Shaping Identity - Detroit Institute of Arts

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Mary Chase Perry Stratton NEW!
Pewabic Niche
1927
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LOCAL IDENTITY / PERSONAL
IDENTITY
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Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas
Mary Chase Perry (later Stratton) founded Detroit’s
Pewabic Pottery in 1903 at the height of the Arts and
Crafts Movement in America.
Her partner was Horace Calkins, the developer of
the Revelation Kiln.
The current location on East Jefferson was designed
by architect William Buck Stratton, who later married
Perry.
“Pewabic” is the Ojibwa word for the color of copper,
inspired by the copper mines in the Upper Peninsula
of Michigan.
Stratton perfected the iridescent glaze that you see
on her work and for which Pewabic is known.
She was a founding member of the Detroit Arts and
Crafts Society.
She served as a trustee in the early days of the
Detroit Institute of Arts.
She established the ceramics department at the
University of Michigan and she taught at Wayne
State University.
In 1947 she received the coveted Charles Fergus
Binns Medal, the nation’s highest award in the field
of ceramics.
Pewabic Pottery is installed in many homes and
buildings around the country including the DIA,
Cranbrook, and the National Cathedral in
Washington D.C.
Pewabic
Mary Chase Perry Stratton
Jar
1910-12
12.11
Mary Chase Perry Stratton
Bowl
20th century
12.12
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This painting is of Monet’s garden and his wife Camille.
Artists are beginning to break away from the Salon – or
established and accepted ways of creating art.
They were still doing traditional subject matter (portraits,
landscapes, etc.) but began exploring some other
subjects such as railroads, café life.
Rapid advancements in technology spurred them along.
The daguerreotype and collodion dry plate camera were
in full use (about 1836-1861).
George Eastman of Kodak fame was close behind with
the invention of photographic paper and celluloid
cameras in 1888/1889.
By the mid-19th century, portable easels were in
widespread use.
By 1841, paint in tubes (primarily glass tubes and pig
bladders) freed artists from having to mix their own
pigment in the studio.
These innovations made it possible for artists to paint
outdoors and in settings other than their studios.
They began experimenting with light, color, and
brushstroke as painting outdoors in natural light changed
they way they “saw” their subject.
The critics were not enamored of this new style of
painting and referred to it as an “impression.”
The artists referred to themselves as the “New Realists.”
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Use The Nut Gatherers as a comparison.
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Claude Monet – NEW!
Gladioli
about 1876
21.71
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CULTURAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity
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PERSONAL IDENTITY
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Whistler paints an impression of himself – an
“arrangement of colors” on a flat surface.
Intended this portrait to elevate his status from
amateur to master painter.
Butterfly was a symbol he used to represent his
signature/mark.
Whistler was an American, but lived in London
most of his career.
Paintings are decorative, meant to please the eye
without telling a story (this is what he valued in
art).
Holds paintbrushes as tools, to signify is
profession/skill.
Notice the “unfinished” look – surface decoration
is important to the artist.
Critics disliked this painting because it appeared
unfinished – meaning that not every detail was
depicted, but suggested.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Arrangement in Gray
c. 1872
34.27
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas
PERSONAL IDENTITY
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Art critic John Ruskin wrote that Whistler “flings a pot of
paint in the face” of the public with Falling Rockets (he
thought Whistler was a fraud).
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Whistler sued for libel: highly publicized court case;
Whistler won, but received less than a penny. The legal
costs contributed to his existing debts.
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Know Whistler/Ruskin lawsuit story and engage kids with
response table question: What’s your take? Are you
attracted to Whistler’s interpretation of fireworks? Or do
you prefer art with recognizable images with strong
messages? Are you somewhere in between?
CULTURAL IDENTITY
James A. M. Whistler
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The debate over Falling Rockets began an ongoing
debate over the definition of what was “true” art.
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Could something without clearly-defined details be
considered fine art?
Nocturne in Black and Gold:
The Falling Rocket
1875
46.309
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas
Whistler Response Table
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Vincent van Gogh
Self Portrait
1887
22.13
Shaping Identity
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Used self as a model –what better to study?
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Van Gogh noted for his use of bright colors
and vivid brushstrokes.
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Between November 1881 and July 1890 he
produced over 900 works, including over 30
self-portraits.
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A majority of his works were produced in
less than 3 years.
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He decided to be an artist at the age of 28
and died less than 10 years later.
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Distinctive painting style – new ways of
painting were valued by many artists of the
time (compared to other times/places).
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Note two other van Gogh paintings in room.
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What are the characteristics of his work,
compared to others in room?
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Vincent van Gogh
Postman Roulin
1888
1996.25
Shaping Identity
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Roulin was the postmaster in Arles, where
van Gogh lived for a while; friends with the
family.
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Straightforward pose; attempting to capture
something essential / eternal about Roulin.
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Figure is set against an unreal background,
suggesting eternity.
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This isn’t an everyday scene, but an
attempt to capture the essence of a person.
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Van Gogh interested in capturing emotion.
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Way he applies paint and the colors he
uses meant to convey a living, breathing
person.
Jonas Lie
Culebra Cut
1913
14.5
GEOGRAPHIC / NATIONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Spanish, VTS
On Loan – July 2014 to February 2015
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The Culebra Cut is a man-made valley cutting through the mountains of Panama.
The Cut was a vital link in the Panama Canal which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the
Pacific Ocean.
Construction of the canal was one of the most difficult engineering projects ever
accomplished and took over 20 years to complete.
Fraught with problems, the canal project was completed after several stoppages in work, a
bankruptcy and a formation of a new company to try and complete the project.
It is estimated that over 22,000 French workers died from disease (yellow fever and malaria)
between 1881 and 1889 .
The workers were mostly Afro-Caribbean from the West Indies.
The US officially took over the Panama Canal project in 1904. The army corps of engineers
oversaw the operation.
6,000 men were put to work daily to blast and excavate the rock to form the Culebra Cut.
27,000 tons of dynamite were used.
On October 10, 1913, the canal was basically finished.
August 14, 1914, was the first official use of the canal.
Edwin Henry Landseer
Chevy
1868
76.4
NATIONAL IDENTITY / PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, VTS, ADP
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The image depicts a hunting dog loyally waiting for his master to retrieve the fallen stag.
He is guarding the animal from the scavenger birds and other predators.
This symbol for loyalty became a popular metaphor for the citizens of England and their
loyalty to the British Crown.
The artist became known for his painting of dogs and stags and was extremely popular in
Victorian England.
While popular with the aristocracy, reproductions were also found in middle-class homes.
He taught the children of Victoria and Albert and made portraits of the children usually in the
company of a dog.
One of his last paintings was a life-size equestrian portrait of the Queen.
His death in 1873 was marked with a massive funeral that closed down most of London.
He had a unique skill – he could paint with both hands! For example, he could paint a
horse’s head with the right hand and its tail with the left hand simultaneously.
CULTURAL IDENTITY
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Jose Clemente Orozco
Mexican Pueblo
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1932
42.103
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The image is a dignified look at the indigenous
Mexican Indian population.
After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), Mexican
identity was an important issue.
The history of the indigenous peoples came to be
seen as a critical part of Mexican history.
Mexico’s intellectual elite began to reassess this
population.
The people are shown as a “type” and are not
intended to be portraits.
Orozco was one of many Mexican artists who
focused on this subject.
His work acknowledges and reflects pride in the
history and traditions of the original Mexicans.
Orozco was a contemporary of Diego Rivera.
The large agave plant in front is a native plant of
Mexico (it is not related to cacti).
The severed leaf or branch has no known meaning.
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas, Spanish
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This painting shows the artist on the balcony surveying
memoires of old loves both real and imagined.
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She was part of a lively social scene in New York and was
friends with prominent artists, writers and intellectuals –
some of whom are depicted in this work.
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Stettheimer was a wealthy woman who moved in intellectual
circles and with her sisters Ettie and Carrie, hosted them in
her private “salon.”
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Most of the figures depicted are writers but the harlequin
(lower left) is thought to be Marcel Duchamp.
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She was very private and did not place her work in the open
marketplace.
Florine Stettheimer
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Love Flight of the Pink Candy
Heart 1930
She refrained from self-promotion and considered her
painting a “private pursuit.”
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She preferred smaller shows that appealed to only those in
her circle of friends.
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Upon her death in 1944, she had instructed her sister to
destroy her paintings.
51.12
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas, •
VTS, ADP
On Loan – 10/14 – 1/15
Her sister Ettie (her executor) defied the request and sold the
works to 37 different institutions.
Reginald Marsh
Savoy Ballroom
1931
48.11
CULTURAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas, VTS, ADP
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Depicts the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York.
Unlike other ballrooms such as the Cotton Club, the Savoy had a no-discrimination policy.
The clientele was approximately 85% African American, the owners were white and the manager
was African American.
They sought to create an atmosphere of tasteful refinement, rather than the small stuffy halls
and the smoke-laden cellar nightclubs that were plentiful at the time.
The Lindy Hop (named after Charles Lindbergh) was developed and became famous at the
Savoy.
The Savoy was the site of many famous “Battles of the Bands” which started with Benny
Goodman’s orchestra challenging Chick Webb in 1937.
The club closed in 1958 and with the Cotton Club was demolished to make way for a housing
project.
Reginald Marsh, who was white, was noted for his depictions of city life in New York during the
20s and 30s.
CULTURAL IDENTITY
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The artist focuses on an immigrant mother and
child huddled in the doorway of a Jewish
Bookstore.
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Poor living conditions for many immigrants
crowding into New York became a concern for
the artist.
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Shahn began using his art for social and political
reform.
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The artist immigrated from Lithuania as a small
child.
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This painting is post WWII – another focus of the
artist is the growing diversity of NYC due to the
influx of immigrants.
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Using the bookstore as the location could
reference the knowledge that is imparted
through books.
Ben Shahn
Bookshop: Hebrew Books
1953
55.1
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas
PERSONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
Ben Shahn - NEW!
Composition for Clarinets
and Tin Horn
1951
51.85
Shaping Identity, Art of the
Americas, VTS
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Created during the McCarthy era, this painting is a
commentary on American culture in the early 1950s.
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All artists were blacklisted and Shahn was called to
testify before the House Un-American Activities
Committee.
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Look closely at anguish of the figure in the background.
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The musical instruments appear to be crying,
screaming or are on fire.
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By the late 1950s, the McCarthy hearings began to
decline and they were eventually discontinued after
Supreme Court decisions in 1956, 1957, and 1958.
These decisions struck down some of the basic
discriminations held by the committee, such as the fact
that people could not be denied passports based on
their political affiliation.
CULTURAL IDENTITY
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Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Evening by the Sea
1919
63.135
Shaping Identity, VTS, ADP
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The image conveys the psychological state of
Germany after World War I.
Germany was defeated / embarrassed.
The country was physically and economically
devastated.
It represents a state of mind .
There is a feeling of confusion and moral
isolation.
Germans are questioning their national identity –
they are no longer what they thought they were.
Conveys a loss of faith in their nation.
The German Expressionists reacted against the
conventions and materialism of modern city life.
They sought to find harmony between humans
and the natural environment.
Rather than create literal pictures of their world,
they used harsh, unnatural colors and strong,
simplified forms to capture and express the inner
essence.
PERSONAL IDENTITY / CULTURAL IDENTITY
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Otto Dix
Self Portrait
1912
51.65
Shaping Identity
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This is one of Dix’s earliest paintings, done
when he was only 21.
Inspired by German and Netherlandish
paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries (see
right).
Even though he is still a student in Dresden,
his attention to detail (note the corduroy) is
highly disciplined.
There is an intensification of reality for the
psychological - look at the gaze.
The carnation or “pink” could be a reference
to betrothal or marriage even though Dix did
not marry until 1923.
According to Flemish custom, a pink carnation
was worn by the bride on her wedding day
and the groom was to search and find it.
It is from this tradition that the carnation
derived its meaning as a symbol of love and
faithfulness.
Michael Wohlgemut
A Young Man
1486
41.1
PERSONAL IDENTITY
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Peasant woman from village in Germany, near
where artist lived
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Modersohn-Becker and her husband were
part of an artist community called Worpswede
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Artist believed simplicity revealed the inner
meanings of things and people; attracted to
peasant life
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Artist strives to paint the woman with basic
shapes, few colors to let the essence of the
peasant come through
CULTURAL IDENTITY
Paula Modersohn-Becker
Old Peasant Woman
1905
58.385
Shaping Identity
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Painted at time of great industrialization in
Europe
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Halo-effect around her head, suggesting her
vital spirit.
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Hand gesture is a traditional symbol in
European art, suggesting submission to the
cycle of life. Mary was often depicted with
crossed arms over her chest in paintings of
the Annunciation
Joan Miró
Self Portrait II
1938
66.66
PERSONAL IDENTITY / CULTURAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Spanish
•Joan (zhwan) Miró (mee-roh)
•This is a second self-portrait; first is more realistic and is reproduced on label.
•Miró associated with surrealists, who were intrigued by the relationship between
consciousness, dreams, and the subconscious.
•Surrealists interested in eyes as reflective of the subconscious; as close as one could get to
“seeing” the inner world.
•Dominant features are two red/orange eyes with yellow “eyelashes,” two blue stars, two fish
forms, and two “double” constructions in lower left and right.
•Painted while Miró was in exile in France during Spanish Civil War and Franco’s fascist
regime.
THE RULES FOR PICASSO!
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Spanish & ADP Tours Have Priority Placement
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DO NOT MONOPOLIZE THE GALLERIES OR AN OBJECT – No one should spend more than 10
minutes in this gallery
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Captains have the right and the responsibility to interrupt you to remind you that your time is up
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SHARE THE SPACE – DO NOT SPREAD OUT! Allow other groups to use the space at the same time
as you
You can lower your voice and bring your group in tight
You can invite a group to join you
You can ask a group if you can join them
DO NOT MAKE SUE HAVE TO COME SPEAK WITH YOU – IT MAKES HER GRUMPY!
Pablo Picasso
Melancholy Woman
1902
70.190
PERSONAL / CULTURAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Spanish, VTS
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Portrait of young woman in a Paris prison – Ste. Lazare.
Picasso was poor at the time and couldn’t afford models – the prison allowed him in to sketch.
The paintings were completed in his studio.
He has captured the mood of what it feels like to be imprisoned.
Restricting palette to blue accentuates the feeling of sadness.
This is one of Picasso’s earliest paintings – he was 20 years old.
He is trying to create the mood of melancholy – blue is associated with feeling sad.
Blue is also the color of mystery – insinuating night.
The DIA is one of the few American museums to have a painting from Picasso’s “Blue Period.”
Pablo Picasso
Portrait of Manuel Pallares
1909
62.126
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Spanish
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Example of cubism.
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Note how jacket represents pieces from different viewpoints.
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Mustache: like two pieces at different angles.
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Two very different eyes – different perspectives, different moments.
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Early Cubism – he’s keeping colors muted, neutral to focus on shapes.
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Painted while visiting Pallares in Barcelona.
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Pallares is an old friend of Picasso’s; see inscription in upper left: “To my friend, Pallares,
that he would remember. Regards from your friend Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso
Girl Reading
1938
2005.60
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Spanish
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Painting depicts Dora Maar who lived with Picasso for about 10 years.
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Maar was an accomplished and well-respected photographer as well as an intellectual partner
for Picasso. Spoke fluent Spanish and French.
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Picasso is with Maar in France during Spanish Civil War / fascist victory.
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Shown lost in her reading, but Picasso has placed his name on the book.
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Surreal aspect to fade; facial features distorted, rearranged as if from different angles in a
variation on cubism.
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Hands are prominent; Maar known to have striking hands and nails.
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Dark, linear eyebrows characteristic of Maar.
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Patterning of dress makes it seem alive, moving.
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Effect of thick, shiny hair created by individual curved lines.
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Very simple lines very effective at suggesting 3-D space.
Pablo Picasso
Bottle of Anis del Mono
1915
70.19
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Spanish
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Objects here may refer to sad events in Picasso’s personal life.
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Anis del Mono is a popular liqueur – considered a reference to Picasso (painted it several times)
– directly below bottle, a plaque says “Picasso.”
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Turquoise shape like a flying bird may refer to a dying friend.
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Black-bordered ace of clubs could represent bad luck.
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Oval table top with wood grain panel.
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Decanter
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Scallop shells at left
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Goblet at right
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Picasso inspired by Juan Gris (see still life in this gallery) to use color in cubism.
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Combination of red (oval) and yellow (woodgrain) and deep black suggests the Spanish flag.
Andy Warhol
Self-Portrait
1967
68.292
PERSONAL IDENTITY / CULTURAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas
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The “pop” in Pop Art refers to popular culture.
For Pop Artists like Warhol, commercial art and mass media became fodder for art. These
artists celebrated everyday life.
This installation is comprised of two portraits from a series of multiple versions of the same
image.
Deals with the notion of seriality – doing things repetitiously.
Warhol is referring to the process of creating celebrity in popular culture through the
repeated presentation of images of people / things.
Media provides the imagery for how we imagine them in our minds, the image through
which we “know” them.
What he is presenting here began in the 20th century world of advertising, when imagery
began to be repeated and repeated over and over – branding!
These images have nothing to do with the person’s personality, the person is seen as the
images exist in popular culture.
The pose is the glamour pose – head shots to promote movie stars.
He is identifying himself as part of the quest for celebrity, but…he is turning things around
as a critique.
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Marisol - NEW!
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Double Portrait of
Henry Geldzahler
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1967
1993.71
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Art of the
Americas
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HIGH SCHOOL ONLY
The image depicts Henry Geldzahler (1935-1994) a curator of contemporary art at the
Met
Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Geldzahler’s Jewish family emigrated to the United States in
1940. He graduated from Yale in 1957
He left graduate school at Harvard when he joined the staff at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in NYC in 1960
He became curator of American Art and later became the first Curator for 20th Century
Art.
Unlike most curators at the time, he befriended many of the artists he was interested in
including Florine Stettheimer, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, David Hockney and
more…
He took a leave from the Met to become the first director of the visual-arts program of the
National Endowment for the Arts where he initiated a program of museum grants for the
purchase of art made by living artists.
From 1977 to 1982 he was the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for New York City.
As an openly gay man who was part of the Mayor Edward Koch administration and the
conservative Met, Geldzahler contributed significant time and effort into AIDS related
causes.
He died of liver cancer in 1994 at the age of 59.
The artist Marisol Escobar is a sculptor born in Paris of Venezuelan lineage.
Her father moved her and her brother to Los Angeles after WWII.
After her mother’s untimely death, Marisol began to study in the arts and her deeply held
religious belief may have had an influence on her self-penitent behavior where she would
often emulate saints and martyrs.
Capable of creating work that is both parody and a reverent homage.
She received prestige and honor for her talent and voice – she claims, “I was born an
artist. Afterwards, I had to explain to everyone just what that meant.”
She has received many awards including being elected to the membership of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters
She currently lives and works in TriBeCa, in New York City
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George Segal
The Tunnel
1968
70.658
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The tunnel is built of found materials.
The DIA constructs the work out of beams and
boards according to the artist’s instructions.
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Segal is stressing the serious side of life.
This is a man in the urban world doing an
everyday activity.
He has a sense of loneliness and despair on his
face but there is a sense of dignity to the figure.
By depicting the figure as walking, you get a
sense that this is a person who moves on
despite whatever is going on in life.
It conveys a sense of endurance of the human
spirit.
Unlike other Pop Art pieces, this does not have
that same feeling of lightheartedness.
The artist used himself as the model for the
figure.
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PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas,
VTS, ADP
With this image, Segal sought to express the
enduring dignity found in everyday life.
Cast in white plaster-soaked gauze, his
“everyman” walks beneath a wooden scaffolding,
stooped but determined.
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This is considered a Still-Life / Installation piece.
The space of the sculpture is continuous with the space of the viewer.
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The sculpture is comprised of:
Glass aquariums
Goblets
Paper plates – cut to resemble human backbone, pelvis, or
nautilus shell
Blue Styrofoam – cut to resemble the earth’s strata
Tree branches and a root ball – painted “caution” orange
Pump – creates the bubbles which makes the water evaporate,
water is changing from liquid to vapor and it disappears – signals
change
Lights
Living moss
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Sarah Sze (say) – NEW!
Sexton (From Triple Point of
Water)
2004-2005
2007.122.A
ENVIRONMENTAL / SOCIAL
IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Art of the
Americas
Main concepts: Science, Environment, Ecology,
Natural made out of unnatural
Even natural elements such as moss, water – are made
unnatural
Non-biodegradable
Speaks of our high chemical environments – one slip and it all
changes
Speaks of genetic engineering – one minor slip and it all
changes
If any of this slips into our bodies we develop diseases
If any of this slips into our water or the earth there are
environmental disasters.
Anselm Kiefer
Das Geviert
1997 – NEW!
2003.20
PERSONAL / CULTURAL
IDENTITY
Shaping Identity
HIGH SCHOOL ONLY
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Image depicts a brick-making factory in India.
These structures are built out of stacks of bricks that are for sale.
The lower arcade shows the kiln entrances.
Das Geviert means “four square” or “square” – the word is no longer spoken in German.
Himmel = heavens
Erde = earth
Streblichen = mortals
Gottlichen = gods
The artist is making a relationship between God and Man.
The plumes of smoke at the top is the smoke from the kilns but can also reference the Holocaust.
According to Kiefer, the numbers across the top are mystical and refer to Jewish mysticism of the Kabala
and to numerology.
The surface of the canvas includes sand and pigment that is burnt, burnished and repainted.
It is about civilizations that rise and fall – decline and collapse.
It signifies oppositions that operate in our world: eternity and transience, consumable and renewable,
human and divine.
Doris Salcedo
Atrabiliarios (Defiant)
1993
1999.70
PERSONAL IDENTITY
CULTURAL IDENTITY
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These shoes represent the “disappeared” – the thousands of ordinary citizens abducted
during grisly military coups in South America since the 1960s.
These people were often first kidnapped and sequestered before they were murdered.
Thin sheets of animal tissue obscure our view of the shoes, just as a lack of information
obscures the fate of the missing – the family never knows what happened to their loved ones.
The gut, or skin, may refer to the practice of flaying as a form of malicious torture; it also
refers to the body.
The gut is attached over the niches using surgical sutures.
The subtitle Defiant, refers to the ongoing courage of ordinary citizens who continue to resist
the military and defy the murderous behavior of their governments, despite the threat of
possibly facing the same fate as those who are already lost.
HIGH SCHOOL ONLY
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas, Spanish
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Story is from the Christian Bible / Hebrew text about Lot’s Wife.
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Lot and his family are instructed to flee the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah and to “not look back.”
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His wife succumbs to natural human behavior and glances back
at the conflagration that has consumed the cities.
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As punishment for disobeying God and for having what is basic
human curiosity she pays the ultimate price and is turned into a
pillar of salt.
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For the artist, this is about the invisibility of women in relation to
men - Lot’s wife isn’t even given a name.
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Smith has used her own, un-idealized body as the model which
is another indictment on the depiction of women in our culture –
she questions the female archetype.
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Dealing with the issue of identity is something many
contemporary artists do and is of particular interest to Smith.
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The surface is treated with silica during the smelting process to
produce the visual effect of “salt.”
Kiki Smith
Lot’s Wife
1997
1997.43
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Art of the
Americas
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The painting is 3 intertwined question marks and
is meant to be a “portrait” of her husband.
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Murray is married to Bob Holman, a poet and
performer whose stage name is Panic D.J.
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When he performs, he wears a white suit and
always wears a lapel pin in the shape of a
question mark – his “signature.”
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The square in the middle of the composition
refers to her kitchen table.
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That is where family issues are discussed, life’s
dramas unfold, meals are taken and people
gather.
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Together, the question marks and the table refer
to life’s uncertainties.
Elizabeth Murray
L’Amour (For Panic D.J.)
1986
2000.138.A-E
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, Art of the Americas
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Shahzia Sikander
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Dissonance to Detour
2005
2006.56
PERSONAL IDENTITY /
CULTURAL IDENTITY
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Shaping Identity
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This work is considered a digital painting, based on imagery
taken from Islamic and Hindu book illustrations.
The video is a story of creation and redemption.
Swirling patterns give way to blue forms in deep space.
The background form seen early in the animation, rotating in
deep space is the image derived from a beehive dome, an
architectural feature characteristic of mosques.
Antelopes leaping through mountains refer to the royal hunt.
There are images of a sublime world, with forest landscapes
and religious elders and hermits.
The patterns that appear are similar to Arabic and Sanskrit
script but are not – it is nonsensical writing that visually relates
to them.
Sikander grew up in Pakistan, an Islamic nation bordering the
Hindu and the Muslim world, an area where there many
different languages are spoken.
She found that there were languages spoken and written all
around her that she did not understand – she knew Farsi.
She comes out of the Islamic tradition – Islam did not allow
representations of the figure, so most artists made abstract
work.
In Islamic nations and cultures, book illustration becomes the
favored form of painting.
Sikander went back to the historic form of representation: book
art.
All of the images you see are drawn from book illustrations
which speaks to the cross-fertilizations of culture.
She now lives in New York.
Marina Abramović
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“The Kitchen” is a series of videos and photos made in
Spain, in the abandoned spaces of a kitchen.
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The spaces was constructed during the Franco
regime.
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It was a convent of Carthusian nuns who fed more
than 8,000 orphans when the convent was active.
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Abramović is a performance artist – born in Serbia but
now living in New York.
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The work becomes autobiographical as the artist
herself states, “In my childhood home the kitchen of
my grandmother was the center of my world: all the
stories were told in the kitchen, all the advice
regarding my life were given in the kitchen, all the
future-telling through the cups of black coffee took
place in the kitchen, so it was really the center of the
world, and all my best memories come from there.”
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The milk symbolizes the maternal body that nourishes
children.
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The entire video-clip is nearly 13minutes long.
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It demonstrates the endurance of women.
Kitchen V: Holding the Milk
2009
2010.18
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Shaping Identity, VTS
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Kwesi Owusu-Ankomah
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Movement #27
2002 – NEW!
2007.121
CULTURAL IDENTITY
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Shaping Identity, VTS
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The artist is from Ghana and is known for his use of
traditional African symbols called adinkra, some of
which are on this painting.
Other symbols on this work are corporate logos and
still others are the artist’s inventions.
These symbols communicate messages to the viewer.
Two African men race each other against this
backdrop of blended global influences.
This particular piece represents a combination of
traditional sacred symbols with external ones.
Some scholars believe that it represents a succinct
interpretation of the issue of power and the complex
relationship between Africa and Europe during the
colonial period.
The contact, the creativity, the impulse and the
implications of the relationship between Africa and the
west is ongoing and is occurring at multiple levels.
This relationship is always changing.
There is the suggestion that where Africa goes from
here is anybody’s guess.
The twisting form Nkyinkyim or “twistings” represents initiative, versatility, and
dynamism.
The two crocodiles sharing the same stomach represents unity and one destiny.
The logo for Mitsubishi Motors is but one of the corporate logos the artist
incorporated into his work.