2000s and Contemporary Art Flashcards
1
Q
A
“Buffalo”
- Conrad Bo, 2009
- Superstroke
- A South African reaction to the Japanese style Superflat.
- Stroke refers to the heavy brush strokes.
- The paintings invokes imagery from far away of a buffalo, but close up is hard to decipher. References the African diaspora.
1
Q
A
“Gentrification In Progress”
- Unknown, 2014
- Draped around 5 Pointz, a New York City building that was known as the mecca of street art, until the building was bought with the intention of being made into condominiums.
2
Q
A
“Work No 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes”
- Martin Creed, 2012
- Controversial performance art comissioned by the London Olympic Comittee to synchronize with the beginning of the games.
2
Q
A
“Rock on Top of Another Rock”
- Peter Fischli and David Weiss, 2013
- Self-explanatory, praised by critics for both the sheer dynamics and minimalism of the execution.
3
Q
A
“Work No. 227: The lights going on and off”
- Martin Creed, 2001
- A hyperminimalist work, which won the Turner Prize.
4
Q
A
“Army of Mushrooms”
- Takashi Murakami, 2001
- Superflat style
- Postmodern movement influenced by manga and anime
4
Q
A
“Alien”
- David Breuer-Weil, 2012
- Large public art sculpture.
- A monument to the Jewish people that addresses Britain’s history of xenophobia.
- References the origin of the expression “illegal alien” emerging from British disdain for Jewish emigrants.
5
Q
A
“Empire”
- Elizabeth Murray, 2001
- This work is among her many narrative autobiographical pieces.
- Murray was widely praised for her shaped canvas paintings.
- Murray’s work fragments dometic objects into mysterious, detonated puzzles.
- Murray’s work was able to avoke human characteristics, personalities, or pure feeling through an interaction of non-figurative shapes, colors, and lines.
6
Q
A
“Hula Girl: One Eye”
- Ashley Bickerton, 2007
- This portrait bears influence from the Neo-Geo movement he was a member of in the 1980s.
- His abstract wall structures are thickly encrusted with paint.
7
Q
A
“Fall Harvest”
- Anthony Conway, mid-2000s
- Classical realism
- These were a series of flag paintings, done in response to 9/11
- They tackle the contradictory and ellusive nature of America, while avoiding overt patriotism.
7
Q
A
“Break Down”
- Michael Landy, 2001
- YBA performance, sculpture piece
- Landy destroyed everything he owns, as a statement on consumerism.
8
Q
A
“We Wish to Inform You That We Didn’t Know”
- Alfredo Jaar, 2010
- Jaar’s installations frequently involve pleas for justice in the third world.
- The installation contains a video showing interviews with three survivors of the Rwandan Genocide, as well as skulls accounting for all of those who perished.
9
Q
A
“How the New Museum Comitted Suicide with Banality”
- William Powhida, 2009
- An anti-institutional drawing, criticizing the New Museum and Jeff Koons
10
Q
A
“Boy with Frog”
- Charles Ray, 2009
- An outdoor comissioned work, the marble intrinsicly flows with the city of Venice.
- Connects contemporary and ancient ideas of sculpting.
11
Q
A
“Verity”
- Damien Hirst, 2012
- The largest statue in the UK at erection.
- Depicts a half skinned pregnant woman holding a sword.
- Very controversial. It is said to be an interesting take on portrayals of justice.
13
Q
A
“The Coronation Theatre, Westminster Abbey: A Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II”
- Ralph Heimans, 2012
- Old Master Portrait style
- This remarkable portrait really highlights the vulnerability of the Queen.
- The monarchy is portrayed in an honest light as noble, yet dying.
14
Q
A
“#IAMSORRY”
- Shia LaBeouf, 2014
- Metamodern performance art.
- LaBeouf sat and cried for his audience, allowing them to abuse him. It was a meditation on celebrity and vulnerability.
15
Q
A
“Hi Paul can you come over I’m really frightened”
- Stella Vine, 2004
- This painting of Princess Diana has some stuckist influence, which she denies. Although Vine would later go on to influence the stuckists.
16
Q
A
“Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision”
- Charles Thomson, 2000
- Stuckism
- A signature piece of the stuckist movement, a reaction against the YBA Movement and ego-art.
18
Q
A
“I Shot Andy Warhol”
- Cory Arcangel, 2002
- A modified cartridge video game artwork piece.
- It functions as a statement about a new technological revolution for artwork, allowing the viewer to play as an assassin who destroys Andy Warhol’s artwork and then shoots him.
19
Q
A
“Fire Island Sunset”
- Jacob Collins, 2004
- Oil on canvas
- This is a work of classical realism, a revival of old school artistic techniques as a reaction against modern art.
20
Q
A
“Rosemary and Rue”
- Richard T. Scott, 2011
- This painting exemplifies Scott’s style, which belongs to the Kitch Movement, as well as Classical Realism.
- Scott embeds his paintings with a magical aura of fantasy.
21
Q
A
“Reclining Fantasy”
- Devajyoti Ray, 2011
- Pseudorealism, perhaps the most original art movement to emerge from contemporary India.
22
Q
A
“Victoria Beckham: America Doesn’t Love Me”
- Mark D., 2008
- Stuckism. Satirizes Stella Vine’s paintings of Princess Diana.
23
![]()
"Untitled I"
* Cy Twombly, 2005
* Twombly was a pioneer of graffiti art.
* This work is divergent from many of his others because it features colors other than gray, white, and off-white.
* Distanced himself from abstract expressionism.
* Critics defend this work as creating an aesthetically pleasing piece through technical mastery of spraypaint.
24
![]()
"Inflatable Rabbit (Purple)"
* Jeff Koons, 2005-2010
* This is a kitch image of an inflatable rabbit recast in stainless steel.
* Critics are sharply divided by Koons's career by this point. Some believe he is a pioneer, while some find him crass and self-merchandising.
* Koons claims this work has no hidden meaning.
26
![]()
"Hahn/Cock"
* Katharina Fritsch, 2013
* Many interpretations of this postmodern sculpture, but it is considered to be a feminist subversive reinterpretation of an extremely male symbol (the cock).
26
![]()
"Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)"
* Emma Sulkowicz, 2014-2015
* Endurance, performance art.
* Received universal praise from the art world, the message was that Sulkowicz would carry her mattress everywhere she went on campus until her rapist was expelled.
* Feminist performance art that harkens to that genre's hayday in the 1970s.
27
![]()
"A Pound of Flesh for 50p"
* Alex Chinneck, 2014
* A temporary outdoor sculpture.
* Made of wax, it was made to melt with the help of a heating apparatus.
* Chinneck's work deals with distortion and the relationship between the viewer and the works.
28
![]()
"World Saving Machine"
* Ralf Sander, 2008
* Renewable energy sculpture
* Refocus on environmentalism in the themes of 21st Century art
30
![]()
"She Lies"
* Monica Bonvicini, 2007
* Public postmodern sculpture
* Combines a three dimensional Romantic era rendering of a shipwreck with contemporary fears about glaciers and climate change.
31
![]()
"Eating People"
* Zhu Yu, 2000
* Shock Art, Transgressive, Conceptual Art
* Yu's piece is based on exploring areas of life where there is no moral or legal consensus. Can you eat a fetus when you're hungry?
* Performance art performed at the influential Fuck Off show
32
![]()
"Habitus"
* Mary Kelly, 2010
* Kelly is a conceptual artist whose work is often political with a feminist slant.
* She has contributed extensively to the discourse of feminism and postmodernism through her large-scale narrative installations and theoretical writings.
34
![]()
"Holy water cannot help you now"
* Stella Vine, 2005
* Another piece of Vine's that is not quite Stuckist.
* A portrait of Kate Moss, feminist inspired. Shows the contemporary style of words and paintings.
35
![]()
"Super Mario Clouds"
* Cory Arcangel, 2002
* Hacked Super Mario cartridge which just projects the scrolling clouds in the background of the action on a loop.
* Video game art, conceptual.
* Reminiscent of a representational rendering of a video game.
36
![]()
"No Drones"
* Louise Lawler, 2010-2011
* Lawler's work consists of photographs of other people's artwork staged in a significant way.
* Appropriationism
* Her work focuses on the context in which art is viewed.
37
![]()
"Surfing Madonna"
* Mark Patterson, 2011
* Street Art- mosaic of the Virgin of Guadalupe surfing.
* The reaction was mixed, some claiming it was disrespectful, with others finding it celebratory.
38
![]()
"Every Day the Same Dream"
* Paolo Pedercini, 2009
* Existential Art game.
* The game has been celebrated as rich with allegorical elements.
39
![]()
"From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes"
* Alex Chinneck, 2013
* Large scale sculpture.
* Inspired by Rachel Whiteread.
* Storytelling architectural illustrator.
