Styles of photography from its beginning to the current digital age
Can you imagine a world without photographs? What would it be like? What would be missing from your lives? Why do people take photographs?
Introduction to the History of Photography
How did it begin?
Photography began with the Camera Obscura.
Early Photography
Introduction to the History of Photography
How did it begin?
Photography began with the Camera Obscura.
These two words mean a “Dark box.”
This was developed many hundreds of years ago, artists used it to help them draw exact images of things in the world. This dark box had a small opening in its wall. Light passed through the opening and projected an upside-down image of the scene outside on the opposite wall. Artists would trace this image onto their drawing surface.
From Wikimedia
http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/cameraob.htm
Also see Camera LucidaFrom Wikimedia
http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/cameraob.htm
Three things are necessary for photography: a light-tight box, lenses and light sensitive materials. These elements were around for hundreds of years but they needed to be combined in order to produce a photograph. Many people experimented with these elements, but the first photographic image wasn’t created until 1826.
First Photographic Images
Cyanotype
First introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1843, also known as the blue print process.
Items are placed on sensitized paper and contact printed by exposing to light.
Read further for a brief History of Cyanotype
Sun pictures by Anna Atkins, 1799-1871
Atkins was the earliest woman photographer. She made cyanotypes with text and produced the first book with photographic illustrations, British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. The book documented a large collection of seaweed and began in 1843. It was followed by Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns. Atkins' books predate Talbot’s books, but Talbot is more widely known as being the first.
Anna Atkins and Anne Dixon, Equisetum Sylvaticum, 1853
Anna Atkins, Dictyota Dichotoma, 1843
In 1826, Joseph Nicephore Niepce, a Frenchman, made the first photographic image on a pewter plate.
.
Joseph Nicephore Niepce, View from the Photographer’s Studio, 1827•The earliest known photograph.
Niepce used something like the camera obscura to project an image onto the plate and exposed it for eight hours.
Imagine sitting for a photographer for eight hours?
Niepce teamed up with another Frenchman, Louis- Jacques-Mande Daguerre. They created the first successful Daguerreotype.
Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, Still Life (Corner of Daguerre’s Studio),1837
This is an image on a copper plate obtained through certain chemical processes. The image was a view of a corner in the artist’s studio and was created in 1837. The Daguerrotype had a long exposure-time and since there was no negative- copies couldn’t be made.
Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 1839
A few years later, an Englishman named William Henry Fox Talbot thought up a way of putting an image on paper by the action of light. This led him to develop a photographic process that made many copies using negatives. He called the process Calotype.
William Henry Fox Talbot, Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square under Construction, 1843
William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door, 1844
There were other experiments and inventions as well.
David Brewster invented stereoscopic viewers in 1849. People used these for home entertainment. Remember they had no televisions to watch.
Do you think this could be a substitute for television in your house?
In the next 30 years of the 19th century people made improvements in cameras, lenses and the developing of photographs.
When the Eastman Company in the United States produced Kodak no 1 in 1888, it took a big step toward hand-held cameras for everyone. Cameras became popular and easy to get. Cameras came ready- loaded with film and the Eastman Company provided a developing and printing service for the general public.
First Photographic Images
Cyanotype
First introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1843, also known as the blue print process.
Items are placed on sensitized paper and contact printed by exposing to light.
Read further for a brief History of Cyanotype
Sun pictures by Anna Atkins, 1799-1871
Atkins was the earliest woman photographer. She made cyanotypes with text and produced the first book with photographic illustrations, British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. The book documented a large collection of seaweed and began in 1843. It was followed by Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns. Atkins' books predate Talbot’s books, but Talbot is more widely known as being the first.
Anna Atkins and Anne Dixon, Equisetum Sylvaticum, 1853
Anna Atkins, Dictyota Dichotoma, 1843
In 1826, Joseph Nicephore Niepce, a Frenchman, made the first photographic image on a pewter plate.
.
Joseph Nicephore Niepce, View from the Photographer’s Studio, 1827•The earliest known photograph.
Niepce used something like the camera obscura to project an image onto the plate and exposed it for eight hours.
Imagine sitting for a photographer for eight hours?
Niepce teamed up with another Frenchman, Louis- Jacques-Mande Daguerre. They created the first successful Daguerreotype.
Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, Still Life (Corner of Daguerre’s Studio),1837
This is an image on a copper plate obtained through certain chemical processes. The image was a view of a corner in the artist’s studio and was created in 1837. The Daguerrotype had a long exposure-time and since there was no negative- copies couldn’t be made.
Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 1839
A few years later, an Englishman named William Henry Fox Talbot thought up a way of putting an image on paper by the action of light. This led him to develop a photographic process that made many copies using negatives. He called the process Calotype.
William Henry Fox Talbot, Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square under Construction, 1843
William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door, 1844
There were other experiments and inventions as well.
David Brewster invented stereoscopic viewers in 1849. People used these for home entertainment. Remember they had no televisions to watch.
Do you think this could be a substitute for television in your house?
In the next 30 years of the 19th century people made improvements in cameras, lenses and the developing of photographs.
When the Eastman Company in the United States produced Kodak no 1 in 1888, it took a big step toward hand-held cameras for everyone. Cameras became popular and easy to get. Cameras came ready- loaded with film and the Eastman Company provided a developing and printing service for the general public.
Early Photography
Portraits became popular: 1. It no longer took eight hours for images to be exposed,
2. Cost: those who were unable to afford a painted portrait could afford a photo session.
Why do you think people wanted their portraits taken?
1. It was new 2. Remembrance 3. Record of themselves 4. Social and business purposes
Enter Postmortem Photography
Photography was now a fast, cheap way for middle class citizens to memorialize dead loved ones. During the Victorian era, because of the high mortality rates, postmortem photographs were keepsakes often of children.
Carte-de-vistes
Postmortem photographs became even more popular with invention of the Carte de Viste where multiple prints were made from a single negative.
A Brief History of the Carte de Viste
Matthew Brady, Abraham Lincoln, 1860
Portraiture turns into an Art Form
Julia Margaret Cameron was an English Victorian lady who took up photography when given a camera from her daughter at the age of 48 (1863). She made portraits of great men such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Tennyson. Her photographs were different from the sharp images usually captured. Her images were slightly off focus and she used soft visual effects. She used the Wet- collodian process and glass negatives. She often made her sitters play parts so that her pictures would be more dramatic.
Julia Margaret Cameron, Sir John Herschel, 1867
Julia Margaret Cameron, Rising of the New Year, 1872
Later at the beginning of the 20th century Edward Curtis took pictures of Native Americans in efforts to make them look like paintings. But Edward Curtis also wanted to record history and that is why he took pictures of what he called “the vanishing race”- the Native American.
Edward Curtis, Qahatika Girl
Edward Curtis, Vash Gon--Jicarilla
Other photographers like Matthew Brady were photojournalists. They wanted to record historical events, such as, the Civil War, as they happened.
Matthew Brady, President Lincoln at Sharpsburg, 1862
You can see from the two kinds of photography that the medium was beginning to define itself. Would it only record history or would it become a new art form?
These two trends- photography as a record and photography as an art continued into the 20th century.
Twentieth-Century Photography
People like Edward Weston believed it was a new art form. He photographed shells, mushrooms, seaweed and other flora. He used dark backdrops to isolate the objects to make them seem as important as monuments. He focused on “the thing itself” a phrase he coined to mean the subject. He saw himself as an artist who made ordinary objects extraordinary through photography.
Edward Weston, Nude, 1934
Edward Weston, Excusado, Mexico, 1925
Some photographer’s put an artful spin on their work by experimenting with photomontage, collage and photograms.
Hannah Hoch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany, 1919, Photomontage
Max Ernst & Hans Arp, Physiomythological Diluvian Picture, 1920, Collage with fragments of a photograph, gouache, pencil,pen and ink on paper laid on card
Man Ray, Abstract Composition, 1921-1928, Rayograph
Color
1. 1935 Kodachrome was the "first successfully mass-marketed color still film using a subtractive method, in contrast to earlier additive "screenplate" methods" (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome)
2. 1940s "Commercially viable color films were brought to the market.
These films used the modern technology of dye-coupled colors in which a chemical process connects the three dye layers together to create an apparent color image. "(from http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/stilphotography.htm)
Madame Yevonde (1914-1975) is one of the world's foremost pioneers of color photography. She worked to refine the VIVEX tri-colour separation process (1930-1940). She created a series of portraits known as 'The Goddesses'. More can be seen here: http://www.madameyevonde.com/
Madame Yevonde, Mrs. Edward Mayer as Medusa
Photography as Social Commentary and Documentary
Henri Cartier-Bresson said “There is something appalling about photographing people... something barbaric about it”
Photographer's concerned with societal ills and poor conditions would disagree. They felt that people suffering in poor conditions needed to be published and even sometimes dramatized to bring about public awareness.
Lewis Hine, publicized the plight of factory workers.
Lewis Hine, Breaker Boys in a Chute, South Pennsylvania, 1911
Dorothea Lange documented the suffering of migrant workers and sharecroppers during the great depression.
Dorothea Lange, White Angel Bread Line, 1932
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
Read about Migrant Mother
The question of exploitation often arises when photographs of people are made.
Who was Dorthea Lange's Migrant Mother?
In the AP story, Thompson declared that she felt “exploited” by Lange’s portrait. “I wish she hadn’t taken my picture,” she declared. “I can’t get a penny out of it. [Lange] didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.”
The 20th century was a century of warfare and modern photography brought its horrors home to people. Lee Miller recorded candid images of WWII and its aftermath.
Lee Miller, Buchenwald, 1945
Lee Miller, Dead SS Guard in Canal, Dachau, Germany, 1945, silver gelatin print, 1945.
© 2007 Lee Miller Archives.
Diane Arbus photographed people inhabiting worlds different from her own. Arbus was born into an affluent, traditional Jewish family and said her comfortable lifestyle gave her a “sense of unreality”. She sought to rebel against the comfort of her home life, the glamor and the beauty of fashion photography by photographing "Freaks." Diane Arbus' career came to a tragic end when she committed suicide in 1971.
Did she exploit the people she photographed or did she transcend that by involving herself in their lifestyles? Her view was from the inside. Read more
“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.”
-Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus, Albino sword swallower at a carnival, Md.,1970
Diane Arbus, King and Queen Senior Citizens, 1970
Diane Arbus, Untitled, 1970
See more
In the above link Nicky Charlish states that:
"Changed sexual mores, reductions in censorship and fly-on-the-wall documentaries purporting to show the unvarnished, unedited truth of human situations, have all made the once strange a regular part of life. The idea of shame has - by and large - died out."
Do you agree with this? Has the idea of shame died out? Does society censor less?
Take a look at The Disturbing Photography of Sally Mann
See more
As you can see photography has become a medium for communicating both beauty and message. Since WWII technology has advanced so far that we can now make photographic recordings of molecular structures. We can even take pictures of Earth from Space.
Today, Artists can produce photographs employing techniques such as photomontage with multiple negatives, collage, Xerox and printmaking.
Even ordinary people can produce quality photographs. Digital cameras make it fast and easy to produce sharp focused images anywhere, anytime.
Interesting use of photos in animation-
Check it out:
http://laughlines.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/when-wolfie-met-piggie/
The Photographer’s Eye
- John Szarkowski, 1966
The Camera
The camera functions much like the human eye.
You will learn to use your photographic eye and how to think before taking a picture. You need to understand what a photograph is composed of and what the visual criteria are to judge it by. Using categories described by John Szarkowski in a book The Photographer’s Eye, you will see that artists make conscious decisions when designing a photograph.
Ruth Bernhard, Hand in Hand, 1956, Gelatin silver print, Collection Museum of Photographic Arts
IV. Time
V. Vantage Point
Is photography overtaken and demystified by reality as some have said? The controversy surrounding photography’s validity as a Fine Art has been a debate since its popular rise.
Baudelaire states that photography is a servant to the sciences and art. Is photography merely a servant or has it become it's own artform?
The Art of Photography by Cameron Gaut
2. Cost: those who were unable to afford a painted portrait could afford a photo session.
Why do you think people wanted their portraits taken?
1. It was new 2. Remembrance 3. Record of themselves 4. Social and business purposes
Enter Postmortem Photography
Photography was now a fast, cheap way for middle class citizens to memorialize dead loved ones. During the Victorian era, because of the high mortality rates, postmortem photographs were keepsakes often of children.
Carte-de-vistes
Postmortem photographs became even more popular with invention of the Carte de Viste where multiple prints were made from a single negative.
A Brief History of the Carte de Viste
Matthew Brady, Abraham Lincoln, 1860
Portraiture turns into an Art Form
Julia Margaret Cameron was an English Victorian lady who took up photography when given a camera from her daughter at the age of 48 (1863). She made portraits of great men such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Tennyson. Her photographs were different from the sharp images usually captured. Her images were slightly off focus and she used soft visual effects. She used the Wet- collodian process and glass negatives. She often made her sitters play parts so that her pictures would be more dramatic.
Julia Margaret Cameron, Sir John Herschel, 1867
Julia Margaret Cameron, Rising of the New Year, 1872
Later at the beginning of the 20th century Edward Curtis took pictures of Native Americans in efforts to make them look like paintings. But Edward Curtis also wanted to record history and that is why he took pictures of what he called “the vanishing race”- the Native American.
Edward Curtis, Qahatika Girl
Edward Curtis, Vash Gon--Jicarilla
Other photographers like Matthew Brady were photojournalists. They wanted to record historical events, such as, the Civil War, as they happened.
Matthew Brady, President Lincoln at Sharpsburg, 1862
You can see from the two kinds of photography that the medium was beginning to define itself. Would it only record history or would it become a new art form?
These two trends- photography as a record and photography as an art continued into the 20th century.
Twentieth-Century Photography
People like Edward Weston believed it was a new art form. He photographed shells, mushrooms, seaweed and other flora. He used dark backdrops to isolate the objects to make them seem as important as monuments. He focused on “the thing itself” a phrase he coined to mean the subject. He saw himself as an artist who made ordinary objects extraordinary through photography.
Edward Weston, Nude, 1934
Edward Weston, Excusado, Mexico, 1925
Some photographer’s put an artful spin on their work by experimenting with photomontage, collage and photograms.
Hannah Hoch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany, 1919, Photomontage
Max Ernst & Hans Arp, Physiomythological Diluvian Picture, 1920, Collage with fragments of a photograph, gouache, pencil,pen and ink on paper laid on card
Man Ray, Abstract Composition, 1921-1928, Rayograph
Color
1. 1935 Kodachrome was the "first successfully mass-marketed color still film using a subtractive method, in contrast to earlier additive "screenplate" methods" (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome)
2. 1940s "Commercially viable color films were brought to the market.
These films used the modern technology of dye-coupled colors in which a chemical process connects the three dye layers together to create an apparent color image. "(from http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/stilphotography.htm)
Madame Yevonde (1914-1975) is one of the world's foremost pioneers of color photography. She worked to refine the VIVEX tri-colour separation process (1930-1940). She created a series of portraits known as 'The Goddesses'. More can be seen here: http://www.madameyevonde.com/
Madame Yevonde, Mrs. Edward Mayer as Medusa
Photography as Social Commentary and Documentary
Henri Cartier-Bresson said “There is something appalling about photographing people... something barbaric about it”
Photographer's concerned with societal ills and poor conditions would disagree. They felt that people suffering in poor conditions needed to be published and even sometimes dramatized to bring about public awareness.
Lewis Hine, publicized the plight of factory workers.
Lewis Hine, Breaker Boys in a Chute, South Pennsylvania, 1911
Dorothea Lange documented the suffering of migrant workers and sharecroppers during the great depression.
Dorothea Lange, White Angel Bread Line, 1932
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
Read about Migrant Mother
Who was Dorthea Lange's Migrant Mother?
In the AP story, Thompson declared that she felt “exploited” by Lange’s portrait. “I wish she hadn’t taken my picture,” she declared. “I can’t get a penny out of it. [Lange] didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.”
The 20th century was a century of warfare and modern photography brought its horrors home to people. Lee Miller recorded candid images of WWII and its aftermath.
Lee Miller, Buchenwald, 1945
Lee Miller, Dead SS Guard in Canal, Dachau, Germany, 1945, silver gelatin print, 1945.
© 2007 Lee Miller Archives.
Diane Arbus photographed people inhabiting worlds different from her own. Arbus was born into an affluent, traditional Jewish family and said her comfortable lifestyle gave her a “sense of unreality”. She sought to rebel against the comfort of her home life, the glamor and the beauty of fashion photography by photographing "Freaks." Diane Arbus' career came to a tragic end when she committed suicide in 1971.
Did she exploit the people she photographed or did she transcend that by involving herself in their lifestyles? Her view was from the inside. Read more
“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.”
-Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus, Albino sword swallower at a carnival, Md.,1970
Diane Arbus, King and Queen Senior Citizens, 1970
Diane Arbus, Untitled, 1970
See more
In the above link Nicky Charlish states that:
"Changed sexual mores, reductions in censorship and fly-on-the-wall documentaries purporting to show the unvarnished, unedited truth of human situations, have all made the once strange a regular part of life. The idea of shame has - by and large - died out."
Do you agree with this? Has the idea of shame died out? Does society censor less?
Take a look at The Disturbing Photography of Sally Mann
See more
Video: Ovation TV | Genius of Photography: We are Family
As you can see photography has become a medium for communicating both beauty and message. Since WWII technology has advanced so far that we can now make photographic recordings of molecular structures. We can even take pictures of Earth from Space.
Today, Artists can produce photographs employing techniques such as photomontage with multiple negatives, collage, Xerox and printmaking.
Even ordinary people can produce quality photographs. Digital cameras make it fast and easy to produce sharp focused images anywhere, anytime.
Interesting use of photos in animation-
Check it out:
http://laughlines.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/when-wolfie-met-piggie/
The Photographer’s Eye
- John Szarkowski, 1966
The Camera
The camera functions much like the human eye.
You will learn to use your photographic eye and how to think before taking a picture. You need to understand what a photograph is composed of and what the visual criteria are to judge it by. Using categories described by John Szarkowski in a book The Photographer’s Eye, you will see that artists make conscious decisions when designing a photograph.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
I. The Thing Itself
Concentrate on the subject matter you are portraying. Photography focuses on the actual. The photographer’s challenge is to recreate the image as close to the facts as possible. This is important because the photographic image lasts longer than the actual subject and is the remembered reality. Make the viewer believe that the photograph is true
I. The Thing Itself
Concentrate on the subject matter you are portraying. Photography focuses on the actual. The photographer’s challenge is to recreate the image as close to the facts as possible. This is important because the photographic image lasts longer than the actual subject and is the remembered reality. Make the viewer believe that the photograph is true
Ruth Bernhard, Hand in Hand, 1956, Gelatin silver print, Collection Museum of Photographic Arts
II. Details
The photographer looks at the facts of things. He/she focuses on forcing the facts to tell the truth. The job of the photographer is to isolate a piece and document it. The details give clues to a bigger picture. The details teach us that if a photograph could not be read as a story, it could be read as a symbol. What details lead the viewer’s eye throughout the photograph? Consider color, value, light, texture and patterns and how they provide visual stimulation.
The photographer looks at the facts of things. He/she focuses on forcing the facts to tell the truth. The job of the photographer is to isolate a piece and document it. The details give clues to a bigger picture. The details teach us that if a photograph could not be read as a story, it could be read as a symbol. What details lead the viewer’s eye throughout the photograph? Consider color, value, light, texture and patterns and how they provide visual stimulation.
Edward Weston, Artichoke Halved, 1930
III. Framing/ Cropping
The photographer’s picture is selected. He/she chooses what to allow into his/her frame and what to take out. The photographer controls where the edges of the image will be and what part of the scene surrounding will be involved in the picture. The picture's edge crops the image. If a photographer chooses to isolate and focus on two people in a crowd he/she creates a relationship between those people who may or may not know each other. This act of taking away subject matter forces the viewer to concentrate on what the photographer wants them to see. Depending on how the picture is taken, it may leave the viewer wondering what lies beyond the picture plane.
The photographer’s picture is selected. He/she chooses what to allow into his/her frame and what to take out. The photographer controls where the edges of the image will be and what part of the scene surrounding will be involved in the picture. The picture's edge crops the image. If a photographer chooses to isolate and focus on two people in a crowd he/she creates a relationship between those people who may or may not know each other. This act of taking away subject matter forces the viewer to concentrate on what the photographer wants them to see. Depending on how the picture is taken, it may leave the viewer wondering what lies beyond the picture plane.
Tina Modatti, c. 1929
IV. Time
The photograph describes a particular amount of time or the period of time in which it was made. Time is always present. Movement the camera captures with a slow lens or film sometimes reveals a ghost or a blur; if photographed at a higher speed will freeze an action in time. A sequence of events may suggest time passing. Direction and strength of light may suggest time of day. Patterning of lines and shapes due to light may also suggest the time of day and its passing.
Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Portrait of the Eternal, 1935
Harry Callahan, Detroit, 1943
V. Vantage Point
Photography has taught us to see from unexpected viewpoints. The vantage point allows for the viewer to gain a sense of the scene, emotion or mood but is not necessarily given the whole story. Consider the angle you choose to photograph from. Consider how it will influence one’s understanding of your photograph. How does it change the meaning of the photograph if the same image is taken from a bird’s eye view (looking down) and then a worm’s view (looking up)? Will it change the mood or meaning? How does your subject change? Is it distorted? Does the lighting change? How does it appear differently? Will it change the relationship of power between your subjects?
Imogen Cunningham, Pheonix Recumbent, 1968
Edward Steichen, Flatiron Building, 1909
Is photography overtaken and demystified by reality as some have said? The controversy surrounding photography’s validity as a Fine Art has been a debate since its popular rise.
Baudelaire states that photography is a servant to the sciences and art. Is photography merely a servant or has it become it's own artform?
The Art of Photography by Cameron Gaut
Does a Painter Cheat with a Camera?
(see handout)
Cheating and Creativity: Copying and Learning
Artists often use optical devices, photographic aids, tracing and grids to reproduce imagery the trick is to make the reproduced work your own.
Drawing and Optics
David Hockney’s Secret Knowledge
After viewing portions of David Hockney’s film: Hockney’s Secret Knowledge,
Consider the debate over whether the use of optical aid is cheating.
Artists:
Chuck Close, Thomas Eakins
Mixing Media: Collage and Photomontage
Photo Montage
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/high/cubismphoto.htm
•Art project: Complete photomontage.
mix media through an art project combining photography, printmaking, painting and drawing.
Artists:
John Heartfield
http://www.towson.edu/heartfield/2.html
http://www.towson.edu/heartfield/art/5.html
http://www.towson.edu/heartfield/art/dada.html
Political and Social Issues in Art
Contemporary art issues related to politics and social development
(Image from Pound for Pound)
ART APPROPRIATIONa
Is to use another's imagery often without permission.
There is difference between stealing and appropriation. It is not the same as plagiarism. When one appropriates an image they reuse it in a different context from its original. Appropriation is the reinvention of an image.
It is safe to say that every important comtemporary art collection in the world contains appropriation art of some form...
Appropriation Art Condemns Bill C-61
Appropriation Art
An exhibition that shows historical trends using appropriation:
Original Copies: 'The Art of Appropriation' at MOMA by John Goodrich
Duchamp Ready Mades
Modern Art Obsession Blog Topic
FAIR USE
Articles:
Ideas on Fair Use by Negativland
Videos:
What is Creative Commons?
Where Do Artists Draw the Line with Copyright Law?
Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey by Mark Vallen
"Fairey’s work takes old advertisements and old propaganda posters and repurposes them to highlight the manipulation being carried out through visual media... On the “gun” images, the original propagandist is trying to arouse your feelings to want to go off to war and fight for “your country (=some leader).” Fairey turns that line of thinking on its ear.
In the Yellowstone piece, you have your government (National Park) telling us Yellowstone is a wonderful, magical place. In Fairey’s piece, he’s shedding light on the fact our government is telling us things in Iraq are better than they really are. See? Repurposing propaganda to illustrate the absurdity within or without." http://justagwailo.com/2008/02/12/8644
Obey Industries: http://obeygiant.com/industries
Fairey's Obama
Videos:
Barack Obama is a Work of Art
Shepard Fairey + The Obama Poster (Boing Boing)
Shepard Fairey Appropriation of the Appropriated Debate Answer? Colbert
Shepard Fairey on Fighting the Ap Over Obama Hope Image
Articles:
Shepard Fairey Sued by AP over Hope
Shepard Fairey is Not a Crook by Steven Heller
Viewing Journalism as a Work of Art by Noam Cohen
Fairey's Art of Hypocrisy
Censorship and Controversy
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
—Salman Rushdie and Jonathan Rauch, “Censorship Is Harmful”Students will take a look at various controversies surrounding artworks, react to the work and situations, as well as generate opinions on censorship.
Many controversial works have come under attack because they are government funded. Should risky artworks be funded through agencies such as the NEA? Should there be strict regulations on the types of works that are funded?
Funding for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. http://www.nea.gov/about/index.html
Art for the People
Video
Shepard Fairey, Supply and Demand
Censorship
When viewing some of the following works and reading the articles consider whether or not it is fair to have artworks removed or destroyed after they are comissioned? These works bring about many questions regarding censorship such as, who should be responsible for censoring work--the government, the art galleries/museums, the public, or the artists themselves?
Diego Rivera
Rockefeller Controversy
Larger image can be seen here: http://marxists.org/espanol/trotsky/imagenes/encruci.jpg
http://www.diego-rivera.org/rockefellercontroversy.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/filmmore/ps_rivera.html
Richard Serra, Tilted Arc
Questions to consider:
What do you think of the public’s position on Tilted Arc?
Did the workers who had to see it everyday have a right to complain?
In your opinion were the complaints justified?
Why was the art establishment against the public’s position?
Do you think moving the artwork to another location would destroy its artistic integrity, as its creator stated?
What is meant by “artistic integrity?”
Do you think the New York Times’ position was right or wrong?
“One cannot choose to see or ignore ‘Tilted Arc,’ as if it were in museum or a less conspicuous public place. To the complaining workers in Federal Plaza, it is quite simply, unavoidable… The public has to live with ‘Tilted Arc; therefore the pubic has a right to say no, not here.”
Should the artist be trying to please him/herself or the public?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/visualarts/tiltedarc_a.html
Controversy and Censorship
The Sacred Realm?
Religious Scandal
Andres Serrano
Andres Serrano, Madonna and Child II, 1989
Andres Serrano, Piss Christ, 1987
Piss Christ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Piss Christ is a controversial photograph by American photographer Andres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix supporting the body of Jesus Christ submerged in a glass of the artist's urine. Some have suggested that the glass may also contain the artist's blood. The piece was a winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art 's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition, [1] which is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a United States Government agency that offers support and funding for artistic projects.
The piece caused a scandal when it was exhibited in 1989, with detractors accusing Serrano of blasphemy and others raising this as a major issue of artistic freedom. On the floor of the United States Senate, Senators Al D'Amato and Jesse Helms expressed outrage that the piece was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, since it is a federal taxpayer-financed institution.
The art critic and Catholic Nun Sister Wendy Beckett voiced her approval of Piss Christ.
Serrano produced other similar works to much less controversy; Madonna and Child II (1989), for example, in which the subject is similarly submerged in urine, is not nearly as well known as "Piss Christ".
Piss Christ is often used as a test-case for the idea of freedom of speech, and was described in the journal Arts & Opinion as "a clash between the interests of artists in freedom of expression on the one hand, and the hurt such works may cause to a section of the community on the other." [2] It is referred to in many popular publications including Bill Maher 's book When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden.
Questions to consider:
What do you see?
How does the image make you feel?
Should the NEA support these pieces?
Madonna and Child II attracted less attention then Christ. Why do you think that is?
Do you find one more offensive then the other?
Articles:
Andres Serrano: Provocation And Spirituality
By MICHAEL BRENSON
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6D71F39F93BA35751C1A96F948260
Holy Art
“The Morgue Series"
Serrano, Suicide II
Serrano-
http://www.corcoran.org/collection/highlights_name_results.asp?Artist_ID=80
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424288434/423908876/piss-christ.html
Piss Christ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Piss Christ is a controversial photograph by American photographer Andres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix supporting the body of Jesus Christ submerged in a glass of the artist's urine. Some have suggested that the glass may also contain the artist's blood. The piece was a winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art 's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition, [1] which is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a United States Government agency that offers support and funding for artistic projects.
The piece caused a scandal when it was exhibited in 1989, with detractors accusing Serrano of blasphemy and others raising this as a major issue of artistic freedom. On the floor of the United States Senate, Senators Al D'Amato and Jesse Helms expressed outrage that the piece was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, since it is a federal taxpayer-financed institution.
The art critic and Catholic Nun Sister Wendy Beckett voiced her approval of Piss Christ.
Serrano produced other similar works to much less controversy; Madonna and Child II (1989), for example, in which the subject is similarly submerged in urine, is not nearly as well known as "Piss Christ".
Piss Christ is often used as a test-case for the idea of freedom of speech, and was described in the journal Arts & Opinion as "a clash between the interests of artists in freedom of expression on the one hand, and the hurt such works may cause to a section of the community on the other." [2] It is referred to in many popular publications including Bill Maher 's book When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden.
Questions to consider:
What do you see?
How does the image make you feel?
Should the NEA support these pieces?
Madonna and Child II attracted less attention then Christ. Why do you think that is?
Do you find one more offensive then the other?
Piss Christ
Articles:
Andres Serrano: Provocation And Spirituality
By MICHAEL BRENSON
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6D71F39F93BA35751C1A96F948260
Holy Art
“The Morgue Series"
Serrano, Suicide II
Journal Assignment:
Select photographs (at least 3) from a magazine, fro
m your personal collection or the internet to place in your journals (you may make copies for your journal but bring the original to class). Which do you belive qualify as works of art? Explain your reasons for your choices next to your images in your journals.
Covering up Justice
http://www.unitedstatesgovernment.net/coveringupjustice.htm
Chris Ofili- Virgin Mary in Brooklyn
Images:
http://www.habermas.org/ofili01.htm
Sensation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensation_exhibition
Questions to consider:
Do you think artists should be able to use any materials they want?
Should the subject matter restrict the materials used?
If something has a religious content does that mean it should be censored?
Who should regulate it then?
Suppose his subject was a Hindu goddess do you think the public’s reaction would have been the same?
Or would your reaction have been the same?
Yale’s Abortion Art Controversy
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/artnetnews5-2-08.asp
Feminism
Contemporary Art- "art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetimes"
(http://arthistory.about.com/od/current_contemporary_art/f/what_is.htm).
Art from the 1960's or 70's up until now.
Movements:
Modern Art
Modern Art means: "The point at which artists (1) felt free to trust their inner visions, (2) express those visions in their work, (3) use Real Life (social issues and images from modern life) as a source of subject matter and (4) experiment and innovate as often as possible (http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernart/f/what_is.htm)."
Modern Art began in the 19th-century and ran until the end of the 1960's. or early 1970's.
Film: Who Gets to Call it Art
Contemporary art issues related to politics and social development
Is the work we saw in “Who Gets to Call it Art” good art?
Who decides what good art is? How do you decide what good art is?
Below are Modern Art movements from the late 1940's to the early 1970's:
Abstract Expressionism - mid-1940s -Present
Selected Artists:
Painters: Helen Frankenthaler, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Hans Hoffman, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock
Sculptors: Louise Bourgeois and Louise Nevelson
Helen Frankenthaler
http://www.stfrancis.edu/en/student/beatart/frank.htm
(The) New York School - 1940s-1950s
Selected Artists from the New York Art Scene 1950's and 1960's:
Chuck Close, Leon Golub, Arshile Gorky, Nancy Graves, Jasper Johns, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Elizabeth Murray, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Nancy Spero, Frank Stella, Richard Tuttle, Andy Warhol
Action Painting - 1950s
Selected Artists:
Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jackson PollockColor Field Painting - 1950s-Present
Selected Artists:
Helen Frankenthlaler, Hans Hoffman, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko
Neo-Dada - 1950s
Artists associated with the term:
Jasper, Johns, Yves Klein, Robert Rauscheberg, Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine
Pop Art- 1950's-present
Selected Artists:
Jim Dine, William Eggleston, Red Grooms, Richard Hamilton, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Peter Max, Takashi Murakami, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenburg, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, George Segal, Andy Warhol http://www.plastic.com/altculture, Tom Wesselmann
"In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. -Sol LeWitt "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art", Artforum, June 1967.
Selected Artists:
Chris Burden, Jenny Holzer http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/holzer.html, Sol LeWitt
Fluxus - early 1960s-late 1970s
Selected Artists:
Junk Art - 1960s-Present
Selected Artists:
Minimalism - 1960s–Present
Selected Artists:
Op Art- 1964-Present
Selected Artists:
Performance Art - 1960s–Present
Selected Artists:
Chris Burden, Robert Rauschenberg
Photorealism - mid-1960s -Present
Selected Artists:
Psychedelic Art - early 1960s-early 1970s
Selected Artists:
Peter Max http://www.petermax.com/
(Movements selected from from
http://arthistory.about.com/library/outlines/blmodern.htm)
Post-Modernism - 1970s-mid 1980s
Used to characterize the breaking down of the unified traditions of modernism (in essence, “deconstructive art practices”) ; consisting of photo, abstract painting, collage, drawing, constructed sculpture, installations and public art.
Post Modernism uses less traditional methods of art making.
Artists of the 70’s and 80’s wanted to expose the ways images are culturally coded.
Ugly Realism - 1970s
Selected Artists:
Feminist Art - 1970s- Present
Issue: Feminism in Art
Article: Why have there been no great women artists?/ Nochlin
“The Forgotten Ones”/ Bradshaw
Discussion:
You have read Bradshaw’s “The Forgotten Ones” do you agree or disagree with her idea that the work of female artists achieved no fame before Mary Cassatt in the 19th century. Explain your position based on the article. Conclude with your views on how you think female artists (visual and or performing artists) are treated today.
Do they gain as much fame as male artists?
Women began with limited social access to other artists and less education> they were not allowed to paint/draw model in the nude.
Other issues: validating masculine behavior
The 1970’s saw a reaction against pluralism,. There was a backlash against women and minorities in the art world. There was a “return” to painting- focus on a new generation of male neo expressionists…" There was an exclusion of women- “Zeitgeist…”
In 1984- Women picketed the Moma
Selected Artists:
Guerilla Girls- an anonymous group of women artists installed posters in soho documenting sexism in NY galleries and museums.
Women that continue commitment to political activism and evolving images:
Judy Chicago discusses positioning of woman in patriarchial culture, Barbara Kruger "emphasizes the way in which language manipulates, and undermines the assumption of masculine control over language and viewing through their refusal of completion and her assertion of a position of “otherness.” http://edu.warhol.org/app_kruger.html, Cindy Sherman sets up her photographs so that “the person and her image function only as an object of contemplation for the gazes of others.
Neo-Conceptualism - late 1970s- Present
Selected Artists:
Neo-Expressionism - late 1970s-1980s
Selected Artists:
Georg Baselitz, Jean Michel Basquiat, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Chuck Connelly, Eric Fischl, David Hockney, Anselm Kiefer- Heaven and Earth
http://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/Kiefer/exhibition.html, David Salle, Julian Schnabel
Graffiti Movement - 1980s-Present
Selected Artists:
Banksy
Massurrealism a- early 1990s-Present
Selected Artists:
Lowbrow - ca. 1994-Present
Selected Artists:
Neo- pop, Pop Surrealism and Tiki Art - late 1908's-Present
Selected Artists:
New Surrealists
Lori Earley http://www.loriearley.com/, Camille Rose Garcia http://www.camillerosegarcia.com/, HR Giger
http://www.hrgiger.com/, Marion Peck http://www.marionpeck.com/paintings/gallery1/index.html, Scott Scheidly http://www.flounderart.com/, Joe Sorren http://joesorren.com/six/index.html, Mark Ryden
http://www.markryden.com/index.html
http://www.blogger.com/www.markryden.com
Neo Pop Artists
Raymond Pettibon http://2ndthought.net/raymondpettibon/index.htm
http://www.hootpage.com/pettibon_art_summer2003/pettibon_art_summer2003.html
http://www.cfa-berlin.com/artists/raymond_pettibon/
KRK Ryden
http://krkland.com/index.html
(Movements selected from from http://arthistory.about.com/library/outlines/blcontemporary.htm)
Issue: Appropriation
Articles: Appropriation in a Digital Age
Fair Use by Negativland
http://www.negativland.com/fairuse.html
Selected Artists:
Barbara Kruger
Appropriated and deconstructed prominent language of mass media and advertising
http://edu.warhol.org/app_kruger.html
Shepard Fairey- Obey Plagiarist
http://www.art-for-a-chang.com/Obey/index.htm
Fairey Statement
http://www.obeygiant.com/
Interview
http://www.woostercollective.com/2009/01/a_shepard_fairey_primer_from_usa_network.html
Art Critic Michael Kimmelman writes in the New York Times, Marla's work raises the question "What is art?" With this in mind the class will debate whether or not Marla's work is art. The class will be split into two groups- each group must state and debate their cases in a clear and convincing manner using relevant examples and opinions from artists and theorists.
DEBATE
What is the goal of our debate?
In an attempt to better define art we will debate whether or not Marla Olmstead’s work is art.
A debate is a discussion between sides with different views. Persons speak for or against something before making a decision.
Rules for Is it Art debate:
Team captain will begin by introducing his/herself and the team’s position. The rest of team will follow with introductions. The motion being defended by the proposition is that Marla's work is art and the opposition's position is that it is not art.
• The Proposition team has the job of persuading the audience why the motion being debated should be supported. The role of the team captain should be to explain how the team wishes to approach this job.
• The Opposition team has the job of persuading the audience why the motion being debated should NOT be supported. The role of the team captain on the opposition should be to explain how the team will approach this job. The opposing team at the very least must show why the arguments that the proposition have set forth are wrong, but might also have their own reasons for not supporting the case.
How much time is allotted for sides to speak?
Teams will alternate turns. Each turn will not extend beyond 3 minutes.
The speaking order is as follows.
Prop, Opp, Prop, Opp, Comments from the floor (two students), Opp, Prop
• Points of Information. After the first minute of a speech has elapsed, any member of the OTHER side of the debate can offer an interruption to the current speaker, with their permission. The person being interrupted then has an opportunity either to allow this interruption by saying “accepted,” or “go ahead,” or “yes,” or can choose not to be interrupted by saying “declined,” or “no thank you.” The interrupter then asks a short question or a new piece of evidence which contradicts the point being developed.
• Listening and note-taking skills - In debate, listening skills are essential because if a debater fails to hear or to understand an opponent's argument, he or she cannot successfully refute it.
• Debate with respect.
• Summary speakers (team captains) speak after the floor debate has concluded. The Opposition summary speaker speaks first, as the last word is given to the Proposition. This is called a rebuttal. Rebuttal is the part of a speech in which the speaker explains to the audience why the arguments other people have delivered are wrong.
Andy Warhol
"Arthur Danto, professor of philosophy at Columbia University ..., believes that today "you can't say something's art or not art anymore. That's all finished." In his book, After the End of Art, Danto argues that after Andy Warhol exhibited simulacra of shipping cartons for Brillo boxes in 1964, anything could be art. Warhol made it no longer possible to distinguish something that is art from something that is not." From What is art? by Bart Rosier (Handout)
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