MODULE 16: international avant-garde since 1945: Contemporary Art and Culture: NOW Chapt. 29

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 Modules: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

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Contemporary Art reflects its time. Contemporary Art includes all the forms of expression available. Contemporary Art challenges our idea of what the edge of culture is. Contemporary art wants to provoke a reaction. There are no formal ‘schools’ of art as in the past. Each artist creates a ‘style’ that is singularly identified with him or her; if not biographic indulgence, the work is seen as a ‘unique’ vision of the subject. The vapidity of some of this work can be seen in critical commentary that describes the obvious physical character of the work, but fails to justify its aesthetics. One is often left with the feeling that the work has failed to satisfactorily communicate how it fits in any broad cultural context or how it enlightens the viewer as to new perceptions of existence. Some might see this as aesthetic shamanism, some as shameless self-promotion, some as avant-garde trail burning.

In spite of the idiosyncratic character of Contemporary Art, we may sort these artists into general categories.

Regardless of declarations to the contrary, the desire to paint continues. Artists grouped into the Neo-Expressionist category continue to challenge the media and the concepts with expressive brush strokes and aesthetically esoteric agenda. The wry, wily shenanigans of Marcel Duchamp are revitalized in the knowing irony of many a new Neo-Dadaist. The Feminist artists gave 'women’s issues' a forum to continue the social dialogue of rights and recognition. In a straightforward examination of Modern Art of the Abstract Expressionist and Minimalism past, Neo-Abstractionists continue to examine the issues of form and content. Photography continues to be a vehicle for Contemporary Artists who examine and expand the technical processes of film and the view of subject matter. Neo-Minimalist Architecture pushes the dimensional environment and peoples interaction with it. Video Art opened up a new method of expressing contemporary issues with new technology. The medium of video itself allows for such broad uses as documentation, theatrical production, visually phenomenon, social commentary, etc. Performance/Film is its own unique genre, separated from popular culture by its esoteric character, it presents the subject as simplistic but cryptic comments about existence that when deciphered, its message is often agonizingly thin.

The current manifestation of this aesthetic self-examination may be seen in the conceptual ‘grab bag’ of literary criticism and philosophic abstractness of Post-Modernism. Where in the past, religion gave answers to the question of meaning, then science became the measure of worthiness of ideas, now this function has been taken over by mechanisms of post-modern literary criticism. Derived from contemporary French philosophers and literary critics, Post-Modernism seems to be withering by its own self-immolation. What is left is what seems a rudder-less ship without a map. In some ways, this is positive. No longer is the artist dictated to from ‘style masters’ of the past. The artist is now free to explore wherever their search leads them.

Neo-Expressionism-

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SLIDE:
Neel “Linda Nochlin and Daisy” (1971) Pl. 29-63

Alice Neel expresses a quirky individual style. Her portraits are awkwardly articulate; they are perceptive of the personality portrayed and of Neel’s perception.

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SLIDE:
Schnabel “Death of Fashion” (1978) Pl. 29-70

In an effort to push past the crowd, Schnabel staked out an art territory bounded by broken crockery and slathered with crude strokes of paint. His work seems to a large part, more self-promotion than aesthetic exploration.

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SLIDE:
Basquiat “Horn Players” (1983) Pl. 29-71

Street-wise naiveté or hip hustler guile, it’s difficult to classify Basquiat or his graffiti tagged art. Perhaps, like many a young prizefighter, he was a manufactured presence, manipulated by galleries hungry for a new marketable face. Like a rock star that soars from obscurity to fame and soon plummets, his presence was dramatic and short.

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SLIDE:
Kiefer “Heath of the Brandenburg March” (1974) Pl. 29-72

European Art began to make itself a significant presence by the 1970’s. Many of these artists were distanced enough from the trauma of World War Two to allow themselves to explore their recent cultural past. Some, like Anselm Kiefer, considered the issues surrounding historic German ethos.

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SLIDE:
Polke “Raised Chair with Geese” (1988) Pl. 29-73

Juxtaposition and pastiche are used by Sigmar Polke to create a Post-Modern, sometimes lyrical vision of contemporary life with references to the recent German oppressive past.

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Neo-Conceptualism-

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SLIDE:
Koons “The New Shelton Wet/Dry Triple Decker” (1981) Pl. 29-75

As Stokstad points out, Koons is one of the “..most controversial of the Neo-Conceptualists.” In a kind of slap-in-the-face to art critics, contemporary galleries and the museum establishment, Koons states the obvious so blatantly that the establishment has difficulty categorizing or accepting him. He says he’s in it for the fame and money. And he reminds them that so are they. Yet at the same time he is very salable. The contradictions are aggravating to one and all. His seeming arrogance of self-promotion fans the flames of his popularity.

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Feminist Art-

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SLIDE:
Sherman “Untitled Film Still #21” (1978) Pl. 29-78

Feminist artist Cindy Sherman has made her own body the principle object of commentary. Creating photographs where she is costumed, made up and posed as women acting out the ‘roles’ that society expects them to play.

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SLIDE:
Kruger “We Won’t Play Nature to Your Culture” (1983) Pl. 29-77

Primarily visual appropriation in support of social commentary, Barbara Kruger’s work depends a great deal on the Feminist agenda and Post-Modern literary criticism.

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Neo-Abstractionism-

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SLIDE:
Murray “Chaotic Lip” (1986) Pl. 29-79

Murray’s shaped canvases give credential to a contemporary examination of the pure-painterly abstractions of the 1950’s and 60’s. Less a re-hash of the past and more a lyrical new use of space, her work opened the possibilities of a new view of painting’s potential.

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SLIDE:
Puryear “Plenty’s Boast” (1995) Pl. 29-80

Abstracted, enlarged, extended and attenuated simple shapes are altered and sculpted in wood, metal and other materials in a manner that makes them mysterious, mute, organic icons. These highly personal interpretations of familiar objects are not only aesthetic statements but also objects of a high level of craft.

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Photography-

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SLIDE:
Mapplethorpe “Ajitto (Back)” (1981) Pl. 29-85

Robert Maplethorpe’s photographs are unquestioningly technically eloquent, his choice of subject matter elegant, his view of the subject both candidly personal and professional. For some, the iconographic grandeur of nude males, in particular the seeming sharp focus on genitilia, caused them to protest the work as blatant pornography.

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SLIDE:
Morimura “Self-Portrait (Actress)/White Marilyn” (1996) Pl. 29-87

Part Photography, part Performance, part Cross-Dressing Fantasy, certainly a category unto its self, Morimura’s art is provocative in its ability to engage curiosity.

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Neo-Minimalist Architecture-

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SLIDE:
Lin “Vietnam Veterans Memorial” (1983) Pl. 29-90

A direct reference to Minimalist ideas, May Yin Ling’s memorial is both retrograde and radically new. Its radical character has more to do with its eventual acceptance in view of traditional examples of representational images in memorials.

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SLIDE:
Whiteread “House” (1993) Pl. 29-93

Both Conceptual and Minimal in its intellectual origins, Whiteread’s objects (sculptures?) defy our normal view of the object as the subject as opposed to the negative space within the object.

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Video Art-

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SLIDE:
Paik “Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S.” (1995) Pl. 29-97

Nam June Paik is one of many artists who have used video production, the physical presence of television monitors, or the use of both as a commentary on contemporary life. The visual character of his work is problematic since much of it lacks the seductive production finish the viewer is used to in commercial video.

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Performance/Film-

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SLIDE:
Hamilton “Indigo” (1991) Pl. 29-96

The formal elements of Hamilton’s work are generally a focus on a familiar object or action, from which she extracts a seemingly innocuous aspect, this aspect then is expanded to form her major thesis presented under the guise of art.

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