Photography out of
Conceptual (Pop &
Minimal, and
performance) Art
Barbara Kruger Untitled
(You are Not Yourself), 1981
Why has photography moved
from the margin to the center of
contemporary art in the last 40 years?
Installation view of the 1970 Information exhibition, MoMA NYC, which marks the
institutional “success” of text-based Conceptual art documented by photographs.
Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965, wooden folding chair, photographic copy
of a chair and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of a chair
Gilbert and George, The Singing Sculpture, 1970, photograph of performance
(Gilbert Proesch, b.1943, Italy; George Passmore, b. 1942, England). “Banal”
photographic documentation of ephemeral works, like this “living sculpture.”
Gilbert & George with Ginkgo series,
British pavilion Venice Biennale 2005,
This series was included in the 2008
San Francisco G & G retrospective.
Denis Oppenheim, Reading Position for Second Degree Burn, 1970, Stage 1 and Stage
2, book, skin, solar energy, exposure time 5 hours, Jones Beach, New York, color
photography and collage, 216 x 152 cm . Photographs “were there simply to indicate a
radical art that had already vanished….necessary only as a residue for communication.”
Bruce Nauman, Eating My Words, and Self-Portrait as a Fountain, from Eleven Color
Photographs, 1966/67-70, chromogenic color print / performed for the camera only
John Baldessari (United States, b. 1931) (“Father” of Pictures Generation”)
(left) Wrong, 1966-68, acrylic, photo-emulsion on canvas, 59 x 45 in.
(right) Astronauts and Businessmen, 1988 , photograph with applied paint,
Museum of Fine Art, Houston
Ed Ruscha (U.S. b. 1937), Flying A, Kingman, Arizona,
from Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1963, photographic book,
sold for $3.50 Minimalist and California Pop (anti)aesthetic:
serial repetition and deadpan view of contemporary reality
Book cover
Through his deliberate lack of
style, Ruscha draws attention
“to the estranged relationship
of people to their rural
environment, but without
staging or dramatizing the
estrangement.”
Compare Ruscha’s (1963) vision of
the American West (above) with
Ansel Adams’ interpretation based on
19th century Romantic landscape
aesthetics, (right) Moonrise over
Hernandez, NM. October 31, 1941.
Adams made “Art” and did not work
in other media.
Ansel Adams, Grand Tetons and the Snake
River, 1942
The artist’s road trip from California to Oaklahoma
Albert Bierstadt, The Rocky Mountains, 1863
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963, oil on canvas, 5’5” x
10’
Ed Ruscha took the photographs
of Sunset Strip with a motorized
Nikon camera mounted to the back
of a pick-up truck. This allowed
him to photograph every building
while driving – first down one side
of the street and then the other.
The pictures were then pasted in
order they were shot, and the
individual buildings were labeled
with their respective address
numbers.
Ed Ruscha, The Old Trade School Building, 2005, synthetic polymer on canvas
54 x 120 in, from The Course of Empire Series, US Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2005
(bottom) Blue Collar Trade School, 1992, Synthetic polymer on canvas, 54 x 120
Robert Smithson, “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey,” 1967
from Artforum, vol.6, no.4, December 1967, pp. 48-51.
Robert Smithson (US Environmental Artist,1938-1973), Spiral Jetty, 1970, Great Salt
Lake. Earthwork
Hans Haacke, detail of Shapolsky et al, Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real Time
System as of May 1, 1971, 1971, two enlarged photographs, 142 black and white
photographs with typewritten data sheets, six charts and one explanatory panel
Bernhard and Hilla Becher
Conceptual (typological) photography
(left) Gas Tanks, 1963
(right) Water Towers, 1980, 9 b/w photographs mounted on board, 62inH overall
Thomas Struth (German, b. 1954), Sommerstrasse, Düsseldorf, 1980, Gelatin silver
print, 16 1/2 x 22 1/2 in., Dallas Museum of Art
Thomas Struth (Germany, b.1954, student of Bechers)
Shinju-ku (Skyscrapers), Tokyo, 1986
(right) Ferdinand-von-Schill-Strasse, Dessau, 1991
Candida Höfer (Germany, 1944, student of Bechers)
(left) Stiftsbibliothek Klosterneuburg III, 2003, C-print, 68 in. H
Ca' Rezzonico Venezia II, 2003, C-print, 74 in. Width
Thomas Ruff (German, b.1958), House #9 II, 1991, 72 in. H
one of series taken in early morning, apartment blocks in Eastern Germany
Thomas Ruff, (left) Portrait, 1989, 63in. H
(center and right) from Portrait series, 2001, conceptual typologies
“absolute objectivity” like passport photos except for scale
'... Like archetypal passport photos...
young people with dead eyes and
empty faces.' Ruff
Martha Rosler, detail of The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, 1974, 45
black and white photographs mounted on 24 mat-board panels, each panel 25 x 56 cm
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/05/arts/rosler-audioss/index.html
2008 New York Times slide show: Rosler talking about her work 1960’s-2008
Martha Rosler (US, 1943) Cleaning the
Drapes, from series, Bringing the War
Home: House Beautiful, 1967-72
Cindy Sherman (US, b.1954) Untitled Film Still #27, 1979
69 film stills from 1977 (23 years old) to 1980.
She stopped making film stills, she has explained, when she ran out of clichés.
Cindy Sherman, (left) Untitled Film Still #35, 1979; (right) Untitled Film Still #54. 1980
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 8 x 10” glossies just like “real” film stills.
"She's good enough to be a real actress.“
Andy Warhol
Cindy Sherman, (left) Untitled Film Still #37, (right) UFS #13, 1979
(left) Cindy Sherman, Untitled #188, Chromogenic color print, 43 ½ x 65 ½,“
1989
(right) Hans Bellmer (German, 1902-1975) 'Poupee' (Doll) in Hayloft, 19351936 (historical source for Sherman)
(left) Sherrie Levine (US Postmodern Appropriation artist, b.1947) Untitled (After
Alexander Rodchenko: 9), 1987
(right) Alexander Rodchenko (Russian Constructivist, avant-garde modernist), 18911956), Portrait of Mother, 1924
Postmodern “Appropriation” of “high” art challenged modernism’s key values of
“originality” and “aura.” Key text: Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction” http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
(left) Sherrie Levine, After Walker Evans, 1981 – a photograph of reproduction of a
photograph
(right) Walker Evans, Hale County, Alabama, 1936. (Or is it the other way around?)
Key text: Rosalind Krauss: “The Originality of the Avant-garde and other Modernist
Myths” Post-structuralism – postmodern revision of modern theory
Richard Prince (American, born 1949), Untitled (four single men with
interchangeable backgrounds looking to the right), 1977, Mixed media
on paper, 23 x 19 in. Metropolitan Museum, NYC
Richard Prince, (left) Untitled (cowboy), 1981, Ektacolor photograph, 20 x 24 in
(right) Untitled (cowboy) 1980-84, Ektacolor photograph, 27 x 40 in.
“Pictures Generation” appropriation from mass visual culture: advertising photography
Barbara Kruger (U.S. b. 1945), (left) Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face),
1981, gelatin silver print, 72 x 48 in.; (right) Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am), 1987.
“Pictures Generation”
Louise Lawler (American, born 1947), Pollock and Tureen, Arranged by Mr. and Mrs.
Burton Tremaine, Connecticut, 1984, silver dye bleach print, 28 x 39 in.
Jeff Wall (Canadian, 1946), Picture for Women, 1979
transparency in light box, approx. 5 x 7ft
(left) Jeff Wall, Picture for Women, transparency in lightbox, 1979, around 5ft x
7ft; compare (right) Edouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, oil on canvas,
1882 / Art historical quotation is characteristically postmodern.
(left) Jeff Wall, Picture for Women, transparency in lightbox, 1979, around 5ft x
7ft; compare (right) Diego Velazquez (Spanish Baroque), Las Meninas, 1656.
scale, complex composition drawing attention to the unity of reality and illusion,
uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted.
Jeff Wall (Canada, b. 1946) Installation view of the exhibition Documenta 8, Kassel,
Germany, 1987, showing The Storyteller, cibachrome transparency, lightbox, 1986
Jeff Wall, A Sudden
Gust of Wind (After
Hokusai),
transparency in light-box,
1993, 7ft x 12ft.
Hokusai, Ejiri in Suruga Province
c.1831-3, woodblock print from
series, 36 Views of Fuji, 26 x 38 cm
Felix Gonzalez-Torres (American b. Cuba 1957- NYC 1996), Untitled, 1991. As
installed for The Museum of Modern Art, New York "Projects 34: Felix Gonzalez-Torres“
May 16 - June 30, 1992: 2 of 24 locations throughout New York City
"EMERGING WOR(L)DS": June 2007 - October 2008: http://www.tinab.com/content.php?akce=section&lang=en&season=2007&id=12
Gonzalez-Torres represented the United States at the 2007 Venice Biennale
Christian Boltanski (French, b. 1944) Jewish School of Grosse Hamburgstrasse in
Berlin in 1939, 1991, moving photographs, fans, florescent lamps, dimensions variable
http://www.monumenta.com/2010/english/monumenta/Monumenta-2010.html
Christian Boltanski at the Grand Palais, Monumenta 2010
Monument (Odessa),
1989-2003, gelatin silver
prints, tin biscuit boxes,
lights, and wire
Annette Messager (French, b. 1943) My Vows (Mes Voeux), 1988-91, gelatin-silver
prints under glass and string, dimensions variable
detail
Annette Messager, My Vows,
1990. Gelatin silver prints and
string. Dimensions vary with
installation, approx.: 140 x 73
inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, 2007 purchase
Catholic votives
“Pictures” Painters
Postmodern, Post-Pop “Painters of Modern Life”
Postmodern tactics of pastiche, appropriation of found
pictures from media (“low” art) and art history (“high” art)
The “return of the ‘real’”
(left) David Salle (US, b. 1952), His Brain, 1984, oil and acrylic on canvas, acrylic
on fabric, two panels, 9 ft 9 in x 8 ft 10 in overall
[PICTURES GENERATION]
(right) compare Salle with James Rosenquist (US, b. 1933), President Elect, 19601 and (right below) Sigmar Polke (German, 1941), Alice in Wonderland, 1971
David Salle, Comedy, 1995, oil and acrylic on canvas, two panels: 96 1/4 x
144 1/8 inches overall; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Eric Fischl (US, b.
1948) Bad Boy, 1981,
oil on canvas, 5ft 6in x
8ft
decadent suburbia
Edgar Degas, Interior,1868-9
Secret brutalities of middle class
lives
Eric Fischl, Sleepwalker, 1979, oil on canvas
“What’s an adolescent boy’s masturbation about anyway if it’s not, in some
sense, a separation technique? He’s separating from his parents. He’s
becoming aware of himself.”
- Fischl
Eric Fischl, A Visit to / A Visit from / The Island, oil on canvas, 1983
(left) Eric Fischl, Bedroom Scene #7 (After the Tantrum, Unholy News)
2004, oil on linen, 65 x 98 in. From photographic series, The Krefeld Project,
For several days two actors posed for artist in Museum Haus Esters in Krefeld,
Germany, which was designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1928 to be a private
home. Furnished for the shoots by the artist.
(right) compare Edouard Manet (French,1832-1883), In the Garden, 1879,
oil on canvas, 115 x 150 cm “The Painter of Modern Life”
Eric Fischl, Krefeld Project: Dining Room Scene 2, 2003, oil on Linen, 89 x 124
inches.
Fischl, Bedroom Scene #1, 2003, from photographic series: “The Krefeld
Project” (2002)
(right) compare Edward Hopper (US, 1882-1967), Hotel Room, 1931, oil on
linen
Post-modern painting in Germany
Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989, marking the end of the Cold War
Background: Annihilation of Modern Art in Nazi Germany 1933- 45 and
East Germany (Communist) 1945-1989
(left) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German Expressionist,1880-1938) Girl Under a Japanese
Umbrella, 1906; (right) Emil Nolde (German Expressionist, 1867-1956), Excited People,
1910; (below) Degenerate Art Exhibition, Munich, 1937
Composition with Blue, 1926
Piet Mondrian, oil, 24 in. sq.
“Degenerate Art”
The poster of the Degenerate Music
exhibition (1938). Jewish Composers and
Jazz/Swing musicians were accused by the
Nazis of producing "degenerated music"...
Marc Chagall, Purim, 1916-18, oil,
20 x 28 in, exhibited in Nazi
Degenerate Art Exhibition
“Good German Art” – Socialist Realism (only)
Joseph Beuys (German, 1921-1986), (left) Fat Chair, 1964
(right) Felt Suit, 1970; (center) Joseph Beuys the artist:
"The whole process of living is my creative act."
First German artist after WW II to
achieve international fame based
on exploration of his German identity: art that could not be made in East Germany.
Gerhard Richter, Eight Student Nurses, 1966, oil on canvas, 8 paintings each c. 36 x 27
Use of media photos like Post-Pop NYC “Pictures Generation”
Lichtenstein, cover of
Newsweek, 1966
Ben-Day dots
Sigmar Polke, Bunnies, 1966, acrylic on
linen, 58 x 39” Simulation of Raster dots
(commercial 4-color printing)
Warhol, "Marilyn," 1964
Jörg Immendorff (b. 1941 Silesia, East Germany), Can one change anything with
these?, 1972, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 31 ½ in
Joseph Beuys, How to
Explain Pictures to a Dead
Hare, 1965, Dusseldorf.
Immendorff’s teacher
Jörg Immendorff, Café Deutschland I, 1978,
oil on canvas, 280 x 320 cm. Utterly dystopic
Compare Expressionism of Max Beckmann (left), Night, 1917-18
with Neo-Expressionism of Immendorff, Café Deutschland I, 1978
What (form and content) do they have in common?
Leipzig group, 2006: from left: Tilo Baumgärtel (b.1972), Christoph Ruckhärberle (b.
1972), Martin Kobe (b.1973), Matthias Weischer (b.1973), and David Schnell (b.1971)
The New York Times 2006: "Art Stars of the Decade"
"If you want to talk of an advantage, you can say it [the “Iron Curtain”] allowed us to
continue in the tradition of Cranach and Beckmann. It protected the art against the
influence of Joseph Beuys.“
- Leipzig AFA professor Arno Rink
The first generation of artists to grow up in the reunified Germany
Max Beckmann (German, 1884-1950), Departure, 1932
Leipzig’s native son
Beckmann at MoMA
NYC, 1947, in front
of Departure
Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472-1553), The Golden Age, 16th Century
Progenitor of Leipzig tradition in painting
Neo Rauch (b. 1960, Leipzig, Germany, lives and works in Leipzig)
shown (2006) in studio before one of his paintings.
Rauch was trained in communist social realism
Neo Rauch, Das Neue (The New), 2003
"It is important to create a definite environment or stage on which things can happen.
For me, the function of painting as I understand it is to work with myths. I try to create a
widespread system where impulses are trapped. With an analytic understanding, you
can't grasp it."
Giorgio di Chirico,
(Italian 1888-1978)
Philosopher’s Conquest,
1913 (compare)
(right) Neo Rauch, Diktat (Dictation), 2004
(left top) Balthus (French, 1908–2001) The Mountain, 1937, oil on canvas, 98 x 144 in
(left below) René Magritte (Belgian, 1898-1967), The Menaced Assassin, 1926
Christoph Ruckhäberle (Germany, b.1972), Lake at
Sunset, 2004, oil on canvas, 279 x 381cm
E.L. Kirchner, 1909
Cézanne, 1876
“Cribbed from all the best bits of art history…” - Saatchi Gallery publicist
http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/75472996001
Dexter Dalwood (UK, b.1960), The Umbrella Murder
59 x 81.5”, oil on canvas, 2008
Dexter Dalwood, Sunny Von Bulow, 2003, oil on canvas, 105 x 207cm (41 x
81 in)
John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851, oil on canvas, Tate London
Pre-Raphaelite source for Dexter Dalwood’s Sunny von Bulow, 2003
Luc Tuymans (Belgian, b. 1958), Gas Chamber, oil on canvas, 1986, 24 x 32
1/2 in
“In honor of Caryl Chessman,” who went to the San Quentin Prison gas chamber in 1960
Luc Tuymans, The Secretary of State
2005, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in