Post-Minimal Pluralism

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• Post-Minimal Pluralism

http//www.whitney.org/Exhibitions/2010Biennial
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Bruce Nauman (US, b. 1941) (left) Eating My
Words, and (right) Self Portrait as a Water
Fountain, from Eleven Color Photographs"
(1966-1967/70) If I was an artist and I was in
the studio, then whatever I was doing in the
studio must be art. At this point art became more
of an activity and less of a product.
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Bruce Nauman (US 1941) (left) Wax Impressions of
the Knees of Five Famous Artists, 1966,
fiberglass and polyester resin (not wax), 15 5/8
in. x 85 1/4 in. x 2 3/4 in. Collection SFMOMA .
Knee impressions are all Naumans(right) Hand to
Mouth, wax over cloth, 1967 (cast from wifes
body)
"If they're not puzzled, they're not getting it."
- Robert Storr (MoMA NYC) on Naumans
viewers
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Dada and Neo-Dada sources for Bruce
Nauman(right) Jasper Johns, Target with Four
Faces, 1955, encaustic and collage on canvas, 30
x 26 Museum of Modern Art, New York.
McCarthy-era closeted identity?(below) Marcel
Duchamp, Female Fig Leaf, 1950, bronze, cast 1961
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Bruce Nauman, Art Makeup, White, Black, Pink,
Green, 1967-8, performance video stills
http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-801818047
3912040117docid8824343735046804261
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Nauman, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968).
Video, 60 minMy name as though it were written
on the surface of the moon.
http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-801818047
3912040117
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Bruce Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by
Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign),
1967. Neon tubing with clear glass tubing
suspension supports 59 X 55 x 2 inOriginal made
for the artists San Francisco street-front
studio window the private thought made as
public as a commercial beer sign. Conceptual art
is a poetic/political intervention into
conventional (unquestioning) modes of thought.
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"The most difficult thing about the whole piece
for me was the statement. It was a kind of test -
like when you say something out loud to see if
you believe it. Once written down, I could see
that the statement ... was on the one hand a
totally silly idea and yet, on the other hand, I
believed it. It's true and not true at the same
time. It depends on how you interpret it and how
seriously you take yourself. For me it's still a
very strong thought." - Nauman
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Bruce Nauman, South American Triangle, 1981,
welded steel beams (each 165 long) and cast iron
chair. Inspired by Jacobo Timermans account of
his torture by the Argentinean military regime.
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Bruce Nauman, Hanging Carousel (George Skins a
Fox), 1988, taxidermist forms and suspension of
South American Triangle signify victimization and
violence.
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Eva Hesse (German (Jewish)-American 1936 -1970,
34 years) Post-Minimalism (and Proto-Feminism)
I remember I wanted to get to non art, non
connotive sic, non anthropomorphic, non
geometric, non, nothing. . . . question how and
why in putting it together? Can it be different
each time? Why not? How to achieve by
not Making? Its all in that. - Eva Hesse
Hesse in NYC studio with Rope Piece 1969-1970
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Eva Hesse Metronomic Irregularity, sculpt metal
on wood, drilled and threaded with cotton-covered
wire, 12 x 18 x 2 in., 1966. First of a series
with two subsequent versions. The second was 4 x
20 ft. Dialectics of minimalist grid and
serial form with chaos and subjective
absurdity of the expressionist wires
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Hesse, Hang Up, acrylic on wood, cloth, steel,
1966 (detail lower right)notebook page showing
Hang Up and other sculptures, 1965-66
The absurd
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(left) Eva Hesse in New York apartment in 1966
holding Ingeminate(right) Hesse, Ingeminate
1965, surgical hose, papier-mâché, cord and
sprayed enamel over inflated balloons
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Eva Hesse, No Title, 1966, ink wash and pencil,
11 3/4 x 9 in.If something is absurd, its
more absurd to repeat it.
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Eva Hesse (left) Accession II 1967 galvanized
steel, rubber tubing, c. 30 squareHesse with
Accession II in 1968
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Hesse, Sans II, 1968, fiberglass polyester resin
5units each 38 in H
Donald Judd, Untitled, 1964
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Hesse, Repetition Nineteen III, fiberglass and
polyester resin, 1968compare Carl Andre (right),
Twelfth Copper Corner, 1975

• I feel, lets say, emotionally connected to
  Carl Andres work. It does something to my
  insides. His metal plates were the concentration
  camp for me.
• - Hesse

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Eva Hesse, Contingent, 8 units, fiberglass and
latex over cheesecloth, 1968Post-Minimalist
rejection of Minimalisms mechanical rigidities
for psychological expressivity of materials and
form. Wanted the impermanence of latex.
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Eva Hesse, Expanded Expansion, 1969, 10 2 x 25
overall, latex on cheesecloth with reinforced
fiberglass poles, Guggenheim Museum, NYC I am
not sure what my stand on lasting really is. Part
of me feels that it's superfluous, and if I need
to use rubber that is more important. Life
doesn't last art doesn't last." Eva Hesse
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Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1970. Fiberglass over
polyethylene over aluminum wire. 7 units each 78
in. x 40 in. Berkeley Art Museum
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Tara Donovan (American, b. 1969) Untitled
(Plastic cups), 2006, millions of transparent
plastic cups in a tight grid, stacked into curves
and waves. (The work is re-made each time it is
shown and can be expanded or contracted to fit
the space.)
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Tara Donovan, Untitled (Plastic Cups) 2000
installation
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Tara Donovan, Untitled (Glass), 2006. Sheets of
stacked tempered glass one corner of each pane
is struck with a hammer and shattered into tiny
pieces that stay in place. If you bump into
this and knock a corner off it, it cant be
repaired or remade with the same materials. It
has to be made over again. When the show is
over, "it gets taken away with a shovel.
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Eva Hesse, Rope Piece, 1970
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Compare Eva Hesse, 1969, with Marcel Duchamp,
Sixteen Miles of String, 1942, part of Duchamps
installation for the First Papers of Surrealism,
Peggy Guggenheims Art of this Century gallery,
NYC
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Hans Namuth, photographs and film stills of
Pollock Painting, 1951
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Compare Eva Hesse, Rope Piece, 1970, with Robert
Morris, Untitled, (Pink Felt) 1970, cut felt,
dimensions vary with installation. Process Art
anti-form or post-minimal sculpture dependent
upon gravity and chance, simple cutting process,
use of industrial not-art material
Industrial felt waste arranged by chance for
each installation. The artists supervision is
not necessary.
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Eva Hesse, Untitled (Rope Piece), 1970. Between
chaos and order / chance and will / reason and
unreason / tragedy and absurdity
Studio installation by artist
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Compare Eva Hesse (1970) with Marcel Duchamp,
Sixteen Miles of String, 1942, part of Duchamps
installation for the First Papers of Surrealism,
Peggy Guggenheims Art of this Century gallery,
NYC
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Louise Bourgeois (French American b. 1911)
(right) Fillette, 1968, latex, 24in. H
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"I wonder," Hesse asked a friend, "if we are
unique, I mean the minority we exemplify. The
female struggle, not in generaltities but our
specific struggle. To me insurmountable to
achieve an ultimate expression, requires the
complete dedication seemingly only man can
attain. A singleness of purpose no obstructions
allowed seems a mans prerogative. His domain. A
woman is sidetracked by all her feminine roles
from menstrual periods to cleaning house to
remaining pretty and young and having babies. .
. . She is at a disadvantage from the beginning.
. . . She also lacks conviction that she has the
right to achievement. She also lacks the belief
that her achievements are worthy" (cited in Lucy
R. Lippards 1976 biography of Hesse).
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Louise Bourgeois with Fillette (1966) 1982,
Robert Mapplethorpe photo Erotic absurdity
girl jokes
Eva Hesse with Ingeminate (1965)
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http//channel.tate.org.uk/media/26515653001
http//www.pbs.org/art21/artists/bourgeois/index.h
tml
Louise Bourgeois, Spiral Woman, 1984, bronze and
slate disc bronze 11½ in. high disc diameter
34 ¾ in.
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Louise Bourgeois with sculpture on roof of NY
apartment building, c.1944(center) Femme Maison
(Woman House) 1947, ink on paper(right) The
Listening One 1947-9. bronze (cast in the late
1980s)
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Bourgeois genealogy (top left) Alberto
Giacometti (Swiss Surrealist, 1901-1966),
Suspended Ball, 1930-31, Surrealist sculpture,
plaster and metal (left below) Jean Arp
(Alsace-born French, 1886-1966), Head with 3
Annoying Objects, 1930 (right) Bourgeois, The
Destruction of the Father, 1974, plaster, Latex,
wood fabric, installation 93 x 142 x 97
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(right) Louise Bourgeois. Janus Fleuri, 1968,
bronze,10 in HSoft Landscape, 1967, (left)
Alberto Giacometti, Spoon Woman (Femme cuillère),
1926, bronze, 56 in. H
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Bourgeois, Spider, steel and mixed media, 1996
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Bourgeois, Maman, 35 ft H, Tate London, 1999
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Louise Bourgeois, Passages Dangereux, 1997
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Louise Bourgeois, Cell (Glass Spheres and Hands),
1990-93, glass, marble, wood, metal, and fabric
86 x 86 x 83 inches.
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http//www.youtube.com/watch?vo7XZ672XmbMNR1

• Louise Bourgeois Couple IV, 1997, fabric,
  leather, stainless steel, plastic, wood and glass
  in a Victorian vitrine 72 x 82 x 43 in.

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Louise Bourgeois, Temper Tantrum, 2000, pink
fabric
My childhood has never lost its magic, it has
never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its
drama.
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Lygia Clark (Brazil, 1920-1988) Rio de Janeiro
1958
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(left) Lygia Clark, Relief Painting with Yellow
Square, oil, 1957, 30 in. HBrazilian
Neoconcretism compare Kasimir Malevich,
Suprematism, White on White, 1918
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Lygia Clark, Sundial, 1960, 3 views,
Neoconcretism compare with (lower right) Max
Bill, 1947-8 Tripartite Unity ( a möbius)
Concretism
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Lygia Clark, Machine Animal (Bicho), 1962,
aluminum, 55x65, Sao Paulo
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Lygia Clark, Rubber Grub, 1964 (1986), rubber, 56
in.H Museo de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
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Lygia Clark, Mandala, from the series, Collective
Body, 1959, elastic bands linking people at their
wrists or ankles
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Lygia Clark, Air Stone (Multiple) 1966,
inflated plastic bag and stone
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(left) Lygia Clark, Mask with Mirrors, 1967
(below) Dialogue, 1968The mask holds small
movable mirrors in front of the eyes, juxtaposing
and fracturing reflections of the self and the
surrounding world. (right) Clark, Sensorial
Gloves, 1968. Part of Nostalgia of the Body
series.Gloves are made of various materials,
sizes and textures. Participants use the many
combinations of gloves and balls of different
sizes, textures and weights, and then hold the
balls again with bare hands. Purpose is to
rediscover keen sensation.
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Lygia Clark, Individual Therapy with Relational
Objects, Rio de Janeiro, 1975
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Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica, Dialogue for
Hands, 1966 elastic Möbius band Elastic Möbius
bandHelio and I are like a glove. He is the
outside of the glove, very much linked to the
exterior world. I am the inside. And the two of
us exist from the moment there is a hand which
puts on the glove (Lygia Clark
)http//www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/moebius
.avi
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(left) Hélio Oiticica (Brazil, 1937-1980), White
Crossing Red Metaschema1968, oil, 21 in. H
compare Piet Mondrian, Tableau, 1921,
Neoplasticism
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Hélio Oiticica, Spatial Relief, 1959, synthetic
polymer paint on wood, 38 x 48 x 8compare
(right) Alexander Rodchenko 1891-1956, Spatial
Relief, 1920, Russian Constructivism
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Helio Oiticica, Glass Bolide (Portuguese word for
fireball) 4 Earth, 1964, Glass, earth, and
painted gauze
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Helio Oiticica, Box Bolide, 1964, painted wood
and glass, 20 in H, Rio de Janeiro
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Hélio Oiticica, Tropicalia, 1967, installation
exhibited in the New Brazilian Objectivity
exhibition at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio
de Janeiro
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Helio Oiticica, Nildo, of the Mangueira samba
group, wearing Parangolés, 1964
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Helio Oiticica, Mosquito of Mangueira wearing
Cape 6 (Paragole 10), 1965, and dancing with
Glass Bolide 5 (Homage to Mondrian), 1964
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• This entire experience into which art flows, the
  issue of liberty
• itself, of the expansion of the individual's
  consciousness, of the
• return to myth, the rediscovery of rhythm,
  dance, the body, the
• senses, which finally are what we have as
  weapons of direct,
• perceptual, participatory knowledge . . . is
  revolutionary in the total sense of behavior.
  (Oiticica)

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Joseph Beuys (German, 1921-1986), Fat Chair,
1964Felt Suit, 1970
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Joseph Beuys How to Explain Paintings to a Dead
Hare, Performance on Nov. 26, 1965.
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Joseph Beuys,The Pack, 1969 (2 installations)
Staaliche Museen Kassel, Neue Galerie Volkswagen
bus with twenty-four wooden sleds, each with
felt, flashlight, and animal fat. This is an
emergency object an invasion by the pack. In a
state of emergency the Volkswagen bus is of
limited usefulness, and more direct and primitive
means must be taken to ensure survival. (Beuys)
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Joseph Beuys, Honey Pump at the Workplace for
Documenta, 1977, electric motors pumped honey
through a gigantic assemblage of pipes in the
stairwell of the Museum, symbolizing the
circulation of life and flowing energy.
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Joseph Beuys, I love America and America Loves
Me, performance,1972
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(left) Beuys lecturing in New York, 1974Joseph
Beuys, Action Piece, 26-6 February 1972, one of
seven held at the Tate Gallery between 24
February - 23 March 1972
"Man is only truly alive when he realizes he is a
creative, artistic being. Joseph Beuys
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Beuys inaugurating 7000 Oaks at Documenta 7,
Kassel, Germany, 1982. Project completed after
artists death the last tree was planted by his
son at the opening of Documenta 8 in 1987
Beuys was a founding member of the Green Party
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• Beuys 7000 Oak project extended by the Dia
  Foundation in 1996. Trees (of several kinds)
  planted on West 22nd Street, each paired with a
  basalt stone column

NYC students planting trees Social Sculpture