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ART ESSAY 1 “When reality isn’t real – are artist’s commentaries still legitimate and/or valuable?” Discuss In the current world, an audience is faced with a diverse range of artworks. Artworks that are created with different media, take various forms & shapes and explore different concepts. A key matter that is raised by this question is whether or not reality is ever portrayed in an artwork. Reality – meaning what is real, whether or not observable or comprehensible. Artworks are real objects, events or recordings of events of the world. The artworks exist. Yet what they depict can never truly be the reality of this world. They may represent or reflect what is real, and they certainly do explore real issues, yet "reality" itself is never presented in an artwork. If this is the case, that each artwork is not completely true to reality, can artists' commentaries be legitimate and/or valuable? The distorted reality depicted in an artwork can be incredibly subtle, unnoticed by an audience, or blatant and bold. Even naturalism - a movement where artists attempt to accurately portray the world- serves “to create an illusion of reality”. (http://pablo-picasso.paintings.name/) The artwork is not the real thing itself. In many circumstances an elevated "false-reality" is used by an artist to articulate their intended message. The elevated false-reality can be subtle (as in photographs that appear very natural, but have been manipulated) or bold (as in paintings, abstract or of things that do not exist or did not happen, unnatural photographs, contemporary sculptures). Both subtle and bold heightened unreality in artworks can be very effective in strengthening an artist's commentary. Photography is a media that has for many years provided the pathway closest to an accurate representation of reality. However, the subjects of photographs can be strictly arranged by the artist and with further advancements in technology, it has become possible for artists to digitally manipulate photos and films. Some argue that the ability to manipulate photography undermines the integrity of the work. As can be seen in the following examples, manipulations of scenery photographed serve the purpose of enriching the artist’s commentary. Rather than undermining the integrity, a fresh and insightful point of view is offered. In Polar Bear Sugimoto has subtly employed a heightened unreality. The photograph appears to be an accurate representation of the visible world. However in Polar Bear Sugimoto has intentionally created a naturalistic looking scene, which in fact it is not.

Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, b. 1948) Polar Bear, 1976 Gelatin silver print The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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ART ESSAY 1 In this photo Sugimoto subverts the expectation of viewers that what they see is a photo of natural scenery. Instead, Sugimoto has photographed an artificial environment consisting of a stuffed polar bear in front of a painted backdrop. In a sense this is still a “real environment” – the environment which exists within the museum. But the viewer is deceived because the photo appears to be in a natural setting. Sugimoto’s deception is intended, he says “However fake the subject, once photographed, it's as good as real." The fact that the photographed museum can reflect a natural environment is an intricate statement in itself. How is it that we as humans can artificially create these environments so close to that of the natural world? The location of the shoot- the American Museum of Natural History- perhaps suggests that it is not much longer that we will be able to take photos of such creatures alive and within their natural habitats. Sugimoto’s clever use of this deceptive subject provides commentary on current environmental issues, amid rising concerns that polar bears are soon to become extinct due to the rapidly increasing rate of global warming. Levinthal is another artist who makes a valid social commentary on war through his illusory photograph, Untitled, 1975. As a student at Yale School of Art in 1972, Levinthal bought a package of toy Nazi soldiers and began photographing them. This particular photograph is a product of Levinthal’s experimentation with the toy soldiers. By using a very narrow depth of field and printing on high contrast paper Levinthal achieves the “gritty, out-of-focus quality of a photojournalist's images sent back from the front.”

A photograph from series Hitler Moves East (1975-7)

David Levinthal (American, b. 1949) Untitled, 1975

David Levinthal

Gelatin silver print The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Levinthal further developed his work with the toy soldiers, creating a series titled “Hitler Moves East”. In this series, the figures are more identifiable as toys rather than real men. By elucidating the true nature of the figures within the photographs, Levinthal challenges the audience to consider the blurred boundary between the horrors of war and the innocence of child’s play. In this sense,

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ART ESSAY 1 the heightened unreality of Levinthal’s photographs plays a crucial role in making a valuable social comment. A final example of a seemingly real yet intensely contrived photograph is Jeff Wall’s A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) 1993. While this work appears to encapsulate a moment in time it is in fact a montage - to create this work Wall took over one hundred photographs, over the course of more than a year. Wall specifically choreographed where actors would stand in the photos so that the composition of the final image would refer directly to the woodblock print The Great Wave by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

Katsushika Hokusai The Great Wave Woodblock print from series Thirty-six Views of Fuji

Jeff Wall A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) 1993 Sliver dye bleach transparency (Cibachrome); aluminium light box (229 x 377cm)

Tate, London

The chance situation portrayed in Wall’s work, where people are unable to control things above the natural order, perhaps suggests the powerlessness of humans. Yet the lack of control conveyed is fiercely juxtaposed with the scrupulous engineering behind the scenes of his elaborate artwork. Wall’s work, like Devinthal’s Untitled and Sugimoto’s Polar Bear, appears to be shot of a real life scene. However each of these works has been meticulously constructed to accentuate each artist’s commentary. In purposefully distorting reality, certain things that we look at but often fail to see can be subtly yet eloquently highlighted. In this sense the artists’ commentary through an “unrealistic” or distorted reality work can be extremely important and powerful, whereby the direct representation of a real or naturalistic scene would simply not get across the intended message.

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