20th Century Western Art Exam 2

“one: number 31” by pollock (1950)

“woman 1” william de Kooning (1950-52)

“Untitled” Krasner (1949)

“10/27/69” by Gilliam (1969)

“Challenging mud” by Shiraga (1955)

“Flag” by Johns (1954-1955)

“Liberation of aunt Jemima” by Saar (1972)

“Marilyn Diptych” by Warhol (1962)

“Water composition (green)” by Nengudi (1970)

“Untitled” by Judd (1969)

“One and Three Chairs” by Kosuth (1965)

“Food for the spirit” by Piper (1971)

“The Bowery” by Rosler (1974-75)

“Untitled No.2” by Pindell (1973)

“Stranger #6” by Ligon (2020-2021)

“Bleeding Takari II” by El Anatsui (2007)

“Waste not” by Song Dong (2005)

“Untitled (furniture work)” Salcedo (1990)

“07.01.20. - 07.31.20” by Agematsu (2020)

One: Number 31

• By jackson pollock

• 1950

• Abstract expressionism

• huuge scale

• throwing paint (seen as “next stage” modernism/abstraction), using gravity

• idea of the genius in art

• drawn from surrealist automatic drawing technique

Woman 1

• by william de kooning

• Abstract Expressionism

• 1950-52 (took him two years)

• embraced by moma yet also seen as against the cause of modernism bc of the figure

• offensive in the way it portrays a woman (using and abstracting the female body to express negative emotion) —> dehumanizing

“untitled” (Lee krasner)

• 1949

• pollock’s partner

• small, intimate

• tightly painted crescent shapes

• part of a series called “little images”, critiqued the men in art spaces who worked large scale to seem macho

10/27/69

• by sam gilliam

• 1969

• draped paintings (partially scultural paintings)

• diluted paint on fabric then folded on to itself while still wet, creating 3d forms

• was seen as “betraying” painting

• criticized by the black community for painting abstractly

challenging mud

• by japanese artist shiraga kazuo

• 1955

• RADICAL performance art

• wrestling, painting, sculpting with mud (gestural painting with the entire body)

• the work exists as a concept/idea

flag

• by queer artist jasper johnson (1955)

• depiction of the american flag but made of cloth + newspaper dipped in wax (called ENCAUSTIC)

• questioning the symbol of the american flag

• very subtle protest

• radical reaction to ABEX by using everyday reality and imagery

the liberation of aunt jemima

• by black artist betye saar

• 1972

• assemblage of items/objects/pictures of caricatures of black enslaved people

• use of repitition (like in pop art), disrupts the repitition

• repeating offensive imagery until it is accepted as natural

• rebelling caricatures

marilyn diptych

• by warhol

• 1962

• screenprinted (at the time very commercial method)

• mixing mechanical and traditional art practices

• diptych from the tradition in religious art (marilyn as an idol and religious figure)

• commodification of celebrities

• tension between repitition and variation

“untitled” by judd

• 1969

• ten copper units stacked (minimalist canoncial work)

• VERY precisely measured

• visually minimal (high degree of abstraction)

• geometric

• not hand crafted, distancing himself from production

• phenomenology (becoming more aware of your body and space within a gallery)

water compositions (green)

• by nengudi

• 1969-70

• clear plastic bags filled with coloured fluids, and roped to gather the poches (subtle references to the body)

• not interested in pedistools (creating a barrier between the viewer and the work; displayed these on the ground)

• feeling of being constrained

• minimalist art

one and three chairs

• by kosuth

• 1965

• conceptual art

• about how we think symbollically (in the mind)

• inadequate ways of representing reality

• playing with the rules of institutions

• readymade (duchamp was a mentor figure to conceptualists)

• element of absurdity (humour)

the bowey

martha rosler (1974-755), feminist socialist artist

• talking about homelessness in art without exploiting the homeless (photographs of where you may think to see homeless people without showing them)

• feeling of loss

• use of the grid (grid = rational)

• protest against artworks that exploited homeless people in the name of art and awareness

food for the spirit

• by adrian piper, mixed race black woman (white passing)

• 1971

• b+w nude self portraits anytime she felt like she was not real/dissolving

• obsessively read “the critique of pure reason” by kant

• mental illness in art (questionining if she was ok during the creation of this)

• was very isolated, fasting, and doing yoga to connect spiritually

untitled by pindell

• pindell (1973)

• undoing the rational grid

• thousands of hole punched dots

• slow burning rage (accumulation)

• added perfume to the work

• is skill needed in art? is this work skilled? (process>final product)

stranger #6

• by glenn ligon, queer black artist

• 2020-2021

• made with oil stick, gesso, and coal dust

• words resist being legible, words from book “notes of a native son)

furniture works

• by salcedo (1990)

• made of old furniture with cement, combined with old clothed in the cement

• about mourning victims of violence in columbia

• showing human bodies indirectly

• taking an object and defeating its normal purpose (assemblage sculpture, in dialogue with neo-dadaism)

“07.01.20. - 07.31.20”

• by Agematsu (2020)

• using garbage/found objects in little plastic 3d sleeves, arranged in grid patterns on shelves

waste not

by song song (2005)

• displayed collection of his mother with hoarding’s objects laid out and organized (takes up a whole room)

• created a specific way to organize and catagorize everything (like taxonomy)

• western viewers saw this very differently from asian viewers