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VOCAB:
● Action Painting: abstract painting in which the artist drips or splatters paint onto a
surface like a canvas in order to create his or her work
● Assemblage: 3-D work made of various materials like wood, cloth, paper, and
miscellaneous objects
● Earthwork: large outdoor work in which the earth itself is the medium
● Installation: temporary work of art made up of assemblages created for a particular
space, like an art gallery or museum
● Kitsch: something of low quality that appeals to popular taste

Contemporary Art:
● Goes beyond traditional art forms and utilizes technological developments
● Artists easily adapt to new styles and artistic impulses
● Movements are intense and fleeting
● Diverse art forms take on contemporary issues like race, gender, and discrimination
● WWII formed the background for much of the rest of the 02th century
● Invention of information technology allowed for unprecedented spread of ideas
● Video projections, computer graphics, sound installations, fiberglass products, and lasers
● Architecture like the Guggenheim Museum was designed on a computer firs
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Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 1997, titanium, glass, and limestone, Spain

Form:
● Swirling forms and shapes that contrast the industrial landscape of Bilbao
● From the river side, the building resembles a boat, referencing Bilbao’s past as a shipping
and commercial center
● Curving forms were designed by a computer software program called Catia
● Fixing clips make a shallow dent in the titanium surface, producing the effect of a
shimmering surface that changes according to atmospheric conditions
● Curvilinear forms evoke architecture of Borromini and Italian baroque
● Many museums (Louvre, National Gallery) used to be Neoclassical
Function:
● Modern art museum featuring contemporary art in a contemporary setting
● Follows tradition of Guggenheim Museums around the world, created by prominent
architects in daring designs
Context:
● Gehry is a Canadian-American architect based in LA
● Originally in New York (5th Ave), designed by Wright
● Revitalization of the port area in Bilbao is called the “Bilbao effect”, a reference to the
impact the museum had on the local economy
Syncretism: Curvilinear Forms
● Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Walls at Saqsa Waman, Great Zimbabwe
Zaha Hadid, MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, 2009, glass, steel, and
cement, Rome, Italy

Form:
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● Internal spaces covered by a glass roof, natural light is admitted into the interior, filtered
by louvered blinds
● Walls flow and melt into one another, creating new and dynamic interior spaces
● Constantly changing interior and exterior views
● Transparent roof modulates natural light
● Subtle modulations of color: grays, silvers, and whites contrast with blacks
Function:
● 2 museums (MAXXI Art and MAXXI Architecture), a library, an auditorium, and a
cafeteria
● Specializes in 21st century art
● Flowing form encourages various paths to understanding history vs one narrative
Context:
● Zaha Hadid was an Iraqi-born, British-based architect
● References Roman concrete construction

Modern Painting/Sculpture:
● Oil on canvas was replaced largely by acrylic, which takes less time to dry (weeks
became hours)
● Unlike watercolor, it doesn’t change color when dried, but cracks with time
● Many still prefer oils for this reason, but extenders can increase the lifetime of acrylics
● Computers also rose to the task of image-based art
● Marble carving is dead (high skill cap, once chipped, cannot be repaired)
● Porcelains, fabrics, even beeswax are used
● Objects combined into works of art are called assemblages, large assemblages are
installations, which can take up a whole room in a museum or gallery

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates, 1979-2005, mixed-media installation, NYC

Form:
● Installation of 7,503 “gates” of free-hanging saffron-colored fabric panels
● Framed all pathways in Central Park, which was designed by Olmsted and Vaux
● Mounted in the winter so colors would have maximum impact against barren trees
● 16 foot tall gates formed a continuous river of color
● The work covered 23 miles of footpaths, self-financed
Context:
● Christo is Bulgarian-born, Jean-Claude was of French descent, born in Morocco
● Put on hold for many years, but installed a few years after 9/11
● Temporary installation: 16 days, after it closed, the materials were recycled
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● Spectators walked through the gates to see the ever-changing views of the park
● Played with the idea of space, environment, and location

Song Su-nam, Summer Trees, 1983, ink on paper, British Museum, London

Form:
● Large vertical lines of various thickness
● Subtle tone variations of ink wash
Context:
● Song Su-nam was a Korean artist who used traditional ink on paper
● One of the leaders of the Sumukhwa, a new type of ink brush painting in the 1980s
● Ink painting is traditional in Korea, but this is a modern revitalization of the movement
● Inspired by Western abstraction

Maya Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982, granite, Washington DC

Form:
● V-shaped war monument cut into the earth
● Contains the names of 60,ooo casualties of the war listed in order of missing/killed
● Earliest names appear in the vortex and extend out to one end of the monument and begin
again at the other end working toward the vortex; symbolic circular association
Function:
● Monument dedicated to the deceased and MIA soldiers of the Vietnam War
Materials:
● Black granite, a highly reflective surface, is used so viewers can see themselves in it
Context:
● Maya Lin is a Chinese-American artist born in Ohio
● Winning design in an anonymous competition to create the monument
● Not overly political, but a memorial to the deceased themselves
● One arm of the monument points to the Lincoln Memorial, the other to the Washington
Monument, placing itself central to key figures in American history
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● Digs into the earth like a scar, which heals but has remaining traces, just like the war
● Strongly influenced by the Minimalist movement
● Initially strongly criticized by those who wanted a more traditional war monument
● Later, a figure grouping was placed nearby

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Horn Players, 1983, acrylic and oil paintstick 3 canvas panels, LA

Form:
● Flattened, darkened background, flat patches of color, thick lines, text
● Heads seem to float over outlined bodies and dissolve as the eye goes down the body
● Focus is on contrast and juxtaposition, not on balance or scale
● Some traditional forms: triptych, canvas, oil paint
Content:
● Glorifies African-American musicians, in flanking wings there is a salute to jazz
musicians Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
● Words painted onto the canvas are those attributed to the musicians (ornithology
misspelled, reference to Charlie “the Bird” Parker)
● Words like “soap” critique racism
● Gillespie used meaningless words “DOH SHOODE OBEE” in an improvisational or scat
singing
Context:
● Jean-Michel Basquiat was an artist born in Brooklyn of Puerto Rican and Haitian parents
● Artist rebelled against his middle-class upbringing
● Influenced by graffiti art and street poetry, eventually influencing these genres himself
Magdalena Abakanowicz, Androgyne III, 1985, burlap, resin, wood, nails, string, MMOA
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Form:
● Sits on a low stretcher of wooden legs, substituting for human legs
● Figure is hollowed out, just a shell
● Placed to be seen in the round, complete back and hollow front are visible
● Pose suggests meditation and/or perseverance
● Sexual characteristics are minimized to increase the universality of the figure
● Androgyne means “androgynous figure”, one that is neither male nor female
Materials:
● Work is made of hardened fiber casts from plaster molds
● Hardened fiber has the appearance of crinkled human skin set in earth tones
Context:
● Artist was Polish who endured WWI, Nazi occupation, and Stalinst rule
● Since 1974, the artist had been making similar figures, often without hands or arms, in
both groups and individually
Xu Bing, A Book from the Sky, 1987-1991, mixed-media installation, Elvehjem MOA,
University of Wisconsin- Madison

Form:
● References Chinese art forms: scrolls, screens, books, and paper
● 400 handmade books are placed in rows on the ground
● One walks beneath printed scrolls hanging from the ceiling
● All chinese characters are inventions of the artist and have no meaning
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● Artist uses traditional Asian wood-block cutting techniques

History:
● Original title: “An Analyzed Reflection of the End of This Century”
● Originally in National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing
● Artist lost favor with the Communist government over this work
● Mounted at many venues in the West afterward
Context:
● Xu Bing is a Chinese-born artist and US resident
● Trained in the propagandistic socialist realist style, leading to his critique of power in
works like this
● Criticized as “bourgeois liberation”, it was claimed that its meaninglessness hid secret
subversions
● Others interpret the meaningless characters as reflecting the meaningless words found in
political doublespeak

Jeff Koons, Pink Panther, 1988, glazed porcelain, Museum of Modern Art, NY

Form:
● Artificially idealized female form: overly yellow hair, bright red lips, large breasts,
pronounced red fingernails, overtly fake look
Content:
● Woman is Jayne Mansfield, a movie star and Playboy playmate
● Pink Panther, a cartoon character, generally seen as an animated figure
● Panther has a tender and delicate gesture around her
Context:
● Jeff Koons is a Pennsylvania-born artist working in New York
● The work is a commentary on celebrity romance, sexuality, commercialism, stereotypes,
pop culture, and sentimentality
● The work is kitsch but made of high art porcelain
● Creates a permanent reality of something ephemeral and never meant to be exhibited
● Part of a series, The Banality at a show in the Sonnabend Gallery in New York, 1988

Cindy Sherman, Untitled 288, from the History Portraits Series, 1990, photograph, MMA
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Content:
● Image explores the theme of the Old Testament figure, Judith, decapitating Holofernes
from the Book of Judith
● The richness of the costuming and the setting acts as a commentary on late-19th century
versions of the subject
● Richly decorative drapes hang behind the figure
● Judith lacks any emotional attachment to the murder that has taken place
● Judith uses her sexuality to attract and slay Holofernes
● Holofernes appears masklike, alert, and nearly bloodless
● Red garments denote lust and blood
Context:
● Cindy Sherman is a New Jersey-born, American artist
● The artist appears as the photographer, subject, costumer, hairdresser, and makeup artist
in each work
● Artist expresses the artifice of art by revealing the props used in the process
● Artist’s work comments on gender, identity, society, and class distinction
● Artist uses old master paintings as a starting point, but the works aren’t derivative
● Sheds a modern light on the great masters of the Italian Baroque

Faith Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre from the series, The French Collection, Part I, #1,
1991, acrylic on canvas, die-dyed, pieced fabric borders, Private Collection
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Materials:
● Uses the American slave art form of quilt to create this work
● Quilts were originally meant to be both beautiful and useful works of art
● This one is NOT meant to be useful, quilts are traditionally a female art form
● She combines the traditional use of oil paint with the quilting technique
Content:
● Figures in her work often act out a history that might have never taken place, but the
artist would have liked to have taken place
● Artist create a character, Willia Marie Simone, a young black artist, who moves to Paris
● She takes her friend and 3 daughters to the Louvre, dances in front of DaVinci paintings
● Story is spelled out in text on the borders
● First of 12 quilts in a series

Context:
● Feminist and racial issues domiante her work
● Her works often reflect her struggle for success in the male dominated art world

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People), 1992, oil and
mixed-media on canvas, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk

Form:
● Work is combination of collage elements and abstract expressionist brushwork
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● Newspaper clippings and images of conquest are placed over a large dominant canoe
● Red paint is symbolic of shedding of American Indian blood
Content:
● Array of objects sardonically represents Indian culture in the eyes of Europeans: sports
teams, Indian-style knick knacks like toy tomahawks, dolls, and arrows
● A large canoe floats over the scene
Context:
● Artist is a member of the Salish and Kootenai American Indian tribes of Flathead Nation
● The work was meant as the “Quincentenary Non-Celebration” of European occupation of
North America (1492-1992)
● American Indian social issues caused by occupation are stressed: poverty, unemployment,
disease, alcoholism, etc
● Title Trade references events in American Indian history such as Manhattan being sold to
the Dutch in 1626 for $24 (“fair trade”)

Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Earth’s Creation, 1994, synthetic polymer, paint on canvas 20x9’

Form:
● Artist employed the dump-dot technique, pounding paint onto a canvas with a brush to
create layers and a sense of color and movement (like “dream time” Australian painting)
● Part of a larger suite of paintings
Content:
● References the color and lushness of the “green time” in Australia after it rains
Context:
● Artist was an Australian aborigine artist
● Largely self-taught and began her career doing ceremonial painting
● Influenced by European abstraction/expressionism of the mid 20th century

Shirin Neshat, photo by Cynthia Preston, Rebellious Silence, from the Women of Allah
series, 1994, ink on photograph, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York
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Form/Content:
● Poem on face is in Farsi, the Persian language, expressing piety (religion/reverence)
● Poem is by an Iranian woman who writes poetry on gender issues
● Gun divides the body into a darker and lighter side, adding tension to the work
● Work expresses the artist’s duality as both Iranian and American
Materials:
● Black and white photograph
Context:
● Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist, raised in the United States
● Chador: a type of outer garment, like a cloak, only allowing hands and face of women to
be seen, preventing them from being seen as sexual objects
● Westerners could view the work as an expression of female oppression
● Iranians could view the work as an image of an obedient, right-minded woman who is
ready to die defending her faith and customs
● The work contrasts with stereotypical Western depictions of exotic female nudes in
opulent surroundings

Pepon Osorio, En la Barbería no se Llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop), 1994,
mixed media installation, collection of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan

Form/Content:
● Large installation recreating the center of Latino male culture: the barbershop
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● “No crying allowed” is a display of traditional masculinity and strength

● Photos of Latino men on the walls
● Video screens on the headrests depict men playing, a circumcision, and men crying
● Appropriately tacky and grimy setting
Context:
● Pepon Osario is an Puerto Rican-born artist living in New York (Nuyorican)
● Kitsch items used everywhere as symbols of consumer culture
● Originally a temporary work constructed in a neighborhood building, not a museum
● Challenges the viewer to question issues of identity, masculinity, culture, and attitudes
● Discusses men’s gender norms and societal expectations surrounding men

Michel Tuffery, Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000), 1994, mixed media, New Zealand

Form:
● Life-size sculpture of a bull made from flattened cans of corned beef
● 2 motorized bulls often engage in multimedia performance art, The Challenge
● There are small concealed wheels at the feet for ease of movement
Context:
● Michel Tuffery was born in New Zealand of Samoan, Cook Islander, and Tahitian descent
● The artist is interested in exploring aspects of his heritage in a modern context
● Canned corned beef is a favorite food in Polynesia, exported from new Zealand
● Canned meat (pisupo, a Samoan language variant of “pea soup”, the first canned food in
the Pacific) is given as a gift on special occasions in Polynesia
● Canned meat has contributed greatly to Polynesian obesity and caused a fall in traditional
cultural skills of fishing, cooking, and agriculture
● Artist induces ironic tone that cow is made of hundreds of opened cans of cow meat
● Theme of recycling is emphasized through the reuse of these cans

Nam June Paik, Electronic Superhighway, 1995, mixed-media installation (49-channel

closed-circuit video installation, neon, steel, and electronic components)
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Form:
● Neon lighting outlines 50 states and DC, with Alaska/Hawaii on the side walls
● Each state has a separate video feed, hundreds of TV sets and 50 DVD players
● Themes associated with each state are on the state’s screen
● Oklahoma! plays on the Oklahoma screen
● A camera is turned on the spectator and its feed appears on one of the monitors
Context:
● Artist was a Korean-born artist who lived in New York City
● Paik was intrigued by maps and travel:
- Neon outlines symbolize multicolored maps of each state
- Neon symbolizes motel and restaurant signs
- Fascination with the interstate highway system
● The constant blur of so many clips at the same time can lead to “information overload”
● Paik is considered the father of video art

Bill Viola, The Crossing, 1996, video and sound installation

Form/Content:
● Room dimensions: 16 x 27 ½ x 57 feet
● Performer is Phil Esposito, Photo is by Kira Perov
● These video installations are total environments
● 2 channels of color video project from opposite sides of large dark gallery onto 2 large,
back to back screens suspended from the ceiling and secured to the floor
● 4 channels of amplified stereo sound come from 4 speakers
● 2 freestanding video screens show a double-sided projection:

- Fire: flames consume the figure of a man, beginning at his feet:

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A figure approaches from a long distance, as he stops, a small flame appears at his
feet and spreads rapidly to engulf him in a roaring fire; when it stops, he is gone
- Water: A man walks toward the viewer and water falls from above
Similar to fire, when the figure stops, a stream of water begins to pour upon his
head, quickly turning into a raging torment, and when it slows, the man is gone
● Figures walk in incredibly slow motion
Context:
● Artist is a Queens, New York-born artist who promotes video as an art form
● Work shows actions that repeat over again, implying cycle of purification and destruction
● Filmed at high speed, bug sequences are played back at super slow motion
● Artist is interest in sense perceptions
● Evoke Eastern/Western spiritualism: Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, Christian mysticism
● Requires viewer to remain still and concentrate

Mariko Mori, Pure Land, 1998, color photograph on glass, Los Angeles

Content:
● Mori herself appears as if in a vision in the guise of the heian deity, Kichijoten
● Kichijoten is the essence of beauty and the harbinger of prosperity and happiness
● She holds a wish-granting jewel, a nyoi hoju, which denies evil and fulfills wishes
● Jewel symbolizes Buddha’s universal mind
● Animated figures of lighthearted aliens play musical instruments on clouds
● Lotus blossom floats on water and symbolizes purity and rebirth into paradise
● Set in a landscape evoking the Dead Sea, high salinity, seen as an agent of purification
Context:
● Artist is Japanese
● Shows merging of consumer entertainment fantasies with traditional imagery
● Creative interpretation of traditional Japanese art forms

Kiki Smith, Lying with the Wolf, 2001, ink and pencil on paper, Paris
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Form:
● Large, wrinkled drawing pinned to a wall, like a tablecloth or bedsheet
Context:
● Kiki Smith is an American artist who was born in Germany and lives in NYC
● Theme of her work is the human body: this is a nude female figure
● Female strength is emphasized in the woman lying down with the wild beast
● Wolf seems tamed by the woman’s embrace
● Wolf is traditionally seen as an evil or dangerous symbol, but not here

Kara Walker, Darkytown Rebellion, 2001, cut paper and projection on wall, Luxembourg

Technique:
● Artist draws images with greasy white pencil or soft pastel crayon on large pieces of
black paper and then cuts the paper with a knife
● Images are then adhered to a gallery wall with wax
● Artist uses traditional silhouette forms
● Overhead projectors throw colored light onto the walls, ceilings, and floor
● Cast shadows of the viewer’s body mingle with the black paper images
Context:
● Artist is a California-born, New York-based, African-American artist
● Work explores themes of African-Americans in the antebellum South
● Teenager holds a flag resembling a colonial ship sail, one man has a leg cut off, and a
woman is caring for newborn babies
● Work explores how stereotypes and caricatures of African-Americans have been
presented
● Inspired by anonymous landscape called “Darkytown”, it was the artist’s invention to
have the figures in rebellion
● This is not a recreation of a historical event, but a commentary on history as it has been
presented in the past and present
● Viewer interacts with the work, walking around it, engaging in elements of it, the viewer
is part of the history of the piece

Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (after Fragonard), 2001, mixed media installation, London
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Interpretation:
● Artist was inspired by Fragonard’s The Swing
● The work is a life-size headless mannequin
● The dress is made of Dutch wax fabric, sold in Africa, referencing global trade and
post-colonial life in Africa
● Questions morality of excess wealth
● Flowering vines are cast to the floor
● A headless figure, guillotined by the French Revolution
Context:
● Artist was a British born, of Nigerian descent, and lives and works in London
● 2 men in the Fragonard painting are not included: the audience takes the place of the men
● Erotic voyeurism

El Anatsui, Old Man’s Cloth, 2003, aluminum and copper wire, Florida

Form:
● Not flat, but hung as a cloth
● Curators are often left to hanging El Anatsui’s work to the bets advantage, so it appears
slightly different in each setting
Technique/Materials:
● 1000 drink tops joined by wire to form a cloth-like hanging
● Caps are from a distillery in Nigeria
● Artist uses power tools like chainsaws and welding torches
● Artist converts found materials into a new type of media that lies somewhere between
painting and sculpture
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Context:
● Artist was born in Ghana, spent much of his career in Nigeria
● Artist produces colorful, textured wall hangings related to West African textiles
● Gold color reflects traditional cloth colors of Ghana and references royalty
● Gold also symbolizes Ashanti control over the gold trade in Africa
● Artist combines aesthetic traditions of Ghana with his adopted country of Nigeria along
with the global movement of abstract art
● SLAVERY UNDERTONES
Julie Mehretu, Stadia II, 2004, ink and acrylic on canvas, Pittsburgh

Form:
● Depicts a stylized rendering of stadium architecture
● Forms suggest the excitement of a competition held in a circular space surrounded by
international imagery
● Dynamic composition is suggested in sweeping lines that create a vibrant pulse
● Work uses multilayered lines to create animation
● Sweeping lines create depth, the focus of attention is on the central core from which
colors, icons, flags, and symbols resonate
Context:
● Artist was born in Ethiopia, living and working in NYC
● She paints large-scale paintings, and although they’re done with abstraction, titles are
topical (See Kandinsky’s abstractions)
● Flags can represent, both positively and negatively, national pride, patriotism, nationalism

Wangechi Mutu, Preying Mantra, 2006, mixed media on Mylar, Brooklyn Museum
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Form/Content:
● Collaged female figure composed of human and animal parts, objects, and machine
● Figure reclines in a relaxed position
● Green snake interlocks with her fingers, bird feathers on the back of her head
● Left earlobe has chicken feet, insect legs, and pinchers
● She has blotchy skin
Context:
● Artist is a Kenya-born, New York-based artist
● Art related to Afro-Futurism
● Work is a commentary on the female persona in art history
● Ironic twist on the praying mantis:
- Suggests religious rituals
- Mantis means “prophet” in Greek
- Insects use camouflage, the figure seems camouflaged
- Her seemingly contradictory roles express “prey” and “preying” at the same time

Doris Salcedo, Shibboleth, 2007-8, Installation, Tate Modern, London

Form:
● Installation that features a large crack beginning as a hairline, widening to 2 feet in depth
● Floor of the museum was opened and a cast of Colombian rock faces was inserted
● Work stresses interaction between sculpture and space
Context:
● Sculptor is Colombian
● Shibboleth: as word or custom that a person not familiar with a language may
mispronounce; used to identify foreigners or people of another class
● Often used to exclude people from joining a group
● Judges 12:6, all who couldn’t pronounce “Shibboleth” were killed (42k Ephraimites)
● Crack emphasizes the gap in relationships
● Work references racism and colonialism: keeping people away or separating them
● Installation now sealed, but exists as a scar, commemorating the lives of lower classes
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Ai Weiwei, Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds), 2010-11, sculpted and painted porcelain, London

Form/Content:
● Installation containing millions of individually handcrafted ceramic pieces resembling
sunflower seeds
● Symbolically represent an ocean of fathomless depth, showing the loss of an individual
seed in a sea of seeds, representing the loss of individuality in the modern world
● Each seed is made in Jingdezhen, a city known for its porcelain in Imperial China
● 600 artisans worked for 2 years, each seed is handprinted
Context:
● Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist
● Sunflower seeds were eaten as a source of food during the famine era under Mao
Tze-tung
● The work reflects the ideology of Chairman Mao: he was the sun, his followers the seeds
● Originally, viewers could walk through, but it raised harmful ceramic dust, and no longer
can visitors walk through the installation