Funk art
Encyclopedia
Art movement
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years...
inspired by popular culture that used an unlikely mixture of materials and techniques, including found objects. It was a reaction against the nonobjectivity of abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
. The movement’s name is derived from the musical term ‘funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
y’, describing the passionate, sensuous, and quirky. It was a popular art form in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly in the United States. Funk artists treated their work with humour, confrontation, bawdyness and autobiographical references. They sought to reintroduce social responsibility into contemporary art.
Non-functional ceramic art was an important element in the Funk art movement, especially in Regina and the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. The University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
, was a center for the movement with many important artists in the Funk movement on faculty such as Robert Arneson
Robert Arneson
Robert Carston Arneson was an American sculptor and professor of ceramics in the Art department at UC Davis for four decades.- Career :...
, Roy De Forest
Roy De Forest
Roy De Forest was an American painter known for his comic-like patchwork regionalist style, often depicting dogs & other figurative content in his art....
, Manuel Neri
Manuel Neri
Manuel Neri is an American sculptor, painter, and printmaker and a notable member of the "second generation" of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.- Biography :...
, and William T. Wiley
William T. Wiley
William T. Wiley is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, performance, and pinball. At least some of Wiley's work has been referred to as Funk art....
. Students from University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
like Margaret Dodd, David Gilhooly
David Gilhooly
David Gilhooly, also known as David James Gilhooly III, is an American ceramicist and printmaker, born in Auburn, California in 1943.He graduated from the University of California, Davis with a BA in 1965 and an MA in 1967...
, Chris Unterseher and Peter Vandenberge, continued the tradition.
Other artists
Other important funk artists include:- Bruce ConnerBruce ConnerBruce Conner was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines.-Early life:...
- Robert H. HudsonRobert H. HudsonRobert Hudson is an American artist who was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and grew up in Richland, Washington. He received a B.F.A in 1961 and an M.F.A. in 1963, both from the San Francisco Art Institute....
- Ed Kienholz
- Gladys NilssonGladys NilssonGladys M. Nilsson is an American artist, one of the original Chicago Imagists, a group in the 1960s and 1970s who turned to representational art...
- Jim NuttJim NuttJames T "Jim" Nutt is an American artist who was a founding member of the Chicago surrealist art movement known as the Chicago Imagists, or the Hairy Who...
- William T. WileyWilliam T. WileyWilliam T. Wiley is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, performance, and pinball. At least some of Wiley's work has been referred to as Funk art....
Sources
- Dempsey, Amy, Styles, Schools and Movements, The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art, New York, Thames & Hudson, 2005.
- San Jose Museum of Art, The Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration, San Jose, California, San Jose Museum of Art, 2000.