The Studio Reader: On the Space of Artists

392 Pages·2010·4.53 MB·English

by  Mary Jane Jacob

The STudio ReadeR

T h e
S T u dio
R e a d e R
on the space of artists
EditEd by Mary Jane Jacob
and Michelle Grabner
school of the art institute of chicago
University of Chicago Press
ChiC ago and London
Mary Jane Jacob is professor of sculpture and executive director of exhi bitions at
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the coe ditor of Buddha Mind in
Contemporary Art and Learning Mind: Experience into Art.
Michelle Grabner is professor in and chair of the Department of Painting and Draw-
ing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and codirector of The Suburban, a
gallery in Oak Park, Illinois.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago gratefully acknowledges the generous sup-
port for this book provided by the William and Anne Hokin Exhibition Research Fund.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2010 by The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
Rights to individual essays in this volume are retained by their authors.
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-38959-2 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-38959-6 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-38961-5 (paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-38961-8 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The studio reader : on the space of artists / edited by Mary Jane Jacob and
Michelle Grabner.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-38959-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-38961-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-38959-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-38961-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Artists’ studios. 2. Art—Philosophy. I. Jacob, Mary Jane. II. Grabner, Michelle.
N8520.S78 2010
702.8—dc22
2010003778
∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the Ameri-
can National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
ContEnts
ix Foreword by Lisa Wainwright
xi Preface by Mary Jane Jacob
1 Introduction by Michelle Grabner
The Studio as Resource
17 Buzz Spector
21 Rochelle Feinstein
23 Shana Lutker, “Index: Dream Studio, 2003–2006”
28 Michael Smith, “Recipe: Perfect Studio Day”
30 John Baldessari, “In Conversation”
The Studio as Set and Setting
39 Howard Singerman, “A Possible Contradiction”
47 Frances Stark
49 Robert Storr, “A Room of One’s Own, a Mind of One’s Own”
63 Bruce Nauman, “Setting a Good Corner”
68 Michael Peppiatt and Alice Bellony-Rewald, “Studios of America”
80 Annika Marie, “Action Painting Fourfold: Harold Rosenberg and an
Arena in Which to Act”
87 Kimsooja
88 Barry Schwabsky, “The Symbolic Studio”
The Studio as Stage
99 David J. Getsy, “The Reconstruction of the Francis Bacon Studio in
Dublin”
104 Art & Language, “Art & Language Paints a Picture”
s 119 David Reed
t
n
te 121 Thomas Lawson
n
o
C 125 Charline von Heyl
126 Svetlana Alpers, “The View From the Studio”
150 Rodney Graham, “Studio”
153 Joe Scanlan, “Post–Post Studio”
154 Carolee Schneemann, “The Studio, June 22, 2009”
156 Daniel Buren, “The Function of the Studio”
163 Daniel Buren, “The Function of the Studio Revisited: Daniel Buren in
Conversation”
166 Carrie Moyer
169 Marjorie Welish
170 Marjorie Welish, “The Studio Visit”
181 Marjorie Welish, “The Studio Revisited”
The Studio as Lived-In Space
195 Mary Bergstein, “The Artist in His Studio: Photography, Art, and the
Masculine Mystique”
217 Rachel Harrison
219 Lynn Lester Hershman, “The Studio Present”
220 Brenda Schmahmann, “Cast in a Different Light: Women and
the ‘Artist’s Studio’ Theme in George Segal’s Sculpture”
237 Karl Haendel
239 Brian Winkenweder, “The Kitchen as Art Studio: Gender,
Performance, and Domestic Aesthetics”
251 Glenn Adamson, “Analogue Practice”
259 Amy Granat, “1107”
261 David Robbins
264 James Welling, “Polaroids, 1976”
The Studio as Space and Non-Space
269 Jon Wood, “Brancusi’s ‘white studio’ ”
285 James Welling, “Paris, 2009”
286 Caroline A. Jones, “Post-Studio/Postmodern/Postmortem”
vi
302 Courtney J. Martin, “The Studio and the City: S.P.A.C.E. Ltd. and
Rasheed Araeen’s Chakras”
311 Katy Siegel, “Live/Work”
317 Suzanne Lacy, “Beyond Necessity: The Street as Studio”
321 Walead Beshty, “Studio Narratives”
332 Andrea Bowers
336 Judith Rodenbeck, “Studio Visit”
341 Lane Relyea, “Studio Unbound”
351 List of Contributors
360 Illustration Credits
363 Index
vii

ForEword Lisa Wainwright
As the art world careens this way and that, and its many institutions, mar-
kets, and audiences adapt and adjust, supporting it all is the generative ac-
tivity of studio practice. The studio is a space and a condition wherein cre-
ative play and progressive thinking yield propositions for reflecting on who
we are—individually and collectively—and where we might go next. Such
propositions take myriad forms depending on the nature of the artists and
the materials at their disposal, but what is common to all studio practice is
the process of working through an idea as a method of thinking and making.
To truly liberate the imagination is to have the space and freedom to reflect,
critique, and innovate, key processes for introducing change and advanc-
ing democratic ideals. The Studio Reader, in pulling aside the curtain on the
world of art, reveals something of these fundamental activities.
Schools of art and design like ours, the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, truly base their pedagogy in studio practice. The value of evolv-
ing an idea through the push-and-pull of a medium—be it physical, digital,
language-based, or otherwise—empowers the learner. In studio courses,
knowledge is vigorously batted about both materially and conceptually, for
creative testing through making remains essential to knowing. Learning
through experience means acquiring multiple orders of skill. It is a form of
research that follows a path of unfolding ideas as the hand and body, as well
the mind, learn. And it can yield surprising and powerful results. This edu-
cational strategy is thus significant, not only for producing artists and de-
signers, but for undergraduate education in general.
What might we all “know” if we worked in the studio for a time? What
can we learn—about ourselves, about the world—through this particular
experience of doing? At the School of the Art Institute, we have pursued this
course for nearly a century and a half: in childhood programs, in early col-
lege training for high school students, and, of course, in our deep and broad
undergraduate and graduate programs. While not all alumni work as art-
ists, all are informed by their experience in and with art-making. The ability
ix