John Deamond / Bibliography

John Deamond / Annotated Bibliography

About.com. “Robert Frank - The Early Years.” Online. Accessed 6 January 2006.
Available http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa070300a.htm.

This article summarizes Robert Frank’s life before and just after coming to the United States from Switzerland. It explains his influences, such as Paul Senn's pictures of Spanish refugees and Jakob Tuggener’s Swiss photography. The evolution of Frank’s technique is described through an explanation of montage and other techniques used in film at the time. I find this article useful both because of its technical descriptions of Frank’s techniques and because it follows the development of a photographer whom I admire and how he got to where he is.

Beardsley, John. “Biographies: Robert Frank.” The New York School: Photographs 1936-1963. pp. 362-363. Stewart, Tabori, and Chang. New York: 1992.

This article describes Robert Frank’s life after his establishment as a photographer. It explains why he became the central figure in a photographic movement as well as his involvement with the beat generation. I found this a good suppliment to the “Early Years” article from About.com

Crawford, Jane. “A 1977 Story.” Abstract of Personal Letter. IVAM. Valencia, 1992. Online. Accessed 17 October 2005. Available http://www.postmedia.net/02/mattaclark.htm.

This fist-hand description of the impermanence of Gordon Matta-Clark’s building cuts underscores his theories on the use of defunct architectural space. It also highlights how even Matta-Clark’s close friends did not quite understand what he was doing: the woman telling the story was attempting to save Matta-Clark’s last remaining building cut after his death, despite his stress on impermanence and non-idolatry in art.

De la Loza, Sandra. Hijadela. Online. Accessed 5 January 2006. Available http://www.hijadela.com/index.html.

Sandra de la Loza’s artist website. This site includes various statements and other writings by the artist, explaining her various projects and their purposes. This site is useful to see an artist’s take on her own work and how an artist-activist works and promotes herself.

Frank, Robert. The Americans. intro Jack Kerouac. SCALO. New York: 2000.

This book is one of my primary inspirations. It is mostly a visual source, as the introduction is the only writing it contains. However, the introduction is a major inspiration in itself. Written by Jack Kerouac, it conveys Frank’s intentions just as they are meant to be conveyed, as well as simply being an intersting way of talking about art in general.

Giluliano, Mike. “Group Photos”Assembled Images at Grimaldis.” City Paper. 11 April 2001. Accessed 10 September 2005. Online. Avaliable: http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=3912

This article from the Baltimore City Paper is about Fors’ exhibition in a Charles St. Gallery. It touches on biographical information as well as conceptual. The main focus is on the works in the current exhibition. The main work discussed is “Flower,” a circular photo-collage installed on the floor. I find this article interesting because it is an account by the Baltimore paper most in touch with its culture on an artist whose cultural inspiration is one of his main drives.

Hales, Carolyn, ed. “Coat of Many Colors: William Christenberry.” Alabama Arts Council. 2001. Online. Accessed 13 January 2006. Available http://www.alabamaarts.org/index.html.

This page is a collection of personal statements from Christenberry. He describes the regional nature of his art, his schooling, the disappearence of Southern culture, his artistic inspirations (Goya and Picasso), and his dreams.

Lange, Susanne. William Christenberry: Disappearing Places. William Christenberry. pp. 25-31. Exhibition catalogue. Susanne Lange, curator. Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels. 2001.

This is a primarily visual source, containing all of the photography, drawing, and mixed media art from Christenberry’s Disappearing Places exhibition. It is useful visual material for studying how to bring personality into a photograph that does not contain people.

Lee, Pamela M. Object to Be Destroyed. MIT Press. Cambridge, 2000.

This monograph addresses the building cuts as Matta-Clark’s main work. It focuses on deconstruction of societal values and the temporality of his work. It briefly touches on other works, such as his food-based and community-based art. This book has interesting theories on the social value of unused architecture and what Matta-Clark’s methods of reclaiming space meant. Bataille’s “general economy is touched on and expanded into Matta-Clark’s sacrificial economy, and Derrida’s theories on deconstruction are addressed.

Lipsitz, George. “Not Just Another Social Movement.” Just Another Poster: Chicano Graphic Arts in California. ed. Noriega, Chon A. pp 85-6. University of Washington. Seattle: 2001

Lipsitz describes the similarities and differences between the Chicano movement and other cultural nationalist (and revolutionary movements). He postulates that the success of the Chicano movement depends on the large amount of stress that they put on art: at times it was the center of the movement. Chicano art brought the barrio together both through its communal effort and its revisionist history. It worked to instill a pride for Chicanos in their culture. This is a strong argument for using art for activist purposes, and for taking art out of the gallery to bring it to the general population.

Livingston, Jane. The New York School: Photographs 1936-1963. pp. 304-308. Stewart, Tabori, and Chang. New York: 1992.

This is a good visual reference for photographs by Robert Frank and others in his generation of photographers. It also includes biographies of all of the artists involved as well as essays on their contributions to art. There are particularly good articles on Frank and his development of a style that was an amalgamation of everything that he experienced.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “LACMA Exhibits Extrordinary Works by Three Generations of Cuban Photographers.” LACMA press release. Accessed 15 Septemeber 2005. Online. Available http://www.lacma.org/info/press/cuba.htm

This article is a breakdown of Cuban photography into three temporal categories. It discusses their evolution and interconnection, explaining how revolutionary ideology changed through the generations. I am particularly interested in the second generation, who focus on the world around them and try to convey the domestic and everyday as they see it.

Mak, Sonia. “Sandra de la Loza.” Finding Family Stories. Online. Accessed 6 January 2006. Available http://www.janm.org/exhibits/ffs/2003exhibition/delalosa/ delalosa.html.

McGuirk, Justin. “Gordon Matta-Clark.” Icon. Marcus Fairs, ed. June 2003.

Montoya, Lezlie Salkowitz. “Critical perspective on the state of Chicano art.” Chicano Art History. pp 120-4. 1980.

This is an analysis of the movement of Chicano art out of the streets and into the galleries. Montoya argues that this distances Chicanos from their roots and allows them to be subsumed into mainstream culture. Montoya advocates a movement to return Chicano art to the streets and the barrio, where their most important audience is. This is a good argument for why certain forms of art and certain topics should not be confined to the gallery.

Morris, Catherine, curator. Food. Exhibition Catalogue. October 3 1999 – February 13 2000. Landschatsverband Westfalen-Lippe. White Columns, NY, 1999.

This catalogue is for a retrospective exhibition on the SoHo artist culture centered around “Food,” “Anarchitecture,” “Avalanche,” and 112 Greene St.” These works are discussed community projects as well as art pieces. The catalogue goes into some detail on the various participants, especially Gordon Matta-Clark. It focuses on the conceptual underpinnings of working with food and its ties to his architectural and other projects. This is a good source for the sort of art activism that focuses on correcting problems within one’s own community. It also shows how varied projects can be part of a greater whole.

The October Surprise: Creative Interventions and Underground Politics in Northeast LA. Online. Accessed 5 January 2006. Available http://www.theoctobersurprise.org/ eng/home.html.

This website discusses a series of “interventions” that were meant to commemorate the hidden Chicano past of LA. These memorials and plaques were always positioned to link a piece of architecture or public space with events important to Chicano history. This is a useful source for public installation of activist art as well as the integration of history and architecture.

Penns, Walker. “On the State of Modern America.” The Dances of Survival. pp iv-v. Eastwilde. London: 1968.

Introduction to Penns’ most well known book of poetry. This article is a commentary on where America was headed during the 1960s. Penns postulated that we were in a state of what he called “cultural inflation” (where the worth of our culture was increasing rapidly), but this could not hold and disaster would strike soon enough. This was because of certain major faults of our cultural system, such as the downplaying of ideas of community.

Ruscha, Ed, Robert Frank, Lou Reed, Liz Jobey, Mary Ellen Mark, Mark Haworth-Booth. “Six Reflections on the photography of Robert Frank.” Tate Etc: Visiting and Revisiting Art, etcetera. Issue 2. Autumn 2004. Online. Accessed 10 January 2006. Available http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue2/sixreflectionsfrank.htm.

This website is a series of responses to and reflections on Robert Frank photographs. Seeing such a varied audience’s reactions to these images allowed me to more fully understand what they do.

Seidel, Miriam. “William Christenberry.” Art in America. December 1997. Online. Accessed 13 January 2006. Available http://www.miriamseidel.com/samples/ christenberry.html.

This article is on Christenberry’s decisions that lead up to his primary choices of media and topic. It discusses why Christenberry focuses on the disappearing culture of the south as his topic and how he conveys his message. It goes somewhat into the technical aspects of his work, which I find helpful.

Tullos, Allen. “Into the Territory: William Christenberry’s Klan Room.” William Christenberry. pp. 84-95. Exhibition catalogue. Susanne Lange, curator. Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels. 2001.

A compressed interview with the artist, this source focuses on Christenberry’s KKK-related art and how he came to that topic. I find it inspiring that he has no fear of addressing topics that are not popular or politically correct, and that the eloquence that he uses when addressing these topics convinces people to address them seriously.

Van Reis, Mikael. “That Spot of Light – Robert Frank’s Life Studies.” Intro to Flamingo, Robert Frank. SCALO. New York: 1997.

This article begins a collection of Robert Frank’s later photography. It discusses his use of light to bring life to the photograph. His disregard for standard photographic conventions is shown to make his images more vibrant, and more akin to memory than documentary.

Walker, Stephen. “Gordon Matta-Clark’s Building Dissections.” Architectures: Modernism and After. pp.118-141. Blackwell. Oxford, 2004.

A full book on Matta-Clark and his building dissections. Incorporates ideas from modern psychology and philosophy. I found this book a bit ironic, since it did not address any of his other work, which was all about non-institutionalization and defying the premise of art. As this book fits perfectly into the standard idea of art, it goes against the artist’s work.

Yang, Henry T, chancellor. California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA). Accessed 31 October 2005. Online http://cemaweb.library.ucsb.edu/cema_index.html.

This is a primarily visual source. It contains images from the varied cultural past and present of California. Additionally, it gives synopsies of artists and groups responsible for the work. This art is an inspiration because it comes at the world from a different cultural background, which makes the images intrinsically different from most Western art. This allows me to reflect on my own presuppositions and confront them, making available more options when I am creating art.