Art of the 1950s - present Breaking through Abstraction

1. Bring back the subject! Art of the 1950s - presentBreaking through Abstraction Jasper Johns, Three Flags, 1958, encaustic on canvas, 30”x45” Johns and Rauschenberg…Intimate friends, like VanGogh and Gauguin, Monet and Renoir, Picasso and Braque. Which one do you think was more open and outgoing? Which one was more private and cerebral? Rauschenberg, Retroactive I, 1964 Silkscreen on canvas, 84”x60” “NEW REALISM”

2. Neo-Dada (or PopArt) COMBINES Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955-59 His combines feature stuffed animals, found objects and newspaper collage… Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces, 1955 Encaustic = liquid wax and pigment; plaster, wood Johns often used alphabet, flag and target images

3. POP ART—1950s-60sdon’t alienate the masses! Andy Warhol, Marilyn, 1964, Silkscreen • “POP” –popular---coined in 1955 by British art critic • Movement of 1950s and 60s • Reaction against abstraction • Uses materials of the everyday world, mass culture • Glorifies the commonplace • Blows up everyday life … look outward not inward Warhol 1962, Soup Obsession with reproduction and repetition Roy Lichtenstein, Hopeless, 1963, oil on canvas Comicbook art; showed the pixels=BENDAY DOTS

4. HAPPENINGS, 1950s-70 (later, “Performance Art”)changing social mores create spontaneous art events • American art form starting in the late 50s, echoing European DaDa events of the 20s • Pop artists Claes Oldenburg and Robert Rauschenberg experimented with this art-theater form, exploring the line between art and life 1961, Oldenberg’s Store…the artist as butcher, baker, candlestick maker, all with plaster, paint and muslin ART as LIFE

5. SUPER-REALISM or PHOTOREALISM George Segal, The Diner, 1964-66 Plaster, wood, chrome, fluorescent lamp Pop objects and people involved with them. Also labeled Pop artist. • Of course, there has to be a strong reaction to minimalism • Objects perfectly rendered, like Dutch “vanitas” Segal, Breadline at FDR Memorial in WDC, 1991. Cast a year after his death Duane Hanson, Supermarket Shopper, 1970, Lifesize, fiberglass and polychrome Photorealist sculptor captures modern alienation, Casts from human models, then breaks up into pieces for detailed painting

6. PHOTOREALISM--SUPERREALISM What is the optical fact? Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait, 1967, 9’x7’ (always) No brush strokes, no painterly reference Images dissolve into abstractions; 2 Tbsp. black paint on white canvas Self-portrait, 2000, detail “The Event” in 1988…suffered a seizure that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Now in a wheelchair, paints with a brush strapped to his wrist

7. Art after the 60sPost-MODERNISM---DECONSTRUCTIVISM • New social order after “hippie” generation… • POST-MODERNISM 1960s to present **questions nature of art, as a construct within our society. **Examines consumer generation. **Values the past. • There is no uniform meaning or truth. All is relative to the society. Many interpretations are valid. • DECONSTRUCTIVISM (1960s-70s) uncovers—deconstructs—political or social facts and structures. All social constructs are “texts” for the artist. Term used in architecture to show that form does not always have to follow function • Destabilize traditional meanings NEO-EXPRESSIONISM Susan Rothenberg, Tatoo, 1979, acrylic, 5’7”x9’7” “The horse is a way of not doing people, yet is symbolic of people, a self-portrait, really”

8. Post-Modernist FEMINIST ARTexamines the dynamics of power and prestige Miriam Schapiro, Anatomy of a Kimono, fabric and acrylic, 1976 Femmages—collages of fabric, buttons, embroidery Barbara Kruger, Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face, 1981 Untitled, 1986 Word and photo assembly, myth-buster, mass media layout with text internalizing meaning and stereotypes

9. Post-Modernist FEMINIST ART Cindy Sherman, 1980s-present Gender as a socially fabricated concept. Female beauty is constructed for the male gaze; photo self-portraits Guerrilla Girls, 1984-present …comments on woman as artist…injustice of a sexist, racist art world

10. Post-Modernist FEMINIST ART Judy Chicago, Dinner Party, 1979 Now at the Brooklyn Museum 39 place settings for women throughout history; China painting, needlework…recover past to build new identity Last Supper a la Feminine Mystique. ..vagina references Installation Art

11. Post-Modernist SOCIAL PROTEST ART Faith Ringgold , Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?, 1983, text in Black dialect, story-telling quilt as iconic medium for women and African-Americans; refers to struggles to overcome oppression and stereotypes Examining racial identity and prejudice…. Melvin Edwards, Tambo, 1993, welded steel 2 feet high, sculpture with chains, spikes; created after South African uprisings; named after freedom fighter Oliver Tambo, who helped Nelson Mandela abolish apartheid. Spike used both for torture and plowing fields; chain represents both bondage and political freedom and unification

12. Post-Modernist SOCIAL PROTEST ART Examining gender identity and prejudice…. David Wojnarowicz, A Fire In My Belly, 4-minute video, Hide Seek Show at National Portrait Gallery, 2010 Drew major protest from religious and political conservatives--- video withdrawn from show. Controversy extacted threats from both sides to stop funding for the Portrait Gallery. Keith Haring, Stop AIDS, 1989 Graphic people as scissors, simple red snake…adaptive graffiti; text is art

13. Post-Modernist SOCIAL PROTEST ART Leon Golub, Mercenaries , 1980, mural-sized American, subjects of violence, terrorism in immense size Formalist elements create sense of unrest and terror---red background, rough texture, cut-off composition with feet eliminated, focal point is at knees, ground is at the front plane of the picture. Destroyed nearly all of his paintings in the 1970s out of despair.

14. MODERN SCULPTURE—1950-70s • Claes Oldenberg • Born in Sweden, raised in USA • Pop art sculptor, still producing works • Outdoor public art meant to evoke whimsy • Takes everyday objects, transforming them into sculptures of massive scale • Collaborated with wife, Coosje (married in 1977; now deceased) • First sculptures were soft form…now uses hard materials such as aluminum, steel and fiberglass Typewriter Eraser, 1999, Washington, DC Clothespin, 1976, Philadelphia Cupid’s Span, 1977, San Francisco two stories high

15. Sculpture after the 60s—POST-MODERNISM meets POP Pink Panther, 1988 Balloon Dog, 2008 Jeff Koons--- Explores consumer society…”Mannerist” Pop Art, glorifies common icons---art as commodity

16. Sculpture after the 60s— Ron Mueck, Big Man, 2000, Super-scaled for emotional impact check it out at the Hirshhorn HYPER-REALISM….clay models cast in fiberglass If you were an installer, where would you place and how would you position Big Man?

17. SITE ART—1970s-present Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Surrounded Islands, 1980, 11 small islands off of Miami coast, wrapped in pink plastic fabric. Took 3 years and $3.2 million to make---2 weeks to dissolve • Fusion of sculpture and architecture • “Earthworks”, environmental art; created for a specific outdoor site • Challenges assumption that all art must be in a museum Christo Wrap Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, Great Salt Lake, Utah 1,500 foot-long coil of basalt and limestone; Used abandoned equipment found at the site. He later discovered that the molecular structure of salt is spiral

18. PUBLIC ART • Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial, WDC, 1981-83 • Challenged and changed constructs of what is a proper “memorial” • Lin: “Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it.” Allegory for her concept of war and death. • Polished granite and names of 6,000 dead soldiers • Invites viewers to interact with art Martin Luther King Memorial, Lei Yixon, WDC, 2011 Controversy over the words: “I am a drum major for peace.” What do you think?