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TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from the Editors
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Artemisia Gentileschi’s Artistic Innovation and Development Through Madonna of the Milk Emily Yin
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Modern Mythology: The Marylin Motif Cassandra D’Cruz
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Conflict in the Representation of Feminine Art: Rachel Lachowicz at LACMA Carly Ann Rustebakke
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Ai Wei Wei: According to What? Devon Bowman
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Letter from the Editors: We are so pleased to announce the Winter 2015 volume of the USC Art History Student Association’s undergraduate journal, Impression. We hope to continue serving the USC community through the promotion of arts and visual culture while showcasing the talent of undergraduate scholars. This journal could not have been composed without the help of undergraduate academic advisor Professor Sonya Lee, the Art History Student Association, and the group of talented writers and artists who submitted their works. This year, we have chosen three essays that explore female artists or subjects ranging from Renaissance to Contemporary art. In addition, we have featured an art review of a contemporary exhibition in order to bridge the fields of museum criticism and scholasticism. We are also honored to showcase the talent of undergraduate artist Patrick Chumnikai as the cover of this year’s journal. The artwork not only provides a glimpse of Roski’s undergraduate talent, but it also serves as the gateway into this volume’s theme. We would like to thank our readers and we hope you enjoy the exemplary work of Trojan scholars! Warmest wishes, AHSA Editorial Team Ani Mnatsakanyan, Art History ‘15 Lindsey Cook, Art History ‘16 If you have and questions or comments about the journal, or would like to be considered for the Spring 2015 volume of the journal, please do not hesitate to email us at ahsa.usc@gmail.com
Cover Art: Patrick Chumnikai Lust, 2012 Acrylic USC Roski School of Fine Arts, Fine Arts: Painting and Drawing, 2017
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Gentileschi’s Artistic Innovation and Development
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Artemisia Gentileschi’s Artistic Innovation and Development Through Madonna of the Milk Emily Yin Senior, Art History This research paper observes Artemisia Gentileschi’s artistic innovation and development through studying three various versions of Madonna of The Milk from different time period of her life. It also compares her works with her father Orazio Gentileschi to show how being a female enables her to understand female physiognomy better. Artemisia Gentileschi (Artemisia) is recognized as one of the very first female painters in the history of western art. She establishes herself as a female artist succeeding her father Orazio Gentileschi (Orazio), who is a renowned follower of Caravaggio. Many critics associate her success closely with the help of her father and being raped by Tassi, who was former painter in her father s workshop. Her representation of female figures is often provocative and heroine-like, such as Judith Slaying Holofernes (c.1712), which is located in Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte and done after the version by Orazio Gentileschi. Artemisia developed her her artistic skills with the help of her father, who was an accomplished caravaggesque painter in Rome at the time. However, like other typical authoritative parents, Orazio Gentileschi (Orazio) was conservative and uncommunicative to Artemisia Gentileschi. He had high expectation for his daughter to be a well-educated noble woman (Scaroaro 363). However, Artemisia disappointed her family after being raped. Her later paintings show more provocative characteristics of females. At the same time, being a woman allows her to more accurately grasp the physiognomy of a female than her father. Using the last version of Madonna of the !
Milk located at Gallery Palatina (1616-1618, figure 1) as a launch point, this paper will explore different approaches of conventional female iconography and the factors involved
Figure 1, Artemisia Gentileschi, 161618, Oil on canvas, Florence, Galleria Palatina
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Gentileschi’s Artistic Innovation and Development with her artistic development and innovation from other versions of Madonna of the Milk, both her own and predecessor s.
the motherly quality of the figure. On the other hand, the interaction between Madonna and the child is minimal. There is an absence of eye contact between the figures. The only direct physical contact is Madonna s fingertip on the left arm touching
Artemisia s Madonna painting, which is located at Galleria Palatina, is dated as the third painting after the first version (16081609, Figure 1), which is currently under a private collection, and the second version (1610-1611, Figure 2) located in Galleria Spada. This third version painting is primarily considered as the most youthful work by Artemisia during her time in Florence, though not always with conviction (Solinas 162). She distances herself from the influence by Orazio, which is foreshadowed by Cotini's in-depth analysis (Artemisia 1999, pp. 135-138). In this version, Artemisia portrayed Madonna in a more realistic manner and with more accurate physiognomy. The halo on top of her hair and the blue mantle suggest the iconography of Virgin Mary and child Christ. Artemisia places Madonna on the center of the canvas from the top to the bottom, which takes the most space on the canvas. Child Christ is sitting relaxingly on the white cloth on her lap while Madonna is holding her left breast with her right arm and about to nourish. While the scene of Madonna nourishing Christ seems tender and intimate, one may find the relatively colder manner of Madonna that Artemisia portrayed in this work after taking a closer observation. The first significance is her face. The eyes of Madonna are emotionless, without the tenders and intimacy that we generally see in paintings of Madonna of the Milk. The other side of the eye is under shadow, which gives a mysterious character to her. The mouth is small puckered, which takes away
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Figure 2, Artemisia Gentileschi, 1610-11 Oil on canvas, Galleria Spada the child s hip, which might possibly suggest both physical and psychological distances between them. Compared to the Palatino version, the Galleria Spada version is more related the original idea from the bible, which is to show the pleasant moment of Madonna nourishing the child Christ. In this version of Madonna of the Milk, Madonna has the same composition with the same gowns as other versions. However, hew face is 4!
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see that Artemisia seems to minimize the characteristics of Caravaggio s style by using a relatively lighter color palate and less dramatic lighting compared to Orazio s Madonna of the Milk. Cherry as an iconography that appears in many of Caravaggio s painting, is usually symbolizes erotic and sex. Artemisia placing such symbolic subject matter into a sacred painting shows her innovative undertaking of the conventional iconography. Artemisia Gentileschi s artistic style on portraying the female figure is distinct from her dad Orazio Gentileschi. Her works show female figures from an intensive perspective with more accurate female physiognomy than Orazio s version. Artemisia Gentileschi came to understand and to practice Caravaggio s naturalism through Orazio(Mann, pp 55), yet she surpassed Orazio with her better understanding of the female anatomy through the study of her own body. Orazio s 1609 Madonna of the Milk, which is located in Muzeul National de Arta de Rom niei, demonstrates his different approach to the composition of his figures and the failure in handling his female figures and gestures. The painting represents a mother breast-feeding her child. The blue mantle and the faint golden outline identifies her as the Virgin Mary. Orazio captures the dazed expression of the young infant. Orazio shows her good understanding of how contentedly feeding newborns tend
Figure 3, Artemisia Gentileschi, 1608-09, Oil on canvas, Private Collection. choppier and kinder than the one in Palatina. Her eyes are closed while the child reaches out and touches her face with left arm, which conveys the inner peace of the Madonna. Her lips are tilted up, which looks happier and more satisfying than the Palatino version. In the Palatino version, Artemisia utilizes strong chiaroscuro to emphasize the contour of Madonna's face, which is referred to her experience with Caravaggesque painting when she was searching for a style for a new painting (Solinas, pp.162). As her father Orazio Gentileschi is a follower of Caravaggio and the leading Caravaggesque painter in Rome at the time, Artemisia s painting style is largely influenced by his father and the workshop. However, from this painting we !
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to pump their clenched feet (Mann, pp 55) . However, compared to Artemisia s Palatino version, Orazio s Madonna shows his failure to capturing the accurate female
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Gentileschi’s Artistic Innovation and Development physiognomy. First of all, the representation of Virgin Mary s breast is overly exaggerated in terms of its shape and position. Although the suckling child nurses vigorously, the expression of the breast is portrayed as a sphere that pops up above Mary s chest. The child could only exert the pressure when his head is supported. However, the hand of Virgin Mary, which is supposed to support Christ s head, is limply on the side (Mann, pp. 56). The hard line that Orazio uses on the left of the breast causes the unnatural look of it. The awkward placement of the Virgin s breast in Orazio s painting suggests that he did not study the female nude (Mann, pp.56). In Artemisia s various version of Madonna of the Milk, Virgin Mary s breast is presented in more naturalistic manner. In figure 1, figure 2, and figure 3, Madonna s breast is partially covered with fabric, which shows Artemisia s understanding of how the body
Other than the accurate handling of Virgin Mary s body, the representation of the Virgin s body occupies the entire canvas in Artemisia s Madonna of the Milk. As Judith W. Mann mentions in his article, human body in motion is considered as one of the most challenging tasks that a painter could accomplish. In Orazio s Madonna of the Milk, the visual focus is at the center that the breast-feeding is. However, in Artemisia s painting, the excessive drapery and the presenting of the entire body leads beholder to look at other part of the canvas, such as Virgin Mary s shown feet. Artemisia present the entire body of Virgin Mary shows that she is confident with her knowledge of female anatomy. Artemisia s
would interact with cloth. Artemisia s Virgin Mary has a more accurate proportion of breast. She utilizes a color gradient on shadowing the skin, which gives a more naturalistic contour. Secondly, the presentation of the hand on Orazio s is less accurate than the one by Artemisia in Palatino. In Orazio s Madonna of the Milk, the hand of Virgin Mary is awkwardly hanging on the side next to child Christ s body. The proportion of her left palm is larger than the right hand that is feeding the child. In Artemisia s painting (Figure 1), the
Figure 4, Orazio Gentileschi, 1609, Muzeul National de Arta de Româniel Florence, Galleria Palatina
joint of Virgin Mary s arm and palm is closer to the actual physiognomy of a nourishing mom supporting her son.
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Gentileschi’s Artistic Innovation and Development skillful depiction of female body is probably resulted from studying her own
Blue calls color of the sky, which suggests purity and chastity in many religious painting of Virgin Mary. With her undesirable life experience of being raped by Tassi, the missing blue mantle implies that she express her displeasure through this version of Virgin Mary. In conclusion, although the Palatino Madonna is one of the many historical paintings involving female portraits that Artemisia paint, she shows her great understanding on female physiognomy. It shows her significant progression in artistic styles from the earlier version and the influence of Orazio and Caravagio-esque paintings. In future research, I would like to explore how the representation of female in her painting of sacred scenes is different from the representation of female in human form.
body reflected in a mirror. Artemisia s early artistic development has been upstaged by the defining event of her early life, her rape by her father s college Agostino Tassi. In the May of 1611, Tassi had come to Gentileschi s apartment when Orazio was away (Mann, pp.51). He forced himself into Artemisia s room and raped her. This case did not lead to justify result. Tassi never serve the sentence he received from the court. The Palatino version of Madonna of the Milk is attribute to be painted between 1616-1618, which is after the rapping. It s not yet uncertain that whether there s any association between the style on the representation of Virgin Mary. However, it s possible that the representation of falling blue mantle suggest the absence of chastity.
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References Gentileschi, Artemisia, Roberto Contini, Francesco Solinas, Roberto Paolo. Ciardi, Luciano Arcangeli, Michele Nicolaci, and Yuri Primarosa. Artemisia Gentileschi: The Story of a Passion. Pero, Milan: 24 ORE Cultura, 2011. Print. Harris, Ann Sutherland., and Linda Nochlin. "Artemisia Gentileschi." Women Artists 1550-1950. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art 1976. Print. Christiansen, Keith, Judith W. Mann, Orazio Gentileschi, and Artemisia Gentileschi. Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.Print. Scarparo, Susanna. ""Artemisia": The Invention of a 'Real' Woman." Italica 79.3 (2002): 363-78. JSTOR. Web. 19 May 2014.
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Modern Mythology: The Marylin Motif Cassandra D’Cruz Senior, Art History (Two-Dimensional Studies and Italian Double Minor) This research looks at an emerging character archetype that I have titled "The Modern Marilyn" after the tragic starlet, Marilyn Monroe. This archetype is rooted in fairytales and PreRaphaelite art as a fallen woman, but has evolved in contemporary media under a romanticizing of a beautiful woman's tragic life. Dubbed "The Marilyn Motif", this paper studies examples of this character-type and looks into the possibly harmful effects of its portrayal of drug abuse and depression to young audiences.
Since her onscreen debut, audiences have been captivated by Marilyn Monroe’s grace, beauty, and charming child-like naivety. Her life was depicted with glamour and elegance, but with her overdose in 1962, people became instead fascinated by her melancholic side. And thus Marilyn Monroe became a new species of woman: a tragic beauty. Today in popular culture, there is an emerging fictional archetype of what I term the “Modern Marilyn”, a beautiful, but troubled female whose tragic life is romanticized by both artists and audiences. This character type is surfacing throughout popular culture, including, music, television, film, and social media. Audiences who are captivated by this character are those who are seduced by the romantic notions of ‘live fast, die young’. The archetype is one we have seen in the past, beginning in seventeenth century art with the Fallen Woman, a woman who had lost her innocence and thus fallen from the Grace of God, but has evolved into a new form. The Modern Marilyn upholds new aesthetics of modern youth, although it does not hold a sense of empowerment like the typically defined modern woman. These characters are not just fallen prostitutes or !
rebellious teens that succumb to death, but about young women who are portrayed as fitting in, but feel like outsiders. This archetype particularly distinguished by artists romanticizing of their tragic life and their categorization as beautiful, lost souls. Audiences have always held an undying appetite for tragedy as well as female beauty. And the only thing more attractive than the story of a young beautiful woman is the tragic story of a young beautiful woman (Zeisler, 16). The oldest stories and folklores associate dead women with glamour and sex appeal, beginning with tales such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty (Churchwell, 324). Beauty and death have always been integrated, stemming from necrophilia and the idea that women are far more desirable as dead (Churchwell, 324). Edgar Allen Poe even defines the most poetic topic in the world as the death of a beautiful woman (Churchwell, 324). With folk and fabled stories in particular, there is a common theme of untimely death as a consequence of, whether explicitly or symbolically, an awakening of sexuality within themselves. This theme is found throughout art, with particular foundations in the prominent 9!
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artistic brotherhood, the Pre-Raphaelites, of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This era was filled with fairly misogynistic and contradicting images of the female. Depictions of women were typically split into two harshly polar categories, the virtuous and the vicious; in other words, the virgin and the harlot (Prettejohn, 207-208). The Pre-Raphaelite artists in particular were not interested in only painting women as pure and virginal, the typical categorization, but instead preferred to focus on this socalled fallen woman. They were especially interested by the causes and consequences of their fall, a Victorian term for a loss of morals, or more importantly, of virginity. Certain allegorical characters that exemplified a moment of awakening consciousness of sexuality began repeating themselves throughout Pre-Raphaelite art. These depictions were popular, whether illustrated symbolically with an unknown subject, or with more specific tales, using infamous characters of the era such as Sidonia the Sorceress, the Lady of Shalott, and Ophelia. Because of this fascination of women and sexuality, one of the more popular characters for this subject matter is Ophelia of Shakepeare’s Hamlet. Artists have been fascinated by Ophelia’s life and death, and the tragic motifs of her story. Although typically characterized poor, sweet, and innocent, with the inclusion of her ambiguous sexuality, Ophelia’s suicide at the end of Act IV is more logical under
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Victorian morality; she is no longer purely innocent, but has a fatal flaw that contributes to her downfall, her own sexuality (Wagner, 94). At the end of her life, Ophelia is depicted as going mad, singing nonsensical songs and adorning herself with flowers. The cause of her madness is blamed on father’s death; however, some believe these are only superficial causes to her suicide. There are conjectures that her death was a result of her own sexual awakening; hints to her own sexual desires are even reflected in her songs. “’Young men will do’t if they come to’t, by cock they are to blame…‘Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed’”, in particular reveal how her virginity was taken and how she was subsequently rejected. By rendering a beautiful young woman in an elegant dress laying peacefully in a river holding a string of flowers, surrounded by flourishing foliage, Millais’s Ophelia of 1852 illustrates the tragic moment preceding Ophelia’s suicide with immense allure. Certain elements such as the types of flowers in bloom and her pose stray away from strict realism, adapting visual elements to heighten the beauty and twist this tragic incident into a romantic scene (Prettlejohn, 170). The point of painting the tragedy is not to provoke despair but rather heighten its beauty, a tactic reflected in those beautiful women who experience tragedy. And these ideals of a fallen woman did not conclude with the dissolution of Victorian morals.
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Figure 1 John Everett Millalis, Ophelia, 1851-1852. is recognized as beautiful, but sad, promoting the idea that behind her bewitching façade, there was a suffering woman (Churchwell, 71). Audiences that worshiped this Old Hollywood idol were not interested in throwing away the star’s life, and were therefore forced to find a way to glamorize her problems and death. With this new image, Marilyn is now recognized as a tragic beauty; not an innocent paragon of virtue, but a woman who had fallen by a different vice. Her life and death were not just tragic, but a romantically tragic: a beautiful woman with beautiful problems and a beautiful death. The Modern Marilyn is not just a repetition of the past, but also an evolved and exaggerated version of these previous archetypes. These characters are being less
In the peak of her life Marilyn Monroe was seen as the ideal woman. She was a major sex symbol, appearing in many extremely successful films, consistently staring as the carefree, glamorous female lead. The most iconic images of Marilyn that still exist today are of her laughing, having her skirt blown up by an airshaft, and posing with Chanel No. 5. She was and is considered the epitome of Old Hollywood. But after her death and the unveiling of her many mental problems and prominent drug use, complexities and contradictions aroused in how audiences recalled the starlet. Viewers did not wish to portray her as a suicidal addict; however, there was no way to contradict her premature death. Therefore, the current emblematic Marilyn
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Modern Mythology defined by the woes of their tragedy, but instead admired for the romantic quality of their adversity. More similar to the plights of Marilyn Monroe, the Modern Marilyn’s tragic flaws include, drug or alcohol addiction, broken families, or depression. Because there is an aesthetic and romantic edge put onto these issues, these ‘tragic beauties’, as called by a study on heroin addicts, create a desire for audiences to live an artistic, chic, and rebellious lifestyle (Duterte, Hemphill, Murphy, and Murphy, 596). The Modern Marilyn is a combination of these previous prototypes with an edge of teen angst, but what really sets it apart from previous depictions of the tortured outsider is the new romanticizing of their tragedy. This archetype is no longer a lesson for the consequences of acting un-lady like or taking up a rebellious lifestyle, but glamorizes the bad choices and actions of these beautiful characters. However the glamorization of this archetype does not mean that the character is ideal or strong. The Modern Marilyn appears to follows a more feminist ideal that the pressure to be beautiful and their constant objectification has led them to lash out through aspects such as dark clothing, drug use, or an overall ‘get high and die’ attitude (Douglas, 126). However, this rebellion does not evolve these female characters into examples of feminist empowerment like 1980’s girl-power stars like Dirty Dancing’s Baby. Even in real life, as fascinating as fallen women’s death can be, they are rarely ever accompanied by the same idolization as with fallen men such as Heath Ledger, Kurt Cobain, and Jimi Hendrix. In this modern era, when we look
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Figure 2 Photograph of Marylin Monroe in her famous white dress from The Seven Year Itch (1955) over a subway grate at these deceased men we see an accumulation of these success; what they accomplished, even giving them awards posthumously. But when we look at these deceased women, we are still distracted by the consequences of their deterioration, what drugs they did or who they slept with. These women’s deaths, as much as their falls are idealized, do not turn them into empowering idols. However, for most of these modern characters, their case does not go as far as death. On the opposite end of the spectrum, these characters are simply not given endings. In cases like with television, music, and Tumblr posts, we are simply a drift in these character’s lives, and never receive a conclusion.
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The most frequent representation of the Modern Marilyn is in music. Similar to punk or rock music, these new alternative artists glamorize the outsider, drugs, and self-isolation, with a new laidback vibe (Duterte, 597). One artist that exemplifies this archetype in her music is Lana Del Rey. Songs such as “Born to Die”, “Young and Beautiful”, and “Carmen” all are characterized by a minimal flux in tone, a certain cool, raspy sounding voice, and lyrics that intertwine with themes of being lost, alone, beautiful, young, and sad. Lyrics in “Carmen” almost exactly replicate the motif of Marilyn’s life, such as “it’s alarming honestly how charming she can be, fooling everyone, telling them she’s having fun” and “you don’t want to get this way, famous and dumb at an early age”, a line that quite hauntingly parallels Marilyn’s own frustration. All her songs implicate a frustration of a perfect façade with a broken interior. This concept is even more distinct in her music videos. The video for “Carmen” is particularly interesting and explicit in integrating positive and negative imagery in a romantic manner. The song plays over quick cut clips of strippers, fireworks, personal videos of Del Rey, cartoons, and scientific diagrams of drugs. The video combines elements of Old Hollywood and modern culture through crackly film
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footage, shots of words such as ‘STAND BY’ and ‘fin’, and more explicit clips of pole dancers. These messages of false facades therefore do not come across as solely melancholic; with her unruffled voice and steady stare, Lana Del Rey’s exploration of a tragic lifestyle are appropriated into romantic stories of cool girls and their cool problems. The connection between the mourns of a beautiful girl and her downfall by drug use is also prevalent in Ed Sheeran’s “A Team”. This song more explicitly connects the idea of a young woman and her romanticized relationship with drugs; ‘Class A’ slang for high-class drugs. Sheeran’s lyrics idealize even further the character’s ruin, juxtaposing self-destructive and fairytale-like imagery. Verses like “she’s in the Class A Team” is immediately followed by “stuck in her daydream”, explicitly painting this picture of serious drug use as an escape into a dream-like world. This idea of her tragic life as a fantasy is again referenced in the lyrics “don’t want to go outside tonight, and in a pipe she will fly to the Motherland.” Sheeran even relates more closely to the original idea of the Fallen Woman as a prostitute, noting how she will “sell love to another man” just to get high. The songs music video follows a fictitious beautiful and young homeless girl.
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Figure 3 Shot from Ed Sheeran's "A Team" (2010) Music Video T Because of the Modern Marilyn’s he footage is shot in black and white and status as an outsider, in film and television, rarely strays away from her angelic face and the character is recurrent in more low key smeared eye linear. Small tears stream and underground works. And through more down her face only moments before strictly visual representations of this reapplying mascara to prostitute herself on a archetype, this character’s image is desolate street, taking money from a man propagated in an appealing way, even and soon replacing it with heroin that the she though it is not an appealing concept. One rapidly smokes. Although none of these modern basis for this character is Uma themes are glamorous, by having them Thurman’s performance as Mia Wallace in executed by an attractive girl and shoot Pulp Fiction. Mia is wealthy and chic monochromatically, being on the Class Awoman married to mobster Marsellus team suddenly looks like an appealing Wallace. She has an iconic image of lifestyle. This song greatly imitates the cropped black hair and bangs, a plain white definition of ‘tragic beauties’, including button up, and a cigarette constantly clasped romantic imagery to present the drugged-out between her hot red painted nails. A smile lifestyle as artistic, rebellious, and chic rarely comes across her face and the biggest (Dueterte, 596-597). Music seems to be the jump in her personality is when she rather most frequent mainstream demonstration of coolly wins a twist contest with Vincent the Modern Marilyn, since, in places like Vega, played by John Travolta. And film and television; this character is seen although Mia brutally overdoses on heroin more in subculture contexts than on sitcoms during the film, shown fatally sweating, and blockbuster hits. blood running everywhere, and a shot pierced through her chest, audiences mainly !
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Figure 4 Still of character Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) from Pulp Fiction (1994) remember her carelessly snorting coke in a bathroom between two, significantly less fabulous looking, women. It is almost as if Mia Wallace is so incredibly suave throughout the rest of the film, that her rather horrific overdose still is perceived as cool. Though the incident may not be romantic on its own, the notion of her drug use, accompanied by a wealthy house, dance contests, and black cigarette pants sketch an overall chic lifestyle.
pretty and well-liked girl at her high school, characterized by a grungy appearance, minimal speaking lines, a taste for drugs, and a serious case of psychotic depression; all alluring characteristic to young and troubled viewers. Effy is also distinguished by her mysterious demeanor and her ‘you’llnever-understand-me’ smirk, a look directly desired by some of the participants in the “Ethnography of Young Heroin Users” case (Duterte, Hemphill, Murphy, and Murphy, 605). Effy antics consist of partying, falling in love, all while carrying a cool composure; intertwining with psychotic breakdowns and suicide attempts. The image of Effy is highly idealized, like the romanticized Modern Marilyn, exposing her inner turmoil, while portraying her as laidback, stunning, and desired. Especially in cases such as television characters, audiences are prompted to aspire for a tragic life, in hopes that with their drug use, depression, and other issues, their life will take on a romantic and tragic aura.
Romanticizing horrific images of drug use and mental breakdowns again occurs with character Effy Stonem from the UK series “Skins”. “Skins”, co-created by teenagers, is a show that takes high school kids and their problems seriously, a factor enchanting to those who already feel misunderstood (Douglas, 27). Although there has been a plethora of troubled characters on the show, every two seasons there is a completely new cast, and Effy is prominently seen as the most popular character of the six-year series. Effy is a
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In fact, drug usage and its portrayal in the media is a new phenomenon. In a study conducted to draw a connection between images of heroin and heroin users, researchers found a large link between drug use and the idea of ‘tragic beauties’ (Duterte, Hemphill, Murphy, and Murphy, 597). In this study, researchers collected data from 102 young adult heroin users of all different backgrounds by interviewing them thorough one life history interview and a structured questionnaire. Although not their initial intent, after conducting these
because of archetypes figures such as Marilyn Monroe, youths are more easily drawn into this idea of tragic beauties. However, viewers are not just absent-mindedly taking in these images of tragic beauties, but are prone to romanticize the images themselves. Thousands of images, gifs, and written posts, are dedicated to Effy and other characters like her, exploring her problems and claiming they are the real life version of the “Skins” characters. And these types of posts are not limited to representations of favorite
Figure 5 Still of Effy Stonem from Skins television series interviews, researchers found that there was a great connection between representations of drugs and subculture identities in mass media, as well as a fascination with a chic and romantic life characterized by the tragic qualities of drug use (Duterte, 607-610). The negative effects of the use are rarely shown, and when it is, it does not evoke a fearful power but instead a dangerous allure. These users are not just rebellious but are seduced by a desire to live a tragedy. And
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characters, but are also personal interpretations of the Modern Marilyn and the romanticizing of tragedy. Just as Marilyn felt misunderstood, so do these bloggers (Churchwell, 229). And Tumblr, a secluded site that is easily anonymous, is a perfect outlet to explore these ideals. Although it is impossible to strictly categorize these bloggers, they typically are women, either teenagers or young adults. Popular Tumblr sites such as www.i-am-
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depressed.tumblr.com and www.cigarettesand-effy.tumblr.com are perfect examples of this new fascination with romanticizing tragedy, each receiving hundreds or possibly more views per day. The first site in particular promotes ideals of self-harm, drug use, depression, and even suicide. However, this more horrific content is comfortably integrated with profound quotes, images, and posts of feminine girls in chic clothes, all with an artistic aesthetic that features dramatic cropping and black and white filters.
intention to make them about these alluring problems. Some bloggers even publically offer to answer the any personal questions from their followers, leading the viewers to also idolize these bloggers, clear through the persistent questions posted on their blogs. However, it is not the Internet friendships that are so startling, but rather the harmful recognition and interpretation of this archetype. The name “i-am-depressed� alone fronts the most personal issue of the blogger. But what seems to be more important than the issues of the blogger is appearance of them. The blog is very cohesive and thematic, consisting of a continuous string of cutting, suicide, great hair, repeat. When you look through the blog, you are not necessarily scared by the images of scars, tears, and drugs, but are entranced by the allure of these subjects. But by having such a tight integrating of beauty and pain, lines between romantic and genuinely tragic are blurred. Because of sites like Tumblr, it is
And this blog is not an isolated case. Thousands of sites exactly mimic this technique of integrating beauty and tragedy, creating a muffled perspective on the truly harrowing material. These bloggers are also a fitting example of bringing preexisting attractions of beautiful destruction to the archetype (Duterte, 597). Some bloggers even go to extreme circumstances, taking quotes or gifs out of context, purely with the
Figure 6 Post from i-am-depressed.tumblr.com !
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more evident that this archetype does not just exist, but is amplified through audience’s actions. Marilyn herself could be described as a figure fabricated by the public. But what is more interesting is that although Marilyn appears to be invented for men, she is highly idolized by women (Churchwell, 15). These romanticized versions of tragic women have an aesthetic interested by women fascinated with the notion of falling apart. Although the idea of the gaze is typically aligned with the male, is this romanticized version of tragic beauties the product of the female gaze? Especially in the case of Tumblr, it appears that women are the ones who are more frequently producing these types of image. This concept is similar to the modern idea of ‘women dressing for women’ or ‘manrepellent’ fashion. The issues and images that are presented in the Modern Marilyn are not the hyper-sexualize or overtly misogynistic outlooks that typically characterize men’s stereotyping of women, but rather explorations of the inner feelings of otherwise beautiful and normal women. These images are then produced in a way that is alluring to the romantic eye, and that appears to distinguish it from previous similar archetypes. Audiences and artists have twisted this idea of the Fallen Woman into a character lacking humiliation and pity, turning her into one of picturesque tragedy.
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Through integration of angelic beauty, chic and idyllic clothes, and glamorous images, the calamities of the tragic women are now idealized to the extent where women seek to mimic these characteristics. While these Modern Marilyns have certain qualities such as attractiveness and social power that makes them stands out, there are not any actual favorable aspects of their personality. And because of this lack of empowerment, this archetype serves no greater good. We rarely see characters achieve a positive outcome or conclusion; their only endings are a continuation of their current trend, leaving an air of mystery to their future. These females are not rendered as empowering or strong, but as static and oppressed. The characters are not creative outlets of old artists and folklore writers, but are images that negatively influence viewers. By having this imagery so readily accessibly to viewers, we are making young viewers vulnerable to the negative trends of romantic tragedy. The emerging Modern Marilyn is slowly pushing itself into popular culture, leaving the aesthetics of the carefree, popular girl, and instead focusing on the beauty of the tragic side of the popular girl’s life, an idea that should not necessarily be bewitching to a young viewer.
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References Churchwell, Sarah Bartlett. The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe. New York: Metropolitan /Henry Holt, 2005. Print. Douglas, Susan J., and Susan J. Douglas. The Rise of Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2011. Print. Dueterte, Micheline, Kirstin Hemphill, Terrence Murphy, and Sheigla Murphy. "Tragic Beauties: Heroin Images and Heroin Users." Contemporary Drug Problems 30.3 (2003): 595-617. Print. Prettlejohn, Elizabeth. The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2000. Print. Wagner, Linda Welshimer. "Ophelia: Shakespeare's Pathetic Plot Device." Shakespeare Quarterly 14.1 (1963): 94-97. Print. Zeisler, Andi. Feminism and Pop Culture. Berkeley, CA: Seal, 2008. Print.
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Conflict in the Representation of Feminine Art: Rachel Lachowicz at LACMA Carly Ann Rustebakke Senior, Art History (Business Law Minor) This paper will analyze the way in which LACMA's inclusion of Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) by Los Angeles artist Rachel Lachowicz in the Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting exhibition reveals the museum's continued reliance on feminine art tropes. By studying past scholarship and Lachowicz's body of work, I will illustrate some specific characteristics, which are commonly used to define representational feminine art. In understanding the background of these stereotypes one can begin to criticize them, much the same way Lachowicz's work understands and criticizes the assumptions of male artists. As a representative showing of the museum’s ideas on the importance of abstract painting in contemporary art, Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting 1 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art unfortunately falls into a few classical gender tropes. This is perhaps an effect of the show’s focus on permanent collection works, and while the museum’s collections are vast, they are not necessarily cohesive enough for exhibition. Standing out in this accomplished crowd are two sculptural works by Rachel Lachowicz, Cell: Interlocking Construction (Figure 2), 2010, and Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) (Figure 3), 1992, which come from different times in the Los Angeles based artist’s career. Best known for introducing a feminine twist to famous works by predominately male Minimalist and Abstract artists, a few of which are similarly represented in the show, the choice of Lachowicz’s pieces appears somewhat out of place with the exhibition’s theme. In a review of the show, co-curator for the exhibition Nancy Meyer explains that Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) is included as a !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting is on view in LACMA’s !
representational piece that “added a muchneeded feminist perspective in a male dominated room.” (Wozniak 2014) If this is the purpose for including the piece, one could question why Cell: Interlocking Construction, which contains many references to abstract painting, therefore more closely relating to the theme, is not considered representational enough for the show. The reasoning for this might originate from the adjectives one would use to describe these works, Cell: Interlocking Construction is large, hard, and plastic while Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) is small, fragile, and tactile. These words, small/intimate and fragile, pervade much of the literature surrounding postmodern feminine art, including that of Lachowicz. Thus Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) is seen as more representational of feminine art at LACMA because it is a better fit for the existing rhetoric. Similar to the way in which Lachowicz’s work reveals omissions in the scholarship of male dominated art movements, the inclusion of her work, as displayed in the exhibition (Figure 1), reveals some of the assumptions still made about what constitutes feminine art.
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Figure 1 As exhibited in Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting at LACMA. Following a period of art movements, which glorified the genius of male artists, was a period of attempting to reestablish female artists who had been previously pushed aside. Defining the characteristics of this feminine art was inherently part of this process. The Museum of Modern Art’s Sense and Sensibility: Women Artists and Minimalism in the Nineties (Zelevansky 14) 1994 exhibition brought together many Post-Minimalist artists and established their common traits. For curator Lynn Zelevansky, PostMinimalism, through its use of craft techniques, sensuality, and humor, had effectively feminized Minimalism’s history. Along with these similarities, the artists selected for the exhibition had bodies of work, which explored issues of scale and
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weight, and in the case of Lachowicz, of “lightness and quiet” (Zelevansky 15-16). By presenting a new story of Minimalist art through a female perspective, MoMA created an archetype for representational feminine art. These stereotypes for feminine art were strengthened by scholarship, including that of Anna C. Chave. In her article “Minimalism and Biography,” Chave analyses the denial by male Minimalist artists of any subjectivity in their work. She layers this argument with the assertion that this desire for pure art is one of the factors which alienated female artists of the time, for their work was considered inferior as it dealt with more personal or domestic subject matter (Chave 149-151). As Chave states their work had become “marginal and
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Impression Vol. 2 (Melrod 11). This declaration that her reconfigurations of male artists’ works are feminized, because they exhibit the traits of a smaller scale, more pliant, and soft than the original inspirations, is harmful to the appreciation of her works which do not fit these categories.! As previously alluded, a significant part of the concept behind her work is the deconstruction of pieces by male artists and the remaking of them with her own style and ideals (Melrod 10). While she typically pulls from a canon of minimalist artists, she frequently stretches this to include other artistic movements. Besides the exhibited Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) and their nod to Duchamp’s piece of utility turned artwork, Lachowicz has continued to use her signature red lipstick to comment on other Minimalist sculpture, for example Tony Smith. Smith’s six foot steel cube, Die
Figure 2 Lachowicz, Rachel. 2010. Cell: Interlocking Construction. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. feminine…sculpture is central and masculine” (Chae 156). While Lachowicz’s own work discusses the incorrect assumption that Minimalist art was without context and meaning, her body of work leaves one to believe she would not willingly succumb to Chave’s tropes, namely the idea that all female Minimalist art consists of personal subject matter. Even Lachowicz’s gallery representation has not steered clear of using tropes to market her work more effectively. In a catalogue created for her exhibition at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery, the artist’s work is described at displaying an “air of fragility” (Melrod 11). Centering mainly on the lipstick/wax works for which is she most widely known, one author states, “the material’s seeming pliancy helps define these objects-and define them as feminine” !
Figure 3 Lachowicz, Rachel. 1992. Untitled (Lipstick Urinals). Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 22!
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(Figure 4), 1962, would not only dwarf Lachowicz’s eight inch red lipstick wax counterpart, Lipstick Cube, 1990, but would also outlive it as the Smith’s steel is hard and sturdy unlike the fragile homemade wax. In changing the size and durability of the original sculpture, some scholars believe she is giving a feminine voice to the male dominated art of the Minimalist movement (Melrod 10). Instead of attacking the institutions as having deliberately excluded female artists, Lachowicz employs a humorous twist, therefore, allowing her message to reach more people. This technique becomes even more crucial to the viability of her message when she moves outside the realm of minimalist sculpture. Red David (Figure 5), 1991, while serving as a continuation of her lipstick/wax creations, also displays the growth of the artist in her conceptual framework on gender assumptions. Instead of directly mimicking a previous sculpture, Red David fills the thirty-year void left by Yves Klein’s Vénus Bleue (Figure 6), 1961 (Melrod 12).
Simultaneously competing and serving as each other’s needed pair, the two sculptures highlight the ideal bodies of the sexes. When Klein chose to cut off the limbs and head of the Venus and cover her body in his signature IKB2 blue paint, he may not have contemplated the gender politics of the act that he, the male artist, has control over the female body and the authority to call this piece art. Yet, this is exactly the point Lachowicz is making that male artists have the freedom to be unaware of the gender implications of their actions, while female artists must always carry with them the identity of feminine in their art (Melrod 12). By giving Venus her needed partner David, Lachowicz is revealing these overlooked but still powerful assumptions. As she expands her focus to different artists, Lachowicz also adapts her makeup arsenal. For example in her Color Charts series (Figure 7), 1992-93, she mimics the work, by the same name, of Gerhard Richter (Figure 8) in his 1966-1974 series (Melrod 17). Richter was studying what he thought was the abstraction and pure quality of color painting. In his opinion, “when I put one color form next to another, then it automatically relates to the other.” (Richter 1152) Lachowicz flips this notion of art’s distance from the world on its head by substituting paint for rows of powdered makeup in aluminum cubes (Melrod 47). Over twenty years later, these two artists are exhibited in the same show, unfortunately not for these specific works. It is these conversations with painters and their subject matter that make Lachowicz an interesting
Figure 4 Smith, Tony. 1962. Die. The Museum of Modern Art.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 IKB stands for International Klein Blue, Jones, 58.
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and important inclusion in LACMA’s current exhibition. She is representative not only of one feminine viewpoint at this time, but also of one of the many ways in which abstract painting continues to move beyond the canvas. Similarly combining qualities of both painting and sculpture, Cell: Interlocking Construction dominates the back wall of LACMA’s Broad Contemporary Art Building. The piece is inspired by Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau (Figure 9/Melrod 1718), and at twelve feet high and over ten feet wide, the Plexiglas collage is an imposing figure to the viewer, whose eye is directed wildly around by the sharp lines of the “cells” (Hernandez 115). The colors of the powder in the cells are equally as varied as their respective containers, with rich hues of numerous shades of blue, anywhere from midnight black and charcoal to bright turquoise and periwinkle. Made from cosmetic compounds, the soft powder
Figure 5, Lachowitz, Rachel. 1991. Red David. ! !
Figure 6 Klein, Yves. 1961. Vénus Bleue. evokes the look of eye shadow in its sturdy Plexiglas case. Although already packaged up, this makeup lacks the factory manufactured look as the containers are not standardized in any way. These polygonal shapes are stacked together to create a mostly rectangular monument, which when viewed from a distance resembles an abstract or cubist painting. Up close the illusion of a unified painting is dissolved as the separate containers are mounted in a precarious fashion, which stirs up the feeling of fragility in the complex structure. With this small sensation of vulnerability and contrasting mass, the piece engages in a conversation on the canonical ideals of painting.
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Impression Vol. 2 red lips, such as the iconic Rolling Stones logo, displaces the inherent masculine quality of a urinal with this traditionally feminine attribute. Even without knowing Lachowicz’s history of appropriation, the viewer cannot deny the work’s resemblance to Michael Duchamp’s Fountain (Figure 10), 1917; however, instead of continuing Duchamp’s practice of bringing in an ordinary object into the space of art, she is creating art to look like an ordinary object. As a result, where the Fountain has a solid, manufactured feel, Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) appears fragile and whimsical. It is the conflicting relationships with other exhibited artists that make Lachowicz a significant addition to LACMA’s exhibition; however, the finished product does not capitalize on this opportunity to create a discussion around these issues. Instead of positioning her work in the midst of the male work she appropriates, the curators delegated her pieces to the back wall near other less traditionally painterly
Figure 8 Lachowicz, Rachel. 1993. Color Charts Flat #1. In contrast to this monumental piece Lachowicz’s earlier and more well-known work, Untitled (Lipstick Urinals), appears unassuming and take up far less space. The small sculpture, just over a foot tall and under a foot wide, is repeated three times at seemingly equal intervals. Along with the relatively miniscule size, compared to their commonly used mass-produced counterparts, the trio are also positioned far too high up the wall to create any illusion of utility. Instead of starting with readymade urinals, Lachowicz created plaster casts and coated them with a combination of wax and lipstick3. Even when dry, the soft, pliable wax shows its interactions with the world around it and each urinal bears an uneven coating, scratches, and nicks from mishandling in its life, leaving each one as a distinguishable individual. These traits demonstrate the artist’s process of creating her pieces by hand, including creating the lipstick/wax coating which gives the urinals their distinctive bright cherry-red shade. Instantly bringing to mind images of coated !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3 As read from the materials listed on the wall label.! !
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Figure 7 Richter, Gerhard. 1974. 1260 Farben, Editions CR: 52
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works (Wozniak). The dissatisfying arrangement of the exhibition could possibly be a result of either the limiting desire to exhibit permanent collection works instead of choosing pieces that best showcased the exhibition’s ideas or of the apparent realization that the exhibition was lacking in female representation. The second theory of Lachowicz’s work as an afterthought addition is supported by statements, previously mentioned, by one of the exhibition’s curators, Nancy Meyers (Wozniak). She acknowledges that Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) especially was brought into the show late as some “much-needed feminist perspective” (Wozniak). Curiously, the anecdotal treatment of the work highlights the same institutional disparities her art rebels against. Not only is the placement of the art in the exhibition suspect, but also the inclusion of Untitled (Lipstick Urinals) in the first place. In an exhibition centered on the conversations around contemporary painting, a sculptural piece can be distracting. Along with the sculptural characteristics of the work is the context from which it was created as a direct commentary on the male dominated ideals that was Minimalist Art. There is no perceivable reference in this work to painting, and yet the curator’s at LACMA thought it was a necessary addition to fill out their exhibition. On the other hand, Lachowicz’s other piece, Cell: Interlocking Construction, falls in line with statements made by Meyers on the scope of the exhibition. “There are a lot of processbased works that use
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Figure 9 Schwitters, Kurt. 1923-36/1980-83. Merzbau. Sprengel Museum, Hannover. unconventional materials and further complicate ideas around painting. It’s interesting to look at how it’s evolved and how many of the works here have a threedimensional quality to them, as opposed to thinking of painting as a twodimensional practice.” (Wozniak) The question remains is why was Cell: Interlocking Construction, an equally feminist piece with more direct references to painting, not sufficient female representation? It is because to the curators at LACMA, Untitled (Lipstick Urinals), is a more characteristic example of feminine art. 26!
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Unlike Untitled (Lipstick Urinals), Cell: Interlocking Construction does not utilize a smaller size to draw the viewers in; instead, it eclipses them with it sheer mass. The materials used in the separate works similarly show two conflicting ideas, one of lasting hard plastic, and the other of a more traditionally feminine ephemeral soft wax. Like many other artists, Lachowicz has found the benefits of utilizing various materials and techniques to illustrate some of the assumption still prevailing in the art world. By including both works in the exhibition, the institution has allowed itself to take up some of the more established ideas of feminine art instead of examining their weaknesses. Both works are capable of standing on their own to act as catalysts to begin conversations on these assumptions; however, Cell: Interlocking Construction is far more relevant and cohesive with the proposed theme of Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting. In conclusion, as it stems from a continuation of Lachowicz’s previous work with makeup powder color charts, Cell: Interlocking Construction’s subject matter and scale are a better match for the other larger than life paintings in the exhibition than the miniscule urinals. Even though it lacks some of the key characteristics of defined feminine art: small scale, pliable,
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Figure 10 Duchamp, Marcel. 1917/1964. Fountain. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. and fragile nature for intimacy. At a time when Minimalist artists were pushing the spatial limits of the gallery, her relatively display-friendly copies highlighted the misogynistic ideals behind these desires. Now that she herself has moved into the realm of monumental works, those contrasts hold less potency, yet the humorous attack on the past art movements has not lost its power. In the same way Lachowicz’s work opens up questions about female/male representation, the inclusion of her works in this exhibition brings up questions on what constitutes representative female art.
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Zelevansky, Lynn. "Sense and Sensibility: Women Artists and Minimalism in the Nineties." MoMA 17 (1994): 14-16. Wozniak, Stephen. Art Review for Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting. 2014. 20 November 2014 <http://entertainmentvoice.com/art-review-variationsconversations-around-abstract-painting/>. Chave, Anna C. "Minimalism and Biography." The Art Bulletin 82.1 (2000): 149-163. Hernandez, Jillian. "Makeup on the Face of the Father: Recent Work by Rachel Lachowicz." Gallery, Shoshana Wayne. Rachel Lachowicz. Seattle: Marquand Books, 2012. 106-117. Jones, Amelia. "Not: Rachel Lachowicz's Red Not Blue, 1992." Gallery, Shoshana Wayne. Rachel Lachowicz. Seattle: Marquand Books, 2012. 55-67. Melrod, George. "Rachel Lachowicz: The Makeup Artist." Gallery, Shoshana Wayne. Rachel Lachowicz. Seattle: Marquand Books, 2012. 9-18. Richter, Gerhard. "Interview with Benjamin Buchloh." Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 1147-1157.
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Ai Wei Wei: According to What? Devon Bowman Junior, Business Administration and Art History Entrance and presentation can affect the movement and homogeneity of an exhibit as showcased by Ai Wei Wei’s exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.
The exhibition, Ai Wei Wei: According to What? spans multiple floors and public spaces of the Brooklyn Museum and presents over forty works ranging from found-object sculptures and room sized installations to films and Internet-based activities from 2000-2014. His work is known for identifying injustice in political agencies and provoking conversation about human rights. Ai has become a prominent political and provocative artist in China, his birthplace, as well as across the world, especially since the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he publicly denounced his support of
Figure 1 F Size (2011) Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Stadium, 2005-8 !
the Chinese Communist party and his eighty-one day detention in 2011. This show originated in Tokyo by curator Mami Kataoka and has been brought to New York by Sharon Matt Atkins as the fifth, final, and largest installation of this exceptional show. The ample space allowed for the incorporation of even more pieces by Ai— including the standouts S.A.C.R.E.D., Moon Chest, and Straight—but is the influx of works necessary? Do they contribute to the validity of the show or merely overcrowd it? The use of forty plus works congest the open room making the experience less respectable and less pleasurable. Ai Wei Wei’s exhibition is placed on the first, fourth, and fifth floors of the Brooklyn Museum. With this layout the audience is able to survey the exhibition multiple ways, allowing for different interpretations relative to the sequence of one’s encounters with the artwork. The majority of the exhibition is displayed on the fourth and fifth floors, and neither is flagged as the intended entry point. Starting on the fifth floor allows you to walk through the exhibition chronologically, a crucial and perhaps decisive element that proposes a trajectory of personal and political coming to action. From the fifth floor, the viewer encounters the walls of the first room covered by pictures of the ‘Bird’s Nest’ in
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Impression Vol. 2 it is collocated against the floor to ceiling pictures of the completely unnatural stadium with an antipode nickname. This is a perfect juxtaposition of two artworks allowing the audience to engage in deeper thinking about the clean yet cluttered and manufactured yet natural pieces of art. Compelling as the individual works are, the space was too crammed to see them to full effect. The age-old saying, “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should” sadly rings true. The second room of Ai’s exhibit is superfluous as it crams over ten pieces together, some, like Moonchest and Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, with multiple components, causing the room to become an overcrowded conglomerate of various sculptures and photographs. There are wooden cabinets, wooden sculptures, scores of photographs, painted vases, and numerous references to Marcel Duchamp, which, unlike the fourth floor, do not meld harmoniously. This departure from
Figure 2 Response to Sichuan Earthquake
Beijing, China. The ‘Bird’s Nest’ as it is referred to by many correspondents, is the 2008 Beijing Olympic National Stadium on which Ai collaborated with the Swiss architectural firm, Herzog & de Meuron; he later regretted his actions of helping the Communist party with its ‘propaganda.’ These pictures display the Bird’s Nest in its multiple stages of life, from its creation and climax to its demise, a simile to Ai’s relationship with the Chinese government throughout the years. Conjoining the rooms are the wooden sculptures titled F Size (2011) in which two immense, porous, wooden balls are positioned in the center of the room, similar to the Bird’s Nest in vision. These wooden sculptures mimic cat toys, just as cats would love to play with a real life bird’s nest. The sculpture is made without wood or screws, therefore very much unlike the Olympic National Stadium which was made with thousands, if not millions, of screws and planks of wood. F Size made entirely out of Figure 3 Exhibition View wood is natural and an oxymoron as !
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Figure 4 Exhibition View congruity affects the viewers subconscious as they attempt to decode the meaning of the artworks.
meaningful as it allows for the mind to wander and explore different fantasies based upon visual cues from the broken rusted rods to the smooth and effortless arrangement. Along the eastern wall is a list of the school children that died from the poorly constructed buildings that collapsed during the earthquake, while a recording of the names of the deceased plays over the speakers. The open, raw, and commanding arrangement of art in this room shows Ai’s animosity towards the Chinese government and the stylistic adjustments he and the curator have made to reflect this. Had the works on the fifth floor been displayed in the same manner as those on the fourth, viewers may have regarded them with more heed and respect.
The main hall of the fourth floor is dedicated to the artwork Ai created in response to the Sichuan Earthquake. This hall is open and immense, unlike the fifth floor that is divided and crowded with artwork. Metal rods from collapsed buildings lay flat across the floor in the perimeter of a rectangle, however, the volume varies at fluid intervals “to suggest both a fissure in the ground and a gulf in values” as stated by the placard on the northern wall. The placement of the placard allows the audience to create their own perception and meaning of the rebar before being led to a statement of the artist’s intention. This type of learning is
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