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New Realist Painting
The ironic images of pop art helped clear the way for a revival of realist painting. Realism is a continuous but highly individualistic tradition in
American art, encompassing such diverse painters as Thomas Eakins, Sloan, Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, and Fairfield Porter. The realists who received
the most attention in the 1970s and 1980s were those who had assimilated some of the aesthetic concerns of abstract art. Photorealism relied on
photography to achieve a precisely detailed, impersonal kind of realist painting, as in the meticulous cityscapes of Richard Estes. The rigorously
structured nude figures of Philip Pearlstein and the flatly composed paintings of Alex Katz and Wayne Thiebaud also imparted a cool, abstract tone
to realism.
New Abstract Tendencies
After the intense subjectivism of abstract expressionism, abstract painting moved toward a more impersonal, rigorous formal purity. The
culmination of this tendency was minimalism, in which painting was reduced to simple geometric forms, rhythmic patterns, or single colors. Leading
minimalists included Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, Robert Ryman, and Brice Marden. A related movement, hard-edge abstraction, evolved toward
more complex and dynamic abstract compositions in the works of Frank Stella and Al Held. Conceptual art, influenced by Duchamp's dictum that
painting should be “at the service of the mind,” often consisted of only a single word or a theoretical statement.
European Postwar Painting
Among the major figures in European painting after World War II were the French artist Jean Dubuffet, whose witty paintings were inspired by the
art of children and of psychopaths, and the Dutch painter Karel Appel, also influenced by children's art. In England, the agonized figures of Francis
Bacon and the lyrical, urbane pictures of David Hockney demonstrated the vitality of English figurative painting.
Neoexpressionism
In the 1980s a number of young European and American artists rebelled against the austere, impersonal formalist purity of much abstract art. The
result was a revival of figurative and narrative painting called neoexpressionism. Most neoexpressionists avoided any attempt at realistic depiction,
instead employing rough brushwork and bold color to convey their highly subjective, often ambiguous and cryptic visions. Among the most
prominent neoexpressionists were the Germans Anselm Kiefer and Georg Baselitz, the Italians Sandro Chia and Francesco Clemente, and the
Americans Julian Schnabel and David Salle
Postmodernism
" Postmodernism is the term most associated with the art which has been done since around 1980. The works of this movement are characterized
by their subjectivism, regional character, interest in social and political issues, and their eclectic character. It is basically a reaction against the
simplicity and theoretical nature of the Modernist movement. Postmodernist artists draw from a variety of historical sources that are Modernist,
Classical, Prehistoric, Asian, Hispanic, African, etc. "
"Robert Rauschenberg who was originally associated with the Pop Art Movement of the 1960's and 70's is truly a Postmodernist. He has set up a
non-profit organization called ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange) through which he funds projects which involve cultural
interactions. His works are conglomerations of images and objects which identify a culture. He did a number of works in the 60's dealing with JFK
and the NASA space program. "
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Odalisk (c. 1960) sculpture
Pop Art
-Pop artists were interested in raising mundane everyday things to heroic proportions
Andy Warhol
-artist who took images from popular culture, soup cans, etc. and through his art gave them greater than usual importance
-used a workshop of artists who mass-produced work, just like a factory (so he emulated the manufacturing process for everyday items in the art
process)
-recognized cultural icons (Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, etc.) and used them as heroic figures by mass producing their images (just like the Greek ideal
human forms)
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Claes Oldenburg
Worked with soft sculptures and large scale examples of everyday objects.
Buckminster Fuller invented the geodesic dome. This gave rise to engineering on a number of scales. Architects use a series of tetrahedrons to create
a perfect sphere that is structurally sound (like Epcot Center at Disney World). Scientists now have invented a manufactured molecule called a
"Buckyball" which is based on this use of tetrahedrons to create a perfect and exceptionally strong manufactured molecule.
Alexander Calder invented the mobile. His expertise in moving or kinetic sculpture led him to create interactive art that was based on balance and
the movement of air. His mobiles and stabiles (those which are fixed and do not move) are abstract forms done in 3-D which are extracted from
nature.
Lobster Tail and Fish Trap, 1939, mobile
POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism is the term most associated with the art which has been done since around 1980. The works of this movement are characterized by
their subjectivism, regional character, interest in social and political issues, and their eclectic character. It is basically a reaction against the
simplicity and theoretical nature of the Modernist movement. Postmodernist artists draw from a variety of historical sources that are Modernist,
Classical, Prehistoric, Asian, Hispanic, African, etc.
Robert Rauschenberg who was originally associated with the Pop Art Movement of the 1960's and 70's is truly a Postmodernist. He has set up a
non-profit organization called ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange) through which he funds projects which involve cultural
interactions. His works are conglomerations of images and objects which identify a culture. He did a number of works in the 60's dealing with JFK
and the NASA space program.
Odalisk, c. 1960, sculpture
Earthworks/Site-specific sculpture
Robert Smithson used the earth itself to create sculptural landscapes called earthworks.
Spiral Jetty is a spiral extension into the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The work was done through the use of heavy equipment moving earth around. Its
form was invented by the the mound-building societies of early native American people. The best example is the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio.
Christo creates works by wrapping large easily-identified objects, like buildings, bridges and islands. His works grow out of the idea that an artist's
job is to make a viewer see their world differently. Like the Chinese painter, one sees the world differently after it has been partially concealed.
Valley Curtain, 1972
Wrapped Reichstag, 1995
Super Realism
The artists Chuck Close, Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, and Duane Hanson did wokrs which describe the world in its most believable way. Their works
are so realistic that they actuallly allow a viewer to see more than they would normally be able to with the naked eye.
The last ten years has seen the rise of Neo-Expressionism (Kiefer), Grafitti Art (Haring, Basquiat), and a host of other small regional movements. Art
today draws from every conceivable source and exists in the most basic conceptual context to the most primitive and immediate. It really depends
on the artist's intention, the ideas that they want to communicate, and the need to create and discover.
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Postmodern Architecture
Postmodern architecture questions the many previously-held beliefs about architecture. It also is drawn from a plurality of sources.
I. M. Pei, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio, 1998
National Gallery of Art, East Wing, Washington, D. C.
Michael Graves, Portland Building, Portland, Oregon, 1980
Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 1997
Frank Lloyd Wright, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1959
Eero Saarinen, Gateway Arch, 1966, St. Louis, also did Dulles Airport, Washington, D. C.
Cesar Pelli, Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1998, also did Artsgarden in Indianapolis.
Nam June Paik
Guerrilla Girls
Faith Ringgold
Dale Chihuly
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Hung Liu
Jennifer Bartlett
Elizabeth Murray
Roger Shimomura
Part --: Unit Exam Essay Questions
(from previous Art 261 tests)
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Compare and contrast Expressionism with Fauvism. Use examples in your text.
Discuss the relationship between Cezanne and Analytic Cubism. How did one influence the other?
Compare Rothko and Pollock. What is similar in their respective developments. What is the essential difference in their approaches to
painting?
Compare the iconography of Pop Art with that of Realism and Impressionism. Using the examples in your text, discuss the similarities and
differences, as well as the relevance to the time and place in which the style flourished.
Discuss the relationship between Cezanne and Analytic Cubism. How did one influence the other?
Compare Rothko and Pollock. What is similar in their respective developments. What is the essential difference in their approaches to
painting?
(from AAT4)
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What is meant by Post-Modernism? Explain the concept and cite examples from your textbook.
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Beginning with Impressionism, discuss the influence of photography on the visual arts.
Discuss the concept of "innovation and continuity" as it applies to the visual arts.
Compare and contrast Paik's TV Buddha and Picasso's Girl before a Mirror (see Chapter 25).
Compare Photorealism with Renaissance style and Surrealism. Using examples in the text, discuss similarities and differences.
Discuss the rearrangement of traditional forms in Graves' Public Services Building in Portland, Oregon.
Discuss the integration of text and image from 1912 through the present. Use examples in the textbook.
Learning Goals (AAT4)
After reading Chapter 29, you should be able to do the following:
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Identify the works and define the terms featured in the chapter
Discuss the controversies over U.S. government funding of the arts
Describe the historical precedents of the works in the chapter
Discuss some of the new techniques and media in the second half of the 20th century
Compare performance and video art with Dada
Analyze the return to Realism
Compare the architecture of the New York Guggenheim with the Whitney Museum
Discuss new trends in architecture
Define what is meant by "Post-Modern"
Compare the Louvre pyramid with the Giza pyramids
Discuss the changing relationship of exterior to interior in architecture
Discuss and compare the environmental artists—Smithson, Holt, Goldsworthy, and Christo and Jean Claude
Discuss the iconography of works in the chapter dealing with the urban environment
Discuss the emergence of feminist art
Analyze the historical references of the contemporary art in this chapter
Discuss video as an artistic medium
Chapter Outline (AAT4)
INNOVATION, CONTINUITY, AND GLOBALIZATION
Controversy in the United States: government funding for the arts; Serrano; Mapplethorpe
Performance : Gilbert & George; Anderson; Nauman
Return to Realism: Close; Hanson; Estes; Mueck
Installation: Holzer; Barney; Serra; Jaudon
Fuller (geodesic dome); Breuer (Whitney Museum)
Post-Modern architecture: Moore and Hersey; Graves; Pei; Rogers; Gehry; Hadid
Environmental art: Smithson; Holt; Christo and Jeanne-Claude; Goldsworthy
Feminism: Chicago; Smith; Lin; Murray; Sherman
Race and Gender: Thompson; Bearden; Walker; Morimura
Graffiti-inspired painting: Basquiat
Video: Paik; Viola; Neshat
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Summary and Study Guide
Define or identify the following terms:
AAT4 Key Terms
geodesic dome
a dome-shaped framework consisting of small, interlocking polygonal units.
Chronology
Art Works
know these works by sight, title, date, medium, scale, and location (original location also if moved) and be able to explain and analyze these in
relation to any concept, term, element, or principle
Summary and Study Guide
Discussion
Site specific
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What is a site-specific artwork? What is an earthwork? How do they differ?
Installation
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What is installation art? How does it differ from sculpture?
Feminist
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What inequities did early feminists begin to take action against?
Performance
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What is performance art?
Realism/Photoreal
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What is the main difference between the paintings of Photorealists and most earlier realist painting? What is the sculptural counterpart
to Photorealism?
Other
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Visit Sandy Skoglund's website and view her recent works Shimmering Madness, Landscape in Roses, and Breathing Glass. Describe each
work and discuss the possible motivations behind each piece
Michael Graves is a renowned architect and designer. Visit the Michael Graves & Associates website and discuss the various different
areas in which he and his firm produce design.
Masami Teraoka combines American pop with Japanese Ukiyo-e aesthetics. Visit the Teraoka site and discuss McDonald's Hamburgers
and 31 Flavors Invading Japan.
Frederick Hart said of art, "It must be an enriching, ennobling and vital partner in the public pursuit of civilization." Visit the Hart site and
discuss the works that you believe achieved this goal.
Philip Johnson has been a major force in American architecture. Explore the Johnson site and discuss the evolution of his designs.
What is Post-modernist photography? Browse through the works of Sarah Charlesworth and discuss her work and the Post-modernist
approach.
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Cindy Sherman is known for her images of popular culture. Recently she had an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of her Untitled
Film Still Series. Visit the MOMA at http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/sherman/ and view her work. Discuss this series in the context of
Post-modernist values.
New possibilities of concrete and form
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Joern Utzon, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, 1959-1972
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Expo ‘67 in Montreal
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R. Buckminster Fuller, US Pavilion, Montreal (for Expo ‘67), 1967
Postmodern Architecture
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Philip Johnson and John Burgee, AT&T Building, New York, 1978-1984
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Michael Graves, Portland Public Services Building, Portland, Oregon, 1980
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Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (the “Beaubourg”), Paris, 1977
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Frank Gehry
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Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 1997
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“All architecture has doorways” ~L.Caplice
Other
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Visit Sandy Skoglund's website and view her recent works Shimmering Madness, Landscape in Roses, and Breathing Glass. Describe each
work and discuss the possible motivations behind each piece
Michael Graves is a renowned architect and designer. Visit the Michael Graves & Associates website and discuss the various different
areas in which he and his firm produce design.
Masami Teraoka combines American pop with Japanese Ukiyo-e aesthetics. Visit the Teraoka site and discuss McDonald's Hamburgers
and 31 Flavors Invading Japan.
Frederick Hart said of art, "It must be an enriching, ennobling and vital partner in the public pursuit of civilization." Visit the Hart site and
discuss the works that you believe achieved this goal.
Philip Johnson has been a major force in American architecture. Explore the Johnson site and discuss the evolution of his designs.
What is Post-modernist photography? Browse through the works of Sarah Charlesworth and discuss her work and the Post-modernist
approach.
Cindy Sherman is known for her images of popular culture. Recently she had an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of her Untitled
Film Still Series. Visit the MOMA at http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/sherman/ and view her work. Discuss this series in the context of
Post-modernist values.
Art Works
know these works by sight, title, date, medium, scale, and location (original location also if moved) and be able to explain and analyze these in
relation to any concept, term, element, or principle
Process Oriented Art
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Maya Ying Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington D.C., 1981-1983
Louise Nevelson, Tropical Garden II, 1957–1959. Wood painted black, 5’ 11 1/2” x 10’ 11 3/4” x 1’.
Louise Bourgeois, Cumul I, 1969. Marble, 1’ 10 3/8” x 4’ 2” x 4’.
EVA HESSE, Hang-Up, 1965–1966. Acrylic on cloth over wood and steel, 6’ x 7’ x 6’ 6”.
CHUCK CLOSE, Big Self-Portrait, 1967–1968. Acrylic on canvas, 8’ 11” x 6’ 11”
Lady Art
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Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1979. Multimedia, including ceramics and stitchery, 48’ x 48’ x 48’.
Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #35, 1979. Gelatinsilverprint, 10” x 8”.
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face), 1981. Photograph, red painted frame, 4’ 7” x 3’ 5”.
Guerrilla Girls, The Advantages of Being A Woman Artist, 1988. Offset print, 17”x22”.
Conceptual Approaches and Critiques of a Commodity Culture
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Jeff Koons, Pink Panther, 1988. Porcelain, 3’ 5” x 1’ 8 1/2” x 1’ 7”.
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Jenny Holzer, Untitled (selections from Truisms, Inflammatory Essays, The Living Series, The Survival Series, Under a Rock, Laments, and
Child Text), 1989. Extended helical tricolor LED electronic display signboard, 16” x 162’ x 6”. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,
December 1989–February 1990 (Partial Gift Of The Artist, 1989).
DUANE HANSON, Supermarket Shopper, 1970. Polyester resin and fiberglass polychromed in oil, with clothing, steel cart, and groceries,
life-size.
Issues of Race & Culture
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Faith Ringgold, Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?, 1983. Acrylic on canvas with fabric borders, quilted, 7’ 6” x 6’ 8”.
Kerry James Marshall, Souvenir I, 1997, acrylic, paper, collage, and glitter on canvas [MCA]
Painting still exists
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Julian Schnabel, The Walk Home, 1984–1985. Oil, plates, copper, bronze, fiberglass, and Bondo on wood, 9’ 3” x 19’ 4”.
Leon Golub, Mercenaries IV, 1980. Acrylic on linen, 10’ x 19’ 2”.
Anselm Kiefer, Nigredo, 1984. Oil paint on photosensitized fabric, acrylic emulsion, straw, shellac, relief paint on paper pulled from
painted wood, 11’ x 18’.
Neo-Expressionism
The beginning of the Neo-Expressionist movement occurred around 1970 in Germany where it was known as Neo-Expressionism. It was a diverse
movement so it is difficult to generalize. A core similarity was a return to traditional formats such as easel painting. Typically expressing violent
emotion, it became a dominant force in the art world during the 1980s.
Beginning as a reaction against conceptual art and the modernist tradition against imagery Neo-Expressionism became a dominant force in avantgarde art of the 1980s, in the USA, Germany and Italy.
Neo-Ex artists themselves had been students of conceptualist and minimalist teachers but they thought that Minimalism was too restrained and
aloof and that conceptualism was too cool. They returned to traditional easel painting and to cast and carved sculpture but not in a totally
traditional style.
Neo-expressionism would be a profound change that marks the transition from modernism to postmodernism.
In the anti-aesthetic, conceptual and minimal styles after Abstract Expressionism the gesture and allegory had become taboo. Neo-Ex artists
frequently used a rough and raw gestural handling of the paint and use of allegory (see Artspeak for a discussion of this term) typically to express
violent emotion.
They revived the formal elements of German Expressionism and Abstract Expressionism.
Some critics celebrated this art for its return to the personal and the lifting of what had become aesthetic taboos while others were critical of
nostalgia and its depoliticized, ahistorical tendencies.
A rebirth of the art market was one of the benefits of the Neo-Expressionist return to emotionally charge paintings. Their paintings were accessible
and in a traditional format.
Another result of this new movement exploding on the scene was the end of American domination of the art world.
New Ideas in Sculpture and Installation and Video
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Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Portrait of Ross in L.A. [AIC]
Adrian Piper, Cornered, 1988. Mixed-media installation of variable size; video monitor, table, and birth certificates.
Bill Viola, The Crossing, 1996. Video/sound installation with two channels of color video projection onto screens 16’high.
Krzysztof Wodiczko, The Homeless Projection, 1986. Outdoor slide projection at the Soldiers and Sailors Civil War Memorial, Boston.
Terms
be able to identify these by sight, explain these in relation to art, and know an example of each in relation to a work of art
Postmodernism
Post-Minimalism
Process Art
photography as documentation
Video Art
site-specific
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Earth Art
Conceptual Art
Happenings
Performance Art
Fluxus
the “death” of painting (late 1960s)
Photorealism
Arte Povera
Feminism
Outsider Art
appropriation
commodity
kitsch
Neo-Expressionism
Graffiti
the Whitney Biennial
Documenta
Discussion topics for this chapter.
What is meant by Post-Modernism? Explain the concept and cite examples from your textbook.
Beginning with Impressionism, discuss the influence of photography on the visual arts.
Discuss the concept of "innovation and continuity" as it applies to the visual arts.
Compare Photorealism with Renaissance style and Surrealism. Using examples in the text, discuss similarities and differences.
Other topics to consider:
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Conceptual Art vs. Elements and Principles. What do you do if you do not have a tangible object? How do you deal with lack of formal
object analysis with conceptualism and loss of the art object? Is there a place for formal analysis in the study of conceptual art?
Discuss the rearrangement of traditional forms in Graves' Public Services Building in Portland, Oregon.
Discuss the integration of text and image from 1912 through the present. Use examples in the textbook.
What is the significance of the poll taken by Komar and Melamid? How can it be related to the controversies over Mapplethorpe and
Serrano?
Environmental Art
“Earthworks”
“Also sometimes referred to as Land Art, Earth Art, Site Sculpture, and Environmental Art, the Earthworks genre of art also challenged the
relationship of the museum to art. The movement emerged in the 1960s and continues today. Because of the large scale, the site of the
installa-tion, and the material frequently utilized in Earthworks (i.e., the earth itself), major Earthworks have rarely been exhibited in museums. For
the same reasons, though art collectors might "own" an Earthwork, they would likely not be able to possess it in the same way that they might a
painting or a piece of sculpture.”
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“Robert Smithson”
“Most Earthworks have been created in fairly remote, unpopulated areas. Perhaps one of the best known of these is by Robert Smithson (19381973). Spiral Jetty (1970) jutted one-quarter mile into the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Using a bulldozer, Smithson pushed tons of rock into the lake in
the form of a spiral, high enough so that it was above water level and one could walk atop it. As part of the natural, changing environment, the
work has been subject to the forces of nature, and with the rising water level of the past years, it now sits below the surface of the lake.”
“Walter de Maria”
“Another Earthworks artist is Walter de Maria, who is probably best known for his Lightning Field (1971-1977). Located in a fairly desolate region of
southwestern New Mexico, the work consists of 400 poles of stainless steel set into the ground, forming a grid plane one mile long and more than
one-half mile wide. The impact of Lightning Field does not rely solely upon the occasional instances when lightning happens to hit one of the rods;
also effective is the reflection of sunlight off the rods and the shadows created.”
“Temporary Earthworks”
“Though the Earthworks discussed thus far are of a type that have been created and left to evolve or disappear in response to the forces of
“nature, other Earthworks have been created with the intent that they be merely temporary, with planning sketches and photographic and video
documentation serving as the only tangible record of the "event."“
“Christo”
“Famous for his temporary Earthworks, Christo Javacheff (b. 1935) has been responsible for such grandiose achievements as the Running Fence
(1976), which consisted of eighteen-foot steel poles with nylon fabric panels in between, zig-zagging in an unbroken line over twenty-four miles
across Sonoma and Marin counties in California. The pop-ularity and impact of the work, which only stood in its entirety for fourteen days, relied
upon media coverage and documentation. Another of Christo's well-known projects was his Surrounded Islands (1980-1983), for which he used
over 6 million square feet of pink nylon fabric to encircle eleven islands in Boscine Bay, Florida. Again, the prepara-tion and process of developing
the idea and then implementing it took far longer than the amount of time that the actual artwork existed.”
Robert Smithson
Nancy Holt
The Christos
Urban Environment
Feminist Art
Judy Chicago: The Dinner Party
Body Art
Rona Pondick
Maya Ying Lin: The Women's Table
Plus ca change
Susan Rothenberg
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Anselm Kiefer
Maya Ying Lin
Bruce Nauman
Jeff Koons
Nancy Graves
Cindy Sherman
Video Art: Nam June Paik
Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid: America's Most Wanted
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