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objects"
Suzanne
Anker
for one
answer.1
generative
Prime
in Kubler's
objects,
formula
do
such
at a time
even matter
suppositions
interrogative
when
disco"?2
as a type of
species,
considered
developments
as
explained
patterns,
growth
Kubler instead turns to the physical sciences forhis metaphorical model of art
a
history. In thismodel he citesMichael Faraday's electrodynamics as system of
and
relay points,
impulses,
their sequences
as time-based
operating
elements.3
With this schema for articulating thehidden, yet perceptible relations between
objects and processes, it is no wonder that the conceptualist,Minimalist, and
earthworks artistsfound resonance with his theories. ForMel Bochner, Carl
Andre, Robert Smithson, Sol LeWitt, and Alice Aycock, to name a few, theunder
lying attributesof space and time, in Kubler's sense, became a constituent element
in their work.
by another
disruption
be divided
2 or
by
number.
3 or 4, etc. without
example,
whereas
a fraction,
creating
the number
7 can
the number
6 can
be evenly divided by both 2 and 3.4 Kubler notes, "Prime numbers have no divi
sors other than themselves and unity; prime objects likewise resistdecomposition
in being original entities."He also observes that "prime objects resemble the
prime
numbers
the appearance
antecedents,
of mathematics
of either.
and
their order
no
because
. . Their
.
in
conclusive
as
character
history
is
is known
rule
is not
primes
explained
to govern
by
their
enigmatic."5
from
an
interaction
is
something
extra, not
conceivable
as a
planned
physics,
and market
actions.
In a Kublerian
economies,
sense we
is a way
emergence
can
look
at
prime
to
explain
objects
as
novel
belonging
ideas
and
to a class
artjournal
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for artistscoming to the fore in the 1960s and 1970s,questions concerning the
Gestalt perception ofwholes (as in the 1966 PrimaryStructures
exhibition at the
processes
as ends
their behaviors
in themselves.
As prime objects become visible to the externalworld and enter into its
a host
domain,
and
of replications
even mutations
to generate.
begin
Like
the
original until another prime object emerges. For example, one can find the
Minimalists concern for site-specificwork employed in Soho's currentwindow
displays. From the inclusion of video and light to serial repetition, these formal
qualities have been appropriated by the fashion industry.For Kubler, thehistory
of things "is intended to reunite ideas and objects under the rubric of visual
forms
. . ."7He
objects
connected
views
as
this methodology
to a
temporal
a broader
encompassing
sense. Hence,
video
installation
sense
of
and window
display would share the statusof being part of a common visual form and, thus,
the shape of time.
are "no
historically
mandated
pluralism
"Objective
as I understand
in . . ."And,
for art to go
directions
itmeans
he
continues,
that.
or
possibilities truer than any other. It is, ifyou like, a period of artistic entropy,
historical
ogy
disorder."8
of invoking
Danto
nonlinear,
's analysis
is also
self-organizing
in
with
keeping
Kubler's
For Kubler,
systems.
methodol
histori
however,
cal frames proceed over significant intervalsof time, and it is through extended
temporal thresholds that change occurs. Like Danto, Kubler keeps his directive
open
to include
of historical
starts and
determinism
stops
in any direction.
On
us. Most
the other
catalogue
hand,
essays
concepts
are written
can
construct
a linear
evolution.
For example,
can one
historicize
the work
The Originality
of the Avant-Garde
and Other
Modernist
Myths
1989).
derive an object that "seemed to symbolize a painting: itwas a frame, amat and
something
black
inside."10
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Casting this iconic recipe in hydrostone and thenpainting the internal sur
faces of the objects with black enamel, the artist arranged the pictures as gallery
installations in a nineteenth-century salon style.Grouped as sets of small, repeti
tive squares and rectangles,McCollum's surrogate paintings have a decidedly
cool air about them, satirizingpainting as a fetish-commodity.Also revealing an
in ideas
twist concentrated
ironic
ture initiated
they stand
of abstract
about
considerations
for in a mass-mediated
objects
such
surface
veneer
specialized
culture.
As
this ges
and Minimalism,
painting
as "art"
and what
as
representing
or a look-alike
surrogate,
the
of a pattern
beginning
yet another
form
of Kubler's
replications?
that changes
a cultural
As
direction?
surro
meme,
gacy has leaked into cultural and social norms far removed fromMinimalism's
Gestalt
Do we
aesthetic.
or, on
motherhood,
view
surrogate
the other
as a
motherhood
an
it become
has
hand,
form
degraded
of
for reconfig
opportunity
Depression-era
Signature
of the artist,
pieces
the photographs
portray
tograph, a father,amother, and several children gaze directly into the camera's
recording lens. In 1979 Sherrie Levine rephotographed severalEvans photographs
a casual
generates,
surprise,
a conscious
effort not
of the installation
in fact, an exhibition
the viewer's
view
recasting
to
the context
Evans within
plagiarize,
but
would
of Evans works
rather
lead
the observer
the
from
of appropriation,
to make
the ease
evident
1930s. To
namely
of "fram
ing" as the simple title suggests, can in fact generate new layersofmeaning.
Invoking
made"
ization
not
based
of another
lapsed
the boundaries
Levine's
goods,
art has
but was
been
Levine's
"ready
itself a recontextual
critically
acclaimed
by
expressions
of recontextualization,
on manufactured
artist's work.
Susanne Holschbach
around
maneuver
the Duchampian
art was
as
authorship
between
Evans's
and
originality
signature
. . ."" Levine's
work
calling
col
into
and AfterSherrieLevine.com
to disseminate
the
are
locatable
and
downloadable
by anyone
who
sees or reads
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Mandiberg makes them accessible to any piker, dolt, or Joe Schmoe. For
create imageswith "cul
and AfterWalkerEvans.com
Mandiberg, AfterSherrieLevine.com
tural value,
economic
value."12
Its Imitations?Family
then
in
to visual
speak
of signature
parallels
photos
Levines
are not.13
Resemblances
art also
of contemporary
Examples
the "original"
However,
the Evans
while
protection,
copyright
Art and
tude,
little or no
but
are under
if not
repetition,
time's
style. Concerning
in exacti
arrows
criss-crossing
within the continuityof visual tropes, several examples can be considered: Cubo
Futuristworks by Kazimir Malevich and the "tubism" of Fernand Leger, the
metal treesof Robert Lobe and Roxy Paine, the abstractions of Paul Feeley and
Philip Taaffe, the animal carousels of Bruce Nauman and Michael Joo, and the
aesthetics.
from personal
emerging
and
history
private
obsession.
exu
Schutz's
yet somewhat
familiar.
Linhares's
mythic
as
describable
paintings,
and private.
Art-historical
of fairy-tale
reworkings
subjects
as Cezanne's
such
creatures,
Bathers and
are both
into
forays
the revival of flower paintings meet Jack and Jillor a cameo appearance from a
Big BadWitch. By twisting childlike images into an amalgam of girls gone bad,
her work reverberates in pigmented saturation and gives a kick in the pants to
perspectival space.Working in this self-styledmanner since the 1960s,Linhares's
work
has
intersected
with
and narrative
expressionistic
idioms
in the
embedded
history of painting.
Linhares
ghost
and
Schutz:
of Dana
net/photography/appropriation-art-and-walker
evans/. More currently,Shepard Fairey's "appro
priation" of an AP photograph as the source of
hisHope Printscontinues to raise questions con
cerning authorship, fairuse, and intellectual
property inthe arts.
recent work
Schutz's
these
artists,
but
hovers
over
the differences
this exhibition.
are
significant.
Similar
Schutz's
of stylistic
Painternycblogspot.com,
concerns
a chat
has
room
generated
for artists
its own
to voice
dialogue.
the "family
At www.
their opinions
about
painting, the artworld, rocket careers, grad school, and the like, twenty-nine
pages of comments concerning the JudithLinhares-Dana Schutz correlation
appear.The
entries
are written
anonymously,
and
some
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are worth
noting:
...
said
Anonymous
...
. . .
said
I also think thata lot of the love comes from thehatred of Schutz.
said
Imageworship
. . .
. . .Youmean a
jealousy of Schutz. She is a great artist, I highly doubt she is
Linhares.
off
Maybe there is a touch of influence but beyond that
ripping
. . .
nothing
. . .
said
Anonymous
work.15
in 'Bad Girl'
behavior
and her
at the New
exhibition
inclusion
Museum
in
in Marcia
1978."16 Two
Tucker's
years
'Bad
landmark
earlier,
in a 2004
Index
Magazine interview of Dana Schutz by PeterHalley, the reader had been
greetedwith similar descriptive language:
Peter:Well, someone could say your paintings are ugly in the sameway [as
the German
Expressionists].
Dana: I suppose so. People generally use three labels formy work?bad
painting, outsider art, or folk art?and theyall irkme. Bad painting doesn't
work
in the
'70s.17
of long-
factors
or
affect
short-term
historical
the emergence
of how
inheritance,
we
come
taking
to value
into consideration
contemporary
art
18,2006, atwww.
painternyc.blogspot.com/2006/03/judith-lin
hares.html.
16. Jennifer
Riley, "JudithLinhares," BrooklynRail,
April 2006, available online atwww.brooklynrail.
org/2006/04/artseen/judith-linhares.
17.Dana Schutz interviewwith Peter Halley,
Index42 (February 2004), available online at
www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/dana_
schutz.shtml.
Double
Play
He
quotes
a passage
facts and
by Karl Marx:
personages
remarks
"Hegel
occur,
as itwere,
103 artjournal
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somewhere
twice. He
that
has
uttered
see what
movement
the sentence
of thought
it is
advanced.18
see a
To
an artist's
single
propositional
or
artwork
stance
on
period
alone
doesn't
since
image-making,
there
is no
about
of
anchoring
Many
artists
traverse
one
another's
territory, knowingly
or not. How
can
plinary
consciousness?
their copies
the same
historical
epoch.
Distinctions
can nevertheless
be made between a prime object and its replications. But the copy has become a
discourse
for accepting
In an age of his
penetrating
current
discourse?
To what
extent
do
originality
and
authorship
matter? Or, on the other hand, have we all been appropriated bymedia
spin?
Suzanne Anker isa visual artist and theoristworking at the intersectionof art and the biological sciences.
Her 2009 exhibitions include The Hothouse Archives, InstituteforCultural Inquiry,Berlin; The Glass Veil,
Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charite, Berlin; Corpus Extremus, ExitArt, New York; and Inside
is
(Artand Science), at the Cordoaria, Lisbon, Portugal. Her 2009 publication Visual Culture and Bioscience
distributed by D.A.P. She ischair of the fine arts department at the School of Visual Arts inNew York.
18.Arthur Danto, "Art after the End of Art,"
Artforum,
April 1993.
19.See Rosalind Krauss, "The Originality of the
Avant-Garde: A Postmodern Repetition," inArt
afterModernism: RethinkingRepresentation,ed.
BrianWallis (New York: New Museum of
Contemporary Art; Boston: Godine, 1984), 27.
For a fullerdiscusson of appropriation, see
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