thad final

embodiment

Total acceptance of a state of being, or the physical representation or translation of a concept.

Sierra Leone Landscape, Pascale Marthine Tayou 

Reference to extraction of chocolate painting physically embodies idea because it is made with chocolate and coffee 

Pointing to specific geopolitical issues in Sierra Leone

abstraction

The opposite of materiality, focus on idea and removal from the physical/representational. Considered a ‘high’ idealist transcendence of politics (refusal to apply meaning, eg Warhol). Can also be considered a violent way of dehumanising/generalising by separating the physical from conceptual.

Sierra Leone Landscape, Pascale Marthine Tayou 

Reference to Malevich Black Square, utilizing European aesthetic and ideas of abstraction and recontextualises those techniques in order to show a specifically African view on cocoa and coffee trade.

materiality

Offers a critique against abstraction, material itself can carry connotations of their history especially in regards to methods of extraction and colonialism. The process of the material may be as important as the material itself, as traditionally material in art was needed to ‘disappear’ in order to reach representation, but now it is being embraced in of itself.

A Subtlety or The Marvelous Sugar Baby, Kara Walker

Homage to artisans who brought sugar to the New World. Refers to sugar refining process, asking us to consider colonial history of sugar

Maltz-Leca: Site specificity, built in a sugar factory about to be destroyed. Factory as a ruin signifies ending of an era but also preservation of memory. Refinement of sugar funded social and intellectual (cultural) refinement in America

Drawing from Mine, William Kentridge, 1989

The process of erasure remains being part of completing the drawings shows the history and process of change. The material qualities of the charcoal in its erasability is part of what makes the piece convey its message.

Stills from Felix in Exile, William Kentridge, 1994

Erasing as a form of forgetting in year of first democratic elections in South Africa. Kentridge encountered graphic images of gunshot victims of South African police brutality. Notion of past disappearing as image fades into landscape echoes concept that the brain, world and land itself collude to cover up trauma.

Matlz-Leca: for both pieces erasure is a process that is used both by the artist but also by the world/public history which is demonstrated through the materiality of the charcoal.

studio process

Maltz-Leca: the idea that art is everything that occurs in the studio, not just the finished piece. Related to conceptual art, idea that there does not need to be a final or singular piece.

On The Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide, Dread Scott, 2014

Artist puts himself in situation facing high pressure police hoses, suggesting impossibility of progress. Tries to walk forward and struggles, indicates that the narrative of progress is unrealistic and not really occurring. There is no physical final piece or result, but rather the performance or process is the artwork/method in which idea is conveyed.

metaphor

A way in which to describe something indirectly. In art, can manifest through physical depictions that are representational of other concepts, or can be through the process itself metaphorically mirroring or bringing perspective to an idea.

Triumphs and Laments, Kentridge and RISD students

Idea that history is subjective, erasing soot and dirt of Tiber River in Rome. Speaks of history as both triumphs and laments. Process (washing away dirt and soot to reveal white stone underneath) is used as a metaphor for the historical washing away or alteration of certain events.

protest

During AIDs crisis, idea that public demonstrations are needed because visibility is necessary for change (instead of hiding it away). Caused several movements to be born as a means of protest because image and text are very reproducible and can disseminate easily.

General idea, AIDS Installation, 1987 

Reconsiders white cube of gallery space and covers every inch in the AIDs logo in an unavoidably high visibility protest installation.

collaboration

Where artists work together in order to create a work, either physically or conceptually. Challenge to individualism, idea that it takes a collective voice to raise certain issues, especially during the AIDs crisis where government suppression was rampant.

Let the Record Show, ACT UP

A need for visibility in order to spread awareness about the cause brought artists together to collaborate. Also collaboration between historical periods, conflating Nazi Germany/aftermath (Nuremberg Trials) and the current situation with politicians during the AIDs crisis.

trauma

Can be societal, cultural or personal remnants of historical or current oppression or erasure of certain groups. Can be reclaimed through recontextualising suffering and emotional legacy that can span generations.

Self Portrait/Pervert, Catherine Opie

Reclaims trauma associated with queer people and shaming them as ‘perverse’ by confronting the viewer through the shock of violen of thce to the body. Physical trauma through the cutting and stabbinge skin also helps to convey the concept of permanent trauma to a community through the body.

Audre Lorde: reclaiming trauma/experience of being a queer person and using it as a form of empowerment

institutional legitimacy

Legitimacy given to groups through the use of collective voice and action, the idea that a group of people has greater effect than individuals. Also examines why certain institutions like government are given greater legitimacy/jurisdiction over what is considered acceptable in society, and who is deserving of that kind of power/say.

Let the Record Show, ACT UP

Using imagery of Nazi Germany (and what was considered legitimate or acceptable by the government) and recontextualising it during the AIDs crisis, thus bringing into question whether the current government is deserving of trust or legitimacy.

multiculturalism

Multiple theories: melting pot, idea that all cultures are mixed and result in one homogeneous mix, salad bowl, where all cultures retain own identity, and mosaic, where culture retains identity but also is interdependent on others.

The Sacred Colors, James Luna

A white woman, African American, Asian, and Indigenous man, and clothing is reflective stereotype of skin tone 

Shows how multiculturalism actually flattens us into boxes, that culture is more than just skin tone.

Colors also refer to Native American Medicine Wheel, where colors have certain meanings. Showing how the mix of culture and races can actually be producing something new/new associations.

institutional critique

Art that is made to criticise either an institution or factors (such as racism, sexism, etc) that are built into such institutions and thus are perpetuated on a large scale.

Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West / The Couple in the Cage, Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Coco Fusco, 1992

Both artists dress in stereotypical/completely inaccurate ‘Amerindian’ dress which plays into stereotypes of undiscovered civilisations. Plays into imagery of brown and black bodies in cages, or the colonialist mindset that the indigenous is something to be displayed and analysed.

Also becomes critical of institutional or public reaction to such spectacle, adding an element of interactivity as people play along with the part of the white spectator.

postcolonialism

Lens through which history and politics of art can be examined, taking into account the perspective of colonised nations and how their unique experiences may affect what knowledge is considered ‘canon’.

Takes from the Conquest/Codex, Enrique Chagoya, 1992

Sources page 29 of Codex Borgia (indigenous piece from 1500s). Combining icon of Superman (modern) and historic imagery (a ‘dimensional ridge’ he is crossing). Book then contains series of unexpected collisions between time periods, subverting the colonial view of history.

Examines how we grapple with the legacy of colonialism, especially with the increase of globalization — how do we see history differently + rethink our place in history? Also contrast/subverts Picasso, appropriating Western art and pretending it has no history or context (like Picasso did with African masks).

the end of history

Idea in 90s that Americans/world have overcome Soviets and global issues. Entering new era of technology and world will now enter period of infinite flourishing. Vision of history as an endless march forward. 

Border Tuner, Rafael Lozano Hemmer, 2019

Installation of searchlights on either side of US-Mexico border, allowing people to communicate. Exposes divisions that have been built in modern world. Demonstrates that linear progression is not necessarily accurate, and that the idea of infinite progress may have fallen short in the current day.

Also highlights role of technology and development in overcoming inherited borders.

Whitney Biennial

Held every two years as a US survey of influential artists working in the present. 1993 biennial was infamous for political messaging (poc, queer, etc artists), inspiring backlash that the art was depressing or unnecessary.

Where both Synecdoche by Byron Kim and the Couple in the Cage were exhibited.

Also explores what happens to poc and queer artists when contrasted with a background of the white cube/traditional art curation.
Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West / The Couple in the Cage, Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Coco Fusco, 1992

Both artists dressed in stereotypical cosplay of indigenous inhabitants, from fictional island who have never seen civilization. The spectacle of brown and black bodies in cages, playing into stereotypes of indigeneity as something exhibited/analyzed/contained (colonialist mindset)

Combine modern clothes with traditional, start dialogue with colonial history. Even still, anthropological dioramas trap or contain indigenous people.

Artists could be paid to perform ‘tricks’, showing behavior of the audience as well

information

Data, anything that can be decoded or that is different to random/background noise. Can be used to organize social life.

As it circulates, information can be argued to be consumed, instantly graspable, and to appear neutral — designed to be difficult to verify (not entirely different from mis/disinformation)

At the level where information is constructed or disseminated, does not matter the what the content we consume is but rather that we keep consuming it 

Dow Does the Right Thing, Yes Men, 2004

Yes Men are group known for impersonating government or corporate officials , skits such as announce strategies that go against company policy.

Pretended to be spokesman for Dow Chemicals and accepted responsibility for dangerous chemical spill. Caused Dow Chemical to lose billions of stock value.

Considered counter information, direct intervention into the way information circulates.

Also consider information in relation to visibility, how visibility means more information can be gathered.

poor image

Steyerl: Image which is of low quality but easily circulates on the internet. Direct contradiction to high quality imagery, which often requires financing/commercial means to production, labor, access to resources, which separates the creator from the consumer.

In contrast, making the poor image is accessible to all, challenging the ethics of piracy, reproduction, and profiting off of ideas, instead enabling for easy sharing and access to culture.

Steyerl also points out that it is neither good nor bad, as easy accessibility also entails easier spread of hate or discrimination, and the poor image is a result of increasing globalisation and technological development (because we are more and more connected to the internet).

Also question of who is visible or not, and how visibility comes with more information available.

How Not to Be Seen, Hito Steyerl, 2013

Alludes sometimes to those invisible in the social world, who are excluded or made to disappear.

But main focus is how not to be seen/visible and thus avoid the collection of information, using playful digital technologies (the poor image, being self made by an individual). Essentially a guide on how not to be captured as an image or information.

autonomy

Taking ownership of oneself or over something. Also how at the same time we can refuse the demands of everyday life, specifically turning/producing labor and information, and instead insist on autonomy to reimagine our lives.

Dow Does the Right Thing, Yes Men, 2004

Pretended to be spokesman for Dow Chemicals and accepted responsibility for dangerous chemical spill, thus taking ownership over a situation by taking action. Caused millions in loss to Dow Chemical, thus reimagining real life and having tangible consequences through taking autonomy.

Also refuses to accept status quo/publicly sanitised explanation given by the institution, rejecting information given and instead using counter information to change the narrative.

immaterial labor

Highlights new forms of labor, defining mechanisms of labor in our current economy.

Refers to activities like data analysis, etc, but also how a whole array of things not previously considered labor are now part of work (whether paid or not) 

Emphasis on immaterial labor does not suggest that physical has disappeared, just that it is sometimes seen as more useful to drive markets/capitalism

FedEx works, Walead Beshty, 2007-present

FedEx is a copyrighted name. Filled cardboard boxes with glass boxes inside and shipped them around. At each site they would be exhibited, showing damage of international transit.

Return to minimalist cube. Demonstrates the material networks through which things travel, how associations with the physical have been altered.

center/margin

Idea of who is depicted or remembered in the canon of art history — communities (like queer groups) which are pushed to the margins of history, eg during the Lavender Scare. Pre WWII US government encouraging art of ‘American’ life and nuclear family, which is an example of the center.

Silueta Series, Ana Mendieta, 1980

Collection of female artists, idea that even in feminism only certain groups (upper/middle class white women) are heard while other females are struggling with other aspects of identity such as race or class.

queer theory

Lens used to examine history by considering queer aspects. \

Erased De Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, 1953

Idea that not all gestures are free, bringing into question the ability to access freedom. Also the erasure of marks.

Elizabeth Maynard: Red Scare — during Cold War, fear of communism made people turn on each other. Everyone was suspect but particularly certain groups.

Lavender Scare — persecution of queer people, idea that they were threatening to the American ideal of nuclear family and thus to national security.

Audre Lorde: people deny themselves enjoyment of eroticism, reduce it to a simple sexual act or experience, much like queerness is generalized about who you are having sex with and not as a being of the self.

performance

How queer people had to perform historically (eg during Lavender Scare) in order to assimilate into society. Finding of safe spaces for such communities, like Black Mountain College, allowed for a lack of social performance. However, it also gave rise to performance in art.

Trio A, Yvonne Rainer, 1965

Performance art piece where movements are made spontaneously and then copied by the group by memory. Idea of assimilation (both into movement and society) as performance.

embodiment

Total acceptance of a state of being, or the physical representation or translation of a concept.

Meatjoy, Caroline Schneemann, 1964

Loosely choreographed but mostly improvised performance piece. Meant for a culture starved of eroticism, rejecting established order. Wetness and messiness insists/embodies idea of eroticism, which can also be construed as feminine.

Lorde: Eroticism as a reclamation of power, embodiment of eroticism is the true form of feminine power

intersectionality

Idea that the human experience is composed of multiple aspects of social identities and systems of oppression.

Elizabeth Maynard: proposes that second wave feminism is reserved for middle class white women, as other female-presenting groups are having to struggle/focus on other systems of oppression due to intersectionality.

Silueta Series, Ana Mendieta, 1980

“This exhibition points not necessarily to the injustice or incapacity of a society that has not been willing to include us, but more towards a personal will to continue being ‘other.’” Idea that intersectionality brings a new unique experience that is ‘other’ to the norm.

spectacle

Made to be seen or looked at, consumed by masses

Modernity is a culture of spectacle — society of spectacle where real life is replaced by representation, life copying an interpretation of life.

Semiotics of the Kitchen, Martha Rosler, 1975

Refusal of the spectacle through using video as a medium, very anti-spectacular and straightforward. However is still in a mass consumable form (video)

alienation

Marxist idea that using the human as a laborer separates them from the product. Production inherently alienates workers from society and the product.

Marilyn Diptych, Andy Warhol, 1962

Reproduction of Marilyn’s image through repeated act of laborer separates the final image from the the significance of the person and of Warhol’s work. Also was made after Marilyn’s death.

mediation

Mediation or altering of social relationships through media. Idea that society as spectacle makes all of us spectators and passive consumers, where everything we see is filtered/curated or ‘mediated’ in a sense.

Happening for a Dead Boar, Costa, Jacoby and Escari, 1966

Media covering an event that never happened, shows how media mediates or alters our perception of real life.

Agents of Change: when black students walked out of the sit-in after having armed themselves, side by side with their white peers, but was photographed by media. Then depicted in the news as violent due to carrying of guns.

everyday life

literalism

Idea that art piece is the literal object and is devoid of any further meaning or interpretation.

Untitled, Donald Judd

Is a very literal shiny cube. Connect austerity of the work to a very disciplined self, using logic, control, and reason to back up their method of painting. 

minimalism

Often considered founded or started by white men like Judd. Used industrial materials and made a very literal experience, lacking association or metaphor (similar to Warhol)

Maltz-Leca: Rosalind Krauss claims they still articulate certain ideas – speaking in a way that is autocratic. Claims their narrow view of history leads them to articulate their believed truths in a coercive way.

Die Fahne Noch, Frank Stella

Claimed as a sort of origin work, trying to avoid any meaning within the painting (only what can be physically seen).

post-minimalism

Use shape, materials and language of minimalism but insert the body and handmade means of making, reassert the body as central to the work. Essentially taking minimalist aspects but rejecting the idea of anti-meaning of minimalism.  

Sparse Spill, Fred Wilson

Sparseness of glass drops suggests minimalism and spareness. Is a work of control, is not made by chance/randomly but rather blown glass suggests meticulous process and making. Pushing idea that work has meaning and association.

Response to minimalism, seeing cannot be same as knowing and what each person sees must be different.

Metaphors of oil and tar, as well as spillage.

process art

Art where the process of making supersedes the final product. Insists that art cannot be untied from its meaning because of the intention during its creation.

Untitled, Ellen Gallagher

Targeting the pure disembodied eye, which can make judgements and understand things — takes this notion and embeds it into context of the black body and how it was historically abstracted

Chooses to use specifics of minimalism (restrained palette and composition). Trying to express that concepts are never abstract but always tied to specific memories or associations which change from person to person

Using the body to not just refer to racist imagery, but critiquing the premise of modernist abstraction, the idea of Mondrian that the grid is universal and transcendent. Says they are always tied to culture that employs them.

Also critiquing that form can be severed from associations, unlike Warhol who claims there is no meaning. 

dada

Multi pronged ‘eruption’ of artists/art as a response to horrors of WWI. Idea that logic/rationality and masculinity are what lead to war and violence, thus Dada rejects those concepts in favor of irrationality.

The Lock Up, Graciela Carnevale, 1968

In dialogue with Dada movement by touching on similar themes of institutional critique, using shock and unconventionality in order to convey a message. Challenging definition of art through refusal to create a single object.

conceptual art

Art that revolves around the idea behind the art more than the final piece itself, essentially a machine that creates the art.

Reading by Sol LeWitt: Proposes that concept is most important aspect of work, planning and decisions all made beforehand, execution is a perfunctory affair. Idea becomes a machine that makes the art

Cut Piece, Yoko Ono, 1964

The so called ‘other’ (asian woman) is inhabiting space. As clothing is cut away the piece turns into a more sexualised depiction of the woman. Invites spectators to interact with art, concept calls attention to lack of boundaries and violence between audience and artist.

readymade

Use of already existing objects as art. Response to mechanical reproduction, philosophical redefinition of what art is – deskilling or removing ‘making’ of art. Duchamp proposes that the object itself is not the artwork, but rather the act of saying that it is art is the artistic process.

One and Three Chairs, Joseph Kosuth, 1965

Uses readymade chair as part of the work. More about idea and not the object of art.

Opening philosophical and semiotic loop, trapped in the question of which thing is the right ‘chair’ and how photography fails to measure up to the real thing. Call attention to gap between representation and actuality and how arbitrary ‘meaning’ actually is.

ideological circuit

Any kind of mode of exchange or circulation by society or economy which is shared by everyone, but not always easily perceived.

Insertions into Ideological Circuits, Cildo Meireles, 1970

Identified ideological circuits such as circulation of products. Through reuse of Coke bottles you are extracting it from original context, thus hijacking a neutral product to promote activism or a message.

ethnic studies

A different pathway for education which recognises different formations and social structures.

Edward Said Mural, Fayeq Oweis and Susan greene

Most importantly the space it is created in, right outside of the Cesar Chavez student center in SF State — in a way immortalising and integrating black and poc history into an educational space.

Discusses Palestinian struggle, anti Orientalism. About being connected to both sides of checkpoints/history. Symbol of dove has become universal symbol, used to convey peace, freedom and future.

decoloniality

Mindset of removing or restructuring colonial social, political and other aspects of society.

Christopher Roberts: Retrofitted memory — uses fragments of older histories that contain colonial viewpoints or masculinist renderings so that we can make space for women and poc in our canon.

Negro es Bello, Elizabeth Catlett, 1969

Dichotomy of black mexican and black american experience. Sought to speak against hypermasculine heteronormative trends, instead bringing female figure to forefront of what it means to be African American. Also plays into pin culture, symbol for black power/black beauty — rewriting colonial standards of conventional beauty or acceptance (literally ‘black is beautiful’)

aesthetic

Style of protest murals + posters, aesthetic or look surrounding revolution.

Use of military imagery and reuse/reappropriation of aesthetics from different movements to communicate a resistance or protest alluding to original source material’s intentions. Use of collage and specific imagery from time periods of protest.

The Crying Soldier + Da 5 Bloods, Emory Douglas, 1969 + 2020

How violence is mirrored, abroad and at home (through the dichotomy of Vietnam War vs black power movement), as well as depicting how violence bounces between the two sides. In terms of aesthetic, appropriates similar imagery and structure to create parallels between history and current social issues.

race

A social construct based off of ethnic groups, historically used as the basis for colonialism and discrimination. The concept of race often leads to unique positionalities that vastly affect the lived experience, especially when intersecting with other aspects of identity.

modernisms

the visual form of modernity; they are embedded in the larger political, economic, and social forces that spread modernity across the globe: colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism

A break or reinventing from tradition, a result of encountering non-Western art, search for new ideas

Scramble for Africa, Yinka Shonibare, 2018

Adds context to a historical event and redescribes in from a different political/cultural viewpoint

Reference to the Berlin Conference

colonialism

The practice of exerting control over a region and exploiting them

Scramble for Africa, Yinka Shonibare, 2003

Sean Nesselrode Moncada: Fabric, how colonial ideas still permeate cultures today (as fabrics are popular today), also the physical act of colonialism and how the continent was divided up

purity

Homogeneity within a culture or place

You Belong Here, Tavares Strachan, 2013

Deconstructing idea of a certain demographic belonging somewhere, but rather than everyone ‘belongs’ no matter their background. Also that all types of history should be told, and that there is no pure/truly factual version of history, but rather many different subjective versions.

lineage

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlan

Men would become artists because it was their father’s trade, but that is not the case for women, so lineage can affect how history is told.

Still Here, Gaia, 2018

How lineage is still present despite modernization, the idea of lineage as heritage and connection to a region, and how it affects the history of a place.

decolonization

The attempt to acknowledge, repay, or repair the damage caused by colonization.

Still Here, Gaia, 2018

Acknowledgement of the history and a reminder of the indigenous land that Providence is built on. Also decolonization of history, an attempt to separate from the Eurocentric, Western version of art history and give acknowledgement to the influence of other cultures in art.

land acknowledgment 

The recognition of the history behind how land was acquired.

Scramble for Africa, Yinka Shonibare, 2018

Portrayal of how land was colonized form the African perspective.

discourse

methodologies

Dr Liz Maynard

• Addressing the canon (who and what is preserved and taught)

• Addressing the lens (perceived or unperceived methods) eg queer or feminist lens

• Addressing our own positions (positionality or subjectivity)

Free, White and 21, Howardena Pindell

Pindell is using her experience as a black woman to highlight how her positionality towards art history would be very different to a free, white, 21 year old white woman.

Also how the canon narrative (who or what is preserved) is predominantly that of the louder party, as her experience as a poc has been discounted and left out (the lady in the video not believing her).

desire

The depiction of desire, the need to attain something or someone.

Odalisque, Jean-Dominique Ingres, 1814

Traditional depiction of a desirable woman, both in sexuality and depicting almost exploitation of the lower class, as well as exoticism and romanticism.

Still from Siboney, Joiri Minaya, 2014

Subversion of positionality, now from the pov of the woman. Uses same sexual, cultural and class undertones but more confrontational, stating that her existence is not to fulfil someone’s desire.

The Horse Fair, Rosa Bonheur, 1853. Bonheur is depicted in the middle in a man’s job, almost depicting her desire for a more masculine role in society.

(mis)translation

Misinterpretation of art history

Queer lens

The Horse Fair, Rosa Bonheur, 1855

Reclamation of history through a new lens, eg Bonheur’s best friend (or partner). Also her wearing of men’s clothes + positioning herself as a man, can now be interpreted as a desire to fulfil a different role than was traditional.

memorialization

The parts and people of history which are prioritized within the ‘canon’ and most commonly remembered within public history (Michel-Rolph Trouillot)

Silver Statue of Columbus, Gorham Manufacturing Company and Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, 1893

Columbus Before the Queen, Emanuel Leutze, 1893

Mythification of Columbus, white hair, and formalization/memorialization of a glamourized version of events into public history.

mapping

division/marking of land

Columbus Before the Council of Salamanca, Emanuel Leutze, 1841

Dr Christopher Roberts: Columbus became appointed governor of the land, effectively creating or defining territory which was not necessarily new and claiming it for Spain.

Trouillot: idea of ‘discovery’, that Columbus was considered to have discovered a new land and this discounts the already existing peoples of the time.

quotidian

Everyday, in relation to knowledge is the commonly accepted history.

Trouillot definition of public knowledge as a history which is not necessarily objectively correct but rather the commonly accepted narrative.

Columbus’ Departure from Palos Teaspoon, Gorham Manufacturing Company, 1892

Memorializing of a glorified event through a common household item, shows how this canon historical narrative have become so widespread that it is considered quotidian or everyday knowledge.

monument

Memorialization of a figure or event which is altered to fit a certain narrative, often Western or Eurocentric, and catering to the public history.

Can also be related to Trouillots idea of ceremony, where the true meaning or history behind the celebration gets forgotten in favor of achieving a more marketable story.

Silver Statue of Columbus, Gorham Manufacturing Company and Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, 1893

shipbuilding

Islamic world provided essential technologies for shipbuilding, would not have been able to cross ocean if not due to the way Spanish ships were built at the time. Another example of the erasure of non-Western art and technologies.

Replica of the Santa Maria at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Frank Day Robinson, 1893

It is being displayed at the Columbian Exposition, attributing the ship and my implication the technology to the Spanish. Also a way to commodify and sensationalize the colonization of ideas and technology.

seafaring

Discovering America, artist once known, 1493

navigation

The idea that the new world would not have been able to be found by the Europeans without having the Islamic technology.

Mappa Mundi, Juan de la Cosa, 1500

Islamic maps existed first but this is the European interpretation. Has Jerusalem at the center, showing how religion was so central even through the practice of mapmaking.

technology

Something you have to create, new innovation

Gli Gli, Jacob Frederick (Carib), Chalo (Carib) and Aragorn Studios, 1996

Example of how technology is not always necessarily ‘new’ in the modern context, as Gli Gli shows the use of effective technology in indigenous practice.

cartography

The practice of making maps. Different techniques were used to make them, such as the introduction of latitudinal and longitudinal lines, the spiral method, and walking from a point to each port and measuring the distance.

Mappa Mundi, Juan de la Cosa, 1500

Is the most advanced map of its time, compilation of knowledge from Islamic, Arabic, and other mapmaking discoveries.

Crusades

Religious wars/invasions that set the precedent for ideas of Christian superiority and the need to spread the word of God to other continents.

Discovering America, artist once known, 1493

Idea of God/King directing the colonization of the Americas, shows Christianity was a driving force behind later colonization. Also a romanticized or interpreted depiction of the actual event, aligning more with the accepted canon history.

hybridity

multiple paradigms/ways of being/methods that are combined in interesting ways

The Mass of Saint Gregory, artist once known

The Immaculate Conception, Ludovico Cigoli, 1611. Combines science, art, and religion, migrating to the ‘new world’/the Americas.

Our Lady of Guadalupe. Also mixes in precolonial/indigenous beliefs about goddess figures.

Three Gentlemen from Esmeraldas, Andres Sanchez Galque, 1599. Clothing is a mix of different cultural influence, european ruffles, asian silks, strong jewelry, of african descent.

mestizaje

mixed race ??

Sans Souci, Baez,

Reclamation of mixing of cultures and people in 18th century America

casta painting

Cast paintings, depictions of not individual people but types of people. Mestiza/mestizo to refer to mixed race.

The Castes, artist once known, 18th century. Chart of 16 different race combinations. Representation of white supremacy and hierarchy.

our lady of guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe, artist once known, 16th century

expressionism

Way of artmaking centered around the experience of the artist + art instead of what is really there

Demoiselles d’Avignon, Pablo Picasso, 1907

Representation of fantasy of the artist instead of real sex workers.

origins / originality

Modernism is a discourse of originality, is obsessed with origins and being different from them. In regards to artwork — context from which art is created, eg Gaugin influence from Haiti scenery

Why Are You Angry

Reframing/reclaiming of originality, by acknowledging origins of Haiti which were not acknowledges by Gaugin. But at the same time almost attributing originality to Gaugin by focusing mostly on his work rather than the women.

Islamic Reading

European colonists stole and used Islamic ideas and developments to further their own technology, which they then used to continue colonising

Olympia

Olympia, Edouard Manet, 1863

Reappropriating a reinterpretation of Europe. Origin of European modernism. placing person of color in background thus expressing European male gaze of desire and racial hierarchy.

Spirit of the Dead Watching

Gauguin, 1892

Shows Gauguins attempts to achieve originality by subverting the narrative, reversing the black woman’s position: instead of staring confrontationally (like in Olympia) she is scared of the viewer.

colonialism

Matu Mua / In Olden Times, 1892, Gaugin

Frames modernity in Tahiti as lazy and lack of progress. Focuses on exotic elements rather than urbanization, implying Europe is a place of change or dynamism.

Absence of labor

primitivism

A rejection of Europe to embrace other cultures, who are celebrated as different from (and less developed than) Europeans

Almost a set of fantasies that exoticism countries like Tahiti outside time, history, development. Bedded in colonialist beliefs

Demoiselles d’Avignon, Pablo Picasso, 1907

Inspired by appropriated African art and used to create romanticizations. Almost returns to the European origin (returns women tot eh brothel), allows Picasso to claim originality.

Manifest Destiny

Idea that land is promised to European Settlers

The Snake Charmer, Jean-Leon Gerome

Sara Rich: Idea that Islamic empire is destined to fail and Christianity will prevail, shown through the crumbling of the wall.

Promised Land

Version of America that European settlers ‘discovered’. Even geological formations like Grand Canyon were called ‘pyramids’, transferring/projecting Middle East onto Old West.

Keeoma, Charles M Russel, 1896

Plains Indian woman in Odalisque pose, showing the exoticism/desire associated with the foreign. Also links body and land. Also associated with the colonialist/Christian ‘right’ to the people and land.

landscape painting

Odalisque modeled paintings be considered landscape paintings because they equate women’s bodies with the landscape they exist in. Transference of ideologies from West-East, still existent today.

Keeoma, Charles M Russel, 1896

primitivism

Idea that other cultures are primitive or underdeveloped

Axis: Bold as Love, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967

Conflation of hippie culture with Indian heritage - misunderstanding of Indian-American and South Asian Indian.

The Slave Market, Jean Leon Gerome, 1866

Show dichotomy between slavery in the US (just abolished) and standards of the East, where slavery was still ongoing and romanticized

orientalism

The way of Western artists depicting the East as a place of backwardness, lawlessness, or barbarism enlightened and tamed as if they were wild beasts by European Christian rule, while at the same time entertaining fantasies of the East as a place of exotic and immoral sensuality.

The Slave Market, Jean-Leon Gerome, early 1860s

Division between unacceptable slavery (oriental) and acceptable (American Civil War)

The Snake Charmer, Jean-Leon Gerome, late 1860s

Unrealistic combination of people, setting is a real place. Depiction of crumbling tiles symbolises the crumbling/erosion of the Islamic empire, justifying European presence in Islamic territories.

patronage

A lot of Black artists did not have patronage, pushed back against this idea. Lack of support led to lack of black voices within the art sphere/art history.

Chris Roberts

The Harp, Augusta Savage

Was meant to be cast in bronze but due to lack of monetary/other support only ever made it to a plaster model, which was later destroyed/lost, meaning that her work was not permanent/remembered.

Federal Art Project

Government paid artists to make certain number of artworks per year, which often promoted American ideals of labor. They were usually depicting the working class or those in poverty, and were representational (rejecting European abstract art)

double-consciousness

The experience of having multiple social identities, especially the African American cultural connection while conforming to the white dominant society, making it difficult to develop a sense of self.

The Octoroon Girl, Archibald motley, 1925

Although depiction of a (white passing) mixed woman, still subscribes to idea that African Americans must achieve white ideals/higher class in order to be accepted into society.

New Negro Movement

Creative movement during the Harlem Renaissance amplifying black artists and the portrayal of black pride + the black American experience. How the act of being the modern was something that artists took on as a way of becoming again or being new. Connected to 20th century (marked by segregation).

The Crucifixion, Jacob Lawrence, 1938

About noise that people make when not listened to, the light radiating shows the fire coming from within the people.

Negritude

A consciousness and pride in cultural and physical aspects pf African heritage

or the state of being a black person

The Harp, Augusta Savage

New heights that African Americans can reach, symbolic of hope

indigeneity

State of being indigenous and pride in indigenous identity or culture that links them to specific places. Inextricably linked with modernism. How is it expressed and celebrated in global modernisms?

Self-Portrait on the Border Between Mexico and the United States, Frida Khalo

Rejection of American and almost siding, reclaiming indigenous heritage.

indigenismo

A political ideology that celebrates indigenous peoples, cultures, and traditions, often used to support nationalist identity. Places indigeneity as a central component to Mexican identity. Not only present in Mexico, but throughout Americas.

Varayoc, Indigenous Mayor of Chinchero, Jose Sabogal, 1925

Idea of what America can be — Varayoc is not a stand in for whole group but rather as an individual, showing link between Mexican identity and being indigenous.

muralism

The art of wall painting. Mexico instituted program for muralism in order to educate about Mexico’s history. Muralism renegotiates public space, changes context of the space it is in.

Cortes and Malinche, Jose Clemente orozco, 1926

Depicted as point of origin for modern hisotry. Shows Cortes (symbolic of colonialism) and his interpreter. Seen as point of origin of new race of people, pairing of European and Indigenous. Result is Mestizo child who is dead, shows power imbalance + implies that the identity of Mexico is inherently traumatic/violent.

public art

Art put into public. Can often run into red tape, whether financial issues, content, etc. Will change the context and redefines space it is in, especially multiple generations after.

Detroit Industry, Diego Rivera, 1933

Defines space of Detroit Insitute of art and state as a whole as a space of innovation and featuring people of mixed race and origins.

social realism

An artistic movement that sought to document
and raise awareness about social, political, and
economic inequality, focusing especially on the
urban and rural working classes (proletariat)

Not same as indigenismo but overlaps in some aspects.

Detroit Industry, Diego Rivera, 1933

Sponsored by big capitalist Henry Ford in center of automobile industry in Detroit. Unclear what opinion Rivera has on it, but features Mexican historical figure. Through lens of race, four goddess-like figures mean to represent four races. Shows his interest in relationship of humanity to nature (through natural imagery). Also depicting working class and industrialisation — in his other works that Moncada shows pointing out the hypocrisy during the Great Depression (wealth disparity), so showing how all races are equal.

anthropophagy

cannibalism

idea of conceptual/metaphorical cannibalism

Abaporu, Tarsila do Amaral, 1928

Proposes that America is made this way because of indigenous people. Decision to treat Europe as a source of food/cannibalize Europe— will pick parts they like and turn it into something new. One method of negotiating Brazil’s new relationship with Europe.

constructive universalism

Joaquin Torres-Garcia’s idea that the grid itself is a basic structure for the universe which will provide tools to build a new world. Informs all of Garcia’s art. Also influenced by indigenous art trying to synthesize modernity + history

Inverted America, Joaquin Torres-Garcia, 1943

Attempting to flip the map and convey that we do not need to view things the way we were taught. Trying to separate from Europe and focus on South America.

kinetic art

Idea of kinetic energy or movement in art, trying to think about picture plane coming outwards. But it is the viewer’s eye creating the movement, not the piece.

Penetrable, Jesus Soto, 1990

Dissolving of the picture plane created through the density of the ‘atmosphere’ or noodles. DIssolving the boundaries of art and life.

rhizome

Botanical term referring to a structure without a center or periphery (no hierarchy)

Can be mapped onto the idea of economic insecurity because everything is interconnected and interdependent.

Gran Reticularia, Gego, 1969

An environment you are invited to interact with. Structurally has no focal point. Thinking of how structures inform different ways of looking at the world.

neo Concretism

A splinter group of the 1950s Brazilian concrete art movement, calling for a greater sensuality, color and poetic feeling in concrete art

Abaporu, Tarsila do Amaral

Color palette and style, proportions are unrealistic

originality

aura

Distance (real or psychological) which separates spectators from artwork.

Benjamin: with mechanization we have lost artwork dependence on rituals, now becomes more dependent on politics.

Fountain, Marcel Duchamp

Destroys aura by being a work which exists to shock or instigate

originality

Idea that appropriation and reproducibility is a strategy to be original and create something new through the reworking of something old 

Kuba Cloth, Democratic Republic of the Congo

After Walker Evans, Sherrie Levine, 1981

Photograph of a photograph. Appropriation as a strategy to exploit, but also critically to rework what already exists. Appropriation of this image — may become about the artist themself and not the subjects of his photos.

reproducibility

Reproduction of artwork/images. Not a new concept, but with industrialization (around 1930s when photography increases) reshapes relationship of society to images.

Allows artwork to circulate and come to the people instead of other way around. Also brings new genre of art — photography and film.

After Walker Evans, Sherrie Levine, 1981

Photograph of a photograph . Appropriation as a strategy to exploit, but also critically to rework what already exists. Appropriation of this image — may become about the artist themself and not the subjects of his photos.

shock

Disruption or jolting of consciousness, or aesthetic revolt.

Kenneth Berger says that Dadaists are rejecting Western rationality as the cause of WWI. Meant to shock and confuse, almost separating from sense.

Fountain, Marcel Duchamp, 1917

Insistence on scandal, public confusion or even outrage. Not meant to be seen as aesthetic but rather designed to instigate.

Un Chien Andalou, Luis Bunuel, 1929

Film may be used as content or propaganda, but can also create shock, not just morally like Dada but physical shock through the medium.

aestheticisation of politics

Can be turning political reality into an image, into a consumable object around which the masses can coalesce. May target an enemy or otherness in order to incite a crowd to a particular purpose.

Adolf the Superman Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk, John Heartfield, 1932

Criticism of political fervor. Mobilizing the aesthetic to counter dominant ideas.

colonialism

Asserting exploitive control/dominance over a certain people/land and the subjugation of said people/land.

Idea of reclaiming the colonist view of history and including more positions and viewpoints in the art historical narrative is needed as there is no one linear version of history

Colonialism and Abstract Art, MOMA

Mind map shows links between historical events and colonisation vs impact on art history

abstraction

What enables the convertibility or exchange of everything into a commodity, according to Marx. Wark also suggests it has permeated all forms of knowledge, so can be argued to be foundational aspect of our world.

Maltz-Leca: A philosophical process of rendering particular ideas or theories potentially transferable and universal. Testing of multiple variables to determine the strength of an idea through its generality. Popularized by Kant, for idea of universal truth and rights.

The painterly process of elevating the particular into the general, translate specific images into universal signs.

Composition with red, blue, black, yellow, and gray, Piet Mondrian

Grid is mean to be the essence of truth and universal representation of nature

cubism

20th century avantgarde movement which involved abstracting objects and incorporating geometry

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Pablo Picasso

Heavily dependent on traditional abstraction, inspired by African art which he then ‘forgot’. Cross-cultural exchange usually Eurocentric.

Kuba Cloth, Democratic Republic of the Congo

African textile using shapes. Could be argued to be the influence for Cubist European artists afterwards.

Picasso

Ambroise Vollard, Pablo Picasso

Made in opposition to other artists painting expressionistically. Uses chromatic greys and geometry instead of bright colors pushed by other artists like Gauguin.

Braque

20th century cubist artist most known for Violin and Candlestick

Ambroise Vollard, Pablo Picasso

Made in opposition to other artists painting expressionistically. Uses chromatic greys and geometry instead of bright colors pushed by other artists like Gauguin.

Mondrian

Artist known for gridlike paintings using flat and simple colors, horizontal and vertical lines used to reduce and represent the universal truth.

Composition with red, blue, black, yellow, and gray, Piet Mondrian

Grid is mean to be the essence of truth and universal representation of nature