In 1956-57, Golub Lived in Italy, where he studied ancient Roman sculpture. He subsequently produced a series of Head paintings (three of which are in the MCA's Permanent Collection). These Heads are not portraits in the conventional sense, since no particular individual is featured. Although it does not precisely describe the person's appearance or state of mind, this larger than life-size head, through its frontal and central positioning. Confronts the viewer directly. Golub was inspired by the colossal sculptural fragments of bygone emperors that he studied in Rome. He has said about these figures: ``These Colossi are stoic, brute, and raw-looking eroded, massive in their sensef of self .. They stand up to time psychically and through erosion.`` Gloub's choice of earth tones complements the uneven surface of the painting, suggesting that the figure has survied time's trials. Like numerour works he created during the 1050s, including the MCA's Recling Youth(1959), the artist achieved this effect by building up layers of lacuqer and oil painit, thenm scraping it down to produce an uneven surface. Gloub also used slovents to erode the surface, giving the head an appearance that is both weather and timeless.

Related sources
Books
Marzorati, Gerald. A Painter of Darkeness. Leon Gloub and our Times. New York: Penquin Books, 1992.
Selz, Peter. New Inages of Man. Exhibition catalogue. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1959
Video
Leon Golub. 40 minutes. Prodeced by Horsefield and Blumenthal. 1977.

      This painting depicts Troy Donahue, a popular B-movie actor of the late 1950s and early 1960s, in a format that recalls the silk screen, a printing process favored by the artist. According to Warhol: ``With silk-screening, you pick a photograph, blow it up, transfer it in glue onto silk and then roll in k across so thin ink goes through the silk but not through the glue. That way you get the same image, slightly different each time. `` Although Troy Diptych is a painting rather than a silk screen, Warhol refers to that medium to achieve the effect of multiple images with minute but discernible variations.
       Warhol liked to depict his subjects in multiple form, whether they were Campbell's soup cans or celebrities of the day. By reproducing the faces of celebrities over and over again in a single artwork, Warhol may be alluding to the packaging of movie stars. Here he varies the composition by presenting one portion in color, the other in black and white, thereby echoing the formats of various fan magazines and newspapers. The artist derived the two-panel, or diptych format, from religious paintings; he may have chosen it as a commentary on the reverence with which we treat our pop icons. Warhol's view on the fleeting nature of celebrity was summed up in his dicturm that ``in the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes. `` *

Related sources
Books
Bourdon, David. Warhol New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989.
McShine, Kynaston, ed. Andy Warhol: A Retrospective.
Smith, Patirck S. Andy Warhol's Art and Films. Ann Arbor, Michigna: UMI Research Press, 1986.
Video
Andy Warhol RM Associates, 78 minutes.

       Adria depicts the Chicago art critic and collector Dennis Adrian. Paschke decided that he wanted to paint a portrait of him, so he invited him over and took photographs. Paschke obviously chose not to reproduce the appearance of the photograph, since the arms have been eliminated and the face appears tattooed. The artist said of this work: ``At the time I was doing this series of paintings, I was very interested in fashion, clothing, in how people present themselves to each other... and in particular the play of light on surfaces and one type of material against another.
       `` Paschke's painting consists of very strong colors. The artist recalled that some of his lasting childhood memories consisted of circus visits and Fourth of July fireworks. In particular, he likes the association between color and emotion.

Related Sources
Books
Ed Paschke: Selected Works 1967-1981
The Renaissance Society at the Univeristy of Chicago, Chicago:1982 Benezra, Neal, Ed Paschke. New York: Hudson Hills, 1990 ]Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1959
Video
Leon Golub. 40 minutes. Prodeced by Horsefield and Blumenthal. 1977

      ``In Memory of My Feelings`` is the title of a poem by Johns's friend Frank O'Hara, a poet and also curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The poem referred to O'Hara's recently ended relationship with painter Grace Hartigan. Johns, too, had recently ended a love affair. In this light, both the title and the painting seem more comprehensible. Johns created a work that memorialized his feelings within a tribute to O'Hara's poem.
      On one side we see a single surface covered with energetic brushstrokes in a range of grays and browns, with occasional brighter tones of blue and orange. Does this half of the painting seem sad? Happy? On the right a spoon and a fork hang together against the broadly brushed canvas. The two halves are connected by actual hinges.
      This work emphases, couples, or twos. The painting is split in two halves by two hinges, and then the lfet side in split in half again. There are two utensils hanging from a string that is duplicated by its own shadow. The spoon and fork, which call to mind a household, eating, and the intimacy of sharing a home with someone, hang together directly in front of the spilt between the boards. Perhaps Johns compares the superficial, forced joining of two people (the single surface of paint) with the actuality-two people split apart, perhaps with different and uncontrollable emotions. Perhaps the spoon and fork symbolize Johns and O'Hara, similarly two artists but in different mediums, both hanging in front of this split (the break-up) in each of their lives. These are only ideas, suggested by images Johns actually used in his painting. Many contemporary art works do not specifically tell a story. Instead, by similarities and differences, by what artists include and what they omit, they suggest impression feelings, and ideas that invite the viewer to speculate and relate to their won individual experiences.

Related sources
Books
Francis, Richard. Jasper Johns. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984. O'Hara, Frank.
The Selected Poems of Frank O'Hara. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950 Rosenthal, Mark. Jasper Hohns: Work Sinces 1974 Philadelphia: Philadelphid Museum of Art, 1988. Fil, Jasper Johns: Take an Objects. Hans Namuth and Judith Wechsler, 1990.

      Wearing a brown suit and a white-buttoned shirt, the subject of Simpson's photos sits facing forward in a chair as if at an interview. The sequential format of the work, in which a series of four photographs captures a slight shift in her position each time, implies that she's been caught self-consciously in freeze-frame. Simpson cropped the image so that we can only see between the lips and the knees of the figure.
      Simpson has said that black women in the U.S. are treated by society as if they're faceless, without identity or individuality. By not showing the faces of her models, Simpson reminds us of this treatment. Her figures become universal, and the camera lens can focus on other aspects of the body, such as clothing and posture. The typically masculine clothing and the relaxed, quite unladylike pose of the woman in She belie the title ``female`` in lower-case italic script above her like a scientific label. Simpson often used the discrepancy between text and image to emphasize stereotypical conclusions many people draw expecially about women/s place ``in society. Can ``she`` wear a suit and still be a woman?

Related sources
Books
Wright, Beryl. Lorna Simpson: For the Skae of the Viewer. New York: Univerisie Publishers, 1992.

      Duchmap's Box-in-Suitcase consists of 68 reproduction of his own artworks, contained within a cardboard box which, when fully opened serves as a miniature museum of Duchamp's artistic output. On one level, then, Duchamp's Box serves a portable retrospective of his artistic achievement. With this work, Duchamp marked a division between one part of his life that was finished and his future.
       Box-in-Suitcase suggests other meanings related to Duchamp's particular artistic aims. Included in the box are several of his infamous readymades, including Fountain (mentioned above), Bicycle Wheel, and Bottle Rack. These works are precisely what their titles indicate-ordinary manufactured objects that Duchampselect4d and exhibited as art. By calling these objects ar5t, Duchamp suggested that anything could be art if the artist so named it, thus questioning a centuries old ides: that artistic quality is based on craftsmanship and originality. If an ordinary bicycle wheel could be mounted on a stool and exhibited as an artwork, all pr3vious artistic standards seem to have been je3ttisoned. Duchamp has been among the most influential artist of the twentieth century for his practice of liberating art-making form long-held rules and habits.

Related Sources
Books
The Duchamp Effect. Duchmap, Marcel. Salt Seller; The Writings of Marcel Duchamp.
Video
Marcel Duchamp: A Games of Ches, RM Arts. 58 min.

      Self-portrait as a Fountain is part of a series of photographs in which Nauman is acting out several different word phrases. Here we are presented with the ``artist as fountain.`` In this particular photograph Nauman's biting sense of humor is immediately apparent. Nauman seems to be poking fun at the pedestal is some artists are put on or put themselves upon and the reverence with which they are often treated. He seems to be commenting on the notion that whatever an artist calls art is art, and in this case he says that a photograph of himself spitting water out of his mouth is a work of art and that his is a fountain. Of this approach Nauman has said, `` My conclusion was that (if) I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art… ``This photograph also includes and element of performance. First, Nauman performed an action for this photograph and documented the finite action through this medium. Second, the artist arranged harsh light s coming from the floor that seem to be shining up at him like stage lights, further enhancing the idea that this was a performance.

Related sources
Books
Bruce Nauman: Prints 1970-89. New York, Castelli Graphics, 1989. Bruce nauman. London:Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1986.

       Sherman allows and even encourages viewers to construct stories for her pictures. In Untitled #137, she positioned herself centrally and frontally to command the spectator's attention. Her red clothing also draws our eyes to the figure. Yet, she averts her gaze, leaving us to speculate on her mood and sated of mind. To open up the possibilities Sherman kept the photograph's background undefined, and posed in nondescript clothing. Observing that the woman's hair is in disarray and that her hands are dirtied, we begin to wonder why she is disheveled. Sherman has revealed many, but not all, of the pieces of the story, prompting us to look carefully for clues as we create our won narrative.
      In her photographs, Sherman always features herself; yet she continually alters her appearance, roles, and mood so that no two images look the same. Through these photographs, she may be commenting on women's capacity (and perhaps their obligation) to transform themselves in order to meet society's expectation.

Related sources
Books
Krauss, Rosalind, Cindy Sherman: 1975-1993. Rizzoli International Publishers, New York: 1993 Cindy Sherman. Pantheon books, New York: 1984

      This photograph shows a young Japanese woman who does not appear quite real; although the photograph has a three-dimensional quality because it is made of Duratran, the figure has phony eyeballs and plastic covering her legs. She wears suggestive schoolgirl clothes, and has glossy, smiling lips, maniacal eyes, and flyaway purple hair. Does she look happy? Does she look intelligent? Does she look playful? Does she look like a capable adult?
     Mori implicitly questions the rules of a society where women are expected to be pretty, happy, and mindless. Although Japanese society has changed dramatically in the past fifty years, women still remain outside of the male-dominated power structure. As a former model who says she went through an identity crisis as a result of her participation in the fast-paces fashion world, Mori also makes a state4ment about fashion, modeling, Models are the epitome of the female stereotype-alluring and smiling or pouting and silent. Their primary function is to sell products: perfume, cars, cigarettes, or a particular look or lifestyle. This figure might be modeling her bracelets or her headset, or perhaps her clothes. The title Birth of a Star emphasizes an aura of glamour in the work already suggested by bright, glowing colors, shiny plastic, and a larger-than-life figure. The tuneless, high-voiced musical accompaniment implies she might be a rock star. Whatever the figure represents, Mori ironically points out the absurdities of Woman's stereotypes by using the same glossy look that fashion magazines employ, but toward a different end.

Related Sources
Articles
Blair, Dike ``Mariko Mori.`` Flash Art No. 189 (Summer 1996) : 131.
Corris, M. British? Young? Invisible? With Attitute?'' Artforum vol. 30. P111, May 1992.

      While not big, brown, and wet, Calder's stabile Performing Seal looks like a circus seal balancing a ball on its nowe. The shapes of the seal's body and flippers are simplified into abstract forms that nevertheless create the idea of a seal. The structure of the delicately balanced discs and wires allow the seal to dance and bob with the slightest breath of air, recalling the motion of a seal performing tricks.
       The monochrome (one color) nature of this work allows the viewer to focus on its shape, volume, and movement. Calder loved to give his artworks actual, physical motion, and he insisted that such works were not sculptures, but stabiles or mobiles (hanging from the ceiling). Caller said, ``Above all, art should be fun. `` He was fascinated by animals and especially by the circus. His works allocation a; sense of whimsy and delight-in his simple forms, charming curves, and bright, basic colors-as well as in his humorous ideas and subjects.

Related Sources
Books
Lipman, Jean. Calder's Universe. Philadelphia: Running press, 1976.
Mater, Joan. Alexander Calder. New York; Cambridge University press, 1993.
Video
Mobile: By Alexander Calder. National Gallery of Art. 25 min.