National Identity in Art

Martin Warnke's "The Occupation of the Plain" deals with landscape in a political light.  Natural landscape (mountains and bodies of water) had initially, especially in Europe, served as prehistoric borders between different territories.  Warnke argues that human contact with these natural landscapes has resulted in a political exertion over the land.  Buildings, roads and man-made borders between "private, regional [and] national territories" are examples of power and politics.  Thus, landscape painting is a reflection of politics versus nature.  Landscapes by themselves have no content and it is only upon human interference that a narrative is created.

 Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with St. John on Patmos, 1640

Poussin with influenced by the classical tradition and mythology.  His landscapes are thus imbued with a sense of romanticism and in its idealization, appears seemingly perfect and untouched by humans.  The infusion of classicism ennobles the landscape. The picturesque is a perfect embodiment of this romanticized landscape whereby the emphasis is on the aesthetic ideal of nature.  The picturesque was first introduced into England by Willian Gilpin in his attempts to encourage tourists and travellers to see the country's untouched and perfect picturesque landscapes.

Humphrey Repton - desire to rule over nature
-before/after paintings; removed unaesthetic elements (people, animals) 


By the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, there were decisive changes in landscape painting in large part due to the onset of the Industrial Revolution.  Factories were being built across Europe and the urban sprawl - leading to the destruction of natural landscape - and the struggle between the natural environment and social development became the focus of criticism by a growing number of artists and intellectuals.

1856: John Ruskin "degeneration of humanity" --> landscape painting is romanticized

J.M.W. Turner, The Fighting Téméraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken, 1839

Turner's painting deals with human intervention in landscape and the tension between nature and humans.

National Identity in Landscapes

Land is the common denominator that unites all the people of a country together.  As a result, landscape art is the perfect medium to establish national identity, albeit it is important to note that different nations, given their varying political, cultural and social circumstances, used landscape art as representations of national identity in wholly different ways.

Lucien O'Brien, Sunrise over the Saguenay, 1880

Although O'brien acknowledges human contact, the natural landscape is overpowering.  O'Brien's Quebec landscape appears unscathed by human intervention and retains a sublime quality.  To me, it is evocative of German romanticism and brings to mind the sublime and mysticism in Caspar David Friedrich's landscapes:

 Caspar David Friedrich, The Monk by the Sea, 1808-1810 

Dutch Republic 

Dutch Republic became a powerful economic and industrial force during the 17th century.  It was predominantly Protestant, which meant representation of human figures was forbidden.  Trades, merchants and the upper middle class made up must of the Republic.  Artists were forced to sell works on the open market ---> artists painted images interesting for their audience (audience wanted to see prosperity of their own land) Maritime Scenes. The wealth of the Dutch Republic was acquired by sea trade and naval wars with Britain, etc.  Hence, maritime scenes were common Dutch landscapes.

Jacob van Ruisdael, The Windmill at Wijk, 1670

Portraiture and the Self

Joanna Woodall's "Introduction: facing the subject"
In her article, Woodall presents the major changes in the aesthetics, uses and theories of portraiture from the Renaissance through to the 20th century.  Dualism is the idea that the intellect, identity and mind is separated from the material and decaying body (mind vs. body).


Renaissance saw an interest in classical antiquity (Ancient Greece and Rome) and an emphasis on individualism.  Portraiture represented the status, power, interests and achievements of its sitter.  In addition, having your portrait painted meant you were rich enough to afford commissioning an artist and thus further establish your status in society.  Naturalistic portraiture suggested the importance and power of the represented individual by linking the sitter genealogically to a reputable ancestry.  The aim was one of permanence: the sitter when represented would become eternally present even after death.

Velasquez, Philip IV on Horseback, 1634-35

Portraits of rulers and nobility were not just representations of identity, but representations of power, further re-establishing their right to rule.


The notion of permanence was challenged with the onset of photography when it suddenly became easily accessible for nearly everyone to have their likeness captured "eternally".

What is portraiture?

Woodall writes, "More fundamentally, the early twentieth-century rejection of figurative imagery challenged the belief that visual resemblance to a living or once-living model is necessary or appropriate to the presentation of identity."

Marc Quinn, Self, 1991

Quinn's life-size cast of his own head, using his own blood.

Gavin Turk, Che Guevara

Turk casted himself for this life-sized sculpture of Che Guevara.  Is this a portrait of Turk or Guevara? 

What is Representation?

Stuart Hall's "The Work of Representation" focuses on the constructionist perspective of representation (people construct meaning using a culturally-shaped language), as opposed to the reflective approach (meaning is inherent in the object, person and idea) and the intentional approach (the author alone is responsible for giving meaning to the world).

Language is the medium we use to make sense of things.  It is a shared system that embodies the cultural values and ideologies of a particular time and place. Representation is a way to create meaning about the world through the use of language.  We use signs and symbols - images, words, musical notes - to represent concepts.  We use our knowledge of language and its codes to interpret and construct meanings.  How one constructs meanings is influenced by their culture, education, status, age, sex, etc.

By placing a white backdrop behind a tree, Myoung Ho Lee separates the tree from its natural environment, thus reinforcing the notion that all representation is artificial.  Photography, although it ostensibly captures what is physically there, still creates artificial constructions.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave
Nature and the material world - reality - is unstable and susceptible to change and decay.  Plato's Theory of Forms suggests that tangible and intangible objects have an inherent form.  For Plato, all art (painting and sculpture) are imitations.

Saussare: Semiotics is the science of signs.  Sign = Signifier (physical object or word) + Signified (meaning, concept).  *Signs get its meaning from being different from other signs.*
Barthes: Denotational meaning is considered the literal, obvious and commonsense meaning; Connotational meaning is related to socio-cultural and personal implications - often related to issues of origin, race, gender, ethnicity, etc.  Myth - 3rd level of meaning and behave as objective and naturalized truths. (eg. "noble savage")

Michel Foucault: Discursive Approach
Subjects are produced within discourses.  Subject-positioning: "Individuals may differ as to their social class, gendered, "racial" and ethnic characteristics (among other factors), but they will not be able to take meaning until they have identified with those positions which the discourse constructs, subjected themselves to its rules, and hence become the subjects of its power/knowledge."  Individuals create an identity by aligning themselves within a certain discourse.


Panopticism (self-regulation) - Power does not always need to be oppressive.  Jeremy Bentham designed the Panopticon, a type of prison that was designed in such a way that the inmates could always be observred, but they had no idea when they were being looked at or not.  Hence, they were less likely to do anything bad because there was always the possibility that they were being watched.  (This brings to mind George Orwell's 1984 and the film, "The Lives of Others" directed by Florian Henckle von Donnersmarck.)  Surveillance ~ Self-Regulation.

Docile Bodies - Power structures in the society saw citizens as possibly problematic and therefore individuals need to be kept in check through various institutions: mugshots, cataloguing employees, etc.

Metaphysics

How does one's consciousness survive over time?

Two schools of thought in Ancient Greece:   
1)  Heraclitus: "all is flux"; Absorb the world with senses which lagos (reason) is going to make sense of.  Everything is relative.
2)  Parmenides:  "don't trust your senses"; Perceive with your mind alone; Reality is an unchanging, consistent field.

How is a person a person over time?  How does psychology, memory, consciousness affect a person?
French philosopher Descartes argues that the self is a self-contained and self-sustaining subject and the only way to understand the world is through observation.  "Rational mind is what makes us who we are."  Paul Ricoeur's theory on "Narrative Identity" is of particular interest.  Ricoeur separates identity into two distinct parts - idem (sameness) and ipse (selfhood).

In "Introduction: Identity as a Question", Steph Lawler argues that identity is socially constructed and the notion of a "true" self outside the social world, does not exist.

Jacques Derrida: Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a methodological way of dealing with texts.  Derrida is interested in the language used in writing and speaking.  Deconstruction involves the re-reading of texts, so that all contradictions and internal oppositions can be exposed and subsequently altered, allowing for a revision of historical and textual sources.

Stuart Hall writes that identity is always about representation.