midterm terms Flashcards
Federal Art Project
FDR founds the FAP as part of the New Deal, intended to provide artists with work producing art for public institutions such as government offices
Jungian archetype
conceptualized by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung - the idea that common images and symbols show up again and again within all cultures throughout history (eagles, fire, etc)
Popular Front
influenced by Leon Trotsky and Karl Marx, the American Communist Party’s attempt to bring communism to the US, generally successful in NY
“Towards a Free Revolutionary Art”
written by Diego Rivera and Andre Breton, the piece argues that artists must fight for their right to exist but warns about art for art’s sake (abstract art) - leads some American artists to identify as “Trotsky-ites”
“Three Centuries of American Art”
1938 exhibition of American art in France that was widely hated by French critics, contributed to the American artists’ sense of cultural inferiority compared to Paris
The Irascibles
photo of key AbEx artists published in Life magazine in 1953 - included Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, and just one woman, Hedda Sterne (who later said the men hated that she was included) … no artists of color were included
Non-hierarchical composition
technique that does away with the traditional subject/background relationship associated with painting before 1945 (think Pollock or Rothko)
All-over composition
similar to non-hierarchical composition, all-over composition gives equal attention and importance to the entire canvas (think Pollock)
Hans Namuth
German photographer and filmmaker who photographed many prominent AbEx artists, famously recorded Pollock working
Gestural Abstraction
technique characterized by intentional movement, paint is often dripped or splashed across the canvas, artists include de Kooning and Kline
Action Painting
technique where paint is thrown, dripped, or splashed onto a canvas rather than carefully applied, artists include de Kooning and Kline
Color-Field Painting
abstract technique that emerged in NY in the 40s and 50s, characterized by large swaths of bright and contrasting colors, artists include Rothko and Newman
Clement Greenberg
American critic who called AbEx the quintessential “American-Type Painting” and identifies three key constitutive elements that are highlighted by modern painting (medium specificity): flatness, properties of the pigment, and the shape of the support
Harold Rosenberg
American critic who says that artists confront the void when they confront the canvas (art is an existential act), places emphasis on the act of painting rather than the painting itself
“Is Modern Art Communistic?”
written by Alfred Barr Jr, this 1952 New York Times piece pointed out that modern art was “damned” in both Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany - argued that modern art is the opposite of communistic
The De Luxe Show
1971 show in Houston’s Fifth Ward organized by Black artist Peter Bradley with the goal to “bring first-rate art to people who don’t usually attend shows” … the first interracial art show in America, partially funded by Rice University’s Institute for the Arts
Some American History
controversial art show housed at Rice’s Art Barn featuring white artist Larry Rivers’ work alongside several Black artists - themed around slavery, but only Rivers’ work appeared to explicitly reference slavery because the other artists were abstract in style - representative of the broader phenomenon of Black artists being “lumped politically,” as Bradley put it
Post-painterly abstraction
“anti-compositional” or “not-so-pure” painting that is more abstract, emerged in the late 50s and 60s, offering both literal shape (of the canvas) and depicted shape (what is painted)
Black Mountain College
many new artists meet up and collaborate at BMC in North Carolina, including Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, Merce Cunningham
4’33”
composed by controversial composer John Cage, 4’33” is a silent piece of the titular length in three movements - the “work” becomes a framework that is filled by uncomfortable, ambient noise
“The Legacy of Jackson Pollock”
Allan Kaprow writes this 1958 piece exploring the impact of Pollock’s work, specifically the “Act of Painting” - the way he made painting a ritualistic performance and emphasized the action of it
Happening
the brain-child of Allan Kaprow, Happenings arise from the fascination with the performance of art - he creates large-scale environments that integrate the “stuff of everyday life” and dissolve the barrier between audience and art
Class in experimental music composition, the New School, 1959
John Cage taught classes in experimental composition at the New School, attended by several artists who became prominent in the Fluxus movement - contributed to artists turning away from the dominance of American AbEx
George Maciunas
postwar immigrant from Lithuania, father of the Fluxus movement who associated it with the “radical legacies” of the global left and wanted to dissolve the distinction between art and life
Event Score
developed by George Brecht, Event Scores were brief typed instructions for “Events,” often simple actions or objects that were to be included
Fluxshop
Maciunas conceptualized Fluxshops as showrooms where attendees could purchase artworks made by Fluxus artists
Fluxkit
conceptualized by Maciunas, Fluxkits held a curated selection of art, often in a briefcase, a sort of portable mini-museum
Specific Objects
piece written by Donald Judd that laid groundwork for the Minimalist movement, claiming that the representative modern art is neither painting nor sculpture but “three-dimensional work” … famously states that art “needs only to be interesting”
Eccentric Abstraction
1966 exhibit organized by Lucy Lippard that eventually became a key example of postminimalist art, featuring her own work and that of Eva Hesse
Anti-Form
Robert Morris uses this term to refer to his pieces that are impossible to display in the exact same configuration twice and do not have a single “final result” (often large felt pieces that were draped, but his piece “Steam” is the most famous example - literally a cloud of steam) - considers the style connected to Pollock’s drip paintings
Verb list
this is a 1967 Richard Serra piece where he wrote “to _______” with various verbs in the blank over and over again, connected conceptually to the idea of action painting
“The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.”
Sol LeWitt believed that the role of the artist was to create an idea rather than the physical piece…he would write detailed instructions for how paintings should be done, which became his art - people buy the instructions and then make the painting themselves
Serial composition
serial composition, associated often with Andy Warhol, is characterized by many identical or near-identical repeating units
The Factory
The Factory was Andy Warhol’s studio, which became a popular hangout for NY creatives…he was fascinated with the idea of mechanical production (hence the name) and wanted to “get more art to more people”
The Exploding Plastic Inevitable
this was Andy Warhol’s 1966 multimedia show, featuring The Velvet Underground performing live with film projected on top of them
Ferus Gallery
LA contemporary art gallery that was the first on the West Coast to have a solo show for Andy Warhol, where he showed his famous “Campbell’s Soup Cans” for the first time
The Independent Group
collection of artists associated with the Pop Art movement that would meet to discuss popular images and put on exhibitions as a group, included influential architects Peter and Alison Smithson
“But today we Collect Ads”
written by Peter and Alison Smithson, this piece argued that one of the “traditional functions of fine art, the definition of what is fine and desirable for the ruling class…has now been taken over by the ad-man” - essentially emphasizes how central advertisement is to popular culture and thus to art
