"Bad" as good b/c anti-academic
"Bad" as more personal
Attacks by critics make them feel like radicals
Provocative b/c looks unconventional (regressive cf. Dubuffet? childlike); inspired by LOW art (folk art and popular culture).
Progenitor of New Imagists... c. 1970 abandons Abstract Expressionist style for raucous forms of figuration that seem to ape not only the primitive, heavy-handed nature of 1930s strip cartoons but also their narrative order and broad goofy humor.
Guston sees abstractions as escape from feelings about Vietnam war, for instance. Chooses subjects from everyday life.
KKK haunts him from boyhood in LA, conspiracies, cruelties, evil
Then uses on HIMSELF... new dream of violence as if living with Klan
Potential idea of finding father who committed suicide by hanging (combined with idea of lynchings)
Personal life and world events (such as holocaust) warped together.
Shocks Abstract Expressionist contemporaries b/c of similarity to Pop culture and Kitsch references.
born Chicago 1922, serves in WWII, teacher in US, lives in Italy 1956-7 and paris 1959-64.
Part of AE movement in 50s; inspired by Picasso. themes of stress and violence, very large works, raw handling of paint. During this period more politically oriented (Vietnam War and Mercenary Soldiers); NO SPECIFIC EVENTS, NO SPECIFIC LOCALES. Compares how he paints to use of meat cleaver. Question is how to visualize violence. Most violence is HIDDEN (cf. to now) and is real in way a photograph isn't. Ambiguous focus (on instigators, not victims). Reverse of most contemporary political art which focuses directly on Vietnam.
In 1968 Jenney predicted that realism would return (these two works more expressionist... see the paintings on the "conceptual art" slide sheet for later work).
Simple cause and effect narratives in which actions are related to objects. Wants recognizable but he knows it's paint and reveals the process of painting. Image/brushwork/frame and text simultaneously sophisticated commentary on painting and expressive/childlike. In early 70s he changes his style... meticulous photorealism (cf. early American painters Peto and Harnett), frames and lettering more assertive sometimes becoming larger than the image. Deals with destiny of environment.
Satirizes exclusion of blacks from history texts and ridicules racial stereotypes. Parodies Van Gogh, Picasso, etc.). comments satirically on race and class, discrimination, artistic hierarchies. "Subversive appropriation" of 19/20c masterpieces. Uses a wide range of sources including African art, advertising, cartoons.
Idea of subversive... when see oritinal think of HIS REINTERPRETATION... thus PUTS BARRIER between viewer and original work (conceptual!)
"My version puts into question the ownership of the idea. The fact that the original can be redone questions its value."
Strong quality of irony or "sass" (as he calls it), pushes idea so far that it sticks in the viewer's mind (thus creating barrier with orignal)
Interested in grand tradition of history painting (like Jaques-Louis David). Classical vocabulary of poses, gestures and themes. Large narrative format to convey a political message (not what people want)
The meaning of history, lack of objectivity, foolishness of considering that capitalist white American histories could be objective. What "knowledge" paintings are about, about what the teaching of art history has meant, holes in history, and subjectivity.
"The greatest lesson in history is that we don't learn from it."
dilemma for those who seek both access to American political and economic equality and acknowledgement of the uniqueness of Black American identity and heritage. Corrects myth.
Not clear how to be taken (problem: how does African American artist depict African Americans?). Some African Americans HATE his art.
Fragmented appearance... seemingly disparate groups w/in painting, vigorous brushstrokes, SEES PAINTING NOT JUST AS AN AESTHETIC BUT AS A CRITICAL, PEDAGOGICAL TOOL.
born 1951 New York. 1980s meteoric rise to success... most touted figure in international art world... press depicts him more like a pop star than a painter. Huge prices based on hype not marit; one of works doesn't get a single bid at auction in 1990, audience applauded this and was end of his career).
Neo-expressionist manner, unusual materials (on carpet, velvet, some encrusted with broken pottery). some have 3D support elements, sometimes supports are 3D with projections.
"My painting is more about what I think the world is like than what I think I'm like: I'm aiming at an emotional state that people can literally walk into and let themselves be engulfed by"
Considers Duccio, Giotto and Van Gogh as his peers (this statement shows a HUGE EGO)
many critics found his work to be ugly, pretentious and boring. Robert Hughes compared Schnaebel's painting to Sylvester Stallone's acting (OUCH!)
Primary subject = himself and every imaginable bodily function, but does not reveal himself.
Part of what was called the Italian Transavantguardia... return to painting after Arte Povera's prominence.
Early experimentation with performance and conceptual art. By 1975 is best known painter in Italy. Muscle-bound figures in pseudu-heroic situations parodying the old masters.
Critic Robert Hughes says: "ladylike coalheavers expelling wind while floating in postures vaguely derived from classical statuary"
Chia expects audience to recognize work taken (or at least that there is an art historical reference there).
on Anselm Kiefer: