Greg Oct. 21: Risky business: Performance art and danger

“If An Artist Doesn’t Take Risks, Then It’s Not Worth It.”—photographer Robert Frank.  

For Greg's discussion group on Oct. 21, we'll be looking at the work of Los Angeles artist Chris Burden (whose work is the subject of a just-opened major retrospective at New York's New Museum) and New York artist Marina Abramovic to consider risk-taking in art—particularly in performance art. Check out and respond to the following videos and readings: 

= Chris Burden "Shoot" video (above). 

= "Chris Burden: The body artist" by Roger Ebert, April 8, 1975.

= Chris Burden: "My God, are they going to leave me here to die?" by Roger Ebert, May 25, 1975.

= "The Stuff of Building and Destroying: 'Chris Burden: Extreme Measures' at the New Museum" by Roberta Smith, Oct. 3, 2013.

= "Marina Abramovic" by Sean O'Hagan, Oct. 2, 2010.

= Chris Burden "Metropolis II" video (below).

In your essay consider: Does art need to be risky to be worth it? What do we mean by risky? A major area of performance art has centered on actions that place the performer in physical danger. What are the benefits of such dangers? What are the risks? Can we mitigate such risks and still get the same charge in the art? Is it necessarily in art for actions to be actual (as Abramovic says, "the knife is real, the blood is real, the emotions are real") instead of simulated? Must the performer actually be in danger? How important to such performances are the stories, the legends they foster? Why do we so value risk in art? Do such performances respond to their times? How, for example, might Burden's performances reference violence in our society or war? Do Chris Burden's intentions become clearer in his later works, like "All the Submarines of the United States of America" (1987) or "Metropolis II" (2011)?

  

Bus Trip:
= NY bus trip is Oct. 19.

Columbus Day:
= No class next week because of holiday.

Research paper update:
= Discussion classes of week of Oct. 21: Turn in typed, one-page transcript of (part of) the interview.

= Discussion classes of week of Oct. 28: Final research paper due.

Assignments will lose one letter grade for each week they are late. Failure to turn in a paper will result in a zero, which could result in you failing this class.

Caroline's readings for Mon Sept 30th and Weds Oct 3rd

Caroline's readings for Mon Sept 30th and Weds Oct 3rd

1. Rogers, Elizabeth Barlow, The Shaping of Space; The Meaning of Place, Intoduction, Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History, Abrams, 2001
2. Dean, Tacita and Miller, Jeremy, Nature, from Art Works:Place, Thames and Hudson, Documents :15, 2005
3. Dion, Mark, Neukom Vivarium, Interview Art:21: http//www.pbs.org/art21/artists/dion/clip1.html
4. Evans, Andrea Sherrill, Artist's Statement and Statement of Purpose, 2013

Greg Sept. 30: Folk art?

For Greg's discussion group on Sept. 30, we'll be discussing folk and outsider art by reading:
= "Art in the Streets: Why does the art world still disregard community pageantry?" by Greg Cook, Art New England, March/April 2013.
= "Composition in Black and White: A collector's fight to get an untrained artist into the canon" by Paige Williams, New Yorker, Aug. 12 & 19, 2013.

Questions to consider: Are museums correct to consider fine art more important than folk or outsider art? What are the differences between these types of art? How do we decide which art and artists get included in our museums and histories and which do not? How do art market concerns shape these definitions?

Related but not required: "About, With & For," an exhibition of artists addressing "various aspects of folklife," is at the Boston Center for the Arts from Oct. 4 to Dec. 1.

Research paper update:

1. Students must provide a brief written update on which artist they have chosen and when they are scheduled to interview them. The sooner you interview the artist the better.

2. Discussion classes of week of Oct. 21: Turn in one-page transcript of (part of) the interview.

3. Discussion classes of week of Oct. 28: Final research paper due.

Assignments will lose one letter grade for each week they are late. Failure to turn in a paper will result in a zero, which could result in you failing this class.

Caroline's Readings Mon Sept 23rd and Weds Sept 25th

Caroline's Readings Mon Sept 23rd and Weds Sept 25th

Bishop, Claire, Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, October 110, Fall 2004, pp 65 – 80

Caroline's readings for Mon Sept 16th and Weds Sept 18th

Caroline's readings for Mon Sept 16th and Weds Sept 18th

Bishop, Claire, Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, October 110, Fall 2004, pp 51 - 65

Greg: Sept. 23: Is the golden age of abstraction now?

Greg's discussion group on Sept. 23 will be reading about and discussing the question: "Is the golden age of abstraction now?" Based on reading and responding to the following readings:

= “The Golden Age of Abstraction: Right Now” ArtNews

= “Abstract Painting: The New Casualists”

= “Provisional Painting”

Consider what are some of the types of abstraction being pursued now? Why might or might this work make this the golden age of abstraction?

Greg Sept. 16: Is Bruce Myren doing New Topographics?

For Greg’s class on Sept. 16, we’ll be reading, writing and talking about Bruce Myren’s “40th Parallel” project, on view at Gallery Kayafas from Sept. 6 to Oct. 12. Read the essays below, look at photos by Myren and the New Topographics photographers and answer the following questions: Is Myren doing New Topographics style photography? What is New Topographics?

Readings:
= “From Sea To Shining Sea: Bruce Myren's Photo Cross-Section Of U.S.” by Greg Cook, WBUR.org The Artery, 2013.
= Introduction to “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” by William Jenkins, 1975.
= “LACMA traces photography’s New Topographics movement” by Leah Ollman, 2009

Look up photos by Myren and the New Topographics group. Consider the following quotes from the readings:
= Lewis Baltz: “The ideal photographic document would appear to be without author or art.”
= Robert Adams: “Pictures should look like they were easily taken. Otherwise beauty in the world is made to seem elusive and rare, which it is not.”
= John Schott: “This work basically said there’s a new world to be seen, and it deserves to be looked at, whether you see it as despoiling the landscape or simply as a fact.”

Pictured at top: Bruce Myren’s photo at “N 40° 00’ 00” W 104° 00’ 00” Hoyt, Colorado,” 2008.