Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

Getsy, David J.

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Description: Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

BOOKAbstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

David J. Getsy

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15553

Original and theoretically astute, Abstract Bodies is the first book to apply the interdisciplinary field of transgender studies to the discipline of art history. It recasts debates around abstraction and figuration in 1960s art through a discussion of gender’s mutability and multiplicity. In that decade, sculpture purged representation and figuration but continued to explore the human as an implicit reference. Even as the statue and the figure were left behind, artists and critics asked how the human, and particularly gender and sexuality, related to abstract sculptural objects that refused the human form.

This book examines abstract sculpture in the 1960s that came to propose unconventional and open accounts of bodies, persons, and genders. Drawing on transgender and queer theory, David J. Getsy offers innovative and archivally rich new interpretations of artworks by and critical writing about four major artists—Dan Flavin (1933–1996), Nancy Grossman (b. 1940), John Chamberlain (1927–2011), and David Smith (1906–1965). Abstract Bodies makes a case for abstraction as a resource in reconsidering gender’s multiple capacities and offers an ambitious contribution to this burgeoning interdisciplinary field.

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Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Print publication date November 2015 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780300196757

EISBN 9780300232646

Illustrations 100 illus

Print Status in print

Publisher (in print)

WorldCat

Google Books

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List of illustrations

Cubi VII
Flavin Flats
Die
Torso of a Young Man [I]
Torso of a Young Girl [II]
Golden Bird
David Smith, with Ninety Father, 1961 (unfinished state) and Ninety Son, 1961 (unfinished state)
Frank O'Hara, Southhampton, New York
Zig III and Zig II
Scultpures in the fields at Bolton Landing, New York
March Sentinel (Stainless Steel Planes), Two Box Structure, Two Circle Sentinel, Zig II, and Zig III
Zig II (unfinished state)
Sentinel I
Personage of August, Sentinel I, Running Daughter (unfinished state), Tanktotem VI, Sentinel II, Pilgrim, and The Five Spring
Personage of August and Sentinel II
Tanktotem VIII, Noland's Blues, Ninety Father, Ninety Son, and Rebecca Circle
Art New York: The Sculpting Master of Bolton Landing, stills
Art New York: The Sculpting Master of Bolton Landing, stills
Cubi VI, 1963, with Circle and Box (Circle and Ray), 1963, in the background, Bolton Landing Shop
Lectern Sentinel and Cubi VIII
Fifteen Planes
Fifteen Planes, detail
Cubi XI
Lonesome Man
Zig III (in progress, partial view); Black White Forward; Ninety Father (unfinished state); and Ninety Son (unfinished state)
XI Books III Apples
Tanktotem I
Cubetotem 7 and 6
The Hero (Eyehead of a Hero)
The Hero (Eyehead of a Hero), detail
Tanktomem IV
Tanktotem IX
Ninety Son (unfinished state)
Cubi and other sculptures
Socket (cat. rais. 578) and Socket (cat. rais. 579)
M. Junior Love
Fantail
Toy
The Tinted Venus
Mustang Sally McBright
Miss Lucy Pink
Son of Dudes
Endzoneboogie
Dolores James
Tongue Pictures (in the foreground)
Socket
Huzzy
Penthouse #46
Poster for John Chamberlain, Soft and Hard: Recent Sculpture, Lo Guidice Gallery, Chiacgo
Panna-Normanna
Panna-Normanna, detail
F*****g Asterisks
Son of Dudes
Three Cornered Desire
Folded Nude
Kiss #28
Kiss #11
Kiss #11
The Kiss
Kiss #12
Kiss #26
Kiss #12
Panna-Normanna
Ultrafull Private
Nancy Grossman in her studio working on A.F.F.
The Edge of Always
Black Landscape
For David Smith
For David Smith, detail
For David Smith, detail
Cubi XVIII, Cubi XVII, and Cubi XIX
Bride
Bride, detail
Chiron
Potawatami
Potawatami, detail
Ali Stoker, view from side
Ali Stoker
Ali Stoker, detail
Ali Stoker, detail
No Name
Documentation of Nancy Grossman studio
Blunt
Blunt, detail
Nancy Grossman sculptures in progress
Mary
Mary, alternate view
M.U.S.
Documentation of Nancy Grossman studio wall
Nancy Grossman's Andro sculptures in progress
Andro III and Andro IV
M.L. Sweeney
Untitled (Nancy Grossman sculptures)
B.Y.K.
untitled (for you, Leo, in long respect and affection) 1
red and green alternatives (to Sonja)
Dan Flavin: some light, Kaymar Gallery, New York
icon V (Coran's Broadway Flesh)
Final study for Coran's Broadway Flesh (small version)
icon V (Coran's Broadway Flesh)
Cover of Playbill 3, no. 27, for Gypsy, starring Ethel Merman at the Broadway Theatre, New York
Study for icon V (Coran's Broadway Flesh)
icon IV (the pure land) (to David John Flavin [1933–1962])
icon VI (Ireland dying) (to Louis Sullivan); icon VII (via crucis); icon VIII (the dead nigger's icon) (to Blind Lemon Jefferson)
Dan Flavin: some light, Kaymar Gallery, New York
the diagonal of May 25, 1963 (to Constantin Brancusi)
Dan Flavin: fluorescent light, Green Gallery, New York
Tennyson
pink out of a corner (to Jasper Johns)
one of May 27th, 1963
red out of a corner (to Annina)
diagonal of May 25, 1963 (to Robert Rosenblum)
Installation view of Dan Flavin: fluorescent light, Green Gallery, New York
untitled (to the real Dan Hill)
untitled (to Janie Lee) one
Dan Flavin: alternating pink and "gold"
untitled (to Ellen Johnson, fondly)
Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)
Untitled (Petit Palais)
untitled (in memory of "Sandy" Calder) V
Meet Ms. Western Artiste (page 1), with Rosenblum annotations
Meet Ms. Western Artists (page 2), with Rosenblum annotations
Dan Flavin, European Couples (exhibition)
The Resilience of the 20%
Before
After
Heather Cassils, Becoming an Image, Performance Still No. 5
Heather Cassils, Becoming an Image, Performance Still No. 2
Two-part Chair

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Contents

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

Contents

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.001

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15554

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Acknowledgments

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

Acknowledgments

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.vii-x

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15555

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Preface

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

Transformation was the norm in American sculpture of the 1960s. The decade saw thoroughgoing attacks on sculptural representation and on the very idea of the statue. In the wake of sculpture’s reconfiguration, modes such as assemblage, the reductive object, and earthworks proliferated. Rosalind Krauss famously dubbed...

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.xi-xvii

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15556

Chapter subject tags:Nineteen sixtiesGender identity in artSculpture, Abstract

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Introduction: “New” Genders and Sculpture in the 1960s

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

An epiphany for this project, which helped me envision its shape, occurred when I was leaving the David Smith retrospective at Tate Modern a number of years ago. One of the final rooms was the media room, and the 1964 televised interview between Smith and Frank O’Hara I discuss in Chapter 1 was being projected on a large wall. I had not intended to watch this...

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.1-41

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.004

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15557

Chapter subject tags:Gender identity in artSculpture, American--20th centuryQueer theoryArt criticism--United States--History--20th centuryMinimal artAnthropomorphism in artGender nonconformitySculpture, Abstract--United States--20th century

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1. On Not Making Boys: David Smith, Frank O’Hara, and Gender Assignment

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

David Smith once said starkly about his sculptures, “Well, they’re all girls, Frank….I don’t make boy sculptures.” The “Frank” in...

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.43-95

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.005

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15558

Chapter subject tags:Gender identity in artAbstract Expressionism--United StatesSculpture, American--20th centurySmith, David, 1906-1965O'Hara, Frank, 1926-1966Art criticism--United States--History--20th centurySculpture, Abstract--United States--20th century

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2. Immoderate Couplings: Transformations and Genders in John Chamberlain’s Work

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

There are two opposed and seemingly irreconcilable tendencies in the critical appraisal of John Chamberlain’s sculpture. The first has been to treat the works as if they are simply and purely abstract, attending almost exclusively to...

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.97-145

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.006

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15559

Chapter subject tags:Chamberlain, John, 1927–2011Gender identity in artFound objects (Art)Sculpture, American--20th centuryGender nonconformitySex in artSculpture, Abstract--United States--20th centuryAssemblage (Art)--United States--20th century

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3. Second Skins: The Unbound Genders of Nancy Grossman’s Sculpture

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

“Who are these people? Are they men, women, or generic human beings?” This was the question posed to Nancy Grossman by a group of art students when confronted with the works for which she has become most known...

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.147-207

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.007

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15560

Chapter subject tags:Grossman, NancyGender identity in artSculpture, American--20th centuryWomen artists--United States--20th centurySex in artSculpture, Abstract--United States--20th centuryFeminism and art--United States--20th centuryAssemblage (Art)--United States--20th century

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4. Dan Flavin’s Dedications

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

“Flavin’s dedications embarrass me,” John Perreault wrote in 1971. “I am consistently annoyed at Flavin’s bad habit of dedicating pieces. The motivations behind these gestures are, I am sure, proper, but the effect is sentimental…. Flavin is tough-minded in his art and tough-minded in his writings...

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.209-265

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.008

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15561

Chapter subject tags:Gender identity in artSculpture, American--20th centuryLight artMinimal artFlavin, Dan, 1933-1996Gender nonconformity

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Conclusion: Abstraction and the Unforeclosed

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

While my aim has been to examine the historical complexity of the practices of the artists in this study, my work has also been motivated by current concerns about gender and art (that themselves find the 1960s as a formative and generative precedent). Ultimately, this book’s...

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.267-280

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.009

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15562

Chapter subject tags:Gender identity in artSculpture, American--20th centuryPerformance art--United States--20th centuryGender nonconformityCassils

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Bibliography

David J. Getsy

Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender

Bibliography

Author

David J. Getsy

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00005.010

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15563

Access to this content is only available to subscribers. If you are at an institution that currently subscribes to the A&AePortal, please login to your VPN before accessing the site. If you have already purchased an individual subscription, please sign in to your account to access the content. Learn more about subscriptions.

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