Task 8 connects with Threshold Concept 8. It is an opportunity to consider how art and artists are valued, and how time, events, individuals and institutions shape art histories (and futures) in ways that are not always fair or equal.
Alongside wider notes and research, you will complete:
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TASK 8
ACTIVITY PART 1: MANIPULATING MONA
To begin, try this: ask someone nearby to instantly name a famous or 'valuable' painting. Go on, I dare you: stop someone on the street and ask. What would be the most common reply? I'm predicting The Mona Lisa. Or perhaps Starry Night, The Scream, or Sunflowers. But then, The Weeping Woman or '...you know, the one with the melting clocks' might also get a mention. But why?
As a collection of paintings, below, are these representative of the possibilities of painting or art making today - or even artists? What might be missing, excluded or underrepresented? |
Note: The paintings above are deliberately not titled, named or dated here. Do you know this information already? Are you sure - if not, which descriptive words would you type into a search engine to confirm or discover?
Choose one of these 'iconic' artworks, above. Research the histories, events and individuals that have established its fame.
Below are some questions to help ignite new curiosity:
Below are some questions to help ignite new curiosity:
- Why was Picasso accused of stealing the Mona Lisa, and did this help make it more famous?
- Is Van Gogh only famous because of the hard work of his sister-in-law, Jo van Gogh-Bonger?
- Why is Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' an emoji (for our times)?
- Is it possible that Van Gogh, who wanted to fill his 'Yellow House' with paintings of sunflowers also suffered from xanthopsia - a medical condition that leads to a predominance of yellow in vision?
- How did Salvador Dali's expulsion from art school influence the landscape depicted in 'Persistence of Memory'?
- Why might Picasso's weeping woman be described as a contemporary 'Mater Dolorosa'?
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. Henry David Thoreau
Personal responses to the Mona Lisa by Yr12 students. From top left, by Lucy G, Anya, Ella, Amie, Georgia and Lucy W.
ACTIVITY:
- Create a response to a famous artwork (as demonstrated by the examples, above). Use this interpretation to celebrate/demonstrate what you 'value' within art and art making. Create a response that retains some form of visual connection to the chosen artwork BUT ALSO shows your key areas of interest. For example: Are you interested in 'traditional' skills, techniques, crafts and/or materials? If so, how might your response allow you to practice and develop these skills further?; How might you stage a model or contemporary scene to respond in this way? Alternatively, are you interested in abstracted ways of working, whether geometric and design-based or more expressive or experimental? How could you appropriate, manipulate, re-interpret or distort your chosen artwork? In addition, you might be interested in responding via alternative medias or techniques such as installation, sound art, photography or performance.
- Document your ideas, experiments and research as you go. Consider how you might share or exhibit your response. How might you explore further themes of 'value' and how we/others might 'measure' art and its 'success'? E.g. how might you price, frame, reproduce, contextualise or auction your work? How might you do this in a playful or profound way?
ACTIVITY PART 2: DEEPER MEASURES
The moment you introduce difference into a museum, then the privileged space is contested, and under the most ideal circumstances what all artists want is the chance to be competitive. That's what I think the museum is supposed to be.
Kerry James Marshall
This next section introduces some of the key issues, injustices and complications that might be tabled via Threshold Concept #8: Art has value, in unequal measures. Read through the following bullet-points carefully and, as you do so, reflect on your own levels of awareness, understanding and agreement. What existing knowledge do you have that supports (or challenges) these statements? Make a list of questions that might aid further discussion or investigation.
- Popular, established art histories are biased. Art history has long favoured European/Western white male artists.
- Art histories are (mostly) shaped by powerful people and institutions, often with vested interests. Cultural biases and prejudices, colonialism, nepotism, individual legacy-building, personal power-plays, propaganda, political and commercial/corporate gain - these are just some of the standpoints and agendas that have shaped (and continue to shape) art histories. Which is not to exclude other factors, such as authentic creative talent and impact, chance and good timing, public influence, popular demand, collective acts of goodwill and/or positive philanthropy. Regardless, art history is problematic, complicated, and subject to change.
- Black, Asian and ethnic minority artists have been neglected, excluded, sidelined and overlooked in established, popular art histories.
- Many female artists have been neglected, excluded, sidelined and overlooked throughout art histories. This imbalance has been increasingly addressed and called-out over the past 20 years - not least via the artworks and radical acts of female artists and collectives.
- The 'Art World' is a title that tends to refer to galleries, institutions, and the commercial art 'markets' of auctions, sales rooms, publishers and such-like. The 'art world' is often parodied, criticised and ridiculed - often knowingly, profoundly, ironically by artists. But also by outsiders, for whom art and the art world can seem alien and absurd (it often is). Some artists choose to position themselves as 'art world' outsiders (or at least present themselves in this way); others strive to enter the 'art world' but encounter closed doors.
- The 'art world' might seem distant from the art room in schools, or your own/students' preoccupations with making art, but it can - does - influence perspectives, pedagogies and experiences.
- Many museums, galleries and institutions are now addressing (accusations and evidence of) historic biases and prejudices, attempting to offer more diverse representations of artists and art histories. These overdue actions can still be deemed contentious and subject to criticism by some - with accusations of 'wokeism' and/or posturing or tokenism. Arts institutions are facing challenging decisions and uncomfortable truths regarding the art, artefacts and stories they own, celebrate, shape and share.
- In relation to art education in school, many art teachers are also actively seeking to diversify the curriculum to ensure a more diverse and equal representation of artists. This can be challenging due to an often ingrained understanding of art histories - the stories, artworks and resources that teachers are familiar with and can default to in the heat of day-to-day teaching. It takes time, open-mindedness and proactivity to cement new knowledge and alternative ways of thinking. But it is essential to do so. Importantly, it is highly rewarding, enlightening and inspiring to discover (new) artist work and voices beyond the prevailing narratives, and to challenge and reconsider seemingly fixed knowledge. Students can actively play a part in this too and in doing so develop deeper critical thinking and awareness.
ACTIVITY
The examples of artwork, below, show some various ways in which artists have challenged or 'intervened' with artworks, art collectors, museum collections and exhibition visitors. This is sometimes referred to as Institutional critique.
The examples of artwork, below, show some various ways in which artists have challenged or 'intervened' with artworks, art collectors, museum collections and exhibition visitors. This is sometimes referred to as Institutional critique.
- Study the images and discuss/speculate on the works. You might consider: the media, techniques and skills used; the effectiveness of these photographs as evidence of the artworks (e.g. the experiences and sensory information lost or captured); the intentions of the artist; the impact of the work - now and at its time of creation.
From left to right: David Hammons, Pissed-Off, 1981; The Guerrilla Girls, Dearest Art Collector, 1986; Fred Wilson, Grey Area (Brown version), 1993; Adrian Piper, Art for the Art World Surface Pattern, 1976; Gordon Bennett, Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991; Lorna Simpson, 5 Day Forecast, 1991
- Why might artists be motivated to create artwork that challenges established (art world) conventions, expectations or presumptions? How might this approach be valued by others - other artists, galleries, collectors, viewers? How might it be criticised or cause discomfort or offence?
- Why would a gallery exhibit artwork that is critical of its own practices, collections or visitors, and why might an artist agree (or not) to their work being shown in a contested space?
If I were to choose a single word to describe my art practice it would be the word question. If I were to choose a single word to describe my underlying drive it would be freedom … To be free we must be able to question the ways our own history defines us. GORDON BENNETT
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This short video introduces the work of Fred Wilson, an American conceptual artist who frequently uses “the museum as medium.” He first rose to prominence after the success of his 1992 exhibition “Mining the Museum” at the Maryland Historical Society, in which he placed unlikely objects next to each other in order to challenge the overlooked nature of racial and social tensions in the institutional sphere. By pairing things like silver tea sets and slave shackles in vitrines together, Wilson has since said that he didn’t intend to shock, but to have “people to come in and realize that they had to do some work, to put it together.” Adapted from Artnet |
Some of Fred Wilson's most powerful artworks might be described as interventions. They involve the subtle (or not so subtle) physical (and consequently, contextual) repositioning of museum objects and artefacts. Watch the short video and reflect on/discuss the following points in relation to themes of 'value':
- How would you describe Fred Wilson's museum interventions? In the video, Wilson talks about the complex relationships between beauty, ugliness, and meaning. What other tensions or conflicts do you think might arise from this work and during the making of it?
- In what ways might you (or others) 'value' Fred Wilson's museum interventions - what 'value' might his work have to you in relation to your art studies and understanding? How about for others - what value might it have for the museum or its visitors/wider community?
- Is it possible to put financial value on these artworks? If the objects that Wilson works with are part of a museum collection (and therefore not his to sell, for example, or do with as he wishes) how does he make a living?
- What freedoms and/or constraints are afforded to artists who choose to work in ways such as this?
ACTIVITY
The following activity focuses on one artist as an example - David Hammons - and invites you to not only consider his work but to reflect carefully on the various ways in which information about the artist and his work is encountered and shared.
Initial discussion/reflection:
The following activity focuses on one artist as an example - David Hammons - and invites you to not only consider his work but to reflect carefully on the various ways in which information about the artist and his work is encountered and shared.
Initial discussion/reflection:
- When conducting artist research, do you/art students mostly use the internet, and if so, how discerning are you with the information provided?
- What information is most useful for you/students to know about an artist? Why?
- Do you tend to use the first search 'All' results, or prioritise 'Image' search? Why?
- How might you expect information on an artist to vary (or not) across different websites - for example, how might an artist's own website (if they have one) vary from a gallery resource or a Wikipedia page?
- Why might an artist (such as David Hammons) choose not to have an online presence or even refuse to be interviewed or discuss his work?
- In what ways do you think these introductions vary? For example, which do you consider the most factual, formal, authoritative or accessible? Which is the most appealing to read and why?
- If you had to summarise 'David Hammons' in 5 short statements which words would you choose? Do your words focus on the artist or his artwork, or a combination of both?
Below are two videos that introduce his work. In one, curator Philip Larratt-Smith discusses David Hammons's Mason's Yard exhibition in 2015, in the other Kiara Cristina Ventura, founder of Artsy Window presents an 'Art History Class' focusing on the work 'Bliz-aard Ball Sale', 1983.
Watch the two videos to discover more about David Hammon and also reflect on how this information is delivered - the possible differences between the two videos and their potential influences upon your understanding and appreciation.
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- How might the intentions, motivations and audiences for the two videos differ, and why?
- Does the curator/presenter influence your engagement and interest - in the way they look, articulate and enthuse, and through the words they choose? How about the length of films, the style of filming, and the locations used?
- Do you think David Hammons would 'value' these summaries?
- If you were to commission a short film about your own artwork, who/how/where would you like to present this and why? What would be the most 'valuable' work or insights to share?
Below are 3 further examples of artworks by David Hammons. Once again, study the images and discuss/speculate on the works and their potential 'value(s)'. You might consider: the media, techniques and skills used; the effectiveness of these photographs as full evidence; the intentions of the artist; the potential meaning of the works to you or others. The capacity of the works to affect - to provoke emotional reaction, curiosity or change (in thinking and understanding, for example).
From left to right: Untitled (Rock Head), 1998 (stone, hair, and shoe polish container); How Ya Like Me Now, 1988, (Oil and spray paint on tin billboard, sledgehammers); Untitled, 2008-14 (Canvas, paint, rag)
These 3 artworks provide further examples of the diverse materials and approaches employed by David Hammons. Further insights into these works can be found via links and in the notes below:
ACTIVITY
- Untitled (Rock Head), 1998 uses the visual trope of hair as a marker of African American racial identity. This is evident in his rock heads, works that combine a head-sized stone with hair collected from the floors of black barbershops and affixed to the stone in a manner resembling a head of hair. Art historian Blake Gopnik notes that "in its obvious echoes of Brancusi’s smooth forms, it takes modernism’s Africa fetish and reclaims it for black America." Source
- How Ya Like Me Now, 1988 is a 14-by-14-foot painting that portrays Jesse Jackson—an African-American preacher and two-time presidential candidate—as a Caucasian man with white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. The depiction created outrage prior to going on display and a group of black locals, believing it was racist, smashed it with sledgehammers. Hammons then integrated the sledgehammer into subsequent iterations of the work. Source
- Untitled, 2008-14 (Canvas, paint, rag) is one of a number of abstract paintings made by Hammons that is then partially obscured by found tarpaulins or plastic sheets—the stuff of makeshift shelters, and the street. Glimpses of the paintings are provided but nothing more, instead the textures, colours and surfaces of the coverings conceal AND form the works.
ACTIVITY
- Produce your own experimental work inspired by the radical, playful and inventive acts/interventions/artworks shared above. To begin with this you might wish to:Identify a key theme that is important to you - perhaps a societal concern, inequality or injustice; a personal barrier or frustration; a place, environment or institution that you wish to challenge, question or reconsider (and/or encourage others to do so via your work).
- Set yourself constraints for this work that challenge you to work in new ways and with new materials. This might include:
- only using found/disregarded materials;
- only re-organising, rearranging, re-presenting something existing - objects, artworks, furniture, people, signs ...
- creating something ephemeral, temporary, transient ... such as a performance or repeated interaction which might be documented through writing, film or photography. - Consider how you might document the development of this work - planning, construction, performance, impact etc. - and also how others might encounter, experience, 'assess' and 'value' it.
TASK 8 SUMMARY
You should complete:
- a range of notes and wider research in response to the resources above.
- A playful experiment inspired by a 'famous' (iconic, well-known, 'valuable' ...) artwork.
- Wider reading, critical thinking and experimental practical work in response to the work of David Hammons /artists interested in Institutional Critique and issues of exclusion, representation and misrepresentation (in the art world and beyond).
FURTHER READING
- The Tyranny of Art History in Contemporary Art, Jerry Saltz
- Black Futures, New York Times, Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew
- The challenges facing the art world today, Sylvain Levy
- Outside the Comfort Zone, The Art of Adrian Piper
- Is David Hammons trolling his gallery?
- David Hammons, Art Review, Gabriel Coxhead 2016
- 11 things to know about David Hammons