What Are You Looking At?

like a cryptic crossword, the better you know an artist’s way of working, the quicker you will get the clues that he or she has provided.

What if you’ve popped into a gallery and happen upon the work, unaware of its relationship to Delacroix’s The Death of Sardanapalus? Well, it is still a powerful image and comment on modern life, with an intriguing composition and use of color. But the truth is that Postmodernist art rewards knowledge much like a cryptic crossword, where comprehension comes from solving the puzzle.

Cindy Sherman (b. 1954) was an early exponent of the Postmodern art of parody and impersonation with her Untitled Film Stills series (1977–80) (see Fig. 31).

That concept of blurring the boundaries between art and commerce was ingeniously realized by the Swedish-born American artist Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929). Having grown up and studied in Chicago (with a stint at Yale),

Of the three biggies on the world stage—MoMA, Pompidou and Tate—only one (Pompidou, 1989–91) has ever had a female Director in overall charge.

Wagenfeld Lampe (1924

t was 1919 and the Bauhaus was born. Gropius announced that it would be a “major institution of art education using modern ideas,” which combined the “theoretical curriculum of an art academy” with “the practical curriculum of an arts and crafts school,” providing a “comprehensive system for gifted students.

Paul Klee (1879–1940). Like Kandinsky, he had studied in Munich and experimented with German Expressionism and Symbolism. He also shared a similar outlook on life to the Russian, believing that art could help connect Man to his environment and his spiritual self. And he too had a profound love of music (Klee’s parents were musical, his wife a pianist) and an interest in primitive and folk art. Kandinsky invited the younger artist to join the Blue Rider group. It was the making of the man

said that his ambition was to make art that was “something a bit like a good armchair, which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.”

Restaurant de la Machine à Bougival (c.1905