 New technologies  New materials  Video projections  Sound and light installations

CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE: 1. Marble carving is dead 2. Modern forms of sculpture are faster to produce + easier to reproduce 3. Variety of textures -> high polish porcelains of Jeff Koons to the knotty fabrics of Magdalena Abakanowicz 4. ASSEMBLAGE = three-dimensional work made of various materials such as wood, cloth, paper, and miscellaneous objects 5. INSTALLATION = temporary work of art made up of assemblages created for a particular space

 Magdalena Abakanowicz, Androgyn III, 1985, burlap, resin, wood, nails, and string  Polish artist  Since 1974 artist makes figures without head or arms in large groups or singly  Figure sits on a lower stretcher of wooden legs, substituting for human legs  Figure hollowed out, just a shell, hardened fiber casts made from plaster molds  Figure placed to be seen in the round -> complete back, front hollow  Hardened fiber -> appears to be wrinkled skin in earth tones

 Xu Bing, A Book from the Sky, , mixed-media installation  Chinese-born artist; U.S. resident  Original title “An Analyzed Reflection of the End of This Century”  400 handmade books placed in rows on the ground  One walks between fifty printed scrolls which hang from the ceiling  Uses traditional Asian wood block techniques  Many of the Chinese characters are inventions of the artist and have no meaning  Artist lost favor with the Chinese govt -> this work criticized as “bourgeois liberation” -> claimed that its meaninglessness hid secret subversions

JEFF KOONS -> THE NEW ANDY WARHOL?

 Jeff Koons, Pink Panther, 1988, glazed porcelain  Pennsylvania born artist, working in NYC  Commentary on -> celebrity romance, sexuality, commercialism, pop culture, sentimentality  Artificially idealized female form -> overly yellow hair, bright red lips, large breast, pronounced red fingernails -> overtly fake look  Life-size  Kitsch  Creates a permanent reality out of something that is ephemeral and never meant to be exhibited  Woman -> Jane Mansfield; Pink Panther -> cartoon character

 Cindy Sherman, Untitled (#228), from the History of Portraits series, 1990, photograph  New Jersey born, American artist  Artist appears as the photographer, subject, costumer, hairdresser, and makeup artist in each work  Commentary on -> gender, identity, society, class distinction  This series sheds a modern light on the great masters  This image explores the theme of Salome decapitating John the Baptist  Richly decorative drapes as background  Salome lacks any emotional attachment to the murder  St. John the Baptist appears mask like, alert, nearly bloodless

RACE AND GENDER ISSUES

 Faith Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre, from the series The French Connection, Part I; #1, acrylic of canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border  New York born, African-American artist  Uses the American slave art form of th quilt to create her works  Quilts = applied art -> beautiful and useful  Quilting seen as a traditionally female art form  Oil painting combined with the quilting technique  Narrative element -> tells the story of Willa Marie Simone, a young black woman who moves to Paris in the early 20 th century on her way to becoming an artist and business woman  Feminist issues dominate -> rewrtites the past - > addresses the issues European and male dominance prevalent in the history of art

POLITICAL ART NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUES RACISM

 Jaune Quick-to-See smith, Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People), 1992, oil and mixed-media on canvas  Created as a response to the 500 year anniversary of Columbus/European invasion  Illustrates historical and contemporary inequalities between Native Americans and the United States government  Layered images, paint, and objects  Collaged background – print images of stereotypes of Indians  Red color -> ethnicity and history of violence against her people  Outline of a canoe  Above the canvas a clothesline clipped with native themed toys, souvenirs, sports gear -> toy tomahawk, toy headdress, red man tobacco, Washington Redskins hat and license plate, Cleveland Indians gear, Atlanta Braves gear, plastic bow and arrow, indian doll  Land stolen and in exchange they get cheap racist goods to commemorate their culture