[MATRIC] Conceptual art and contemporary international art (Credit to Marley) Flashcards
Question 3 of the exam. 5 Examples. Definitions of Conceptual art, land art, word art, photographic art, and installations (21 cards)
For what movement and in what year was ‘One and Three Chairs’ created? By who?
‘One and Three Chairs’ was created by Joseph Kosuth in 1965 and is a part of the conceptual art movement
Describe ‘One and Three Chairs’ by Joseph Kosuth
A folding chair, a photograph of a folding chair, and the dictionary definition of the word ‘chair’
What makes ‘One and Three Chairs’ conceptual?
The idea presented is prioritised over the artwork itself. Little regard is given to the aesthetic or craftsmanship of the piece
(Kosuth did not create anything presented)
What is the concept behind ‘One and Three Chairs’ by Joseph Kosuth?
The work aims to discuss the relationship between language, representation, and reality. By presenting these three forms side by side, Kosuth challenges viewers to consider: What is the “real” chair? The object, the image, or the idea?
Of what genre and in what year was ‘Spiral Jetty’ created? By who?
‘Spiral Jetty’ was created by Robert Smithson in 1970 and is a piece of land art
Describe ‘Spiral Jetty’ by Robert Smithson
A massive, counterclockwise spiral jetty extending into the shallow pink waters of the Great Salt Lake
How did Smithson explore the concepts of change and entropy in ‘Spiral Jetty’?
He viewed entropy as the concept that all things are in a state of decay, flux, or transformation.
The work is meant to change, erode, and even disappear under the water over time. It resists permanence and embraces natural decay as part of its identity.
Smithson was fascinated by patterns in nature. He found the spiral to be perfect as it was found in different parts of nature and represented growth, change, and entropy.
How does the nature of land art and location affect Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty’
The fact that the piece is free to visit and has become a part of the natural landscape challenges the typical notion that art is confined to galleries. (Anti-commodity)
The Jetty can sometimes be submerged, tying into the theme of constant change in the natural world.
The lake’s microbial pink water sometimes submerges or reveals the Jetty, creating an unpredictable and evolving artwork.
One can walk on the jetty, becoming part of it through physically impacting its surface. Alternatively, one must view the jetty from a nearby hill to properly see the spiral shape.
For what movement and in what year was ‘Untitled Film Still #19’ created? By who?
‘Untitled Film Still #19’ was created by Cindy Sherman in 1978 and is a part of the feminist art movement
Describe ‘Untitled Film Still #19’ by Cindy Sherman
A black and white photograph of a 1950s-style woman in a cityscape at a low angle, staring beyond the camera’s point of view.
How does Sherman incorporate feminism into ‘Untitled Film Still #19’?
By using the facade of a film still, Cindy Sherman makes commentary on how women are represented in media.
Sherman portrays the character of a woman in ‘the big city’. This purposefully vague role allows the viewer to relate to its narrative and understand its critique of society. The image critiques the limited roles available to women in visual culture.
How does Sherman use framing techniques to enhance ‘Untitled Film Still #19’?
Sherman stands slightly off-centre in a medium shot, looking upward and to the left, as if something or someone outside the frame has caught her attention, though her expression remains ambiguous.
Sherman confronts the viewer with a character who is both seen and seeing.
The camera is positioned at a low angle, making her appear larger and more powerful, yet also isolated.
What themes does ‘Untitled Film Still #19’ explore?
- Feminism
- Gender roles
- Laura Mulvey’s theory of the “male gaze”. The theory discusses how women are positioned as objects of desire or fear in cinema.
What is the context behind ‘Untitled Film Still #19’?
The Untitled Film Stills series (1977–1980) is one of the most important bodies of feminist art of the 20th century.
Created at a time when second-wave feminism was critiquing the media’s portrayal of women.
What is word art?
- Word art refers to a mode of visual or conceptual art in which language itself is treated as the central medium or subject. It occupies a unique space between text and image, communication and abstraction, often challenging traditional boundaries of what constitutes “art.”
- Word art is a form of visual or conceptual expression in which written or printed words are employed not merely for their semantic content, but as visual, material, and symbolic elements within an artwork.
- It often interrogates the nature of language, meaning, and representation.
Name a work that’s part of the ‘word art’ movement.
Protect me from what I want, 2010, by Jenny Holzer.
LED, light projection, many venues.
A large-scale, steel-supported LED billboard, utilising familiar city advertising technology to deliver a stark, introspective message - melding form and content to challenge consumerist spectacle.
- This work is a simple statement
presented to us in the manner of mass
advertising. - It is an ironic talk back to
advertising. - It creates a public art that
everyone who understands English can
grasp and easily understand. - It is isolated which makes it more likely to be
read and understood. - Holzer favored immediate
communication and broad distribution,
which for her came down to blunt,
pungently expressed thoughts conveyed
by cheap, ubiquitous means. - They change voice effortlessly, raise consciousness on various fronts and evoke specific, often
horrific situations.
What is performance art?
- Performance Art is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s, where the artist’s actions or bodies become the artwork itself.
- It often combines visual art with elements of theatre, dance, or music and is typically live, time-based, and ephemeral.
Performance art challenges traditional art forms and emphasises concepts, process, and audience interaction over permanent objects. - Notable artists include Marina Abramović, Allan Kaprow, and Joseph Beuys.
- It often explores themes like identity, politics, and the boundaries of the body and art
What is photographic art?
- Photographic Art of the mid-20th century evolved from purely documentary practices into a recognised fine art form.
- Artists began using photography to explore conceptual, political, and personal themes, often challenging ideas of truth and objectivity.
- This era saw experimentation with scale, technique, and presentation, integrating photography into movements like Conceptual Art and Postmodernism.
- Key figures include Cindy Sherman, Diane Arbus, Richard Long, and Bernd and Hilla Becher.
- Photographic art during this time emphasised authorship, narrative, and the constructed nature of images.
What is installation art?
- Installation Art is a contemporary art form that emerged prominently in the 1960s and 1970s, characterised by large-scale, immersive environments designed to transform a viewer’s perception of space.
- Unlike traditional art objects, installations are often site-specific and incorporate a variety of materials, including found objects, video, sound, and light.
- The viewer is meant to experience the work physically and emotionally by moving through or around it.
- Key artists include Yayoi Kusama, Joseph Beuys, and James Turrell.
- Installation art often explores themes such as identity, politics, environment, and the sensory experience.
What is Conceptual art?
- Conceptual Art is an art movement that gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, emphasising ideas and concepts over traditional aesthetic or material concerns.
- In this form, the concept behind the work is considered more important than the finished object itself.
- Artists often used everyday materials, text, diagrams, or instructions, challenging what art could be and how it could be experienced.
- Key figures include Sol LeWitt, Lawrence Weiner, and Joseph Kosuth.
- Conceptual art questioned authorship, the role of the artist, and the art market, often overlapping with other movements like performance, installation, and land art.
Name and describe a performance artwork.
Joseph Beuys 1921-1986
I Like America and America Likes Me1974
May 1974, when he spent three days in a room with a coyote.
- After flying into New York, he was swathed in felt and loaded into an ambulance, then driven to
the gallery where the Action took place,
without having once touched American
soil.
- As Beuys later explained: ‘I wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see nothing of America other than the coyote.’
- The title of the work is filled with irony.
- Beuys opposed American military actions in Vietnam, and his work as an artist was a challenge to the hegemony
of Americanart.
- Beuys’s felt blankets, walking stick and gloves became sculptural props throughout the Action.
- In addition, fifty new copies of the Wall Street Journal were introduced each day, which the
coyote acknowledged by urinating on them.
- Beuys regularly performed the same series of actions with his eyes continuously fixed on the coyote. At other times he would rest or gather the felt around him to suggest the figure of a shepherd with his crook.
- The coyote’s behaviour shifted throughout the three
days, becoming cautious, detached, aggressive and sometimes companionable.
- At the end of the Action, Beuys was again wrapped in felt and returned to theairport.
