Art 330/530 Photo; Countess of Castiglione: Artist and Artifice

Pierre Louis-Pierson, Scherzo di Follia, 1863-1866

Arguably the first performance artist and first “goth chick”, the Countess took control of her own image to an obsessive and eventually self-detrimental level.  What if Lady Gaga Gaga-d just a little too much? Her path to fame rose as quickly as it eventually fell.   

Virginia Oldoini: The Countess of Castiglione, commissioned around 400 images of herself over 4 decades by the otherwise bland in style Parisian photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson.  It is documented that her role in these photographs was beyond mere model and subject, and that all images were conceptualized and designed in detail by the Countess herself.  Her goal being to use her own image to gain social status and political gain for Italy.  “Yet the countess’s project extended beyond social strategizing for a male-dominated world and even the recognition that photographs had an important role to play in the society as a whole.” (Rexer p. 69).  She desired to be portrayed not just as sitter for a photograph, but as fully-fledged artist in control of the creation of her own image.

 "Both during her lifetime and after, the Countess has been variously labeled as a narcissist, a victim, a courtesan, and Italian patriot, a social climber, a fashionista, a hysteric, an adventuress, a Madonna, a recluse, a sociopath - and to add insult to injury- an unfaithful wife and a neglectful mother." -Robert Flynn Johnson, Countess de Castiglione: The Allure of Creative Self-Absorption. 

The Countess lost her family, wealth, and influence over society and eventually became the equivalent of a scandalized 19^th century tabloid subject.  She lived her last 20 years alone in poverty, going out only at night dressed in black veils, but her influence stretches beyond this short period of fame.  20th and 21st century artists Francesca Woodman, Cindy Sherman, Nikki  S. Lee, Gillian Wearing, all have created extensive bodies of photographs dedicated to the performance of identity and it's relationship to the photographic gaze.  

Francesca Woodman, Untitled, Providence, 1976 

 

Cindy Sherman, Self-Portrait with Sun Tan, 2003

  Nikki S. Lee, The Ohio Project (8), 1999

Gillian Wearing, Rock n Roll 70, 2015/2016

Art 340/540 New Media; Fordism and Art, the Hysteria of Production

Here, in a country on the brink of massive recession, this topic becomes especially relevant. Fordism is a term widely used to describe the system of standardized mass production that was pioneered in the early 20th century by the Ford Motor Company, and a term used to describe the basis of modern economic and social systems in industrialized mass production and mass consumption.

This video tells how Henry Ford made affordable automobiles possible. Others look at the darker side of his vision.

Jeff Koons' artwork is the the most expensive in the marketplace for a living artist. Although critics are divided on the merits of his work, its presence in commerce is substantial. The video below, a rant by mosaic artist Ayhan Keser, explores the impact of this.

The PowerPoint below further explores Fordism, consumer culture, and Art;

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_aTbCSA4lCpfL0aOyB71I793wrPkJiyo?usp=sharing

YOU WILL NEED TO DOUBLE CLICK hystericalproduction2.pptx AND THEN SELECT THE CloudConvert APP TO OPEN THE FILE OR DOWNLOAD TO YOUR HARD DRIVE.

Email me if you're having technical difficulties with the PowerPoints, getting the videos to play, etc. My newer computer opens these so effortlessly that it's not clear to me what it's doing! 

Art 330/530 Photo; In My Room

Confined to an apartment overlooking NYC's Washington square park, the extraordinary life of Andre Kertesz (1894-1985) would have a final period of solitary reflection. A gift from Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills, & Nash) who would occasionally visit the apartment with his wife Susan, would help him objectify this emotional journey...a Polaroid SX-70 camera, the ultimate creation of instant photography inventor Edwin Land.

On page 18 of The Critical Eye Lyle Rexer states, "Kertesz had an ability to find metaphors for his inner experience." Throughout his long career Kertesz's work would embrace this, and in his last pictures that was all that was left.

August 3, 1979

April 11,1979

December 9, 1979

January 1979

Susan Nash, September 27, 1979

"Without a sense of the life and the work that have come before, the world of these last photographs may appear confined and melancholy. With that background, it appears rich with the possibility of making meaning about the most profound experiences, from the smallest things." Rexer, p.22

Art 330/530 Photo; “the sudden piercing awareness of another person’s presence”

Know that it's odd to skip to the back of the book right off but thought we should just get to the point of it. Think many of us know about “the sudden piercing awareness of another person’s presence” via Instagram. Or maybe that's not quite 'piercing' exactly...as we know the average Instagram view lasts about three seconds. Yet this personal connection via an image is likely 'the thing' that makes Instagram so important.
Have many of you feel that you've had the experience of knowing “the sudden piercing awareness of another person’s presence” via a photograph?
For me it's actually been the piercing awareness of two people, both photographer and subject, and it's been about being in the presence of these platinum prints, and touching the object that the artist made. And it was one of the most powerful things I ever felt.

Georgia O'Keeffe as photographed by Alfred Stieglitz in 1919. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, The Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Purchase and Gift of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation Purchase, [LC-USZC4-6228].

Art 330/530 Photo; Hybrid Analog Process?

We have been working on trying to get something going that would help you get film, have it processed and scanned, and pay for it with our art department supply fund. The first problem is that both Fuji and Kodak's warehouses are closed. Apparently there's been hoarding going on and many retailers are out-of-stock. Two weeks ago I put in an order to Adorama and received an email today that they shipped. We'll see.

We think we found a lab we can work with! If you're interested request a pre-paid mailer from them here;

http://www.theslideprinter.com/information/contact-e6-giclee-processing/#RequestPostagePaidMailer

and let me know of your interest via email and we'll get this going!

The Artist Best Known for Breaking Out on Instagram

Daniel Arsham is an artist who is thought to have made his career happen via Instagram. His Arsham Studio site has 703,000 followers. How does this happen? Maybe because his post-apocalyptic yet nicey-nice work is consistent and easy to recognize. He's not afraid to 'sell-out' to the fashion industry. And this is a medium that wants to support the underdog rather than 'old hat'. And he has a good story to give what he's doing relevance.

New Media 340/540; The 1970s revival of the 1950s

In Simulations p.23-37 Baudrillard references quite a bit of then-recent phenomena, including Disneyland and Watergate. Disneyland may be the most profound example in the book. I've never been there, but have had many friends with children report on it and try to explain how you are overwhelmed with stimulus but the place still feels "empty" "soul-less" "surreal" etc. For a theorist to be able to unwrap how hollow nostalgia culturally exists is a monumental act, as we spiral into this being the new normal.

I've experienced similar phenomena attending 'rockabilly car shows', the nearby one being the Symco Weekender. (we got into this a bit with our intro pptx) Just a few years ago Symco was a mix of the authentic and recreations, but as of last year I was the only person there with an authentic 1950s built hot rod Ford. (the year before there were three) The nostalgia here is clearly now more about the 1970s revival of the 1950s (this link is really good) than the 1950s rockabilly period itself. There are brightly colored 'stop staring' brand fashions made of 70s-ish polyester fabrics and cartoonish, chemically rusted 'rat-rods' that parody the simplicity of a junkyard-built hot rod Ford.

The PowerPoint link below gives a bit of background on Watergate and the odd involvement of June Carter and Johnny Cash in the whole process for a little extra added hyperrealness;

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_4yV_5W77fbVx1ZE9I8-Tvwv7G3EE5hW?usp=sharing

YOU WILL NEED TO DOUBLE CLICK nixon.pptx AND THEN SELECT THE CloudConvert APP TO OPEN THE FILE OR DOWNLOAD TO YOUR HARD DRIVE.

Email me if you're having technical difficulties with the PowerPoints, getting the videos to play, etc. My newer computer opens these so effortlessly that it's not clear to me what it's doing!