Low culture and Street Art - Essay Example

Trace the infusion of ‘street art’ from the 70s to the present through the five artists -- Sherman, Kruger, Haring, Shabazz, and Cunningham, contrasting their differences in techniques and intentions, and reflecting the periods in which the artists worked.  Just as postmodernism stood its ground in exhibiting a significant degree of deviation from the principles of modernism and equivalent ideologies of modernity such as structuralism, positivism, materialism, and realism, “street art” comprised the bulk of movement which was necessitated by artists who sought reform and flexible break from a formal confinement. Renaissance art, for one, has been celebrated in forms of impressions and expressions that are chiefly meant for the discernment of high intellects in an elite society so that from this stage, there have since been thoughtful reformers who find that the selfish tradition of enlightenment in erudite art must be made accessible to public knowledge regardless of social class or economic status. In particular, “street art” serves the purpose of contradicting abstract art which is rather known to communicate to sight in the rigid context of its norm that is quite irrelevant to the view of everyday reality in reference to the socio-cultural aspects of living. By formal definition, “street art” pertains to visual art performed and generated in public spaces especially on streets that may be viewed by the greater population and which may consist of graffiti artwork, street photography, sculpture, multimedia-based public art, guerrilla art, street paintings and poster designs with slogan, sticker art, as well as other creations that can find association with artistic endeavor that yields civic exposure and appreciation. Such denotation reflects how street art is treated in response to its primary aim under a variety of approach and themes as diverse as cultures and genres that bear impact upon the minds of street artists. Eventually, prominent street art figures across half the century prior to the second millennium beginning with the 70s to the present like C. Sherman, B. Kruger, K. Haring, J. Shabazz, and B. Cunningham have, in a way or the other, liberated art to a degree that it reaches out to establish connection with the heart of human nature. As an artists who functions on a conceptual framework, Barbara Kruger imparts a postmodern vision of public artistry via the power of black, white, and red in layered photography though she confesses “I feel uncomfortable with the term public art, because I’m not sure what it means; if it means what I think it does, then I don’t do it.” Kruger’s works are characteristic of collage between images and captions carrying bold depictions of truth typically of the issues dealing with individualism which manifest in a range of photomontage collections that deliver sharp statements as the famous “Your body is battleground”, “I shop therefore I am”, and “Plagiarism is the sincerest form of imitation” and “You can’t hide your prodding curiosity.” Much as the texts of her street art speak of satirical confrontations and struggle for revolutionary change and control, they occur to embody criticisms on the prevailing subjects of sexism, consumerism, and feminism during the early 80s. By the mid-70s, photographer and film director Cindy Sherman initiated her influence in contemporary art by taking an experimental journey in her photo-series creations which are critically acclaimed for their sensually controversial appeal to the public. Though Sherman does not claim to take a feminist perspective on developing her representational concepts, majority of her products make an ample regard for social issues involving women. “Centrefolds” in 1981 campaigned against the notion of stereotyping and labelling of women toward moral substandard in print ads and motion pictures whereas there emerged “Sex” series which collectively protested the censorship of homoerotic portraits by R. Mapplethorpe and A. Serrano. It is through Sherman’s insights that one is led to the comprehension of extensive possibilities with modelling feminine intricacies either in classic or modern setting since Sherman renders herself the working archetype of her photography. Somehow, critics admit to designating the projects of Sherman within the scope of neo-expressionism of the era before the late 80s in which expressionists altogether thrust the signification of ‘human body’ and ‘concrete objects’ so as to pull off the identity of art from the doom of high culture introversion. In the advancement of visual arts, Andy Warhol built the Foundation for the Visual Arts in 1987 through which he has marked the art history on becoming a “pop artist”. His adoption of ‘silkscreen’ technique enabled him to better perceive the adventure in the proliferation of art which actually started in the 60s when Warhol’s paintings of the ‘Campbell Soup’ can and ‘Coke’ bottles were produced in mass quantities along with the silkscreen prints of the pop icons Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Based on such an idea, Warhol had turned out a leading influence to the street art of Keith Haring whose “Radiant Baby” trademark is said to have symbolized his personal view of the “pop culture” that he intends to demonstrate with the use of vivid colors, dynamic objects, and thick bold lines. Despite his short lifespan, Haring managed to relish and extend his fascination for drawing to the level of earning the capacity to acknowledge an ‘alternative art community’ found along subways, club spaces, and downtown streets. Not only did he come to meet fellow visual illustrators at art exhibition events held in galleries and museums during the late 70s but even conferred with and learned from musicians and graffiti writers beyond the walls of formal art institutions. Due to inspirations drawn from certain contemporaries as Burroughs and Dubuffet who brought about “The Art Spirit” manifesto and the installation piece “Running Fence” by Christo besides the impact of mainstream art by Warhol, Haring embraced public art and was driven to operate at the height of his potentials to promote the aesthetic values of low culture art. Street fashion photographer Bill Cunningham who holds the record of New York’s visual history for the last four or five decades, likewise, apparently makes an artist who expresses his passion for street art in a manner that cannot be bounded by dimensions of time, space, and change. From the consequence of his unexpected project detailing impromptu shots at the then renowned actress Greta Garbo up to his most recent tasks of capturing women in clothes, fashion attitude, and general lifestyles within the realms of New York society, Cunningham has been observed to possess a strong sense of independence that his career seems barely attached to a single art category knowing how he has witnessed and experienced himself the evolution of arts. Several directions of street or public art of the past mid-20th century may have challenged his design and perception toward methods in artistry yet, as it appears, he lives on to be enriched with more adventures instead of philosophies in guiding his path to portraits of remarkable quality and success by which he would always be secured in high esteem by his followers and New York Times colleagues alike. Museum curator H. Koda further notes of Cunningham “From late 1980s stone-washed denim to early 90s low-riding rapper jeans, he has seen it all ... long before the age of digital photos, blogs, tweets, and front-row orientation.” Jamel Shabazz, on the other hand, became inclined to photography after a chain of documentations made for peers and relatives. Having looked up to L. Freed and J. Van Der Zee, Shabazz was motivated to document various cultures in and out of U.S. and people living in an African-American community. To this extent, one may infer of him as being able to obtain in understanding not the language of street art merely but also the light of discerning multiculturalism that interacts to the soul of his wisdom with images and their socio-cultural essence both in the field of art and of humanities. Like Cunningham, Shabazz explores different spots with the principal intention of capturing urban life which he originally prospected for about thirty years of combined intellect, adventure, and hard-work. Pieces of his craftsmanship have been shown in the current age of the 21st century particularly via the documentary film ‘Planet B-Boy’ in 2007 and “Street Art, Street Life: From the 1950s to Now” collection in 2008. Works Cited “Postmodernism.” On Truth & Reality. 2011. Web. 18 Apr 2012. http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Postmodernism.htm. “Street Art: Definition.” Urban Dictionary. 2012. Web. 18 Apr 2012. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=street%20art. “Cindy Sherman: The Art History Archive -- Photography.” 2012. Web. 18 Apr 2012. http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/photography/Cindy-Sherman.html. “Biography of Keith Haring.” 2012. Web. 18 Apr 2012. http://www.haring.com/about_haring/bio/index.html. “Andy Warhol: 1928 – 1987.” artelino. 2012. Web. 18 Apr 2012. http://www.artelino.com/articles/andy_warhol.asp. Betts, Kate. “Bill Cunningham: The Original Street Fashion Photographer.” TIME LightBox. 16 Mar 2011. Web. 18 Apr 2012. http://lightbox.time.com/2011/03/16/bill-cunningham-new-york/#1. Jamel Shabazz. dirtypilot.com. 2008. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. http://www.dirtypilot.com/show21-12.html. Read More