Post-Minimal Pluralism
http://www.whitney.org/Exhibitions/2010Biennial
Bruce Nauman (US, b. 1941) (left) Eating My Words, and (right) Self
Portrait as a Water Fountain, from Eleven Color Photographs" (1966-1967/70)
“If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the
studio must be art. At this point art became more of an activity and less of a
product.”
Bruce Nauman (US 1941) (left) Wax Impressions of the Knees of Five Famous
Artists, 1966, fiberglass and polyester resin (not wax), 15 5/8 in. x 85 1/4 in. x 2
3/4 in. Collection SFMOMA . Knee impressions are all Nauman’s
(right) Hand to Mouth, wax over cloth, 1967 (cast from wife’s body)
"If they're not puzzled, they're not getting it."
- Robert Storr (MoMA NYC)
on Nauman’s viewers
Dada and Neo-Dada sources for
Bruce Nauman
(right) Jasper Johns, Target with
Four Faces, 1955, encaustic and
collage on canvas, 30 x 26” Museum
of Modern Art, New York. McCarthyera closeted identity?
(below) Marcel Duchamp, Female Fig
Leaf, 1950, bronze, cast 1961
Bruce Nauman, Art Makeup, White, Black, Pink, Green, 1967-8,
performance video stills
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8018180473912040117#docid=8824343735046804261
Nauman, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968). Video, 60 min
My name as though it were written on the surface of the moon.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8018180473912040117#
Bruce Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths
(Window or Wall Sign), 1967. Neon tubing with clear glass tubing suspension
supports; 59 X 55 x 2 in
Original made for the artist’s San Francisco street-front studio window: the private
thought made as public as a commercial beer sign. Conceptual art is a
poetic/political intervention into conventional (unquestioning) modes of “thought.”
"The most difficult thing about the whole
piece for me was the statement. It was a
kind of test - like when you say something
out loud to see if you believe it. Once
written down, I could see that the
statement [...] was on the one hand a
totally silly idea and yet, on the other hand,
I believed it. It's true and not true at the
same time. It depends on how you interpret
it and how seriously you take yourself. For
me it's still a very strong thought."
- Nauman
Bruce Nauman, South American Triangle, 1981, welded steel beams (each
165” long) and cast iron chair. Inspired by Jacobo Timerman’s account of his
torture by the Argentinean military regime.
Bruce Nauman, Hanging Carousel (George Skins a Fox), 1988, taxidermist
forms and suspension of South American Triangle signify victimization and
violence.
Eva Hesse (German (Jewish)-American 1936 -1970, 34 years)
Post-Minimalism (and Proto-Feminism)
“I remember I wanted to get to non art, non
connotive [sic],
non anthropomorphic, non geometric, non,
nothing. . . .
question how and why in putting it together?
Can it be different each time? Why not?
How to achieve by not
Making?
It’s all in that.”
- Eva Hesse
Hesse in NYC studio with Rope Piece
1969-1970
Eva Hesse Metronomic Irregularity, sculpt metal on wood, drilled and threaded with
cotton-covered wire, 12 x 18 x 2 in., 1966. First of a series with two subsequent
versions. The second was 4 x 20 ft. Dialectics of minimalist grid and serial form with
“chaos” and subjective “absurdity” of the expressionist wires
Hesse, Hang Up, acrylic on wood, cloth, steel, 1966 (detail lower right)
notebook page showing Hang Up and other sculptures, 1965-66
The absurd
(left) Eva Hesse in New York apartment in 1966 holding Ingeminate
(right) Hesse, Ingeminate 1965, surgical hose, papier-mâché, cord and
sprayed enamel over inflated balloons
Eva Hesse, No Title, 1966, ink wash and pencil, 11 3/4 x 9 in.
“If something is absurd, it’s more absurd to repeat it.”
Eva Hesse (left) Accession II 1967 galvanized steel, rubber tubing, c. 30” square
Hesse with Accession II in 1968
Hesse, Sans II, 1968, fiberglass polyester resin 5units each 38 in H
Donald Judd, Untitled, 1964
Hesse, Repetition Nineteen III, fiberglass and polyester resin, 1968
compare Carl Andre (right), Twelfth Copper Corner, 1975
“I feel, let’s say, emotionally connected
to [Carl Andre’s] work. It does
something to my insides. His metal
plates were the concentration camp for
me.”
- Hesse
Eva Hesse, Contingent, 8 units, fiberglass and latex over cheesecloth, 1968
Post-Minimalist rejection of Minimalism’s mechanical rigidities for psychological
expressivity of materials and form. Wanted the impermanence of latex.
Eva Hesse, Expanded Expansion, 1969, 10’ 2” x 25’ overall, latex on
cheesecloth with reinforced fiberglass poles, Guggenheim Museum, NYC
“I am not sure what my stand on lasting really is. Part of me feels that it's
superfluous, and if I need to use rubber that is more important. Life doesn't
last; art doesn't last."
Eva Hesse
Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1970. Fiberglass over polyethylene over aluminum wire.
7 units each 78 in. x 40 in. Berkeley Art Museum
Tara Donovan (American,
b. 1969) Untitled (Plastic
cups), 2006, millions of
transparent plastic cups in a
tight grid, stacked into
curves and waves. (The
work is re-made each time
it is shown and can be
expanded or contracted to
fit the space.)
Tara Donovan, Untitled (Plastic Cups) 2000 installation
Tara Donovan, Untitled (Glass), 2006. Sheets of stacked tempered glass;
one corner of each pane is struck with a hammer and shattered into tiny
pieces that stay in place. “If you bump into this and knock a corner off it, it
can’t be repaired or remade with the same materials. It has to be made over
again.” When the show is over, "it gets taken away with a shovel.”
Eva Hesse, Rope Piece, 1970
Compare Eva Hesse, 1969, with Marcel Duchamp, Sixteen Miles of String,
1942, part of Duchamp’s installation for the First Papers of Surrealism, Peggy
Guggenheim’s Art of this Century gallery, NYC
Hans Namuth, photographs and film stills of Pollock Painting, 1951
Compare Eva Hesse, Rope Piece, 1970, with Robert Morris, Untitled, (Pink
Felt) 1970, cut felt, dimensions vary with installation.
Process Art – “anti-form” or “post-minimal” sculpture dependent upon
gravity and chance, simple cutting process, use of “industrial” not-art material
Industrial felt waste
arranged by chance
for each installation.
The artist’s supervision
is not necessary.
Eva Hesse, Untitled (Rope Piece), 1970.
Between chaos and order / chance and will / reason and unreason / tragedy and absurdity
Studio installation by artist
Compare Eva Hesse (1970) with Marcel Duchamp, Sixteen Miles of String, 1942, part of
Duchamp’s installation for the First Papers of Surrealism, Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this
Century gallery, NYC
Louise Bourgeois (French American b. 1911); (right) Fillette, 1968, latex, 24in. H
"I wonder," Hesse asked a friend, "if we are unique, I mean the minority
we exemplify. The female struggle, not in generaltities but our specific
struggle. To me insurmountable to achieve an ultimate expression,
requires the complete dedication seemingly only man can attain. A
singleness of purpose no obstructions allowed seems a man’s
prerogative. His domain. A woman is sidetracked by all her feminine roles
from menstrual periods to cleaning house to remaining pretty and ‘young’
and having babies. . . . She is at a disadvantage from the beginning. . . .
She also lacks conviction that she has the ‘right’ to achievement. She
also lacks the belief that her achievements are worthy" (cited in Lucy R.
Lippard’s 1976 biography of Hesse).
Eva Hesse with Ingeminate (1965)
Louise Bourgeois with Fillette (1966)
1982, Robert Mapplethorpe photo
Erotic absurdity: “girl” jokes
http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/26515653001
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/bourgeois/index.html
Louise Bourgeois, Spiral Woman, 1984,
bronze and slate disc; bronze: 11½ in.
high; disc diameter: 34 ¾ in.
Louise Bourgeois with sculpture on roof of NY apartment building, c.1944
(center) Femme Maison (Woman House) 1947, ink on paper
(right) The Listening One 1947-9. bronze (cast in the late 1980s)
Bourgeois’ genealogy: (top left) Alberto Giacometti (Swiss Surrealist, 1901-1966),
Suspended Ball, 1930-31, Surrealist sculpture, plaster and metal; (left below) Jean Arp
(Alsace-born French, 1886-1966), Head with 3 Annoying Objects, 1930; (right) Bourgeois,
The Destruction of the Father, 1974, plaster, Latex, wood & fabric, installation: 93 x 142 x 97”
(right) Louise Bourgeois. Janus Fleuri, 1968, bronze,10 in HSoft Landscape, 1967,
(left) Alberto Giacometti, Spoon Woman (Femme cuillère), 1926, bronze, 56 in. H
Bourgeois, Spider, steel and mixed media, 1996
Bourgeois, Maman, 35 ft H,
Tate London, 1999
Louise Bourgeois, Passages Dangereux, 1997
Louise Bourgeois, Cell (Glass Spheres and Hands), 1990-93, glass, marble, wood,
metal, and fabric; 86 x 86 x 83 inches.
Louise Bourgeois Couple IV, 1997, fabric, leather, stainless steel,
plastic, wood and glass in a Victorian vitrine 72 x 82 x 43 in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7XZ672XmbM&NR=1
Louise Bourgeois, Temper Tantrum, 2000, pink fabric
“My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost its mystery, and it has
never lost its drama.”
Lygia Clark (Brazil, 1920-1988) Rio de Janeiro 1958
(left) Lygia Clark, Relief Painting with Yellow Square, oil, 1957, 30 in. H
Brazilian Neoconcretism
compare: Kasimir Malevich, Suprematism, White on White, 1918
Lygia Clark, Sundial, 1960, 3 views, Neoconcretism
compare with (lower right) Max Bill, 1947-8 Tripartite Unity ( a möbius) Concretism
Lygia Clark, Machine Animal (Bicho), 1962, aluminum, 55x65, Sao Paulo
Lygia Clark, Rubber Grub, 1964 (1986), rubber, 56 in.H
Museo de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
Lygia Clark, Mandala, from the series, Collective Body, 1959, elastic bands linking people
at their wrists or ankles
Lygia Clark, Air & Stone (Multiple) 1966, inflated plastic bag and stone
(left) Lygia Clark, Mask with Mirrors, 1967; (below) Dialogue, 1968
The mask holds small movable mirrors in front of the eyes, juxtaposing and fracturing reflections of the
self and the surrounding world.
(right) Clark, Sensorial Gloves, 1968. Part of Nostalgia of the Body series.
Gloves are made of various materials, sizes and textures. Participants use the many combinations of
gloves and balls of different sizes, textures and weights, and then hold the balls again with bare
hands. Purpose is to rediscover keen sensation.
Lygia Clark, Individual Therapy with Relational Objects, Rio de Janeiro, 1975
Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica, Dialogue for Hands, 1966 elastic Möbius band
Elastic Möbius band
“Helio and I are like a glove. He is the outside of the glove, very much linked to
the exterior world. I am the inside. And the two of us exist from the moment
there is a hand which puts on the glove” (Lygia Clark )
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/moebius.avi
(left) Hélio Oiticica (Brazil, 1937-1980), White Crossing Red – Metaschema
1968, oil, 21 in. H; compare Piet Mondrian, Tableau, 1921, Neoplasticism
Hélio Oiticica, Spatial Relief, 1959, synthetic polymer paint on wood, 38 x 48 x 8”
compare (right) Alexander Rodchenko 1891-1956, Spatial Relief, 1920, Russian
Constructivism
Helio Oiticica, Glass Bolide (Portuguese word for fireball) 4 Earth, 1964, Glass, earth,
and painted gauze
Helio Oiticica, Box Bolide, 1964, painted wood and glass, 20 in H, Rio de Janeiro
Hélio Oiticica, Tropicalia, 1967, installation exhibited in the New Brazilian Objectivity
exhibition at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro
Helio Oiticica, Nildo, of the Mangueira samba group, wearing Parangolés, 1964
Helio Oiticica, Mosquito of Mangueira wearing Cape 6 (Paragole 10), 1965, and dancing
with Glass Bolide 5 (Homage to Mondrian), 1964
This entire experience into which art
flows, the issue of liberty
itself, of the expansion of the
individual's consciousness, of the
return to myth, the rediscovery of
rhythm, dance, the body, the
senses, which finally are what we
have as weapons of direct,
perceptual, participatory knowledge .
. . is revolutionary in the total sense
of behavior. (Oiticica)
Joseph Beuys (German, 1921-1986), Fat Chair, 1964
Felt Suit, 1970
Joseph Beuys: How to Explain Paintings to a Dead Hare, Performance on Nov. 26, 1965.
Joseph Beuys,The Pack, 1969 (2 installations) Staaliche Museen Kassel, Neue Galerie
Volkswagen bus with twenty-four wooden sleds, each with felt, flashlight, and animal fat.
‘This is an emergency object: an invasion by the pack. In a state of emergency the
Volkswagen bus is of limited usefulness, and more direct and primitive means must be taken
to ensure survival.’ (Beuys)
Joseph Beuys, Honey Pump at
the Workplace for Documenta,
1977, electric motors pumped
honey through a gigantic
assemblage of pipes in the
stairwell of the Museum,
symbolizing the circulation of life
and flowing energy.
Joseph Beuys, I love America and America Loves Me, performance,1972
(left) Beuys lecturing in New York, 1974
Joseph Beuys, Action Piece, 26-6 February 1972, one of seven held at the
Tate Gallery between 24 February - 23 March 1972
"Man is only truly alive when he realizes he is a creative, artistic being.“
Joseph Beuys
Beuys inaugurating 7000 Oaks at Documenta 7, Kassel, Germany, 1982. Project
completed after artist’s death; the last tree was planted by his son at the opening of
Documenta 8 in 1987
Beuys was a founding member of the Green Party
Beuys’ 7000 Oak project extended by the Dia Foundation in 1996. Trees (of several
kinds) planted on West 22nd Street, each paired with a basalt stone column
NYC students planting trees:
“Social Sculpture”