In the beginning of the semester, professor asked the class if we were able to name any artists. Back in January, the class wasn't able to come up with many artists, we said artists such as; Picasso, Michelangelo, Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh, and Barbara Krugar. Back then we were able to name some artists, but they were mostly male. But now that the semester is coming to an end, if professor was to ask us the same question we would be able to name at least 20 artists off the tops of our heads, most of those women. Throughout the semester we’ve learned about many different women artists, explored their lives, and learned about different isms in art history.
Cecily Brown
Cecily Brown in Vanity Fair 200
Cecily Brown is a contemporary artist, born in London in 1969. Cecily Brown attended the Slade School of Art in England. Brown moved to New York City in 1995 and that's when she became noticed in the art industry. She is famous for her work Four Letter Heaven, 1995. This piece focused on sex and love, as many of her other pieces that followed did.
Four Letter Heaven Cecily Brown, 1995
Cecily uses a combination of abstraction and figuration in her works. Brown has had collections in numerous museums such as; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, and the Essel Museum. Cecily Brown is known for naming her paints after classic Hollywood films. Cecily Brown creates works that depict sexual scenes in an abstract way. It is clear to see people having some sort of sexual contact in her paintings but the abstraction of her work changes her pieces from vulgar to beautiful and intelligent.
Justify My Love Cecily Brown, 2004
Luck Just Kissed You Hello Cecily Brown, 2013
Ana Mendieta
Facial Hair Transplant Ana Mendieta, 1972
"Ana Mendieta was a Cuban American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork" Ana Mendieta was born in Havanna, Cuba in 1948, and moved to America with her sister in order to survive and have a better life in 1961. Mendieta was only 12 years old when she and her sister were sent to Dubuque, Iowa without their parents. Mendieta spent her first years in America moving from shelter to shelter with her sister. By 1979 the rest of her family; her mother, younger brother, and father, were with Ana in America. Ana Mendieta went to the University of Iowa where she was ridiculed for focusing on violence against women. Mendieta believed in religion, spirituality, and rituals and used these things to inspire her art pieces. Ana used natural elements to express themes such as; feminism, sexuality, violence, life, and death.
Ana's most famous works were created between 1973 and 1980. The Silueta Series focused on the human body as well as bodies of land. Ana Mendieta manipulated the natural elements to create a series of photographs and films that depicted the female body. Mendieta used her own silhouette as the subject and object of her pieces. She used her naked body in a way to build a connection with the Earth in order to create powerful artworks.
Silueta Series Ana Mendieta, 1973-80
Mendieta once said, "through my earth/body sculptures I become one with the earth... I become an extension of nature and nature becomes an extension of my body. This obsessive act of reasserting my ties with the earth is really the reactivation of primeval beliefs... in an omnipresent female force, the after image of being encompasses within the womb, is a manifestation of my thirst for being."
Ana Mendieta mysteriously died on September 8, 1985. Before her death, neighbors heard Mendieta and her husband, sculptor Carl Andre, arguing in their apartment. Ana Mendieta fell to her death from her 34th floor apartment in New York City. Carl Andre was accused and arrested for her death but was acquitted of her murder in 1988. This became a huge controversy throughout the art industry and among feminists around the world. In 2010 New York University commemorated the 25th Anniversary of Mendieta's death with a symposium called Where is Ana Mendieta.
Julie Mehretu
Julie Mehretu
Julie Mehretu was born in Ethiopia in 1970 and moved to the United States in 1977 with her family. Julie Mehretu received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kalamazoo College in Michigan. Mehretu moved to New York in 1999. Julie's works were large abstract paintings and drawings that used different layering techniques. Mehretu's paintings are made using layers of acrylic paint on canvas with pen, pencil, ink and thick lines of paint overtop.
Rising Down Julie Mehretu, 2008
Stadia Julie Mehretu, 2004
Julie Mehretu's intricate art has landed her work in the Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Walker Art Center, San Diego Museum of Art, and Studio Museum in Harlem. Mehretu's abstract pieces also won her many awards and recognitions. Julie was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award and the 2001 Penny McCall Award.
Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama was born on March 22, 1929 in Japan. Kusama showed her creativity at a very young age, Yayoi began writing poetry at the age of 18. Yayoi grew up in a dysfunctional household, her mother was abusive and her father often had affairs with different women. Yayoi's mother would send her to spy on her father having affairs, which traumatized her and started her obsession with sex and penises. When Kusama was 10 years old she started having hallucinations and visions of "flashes of light, aura, or dense fields of dots." Yayoi also saw and heard flowers speaking to her during these hallucinations. Kusama described the patterns she saw in real life as coming to life, growing, and engulfing her. Kusama calls this process "self-obliteration" and used it when creating her art.
My Heart Yayoi Kusama, 2013
By 1950, Yayoi Kusama found success. She painted abstract art on large surfaces, she covered walls, floors, household objects, and large canvases. Polkadots became a trademark in Kusama's pieces. Yayoi Kusama said, "a polka dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing. Polka dots become movement... polka dots are a way to infinity." Kusama used her hallucinations to her advantage, most of her works come directly from them.
A recent piece of Kusama is her Obliteration Room. Yayoi Kusama started with an all white room, white ceiling, floor, walls, and furniture. Yayoi designed vinyl dot stickers in different sizes and colors. Then, she let the audience do the work. Visitors were given sheets of the stickers and were free to do whatever they liked. They put stickers on everything and created something magical.
Dana Schutz
Dana Schutz
Dana Schutz was born in 1976 in Livonia, Michigan. Dana Schutz went to the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Norwich School of Art and Design. Dana's first popular work was her exhibition called "Frank From Observation" in 2002.
Frank as a Proboscis Monkey Dana Schutz, 2002
Frank on a Rock Dana Schutz 2002
Schutz created Open Casket which was inspired by Emmett Till in 2016. Dana explained that she approached the painting from the perspective of a mother and based the painting based on Mamie Till's description of seeing her son after he was mutilated. Schutz received a lot of controversy from the painting. Artist Whitney Hannah tried to get the painting removed. Dana responded to Whitney's hate by explaining, " I don't know what it is like to be black in America, but I do know what it is like to be a mother. Emmett was Mamie Till's only son. The thought of anything happening to your child is beyond comprehension. It is easy for artists to self-censor. To convince yourself to not make something before you even try. There were many reasons why I could not, should not, make this painting ... but art can be a space for empathy, a vehicle for connection."
_1972.jpg){kind=spacer}
No comments:
Post a Comment