Welcome to the Jungle: America After Vietnam
                                       AP US History 2007
   



Warren Katz

Author's Bio


Alison Pearlman is a very important writer and artist was born in Chicago, Illinois. She received her Ph.D. with honors from the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago in 1997, and became Assistant Curator at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2001 she then moved to Los Angeles and became a faculty member at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Since the fall of 2004, she has held the position of Assistant Professor in the Art Department of the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, where she teachers modern and contemporary art.


Tagging America

     In Unpackaging Art Of The 1980s by Alison Pearlman the seemingly unknown artists come to life. It is very difficult to "mention American art of the 1980's" with out talking about Neo-Expressionism and Simulationism 1. These were major changes that occurred in the 1980's. Both of these styles boast a few names that are overlooked, but should be known all over the art world. These names are Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Peter Halley, and Jeff Koons. Neo Expressionism uses bright colors to bring out the painting's or art piece's true "beauty". Simulationism contains graffiti art. With two new art forms came many challenges for these artists, mostly from the critics that had no mercy for these new styles of art. The critiques or there art work could make it seem as if the artists have had nothing positive to contribute to the art world.
With the arrival of Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Peter Halley, and Jeff Koons, many art critics feared that "art no longer opposed consumer culture."2 Julian Schnabel's painting, Notre Dame, sold for $85,000 and is an exceptional example of Neo Expressionism. Neo Expressionism entails "figuration, bold color, and energetic gesture." 3 In the late 1970s Schnabel and Salle both experimented with many different colors and ideas that connected with the six senses. One of Schnabel's early works, Dog In A Revolving Door, had a narrative structure and humorous content. Like Schnabel, Salle was interested in attaching different elements to his art. In 1975, Salle showed his video Whats Cooking? In his video, many conflicting ideas were presented. For example, "a light hearted presentation clashed with a grave subject matter." 4 By this time, many of Salle's painting were easily recognized. For example, Unexpectedly, I missed Cousin Jasper was known as a typical Salle painting during the late 1970s and 1980s, because it shows the two different color panels, painted images of people or objects, and superimposed color contours of that person or object typical of Salle. Another art form that rose in the 1980's was Graffiti Art, or Simulationism. SImulationism came from the Lower East Side Milieu that had overtaken SoHo as the dominant art district in New York City. Though after contributing this to the art community many critics thought very low of their work. Many critics thought that aggressively promoted art was a style that went against the ideals that were instilled in Neo Expressionism.
     Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Harring were like many artists-they did not become really famous until they passed away. They are now seen as pioneers, for they did not treat styles as though they were perfect and complete. Rather, they saw their associations as evolving and relative to the here and now. Many people have seen Basquiat's work as "a response to the challenge of navigating his passage through the many" social worlds that he was tied to 5. For example, he was a Haitian and Puerto Rican American growing up in a middle class family in Brooklyn. Basquiat was primarily committed to fighting passionately against the white supremacist art world. As a person, he was someone who pursued fame at all costs or fought against racial injustice. As an artist, he was a combination of modernism and postmodernism. He used "filtering techniques", a way of showing things or people as they might be seen through "someone else's eyes, someone's from a different social group or historical period or both." 6 This technique includes applying recognizable symbols of ownership or "legitimacy to his representations of things and people."7 It is not surprising that his own choices of style did not conform to what everyone else expected it to be. Like Basquiat, Harring dedicated his art to "resisting ghettoization". He has very strongly inspired by "the easy flow of sexual energy in bouts of anonymous sex" that he was part of during the pre AIDS awareness times 8. In his painting The Great White Way he mimics the ancient and non-European cultural forms. He tried to have the art critics and fans to see the representation of "sexuality and politics" in his art through ancient political artifacts. Even though they had different strategies for "mediating cultural differences" Basquiat and Harring both had constructive ways of showing them 9. For example, they both used "style as a marker of social group distinction." Basquiat referred to many different social types in his work through "hairstyle and fashions, brand names and types of consumer products." 10 They would both work toward the same goal: racial equality. Racial equality was shown through their art and fashion styles.
     Peter Halley and Jeff Koons set another artistic fad during the 1980s: Neo-Geo, Commodity art, Neo conceptualism or New Abstraction. However, those all fall under one category called Simulationism. The artists "rhetoric did not conform to that of the early 1980s polemicists" who stressed that appropriation was a critique of originality: a focused frame works was one of Koons was Science Fiction. Certain works in the exhibition stressed the perspective of "technophilia." 11 For example, the Disco Mummy, "which evoked the futurism of cryogenics." 12 Koons not only transformed the art world, but also the fashion world. He represented himself through "transformation-through-exaggeration." 13 Which, coincidentally, is how many of the artists that have been mentioned presented themselves as well.
     Each artist had his own specific way of self-expression and contributed to his era of art. For example, Basquiat's art referred much to his social upbringing where as Harring did not pull anything from his personal life. Yet, they both worked to resist of "ghettoization." Also, they both worked toward universal racial equality. Koons copied the cultures of commodity design and marketing so he could "expose their fetishistic and socially stratifying qualities."14 Each influenced a different part of his culture. For example, Salle influenced "fine art, design, fashion, music and dance." 15 Basquiat manipulated subculture slang, hair, and dress style. The artists were considered sophisticated interpreters of culture "culture in the broadly defined, anthropological sense." 16
     Alison Pearlman seemed to be biased on the side of the artists, saying they have been "falsely charged with political reaction, historical amnesia, solipsism, unreflective emotionalism, and unreflexive cultural affirmation." 17 True, the contributions that they have made maybe have been very unappreciated or underrated but, then again, when has there been any contribution where someone or some group of people have not gone against the change? That these artists have done so much and yet, the author argues so little has come from it. Yet in reality so much has come from their involvement in the art world, such as their influences on hair, fashion, music, art in general, movies and dance. Without them, there would be no Neo-Expressionism or Simulationism. The art world would not have been able to get through the late 1970's and early 1980's with out the contributions that were made by these artists. To say the least Alison Pearlman is underrating them herself. Alison Pearlman attempts to tell us all about how great these people were and how under-appreciated their art was, she seems to be the one that is unappreciative of how much they really but impacted society.
     Michael Dashkin also thinks that she underrates these artists. Pearlman has "for the past 20 years been conduction extensive interviews with curators, critics and gallery owners."18 She has gone through so much work and found out so much information just to believe Neo-Expressionists and Simulationist artists contributed very little. The second review agrees with her stance that these artists "have been falsely charged with political reaction, historical amnesia, solipsism, unreflective emotionalism, and unreflexive cultural affirmation. " 19 But according to this review, Pearlman has two ambitions twisted throughout this book. Her first aim is to redeem the artists that have been falsely accused. Her second aim is to challenge "the intellectual packaging of these artists. " 20 Though I do agree that a big part of her argument was challenging the critics and their critiques, I do not agree that it is her whole argument and point in writing the book.
     This book, in my opinion, had few weaknesses but the few that it had made it a poor read. It was very hard to read. The language and style was not meant for anyone without a large vocabulary or much knowledge of the arts in the 1980's, let alone knowledge or art at all. I did not find this book to be very interesting. It did talk about the different art forms, but just briefly, and instead, Alison Pearlman seemed to focus more on talking about the specific artists. So much so that instead of getting more knowledge about the era and the different types of art forms that emerged, the reader got to know about specific paintings and their artists. After reading this book, I do not feel that I have learned as much as I had first expected to learn from a book about the 1980's culture. However, I do know much more about a few artists that I never thought I would. The book was strong in that the information that was given about the artists was very in depth. The book does do justice to the artists that are talked about. Unpackaging Art of The 1980s gives strong details and facts about each artist and explains many of their paintings, such as Schnabel's Notre Dame. Also it does a good job explaining what each of the new art forms are such as Neo Expressionism, and how it appeals to the senses by using full colors and other sensory ideas. Also, now I know who some of the bigger artists were in the 1980's and I also know slightly more about Neo-Expressionism and Simulationism, and how they effected our society. Neo-Expressionism not only is part of art but part of fashion, because of the colors that are now used in fashion that could be called a Neo-Expressionistic way to make clothing.
     The social changes that were brought on by these artists were very numerous. Together all of the artists "shifted grounds"21. Each artist brought his own element that helped build up our society to and make it what we have today. The artists all seem to influence the same areas. Although Pearlman sets our to credit these artists, she denies their influences. However, if change occurred, and it was not because of these artists, who was it because of?. She strongly supports that what they did be recognized, and that, instead of criticizing them so harshly, the critics should be challenged. These artists influenced our movies, fashion, (how we dress and how we have our hair), and many other facets that are part of our everyday life.
     Although many people do not know of these people or know what they have done for us, they have participated in things influenced by Koons, Schnabel, Salle, Basquiat, Harring, Halley. Dancing, movies, fine arts, music, fashion and many other very important aspects of society were changed by these men. Not only did they help our society in superficial ways, but also helped support racial equality. Because of some of their difficulties as children two of these artists helped stand up for equal right: Basquiat and Harring. The others may not have been "freedom fighters"22 per say but in way they did fight for something similar: freedom of artistic endeavors, no matter how unorthodox or strange it may seem at the time. This gave many young artists the confidence to experiment-artists such as Koons and Basquiat and Harring.
     To conclude there were obviously many more influential artists besides this set of artists during the 1980s. However, these may have been in the public's eye or lack there of, a few of the more underrated ones. They have done much and have helped create what we call now our society with there fighting for equal rights, and movies, fashion music and fine arts. Also they not only did do all that but they "created" there own for of art. Neo-Expresionism and Simulationism would never have existed if it weren't for these artists. With out these the 1980s and perhaps even our society would or could be completely different from what we experience everyday. Sadly though two artists were not able to see the full effect of their work because they have passed away. Though Pearlman seems to ignore their contributions in her book at the end she has "seen these seeds planted by Schnabel, Salle, Basquiat, Haring, Halley and Koons, and their generational peers grow."23 However, for many artists this is the same thing but who knows if they didn't pass away the effect of their work may not have had the effect that has had now.





Endnotes

1. Pearlman, Alison 1 2. Pearlman, Alison. Unpackaging Art Of The 1980s. Illinois: The university of Chicago Press, 2003. 3. Pearlman, Alison 12 4. Pearlman, Alison 26 5. Pearlman, Alison 47 6. Pearlman, Alison 53 7. Pearlman, Alison 57 8. Pearlman, Alison 64 9. Pearlman, Alison 74 10. Pearlman, Alison 79, 84 11. Pearlman, Alison 91 12. Pearlman, Alison 108, 115 13. Pearlman, Alison 119 14. Pearlman, Alison 133 15. Dashkin, Michael. "Unpackaging Art Of The 1980s." Arts And Humanities (2003) 16. Stimson, Blake. "Unpackaging Art Of The 1980s." Modern art (2003) 17. Pearlman, Alison 148 18. Pearlman, Alison 149 19. Pearlman, Alison 150 20. Pearlman, Alison 153 21. Pearlman, Alison 153 22. Pearlman, Alison 154 23. Pearlman, Alison 155



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