ap art term 3

1. Earthworks

3. Smithson, Spiral Jetty 1969-1970 Sought to illustrate the “ongoing dialectic” in nature between constructive forces and destructive forces 1,500 ft spiraling stone and earth platform extending into the Great Salt Lake in Utah Lake recalls both the origins of life in the salty waters of the primordial ocean and also the end of life Abandoned oil rigs that dot the shoreline suggested prehistoric dinosaurs and some vanished civilization Spiral- most fundamental shape in nature, dialectical (shape that opens and closes, curls and uncurls endlessly) Smithson ordered no maintenance be done on the work

5. Christo, Running Fence 1976 24 ½ miles long, 18 feet high nylon fence that crossed two counties in northern California and extended into the Pacific Ocean (location chosen for aesthetic reasons as well as to link urban, suburban, and rural spaces) Jeanne-Claude and Christo like to reveal the beauty in various spaces Fence broke down social barriers among supporters such as students, ranchers, lawyers, and artists The work remained in place for 2 weeks and then was taken down

7. Maya Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial 1982 The Mall, Washington DC Abstract and intimate conjoined with basic ideas of minimal grandeur of long, black granite walls and row upon row of engraved names Statement of loss, sorrow, and the futility of war Timeless monument to suffering humanity, faceless in sacrifice Subject of controversy due to Minimalist style Competition for commission Not only reflects faces of visitors but also reflects Washington Monument (reminds viewer of sacrifices made in defense of liberty throughout history of US)

8. Photo Realism

9. Feminist Art

11. Betye Saar, Liberation of Aunt Jemima 1972, Mixed media Her assemblages show political militancy rare in postwar American art Appropriates the derogatory stereotype of the cheerfully servile “mammy” and transforms it into an icon of militant black feminist power Background papered with smiling advertising image of Aunt Jemima Notepad holder in the form of Aunt Jemima Broom whose handle is pencil for the notepad Rifle In place of the notepad is a picture of another jolly mammy holding a crying child identified by the artist as a mulatto (both black and white ancestry) Clenched fist in front of her stands for Black Power Armed Jemima liberates herself not only from racial oppression but also from traditional gender roles that had long relegated black women to such subservient positions as domestic servant or mammy

12. Faith Ringgold African American artist (born 1930) who drew on traditional American craft of quilt making and combined it with rich heritage of African textiles to create memorable statements about American race relations Put paint on soft fabrics rather than stretched canvases Framed images with decorative quilted borders Quilts narrated by women and usually address themes related to women’s lives Messages are reminders to the viewer of the real social and economic limitations that African Americans have faced through American history

14. Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party 1974-1979 Painted porcelain, needlework Composed of a large, triangular table (each side stretching 48 feet) which rests on a triangular platform covered with 2,300 triangular porcelain tiles Triangle- symbol of equalized world sought by feminism, one of the earliest symbols of women Porcelain “Heritage Floor” bears the names of 999 notable women from myth, legend, and history Thirteen place settings along the side of each triangle each represent a famous woman Each place setting features a 14-inch-wide painted porcelain plate, ceramic flatware, ceramic chalice with gold interior, embroidered napkin all on a runner Most plates feature abstract designs of female genitalia because, Chicago said, “that is all [the women at the table] had in common…They were from different periods, classes, ethnicities, geographies, experiences, but what kept them within the same combined historical space” was the fact of their biological sex Women had been “swallowed up and obscured by history instead of being recognized and honored” (represented by plates) Wanted to raise awareness of the many contributions women have made to history, thereby fostering women’s empowerment in the present

15. Cindy Sherman Made a series of works beginning in the late 1970’s in which she posed herself in made-up self settings that quote well-known plots of old movies All her works examine the rolls that our popular culture assigns to women, and Sherman shows that she understands them all very well and she plays them willingly Her personality is the sum of all the movies that she has seen, and she does not know where the real Cindy Sherman starts and the one derived from movies stops

16. Barbara Kruger Born 1945 More militant point than Cindy Sherman with slightly different media Work quotes magazine advertising layouts (catchy photograph and slogan inscribed) Slogan talks back to the viewer with a confrontational sentence that sounds feminist Not an “original”  piece of graphic design that can be reproduced Worked in other public media, including billboards and bus shelter posters, implanting her subversive messages directly into the flow of media and advertising

18. Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith, The Red Mean: Self Portrait 1992 Acrylic, newspaper collage, and mixed media on canvas, 92”x60” Native American “Made in the USA” above an identification number Central figure quotes Vitruvian Man, but message is autobiographical Silhouette placed inside the red X that signified nuclear radiation Alludes both to the uranium mines found on some Indian reservations and also to the fact that many have become temporary repositories for nuclear waste Background- collage of Native American tribal newspapers Includes her ethic identity and life on the reservation as well as the history of Western art

19. 1990’s-2000’s

21. Rachel Whiteread, Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial 2000 Steel and concrete, Vienna, Austria Urges us to take a fresh look at everyday things by making casts of them Turns negative spaces into concrete blocks ONLY INFORMATION GIVEN IN BOOK; PIECE NOT DISCUSSED

23. El Anatsui, After Kings 2005 Aluminum (liquor bottle caps) and copper wire 88” x 70” Gathered several thousand aluminum tops, flattened them, and stitched them together with copper wire to form large wall pieces Tops were chosen not only because they were plentiful but also for symbolic meaning (“To me, the bottle tops encapsulate the essence of the alcoholic drinks which were brought to Africa by Europeans as trade items at the time of the earliest contrast between these two people….”) Changes garbage into a form that resembles a traditional kente cloth from the Ahsanti culture of Ghana (originally for nobility only  explains the title of the work)

25. Nam June Paik, Electronic Superhighway: Continental US 1995 Closed-circuit installation with 313 monitors, neon, steel structure, color and sound “as collage technique replaced oil paint, the cathode ray [television] tube will replace the canvas” Strongly influenced by John Cage Worked with live, recorded, and computer-generated images displayed on video monitors of varying sizes, which he often combined into sculptural ensembles Site specific Featured a map of continental US outlined in neon and backed by video monitors perpetually flashing with color and movement and accompanied by sound Monitors display images reflecting the states culture and history Exception: state of New York, whose monitors displayed live, closed-circuit images of the gallery visitors, placing them in the artwork and transforming them from passive spectators into active participants