exam 3

Question 1

Define identity politics

Answer 1

The term used to describe an anti authoritarian political and cultural movement that gained prominence in the US and Europe in the mid 1980s asking questions about identity repression inequality and injustice and often focusing on the experience of marginalized groups

Question 2

How did the aids epidemic affect the arts?

Answer 2

Due to the public considering aids a gay disease, it was harmful to queer individuals and prevented them from being able to express themselves. A lot of queer individuals and allies were artists so they wanted to use art to spread awareness.

Question 3

What were the culture wars? +give examples of how they affected artists

Answer 3

Conflict in american revolving around various social and political issues considered traditionalist/conservative and progressive/liberal
The first day of the culture wars occurred after the congress objected to Robert mapplethorpe’s government funded photography for being indecent, which caused the corcoran to cancel his exhibition. In response, 900 protestors gathered outside the museum the day the exhibition would have been opened and projected the photos onto the museum.

Question 4

What are some key events that led up to identity politics art?

Answer 4

Gay liberation movement, stonewall riots/uprising, LGBT rights movement, the aids epidemic, culture wars

Question 5

What was the stonewall uprising?

Answer 5

Police would raid gay bars because it was still against the law
Against a police raid at the stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, considered to be the most important event leading to the LGBT rights movement

Question 6

Give examples on some ways absence is evoked in identity based art

Answer 6

Felix Gonzales Torres’s untitled (beds) rumpled empty beds on billboards
Tammy Rae Carland’s Lesbian Beds series references torres’s beds but with feminine objects laying around the bed

Question 7

Define postcolonial art

Answer 7

In response to the aftermath of colonial rule. Refers mostly to post colonial theory, a lot about race

Question 8

What is colonialism?

Answer 8

the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Question 9

What were the rodney king riots?

Answer 9

A series of riots and civil disturbances in LA from april to may of 92
Riots began after a jury acquitted 4 officers of the LAPD for usage of excessive force and the beating of rodney king, which had been videotaped and widely viewed
63 people killed by marines when suppressing riots

Question 10

Define diaspora

Answer 10

a scattered population who were from other places had to flee for some reason. Individuals have more than one identity, one based on unity of a shared culture and one based on an active process of identification that is constantly evolving - stuart hall

Question 11

What is the oppositional gaze?

Answer 11

In 1992, the feminist scholar bell hooks counters laura mulveys essay about male gaze with the oppositional gaze with black woman. “The oppositional gaze: black female spectators” Makes reference to a reflexive gaze on how black women look at images since they are not the object of desire. Usually not imaged at all or imaged in a position of subservience. Power is a system of denomination that controls everything but leaves room for resistance. Makes reference to when slaves would get punished for staring. Way for colonized black folk to fight white supremacy

Question 12

Why was the 1993 whitney biennial especially controversal? who/what was shown?

Answer 12

It addressed themes of aids, sexuality, and race in a very upfront way. It showed a video of the LA beating of rodney king in its entirety without comment. Attendees were also given buttons that said part or all of the phrase “I can’t ever imagine wanting to be white”

Question 13

What is the purpose of referencing the 18th century in post-colonial art?

Answer 13

It reflects and criticizes upon the time that sexism and racism and homphobia were very prevalent and accepted in society.

Question 14

ACT UP:

Answer 14

(AIDS coalition to unleash power) a diverse, non partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis

Question 15

when and where was ACT UP founded?

Answer 15

Founded in NYC in 1987 as a political action group

Question 16

what was ACT UP’s mission

Answer 16

to carry out daily acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest, using vocal and visual demonstrations, in order to focus attention on critical issues in the AIDS crisis

Question 17

“Day of disobedience”

Answer 17

ACT UP protesters lead mass marches and delivered coffins to city, state, and federal offices that the group held responsible for the AIDS epidemic

Question 18

The X Portfolio:

Answer 18

A series of black and white nude photographs that was a part of the corcoran exhibition controversy

Question 19

“Candy spill”:

Answer 19

a piece by felix gonzalez-torres where viewers can take the candy that starts off weighing 175 lbs (the weight of his partner before contracting hiv)

Question 20

who said “The most successful of all political moves are ones that don’t appear political at all”

Answer 20

Felix gonzalez-torres with candy spill

Question 21

Intertextuality:

Answer 21

the shaping of a texts meaning by another text

Question 22

“body prints”

Answer 22

david hammons would put ink on himself and press his body against large paper

Question 23

YBAs

Answer 23

(young british artists) A group of artists, most coming from the british school, goldsmiths, who exhibited with each other in 1988 and were initially supported and collected by the collector charles saatchi. They are known for “shock tactics” and being booth “oppositional and entrepreneurial”

Question 24

Arte Util

Answer 24

(useful art): a means of locating new uses for art in society, its aim is to provide beneficial, timely and relevant solutions for those involved with its project, recasting the viewer as a user, and participatory authorship

Question 25

What is the definition of street art v graffiti/tagging?

Answer 25

Both are art created in public spaces but street art is legal because it is accepted by the institution whereas graffiti is not

Question 26

Who is SAMO?

Answer 26

A tag shared by jean-michel basquiat and al diez that they called a guilt free religion and it stood for “same old shit”

Question 27

Identify the four main art institutions

Answer 27

Museums, galleries, auction houses, private collections (collectors)

Question 28

What are the differences in public/private/university museums?

Answer 28

Private museums are a personal collection owned by one person so they do not have to follow the same legal and ethical standards that public museums do. Public museums are governed by a board of trustees and university museums are governed and maintained by the school.

Question 29

What is a curator?

Answer 29

Research topics for the museum collection and organizes the shows

Question 30

What is a board of trustees in a museum?

Answer 30

Governs the public museums, set standards and policies, and ensure that museum is financially sound

Question 31

What is a blue chip gallery/artist?

Answer 31

Refers to galleries that deal art of great value, that is reliably profitable and is expected to hold or increase profit value (term also applies to artists)

Question 32

What is the average percentage commercial galleries take from the sale of an artist’s work?

Answer 32

50%

Question 33

Define institutional critique

Answer 33

The act of critiquing an institution as artistic practice, the institution usually being a museum or art gallery

Question 34

What is “flipping”?

Answer 34

Finding artists at the beginning of their careers and use their influence to raise the market price of these artists and then sell it

Question 35

What is the secondary market and how are artists effected?

Answer 35

It is art sold by third parties. The money does not go to the artist

Question 36

Define relational aesthetics

Answer 36

A term created by the curator nicholas bourriaud in the 1990s to describe the tendency to make art based on, or inspired by, human relations and their social context

Question 37

Who is Nicolas Bourriaud?

Answer 37

He coined the term relational aesthetics

Question 38

efine relational antagonism and name an artist who practiced it

Answer 38

A competing theory to relational aesthetics, created by claire bishop, which stated the relation had to happen outside of the museum. santiago sierra

Question 39

What is social practice?

Answer 39

Can include any artform that involves people and communities in debate, collaboration or social interaction and is also referred as new genre public art

Question 40

what did the MOMA poll say

Answer 40

"Would the fact that 
Governor Rockefeller has not 
denounced President Nixon's 
Indochina Policy be a reason 
for your not voting for him in 
November?"

Question 41

who said “the most successful of
all political moves are
ones that don’t appear to
be ‘political.’

Answer 41

felix gonzales torres