Art & Spirituality

What place does spirituality have in contemporary culture?

What relationship did Kandinsky's writing have to the fauve and post imprssionist tradition? How was paint made during that time? How common were intense colors like red? Conversely, our culture is saturated with color.

Fred Tomaselli

Anish Kapoor


Shirazeh Houshiary & Pip Horne

James Lee Byars

Ana Mendieta

Mark Wallinger

Andres Serrano

How does spirtuality engage a critical discourse? Is spiritually inspired art too idealistic? How has the public impression of art shifted, i.e. the veneration of abstract art (often aligned with spiritual components) altered our contemporary understanding of both art and spirituality?

Public Art

Much of this work is focused on eliminating the distinction between art and life, what debt does it owe claes oldenburg?

Ann Hamilton

Roland Barthes, "Death of the Author", the real author is the reader who brings it to life. Argues against passive reception and toward active participation. Michael Fried, "Art and Objecthood"

How does the social bond between maker and receiver affect the success of the work? By that I mean, does generosity as a literal interpretation, (something physically exchanged) transform the outcome of the work? All artwork ultimately offers something, the audience always takes from the experience, how is that different from this work?
Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Felix Gonzalez Torres

Felix Gonzalez Torres

What debt does this current breadth of work by such artists as Torres, Tiravanija, and Kinmont owe the post minimal movement? A desire to question the foundation/art establishment by making ephemeral or location specific work that exists beyond the commercially viable.

Art & Its Institutions

Susan Hiller

Thomas Struth

Janet Cardiff

Fred Wilson

Louise Lawler

"The notion that art should provide a window on the world has been well established at least since the mid-fifteenth century, when Leon Battista Alberti laid out the principles for representing space through the system of one-point perspective. Conceiving the picture plane as a stage on which objects were arranged in diminishing scale, the artist drew the eye into the painting and hence away from any of the distracting apparatus that might have dispelled the illusion."

Heartney begins this discussion with art's ability to create descriptive space. But she fails to mention that this point in history also marks the rise of the autonomous work, no longer does painting simply serve architecture, incidentally this also elevates the individual.

How do institutions maintain the status quo?
How do they accommodate change?
What will the contents of the MOMA look like when hispanics dominate U.S. population in 2050? A similar case may be said for Algerians in Paris.
As cultural demographics shift, what challenges does the institution face?

Art & Globalism

Cai Guo-Qiang

Chen Zhen

Andreas Gursky

Julie Mehretu

Alfredo Jaar

Mark Lombardi

Globalization reflects a post cold war world that has been radically monetized and encouraged by technology. Like art, globalization is about communication. What many of these artists are communicating is a contradiction of loss during a bountiful period. The individual is being rendered anonymous, a sense of alienation abounds. Alfredo Jaar, Julie Mehretu, Mark Lombardi, and Andreas Gursky point to the larger powers of finance and policy. The struggle for identity and individual values that were so important through much of the Twentieth Century are now subsumed by broader forces. Economics has a great deal to do with the shifting global structure and the pluralistic art scene. With the rise of the BRIC's (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) American hegemony is coming to an end. Eurocentric dominance is shifting to include the previously overlooked. Are these other cultures really overlooked? Or is it exponent of assimilation, we only perceive them to be overlooked because of our position?

A globalized world infers decentralization, unilateral negotiation, lack of consensus.

Critique Criteria

Hi Emily, I apologize for not completing this portion of the assignment on time. After reading many reviews, I think I have a pretty good grasp of the art review genre. Most writers tend to follow a similar model, unless they have an unusual agenda. While the art review reflects the basic structure of formal analysis, it tends to be more casual than an academic paper. So instead of reading a dry analysis of some postimpressionist painting to a fauveist work, the art review enjoys brevity and personal touch. Its kinda like an art weatherman. The critic attends the show and typically follows this rubric:

Description: What does it look like? Format. Scale. Color.

Analysis: How does it function? Artistic intent? Goal? Historical/contemporary relationships.

Judgment: Is it effective? Do I like it?

It is then left to the critic to adjudicate cultural value. The critic is both empowered and troubled, presiding over an expressive culture. Art is the most sophisticated form of communication and it is here that the critic must establish a discernible palette. It is their responsibility to cull from the herd, promoting talent and discouraging the rest. Thus a reciprocal set of relationships is established where power is concurrently granted and subsequently used to champion the best work. Ideally, a meritocratic system of critic and artist, both reliant on the other for support and service.

Abstract Art

Fred Sandback

Christopher Wilmarth

Martin Puryear

Martin Puryear


Richard Serra

Brice Marden

Jackson Pollock

Robert Ryman

Carrie and I had a few questions to prompt the class discussion. Kirk Varnedoe outlines a history of abstract art since Pollock, one that comes to include a surprisingly broad expressive range.

Why abstract art?

What relevance does it have today?

What is unique to the expressive possibility of abstraction?

What are the challenges of making abstract work?

What gives abstraction life?

Is abstraction more dependent on its own history?

How is abstraction different from design?

The Body and Identity

Where does the history of self portraiture fit into the search for identity? With the historical rise of the individual, identity has become a essential as a marker of place.

How does the tradition of plastic arts differ from performance?

Chuck Close

Lucian Freud


I find it interesting that the history of performance, via Kaprow and Happenings started with an interpretation of Pollock. In The Legacy of Jackson Pollock, Kaprow takes a Rosenbergian position by arguing for the performative value as opposed to the formal. He sees the Pollock's gesture as an extension beyond the picture frame, a move into common space. The indirect presence of the body in Pollock's work has become a spring board for performance and body related art.
Marina Abramovic


Chris Burden

Martin Kippenberger

Rineke Dijkstra


The Grotesque Body, how do we deal with the other? This passage recounts the history of horror shows, carnival encounters with cultural aberrations. The treatment of the other as spectacle. How do ethics account for the other? At what point do we move from spectacle to understanding and compassion?

Laura Kalman uses unconventional jewelry/performative wears to investigate our challenged relationship to the body. Aestheticizing skin disorders with gold and gems transforms our understanding. How do precious materials engage a new discussion of these disorders? What debt does she owe Hannah Wilke and Ann Hamilton? In what ways has she expanded that discussion? Is Kalman more focused on the transgressions of ornament or the body?