Contemporary Gothic Art

Louise Bourgeous 

Red Room (Parents) 1994

Red Room (Child) 1994

Dark, bloody red objects, body parts. Memories of a unhappy childhood. The space is frightening and unnerving it gives the viewer a sense of fear and dread.  It also reminds me of the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film The Shining.

Scene from The Shining 1980

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Charles Ray

Family Romance 1993

Family Romance consists of four sculptures of the Father, Mother, son and toddler daughter. The father figure who could be seen as the head of the family, top of the hierarchy list has been shrunk down to be the size of the children as well as the mother. A crisis of authority and power.

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David Altmejd 

Untitled (Blue Jay), 2004

Altmejd’s sculpture of a half rotting half eaten magical creature plays with the gothic themes of decay and schlock. And also it could be considered Anti God’s law in the enlightenment time due to the face that Altmejd has created this mythical beast and changed ‘gods’ natural order.

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Lnez Van Lamsweede

Lady Gaga

Again another fantasy creation linking to the theme of Frankenstein and monsters.

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Gregory Crewdson 

Untitled (The Father), 2007

Dramatic, theatrical, fantastical and staged. Like the Gothic themes of mistrust and melodrama Crewdson’s images are set up and false but also give a feeling of unease and nothing is quite what it seems.

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Rachel Whiteread 

House -1993

House – 1993

House was a concrete cast of the inside of an entire Victorian house. This work fits perfectly with the Gothic themes of Decay and also the Gothic obsession with ruins new and old.

Attitudes to Landscapes

Many if not most of the preconceived ideas we have of landscapes come from either the  Greek and Roman classical view or the 18^th centuries Romantic attitudes and movement.

When we view landscape we automatically build up our own view of what that landscape is like either playing to the classical or romantic ideas or our own experiences.

Wilderness

Michael Raedecker
Beam – 2000

Titian Saint Jerome in the Desert – c.1570-1575

Classical:  Beyond civilization, a place to be feared, untamed man, mountains, forests, deserts, seas, witches, thieves, savages, the devil.

Romantic: A pure place untouched by human hands, an earthy paradise, spiritual, hermits, outdoor adventures, artists, noble savages.

Countryside 

Wheat field with reaper and sun Van Gogh 1889

Classical: Owned and tamed wilderness, work, farming, boundaries, hedges, walls, uneducated, simpletons, gossiping villagers, incest, migrant workers, muddy, smells.

Romantic: A place of honest work, working in harmony with nature, pastoral idyll, milk maids , squires, farmers, a place to retreat to.

City

Georgia O’Keeffe -New York City paintings

Jeff Wall – Odradek 1994

 

Classical:  A centre of civilization, a place of progress, education, employment, law and order, culture, government, affluent people, educated, cultured, civilized, Utopian.

Romantic:,   A place of disease, dirt, over populated, crime, fear,  noise, smells, disorder, crime, ghettos, corrupt, powerless, ill, unemployed, homeless, gangs, dystopian.

Suburbia

Gregory Crewdson – Twilight Series

The Simpsons

Classical: Success, money, normality, ideal life, wife 3 kids and a dog, matching, clean, middle class.

Romantic: Cookie cutter houses, sterile environment , two faced, clicks, weird, strange, confined, dull.