issues art-making exam review

exam: dec 9th

point/line

yayoi kusama

• dots as a portal to another place, a wormhole

• like speckled wallpaper

point/line

christo and jeanne-claude

• yellow umbrellas

• implied and psychological lines; the dots create an imaginary line

point/line

sue williams

• style of the line (calligraphic line)

• thick and thin as it moves along a path

• doodles are blown up into large-scale paintings

point/line

vik muniz

• line made by tool (extracted)

• line appears when you take a birdseye view

plane/volume

robert delaunay

• shifts iconic object

• inspired by cubists, “faceting”

plane/volume

alexander calder

• sculpture

• known for mobile and stabile

• monochrome color to help pay attention to planes

plane/volume

david maisel

• photo taken from airplane down into terminals

• ponds of algae and saltwater where salt is extracted

• similar to richard debienkorn

plane/volume

giorgio morandi

• volumes forced togther to create one object

• similar to the making of the guggenheim bilbao’s architecture in spain

color

kenya hara

• fruit compacted to juice boxes

• all about color; color perceived through all the senses

color

bernd + hilla becher

• photographic minimalism

• geometric form, lack of hierarchy, deadpan

• head-on shot and objective

• “why no color?”

color

brice marden

• in the 60s, painting declared dead

• pushed back with minimalist, abstract expressionist paintings

• 18 parts made into 3 panels

• made of wax

• non-objective abstraction

• not an objective work, but does suggest things (cross, religion, old-fashioned architecture)

color

kerry james marshall

• 1994

• being black but also the color black

• show black people doing sports and fun activities, things we were not allowed to do

color

sarah sze

blue poles

• structure, geometry, but a lightness

• called blue poles as a reference to jackson pollock

• thinking about gravity

• scaled to the size of a cat

composition

frank stella

• major contribution to minimalism and abstract expressionism

• example of using a shaped canvas

• the painting is the shape of the canvas

• systematic and mechanical approach

composition

francis bacon

• artwork formed with three different paintings

• triptic

• operates as a closed composition, and eye stays within the framed borders (self-contained)

composition

sybil andrews

• printmaker

• open-composition; eye is leaving and entering the picture frame consistently

• overall movement, conveying energy

• hustle and bustle of urban life

• most composition has curving and swooping lines

composition

henri cartier-bresson

• traveled extensively with camera

• populated term of “decisive moment”

• photographed man jumping over a puddle

composition

liu bolin

• piece within larger series

• chinese government closed down his beijing studio in 2005

• reaction to chinese government dictating the limitations of art

• figure-ground ambiguity: distinction between those two are unclear

abstraction/representation

calida rawles

• hyper-realist painter

• little things within the water that can be seen in person (maps and constellations)

• water symbolizes the middle passage and segregation in america, but also baptism and renewal

abstraction/representation

j.m.w. turner

rain, steam, speed, the great western railway

• early abstraction

• he loved and feared nature

• wanted to convey the look and feel of nature

• rain, steam, and speed illustrated

• architecture obscured by mist

abstraction/representation

kasimir malevich

the black square (1915)

• non-objective abstraction

• black represents feeling

• white becomes nothing, black takes up all the energy

• suprematism movement (feeling + spirituality)

abstraction/representation

raven chacon

• mostly known for sound art, this is a performance piece

• photograph at south dakota protest against pipeline going through native reservation

abstraction/representation

frederick hart

• representational art (commemorating soldiers who died in the vietnam war)

• in response to people saying abstract art can’t represent emotion (maya lin’s vietnam veterans memorial)

• artist commissioned to create a “traditional sculpture”

narrative

daniel turner

• process and research

• visit to a psychiatric hospital, used their steel beams

• turn it into steel wool and burnished it onto the wall

• how does memory move on; can we remember the patient’s memories through this

narrative

tehching hsieh

• taiwanese performance artist

• durational performance pieces

• defamiliarization with daily life conventions

• tests his abilities to stick to a rule

time-clock piece

• documented in a multi-media way

• punched a time clock on the hour, every hour for a year

narrative

david hammons

bliz-aard ball sale

• performance piece selling snowballs on the 

• a critique on nyc art market

• black people entering the art market, but speaks on their exploitation

• questioning art that is an experience

narrative

mika rottenburg

• centers work around femininity, labor, globalization, and consumer culture

• long-duration videos, packaging time

• rents out other people’s bodies for her artwork

• emphasis on the entire production (kind of fluxus in a way)

narrative

eadweard muybridge

• a photographic thinker and technological pioneer

• when the horse is in the air, is there a moment where it touches the ground

• tripwires and shutter releases → motion picture/cinema

material

kara walker

• created sculpture that no longer exists (ephemeral artwork)

• sugar sculpture in an abandoned sugar factory

• sphinx-like, very much a caricature of black people

• political meaning (sugar trade in relation to slavery)

material

yoko ono

sky piece

• commissioned mosaic piece

• made of ceramic tiles

• bring the sky into the subway

• relates to her time during world war ii

material

maurizio cattelan

comedian

• about title: comedians make you laugh, as well as think

• “what is art?;” inspired by marcel duchamp

• when first shown in miami gallery, an artist ate the banana

• just sold for $6.2 million

• is art a commodity?

material

damien hirst

• an intersection of science, art, and culture

• a tiger shark in formaldehyde, however it keeps decomposing

• memento mori work

material

urs fischer

• cast wax

• transitory nature of all life, our flame all goes out

performance

chris burden

five-day locker piece

• stayed inside locker for five days

• balled up in a three-foot cube

• pushes himself to the ultimate limits; “what is a breaking point?”

performance

mierle laderman ukeles

• coined the term maintenance art

• made a logo for maintenance art and stamped it

• cleaning roles (mainly women of color)

• commentary on domesticity, sexism, and racial bias with hiring

• about to finish residency at the new york city sanitation department

performance

wilmer wilson iv

• colorism; if your skin color can match the paper bag

• walks into gallery nude

• uses the bags to eliminate himself

scale

claes oldenburg and coosje van bruggen

• larger-than-life outdoor sculpture

• playful

• satire and critique on mass production

• something familiar taken out of context

(coosje van bruggen is his artistic partner)

scale

christian marclay

the clock

• a still of his video shown

• 24-hour video of found footage (appropriation art)

• the time of the clocks onscreen are accurate to the time when viewed

scale

jenny holzer

• series of text projections on outdoor landscapes

• political and poetic, interpersonal (the subject might be you, or her)

• revolves around the human condition

scale

willard wigan

• self-titled as the smallest handmade sculpturist in human history

• makes his own tools

• does a breathing exercise before working (very tedious)

• drilled into human hair and sculpted the baby into the hair out of lint

object/installation

alan sonfist

pool of virgin soil (1975)

• pathway to renewal

• recultivated toxic land (ecological restoration)

object/installation

amy sherald

for love and for country

• iconic american imagery reimagined with marginalized people

• muted skin tones surrounded by bright colors

object/installation

hans haacke

state of the union (2005)

• found objects to depict social structures

• did this after taking a poll in his previous gallery show

• national discord, division, conflict, systemic unrest

• abstract issues as representation

object/installation

liz cohen

bodyworks (series):

lowrider builder and child

• merges performance, photography, and sculpture

• work took ten years to complete

• blended two distinct cars (american el camino and east german trabant) into a lowrider

• noted her own physical transformations

object/installation

gai guo-qiang

heritage

• 99 lifesized animal sculptures

• surrounded by a pool of water

• predator and prey coexisting peacefully

• global unity and vulnerablity

commonality

john wood + paul harrison

• british video performance artists

• example of collaboration between two artists

• record simple sketches in minimalist studio space

• object/architectural interaction

commonality

swoon (caledonia curry)

• drawings in her sketchbook converted into prints

• collaborated with others

commonality

j.c. hewlett + the zombie flesh eaters

feel good inc.

• worked for the british alt rock band, gorlliaz

• company that animated their characters and music video