H2 Art ( 9750/01 )

• 9 July Thursday• 1300 – 1600• 04 - 08

SEQ

• Andrea Gursky• Cindy Sherman

Singapore Stock Exchange by Andreas Gursky, 1999Chromogenic print170 x 270 cmSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Singapore Stock Exchange by Andreas Gursky, 1999Chromogenic print170 x 270 cmSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Untitled Film Still #3 by Cindy Sherman, 1977Gelatin silver print20.3 x 25.4 cm

Untitled #224 by Cindy Sherman, 1990Colour photograph

Section B: Structured Comparison Questions

(a) Compare the use of human figures in both works.

(b) Discuss the ideas behind the works of these artists.

(c) Evaluate the techniques in both works.

Section B: Structured Comparison Questions

a) Discuss the ideas behind the works of these artists.

What were the artists trying to show? How does it link to the history of Art? What are their possible meanings?

Section B: Structured Comparison Questions

b) Compare the use of human figures in both works.

How are human figures portrayed? How were they portrayed? Why were they portrayed this way?

Section B: Structured Comparison Questions

c) Evaluate the techniques in both works. What was used to make their art? How important are their techniques? Why do you think the artist has chosen this technique?

How are human figures portrayed in their works?

• Gursky reduces the human mass to anonymous form of small scale, where the human mass becomes peripheral and the emphasis is on the location instead.

• Sherman portrays herself in various guises where she assumes different roles and characters in her photographs: mulitple identities, social status of women, role of media

How were they portrayed?

• The large-scale and detailed spaces Gursky creates in his works are carefully constructed photographs about contemporary life and not simply taken photographs.

• Sherman’s Film Stills are recreations of moments from films through the use of still photographs. She uses makeup, wigs, costumes and props to alter her appearance and manipulate her surrounding to create “tableus” and characters that prompts response from her viewers.

Why were they portrayed this way?

• Both artist employ naturalistic representation enabled by the camera to question, alter and evaluate the viewer’s sense of reality by exploiting the potential of the image through technical processes and image production.

What were the artists trying to show?

• Gursky looks at the ‘human condition’ in the globalised world and presents issues of consumerism, commerce and tourism.

• Sherman, looks at the impact of popular culture on the works, particularly commenting on the status of woman, influence of media and the role of art.

How does it link to the history of Art? - Gursky

• Gursky’s works have been described as monumental and epic, and likened to history painting.

• While the scenes depicted may outcome as mundane images of merchandise in supermarket, tiny figures in commercial, industrial or recreational spaces – the pictures are also resonant of human experiences in the larger narrative of global consumerist and industrial culture, similar to paintings of the Romantic period.

How does it link to the history of Art? - Sherman

• Sherman appropriates images from history paintings in her History Portraits (1989 – 1990) and role-played these fictitious characters mise-en-scene, investigating the representation of the female in art history.

Meaning- Gursky

• Gursky’s works magnify details of human activity and existence to the scale of monumentality, and provoke reflection and discussion about the human experience and condition in a globalised world.

• The fact that his images were fabrication/collages not found in actual life, and yet do pointed in its depiction of human experiences, raises issues of the limits, as well as pushes the boundaries of naturalistic representation.

Meaning- Sherman

• Through Sherman’s work, she highlights the structural construction of women’s identity through imagery and the media.

• Her work highlights issues and gaps between naturalistic photographic images and reality, as well as the power relationships and issues in imaging.

What is used to make their art?

• Gursky offers a heightened view by taking and using images of the world taken from a high vantage point and composing them digitally into quasi panoramas- evoke sense of scale and alienation.

• Sherman uses the camera and related cinematic tools to reproduce images that resemble films, advertisements and images from popular culture. She stages her scene to make art.

How important are their techniques?

• Appropriation and Artifice• Repetition• Deconstruction and Reconstruction

Appropriation and Artifice

• Sherman’s technique of “appropriation” is important in our image-saturated society. She questions what one perceives as “real” by self consciously restaging the scenes- incite questioning, shock or even horror towards the representation of women in popular culture.

Repetition

• Gursky’s composition are often composed by multiple smaller scenes. The repetition sometimes function as visual patterns an are sometimes also symptomatic of the mass producing consumerist/industrial culture, or evocative of the ever diminishing individual in the relentlessness of globalisation.

• Sherman repeatedly imaged herself as different archetypes of women using masquerade, camouflage, disguise and juxtaposition repeatedly highlights the media construction of female stereotypes.

Deconstruction and Reconstruction

• Both artists deconstruct and reconstruct what they see from the camera’s lens. In Gursky’s artificial landscape, he digitally combines photographs together into enormous collages, fabricating and questioning reality in terms of experiences evoked.

• Sherman’s subversive portrayal of female stereotypes is both reconstruction of identity and a deconstruction of the gendered self.

Why do you think the artist has chosen this technique?

• Gursky’s composition are harmonious and show a strong adherence to formalistic principals such as balance, repetition and geometry. The photographs produced by Gursky are meticulously detailed and monumental in scale. He produce coherent images by combining and altering his photographs digitally.

• Sherman’s photographs are fictional with strong performative element, with distinctly odd camera angles, narrow depth of fields with tightly cropped composition. Her photographs do not hide that it is artificially setup with visible camera cables and obvious use of props and costumes.