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Chapter Three: Seeing the Value in Art
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
• Art and Its Reception
• Art, Politics, and Public Space
• Three Public Sculptures
• The “Other” Public Art
Works in Progress
Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s Temple of Confessions
The Critical Process
Thinking about the Value of Art: Suzanne Lacy, Whisper, the Waves, the Wind
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
This Chapter Will:
• evaluate the term value relative to the study of art by identifying the monetary,
cultural, and historical valuation of artworks
• discuss the reception of artworks, art movements, and art exhibitions that
challenged tradition and subsequently broadened the definition of art
• present contemporary visual artworks with multiple functions and motives,
such as activist, political, public, and performance
• outline the objectives and roles of public agencies involved in supporting the
creation of art
KEY TERMS
Putti
arringhiera
Armory Show
public art
activist art
chronophotography
monument
MyArtsLab RESOURCES
Closer Look: Edouard Manet, Luncheon of the Grass (Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe)
Closer Look: Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2
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LECTURE AND DISCUSSION TOPICS
1. Defining the Value of Art
The previous chapters have clearly identified that art can have many complex meanings
and functions. This chapter looks at the ways art is of value aesthetically, monetarily,
historically, and specifically, as cultural representation. The chapter reveals that as
artists challenged existing constructs of art, they created works that were not always
2. Art and Censorship
Remind students that sometimes the public’s perception of art is so strong that it results
in controversyWhen chronicling the events that surrounded the controversy of the more
recent Sensation exhibition, where Ofili was singled out for his controversial painting
4. Manet, What A Radical
Edouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass (fig.47) (See the Closer Look on MyArtsLab)
was rejected from annual Parisian Salon exhibit of 1863 because it was considered too
“modern” by the jurors. Although he had copied 15th-century artist Marantonio
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5. The Armory Show
Now known as The Armory Show, after the building in which the exhibition was held,
The International Exhibition of Modern Art of 1913 was the first opportunity Americans
had to view work of 20th-century “modern” artists from Europe such as Marcel Duchamp,
Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse. The exhibition opened in New York City, and was
organized by a group of progressive artists. This first large-scale exhibit included a
number of ultra-modern French paintings whose technique and style quickly became the
focus of intense controversy. Marcel Duchamp’s Cubist painting Nude Descending a
Staircase (fig.49), and Henri Matisse’s unconventional Blue Nude drew particular
6. Capturing Movement: Muybridge and Marey
Discuss the photographic experiments undertaken by Eadward Muybridge and Marey
(Man Walking in Black Suit with White Stripe Down Sides, fig.50). Leland Stanford,
then-Governor of California, hired Muybridge to photograph his famous horse, Occident,
to settle a bet about whether or not a horse’s legs are ever all off the ground at the same
7. Designing a Memorial: The Creative Process of Maya Lin
In 1979, Congress granted a Vietnam War veterans’ committee the right to build a
memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. dedicated to American soldiers killed in the
Vietnam War. The committee announced the design competition, and solicited proposals
that were evaluated by a panel of esteemed architects, sculptors, and landscape architects.
action engraved in chronological order (fig. 51). To search out a loved one, a mourner
walks along the monument and finds the name among the 57,661 listed. Lin describes the
Memorial thus: “I went to see the site. I had a general idea that I wanted to describe a
journey...a journey that would make you experience death and where you’d have to be an
observer, where you could never really fully be with the dead. It wasn’t going to be
8. The Controversy of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial
Maya Lin’s memorial was shrouded in controversy from the moment her winning design
was announced. Opponents felt Lin’s defiance of all traditional memorial sculpture; her
design lacked the realism of most war memorials. A small group within the Vietnam
Veterans’ community felt Lin’s statement was an affront. One commented, “One needs
no artistic education to see this memorial design for what it is: a black scar, in a hole,
The Vietnam Memorial was dedicated on Veterans’ Day, 1982. At the time it was
unveiled, there was general critical acclaim for the clarity of Lin’s vision. The statue and
flag were installed two years later, and in 1993, a second statue honoring women who
served in Vietnam was placed on the site as well. The Vietnam Memorial is now the
most widely visited monument in Washington, D.C. While sometimes thought of as an
9. More Art in Public Places
In 1981, artist Richard Serra installed his sculpture Tilted Arc (fig. 53), in Federal Plaza
in New York City. It had been commissioned by the Arts-in-Architecture program of the
U.S. General Services Administration, which earmarks 0.5 percent of a federal building’s
cost for public artwork that is displayed near the building. On site, Tilted Arc was a
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curving wall of raw steel, 120 feet long and 12 feet high, which carved the space of the
Federal Plaza in half. Those working in surrounding buildings had to circumvent its
enormous bulk as they walked through the plaza. According to Serra, the sculpture as
Tilted Arc was disliked by employees working in the building as soon as it was erected,
and Judge Edward Re began a letter-writing campaign to have the $175,000 work
removed. Four years later, William Diamond, regional administrator for the GSA,
decided to hold a public hearing to determine whether Tilted Arc should be relocated.
The estimated cost of dismantling the work was $35,000, with an additional $50,000
estimated to have it erected in another location. Richard Serra testified that the sculpture
was site-specific, and that to remove it from its site would be the equivalent of destroying
10. Michelangelo’s David
In 1501, 25-year-old Michelangelo Buonarotti began working on his colossal
masterpiece, the 17-foot-tall, marble, David (fig. 54). From a huge block of marble that
had been abandoned decades earlier by another sculptor, Michelangelo took on the
challenge of living up to Donatello and other artists who had sculpted the same heroic
figure. Michelangelo believed that David, portrayed in the Bible as a young shepherd
who slew the giant Goliath and went on to become a valiant and just Hebrew king, was a
fit symbol of courage and civic duty to guard the city of Florence. David was erected in
1504 in the public plaza of Florence, the Piazza della Signoria, where the genitals and
pubic hair on the statue caused immediate consternation. David’s “private parts”
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11. Activists and Performance Art
A collaborative group of activist and performance artists who address women’s issues is
the Guerilla Girls. Their effective tactics of impromptu appearances in guerilla masks at
museum openings and theatre performances to protest the inequities of race and gender
1. Works in Progress: Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s Temple of Confessions
In his performances and manifestos, “border artist” Guillermo Gómez-Peña draws
attention to the cultural fissure dividing the two worlds that he and other Latinos inhabit;
as he says in Border Brujo, he is “floating on the ether that is the present tense of
California and the past tense of Mexico.” Born and raised in Mexico City, Gómez-Peña
came to the United States in 1978 and has been exploring cross-cultural issues and
North/South relations using performance, radio art, book arts, bilingual poetry,
journalism, video, and installations. A founding member of the Border Arts Workshop,
2. Thinking about Public Art
Suzanne Lacy describes her role as an activist artist on page 54 of this chapter as she
discusses her collaborative project with Leslie Labowitz, In Mourning and in Rage. Read
the statement by the artist: “The art is in making it compelling; the politics is in making it
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clear. In Mourning and in Rage took trivialized images of mourners as old, powerless
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
1. Value Throughout History
Have students select an artwork from the final section of the textbook, Part V: The Visual
2. NEA/NEH Funding for Artists
Have students write an essay that describes their opinion of whether the National
Endowment for the Arts should or should not exist as a function of our government.
Many people feel that the government should have a position that supports the creation of
art in our society, in order to foster cultural experiences and document our society.
Others do not support this, stating that government involvement restricts the artist’s
3. Art at Auction
Have students visit Sotheby’s or Christie’s auction houses to investigate market prices for
artworks by master and contemporary artists. Using their research data, have students
write an essay describing their experience at the web auction, and their thoughts
regarding the prices artworks demand at auction. Have students contemplate why
4. Realistic and Abstract Monuments
Have students research Frederick Hart’s figurative Vietnam Memorial Sculpture and
write a comparative analysis between Hart’s and Maya Lin’s monuments. Have them
discuss their physical differences, interpretative challenges, and differences in public
1. The Visualization of Beauty
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Have students identify several historical works of art, across a range of time that depicts
female and male bodies. Then, have them identify contemporary images of men and
women in advertisements, popular culture (i.e., comics, video games, film, music, etc.)
7. Social Activism
The Poland-born artist Krzysztof Wodiczko is featured in this chapter as an example of a
contemporary artist dedicated to social change. Wodiczko’s work is an ongoing research
project on how public art—design, performance, and media—can interact to encourage
dialogue for social change. Some of his work takes the form of “projections” on public
HANDS-ON PROJECTS
For additional project ideas, remember to investigate the Hands-On Projects found on
MyArtsLab.
1. Public Art Detective
Have students see if they can discover when and how a given example of public art was
commissioned in their community or on their school’s campus. Have them go to their
local library and see if it was the subject of any controversy by checking old newspaper
articles and other resources that their reference librarian might lead them to. (They might
find it useful, in fact, to begin by asking people in the community who might know
2. Public Sculpture Design
Have students research the design competition for a public monument that honors those
who lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Encourage students to create their own design in response to the event. The nature of the
design may reflect a concept that no artist has had to contemplate to this date—how to
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Other Suggested Websites:
Robert Mapplethorpe at www.mapplethorpe.org provides additional photographs as
Group Material creates ambitious exhibitions that combine artifacts such as magazine
ads and other found objects from popular culture with recognized art objects. For more
The NEA, The National Endowment for the Arts, at www.arts.endow.gov features art,
news, interviews, and information about grants and funding for the arts.
For a discussion of The Sensation Show, read Rightgrrl Co-Founder, Carolyn Gargaro’s
The Brooklyn Museum and the Funding of Art at www.rightgrrl.com/carolyn/art.html
Suggested Videos and DVDs:
A World of Art: Works in Progress, Guillermo Gómez-Peña (30 minutes)
Mobile by Alexander Calder, 1980 (30 minutes)
The Secret of Marcel Duchamp, 1997 (50 minutes)
Also see recommended Films for the Humanities and Sciences at www.films.com
