Journal 6– Picture Theory
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Picture Theory
Soledad Guido
Picture Theory
This past week we shared with the class what we got out of the book Picture Theory.
The author, Mitchell, talked about what he called the “pictorial turn” which involved the change from just looking at pictures to actually analyzing the meaning behind them. This is initially the mixture of images and language.
This book overall was about taking pictures and analyzing beyond the aesthetics. Mitchell talks about mass media such as CNN and how they manipulate what we see now. The media has the power as to how to portray a person or a nation to justify certain actions. The first group that presented talked about how today’s culture is media based and that images can be interpreted in different ways. They also pointed out that political power is fed through images produced by the media. This is true a lot of what we see now is based on what we see on television. Media can be used to manipulate us in the past when there was no television Americans relied on radio and newspapers to get information and now we still get the news coverage but it can be seen. It can also be manipulated to seem a certain way to get a certain emotion out of the viewer.
Another group talked about the effect of images in war specifically the Vietnam War. For the first time Americans were able to see what the effects of the war were having on the American soldiers as well as the Vietnamese civilians. The country was flooded with images of casualties on a daily bases because reporters were right there in the middle of the action. I think that these images played a strong part in Americans losing support for the war.
I read chapter eight and in this chapter Mitchell talked about Robert Morris a contemporary artist whose work was called High Postmodernism mostly from 1960-1990. His work is not easy to explain because he never committed to a single mode or style. One can’t identify the style by its visual from across the room. Morris was part of what Mitchell refers to as “Post Modernism” which is relation between art and language. Some object to Morris’ art style by saying that “an eruption of language into an aesthetic field from purity and silence to art of noise.” A picture is no longer the creator of an original image this confuses some spectators instead of allowing them to appreciate the art. Morris is bothered by the label of “major artist” given to him by Guggenheim museum administrators because he felt that he wasn’t a major artist at the time.
Morris is also called a minimalist; minimalism; art stripped of the essentials and could leave the audience more puzzled or won’t understand at all. The pieces or art require hard thinking and serious discussion by the audience. So in other words unless you appreciate art then you might understand the concepts that are trying to be portrayed by the work, otherwise it will be misunderstood.
Morris produces a rational or systematic art that aims to clear up the possibility that art and history could be nightmares that we could never wake. This is art for a possible future in which art would not exist; the aesthetic art that is.
Morris’ choice of elementary polyhedrons in a scale in relation to the human body is so that the viewer moves in relation to the object or the object moves into new situations, the shape will have endless variation. He wants to associate the art with the public’s mode of perception.
The work called SLAB, square plywood box painted gray. SLAB is open to any prefabrications or language games. It is the key that opens the object as a case of philosophical provocation. These leads to the theory of the relation between language and objects, that language itself is a system of labels. SLAB is an invitation to transform the label given by museum administrators into an intellectual form of public work. John Cage, another artist, saw the SLAB and he didn’t see any works of art just objects. Morris is just asking the observer to look at the foundations of the sculpture as a sculpture.
Morris also criticized World War II by using his work. He says that the government feels guilty and is putting a mask over the event. His response was the Bomb sculpture proposal, which were the casing of atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan. The casings were to be displayed in front of the plaza of the Veterans hospital in Florida in their honor for fighting in that war. The proposal was rejected, according to Morris because the casings represented the mask that fell off which then shows the deaths the bombs brought upon the Japanese by American Veterans. But this work of art would not erase the guilt and memories.
Morris also did another controversial piece of art called the I box; here he placed himself in a coffin like box without clothing. The I box is supposed to mock a form of life in which we talk of the self as an invisible presence concealed behind a surface. According to Morris, the human body is the best picture of the human soul.
Personally, I would probably be one of those people that would not understand Morris’ art work simply because he uses very little props. I’m more of a visual person and his work requires more thinking outside the box.
In addition, another group talked about how the assassination of John F. Kennedy was shown to the public. At this time, at least it seemed that there was not as much censorship as today. For example, everyone that was watching saw Jack Ruby walk up to Lee Harvey Oswald and shoot him. Then the assassination was brought to life when a movie was made about it. In this movie, the examiner actually puts his finger inside the whole left by the bullet that went through John F. Kennedy’s skull. The movie was deemed awful and it was insulting to many.
Overall, this book tries to explain that there is more to images and this was not always the case. Mitchell talks about how the media used to portray images that meant something and now the images are being manipulated to achieve a certain perception. He even compares the war coverage over the years and it was clear that by the Cold War, the government was censoring the content released to the public. It is for this reason that we no longer see the caskets of dead soldiers from Iraq. If any journalist dares to comment on the truth then he or she is unpatriotic. Perhaps this is the reason why many Americans don’t care what is going on in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. We no longer see the graphic images of dead people like during the Vietnam War. The reality is that our generation is not well informed and that’s part of the reason why we disregard these issues.
