Art History Terms Part 2

The human body

What is being used as the main subject matter.

Figurative art/ figure art

Art the depicts the human body in various type of representations, whether in part or as a whole. The subject is generally recognized or representational as human.

Idealism

The notion that ultimate reality exists beyond everyday experience and our everyday, physical world. An heightened idea of what is “perfection”.

The ideal body

The literal embodiment/ body of what a culture values, desires, and defines as beautiful and perfect.

Universality

The values, desires, and principles that apply to and shared by everyone in a society.

Specific Body

A figure expressive of distinct aspects that define the individual’s unique identity. (A figure that shows aspects of what makes them unique.)

Portraiture

The practice of making portraits and a genre of imagery that focuses on portraits.

Identity

The sum of all characteristics that distinguishes an individual as unique from all others. Factors of this include biology/ physicality, social roles and relationships, psychological, and your personal choices. Some factors are in our control and others are not.

Self-portraiture

A kind of portrait where the subject of the image is the artist who created it.

Portrait

A detailed description or representation of a person’s physical likeness, which can portray or imply other aspects of their identity. Most ____ include the subject’s physicality & body language, clothing/fashion, context (location, environment), objects (props, possessions), and the time & history. They serve as clues to the subject’s lifestory.

Irezumi

Traditional Japanese tattooing. Originally used for spiritual and decorative purposes that marked one’s status in society. Now more associated with criminality.

The body as the tool

The human body becomes the main means by which an artwork/art object is made. It is being used in an active way as the tool. Examples include: Jackson Pollock and action painting, Yves Klein and Anthropometries.

Performance art

The use of the live human body, usually the artist, as the main vehicle for artistic expression. The artist’s body is the subject, the tool, the material, and the artwork all in one.

Art as catalysis

Piper argues that the most effective art is art that provokes the biggest and most lasting reaction or change within the art audience (The viewer).

The personal is political

Any and all aspects of your identity carries political weight in society. In addition, your identity is tied to systemic pressures on the individual found in and enacted by society. (Your identity is influenced by internal and external factors).

Performative action

Formalized gestures that carry aesthetic, conceptual, and symbolic weight within an artwork, but are used in service of an artistic end other than pure performance. For example: Jackson Pollock’s action paintings use wild gestures to create a dynamic, energetic painting.

Arete

An Greek concept for “excellence” or “excellence in all things.” It also emphasizes a balance between the intellectual and physical prowess. (Ex: “The soldier is also the poet.")

Mithuna

An Indian concept for the union of the spiritual, physical, and emotional of the male and female energies.

Action painting

An dynamic, energetic approach to painting that emphasizes movement. An example of this is Jackson Pollock. His paintings were visual records of how Pollock moved, gestured, and applied the paint to the canvas.

Chris Cunningham

He portrayed negative view on humanity and society. Using time based media, his videos/ films had common themes such as human weakness, human flaws, alienation, isolation, and dehumanization.

Jonathan Glazer

He portrayed a more positive view on humanity and society. Using time based media, his videos/ films had common themes such as celebrating human progress, competition, collaboration, achievement, and community.

Body as a ‘canvas’ for art

The body is used in a more passive way as a canvas. By using the body as the canvas, it becomes the artwork and an art material. Examples include: Scarring and tattooing, any sort of body modification.

Samoan tatau

The Samoans were known for tattooing the lower body to the naval down to the knees. The tatau was a marker of honor, high status, and cultural identity for the Samoans. The tattooing was a rite of passage from youth to maturity. Designs have zones of abstract motifs with stylized forms of sacred forms and animals. The markings also served as protection, signs of family history, and accomplishments. The tatau represents a marker of one’s cultural, spiritual, familial, social, and individual identity and affiliation.

Moari moko

The Maori people marked their faces, and they believed the head held great tapau (sacredness). They would chisel into the skin to apply pigment and carve grooved designs. The moko was a symbol of high rank, a marker of one’s identity, heritage, family ties, etc, and a beauty marking.

African scarification

The practice of cutting, branding, or scratching the skin to mark the body with a permanent scar. The practice was a rite of passage symbolizing maturity, an elevation to one’s status in the community, an cultural identification marker, and even served as medicine. To enhance the size and effect of the scar, a wound will often be irritated to prolong the healing process.

The artist’s gesture in art

art process

Yves Klein

Yves Klein experimented with “living brushes.” He used live human bodies as the brushes to create his artworks, Anthropometries. He also allowed for audiences to view the making of Anthropometries live, turning the art process into a performance event.

Anthropometries

In Anthropometries, Yves Klein translated the body’s energy and physical presence into the artwork in the most direct way. He had nude women cover themselves in blue paint and imprint their body marks or drag themselves across the canvas. Later, he invited audiences to watch, turning the work into a spectacle/ performance event. This further closed the distance of the body being the artist, art material, and artwork.

Allan Kaprow

He began organizing live, event-based artworks called “Happenings," inspired by John Cage. He began to shift his focus away from the final product of artmaking, and more towards the artwork itself.

Happenings

In a ‘Happening’, the audience became the artists, determining the direction and duration of the piece. The indeterminate nature of Happenings allowed for an integration and engagement of several components: space, materials, people, and time.

Art is life is art

Kaprow thought art is a vehicle for expanding our awareness of life. He aspired to dissolve the boundaries between art and life, the artist and the audience, and the audience and the artwork. Art is life, and life is art.

Body as the art object

When the body becomes the main artwork. Examples include: when tattooing, the body also becomes like a painting to look at. In performance art, the body is what you look at as the art. The live human body becomes the artwork.

Adrian Piper

Piper executed a series of performance pieces collectively called Catalysis Performances. In them, she performed small, socially awkward actions throughout a day, carefully observing how others around her treated her, provoking a range of reactions. In doing so, she criticized stereotypes, especially with race.

Yoko Ono

In her famous performance piece “Cut Piece,” she surrenders all power as the artwork to the audience who completes/shapes the performance. The viewer cuts away a part of her clothing, and the piece ends when there is no clothing remaining.

Chris Burden

His works involved danger, bodily harm, endurance, and the potential for death. This linked many of his works and reflected the cultural, social, and political upheaval of the times. (Around during the Vietnam War)

Documentation

Documentation (photographs, videos, etc) serves as “relics” of performance art. They are really the only part you can “own” of performance art, since it is a lived, present experience. However, they detach the viewer from the art process and do not create the same impact as the live experience.

Ana Mendieta

Mendieta’s performance work infused her body as an expressive medium with references to the rituals found in Santeria (a syncretic religion in Cuba) and a desire to reconnect to her homeland through the earth.

Marina Abramovic

She challenges the limits of human endurance using her body. Her power is often surrendered to the audience as the artwork. The audience is a integral role of her work, whether they are a willing participant or witness.

Janine Antoni

She uses her body as a tool/ material, (like using her hair as a paintbrush), doing repetitive gestures to create her artwork. Her artwork focuses on femininity and roles as an women in society.

Nikki S. Lee

She assimilates into different groups within American society, challenging how identity is formed and defined. She blurs the line between performing and being.

Projects

Photographs of Nikki S. Lee assimilating into different groups of American society.

Asco

They used their Dada-inspired conceptual art activist-performance pieces towards agitating the cultural, social, and political establishment. They criticized the exclusion of Hispanics in the art world and expanded upon what art and iconography (muralism) is typically associated with Hispanic culture.