Exploring Art: A Global, Thematic Approach

Chapter 12Mind and Body

Depicting the Body

• Portraits– Portraiture should portray a persons looks and character

– Nefertiti – Illustrates culturally-based aesthetic rules about art

• Artists reveal as much of themselves as they do their subjects when painting portraits

• How does portraiture reveal the individual?

• What do depictions of the body indicate more broadly about human nature?

• How is the human body used in art, both as material and as tool?

Nefertiti, Egypt, c. 1350 BCE. Portrait bust,

approximately 1’8” high. Aegyptisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu

Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

The Egyptian Armana canon, begun by Amenhotep III, was

a new aesthetic which rejected the rigid,

abstract style of the past for a more flowing, elegant, naturalistic

approach.

SHIMOMURA Kanzan, Study for the Portrait of Okakura Tenshin, Japan, 1922

Japanese-style contour lines and flat shapes are apparent here, especially in Okakura’s left hand and sleeve. But the face and hat are rendered with Western chiaroscuro.

Many late 19th c. European artists were strongly influenced by Japanese prints and paintings.

Face rendered in traditional Japanese style

Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890 by The Artist Vincent van Gogh.

Gachet was a French doctor who treated Vincent van Gogh’s mental illness during the last weeks of van Gogh’s life. Gachet was an artist and great supporter of the Impressionist movement. He was recommended to Vincent’s brother Theo by Pissarro, a contemporary impressionist artist.This portrait reveal as much about the artist as it does the subject. It is seen as a commentary on the suffering inherent in modern, urban life.

Chuck Close, Fanny (Fingerpainting), 1985 (120x84”)

Scale conveys the importance in his portraits.

NANCY BURSON. Untitled image from Faces. Silver gelatin print, 15" x 15". USA, 1992.

• Her photographs of unusual faces reveal some aspects of the children’s personalities (friendliness, dreaminess, caution, concern) the boy on the left poses, the other boy reluctantly.

Leigh Bowery posing for Lucian Freud with the painting ‘Leigh under the Skylight’, 1994

The flamboyant performance artist Leigh Bowery (1961-1994) was a favorite model of Freud. He first saw Bowery perform at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London, when he appeared in a variety of colorful and dramatic outfits. The artist became fascinated by this strange figure - the shape of his body, tone of his skin and his monumental presence. Freud prefers to know his models well in order to portray them most effectively. He made several paintings of Bowery over a period of four years, during which time they became friends. It was a relationship of mutual inspiration, as Freud considered his model to be ‘perfectly beautiful’ and Bowery loved to pose for Freud. He explained that, ‘because he is an artist who always works in the figurative idiom he has given me lots of ideas’.

Bill Viola, Dolorosa 2000video diptych on two freestanding hinged LCD flat panels

Self-Portraits

– Record “inner” and “outer” being (human face and human soul) as in the self-portaits of Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo

– Record “types” as in the work of Cindy Sherman and Mariko Mori

Rembrandt, Self Portrait, 1669

Rembrandt studied himself in a country where both religion and the state promoted individualism.

FRIDA KAHLO. Self-Portrait with Monkey, Mexico, 1938. Oil on Masonite, 16” X 12”. Her face stays almost the same in all her paintings: distinctive, unemotional , and with an

unblinking gaze that looks back. She surrounds herself with signs and images of the different factors that shaped her live, such as her ancestry, her physical body, her nearly

fatal accident and chronic pain.

CINDY SHERMAN. Untitled Film Still #35, USA, 1979. Gelatin Silver Print, 8” X 10”

Sherman explores socially prescribed roles and stereotypes.

Mariko Mori. Star Doll. 1998(Edition for Parkett 54, 1998–99)Multiple of doll, 10 1/4 x 3 1/8" x 1 9/16"

Mori, a multimedia artist who has worked in photography, video, and performance art, and as a former fashion designer and model, here takes her playful imagery to a new level of literalness. She bases this piece on her earlier life-size 3-D photographic image, which is accompanied by an audio CD. In both, she presents herself as a computer-fabricated pop star and explores the hybrid nature of individual identity and its relation to private fantasies and global culture.

The Physical Body

– Idealized•According to Protagoras, “man is the measure of all things”.

– Less than perfect humanity– Sickness and death

Yakshi (detail of East Gate, Great Stupa).

Sandstone, approximately 5' high. Sanchi, India, early Andhra period, first century BCE.

Yakshi is a nature spirit who represents

fertility:; her breasts are exaggerated to

emphasize her powers—her touch caused trees to

flower.

POLYKLEITOS, DORYPHOROS (SPEAR-BEARER) c.450 BCE

This sculpture reflects the Ancient Greek deep appreciation

of the human bodyThe body is idealized in a

number of ways:balanced pose

(contrapposto)internal proportionsrestrained emotions (stoicism)

role depicted (youth, athlete, warrior).

Baule Male Figurec.19th c.In most Aftican sculptue, the front view of the human figure is sculpted symmetrically.In some African traditions, the head and neck are considered the most important parts of the body, an thus were apportioned one-third the height of the entire figure.

LESS THAN PERFECT HUMANITY

LAOOON AND HIS SONS, Greece, late 2nd c. BCE, Hellenistic

GISLEBERTUS. The Last Judgment, France. C. 1130. Stone carving, 21’ wide, 12’ high. West tympanum of the Church of St.-Lazare, Autun,

BurgundyMedieval Christians felt the soul was more important than the body.

Gislebertus, Last Judgment(from Saint-Lazzare) Autun, France ca 1120-1135

This scene depicts the Judgment in progress, announced by four trumpet-blowing angels.

Once again, Christ sits enthroned in the center of the tympanum in a mandorla that angels support. He presides over the separation of the Blessed from the Damned.

On the left, when facing the tympanum, an obliging angel boosts one of the Blessed into the heavenly city. Below, the souls of the dead are lined up to await their fate.

On the left end of the lintel, two men carry bags with a cross and shell, symbolic of the pilgrims to Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela. Those who had made the difficult journey would be judged favorably.

To thier right of the two men are three small figures begging to an angel to intercede on their behalf. The angel responds by pointing to the Judge above.

To Christ’s left, are all those condemned to Hell. One poor soul is plucked from the earth by giant hands.

Angels and devils contest at the scales, each trying to manipulate the balance for or against a soul.

Romanesque

Architecture and Sculptur

e

11th and 12th

Century

•Angels blow the horns announcing the Day of Judgment.

•Christ is supposed to look as if he is sitting! But it seems that the sculptor had a hard time figuring out how to represent foreshortened knees. He is static and still, removed from the activity below him.

•Two men at the lower left carry staffs and bags, identifying them as pilgrims.

Tympanum, St. Lazare

The Archangel Michael oversees the scales.

Tympanum, St. Lazare

•The weighing of souls of the dead who are lifted from the earth and fought over by angels and demons.

•Notice that the demon tries to tip the scales (compare to The Miller in Chaucer’s tale)

• The condemned are dragged into hell while those waiting seek protection from the angels.

A poor soul being

pluckedup to

judgment.

The inscription reads, “Here let fear strike those whom earthly error binds, for their fate is shown by the horror of these figures” The poor souls are agitated and distorted, nothing classical in their figures at all. The figures are contorted to fit the setting but also for expressive purposes.

Souls Waiting for Judgment

Michelangelo, David, c.1501(17’)

Just What is it That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?, 1956Richard Hamilton

Aestheticized body ideals of the late 20th c.—buff, muscular man with amazing sexual prowess.

Body as the subject of scientific study

Muybridge’s instantaneous photographs of Occident

Limits of the Self

Tomika Te Mutu of Coromandel. Maori chief. New Zealand, nineteenth

century. Ritual tattooing was

often used on the eastern islands of the South Pacific as part of

initiation rites that prepared an individual

for adulthood.Tattoos were seen as an extra protective shell and a new ritual skin—effective in war, as it distracted and confused

opponents.

Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913

Boccioni dissolves the conventional belief that the skin layer defines the body’s outer edge. To him the body is a mass of wave energy defined by its movement through a fluid atmo-speric medium.

Futurism celebrated violence, speed, energy, motion, force, and change, which reflected his contemporary world.

Psychological dimension in art

Munch, Scream, 1893

Body affected by internal forces.Distortion is a vehicle for expressing inner terror, anxieties, and pressures—realism abandoned to give form to internal emotions.

Freud influenced Munch and other artists.

Mark RothkoGreen, Red, Blue, 1955.Oil on canvas.

Rothko uses abstraction to address broad and fundamental feelings and ideas, because figurative or narrative imagery was too specific and too limiting.

Rothko’s abstractions are meant to provide a kind of direct physical experience to the body.

The Body as Art Material

– The body as art material•the body painted or sculpted to become more aesthetically desirable

•using art to comment on dieting•performance and body art

– The body as an art tool•The human body is the oldest artmaking tool

Head from the Tomb of the Temple of Inscriptions.

Stucco, 17”. Maya. Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, mid–late

seventh century.

In Mayan culture a flat, sloping forehead was

beautiful and aesthetically pleasing.

They bound and compressed imfants’ heads to deform the shape as they were growing.

Hair was bluntly cut at different levels and woven

with jade ornaments.The resulting human head was a living artistic creation.

Ngere Girl Prepared for a Festival. Body

painting. Africa, late twentieth century.

Ana Mendieta. Arbol de la Vida (Tree of Life/Silhouette), #294

Cuba/USA 1977

Yoko Ono. Cut Pieces, Japan/USA, 1964

Body as an Art Tool

Hans NamuthJackson Pollock in his studio, 1950

Discussion Topics

• How do images of the body in popular culture, as in movies, television, and magazines, affect how we see our own bodies? Does art reflect society’s concept of the ideal body or does it actively shape that concept?

• Can we separate our bodies from our sense of selfhood? Are our bodies merely “vessels” that contain “souls” independent of flesh?

• Can art that depicts deformed or mutilated bodies be considered beautiful?