Audrey Flack Essay, Research Paper

Audrey Flack Audrey Flack, born in 1931 in New York City, grew up knowingas a child she wanted to be an artist. Although Flack’s familydid not share her enthusiasm for her dream, she attended the HighSchool of Music and Art in New York. Here her promising future asan artist was beginning to unfold, and she received the St. Gaudens medal. Upon graduating from Cooper Union as the topstudent, Josef Albers lobbied and persuaded her to attend Yaleuniversity’s fine arts program. In 1952 from Yale she receivedher BFA. After leaving Yale, Flack attempted to place herselfinto the Abstract Expressionism movement that so dominated herstudent career. After, a seemingly sexual harassing encounterfrom one of her most revered and idolized Abstract Expressionist,Jackson Pollock, and the continuing desire to achieve therealness of her subjects she became a realist. She is quoted assaying “…people have a deep need to understand their world andthat art clarifies reality for them.” And with that statementshe explains sheer drive to paint realistically. In the 1960sshe became a married mother of two daughters, and balanced hercareer at the same time. Remarkably some of her most significantwork came from the sixties, one of which was “Kennedy Motorcade,”which capture the final moments before President Kennedy wasassassinated. Her work in the 1970s was dominated by monumentalstill lifes loaded with personal iconography. In these stilllifes the portrayal of many her subjects took on femininecharacteristics. Flacks Photorealism was much more thanirrelevant as her peers might would claim of their own work, butwas communicating many sociopolitical points of view. In the1980s Flack changed from painting to sculpture. Because of whatshe described to be a need for “something solid, real, tangible -something to hold on to.” her sculptures depicted strong,heroic, fierce, and athletic women which was a dearly neededbreaking down of stereotyped images of femininity. Flackdescribed her work as “real yet idealized…the goddess of everywoman,” which must have inspired many women, artist or not, toachieve and break down barriers that women previously accepted oreven sub-consciously placing on themselves. Throughout AudreyFlack’s career she had consistently pushed and opened closeddoors and eyes through her self-assertive mode of female andpolitically incorrect images. In comparison to Judy Chicago, Audrey Flack’s work is asequally interesting and successful at raising issues offemininity. Though both are addressing the same issues I believethat they are on opposite ends of the spectrum at portrayingtheir subject matter. Judy Chicago’s artwork is very blunt andtruthful, and the bluntness of her work speaks for the piece.for example, a vagina figure meshes with a floral image inChicago’s dinner party pieces, and this image of a floral vaginaserved as dinner ware speaks loudly, maybe more loudly than thebeauty of the artwork. When it is first viewed Audrey Flack’swork speaks loudly as Photrealism and the beauty of the artworkis noticed first. Then with further observation hersociopolitical views begin to become evident. Both artist wereinventive thinkers as children and although they faced resistancethey overcame and succeeded. Flack challenged ideas by moretraditional standards. She presents ideas in ways that areaccepted and are easily taken in, although maybe some times witha grain of salt they are accepted. Chicago’s work, such as herplay the “Cock and Cunt,” shoves her ideas in your face and thereis no escaping it. In all I would say the same goal that is toeducate and open the viewer’s eyes to new perceptions. WhileChicago was radical, Flack chose more appealing methods to arousequestions in the viewer.

Audrey Flack was quoted as saying, “Art makes life moreliveable.” It is my opinion that Flack is simply stating thatart gives mankind a way to cope with itself. Through art one canstep back and view life from other points of view. Art helps menand women and all lifestyles understand one another. Whether itbe a sobering experience or a humorous one, art definitely doesmake life more liveable. Judy Chicago stated, “Together, we women can shape thesociety to meet our needs, but only if we can put aside thesocial conditioning that tells us we have to be ‘nice,personable, and friendly.’” I believe what she is trying topersuade other women to believe is that real change only comesfrom those who intelligently challenge and fear not theiradvisary. Sometimes only by standing up and proclaiming what youbelieve to be truths, will your points be heard and considered.For if you are always congenial, respectful, and you are notdemanding and persistent you will be pushed to the side andburied by others who are more aggressive. Audrey Flack’s painting, “Grand Rose’” is an excellentexample of Imitaionalism. Her use of line helps to capture herimages realistically. Most of her lines are not noticed, butcontour throughout the composition. This is most evident in theoverlapping of subjects with high contrast. Texturely thepainting is filled with a variety of surfaces. Smooth polishedinaniment objects are randomly placed among brittle crackers,plump juicy fruit, and elegant flowing cloth. All shapes areself-enclosing, with a variety of some rounded and more conciseboundaries. The painting has a warm toasty feel which isachieved through the use of warm reds, oranges, yellows, andsiennas with slight touches of warm yellow-greens and a coolblue. The subject matter is a still life collection filled withtypical objects, but are presented in a way that some sort ofpersonal iconography surely underlines the painting. Repetition is found throughout the piece. Repeating the useof curved circular objects and shapes with the use warm colorsfound in the piece helps to unify the painting. There is atremendous amount of overlapping that is a key component to thedesign, and helps to relate the subjects in the piece. Thesubjects are placed in a very shallow space. Depth is notimportant to this painting, but seeing what is in front of youand asking why these objects are placed so tightly together in ashallow space is. The painting has an asymmetrical balance. Thebalance is achieved by having equal activity taking place on bothsides. Focal point is the white fruit dish holding the grapesand pears. From this point the eye flows diagonally down to thebrown cracker jar. Tracing the individual crackers off thebottom of the composition almost like a waterfall haphazardlyflowing down rocks. The lightest area of the composition isfound just off-center on the right side. Lying just above thefocal point to the right top corner is the darkest area. I originally classified “Grand Rose’” as Imitationalism andI have not change my opinion. The primary purpose is to imitatethe real, but also to give meaning and a new definition to whatan object might mean. Iconography is a key element to thispainting. Complexity in design and subject ironically bringsaction to the still life. The meaning of this painting is anattempt to tell a story about the artist. For example, hertemptations represented by the wine, her sadness found in theover-turned crackers, and her loneliness displayed by the singlekey. The painting is an excellent example of Imitationalism. Iappreciate and enjoy uncovering the hidden meanings of theobjects in the composition. But, no matter how nice of thetechnique or the eye for detail, I do not particularly like thispainting. Imitationalism is a technique I do not prefer. Itslack of visible brush work and the absence of the human elementmakes the painting less enjoyable to me.