'On Non Objective Painting' & 'Popularity and Realism' : Bertolt Brecht

Neha Dhawan

1124114

Mapping of the essay

Bertolt Brecht, "On Non-Objective Painting"

Topic Sentence:

 I see that you have removed the motifs from your paintings.

Important words and Phrases:

No recognizable objects – communists – reconstruct a world which is not habitable – if you were not communists but subject spirits of the ruling class, I would not wonder about your painting- if  you were subject spirits of the establishment, you would do well to fulfil wish of your patrons by representations rather opaque, general and uncommitted – 'one must enjoy one's work, irrespective of what it accomplishes, of how it is to be done, or why'- 'one can enjoy a forest even if one doesn't own it' – most beautiful and important perceptions are composed of lines and colours - Strong emotions as love are lost if their living conditions are too bad – court painters – general, vague, unidentifiable perceptions- perpetual object of lines and colours – It is clear that motifs, recognizable objects in the painting, must, in our world of class conflict redeem the most diverse perceptions – profiteer – lackeys – 'differently' – as fits the thing - 'Master'- 'I am mastering'-   'With our tube of oils and our pencils, we can only reproduce colours and lines of the things, nothing more.' -  Nor should you say: 'There is much good in art which is not understood in its own time.' – Man in our times has been a wolf to other men and to say then: 'This will not be bought in our time' – Only the wolves have money to buy paintings in our times – Our paintings will contribute to seeing that it will not be.

Thesis Statement of the Essay: It is clear that motifs, recognizable objects in the painting, must, in our world of class conflict redeem the most diverse perceptions.

 

Mapping of the essay

Bertolt Brecht, "Popularity and Realism"

 

Paragraph I

 

Topic Sentence: Whoever looks for slogans to apply to contemporary German literature, must bear in mind that anything that aspires to be called literature is printed exclusively abroad and can almost exclusively be read only abroad.

 

 Popular as applied to literature - curious connotation - the prevailing aesthetic, the price of books and the police have always ensured that there is a considerable distance between writer and people. - Unrealistic, to view the widening of this distance as a purely "external"- upper layers - oppressors and exploiters - bloody battle - an open battle - "public."

 

Paragraph II

 

Topic Sentence: The demand for a realistic style of writing can also no longer be so easily dismissed today.

 

 Ruling classes- in view of the immense suffering of the masses- difficulties of little groups has come to be felt as ridiculous, contemptible.

 

 

Paragraph III

 

Topic Sentence: Therefore it is obvious that one must turn to the people, and now more necessary than ever to speak their language.

 

Ally against growing barbarism—the people – popular art and realism become natural allies.

- broad working masses- faithful image of life from literature -comprehensible and profitable to them—in other words, popular - The concept of popularity itself is not particularly popular - It is not realistic to believe that it is.

 

Paragraph IV

 

Topic Sentence: It is precisely in the so-called poetical forms that "the people" are represented in a superstitious fashion or, better, in a fashion that encourages superstition.

 

 A remarkable unity -tormenters and tormented, exploiters and exploited, deceivers and deceived - it is by no means a question of the masses of "little" working people in opposition to those above them.

 

Paragraph V

 

Topic Sentence: The history of the many deceptions which have been practiced with this concept of the people is a long and complicated one—a history of class struggles

 

Popular art - art for the broad masses - "the people themselves," the mass of producers who were for so long the object of politics and must now become the subject of politics- powerful institutions, artificially and forcefully gagged by conventions - the concept popular was given an ahistorical, static, undevelopmental stamp.

 

 

Paragraph VI

 

Topic Sentence: Our concept of what is popular refers to a people who not only play a full part in historical development but actively—usurp it, force its pace, determine its direction

 

 Aggressive concept of what is popular

 

Paragraph VII

 

Topic Sentence: Popular means: intelligible to the broad masses, adopting and enriching their forms of expression /assuming their standpoint, confirming and correcting it / representing the most progressive section of the people so that it can assume leadership, and therefore intelligible to other sections of the people as well / relating to traditions and developing them / communicating to that portion of the people which strives for leadership the achievements of the section that at present rules the nation.

 

Paragraph VIII

 

Topic Sentence: Now we come to the concept of realism.

 

Old concept- many people- many ends- cultural heritage by an act of expropriation - not cling to "tried" rules of narrative, venerable literary models, eternal aesthetic laws - we shall use every means, old and new, tried and untried, derived from art and derived from other sources, to render reality to men in a form they can master - literary criteria for realism - "atmosphere"- Our concept of realism must be wide and political, sovereign over all conventions.

 

Paragraph IX

 

Topic Sentence: Realistic means: discovering the causal complexes of society / unmasking the prevailing view of things as the view of those who are in power / writing from the standpoint of the class which offers the broadest solutions for the pressing difficulties in which human society is caught up / emphasizing the element of development / making possible the concrete, and making possible abstraction from it.

 

 

Paragraph X

 

Topic Sentence: These are vast precepts and they can be extended.

 

 Fantasy- originality- humour – invention- not stick to too detailed literary models- rigidly defined modes of narrative.

 

Paragraph X

 

Topic Sentence: Realism is not a mere question of form

 

 Sensuous mode of writing- realistic mode of writing - spiritual life of the characters - spiritual agitation of the heroes - Were we to copy the style of these realists, we would no longer be realists

 

Paragraph XI

 

Topic Sentence: For time flows on, and if it did not, it would be a bad prospect for those who do not sit at golden tables.

 

 Methods become exhausted; stimuli no longer work- Reality- modes of representation- the new comes from the old, but that is why it is new- oppressors do not work in the same way in every epoch.

 

 

 

 

Paragraph XII

 

Topic Sentence: Anyone who is not a victim of formalistic prejudices knows that the truth can be suppressed in many ways and must be expressed in many ways.

 

Paragraph XIII

 

Topic Sentence: I am speaking from experience when I say that one need not be afraid to produce daring, unusual things for the proletariat so long as they deal with its real situation.

 

People of culture - connoisseurs of art - "Ordinary people do not understand that." - the people will push these persons impatiently aside and come to a direct understanding with artists - agitprop art was a mine of new artistic methods and modes of expression – spiritual landscapes of bourgeois art - mistake to reject a style of representation because of a few unsuccessful compositions a style which strives, frequently with success, to dig down to the essentials and to make abstraction possible.

 

Paragraph XIV & XV

 

Topic Sentence: The criteria for popular art and realism must therefore be chosen both generously and carefully, and not drawn merely from existing realistic works and existing popular works, as often happens, by so doing, one would arrive at formalistic criteria, and at popular art and realism in form only.

 

Compare the depiction of life in a work of art with the life itself- formalistic procedure - do something for the intelligibility of new works - being popular - becoming popular.

 

 

 

 

 

Paragraph XVI

 

Topic Sentence: If we wish to have a living and combative literature, which is fully engaged with reality and fully grasps reality, a truly popular literature, we must keep step with the rapid development of reality.

 

Great working masses - industry and brutality of their enemies

 

 

Thesis Statement of the Essay: If we wish to have a living and combative literature, which is fully engaged with reality and fully grasps reality, a truly popular literature, we must keep step with the rapid development of reality.

 

 

MEl-132- Assignment

Hai sir
Here I attach my Assisgnment. Thank you sir for the classes

fr.sijupaul

Painting: The Task of Mourning: Yve-Alain Bois

Radhika Shenoy

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               1124119

THESIS STATEMENT:

[my paintings] are about death in a way: the uneasy death of modernism.

Sherrie Levine

PARAGRAPH 1        

Topic Sentence:

Nothing is more conservative than the apocalyptic genre

Jacques Derrida             

Nothing seems to be more common in our present situation than a millenarianist feeling of closure.

Supporting sentences:

Endless diagnosis of death(celebratory or melancholic)-death of ideologies(Lyotard), industrial society(Bell), the real(Baudrillard), authorship(Barthes), man(Foucault), history(Kojeve)-death of modernism(by everyone when they use the term post-modernism)-are these voices of mystagogy bearing the tone of Kant in About a Recently Raised Pretentiously Noble Tone in Philosophy? Derrida- Each time-no generic answer to this question-no single paradigm of the apocalyptic-no ontological enquiry about 'its' tone-different tone of the writings-misguided-perverse-to connect Barthes to Baudrillard, Foucault to Bell, Lyotard to Kojeve-examine the tone of the apocalyptic discourse.

Key words:

Feeling of closure, apocalyptic discourse.

PARAGRAPH 2

Topic Sentence:

I will focus here on a specific claim: that of the death of painting, and more specifically, the death of abstract painting.

Supporting sentences:

Two historical circumstances-whole history of abstract painting can be read as a longing for its death-recent emergence of neo-abstract painters-official mourners or resurrectors of abstract painting. First circumstance-when did it start?-where can we locate the beginning of the end in modern painting-feeling, discourse, representation of the end? New generation of interested painters-is abstract painting still possible? Is abstract or any kind of painting possible? is abstract painting, sculpture, film, modes of thought still possible? Apocalyptic question-is anything, life, desire, etc. still possible?

Key words:

Abstract painting.

PARAGRAPH 3

Topic sentence:

The question about the beginning of the end and the question about the (still) possibility of painting are historically linked: it is the question about the (still) possibility of painting which is at the beginning of the end which is at the beginning of the end which has been our history, namely what we are accustomed to name modernism.

Supporting sentences:

Enterprise of modernism-abstract painting-emblem-couldn't have functioned without an apocalyptic myth. Freed from all extrinsic conventions-abstract painting-bring forth pure parousia of its own essence-tell the final truth thereby terminate its course. Pure beginning, liberation from tradition, zero degree-proposed by first generation of abstract painters-as an omen of the end. Through Historicism and essentialism of abstract painting-the enterprise of abstract painting understood its birth as a calling for its end. Malevich-no question of painting in Suprematism-painting ended long ago-artist prejudice of the past. Mondrain-his painting was preparing for the end which would occur once absolute essence of painting was determined. Abstract painting-do not imagine the feeling of the end is solely a function of its essentialism-necessary to interpret essentialism as the effect of larger historical crisis-industrialization-appearance of  photography and mass production-caused the end of painting. Mass production-end of painting- misc-en-scene – invention of the readymade. Challenge-mechanical apparatus of photography and mass production-painting had to redefine its status, to reclaim a specific domain.

Key words:

Abstract painting as emblem of modernism, zero degree, industrialization, photography, mass production.

PARAGRAPH 4

Topic sentence:

The beginnings of this agonistic struggle have been well described by Meyer Schapiro: the emphasis on the touch, on texture, and on gesture in modern painting is a consequence of the division of labour inherent in industrial production.

Supporting sentences:

Industrial capitalism-banished hands from the process of production-work of art-manual handling-workers compelled to demonstrate exceptional nature of their mode of production. Courbet to Pollock-a practice of one-upmanship. Present day 'returns to painting' a farcical repetition of this historical progression.

 

PARAGRAPH 5

Topic sentence:

Benjamin once noted that the easel painting was born in the Middle Ages, and that nothing guarantees that it should remain forever. But are we left with these alternatives: either a denial of the end or an affirmation of the end of the end?

Supporting sentences:

Theory of games-Hubert Damisch-dissociates generic game from the specific game (play). How can one determine what in their exchange is in the order of play and what is in the order of the game? It does not propose homogeneous time either. This strategic approach deciphers painting-agonistic field-nothing is ever terminated or decided once and for all-dismisses all certitudes of absolute truths  upon which apocalyptic discourse is based-fiction of the end of art-confusion between the end of the game itself and that of such and such a play.

Key words:

Theory of game, Generic game, Play.

PARAGRAPH 6

Topic sentence:

One can conclude then, that, if the play 'modernist painting' is finished, it does not necessarily mean that the game 'painting' is finished: many years to come are ahead for this art.

Supporting sentences:

Complicated situation: play 'modernist painting' was the play of the end of painting-a response to both, feeling of the end and working through of the end-historically determined by the fact of industrialisation. To claim 'end of painting' is finished is to claim that this historical situation is no longer ours-depicts naivety when it appears that reproducibility and fetishization have permeated all aspects of our life: have become our 'natural' world.

Key words:

Industrialization, reproducibility, fetishization.

PARAGRAPH 7

Topic sentence:

Mourning has been the activity of painting throughout this century.

Supporting sentences:

'To be modern is to know that which is not possible anymore', Roland Barthes. Work of mourning doesn't necessarily become pathological-feeling of end-produced a cogent history of modernist painting-probably promptly buried by us. Painting might not be dead. Vitality will be tested once we are cure of our mania and our melancholy-belief in our ability to act in history-accept the project of working through the end rather than evading it through elaborate defence mechanisms-settle our historical task-the task of mourning. Potential for painting will emerge in the conjunctive deconstruction of the three instances which has been dissociated by the modernist painitng-predictions are made to be wrong. Desire for painting remains-not entirely programmed or subsumed by the market-sole factor of a future possibility of painting-non-pathological mourning. Robert Musil-if some painting is still to come, if painters are still to come, they will not come from where we expect them to.

Key words:

Mourning, conjunctive deconstruction of the three instances which modernist painting has dissociated.

 

 

 

Pictures of Innocence: David Newnham and Chris Townsend

B.Jayalaksshme (1124135) David Newnham and Chris Townsend: Pictures of Innocence Paragraph 1: Thesis sentence: It is the stuff of nightmares- the sort of things that hardly bears thinking about. It could happen to you tomorrow morning. You are accused of a crime you did not commit, driven by police and interviewed for hours and your family questioned. And there is worse to come. Key words: Accused for crime – not committed-interviewed for hours. Paragraph 2: Topic sentences: The things you are supposed to have done is the very thing which society finds more abhorrent. Supporting sentences: If you are sent to prison, the other prisoners will fall upon you for self righteous rage. If you retain your liberty, establishing your innocence, society will shun you just the same – stained as you by brush with suspicion. Key words: Self-righteous rage, retain liberty Paragraph 3: Topic sentence: the crime of which you are accused is one which you yourself find unthinkable. Supporting sentences: Your victim you told in that unfriendly interview room is someone who is dear to you. Key words: Victim- dear to you. Paragraph 4: Topic sentence: Nightmares like this thrive in a climate of fear and moral outrage. Supporting sentences: At such times, those whose job it is to protect the society from evil are under pressure to seek it out in every quarter, to pursue every possibility and respond to every complaint. By doing so, they may add to the general sense of panic, at the same time creating another sort of fear – the fear of repression. Key words: Protect society from evil, sense of panic – fear of repression Paragraph 5: Topic sentence: In Britain today, no crime is regarded with more abhorrence than the sexual abuse of children. Supporting sentences: As a society, we have become uniquely sensitized to its various manifestations. Many people who have regular contact with children, have come to fear that their contact will be misinterpreted – will attract accusing fingers, even that knock on the door. Key words: Uniquely sensitized Paragraph 6: Topic sentence: A clear idea of what behavior is unacceptable to society is essential to all of us. Supporting sentences: Nowhere is there a greater clarification than on the question of how children may be represented in pictures. When does the family photograph become child pornography? Key words: Greater clarification – represented pictures. Paragraph 7: Topic sentence: Arrest of ITN newsreader Julia Somerville and her partner Jeremy Dixon. Supporting sentences: The couple were taken away and questioned because a photographic processing assistant told the police that a film left at a chemist's shop by Dixon contained 28 photographs of Somerville's seven year- old daughter in bath. Paragraph 8: Topic sentence: after four weeks, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that it was letting the matter drop. Supporting sentences: But by that time, two things happened. First, as the details of the arrest had been leaked to the press, Somerville, Dixon and, most worryingly of all Somerville's daughter, had all been exposed to a month of intense and damaging media speculation. Second, the case had cranked up public anxiety about the representation of child nudity. Key phrase: Details leaked to press-exposed to a month of intense and damaging media speculation. Public anxiety. Paragraph 9: Topic sentence: The Somerville affair was but the most newsworthy of many such incidents in which the police officers, responding to society's detestation of child pornography, have turned their attention to the lives and families of people subsequently found to be innocent of any wrongdoing. Key phrase: Responding to society's detestation of child pornography. Paragraph 10: Topic sentence: After the Somerville arrest, the magazine Amateur photographer launched a campaign for common sense, urging photographic processor to adopt a consistent set of guidelines when it came to interpreting child photographs. Key phrase: Photographic processor to adopt a consistent set of guidelines. Paragraph 11: Topic sentence: Emily Ovenden, 19- year old girl, throughout her childhood modeled nude to her father. Supporting sentences: 'When you were a kid' Emily says, 'you want to be photographed'. Nudity's natural. Key word: Nudity's natural. Paragraph 12: Topic sentence: Emily refuses to be interviewed by the police. Supporting sentences: She knows how her friend Maud was reduced to tears by the questioning about the sexual acts which never took place. She knows how Maud's father felt threatened and bullied. She knows how traumatized they all were by their contact with the police. Paragraph 13: Topic sentence: few people would dispute that pornographic images of children should be illegal. Supporting sentences: Laws by which we circumscribe the existence grow layer upon layer as we attempt to stay one step ahead of the pornographers. Other laws created during moments of moral outrage- some would say hysteria-come in to being fully formed. One such law is Protection of Children Act (1978) Paragraph 14: Topic sentence: The Act has all marks of tactic by moral pressure groups and religious fundamentalists. Supporting sentences: The original Private Member's Bill covered nothing. 'Too often ', said the Home Office, 'the courts are, placed in an almost impossible task by the house'. The Act has become a powerful tool, to be deployed in ways which were never intended. Paragraph 15: Topic sentence: Buoyed up by MP's on all sides of the House, riding on a tidal wave of extraordinary claims, Cyril Townsend's Bill floated easily on the statute book. Supporting sentences: The Bill changed the wording which enshrined the criminalization of imagery. It introduced the concept of 'indecency', but refused to provide definition. 'Indecency' was whatever right-thinking people understood it to mean 'by applying the recognized standards of propriety'. Key word: Indecency Paragraph 16: Topic sentence: In the following year the Act received further refinement for the Court of Appeal. Supporting sentences: New ruling stated that pictures suspected of being indecent must be judged outside the context in which they were created. No witnesses could be called to explain the motive for taking the photographs. In 1994, the Criminal Justice Act gave police the power to arrest people without the warrant on suspicion of the sexual abuse of children. Key word: Judged outside the context. Paragraph 17: Topic sentence: Has the 1978 Act, promoted 'to prevent the exploitation of children by their use in pornographic character' done anything to curb the activities of child abusers? Supporting sentences: According to Stephen J King, a third of all prosecutions under the Act between 1991 and 1993 were either dismissed or not proceeded with. Criminologist Dr Bill Thompson dispute that the 'flood of material' which initiated the legislation ever existed. Key word: Flood of material. Paragraph 18: Topic sentence: Jan Schuijer and Ben Rossen investigated the trade in child pornography. Supporting sentences: According to them all the pictures were commercially produced during seventies. Most of them were in the magazines such as 'Lolita'. Almost the same pictures were being recycled. They concluded that no new child pornography were there since the early eighties. Key word: Pictures recycled. Paragraph 19: Topic sentence: Thompson believes that the much – hyped child porn sweeping across the internet consists of images from 'Lolita', topped up with pictures from clothing catalogues. Supporting sentences: The real child abusers use technology which is beyond policing- to produce images. The fear of porn explosion has meant that the artists and their models, and entire families who want pictures of their children without clothes, are liable to investigation. Attempt to enforce the ill-defined law on child pornography made the adults scared of being intimate even with their own children. Key words: Fear of porn- scared of being intimate . Paragraph 20: Topic sentence: The officers of HM Customs and Excise, the police, and the CPS have had to become the specialized arbiters of indecency. Supporting sentences: In the absence of clear legislation, they seem to operate according to various criteria. One Officer has said, off the record, that 'any nude picture of a child under the age of consent is indecent'. Key word: Picture of a child under the age of consent is indecent'. Paragraph 21: Topic sentence: Most of the convictions secured under the Protection of Children Act have been in the Crown courts, and the majority of those convicted have been fined or put on probation. Supporting sentences: All the indications are that this law is doing little to protect society from real child pornographers. But the bodies charged with enforcement are under pressure to secure convictions. Society wants child abusers brought to justice. Key words: Protect society –justice. Paragraph 22: Topic sentence: The Obscene Publication Squad believed that Ovenden, father of Emily, a painter was at centre of child pornography ring for 15 to 20 years. Supporting sentences: The OPS raided his house and found large quantities of negatives, photographs and videos. He clearly believes in childhood as a state of grace. His paintings often explore the identity and sexuality of the pre-pubescent girl. Key words: State of grace, explore the identity and sexuality of the pre-pubescent girl. Paragraph 23: Topic sentence: It is easy to find elements to object to in Ovenden's art. Supporting sentences: It is sentimental and naïve and it represents adolescent sexuality. It represents sexuality at all is enough to condemn it in the eyes of observers. It contrives to be innocent. Key words: Sentimental- naïve – eyes of observers. Paragraph 24: Topic sentence: David Hockney says 'the idea that children naked are not beautiful seems to me hideous'. Supporting sentences: Of course, what is hideous are the acts perpetrated by child abusers. Key word: Hideous. Paragraph 25: Topic sentence: Ron Oliver was- outside of Britain he still is- a portrait photographer specializing in the family. Supporting sentences: He was frequently commissioned by wealthy, influential parents to record their children. When requested by his subjects he would take tender pictures of their children. Parents see beauty in the bodies of their offspring. But police saw things different. Paragraph 26: Topic sentence: Oliver's photography inspires various reactions. Supporting sentences: It seems open, sincere, at times sentimental. But no one could describe it as 'Kiddie porn'. Three years on from the raid, the police brought no charges. There appears to be a serious fault-line between reality and the police claim of breaking up a major child- porn ring. Key words: Kiddie porn. Paragraph 27: Topic sentence: There are many photographers who focus more obsessively on the naked child than Oliver. Supporting sentences: Sally Mann's studies of her children have been shown at galleries throughout the UK. To many they are disconcerting pictures – to others they are symbol of love, fiercely protective of their subject. Hamilton's work is 'unequivocal in its sexual intent'. But Oliver is considered as demonized pornographer. Key phrase: Symbol of love, unequivocal in its sexual intent'. Paragraph 28: Topic sentence: These days, Oliver lives on the continent, where attitudes to nudity seem more enlightened and the laws governing photography of children are less open to inconsistency of interpretation. Supporting sentences: His possibility of working in Britain is destroyed by smears and innuendo. He says 'all pictures need to show is closeness, affection, or just plain nudity. And frightened trouble minds look into these pictures and suspect abuse' Key words: Pictures show closeness, affection, or just nudity. . Paragraph 29: Topic sentence: Oliver believes people in Britain are not aware that certain sorts of images may trigger investigations by the police. Supporting sentences: Even if those pictures are subsequently deemed not to warrant prosecution, the private lives of everybody involved may come under scrutiny. 'If Britain does decide to regulate family behavior via its police force', Oliver says, 'then there should be law that makes it very clear how far one can go to avoid contact altogether. Such laws would give people the chance to have something that they can fight against – something they can campaign'. Paragraph 30: Topic sentence: Emily still models, fiercely proud of her body. Supporting sentences: She never felt self –conscious. She no longer work with her father but at 19 poses for a photographer called China Hamilton. Key word: Self-conscious. Paragraph 31: Topic sentence: we have problem with nudity. Supporting sentences: To look at our bodies and understand them is to know that we are sinful. As a result we refuse to look at life, its beauty and corruption, and simultaneously we cannot tear our gaze away. Instead of images of sincere sexuality we gorge ourselves on grotesque caricatures. Ovenden's crime was giving his models a stake in the artistic process. In this way he allowed them an awareness of their own sexual identity. 'Nudity at all levels was taken at face value'. Key words: Refuses to look at life, beauty. Sincere sexuality- grotesque caricatures. Awareness of sexual identity. Paragraph 32: Topic sentence: Sensuality changes from century to century. Supporting sentences: Critic John Berger writes: 'He who says "sensuous" – where the human body and the human imagination are concerned – is also "sexual".' What's really at stake in all the push and pull between artists and the law is the right to represent and read childhood in particular ways. We are not arguing about morals but ideology. Key word: Morals- ideology, sensuous. Paragraph 33: Topic sentence: childhood, especially that peculiar, painful interval we call adolescence, is something made by adults. Supporting sentences: Ovenden, Oliver, Sally, Hamilton, the police, all put their own particular spin on it. It is either the romantic Age of Innocence, or the moment of naïve emergence, self-understanding beginning to dawn at the moment the camera clicks shut, or else the place of darkness, of sexual repression, or, the place of sexual exploitation. And despite the endless, obsessive documentation, all the images somehow miss the point. Key words: the romantic Age of Innocence, naïve emergence, self-understanding beginning to dawn - the camera clicks shut, or else the place of darkness, of sexual repression, or, the place of sexual exploitation. Paragraph 34: Topic sentence: The truth of childhood is always in the emotionally wasted gaps between the happy, smiling poses, in absences. Supporting sentences: Adolescence negotiates its own sexual desires, its anarchy, in the interstices of an adult world. There are no pictures of your first cigarette, your first kiss. The childhood which the moral entrepreneurs seem to want is the idealized, sanitized version which forms a matching set in a larger vision of secular, happy nuclear families. Key words: Childhood the entrepreneur need-idealised, sanitized, - larger vision of secular, happy nuclear families. Paragraph 35: Topic sentence: we also need moral panics to regulate our own secret desires. Supporting sentences: By deflecting the crisis of abuse on to demonic, perverted paedophiles in organized rings, we forget that the real centre of abuse is too often the family. Key words: Crisis of abuse, demonic, paedophiles, centre of abuse-family.

Writing (And Righting) Wrongs: Feminist Art Publications: Carrie Rickey

Yukta (1124132)

Writing (And Righting) Wrongs: Feminist Art Publications

Thesis Statement: Although through the twentieth century women artists had been part of vanguard movements, in the 1970s women artists were the vanguard of vanguard.

Paragraph 1:

Topic Sentence: Imagine, if you will, a far flung network of moles, each tirelessly burrowing underneath a cultural landscape that spans from Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the Whiteny Museum in New York.

Key Word: Massive Reconfiguration of American art.

Key Ideas: Imagine- network of moles- tirelessly burrowing- unaware- history of women's achievements-anticipation of art and intellectual inquiry- result: massive reconfiguration of American art.

Paragraph 2:

Topic Sentence: The moles, of course are the many feminist artists, historians, critics, chroniclers, and theorists who, during the 1970s, created a thriving cultural network that, despite the demise of many venues and outlets, continues to influence the discourse about – not to mention the practice of – art well into 1990s.

Key Word: Feminist Art Press

Key Ideas: Moles- feminist artists, historians, critics etc of 1970s- produced great works – influenced 1990s art also – feminist art press of 1970s: one of the best predictors of American Art during 1980s

Paragraph 3 - 4:

Topic Sentence: In newsletter and reviws as different in frequency and texture as the monthly Women Artists News, the quarterly Feminist Art Journal, those quasi-quarterlies Chrysalis and Heresies, and the semiannual Woman's Art Journal, interviwes, manifestos, and questions appeared, presaging the changes in American Art.

Key Word: Presaging the changes in American Art

Key Ideas: Women began to be highlighted – questions rose by 1978 asking, 'why art history has reverses and feminine, lyrical or luxurious styles are replaced by virile, heroic and austere ones.

Paragraph 5:

Topic Sentence: From the vantage of the mid – 1990s, just the right distance if you're farsighted, it appears during the 1970s and 1980s that yes, many feminine and expressive styles of art dramatically replace the virile and impersonal austerity of Minimalism.

Key Word: Feminie and expressive style of art dramatically replace the virile and impersonal austerity of Minimalism.

Key Ideas: Mid- 1990s: appears that from 1970s and 1980s feminie style of art began replacing virile ones – Feminie style first surfacing in theory, discussion etc – feminist periodicals of 1970s.

Paragraph 6:

Topic Sentence: The monochrome of Minimalism predominated, from the works on the walls and floors to the walls and floors themselves.

Key Word: Minimalism dominated architecture.

Key Ideas: Vanguard American gallaries or museums – frequented between 1968 and 1978 -

if not frequented: need some color to evoke the period.

Paragraph 7:

Topic Sentence: Minimalism was the final stage (or do you call it the last gap?) of modernism – the belief in the tenet that art had to divest itself of anything not intrinsic to the medium.

Key Word: Evolved

Key Ideas: Minimalism - final stage of modernism – vanguard art evolved – painting: merely pigment on unstretched canvas – further elimination leads to blanks.

Paragraph 8:

Topic Sentence: Minimalism, it must be stressed, was not a men's only club.

Key Word: Not a men's - only club

Key Ideas: Minimalism – not only for men – many women also numbered.

Paragraph 9:

Topic Sentence: The feminist art press that flourished during the 1970s and beyond was not conceived as an aestheic antidote to the prevailing theory and practice of minimalism.

Key Word: Aesthetic antidote

Key Ideas: Feminist art press- 1970s – not conceieved as an aesthetic antidote to prevailing theory and practice of Minimalism – monastic backdrop of Minimalism – antiwar art actions – give rise to feminism and other movements – played out- Flatness of modernist canvases and austerity of Minimalism – brought art world politics into the highest relief.

Paragraph 10:

Topic Sentence: In her critical history of the Feminist Art Journal, Christine C. Rom perceived that the "increasingly obvious gap between the reform rhetoric of the late 60s and the reality of the traditional view of the sexes spawned the feminist artists' movement much as it had the larger American women's movement."

Key Word: Feminist artists' movement

Key Ideas: Critical history of Feminist Art Journal - Cristine C. Rom - percieved gap between rhetoric form of the late 60s and reality- traditional view spawned feminist artists' movement.

Paragraph 11:

Topic Sentence: In New York in 1969, female members of the Art Workers Coalition, appalled to learn that AWC's protests against the art establishment were waged on behalf of minority men only, splintered off from the group to found Women Artists in Revolution (WAR).

Key Word: Female abolitionists

Key Ideas: History repeats itself - debate - female abolitionists: feminists should seek the vote for black men first v/s should seek vote for all women first.

Paragraph 12:

Topic Sentence: LACWA analyzed the museum's exhibition record, which revealed that the fifty-three one - artist shows hosted by the museum; only one was dedicated to a woman, photographer Dorothea Lange.

Key Word: LACWA emerged to protest

Key Ideas: West Coast counterpart to the WAR mobilization – early 1970s – LACWA (group of feminist artists) - emerged to protest – no women artists were invited to participate – only 1/53 shows hosted was dedicated to woman.

Paragraph 13 – 14:

Topic Sentence: Each month, the WEB newsletter originated from a different city, educating its subscribers about the latest happenings, conducting a census of women faculty at major institutions, maintaining a slide registry so that curators and critics would have a visual data bank of work by women.

Key Word: First newsletter

Key Ideas: Curatorial defense: women artists are not exhibited because there are no significant women artists – WEB was conceived, gestated and birthed – women's art movement needs delegates across the country – 1^st newsletter typed – WEB bloomed – representatives in 12 states and 5 nations – each month newsletters originated from different cities – latest happenings published

Paragraph 15:

Topic Sentence: Largely as a result of these political actions and intelligence-sharing, the ususal 5% representation of women artists rises to 22% in the 1971 Whiteny Annual.

Key Word: 5% representations of women rises to 22%

Key Ideas: Political actions – intelligence sharing – 5% representations of women artists rise to 22% in 1971 - Linda Nochilin's essay "Why have there been no great women artists?", January (ARTnews).

Paragraph 16 - 17:

Topic Sentence: While there are no women equivalents for Michelangelo or Rembrandt, Delacroix or Cezanne, Picasso or Matisse, Nochilin argues, "In actuality, as we know, In the arts as in a 100other areas, things remain stultifying, oppressive and discouraging to all those – women included – who did not have a good fortune to be born white, preferably middle – class and above all, male.

Key Word: Fault lies in our institution and our education.

Key Ideas: Nochilin – white western male view points accepted as art historian – inadequate – no women equivalent to many great male artists – women : those who are not fortunate enough to be born as a male – fault: in our institution and education.

Paragraph 18:

Topic Sentence: Though many burrowed before her, Nochlin is the mother mole who displaced the most earth and who challenges other historians, artists, and critics to question their institutions of learning and their received wisdom.

Key Word: Institutionalization of inequality.

Key Ideas: Historically, women artists could not paint from the nude – institutionalization of inequality – Nochlin's essays – demand reviewing of whole of western art.

Paragraph 19:

Topic Sentence: The historical/institutional critique provided by Nochlin's essay swiftly achieved critical mass given the feminist art – world activism already sustaining the Ad Hoc Women Artists Groups, LACWA, WAR, and WEB.

Key Word: Conducted a chain reactions from coast to coast.

Key Ideas: Groups formed – groups came together – conducted chain reactions – many participants joined forces – formed Women's Caucus of the College Art Association – ideas exchanged – gave rise to publications of many provocative subjects.

Paragraph 20:

Topic Sentence: During all this intellectual and social ferment many general feminist periodicals were being founded, from the mainstream Ms. to the scholarly Signs.

Key Word: General Feminist periodicals were being founded.

Key Ideas: General feminist periodicals being founded – Journals responsive to literary and social concerns – none sensitive to the aesthetics – feminist art press broke new grounds.

Paragraph 21:

Topic Sentence: It's tempting to think of the Feminist Art movement in terms of a university and the six principal publications that surfaced as different features and courses offered there.

Key Word: Feminist Art Movement

Key Ideas: Feminist Art Movements – in terms of university – six principal publications – different features and courses offered – Feminist Art Journal – lively speaker's program spotlighting underknown women artists.

Paragraph 22 - 23:

Topic Sentence: Finally, there is the Woman's Art Journal, a postgraduate course reexamining art historical subjects from a scholar's perspective. This academy of art publications would define – not to mention alternately embrace and reject – many feminisms.

Key Word: Reexamining art historical subject.

Key Ideas: Chrysalis – interdisciplinary graduate program – exploring confluence of psychology, literature, and art – Heresies – independent study program – devoted to feminism, art and politics of single themes.

Paragraph 24 – 25:

Topic Sentence: "As in the case of many outgrowths of the women's movement, the Feminist Art Journal was a product of collective need and individual determination," wrote editor-in-chief Cindy Nemser in a 1974 edition of the Brooklyn, New York based quarterly that was published from 1972 to 1977.

Key Word: Established Feminist Art Journal

Key Ideas: 3 goals – to be voice of women artists in the world – to improve the status of all women artists – to expose sexist exploitations and discriminations.

Paragraph 26 – 27:

Topic Sentence: However well intentioned, the first two ideals would not be realized during FAJ's five years and the third would be only intermittently addressed.

Key Word: Recorded women's art movements.

Key Ideas: FAJ recorded women's art movements – necessary resource – aesthetically far flung – publication of unusually large range.

Paragraph 28 – 33:

Topic Sentence: FAJ introduced a consideration of Renaissance patroness Marie de' Medici as a tastemaker and history shaper.

Key Word: First woman commissioned by the US

Key Ideas: FAJ considered Renaissance patroness Marie de' Medici as a tastemaker and history shaper - First woman commissioned by the US – published on aesthetic and literature – emergence of women filmmakers – resurrected the careers of architects – celebrated women writers – yet trying to achieve staged goal – magazine seen as the house organ of the Nemser cult of personality

Paragraph 34 – 35:

Topic Sentence: Seigel noted that he (Rosenberg) was quick to deny that there existed art typical of women, because if it did exist it could be used both for and against women.

Key Word: Art typical of women.

Key Ideas: Seigel – 1975 lecture by art critic Harold Rosenberg – noted he'd deny there existed typical of women art – anti-semite views.

Paragraph 36 – 41:

Topic Sentence: While other feminist journals came and went, WAN proved remarkable durable and enduring.

Key Word: WAN paid attention to real politics, chronicling the women artists.

Key Ideas: WAN flourished – feminism – postmodern – History of Art – invited 3^rd world women artists – stream-of-conscious meditation – battled sex discrimination – paid attention to real politics – other feminist journals died out – WAN : remarkably durable and enduring.

Paragraph 42 – 47:

Topic Sentence: Less than a decade after women artists' movement was officially born in 1969, womanart, an exemplary Brooklyn-based quarterly founded by Ellen Lubell in 1976, devoted much of a 1977 edition to the question, "What Ever Happened to the Women Artists' Movement?

Key Word: Womanart, the spiritual daughter of FAJ

Key Ideas: 1969 – womanart founded – spiritual daughter of FAJ – essay on "Making of Modern Art" – careful balance of historical and the current – Contemorary Reinvention of Portraiture and self – portrait – printed on slick paper – also published essays by male historians and critics

Paragraph 48 – 49:

Topic Sentence: The depolarization, anomie and alienation, so much a part of men's world, are balanced in women's by intimacy and connectedness.

Key Word: Published anything that would potentially device women's artists' movement.

Womanart polled feminist artists and historians – making innovations in resisting – published the artists' meditations on recurring themes in women's art.

 

yukta