Post-Minimalism II: 20th Century Realism and The Return of the Figure

Post-Minimalism II

20th Century Realism and The Return of the Figure

Post-Minimalism

• The term Post-Minimalism was first introduced in 1971 by art historian, critic, and gallery director Robert Pincus-Witten.

• The designation Post-Minimalism is granted to those artists whose works seek to go beyond the aesthetic of Minimalism in some way.

• Post-Minimalist artists use Minimalism as an aesthetic or conceptual ground.

• It is not any one specific style or movement and more a tendency or way of thinking/approach to art making.

Post-Minimalism

The Return of the Figure

American Art and the Return of the Figure

• American art has always been invested in the figure.

• It was not until Abstract Expressionism came to define American art that the figure was compromised.

• Under the influence of Greenberg, the importance of the figure was jeopardized as more and more artists painted the figure out of the canvas.

Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875. Oil on canvas 8’x6’6”.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA.

American Art and the Return of the Figure

• Those artists who were interested in the figural style of painting found inspiration in the work of Regionalist painters like Edward Hopper whose American scene paintings had a quality of stillness desired.

Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930. Oil on canvas, 35” x 60”. Whitney Museum

of American Art, NY.

American Art and the Return of the Figure

• Succeeding the first generation of Abstract Expressionist painters there grew a new school painters interested in figurative work and the painterly style.

• Leading artists of this painterly style include Grace Hartigan, Alex Katz, Philip Pearlstein, and Fairfield Porter.

• Figurative painters were successful in unseating the abstraction of Minimalism however, the stillness in work like Photorealism does exhibit a continue dependence on the aesthetic.

• These artists became associated with a New Realism-the subjects of which everyday motifs.– Out of this New Realism, a revival of the still-life was born.

20th century Realism

• Even at the height of Greenberg’s influence and abstraction’s hold on modern artists, it was Wyeth’s painting, Christina’s World, that attracted the most amount of visitors to MoMA’s door.

• Wyeth enjoyed the status of the most widely recognized American artist throughout the popularity of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948.

Tempera on gessoed panel, 32 ¼” x 47 ¾”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

20th century Realism

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)•Wyeth’s paintings are realist in style.

– The artist however described his figures as abstract.

•His paintings are dominated by the world around him- landscape and people he encounters.•His process usually involved the artist making multiple studies in pencil or watercolor that he then translated to a final watercolor, drybrush, or tempera. Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948.

Tempera on gessoed panel, 32 ¼” x 47 ¾”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

20th century RealismAndrew Wyeth (1917-2009)•The woman featured in Wyeth’s best known painting, Christina’s World is Christina Olson.•Christina was his neighbor in Maine who suffered from an illness that prohibited her from being able to walk.•Christina spent much of her time near Wyeth’s Maine home and was often seen pulling herself to get around.•Although figurative, the vast sweeping landscape is akin to Rothko’s Color-field blocks of color.

Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948. Tempera on gessoed panel, 32 ¼” x 47 ¾”.

Museum of Modern Art, NY.

American Art and the Return of the Figure

Alice Neel (1900-1984)•Alongside Wyeth, Neel is another modern American painter that refused to abandon the figure.•Her subjects were people she knew-friends and family, as well as iconic figures of the modern art world.•She is known for her expressionist use of color and line as well as the psychological dimension of her portraits and their intensity. Alice Neel, Andy Warhol, 1970.

Oil on canvas, 60” x 40”. Whitney Museum of American Art.

American Art and the Return of the Figure

Alice Neel (1900-1984)•Neel remains one of the most revered American portrait artists.•Neel’s reputation revolved around her ability to paint the sitter’s soul-her portraits are psychological renderings of the people that sit before her.•She is known for never asking her sitter’s to pose; rather she allowed them to be natural and comfortable.

Alice Neel, Linda Nochlin and Daisy, 1973. Oil on canvas, 55 ⅞” x 44”.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

American Art and the Return of the Figure

• Her portraits mimic traditional poses.

Alice Neel, John Perreault, 1972. Oil on canvas, 38” x 63 ½”. Whitney Museum o

American Art.

Édouard Manet,Olympia,1863-65. Oil on canvas, 4’3” x 6’2 ¾”. Musée

d'Orsay, Paris.

American Art and the Return of the Figure

• And include new and controversial subject matter.

Alice Neel, Pregnant Woman, 1971. Oil on Canvas, 40” x 60”. Private Collection.

Alice Neel, Self-Portrait, 1980. Oil on canvas, 54” x 40”. National Portrait

Gallery, Washington, D.C.

American Art and the Return of the Figure

Fairfield Porter (1907-1975)

“I was never one to paint space. I paint air.”

-Fairfield Porter

Fairfield Porter, Under the Elms, 1971-1972. Oil on canvas, 62 15/16” x

46 ¼”. Academy od the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

American Art and the Return of the Figure

Fairfield Porter (1907-1975)•Like many of the Abstract Expressionists, Porter studied at the Art Students’ League in New York City, where he moved in 1928.•At this time he was painting socially conscious art.•Other than his experience with the Art Students’ League, he had very little training and his main connection to the Abstract Expressionist artists was the criticism her wrote in support of it.

Fairfield Porter, Under the Elms, 1971-1972. Oil on canvas, 62 15/16” x

46 ¼”. Academy od the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

• Porter was heavily influenced by the work of French artists, Bonnard and Vuillard.

Pierre Bonnard, Dining Room in the Garden, 1934-1935. Oil on canvas, 50 ⅛” x 53 ½”.

Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Édouard Vuillard, Woman in Blue with Child, 1899. Oil on canvas, 19 ⅛” x 22 ¼”. Glasgow Art

Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove.

American Art and the Return of the Figure• The true subjects of Porter’s canvases are the light and

landscape.

Fairfield Porter, Farmhouse Great Spruce Head Island, 1954. Oil on canvas, 25 3/8” x 36 ¾”. The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY.

Post-Minimalism

The New Realism

Contemporary RealismAntonio López Garcia (b. 1936)•The rebirth of still life was realized in the work of many artists including Garcia.•Garcia paid close attention to detail in the rendering of his subjects, which usually consisted of the common everyday scene and objects.•His Washbasin and Mirror usually draws comparison to the work of Photorealist artists but resembles the uniformity of the Minimalist grid captured in the tile work above the sink. Antonio López Garcia, Washbasin

and Mirror, 1967. Oil on wood, 38 ⅝” x 32 ⅞”. Private Collection.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)

Richard Estes (b.1936)•The art of artist Richard Estes represents the Photorealist movement.•Photorealism is style based on using the camera and photographs to paint images that look photographic.•Some artists, like Estes work from several photographs to realize their canvases.•The Photorealist style is characterized by meticulousness and clearness.

Richard Estes, Bus Reflections (Ansonia), 1972. Oil on canvas, 40” x

52”. Private Collection.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)

Chuck Close (b. 1940)•The marriage of the photographic image with conceptual consideration lies at the root of artist Chuck Close’s painting style.•Evolving out of late Abstract Expressionism, Close sought to reconcile the figure with his abstract roots.•The result of this marriage is his signature process of pixilation.

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 1991. Oil on canvas, 8’4” x 7’.Collection Pained-Webber

Group, Inc. NYC.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)

Chuck Close (b. 1940)•Close’s process is akin to Seurat’s pointillism.•Close references the photographic image in his work.•The detail on the right demonstrates the process involved in Close’s paintings.

– Up close these details are very abstract in design.

•Like Minimalism, Close works with the uniformity of the grid.

Chuck Close, Portrait of Lucas Samaras, with detail of pixels, 1986-1987. Oil and graphite on canvas, 100” x 84”. Metropolitan Museum of

Art, NYC.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)

Chuck Close (b. 1940)•The result of Close’s process is much like the pointillist effect.•Up close can see the square grid used to create the image and from afar these details come into focus to create a clear image. •To counter the impersonality of his process, Close only paints himself people he knows-friends and family, up close.

Chuck Close, Linda, 1975-1976. Acrylic on linen, 9’ x 7’. Akron Art Museum,

Ohio.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)

Chuck Close (b. 1940)•Close eventually began what are known as his fingerprint paintings.•These paintings have the artist’s own fingerprint fill in each square space of the grid that exists behind the portrait of his subjects.

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 1991. Oil on canvas, 8’4” x 7’.Collection Pained-Webber

Group, Inc. NYC.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)Marcus Harvey (b. 1963)•Another artist infamous for using Close’s technique is the contemporary Photorealist, Marcus Harvey.•Harvey caught the attention of London when he created an image of convicted child torturer and murderer, Myra Hindley.•Using Close’s fingerprint process, Harvey created a portrait of Myra using the finger and handprints of small children.•His painting was included in the incendiary Sensation exhibition of the 1990s.

Marcus Harvey, Myra, 1995. Acrylic on canvas, 12’8” x 10’6”.

Saatchi Gallery, London.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)

Audrey Flack (b. 1931)•Flack is believed to have painted the first Photorealist work. •Like Close, Flack made use of the airbrush of her photorealistic works.•Amongst her best known works are her modern still lifes or vanitas.

Audrey Flack, Marilyn (Vanitas), 1977. Oil over acrylic on canvas, 96” x 96”. University of Arizona Museum of Art,

Tucson, AZ.

• Her vanitas breathe new, modern life into the still lifes of Baroque artists.

Audrey Flack, Marilyn (Vanitas), 1977. Oil over acrylic on canvas, 96” x 96”. University of

Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ.

Adriaen van Utrecht, Still Life, 1644. Oil on canvas, 73” x 95 ½”. National Gallery of

Art, Washington, D.C.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)

Audrey Flack, Wheel of Fortune, 1977-1978. Oil over acrylic on canvas, 96” x

96”. Collection Louis Susan, and Ari Meisel

Audrey Flack (b. 1931)•To create her substantial canvases, Flack carefully arranges the objects to be depicted, takes a photograph of them, makes a slide, and then projects these images onto the surface onto which she paints using an airbrush.

– She was one of the earliest female painters (Judy Chicago was another) to master the airbrush and use it in their work.

Photorealism (late 1960s-early 1970s)Malcolm Morley (b. 1931)•Morley was only partially dedicated to the look of Photorealism.•His images reference photographic models but the artist rejected the glossiness usually associated with typical Photorealist paintings.•His primary sources were usually magazine ads or travel pamphlets.•To enhance the abstract nature of his process he usually dividing the inspiration image into pieces then transferred them to canvas, often inserting sections upside down.

Malcolm Morley, Ship’s Dinner Party, 1966. Magna color on canvas, 6’11

¾” x 5’ 3 ¾”. Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Utrecht, the

Netherlands.

20th Century Realism

Sylvia Plimack Mangold (b. 1938)•Mangold focused her efforts on the overly realistic rendering of wood floors.•She began including mirrors in her images in 1972 allowing her to extend the illusion of space in her paintings.

Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Opposite Corners, 1973. Acrylic on canvas, 6’6” x 5’ 3 3/3”.

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.

20th Century Realism• Her images create illusionistic spaces of the domestic interior

and draw on the tradition of the veduta (extremely detailed and factually oriented Renaissance paintings of towns, piazzas, or other landscape.)

Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, 1659-1660. Oil on canvas, approximately 39” x

46”. Mauritshuis, The Hague.

Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Hallway, 1968.Oil on canvas, 63” x 102”. Alexander and

Bonin Gallery, N.Y.C.

20th Century Realism

Sylvia Plimack Mangold (b. 1938)•In the mid-1970s Mangold introduced rulers to her paintings.•These rulers play with perspective-both demonstrating and questioning it at the same time.

Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Ruler Reflection, 1977. Acrylic on canvas 61” x 42”.

• Her influences include Corinth and Cézanne.

Lovis Corinth, In the Zoo, 1920. Drypoint and aquatint. 9 ½” × 7 ⅜“. Los

Angeles County Museum of Art, CA.

Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Maple Tree, 1998. Drypoint. Image: 13 ¾” × 11” Paper: 22 ⅛ × 18”. Barbara Krakow

Gallery, Boston.

20th Century Realism

Duane Hanson (1925-1996)•The aesthetic that drove Photorealism in painting had its influence on sculpture as well.•To create his hyper-realistic sculpture, Hanson cast from real models.•From the model he creates the fiberglass-reinforced resin sculpture then adds final touches including pores, imperfections, bulges, and skin discoloration.

Duane Hanson, Tourists, 1970. Polychromed fiberglass and polyester, 64” x 65” x 47”. National Galleries of Scotland,

Edinburgh.

• Hanson’s sculptures are quite different from Segal, who also casts from live models.

• Unlike Hanson, Segal maintained the unrealistic white color of the model as his final work.

Duane Hanson, Queenie II,1988. Polychromed bronze, with accessorieslife size. The Saatchi Gallery, London.

George Segal, Street Crossing, 1992. Bronze with white patina, life-size. Doris C. Freedman

Plaza, NYC.

20th Century Realism

Philip Pearlstein (b. 1924)•Pearlstein came of age at the height of Modernist rejection of realism.•Pearlstein was concerned with executing an indifferently objective representation of his subject.•The nude model posed in the studio became an almost exclusive subject for him. •His representations are factual and unidealized, his style leaves nothing to the imagination and gives no value to introspection.

Philip Pearlstein, Two Nudes in Studio, 1965. Oil on canvas, 24” x

18”. Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

20th Century Realism

Alex Katz (b. 1927)•Katz dedicated himself to the figure early in his career and maintained that dedication through the height of abstraction’s challenge of the form.•Like many abstract artists, Katz took inspiration from early modern masters in his large planes of color, brushwork, and flatness.

Alex Katz, The Red Band (detail), 1978. Oil on canvas, 6’ x 12’. Private Collection.

New Image Painting• New Image painting comes into fashion

in the 1970s when most of the artists working in the style matured.

• Foundations of the movement are evident in the work of Guston, visual forefather of the New Imagists and Chicago Imagists.

• New Image painting is characterized by a cartoon-like figuration, often abrasive in subject matter, with some resemblance and debt to Neo-Expressionism.

• New Imagists reacted to and incorporated the influence of modern American art since the rise of Abstract Expressionism.

Philip Guston, The Studio, 1969. Oil on canvas, 48” x 42”. Private Collection.

• After years as an unsuccessful Abstract Expressionist painter, Guston made the transition from his abstract roots in the late 1960s, paving the way for New Imagist painting.

Philip Guston, Painting, Smoking, Eating,1973. Oil on canvas, 77” x 103”. Stedelijk Museum,

Amsterdam.

Philip Guston, Zone, 1953-1954. Oil on canvas, 46” x 48”. Edward R. Broida Trust,

L.A.

New Image PaintingSusan Rothenberg (b. 1945)•The styling of New Imagist painters varied immensely with little unifying elements beyond a return to figuration.•Rothenberg’s style is much like Guston’s painterly abstraction. •Like Rothenberg’s horse, which won her recognition, New Image painting was steeped in tradition yet added a modern sensibility and meaning.•Rothenberg came to the horse in order to avoid the figure.•Rothenberg’s formalist concerns were, in essence, Minimalist and descendant of Johns.

– She sought to activate the flatness and objectivity of the canvas.

Susan Rothenberg, Pontiac, 1979. Acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 7’4” x 5’ 1”. Private

Collection.

New Image Painting

Robert Moskowitz (b.1935)•Imagists like Markowitz reintroduced the object to painting in effort to lure the viewer.•Moskowitz delivers the iconic in his paintings but reduces them to their most abstract form.•In this effort he achieves an abstraction grounded in the figural.

Robert Moskowitz, Red Mills, 1981. Pastel on paper, 9’3” x

4’ ¾”. Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

Donald Sultan, Four Lemons, February 1, 1985, 1985. Oil, spackle,

and tar on vinyl tile, 8’1” x 8’1”. Collection of the artist.

New Image Painting

Donald Sultan (b. 1951)•The effort of the New Imagists was not to totally disregard the past but to instead embrace it and recycle it, learn from it.•Artists like Sultan embrace abstraction, process, and experimentation with materials.•They also reintroduce traditional motifs.

The Chicago Imagists, Monster Roster, and the Hairy Who

• Chicago artists of the 1950s looked to de Kooning and Kline for models.– Though they looked toward de Kooning and Kline, they had no involvement or

investment with the New York School.• The Chicago Imagists operated under 3 labels, The Chicago Imagists, The Hairy

Who, and The Monster Roster.• They were also heavily influenced by Dubuffet who delivered his lecture,

“Anticultural Positions” in 1951.• Unlike most areas of the U.S., Chicago artists maintained a strong relationship with

the figure, setting their work apart from their contemporaries.• Most artists associated with The Chicago Imagists studied at the Art Institute of

Chicago.• Their work is representational and surrealist in style.

– It displays an interest in fantasy and the peculiar; it is usually grossly exaggerated and dedicated to the figurative.

The Chicago Imagists, Monster Roster, and the Hairy Who

H.C. Westermann (1922-1981)•Of The Chicago School of Imagists, it was H.C. Westermann whose work defined its distinctive form.•His work is crass, unapologetic, and politically incorrect. •Westermann had anticipated the utilization of popular culture and psychotic art 10 years before it launched Chicago artists into the international limelight. •Existentialist in theory, his work was a condemnation of militarism and consumerism inspired by time spent in the military.

H.C. Westermann, Battle of Little Big Horn, 1959. Oil on panel, 15” x 15”.

Collection of Ann Janss, Los Angeles, CA

The Chicago Imagists, Monster Roster, and the Hairy Who

Jim Nutt (b.1938)•Nutt was a founding member of The Chicago Imagists and showed with them and a smaller group known as the Hairy Who. •The Hairy Who were a particularly raunchy sect of The Chicago Imagists. •Nutt’s work is characterized by an adolescent restlessness and cartoonish style.•His employment of color is reminiscent of Expressionist painters. Jim Nutt, It's a Long Way Down,

1971. Acrylic on wood, 33 7/8” x 24 ¾”. Smithsonian American Art

Museum.

The Chicago Imagists, Monster Roster, and the Hairy Who

• Paschke’s work marries the finish of Photorealism with the subject matter and mood of The Chicago Imagists.

• This enigmatic work suggests postmodernist angst and has been read as a contemporary rendering of The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Edward Paschke, Durp Verde, 1978. Lithograph, 4’ x 8’. Virginia Museum of Fine

Arts, Richmond.

Edward Paschke (1939-2004)

The Chicago Imagists, Monster Roster, and the Hairy Who

Nancy Spero (1926-2009)•Interestingly, The Chicago Imagists had a high population of female artists.•Spero’s work is abrasive and confrontational.•She is associated with the sect of Chicago Imagists known as the Monster Roster whose work is particularly existentialist and gruesome.•She is also associated with the Feminist Art Movement and her work often challenged gender assumptions and misogyny. Nancy Spero, Atom Bomb, 1966.

Gouache and ink on paper, 24" x 36”. Estate of Nancy Spero, Images

courtesy of Galerie Lelong, New York.

New Image Sculpture

Joel Shapiro (b.1941)•The tendency to introduce the object and figure back into art was also realized in sculpture.•Like his painting contemporaries, Shapiro sought to activate certain elements of past artistic styles in his sculpture.•Works like House borrow Minimalist aesthetic but add a human dimension.•Shapiro rejected Minimalism’s monumentality however for the more intimate in scale.

Joel Shapiro, Untitled (House on Shelf), 1974. Bronze, 12

7/8” x 2 ½” x 28 ½”. Museum of Modern Art.