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Course: The Seeing America Project > Unit 4
Lesson 5: For teachers: learning resources1980-now: learning resources
Richard Mayhew, Indigenous Spiritual Space
Key points
- Landscape imagery has dominated Richard Mayhew’s long career, serving as a metaphor for his emotions and as a link to his Cherokee, Shinnecock, and African American heritage. His landscapes reflect a series of tensions–in terms of both formal qualities and subject matter–which are exemplified in Indigenous Spiritual Space (Ser. No. 7).
- Drawing from the techniques of landscape traditions such as Impressionism, , and the French Baroque as well as the processes and intentions of , Mayhew employs color in receding layers of dynamic applications of paint to create evocative, immersive spaces.
- In its subject matter, Mayhew’s work addresses his individual emotions and associations between the landscape and his heritage while simultaneously contributing to a body of Black art that intentionally–and innovatively–confronts issues of civil rights and freedom. Mayhew’s involvement in the latter emerges from his participation in Spiral, a group of Black artists who came together in response to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
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Learn more about this painting at the Georgia Museum of Art.
Learn more about Richard Mayhew in a video interview and essay from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
More to think about
Consider the question posed in the video: what does it mean to produce beautiful paintings in a time of social turmoil? Reflect on Mayhew’s work and compare it with that of Norman Lewis and Sam Gilliam, or the quilts of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Additionally, see if you can identify other artists of the same or different time periods who represent marginalized groups and whose work addresses this question.
Inspiration at Yosemite
Key points
- Art played an important role in educating and encouraging the preservation of natural lands through the National Parks Service and have helped make places like Inspiration Point iconic landmarks. Roger Minick’s Woman with Scarf builds on a legacy of American photographs of majestic landscapes while also grounding this work in present-day tourism.
- With her back to the viewer, this woman is part of a tradition of landscape painting that encourages viewers to imagine themselves before a sublime vista. As we appreciate the beauty of Inspiration Point, however, we are also drawn to her souvenir scarf and are reminded of the commodification that comes with tourism.
- Minick believes that, even with modern conveniences and commercialization, the process of sightseeing remains meaningful and powerful. Watching people journey to famous landmarks, he reports a transformation that takes place as they arrive, not unlike a religious pilgrimage.
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More to think about
Roger Minick’s quote about his photograph compares the sightseers at national parks to pilgrims, who experience a profound set of emotions, including a “universal sense of a shared past and present, and, with any luck, a shared future.” Have you visited a place that felt like a pilgrimage? Where did you go and why?
Today, more than ever, we document our lives with snapshots. Do you think that taking photographs helps people experience places and events, or does it keep them from being in the moment and experiencing the range of deeper emotions Minick refers to?
What's in a map? Jaune Quick-To-See Smith's State Names
Key points
- Adopting the iconic, recognizable shape of the American map but simultaneously obscuring it, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith complicates our understanding of the map and what it represents. She challenges the viewer to reconsider the physical and historical trace of a colonial past by removing the names of states derived from European settlers, highlighting places named from indigenous sources, and obscuring state and national boundaries.
- Smith wants the viewer to realize that maps are political constructs, not neutral documents.
- Smith draws on a range of art historical devices, but updates them to engage with contemporary political issues. For example, the dripping paint (commonly found in Abstract Expressionism) evokes blood or tears when placed against the map, and the black spaces of the oceans suggests an ominous feeling, marking this land as a contested space.
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More to think about
Look closely at Jaune Quick-To-See Smith’s State Names to find the state that you live or have close connections to. What do you notice about how it is depicted in the painting? Discuss with your classmates what you know—or don’t know—about the indigenous people who originally inhabited the region. If you’re not sure, look on this interactive map to help identify the tribe and learn more about their culture and history.
Desert to Suburb, framing the American Dream
Key points
- Stéphane Couturier’s Fenetre documents a housing development as it is being built in San Diego, California. Its unusual vantage point placed the viewer in an unfinished house, looking over finished homes, ongoing construction, the desert, and the hazy mountains beyond.
- The visual device of framing the view through a window or window-like opening has a long history in art, but here the frame is also part of the subject of the photograph. We see raw building materials and unfinished surfaces of a project in process. This stretches the development into our space.
- Couturier typically photographs changing environments. Here, the subject is suburban growth. The unlikely rise of housing in this desert climate prompts us to question the sustainability of the American dream of single-family homes, particularly as developments have expanded into environments that seem hostile to human life, or conversely, that might be damaged by human intrusion.
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More to think about
This photograph shows humanity extending its reach into a desert environment which is dry, harsh, and often a metaphor for struggle. What are some of the reasons that this housing development might have been constructed in this space? What are some of the effects this development might have on the local environment? Think about a space in your own community and whether it would be suitable for new housing. What would you want developers to consider if they were planning construction in your town? What would be some of the benefits and some of the costs?
James Turrell, Skyspace, The Way of Color
Key Points
- James Turrell’s Skyspace: The Way of Color is one of multiple Skyspaces that he has designed. It is a circular room designed by the artist, with an oculus — a round opening, not covered by glass — in the ceiling. LED lights along the top of the walls change color, allowing visitors to observe the sky at dawn and dusk and see how the colored light and passage of time change our perception of the color of the sky.
- The work emphasizes the contingent relationship between us and the world around us, as well as the absence of one truth. Everything is dependent on human vision and what we bring: our own perception.
- Skyspace: The Way of Color is an earthwork, a type of artwork that takes nature as its medium. Earthworks were something that artists began to explore in the 1960s, as attention to human beings’ impact on nature and the ways we were endangering it began to increase.
- It also draws on earlier use of the oculus in buildings, most notably the Pantheon in Rome, emphasizing the idea of the viewer looking up to the heavens and the way the eye of the divine may be looking down at us.
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More to think about
Skyspace: The Way of Color asks us to spend time observing how natural and artificial light interact and affect how we perceive color. This in turn provokes an understanding of how different people perceive the world differently. How might we compare Turrell’s message about different perceptions of reality and works like Kenseth Armstead’s Surrender Yorktown 1781, that seeks to address a more rigid relationship between truth and lies?
Mapping nature's stunning beauty
Key points
- Maya Lin’s Silver Upper White River traces a local waterway within the Mississippi River watershed. Cast from recycled silver, the sculpture is both representational and abstract as the geological path of the river is transformed into a delicate pattern of organic lines.
- Throughout Lin’s career, she has blended art and architecture with the landscape itself. Installed in a gallery that is also a bridge, Silver Upper White River engages with the environment and also takes on a life of its own as it reflects sunlight and the actual water running nearby.
- Lin’s use of recycled silver was inspired by early European descriptions of the abundant fish living in American rivers. It evokes this past, but also incorporates the many different histories of the silver itself as it has been reused over the centuries. By choosing recycled silver, Lin also lessens the environmental impact of her work, further supporting her conservationist intentions.
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More to think about
Maya Lin encourages people to connect to the environment where they live. Visit Lin’s digital project website, whatismissing.net. Are there stories included from your area? Lin’s project encourages people to leave their own memories on the map, pulling from their experiences of the natural world that have changed or are endangered. What experiences could you add?
Endangered coastlines and lifeways — a Shinnecock artist's view
Key points
- Courtney Leonard’s work addresses environmental crises and their relationship to traditional Native American ways of life. She is a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation of Long Island, a people who have a close relationship with the sea. Their culture has been threatened by the environmental impact of climate change.
- ARTIFICE Ellipse | Log: 18-3 is a ceramic sculpture inspired by the forms of man-made artificial reef sculptures. While artificial reef sculptures are intended to promote marine life and control coastal erosion, they are also part of a larger environmental problem. Many artificial reefs are made of concrete, which is largely composed of sand taken from coastal areas, leaving them vulnerable to rising sea levels and erosion.
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More to think about
In the video, Courtney Leonard asks, “Can a culture sustain itself when it no longer has access to the environment that fashioned its culture?” What do you think she means by this? Think about the ways you identify yourself culturally. What environmental factors might have contributed to the practices and traditions that are part of that identity?