High & Low in American Contemporary Art

ASP spring 2010 Dr. Lori Kent

Unknown Artist (1999) Doge Dog (after Bellini)

LOW vs. HIGH

Giovanni Bellini (1501) Doge Leonardo Loredan

Clement Greenberg

1939. “Avante Garde and Kitsch”

Serious critics and artists must uphold the barrier between high and low culture. Kitsch was defined as “popular, commercial art and literature with their chromeotypes, magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, tin Pan Ally music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies, etc, etc.”

The problem with these things was a lack of authenticity.

“Kitsch is mechanical and operates by formulas. Kitsch is vicarious experience and faked sensations. Kitsch changes according to style but remains always the same. Kitsch is the epitome of all that is spurious in the life of out times. Kitsch pretends to demand nothing of its customers except their money…”

VideogamemakerTake‐TwoInterac3veSo6wareannouncedbe9er‐than‐expectedearningsonThursdaythankstorecording‐se?ngsalesofGrandThe6AutoIV.ForthesecondquarterendedApril30,netprofitwas$98.2million,or$1.29centspershare,comparedwithanetlossof$51.3million,or71centspershare,inthesecondquarteroffiscal2007.Saleswereupmorethan160percentto$539.8millionfortheperiod,blowingawayanalystes3matesof$499.1million.

DeKooning’s Women were inspired by images of Marilyn Monroe

Jackson Pollock had a fashionable public image.

The battle was lost…

h9p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGaBKpCfLdo h9p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1PRPbLqn_g&feature=related

Where are the boundaries? Why does it matter?

Screeamingqueens.com

http://www.petermax.com/

Peter Max

www.petermax.com/

h9p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=punS9XAjMJ8

h9p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocii2sT8KTw&feature=relatedMusic:TheChemicalBrothers,SalmonDance

http://www.haring.com

http://www.pop-shop.com/

Keith Haring 1958 - 1990

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/timburton/

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/3995

InterviewwithTimBurtonontheCharlieRoseShow

Piortr Uklanski (1998) The Nazis

Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons at Palazzo Grassi, Grand Canal, Venice

Koons plucks images and objects from popular culture, framing questions about taste and pleasure. His contextual sleight-of-hand, which transforms banal items into sumptuous icons, takes on a psychological dimension through dramatic shifts in scale, spectacularly engineered surfaces, and subliminal allegories of animals, humans, and anthropomorphized objects. The subject of art history is a constant undercurrent, whether Koons elevates kitsch to the level of Classical art, produces photos in the manner of Baroque paintings, or develops public works that borrow techniques and elements of seventeenth-century French garden design. Organizing his own studio production in a manner that rivals a Renaissance workshop, Koons makes computer-assisted, handcrafted works that communicate through their meticulous attention to detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_uzWfl2WW0&feature=related

Jeff Koons. (1998) Pink Panther

No artist among cool "postmodernists" of recent decades has flirted more openly with commercialism than Jeff Koons, nor has anyone struck so steadfastly earnest a pose in the endeavor. Unapologetically, indeed some say brazenly appropriating advertising strategies, off-the-shelf merchandise, and kitsch icons from the inventories of mass-marketers and carriage-trade purveyors, Koons pursues his ambitions with missionary zeal. Self-appointed prophet of a heaven-on-earth of unashamed materialism and sexual bliss, Koons has gone Pop art one or two better, making an art of "the pitch" and "the deal," as well as objects out of the flotsam and jetsam of consumer culture.

h9p://jeeoons.com/

Jeff Koons (1990) Jeff in the Position of Adam

break

Andre the Giant

h9p://obeygiant.com/

APBOSTON—Astreetar3stfamousforhisred,whiteandblue"Hope"postersofPresidentObamahasbeenarrestedonwarrantsaccusinghimoftaggingpropertywithgraffi3,policesaidSaturday.ShepardFaireywasarrestedFridaynightonhiswaytotheIns3tuteofContemporaryArtforakickoffeventforhisfirstsoloexhibi3on,called"SupplyandDemand.”TwowarrantswereissuedforFaireyonJan.24a6erpolicedeterminedhe'dtaggedpropertyintwoloca3onswithgraffi3basedontheAndretheGiantstreetartcampaignfromhisearlycareer,OfficerJamesKenneallysaid.Oneoftheloca3onswastherailroadtrestlebythelandmarkBostonUniversitybridgeovertheCharlesRiver,policesaid.

h9p://www.icaboston.org/exhibi3ons/exhibit/fairey/

Shepard Fairey at ICA Boston

h9p://www.lehmannmaupin.com/

Red Grooms

TheBookstore(1978)

Red Grooms

MainConcourse,GrandCentralTerminal(1994)

Red Grooms

GrandCentralTerminal(1994)

Red Grooms

UndergroundPlarorms(1994)

Red Grooms

Train(2007)

Daumier(1863‐65)TheThirdClassCarriage

h9p://www.saatchi‐gallery.co.uk/ar3sts/rachel_harrison.htm

Rachel Harrison

GlamourWig(2005)

Rachel Harrison (2004) Huffy Howler

Rachel Harrison (2006) Shelley Winter

Rachel Harrison (2006) Nice Rack

Rachel Harrison (2004) Buddha with Wall

Rachel Harrison (2007) If I did It

Rachel Harrison (2005) Nose

Paul McCarthy

h9p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozubKHdprMI

KerryJamesMarshall()Be4erHomesandGardens

Oldenberg/van Bruggen (2007) Big Sweep

Cecily Colbert (1996) Untitled

Lesley Vance (no date) Untitled

h9p://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs‐and‐stories/2010‐02‐24/best‐of‐the‐whitney‐biennial/#gallery=1365;page=1

Best of the Whitney Biennial

h9p://www.cpbgroup.com/#cpb

High or really low?

h9p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxSDZc8etg

High or Low?