Read great gatsby
-class topic review
1)visual culture as a discipline and as a subject- in essence visual is superseding the print culture today
Some critics have talked about the end of the age of the book- many aspects people are living through a screen
There was an recent image that everyone saw of white house protest, rally ted cruise and sarah palin leading group of people toward whitehouse, man standing outside the whitehouse with the confederate flag with this group- confederate flag – in terms of semiotics- omission of not saying anything about flag- morally culpable act- offensive symbol to African Americans- to have this image in front of the white house with first black president inside is inherently offensive- yet there was no denouncement of the image- visual image is being used in a violent way- good example of how the visual has taken over- another example of offensive symbol: swastika- demonstrates power of the visual image, Visual texts as political statements
ICONOLOGY
Irwin Panovsky- most famous theorist who developed way of reading visual texts called iconology, interested in symbolic content of the visual text- his approach: 3 strata- talks about these different levels/strata to how one approaches visual text
Genres of visual texts- time of day, year, particular moment being captured, style- approach in literal/factual way- Thomas constable painting of the hayride- primary
2nd – symbolic-secondary
3rd-socialogical/philosophical level-intrinsic-much more abstract and broad level, puts in the context of the philosophy of the time
Annie leibowitz- portraits in vanity fair/rolling stone magazine
Ardolfini wedding portrait-comparison with Angelina jolie and brad pitt- representative post modern fame culture. couple-image of perfection- while painting represents high renaissance, yet there iconology is similar. Trope of this couple- how did this connection get made? Making a statement

ART HISTORY
Theorist they used in the book was John Berger- rather Marxist approach to art critique- his approach is called cultural studies- begins with lascow cave paintings , france circa ancient times all the way up to the present ex. Lady gaga arriving in egg deliberately playing upon birth of venus, also had dress made out of meat- possible interpretation of gender politics, objectification of women- female body as piece of meat- ex. Madonna going through different phases- inverts iconology Madonna(means virgin mary); then licentious phase, etc. lady gaga does similar display through her fashion. Intentionality of Performance Art
Fashion display at metropolitan by Alexander McQueen- perfect example of integration of fashion, visual culture, mythology – hologram of Kate moss –visually magnificent show- even in metropolitan museum they’re doing fashion shows nowadays
Lascow paintings pyramids, Romanesque, high renaissance, Picasso, expressionism, cubism, abstract, globalism
Dominated by men, marginalized minorities- euro artists canonized, history of great masters
Berger- art as ideological vehicle
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