Fraught with Meaning: The Challenge to a Modern Art Observer

The Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition provides a glimpse at widely varied modern art produced by a handful of new experts in the art world. The media ranges from oil painting to digital painting to video and audio. This myriad of materials used in the art provides breadth to the exhibit and provides a well-rounded snapshot of how art is being created today. The subject matter, which cannot be simply classified as still life or portrait, provides a grueling experience for the observer to decipher the meaning of the pieces. Further, the thesis aspect of this exhibition begs the question: did these up-and-coming artists produce successful works of art?

Tobias Walther offers a strange, stomach-churning venture around Pullman in his piece Sailor (2009). He places two black and white video loops next to one another, and the loops show similar images of the Washington State University campus and the surrounding rolling wheat fields. While the loops are timed differently, there are critical points of overlap where the same image appears concurrently. The significant length of the loops and the dramatic sound effects make this piece successful and captivate the audience. The stark, desolate black and white camera shots and the sounds, such as heavy breathing and crunching wheat, are reminiscent of an eerie Alfred Hitchcock mystery. His title could indicate a lonely, arduous journey like that faced by a sailor a long time ago. There is a constant sense of searching, bewilderment, and uncertainty of what is coming next in this piece. Walther’s work keeps the senses on edge and the mind busy trying to piece together what is happening.

Heather McGeachy took a rather novel approach to her pieces with the use of digital painting. This intriguing media appears to consist of a digitally composed image printed on clear plastic sheets and encased in plexiglas. The more abstract pieces that combine an exploration of composition and color are the most successful. The piece Tyria (2008) reveals an abstract Southwestern landscape with incredible depth even though the image floats, suspended away from the wall. It has a water color quality, since the colors are transparent. It invites the viewer to make sense of the organic shapes and absence of solid lines. In contrast, the piece Dunkoh (2008) is a triptych depicting cartoon-like science fiction scenes. The first and third images are of the same robot with differing colors, and the center image is of a futuristic building. This composition makes the three images seem disconnected, and the work would appear more coherent if the center image was, for instance, the robot again with still different colors. This piece would find a better place at a sci-fi convention than an art gallery. However, the variety of McGeachy’s pieces provides a rounded portfolio of work that demonstrates exploration of the medium of digital painting, such as overlapping colors and layers of sheets with color and black lines.

This exhibition suggests that the current art world is complex, wide and varying. There is significant and broad exploration of media, which is most apparent. A majority of these pieces can really only be exhibited and critically appreciated in a museum setting, such as the installation or mixed media pieces. These works do not easily give up their meaning. Their complexity or simplicity or pure strangeness wrestles with the observer and puts up a fight against understanding and reason. There seems to be a growing distinction between artwork for exhibits in museums and that for private ownership. Privately owned works can be pleasing pictures that hang on the wall or small sculptures; whereas, art intended for a museum setting is obscure with meaning. It seems there is a rift between simply aesthetically pleasing art and the art produced by true experts in their field, when long ago they used to be one and the same.

An Encore of Pollock

Being most familiar Pollock over Madonna and Spiderman, I return to him and his artwork with Freud and Foucault for analysis. Freud explored the unconscious as the source of the works of art produced by artists, which becomes evident in Pollock’s work. Pollock did something revolutionary in the art world with his drip paintings. His work appears to be a chaotic mess of paint with maybe some order in the patterns with different colors. Although Freud expressed that artists somehow manipulate daydreams into tangible works of art that are enjoyed by the audience, Pollock was not simply expressing daydreams. Rather, Pollock gets down to a fundamental unconscious state in which there appears total chaos; yet, there is a slight discernable order to the layers and patterns of colors. During Freud’s time in the 19th century, there was more of a realistic sense instead of abstract sense to works of art. With increasing abstraction, artwork closes in on raw unconscious thought. These works of art are not exactly something the audience can relate to like daydreams. Pollock captures almost a natural rhythm, as indicated by Richard Taylor in his fractal analysis of Pollock paintings. I think Freud would find an explicit example of a glimpse of unconscious thought in Pollock’s drip paintings.

When Pollock was producing his drip paintings, they formed a completely new and strange branch of the art spectrum. Although not really intentional, Pollock challenged the elite definitions of what were acceptable pieces of art. Similar to Velazquez’s work Las Meninas, Foucault may have observed Pollock’s paintings as a true, purer form of art, since it stretched the boundaries of acceptable works of art. Pollock went against the grain of American power, order, and norms. He drank excessively and did art exactly the way he wanted to do it. He sold his art to whoever would buy it and did not make paintings with the audience’s expectations in mind. From Foucault’s perspective, Pollock challenged the established order of society. He expanded the knowledge of the art world and provoked questions of what can be accepted as art. Pollock was necessary to help prevent art at the time from becoming stagnant, predictable and comfortable within established limits. According to Foucault, perhaps artists like Pollock are the purest artists, because they challenge the order, power, and knowledge of societies.

"The Heidi Chronicles" by Wendy Wasserstein

Gender difference may translate into different perspectives that come through in art, but I don’t think any given piece of art can be exactly identified as produced by a woman or man just by observation. Once the gender of the artist is known, it is easier to identify feminine or masculine characteristics in the work. For instance, Caravaggio and Gentileschi both painted the biblical scene of the beheading of Holofernes by Judith. The aggression and darkness in Gentileschi’s painting could suggest a male artist made the artwork. Additionally, Judith is delicate, wearing white and bathed in light in Caravaggio’s painting. However, when considering the gender of the artist with the painting, there is a different understanding of how the scene is portrayed. Caravaggio depicts Judith as a dainty heroine exerting minimal effort to kill Holofernes. It is suggested that she is assisted by the will of God, since she still maintains the “good” qualities of a woman such as being delicate, lovely, and serene. Judith appears stronger and forceful in the more violent painting by Gentileschi, which is likely more realistic. Gentileschi gives more power to Judith and reveals a darker struggle of women against men.

I thought the WSU performance of The Heidi Chronicles was excellent. The scenes made much more sense with the emotions and interactions of the actors and actresses. Further, it was interesting to hear about the preparation work of the theatre department for this play. Their background research into 1965-1989 really contributed to the play’s effectiveness. The use of a projector throughout the play tied the scenes together nicely. The clips, photos and music during the scene changes kept the audience focused on the play and provided transitions between the scenes, which varied widely in location and time. For post baby boomer generations, the media used in the production emphasized the ideas, conflicts, and characteristics of the different decades in the play. The use of flashbacks with the large frame on the set and the indication of snapshots was also an effective part of the production. All of the details that went into the production that were not in the original play show that a production can bring a new meaning to a play as a work of art. I felt like I knew Heidi Holland better and understood Wasserstein’s intent with the play more clearly after watching the WSU production.