WHERE DOES CONTENTCOME FROM?

Thinking about form in portraiture

Joshua Johnson

Born c.1765 and died 1830 in Baltimore, MD

“a self-taught genius, deriving from nature and industry his knowledge of the Art; and having experienced many insuperable obstacles in the pursuit of his studies”

Sarah Ogden Gustin, c. 1805, National Gallery of Art

Portrait of a Gentleman, c. 1805-1810

The Westwood Children, c. 1807

Questions

How much does the background or life story of the artist matter?

How much autonomy does the artist have in communicating?

Form versus Content

Form

The materials, techniques, and style used in an artwork; how something is shaped or made

Content

What is being said or expressed in an artwork; the meaning or substance

Form changes subject

Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss, 1916

Auguste Rodin, The Kiss, 1889

Context changes form

How do we determine meaning?

How an object is placed or situated (the context) directs or gives clues to understanding

Includes when/where/how/who of its making and placement

The style or method of an object’s making (its form)

Line, texture, material, color, value, weight

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Washington, D.C.

Other King statues

University of Texas Annapolis, Maryland

How do statues convey?

Omaha, Nebraska Albany, New York

What makes a work controversial?

• This statue, by Ed Rose, was in Denver for two decades

• Controversy pushed it to storage until it was moved to a King museum in Pueblo, Colorado

Beginning the Memorial idea

Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, of which King was a member, proposed a national memorial in 1984 and Congress authorized it in 1996

Foundation put out international design competition that received over 900 entries from 52 countries

San Francisco architecture team was chosen because of their design that referenced “out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope”

Selecting an artist

Foundation chose Lei Yixin, a Chinese artist, to carve the stone because of his experience carving stone on a monumental scale

Controversy

Gilbert Young, an African American artist famous for He Ain’tHeavy, quickly led a protest of the choice of Lei Yixin

"I would think that they'd have had enough sensitivity to understand that what we really wanted was fairness and the opportunity for us, as the people, to show our artistic gifts."

More controversies

Made by unpaid Chinese workers

Looks like totalitarian art

Quotes selections are edited or misattributed

Pink marble makes King look white

The Finished Memorial

Dedicated on October 16, 2011 on the anniversary of the 1995 Million Man March on Washington

First memorial to an African American on the National Mall

Happy Birthday, Dr. King!