ART HISTORY C131B - C231B: Contemporary Art Study List

Flashcards covering key artists, works, and concepts from Contemporary Art (1960s-1970s) including Documenta 5, Institutional Critique, Feminism, and Body Art.

Documenta 5

A major 1972 art exhibition in Kassel, Germany, featuring a poster and binder-like catalogue designed by L.A. artist Ed Ruscha.

Richard Serra, Circuit

A 1972 postminimalist intervention in space and audience created for Documenta 5.

Art and Language

A conceptual artists’ collective that produced the 'Documenta Index and Alternate Map' for the 1972 Documenta poster.

People's Participation Pavilion (PPP)

A 1972 D5 installation by David Medalla and John Dugger featuring bubble sculptures and a tribute to Vietnamese leader Hô Chí Minh.

A Stitch in Time

A 1968 participatory work by David Medalla where viewers were instructed to 'stitch anything you like' onto suspended cotton sheets.

Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement

A 1969 legal document developed by Seth Siegelaub to protect artists' interests in the resale of their work.

Cultural Confinement

A concept by Robert Smithson (1972) criticizing curators who prioritize their own limits over the artist's, turning museums into 'cultural prisons' or 'asylums' that neutralize art.

Daniel Buren

An artist known for 'Exhibition of an Exhibition' at D5 (1972), which used striped patterns as interventions on walls and behind other paintings.

House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home

A photomontage series by Martha Rosler (ca. 1967–72) that juxtaposed domestic interior design with graphic imagery of the Vietnam War.

Some Living American Women Artists

A 1972 collage by Mary Beth Edelson that functioned as a form of canon revision and research.

Womanhouse

A 1972 feminist art installation in East Hollywood organized by Miriam Schapiro and Judy Chicago, featuring works like 'Menstruation Bathroom' and 'Nurturant Kitchen'.

Ablutions

A 1972 performance in Venice, CA, involving Suzanne Lacy and Judy Chicago, featuring first-person accounts of rape and ritual bathing in eggs and blood.

The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

A 1972 assemblage piece by Betye Saar that challenged racial stereotypes and addressed the artist's disaffection with mainstream movements.

ASCO

An East L.A. Chicano art collective (Willie Herrón III, Harry Gamboa Jr., Gronk, Patssi Valdez) known for 'Rituals of Resistance' such as 'Spray Paint LACMA'.

VALIE EXPORT

A Viennese actionist artist known for provocative works such as 'Action-Pants: Genital Panic' (1968) and 'Body Configurations'.

Chris Burden

A performance artist known for endurance and danger-based pieces, including 'Five Day Locker Piece' (1971) and 'Shoot' (1971).

Ana Mendieta

An artist whose work integrated Santería imagery, body imprints, and blood, notably in the 'Silueta' (Silhouette) series.

Sony Portapak

A portable video recording system launched in 1967 that revolutionized video art by allowing artists like Bruce Nauman to record in their studios.

Boomerang

A 1974 video by Nancy Holt and Richard Serra where Holt listens to her own words fed back with a one-second delay, described by Rosalind Krauss as a 'prison of a collapsed present'.

Untitled Film Stills

A 1977 series by Cindy Sherman featuring herself in various staged Hollywood-inspired personas and archetypes.

Sherrie Levine

A postmodern artist known for appropriation, such as her 1979 series 'Untitled (President)' utilizing existing media images.

SAMO©

A graffiti collaboration between Al Díaz and Jean-Michel Basquiat (standing for 'Same Old Shit') that appeared in NYC during 1978–79.

Keith Haring

An artist who emerged from the NYC street art scene, known for his subway drawings and video works like 'Lick Fat Boys' (1979).

Truisms

A series of concise, provocative statements by Jenny Holzer (1977–79) distributed on photostats and wheat-pasted posters in public spaces.

Inflammatory Essays

A series of text-based posters by Jenny Holzer (1979–82) designed to provoke public reaction through aggressive, confrontational language.