A Guide to How to Look at Modern Art

1. A Guide toHow to Look at Modern Art

2. How to Look at Modern Art Spoerri called his relief works ‘tableaux-pieges’ (picture traps) because they involved fixing objects in random positions on table tops or in drawers. The were hung in galleries and intended to make viewers feel uncomfortable. This was the artist table from his apartment in Paris. Look closely to spot the preserved food and title of the book. • What is it made with? Has the artist used conventional or unexpected materials? Is there a reason for this? Daniel Spoerri, Prose Poem, 1959-60 Mixed Media relief on wood

3. How to Look at Modern Art Hands up if you thought this was a pipe! Look Again: It’s not a pipe, it’s a painting of a pipe! Magritte showed the world that we should not take all what we see for granted. This is the art of ideas and showing us not to believe in illusions. • What is its subject? Does the title give you a clue? Ambiguous title means the artist was exploring an idea rather than a scene or sense. ‘Try to stuff it with tobacco! If I were to have written on my picture “This is a pipe” I would have been lying’ Rene Magritte, Ceci n'est pas une pipe, 1928

4. How to Look at Modern Art After his eyes were opened to the horrors of war, Nash adopted angualar styles of cubism and vorticism painting powerful, terrifying landscapes of death on battlefields. This painting was inspired by an abandoned aircraft. Nash shows there can be no hope of coming back from such a place. • When was it made? If you that, you can work out if it belonged to a particular movement or if it was commenting on something that happened at the time. ‘The thing looked at me suddenly, like a great inundating sea..and then nothing moves, its not water or ice, its something static and dead.’ Paul Nash, Totes Meer,(Dead Sea) 1940

5. How to Look at Modern Art Schiele moved away from expected demure posses and expressions of the previous century, and seemed determined to uncover uncomfortable feeling through his art. Unusually for the time, this woman has messy hair and stares directly at us. Although she looks confident, there is something almost fragile and gloomy about her. Two years after later the artist committed suicide. • Who made it? Background knowledge helps you to understand the reasoning behind the work. Egon Schiele, Reclining Woman, 1917

6. How to Look at Modern Art Hirst’s work offended a lot of people, but he said it was to make the viewers consider death when they wouldn’t normally. We don’t usually come face-to-face with death and all living things ultimately die. • Do you like it? Look for colour, texture, elements and ideas behind the work. You may not like the way it looks, but you might be interested in the thoughts behind it. Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility Of Death in the Mind of Something Living, 1991 Unsettling works like these, question the ethical issues and responsibilities of mass producing animals, on an industrial scale, for human consumption.

7. How to Look at Modern Art There is never just one interpretation of an art work. Look carefully and think about what you can see; your own response is as valid as anyone’s. Try to view it with an open mind. Joseph Kosuth, One in three Chairs, 1965

8. Kick Ass Post-Modern ArtistsInstallation, Pop, Collage, sculpture, land art, ceramics, print, video, fashion, design, photomontage, painting, performance • Martha Rosler (Video/Photomontage) • Michael Rea (Sculpture) • Robert Longo (Drawing) • Martine Bedin (Design) • Ron Arad (Sculpture) • Jean-Paul Goude (Fashion) • Yue Minjun (Painting) • Zhang Xiaogang (Painting) • Zhang Huan (Performance) • Danful Yang (Design) • Rachael Whiteread (Installation) • Robert Rauchenberg (Collage/pop) • Donald Judd (Sculpture) • Robert Smithson (Land art) • Anya Gallacio (Installation) • Grayson Perry (Ceramics) • Jake and Dinos Chapman (Sculpture/Print) • Karla Black (Sculpture/Installation) • Nam June Paik (Video Art)

9. Master Drawings from the Museum of Modern Art: Cézanne to Pollock • Master Drawings from the Museum of Modern Art: Cézanne to Pollock Date: 2006-04-06 ~ 2006-06-11 Venue: No.2 Exhibition Hall, Second Floor The works shown in this exhibition are all representative pieces by world famous artists from 1880s to the first half of the twentieth century.

10. Shanghai Art Museum The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is dedicated to being one of the foremost museums of modern and contemporary art in the world. The Department of Drawings of MOMA brings together more than 7,000 splendid works on paper, over seventy of which have been selected for this exhibition. Most of these works are drawings; besides, watercolors, gouaches, and collages are also included. All of them are dedicated to showing people the developing track of Western art from 1880s to the first half of the twentieth century, which outlines the whole process of modern art. The works shown here are all representative pieces by world famous artists, such as Paul Cézanne’s Bathers, Paul Gauguin’s Jacob Meyer de Haan, Gustav Klimt’s Woman in Profile, Henri Matisse’s Girl with Tulips, Egon Schiele’s Standing Male Nude with Arm Raised, Pablo Picasso’s Guitar, Kazimir Malevich’s Supremus No. 79, Vasily Kandinsky’s Improvisation, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Kurt Schwitters, Jackson Pollock, and so on.