Resources for Chapter 4 —
The Nude in Context
Algonquin Round Table, the
For about eight years beginning in 1919, a group of about 24 journalists, editors,
actors and press agents met on a regular basis at the Algonquin Hotel, located
at 59 West 44th Street. The core of the group included Dorothy Parker, Alexander
Woollcott, Robert Benchley, and Edna Ferber. The Round Table is the centerpiece
of the 1994 movie "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle."
algonquinroundtable.org
imdb.com/title/tt0110588/
Andre Breton (1896-1966)
French poet, essayist, editor, critic, and one of the founders of Surrealist
movement with Paul Eluard, Luis Buñuel, and Salvador Dali and others.
He was also its chief promoter. The Surrealists believed that the springs
of personal freedom and social liberation lay in the unconscious mind.
Breton's study of the works of Sigmund Freud and his experiments with
automatic writing influenced his formulation of Surrealist theory. His
three manifestoes of Surrealism in 1924, 1930, and 1942 are the most
important theoretical statements of the movement.
andrebreton.org
Andre Breton: Dossier Dada, Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2006
André Breton: Surrealism and Painting, MFA Publications, 2002
Nadja by Andre Breton and Richard Howard, Grove Press, 1994
Manifestoes of Surrealism, University of Michigan Press, 1969
Elinor Carucci
Her photography is very personal, and she seems to use the camera almost
as a means of processing her experiences. Intimate color photographs
chronicle her life with her husband, mother and father, brother, grandparents
and cousins. Carucci admits to being obsessed with her mother and with
the passage of time. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002
and won the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award for
best young photographer in 2001. Carucci was chosen by Photo District
News as one of its “Thirty under 30 Young Photographers to Watch” in
2000. She currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
elinorcarucci.com
houkgallery.com/carucci/carucci1-2006.html
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/in-focus-elinor-carucci/
Gustav Courbet (1819-1877)
Founder of the French Realist movement and credited with coining the phrase.
For Courbet, realism entailed spontaneous and rough handling of paint,
while portraying the irregularities in nature, and requiring direct observation
by the artist. His controversial "L'Origine du Monde" (The
Origin of the World) is on display in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
metmuseum.org/special/gustave_courbet/images.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet
www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/ —
Click search, and enter "Origin
of the World" [curator's
commentary]
Renee Cox
One of the most controversial African-American artists working today, Renee
Cox has used her own body, both nude and clothed, to celebrate black
womanhood and criticize our racist and sexist society.
ReneeCox.org
brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/ —
Click search, and enter "Renee
Cox"
Dada
Arts movement that flourished chiefly in France, Switzerland, and Germany
from about 1916 to 1922. It was based on the principles of deliberate
irrationality, anarchy, and cynicism and the rejection of laws of beauty
and social organization. Soon after arriving from France in 1915, Marcel
Duchamp and Francis Picabia met American artist Man Ray. By 1916, the
three became the core of radical anti-art activities in the United States.
The movement was centered in New York at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, "291," and
at the home of Walter and Louise Arensberg. Dada activities included
public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals;
passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics often discussed
in a variety of media. Dadaist techniques include collage, photomontage,
assemblage, and readymades. The movement laid the groundwork for later
styles including performance art, Surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme, pop art,
Fluxus and punk rock.
moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2006/dada/index_f.html
www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and designer. After passing
through phases of Cubism, Futurism and Metaphysical painting, he joined
the Surrealists in 1929 and became the most famous representative of
the movement. He described his pictures as `hand-painted dream photographs'
and had certain favorite and recurring images, such as the human figure
with half-open drawers protruding from it, burning giraffes, and watches
bent and flowing as if made from melting wax. He also made the first
Surrealist films in collaboration with Luis Buñuel — Un chien andalou
in 1929, and L'Age d'Or in 1930. Later, he contributed a dream sequence
to Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound in 1945. Dalí adopted a more traditional
style in 1937, and began the transition to his "classic period".
This shift and his open support of General Franco led the Surrealists
to expel him. Dalí's late paintings combined elements of science, religion
and history.
salvadordalimuseum.org
virtualdali.com
Salvador Dali 2v, Taschen, 2007
Diary of a Genius by Salvador Dali and J. G. Ballard, Solar Books, 2007
Tim Davis
A photographer, poet, and educator, major themes in his work include light,
abstraction and socially engaged documentary. He is the author and subject
of several books, including "Lots," "Permanent Collection" and "My
Life in Politics", plus a book of poetry titled "American Whatever." Davis
teaches in the Photography Program at Bard College. He graduated from
Bard College and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University.
davistim.com
Tim Davis: My Life in Politics, Aperture, 2006
Permanent Collection, Nazraeli Press, 2005
Fashioning
Fiction In Photography Since 1990 by Susan Kismaric and Eva Respini, The Museum of Modern
Art, New York, 2004
Companion book to the MoMA exhibit, featuring Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Cedric
Buchet, Glen Luchford, Tina Barney, Jüergen Teller, Nan Goldin, Larry Sultan,
and others. The exhibit explored the crossover between fashion and art
photography and how two modes, the cinematic image and the snapshot aesthetic
became part of the vocabulary of fashion photography.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
The father of psychoanalysis, Freud is best known for his theories of the
unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression. He is also
renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational
energy of human life, and his therapeutic techniques, including the use
of free association, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship,
and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious
desires.
www.freudfile.org
The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud (Psychopathology of Everyday Life,
the Interpretation of Dreams, and Three Contributions To the Theory of
Sex), Modern Library, 1995
The Freud Reader by Sigmund Freud, W.W. Norton & Co., 1995
Nan Goldin
The best way to experience Nan Goldin's work is through her slide shows,
which are meticulously assembled with sound tracks. Her photography is
a record of her personal experiences and the people she is closest to.
She says "My work originally came from the snapshot aesthetic .
. . Snapshots are taken out of love and to remember people, places, and
shared times. They're about creating a history by recording a history."
matthewmarks.com; Click on Artists.
youtube.com; Search for Nan Goldin. Video clip of Nan talking about
her work.
The Devil's Playground by Nick Cave, Richard Price, Sharon Olds, and Catherine Lampert, Phaidon Press Inc., 2008
Nan Goldin (Monographs) by Guido Costa, Phaidon Press Inc., 2006
Sen. Jesse Helms and the NEA Controversy
Jesse Helms (R-NC) was a central figure in the American culture wars of
the late 1980s and early 1990s. His efforts had a chilling effect, resulting
content restrictions on federally funded art and starting a cycle of
budget cuts that would profoundly affect the National Endowment for the
Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH). One of the
Senator's main tactics was to exploit fears and fantasies about male
homosexuality. A July 28, 1989 editorial in the New York Times began " No
doubt Senator Jesse Helms's effort to legislate art, prohibit ''indecent''
depictions and protect religion will not survive final Congressional
action. But the real purpose of the Senate's most persistent yahoo will
have been served; the damage to Federal patronage of the arts will have
been done." Jesse Helms went on the offensive in May 1989 after
the conservative Christian American Family Association alerted him to
Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" in an NEA-funded exhibition
at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina. Robert Mapplethorpe had died of AIDS in March, 1989, and a
retrospective of his work "Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment" had
been scheduled to run at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington shortly
after the Serrano debacle flared. By June 8, Representative Dick Armey
(R-Tex.) sent the NEA acting chair a letter signed by over 100 congressmen
denouncing grants for Mapplethorpe as well as Serrano, and threatening
to seek cuts in the agency's $170 million budget…. Armey wanted the NEA
to end its sponsorship of "morally reprehensible trash," and
he wanted new grant guidelines that would "clearly pay respect to
public standards of taste and decency." Attacks on funding have
continued on a cyclical basis since, and Federally funded arts organizations
have learned to operate with less money and to self-censor.
nytimes.com/1989/07/28/opinion/in-the-nation-art-and-indecency.html
upenn.edu/pnc/ptkoch.html
spectacle.org/396/moore.html
Man Ray (1890-1976)
The photographer and painter who spent most of his career in France was
born Emmanuel Radnitsky in Philadelphia, and grew up in New Jersey. He
is probably the best-known of the Surrealist photographers, and is famous
for the techniques of Rayographs (photograms) and solarization. Two important
women in his life were Kiki de Montparnasse, the muse in some of his
most famous photos, and Lee Miller, a photographer in her own right who
actually developed the solarization technique.
In Focus: Man Ray: Photographs From the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Publications,
1999
Man Ray: Photography and Its Double by Alain Sayag, Gingko Pres, 1998
Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934, Dover Publications, 1980
Lee Miller (1907-1977)
Her involvement with photography was as a model to photographers Edward
Steichen, Hoyningen-Huene, Arnold Genthe, and others.In 1929 she went
to Paris and worked with Man Ray. During that time, she developed the
technique of solarization and produced a body of Surrealist works. In
1932, she returned to New York and set up her own highly successful studio
which ran for 2 years until she married a wealthy Egyptian businessman
and went to live with him in Cairo, Egypt. She became fascinated by long
range desert travel and photographed desert villages and ruins. During
a visit to Paris in 1937 she met Roland Penrose, the Surrealist artist
who was to become her second husband. In 1939 she moved in with Penrose,
and defying orders to return to America from the US Embassy, she took
a job as a freelance photographer for Vogue. In 1944 she became a correspondent
accredited to the US Army, and teamed up with Time Life photographer
David E. Scherman. She was probably the only woman combat photojournalist
to cover the war in Europe. She worked for Vogue for two more years after
the war, and married Roland Penrose in 1947. She contributed to the Penrose
biographies of Picasso, Miro, Man Ray and Tapies.
www.leemiller.co.uk
The Art of Lee Miller by Mark Haworth-Booth, Yale University Press, 2007
Lee Miller's War by Antony Penrose and David E. Scherman, Thames & Hudson,
2005
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
(MoMA)
An essential venue in the history of art photography
and an important force in establishing both the legitimacy of photography
as an art medium and the canon of fine art photographers. A number of significant
shows at the MoMA, including "The Family of Man" and "New Documents" introduced
groundbreaking work and ideas. The first curator of the museum's photography
department was Edward Steichen, who headed the department from 1947 to
1962. His hand-picked successor was John Szarkowski, who was the Director
of Photography from 1962 to 1991 and introduced a number of notable photographers
to the world stage He also produced sophisticated and influential critiques
of photography and a classic book on its history.
Nude, 1936 by Edward Weston
geh.org/taschen/htmlsrc8/m197400670005_ful.html
Surrealism
Artistic movement that grew principally out of Dadaism, but the emphasis
of Surrealism was on positive expression. The movement represented a
reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the "rationalism" that
had guided European culture and politics in the past and culminated in
the horrors of World War I. The Surrealists developed methods to liberate
imagination based on Freud's work with free association, dream analysis
and the hidden unconscious. André Breton wrote in a 1924 manifesto that
Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms
of experience so completely, that the world of dream and fantasy would
be joined to the everyday rational world in "an absolute reality,
a surreality."
metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism
Surrealism (Themes & Movements) by Mary Ann Caws, Phaidon Press, 2004
Surrealism: Desire Unbound by Vincent Gille, Princeton University Press,
2005
Jeff Wall
Trained as an art historian, Jeff Wall creates large scale backlit photographic
transparencies set in cases generally associated with advertising display;
but instead of advertisements, Wall fills them with moments of everyday
life that usually go unacknowledged. He is interested in constructing
photographs that can be experienced on a human scale the way paintings
are. "Great photographers have done it on the fly. It doesn’t happen
that often. I just wasn’t interested in doing that. I didn’t want to
spend my time running around trying to find an event that could be made
into a picture that would be good."
artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/jeff_wall/works.html
nytimes.com/2007/02/25/magazine/25Wall.t.html
columbia.edu/cu/museo/3/jeffwall.htm
Jeff Wall by Tobias Ostrander, Editorial RM, 2008
Jeff Wall: Selected Essays and Interviews by Jeff Wall and Peter Galassi,
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2007
Joel-Peter Witkin
He has pursued his interest in spirituality and how it impacts our physical
world. Witkin finds beauty within the grotesque and explores this
complex issue through people most often cast aside by society — human
spectacles including hermaphrodites, dwarfs, amputees, androgynes, carcases,
people with odd physical capabilities, fetishists and "any living
myth ... anyone bearing the wounds of Christ." His photographs consistently
make references to the works of Picasso, Balthus, Goya, Velásquez, Miro,
and others; a way of celebrating our history while redefining its present
day context. Through his sometimes unsettling images, he seeks to dismantle
preconceived notions about sexuality and physical beauty.
edelmangallery.com/witkin.htm
correnticalde.com/joelpeterwitkin/
Joel-Peter Witkin, Photology, 2007