Marina Abramovic
Relation in Time
16mm film still from performance in Bologna, Italy 1977
Orginially performed in 1977 for 17 hours at Studio G7
Visual metaphor
Early performance art with partner Ulay
Marina Abramovic
Balkan Baroque
Video installation & mixed media, MoMA, NYC 2010
Three channel 24 minute color video, cow bones, copper sinks, & tub filled with black water, bucket, soap, metal brush, dress stained with blood
Ai Weiwei
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn
Digital print in 3 parts
1995
Provocative Chinese artist in performace, dropping an ancient Han Dynasty urn
Photo documents also published bearing sarcastic text So Sorry emblazoned across them
Asking what is the value of art?
Member design team for Bird's Nest, Beijing Olympics Political activist later fell from grace, jailed by his government
Ai Weiwei
Sunflower Seeds
Temporary installtion at Tate Modern in London
2010
100 million illusionistic porcelain sunflower seeds all hand-painted by contracted workers in a single Chinese town, his homage to traditional craft
Matthew Barney
From Cremaster 1 (part of his series of independently produced films), production still
Spent youth in Idaho & returned to high school stadium to stage piece
Performances by artist-director-producer of extravaganzas recalling mid-century Hollywood musicals
Adopts assorted personae
Questions idendity, gender, etc.
Louise Bourgeois
Maman
steel and marble
30x29x33 ft
1990
From series of similar large-scale female spider forms in assorted media
figurative abstraction
influential feminist French artist with long international career experimenting with many materials
Chris Burden
Urban Light
permanent installation
200 found object antique cast iron streetlamps in a grid
LACMA's Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Los Angelas
2008
Earlier in career, became notorious for Performance Art
Maurizio Cattelan
Him
wax, human hair, suit, polyester resin (alternative media & found object)
2001
Artist as Bad Boy, as provocateur who enjoys the outrage of the audience
After successful recent Guggenheim Museum retrospective, claimed he would now retire early from making art
Maurizio Cattelan
The Ninth Hour
installation
1999
Illustionistic fabricated elements used with found object elements
Pope John Paul II
Italian artist known for humorously skewering authority and historical figures. Said peice was "a reminder that all power has an expiration date"
Francesco Clemente
Moon
tempera (egg-based paint) on handmade paper mounted on muslin
96x91 in (large for work on paper)
made up of 12 seperate attached sheets of handmade paper
much of his content is autobiographical
visual metaphor
italian (with studios in India and NYC), influenced by Indian street signage
Francesco Clemente
Miniature, tempera paint/paper
6x8in
Strong influence from tradional India mini abstraction in this image, even as artist included a very modern looking phone
Recalls loneliness of the ex-pat, of life abroad
Tara Donovan
(Untitled)
temporary installation
alternative materials/found objects
2003
Styrofoam cups and glue
organic forms
Janet Echelman
She Changes
architectural fiber
2005
Work installed at waterfront, Portugal
Early influence on artist: watching fishermen tie nets in India. Collaborated with them in her original designs for durable, flexible, large scale forms.
Crossover to architecture
Viola Frey
Earthenware (ceramic) 87 in tall
1982
Larger than life size ceramic figures
Height significant because of technical difficulties of large scale in clay
One of early influential CA artists who moved towards sculpture, expanding clay beyond small, utilitarian ware
Ann Hamilton
Accountings
Site specific installation
1992
Transformed entire exhibition space
floor covered with steel tokens
walls drawn on with candle soot (alternative media)
Molded wax votive heads filled vitrine
200 canaries flew free
Ann Hamilton
Privation and Excesses
Installation with performance art
1989
Alternative media (honey) with found objects (pennies)
Artist often a silent presence in her installations (in some of her works, she enlists other solo performers to sit quietly)
Away from the Flock
Found object in fabricated case (steel/glass/formaldehyde)
Work in a series ft animals
other work in this series is This Little Piggy Went to Market, This Little Piggy Stayed Home
Motorized (kinetic) to slide back and forth
Anish Kapoor
Cloud Gate
Permanent feature of Chicago's Millennium Park
2006
Public Art (frequently a fraught enterprise, but this peice was well recieved by public, artists, and critics)
Reflective surface shows off city's artchitecture and residents
Site specific
Interior swirls upwards, offering distorted reflections
one of a series of projects, experiemtns with mini architecture
Anish Kapoor
A Flower, A Drama Like Death
1986
Intense primary color pigments and simple organic forms typical of this series
UK artist whose vivid colors influenced by spices in markets and clothing of his native India
William Kentridge
Stills from recent animation by South African artist
Water based media on found object book pages with collage
Mixes figuratie abstraction with non-objective forms and with text
Anselm Kiefer
Isis and Osiris
oil, acrylic emulsion, clay, porcelain, lead copper wire and circut board on canvas
12x18ft
1985-87
Alternative materials with found objects
Alternative methods: blowtorch, ax, etc used in producing heavily textured canvases
Architectural forms are a critique of triumphalism of Nazi architectural design and reference the Holocaust
Margaret Kilgallen
Temporary site specific installation; LA parking garage
Hard-edge
figurative abstraction
retro aesthetic
was part of the California street art scene
Deceased
Jeff Koons
Balloon Dog (Red) & on wall Moon
High chromium stainless steel with transparent color (creates illusion of soft, air filled party material)
1994-2000
Series of dogs marketed in editions in different colors
Artist as celebrity appropriates forms from mass culture
Kitsch
contracts out fabrication of his 2d and 3d work, relinquishing role of artist as maker
Barry McGee
Site specific painted mural/installation on his studio facade
Bay Area artists
figurative abstraction
has parallel art practice: street artist AKA Twist paints for free while he conducts a separte high-end gallery and museum career
Widower of Margaret Kilgallen (some stylistic cross-influence)
Barry McGee
installation
1998-2002
Mixed media with found objects
Drew atop found paper elements (old hand-drawn shop signage, song sheets, etc)
Inserted works in junk store frames and presented as wall full of related images in his various installations
Kerry James Marshall
Untitled (Altgeld Gardens)
Unstretched canvas
1995
From large series of monumental paintings, each ft imagined scenes from a different Chicago public housing project
Recalls with some irony the optimism of early mid century social experiments in city planning
Kerry James Marshall
De Style
Acrylic and collage on unstretched canvas
1993
African American artist adopts the heroic scale of tradional history paintings
Images convey diginity and importance of his individual subjects and asserts their right to have their portriats featured in museum collections
Flat areas of composition an homage to 20th century abstraction
PO + KO Surrealism (Green)
acrylic on board
1999
figurative abstraction
hard edge painting
influence from anime & other contemporary pop forms
Takashi Murakami
Installation
Geffen Contemporary Museum
LA
2007
Japanese artist mines pop culture
Kitsch
mass produced platic merchandise one influence
Shirin Neshat
Rebellious Silence
Black/white photo
11x14in
self portriat with face altered with Farsi text by contemporary women poets writing about martyrdom and the Revolution
1994
Iranian born US artist looking at woman's place in culture
Visual art as political activism
Shirin Neshat
Munis and Revolutionary Man
C-print & ink including performance
Feminist narrative
Tony Oursler
Let's Switch
installation with small crudely fabricated stuffed forms he then alters by video projection
Videotapes actors speaking lines from his scripts
Makes characters switch positions by alternation projectsion on the 2 cloth dummies
Example of postmodern artist crossing boundaries between visual art and theater
Tony Oursler
Dum-Dum
Video installation
Milan
2007
Subject: the horrors of war
Videos presented (ironically) in a funhouse like atmosphere intended to make visitor off balance
Cornelia Parker
Anti-Mass
Installation
Alternative materials (including burnt wood) with wire and string
Found fragments (from burnt KY church)
Some illusion of movement, where static peices appear animated
UK artist
Richard Prince
Untitled (Cowboy)
Ektacolor photographic print
24x20in
Appropriation of images from mass culture, especially advertising
Raises questions about ownership of image and of originality in art in artist's recasting models then meticulously rephotographing Marlboro cigarette ads
Commentary on myth of the west and masculinity
Also did The Blue Cowboys piece
Martin Puryear
The Nightmare
red cedar (painted)
2001-2002
Experience as Peace Corps volunteer exposed him to tradional African crafts and apprach to materials and vessels influencing froms such as this
Some works construted without power tools
Artist cites early influence from his family's knowledge of boat and furniture making
Neo Rauch
Waiting for the Barbarians
Oil/canvas
2007
Born in E. Germany, year before the Berlin Wall divided his country
Chose to remain in Leipzig after reunification
Enigmatic, layered images with implied but unclear narratives. Influcences from retro adveritising, comics and from early, noble-worker-Soviet-era propaganda images of his youth
plays with scale
Neo Rauch
Felson
oil on canvas
20x16in
2001
Gerhard Richter
Atlas Sheet 399: Still Lives
6 color photos
German artist known for eclecticism
Avoids restricting himself to a style, medium, etc.
Candle image reused in his large Photorealist oil canvases
Richard Serra
7 rolled steel plate sculptures
Installation at Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
Steel 2" thick, but gives false impression material is easily manipulated
US sculptor in this series crosses line between sculpture and architecture, forming (sometimes uncomfortably) narrow passageways for visitor to follow
Do-Ho Suh
Seoul Home/LA Home/NY Home/Baltimore Home/London Home/Seattle Home
Silk
Meditation by widely travelled Koream artist on the meaning of home
Example of sculptor captivated by architecture as art form
Traditional material emplyed in contemporary visual metaphor
More concerned with conventional beauty than some contemporary artists
Do-Ho Suh
Part of a series in which artist finds beauty and nobility in military artifacts, in the art and art history of war
alternative material: commerically fabricated militaray IDs (dogtags) to build traditional vestment
Akio Takamori
Village People
20-36 in heights
stoneware
2000
japanese-american artist known for confident, intuitive tradional mastery of ink and bamboo brush, here used on 3d clay surface
Figurative abstraction
Pattern
Medium exploited for its sculptural (non-functional) potential
Ursula Von Rydingsvard
Laminated, carved cedar blocks, cast brozne, graphite
Aggressively carved organic abstract forms
Chain saws and fine hand tools both used executing large-scale pieces
Ironic she reassembles and re-forms lumber to make art which depicts trees
polish born spenct early years in WWII refugee camps
Jeff Wall
Staged photo
transparency in lightbox
Large scale intended to fill viewers vision
Backlighting offers illusion of real space
Photographer as designer, builder, director, etc
Implied narrative of abuse: vandalism of a woman's room
Canadian artist
Rachel Whiteread
Vienna Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial
Site specific
concrete cast form
Vienna square former site of synagogue. Area populated by Jews before some fled and other later evicted to death camps in WWII
UK sculptor crosses over into (modest-scale) Minimalist architecture
Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Orange Bath)
rubber, polystyrene
1996
Sculptor experiments widely with industrial materials
minimalist approach to design
Krzysztof (K) Wodiczko
Temporary projection on Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC
1988
Politically motivated Polish born US artist (Early illegal projects on govt bldgs in Eastern Europe put him in some jeopardy)
Calling public's attention to gun violence in US
visual metaphor
Krzysztof (K) Wodiczko
The Tijuana Projection
Projected video with audio on (globular-shaped) building at Mexico/US border
2001
Narrative art which highlights the plight of individual factory workers who, reading their own troubled stories aloud, had opportunity to broadcast their concerns to San Diego side of border
Large-scale work used to gain attention for his political concerns
Immigrant artist as socially engaged activist
Kitsch
Sentimentaltiy, tastelessness, tackiness
May refer to certain kinds of mass-produced items or to popular taste that displays such anti-high-art aesthetics, ex: a plaster verison of Durer's Praying Hands, sprayed with glitter
Appropriation
Taking and using some (major) element from art or non-art source without permission. In contemporary art, a trend in which visual content is lifted with or without attribution, which often makes the most of reference while changing context
ex: Paul McCarthy's (ironic) use of Disney's Pinocchio
Narrative (art)
Story, account of events
Art work concerned with story telling. Often this includeds animate figures. Some performance aspects in art we screened included narrative elements
Kinetic (art)
Related to, or caused by, or producing motion. In art, most often refers to sculpture with moving parts
Performance Art
Visual art experiment of past several decades which usually involves time, space, and artist's body in what may be scripted or spontaneous event. Many, but certainly not all, performance art pieces are presented in galleries.
In its purest form, the performance itself is the (however ephemeral) work of art, which may or may not have been documented. In may works we studied this semester, however, performance has been just one aspect on the way to creating the work we remember, i.e the photograph or video