Chapter 22- Art in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Perspective

Congratulations! You have read and studied your way through an entire course about the visual arts! By now the introduction of new terminology or movements probably seems somewhat normal as you have assimilated the way in which the art world functions and feeds from multitudes of sources. The areas covered in this last chapter include Globalization, Hybridity, Appropriation, High and Low Culture and a review or reconsideration of some of the places influencing the arts today in the section called Postcolonialism, touching on examples and a brief narrative about art arising from The Caribbean and Latin America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, to catch us up from the Precolumbian period, as well as Europe: The United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain(to catch up from the Baroque and Renaissance; The Middle East: Iran, Palestinian Territories, Israel, Iraq, Asia: India, China, Japan, to catch up from the Ancient cultural periods and last but not least, The United States and Canada. A CLOSER LOOK: Jacques-Louis David on a Brooklyn Tennis Court brings the work of familiar artists Jacques-Louis David and Diego Velázquez into the present with Eve Sussman’s projects Raptus and 89 Seconds of Alcazar. You’ll want to refer back to David’s and Goya’s works in Chapters 4 and 19 to refresh your memory. A CLOSER LOOK: Cai Guo-Qiang-and the Twenty-First Century- on the roof of the Met brings into focus a multitude of issues and concerns that continue to impact our daily lives as we approach a near decade lived in the twenty-first century of recorded human history. Compare and Contrast: Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want with John Currin’s Thanksgiving provides ample opportunity to you to compare works from different “times” but using the similar theme of the Turkey feast accompanying the traditional American Thanksgiving celebration.

Chapter 22-Why Read It? Why not? You’ve made it this far, might as well finish-and this chapter has some unique offerings in terms of bringing you up-to-date about world-wide artistic endeavors, politics, economics and architecture. This is like bonus material that comes with a movie DVD, or icing on the cake! In the future, when this class is over and done with, you may delight yourself by making a comparison or noting a small detail in a work of art that you would never have noticed before. You have been sensitized to the realm of art!!

Understanding Concepts: Art is a perspective through which one can understand the world, or at least a way to understand how others view it. Our times are as rich, scary, complex and wonder-filled as any previous age in human history. We certainly have problems and worries, such as whether nature and the animal kingdom will survive what we have done to the planet in the last century or so, and we also have amazing tools at our fingertips that can create solutions, project outcomes, entertain, educate and alter the impact we have on the environment. There is no turning back, and to go forward, we must be informed and aware participating members of our cultures and our localities. This chapter, Chapter 22, sets an example of how, where and why we need to be involved in living wherever we are and whatever our vocations. Art reflects life and life reflects art, so it is a perfect tool for you to “Take the Pulse” of the world, by reading an article, going online or simply visiting an art museum or gallery wherever you travel or live.

1. See if you can find out more about a work of art that caught your eye in this chapter, like the human skull covered in diamonds. (for example, is it a real human skull, and how did Damien Hirst get hold of it if it is?)

2. Find an article in one of the popular art journals online such as The Art Newspaper, Art in America, ArtForum, etc., that pertains to one of the artists in this chapter.

3. Take notes on the artist and what the article was about. Notes here:

Making Connections: Chapter 22 runs up a summation of the many diverse styles, creative ideas and myriad forms that visual art can take. Read the A CLOSER LOOK: Jacques-Louis David on a Brooklyn Tennis Court, and compare the images presented as video stills to the work of David and Goya. What do you think? Do you feel that this contemporary work speaks to our time even though it makes reference to the past? Read a bit about the times in which David and Goya refer in their works. It’s interesting to note that they too lived in exciting, conflicted times torn by war and famine, but also inspired by new innovations, discoveries and the arts. After reading about Poussin’s and David’s paintings and Eve Sussman’s contemporary film interpretations of the Intervention of the Sabine Women and of Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas, what do you think it would have been like to be a participant in Sussman’s projects? What psycho-dynamics would be at play interacting with others in a battle scene or in a posed portrait of royalty? What observations would you be able to make about Baroque or Neoclassical themes, such as emotional drama or balance and restraint versus action and emotional expression? How would you feel if you were suddenly swept up into the real event? What emotions and 21^st-century perspectives and insights would you bring to such a context? Perhaps it is a 21^st-century impulse that the text follows in pointing out in this chapter and in previous chapters, and in chapter 22, the varying yet seemingly timeless roles women such as Hersilia and others have played in art and in life. Write your personal observations here:

As well, A CLOSER LOOK: Cai Guo-Qiang-and the Twenty-First Century- on the roof of the Met brings together thousands of images in a relief sculpture placed as an installation on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They may at first seem unrelated, but the artist has really created a composite of all the things that are “in the air” today. Portraits of figures of state, notorious criminals and fictional characters are all brought into the same space. Even the human impact on the environment is brought into sharp focus with transparent pieces of glass that appear to have killed thousands of birds who flew into them. Evolution apparently did not prepare the animal and plant world to adapt quickly enough to survive what we are doing to the air, the earth and the waters. Perhaps even we ourselves are not clever enough to allow ourselves and our world to carry on, with or without us.

1. Make a list of world events or conditions that concern you which you have seen represented in works of art in this chapter or previous chapters. Do you think the artist got it right in the way they represented the issue or concern? How would you create a visual communication of this concern to others? Notes, sketches:

Compare and Contrast: Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want with John Currin’s Thanksgiving provides ample opportunity to you to compare works from different “times” but using the similar theme of the Turkey feast accompanying the traditional American Thanksgiving celebration. Your book asks you to compare based on the idea of the convincing quality of a “Happy Thanksgiving”, but there are other ways to consider Currin’s very contemporary work. For example he appears to have placed the figures in a “classical” setting, and Currin himself has said that he has been heavily influenced by the Mannerist style-note the elongated necks and slender hands (think Pontormo Image 16-33 or Bronzino at the end of Chapter 4-image 16), and, he also based all three figures on portraits of his beloved wife as he sees her- a young girl, a mother and as an older but perhaps contented matron. The turkey appears to be presented as a still-life object, painted very realistically, solid and plump, and, as yet uncooked. So now, you must make up your own mind about what Currin meant by titling his work, “Thanksgiving”.

1. Find out more about John Currin and Norman Rockwell

2. Decide which aspects of the two compositions hold up to comparison and which ones are of a very different nature: Notes:

3. Does the “Happy Thanksgiving” comparison invited in the text really fly, or is there more at play here?

Taking Notes: You either do or do not have an established method for taking notes in art class by now. If you do, sticking to your method, elucidated in the previous chapters and relying on your notes, which will direct you to what has really been covered in class and what was not, will serve you well and reliably. If you did not establish a good note taking method and are now searching desperately for a way to survive the final so you can at least get a passing grade out of this class, I can only tell you to find a classmate who may be able to help you do some catch up reading and review. You can also go back in the chapters of this study guide and try to pick out a few note taking and study tips. It’s not too late-even if you do not do well in this class, you can still learn how to apply these methods for future classes that require reading, reviewing and note-taking-like maybe all your classes…Give it a try. Maybe it will even help for this upcoming final in art class.

Preparing for Tests: OK, It’s Finals time. You are busy. There are so many thoughts flying through your head. How to study for the final in this art class alongside so many other subjects? As mentioned in the Taking Notes section above, if you have by now a well established system of study and review that works for you, stick with it! This last chapter, however, might throw you a few curves in that it is so expansive and multicultural in its coverage. But remember, your information is grounded in the previous chapters. By now you should have a pretty good sense of recall for vocabulary and key terms, for geographical locations and cultures, and for associating works of art with an artist’s name or style. So now is the time to trust yourself, make an educated choice, and go with your gut. Things should have a sense of familiarity to you- use that! As Obi Wan Kenobi said in the Star Wars Movie, “Use the Force, Luke!” (OK, Look it up if you never saw the movie-I really liked Yoda myself!)

Remember also that you can divide up the chapter into pieces, as it has chapter headings such as “Globalization” and “Hybridity”. So use this tool as well: instead of trying to make your brain absorb large chunks of information at one time, break it down and learn it in small sessions, with refreshing breaks in-between. Go for a walk, practice some Yoga or Tai-Chi, or even take a twenty minute nap. Then go back and study some more. Even if you are exhausted, burned out, or grumpy, you can do this because all your practice, methods and study throughout the semester will now pay off.

Enhancing Your Observational Skills: “There is nothing I can give you, that you do not now already have…” These are the beginning lines of an anonymous poem I read once about learning to take the things life has to offer you, even in hardship, such as taking experience, love, learning, beauty, and even the gift of life itself and just simply reveling in receiving the experience. Probably sounds a bit sentimental, and perhaps it is, but there is an underlying truth to this idea. There is a certain point at which, as parents know, and as teachers know, the person, a child or a student, is on their own. They have learned all the things they need to be able to take care of things on their own, to learn on their own, to solve their own problems, even to ask for help when they need it, and to be tested by life, on their own.

Take a look around you. Do you feel that you have been through an opportunity to learn about the world around you? If not, what are the contradictions? What would you do differently to maximize your experience next time? What strategies can you apply to enhance your experience? If you did learn lots, how can you apply what you have learned to your life in the future?

I frequently observed that students did not take advantage of resources made available to them-study guides, syllabi, readings and documentaries, research sources, the professors themselves as resources, all readily available, and yet many students simply did not use those resources to ask questions, find out more, learn techniques. I can’t say I was the perfect student either-I was often too distracted by life (loved skiing!!) to really focus on always being a good student. So there will be times when resources slip through your fingers. But perhaps there will be other times when those resources are staring you in the face, in the form of a book, a person, even your own notes. Remember the old Confucian Proverb, “Take a second look, it costs you nothing…”

As before, remember to use the resources online (www.cengage.com/art/fichner-rathus9e) and ArtExperience Online.