KEY ARTISTS:
Rauschenberg
Johns
KEY MEANINGS:
Place
Identity
The everyday, popular culture & consumerism
Ideas about art
KEY CONTEXTS:
Economic
Social
Political
Mass media
The American economy was booming. NeoDada artists witnessed that Americans were quickly embracing the capitalist and consumerist lifestyle as the norm. The excessive paint drips often observed in Rauschenberg's works can be seen as a reflection of this excessive culture. The integration of everyday items that were put out as rubbish (e.g. the goat in 'Monogram') is also indicative of the 'throw away' attitude in the consumerist society.
The Cold-War was still an important political context which justified and encouraged the development of capitalist and consumerist values. While remaining post-modernist in their approach, both Rauschenberg and Johns suggest the influence of the political contexts by using images such as JKF, an astronaut (Space Race), targets and the American flag. Johns has personally experienced the Korean War while serving in the military base in Japan. |
The growing presence of mass media and its impact can be seen in NeoDada art works. Colour TVs were introduced, becoming the centerpiece of almost every living room in America. Exposure to advertising, mass entertainment and mass produced items was becoming the norm. The evidence of this context can be seen through the use of images from mass media, commercial techniques (e.g. silkscreen printing) and the compositional structures adopted in NeoDada art works (e.g. random, non-hierarchical grid reflecting the colour TV adjustment screen, but more so disjointed nature of mass media.
The art worldThe art world was dominated by Abstract Expressionism, which was increasingly becoming more elitist and seen as 'high' art. NeoDada stemmed as a reaction against this idea of art being too difficult to understand. Rauschenberg and Johns were critical of Abstract Expressionists and the art critics. Nevertheless, they still needed the art dealers to make their mark in the art world (e.g. Leo Castelli).
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The 60s: The Years That Changed America |
Modernism vs. Post-Modernism |
WHAT WAS DADA?Dada was an artistic and literary movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland. It arose as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that many thought had led to the war. Its output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage.
Dada's aesthetic, marked by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities, including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York, and Cologne, all of which generated their own groups. The movement became the cornerstone of various categories of modern and contemporary art.
www.theartstory.org/movement/dada/ |
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ART AS LIFE, LIFE AS ARTRobert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)Considered by many to be one of the most influential American artists due to his radical blending of materials and methods, Robert Rauschenberg was a crucial figure in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to later modern movements. One of the key Neo-Dada movement artists, his experimental approach expanded the traditional boundaries of art, opening up avenues of exploration for future artists.
Although Rauschenberg was the enfant terrible of the art world in the 1950s, he was deeply respected and admired by his predecessors. Despite this admiration, he disagreed with many of their convictions and literally erased their precedent to move forward into new aesthetic territory that reiterated the earlier Dada inquiry into the definition of art.
www.theartstory.org/artist/rauschenberg-robert/ COMBINE (1954–64)
“Combine” is a term Rauschenberg invented to describe a series of works that combine aspects of painting and sculpture. Virtually eliminating all distinctions between these artistic categories, the Combines either hang on the wall or are freestanding. With the Combine series, Rauschenberg endowed new significance to ordinary objects by placing them in the context of art. |
ART WORKS BY RAUSCHENBERG
✨CLICK✨ on the art works for more information.
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QUESTION WHAT YOUR MIND ALREADY KNOWSJasper Johns (1930- )Jasper Johns's playful, enigmatic paintings interrogate the very ways in which we see and interpret the world. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Johns eschewed an art cut off from everyday life and made common signs, such as flags and targets, the subject of his work.
Riffing on the divergent examples of Dada and Abstract Expressionism, Johns, along with his Neo-Dada collaborator Robert Rauschenberg, created a nuanced art that spoke to notions of autobiography, irreverence, and philosophical engagement. The reverberations of the work of Jasper Johns affected nearly every artistic movement from the 1950s through the present day. Breaking down the boundaries traditionally separating fine art and everyday life, he effectively laid the foundation for Pop Art's embrace of commodity culture. Additionally, Johns's exploration of semiotics and perception also set the stage for both Conceptual Art and more postmodern interventions in the 1980s.
www.theartstory.org/artist/johns-jasper/ |
IS IT A FLAG OR A PAINTING?
Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-55