Postmodern Inventions by Chris Ofili, Tracy Emin, and Judy Chicago - Essay Example

Name: University: Instructor: Date: Postmodernism Introduction Postmodernism can be described as an idealistic term which is applicable to design, architecture and also arts. According to Olson (14), postmodernism rejects the post-war modernism pre-occupation; thus, it substitutes it with the art form and technique purity. The majority of postmodern artists as it will be indicated in the piece have a tendency of combining the past style elements such as the baroque as well a classical, with the modern influence of magazines and popular films. Collectively, their artworks execution normally demonstrates a paradoxical effect. Basically, postmodernism is appropriately used in architecture instead of canvas painting and can also be related to music, literature, and urban planning. Scores of postmodern philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Martin Heidegger are deemed to have swayed the artistic part of postmodernism. Observably, the artworks considered to be postmodernism art are idiosyncratically magnanimous, multifaceted, diverse, receptive, combining, appropriative, feminist, political, non-traditional, kitsch as well as mundane. Clearly, postmodernism is nearly a direct opposite of modernism, which is deemed to be uniform, rigid and simple. This piece examines and contrasts postmodern inventions by three artists; Chris Ofili recognized for intricately ornamented and intensely colored paintings; Tracy Emin acknowledged for her confessional and autobiographical artwork; and, Judy Chicago well-known for her enormous collaborative installation art pieces that examine women’s role in culture and history. Discussion Chris Ofili became a well-known postmodern artist since mid-1990s for his complex, vibrant, meticulously and technically executed paper works and paintings. Although most of Ofili’s early works were largely abstract, which involved intricate colors and patterns; he has progressively created a signature metaphorical style bridging the gap between the profane and the sacred, as well as through extension, between d popular culture and high art. Ofili’s works focus more on the connection between content and form and utilized a number of paint layers, collage elements, glitter, resin and sometime, elephant dung to enlist religious, cultural, sexual, and historical references with the aim of creating uniquely physical as well as aesthetic works that expose the society’s darker undercurrents. The subject matter of Ofili's artworks is normally racial stereotypes with the aim of challenging as well as reinterpreting them (Tate). Ofili’s exuberant paintings are well-known for their creative utilisation of media and rich layering. Some of the artworks by Ofili include No Woman, No Cry 1998 and also Upper Room 1999–2002. In No Woman, No Cry 1998, a female figure recognized as Doreen Lawrence dominates the frame. During a racist attack in 1993 in south London, her son, Stephen had been stabbed to death. Therefore, Ofili is stirred into creativity by the cruel violence meted on Stephen (Awoyokun 13). The painting depicts a crying woman facing social turbulence and inner turmoil after the death of her son. Figure One: No Woman No Cry (1998) (Awoyokun 12) Another notable artwork by Ofili is the Upper Room (1999–2002), whereby he brings to forth an ambitious marriage of architecture as well as art. As demonstrated in figure two, this art contains thirteen paintings housed inside a spacious room, and the lighting is sourced from spotlights that descent from an undetectable source in the ceiling. Every pain has spotlights above it while the other space beyond the paintings is in darkness. Ofili sensationalizes the room entrance; there is a long, ascending and dark passage and also an anticipatory visual silence (Awoyokun 16). Figure two: The Upper Room 1999–2002 (Tate) Judy Chicago is considered as one of the founders of Feminist art, which is a movement in the 1970s that aspired to reflect the lives of the women, make known the roles of women as artists, as well as change the conditions through which postmodern art was created and received. As a Feminist artist, Chicago sought to redress the traditional underrepresentation of women through visual arts. She placed emphasis on the female subject matter, as evidenced by her remarkable artwork ‘The Dinner Party (1979)’. This piece of art commemorates the women achievements all through the history, scandalizes the audiences with the utilisation of vaginal metaphors (The Art Story). Chicago utilized ‘feminine’ arts which had been demoted to the lowest artistic hierarchy rungs, like embroidery as well as needlework. She expressed her feminist vision through art as well as by installing and performing, the Womanhouse. Without a doubt, The Dinner Party is a colossal set up whose objective was to celebrate the female history achievements that had already been forgotten. This artwork is considered as the ‘The Last Supper’ reinterpretation from the women perspective, who all through the history, have been preparing meals for men as well as setting the table (The Art Story). Chicago installs a triangular table with figurative places set for 39 outstanding women from various Western civilization stages. All guests had their own runner, decorated with their names on one side and imagery depicting their achievement on the other side. A glass plate, embellished with a floral or butterfly motif that symbolizes a vulva was utilized to set up each place. Chicago included contemporary social event elements with the appearance as well as the status of a banquet. The guests are elevated to the role of heroes, which customarily was a male appellation. Figure Three: The Dinner Party (1974–1979) (The Art Story) Another notable artwork by Chicago is ‘Hatching the Universal Egg (1984)’, whereby she continues to address female experience underrepresentation, in this case, associated with inadequate imagery in Western culture that portrays the moment women are giving birth. This art shows a woman squatting to give birth to the egg of life, illustrated in a translucent and warm light that flows from her womb as well as rich tones. Figure Four: Hatching the Universal Egg (1984) Tracey Emin is normally recognized as the British art’s bad girl for her rasping self-righteous and public appearances art that is somehow at odds with England’s societal norms and the preceding femininity notions. Emin is widely recognized for her genuinely confessional and personal artwork, which she has been promoting through her celebrity and also by utilizing the popular media. The subject matter of her artworks is personal distressing events like alcoholism, public humiliation, unreported rape, bigotry, promiscuity as well as botched abortions (The Art Story). The quality of her works has been debated widely, from female representation politics to expressionism critique. One of her creative work is ‘Everyone I have ever slept with (1995)’ which became famous not just to the general public but also to the art world. In this art, Emin inscribed the names of every person she had slept with in a small tent that has an open door, a mattress, and lit from the inside. Fascinatingly, this artwork was at first criticized since the majority of people believed that the sexual conquest list was more like boasting and cannot be considered as an artwork (The Art Story). Still, Emin's wording choice in her title supplements a nuance level to this piece of art. The list contained 102 people, which includes non-sexual partners such as her twin brother, grandmother as well as her two aborted fetuses. Therefore, this art piece can be considered as a general human intimacy rather than sexual intimacy. Given that the tent was small, the way the viewers had to enter the tent to see names demonstrates a sense of intimacy and focuses on emotional connection achieved by sleeping next to a person, instead of a sexual conquest. Figure Five: Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1995) (The Art Story) My Bed (1999) is another notable artwork by Emin, whereby she records numerous days she spent in the bed because of depression. As demonstrated in figure six, the bed is untidy with stained sheets. The bed is surrounded by various items like cigarette ends, contraceptive pills, condoms, money, as well as menstrual stained underwear. The artwork is her real-life bed after being confined to bed following the ending of her personal relationship. This art was considered as self-confessional whereby biographical items belonging to Emin are utilized to express a common state or emotion (Medina 59). The art depicts the common depression experience through an intimate and personal lens. The art draws a crucial distinction between presentation as well as representation. Figure Six: My Bed (1999) (Awoyokun 5) Analysis With the view to creative innovations of Ofili, Chicago and Emin, it is evident that their work focused on societal issues such as racism, stereotyping, women underrepresentation, and personal distressing events. Ofili was inspired to talk about racial discrimination through creative artwork. He had personally experience spells of racial apprehensions which resulted in bloody mayhems across the United Kingdom: the demonstrations in Brixton, Lewisham, Nothing Hill, Birmingham, Bristol, and other towns in the United Kingdom. Ofili utilizes art to demonstrate how he lived through the Thatcherism ultra-conservative political environment that openly promoted aggression to ethnic minorities, especially the blacks. As demonstrated by his piece ’No Woman No Cry’, he finds comfort in art and uses elephant dung as his signature material (Awoyokun 5). On the other hand, Chicago artworks are inspired by the women's movement as well as their rebellion against the 1960s art scene that was dominated by men. She creates works that acknowledge the major achievements of female figures in the history and also women recognized for their unique experiences. She generates a rich work body that adds women onto the historical records as well as improving their visual arts’ representation. Chicago embraced creative media whose designers were predominantly women disregarded as merely ‘craft’ by the high art world. She uses art, such as the Dinner Party‘s to enable her viewers, particularly women and girls to think beyond their gender, which normally is serving the men. She teaches her audience the women achievements in the Western civilization and seeks to help both men and women to clearly fathom the experiences of women through the lens of history. Emin’s art is completely different from that of Ofili and Chicago since she uses art to demonstrate and confess her personal issues while the others use art to address societal issues. Emin’s art is typified by a confessional tone: all through her work, she incessantly points out that her artworks are drawn from her life’s story. Therefore, she invites her audience actively to examine and deduce her artwork autobiographically. Still, the confession mode raises the audience’s expectations considering that traditionally confession is related to truth; therefore, the audience expects an honest confession to result in absolution. The audience of Emin’s art anticipates her work to be real since an untruthful confession cannot be considered a confession. Emin story as narrated by her artworks depicts signs of outright contradiction as well as incoherence. By utilizing personal art, Emin arouses unmerciful rejections and ardent adhesions. Her art impassioned the majority of the young people to the extent that she has become an authentic artistic and social icon in the postmodern world. She strikingly utilizes different color in her artwork and explores the material possibilities of various media utilized. Nearly all of her artworks are complaints, shouts, exorcisms, and impudic exhibitions of her obsessions, pains, traumas, as well as fears. Her confessional and autobiographical artwork can be considered as purgative, therapeutic, and able to heal. Conclusion In conclusion, this piece as examined the creative inventions of Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, and Judy Chicago. Ofili’s utilizes cultural and painterly elements to speak out about racial discrimination against black people, and most of his arts convey messages regarding black exoticism, history and culture. Chicago is considered as the pioneer of women-focused art programs and uses history to make her audience understand the achievement of women in a male-dominated Westernized society. She has used art to challenge the art world’s intellectual elitism and confronts the male-centered hierarchies that have been controlling the understanding of the public and art’s value-judgment. Finally, Emin’s art is typified by personal confessions, regarding her life story, fears, and experiences. Evidently, postmodern artistic inventions focused more on societal problems such as racial discrimination as evidenced in Ofili works, women underrepresentation as demonstrated by Chicago artworks, and personal distressing events as exhibited by Emin arts. Works Cited Awoyokun, Damola. “Neomodernism, Critical Interventions.” Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture 7.1 (2013): 5-28. Medina, Miguel Ángel. “Tracey Emin: Life Made Art, Art Made from Li.” Arts 3 (2014): 54-72. Olson, Carl. Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy: Two Paths of Liberation from the Representational Mode of Thinking. Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2000. Tate. Chris Ofili. 2010. 29 March 2017. . The Art Story. Judy Chicago: American Painter, Sculptor, and Installation Artist. 2013. 29 March 2017. . —. Tracey Emin: British Sculptor, Photographer, Painter, and Conceptual Artist. 2014. 29 March 2017. . Read More