Unit 10 - Global Contemporary Flashcards
The Gates: Identifiers
Style: Site Art
Artist: Christo & Jeanne-Claude
Location: New York City
Date: 2005
The Gates: Form
- saffron colored, 3 piece vinyl frame (each side on a steel base)
- saffron colored fabric loosely hanging from the top
- a golden ceiling creating warm shadows
- 7,503 gates, 23 miles of walkways, 16 ft. high
- width of gate varied
- 6 weeks to install, came down day after end of exhibit
- Why? Inspired by the way the pedestrians navigate the paths
- did not want to drill thousands of holes in the soil and potentially harm the root systems of trees, etc.
The Gates: Function
- testament to 2 controversial topics on contemporary art: 1. how to create meaningful public art 2. how art responds to and impacts our relationships with the built environment
- meant for pedestrian motion
- temporary
The Gates: Content
- responding to Central Park as a designed space: created to preserve the natural environment in a dense urban grid
- although Central Park is an oasis is is one of the finest examples of urban planning- gates reinforce & highlight pre-existing routes in manmade environment
- inclusion/intrusion of fabric left some people uneasy: critiques of The Gates are rooted in the issue of their relationship with nature
- Central Park not an untouched natural space
The Gates: Context
- perseverance: 26 years in the making, meetings, proposals, presentations, faced rejecting, turning point: Election of Mayor Bloomberg in 2001- collector of their art
- Feb 12-27 2005
- since 1960s adding fabric to the environment
- 21 million dollars- financed by the artists: sold preparatory drawings to raise money, do not accept sponsors
- free exhibition
- city of NY and Central Park Conservancy did not use public money, but their support and approval were seen as invaluable currency by critics
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Identifiers
Style: Site Art
Artist: Maya Lin
Location: Washington D.C
Date: 1982 CE
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Form
- long series of slabs of stone
- reflective black granite
- thin
- sunk into the ground- walk down the path, sink into the earth and the earth opens up to reveal their names
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Function
- memorial
- help loved ones cope with loss
- focus on the servicemen rather than a monument that focus on political aspects/public reception of the war
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Content
- inscribed with names of men who died in Vietnam War
- more than 58,000 names, more being added
- names are the only ting not reflective: substance of the monument, reflectivity of granite opened up into a world we could not enter, that we can only see
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Context
- National Mall
- Between Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial: bring together past and present
- 1,400 entries- all anonymous: Maya Lin was a 21 year old undergraduate at Yale
- Asian American Artist: experienced racism and backlash over memorial, apolitical approach
Horn Players: Identifiers
Style: Graffiti Art
Artist: Jean-Michel Basquiat
Date: 1983
Horn Players: Form + Function
Form: triptych, artist known for his use of text
Function: celebration of African American culture, rewrite the cannon & include himself
Horn Players: Content
- 2 famous Jazz musicians: Saxophonist Charlie Parker (pink notes) & Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (known for scat singing)
- many words relate specifically to Charlie Parker: ORNITHOLOGY!!! Reference to his nickname “Bird”
- PREE = Parker’s daughter
- CHAN = his common-law wife
Horn Players: Context
- before his success as a painter, he was famous for writing on the walls of lower Manhattan w/ a friend SAMO
- Close proximity to galleries “SAMO AS AN END TO PLAYING ART” “SAMO FOR THE SO-CALLED AVANT-GARDE”
- an outsider in the mainstream art world despite rapid rise to success
- often compared to Picasso- “Black Picasso”: never embraced the nickname, very influenced by his work
Summer Trees: Identifiers
Style: Modern Painting
Artist: Song Su-Nam
Location: South Korea
Date: 1983 CE
Summer Trees: Form
- 2 ft. Ink
- artist was a leader of the Sumukwha = Oriental Ink Movement of 1980s/means ink wash painting: Sumukwha is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese word
- Also known as literati painting: Literatus was known as a scholar poet/artist which was the ideal main in China in 11th century or before
- you would make a painting and a poem using the same tools
- Chinse pottery was considered the best and ink wash painting was its equal
Summer Trees: Function
- express identity
- Sumukwha provided an ideal: helped with the psychological displacement, model for individual character and moral compass for whatever challenges life presents
- statement of optimism in the rediscovery of traditional values recast for modern times
Summer Trees: Content
- landscape
- group of pine trees that symbolize a gathering of friends of upright character
- allusion to the world of the literati
Summer Trees: Context
- in Chinese poetry- mountainous landscapes & plants = ideal qualities for the literatus ~ live in nature away from power & money
- artist was a professor: modern literati of Korea
- 1980s tension about art mediums western (oil paint) vs. East Asian (ink and painting), he felt that materials of West did not properly communicate his identity as a Korean
- trauma- Korea took great pride in political cultural distinctiveness: end of Korea’s ancient monarchy, colonization by the japanese who tried to end korean language, Karean War (1950-53), living in fear of N. Korea, American Military presence
Androgyne III: Identifiers
Style: Modern Sculpture
Artist: Magdalena Abakanowicz
Date: 1985 CE
Androgyne III: Form/Content
- figure sits on a low stretcher of wooden legs, substituting or human legs
- figure is hollowed out, just a shell
- placed to be seen in the round: complete back and hollow front visible
- androgynous figure, sexual characteristics minimized to increase universality of figure
Androgyne III: Materials
- made of hardened fiber casts from plaster molds
- hardened fiber has appearance of crinkled human skin set in earth tones
Androgyne III: Context
- Magdalena Abakanowicz was a Polish artist who endured WWII, the Nazi occupation of Poland, and Stalinist rule
- since 1974 the artist had been making similar figures, often without heads or arms in large groups of singly
A Book from the Sky: Identifiers
Style: Mixed Media Installation
Artist: Xu Bing
Location: Originally Beijing, now moves around the world
Date: 1987-1991