Joseph Beuys, Explaining Pictures to a Dead Hare, performance art
Eva Hesse, untitled
Louise Bourgeois, Maman
Phillip Guston, Pit
Anselm Kieffer, Innerraum
Lucian Freud, Reflection (Self Portrait)
Chuck Close, Mark
Brice Marden, Cold Spring Mountain 6
Elizabeth Murray, Her Story
Jean Michel Basquiat, untitled (Head)
David Wojnarowicz, "When I Put My Hands On Your Body ..."
Christian Boltanski, Lessons of Darkness, installation
Ilya Kabakov, The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment, installation
Art Since 1965
Minimalism
earthworks
Post-Modern
installation art
performance art
graffiti
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson is a celebrity performance artist and composer. Now, she is most famous for being the widow of Lou Reed, but in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, she had a very large and loyal following as a performance artist.
"O Superman" was her big best-selling success. It remained largely unknown in the USA except to artists and art professionals, but it was number 2 on the charts in the UK and in Europe in 1981.
I watched her perform this piece for an audience of art students in Kansas City in a free concert in 1980. At the time, it sounded so excitingly new. Now, 33 years later, it sounds to me somewhat dated.
An injured person is evacuated after the recent massacre at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The gunmen killed 12 people including a number of the magazine's most famous artists and cartoonists. That's the risk in being an artist these days; no matter what kind of art you do, someone with strong opinions and a gun collection might take exception and decide to take matters into their own hands.
Artists have always made
trouble, and they’ve always been in trouble.Artistic imagery involves issues of belief, identity, and
morality, and some artists step over the bounds, deliberately or
accidentally.In the past, artists
ended up in jail, and some ended up dead for what they’ve created.Artistic controversy is still very much
alive and well and irritating the powerful and the not so powerful.
A protest demonstration in India against the artist MF Hussain
A work by Andres Serrano shortly after being vandalized
Protesters in Hong Kong demanding the release of artist Ai Wei Wei from prison
Protestors demonstrating against an exhibition of Andres Serrano's work in New York
These are all artists
from the last 40 years.Most are
still alive, some are not (Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, Guston, Mapplethorpe, Hussain are
dead).
Wojnarowicz's very controversial film David Wojnarowicz
Chris Ofili
Christo
Andres Serrano
Banksy
Karen Finley in performance (warning, strong stuff) Karen Finley
Robert Mapplethorpe
Jean-Michel Basquiat
A news report on Ai Wei Wei's ongoing legal troubles Ai Wei Wei
Rachel Whiteread
Trailer for Cremaster Matthew Barney
Judy Chicago
Kara Walker
Richard Serra
Daniel Libeskind
Martin Puryear
Kehinde Wiley
Phillip Guston
Anselm Kieffer
Damien Hirst
Jeff Koons
Gerhard Richter
Joseph Beuys
Yayoi Kusama
Maqbool Fida Hussain
It is hard not to have
an opinion about any of these artists.They all make work to deliberately provoke a reaction.I expect you to have an opinion and to
express it.If you do, don’t just
throw it out there, make a case for your point of view.Some of the controversies are about
content, (most of them), some are about the form of the works of art (Serra,
Guston, Liebeskind, Basquiat).Some are controversial because of matters of sexuality (Chicago,
Wojnarowicz, Mapplethorpe).Others
are controversial for religious reasons (Ofili, Wojnarowicz, Serrano).Other artists became controversial
because of issues of identity and history (Puryear, Kieffer, Liebeskind,
Whiteread, Wei Wei).Political and
religious authorities intervened in a number of these controversies (Ofili,
Mapplethorpe, Wei Wei, Serrano, Wojnarowicz).
Why is the artist you
chose controversial?What is the
controversy all about?What
consequences has the artist faced over their work?Is the controversy about the artist or their work or
both?Do you think the arguments
and criticisms of their work misrepresent the artist, or describe the work
accurately?Is the criticism
fair?What do you think the
artist wants to accomplish?What
is the art about?What is the
artist’s background and how might that affect the way they make art?Do you think that they succeed?What do you think about the artist’s
work?
Your task is to explain
these artists and the controversy around their work.
television
Jasper Johns
Robert Rauschenberg
--assemblage
Andy Warhol
James Rosenquist
Roy Lichtenstein
Claes Oldenburg
Early TV and Politics
Here is a sample of the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960. Note the strange vividness and grainy slippage of early TV.
Dwight Eisenhower was the first American President to use television, however TV made John F. Kennedy's presidency. As you can see on this video, Kennedy was confident on TV, and had the poise and the looks for TV. Richard Nixon would later make brilliant use of television advertising in his 1968 presidential campaign, but he was never comfortable or confident appearing before TV cameras, not in this 1960 debate and not ever. It is sometimes said that this first of all televised debates tipped the 1960 election in Kennedy's favor. It was a triumph of form over substance. On the issues, Nixon arguably prevailed or held his own. Kennedy before this debate was perceived as a mindless rich playboy, the creation of his powerful father Joseph P. Kennedy's money and influence. Kennedy not only had to be knowledgeable on the issues, but had to "look" presidential, to reassure the voters that he could lead. This first appearance live on TV to an audience of millions was a great success for Kennedy.
TV Commercials
They certainly have changed a lot since 1965. Ah, where are the cigarette ashes of yesteryear?
The Velvet Underground:
You can't do anything on Warhol or Pop Art without at least one tune by The Velvet Underground.
Henri Matisse, Chapel of the Holy Rosary, Vence, France
Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis
Ad Reinhart, Number 4
Helen Frankenthaler, Bayside
Morris Louis, Sarabande
Kenneth Noland, Whirl
Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park 90
COLOR FIELD PAINTING
Henri Matisse
--decoupage
Barnett Newman
Ad Reinhart
Clement Greenberg
Helen Frankenthaler
--stain painting
Morris Louis
Kenneth Noland
Richard Diebenkorn
