Visual Arts

Combine/Mixed Media

a series of works that combine aspects of painting and sculpture

Environment

large-scale artworks which transformed interior spaces and created immersive experiences for viewers

Fluxus

an international movement in the 1960s that tried to close the boundaries between art and life - incorporated performances, music, and open-ended events aimed at making art accessible and engaging for everyone

Performance Art

artistic performances that often incorporate elements of theater, dance, and visual art, focusing on the body as a medium

Neo-Concretism

Brazilian avant-garde movement that desired to create art rooted in bodily experience, performance, touch, and manipulation

Land Art/Earthworks

artwork created outside the gallery/museum, often intervening in the natural landscape, can be permanent or temporary

Site-Specific Art

art that is designed to exist in a particular location, gives it meaning

Helio Oiticica - Parangole 18: Embody Revolt

1964 - Neo-Concretism

Robert Smithson - Spiral Jetty, Rozel Point

1970 - Land Art/Earthworks

Christo and Jeanne-Claude - The Gates, New York City

1979-2005 - land art/site-specific

Monument

a statue or structure commemorating an important event or person

Anti-Monument

a response to difficult national memories or complicated conflicts

Shoah

hebrew term for the holocaust, commemorates the dead but does not cast blame on the contemporary nation of germany

Maya Lin - Vietnam Veterans Memorial

1982 - Monument

Jochen Gerz - Monument Against Facism

1986 - Anti-Monument

Installation Art

a 3D piece designed to transform a space, creating a new environment

Gender Essentialism

all women have shared experiences of womanhood and that gender is tied to physical sex characteristics

The Gaze

a way of thinking about the viewership that structures the ideal viewer as a white male - sexualized and power-driven

Judy Chicago - The Dinner Party

1974-79 - installation: second wave of feminism

Guerrilla Girls - Do Women Have to be Naked?

1989 - third wave of feminism - institutional critique

Act-Up

an activist group formed in the late 1980s to fight for AIDS awareness and LGBTQ+ rights

Die-In

a form of protest where participants simulate being dead to draw attention to issues such as violence or injustice

Felix Gonzalez-Torres - Portrait of Ross in LA

1991 - ACT-UP

ACT-UP - Let the Record Show

1987 - ACT-UP - shows depth of the problem and how history will judge us on how we react

Minimalism

reaction against the “messy” nature of work like Rauschenberg’s combines - it stressed rational and precise techniques

Robert Mapplethorpe - Bondage

1974 - a photograph exploring themes of sexuality and identity - exhibit got cancelled

Richard Serra - Tilted Arc

1981 - site-specific sculpture installed at federal plaza in New York City that sparked controversy and debates about public art

Literati

artists who were scholars and officials focused on expressing personal feelings and interpretations of nature through ink, poetry, and calligraphy - traditional Chinese painting style

Calligraphy

The art of beautiful handwriting, often using brush or ink. Calligraphy is highly valued in many cultures for its aesthetic appeal and expressive potential.

New Literati

artists focusing on sensory experiences like eating and drinking, the good life, and taking comfort from everyday pleasures - incorporates contemporary art practices

Orientalism

a term used to describe the depiction and representation of Asian cultures by Western artists, often emphasizing exoticism and stereotypes

Gu Wenda - United Nations

1997 (China) - installation

Shirin Neshat - Unveiling

1993 (Iran) - Caligraphy

Lalla Essaydi - Grande Odalisque

2008 (Morocco) - Caligraphy

Institutional Critique

an art movement that asks viewers to question the museum’s neutrality and the role of institutions in shaping art and culture

Information Art

art that presents documents/data to a viewer, usually with little artistic intervention other than gathering and arranging data

Classification

the categories used to arrange artworks in museums

Andrea Fraser - Museum Highlights

1989 - Institutional Critique - says that art isn’t considered art just because it is in a museum

Fred Wilson - Mining the Museum

1992 - Installation - Institutional Critique: makes us question why some things are art and why others are not

Banksy - Girl with Balloon/Love is in the Bin

2018 - Institutional Critique: questions the art market's obsession with value and how it can be manipulated

Postmodernism/Postmodern Era

a mixture of references to different historical styles - sampling or quoting from famous historical pieces - humor and irony combined with social critique

Post-Colonialism

addresses the experiences of former colonized societies, including voices and images from groups traditionally excluded from Eurocentric histories or ways of viewing

Ecocriticism

looks at how concerns about the climate and human-generated climate change are reflected in art, culture, literature, film, etc.

Yinka Shonibare - Scramble for Africa

2003 - post-colonialism - installation

Kent Monkman - Mistikosiwak

2019-2020 - institutinal critique - site-specific - postmodern appropriation

George Romney - Lady Emma Hamilton as the Spinner

1782 - post-colonialism - wool industry is local, artisanal, and unconnected to global issues

Will Wilson - AIR: Auto-Immune Response

2015 - Ecocriticism - gives a vision of a postapocalyptic future - Native American lands are stripped of their natural resources by the American government, which leads to severe health problems

First Wave of Feminism

focused on suffrage (voting rights) - artists succeed by making art in male styles

Second Wave of Feminism

educational equality, women’s rights to be in the workplace, equal pay for equal work - shared female experiences

Third Wave of Feminism

recognition of queer women, promote body and sex positivity - artists expose inequities in art world, overlaps with postmodernism

Fourth Wave of Feminism

voices from global south/communities of color, fight workplace harassment and loss of reproductive rights - too new