Science and Tech

WORLD OF ARTWORLD OF ART

CHAPTER

EIGHTH EDITION

World of Art, Eighth EditionHenry M. Sayre

Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.

All rights reserved.

Science, Technology, and the Environment

27

Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives

1. Describe how technological innovation is reflected in the arts.

2. Describe some of the ways that artists have helped to shape public perception of the environment.

3. Explain how some artists have approached the landscape and environment from a longer or deeper point of view.

IntroductionIntroduction1 of 21 of 2

• Artists and scientists are sensitive to the events and phenomena of existence, and dedicated to showing the nature of reality.

• Words like "volume," "space," "mass," "force," "light," "color," "tension," "relationship," and "density" can be used to describe both are and elements of science.

IntroductionIntroduction2 of 22 of 2

• The development of the railroad changed the way humans perceived speed.

• J. M. W. Turner's Rain, Steam, and Speed—The Great Western Railway can be seen as a commentary on this transformation

J. M. W. Turner, Rain, Steam, and Speed—The Great Western Railway.1844. Oil on canvas. 33-3/4" × 4'. The National Gallery, London.

akg-image/National Gallery, London. [Fig. 27-1]

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Maidenhead Railroad Bridge.1840. Two spans, each 128 ft.

© Peter Lane/Alamy. [Fig. 27-2]

Technology and the ArtsTechnology and the Arts1 of 41 of 4

• Developments and innovations in architecture have consistently been driven by scientific and technological advances. The Pont du Gard is one of the great

technological feats of Roman times. One of the most remarkable architectural

and engineering feats of modern times is Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan.

Pont du Gard, near Nîmes, France.Late 1st century BCE–early 1st century CE. Height 164'

© Walter Bibikow/Getty Images. [Fig. 27-3]

Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Aerial view of Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan.1988–94.

Photo: Kawaetsu. [Fig. 27-4]

Renzo Piano Building Workshop, International departures lounge, Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan.

1988–94.Photo: Shunji Ishida. [Fig. 27-5]


• The technologies associated with modeling clay, that were used in the Middle East and China by 3000 BCE, have remained consistent through the years. One of the most interesting examples of

Neolithic fired-clay figurines is the work of the so-called Nok people, which reveals an artistry based on abstract geometrical shapes.

Nok head.ca. 500 BCE–200 CE. Terra cotta, height 14-3⁄16". National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria. Werner Forman Archive/National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria, location: 02. [Fig. 27-6]


• One of the most remarkable periods of innovation in the ceramic arts occurred in England in the last half of the eighteenth century. The Lunar Society gathered each month

during the full moon and discussed chemistry, medicine, electricity, gases, other topics.

Members inaugurated the Industrial Revolution.


• One of the most remarkable periods of innovation in the ceramic arts occurred in England in the last half of the eighteenth century. One of the members opened a factory

hat created durable cream-colored earthenware.• He cast liquid clay in molds and then

fired it, which sped production.

Josiah Wedgwood, Queen's Ware dinner service (detail).ca. 1790. Private collection.

Photo © Christie's Images/Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 27-7]

Art and Environmental Art and Environmental UnderstandingUnderstanding

• In the nineteenth century, painters sometimes found themselves confronted by a sense of progress that threatened to overwhelm nature itself.

• Artists have often helped the public come to understand just what is at stake in these changes.

Nature and IndustryNature and Industry1 of 51 of 5

• Albert Bierstadt's painting The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak thrilled the public and they associated the size of the canvas with the great wealth of natural resources that the West seemed to offer. His paintings caused Congress to do a

study of the geological structures and mineral resources along the route of the transcontinental railroad.

Albert Bierstadt, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, (detail). 1863. Oil on canvas. 6' 1-1/2" × 10' 3/4". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Rogers Fund, 1907. 123. © 2015. Image copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 27-8]


• Thomas Moran's paintings of Yellowstone had so moved Congress that they had declared it the world's first national park in 1872.

• In 1875, the Government Printing Office published Powell's Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its Tributaries, illustrated with over 30 works by Moran.

Noon-Day Rest in Marble Canyon, after an original sketch by Thomas Moran, from J. W. Powell, Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its Tributaries.

1875.Wood engraving, 6-1/2 × 4-3/8". The New York Public Library, New York. [Fig. 27-9]


• In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in the 90 miles down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Wheeling, West Virginia, great steel mills and other heavy industry arose. Thomas Anshutz's Steamboat on the Ohio

shows this change, with young swimmers in the water with the factories smoking across the river.

Thomas Anshutz, Steamboat on the Ohio.ca. 1896. Oil on canvas. 27-1/4" × 4' 1/4". Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.

Patrons Art Fund: Gift of A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. 57.36. [Fig. 27-10]


• By the early decades of the twentieth century, pollution became an evident problem, but seemed worth the price at the time. Joseph Pennell showed this in his prints

of Pittsburgh.

Joseph Pennell, Pittsburgh, No. II.1909. Etching. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Bequest of James Parmelee, 1940.782. Photo © Cleveland Museum of Art. [Fig. 27-11]


• Contemporary photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier's work is testament to the fact that it is not worth the price.

• Self-Portrait (March 10 am) was shot after she buried her grandmother who died of cancer, most likely due to living next to the steel mills.

LaToya Ruby Frazier, Self-Portrait (March 10 am).2009. Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16".

© LaToya Ruby Frazier, courtesy of LaToya Ruby Frazier and Michel Rein Paris/Brussels. [Fig. 27-12]

Environmental CatastropheEnvironmental Catastrophe1 of 101 of 10

• Many natural disasters are the product of humanity's tampering with the environment.

• Over the course of the last decade, Matthew Ritchie created a number of video and sculpture installations inspired by the collapse or malfunction of manmade systems.


• In Ritchie's animated video The Iron City, the world is inundated by flood.

• The Japanese six-person artist collective Chim Pom created an exhibition, the centerpiece of which was Radiation-Exposed Flowers Harmony. The piece consisted of flowers and

plants collected within a 20-mile radius of the Fukushima power plant.

Matthew Ritchie, three stills from The Iron City.2006. Continuous video loop with interactive audio, 1-1/2 hours.

© Matthew Ritchie, Image Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York. [Fig. 27-13]


• The Japanese six-person artist collective Chim Pom created an exhibition, the centerpiece of which was Radiation-Exposed Flowers Harmony. A Geiger counter sat beside the flowers,

always reading a low level of radioactivity, and before the exhibition was over, the flowers had begun to rot.

Chim-Pom, in collaboration with Junichi Kakizaki, Radiation-Exposed Flowers Harmony.2011. Flowers, plants, mixed media.

Photo: Kei Miyajima. Courtesy of MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo. © Chim↑Pom. [Fig. 27-14]


• Alan Montgomery's Deepwater Horizon is named for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

• It reflects this duality, luscious and painterly on the one hand, but reflecting the tragedy of the disaster on the other.

Alan Montgomery, Deepwater Horizon.2011. Oil on canvas and print media, 18 x 15".

Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 27-15]


• Filmmaker Spike Lee, together with cameraman Cliff Charles, created a four hour film that ran on HBO titled When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, which was centered around Hurrican Katrina.

Spike Lee (director and producer), When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.2006. Still. Film, 4 hrs.

© 4O Acres and a Mule/HBO/Kobal Collection. [Fig. 27-16]


• The inadequacy of the relief effort in New Orleans is a direct reflection of the indifference and prejudice of a country to those predominantly black and poor citizens—an example of environmental racism.


• Artist/activist Mel Chin saw his first duty as an artist to be the abatement of lead in the soil of New Orleans.

• He created Operation Paydirt/Fundred Dollar Bill Project an ongoing collaboration initiated by himself, between schoolchildren—those most affected by lead poisoning—and scientists.

Mel Chin, Operation Paydirt/Fundred Dollar Bill Project.2006–ongoing.

Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 27-17]


• Chin's goal is to raise $300 million in symbolic cash, representing the real $300 million price tag for lead abatement in New Orleans.


• Among the most troubling of environmental disasters is climate change, a direct result of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. A series of three sculptures by artist

Maya Lin calls attention to this.


• Among the most troubling of environmental disasters is climate change, a direct result of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Titled Disappearing Bodies of Water, the

work consists of layers of white marble carved to represent the diminution of three bodies of water between 1980 and today.

Maya Lin, Disappearing Bodies of Water: Arctic Ice.2013. Vermont Danby marble, granite base, 4' × 46" × 4' 4". Edition 1 of 3 + 1 AP.

© Maya Lin Studio, courtesy of Pace Gallery, New York. Photograph courtesy of Pace Gallery. [Fig. 27-18]

Art, the Environment, and the Longer ViewArt, the Environment, and the Longer View1 of 51 of 5

• Artist Mary Mattingly has created projects designed to show us how we might survive ecological doom.

• In late July 2013, Mattingly took up residence in her Triple Island on a barren stretch of Manhattan waterfront. It consisted of a living space, community

garden, and greenhouse.


• In late July 2013, Mattingly took up residence in her Triple Island on a barren stretch of Manhattan waterfront. Each is on its own island constructed on

floatbale 55-gallon drums.

Mary Mattingly, Triple Island.2013. Three interlocking buoyant platforms with gardens, livestock, and functional

shelter spaces.Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 27-19]


• Painter Don Gray created a series of paintings titled Nine Stones that use stones as metaphors for the living earth.

• Robert Smithson, creator of Spiral Jetty, is interested in representing the forces of human-induced environmental entropy.

Don Gray, Stone #2, from the series Nine Stones.2009. Oil on panel, 23 x 23".

© 2009, Don Gray. [Fig. 27-20]


• Spiral Jetty collaborates with entropy by providing a place where, over time, the human works will inevitably succumb to the persistence of natural processes.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, Great Salt Lake, Utah.April 1970. Black rock, salt crystals, earth, red water (algae), 3' 6" × 15' × 1,500'.

Collection: Dia Art Foundation, New York. Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York and Shanghai. Art © Holt Smithson Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York. [Fig. 27-21]


• Artist Andrea Bowers' work has focused on nonviolent civil disobedience.

• United States v. Tim DeChristopher is a 16-minute video of desert shots and Tim DeChristopher telling his story about his political statement to bid on 22 acres of land that were for auction to be used for oil and gas exploration.

Andrea Bowers, United States v. Tim DeChristopher.2010. Single-channel HD video, color with sound, 16 min. 15 sec. looped. Utah Museum

of Fine Arts.Courtesy of Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles Projects. [Fig. 27-22]

The Critical ProcessThe Critical Process

• Thinking about Science, Technology, and the Environment Since 2005, New York artist David Brooks

has studied the evolution of the local armored catfish populations.

His sculpture Imbroglios (A Phylogenetic Tree, from Homo Sapiens to Megalops Atlanticus) raises the question, "What is the relationship between the tarpon and humankind?"

David Brooks, Imbroglios (A Phylogenetic Tree, from Homo Sapiens to Megalops Atlanticus).

2012. Fiberglass, gelcoat, MDF, pencil, hardware, 5 x 12 x 21'.Courtesy of the artist and American Contemporary, New York. © David Brooks. [Fig. 27-

23]

Thinking BackThinking Back

1. Describe how technological innovation is reflected in the arts.

2. Describe some of the ways that artists have helped to shape public perception of the environment.

3. Explain how some artists have approached the landscape and environment from a longer or deeper point of view.

Art & Photos

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