sᴇʟᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ᴀʀᴛᴡᴏʀᴋ: ᴇᴅᴡᴀʀᴅ ᴋɪᴇɴʜᴏʟᴢ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴏʀᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ᴡᴀʀ ᴍᴇᴍᴏʀɪᴀʟ, 1968

                68 - 70

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         Political Context

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1960s - radical artistic production

protests, demonstrations, riots of Civil Rights Movement

ongoing Vietnam War, many young men drafted

assassination of JFK, Robert Kennedy, Malcom X, MLK

some artists respond by merging art and life through

assemblage, others communicate explicit commentary

on current events and politics

create artwork that spoke to specific issues: sculptural

tableaux, painting, or photomontage

none of them believe art could single handedly change

society, but should play a role in reflecting society back

to itself, show contemporary life, awaken fellow citizens

to injustice, violence, and prejudice

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            Early Career

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1927 - Edward Kienholz born in Fairfield, Washington

grew up on wheat farm

learned carpentry, metalwork, car repair, put to use in

making sculpture from found and salvaged objects

briefly studied art at 2 regional colleges, did not earn degree

7 years on the road doing odd jobs: selling cars, vacuum

cleaners, working as orderly in psychiatric hospital

moved to LA in 1952

involved in avant-garde, open gallery in 1955

1957 - open another gallery, Ferus, curator Walter Hopps,

poet Bob Alexander

left after a year to focus on own art practice, gallery went on

to mount legendary exhibitions: Andy Warhol's first solo

show on West Coast, many artists based in SoCal (Wallace

Berman, Ed Moses, Kenneth Price, Larry Bell, Edward

Ruscha)

early work: relief collages from material collected from streets

of LA

moved quickly to constructing large scale works called

tableaux (French term for picture, scene, grouping, in Kienholz's

case, felt like it had been ripped from real life, singular form

is "tableau")

first tableau: Roxy's (1961), room size installation, replicate interior

of 1940s brothel, gleaming jukebox, figures created from

bits of junk and flea market finds

many tableaux addressed political issues (abortion, racial 

violence in American south)

literalness of material compounded subject matter, lead to

cases of public outcry condemning his tableaux as obscene,

vulgar, even pornographic

1966 - Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors threaten

to defund Los Angeles County Museum of Art if it did not

remove Back Seat '38 (1964) from view

compromise, only adults over 18 allowed to see interior

some critics found Kienholz's work overly heavy handed, with 

one dimensional message

others argue his tableaux offer powerful, unvarnished commentary

on uncomfortable socio-political realities

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        From Assemblage

            to Tableaux

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Robert Rauschenberg: pioneer post war assemblage with

Combines, merged found objects with painted flourishes, bring

together sculpture, everyday life, legacy of AbEx

Kienholz's development of assemblage in 3 dimensions at

monumental scale similar to Kaprow's progression from

assemblage to environments to happenings

George Segal (Kaprow's friend): hosted many happenings

on his farm in NJ, began making tableaux in mid 1960s,

typically with figures cast from real life models using

plaster bandages that harden when dry

evoked real spaces, early figures always painted white and 

use of found objects minimal compared to Kienholz

Segal'w work reads as self contained sculpture, Kaprow

and Kienholz create installation art - typically large installation

viewer must walk through to experience it

Kienholz incorporate sound, common feature of contemporary

installation art today

work seems material, but made contributions to movement 

known as Conceptual Art through Concept Tableaux in

1966

each work consisted of a paragraph describing a proposed

tableau, framed and sold the sheet of paper (sometimes with

accompanying plaque), purchaser could realize tableaux

according to description

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               Analysis

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made in 1968, height of Vietnam War

brings violence of war in confrontation with symbols of 

patriotism and small town/suburb America

occupies entirety of typical museum gallery

includes: life sized photo of hot dog and chili shop, placed

next to once working coke machine, 3 patio tables and chairs,

replica of Uncle Sam's "I Want You" poster from WWI, blackboard 

tombstone listing names of 475 countries that no longer exist,

5 figures cast from life to replicate famous image of soldiers

raising flag at Iwo Jima during WWII, except they're hoisting

flag into one of the patio tables, to the left is overturned trash

can given a head and legs, emanates sound of Kate Smith's

WWII era recording of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America"

unifies component parts by applying dull aluminum finish

makeshift quality appropriate considering the war he is

memorializing is far from over

extraordinary that Kienholz construct a memorial during a war

while it was happening

work does suggest (in referencing military conflicts) a lament

for war in general, specifically the ability for Americans to

carry on normally while violent conflict takes place elsewhere

desired to highlight and dramatize implications of war on life

at home in America

hope work will help to mobilize American public, who had lost

faith in war but not yet rally to demand its end.