Contemporary art and the revisioning of identity

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
Tessa Adams
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
Art Object ◽  
Visual Artist

The aim of this article is to address the influence of contemporary art in terms of both its problematic and its seduction. Discussion will focus on works that challenge psychotherapists’ views of creative practice. The art object as agency will be set in contrast to its positioning in psychodynamic terms, raising the question as to why and what is the purpose of the visual artist whose relationship with image, and the imaginal is exemplar.

Materialities of Abstraction

2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-214
Author(s):  
Brandon Truett
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Abstract Art ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Material World ◽  
Bloomsbury Group ◽  
Art Object ◽  
Visual Artist ◽  
The Aesthetic

This article recovers the 1918 chapbook that the understudied Vorticist poet and visual artist Jessie Dismorr composed for the American sculptor John Storrs and his wife Marguerite. It examines the ways the chapbook reorients the aesthetic criteria by which we recognize abstraction in the early twentieth century. Studying how Dismorr’s divergent and feminist approach to Vorticist practice exploits “the materialities of abstraction,” or the traces of the material world that evince the outside of the abstract art object, it suggests that these material traces lead us to reimagine the boundary between inside and outside, and thus the way an art object indexes and interacts with the material world. Proposing that the recovery of an object as seemingly inconsequential as an individual chapbook in fact raises questions about how we construct the literary- and art-historical field of modernism, the article situates Dismorr’s work in relation to other feminist understandings in British modernism of the socialized space of artistic practice across media exemplified by Virginia Woolf ’s account of sociability within the Bloomsbury Group, and argues for the importance of such unique objects as chapbooks to the study of material culture within literary history and within art history as well.

Introduction: almost nothing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Dezeuze
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Art Object ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Human Condition

This introduction introduces the term ‘precariousness’ by contrasting it with the ‘ephemeral’. Precarious practices that explore the ‘almost nothing’ are situated in the context of studies of ‘nothingness’ and empty exhibitions in contemporary art. Such debates focus on the ‘dematerialisation’ of the art object since the 1960s, which will be addressed from a new perspective following Lawrence Alloway’s 1969 definition of ‘an expanding and disappearing’ work of art. Re-readings of the materiality of contemporary art since the 1960s are related to continental debates concerning ‘precarity’ in the 1990s, and traced back to Hannah Arendt’s 1958 remarks on The Human Condition. Two different philosophical books — Vladimir Jankélévitch’s 1957 Le Je-ne-sais-quoi et le presque rien, and Simon Critchley’s 1997 Very little, almost nothing — point to some of the questions and methods raised by the study of precarious practices.

Sites of Subjectivity: Robert Morris, Minimalism, and Dance

2004 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-130
Author(s):  
Virginia Spivey
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Object A ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Robert Morris ◽  
Dance Theater ◽  
Art Object ◽  
Visual Artist ◽  
The 1960S

Robert Morris's danceSite(Fig. 1) premiered in February 1964 at the Surplus Dance Theater in New York City. Choreographed and performed by Morris,Sitealso featured the visual artist Carolee Schneemann and several sheets of four-by-eight foot plywood. Although it may seem odd to include these wooden panels among the performers, they assumed an active role in the choreography. Ironically, it was Schneemann who provided the background scenery. Nude and covered in white paint, she sat motionless throughout the performance, recreating the pose and persona of Edouard Manet's famous 1863 painting ofOlympiawhile Morris manipulated the large wooden boards. In a graceful duet with inanimate partners, Morris spun the rectangular planes from a point on the ground, maneuvered them around his body, lifted them over his head, caressed their even form as he slowly moved his hand across one edge, and balanced the panels on his back as he moved across the stage. Not only did Morris never dance with Schneemann, he did not even seem to notice her.In a career spanning over forty years, Robert Morris has produced theoretical articles, paintings, videos, installations, and environmental art in addition to his work in dance; nevertheless, the American artist remains best known for his Minimalist sculptures of the 1960s (Figs. 2 and 3). Like the works of his colleagues Donald Judd and Carl Andre, Morris's spare, geometrical objects of that period were three-dimensional and called attention to issues of site and artistic context. They also resisted past artistic conventions based in subjective methods of composition, expressivity, and metaphor. Morris, however, distinguished himself among this group of visual artists by the emphasis he placed on the viewer's bodily relationship with the art object, a distinction that derives directly from his unique involvement in avant-garde dance.

scholarly journals PRACTICE AS RESEARCH: CREATIVE AND RESEARCH. PRACTICE IN THE FORMAT OF POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-109
Author(s):  
Liudmila A. Alyabieva ◽  
Irina M. Sakhno ◽  
Tatiana E. Fadeeva
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Graduate School ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Postgraduate Education ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Art And Design ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
Practical Research

The authors of the article focus on the discussion format of practical research. In recent years, practice as research has become a direction of research activity in foreign universities and an object of close attention from the Russian academic community. Representatives of various disciplines in art and the humanities convincingly argue the need for such a format of creative practice in performance, theatre, dance and contemporary art. Practice as research includes different forms and ways of representing applied and project art products. Today, a practising researcher causes controversy and discussion since the model of creative practice as a method of studying art is an innovative educational format. Also, the parameters of evaluating practical research, the relationship between theoretical, purely research, and creative material cause significant difficulties. The methodology based on practice and the parameters of the assessment of practice as research give rise to a lively discussion. The situation in arts and humanities teaching is complicated because practice-related research has been labelled as field research and practice-based experimentation in medicine, design and engineering for a long time. Artistic practice in contemporary art and design has recently become the object of close attention at the Graduate School of Art and Design at the Higher School of Economics since, today, the practical focus of visual research is the main direction in educational bachelor and master’s programs. A new understanding of art as a practice and, at the same time, research can shed light on many topics, including cultural anthropology, psychology, sociology, etc. That is why we defend the idea of the interdisciplinarity of such studies in our article. Artistic practice as a field of academic research and new experience in postgraduate education is at the centre of our study. We strive to generalise the experience of European educational programs, expand the range of methodological approaches and present the author’s concept. Practice and research have long been inseparable in many humanities; project workshops and representation of creative artifacts are at the heart of contemporary art and design education. Modern Russian education is just beginning to explore new territory. In this sense, our collaborative research of an innovative format is designed to analyse foreign experiences and formulate the need to promote new educational technologies within the framework of graduate school. The habitus of practice as research is such that research based on practice raises the question of the forms of critical activity and content parameters of a creative artifact and documenting research materials. The posed research problem in combination with practice demonstrates the originality of research. It expands the boundaries of the research field by introducing a hybrid methodology for evaluating a creative project and critical discourse. The task of the authors of the article is to identify a debatable problem field, analyse analytical data related to the innovative scientific field and present essential strata of the new educational format, Practice as Research.

scholarly journals Contemporary ceramics art and its transgressive side

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ceramic Material ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
General Context ◽  
Art Object

This article wants to propose a discussion on the ranking of ceramics as art, a few aspects in regards to Ceramic Art’s inclusion in Contemporary Art context. The author is calling into question the shallow division between Decorative and Major Arts, a century after the distinction disappeared. Respectively, the art object made with ceramic material, in the general context of Contemporary Art and a few ways of manifestations of this art that leads toward permanent transgressive dimensions of artistic ceramic.

Teaching Essential Drawing Principles in Relation to the Human Figure

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Rockman
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Human Form ◽  
Traditional Art ◽  
Human Figure ◽  
Visual Artist ◽  
Principles Of Design ◽  
Changing Role ◽  
Applied Arts

There is perhaps no more significant experience in the study of drawing than the study of the human figure. One needs only to look to the ancient Greeks and to the Renaissance masters to recognize the historical importance of the human form in the study of the visual arts and the refinement of visual expression. Although the figure’s presence and significance during the period known as modernism and in contemporary art has ebbed and flowed, its influence is always felt to some degree, and no classical or traditional art education would be complete without a substantial focus on drawing and studying the human form. Much debate is currently taking place about the changing role and responsibility of foundation courses for students studying both the fine and applied arts. If we examine those aspects that the fine and applied arts have in common, we find that a concern for communication is paramount, whether it takes place in a gallery or museum, in a television or magazine ad, on a showroom floor, on a computer monitor, or in any number of other locales. The power of the human form to communicate cannot be overstated, primarily because it is what we are. We have things in common with other humans that we have in common with nothing else. Looking at a human form in any context has the potential to provide us with the experience of looking in the mirror, of seeing our own reflection, so to speak. It follows that any significant experience in visual communication must thoroughly examine the role of the figure, and for the visual artist this requires experience with drawing the figure. The fine and applied arts also have in common a concern for principles of design and aesthetics. If we acknowledge the presence of these principles in nature, then we may also recognize an element of universality. Quite simply, I can think of no finer example of the application of principles of design and aesthetics than the living, breathing human form, and the human form is universal.

Forging the “New” in Contemporary Art in Brazil, 1960s and 1970s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Shtromberg
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
The United States ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Brazilian Art ◽  
Art Object ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

The history of exhibitions in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s provides a key reference point for understanding how artistic vanguards and contemporary art unfolded in direct relationship to social and political contexts. The seminal exhibitions during these pivotal decades elucidate how the contemporary in Brazilian art stages and reframes conceptions of the “new” vis-à-vis the art object. The exhibitions in question trace the development of Ferreira Gullar’s não-objeto (non-object, 1959) and its path toward the idea-based artwork, an impulse that was prevalent throughout the 1960s in the United States and Europe as well. Inaugurated by the emergence of Brasília, Brazil’s new capital city in the formerly barren hinterlands of the state of Goiás, the 1960s witnessed a new model of artistic practice that pushed the boundaries between art and life, actively seeking out the participation of the viewer. This is most evidenced in the canonical work of artists Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark. By the 1970s, challenges to the utopian undertakings from the previous decades had become imbricated with political activism, as artists and intellectuals alike pronounced a commitment to the quest for democracy after the military coup of 1964. The 1970s also witnessed heightened artistic engagement with new information and communication technologies, including the use of video equipment and computers. Constructing the history of Brazil’s contemporary art via the most important moments of its display will not only historically and politically contextualize some of the groundbreaking artists and artworks of these two decades, but also introduce readers to the challenges that these artworks posed to the more traditional methods of institutional display and the criteria used to interpret them.

The British Avant-Garde

1998 ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
Deborah Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Master Narratives ◽  
Important Thing ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Visual Appeal ◽  
Art Object ◽  
London Underground ◽  
Set Up

British Avant-Garde art, poses a challenge to traditional aesthetic analysis. This paper will argue that such art is best understood in terms of Wittgenstein’s concept of "seeing-as," and will point out that the artists often use this concept in describing their work. This is significant in that if we are to understand art in terms of cultural practice, then we must actually look at the practice. We will discuss initiatives such as the work of Damien Hirst, most famous for his animals in formaldehyde series, and that of Simon Patterson, who warps diagrams, e.g., replacing the names of stops on London Underground maps with those of philosophers. Cornelia Parker’s idea that visual appeal is not the most important thing, but rather that the questions that are set up in an attempt to create an "almost invisible" art are what are central, will also be discussed. Also, if we concur with Danto’s claims that "contemporary art no longer allows itself to be represented by master narratives," that Nothing is ruled out.", then it is indeed fruitful to understand art in terms of seeing-as. For application of this concept to art explains what occurs conceptually when the viewer shifts from identifying a work, as an art object, and then as not an art object, and explains why nothing is ruled out.

The case study of an Italian contemporary art object: Materials and state of conservation of the painting “Ragazzo seduto” by Remo Brindisi

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 564-568
Author(s):  
Tommaso Rovetta ◽  
Sara Bianchin ◽  
Giuseppe Salemi ◽  
Monica Favaro
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Art Object

scholarly journals Being in Cosmos: Sergei Dykov’s Visual Exploration of the Spirit of Altai

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Andrzej Rozwadowski
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Visual Exploration ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Visual Artist ◽  
Human Animal

This article focuses on how shamanism and animism, two important features of Altaic ontology, can be expressed in art. This is discussed by exploring the art of Sergei Dykov, a contemporary Altaic (south Siberian) visual artist, whose art is part of a wider trend in modern Siberian art of rediscovering the conceptual potentials of indigenous Siberian values. Dykov is one of those artists whose fascination with Siberian culture is not limited to formal inspirations but who also seeks how to express these indigenous values in contemporary art forms. Drawing on Altaic folklore, its myths and beliefs, including shamanism, as well as ancient Siberian art forms, Dykov searches for a new visual language capable of expressing the Altaic perception of the world. For him, therefore, painting is significantly an intellectual project involving an attempt to understand the indigenous ontology of being in the world. The key concepts around which his art revolves are thus human-animal transformations, human and non-human beings’ relations, and the interconnectedness of the visible and nonvisible. The study was based on an analysis of a sample of his unpublished artworks.

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