Visual Culture

Studies
Final Exam Notes

Nicole Nolte
2019
Covenant College
 Table of Contents
Question 1: Visual Literacy & Analysis
Introducing an Artwork
The Formal Elements of Art
Principles of Design
Creative Thinking / Analysis Questions
Formal Analysis Tips
Question 2: Early International Art
Dada
Surrealism
Abstract Expressionism
Pop Art
Super Realism
Question 3: International Conceptual Art
Conceptual Art
Installation Art
Performance Art
Body Art
Earth Art
Video & Digital Art
Question 4: Resistance Art
Background
Popular Resistance Art
The Oppressors
The Oppressed
Jane Alexander
Penelope Siopis
Manifred Zylla

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 Question 1: Visual Literacy & Analysis
Introducing an Artwork
1. Label Information
a. Artist, title, medium, date, size
2. Description
a. Describe only what you see. No evaluating, interpretation or opinions in
description.
b. Main objects & position in relation to each other
c. Subject (eg. Still life, landscape, portrait, etc.)
d. History: Does it belong to a specific art movement?
3. Discussion
a. Technique
i. Not the medium, rather how it was created in the specific medium.
ii. Is brushwork smooth, impasto, stippled, or linear, etc.
b. Style
i. Naturalism, Abstract, etc
ii. Beware of incorrect references to abstract: if no references to reality, then
abstract. If any reference to images, artwork is still figurative.

The Formal Elements of Art

Line
 Created by:
o Adjoining edges of shapes
o Calligraphic marks
 Can be:
o Purely descriptive
o Usually: Carries some emotion / meaning
 Horizontal = Calm
 Chaotic / Jittery lines
 Diagonals = Movement, Tension
 Vertical = Strength, power
 Some lines tend to dominate
 Can also be implied or imaginary (eg. Edge of an object being allowed to dissolve into the
surrounding space or lines suggested by directional gazes of figures / pointing gestures)
 Consider:
o Type (curved, straight, etc.)
o Direction (horizontal, vertical, diagonal)
o Function (contour, decorative, formed by objects in a painting, etc)

Tone
 Shades of light and dark (NOT MOOD) to create 3D
 Aka: Value

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  Tonal Value: light & dark areas
 Create atmosphere & feeling
 Creates focal areas through contrasts

Color
 Aka: Hue
o Primary
o Secondary
o Complementary (used to create brightness)
 Analogous Hues:
o Adjacent on Color Wheel
o Harmonious; Create color harmony
 Complementary Hues:
o Opposite on Color Wheel
o Contrasting
 May be:
o Saturated (Intense)
o Muted (Neutral)
o Monochromatic*
 Use of tints, shades, color intensity, etc.
 Can carry emotion & have symbolic meaning

Texture
 May be:
o Real or suggested
o Tactile or visual
 Real Texture in a painting: Heightens sense of illusionistic space
 In a sculpture: real tactile surface can be created

Shape
 Organic / Geometric
o Organic: Natural and curvilinear; look relaxed
o Geometric: Man-made & rectilinear; look formal
 Open / Closed
 Can enclose areas
 Always 2D
 The equivalent of pictorial space
 Positive / Negative
o Positive: The actual positive image on which the eye initially focuses
o Negative: the spaces or shapes in-between the positive shapes

Volume / Form
 In 2D artworks: 3D - looking shapes given this appearance through use of light & shade
(tone)
 In sculpture: Volume = the kind of space occupied by the mass of the sculpture
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Format
 The nature of the outer edge of the piece
 Orientation (portrait / landscape)

Scale & Proportion

 Relative sizes of the objects depicted / sculpted
 Dimensions of actual artwork in cm
 Note: relative scale of various parts within a composition affects proportion
 Scale sometimes inconsistent because artist didn’t want to create a logical space.

Depth & Perspective or Space

 4 methods to working with space in a 2D artwork:
o Pictorial space
 The 2D space on the surface of the image (the picture plane)
o Cubistic space
 Artist shows multiple points of view
o Real space
 Actual space occupied by a sculpture/3D components in a 2D artwork
o Illusionistic space
 Artist creates an illusion of 3D space using perspective
 In sculpture: Space also referred to as Void
 Perspective:
o Linear Perspective
 Objects seem to get smaller as they recede in space
 May be constructed using a series of lines (horizontal lines called
transversals and diagonal lines called orthogonals) and vanishing points
placed on the horizon.
o Atmospheric Perspective (or Aerial)
 Colors of objects seem to become less saturated (more greyish) as they
recede in space, contrasts become less pronounced, edges become
blurred & details are not seen.

Principles of Design
(These are the functions carried out by the primary formal elements; the relations of the primary features
with one another)

Unity
 What elements stand out as ones holding the composition together as a unified whole?
 Usually:
o Type of light
o Predominant color

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 o May be a repeated shape or line type.

Balance
 Symmetrical / Asymmetrical
 Axial / Radial
 Is the composition top / bottom heavy?
 Which primary elements give the composition a sense of balance?

Rhythm & Repetition

 Visual Rhythm:
o Created by repetition of any formal element
o Can suggest movement
o Often seen in patterns

Movement
 Traditionally created through:
o Repetition of an object in “snapshots” to suggest movement over time.
o Anticipated movement (eg. A figure with one foot hovering over the edge of a
building as if about to fall)
o Optical movement: eg. Many lines in close proximity that appear to shimmer &
move

Variety
 Which primary elements stand out as the ones that are most varied?
 Often very wide variety of colors & types of lines

Similarity
 Visual Similarity: Creates unity & variety, which creates dynamic interest
 Balance between variety & similarity determines whether design is appropriate /
inappropriate or good / bad

Contrast
 Which elements carry the greatest contrast?
 Light / dark
 Rough / smooth
 Large / small

Focal Point
 How does the artist direct our eye to the main focal point(s)?
 Directional lines leading our eye there?
 Area of particularly strong contrast? (attracts attention)

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Composition
 How has the artist arranged all the pieces of the whole?
 Describe underlying diagrammatic / grid structure of the artwork

Emphasis / Dominance
 Which formal elements help create dominance?
 Can be a color, line type, texture, etc.

Proportion
 Closely related to scale
 Artists sometimes distort proportions of objects in relation to each other to convey
meaning

Proximity
 The closeness / distance between elements / figures in a composition

Creative Thinking / Analysis Questions

1. “Describe”
- Describe everything you see in form of a detailed analysis
- Use adjectives
2. “Process”
- Try to explain why it was done this way
3. “Evaluate”
- Write your own informed opinion about it, with specific reasons.
4. BE SPECIFIC
- Give examples from the artwork
5. “Compare”
- Description & Analysis
- Adjectives are key

Formal Analysis Tips

(all credit to Mr M. Mans)

Composition
(How the elements of art have been put together)

Questions to ask yourself:

1. What first attracts your attention?

2. What does the artist emphasize visually?
3. How does the artist emphasize specific feature(s)
4. Is there an underlying rhythm, pattern or geometric structure?
5. Does the composition seem unified? (do elements seem integrated or separate from each
other?)

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 6. How can the emotion / idea evoked by the this piece be described? How is this achieved
visually?
7. Is composition large / small scale?
8. Is orientation horizontal / vertical?
9. Is the work figurative (depicting a recognizable form / figure) or abstract?

Media
(The materials used. The medium)

Questions to ask yourself:

1. How is color used?

a. Saturated (intense)?
b. Brightest colors?
c. Darkest colors?
d. Wide / narrow range of colors used?
e. Do they contrast or blend?
f. Create sense of calm or sense of drama & excitement?
g. Used to emphasize certain forms / elements?
2. Effect of techniques used with medium?
a. Can you see the marks of the tools used?
b. Does work seem highly finished or rough & unfinished?
c. How do these qualities contribute to overall effect of work?
3. Is there a strong contrast between areas of light & dark?
a. Does this help to create illusion of 3D forms existing in space?
b. Do elements remain flat, emphasizing the picture plane?
4. Does artist try to create an illusion of depth? Or techniques used to make viewer aware of
picture plane?
5. How are forms defined?
a. Line?
b. Chiaroscuro (shading)?
6. Sense of texture / a smooth surface?

3-Dimensional Art: Sculptures

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Suggested viewpoint of the work?

a. Does the sculpture visually lead viewer to move around it & view it from different
angles?
b. Does it seem to guide the viewer to one position?
2. Materials used?
a. How do they contribute to the work’s form?
b. Do the materials make open spaces within the sculpture possible?
c. Do the materials require a more block – like form?
3. Does sculpture emphasize a sense of…
a. Volume?

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 b. 3D Form?
c. Flatness?
4. Does sculpture use the play of light over the surface to create a pattern of lights &
shadows?
a. Does this emphasize the 3D form or flatness?
b. Does it create a sense of drama / movement?
5. If surface of sculpture is colored, how does it affect the viewer’s perception of the work?
a. Does color serve to emphasize certain features of the work?
b. Does it make the work seem more or less 3-Dimensional?
6. What is the texture of the work?
a. Smooth / Rough?
b. Dull / Shiny?

Installation Art
(Made for a specific site)

Questions to ask yourself:

1. What sense of space is created?

a. How does artist work within the environment or surroundings?
b. Is it an installation you can enter & interact with or does the viewer stay outside the
space?
2. What is the effect of the environment created?
a. Overwhelming?
b. Does it dwarf the viewer or make them feel large?
c. How does the scale of the elements work?
3. How does light, color & texture affect this sense of space and your experience of the
environment?
4. Does the installation change over time?
a. Perhaps through participation of viewers, or through the decay of materials
incorporated

Performance & Video Art

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Does the performance piece seem improvisational, or planned & rehearsed?

2. How does the artist interact with the audience?
a. Does audience remain relatively uninvolved?
b. Does audience participate in the performance?
c. Is audience’s reaction / participation guided by the artist, or is it an uncontrolled
aspect of the performance?
3. Is space important to the performance?
a. Has artist altered the performance space in any way?
4. How are words, music & gestures used?
5. Presentation of the artist’s body?

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 a. Clothing, accessories, etc.

Digital Art
Questions to ask yourself:

1. Role of digital technology in creation of this work?

2. Effects made possible through digital technology that wouldn’t have been possible
otherwise?
3. Do effects make the work seem like reality / fantasy?
4. How does digital technology invite viewer to participate in piece?

Contextual Analysis
Questions to ask yourself:

1. When was this work made?

2. Where was it originally located?
3. In what rituals was this work used / seen?
4. Does work make use of rare / costly materials? Materials with ritualistic / symbolic value?
Materials new / innovative in some way?
5. Are artist’s techniques new / innovative in some way?
a. Any particular significance in the choice of techniques?
6. Political, religious or social context in which artwork was created?
7. What is the subject?
a. Why would artist / viewer be interested in depiction of this subject?
8. Was it a new/innovative subject or a new treatment of a familiar subject?
a. If so, what prompted the change?
b. If not, what was the motivation for conservatism?
9. What political/religious/social messages are being conveyed through the subject matter /
artistic style of this work?
10. Artistic style: new or innovative?
a. If so, what prompted the change?

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 Question 2: Early International Art
Timeline Overview:
 Dada: 1916 Europe
 Surrealism: 1920 Europe
 Abstract Expressionism: 1950 America
 Pop Art: 1960 America
 Super-Realism: 1975 America

Dada
Background
 Revolt against WW1
 Questioned traditional values of society
 Had dramatic influence on subsequent movements
 Started mainly as a literary manifestation
o During WW1, German writer & poet, Hugo Ball, established the Cabaret Voltaire in
Zurich.
 Zurich (Switzerland) significant because neutral in the war.
o Cabaret Voltaire = a center for artists & writers sharing an outlook of protest
against the society of their time.
 Cross between a night club and an art society
 Founded for artistic and political purposes.
 Events proved crucial to the founding of Dada
o During meetings:
 Poems read
 Paintings painted using intuition without control
 Happenings held
 80 speakers spoke simultaneously; different subjects
o During exhibitions:
 Hammers handed out with request that the audience destroy the artworks
 Origin of name?
o Discovered accidentally in a German-French dictionary
o Hobbyhorse in French; 1st word of a child
 Name caught on because of childlike sound
 Showed their search for freedom & a new beginning
 Magazines
 Sound Poems
 Costumes
Influences
 Protest movement against WW1
o Millions killed
o People were pondering human existence
 Originated from the disillusionment & disgust of the senseless barbarity of the war.
o According to the Dadaists, the governments started the Great War for autocratic &
materialistic gains.
 Showed what happened when governments were greedy & too
materialistic
 Felt that human logic led to this human carnage and that the only solution was in political
anarchy & placing importance on human emotions, the intuitive and the irrational.
o Thus, a protest movement against traditional social values (moral, religious and
political) which had made the war possible.

Characteristics
 No Dada style; was rather a state of mind
 Wanted to mock and shock
 Protest movement against the good taste & moral values of the middle class
o Negative movement
 Wanted to destroy all traditions in art
o Seldom used traditional, ordinary media
 Quest to be free from all theories, standards & authority
 Disregard for traditional art
o “Use Rembrandt as an ironing board”, Man Ray; Cadeau,
Iron with nails
 Modern Art was also mocked
o exhibition of a toy ape with title, “Portrait of Cezanne”,
Picobia
 A revolt against all logic & reason
 In their disregard for the conscious mind, they started to explore the subconscious in
music, literature and fine arts.
o Surrealism continued with this

Examples of Artworks
Individual artists were responsible for all kinds of innovations that had a profound difference on later
artists.

 Use of Chance .............................................. Hans Arp

 Use of junk / “recycling” ................Kurt Schwitters
 Photomontage................................................ John He
 Ready-made ..................................Marcel Duchamp

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Hans Arp
 German-French sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist using other media such as torn
& pasted paper.
 Dada wasn’t only negative, because in their deliberate irrationality, they liberated the
creative soul and introduced a new way of making art; the use of chance.
 Arp was one of the first artists to use the method of chance:
o Tore up a drawing he wasn’t satisfied with
o Threw the pieces on the floor
o Found the chance pattern they fell in was expressive
o Pasted them in the positions they’d fallen in
o Pattern they made led to works such as “Collage with
squares arranged according to the laws of chance”
 By using chance, artists worked irrationally
o Way for an individual to express themselves in a world that is
becoming increasingly organized.
 Use of chance leads to spontaneity
o Spontaneous moment seen as pure truth as it was free of manipulation and history.

Schwitters
 Collages (Merz Pictures) and Installations (Merzbau)
o Called his works “Merz”
 Showed that works of art could be created with junk
 Used waste products to create a collage
 Similarities with Duchamp, but didn’t go along with anti-art prophesies of Dada; and used
formal elements such as color, shape, etc. in creating his artworks.
 Showed that everything can be used to make art
 Schwitters
Picture with Flywheel
Merz Picture
 Merzbau started
o Column-like shape in the middle of a room filled with found objects in Cubist-like
grottoes creating an installation.
o Later spread across 6 rooms
o Destroyed in a bombing during WW2
 His significance is in realizing that everything, including “junk”, can be used to create art.
Photomontage
 Variation of collage in which pasted items are actual photographs / photographic
reproductions selected from the press and used by the Berlin Dada group.
 Major exponents: Heartfield & Hoch
o Hoch
Cut with the kitchen knife through the beer belly of the Weimar Republic
Photomontage

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  Individual Photos combined together create a new subject / visual image and proved to be a
powerful tool for the Dada artists who were protesting about social and political issues.

Duchamp
 French Artist
 Highly successful painter with variations of French avant-garde styles
 In the Armory Show in NY, his futurist-inspired “Nude Descending a Staircase” became the
butt for cartoonists and was described as “an explosion in a shingle factory”
 Left France for the USA and almost gave up painting entirely
 Anti-art and the Ready-Made
o In his disgust with the ruling order in art, he came to a logical conclusion in his
rejection of art and the meaninglessness of the world.
o Mocks traditional art values by choosing a manufactured object and declaring it to
be art. Eg. A bike wheel mounted on a chair
o An object becomes art because the artist declares it to be art, eg. Fountain.
o The Ready-Made is thus an ordinary manufactured object that becomes “art”
because of the artist’s choice, it is also anti-art because it is against the idea of the
artwork as labor intensive.
 Said that the choice of the object should be a “no choice”, in that it is without aesthetic
qualities and exists as art only because the artist felt like choosing it.
o Anti-art because goes against the idea of uniqueness of the artwork and makes a
mockery of the art museum system.
 Says that anything is art, which leads to the idea that nothing is art or that nothing has
value.
 The Fountain
o Industrially-produced urinal
o Artist made 3 changes:
 Placed on a plinth
 Signed (R. Mutt) and dated it
 Entered it into an art competition
o Most notorious of his ready-mades
o Society of Independent Artists put on a show to which any artist who paid $6 could
submit work.
 No jury, and theoretically no restriction on what could be entered
 Committee objected on moral grounds, an objection which Duchamp
dismissed as absurd as such objects could be seen every day in plumbers’
windows.
 This provocative gesture is essentially Dada
 L.H.O.O.Q.
o Pencil, on a reproduction of Mona Lisa
o Disrespected the Mona Lisa (an icon of the Renaissance) by adding a goatee and
moustache.
o Added the letters “L.H.O.O.Q”

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  When read quickly in French, produce phonetic equivalent of the sentence
“she has a hot ass”
 Referring to Leonardo’s homosexuality
o Can be seen as an assisted ready-made
 The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even
o One of his major works
o Large painting on glass
o Consisted of a large sheet of glass which he worked upon with oil paint, lead wire,
dust and varnish.
o Addition of dust & oxidation caused by rust seen by Duchamp as the operation of
chance upon his work.
o Extremely complex work which took many years to complete
 Finally pronounced it complete when the glass was accidentally cracked
during transportation.
 1923
o In an extremely Dada gesture, gave up art altogether and devoted his life to playing
chess, although he did work on several projects towards his death.

Surrealism
Background
 Many Dadaists went on to become Surrealists
 “Pope” of Surrealism: Breton
o Felt that Dada was too absurd and destructive
o Felt the need for more positive action
 Led to Breton’s first Surrealist Manifesto
o Under his leadership, artists and writers wanted to create an art based on the
irrational chance in art.
 Chose the name “Surrealism”, meaning “beyond / above reality”, to describe spontaneous
writing.
 Surrealism = the art born from the subconscious
o Rests on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association, in the
omnipotence of the dream, and the disinterested play of thought.
 Exquisite Cadavers
o Favorite game of the Surrealists to unlock the subconscious mind
o Name derived from the phrase “the exquisite corpse will drink the new wine”, that
resulted when Surrealists first played the game.
o Usually played with 4 people
 Paper folded into 4 parts
 Each take a turn to draw, conceal, pass on, etc.
 Also played with words
 Each write a phrase…

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Influences
 Influenced by many artists throughout the ages that explored the world of dreams, fantasy
and imagination.
o Bosch, Fuseli, Goya and Symbolist artists
o De Chirico; Metaphysical School
 Forerunner of Surrealism with portrayals of uninhabited cities with
undertones of shock, fantasy and strangeness.
 Also greatly influenced by the art of children, naïve art, and the art of the mentally
disturbed.
o Thus interested in art produced in a subconscious way.
 Influence of Modern Psychology
o Claims that reason and logical thoughts are only a superstructure of human
thought and that man possesses a depth that reason cannot penetrate, namely: the
subconscious.
 Importance developed through theories & psycho-analysis of Sigmund
Freud
o According to Freud, consciousness is only the tip of the iceberg.
 All human activities are influenced by the subconscious
 His writings made it clear to Surrealists that subconscious, dreams and
instincts are an integral part of human beings.
 Certain experiences, usually negative ones, are forced into the
subconscious, leading to all kinds of complexes.
 Also explored themes like the role of sexuality, and the way in which
childhood sexuality affects later behavior.
o Pupil of Freud: Carl Jung
 Went further; claimed that all people share a collective unconscious
 So, Surrealists believed that if they used this important source (the
subconscious) as a basis for creation, they would communicate with all
people in a subconscious way because of the collective unconscious.
 Wrote about the importance of the world of dreams, and how symbols
which appear in dreams (archetypes) can help us understand ourselves.
 Surrealists used these theories for their own gain & to help others,
eg. The interpretation of dreams.

Characteristics
 Found a new basis for art in:
o Rule of illogic, rather than logic
o Exploration of the subconscious, rather than the conscious mind
o Importance of the dream world, rather than the rational waking world
 Derived art from the subconscious
 Most common themes:
o Those often suppressed in the conscious mind, mainly to do with sexuality and
death.
 Often used symbols with sexual connotations

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 o Fruit (female)
o Columns (male)
 Wanted to escape and conquer the chaos of their times by using a power higher than reality
o The Surreality
 Was a view of life and a state of mind
 Some Artworks:
o Ernst
The Robing of the Bride
Oil on Canvas
o Dali
Burning Giraffe
Oil on Canvas
o Dali
Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate before waking up
Oil on Canvas
 2 Tendencies: (although many artists worked in both)
o Automatism
o The Dream World
 Automatism:
o Surrealist term for Freud’s technique of free association, which he also used to
reveal the unconscious mind of his patients.
o New form of abstract art developed
o Characterized by organic, biomorphic and amoeba-like shapes
o Subconscious mind creates colors, lines & shapes in a hypnotic condition
o Creativity is automatic
o Use of chance = more important than rational thought
o To assist the free flow of the subconscious, used automatism by starting to draw /
paint without any preconceived ideas (like doodles) to create chance effects.
o Techniques used to unleash the subconscious mind:
 Frottage: Paper placed in textured surface; rub over with pencil; use it to
inspire an artwork.
 Decalcomania: Black paint spread on paper; another sheet pressed down
lightly on top then carefully lifted off just before the paint dries. Resultant
effects used to formulate an artwork.
 Automatic Handwriting: Start drawing without a preconceived idea, then
identify symbols & figures in the drawing.
 Mixture of oil, water & paint: resulted in spontaneous effects; could then be
transformed into images by using the rational mind.

Automation: Miro
 Spanish Surrealist Artist
 Made many drawings where he expressed hallucinations from hunger.
o Came home at night without having eaten; noted sensations on paper.
 Miro, Carnival of Harlequin, Oil on Canvas

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 o Room with a window & table are indicated and belong more or less to the everyday
world, but after that; imagination took over.
o Bizarre assemblies of insect-like creatures play, dance and make music.
 One has a suggestion of a human face with a ridiculous moustache
o Automatism gave him the freedom to portray his dreams & fantasies

Automation: Ernst
 Ernst, Europe After the Rain, Oil on Canvas
o Created while hiding from Germans during occupation of Paris during WW2
o Suggests the desolation of a collapsed civilization
o Used a technique similar to frottage by spreading paint over canvas, then
compressing it while still wet to create this fantastical landscape
o Afterwards, added detail and shading
 Eg. Figures & pillars

The Dream World

 Figurative & illusionistic paintings convince the viewer of the reality of the dream and the
subconscious mind.
 Dream images made by painting recognizable scenes in a detailed realistic way then
placing them in completely illogical situations.
o Eg. Burning giraffes / watches being devoured by ants
 Found convulsive beauty in images such as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and
an umbrella on a dissecting table.
 Images were painted in an extraordinarily detailed realist technique
 Brush strokes: fine and detailed
 Picture surface: smooth rather than tactile
 Illusions of space and depth are realistically portrayed
 Color = super-real; luminous and dreamlike

The Dream World: Dali

 Spanish Surrealist Painter
 Very skilled draughtsman
 Known for his dream-like paintings
 Also involved in film, sculpture and photography
 Outrageous and eccentric behavior
 Attention – grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork to the
dismay of those who held his work in high esteem and to the irritation of his critics.
 Works show a precise realist technique combined with discordant luminous color.
 In his works, a commonplace object gradually becomes a nightmare object.
 Some artworks:
o The Rainy Taxi
o Lobster Telephone
o Metamorphosis of Narcissus
o The Persistence of Memory

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  The Persistence of Memory:
o Creates a barren space where time stands still
o Strange never-setting sun illuminates the landscape
o Cliffs in distance actually from place in Catalonia, where he grew up
o Amorphous creature sleeps in the foreground
 Could be the face of Dali himself with long, insect – like eyelashes
o Creature draped with a limp pocket watch
o Another watch hangs from a block – like architectural form
o A third watch hangs half over the edge of this rectangular form, beside a small
watch resting dial-down on the block
o Ants swarm mysteriously over the small watch, while a fly walks on the face of the
neighboring watch
o As if the watches are organic and decaying; soft and sticky
o Commonplace objects gradually become objects from a nightmare
o The watches clearly allude to time passing, but the softness of these instruments
for measuring time, however, renders them unreliable.
o Watches become “like rotten flesh” attracting ants and a fly
 Suggest that all things must come to an end
o Dali painted this fantasy with a meticulous painting technique and attention to
detail to convince the viewer of the reality of this scene
o Called his works “hand-painted dream photographs”
o Colors in the cool blues & warm yellows recall the palette of Jan Vermeer

The Dream World: Magritte

 Belgian Surrealist artist
 His work challenges the viewer’s perceptions of reality with his witty & thought-provoking
images.
 Magritte, Time Transfixed, Oil on Canvas
o Put together precisely and realistically painted objects that don’t belong together
logically
o Paints a smoking steam train coming out of a fireplace in a suburban room
o Blends together the ordinary to create a strange and disturbing scene from a
nightmare
 Magritte, This Is Not a Pipe / Treachery of Images, Oil on Canvas
o Represents a meticulously painted briar pipe
 Looks like a real pipe, but then written under it in French: “this is not a pipe”
 Because, of course it is not, it is only a painted image of a pipe.
 With this, Magritte explores the relationship between the real world and
the painted world.
 Magritte, The Menaced Assassin, Oil on Canvas

The Legacy of Surrealism

 Dali collaborated with filmmaker, Bunuel

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 o Un Chien Andalou (1929)
 Opening Scene:
 Man stands by a window, sharpening a razor
 Outside, a cloud passes a full moon
 Woman stares impassive in close – up before the camera
 Razor is drawn against her eyeball
 Shocking scene opened up Surrealism in cinema
 During first screening of their second collaboration, police had to
be called in to clear the cinema
 Scenes from these movies include a man wiping his mouth from his
face, a rotting donkey on a grand piano and a hand covered in ants.
 Surrealism brought liberation to art
o It introduced the subconscious and the dream world as an important source of
creativity.
o Art, literature and cinema were enriched by Surrealism.

Abstract Expressionism
The Effects of WW1
 WW1 ended in 1918
 Destruction resulted in about 38 million people losing their lives
 There was a worldwide economic depression and many countries experienced political
upheaval which led to WW2 in 1939.
 Under leadership of Hitler, Germany began to extend its territory
 War in Europe ended when the Soviet and Polish armies conquered Berlin
 The Pacific War caused by Japanese imperialism ended after America dropped atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945
o Killed about 200 000 people instantly
 As a whole, WW2 claimed about 60 million lives
 End of the war:
o Resulted in an end to European imperialism due to a loss of political and economic
power
o Led to end of European cultural dominance as well
o Many intellectuals fled from Europe to America as a result of political and racial
persecution in Nazi Germany.

Influences of European art on American art

 A rational formalistic, purist abstract trend which originated in Cubism
o Transferred through artists such as Mondrian, Leger, Josef Albers and the
Bauhaus designers.
 The anti-rational, emotional, expressive trend promoted through Surrealist artists was
transferred to American art
o Such as Ernst, Breton, Masson, Dali and Duchamp
 These were opposite approaches in European context but the American artists were
receptive to both.

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  Some artworks:
o Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, Oil on Canvas
o Albers, Homage to the square: Apparition, Oil on Canvas

Developments within the American art scene

 The Armory Show
o Held in 1913
o Organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors
o Introduced modern art in the form of avant-garde European and American
artworks to the people of New York
 The newly opened Museum of Modern Art staged major exhibitions such as Cubism &
Abstract art, fantastic art, Dada, Surrealism, and a major retrospective exhibition of
Picasso’s work.
 The Federal Arts Project
o Created by the American Government during The Great Depression
o To give relief to artists suffering due to economic conditions
o Brought many disparate figures together
o No formal distinction made between the importance of representational or
abstract art
 The latter became more respectable
 The Socialist and Regionalist movements in America were the origins of most artists who
eventually developed abstract painting styles.
 Some artworks:
o Benton, The Ballad of the jealous lover of Long Green Valley, Oil on Canvas
o Hofmann, The Golden Wall

Hans Hofmann
 German – born artist, teacher and theorist whose first-hand experience of Cubism,
Fauvism and Expressionism influenced his teachings in America.
 He emphasized the process of painting in the duality of the world of art and the world of
appearances
o Was reflected in the synthesis of Cubism and Fauvism seen in the works created at
his art school in New York.

Background
 Artists: Pollock, Kline, Reinhardt, Motherwell, Gotlieb, Rothko, De Kooning, Still and
Newman
o Didn’t form a movement but knew each other and were contemporaries in age
 There were no uniform stylistic traits and they didn’t have a manifesto or program
o However, the critics who gave this label to the group of artists formulated their
characteristics.
 Rosenburg, an art critic, became their unofficial spokesperson
 Action Painters:
o Artists whose paintings became the physical act of painting
o The action of painting became not only an action of the wrist, but of the whole body
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 o Seen as an existential exercise which revealed the personality of the artist
 Therefore, an extreme form of honesty and self – expression
 Color field Painting:
o A tendency to apply color to extended areas or fields
o Seen in works of Rothko, Still and Newman
o Strove to remove any motifs which could evoke associations
o Abstract form & expressive color used to communicate with the viewer in an
immediate way

Characteristics
 Subject Matter:
o Broke away from conventional realistic subject matter
o Created mainly abstract works in which the physical act of painting, the marks of
paint on the canvas and the large surfaces of color became central to conveying an
honest self-examination of the artist’s personal experience which is derived from
the subconscious.
 Composition:
o Usually filled the whole canvas with a non-representational composition
o Compositions of Action Painters:
 Lack a central motif
 Abandoned the traditional idea pf composition in terms of relationships
among the parts
 Paintings filled with expressive brushstrokes creating movement all over
the canvas that continue past the edge of the frame
 Term for such a work: over-composition
o Compositions of Color Field Painters:
 More structured
 Geometric / organic shapes created some sort of focal point
 2D Character flatness of the painting canvas was emphasized by all Abstract
Expressionists
o Any conscious reference to 3-Dimensionality is avoided even though layers of
paint create effect of depth through overlapping of marks & color areas.
 Shape:
o Shapes created on canvas meant to be interpreted as brushstrokes, drips, or
geometric surfaces of color divided by smaller surfaces of other colors.
o Doesn’t refer to anything recognizable except for paint on canvas.

 Application:
o Action Painters:
 Gestural and aggressive
 Every brushstroke is like the handwriting of the artist, telling us about his
emotions and experience.
o Color Field Painters:
 Not as gestural, even though textures of brushstrokes in works of artists
such as Still and Rothko were visible.
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  Newman’s works showed no sign of texture as he painted flat color
surfaces
 Color:
o Didn’t usually refer to visual reality
o Only really in De Kooning’s works where reference to flesh is echoed through his
use of color
o Color was very important to color field painters
 Saw the non-figurative color surfaces as expressions of the ideas on
transcendence and the infinite.
 Was seen as typically American in spirit
o All the artworks were monumental in scale
 Conveyed a romantic mood of rugged individual freedom and the vast
expanses of this country.

Pollock
 Born in Wyoming, grew up in Arizona & California
 Works seen as leading examples of action painting of the abstract expressionist movement
 Paintings he became famous for:
o Done on lengths of canvas spread out on the studio floor
o He moved around it while throwing the commercial synthetic enamel paint onto the
canvas with sticks, trowels, or throwing it directly from the tins.
o He included pieces of glass, sand, etc. into some of his paintings
 Drip paintings:
o Weren’t premeditated
o Visual records of the rhythmic movements of the artist around the canvas
o Resulted in the nickname “Jack the Dripper”
 Expressive character of his works correlates with the existential anguish he experienced
throughout his emotional & tumultuous life.
 Influence: Navajo Indians
o Sand paintings: elaborate healing ritual…
 Artworks:
o Pollock, Autumn Rhythm, Oil on Canvas
o Pollock, Blue Poles, Oil on Canvas
o Pollock, Lavender Mist, Oil on Canvas
o Pollock, Pasiphae, Oil on Canvas
 Autumn Rhythm:
o Represents the style that attracted the attention of the rest of the art world and
general public after Pollock’s first solo exhibition.
o Moved around the unprimed, un-stretched canvas on the floor while pouring,
dripping, dribbling, flicking and splattering paint in all directions all over the
canvas.
o The unorthodox painting technique was applied from edge to edge of the canvas
o Work is seemingly without a beginning or an end

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 o This break from the traditional idea of the painting as a unit is part of the Abstract
Expressionists’ achievement
o A direct encounter with Autumn Rhythm as an object with its particular scale,
color, texture and physical appearance is essential
 When a spectator stands closer to the painting, the visual effect is similar
to looking at something that’s been microscopically enlarged
 When spectator stands further away, it’s similar to looking at the universe
through a telescope
 Blue Poles:
o The labyrinthine network of lines, splatters and paint drips create a rhythmical
palimpsest of patterns, which is a record of the process of the creation of the work.
o Although the process wasn’t premeditated and was spontaneous, Pollock himself
stated he did control the flow of the paint and nothing happened by accident.
o The title, coloring and horizontal orientation in this painting all evoke the idea of
nature.

Rothko
 Born in Russia; immigrated to America with his family
 First created simple compositions; inspired by Matisse
 Later, when started to associate with other AE artists,
o He drew on the myths of antiquity & the idea of Jungian archetypes when creating
works with calligraphic & biomorphic images.
 1947:
o Turned completely to abstraction
o Created works with large soft – edged color areas and later started using
symmetrical compositions
 Closer to end of life:
o Works became increasingly somber
o 1970: Commit suicide
 Some artworks:
o Rothko, Untitled (Purple, White & Red), Oil on Canvas
o Rothko, No. 3 / No. 13, Oil on Canvas
 Untitled (Purple, White & Red)
o Typical of the style that he developed in his mature works where all references to
nature were abandoned
o Entire canvas surface filled with rectangular layers of soft hovering, cloudy forms
with frayed edges
o Texture of canvas is visible & application of color in some areas seems more like
dyed surfaces than painted surfaces
o Paints soaked into the canvas; then the 3 shapes of color were added by painting
over the thickly painted undercoat
o Paid particular attention to the edges of the shapes where the two fields interact
 A diaphanous glowing effect is created through Rothko’s particular style of application of
paint & color

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  Effect of these large canvasses on the viewer:
o Like standing in front of an enormous luminous void
 This technique suited Rothko in his aim to create an art that served as a connection to
spiritual realms, similar to the effect of music
o Through this, wanted to express the most basic and raw human emotions
 Rothko Chapels in US: people break down and weep in front of his murals
as it is said that they speak to the deepest, darkest parts of the human soul

Pop Art
Background
1950’s in America:
 World politics was dominated by the Cold War
o Technology + ideological struggle between the East (dominated by communist
Soviet Union) and the West (dominated by capitalist America) continued until 1991
when the Soviet Union collapsed.
o American government’s spending on defense accounted for ½ of the federal budget
 Spurred on industrial growth and technological advances
 Automation increased speed of productivity
o The development of self-regulation machines (ie. Computers) to do work
previously done by people
 As economies of the West started to recover after the war, the middle class (especially in
America) grew tremendously
o Resulted in establishment of 2 American cultural symbols typical of the 1950s:
 The American Dream
 Mass Media
 The American Dream:
o Home in the suburbs (working husband, wife, children & all modern conveniences
available, job security for the man – at a large corporation – and a new car every
few years.
 Mass Media:
o Formed part of a wave of conservation & conformity in the American society
 It was accessible to everybody
o Signs of revolt started to show within the entertainment industry
 Music (Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry & The Beatles) was only the beginning of
a movement away from conformity
 Movie actors (Marilyn Monroe, James Dean) represented new ideals of anti
– heroism and anti – authoritarianism
 Literature: Spirit of rebellion was driven further by members of the Beat
Generation, Ginsberg & Kerouac, who rejected middle – class culture and
social conservatism.
 The Beat Generation: Group of young people in 50s/early 60s who
rejected conventional society, valuing free self – expression and
favoring modernism.

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 o Modern Jazz

1960’s in America:
 Civil Rights movement under leadership of Martin Luther King
o Achieved Civil Rights Act of 1964 & Voting Rights Act of ‘65
 Paved the way for a more equal society in America
 Civil Rights movement paved the way for the vociferous anti-war which challenged
American government’s continued military involvement in Vietnam & a powerful women’s
rights movement which highlighted blatant inequalities within this “ideal” society
 During this time, spirit of revolt sparked the subculture of hippies among the youth of
America.
 Under the influence of the Beat Generation, they took the spirit of their countercultural
values further by living in their own communities, where interracial relationships, the
sexual revolution, altered states of consciousness induced by various drugs, psychedelic
rock music and an interest in Eastern philosophy were part of their lifestyle.
 Idea of sexual liberation
 One of the legacies of hippie culture
 Was influenced greatly by introduction of the contraceptive pill

Origins of Pop Art

Influences from Europe:
 Roots in Dada:
o Pop Artists revived techniques used by Dadaists such as incorporating images &
objects created by other people and exhibiting them as art
o While Dadaists used art to oppose & destroy conservative interpretations of
aesthetic beauty, Pop artists developed gestures of opposition to the art
establishment by representing aspects of modern life in the 20th century.
o Pop Art wasn’t anti-art like Dada, and artists didn’t commit themselves to any
specific agenda / philosophy
o Marcel Duchamp commented against Pop Art and the search for aesthetic beauty
in the ready-made
 Britain:
o 1954: Lawrence Alloway, a British Art critic, first used the word “Pop” to describe
art inspired by imagery of popular culture
 Was referring to artworks created by the Independent Group (collective
group of artists, writers and architects in Britain)
 They explored ideas concerning the place of consumer culture in
fine art, the use of found objects and science and technology in
their discussions.
 Main source of their interest: imagery from popular American
consumer culture, such as covers of magazines, comic strips, pin-
ups, movie posters, photo journalism, car designs and machines

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  Interaction taken further when exhibition titled “This is Tomorrow”
was organized ft. some members of the Independent group.
o Concept behind the exhibition: to produce work on the
theme of modern life and so that architects, designers and
critics would work in groups in order to promote dialogue &
challenge boundaries between the arts.
o In a letter, Hamilton also defined Pop Art as popular, transient, expendable, low-
cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, glamorous & big business.
 Richard Hamilton:
o Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?; Collage
 Iconographic
 Contains almost all aspects related to mass culture
 Black & White version used as cover for catalogue of the This is Tomorrow
exhibition
 Hamilton mainly used American magazines as sources for the images
 Main environment = modern American sitting room advertising modern
fashion in floors in the Ladies Home Journal
 Also used text from this advert as title for collage
 Staircase advert for Hoover also comes from the Ladies Home Journal
 Bodybuilder: winner of Mr. LA 1954; photo taken from Tomorrow’s Man
Magazine
 Burlesque woman: Joan Baer; posed for erotic magazines in her youth
 Picture of young Romance was an advert for the magazine in another
publication
 TV, tape recorder & Ford logo: also from adverts of these famous brand
names at the time
 Image of planet Earth: taken from cover of a Life magazine; used on the
ceiling
 Hamilton alleged that he used a blow-up of a photograph of a crowd of
people on an American beach as the carpet
 View through window: a widely reproduced photo if exterior of a cinema in
1927 showing the premiere of a Talkie film
 In this collage, the inundation of modern home life by consumer media &
modern technology is the central message
 TV: Taken central position that used to be the fireplace
 Man & woman of house become icons of physical perfection
 Posing as a bodybuilder + erotic center fold model
 Man’s role: suggestively diminished by replacing the weight with a lollipop
 Woman referred to as part of the furniture by giving her a hat resembling a
lamp shade
 Spectacle of modern life summarized in this collage by appropriating
images in a similar way to Duchamp who used objects like the urinal &
bottle rack.
 America:

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 o Beginning of Pop Art in America wasn’t as defined as in Britain
o Gradually grew out of Abstract Expressionism
o Wasn’t until 1961 that NY art scene realized the impact of Pop Art
o American artists didn’t see mass media imagery in the same light as the Europeans
 to Europeans, it had an exotic glamour
 to Americans, it seemed banal & commonplace
o Resulted in artworks that attempted to identify & define the essence of
Americanism through the lowest common denominators that posed ambivalent &
provocative questions about popular imagery as well as the state of VA itself
o Work of Robert Rauschenburg & Jasper Johns
 Seen as first American artists to start employing popular imagery & found
objects as part of their artworks
o Initially, Pop Art was dismissed by the American art world
 Art critic, Rosenburg, dismissed it and said that because it was illusionistic,
it was easier to talk about.
 True: Pop Art was a commercial success in the galleries
 Public could understand it & collectors started to buy it

Characteristics
 Represents the reality of everyday objects by referring to images & objects that people
have experienced during their everyday lives
 Didn’t try to be satirical or critical
 An affirmation of modern life, making people aware of the world around them
 Shape:
o Hard – edged shapes with a limited representation of 3D depth
 Synonymous with images from advertising & cartoons
 Could be seen in works of artists such as Lichtenstein, Wesselman,
Rosenquist, Linder & Warhol
o Hockney & Rauchenburg: more expressive style
 More 3D shapes
 Application:
o More expressive textural application of paint seen in works of Johns, Dine,
Rauschenburg and Thiebald
 Not typical of majority of the Pop artworks
o Generally smooth application of paint showing no individualistic, expressive signs
of emotions
 Reflects the influence of the impersonal & mass produced advertising
media
 Composition:
o No uniform style of composition
o Some artists used extremely simplified compositions, depicting only objects /
portraits with a flat background
 Reflects mass production as seen in adverts or on shelves of
supermarkets

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 o Compositions of Rauschenburg & Rosenquist reflect the overload of visual
affirmation associated with modern city life.
 Media:
o Influenced by Dada & the modernist awareness of the painted surface as a
reproduction of reality
o Artists felt free to experiment even further with mediums that weren’t previously
considered as art materials
 Subject Matter:
o Defining aspect of Pop Art
o All the artists used imagery related to the popular culture of the time
 Adverts, photos published in newspapers, comic strips, movie posters, any
modern objects that people used daily
o Each artist made different observations about their subject matter through their
artworks
 Color:
o Use of bright contrasting colors draws attention to the flatness of the objects and
emphasizes their generic properties

Andy Warhol
 Son of Czech immigrants
 Started art career as commercial illustrator who drew shoe illustrations and did window
displays
 Through his work, realized the idea of using existing popular images as source + inspiration
for artworks
 Artworks reflected contemporary society’s stereotypes
 Subject Matter:
o Products of popular mass culture
 Used silkscreen process that was used to create mass produced labels & adverts
 Employed assistants at his art factory to create his artworks
o Works intended to lack individuality and uniqueness
 Marilyn Dyptic, Acrylic on Canvas
o Acrylic silkscreen painting
o Consists of 2 canvasses:
 Right: Photo of Marilyn been printed in Black on White background
 Left: Printed in multiple colors
 Same image used as source in both (photo of Marilyn in film she starred in;
Niagra)
 Printed 25 times on each canvas with the silkscreen process
(technique used extensively by commercial industry to print labels
for products & adverts)
o Process associated with modern society’s drive for mass
production of anything that could be manufactured and
sold

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 o Warhol and his assistants converted the photograph to a silkscreen, then the
image was printed by pressing the paint through the screen with a squeegee
o Black & White canvas:
 Some prints clearly printed; others extremely faded; some become almost
completely black through the build-up of acrylic paint during the printing
process
 Image looks as if it has been photocopied many times and has become a
very simplified 2D version of the original photograph.
o Color Canvas:
 Marilyn printed 25 times
 Bright pink face
 Bright yellow hair
 Red lips
 White teeth
 Turquoise eye shadow + collar
 Orange background
 Some color areas don’t correspond perfectly with the black outline,
therefore eyes, mouth & eyebrows misaligned
 Some images also printed in darker colors than others
o Both Canvasses:
 Each image not exactly the same as the other
 Creates a sense of individualism in the series of prints which is
associated with something handmade rather than manufactured
by a machine
o In spite of the slightly individualistic imperfections, the repetition of the same
image & its presentation in this gridded format gives the effect of a mass produced
image as a commercial product
o Product meant to inundate world of the buyer to entice them to buy more
o Repetition of the single image:
 Also creates effect of repetition seen in film reel
 This idea is strengthened with the blurring effect
o Passing of time:
 Can be read in the imitation of a motion picture
o This artwork relates to the many other paintings showing repetition created by
Warhol.

Claes Oldenburg
 Swedish-American artist
 Participated in NY happenings during the 60s
 Influenced by the Dadaists’ and Surrealists’ interest in paradox
 Works he became known for were reproductions of fast good items and functional objects
from daily modern life
o He interpreted these items as a gigantic scale in vinyl / canvas stuffed with foam

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  Huge scale + modified texture of the realistically rendered objects was often comical &
disturbing
o Comments on the values of contemporary life
 Floor Cake, Synthetic polymer paint + latex on a canvas filled with foam, rubber and
cardboard boxes
o Created complex metaphors through changing the size & texture of the objects that
he chose to represent
o An experiment with the effects of displacement
o Occupies a large area in a room
 Viewer has to walk around it to be able to look at it from all sides
 Viewer is dwarfed by a piece of cake
o Unlike a traditional sculpture: soft
 But like the exaggerated size of the work, the color & texture is caricature-
like as it is constructed out of canvas & painted with synthetic polymer
paint and latex
o Effect is garish rather than enticing
o Seen together with the other disproportionately enlarged items of food, his works
become a satirical comment on these familiar objects as icons of an obsessive
consumer society
o This transformation widens the boundaries of art through the interplay of art and
reality
o Spectator is presented with something as art and it doesn’t resemble traditional
art in any way
o Oldenburg also stated his intention was to create artworks that are visual
representations of his fantasies and should be touchable, unlike a painting of an
object
o These soft sculptures are different from traditional sculptures in the sense that the
overall form can be changed according to where it is to be exhibited

Super Realism
Background
 Aka. Photo Realism / Hyper Realism
 Late 1960s/1970s
 Artists made large scale paintings directly from photographs
 Style developed out of Pop Art in terms of subject matter
 Paintings showed a cold objectivity and lacked emotion
 Popular with the uninformed public who easily understood & interpreted the exact
replication of photographs
 Hints at the fascination of the public with images in the media, especially films &
advertisements
 Suggests that there should be an awareness of visual indoctrination

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Characteristics
 Impersonal & precise style of painting and sculpture that drew attention to the effect of
photography on perception
 Subject Matter:
o Objects, places and people from American Suburban and Urban everyday life that
were not perceived as visually enchanting, were captured in photographs
replicated as closely as possible
o Artists also worked with the concepts of reality and artificiality as they replicated
an image that was already replicated from real life as a photograph
 Therefore, result of copying a photograph as a painting or sculpture was
seen as an important part of the subject matter
 Composition:
o Traditional, balanced compositions
 Shape:
o Realistic shapes of people, objects and surroundings were precisely painted with
sharply defined edges showing a detailed illusion of the 3D world.
o Sometimes included photographic effects such as blurry areas
 Color:
o Use of color depends on the kind of photographs used as a source
 Application:
o Extremely smooth
o No visible brushstrokes
o Use of airbrush by some artists also contributed to the complete elimination of
personalized marks in the paintings
 Because technique of creating precisely detailed shapes, colors & tonal
values are very important to this style.
o Artist must have technical ability to create a photographical finish
 Media:
o Most artists use traditional media such as oil / acrylic on canvas
o But some artists used the commercial painting technique called airbrushing
o Artists used projectors or the grid method to transfer the image onto the canvas or
paper

Chuck Close
 Born in Washington
 Studied at University of Washington, Seattle, Yale & in Vienna
 Achieved fame as a super-realist after creating a series of massive-scale portraits
 Concentrated on depicting the human face from photos he took himself
 Later portraits are very colorful & draw attention to abstract mark marking as a
component of photo realism
 Self-Portrait, Oil on Canvas
o 1st of the series of monumental head & shoulder portraits created from neutral
Black & White photographs using commercial art technique of airbrush
 Set himself some restrictions:

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  Used only mug shot compositions
 Used only B&W
 Painted on a colossal scale
o Transfer of photo to canvas was done using the grid technique devised by the
Renaissance Masters
 By following this method technique, the image becomes a mosaic of black,
grey and white
o Every small detail of the photograph was reproduced block by block
o Used a mix of black acrylic paint & water to spray onto the canvas with the airbrush
o Extremely fine detail such as illusion of light reflecting off the hairs of his beard
 Achieved by scratching minute areas of paint from the canvas with a razor
blade
o Idea of reproducing a photographic portrait to this degree of technical refinement
on such a large scale, makes the image seem less like the person in the photo
o Viewer is confronted with intricate detail such as wrinkles, pores, hair and
discoloration of the skin, which wouldn’t usually be noticed with the naked eye (on
a small scale photo)
o Magnified version of a portrait draws attention to the textures represented and to
the tonal values
o “Faults”
 Also an aspect that become more visible in the photograph
 When taking the close-up photo, Close normally focused on the eyes and
cheekbones, which means tip of the nose & area around ears would be
slightly blurred
 These “mistakes” are also part of the painting
o Close allowed himself no interpretive freedom during the painting process
o Fascination with this extreme form of realism can be attributed to people’s interest
in trompe l’oeil
 When we mistake the painting for the real thing
 The value of these works:
o the attention they focus on looking at the copy of something as opposed to looking
at the real thing.

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 Question 3: International Conceptual Art
Conceptual Art
Characteristics
 Dialogue with the spectator about ideas
o Therefore, use of language as the origin of art is a central part of it
 Subject Matter addresses a vast range of information, subjects and concerns that aren’t
easily contained in a single object and are therefore more appropriately conveyed by
written proposals, photographs, documents, charts, maps, film, video, the artist’s own body
and language itself
 Different names given to associated trends/sub-divisions
o Artwork often falls under more than one category
 Traditional ideas of composition & elements of art do not apply to conceptual art
 Subject matter & use of media
o 2 dominating aspects addressed by Conceptual art
 A frame of mind / a way of thinking about art, rather than a clear cut movement
 Artist focuses on the idea / concept of a work, rather than the formal aspects of the work
 A search for art that relates more to the artist’s intentions and ideas than to anything he did
with his hands or what he felt about beauty.
 Product was of no importance; all emphasis was on the idea or message
 Often the idea was a mutual process that included both the artist and the spectators
 Artists often also searched for alternatives to the prescribed space of the art gallery for
exhibitions
 Not meant to be preserved for all time
o Material was prescribed by the idea that the artist wanted to bring across
o Media in conceptual art is just about infinite:
 Snow, paper, films, sound, maps, monitors, smoke, animals and props
o Could also have no material manifestation at all, eg. The presentation of an idea
 Words & images became as important to artworks as images
o Based on the intellect of the art rather than the visual experience
o Contributed to dematerialization of the art object
 Commodification of art was rejected
 Traces of authorship of artist were removed in the use of new media
o Aim of artist became more important than the execution thereof
o Life & art were integrated in the artworks
 Lead to a paradox
 The art became impersonal although it focused on a personal
concept
 Subject matter:
o Nature of art is questioned through a process of planning or decision-making
  Had a strong socio-political background that was manifested in artworks showing
dissatisfaction with society and government policies
 Rejection of traditional art forms & presentation lead to blurring of boundaries between art
and the everyday
o Artists stopped using traditional gallery space for the exhibition of their artworks
in using performance, video, the earth, or books as mediums and subject matter.
 Role of artist & spectator is changed in this questioning process
o The artist is the instigator, interpreter and sometimes the judge while the spectator
sometimes has to complete the artwork.

Joseph Kosuth
 Pioneer of Conceptual Art
 Studied design, painting, anthropology and philosophy at various institutes
 His installations and written publications are philosophical enquiries into the relation of
language and art
 Lodged an attack on conventional aesthetics
 Use of words instead of images and objects:
o Lead to intellectual provocation
 instead of just looking at an artwork, the onlooker has to think about the
meaning & nature of art conceptually
o the source of an attitude which questioned the emphasis placed on the idea that art
simply communicated some meaning, to exploring the thought processes behind
the meaning that was communicated in the artwork.
 One and Three Chairs
o Consists of:
 Chair
 Photograph of a chair
 Enlarged dictionary definition of the word “chair”
o Kosuth’s instructions for this piece:
 Exhibited chair doesn’t have to be the exact same chair as the installer of
the work may choose a chair
 Chair has to be photographed where it is to be exhibited in front of a wall
 Photograph has to be enlarged to the actual size of the chair
 Photograph has to be exhibited to the left of the actual chair
 Enlarged dictionary definition has to be hung to the right of the chair
 With upper edge in alignment with photograph
o Two constant elements of the work:
 Copy of the dictionary definition
 Diagram with instructions explaining requirements of the installation
 Both bearing Kosuth’s signature
o Deliberately used a common functional object with a photograph and dictionary
definition of it so that the onlooker has to think about what is “real” in this work.
o Although a very simple installation, also a complex investigation into the system of
signs used by all people on earth

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  Presented with three codes for a single object
 Both the photograph & dictionary definition describe the chair
 One has to ask how the two descriptions’ functions differ from that
of the real chair
o Created a work that cannot be analyzed by discussing the formal elements in the
traditional way
 The chair can be changed, therefore the photograph changes
 Each particular installation of this work can be described individually as
one has to describe the chair that is used in a specific installation
o Interesting aspect of the work:
 fact that the chair and location, therefore the photograph, changes; but
that the artwork essentially stays the same.
 Through this, more emphasis placed on the idea of the artwork rather than
on the formal components of the work
o Kosuth draws attention to the viewer’s processes of thinking
o Aesthetic values placed on traditional artworks are completely denied in this
artwork.

Hans Haacke
 Born in Germany
 Works & lives in NY
 Was a member of Zero
o International group of artists who wanted to re-harmonize man and nature and
restore art’s metaphysical dimension by using nontraditional materials
 Early works: Kinetic art works
o Installations
o Explored natural phenomena
 Air
 Water
 Wind
 Condensation
o Observer would be able to see subtle changes in installations entitled Real Time
Systems
 Preamble to the works that drew attention & debates
 Used the tools of Conceptual Art to expose Real Time Systems within the sociopolitical
realm
o Through these installations, he lodged scathing attacks on what he called “the
consciousness industry”
 Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real Time Social System, as of May 1971;
photographs, data sheets and charts
o Work provoked response from the Guggenheim Museum where it was to be
exhibited and censorship debated
 Guggenheim director (Thomas Messer) censored this work as it has
“inappropriate” content according to the museum’s management
 Haacke saw it as an exploration of social and institutional systems
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 o Comprises of diagrams and 142 B&W photographs of tenement building facades
taken from street level
o Underneath photographs, included typewritten statements that revealed
information about the property tycoon Harry Shapolsky’s mortgages, rent deals
and tax agreements on each of his properties over a 20 year period.
 Shapolsky attracted Haacke’s attention because he was the biggest
property owner in NY.
o Obtained his information by researching public records
o All the properties were in the slum neighborhoods of Harlem and Lower East side
of Manhattan & were predominantly rented by black or Hispanic people
o The carefully researched data revealed potentially incriminating evidence that
implicated the Shapolsky family in exploitative rent charges, insider deals and
withheld prison sentences.
o According to Haacke, exhibition of this “real system” – not imagined – placed the
viewer of the work in a new position towards the work.
 Onlookers became witnesses to dysfunctionality within the system that
surrounded them.
 Therefore, onlookers weren’t permitted to be in charge of making
their own decisions through interpretation as with traditional
artworks.
o Guggenheim Museum cancelled Haacke’s exhibition 6 weeks before it opened’
 Dismissed curator of exhibition, Edward Fry, who defended the work.
 Response from the museum: work was contrary to the museum’s policy
which said that they would be pursuing aesthetic and educational motives
that are self-sufficient and without ulterior motives.
 They acknowledged that the work might have political consequences
 Accused Haacke of using political means to achieve political ends
o Immediate response to Guggenheim’s decision:
 Protest by a large group of artists inside the museum
 Also signed pledge not to exhibit at the museum until changes made to
policy of censorship
 Long-term results of Haacke’s work:
o Ongoing debate around issue of exhibition of artworks that criticized the values of
institutions supporting the art world / art museums where it was exhibited
o Lead Haacke & others to further investigate and reveal how art museums are
compromised by their business methods, management techniques, public
relations and corporate investments.
 Haacke’s art also includes conceptual investigations of other powerful capitalist
institutions
 Self – critical & socially critical aspects of his artworks were ground breaking

Installation Art
Characteristics
 Usually consists of an arrangement of 3-Dimensional objects within a space

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 Experience of an Installation artwork:
o Includes the perception of the exhibition space or environment as part of the
intention of the artist.
o Installations are created for a specific site and the objects have a direct physical
relationship with the environment.
 Temporality:
o Important part of some installation artworks
o Viewer’s experience of walking into a space and looking around is linked to the
passing of time
 Some installations use this aspect as part of the concept behind it
 Presentation vs Representation:
o Installation art presents viewer with aspects such as texture, light & space as
elements of an experience that have sensory immediacy
 Emphasis on physical participation, while traditional art represents these
aspects visually.
 Subject Matter:
o Influenced by and related to Conceptual art
o Idea / concept behind work is important
o Artist refers to very wide range of topics, addressing aesthetics related to
conceptual / theoretical issues such & sociopolitical, environmental, spiritual,
personal and technological issues as experienced in modern life.
 Media:
o Unlimited
o Ranges from being static to dynamic
o Could be organic, graphic, typographic, plastic, sonic, kinetic, photographic, filmic,
videomatic, telematic, cybernetic and virtual.
o Body, video, land and digital art are all related to installation art
 Use of 3D Space:
o Most common aspect of installation art
o Artist usually redefines a particular space
o Exhibition space is subjected to the requirements of the installation, which is
curated by the artist.
o Compared to traditional sculpture, which is already endowed with aesthetic
qualities, an installation can only attain an aesthetic impact after it has been
constructed.
 Interaction between the media, environment and onlooker:
o Central to the artwork
o Visitor expects to be immersed in a sensory / narrative environment
o In some cases, active participation of viewer generates the meaning of the artwork
 Could be permanent or disassembled after a period of time, possibly reinstalled into a new
exhibition space.
o each installation within a specific environment differs, therefore documented
photographically to keep record of it.

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Judy Chicago
 Early paintings and sculptures influenced by modernist attitude of Minimalism.
 1970s:
o Changed direction in her art in order to create works that would have greater
content and relevance according to her.
o The works that she created are blatantly feminist and often contain sexual
symbols.
o Together with fellow artist Miriam Shapiro she established the Feminist Art
Program at the California Institute of the Arts in 1972.
 This program provided a space for young women artists to explore new
ways of creating art without the dominance of the male-centered
ideologies as seen at most institutions.
 This program resulted in the organisation “Womanhouse” that was a
collaborative space occupied by female artists.
 In 1973 she also collaborated in the establishment of the Feminist Studio Workshop.
 The Dinner Party:
o Multimedia installation
o Created as a collaborative artwork by a number of artists and craftspeople under
Chicago's direction.
 Most contributors were female.
o Addresses issues around:
 female identity
 ethnicity
 sexual orientation
o Become an icon of feminist art.
o Consists of a massive triangular banquet table of 14.63 m on each side
o Has 39 place settings for notable women from history.
o Table stands on an elevated triangular platform covered with hand cast tiles inscribed
with the names of 999 more women from history.
o Use of triangle as a dominant shape:
 intentional
 symbolic of equality.
o Each of the 39 place settings is elaborately decorated.
 Hand-stitched place mat & a table runner with the guest of honour's name and
images or symbols associated with the individual, embroidered on it, sets off an
intricately decorated porcelain plate paired with a golden chalice.
o Plates:
 symbolic interpretations of each woman
 feature butterfly or flower-like sculptural shapes
 evoke the vaginal form
o Women represented at the table settings are chronologically arranged.
 As history progresses around the table, the sculptured plates rise higher.
o Each wing of the triangle represents 13 women divided according to historical period
 Number 13:
 Positive and negative connotation
o Refers to no. of guests present at the Last Supper
o Refers to no. of members in a witches' coven.

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o Wing 1:
 Prehistory represented by:
 the Primordial Goddess
 chronological development of Judaism continuing after
 then moves from early Greek societies to the Roman Empire.
o Hypatia:
 the first notable woman in mathematics who taught
philosophy and astronomy in Alexandria in 400 AD
 Allocated a place setting as a symbolic historical figure
signifying decline in women's power.
 She was killed by a group of Christians who believed that
she caused religious turmoil.
o Wing 2:
 women who are symbols of early attempts to fight for equal rights from early
Christianity to the Reformation.
o Wing 3:
 Represents:
 American Revolution
 Suffragism
 The movement towards individual creative expression
o symbolised by women such as Emily Dickenson, Virginia Woolf
and Georgia O'Keeffe.
o The Heritage floor on which the table rests:
 Structural and metaphorical support
 Because women whose names are inscribed in gold on the tiles,
were chosen to contextualize the 39 women represented in the
place settings.
o This work tells the story of women's struggle to make their ideas known and to gain
prominence in the world only to have their achievements marginalized or erased.
o It is a reclamation of women's role in the history of the world.
o Controversial for a number of reasons:
 Criticizes traditional historical viewpoint on what is seen as important
contributions in world history.
 Uses female sexuality in form of vaginal imagery as symbolic of women's
supreme power and creativity.
 Also elevated craft techniques such as embroidery and decorative
ceramics, normally associated with women, to the level of high art,
traditionally associated with men.
o Criticism against it points to:
 fact that the choice of certain women as important figures in history and
exclusion of others could be seen as a narrow conception of women's
contributions.
 situation of inequality is the result of the fact that women are again
separated from men in this monument to their greatness.
 also represented in a general way focusing on their reproductive power
without taking into account racial, socio-political and cultural differences.

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 o In spite of the criticism:
 Now been permanently installed at the Brooklyn Museum within its own
gallery.
 Attributes to it the aura of a grand event which, together with the
dramatic darkness that surrounds the illuminated table, draws
attention to this work as an important statement about the
excluded female history within Western society.
 Even though many women of importance are excluded from it, this work
raises the question in the viewer about how it would be possible to stop this
cycle of exclusion and how to include all women of the world as a
significant part of world history.

Olafur Eliasson
 Born in Copenhagen to Icelandic parents.
 Received travel bursary from the Royal Danish Academy of Arts
o Used it to go to New York where he worked as a studio assistant
o After receiving his degree, started collaborating with architect and geometry
expert Einar Thorstein in creating illusory environments.
 Eventually established his own studio in Berlin
o like a laboratory for spatial research.
o Architects, engineers, craftsmen and assistants collaborate with Eliasson to
conceptualise, test, engineer and construct his projects.
 Often uses natural elements such as light, water, fire and wood in combination to recreate
outdoor conditions inside a gallery.
 His works cannot be sold
o Can only be preserved through descriptions and photographs.
 The Weather Project
o installation that filled the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London from October
2003 until March 2004.
o Used the weather as a subject
o commented on something that has always been a part of people's everyday
conversation and physical experience.
o explored ideas about experience, mediation and representation.
o created a vast optical illusion by creating a semicircular disc
 made up of 200 yellow sodium lamps that are reflected in the mirrored
ceiling
 create the effect of the full circle of a setting sun
 misty atmosphere
o generated with humidifiers that pumped a mixture of sugar and water into the air
 viewers who entered this space could see themselves reflected in the huge mirrors that
covered the ceiling
o appeared as black silhouetted shadows in the hazy orange light

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 o effect was that people became part of the community of humanity as their
individuality was obscured by the misty orange light and diminished by the scale of
the installation in the vast gallery space
 artificial natural environment draws the viewer's attention to fact that the space that is
supposed to keep the weather out, now contains elements of the weather
o the artificial conditions are contained within the enclosed space
o stays the same for the period that the installation runs
o compared to the experience of natural conditions outside
 change all the time
 cover a vast space
 emphasizes individual viewers’ sense of spatial environment & time in the experience of
the present moment.
 Even though he created an illusion, was also interested in idea of a gallery or museum
space as area where people expect to experience forms of mediation
o such as posters, pamphlets, press reviews and text panels next to the artworks.
 carefully chose the information that would be used to advertise the installation so that it
would not influence or prejudice the viewers' expectation of the artwork.
o simple statements about the weather were used to advertise it instead of
photographs of the work.
 was also possible to go to see the mechanisms behind the installation, such as:
 the substructure,
 the electrical wiring
 mechanisms creating the mist.
o Was a subversive aspect of the installation
 a break with tradition
 the illusion created by the artwork is exposed
 viewer needs to consider a further aspect of the experience of the
surrounding reality

Performance Art
Characteristics:
 Live art presentations by artists
 A way of bringing the formal and conceptual ideas about the making of art to life.
 related to theatre, but usually without a story or dramatic effect
 has no rules
 experimental.
 subject matter:
o related to Conceptual art (placed importance on idea as art rather than the
creation of an object.
 the ideas are demonstrated or executed.
 nature of the performance can be:
o esoteric, shamanistic, instructive, provocative, or entertaining
 can be presented by the artist alone or in collaboration with other performers
 performer is usually the artist and not a character as in theatre
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  Can include:
o Painting, sculpture, dialogue, poetry, dance, lighting, music and visuals made by
the artist or in collaboration with other artists.
 can be presented anywhere, depending on the kind of statement intended by the artist
o This aspect has led to democratization of art.
o Art became something that can be accessible to everybody
 relates to the fact that a performance art piece is not for sale although
artist can sell admission tickets or film rights.
 can last for a few minutes to many hours
 can be performed only once or repeated several times.
 the viewer can be included in the performance artwork as part of it or simply by moving
through it
 work can be documented photographically or on video.

Joseph Beuys
 influential German artist
 born in Krefeld near the Dutch border
 During military duty as an aircraft radio operator and co-pilot, was in a plane crash in
Russia.
o According to him, nomadic Tartars rescued him by rubbing his whole body with
animal fat and wrapping him in felt in order to warm and heal his body.
o Although this information hasn’t been verified, the story and the symbolism
associated with animal fat and felt become important part of Beuys' artistic
identity.
 After completing military duty, enrolled as sculpture student at the Düsseldorf Academy of
Fine Arts
o graduated in 1952.
 Throughout career:
o promoted political reform to increase power for individuals
o worked for world disarmament and transformation of the education system.
 His unconventional definition of the practice of art included debate, discussion and
teaching
 continually exchanged ideas in public on how art could play a wider role in society.
 known as a performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, art theorist and teacher of art.
 I Like America and America Likes Me
o performance piece
o performed by Beuys in May 1974
 flew to New York
 landed at Kennedy Airport
 walked quickly through the terminal
 while still inside the building, was wrapped in felt, put on a stretcher and
hastily loaded into the waiting ambulance that sped off with him with
sirens going as if there was a medical emergency.

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  Was delivered to the René Block Gallery on East Broadway where he was
carried in on the stretcher.
 stood up inside the gallery when they arrived in the bare room where a
coyote walked around in an enclosed area.
 Inside the enclosure he regularly repeated the same actions using the
props: felt blankets, a walking stick, gloves and a flashlight.
 wore a triangle pendant around his neck
 struck three times to start the sequence of his regular actions and to call
himself, the coyote and the audience to order.
 After this a loud turbine noise, which signified an undefined energy, was
played outside the enclosure.
 then put on his gloves, wrapped the felt blanket around him so that he
disappeared inside it with a flashlight.
 Then extended crook of staff from opening at the top of the felt wrap; made
it look like an antenna or lightning rod.
 While keeping his eyes on the coyote constantly, he interacted with it in
various ways over the course of three days.
 would gather the large felt blanket around him and walk closer to the
coyote.
 used the walking stick to suggest the figure of a shepherd.
 Every day 50 new copies of the Wall Street Journal would be delivered and
were scattered around the floor.
 The coyote behaved as a wild animal would, inspecting everything
cautiously, biting and tugging at it and then marking its territory by
urinating on it.
 Its behavior shifted from being cautious, detached, and aggressive,
to sometimes companionable during the time while it was confined
in this room with Beuys.
 After three days:
 left the enclosure
 was wrapped in a felt blanket again
 put onto a stretcher
 taken to the waiting ambulance
 rushed with sirens blaring, back to the airport
 boarded the airplane again
 returned to Germany
o performance included many symbolic aspects & took on the form of a self-invented
ritual.
o fact that Beuys arrived and went to the area of the performance without interacting
with any other part of America, while the name of the country features in the title, is
significant.
 According to Beuys: "l wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see
nothing of America other than the coyote.. -and exchange roles with it".

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  relates to the idea that he is performing the role of a modern shaman who
restricts himself from normal behavior in order to complete the ritual
successfully.
o mode of transport and accompanying sirens:
 points to idea that the situation is a medical emergency
 relates to idea that the performance can be interpreted as a modernized
version of a healing ritual
o idea of using a coyote as symbol for America:
 relates to fact that coyotes were symbolic of a powerful spiritual creature
linking the physical and spiritual world of the Native American Indians
 For them:
o a symbol of survival
o taught them how to survive in difficult times
 coyote = a link to the prehistory of people in America
 described as a transformer that can bring order to chaos and chaos
to order.
o Coyotes (other):
 Pest: threatened livestock, linked to satanic rituals, in US countless
coyotes exterminated.
o Performance can be seen as a ritualistic conversation about the problematic
issues surrounding relationship between modern Western society & traditional
prehistoric beliefs.
o Not many people saw it, but documented on film so possible to experience parts of
it
 His intention of social transformation is therefore more attainable through
the influence of technology.

Body Art
Characteristics
 Involves human body as medium of expression
 Artist's body is often, but not necessarily used.
 Activities related to the practice of Body art can be done in private
o because communication takes place through photography, film and text in order to
document it.
o Most actions take place in public
 direct interaction between the viewer and the artist/performer.
 important aspect of body art:
o Attempt to move away from system of commercialization of art by making it part of
daily life
 rendered it impossible to be sold as an object
 Mutilation or pushing the body to its physical limits = important method used to create a
statement through Body art.

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  The absence of the body is also used as a strategy in practice of Body art.
 Body modification through implants or plastic surgery
o technique used by some artists to convey a message

Vito Acconci
 born in the Bronx, NY
 began his career as writer & poet
o was concerned with the visual arrangement of words on a page rather than the
meaning of the words
 started to make his first visual artworks by combining photographs with texts to document
task-oriented activities
o communication between body & camera eventually became an essential aspect of
his work
 1969 – 1974:
o began to do performances:
 conceptually well planned
 seemed to be very simple in formal terms
 confronted viewers directly
 made it very controversial and provocative
o commented on:
 psychology of relationship between body and
public space
 transformative aspects of the body
 the value of play
 Trademarks:
o Acconci sat in front of the camera in a series of contorted poses
o bit as many parts of his nude body as he could possibly reach
 described his motive through this act as follows: “to move into myself -
move around myself - move in order to close a system"
o teeth left impressions on the skin of his arms, legs and shoulders
o then covered the bite marks with printing ink
o made prints of them
o these prints serve as a documentation of the body's attack on itself
o intended this performance as criticism of the commercial practice of branding a
product in order to trade with it, as done by social institutions of art and the
economy.
o performance was not done in front of an audience
 documented photographically & through the prints created at end of
performance
 the photographs with accompanying text were published in the fall
of 1972 issue of the Avalanche magazine
o This method of communication by the artist:
 changes viewer's experience of the performance
act completely

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  experience of viewing the photographs create a
distance between the viewer and the performance
act as time has passed, as it is being viewed
afterwards
 however, viewer can look at the different stages of
the performance at a closer range would have been
possible at the actual performance
 becomes clear to viewer that while looking at the
photographs of this abject masochistic act, that the
act of looking at it is now a part of the completion of
this performance
o viewer becomes an accomplice to artist's intention by
looking at the work and reading about it
 work evokes conflicting sensations:
o present and past
o closeness and distance
o attachment and alienation

Earth Art
Characteristics
 Earth art, Land art, Environmental art:
o artworks created in nature
o actively using natural materials
o sometimes also introducing manufactured materials
 usually large scale environmental sculptures that use the natural environment both as a
site and as the materials for the creation
 landscape is manipulated in many of these works.
 Some of these works focus on interaction of the environment and human activity
 relationship between artist and environment:
o also a topic that is regularly explored.
 Environmentalist art or Eco art:
o broad term encompassing ecologically responsive artworks.
 Earth artworks:
o were created in opposition to the commodification of art
o a revolt against traditional painting and sculpture
 this standpoint shows the influence of Conceptual art
o usually in open spaces, but can also be exhibited inside a gallery
 when created in an open space,
 usually done as an interaction with that specific space
 site-specific
 emphasized idea of interaction between artwork and surrounding space
 many Earth artworks are ephemeral,

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 o therefore, documented photographically to show:
 creation
 final product
 process of deterioration

Robert Smithson
 born in New Jersey
 studied painting & drawing at the Art Students League of New York
 early works:
o paintings that showed influences of Pop Art
o later developed as supporter of Minimalism;
 started using glass sheets & neon lighting to investigate visual refraction
and mirroring in his art works
o also showed an interest in mathematical impersonality to art by writing about it
 Spiral Jetty
o a monumental earthwork sculpture
o constructed within six days
o represents a dialogue between the artist and the natural world
o situated in the Great Salt Lake of Utah
 Smithson was attracted to the site because of the stark beauty of the
landscape and industrial remnants, such as an old pier and discarded oil
rig in the area
 chose the Rozel Point site because of the blood red colour of the water that
connects with the idea of a primordial sea
 reason for the red hue of the water:
o the presence of salt tolerant bacteria and algae
o construction company was hired to execute the artist's instructions:
 used two dump trucks, a large tractor and a front-end loader to haul the 6
550 tons of rock and earth into the lake
 black basalt rocks from the site and earth were used to form the 460 m
long coil that stretches counter clockwise into the translucent red water
o the jetty is 4.6 m in width
 invites interaction as people can easily walk on it.
o Work is affected by natural elements
 Therefore, not consistently visible due to the varying water level and
because it is being eroded
 only visible when the water level falls below 279.5 m
o 1976: water level rose and submerged it
 except for a brief period in the 1990s
 only emerged recently
o nature dominates human activity
o spiral structure:
 magnificent in terms of size & location, but goes nowhere

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  evokes feeling of human existential situation within universe as frail
creatures on a planet that luckily still supports them
o Work is extremely big & not social at all
 people going to look at it at the site will feel small and alone within the
remote and desolate landscape
o Smithson was also inspired by a variety of ideas such as the molecular structure of
salt in the creation of Spiral Jetty.
o foresaw that the remoteness of the work would keep visitors to a minimum:
 made a 30-minute film to document the work for exhibition purposes
o construction of the artwork:
 financed by a grant from the Dwan Gallery
 Smithson acquired a 20-year lease for the site at a $100 per year.
 Since June 2011 the work controversially became the property of
the State of Utah.
o In later writings:
 investigated 18th and 19th century ideas about landscape architecture that
clearly influenced his earthwork explorations
 Also wrote about his fascination with the sight of dump trucks excavating
tons of earth in industrial areas around New Jersey
 inspired him to create a series of 'non-sites' in which earth and
rocks collected from a specific area were installed at a gallery as
sculptures

Video & Digital Art

Characteristics
 Video Art: Relies on moving pictures and consists of video and / or audio data
o makes use of the apparatuses and processes of television and video
 Digital Art: technology of a wide variety is used as part of the creative and presentation
processes of works
 address an infinite range of subject matter
 effects of new technology on society as a whole:
o increasingly become an important topic questioned by video and digital artworks
while using the latest technology
 These art forms are accessible all over the world,
o Therefore, complex diversity of identities constantly being emphasized through it.
 The idea of representation as experienced in traditional art forms changed drastically
because of ways in which video and digital art are being implemented.
 The passing of time and placement of visual reality already changed through the
development of photography.
o Now the presentation of multiple viewpoints, the juxtaposition of images, the
simulation of virtual realities, the inclusion of sound and the use of interactivity in

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 artworks, have transformed the creative process and the reception of these
artworks.
 focus on art as a form of communication rather than art as a unique exhibitable and
commodified object
 possibilities of endless reproduction of video and digital artworks, as with photographs,
contribute to this movement away from the glorified unique art object
 potential to broadcast art over long distances:
o aspect of accessibility to experience the original artwork that cannot be achieved
with traditional art
 interactive capabilities:
o changed the role of the artist
 not the only creator of the work anymore
 viewer can be allowed to participate in manipulating and changing the
artwork
o has an effect on the development of meaning
 artist's role: now similar to a systems designer
 new questions within societies about these art forms created by:
o distance between artist and artwork as a technologically produced product
o endless reproduction of video and digital art
o possibilities if intervention through interactive artworks
o exposure to large amounts of images and signs created through mass media
 People's perception of reality, time and space, personal and social memory, their use of
language, behavior and beliefs are influenced by new technology
 There is no longer an authentic message because of all the possibilities created by
technology
 Question: What is art?
 posed again as it has every time a new form of art is developed

Nam June Paik

 Korean-born American artist
 left Korea with family when the Korean War broke out
 Graduated in philosophy, art history and at University of Tokyo
 left for Germany
 developed his interest in electronic music
 met composer John Cage
o introduced him to ideas of the Dadaists, specifically Duchamp
o encouraged him to pursue his interest in combination of art, music and technology
 integrated these media with Performance art and Installation art
 1964: moved to New York
o continued his experimental approach
 training in music and performance influenced his approach to Television and video as
artistic applications
 Both music and the performance of it are time-based
o he was aware of this

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  made use of elements such as improvisation and risk
 also partnered with designers, engineers, laser expert Norman Ballard and sound artist
Stephen Vitiello, along with many others in his quest for new forms
 Concerto for Television Cello and Video Tape
o one of several objects designed by Paik to be used by the avant-garde cellist
Charllotte Moorman
 a bridge, tailpiece and the strings of a cello
 attached to three television monitors
o housed in clear boxes to show their inner workings
 the three televisions displayed images:
 direct feed of the immediate performance
 video collage of other cellists
 an intercepted broadcast television feed
o Moorman played the two-stringed cello with a regulation bow producing electronic
sounds
 thereby transforming the television into a musical instrument
o sounds were not traditional cello sounds, but as Moorman described it Television
cello sounds
o merging of technology and the human musician was a significant statement
o Paik stated that he was interested in using technology in a way that defies the idea
of it
o His association with the Fluxus group (created Neo-Dada works):
 also underlines the approach of questioning all borders.
o use of the latest technology in this combination of performance, assemblage and
video art:
 tactic used to subvert the importance attached to the modern mass culture
icon, the television
o experimental sound aspect takes it in another direction:
 cello is associated with classical music, while in this work it is modified
into a new kind of instrument that produces sounds that are electronic and
completely alien to the regular classical music supporter
o use of two live feeds in the video works:
 provides the aspect of time that can be experienced as a loop
 therefore, the technological aspect is turning in on itself
o On the one TV, viewers saw closed circuit footage:
 event that is happening in front of them is recorded on camera and
transmitted to the Television immediately
o In the other TV the display of broadcast television:
 refers to the infiltration of art by mass media
 shows something that is somewhere else, but also at that same instance
o in video collage, the reference is to the traditional playing of cellos
 this video was not live like the other two.

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 Themes
International Art
1. Awareness of Psychology (Internal & External Influences)
2. Continued influence of Technology
3. Meaning through Medium
4. Manifestation of Societal Systems:
a. Social Aspects
b. Political / Historical Aspects
c. Economic Aspects
d. Globalization
e. Gender Issues:
i. Femininity
ii. Masculinity
iii. Feminism & Art
5. Art as Idea Concept vs. Product / Structure

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 Themes
South African Art (Resistance & Post – Democratic)
1. Manifestation & Exploration of an African Identity
2. Apartheid
3. Identity in Democratic South Africa:
a. Issues of language, ethnicity, urbanization

(in addition to previously mentioned themes)

 Question 4: Resistance Art
Background
 1948:
o National Party came to power and formalized the existing system of racial
discrimination and the denial of human rights in the legal system of Apartheid.
o System of Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance.
 1949:
o youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC) took control of the organization
o started advocating a radical black nationalist program
o The new young leaders proposed that white authority could only be overthrown
through mass campaigns which led to strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience
actions.
 These often resulted in violent dashes with the authorities which in turn
increased the local support for the armed resistance struggle
o The government responded with further laws and banned certain organizations
which were deemed threatening to the government.
 1959:
o The Pan African congress (PAC) was formed
 organized a demonstration against pass books
 Sharpeville Massacre
 After incident, government declared a state of emergency:
 banned ANC & PAC, arrested their leaders and more than 18 000
people.
 Resistance against Apartheid went underground, with some leaders going into exile
abroad and others became engaged in campaigns of domestic sabotage and terrorism.
o The ANC then chose to launch an armed struggle which would perform acts of
sabotage on strategic state structures,
 1963:
o 10 leaders of ANC were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia & charged with acts of
sabotage intended to overthrow the Apartheid government.
 1976:
o secondary scholars from Soweto in the Soweto uprising protested against Bantu
education' and the forced tuition in Afrikaans
o 16 June: police opened fire on students in what was meant to be a peaceful protest.
o The violence spread countrywide with many people killed und others fled the
country
o In the following years several student organizations were formed with the goal of
protesting against Apartheid.
o The labor unions and workers also played an important role in the struggle against
Apartheid, filling the gap created by the banning of political parties.
 1980s:
o violent decade, especially for black communities

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 o great surge in the protest or resistance against the Nationalist government
supported by the international community
 Before 1976 South African art was mainly non-political.
o The Soweto uprising of 1976 sparked a new commitment by many artists to moral
and political responsibility with the belief that art had a conscious role to play
under conditions of oppression in South Africa.
o An increasing number of artists, both black and white, began to use art as a means
of portraying their view of political and social issues in South Africa and art
became a way to voice the injustices in the South African society.
 These artists saw art as a way to influence people and to help create
change in South Africa.
 Artists gathered & had conferences:
o The role of the artist in society was discussed
o concluded that the act of culture was an act of struggle
 Artists had to identify with the masses and produce art that attempted to
change attitudes
 Art should not only be confined to galleries but be a part of everyday life
 Resistance art was a serious attempt to create political change and to also address
associated social injustices.
 Resistance Art focused on the “wounds” in South African society
 1980s violence:
o Resistance art was at its most potent with artists showing their social
responsibility in an explosion of politically motivated visual imagery.
 These images gave voice to community experience, reflecting on
repression and struggle.
 South African art of the 1980s was filled with images of snakes, crocodiles
armor-wearing creatures, tyres and cannibalistic plants that became
symbols of the resistance.

Popular Resistance
 Artists committed to political resistance had to re-think the idea of the artist as an
individual isolated from the broader community
o Many of these artists preferred the term “cultural worker”, rather than artist.
 Art had to be more democratic and not only for a chosen few but something for the whole
community.
 In the visual arts, this popular resistance manifested through posters, t-shirts, banners,
logos and murals.
o In all these the message to achieve democratic and human rights for all was
important.
 Resistance posters were never intended as permanent works of art on a wall but served
the function of informing people about meetings, events and injustices.
o Above all they were to mobilize the people to continue the struggle for a
democratic South Africa.

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  Silkscreen printing was relatively inexpensive and the technique lent itself to mass
reproduction and public display.
 Visual images had to be bold and easily identifiable by the people.
o Popular visual images:
 A clenched fist
 chains
 reworking of Sam Nzima's photograph of the dead Hector Pieterson
o these recurring images helped to create a strong identity for these posters
 The t-shirt became a potent way to make a political statement and Show allegiance to an
organization
o Many of these t-shirts were banned and wearing them could lead to imprisonment.
 The Community Arts project (CAP)
o founded in Cape Town in 1977
o Started as an organization aimed at bringing together people from different
economic and racial backgrounds in creating art and staging theatre events.
o Was perhaps the community art center most active in using printing as a way of
social transformation with the printing of posters and t-shirts for political groups
fighting Apartheid.
o Played an important role in developing the visual arts skills of workers from trade
unions and political organizations to further the aims of the liberation movement
o Also launched the careers of many otherwise marginalized black artists such as
Willie Bester.

The Oppressors
 During the Apartheid regime the majority ofSou1h Africans saw the government as the
oppressor.
 Many artists portrayed the oppressors who upheld the Apartheid system.

The Oppressed
 Oppression is the exercise of power in a burdensome, cruel. or unjust manner as in
Apartheid South Africa.
 There are many artworks which show the hardships and injustices the oppressed had to
suffering.

Jane Alexander
 born in Johannesburg
 studied Fine Art at the University of the Witwatersrand
 obtained an MA Fine Arts degree
 was chosen as the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year in 1995
 numerous awards for her work
 lives in Cape Town
o lectures at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts
 influenced by the work Of Edward Kienholz

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 o American artist, who produced installation environments
o See: The State Hospital
 work influenced by:
o the political and social character of South Africa
 themes drawn from:
o the relationship of individuals to hierarchies and the presence of aggression,
violence, victimization, power and subservience
 while at university:
o was exposed to information about the unjust political situation in South Africa
through students' underground organizations
 had a huge influence as she responded to the South African situation in her
work
 while she has never called herself a political artist because she sees protest art as
specific, she has created some of the most lasting images of resistance art such as the
Butcher Boys.
 In her early works in the 1980's:
o explored violence in human society
o reflected the extremely violent period in South African history in the 1980s
 her work is both about the perpetrators and violence
 works from the personal perspective of being a white woman in South Africa
o does not pretend to understand the suffering of political victims
 her work is not a documentation of our past or present but rather an allegorical image of
suffering and violence
 often works with the theme of alienation, of people not quite belonging to society
 feels that her work has no specific story besides the one the viewer creates
 Her work is further based on personal experience, perception and media information.
 Alexander is primarily a sculptor whose work is figurative and usually related to the
human figure as she is interested in anatomy as a form of expression
 The figures are often life-sized and convey a potent presence and a sense of drama.
 Alexander seeks to identify the manner in which violence, aggression, cruelty and
suffering are conveyed through and contained by the human figure.
o Her work speaks of the instinctive drives within humanity such as the desire for
power, the habits of violence, victimization and oppression.
 Her sculptures show a motley cast of characters
o often creates hybrids by combining human bodies with heads of baboons, jackals,
ibises and other creatures.
 in this way, the human figures are given animalistic characteristics and
she bestializes the human form.
 In this mixture of man and beast, Alexander forces the viewer to re-think human behavior.
 Ambiguity: a constant theme in her work, especially the ambiguous nature of violence.
o The opposite of violence is vulnerability.
 When a society feels unsafe, people are often both victims and aggressors.
 Sculptures are modelled from the human form but she also casts straight from the human
body

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 o after the casting is completed, manipulates the form by modelling it & creating
many textural possibilities
o primary reference: the human anatomy
 has extensive knowledge of this as she studied anatomy at one time
o exquisite detail of bone, muscle and posture
o during the creative process:
 foreign materials & found objects (bone, horns) introduced
 makes use of a variety of materials (plaster. bone, horns, wood, and paint)
 in recent years, Alexander has created many site-specific installations all over the world
o specific setting: provides a theatrical backdrop for her sculptures
o installs them herself
o work continues to speak of vulnerability, neurosis and displacement
 work always related to the human figure as well as to the human scale
o because of this life-size aspect, her sculptures have a potent presence and a sense
of drama
 often given animalistic characteristics and in a way she bestializes the human form
o draws our attention to the instinctual drives within humanity: the overpowering
desire for power, the habits violence, victimization and oppression which we
cannot hide - despite all our progress.
 figures are often distorted and clearly not attempting to be beautiful - they are rather
deliberately evoking a sense of the grotesque.
 violence is combined with sensuous forms.
 The Butcher Boys
o Alexander’s best-known piece
o become an iconic work of the resistance struggle in South Africa
o themes of mutilation, violence and ambiguity
o arises from a sense of horror at the increasingly repressive and brutal measures
used by the Apartheid government to quell the violence of the 1980's in South
African society
o become a symbol of institutionalized violence
o title (Butcher Boys):
 says that they are executioners or violent killers of some sort
 But what is it that has turned these once-humans into beasts?
o 3 life-size and life-like plaster figures, naked except for coverings over their
genitals, sit on a wooden bench
 made from plaster casts taken from life
 but been worked beyond this point
 figures seem powerful but bodies been penetrated and damaged
 although very masculine, gender unknown because genitalia are covered
(or sealed) by same sort of protection that cricketers wear
 however, in this case they are fused into the flesh
 bone been inserted into the "flesh" and "flesh" been scraped away to reveal
bone.
 Heads: only half-human;

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  horns grow out of skulls
 faces distorted & flattened into snouts that don’t open into mouths
 literally cannot speak the unspeakable or communicate with the
voice of reason
 also have impaired hearing since their ears are holes
o may be mutants; the victims of some terrible disaster
o have lost their senses;
 show no sensitivity to the world
 don’t respond to any stimulation
o seated position:
 shows passiveness
 almost as if they are waiting for something
o seem nervous and aware simultaneously
 also frighteningly malevolent
 perpetuators of some horrible violence
 images of brutalization
o eyes: dark and glassy; hollow and haunting
o theme of this work:
 the symbolic relationship between oppressor and victim
o Alexander seeks to identify the manner in which violence, aggression, cruelty and
suffering are conveyed through the human figure.
 violent, aggressive and powerful characteristics shown in same body that
reveals helplessness
 Alexander has said that the alter ego of aggression is vulnerability
o continued by saying that those who are secure and
unthreatened do not need to bully but when an entire
society is insecure, all its members become both
aggressors and victims
o association with death created by the use of bones and skulls
o these figures which committed unspeakable violence are also often victims of
violence
 As "butcher boys" the figures are capable of butchering but as naked
forms, they are the equivalent of meat in a butcher shop
o figures have a very eerie presence
o although created in a specific oppressive South African time, transcended it
 maybe their power lies in the fact that they touch our humanity deeply
 would we also become like them if we were forced to commit acts
of violence and abuse?
 Domestic Angels:
o Small winged figure hanging from the ceiling
 figure is upside down, but portion from waist to head tries to force itself up
 this upper part of the body:
o patchy
o partially wounded

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 o deformed as two arms transform into wings
o distorted suspended posture of an otherwise air-borne creature tied up around the
ankles:
 reveals its vulnerability
o Alexander was well aware of the exceedingly disturbing elements in her works
 while evaluating the works of this period she said, "l discovered that the
more horrific my work, the more readily people looked at it. I began to
wonder if people would respond to more restrained images.”
 Horrific works: gain attention on important issues she wanted to
address
o (semi) human figure rendered with extreme realism
 makes the distortions that much more gruesome
o wounded and distorted figures disturb sanctity of human body & the right to
completeness
 suffering of the nation is communicated through and contained by the
violated human body

Willie Bester
 achieved great success in way he combines three-dimensional material from the real
world with two-dimensional representations
o believed that art meant depicting the natural surroundings
o did not know that a message could be created through a work, especially a political
one
 wanted to further his art studies, since he knew from a young age that he wanted to create
art, but he found that most art institutions were reserved for white people only.
o found the Community Arts Project in Cape Town
 here, he discovered another way of art
 fellow students were expressing themselves and their feelings about
Apartheid
 were very much involved in the political struggle against
Apartheid, creating posters and having discussions on issues
beyond the borders, such as massacres the SADF used to carry out
 these activities influenced him greatly
 he realized what he could do with his art
 started creating works on the same theme
 found a special personal meaning by focusing on the townships, as he had
lived in the situation and had personal experiences to compliment his
works
 started creating works on the themes we are familiar with today
 critical environment of the art school inspired him to produce two works:
o Forced Removals
o Don't Vote
 protested the injustices of the Group Areas Act and the racial composition
of the apartheid voters' roll

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  medium he chose to express these themes of protest: a collage of waste
material and conventional artistic forms, collected from township waste
 since become his hallmark
 success of these first explorations with "mixed-media collage" and
in the physical and symbolic use of township waste:
 encouraged Bester to pursue his career as an artist.
 Forced Removals:
o Protests against Group Areas Act
o depicts a scene common to many township and squatter camp residents during the
Apartheid era:
 forced removal of people from their makeshift or permanent homes at the
hands of the government
 removals were usually sudden and violent, with police and soldiers
entering the townships
 was often a very painful and emotional time for those families
forced to leave their homes with only the possessions they could
carry
 his interest and involvement in political issues has not diminished
 still addressing many pertinent and confrontational issues.
 works with mixed-media collages using a vast range of materials which portray layers of
meaning
o combines the use of oil paints with photographs he has taken himself and from the
media
 then combines these elements with discarded objects he has found in and
around the townships of Cape Town, South Africa.

Manfred Zylla
 As a child, lived through the devastation of WW2 and its aftermath.
 Was a lecturer and organizer at the Community Arts Project (CAP) in Woodstock
 very involved in the Resistance struggle
 was highly critical of Apartheid in his resistance works
 his art became his tool to show the inequalities and the atrocities experienced by people
living under the effects of Apartheid
 he makes a strong social commentary on the Apartheid conditions in South Africa
 always been committed to using art as a tool for change
 believes that artists should fight injustices
 many of his works have theme of effect on the young of living in the brutalized society of
South Africa
 does not want to create pretty pictures, rather wants to make one conscious of the
shortcomings and injustices in society
 never studied art normally
o was trained in lithography
 influenced his meticulous precision and the care in his work

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 feeling of his drawings often reminds us of newspaper photos
 committed socialist
o has always been a politically and socially aware artist
o extremely concerned about the destiny of humanity and the future of the planet
 Art for him:
o tool for social change
o not about pretty pictures.
 Bullets & Sweets, Pencil and Watercolor
o SA Defence Force was used by Apartheid government in townships to suppress
resistance
o Shooting, beatings and arrest of suspected resistance fighters made the army
feared in the townships
o Strange turn of events:
 leaders of the Defence Force wanted to be loved by the township children in
spite of the usually monstrous behaviour towards them.
 Sometimes, army would send soldiers into the townships to distribute
leaflets telling the people that they were their friends
 would also hand out sweets and play soccer with the children
 press was usually invited report on these events in the next day’s
newspapers.
o Zylla used these events to create a powerful diptych:
 right panel:
 dominated by a brawny soldier with a half-smile on his face
o viewed from below
o has a huge presence as he looks down the barrel of his gun
o row of bullets emerges from his crotch
o in his bag:
 a Cape Dutch homestead
 a sausage on a fork
 reference to his heritage
 soldier is, however, not shooting bullets but sweets which lie at the
feet of a small group of township children
 left hand panel:
 children are terrified and bewildered by the ominous presence of
the soldier and are ignoring the sweets
o shielding themselves against anticipated blows
o ready to run away
 sweets are also seen at the top
o form a type of frame for the scene
 row of army vehicles is seen at the top right
 soldier in this work portrays a sense of detachment as he performs his
duties, in comparison to very expressive faces of the school children
 a fairly naturalistic depiction of figures

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  but with a distorted viewpoint especially when seen in the figure of
the soldier
 strong contrast of monochromatic tones
 use of the diptych:
 implies that the soldier and the children come from two different
worlds linked only by the sad reality of the gun
 overwhelming effect is similar to a newspaper photograph
 Death Trap, Pencil on Paper
o drew this pencil diptych to give his take on a particular event
 top half:
 truck with a distorted box filled with shooting policemen
o figures are squashed into a confined space
o happily laughing and smirking
o showing no remorse for what they have done
 bottom half:
 shows how the wheels of the truck are driving over images of
human shadows
o these shadows represent the people who were killed and
injured on that day
 a square image is illustrated below the truck on top of the black
figures:
o shows a drawing of Michael Miranda with only his head
visible
 drawing was done from photographs Zylla took at
the funeral
 use of the diptych format:
 to distinguish between the perpetrators at the top and the victims
below
o scratchy pencil marks help to create a feeling of discomfort in the viewer.

Penelope Siopis
 80s:
o was known for her baroque "history paintings" and pastels
o gradually used increasing number of found objects to make work that commented
on colonialism, gender, and discriminatory practises of all kinds.
 Later in career:
o incorporated video works, site-specific installations and printmaking.
 initially attracted critical attention while still a graduate student at Rhodes University
o but was the individualistic paintings of the early 1980s (studies of formalized table-
tops, each displaying one or several luscious pastries) — that hinted that there was
more to Siopis' artistic vision than was apparent at first glance
o this impression deepened as she progressively transformed the formal
seriousness of the table settings in which the cakes were displayed
 Table Setting, Oil on Canvas, 1984

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 o thick application of paint to these objects imitates texture of lace cloths and doilies
 used a domestic icing-syringe
o literally wove the patterns out of thick paint
o "ices" these surfaces with thick creamy paint that physically builds up the paint
and texture, but also adds to the material qualities of the work:
 paint could be seen as a metaphor for human skin
 like skin, the paint is firm and flexible when it is applied, but with
age it dries out and become wrinkled
o she is fascinated by painting itself and the actual processes of painting
 concept of actual paint being a symbol of skin and that this represents the
actual subject
 perhaps the reason for the strength that this work embodies
o masterly merges both technique and content within her works
o at first glance, no more than still-life studies
 but, in the intricate detail of the fine lace and brocades that cover these
tables you become aware of the feminine associations Adding to this:
 use of food as a metaphor for sex comments ironically on male
artists, such as Wesselman, that introduced appetizing eats as
visual puns on the woman's feminine endowments.
o Perception of woman as sex-object is not the only stereotype visible in this work’s
ambiguous depiction
 also makes reference to the stereotypical perception of "women's work"
such as cake-baking, table-setting and lace-tatting
o refers to gender identity and self-affirmation which emerges from behind the veil
of the deceptive surface subject matter
 Melancholia, Oil on Canvas, 1988
o Subject:
 cavernous interior space (based on photos of the Johannesburg Civic Hall)
 decorated with statues
 containing tables laden with an eclectic mix of food and objects
such as cakes, fruit, a stuffed ape, candles, proteas, shells, ect.
o Right: one of Michelangelo's slave sculptures
o scene is rendered in an illusionism that conveys the theme of artificiality
foreground:
 overflowing
 runs out on endless spaces in the background
o colors:
 overripe
 warm
o work includes objects such as mirrors, perfume bottles and other articles found on
a woman’s dressing table
 associated with women through the centuries
o almost every object carries an allegorical meaning that calls for decoding by the
spectator:

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  eg, hourglass symbolizing the passing of time
o implicit sexuality:
 luscious sweetmeats, shells and opened fruits
 almost every object comments directly or symbolically on sexuality - the
woman giving birth, the ripe fruit, the lilies etc.
o although the woman is strongly present in the mirrors, the statue of Venus etc., the
man is also included in the slave statue & other phallic symbols.
o atmosphere of deterioration and decadence pronounced in the hot, over-ripe
colors of the objects:
 hourglass + thick paint, implies imminent decay
 overripe fruit on the brink of rotting: painted so thickly that it cast shadows,
contrasts with the stippled background
o inclusion of a self-portrait:
 personalizes the event portrayed
 in mirror on the right:
 Siopis herself— the only person (all the others are statues)
o She’s an onlooker gazing at excess
 A spectator, not a participant
o was produced during a period of unrest in South Africa
 creates feeling of unease in the viewer
o curtain:
 hangs heavily over her scene of inactivity and decay
 emphasizes the theatricality & stage-like effect
o artificial interior:
 everything is artfully arranged
 everything has own place and meaning
o no daylight enters the scene
o painting comments on the excess of our civilization
o a still lifeless scene

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 Question 5: Post – Democratic SA Art
Background:

o 1994:
o SA cast aside centuries of discrimination & oppression
o Moved towards forming a new society built on the foundation of freedom &
democracy
o Marked the end of Apartheid rule
o Introduced a new Constitutional order, wherein everyone was to work
together towards a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic &
prosperous society.
o Focus of artists could be on addressing other issues in society because
Apartheid was over.

Jane Alexander
o Stripped (“Oh Yes” Girl), 1995; Plaster, lace, twine, calico, hair, oil paint, synthetic
nails & steel support
o based on two prostitutes who worked near the home of the artist
 Alexander describes One as the "Happy Sex worker" and the other
as the "Unhappy sex worker"
 Alexander began thinking about how women deal with situations
such as their situations of oppression.
 She ascertained that women are survivors, above all else
o deals with suffering and female mutilation
o can be seen as 'the woman’
 a manufactured object
 neither alive nor dead
o filled with ambiguities:
 character simultaneously seducer (long nails) and victim
 an object of fascination and abuse
 very beautiful but also very terrible.
o experience of mutilation and suffering:
 very strong in this piece
o nude female figure hanging by her armpits on a metal armature
 unable to support herself
 pose that reminds one of the crucifixion:
 hanging position
 serene face
 hands with the palms turned upwards
 crossed feet
o fact that she is being 'crucified':
 symbolizes suffering & fact that she is an

innocent victim
o propped on a replica of an original Barbie doll stand
 doll = manufactured object:
 something played with then discarded
o Is this the experience of women too?
o Head:
 detached & sewn onto her body like that of a doll
 detachable, as if she is able to forget what happens to the rest of her body
 head fits like a sculptural chest over the collarbone from which the
nearly Roman Catholic-like lacework grows
 emphasizes religious nature of work
o collar of lace:
 masks the marks of the stitches
 image that is both feminine and religious
 emphasises religious nature of the work
 seems as if the lace was painfully stitch on her with visible, carefully
worked stitches
 could also refer to the attempt of a woman still to appear
feminine
o feeling of mutilation is also seen in the rendering of the hair:
 been implanted unto prepared holes in her head (again like a doll)
 not been completed:
o holes over her scalp
o plaster cast sections of body been imperfectly joined to reveal method of
construction used in creating the figure
o In spite of her suffering and mutilation, face is calm and reflective
 as if removed from her circumstances
o an innocence about her:
 closed eyes which create the idea of a saint in ecstasy / melancholia
o many meanings can be read into the work:
 economic and sexual exploitation of women
 idea of a woman as a doll
 the experience of suffering and mutilation (also self-inflicted such as in
cosmetic operations)
o flesh been left unworked in places & tattered bandage shows through.
o deep scarring:
 Knees
 Stomach
 along the spine
o she is ghostly white
o stitching on the inside of her arms, at the back of her legs, and at her spine:
 reminds one of a corpse, ready for experimentation
o Also evident:
o reality that suffering can bring with it beauty of spirit.
 Integration programme Man with TV, Mixed Media, 1995
o a man obviously from a rural area has come into the city in search of a better life
 uncomfortably dressed in what appears to be his Sunday best

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  he is visibly nervous
 a misfit in the quick and sharp culture of the city
 makes him a victim, in his poverty and ill preparedness for city life
o he might also become a victim of the violence of township life
 stares vacantly at a television screen on which a sequence is shown over and over
again.
o on screen:
 a white man looks at himself in a mirror while standing in a street;
 straightens his tie
 about to turn away but notices something is not right
 turns back to the mirror, straightens his tie again and has to start from the
beginning, and so the film goes on
 creates sense of suspension:
o both men are restless and waiting but we are not sure why they
are they waiting
o work also refers to:
 the unfamiliar personal relationship between black and white
 the difficulty to adapt to the brand new roles laid upon the two different cultures
in a democratic South Africa
o 'integration' in the title:
 points to racial integration which attempted to end the systematic discrimination
based on one’s racial identity in order to create equal opportunity for every citizen
o sad, melancholy atmosphere:
 the black man who, after all the years of struggling must now try to fit into society
for which he is not prepared
o a multi-media artwork:
 real objects such as the suitcase and TV are part of the artwork
 viewer can enter the space between these objects.

Conrad Botes
 born in 1969 in Western Cape
 has an MA Fine Arts & a Diploma in Second Phase Illustration
 Influences: Neo-Pop (the renewed interest of Pop Art)
 Bitterkomix:
o adult comic book he started in university
o a dark and biting critique of the conservative, Afrikaner cultural mainstream in
which he was raised
o content has shifted over the years as South Africa has changed
o continues to combine eroticism, violence and the absurd to question stereotypes
around gender, sexuality, race and domesticity.
 Characteristic of his style:
o use of a sharp, graphic line filled with flat colour
o colour is bold & often glaring
o one of his strong points: his use of composition;
 often uses repetition of shapes, images, etc. in his work.
o work is also often divided into a grid to contain different scenes in each block
 use of the grid comes from his extensive work in comics

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 o style is direct and clear with emphasis on the images
 often uses reverse glass painting:
o paints in front and behind a piece of glass
 works done in this technique:
 seem flat and artificial
 do not have texture
 often do not look like paintings
 Botes talks about this technique as ‘anti-painting' as it is lowbrow,
primitive and naive.
 creates a similar look to comics with the black lines on glass and
colour in reverse.
 His work can be seen as a type of post-Pop Art:
o combines different recognisable images from popular culture. the history of art
and society in general to comment on South African society, politics and religion
o often combines the humorous with disturbing subject matter to create biting
satires.
 talks about his work as a post-mortem of the society and culture in which he grew up.
o As a white Afrikaans boy coming of age in the late 1970s and 80s, his imagination is
embedded with the evils of Apartheid, with its power and repression, the violence
and anarchy of the times and the moralising role of the Dutch Reformed Church
 makes these themes his own:
o uses a comic aesthetic + dark humour to reflect on the
continuing contradictions in society
 work is a critique of the Christian Afrikaner Nationalist identity with which he grew up
o attacks the patriarchal forms of authority which secured the Apartheid
government
o uses his own identity as an Afrikaner to attack the Afrikaner institutions, values
and morals he does not agree with
o attack is from the inside and rips apart the sense of control
o his touch is deadly, yet light and funny,
 work also comments on the loss of power and identity experienced by Afrikaners under the
new ANC government
o in this way he makes the identity of Afrikaners visible as biting satire is directed at
South African society, politics and religion
 work deals with power and its abuses
 there are no sacred cows for Botes;
o he deals with them directly and with humour
 his protest art lies in his attack on false values, racial conflict and cultural traditions,
 he uses post-pop's preference for ‘sugary infantilism' (a seemingly childlike style) to
reflect on contemporary society and issues of race, religion, violence and sex.
 a master of using and mixing images, his iconography is complex
o in his work: flowers are often wounds and birds are omens of doom, detached
hands refer to creativity.
 Everything is Beautiful, 2002, Oil on Glass

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 o used a grid to create four squares:
 In three of the squares:
 same portrait of a woman appears, although colouring differs in
each
 recalls the work of the pop artist, Andy Warhol, with his multiple
views of figures
o top left square:
 woman surrounded by clouds
 heart-like wound on her face
o top right square:
 4 circles superimposed on her
 in one circle:
o a famous Goya etching recreated with Mickey Mouse &
Goofy replacing the corpses
 two other circles:
o man slouching on a couch
o portrait of a man with blood on his neck
 Also in this panel:
 man holding his head and standing in a pool of blood
o bottom left square:
 African Statues superimposed on the woman
 Central in this square:
 A rendition of Pieta
o in this scene, Christ is a black man
o bottom right square:
 3 men in suits
 however, they’re upside down
 superimposed on them:
o 3 sketchy faces
o work was done on glass
 resulted in the flat look of the work
o unity created through:
 repeating images & colors
o Botes never gave explanation of work, as always
o Title seems ironic:
 everything is not beautiful in this work with its injured and dead people
 work therefore refers to violence in society and also to religion
o 3 upside down white men:
 could refer to the Afrikaner male in the new South Africa — they have lost
the position of power.
 Terrible Things Are About to Happen, 2003, Reverse Glass Painting
o circular work
o a reverse glass painting:
 results in flat appearance

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o shapes:
 simplified to basic line drawings
 overlapped, creating a shallow sense of space
o only form indicated by:
 massed lines in some of the images
 use of perspective in the drawing of the building at the bottom of the work
o colour:
 seems unplanned, arbitrary and quite sweet in its pastel codes
o no real focal point
 viewers eye continuously scans the work
o floating images are contained in a circular format
 although disparate and differing in scale, there is a sense of order.
o Images:
 borrowed from different sources (magazines, comics & history of art)
o simple naive style:
 makes for easy consumption by general public
o main upper image:
 Botes' personal rendition of the Pieta sculpture by Michelangelo with figure
having the head of a devil draped across Mary’s knees
o lower section:
 has a larger scale female head overlaid over a line drawing of a building /
factory
o Other images:
 Mermaid
 military figure
 army figures with guns
 a white snake over the Pieta image
o no one definite interpretation of this work
o many viewers might be shocked at first glance by his ‘disrespectful’ use of
religious symbols
o combination of religious symbols with images of violence (the soldiers) & the
authority figure:
 relates to how religion is often used to justify a political system
o Botes has often attacked the moralising role of the Dutch Reformed Church in his
upbringing:
 In Apartheid South Africa, the system of racial segregation was often
proclaimed as based on Christian values
o title can also help with the interpretation of the work:
 ‘Terrible things are about to happen’ relates to how, when things are used
in the wrong way, they could lead to terrible things (symbolised by the
snake?)
o mermaid is shedding a tear & baby is shown with a knife
 viewer needs to take time to look at the images and their relationships to
form an opinion.

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Berni Searle
 Colour Me, 1998, Colour Photograph
o series of photographic works
o exhibited as installations in various formats
o Searle began to explore topics of race, heritage, memory and identity in a more
personal direction.
o photographer (Jean Brundit) commissioned to record Searle's private
performances
 lay down on her back; her body prostrate
 was then covered with a layer of spice
 Bright yellow turmeric, blood red paprika, brown cloves and white
pea flour were used alternately in this process.
o Photographs:
 close-ups of her face
 show colour and texture of the spices in contrast with her hair, skin, ears
and eyes.
 were deliberately taken to create a specific impression
 were not simply a series of documentations of Searle's experience of being
covered in a variety of spices.
 seductive and brightly coloured
 seem like glamorous fashion photographs
 closer inspection:
 notice layer of spice uncomfortably covers Searle's mouth & is very
close to her nose, which inhibits breathing properly.
o layer of spice becomes like a mask, obscuring artist's true
identity.
 eyes are open in all photographs
 position of her head & eyes change significantly in each photograph
 photographs with the brown cloves and the red paprika:
 show her with her eyes turned directly towards the viewer in what
seems to be a challenging or accusing stare
 In photograph with white pea flour:
 lay looking ahead of her
 seems to be cut off from what is happening around her,
 creates feeling of vulnerability.
 feeling of defencelessness:
 also visible in photograph with yellow turmeric:
o she looks indirectly at the vicinity where the photographer
and therefore the viewer would be
o part of her shoulder & naked breast is exposed in this
photograph; further emphasises effect of vulnerability.
o In this series, seems as if Searle presented herself to be inspected or observed
 as if in a laboratory where specimen or corpse placed under the spotlight
for dissection or identification

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  effect reinforced in one of the versions of the Colour Me photographic
installations, titled Red, Yellow, Brown:
 images are full length photographs of her face and body
 also incorporated boxes of the spices underneath the photograph
 included photographic colour test charts:
o are slightly out of focus
o could not be used properly due to weak technical quality
 viewer presented with variety of interpretations
about idea of colour & process of colour
classification through inclusion of the actual spices
+ the colour charts.
o title of series (Colour Me):
 crucial to interpretation
 most basic of racial stereotyping evoked through comparative use of the
four colours of spices next to Searle's skin
 by stating Colour Me, she is questioning & challenging the viewer's concept
of race and skin colour
o continual use of her own body in other works such as Snow White:
 testimony of:
 fact that these works represent a very personal process of dealing
with the experiences of living in South Africa as a woman who,
because of the historic discriminatory practices of racial
classification is not described as white or black
 how Searle continued this process of interrogation of racial
categories, classification through colour and her personal
heritage.

Lisa Brice
 explores gender issues & the dehumanising of women in themes ranging from prostitution
to stereotypes.
 Violence and the threat of violence (domestic, sexual, personal, global or social) are
constant themes in her work.
 Sex Show Works, 1993, Mixed Media
o drawn from her exposure to the notorious sex entertainment industry of Bangkok
o examined the inherent degradation of women who serve as a means of holiday
relaxation for wealthy male tourists drawn to a world in which sex with under-age
girls is the norm
o she was shocked by the exploitative situation where many of the young girls had
been swapped by their parents for items like TV sets
o these works relate to gender issues and the dehumanising of women
o In the Sex Show Works exhibition, viewers found themselves confronted by:
 the ‘Sex Kittens’
 nine of them
 lined up on the walls

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  crawling forwards
o based on images from men’s magazines
 sexually provocative in their kneeling postures.
 Interesting:
o their faces consist only of pouting lips, while the rest is amputated
o brainless sex machines
 no background
o seem to be sexual toys until one looks at the surface imagery;
 the come-on seductiveness of the pose is completely contradicted by the
messages given by reading the surface imagery.
 first group:
o shows enlarged microscopic images of venereal diseases.
o After first glance, pretty pictures change into something frightening once one
realises that as in ‘Sex Kitten (Aids Virus) Don't Fuck with Me’, a red Aids Virus
Covers the body which contrasts with the red fishnet stockings and red lipstick.
 second group:
o covers financial aspect of the sex industry as in ‘Sex Kitten Cheap Cheap’ where
surface shows a $100 bill & a French franc.
 Plastic Makes Perfect:
o Investigates:
 female stereotypes
 origin of these stereotypes
 how they enter a woman's self-image
o The Barbie doll:
 stereotypical image of a woman
 well-known to Western women who grew up with one of these dolls and
strove to look like her
 Barbie with swelling breasts, small waist, long legs & soft hair:
 a combination of a woman's ideal proportions, without considering
the real person within.
o In this series, Barbie dolls were placed in large exhibition cases with vinyl images
on the glass.
o The Barbie dolls create interesting patterns:
 stand in rows or are shown with wide open legs
o become a symbol of women who are seen as dolls.
o vinyl images on top change the meaning
 e.g. a profile drawing of a red brain — that the brain and thus the
individuality of the woman is not recognised.
o hand with currency notes:
 shows importance of money in eg, prostitution
o colour:
 typically feminine
 pink dolls with the red Images on top
o title:

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  refers to the dolls with their seemingly ideal shape but also to how plastic
the ideal woman should be after cosmetic procedures.
 Make Your Home Your Castle, 1995, Mixed Media
o mixed media installation
o explores suburban paranoia & fear of violation
o parodies the frightening security measures required for protection in a society
characterised by extremes of wealth and poverty
o consists of :
 ‘drawings’ of metal living-room furniture (similar to burglar bars)
 a front doormat enquiring: Alarm On?
 On soft pale pillows, embroidered phone numbers of state & private
security systems
o Implication: one cannot sleep until one has locked oneself in, turned on the alarm,
set the dogs loose and put a gun under the pillow.
 What is a Home without a Mother? 1995, Mixed Media
o in this work:
 Home (a refuge and the center of our lives) is under threat
 threat comes from social instability and a rising crime rate
 a large cut-out figure of a woman covered in printed linoleum scrubbing a
floor
 wears a gun in a holster
 material used for figure’s body & clothing: linoleum. often used for kitchen
floors.
 Material & meaning:
 intricately linked in this work
 woman = a typical domestic goddess' on her knees scrubbing floors which
also perpetuates a stereotypical view of women as cleaners.
Penelope Siopis

 The Shame series, 2002-2005, lacquer, oil, enamel paint

o monumental installation of 90 small-scale works exploring acts of violence
inflicted on the bodies of young girls
o sensuous beauty:
 lacquered, dripping surfaces
 intensity of glossy red
o incorporates mass produced rubber stamps declaring 'I am sorry' & other
sentiments delivered as light and pretty but masking a lingering horror
o works are executed in reds, pinks and browns:
 stand for carnal mess;
 a series of spills & stains
o Siopis described these works as ‘poetics of vulnerability'.
 refer to the shame as a state of disgust - a feeling of losing one's dignity in
full view of others

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 o threatened, sexed body of girl = central communicates the violence of rape and
abuse
o In South Africa the statistics for rape and abuse are very high.
 Often kept quiet, because of the perceived shame of the victim.
o Each of these works shows interference/ intrusion with the body;
 speaks of aggression, fear, death, etc.
o pink and red = flesh and blood
o strong connection between the images and words
o glass paint and letter stamp:
 speak of homely crafts
 ironic in these works.
 ‘I’m Sorry’ words:
 stamped out of the head of a small nude girl watching how she
bleeds in a large pool
 Other phrases:
 'Thank you for sharing this special day with us between a pair of
thin legs of a child.
 'To a special father is repeated next to the face.
 At times the words become bruises and wounds on the bodies.
 clichés of typical greeting cards change in meaning & expose a
violent society

Diane Victor
 South African artist & printmaker
 known for satirical + social commentary of contemporary South African politics
 received her BA Fine Arts Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg
 lectured at universities across SA
 her work uses the figure, often her own self-portrait, to create complex narratives:
o relating to contemporary South Africa and to the more global crisis of war,
corruption and violence in both the public, political and in private life.
 She depicts reality fraught with injustice, revealing the complexity of contemporary
existence.
 uses historical and mythological references as a platform to insert South African
narratives, fusing a recognisable storyline with new characters and South African
subjects.
 Disasters of Peace series, Etching, 2001 - 2010
o directly references Francisco de Goya's Disasters of War
 evokes Goya's criticism of the atrocities of war while demonstrating the
continuation of violence after war, and in the case of South Africa, after the
end of apartheid. Highlights overlooked & everyday violence
o draws attention to this contemporary desensitised gaze or tolerance of violence
 Smoke drawings & portraits

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o explore subjects often overlooked, for example South African prisoners awaiting
trial and missing children.
o capture individuals caught in a vulnerable moment, an idea reinforced through the
impermanent nature of the medium of smoke
o uses drawing media to capture both the subject's portrait and vulnerable condition
that is somehow in between presence and absence
o Victor is attracted to the direct correlation between the fragility of human life and
the susceptibility of the physical image.
 was interested in the extremely fragile nature of these human lives and of
all human life, attempting to translate this fragility into portraits made
from a medium as impermanent as smoke itself.

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