In class discussion of contemporary artists.
Homework: Research each artist. Use class discussion notes and info from research to write a one page, single spaced, typed, response paper. This is not a research paper and/or summary of each artist. Do not list all the info you find about the artist. The paper is to be a discussion of the information you find and the response you have to the information. Include references to visual culture in your discussion. The paper can include all four artists or just one.
I am looking for you to offer a discussion on how each artist is an example of visual culture. Some prompts for you; Can you relate to any of the artist's content? Who, do you think, is the artist making the visual work for (who is the audience?)? Do you think artists should have the freedom to express their own opinions? Why or why not? Can you make connections to prior terms/issues discussed in class?
Hannah Wilke. Link here for more images and to read about the artist.
Ana Mendieta. Link here for more images and to read about the artist.
Christian Boltanski. Link here to see more and read about the artist.
William Kentridge. Read about the film. You can refer to specific sections in the link provided here. Entitled "The Face and The Landscape".
Optical illusions seem to be popular on science related sites. I don’t usually get into them but I found this one interesting. Take a look at the drawing below. Robert Laws was a Scottish missionary who worked in Malawi in the 1880s and put forward the theory that our visual perception is influenced by one’s culture and environment. What do you see below?Source link here.
Trompe-l'oeil - |ˌtrômp ˈloi| French - deceive the eye, technique, boundary between reality and fiction Realism - Greece, perfection
Escaping Criticism, Pere Borrell del Caso, 1874.
Camera Picta (Painted Chamber), 1465-1474, Andrea Mantegna, Mantua, Italy, ceiling fresco
San Zaccaria Altarpiece, Giovanni Bellini, oil on panel, 1505, executed in the church of San Zaccaria, Venice. approx. 16 feet tall by 8 feet wide
Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theatre), Northern Italy, constructed 1580-1585, Forced Perspective
Oil on canvas, Raphaelle Peale, 1822. Link here to see more trompe-l'oeil painting at the National Gallery of Art.
Above two images by Jacques Poirier (1928-2002). Source is All My Eyes, link here.
Marilyn Levine (1935-2005), clay
Vanitas |ˈvanəˌtäs| - Latin - emptiness, vanity, 15th century, life and earth
Attractive Objects
Symbols - skulls, rotten fruit, bubbles, watches and hourglasses, musical instruments, peeled lemon
Vanitas by Pieter Claesz, 1630, oil on panel, 22" x 15.6"
Memento mori - Latin - An object serving as a reminder of death, remember your mortality, remember you will die.
Medieval through Victorian, High death rate, Christianity, Divine Judgement, Ash Wednesday
1600-1650, oil on panel, about 14" x 11"
The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, oil on oak, 1533, approx. 82" x 81"
Invention of photography.
Away From the Flock by Damien Hirst, 1994, a sheep suspended in formaldehyde in a vitrine. Link here to read about it at the Tate.
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst, 1990's, shark in formaldehyde in a vitrine.
Thursday, April 2, 2015 Additions and deletions to this list can be made up to 10:00 pm the night before the test.
Semiotics
Sign
Signifier
Signified
Roland Barthes (p 118 in text)
Semiotic Concept (p. 118 in text)
Myth According to Barthes (p. 119 in text)
Daguerreotype
Ideology
Mourning Photography
Convention
Symbol
Index Icon
Culture
Appropriation
Abraham Lincoln
Andy Warhol Without Sanctuary (will not be in vocab section, but will help you when writing short essay answers) Repitition Sally Mann (will not be in vocab section, but will help you when writing short essay answers)
Draw the diagram we used to discuss semiotics.
Be prepared to discuss moral and ethical use of photo images.
Be prepared to analyze an image with regard to a factual, formal and perceptual analysis of an image.
Be prepared to clearly state your thoughts and support.
Be prepared to use visual culture terms to discuss your thoughts.
Venus of Willendorf, 4.3 inches high, 24,000 BC approx.
Discovered lower Austria in 1908, limestone.
Egypt
Highly stylized
Egyptian
Egyptian
Egyptian
Greek and Roman Classical
Ancient, 500 BC
Perfection, Pose
Classical
Classical
Classical. Emperor Augustus.
Neo-classical Sculpture
Immaculate body, 1750 - 1850
(neo - new or revived form)
Perfection, Drama
Psyche Revived by Love's Kiss, marble, 1793.
First Commissioned. Neo-Classical.
Love and Emotion. Sight and Touch.
The Greek Slave, marble, 1851
Jason With Golden Fleece, 1803
United States of America
Jean-Antoine Houdon (French), located in Richmond, VA.
Late 18th century. Marble. Life Size.
Replicate through measurements. Commissioned.
Henry Bacon sculptor. Located Washington D.C. 1922
Gutzon Borglum, Danish-American. South Dakota. 1939.
Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln.
Part Commission. Tourism.
Remove Human Figure from Memorial
Maya Lin, Architect. 1980's. Vietnam Memorial, Washington D.C.
Commissioned (but with a wide perspective) and Collaboration.
Lin's original sketch.
Degenerate body photography appears in journals.
1888 - 1922
Disease
Asymmetrical
Stigmata of degeneracy invisible.
Eliminate those who appeared degenerate.
Includes bodies with scars and tattoos.
Invoke fear.
Jean Martin Charcot French neurologist, hypnosis and hysteria. b. 1825 - d. 1893 France
The modern industrial city.
Alcohol
Syphilis
Malnutrition
Tuberculosis
Schizophrenia
Neurosis, Psychosis, Idiocy, Infertility - extinction of an entire family.
Unclean, uncivilized, threat to evolution.
Apartheid and Genocide
Benedict Augustin Morel b. 1809 - d. 1873 French psychiatrist. Degeneration theory.
Tattoo Culture
Tattoo - comes from the Tahitian "tatu"meaning "to mark something".
Decoration
Rites of passage
Marks of social status and rank
Symbols of religious devotion
Decoration for bravery
Marks of fertility (figure of baby on head)
Pledges of love
Punishment
Amulets and talisman
Protection as the marks of outcasts and convicts
As children come of age - boys reaching manhood
Men when they marry
Married women tattooed on hands, feet, thighs, blue lines between lower lip and chin
British soldiers, deserted, "D", Chapter 12
Sailors to exotic foreign lands, souvenirs (dragon-China)
1771, Drawing from Cook's Voyage
Captain James Cook from England, South Pacific, 1769.
Merchant and seamen discover and bring back to Europe.
At first regarded as repulsive.
Observed as adornment
Slavery in Ancient Civilization
Persians, Greeks, Romans
Rulers tattooed themselves.
Ivy leaves to symbolize devotion to Dionysus (Greek god of wine and patron to the royal house).
307 AD - Emperor Constantine.
Early Christians.
German mystic Heinrich Suso, 1295-1366. Name of Christ tattooed over his heart. Others - Emperor of Germany, 12th century, cross designs on back of hands.
Nora Hildebrandt. German born father is Martin Hildebrandt - started career in 1946,. First tattoo shop in America (in NYC). - Civil War, both sides. Nora exhibits herself beginning 1882, tours with PT Barnum.
Book
Olive Oatman 1851, United States westward expansion
Tattoos Are Popular
United States, around 1846, both sides of Civil War.
Courage, patriotism, defiance of death,
Longing for loved ones left behind.
Electric tattooing machine 1891.
World War I and II - tattoo artists follow fleets.
United States, 1947, stereotyped symbols - represented courage, patriotism, defiance of death, longing for family and loved ones left behind. World War I and II - C.H. Fellowes follow the fleets.
Life Magazine, 1944, Coca Cola ad.
"A table set with a knife, fork, wine, a bunch of roses and a hand grasping a dagger are tattooed on to human skin. The tattooed skin was purchased by one of Henry Wellcome’s collecting agents, Captain Johnston-Saint, in June 1929 from Dr Villette, a Parisian surgeon. Villette worked in military hospitals and collected and preserved hundreds of samples from the autopsies of French soldiers. In the late 1800s, tattoos were often seen as markers of criminal tendencies, or ‘primitiveness’. Medical men tried to interpret common images and symbols. Tattoos were also used as a tool for identification, a practice that continues today." Source is Science Museum, London, link here.
Uterus tattoo as a sign of female power, not hysteria.
Images/words on living skin.
A form of empowerment.
feminism |ˈfeməˌnizəm| noun the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. The issue of rights for women first became prominent during the French and American revolutions in the late 18th century. In Britain it was not until the emergence of the suffragette movement in the late 19th century that there was significant political change. A ‘second wave’ of feminism arose in the 1960s, with an emphasis on unity and sisterhood. ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from French féminisme.
Demi Moore, film Scarlett Letter, based off of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel. 1850. Fiction, set in mid 17th century Puritan Boston.
Egypt. Circle - eternity, sun, moon. Vein to heart. A relic of a business deal. Ownership, engagement ring. Men begin wearing after WWII. Prior to the war only women wore a ring.
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