Maddie Boden
I'm an associate lecturer in the History of Art department at the University of York. I'm proud to call Yorkshire home - it's one of the best places to look and learn about art!
Location York
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That's okay! Why not?
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Maddie Boden replied to Mary Gledhill
Thanks for sharing!
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Maddie Boden replied to Birgit Anglesey
All excellent and relevant considerations. I think all of these issues will be on the mind of whoever assumes the role!
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Excellent idea - the University currently has a writer-in-residence programme but no artist equivalent!
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Great point - the need for a new campus stemmed from an increase in international student numbers. A relevant question is how the university should represent its local roots but also appeal and welcome the international community.
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To some extent, departments do consult students on what content their courses include. While they might not get a deciding vote or final say, students get to give feedback on all modules they take and there are periodic reviews where student representatives can voice their opinions on the content and structure of their degree courses. Similarly, each degree...
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You're right to point out that sculpture, and art more generally, seems to be an easy target. Why do you think this is where student media have directed their attention rather than other areas of the university's budget?
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You raise some great points here. No easy answers, but this case study is designed to make you consider the status of 'public' art and what the public's role in decision making should be.
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Maddie Boden replied to Edith Engel
Hi Edith. That's odd! I get a copy of the weekly e-mail when it's sent out and I received the one for Week 4. Did you start this course on 29 June? If you started any time after that, the e-mails might be delayed to coincide with your start date. If that's not the case, you can get in touch with FutureLearn through their customer feedback page to ask for the...
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Maddie Boden replied to M N
Hepworth's editions are an interesting case for discussing multiples and copies as she often worked across different materials. In the case of Antiphon, a boxwood original and subsequently seven bronze casts. I think we can draw out different lines of analysis thinking about this as a wooden object and a metallic one. Moving between materials is clearly...
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Look forward to welcoming you to York soon. Here is a sculpture trail of campus that some History of Art students produced.
https://www.york.ac.uk/media/historyofart/Sculpture%20Trail_Norman%20Rea%20Gallery_plus%20names.pdf
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Happy reading - the Hepworth scholarship is a treasure trove!
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I'm glad that you learned something about your personal encounters with art.
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Great example. I would consider Blue Planet a piece of art - in the sense that it's a documentary with some of the most beautiful shots of nature captured on film. Is this an example then of art provoking a response to the issue of single-use plastic?
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Great point. There are pieces by students around campus. For example, a lovely painting of York's skyline which hangs outside the History of Art department. However, since the University doesn't have a fine arts department, examples like this are surprisingly rare. However, the Norman Rhea Gallery sometimes exhibits student's work and colleges often hold art...
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Thanks Edith, you've been keeping me on my toes during this run! I've got to get in touch with FutureLearn to make these changes so they might not show up immediately, but I've noted them.
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Great example - we also saw this on the original campus, combining the Tudor-era Heslington Hall with the new CLASP buildings.
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I'm not sure about the answer to this - I'll do a bit of digging and see if I can come up with some information. If we have any woodcarvers on the course, please jump in!
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Thank you for sharing! This is such an important topic that those who are interested in art should know more about.
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Thank for sharing! That's great you've got a creative outlet. The ceramics studio on campus is popular with students for similar reasons.
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Thanks for raising this course! A slightly different perspective on the arts and well-being but nevertheless an important one.
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Hi all, I'd suggest we keep the discussion focused on this article about consulting students on arts acquisition. There is room for this discussion in Week 2's article on monuments. I'd ask that everyone voice their opinions respectfully and disengage if things get too heated.
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How do you think the consultation could work? A poll of all students? An art acquisition committee? Other learners should feel free to jump in with their ideas in the comments!
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Do you think students have any ownership over the campus or its appearance while they live and work there? I'm asking this in a more general sense rather than a literal question of budget and land rights.
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Great point - I think most students would agree with you that the arts is worth supporting.
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Thank you for pulling together some recent and historical examples. You've shown us how these issues are not isolated incidents, but inherent to the notion of 'public' art.
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@DonaldMcKay I quite agree! I think it can be argued that without animals, there would be no art full stop. You just have to think about the many ways animals are vehicles of expression and creativity. More literally, the paintbrush is typically made from animals' hairs. Marble is composed of dolomite and limestone (the skeletons of marine creatures).
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Excellent example! The artist Andy Holden recently staged a fascinating exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery exploring the artistic inclinations of the bowerbird and other aspects of bird culture.
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Thanks for the recommendation. Gompertz's book is an accessible text for understanding the famous developments in twentieth-century art.
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Maddie Boden replied to Gail Alexander
Looks wonderful. hope the course has put you in the right frame of mind for an enjoyable visit!
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@LeslyeSlater I think that Barlow's statement is intentionally obtuse - leaving space for debate and discussion to take place over the course of the festival, from a number of perspectives.
A straightforward interpretation might be, as you said, that all 3-D objects are anthropological. I think the statement asks us to reflect on sculpture as a cultural...
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Interesting comparison. What is it about Hirst's cow that is more interesting to you?
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Maddie Boden replied to Kat Dale
Amazing! What was her studio like?
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Maddie Boden replied to Kristian Kreeft
The omissions in these types of dictionaries are often revealing!
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That's great that you went away to look up the definition. Sometimes these terms can be a bit obtuse until you dig deeper into their meanings.
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@SueJansons @PhilippaGodwin You might be interested in this piece by Hepworth, a bronze cast of her left hand.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hepworth-the-artists-hand-t03154
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Thank you for raising these connections - you can see the parallels running across the work of different artists around the same period.
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Maddie Boden replied to Ann Roberts
That sounds like an excellent resource. Happy reading!
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Maddie Boden replied to Gail Alexander
I'm sorry that this podcast wasn't what you were expecting. Luckily, there are so many excellent resources on Hepworth. The Hepworth Estate has compiled a list of books, articles and films to guide your learning.
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How do you think the statement relates to sculpture? What conclusions might we draw as anthropologists studying human culture using sculpture as data?
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Do you think considering the bias of the critic will make you read exhibition reviews differently in future?
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I think you've really thoroughly parsed Barlow's statement here, using Searle's review to great effect! I think Barlow was reflecting on the throwaway nature of modern society as well as the permanence and object-hood of sculpture. Perhaps then the YSI was quite an accurate window onto 21st century culture!
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I think you've parsed Barlow's statement really well. Why do you think that the idea doesn't apply to modern art?
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Interesting point about the meaning of Barlow's phrase. Do you think modern sculpture also tells us about modern society through an anthropological lens?
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Thanks for picking up on the typo!
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We ask students in the art history department to reflect on single objects from the art collection, but there hasn't yet been a survey of the wider university population! Students from any degree can join the art history society or the Norman Rhea Gallery so there is wider interest in the arts on campus.
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Do you think that this area has influenced Hepworth and Moore's sculpture?
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Maddie Boden replied to Sandy Kamboj
I'm glad to hear you've visited - hopefully that means you've seen some of the sculptures we look at on this course! This week we're learning about why this area around YSP and other cultural institutions in Yorkshire are so important to the history of modern sculpture.
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@InekeFioole I think it depends on how we think of the University in relation to galleries and museums. Is the University a cultural institution in the same way they are? If so, what are there overlapping priorities in regards to art? If not, what separate spheres of culture do they cover?
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Other art historians have certainly suggested this sort of reading for the holes in her work. Particularly the idea of communion and the light being 'held' in the centre of the holes. Hepworth often resisted religious readings of her work, but was interested in the spiritual potential of sculpture.
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Morris Singer has a fascinating history and decades-long relationship with Hepworth. If you get a chance to visit the Hepworth Wakefield, they have a number of letters from Hepworth to the foundry.
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Thanks for sharing! This was put together by students from the History of Art department. Another example of how the department uses the sculpture collection as a teaching tool.
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Maddie Boden replied to dorothy goode
@dorothygoode Glad that you're visiting the other episodes. This is a fantastic series put on by the Paul Mellon Centre - a research body that explores all aspects of British art.
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Maddie Boden replied to Edith Engel
Thank you for sharing - a great insight into the different editions of this work.
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Maddie Boden replied to Julia Ingle
Yes, her work is exhibited in museums and private collections across the UK, including the Royal Collection.
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Maddie Boden replied to Ruth B
Great question. To give you an example, the sculptor Giuseppe Penone is best known for his works of a large trees, typically made from gold and bronze. I think it would be accurate to describe his sculpture as figurative since it references an object derived from the real world, ie. a tree. But if you wanted to distinguish it from statues and sculptures of...
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You've drawn our attention to the angle of the photograph - which is something that can really influence our interpretation of the sculpture. Photographs are art objects in themselves and things such as angle, lighting, and editing can completely transform our encounter with the sculpture it depicts.
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This is an excellent visual description, Michael. Great use of the art historical terminology we picked up in the first week.
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Maddie Boden replied to Hilary Bourdillon
@HilaryBourdillon This is the central debate we'll be having this week. A lot of people argue there is an inherent Yorkshireness to their work, but can is it fair to tie this sort of regionalism to the wider influences in twentieth century sculpture?
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Maddie Boden replied to M N
@PaulGarwood There is an excellent essay on this subject by Hepworth's granddaughter, the art historian Sophie Bowness in the book 'Barbara Hepworth The Plasters: The Gift to the Hepworth Wakefield' (Lund Humphries, 2011).
She goes into some detail about the materials Hepworth worked with at different stages in her career. Hepworth was interested in the...
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Maddie Boden replied to Erika Hannevold
Thank you for sharing these links!
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Maddie Boden replied to Lou H
Another connection through location. Troika Pottery was located in St. Ives in the 1960s which is also where Hepworth lived.
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So was Friesian Cow the most interesting for you this week?
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Excellent point - I agree that the animal world has a significant place in the history of modern sculpture.
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This is a lovely observation between the narrative, fantasy of the Marcks piece and the realism of Arnup's.
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Maddie Boden replied to JO WILSON
I'm not sure of the exact exhibition, but that sounds right! Arnup was well-known for her dog sculptures.
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Unfortunately not at the moment! Since the University has 3 of his sculptures, it's one of the only places to see a concentrated amount of Wright's work.
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Not an easy question to answer! Do you get the sense that it has any deeper meanings?
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Great use of the archival film and Hepworth's words to make your point about the sculpture's semi-figurative appearance. By using these sources, you're building a stronger argument.
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You make a great point - there is a long history of reproductive technologies and painters use them just as often as sculptors!
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Maddie Boden replied to M N
There is indeed! As we've just discussed, many of Hepworth's sculptures come in editions - or multiple sets of the same work. Hepworth often created editions in different media (material) and moved between stone, wood and bronze frequently.
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Maddie Boden replied to Janet P
This piece is called Family of Man and it is exhibited at Snape Maltings. You can learn a little more about it at their website:
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Maddie Boden replied to Janice Adams
Thanks for sharing! Yes, you pre-empted the next few steps, but that's okay! It's an enjoyable film to watch at any point on this course.
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Great point - in the first week we learned all about the ways in which York wanted to foster community and connection through the university's ethos and the campus architecture.
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Interesting distinction. Your answer might depend on whether you think the university is a cultural institution, like the local museums and gallery.
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Great point - I think this is, in large part, what Barlow's trying to get at in her statement. That sculpture shares a relationship with the human body in a way that no other art form can.
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Great point. The YST proudly takes ownership of some significant British cultural heritage - Moore and Hepworth - and argues that their North Eastern roots are vital to understanding their work.
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Great question. There is a complicated network of associations between this group of sculptors, some more direct than others. Moore and Hepworth knew each other at art school and travelled together in Europe in the 1920s. They stayed on relatively good terms throughout their careers. Armitage attended the same art school, some years after Moore and Hepworth,...
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Maddie Boden replied to Nancy j
Thank you for raising this useful distinction - an art historian writing on Armitage and a talking head film featuring the artist, Damien Hirst. Do you think these two different modes of documentation - article (secondary source) and an archival film (primary source).
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Maddie Boden replied to Lyn B
Moore will pop up again later this week when we cover Hepworth. However, there hasn't been a Moore sculpture on York campus since the 1970s so we won't be covering any specific works!
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Maddie Boden replied to Michèle Bethke
@MichèleBethke Thank you for such a thoughtful analysis of the reasons you don't like Hirst. I think you raise some valid points that I would find difficult to argue with. This is an important skill for an art historian to use - the ability to articulate the reasons you don't like an artist and to raise objectionable elements of their practice (ie. the use of...
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Maddie Boden replied to Helen Segebarth
I think most people will know Hirst from his moments in the spotlight. It's interesting to consider him from a slightly different angle - as a part of this distinct group of Yorkshire-born artists!
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@TanjaEllenSleeuwenhoek Thank you for highlighting these relevant examples. I think we could easily do an entire course on Holocaust memorials in Europe.
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That's what we're trying to get at by pairing these two in this lesson. Do you think they're part of the same continuum? Or a contrasting case of old and new?
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Great contextual knowledge to bring in the New Sculpture! An often unacknowledged British movement that brought dynamism and the sensual male body to sculpture.
If anyone would like some more information about the New Sculpture, there are some wonderful articles by leading sculpture historian, Benedict Read on the Victorian...
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Great point - the use of plastic as an art material has taken on a much different meaning in the past 20-30 years.
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You could argue that there are different technical skills required to mould steel or concrete as opposed to bronze. However, some of the artistic skills would likely be similar - techniques such as welding, carving, creating patina (colour) on the surfaces of works.
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That's a really interesting curatorial idea you raise. I can think of a few examples of exhibitions where the process is explored in more depth but it isn't particularly common.
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I think that's a great explanation. People seem to connect to the spirit and emotions that his figures convey.
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It's interesting to note that modernism touched on most cultural spheres including art, literature, poetry, theatre, music and design. There are areas of overlap - you raise the idea of changing forms and I think we can see that in sculpture as well. But there are also areas of distinction which are unique to each genre.
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Not at all a ramble, but an important point raised! We've discussed monuments this week but not 'monumental' sculpture to refer to size and scale. As sculpture moves towards abstraction and industrial materials in the twentieth century, we see the scale of some works increase rapidly. The questions we might consider is what is the effect? does size become more...
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@AlisonBole I didn't consult with the artist. I used what information I had on hand from the University's archive (press clippings, a quote from the artist, and some information about his other work) and I used my visual analysis skills to describe the object.
Do you think my explanation of the piece is still valid without the input of the artist? This is...
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Fair enough - why not? Another important skill for art historians is the ability to articulate what they don't like about certain works of art.
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Thanks for the recommendation. Ways of Seeing started many an art historian (including myself) on their journey!
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Maddie Boden replied to Pamela B
Absolutely. I've included some of Pollock's work in the further reading section, but if you're interested in feminist art history then all of her scholarship is a must read!
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Maddie Boden replied to Anne Matthews
Thanks for the recommendation. I've included Old Mistresses in the additional reading, but really everything by Pollock should be on the list!
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Maddie Boden replied to Kristian Kreeft
Thank you for sharing!
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Yoko Ono also has some hammer and nail pieces - clearly a popular motif for the more conceptually inclined artists.
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Maddie Boden replied to Kate Scarratt
Hi all - Unfortunately FutureLearn doesn't have a function where I can include that information underneath the image - the typical academic convention. When we look at sculptures from campus, you can refer to the University's art collection catalogue for those particulars.
I'm also happy to answer in the comments if you tag me.
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Maddie Boden replied to Ines Mayo Nader
Great example to compare with Clark's work.
