TWO-PART ASSIGNMENT DUE SEPTEMBER 7-- Go to the Guggenheim
Museum to see the “HAUNTED: contemporary photography/video/performance”
exhibition on view through September 6, 2010 – (closed Thursday, September
2nd) @ Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue (at East 88th Street).
You are also being asked to answer a few questions about the Guggenheim
Museum building itself and the exhibition. Please answer my questions in either
bullets or full sentences as appropriate. Be prepared to spend 1-2 hours there.
You can use your Cultural Passport for free entry. Please read this entire
assignment document before your visit as you may want to consider the building
before you enter it to see the “Haunted” exhibition. Bring a camera and notetaking materials.
PART ONE
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
The Guggenheim Museum was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It opened in
1959, six months after Wright’s death. It is considered one of the masterpieces of
organic architecture and a signature building for New York City.
I would like you to understand what makes this building an example of organic
modern architecture after visiting, taking pictures outside the building (take both
long shots and detailed, closer images—use my questions as guides to what to
look for) and making notes about the architecture inside the building (no
photographing inside). Bring your photos to class.
The Building
Write down the materials used for the inside and outside the building. What
colors did Wright chose for what parts. Note the forms and the shapes the
architecture creates. Look up and down besides straight ahead. Note the
sidewalk outside (what makes it special?) and the floor inside. Note the main
form of the building. What shape is it? Are there additional sections to the
building? What shapes are they? Does the building seem to change from the
outside to the inside? List all the shapes that are created in and by the
architecture. Note the uses of the different spaces in the museum building (not
only the exhibition spaces.)
Your Experience of the Guggenheim Building
How do you move through the space? There are choices. What do you see as
you move through the museum space? Does the lighting change? Make sure to
look near and far; up and down. Were you alone or with other people? What do
you hear? Listen. Write down what you hear.
PART TWO
“HAUNTED: contemporary photography/video/performance”
This show is about the power of the photographic image, according to the curator
Jennifer Blessing (Photography Curator, Guggenheim Museum). In these
contemporary works, there is the sense that the past is present in the present
(creating a kind of memory). We are not sure what is real and what is imaginary.
Many of these works exude a feeling of melancholy. They give the sense that
the past is haunting us in the present; a sensation of “the uncanny.”
I encourage you to read the exhibition labels.
These questions are to encourage you to look closely at the work to find clues to
the artwork’s meaning and the artist’s intent.
Warhol and Rauschenberg were pioneers of Pop Art and were some of the first
artists to use the silkscreen process in their works. The silkscreen process
involves the transformation of a photographic image.
Look at how the following 3 artists use or appropriate (e.g. re-use) photographic
images:
Artist: Andy Warhol
Work: Orange Disaster #5, 1963,
What is the image of? Do you think he found or took the photograph? Warhol
uses one image, which he reproduces multiple times on the same canvas using
the silkscreen. How many times? What effect does this produce? What do you
think the title means?
Artist: Robert Rauschenberg
Work: Untitled, 1963
Note the type of photographic images Rauschenberg chooses to silkscreen into
this work. Make a list of the subjects of the photographic images. Where do you
think he found these images? Do these give you a clue to the meaning or
content of this “untitled” work? I would call Untitled, a form of collage since it is
made up of different materials. List them.
Artist: Sarah Charlesworth
Work: Herald Tribune: November 1977 (from the Modern History series), 1977
What is relationship between the photographic images and the white spaces?
What happened to the body of the text? What is the layout for the work as it is
installed on the wall? How many panels are there? What does this tell you?
This is a work in serial format. It is exhibited as multiple panels in a series. A
series indicates a sense of time.
2) Listen for the soundwork by Susan Phillipsz.
Every ten minutes in the rotunda you will hear the piece entitled The Shallow
Sea. What do you hear? What kind of sound is the piece comprised of? What
happens to you when you hear this? What happens to the space that you are in?
Why do you think a sound work is included in this exhibition?
3) How does the artist Tacita Dean choose to record the aging
dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham performing his work called Stillness
near the top of the ramp? What type of medium did she choose? Why does this
seem to be an appropriate choice? How is this installation laid out? How many
screens? How big are they? How big is the image? Can you see them all at
once? What type of space do they create and what experience do they make you
feel or give you?
4) Please look at the works in the final section called, “Trauma and the Uncanny.”
Write one or two sentences that best define the word “uncanny” based on your
viewing of these works. You can give examples to support your definition if you
want.