Art in the 21st Century

Art:21 Season 4
PBS Home Video, 2007

When my work is on display and people ask me questions about it, I sometimes find myself tongue tied. How do I begin to explain the process which leads me through the creation of a painting? Yet it is in the act of creating that discoveries are made, choices are pondered, new possibilities become apparent. I’m not alone among visual artists who would rather make a piece than talk about it. Some artists prefer to speak about their work in their work environment, where they can demonstrate what they do. In Art:21, a PBS television series that is now available on DVD, we are treated to the marriage of the visual and the verbal revelations of contemporary artists as they go about the process of making art. We see them in their studios or sites as they paint, sculpt, excavate, film, weld, carve, burn, collage, wire, light, install, remove, construct, deconstruct, etc. These are not stodgy formal interviews at a table with a glass of water and a host in a business suit. These are beautifully filmed, adroitly edited presentations of artists in action.

Seventeen artists are featured in season 4 of this richly textured documentary series. The shows are organized by four themes, “romance,” “paradox,” “ecology,” and “protest,” which provide entry into the world of the artists and their work. To the credit of the producers, these themes are not narrowly followed but allowed to branch out into an organic canopy of related ideas. The artists speak about their childhood, their various philosophies, their politics, and much more as they work. We see them in their homes and studios, thinking out loud, talking sometimes to the camera, sometimes to their assistants or partners, considering the progress of a specific piece, or reflecting on their entire oeuvre. As viewers, we gain insight to the intimate and complex workings of the artists’ hearts, heads, and hands as they share their creative process with us.

In the fourth season of Art:21, each new show offers a medley of visual art. “Paradox,” for instance, features five different artists who employ a broad array of materials to produce their work. Mark Bradford uses commercial signage to make enormous collages which are sculpted with sandpaper. He is interested in the layering of text in the urban environment and how the use of advertising collects in specific places and becomes arranged to evoke a historic narrative of cultural change. Catherine Sullivan makes films using theatrical movement and installs them in an abandoned mansion so that they are seen as one passes through hallways or peers into rooms. For her, the heightened ability to engage the public, sometimes uneasily, through dramatic gesture is the impetus for her work. Robert Ryman prepares a gallery space in which he works directly on the walls, making exquisitely minimal paintings in shades of white. His work is quite limited in its palate and format and he finds he has more freedom to explore the possibilities of what paint can do because of the self-imposed restrictions. On the other hand, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla use a wide scope of aesthetic choices to respond to global politics. They are filmed rehearsing live musicians who stick their instruments out of small enclosures in a fort-like sculpture to create a piece about the music of war.

While this series offers in-depth profiles, and can certainly be used to focus solely on one artist, it also provides a wider angle on contemporary art. The artists represented in Art:21 are established, have been in the public eye for a few years, if not decades. A conscious effort has been made to include artists at the middle and later stages of their careers. Their birth years range from 1930 to 1974. As they share their process with us, we begin to make connections between their work and their personal histories, as well as to the art world and the world at large. Robert Adams, a seasoned photographer, makes desolate but elegant black-and-white pictures of the destruction of the forest as urban sprawl devours it. Mark Dion makes a living sculpture from a fallen tree and the micro environment that lives on it, displaying it in a huge terrarium, on artificial life support. Both artists ask the viewer to consider the complex relationship between the upheaval of modernity and the natural environment, but their art works represent quite different approaches. Adams uses traditional photography where Dion’s work employs installation, which is a relatively recent convention. Adams provides a direct message where Dion requires a conceptual perception. As we compare and contrast the various artists’ visual realizations we see that Art:21 provides an understanding of the progress and scope of visual art in the twenty-first century.

The DVD that I watched is just a piece of the Art:21 gestalt. There are three previous seasons of shows. They premier in odd numbered years, which means we have the 2009 series to look forward to on PBS this coming fall. I would be remiss if I did not mention the website, www.PBS.org/art21. This is the go-to place for anything you missed on the show and so much more. There are videos and interviews excerpted from the show, educational resources, linked web pages, and a blog. As the dialogue on visual art spreads with the help of productions and organizations like Art:21,we will see more artists and viewers engaged in the creative process. While I may be struck temporarily mute when asked about my own art, I am delighted to know that there are so many fascinating visual artists who speak thoughtfully about the significance of their work.

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