Contemporary Artists- Tulsi Raja

Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman are some of many unique women part of the 20th century whom have transformed art through gender and race. It was no longer about the men, but women such as these five whom got recognized in society for their art. 

Louise Bourgeois 1911-2010, is a well known french artist with a modern and contemporary style; finding confessional art. One of her most famous art work, "Maman" is a giant thirty feet spider who resembled her mother. This is because her mother was a weaver and use to protect her. Her work varied with wood,steel, and cast rubber materials- to create abstract art.Her work was created/influenced by her psychological events from her childhood, making art a personal visual language of her experiences.

Georgia O'Keeffe, best known as the "foremother" of the feminist movement was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  Her painting style was influenced by her time spent in New York and New Mexico which included flower imagery and other organic vulvar forms. O’Keeffe was “a woman with no wealth, no connections…she was a no-nonsense, straightforward Midwesterner who did as she pleased and didn’t fit anyone’s mold” (Guerrilla Girls). O'Keefe was a business advisor to artist, Ya
yoi Kusama a famous Japanese artist who seeked O'Keefe help in her 20s. O'Keefe created a body of art that became visionary ideas to America and women around the world. O’Keeffe also played a key role in disabusing the art community and the general public of the notion that gender was in any way a determinant of artistic competence or creativity (Britain).

Frida Kahlo is also another famous artist who is German and Spanish born in 1907. Kahlo's art concentrated on paintings of herself mostly, this is because she was often alone and she is the best subject she knows. Although of her inspiration were events and parts of her life so she could portray her trouble to others through art. In one work of art called, "Without Hope", painted in 1945 by Kahlo, we see a part of her life struggle. She like many had a strong influence on female artists, as she overcame her struggles. Her struggles were many, one of them being her failed marriage, because she could not conceive due to her poor health conditions and both her and her husband constant affairs. "The Broken Column" is actually one of the paintings I admire by Frida Kahlo. That is because that painting portrays herself after her accident. The painting shows her fractured from her spine and down and standing/laying in misery. Around the age of eighteen she had bus accident that left her handicapped, which is what "The Broken Column" showed instead of that incident coming her way negatively, she began painting and turned the situation positive. The painting reflected her physical and emotional pain. 


Yayoi Kusama was born on March 22,1929 in Japan. She was known as an obsessional artist, and a contemporary artist for her art. Kusama is known for her polka dot art and installations. The 60s were her prime were she created painting, sculpture, performance art, and installations in Pop art and Minimalism. You could notice her obsessions with fashion through her work, when creating her own label with Louis Vuitton, creating handbags. "She refers to polka dots as Infinity Nets"(Another) To have successful career, she wrote to O'Keefe asking for advice how to succeed in a New York art scene. O'Keefe helped her out and bought her art work to help her with financials, while Kusama was in her 20s. Kusama currently holds the record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction by a living female artist at $7.1 million in 2014 (Another). In one of her interviews Kusama mentions she wouldn't have existed without her spots, --better yet without her art she would've have committed suicide a long time ago. 

One of my favorite installations by her is called infinity mirrored room-souls of million lightyears away,2013 (image to the right). Kusama's act of rebellion for painting, made her one of many successful women creating a career in a different county and never forgetting her Japanese artists through her kimono's. 

Cindy Sherman, is another wonderful
contemporary artists. who uses photography. She was born on January 19,1954, who is known for her black and white photography that challenged cultural stereotypes starting in 70s. She demonstrated the upcoming of women during the time, because she became her art. Her work examined roles of women in society; she said “I didn’t think of what I was doing as political,” she once said. “To me it was a way to make the best out of what I liked to do privately, which was to dress up” (Artsy). In the late 1980s and into the ’90s, she expanded her focus to more grotesque imagery, like the mutilated mannequins of her “Sex Pictures” in 1992. Sundance Film Still Tray, 2014 the picture the left, shows a photograph of herself that can be part of a series. In 2006, Sherman created a series of fashion advertisements for designer Marc Jacobs and has continued to shine with her career in upcoming years. 

http://www.lisicontemporaryart.com/bourgeois/

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.
http://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8094/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-yayoi-kusama
https://www.artsy.net/artist/cindy-sherman
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georgia-OKeeffe

Five Contemporary Artists by Ayshat Micheal

Ayshat Micheal

Professor C

November 28^th, 2017

Art and Women

Five Contemporary Artists

 Contemporary art is art that is has a technological advancement in the world, has a global influence, and a cultural influence. Contemporary art was or made in the twentieth or twenty first century. It is an era in art where many artists had a sense of individuality and there was no uniformed way to go about art. Contemporary artist have unique way of applying different methods, concepts, challenging the traditional way of art, and using different materials to create art. Contemporary artists create artwork that relates to them on a personal level, relates to their cultural background, identity, nationality, and their family.

Jenny Saville, Strategy, 1994.

 Jenny Saville: Previously on one of my post, I choose Jenny Saville as an artist because she addresses the female body in a unique way. She was born on May 7^th, 1970 and is a British contemporary artist. She is involved in the Young British Artist organization and is well known for her portraits of the nude women. I feel as though she tackles the standards that women have to live up to in society. The idea of a slim body is not really present in her work and I enjoy the fact that she embraces big women. Saville also challenges the “male gaze”

 When men create an artwork of the nude women they have some type of pleasure doing it while on the other hand a female artist is trying to send a positive message. I believe that Jenny Saville is trying to call attention and appreciate big women or chubby women. I believe her intent is to inspire women to love themselves no matter what. 

Jenny Saville, Nats, 1992.

Kara Walker, Story.

Kara Elizabeth Walker is an African American contemporary artist and she was born November 26, 1970. Walker challenges the issues of violence, identity, race, sexuality, and gender in her work. Walker is more than just a contemporary painter she is a print maker, film maker, silhouettits, and installation artists. Kara Elizabeth Walker is known for her unique style of black paper cut silhouettes with a white background which many have implied that it represents the history of black people being enslaved by whites.  I find it very essential that black artist tell our story through art or depict black history through art because history and art both go along way.

Kara Walker, Pictures From Another Time.

Shirin Neshat, Speechless.

Shirin Neshat is an Irinian contemporary artist who was born in 1957 and currently resides in New York City. Neshat is film maker, photographer, and videographer- she directs at times as well. Her artwork compares and contrasts the Islamic religion and the Western world. Shrin Neshat also tackles issues such as public life versus private life, femininity versus masculinity, and modernity versus traditional. In her work she tries to connect these issues to one another. It is important that Muslims are talked about in art because Islam is a very different yet fast growing religion. There are many Muslims especially females that can relate to her artwork. I find the Arabic very interesting as well, although I understand the Arabic language I cannot understand what she wrote because her type of Arabic is different from standard Arabic. Countries that have Arabic as their main language all have dialects so therefore some words would be different unless they use standard Arabic. I have made art work in the past and included Arabic in my art work and it is something that I still do now. Arabic does not only looke pretty but its meaning goes a long way. Her work also means a lot to me because I as a Hijaab wearing women incorporate the Hijaab in my artwork. So I am one of the many that can relate to her artwork.

Shirin Neshat, Fervor Series

Hung Liu, Mulan: Camping Diring The War

Hung Liu is Chinese American contemporary artist and was born February 17^th, 1948. Her style of painting is formed by brushstrokes incorporated with linseed oil that gives her paintings a drippy outcome. Many have interpreted this as blurred memory or a metaphor for the loss of historical memory. Hong Liu challenges the academic system of Chinese Socialist Realist. She has the title of “the greatest Chinese painter in the Unites States.” In her painters, Hung Liu uses women, children, refugees, soldiers, and anonymous Chinese historical photographs as the subject of her work. She has also created pieces of artwork that featured prostitutes and many are astonished by that. I believe that Hong Liu’s goal was to shine light on the people that did not have power in China. It took China a while to get its government intact.  

Hung Liu

Vanessa Beecroft, VB

Vanessa Beecroft ia an Italian contemporary performance artist an was born April 25^th, 1969. Beecroft uses a lot of models in her work. Some of her performance pieces has received a negative response because of the racial issues they carry. Some say that Beecroft does not consider the time and endurance that her models have to go through to get some f her projects done. In Beecroft’s performance art she tackles atrocities such as the genocide that happened in Danfur, Sudan. She had about thirty Sudanese women lying face down to represent the genocide. She has received a lot of backlash from one of her works because she adopted two Sudanese twins simply for an art exhibition. 

Vanessa Beecroft, VB5

Works Cited

https://youtu.be/MhByMffG9IA

https://youtu.be/4YS3gGpnPe8

https://www.thebroad.org/art/jenny-saville

https://youtu.be/qieGaJREVMM

http://www.artnet.com/artists/hung-liu-2/

Post 3-Zoha Khan

Modernism was a movement in the western art. It was around the 1850’s. Modernism declined the styles and techniques of the past and created new ones through experimentation. It was basically a whole new language that consisted of abstraction, expressionism, dada, and surrealism. Artist helped in the development of modern art by focusing more on the experimentation on the forms, and the techniques rather than focusing on the subject itself.

                                                     Alexandra Exter Composition 1914

In Exter’s painting you can see that she focuses more on colors, lines and forms. Most of the painting consists of different shapes made with varying lines. Exter’s main focus as one can see in the painting is not to get the reality of the subject matter but to show the meaning through a whole new different language. The viewer might be unable to tell what the subject matter of the painting is. The attention goes to the forms, colors, and shapes. Exter met some cubists in Paris and a year later Exter’s paintings were all inspired with great spaces, wedges, and shapes. 

                                             Liubov Popova Painterly Architectonics 1918

Popova follows the modernist painter rubric as well where she rejects all traditional style and experiments with form in her subject matter. She uses a vibrant color in the middle of the painting that catches the eye and plainer colors around it. Popova was from a wealth family, she was influenced a lot from futurism and spent her time interpreting it as well as cubism. Unlike Exter who focuses more on line Popova concentrates on colors and texture.

                                                 Cubist dress from Vogue October 1925

The tittle says it all “cubist” dress. The dress is inspired from one of the many languages that were born because of modernism. The dress looks like a cubist painting taken and put on the dress directly. Women’s fashion took a turn because of modernism. Clothes designed involved more simplicity of lines and colors than the previous styles before the modernism movement. The fashion industry focused on modern women- their sexuality as well as their youth. The avant-garde art inspired the fashion industry especially with women because they were more able consumers. The roles for women were expanded in her regards to being a consumer. Vogue’s cubist dress took abstract textiles which led to mass production for higher and middle class women. The modern fashion spread extremely quickly across Western Europe and America. They even modernized the accessories for women as seen in the photo above. The models earrings are cubist inspired as well.

As the modern artist were consumed with forward thinking approach, showing their progress, the reaction against all that came to be known as Postmodernism. It questioned everything that was embraced by the modern art. Postmodernism was more realistic than the modern art, whereas modernism focused more on lines, colors, shapes, and textures rather than subject matter, postmodernism focused on the originality of the content. To portray it with little or alteration from the original subject matter. It sought out to reject the aspects that came to birth because of modernism.

              Guerrilla Girls Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum? 1989

One good example of Postmodernism art is by the Guerrilla Girls. They use text in their art to convey their message. The Guerrilla Girls have been trying to bring awareness to the fact that there aren’t many female artists’ works in the met museum, it begs the question of why the female painters are less by the subject matter of so many female nudes more. It makes the viewer confront the fact of woman being used as objects more and being seen as capable artists less. It shows the discrimination female artist face and their fight towards the recognition they deserve. Postmodernism art is often very confrontational and conveys the message outright. 

                                        Barbara Kruger We Don’t Need Another Hero 1986

Kruger takes the inspiration from Rosie the Riveter poster where females were encouraged to join the work force during the times of war, Kruger shows the comparison of how women were seen at the time of war and how women are seen in the aftermath it. Maybe the viewers can also get the meaning of the war is over and there is no need of hero’s anymore. As the Guerrilla Girls art was confrontational so is Kruger’s in a way. She questions societal roles of gender. The girl in the picture is seeing how much muscle the boy has. It makes the viewer think is that what makes a man a “man”? To have muscle and to be strong makes one more masculine and that is how society sets standards for men. Are woman only impressed by men who are big and strong? Begs the viewer it is something to think about. 

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, art, and society. Thames & Hudson, 1996.

Contemporary Art

     Contemporary art encompasses art in forms of painting, sculpture, photography, installation, performance and video media. It was a movement that included many art subunits. Pop art which was the reaction to modern art its primary goal to portray mass culture. Photorealism its purpose was to create a sense of hyper realistic drawings and paintings. Conceptualism it wanted to prove that art wasn't a commodity. Minimalism just like conceptualism it challenges the structures of making, breaking down and viewing of art. It is a call for viewers to react to what is seen not to what they interpret a painting to mean. Performance Art is a drama approach to art essentially used as a form of entertainment; conveying an idea or moral. Installation art are three dimensional constructions that transform surrounding and perspective of the viewer. Earth Art is a form of work that utilizes natural landscapes. Street art is the most recent of contemporary art movement it became known by the use of graffiti often, utilized for social activism; it includes the following, murals, installations stenciled images and stickers. Five contemporary artists are Ana Mendieta, Yayoi Kusama, Marina Abramović, Kiki Smith and Barbara Kruger.

Ana Mendieta, Siluetas, 1973

     Ana Mendieta a Cuban American artist is considered a crucial figure in the Body Art Movement stemmed from the Performance Art Movement. She utilized the nude body as a way to depict the presence and its opposite. An essential component to her work is the absence
which is what contrasts the human and the ethereal. She is imperative to Land art, a movement between the relationship of landscape and art. Ana repeatedly used the natural environment as the setting in her artworks;
one can observe as it is reflected in the art created by her. An example of her earthworks called the Siluetas. These art pieces took place in natural locations that particularly meant something to the artist and which were embellished with indigenous elements of the same area.

     Yayoi Kusama an artist from Japan a who describes herself as an “obsessional artist”. She is

Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror
Room-Phalli’s Field, 1962

widely recognized for her constant use of polka dots and infinity installations. Kusama’s idea for implementing dots to her artwork was her experiencing hallucinations that involved fields of dots; which shaped her career as an artist. Her “infinity net” paintings explored the physical and psychological areas of painting. The never ending repetition of the marks creates a hypnotic sensation to the viewer and the creator. Her artwork arose from the Minimalist movement, however, it transitioned to Pop and Performance art. The artwork by Yayoi is the Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli’s Field (1962) which is essentially a room that hundreds of stuffed phalli containing red dots covered the floor. The mirrors created infinite planes in her installation.

     Marina Abramović from Yugoslavia now Serbia challenged the limits and strength of her own

Marina Ambramović, The House with the Ocean View, 2002 

body and mind. Her performances were considered a ritual strain in the 1960s. She often put herself in a position of danger, in performances that were both lengthy and painful. Her art is viewed in a sacrificial and religious rite which was performed in front of an audience. The themes prevalent in her works are that of trust, endurance, cleansing, exhaustion and departure. Marina’s art did not reside on a canvas or sculpture but on her own body. The House with the Ocean View was a work which Abramović spent twelve days at the Sean Kelly Gallery without being able to eat, write or speak. She was contained within three rooms built six feet off the ground there she drank water, slept, urinated, showered, and gazed at her audience. The only thing that changed was the color of her outfit each day.

     Kiki Smith is an American artist recognized for her visceral and disturbing art works that present

Kiki Smith, Lilith, 1994 

the human body in great detail. Smith’s art was born within the walls of Minimalism and abstract art. She paved a path within Feminist art she made her point come across by utilizing visceral symbols of men and women, in addition to individual parts. This helped her present to the viewer the internal toxic effects of illness. This contributed to the awareness of the AIDS crisis at that time. In her sculpture Lilith, she clings to the wall located above the audience's head. In the Hebrew mythology, it is believed that Lilith was the first wife of Adam rather than Eve. Rather than seeing herself as inferior to Adam she wanted to be his equal something her did not approve and got her sent to the demon world. Thus, she became a symbol of female rebellion. Later on, Eve would be created from Adam's flesh would become submissive and obedient to her husband commands.

     Barbara Kruger is an American artist who is widely known for the manipulation of images and

Barbara Kruger,
 Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face,  1981 

text in photographic settings. She is considered a conceptual and pop artist. She left art and focused on using her knowledge of graphic design to present her art. Kruger critiqued political, social and feminist issues in her works. In addition, commented on religion, sex, racial and gender stereotypes, greed, and power. Her works contained the signature agitprop style with black and white images; including black, white and deep red text bar. One of her famous works is Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face (1981) a criticism on the Male Gaze. Rather than feasting the body of a woman they are just shown the side of her face.                    

     These five women artist have used their works as a voice of those who are often told to remain silent. They have not only brought change to art but have inspired other women to be fearless. They have created a new meaning to art and used it as a way to speak for small groups. By using their knowledge in a strategic way have not only made people question the norm but have brought awareness to simplicity.

Works Cited
Ana Mendieta
Yayoi Kusama 
Marina Abramović
Kiki Smith
Barbara Kruger
Contemporary Art

Post 4

Jenna Arvelo
Post 4
Art and Women
Five Amazing (living) Working Female Artists

  In choosing these five individuals, I was excited to talk about some of my personal favorite living female artists that inspire me within my own practice. I'll admit I'm slightly bias seeing how all the women I chose happen to be women of color, yet I think that in itself is an important to bring into the conversation when talking about art and women. Each taps into distinct perspectives that give value and insight to relevant topics of gender and race in this modern day. With that being said, the first artist I want to talk about is a woman we have already discussed in class; Mickalene Thomas. Best known for her elaborate large scale paintings composed of jewels and rhinestones. Her paintings depict black women and plays with the boundaries that define beauty within the black female body. She breaks all of the rules of traditional painting and yet created this specific lens of portraiture that captivates the viewer. The intimacy of her portraits and the space these individuals exist in within her paintings become part of the representation of these specific individuals. She is most successful in capturing femininity and confidence within the subjects she depicts within her paintings in my opinion. Her work is particularly significant in the context of women and race because of the lack of representation within historical painting. Thomas depict black women as individuals, rather than stereotypical representations that linger from slavery (Mammy, Jezebel). But while also explore sexual freedom and liberation and embracing black beauty as is without European beauty standards as she claims a space for black women that simply was not there. Kara Walker talks Mickalene Thomas

 

'A Little Taste Outside of Love' 2007 and 'I Thought You Said You Were Leaving' 2006 Mickalene Thomas paintings

Slaughter of Innocents (They Might be Guilty of Something) 2017 Kara Walker

      The second artist I want to speak on is Kara Walker. It's not difficult to conclude what Walker's art is trying to convey in her large scale silhouette paintings. Her graphic and violent paintings stem from the bitter legacy of slavery and the mass psyche that still lingers and permeates through society today. I does not solely target one individual based on gender, but encompasses both men and women, black and white bodies to display complex and entangled inter relationships and dynamics between these dialectics. Walker's pieces are difficult to fully take in, yet as a person who has physically been in front of her pieces; it is important that viewing these paintings face to face is just as important as hearing an interview of her speaking on her work. Not only do the screens of your phone, computer or tablet not do these pieces justice, but to stand i front of her works it to be enveloped by it, you become actively engaged with her narratives within these chaotic silhouettes. She captures the complexity slavery for sure, but also takes the time to speak on the relationships that form from it and does not shy away from portraying the atrocities these slave bodies endured and often did not survive. Her art is important in the context of art and women because of this narrative that has never been visually manifested before in history. Vouge article on Kara's latest Exhibition

'Christ's Entry into Journalism' 2017 Kara Walker

    Next, I want to speak on another artist we have already discussed, Adrian Piper. Piper is very straight forward in her art making as she confronts ideas of race, sexism, identity and inequality straight to her oppressors; white viewers. Her confrontational performance pieces and video recording draw attention to the barriers between race, sex, class and the individual. She goes on to use her very body as part of her art to portray these themes. He use of unfixed mediums serve to sever the boundaries between the art and the viewer, or in this case the artist and the viewer. She challenges the perception of people of color by creating these direct pieces that engage it's targeted viewer, involving them as the problem and as a contributor to this racism, while also emphasizing how harmful it is. As a woman and as a black person Piper defines herself through this body of work, her post-modernist style provoke a direct engagement with the viewer that had never been explored in the past.Art Space article on Adrian Piper

My Calling (Card) 1986 Adrian Piper

    Another amazing artist i want to focus on is one that has yet to received much acclaim yet who's work has left quite an impression on me. Tshabalala Self is an artist who i had a hard time wrapping my head around at first. Her paintings are mixed media depict the black female from in exaggerated proportions drawing up on stereotypes of the black female form that she both embraces and rejects. It is difficult to signify what these black bodies mean in modern times which is part of the reason why shes creating these forms. She creates these characters in these spaces to just exist leaving them open to possibilities and adjustment, while confronting the fantasies that surrounding the black female form. Her characters are personal and posses a humanity, by queering the black female form she leaves room to redefine and build a new identification with these bodies and how they are perceived. While these pieces seem actively political, when defining ones self as a black woman within these forms, the personal can often be interpreted as political. Again within the context of women race and art I believe it is important that she questions this unanimous perception that either entices the viewer or repulses them. Leaving the viewer to redefine those conceptions on the black female body. Vice interview with Tshabalala Self

'Saphire' 2015 Tshabalala Self

'Pieces of Me' 2015 Tshabalala Self

Photograph by Lorna Simpson

   Last but not least I want to speak on is Lorna Simpson, who specializes in photography though she has work through over a wide range of mediums. Simpson's perspective investigates, race, gender, class, sexuality and culture. She specifically(for an amount of time) focuses own on the experience of African American women in American society. Similar to Barbra Kruger, Simpson uses photography as a conceptual tool to create political statements and critiques on society. She creates photographs, rather taking unfocused everyday photos. She then takes these poised photos and adds phrases that create a conversation between the photo and the words. These photos are consciously political, contrasting Tshabalala Self's very personal pieces. Her focus shifts between this idea of race and women to class and gender where she creates compelling photographs challenging those specific notions. She is important to this conversation because she of the simplified ways she approaches confronting these issues. Her voice was at the forefront of this new conceptual movement that rejected this one narrative and allowed for individuals such as herself to critique the world around her. Article on Lorna Simpson

Photograph by Lorna Simpson

                                                                       Work Cited
 1.“Artists at Work: Lorna Simpson.” Interview Magazine, 24 Aug. 2016, www.interviewmagazine.com/art/artists-at-work-lorna-simpson.

2. Cotter, Holland. “Exploring Identity as a Problematic Condition.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Mar. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/arts/design/02lorn.html.

3. Editors, Artspace. “Everyone's Problem: Adrian Piper Tackles the Complexities of Race Relations Head-On.” Artspace, 30 Dec. 2015, www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/adrian-piper-cornered-dca-53390.

4. Felsenthal, Julia. “Kara Walkers New Show Was a Sensation Before It Even Opened.” Vogue, Vogue, 8 Sept. 2017, www.vogue.com/article/kara-walker-sikkema-jenkins.

5. Khan, Karim. “Artist tschabalala self's black mirror.” I-d, 2 Feb. 2017, i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/d37g8q/artist-tschabalala-selfs-black-mirror.

6. Walker, Kara. “Mickalene Thomas by Kara Walker - BOMB Magazine.” Mickalene Thomas - BOMB Magazine, bombmagazine.org/articles/mickalene-thomas/.

Post 4

5 Amazing Women

Contemporary Art was new and is still going on is was a better way to get a message across and allowed women to be more straight forward and as grotesque to blunt about what they wanted to get across. I want to talk Five Amazing women in Contemporary art. I chose these women because of what they did to stop typical roles within races, they tried to understand what a woman did in any status and because they were straight forward in fighting against the male gaze. This was a time where women started to branch out not care what others thought, this is where big change began to happen. Different art styles were being reflected on the time it was. This was the art of today and was a bit more modern. The first female artist I want to talk about would be Yoko Ono. She is a Japanese-American Conceptual artist. There is no other way to describe her work with words. I have seen documentaries of her work and there were people who didn’t believe her, but she made history happen. She a form of art that can reach anyone and everyone. She was known for her experimental art and film making even music. She even made experimental music with her husband John Lennon. One of her strong pieces was just her sitting in the ground and allowing audience members to cut pieces of her clothes with scissors. She wouldn’t say a word nor look at them, she would continue to stare blankly. This piece was called Cut Piece in 1964. Her art is the kind of art that allowed the audience to make it their own, and interpret anyway they wanted to interpret it.

The next artist I would like to talk about would be Marina Abramovic. She was mostly known for her performance work and how she used her body. A great example would be Rhythm 10 in 1973, this required Marina Abramovic to repeatedly stab the spaces between her fingers with knives. The thought of it in general is very intense, the images of blood just triggers goosebumps and suddenly rhythm isn’t just rhythm anymore. This tested the relationship between the mental and the physical interpretation of rhythm. It is as if just when you thought you have interpreted something so simple like rhythm, seeing her work just questions it and it open minds to think of ideas in a broader perspective. I enjoy the modernism and the performance and how they take advantage of filming.

Now there is the amazing Cindy Sherman. Her work wasn’t outstanding to the point where its out shines others but it sure was enough to be part of one of my favorite contemporary artists. Her work consisted of socially critical photography. Cindy Sherman was a key figure of the Pictures Generation. She turned to photography toward the end of the 1970s, this was because she wanted in to explore a wide range of common female social roles or positions or even characters if I may say. Having the camera on herself in a scene of role playing of fantasy Hollywood, fashion, and mass advertising roles. The different people she wanted to portray, and question were the ones she made a series of which include, sexual desire and domination. One of my favorite pictures of hers would have to be Untiled Film Still #13 in the year 1978. She demonstrated the upcoming of a young woman. How the young women would develop, and she tried to use background to plant an idea of what kind of mentally the person in the picture should have. Again, the usage of photographs allowed her to be able to play so many roles of women in a society of all statuses and all ages.

The female Iranian artist Shirin Neshat concentrates on mainly photography, film, and video works that dig into issues of gender, identity, and politics within the Muslim countries. She was more so into politics. One of her famous films called “Women without Men” made in the year 2009, won the prestigious Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. She makes her work seem as if her aim, her purpose is to speak about no matter what status of a woman you are. Whether it being the top 10% to middle class or even the low 1% the struggle is the same. They all have vaginas and because of that there is a consequence. She put emphasis on Muslim countries only because being a woman was harsher but that didn’t stop her from sharing her knowledge and make sure her art exhibits out side of the Muslims countries to get her message across. One piece I enjoyed to the point where I, personally was in years would have to be Women of Allah. The reason because I just started crying the image is so controversial to me, how women have rules and regulations, yet we try to break through and them ourselves value for who we are. This image says it all.

Last but certainly not least Jenny Saville. Jenny Saville was a contemporary British painter. Her work consists of painting female nudes in extreme states of grotesque embellishment. To be more specific the state of them included being deformed, obese, or even brutalized. The purpose just worked against the male-dominated history of idealized portraits of women, otherwise known as the male gaze. It still amazes me how it’s still present. The injury of Saville’s human subjects, whether it would often be it bleeding or more specifically grabbing at their own skin, resembled to her portraits of slaughtered animals, both ludicrous and objectified. The painting to the right is called “Rosetta 2” and it is honestly the scariest thing I have seen. The details aren’t accurate but are shaped in a blurred way to make it seem even more threatening. This was just an example of the kind of work she did, she has other paintings which are fall fuller of gore, the best way to describe them would be murder scenes.

Work Cited

https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/yoko-ono-cut-piece-1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYJ3dPwa2tI

https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/03/24/listening-to-marina-abramovic-rhythm-10/

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/56576

https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/1997/sherman/

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/global-contemporary/a/neshat-rebellious

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/486834

https://www.gagosian.com/artists/jenny-saville/selected-works

http://www.artnet.com/artists/jenny-saville/rosetta-2-bot9DsECY3Ga2dkH2vh8ww2

Post 4

                                                                   5 Contemporary Artist

Art is a way of expressing one in a way that is your own. Whether it's through drawing, painting, or even photography, they show a meaning about what they are going through, what they feel, or even what inspires them. Art can be a powerful way to influence the people. There are many artist that are and have been a big an influence on society. For example, 5 artists that have influenced the nation have been Cindy Sherman,  Eunice Golden, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, and Barbara Kruger.

Starting off with Cindy Sherman, She was born on January 19, 1954, in New Jersey. The form of art she uses is photography and film director to portray her conceptual self. She studied painting because she could not get into photography. But later realized her love for photography. Cindy Sherman focuses on stereotypes and cultural assumption. "However these images promptly begin to unravel in carious ways that suggest how self identity is often an unstable compromise between social dictates and personal intention"(Cite 1) Her most important art was Untitled Film Still #21(1978). This promoted anxiety and stress because of the facial expression. Others says that its a sign of threat. She impacted the world by affecting " not only photographers but also painters and performance and video artist.....and inspired a generation of younger artist to explore their own identities across a range of mediums." (Cite 2)

Untitled Film Still #21(1978)

Another artist is Eunice Golden. She was born in New York city in 1927 and was identify as a figurative expressionist. She was very interesting as she "explored sexuality depicting the male nudes."(Cite 3). Golden was very feminist and in the 1960's she started expressing ideas about the women's liberation movement. She had a huge affect on art historians by her art of  "male Landscapes." Many men art galleries and museum rejected her work because she was drawing naked males. Her work from the 1960's and 1970's mainly focused on the male nude to show sexuality and desire. And her work challenged ideologies. One of her most known work is "Landscape 160" and many other feminist were encourage by her. Her work showed male power but "She was reversing the male gaze by vaildating the female gaze."(Cite 3)

Eunice Golden Landscape 160, 1972

Another influential artist was Nan Goldin. She was born on September 12, 1953 and is and A photographer. she was born in Washington, D.C but grew up in Boston. She was a middle class with Jewish parents. After losing her sister, she found a way to expressive herself through camera which changed her life. She fell in love with the drag queens and wanted to photograph them in a way of respect. Goldin says, " My desire was to show them as a third gender, as another sexual option, a gender option. And to show them with a lot of respect and love, to kind of glorify them because I really admire people who can recreate themselves and manifest their fantasies publicly. I think it’s brave”.^[ 
Her photos are mainly focus on gender, domesticity, and sexuality.

Jen's hand on Clemens back, Paris, 

2001

Sally Mann was born in Lexington Virginia on 1951. She was an American photographer and began at the age of 16. When she was in school she made a debut by taking pictures of her nude classmate. One of her work was focused on young women. "Portraits of girls captured in the ephemeral moment between childhood innocence and womanly sophistication that solidified her reputation as provocateur." (Cite 4) Through her photographs she captures childhood, death, and sexuality. In the book Immediate Family 1992 she tells how her images show the dark image of childhood and brings up an issue to the world.

Dog Scratches, 1991

Fallen Child, 1989

Modest Child #1,1988

Barbara Kruger was born on January 26, 1945 and is known for being an american conceptual artist. She focuses on the economy politics, gender, and culture. Not only does she do this through photos but she also uses the videos and audio to show these themes. She identifies with feminist art and conceptual art. One of her most famous art is Your Body is a battleground 1989. In the picture it includes three color. black, white, and red. This is to show the good and bad side of a person. The words in the photo says " your body is a battleground which show the issues on the feminist. It also adds a bit of postmodernism into the picture.

Untitled Your Body is a battleground 1989

All these artist were portraying something they believed in whether it was gender, race, social views, economy, and many other issues. These ladies were and still and are very influential in the world of art. Many of them were feminist and used their pictures and drawing to show the issue that feminist are fighting. Others used art to express themselves and bring up the issues that are being ignore or overseen. Still today, they are still making a difference through their art and challenging many historians and other types of people.


Cite 1: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm
Cite 2: http://www.artnews.com/2012/02/14/the-cindy-sherman-effect/
Cite 3: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/eunice-golden
Cite 4: https://www.artsy.net/artist/sally-mann
Cite 5: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kruger-barbara.htm