Lectures 22&23

Question 1

Answer 1

Aaron Douglas Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers, 1934

mural for NY public library

silhouetted form

concentric circles

Africa idol- no one specific sculpture

eerie green hand reahing for man

cog- desire for work- representative of industry

going to NY- statue of liberty in middle

great despair once again

arts as community

rise of jazz- american music

Question 2

Answer 2

Romare Bearden, Pittsburgh Memory, 1964- collage w/ graphite on cardboard

takes disparate parts to make single piece of art

varying colors disappear in photomontage

within an urban context

didnt want subject of art to have to be of african american figures

Question 3

Answer 3

Faith Ringgold, American People Series: Die 1967- oil on canvas

-race riots

black woman

chaos of riot

shows the grid

chaos and violence that was destructive

blood, children clinging at each other witnessing what was happening

Question 4

Answer 4

Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972 assemblage

• militantly feminist and racially activist- collage out of appropriated 2 and 3 dimensional images of derogatory stereotype of cheerfully servile “mammy” here transformed into militant black feminist
• attached another picture of a mammy holding a crying white child- with large clenched black fist- instead of a pencil she has a broom and rifle
• rifle and fist contrast with smiling mammy
• appropriation of contrasting images from popular culture subverts and critiques the servile black female stereotype by both liberating her and threatening the viewer

Question 5

Answer 5

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1973-79 installation, mixed materials

dedicated to hundreds of women rescued from anonymity by early feminist artists and historians

• drew on assistance of hundreds of female volunteers working as ceramists needleworkers, and china painters
• triangle: the feminine and equalized world sought by feminism
• 13 place settings on each side- number of men at Last Supper
• abstract designs on plates based on female genitalia (what all these women had in common) –different periods, classes, geographies, experiences
• empty plates represent that they had been swallowed up and obscured by history
• celebrates traditional womens crafts and argues for their place in the pantheon of “high art”

darkened room- appears to float

999 women- symbol for equaliy of race, sex and class

Question 6

Answer 6

Donald Judd, Judd Untitled 1967, lacquer on galvanized iron

• rejected gesture and emotion invested in the hand crafted object- united wholes without a focal point, allowing the energy of the work and the viewers interest to be dissipated throughout the object
• mathematically constructed shapes arranged without hierarchy which could be read as complete objects at a single glance- impersonal – occupied space of real things, have neither a base below nor glass case around them

0avoiding allusion to any imagine subject- objects are “aggressively themselves:

-presents viewer with clear self-contained visual facts, setting conceptual clarity and physical perection of his art against the messy complexity of the real world

Question 7

Answer 7

John Cage 4’33”, David Tudor performing 4’33” in Woodstock- 1952

-consists of the sounds of the environment

any sound may constitute music

no such thing as silence

Question 8

Answer 8

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1965 Carnegie Hall

asks audience to disrobe her by cutting away her dress

do you remain a passive viewer or do you partcipate?

where do you draw the line?

what do we do when artist is both subject and object?

dismantles model of objects, artists, and viewers

Question 9

Answer 9

Chris Burden, Shoot, 1971 NYC

-ten audience members

acquiesce to violence

how far should the artist go

legal ramifications

is this pure spectacle?

can never be recreated