HISTOIRE DES ARTS

The questions to ask

Title? Artist?Year?

Type? Goal?

Architecture and

Sculpture

Jetty

Spira

l

By Robert Smithson

1970

An earthwork sculpture in Utah, on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, made of mud, salt crystals, rocks and water. It is 460m

long and 4.6 m wide

It shows the effects of draught, since you can see it only during these periods.

Willis Tower

Glass

Balconies

By the Willis Group

2009

Retractable glass balconies, which can be extended approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) from the facade of the 103rd floor

It opens the offices to the outside, and shows how the building swings during windy days

Israeli-

palestinia

n Wall

Banksy

2005

A graffiti on the separation barrier built by Israel along the 1949 Armistice Line

He tries to show the nonsense of war and wants to make people realize there are not only enemies behind the wall

Dirty White

TrashTim Noble and Sue Wester1998

A shadow sculpture, sculpted out of six months' worth of the artists' rubbish

It’s a confluence of beauty and filth. It shows what it takes to make a piece of art. « White Trash » refers to the poor American

white population too.

Supermark

et Lady /

CaddieDuane Hanso

n

1969

A full-size sculpture of an American housewife with her caddie in a supermarket

He’s showing a rather unflattering picture of the US housewife at the end of 1960’s and the mediocrity of the consumerist

American Way of Life.

Reichstag

Dome Norman Foster

1993

A shadow sculpture, sculpted out of six months' worth of the artists' rubbish

It shows the transparency of the German politics after the reunification, and the willing to be part of a green architecture

Brillo

BoxesAndy Warhol

1964

Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes are precise copies of commercial packaging.

It shows that, as Warhol says, art should imitate life but where does it stop? It raises the question of mass-produced goods and

mass consumerism.