Unit 10

The Gates

1. Artist: Christo and Jeanne-Claude

2. Time Period: 1980s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary

4. Medium: Plastic, steel

5. Content: Contrasts between the orange fabric and the natural environment of the park it was created in.

6. Form: Line of square shaped orange fabric on panels on a walkway.

7. Context: Created to challenge the question of what is meaningful art and how art impacts our environment.

8. Function: Used as a walkway and viewers walk underneath the fabric to view the artwork.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

1. Artist: Maya Lin

2. Time Period: 1980s

3. Culture/Style: Modernism

4. Medium: Granite

5. Content: A memorial for the veterans who died in Vietnam during the war.

6. Form: Two walls dug into the ground with names of veterans engraved into them.

7. Context: Created to honor the veterans who died in the war.

8. Function: Viewers are supposed to walk along the walls into the ground and read the engraved names.

Horn Players

1. Artist: Jean-Michel Basquiat

2. Time Period: 1980s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary

4. Medium: Acrylic paint, Oil paint, Canvas

5. Content: Connection to jazz music and African American culture - similar format to Picasso’s own triptych.

6. Form: Three panels showing musicians playing jazz instruments + repeated words scattered across the panels.

7. Context: Shows two famous jazz players - homage to jazz culture - artist began as a graffiti artist before becoming a professional artist.

8. Function: (idk)

Summer Trees

1. Artist: Song Su-Nam

2. Time Period: 1970s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary

4. Medium: Ink, Paper

5. Content: Similar to many traditional Korean artworks.

6. Form: Forest of trees painted with black ink. Only in black and white.

7. Context: Made in times of war and modernism and post-Korean war to preserve Korean identity.

8. Function: To instill Korean pride and culture into Western culture.

Androgyne III

1. Artist: Magdalena Abakanowics

2. Time Period: 1980s

3. Culture/Style: Modernism

4. Medium: Canvas, Wood, String

5. Content: Artwork purposely androgynous to generalize to all humanity rather than lean towards either gender.

6. Form: Sculpture of the back of a person. They have no arms or legs or indication of gender. Their skin is wrinkled.

7. Context: Created post WW2.

8. Function: To remind viewers that pain and suffering is universal and impacts everyone.

Book from the Sky

1. Artist: Xu Bing

2. Time Period: 1987

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary

4. Medium: Ink, Paper

5. Content: Chinese characters + culture.

6. Form: Many books and scrolls containing Chinese characters that are hung up on the ceiling. Many of them are fake and the symbols inside are gibberish and don’t mean anything.

7. Context: Created during the Cultural Revolution in China where art and individuality was distrusted by the government.

8. Function: Used to spread awareness of political propaganda in China.

Pink Panther

1. Artist: Jeff Koons

2. Time Period: 1980s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, American

4. Medium: Porcelain sculpture

5. Content: Femininity, ‘kitsch’ - mass produced imagery designed to please the broadest possible audience with objects of questionable taste.

6. Form: An unclothed blonde woman holding a pink panther plush.

7. Context: Made during a time of increased female presence in media, however it was still a very male dominated industry.

8. Function: Created to challenge and critique the kitsch culture and question where the line is drawn between pleasure and objectification.

Untitled #228

1. Artist: Cindy Sherman

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary

4. Medium: Paint on canvas

5. Content: Interpretation of the Biblical story of Judith and Holofernes - symbolizes triumph over tyranny.

6. Form: Self-portrait of the artist in a red dress. She holds a decapitated head and bloody knife.

7. Context: Artwork was created as the artist’s own interpretation of the Biblical scene, and to challenge how past interpretations depict Judith as hesitant and unsure rather than decisive and confident.

8. Function: Exposes to the audience her critique of past art interpretations of the story.

Dancing at the Louvre

1. Artist: Faith Ringgold

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, African French

4. Medium: Acrylic paint, canvas, cotton

5. Content: The inside of the Louvre with famous paintings such as the Mona Lisa; a ‘story quilt’ about character Willa, a young black woman who moved to Paris in the early 20th century.

6. Form: Two black women and two black girls dancing inside the Louvre.

7. Context: Created during a time when the art industry was dominated by white male artists. Story quilts are important aspects of African culture, they are associated with women’s domestic work and women would socialize and share stories as they made them.

8. Function: Created to challenge gender and racial expectations during the time.

Trade

1. Artist: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, Native American

4. Medium: Oil Paint, Canvas, Object → Collage

5. Content: Depicts some of the items that Native Americans received in exchange for trading their land.

6. Form: Canvas with oil paint of many colors, mostly red which represents anger - outline of canoe on canvas - 'Native-themed' items strung above canvas.

7. Context: Response to the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus and how Native Americans were tricked into trading their land for worthless items they believed were valuable.

8. Function: Created for the artist to share her personal perspective of the impact of colonization on Native Americans.

Earth’s Creation

1. Artist: Emily Kame Kngwarreye

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, Aboriginal

4. Medium: Painting

5. Content: Inspired by Aboriginal cultural identity.

6. Form: Canvas of paints of natural colors such as green, blue, yellow, and red.

7. Context: Artist was inspired by the natural environment and Aboriginal culture she grew up in.

8. Function: Used to appreciate cultural identity and spread awareness of culture.

Rebellious Silence: Women of Allah series

1. Artist: Shirin Neshat

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, Islamic

4. Medium: Ink

5. Content: Muslim women’s identities and struggle for freedom.

6. Form: Central figure of a woman in a hijab staring at the viewer. Her face is bisected along the center by a rifle which she is presumably holding.

7. Context: Created during a period where women in the Middle East and Muslim women in general have their voices and identities silenced, and this period is still going on to this day. The artist was also influenced by her experience growing up and escaping from the Islamic Revolution.

8. Function: Used to challenge the conservative policies and culture against women in Iran.

No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop

1. Artist: Pepon Osorio

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, Latino

4. Medium: Installation

5. Content: Latino culture.

6. Form: Barbershop room with 'masculine' items scattered around.

7. Context: In Latino culture there is a high expectation for males to be ‘masculine.’

8. Function: Created to challenge the idea of ‘machismo’ in Latino communities.

Corned Beef 2000

1. Artist: Michel Tuffery

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, Polynesian

4. Medium: Sculpture of flattened cans of beef

5. Content: How highly processed food was introduced to the islands.

6. Form: Flattened yellow cans shaped in a sculpture of a cow.

7. Context: Created during a time of food insecurity in the Pacific Islands which still continues to impact them today. This is further impacted by the use of highly processed foods on these islands, making it so that the food on these islands lacks nutrients for the people.

8. Function: Used to spread awareness of food insecurity in the Pacific Islands.

Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii

1. Artist: Nam June Paik

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, American

4. Medium: Wood, steel, neon lights, TVs

5. Content: Created during a time when technology was beginning to advance.

6. Form: Neon lights in the shape of the United States. Inside each state are TVs.

7. Context: Artist created this piece to reflect on how we interact with technology and to question how we will continue to use it as it continues to advance - also shows how technology connects us across distances.

8. Function: Used to make the viewers wonder how far technology will continue to grow.

The Crossing

1. Artist: Bill Viola

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, American

4. Medium: Film Installation

5. Content: Religious symbolism from many different religions.

6. Form: Two videos of a male figure walking towards the camera. On each screen, there is a different scene, such as his body being on fire or soaked with water. The videos are in slow motion.

7. Context: —

8. Function: Used to convey ‘self-annihilation and self-destruction.’

Guggenheim Bilbao

1. Artist: Frank Gehry

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Modernism, Deconstructivism

4. Medium: Limestone, Glass, Steel

5. Content: -

6. Form: The design of a museum - reflective, curving walls with multiple levels.

7. Context: Created in the artist’s own style known as Deconstructivism, with fragmented forms and asymmetry.

8. Function: Functions as a museum.

Pure Land

1. Artist: Mariko Mori

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, Japanese, Buddhism

4. Medium: Photograph set within glass.

5. Content: Lotus represents rebirth - salt represents purity - ‘stupa’ is a Buddhist burial mound.

6. Form: Golden landscape with large lake + sunset sky - woman floating above a lotus blossom, surrounded by 6 aliens.

7. Context: Created to be displayed alongside her other artwork Nirvana, which is a multisensory video that plays sounds and blows scents at the audience.

8. Function: Used to convey the idea of ‘oneness’ and that everyone can achieve enlightenment.

Lying with the Wolf

1. Artist: Kiki Smith

2. Time Period: 2000s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary

4. Medium: Ink, graphite, paper

5. Content: Relationship between humans and animals.

6. Form: Drawing of a woman laying down with a wolf.

7. Context: Created to challenge how in literature, women are typically depicted as ‘prey’ to animals who are ‘predators.’

8. Function: Used to depict a companionship between women and animals.

Darkytown Rebellion

1. Artist: Kara Walker

2. Time Period: 2000s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, North America

4. Medium: Paper

5. Content: Depict the violence of rebellion.

6. Form: Wall with cutouts of people and a projection of bright colors - depicts a rebellion - figures purposely lack detail in limbs to emphasize violence.

7. Context: Does not resemble any real-life historical rebellions - however, it asks the question whether this violence remains in the past or if it is still relevant today.

8. Function: Makes the viewer wonder how much violence still applies in our current world.

The Swing (After Fragonard)

1. Artist: Yinka Shonibare

2. Time Period: 2000s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, European, African

4. Medium: Cotton, rope, wood

5. Content: Recreation of The Swing painting, headless → represents the guillotine, wears African-Dutch fabrics.

6. Form: Mannequin on swing mid-flight - one slipper is kicked off - mannequin is headless.

7. Context: Artist influenced by his own British-Nigerian heritage - how the Europeans exploited and took advantage of African colonies.

8. Function: Used to call attention to the darker moments from Western history.

Old Man’s Cloth

1. Artist: El Anatsui

2. Time Period: 2003

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary

4. Medium: Copper, Aluminum

5. Content: Trade history.

6. Form: Metal wires and bottle caps arranged into a quilted tapestry.

7. Context: Artist inspired by Africa’s history and culture.

8. Function: Signifies trade history between Africa and Europe.

Stadia II

1. Artist: Julie Mehretu

2. Time Period: 2004

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, American

4. Medium: Ink, Acrylic paint, Canvas

5. Content: Nationalism - stadiums are a center of American culture for games, protests, events, etc.

6. Form: Abstract art in the form of a stadium.

7. Context: Created to reflect the use of stadiums in American culture.

8. Function: Used to represent stadiums in American culture.

Preying Mantra

1. Artist: Wangechi Mutu

2. Time Period: 2000s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary

4. Medium: Mixed media, plastic

5. Content: Snake - symbolizes the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible; mantis - preying insect.

6. Form: Female body in purposely intimate position on a tree branch with a snake.

7. Context: Reference to how African women have been oversexualized throughout history.

8. Function: Used to challenge racist stereotypes of African women and gender views.

Shibboleth

1. Artist: Doris Salcedo

2. Time Period: 2000s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, European

4. Medium: Concrete

5. Content: Shibboleth - Biblical story when the Ephramites attempted to flee from the Gileadites - represents division and oppression.

6. Form: Concrete hall with large crack on the floor.

7. Context: Created as an act of cultural rebellion - to call out how immigrants are oppressed and discriminated against.

8. Function: Used to symbolize oppression and division.

MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts

1. Artist: Zaha Hadid

2. Time Period: 1990s

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, Italian

4. Medium: Concrete, Glass

5. Content: Literally idk.

6. Form: Concrete museum with metallic columns.

7. Context: To be a museum.

8. Function: A museum.

Jui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds)

1. Artist: Ai Weiwei

2. Time Period: 2010

3. Culture/Style: Contemporary, Chinese

4. Medium: Porcelain

5. Content: Inspired by the artist’s own personal life of memories of sharing sunflower seeds with friends in China in order to eat.

6. Form: 100,000,000 porcelain sunflower seeds.

7. Context: Created for the artist to portray his life and struggles growing up in China under the rule of Mao Zedong.

8. Function: Used as a symbol to advocate for human rights.

The Gates

Vietnam Veterens Memorial