stefanie vd merwe

Artist Investigation:

​

Barbara Kruger

​

CONTEXT:
Personal context:

Can the background of the artist tell us why the work was created? How has the artist background and personal events influenced the work? 

 

Kruger's background is clearly reflected in her style of art with the use of photography and digital work. Her career started when she began studying visual arts and design at many renowned schools and universities. She further carried this on to her official job positions as a graphic designer, art director and picture editor. She worked for places like Conde Nast Publications and Mademoiselle Magazine; two very renowned media companies. We can also say that her exposure within media environments caused her to focus on and promote global issues in her current pieces. 

​

Wider Context: 

How does the work link with the social, cultural or political history of the time? 

​

​

Do you think these circumstances influenced the meaning and function of the work?Do these circumstances affect why and how it was made? 

Yes, because she was purposely trying to create propaganda for this issue^

​

​

Lalla Essaydi 

​

Context: 
Personal context: 

Can the background of the artist tell us why the work was created? How has the artist background and personal events influenced the work? 

​

​

Lalla A. Essaydi grew up in Morocco and now lives in USA where she received her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/TUFTS University in May 2003. Essaydi’s work is represented by Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston and Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City. Her work has been exhibited in many major international locales, including Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Texas, Buffalo, Colorado, New York, Syria, Ireland, England, France, the Netherlands, Sharjah, U.A.E., and Japan and is represented in a number of collections, including the Williams College Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Fries Museum, the Netherlands, and The Kodak Museum of Art. Her art, which often combines Islamic calligraphy with representations of the female body, addresses the complex reality of Arab female identity from the unique perspective of personal experience.  In much of her work, she returns to her Moroccan girlhood, looking back on it as an adult woman caught somewhere between past and present, and as an artist, exploring the language in which to  “speak” from this uncertain space.  Her paintings often appropriate Orientalist imagery from the Western painting tradition, thereby inviting viewers to reconsider the Orientalist mythology.  She has worked in numerous media, including painting, video, film, installation, and analog photography.

​

​

Shirin Neshat

​

Context: 
Personal context: 

Can the background of the artist tell us why the work was created? How has the artist background and personal events influenced the work? 

​

​

​

PERSONAL CONTEXT:  
Can the background of the artist tell us why the work was created?
How has the artist background and personal events influenced the work.
Which other people (other artists) have influenced this artist? 
WIDER CONTEXT: 
How does the work link with the social, cultural or political history of the time? 
(Think about links to religion, science, technology, culture, technology or psychology and trends, ideas, and values at the current time?)( was it a time of war or social change?)
Do you think these circumstances influenced the meaning and function of the work?
Do these circumstances affect why and how it was made? 

​

​