For this week’s Art Interpretation, please consider images included in the weekly Art page, located at the bottom of the week’s reading list. You need not limit yourself to the images on the weekly art page, if you took the time to google other images associated with those episodes. You may react to one of the prompts below; or, you may react to a post one of your classmates has already written; or, you may post on a topic of your choice as long as you are “reading” the art for this week. (Prompt 1 is the same every week.)
Remember this post needs to be only between 150-300 words. Posts are due Sunday at 11:59 pm.
In the previous Discussions, the whole class was essentially working from the same set of assigned art. In the last two Blocks, I am going to turn you loose to sift through a multitude of images, in the hopes that the ensuing Discussion will reveal topics you may not have found individually but that your classmates did. Block 3 is a hybrid approach.
Below you will find a few assigned images that everyone should think about. You may choose to comment on those. You may choose to comment on an image included in the reading by Chang, using Chang’s article as a springboard for discussion and exploration. That’s the existing method, where everyone has seen the same material.
The new method is to go deeper in to the Art World website’s commentary on Feminist Art than the specific pages assigned as part of this week’s assigned reading. For instance, the website has artist profile pages for most of the artists mentioned, links to related movements, and the assigned pages contained an array of images themselves. Thus, you can dig up your own sources for this week’s discussion board, and that will be good practice for the last two weeks.
Sample prompts [copy and paste the prompt you choose into the opening of your post]
- Identify two artists or two specific artworks and explain what about them interests or inspires or infuriates or entices you.
- Discuss a theme from one of these pages or artworks that you find interesting.
- Discuss whether the images speak to “divided culture”
- Discuss what they say about “belonging”
- Discuss what they say about identity
- Discuss ways in which they demonstrate political activism or political action.
- Make up your own topic…just make sure it relates to Week 3 content.
In the prior weekly Art Pages, the whole class was essentially working from the same set of assigned art. In the last two Blocks, I am going to turn you loose to sift through a multitude of images, in the hopes that the ensuing Discussion will reveal topics you may not have found individually but that your classmates did. Block 3 is a hybrid approach. Some items listed below link to specific images–and everyone should view these. Other items connect you to sources that themselves contain multiple images. The ones in the assigned reading you should at least glance at as you absorb the content. But if you go deeper into the Art World website’s commentary on Feminist Art than the specific pages assigned as part of this week’s assigned reading. For instance, the website has artist profile pages for most of the artists mentioned, links to related movements, and the assigned pages contained an array of images themselves. Thus, you can dig up your own sources for this week’s discussion board, and that will be good practice for the last two weeks.
Group 1) Feminist Art examples
Leading our portfolio of pieces this week are two vintage examples created by artists influenced by the early days of Second Wave Feminism. Later we have much more contemporary examples–two pieces created by artists dealing with issues created by the age of the internet and the smart phone. These two artists found very different ways to comment on the practice of sending “dick pics.” Their exhibitions problematize an issue within current culture and suggest that either the Sexual Revolution of the Sixties is still settling out–or, perhaps, that we are experiencing a brand new revolution today. (Note: the Sexual Revolution is a topic for Week 4.)
In Image 1, Hannah Wilke seems to link women’s sexual freedom to feminism. She titled the piece “Beware of Fascist Feminism.” Why do you think she gave it that title? What does the way she staged the photo say about female sexuality? In what way (aside from the nudity itself) does the image suggest liberation from traditional values? Please note this is a nude image of a female body, so make sure you are in an appropriate venue when you open it.
Image 1: Hannah Wilkie “Beware of Fascist Feminism”
Image 2 is a painting by Shelly Lowell entitled “Rediscovery” (c. 1973) Lowell was a college student in the 1960s, as the cultural changes wrought by the sexual revolution were unfolding, but she is unsure whether her younger self full grasped the significance of the sexual subtext in her art. She was, she explains, merely responding to the world around her. “For the most part, my work used sex organs or erogenous zones out of context to the body and in juxtaposition to unrelated objects to create a message or statement. To me, the work is not erotic nor meant to arouse. If the viewing public and art critics can get passed this, they can explore what my art is really saying.” When you examine “Rediscovery,” contemplate whether the artist’s subconscious may have been trying to communicate.
Image 2: Shelly Lowell “Rediscovery”
Lastly, the final two links connect not to solitary images but to brief news articles about two exhibits with very different tones–even though both exhibits feature “dick pics.” Not so long ago, sending unsolicited images of one’s naked body would have been unimaginable. The smart phone has changed that equation. Indeed, the smart phone seems to be disrupting traditional patterns of courtship and dating to the point that we may now look back on the first decades of the 21st century as a second sexual revolution. And that is the question, I would like you to consider. Do the new technologies of the smart phone constitute a new sexual revolution, and how should artists respond to that?
The two artists featured in these stories, Soraya Doolbaz and Whitney Bell, each drew inspiration for their show after having received unsolicited pictures of erect penises. Unsurprisingly, they had been chatting with these men online, and the men had concluded the conversation surely represented an invitation to send along a self-portrait of their genitalia. Each artist sees this now-common cultural phenomenon as an example of lingering misogyny and sexual exploitation. The resulting exhibits both raise the question, “why is this ok?” That said, their exhibits answer the question in very different tones.
Bell’s show, “I Didn’t Ask for This,” is the more serious of the two. It has shown at galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The entire exhibit consists of framed dick pics, all sent to the artist or to her friends on an unsolicited basis. She has staged the exhibit as if in a private home–exactly how most women receive such images in their daily lives. Photos accompanying the story show the artist sitting on the couch in the installation; however, the “artwork” has been blurred out. You should be able to link to the article without offending anyone nearby.
For the work by Whitney Bell, “I Didn’t Ask for This,” please follow this link (Links to an external site.). Note: the actual dick pics have been pixelated so nothing inappropriate will show up on your screens.
The final piece to consider links to a news article about a recent exhibit in London and New York by a young Iranian-Canadian photographer who uses the name Soraya Doolbaz. Inspiration for this show is the sudden ubiquity of the “dick pic.” With exchanges of such pictures having become commonplace in the dating world recently, the artist wondered how a woman might photograph this body organ–one rarely seen in art in its erect form. Her solution was to have her subjects dress them up in costumes for comedic effect. The article explains the rationale behind this approach. In this instance, the host website has not blurred out any of the artwork; so, please do not follow the link if photographs of erect penises dressed in tiny outfits for comedic effect will offend your sensibility. (Though you will miss out on Napoleon Bonaparte reimagined as a dick. Or is it a dick reimagined as Napoleon Bonaparte?) Either way, Doolbaz’s work is not required viewing. I think you can still contemplate the larger questions raised by the work even if you don’t view it. Link here if you wish to see. (Links to an external site.)
Group 2) Images in the assigned reading
During Week 3, we acquired new analytic tools to think about deconstructing art. We have considered the connection between art and activism (Lec 10), we have contemplated how racial bias can influence the perception of both art and artists (Chang), we have become aware of the concerns of Second Wave Feminism (Lec 11), and we have pondered the nature of looking at art courtesy of the two BBC videos. Given these new tools, it may be worthwhile to look through the art in these assigned readings a second time. (Note; images that appear in assigned reading may appear on quizzes or be used in exam questions.)
Re consider the images discussed in the Week 2 essay by Meyer about Robert Mapplethorpe’s work
Re consider the images discussed in the Week 3 essay by Gordon Chang, “Emerging from the Shadows: The Visual Arts and Asian American History”
Re-consider the images discussed in the Week 3 commentary on “Feminist Art” at The Art World website.
Note: If you find the images in the .pdf to be unsatisfactory, try to Google the name of the artist and the title of the piece. For example, to find “Man in a Polyester Suit,” you might google search “Mapplethorpe Man Polyester Suit.” You’re tech-savvy Millennials–I’m sure you’ll manage.
Group 3) Find your own images of feminist art
The assigned reading from The Art World website includes the Main Page for Feminist Art as well as the History and Concepts page. You should now also look at the Important Pieces (Links to an external site.) page as well. Glance at the art, read the descriptions, and figure out which pieces have the most meaning to you.
Also note you can get even deeper than the assigned material if you click through Related Movements or look at the profile pages devoted to specific artists. That’s kind of how Weeks 4 & 5 will work anyway
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