of creating the work) was as important as the finished work/object

- These artists began to replace the common materials of art production with the actions, movements and gestures of their own bodies

- These events were then intern called Happenings (but the more common term is Performance Art)

- Performance Art owes an enormous debt to Pollock

- As does the work of Rauschenberg, Cage, and Johns

Yves Klein, Leap into the Void, 1960

Jackass 3D (still image) 2010

Andy Kaufman

Lady Gaga at the MTV Music Awards

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-Many are accustom to hearing the name Chris Burden, and associating him with his work in 1971 called “Shoot.”

-This performance was held after hours at a gallery in California; the audience was by invitation only.

-The performance consisted of Chris Burden Standing against the far wall of the gallery. Fifteen feet away stood his friend, with a twenty two caliber long rifle.

-The objective was simple: Chris Burden was to be grazed by the bullet shot from this gun. However, Burden was more than grazed; the copper head bullet penetrated his left arm. What was the message? Some say Burden was speaking out against the Vietnam War; others have commented that Burden was interested in shock factor elements regarding violence.

Chris Burden

Chris Burden Shoot 1971 (still image)

International Scene Since the 1950’s

-Neither of these ideas are close to what Burden was hoping to achieve.

Burden was interested in achieving a higher form of knowledge that goes beyond basic comprehension that humanity has come to depend on.

We no longer look/view and comprehend, or gain intelligence. We hear, or read and gain our primary knowledge this way. We are more comfortable emailing then speaking to each other. There is an un easiness to the ephemeral quality of the visual.

Burden is quoted stating: “How do you know what it is like to be shot, if you don’t get shot?” Burden’ statement is clear; Burden is interested in achieving a level of knowledge that is not possible through learning as we know it.

Chris Burden Five Day Locker Piece 1971(still image)

Lecture 31 Part II:

Because of the ridiculous amount of info in this chapter I must have you read through another outside class lecture

I have already posted it online to my website along with this lecture (lect 31)

It is labeled Lecture 31 Part II

Make sure you read through it and get the additional Exam III required info at the end of it!

There will be elements from this outside class lecture on the Final Exam!

You can find everything at:www.dustinmprice.com

Have a great break!