Chapter 31: Contemporary Art Worldwide

Preview: Since the 1980s, artists worldwide have used art to explore a range of themes, from individual concerns to pressing political issues. A host of artists, including David Wojnarowicz, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Shahzia Sikander, have used art to examine sexuality and gender, while many African-American artists such as Lorna Simpson and David Hammons focus on racial identity and inequality. Abstract and figural painters and sculptors across the world continue pursue innovations in representational form and novel uses of material. Artists such as Maya Lin, Richard Serra, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude work site-specifically and bridge the gap between architecture and sculpture. Architecture has become a particularly diverse practice in recent decades, as architects pursue postmodernist, Hi-Tech, Deconstructivist and green building approaches. New technology has had a profound impact on art, allowing new forms of visual expression and multimedia spectacle never before possible.

Key Art & Architectural Terms: installations, Postmodernism, Deconstructivism, green architecture, site-specificity

Lecture Notes:

Introductory Notes:

CONTEMPORARY ART WORLDWIDE

Social and Political Art:

Social Art: Gender and Sexuality:

  • Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face), 1981
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Guerrilla Girls, Advantages of Being a Woman Artist, 1988
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • David Wojnarowicz, When I Put My Hands on Your Body, 1990
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Robert Mapplethorpe, Self-Portrait, 1980
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Shahzia Sikander, Perilous Order, 1994-1997
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:

Social Art: Race, Ethnicity, and National Identity:

  • Faith Ringgold, Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?, 1983
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Melvin Edwards, Tambo, 1993
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Jean-Michel Basquiat, Horn Players, 1983
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Trigo Piula, Ta Tele, 1988
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Chris Ofili, The Holy Virgin Mary, 1996
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Cliff Whiting (Te Whanau-A-Apanui), Tawhiri-Matea (God of the Winds), 1984
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People), 1992
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Political Art:

  • Willie Bester, Homage to Steve Biko, 1992
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • David Hammons, Public Enemy, installation at Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1991
  • Materials & scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Leon Golub, Mercenaries IV, 1980
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Shirin Neshat, Allegiance and Wakefulness, 1994
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Krzysztof Wodiczko, The Homeless Projection, 1986
  • Medium, site:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Hans Haacke, MetroMobiltan, 1985
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Xu Bing, A Book from the Sky, 1987
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Edward Burtynsky, Densified Scrap Metal #3A, Toronto, Ontario, 1997
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Other Movements and Themes:

Abstract Painting and Sculpture:

  • Julian Schnabel, The Walk Home, 1984-1985
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Anselm Kiefer, Nigredo, 1984
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Wu Guanzhong, Wild Vines with Flowers Like Pearls, 1997
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Song Su-Nam, Summer Trees, 1983
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Untitled, 1992
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Kimio Tsuchiya, Symptom, 1987
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Tara Donovan, Untitled, 2003
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:

Figural Painting and Sculpture:

  • Jenny Saville, Branded, 1992
  • Medium, scale:
  • Stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Kiki Smith, Untitled, 1990
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Jeff Koons, Pink Panther, 1988
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Robert Arneson, California Artist, 1982
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Marisol Escobar, Self-Portrait Looking at the Last Supper, 1982-1984
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Mark Tansey, A Short History of Modernist Painting, 1982
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Paa Joe, Airplane and eagle coffins outside the artist’s showroom in Teshi, Ghana, 2000
  • Medium, scale:
  • Description & stylistic features:
  • Subject & significance:

Architecture and Site-Specific Art:

Architecture:

  • Norman Foster, Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong, China, 1979-1986
  • Description, style, and other notes:
  • Renzo Piano, aerial view and three “huts”, Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea, New Caledonia, 1998
  • Description, style, and other notes:
  • Günter Behnish, Hysolar Institute, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, 1987
  • Description, style, and other notes:
  • Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Bilbao Museo, Bilbao, Spain, 1997
  • Description, style, and other notes:
  • Frank Gehry, atrium of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museo, Bilbao, Spain, 1997
  • Description and other notes:
  • James Stirling, Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 1977-1983
  • Description, style, and other notes:
  • Daniel Libeskind, Denver Art Museum, 2006
  • Description, style, and other notes:
  • Zaha Hadid, Vitra Fire Station, Weil-am-Rhein, Germany, 1989-1993
  • Description, style, and other notes:
  • Ieoh Ming Pei, Grand Louvre Pyramide, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, 1988
  • Description, style, and other notes:

Environmental and Site-Specific Art:

  • Maya Ying Lin, Vietnam Veterams Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1981-1983
  • Materials & scale:
  • Description, site, and other notes:
  • Rachel Whiteread, Holocaust Memorial, Judenplatz, Vienna, Austria, 2000
  • Materials & scale:
  • Description, site, and other notes:
  • Richard Serra, Tilted Arc, Jacob K. Javits Federal Plaza, New York City, 1981
  • Materials & scale:
  • Description, site, and other notes:
  • Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Miami, Florida, 1980-1983
  • Materials & scale:
  • Description, site, and other notes:
  • Andy Goldsworthy, Cracked Rock Spiral, St. Abbs, Scotland, 1985
  • Materials & scale:
  • Description, site, and other notes:
  • Keith Haring, Tuttomondo, Sant-Antonio, Pisa, Italy, 1989
  • Materials & scale:
  • Description, site, and other notes:

New Media:

  • Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade II, 1999
  • Medium & scale:
  • Description & significance:
  • Jenny Holzer, Untitled (selections from Truisms, Inflammatory Essays, The Living Series, The Survival Series, Under a Rock, Laments, and Child Text), 1989
  • Medium & scale:
  • Description & significance:
  • Bill Viola, The Crossing, 1996
  • Medium & scale:
  • Description & significance:
  • Adrian Piper, Cornered, 1988
  • Medium & scale:
  • Description & significance:
  • Tony Oursler, Mansheshe, 1997
  • Medium & scale:
  • Description & significance:
  • Matthew Barney, Cremaster cycle, installation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2003
  • Medium & scale:
  • Description & significance:

Concluding notes:

Exercises for Study:

1. Give examples of artworks and describe how they engage the following themes:

African-American experience:

Gender & sexual identity:

Racism & oppression:

2. Compare and contrast the key features of Postmodernist and Deconstructivist, using an example of each for reference.

3. Compare and contrast the following pairs of artworks, using the points of comparison as a guide.

A. Maya Ying Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Fig. 31-37); Richard Serra, Tilted Arc (Fig. 31-39)

  • Materials, scale & form:
  • Function of works:
  • Relation to sites:

B. Cliff Whiting (Te Whanau-A-Apanui), Tawhiri-Matea Fig. 31-11); Keith Haring, Tuttomondo (Fig. 31-42)

  • Medium, materials, & scale:
  • Style:
  • Subject, themes & function:

C. Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade II (Fig. 31-43); Edward Burtynsky, Densified Scrap Metal #3A, Toronto, Ontario (Fig. 31-19)

  • Media:
  • Subjects:
  • Visual composition:
  • Thematic content: