Makeup / Hands Up, Martha Rosler

Exhibition Label: “Make a Mark: Art of the 1960s,” Mar-2008, Lara Kuykendall Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it. Take a canvas. Put a mark on it. Put another mark on it. Jasper Johns. “Sketchbook Notes,” 1965 In the 1960s artists from the United States and beyond strove to “make a mark” on the art world and the culture at large by exploring the nature of creativity. Each of the three themes in this exhibition, color + form, gesture + splatter, and layer upon layer, shows how vivid and dynamic the art of this decade was. Some artists used color and geometric shapes abstractly, often to foster unusual optical effects, whereas others employed the personal, autographic gesture of expressionism. Still other artists exploited various methods of layering to create new kinds of collage. By doing something to an object or putting marks on a surface, artists in the 1960s responded to the realms of art, politics, and popular culture. The objects and images they made defined the visual culture of their generation. Exhibition Label: "Conflicting Memories," Oct-2003, Steve Goddard Makeup, Hands Up is from a series of photomontage works by Rosler that she referred to as, "Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful." Lucy Lippard commented about this work in her book on art about the Vietnam War: A lusciously flesh-colored face with eye make-up being applied (a cosmetics ad) fill the entire frame, becoming a landscape of "mis-representation." The model’s eye however, is covered (blinded) by a black-and-white image of a black GI pushing ahead of him at gunpoint a young Vietnamese woman (apparently a Viet Cong suspect). By surrealistically "mating" these two different media realities - neither one to be trusted - Rosler opens up a volley of visual "shots" about outlook and inner eyes, cover-up and makeup, race and gender, power and powerlessness, ignorance and bliss. Exhibition Label: "Art for Kansas: Building the Collection, 1988-1998 (Recent Acquisitions)," Nov-1998, John Pultz and Susan Earle Marths Rosler uses photographic images from popular culture and the media in her own photographs. This is a radical departure from traditional notions of art and originality. Like other artists during the 1960s and 1970s, Rosler used art to respond to political situations. Through the juxtaposition of pervasive imagery, Rosler comments on the role of photography in the construction of gender identity and understanding of war. These photomontages from the series, Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, were originally created for the street and the underground anti-war presses during the years of the Vietnam War. In the late 1980s, an art dealer convinced Rosler that the works should also function within the art world. The Spencer's work is from a limited-edition portfolio set she rephotographed specifically for museum and gallery consumption.