Chapter 16 Postmodernism & Conceptual Art Flashcards
POST-MODERNISM
- by the late 1960s, the meaning and purpose of art had changed
- non-objective art still appeared foreign to the general public - art critics, art curators, and art galleries had done a terrible job of explaining it to the public
- non-objective art did not appear to relate to any of the social problems that people were coming up against – such as the treatment of women, pollution, and consumerism, the anti-war movement
Post modernism continued
- so from the mid-1960s on – there is no dominant style or subject of art
- and galleries, museums, and art journals embraced this – so even if an artist wanted to be outside the mainstream, these commercial institutions legitimized it by making art both commercial and institutionalized
- art critics were the determiners of what was good – influence on collectors – and the price of art works
- non-traditional materials and methods became the accepted part of the process of making art
- the categories of high and low art, commercial and craft, popular and elitist art became blurred
Post modernism
- frederic Jameson - postmodernism as the final erosion of the older distinction between high culture and so-called mass or popular culture.
- issues such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are now part of the discourse of the visual arts –as well as in literature
- and emphasize the idea of memory that is dominant in many aspects of postmodern art
Postmodernism
- postmodernism tries to understand present culture as the product of previous codings and representations
- and acknowledges the challenge of tradition
- and is a new focus on the way in which art interacts and intersects with the social system in all its aspects, present and past
- and show that social history cannot be separated from art history
Artists that belong to post modernism .
Joyce Wieland
Greg Curnoe
Alex Colville
Ken Danby
Mary Pratt
Christopher Pratt
Artists that belong to conceptual art
- Jeff Wall
- Eleanor Bond
- Joanne Todd
- Francine Larivée
- Attila Richard Lukacs
- Kim Adams
GENERAL IDEA
- -AA BRONSON, FELIX PARTZ, JORGE ZONTAL
- group was founded in Toronto in 1969
- their purpose was to question the media and popular culture
- work also includes paintings, sculpture, installations, mail art, photographs, videos, performance, and T.V. programs
- limited edition artworks such as sculpture, graphics, jewellery, crests, drinking glasses, etc.
General Idea 2
- one of their projects was FILE magazine published between 1972 and 1989
- originally it was a parody of Life Magazine
- later on it took on other formats
- consisted of photoworks and text and manifestos
- more of performance art than conceptual
GENERAL IDEA, COVER OF FILE MAGAZINE 1, NO. 1 (APRIL, 1972) WITH
MR. PEANUT (FIGURE 16.1
- on the cover of the first issue is a portrait of Mr. Peanut(artist Vincent Trasov) with a view overlooking downtown Toronto from nearby Toronto Island
- Trasov had appropriated the iconic figure of Planter’s Peanuts
General Idea
- among the other articles that were published in the first issue were:
- a survey of artist’s refrigerators from across Canada and an in-depth survey of the eating habits of Canadian artists
- A critique of the Federal Government’s spending on the arts
- worked together collaboratively for 25 years – tackled such topics as architecture, archaeology, sexuality and AIDS – under the themes of mass communication and the new media
MISS GENERAL IDEA PAGEANT, 1970 AND 1971 - held at the AGO
- set 1984 as the date for the next pageant – over the following 13 years set to work towards that event
- in the catalogue they said “Miss General Idea of 1984 is basically this: an ideal framing device for arresting attention without throwing away the key.”
- Miss General Idea was the collective’s muse – a fictional character that embodied their artistic direction
- the alternate universe they created consisted of poodle pornography, extravagant outfits, etc.
GENERAL IDEA, MANIPULATING
THE SELF (PHASE 1 – A BORDERLINE CASE), C.1974, COLOUR OFFSET PHOTOLITHOGRAPH ON WOVE PAPER, 73.8 X 58.5 CM.,
IMAGE:52 X 47 CM.
(FIGURE 16.5)
GENERAL IDEA, RECONSTRUCTING FUTURES, 1977, 14 PHOTO-MONTAGE PANELS,
- this appeared in 1977 – an installation involving elements from the pavilion and on the walls large scale photographs of the plans for the ziggurat shaped building and its burning and destruction
- on the back wall, behind the screen, is a photograph of the members of the group, their faces blackened by smoke, escaping the disaster
- over the following years, sections and fragments of the pavilion began to appear as well as paintings and pieces of decoration
- in 1983 and 1984, new manifestations began to appear in the form of poodles and babies, with the sign of a cornucopia – the promise of plenty
GENERAL IDEA, THE UNVEILING OF THE CORNUCOPIA, 1982
- -invite the viewer “to participate in the archaeology of memory”
- meant to represent a antique mural
central scene – three anthropomorphic poodles seem to be performing some kind of mystery rite around a form – cornucopia
General Idea continued
- in the catalogue text for their 1984 retrospective – the artists discuss the project that uncovers the role of memory in their art and in postmodernism in general
- traditionally archaeology is based on the assumption that a stable past can be recovered
- General Idea mocks this idea by emphasizing the shifting nature of meaning
- so this work shows General Idea’s self-created past – one that passes for history by using specific signs of antiquity – the fragmentation and damage
Cornucopia continued
we see General Idea’s signature poodles transformed here from the Roman women, their famous ziggurat forms, the cocktail glass spilling its cultural meanings to the left of the central poodle
- we are supposed to question the assigning of meaning
- what it does is to introduce the central dimensions of memory
- quotes from the history of Western art
- this is widely held to typify postmodern practice
General Idea and AIDS
- in the 1980s, they began an AIDS compaign
- AIDS posters were pasted in public venues all over the world
- this theme dominated their work until 1994 when both Partz and Zontal died of the disease
Jeff Wall
- uses photography and video
- Wall creates staged tableaux
- scenes of everyday life with references to images of part art
- with intimations of political struggle
- evoke the Salon paintings of 19th century French painters
- uses light boxes – backlit – used in advertising
- very large scale
Wall 2
- -staged situations with more or less direct references to images of past art
- he interweaves the history of painting and photography
- 19th century artists used photography to a great extent
- -Wall uses photography backlit by fluorescent tubes
- -his images represent contrived situations
- they are fictional
JEFF WALL (B.1946), THE DESTROYED ROOM, 1978,
- this image gives us a scene of violence
- evidence is the inert objects
- we look for traces of a victim
- the only object not destroyed is the figurine of a dancer – introduces innocence
WALL WAS INSPIRED BY THIS EARLY 19TH CENTURY PAINTING BY EUGENE DELACROIX, DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS, 1827, 3.95 x 4.95 M. (FRENCH ROMANTICISM)
- -Delacroix’s painting which Wall used to illustrate the work when it was first shown is a combination of violence and the erotic
- the image raises questions about the meaning of art and the immediate commonplace of unconscionable violence
JEFF WALL (b. 1946), PICTURE FOR WOMEN, 1979,
- references to Manet’s BAR AT THE FOLIES BERGERE
- beginning in the 1970s, Wall adopted this kind of light-box presentation
- in Manet’s picture mirror behind the girl opens up the space to reflect our space
- in Wall’s work, the mirror is in front of the subject
- spectator is excluded from any reconstruction of the space
Wall was inspired by this painting by EDOUARD MANET, BAR AT THE FOLIES-BERGÈRE, CA. 1881-82, 96 CM. X 1.3 CM.
- Note the woman staring at the viewer and the man at the right talking to her reflected in the mirror behind her
JEFF WALL, THE STORYTELLER, 1986
Wall uses aspects of Postmodernism here, evoking the idea of mnemonics (memory) in the form of the storyteller (bottom left) and nature (left) juxtaposed with the concrete of a modern highway.
- Wall is giving us an image of displacement and separation – social alienation
- references to the past – aboriginal peoples – modern urbanites alienated from the contemporary world
- storyteller at the lower left – gives a hopeful view – refers to cultural traditions – oral tradition - stories enable us to remember the past – before the alienating effect of the modern world
JOANNE TOD, SELF- PORTRAIT, 1982
- political message about female subjectivity in North American culture
- first of all this is NOT a self portrait of Joanne Tod
- is an image copied from an ad in a fashion magazine
- shows an elegant woman in an evening dress standing in a dramatic pose
–with the Washington Monument to the left – phallic like
-in an ironically pointed portrait of how the gendered self is portrayed for and by women themselves
JOANNE TOD, SELF PORTRAIT AS PROSTITUTE, 1983
- same painting is reproduced in a later work hanging on a dining room wall
- the table is set for dinner
- no one present
- guests not arrived? Absent woman cooking in the kitchen?
- title suggests that women have been prostituted not only to fashion an advertising but also to domesticity
- all are manifestations of patriarchal power and ideology
JOANNE TOD, HAVING FUN? THE TIME OF OUR LIVES, 1985,
- both images refer to theatrical events
- both are at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum
- on the left is a scene from a ballet
- the other is perhaps a cabaret night or a social club
- we do not see the audience in the ballet scene – the audience is not necessary – this is what is usually refered to as elite art – the audience is assumed to be there
Having Fun 2
- in the other scene – we are shown members of the audience
- both images focus on the gestures of the female dancers
- the ballerina shows the typical affected gesture of mock resistance and compliance to seduction
- the cabaret dancer is right among the audience – her gestures are aggressive and obvious
- racial overtone
- as we look at both images, we come to realize that these distinctions are less of substance than of convention
FRANCINE LARIVÉE, LA CHAMBRE NUPTIALE, 1976, SALLE 1. AGRESSION SEXUELLE ET SOUMISSION AU TRAVAIL
- the work displays all the stereotypes of male and female of this period
- it was a major work taking two years to complete
- she focuses on heterosexual couples in a traditional marriage – love, marriage, family
FRANCINE LARIVÉE, LA CHAMBRE NUPTIALE, 1976,
this is what is known as a Pavilion Installation
- one enters a domed structure
- inside the walls are covered with sculpture and paintings
- that illustrate the changing roles of women in contemporary society
ELEANOR BOND, ROCK CLIMBERS MEET WITH NATURALISTS ON THE RESIDENTIAL PARKADE, 1989
the city and the landscape meet here
- cityscapes are transformed by her contemporary ideas of green space, place and community.
- her paintings show imaginary urban environments in which shapes and forms merge, a metaphor for the merging of nature and architecture
ATTILA RICHARD LUKACS, IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE, 1989
KIM ADAMS (B. 1951), BRUEGEL-BOSCH BUS, BEGUN 1996, ONGOING,
