Global Contemporary 10.1

Global Contemporary

1980 CE to Present

“I may be interested in a number of issues—identity, politics— but primarily I am an artist, and my job is to take people elsewhere.”—Yinka Shonibare

Contemporary art refers to the art and architecture of the mid-20^th century to the present. However, it is very diverse and constantly changing. How do contemporary artists move beyond traditional concepts about art and artists? How do information technology and global awareness together shape contemporary art? Here, you will explore the changing global, technological, environmental, political, and social landscapes of the mid-20^th and 21^st centuries.

TOPIC 10.1 Materials, Processes, and Techniques in Global Contemporary Art

 Global contemporary art is characterized by a transcendence of traditional conceptions of art. It is supported by technological developments and global awareness.

Hierarchies of materials, tools, function, artistic training, style, and presentation are challenged. Questions about how art is defined, valued, and presented are provoked by:

• ephemeral digital works,
• video-captured performances
• graffiti artists
• online museums, and galleries
• declines in (but preservation of) natural materials and traditional skills
• predominance of disposable material cultures
• the digital divide— access or lack of access to digital technology

Digital technology provides increased access to imagery and contextual information about diverse artists and artworks throughout history and across the globe.

 

(10) 226. Horn Players.

 Jean-Michel Basquiat. American. 1983. Neo-Expressionism.

Learning Objective: Neo-Expressionist painting  

Themes:

Abstraction
Race
Commemoration
Text and image
Portrait

Museum: The Broad in LA

Horn Players by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is an acrylic and oil paintstick on three canvas panels measuring 18 feet by 6 feet 3 inches.  Paintstick is a “crayon” with various oils/pigments mixed in. This allows the artist to draw oil paint.

Horn Players is a triptych with a flat, dark background color uniting all three panels. Each canvas has flat patches of color and dense thick lines.

This Neo-Expressionism work retains rough handling, jagged forms and jarring color, but now has a focus on the body. Pride of place has made an exit as the important figures are off to the sides. Large sections of white paint seem to obscure what was underneath.

There is no sense of scale or balance. The artist relies heavily on juxtaposition and contrast to make the painting dynamic and expressive. The traditional approach to 3D space is gone.

What is the Function of Horn Players?

This work connects graffiti with jazz and fine art. Through this it elevates the practice of graffiti itself to a fine art. It also connects jazz to African American culture thereby honoring African American history and contributions.

Horn Players was inspired by the scatting and improvisational work performed in jazz. Horn Players replicates that technique here.

Up Close  

On the left panel Charlie Parker (saxophonist) plays his instrument and emits hot pink notes and sounds. On the central panel an abstracted head floats in space.

On the right panel Dizzy Gillespie (trumpeter) holds his trumpet along his side. The words DOH SHOO DE OBEE floats to the left. This reminds the viewer of Gillespie’s scat as a wordless improvisation.

Wordplay

A number of words appear on the canvases:

• Dizzy
• Ornithology (study of birds, as well as the title of a famous composition by Charlie Parker in reference to his own nickname Bird)
• Pree (Parker’s daughter)
• Teeth
• Alchemy
• Feet
• Soap
• Larynx misspelled

Wordplay is a characteristic of Basquiat’s work, yet not all fully understood.

Common Subject Matter

Musicians were a common subject for Basquiat. He had briefly played in a band. Anatomical terms were also common. His mother bought him a Grey’s Anatomy textbook as a child for fun.

Similarity to Picasso’s Horn Players

• Based on Basquiat being called black the Picasso
• We must draw upon our knowledge of traditional painting to understand this work
• Triptych format echoes the trio of figures
• Parker is in the same position as the standing figure with the clarinet in Picasso’s work
• Central figure in Basquiat’s work is likened to the distorted face of the middle figure in Picasso’s

The Emergence of Urban Graffiti

Urban graffiti was an emerging artform in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Basquiat was one of the leaders.

About Jean-Michel Basquiat 

Basquiat was a homeless NYC queer man of color. He was a graffiti artist, sex worker and poet. Discovered in 1981 at age 20, he becomes dazzlingly successful at quick speed.

He was known for his tag SAMO (Same Old Shit) written in marker and spray paint on subway trains, sidewalks, and gallery walls. This attracted the attention of gallery owners and the art world.

Based on his success, critics referred to him as the “black Picasso”. While this likened him to Picasso, Basquiat felt conflicted about this term, because the word black was added.

He once said, “If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you’ve got to realize that influence is not influence. It’s simply someone’s idea going through my new mind.”

Some of his paintings have sold for $20 million. The artist died at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose.

Art News Update!

Andy Warhol’s portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat was up for auction at Christie’s in November 2021.  The pre-estimate was US$20 million.

“From Brooklyn to China, Basquiat symbolizes a new generation, and Warhol recognized this earlier than anyone. His unmatched ability to capture celebrity, fame, glory, and tragedy culminates in this portrait,” Alex Rotter, Christie’s chairman of 20th- and 21st-century art, said in a statement. “Just as much about Basquiat as it is about Warhol, it is one of the most exciting paintings to come to the auction market.”

How much did it sell for?

How much did it sell for? $40,091,500!

(10) 228. Androgyne III.

Magdalena Abakanowicz. Polish. 1985. Neo-Expressionism.

Learning Objective: Neo-Expressionist sculpture

Themes:

Violence
Abstraction
War
Psychological
Stylized bodies
Materials with significance

Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art  

Androgyne III by artist Magdalena Abakanowicz is a work comprised of burlap, resin, wood, nails, and string measuring 4 feet tall.

The burlap is manipulated into a figurative composition. It is meant to appear rough and course. This is an abstracted, simplified, dramatically reduced figure that is hollow with no head, forearms, or shins. A mold process was used to make the form out of burlap, with resin to stiffen it.

This  is a sculpture-in-the-round and can also be viewed from the back.

Why is this Neo-Expressionism?

This work is a return to the body and the expressive capabilities of the bodies. This was believed to have been lost in Pop Art and Site-Specific Art. It is a rejection of the modernist attitude that the body is dead. Additionally, the style is a revival of Expressionism, with rough, jagged handling, and sharp forms.  

Function

This work examines the relationship between individual and community (isolation and loss). It notes dehumanization and lack of identity are the result of strife, war, anguish and derision.

It depicts isolation and loss in a universal way. We cannot identify this figure specifically. So much of this figure has been lost, destroyed and hurt. Our own identities become lost and are vulnerable in our modern, violent worlds.

We identify and recognize this figure even though we see SO little of it. Destruction leaves us as shells of who we once were.

Content  

This androgynous figure focuses on humanity, rather than gender. Notice  the body language. The shoulders are pulled forward, with a slumping back.

The figure in deep despair:

• wrinkled skin
• backbone
• musculature
• veins
• missing limbs and head

It is elevated from the floor by a wood structure as a base. Does this fill in for the legs?  Is this a wheelchair? Gurney?

About the Artist

Magdalena Abakanowicz was considered a pioneer of fiber-based sculpture. Her art was affected by her experiences in Poland, under Nazi and Soviet occupation during World War II.

Born in 1930, she lived on a large estate in Poland. Here she often played in the woods. She said this later inspired her to use natural materials in her works.

In WWII, German tanks entered her family’s estate. Later a drunk German soldier burst into the house and shot off her mother’s arm in front of her. In 1944, the family fled, as the Soviet army arrived and moved into Warsaw.

Abakanowicz worked as a nurse in a hospital, caring for the wounded. This would later affect her art.

When the war was over, she attended art school at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Warsaw. Poland was a part of the Soviet Bloc. Social Realism was the style taught in art schools with smiling workers and images of a perfect society. She tried to avoid learning this style by choosing to work with textiles. Yet,  she had to adopt it to obtain a degree and enter the Polish Artist Union.

 

(10) 232. Dancing at the Louvre, from the series The French Collection, Part I; #1.

Faith Ringgold. American. 1991. Feminist art.

Learning Objective: Feminist fine art/folk art

Themes:

Family
Race
Text and image
Commemoration
Interpretation of history
Materials with significance

Museum: private collection

Dancing at the Louvre, from the series The French Collection, Part I; #1., is a work by artist Faith Ringgold that uses acrylic on canvas, with a tie-dyed, pieced fabric border. The artwork measures 6 feet 3 inches by 6 feet and 9 inches.

Faith Ringgold calls this work a story-quilt. She creates a central image using acrylic paint on canvas, then surrounds it with a patchwork cloth border that includes her handwritten text. In this way, she utilizes text and image together.

Next, she sandwiches a layer of batting underneath the canvas and on top of another piece of cloth. The figures are simple, flat, and stiff with a space that is shallow.

Function

Through her art, she can rewrite the past through weaving together the history of African Americans and women. This is an alternative to the white masculine narratives that are prevalent in art history. This highlights the ways in which African-Americans and their experiences have been left out. Through most of history they have not been the subjects or the intended audiences of Western painting.

Ringgold’s technique challenges the definition of painting and fine art. She has used acrylic on canvas but has mixed in the prominent folk art/craft tradition of quilting. Folk art is often defined in part by being produced by untrained artists.

Content  

This is the first in Ringgold’s series of twelve “story quilts” called The French Collection. The story tells the fictional narrative of Willa Marie Simone, a young black woman who moves to Paris in the early 20^th century.

Willa Marie’s adventures in Paris in the 1920s lead her to meet celebrities: Picasso, Matisse, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Josephine Baker.

The three paintings that the work shows as a backdrop at the Louvre are all by DaVinci: Madonna and Child and St. Anne; Mona Lisa; Virgin of the Rocks. Note all of the paintings are of woman and girls.

The girls dancing in front of the art become the show – instead of the historical white version on the walls!

Text on this image

Marcia and her three little girls took me dancing at the Louvre. I thought I was taking them to see the Mona Lisa, but you’ve never seen anything like this. Well, the French hadn’t either. Nevermind Leonardo da Vinci and Mona Lisa, Marcia and her three girls were the show.

Art Expansion  

This work is an expansion of the art world and the art object. Faith Ringgold is African American woman, and the art object is now a folk art/fine art hybrid. This reflects shifts into post-Modernism.

Post-Modernism rejects Modernism’s emphasis on universal meaning and abstraction.

Why the Story Quilts were Made 

Ringgold’s story-quilting technique is important. Her mother was a fashion designer and seamstress. When her mother died in 1981, Ringgold started making these quilts.

Quilts have been associated with women’s domestic work and women’s connections with one another.

Quilting is often done collectively. Young girls watch and participate to learn family stories, cultural backgrounds, and technical skills.

Quilts were of particular importance to the history of African Americans. On the Underground Railroad, codes and hidden messages were sewn onto quilts in safe houses that could help slaves find more secret routes and safe houses to the North.

(10) 238. Electronic Superhighway.

Nam June Paik. Korean/American. Mixed-media installation. 1995 Video Art.

Learning Objective: Video installation (1^st Video artist)

Themes:

Technology
Innovation
Installation; landscape; materials with significance

Museum: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Electronic Superhighway by artist Nam June Paik is a mixed-media installation (49-channel closed-circuit video installation, neon, steel, and electric components) measuring 15 by 40 feet.

This huge, towering stack of TVs simultaneously shows multiple clips from a variety of sources. His studio was small, so he had to squish Texas and Florida . In total there are 336 TVs: 3,750 feet of cable and 575 feet of colored tubing.

Function

The artist used video to show the speed of our increasingly electronic modern lives. It also celebrates an America influenced by film and television.

How have these things shaped who we think we are? How are we connected to each other via media? Is the effect of technology always a good thing? Can we have information overload?

This is a contrast between actual road trips, with a trip across the US in the gallery, with virtual travel on the Internet.

Notice the size and energy. All this plays into the American identity Paik was captivated by.

Content

An enormous scale suggests  the huge size of the nation. There is a map of the US with neon outlining the states. Neon reminded him of the signs for motels and restaurants that dot the highways. Different colors remind us that states have different identities.

Images are flashing and rapidly changing. This is reminiscent of billboards being seen from passing cars.

Within each state, the screens display video clips that resonate with each state’s own identity:

• Kansas: Wizard of Oz (film)
• Oklahoma: Oklahoma (film)
• Iowa: footage of presidential candidates
• Idaho: potatoes
• Missouri: Meet Me in St. Louis (film)
• Texas: cowgirls, cactus
• New York: Empire State Building
• Maine: clips of a friend
• California: hallucinogens, Golden Gate Bridge, OJ Simpson

The Artist and the Art

Nam June Paik was born in Seoul, in 1932. He was considered the father of video art, with his first video art exhibit in 1963.

When Paik came to the US in 1964, the interstate highway system was only 9 years old. Highways offered everyone the freedom to see the USA. Highways were new and heavily advertised, as a way for Americans to see the country on a limited budget.

 

(10) 246. Stadia II.

Julie Mehretu. Ethiopian American. 2004. Post-Modernism.

Learning Objective: Post-Modernism (Ethiopian)

Themes:

Abstraction
Public
Politics

Museum: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Stadia II a work by artist Julie Mehretu was created using ink and acrylic on canvas and measures 9 by 12 feet. 

Form

• Total abstraction
• Black lines create centrifugal structure
• Various shards of color float over the work’s black skeleton
• Notice gray painterly marks that rise from the lower registers to the upper registers

Visually, the work looks similar to Kandinsky! How does Mehretu do this?

• Overlaps architectural plans, urban plans, diagrams, photos, graffiti, maps, abstract shapes, etc. on top of one another to create an illusion of depth and movement
• Built up in layers and layers of drawing, and then many applications of paint
• Mixture of drawing and painting

Function

This work portrays chaos in the modern world. It invokes our experiences of being in busy, in collective spaces. It captures the speed, energy, and chaos of a globalized, hectic world.

What are the results of our interconnectedness, our globalization?

• Consumerism (corporate logos)
• National identities and propaganda
• Religious symbols

The reference to Kandinsky is important. Remember, Kandinsky and Mondrian believed pure abstraction could bring us together. Mehretu’s work is abstraction speaking about universalism and collectivity!

Title of the work, Stadia II refers to arenas and stadiums

Content

• Places where national identities, power, commerce, entertainment, sport, and conflict merge.
• Should remind us of the circular spaces of a sports arena or amphitheater.
• Imagine the energy of spectators, the matching colors, signs, and banners held overhead,

• Visualization of the energy, sound, enthusiasm of a group of people
• Colors allude to the French, Russian, American, Chinese, and Japanese flags, as well as there being crosses and corporate logos

Context

Julie Mehretu is Ethiopian born and works in NYC with her partner who is also an artist.

Stadiums in the late 20^th and early 21^st century are increasingly important spaces.  They are places for Olympics, nationalist fervor, other sports, religious gatherings, political rallies, and concerts.

In today’s world they are also places for terrorist attacks that focus on large numbers of people.

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Global Contemporary

1980 CE to Present

TOPIC 10.2 Purpose and Audience in Global Contemporary Art