Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Two people yet synonymous as one. Their souls likely entwined on some astral plane, sharing the exact same birthdates under the sign of Gemini. Since they met in 1958, the pair created artworks all across the world that are nothing short of epic, and although Jeanne-Claude sadly passed away in 2009, Christo continues projects that they conceptualized together decades ago. On November 13, Christo gave a talk presented by the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art at the Holiday Event Center, and while Jeanne-Claude was not there, he carries so much of her spirit that her presence could be felt no matter where he goes. The 300-seat venue was filled to capacity with people eager to see and hear the art legend speak about his current projects, one of which has been in progress for the state of Colorado since the 1990s, as well as early works that have left deep imprints on the trajectory of contemporary art.

At 80 years old, Christo has more energy than people less than half his age. According to the Christo and Jeanne-Claude website, he works 14 hours a day. He is constantly traveling all over the world, managing multiple projects of incredible scale, engaging with contractors, city officials, professors, museum personnel, and the public on a daily basis, and shows no signs of stopping any time soon. Right now he is focused on three upcoming installations: The Floating Piers on Lake Iseo in Italy, The Mastaba for Abu Dhabi, and Over the River in Colorado along the Arkansas River.

Christo, The Floating Piers (Project for Lake Iseo, Italy), collage 2014, 17 x 22" (43.2 x 55.9 cm), pencil, wax crayon, enamel paint, photograph by Wolfgang Volz, map, fabric sample and tape, photo: André Grossmann, © 2014 Christo. Image courtesy of www.christojeanneclaude.net

Jeanne-Claude and Christo attempted floating piers projects twice but were unsuccessful, but in 2014 he decided to give it another shot. Although the idea of floating piers was initially thought up by the two of them, this is the first major project Christo has taken on solo. In the middle of Lake Iseo is the island of Monte Isola, which is home to 2,000 inhabitants, and the only way they have access to the mainland is by boat. With the completion of the piers, locals and visitors alike will be able to walk across the lake and experience the watery traversal in a new way for the first time. He alternated between topics quickly during his talk, spending a couple minutes talking about old work before switching to something new and back and forth, but his tone and pace would change whenever he talked about The Floating Piers. He spoke with gentleness. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have a long history of creating projects in Italy together, and many of their works shared a theme involving a connection between water and earth. Perhaps The Floating Piers is like a gift to his angel. It will open June 18 through July 3, 2016

Christo, The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi (Project for United Arab Emirates), scale model 1979, 32 ½ x 96 x 96" (82.5 x 244 x 244 cm), enamel paint, wood, paint, sand and cardboard, Photo: Wolfgang Volz, © 1979 Christo. Image courtesy of www.christojeanneclaude.net

The Mastaba was conceived nearly 40 years ago, and once finished, will be the largest sculpture in the world. It will also be the only permanent Christo and Jeanne-Claude installation. He showed amazing photographs of the duo crossing the towering sand dunes of Abu Dhabi, highlighting their sense of adventure and devotion to immersing themselves in the environments where their art will be displayed. The Mastaba will be made from 410,000 multi-colored barrels and will stand at nearly 500 feet. Constructing a sculpture such as this requires impeccable planning, so they consulted four different engineering professors to prepare plans and studies and decided that the professor from Hosei University in Tokyo had the best strategies for implementation. A date is not set for when this sculpture will be built, but Christo will travel to the region next year to continue its progress.

Christo, Over the River (Project for Arkansas River, State of Colorado), drawing 2010, 13 7/8 x 15 ¼" (35.2 x 38.7 cm), pencil, pastel, charcoal and wax crayon, photo: André Grossmann, © 2010 Christo. Image courtesy of www.christojeanneclaude.net

While the audience was captivated throughout the entire talk, it is safe to say that everyone was most eager to hear about the Over the River project. Christo and Jeanne-Claude considered numerous locations for this work, and decided on Colorado’s Arkansas River in 1996. Federal permission to pursue it was granted in 2011. Over the River has been met with much excitement, as well as protest from locals and environmentalists alike, and after a hiatus in 2012, the project is again moving forward. It is likely that Christo was able to do this talk because he was in Colorado to do some related field and/or administrative work. The river rests in a valley and will be shrouded with material that is opaque when seen from the top and transparent when viewed from the bottom, and will cover 5.9-mile spans in eight different locations. Locals feared that the installation would bring too much traffic and congestion to their quiet mountain community, and environmentalists were concerned about how the river’s ecosystem would be impacted. The installation will only be up for two weeks, the material will not cause any changes in temperature or lighting to the water and land below, and everything will be cleaned up and recycled efficiently. If anything a work like this brings public awareness to the environment, and encourages people to preserve it. Citizens of Colorado have been following the Over the River project for years, and will likely draw huge crowds once it is complete, but we still have another 2 or 3 years left to wait.

Christo during the Q&A session at Holiday Event Center

Christo dispelled a great amount of information during his talk, which left for a facile question-and-answer session with the audience. People wanted to know simple things, like his favorite color, if he had ever been injured during an installation, the craziest venue he ever worked at, and what advice he has for artists. A young boy asked about his childhood, and Christo gave credit to his parents for facilitating his interest in art by sending him to artist studios and classes at an early age (take note, moms and dads). He approached every person who had a question directly, microphone in hand, never once distancing himself from the crowd. His vigor and affable personality is contagious, and comes through in his (and Jeanne-Claude’s) art. Their art is personal and represents a very particular vision, but it is meant to be shared with the world. Aside from the upcoming Mastaba, all their work is temporary, which adds a sense of urgency for people to congregate and experience it together.

–Hayley Richardson

Monumental sized works like Momoyo Torimitsu’s Somehow I Don’t Feel Comfortable and Wade Guyton’s The Room Moved The Way Blocked have a bold presence at Dikeou Collection, but there are many small works that still make assertive statements. Chris Johanson’s Mountain/Fortress is one of these pieces. Made out of papier-mâché and wood, viewers must crouch down to the floor to read the text painted on the mountainside. “When you stand on top of the mountain it feels solid because it is solid. When you stand in the walled in fortress you can’t see.” This verbiage is meant to sound empowering and make the viewer feel big and inspired when they stand up after reading it, but the reality is that the words are utterly meaningless and only impress those who naively subscribe to flimsy shreds of wisdom without carrying any kind of resolve of their own. The words are also indicative of the eccentric social climate of Johanson’s childhood, when New Age movements and self-help culture rose to prominence in the late-1960s in the Bay Area of Northern California. This and other influences from growing up like comics, zines, graffiti, punk rock, and skateboarding provided a visual and cultural smorgasbord which Johanson synthesized into his own artistic style. He became synonymous with a group of artists who gained recognition in the early 1990s in San Francisco, known as the Mission School of artists. San Francisco is a very small city geographically speaking (less than 50 square miles), so to pinpoint a specific district as its emerging creative hub seems arbitrary, but the term really applies to the Northern California region as whole and has has done much to bolster the profile of many artists from the area.

Mountain/Fortress was created when Johanson’s career started to hit its stride and was exhibited in Chicago at Vendata (now Kavi Gupta Gallery) in 2001. A simultaneous exhibition at Bodybuilder and Sportsman Gallery, also in Chicago, featured a human-size fortress where people could step in and watch one of his videos. He created a human-scale version of the Mountain for the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles that same year. By creating similar works in two drastically different sizes he demonstrates how scale not only affects space but people’s relationship with the art and thus its inherent meaning and conceptual value. He achieves this through his use of materials, too. The small Mountain at Dikeou Collection is made out of paper and glue and is very fragile, whereas the bigger version of the Fortress exhibited at Sportsman is sturdy and can withstand a lot of physical impact.

Hammer Projects: Chris Johanson. Installation view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. May 1-July 29, 2001. Photo by Joshua White.

Whether small and delicate or large and durable, Johanson creates his art with everyday materials that are common and inexpensive, or things (usually wood) that he has found and repurposed, which is a shared trait amongst other artists from the Mission School. Alicia McCarthy’s aesthetic, for example, is closely aligned with Johanson’s, and she also uses found wood as surfaces for her paintings, which gives a sculptural quality to a traditionally two-dimensional medium. Thomas Campbell creates assemblages that are comprised of fabric, old office supplies, and preserved gourds. In an area currently ruled by billionaire techies, the folksy, scrappy, rough-hewn art by Bay Area creatives is like a breath of fresh air, providing an escape from the overpriced and hyper-digital landscape.

Even though the Mission School label primarily applies to artists who work in painting and sculpture, they still engage with and absorb inspiration from people working in other creative capacities. Johanson himself exhibits interdisciplinary tendencies, and describes himself as “an all-over-the map-artist.” He provided vocals on Phil Crumar’s album, “So Unique,” and plays in bands Tina Age 13, Sun Foot, and The Deep Throats. He also created the artwork for numerous music releases, and even produced a compilation CD for zingmagazine issue 21 with San Francisco musician Mike Donovan.

Screen shot from “Encinitas Realization”

In 1993 Johanson created the short film “Encinitas Realization” which follows a surfer (played by photographer and filmmaker Tobin Yelland) as he wanders the streets with his longboard and narrates a stream of personal mantras like, “I am the king of my destiny,” and, “I am focusing my mind powers toward my nowness.” The monologue in this video is similar to the text painted on Mountain/Fortress, which Johanson describes as, “issues that I think are very serious and more than humorous.” For Johanson, finding humor in life is what helps people adhere to and rationalize their inner philosophies and dialogue.

In addition to his work in music and film, Johanson serves as a community organizer who likes to bring together and provide platforms for those whose creative voices are often muffled by those with corporate sponsorship. For the past five years he has put on Portland’s Quiet Music Festival, which has the “tradition of showcasing rare, one-of-a-kind performances interpreting low volume, deep-sonic meditations.” In 2012 he co-curated San Francisco’s Streetopia: Anti-Gentrification Art Fair which lasted for five weeks and highlighted the city’s guerrilla spaces and actions with art shows, live performances, tours, and workshops.

Chris Johanson currently lives and works in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, but still stays true to his Mission School roots. With a consistent stream of major international exhibitions, he continues to show love and support for where he came from and is loyal to the laid-back, resourceful, and communal ethos of the Mission. New work by Johanson is currently being exhibited at Altman Siegel Gallery in the Richmond district of San Francisco through December 19. The show, called “Equations,” is demonstrative of his allegiance to simple materials, vibrant color, and contemporary existence. At Dikeou Collection, his Mountain/Fortress is like a small seed from which a major career has sprung, something the viewer can symbolically mimic they crouch down to view it and then stand up after absorbing its painted wisdom.

— Hayley Richardson

In the routine of life our surroundings coalesce into a blur of sameness. We switch into autopilot to get through another day without paying much attention to the world around us. With headphones and smart phones we disengage even further while navigating public spaces that have been passed through hundreds of times with the mindset that there is nothing new worth observing. But one day something new does appear - a colorful mural, a kinetic sculpture, music coming out of a storm drain, or a dance performance on a rooftop. This is public art, and it is here to remind us that the spaces we casually pass through are communal environments where interesting and meaningful things happen everyday. As Denver’s growth continues to accelerate, the value of public art grows along with it, putting the city’s economic, social, intellectual, and creative aptitude on display for the world to see. On May 15, Denver Arts & Venues presented its Imagine 2020 Interactive Series on Public Art, a full-day symposium with panels and presentations by artists, commissioners, curators, and educators about the city’s public art program. It was an an eye-opening event that focused on why public art is important, how it comes into being, and who is involved in the process from conception to installation.

Artist Jon Rubin delivered the keynote address, in which he talked about how he uses the audience as part of the medium of his public art. He said that public art has the ability to operate on a local level while having a global reach, which is an idea that never seemed so obvious until someone says it out loud. Rubin has first-hand experience with the global reach of local art and has done two public/participatory works in Denver: Thinking About Flying at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012 and Playing Apart which took place throughout the downtown area in 2010. Rubin expands public art beyond materiality and turns it into something that not only redefines a space but intervenes on social interaction and gives people the opportunity to think about the spaces they occupy in unexpected ways. Denver could benefit from more public art like Rubin’s with a focus on community activity as it adds variety and spontaneity to the traditional public art forms that populate the city. The city’s sculptures and murals, though, have an important place in its local history as well as the greater history of public art in America. 

The first panel, “Public Art and the Big WHY,” moderated by Denver’s Public Art Manager Michael Chavez, delved into the origins of public art in the U.S. and how it has evolved and stays current in today’s urban planning. Art historian Marisa Lerer is a current assistant professor at Manhattan College and former lecturer at University of Denver who has done significant research on art in the public sphere. She spoke about the City Beautiful Movement of the late 19th century and its purpose in increasing civic virtue through beautiful art and architecture and how the movement influenced Denver. Mayor Robert W. Speer, in office from 1904 to 1912, was an ardent believer in the City Beautiful Movement, and launched several projects to improve the city’s landscape with a desire to transform Denver into a worldly destination. Public art in Denver did not stray far from City Beautiful standards for several decades but it is now home to public installations by notable modern and contemporary artists like Herbert Bayer, Mark di Suvero, Claes Oldenburg, and Luis Jiménez. These works expose locals and visitors alike to unusual ideas in familiar spaces, thus making the art relatable, accessible, and part of everyday life. 

Caryn Champine, Planning Services Director of Denver, talked about the importance of public art in neighborhood planning, and how public art can be used to distinguish the unique characteristics of each neighborhood and also help the local population navigate their neighborhoods more effectively. She focused on Globeville, a community of historical significance and industry that needed some infrastructure improvements, particularly traffic operations and road maintenance. By integrating public art with city planning, Globeville has been able to meet the needs of its citizens while maintaining its unique physical attributes and establishing a strong sense of place. 

Architectural designer Beth Rosenthal expanded upon some of the ideas that Caryn addressed by pointing out that keeping a sense of authenticity becomes more and more crucial as cities grow. The town square, a place that was once the central area where people gathered to share information and ideas, is gradually becoming a fixture of a bygone era, and she proposes that the town square needs to be reimagined as something that can exist in multiple spaces as well as ephemeral spaces. Public art serves as an important identifying feature of these spaces and encourages dialogue and exchange like the town square once did. Mosenthal challenged the audience to imagine what Denver would look like without its public art, and that vision would be pretty desolate and contradictory to the to progress we strive for. 

The second panel “From the Studio to the Street: Several Journeys Toward Making Public Art,” allowed Colorado artists Wopo Holup, Sandra Fettingis, and Randy Marold to talk candidly about their experiences creating art for the public domain. Mandy Renaud, the Public Art Coordinator for Denver International Airport was also part of the discussion, which was moderated by Martha Weidmann, co-founder of NINE dot ARTS consulting company. The artists said they got into public art for different reasons - either by intentionally applying for opportunities, winning a prize, or by the sheer luck of being at the right place at the right time. An important topic of discussion was the difference between public art and art in public space, which is that art in public space can be of any genre while public art is a genre of its own. It involves different strategies, is a slower process, and requires working with numerous people and entities as opposed to the solitary artist working in the studio. Some studio art has the ability to transition easily from the gallery to the public realm, but when an artist works with the intention of having their art exist in public during the entire creation process then it tends be much more effective. Public artists create for an audience that does not always “speak the same language” as those who are more acclimated to being in the presence of art, and when they work they consciously leave room for the unknown. This panel revealed that public artists maintain an important balance between manifesting their own vision and fostering a vision for the community as well. 

After a nice lunch with different community-led discussion tables, it was time to move into the second half of the symposium with “Public Art 301: From Application to Installation.” This panel started with a question for the audience: Who here is an artist? More than half raised their hands. Although this panel focused on the details of how to apply for a public art project, it offered tips and insider information that would be helpful to an artist working on any application, whether it be for school, a residency, a call for an entry, or an award. Presenters Rudi Cerri, the Public Art Administrator for Denver Arts & Venues, Raquel Vasquez of WESTAF, and RTD’s Public Art Manager Brenda Tierney shared all the Do’s and Don’ts of the public art application and implementation process, from selecting the best images for your proposal to answering standard jury questions and working with contractors and fabricators. This advice from the people who help curate Denver’s art landscape pushed the door open even further when it comes to transparency for artists, who may feel overwhelmed or confused about how to get their ideas off the ground. It also reinforced the central theme that public art is for everyone and that the process should be as open as the product. 

The fourth and final panel, “Public Art and Social Practice,” moderated by Zoe Larkins, Curatorial Assistant of Modern & Contemporary Art at Denver Art Museum, shifted the focus from applications and carefully orchestrated fabrications and installations to public art that is spontaneous and ephemeral. Two of the panelists, Yumi Roth and Connor McGarrigle, have each done public art projects that analyzes the “lay of the land” rather than focusing on one specific site, and how residents navigate their city and personally identify with its greatest landmarks and remote corners. The other two panelists, graffiti muralist Gamma and the yarn bombing members of Ladies Fancywork Society, make public art with a temporary lifespan but that appears frequently enough to qualify as a fixture in Denver’s public art repertoire. Because all of these people have made art that focuses on immediate issues and interaction, documentation is tantamount to the longevity of their work. Photographs, videos, and writings are the primary ways to document artwork, but the panelists are more interested in art that creates a story - something that will live in the minds of the people who experience it first hand and can contribute to its legacy by talking about it with others. 

There was much enthusiasm, passion, honesty, and insight throughout the entire span of the symposium, and that is all thanks in part to the diversity of the discussion topics and the panelists. This was a nine hour event, and there was hardly a lull that led to boredom or distraction. Public art is something that I appreciate, but I never realized how much energy and excitement is involved until I was in a room full of people who help create it. As part of Imagine 2020’s arts and cultural plan, this symposium showed that Denver is well on its way to becoming a global creative destination if this momentum continues. 

-Hayley Richardson

People frequently ask how often we change the exhibitions at Dikeou Collection, and the answer is “we don’t rotate we just expand.” The collection is blessed with a large space at its main location, but as of last year it became apparent that a secondary location would be necessary not just to accommodate the increasing amount of artwork but also to provide a alternative context and experience. Artwork by Lizzi Bougatsos marked the inaugural installation at the ancillary space known as Dikeou Pop-Up: Colfax, followed by Sarah Staton’s Supastore Supastars. On October 22nd, we celebrated the installation of new work in the Pop-Up’s basement by Anicka Yi, Rainer Ganahl, and Devon Dikeou. This opening event was in partnership with Black Cube , a new non-profit nomadic museum in Denver which held its own opening reception for its second pop-up exhibition in the parking lot behind the Dikeou Pop-Up. The simultaneous events brought together a lively mix of Denver’s eclectic art crowd, and was an example of how collaborative events like this strengthen bonds within the creative community.

The basement at Dikeou Pop-Up: Colfax was a hangout and jam spot for local musicians at the former Jerry’s Record Exchange. An unlikely venue for the display of fine art, but quite perfect in this particular instance. L’Haine I-V by Anicka Yi, which is comprised of five turtleneck sweaters with bouquets of tempura fried flowers placed in the neck lines a graffiti-covered wall. The earthy, muted tones of the sweaters and flowers contrast with the neon graffiti, but the deteriorated brick serves as a nice backdrop for the dredged and droopy blossoms. Frying the flowers was an interesting process, and one that drew a lot of attention from passersby who had obviously never seen people deep fry roses and daisies in a parking lot before. The public will get used to it, though, as this is something that will have to be redone a few times a month.

Like L’Haine I-V, Rainer Ganahl’s Hermès/Marx has a dichotomous relationship with the space that simultaneously conflicts and reinforces its message. Ganahl screen printed socialist text and symbols over four (authentic) vintage Hermès scarves, an act that erases their value as luxury items but enhances their value as art objects. It is a work of inherent contradictions, so naturally it requires an unconventional stage. The writing on the carpet in the lower image reads, “Henry Ford was a millionaire but he never owned a Cadillac.” Cheers to that.

Devon Dikeou’s Between The Acts: Virginia Woolf envelopes the entire second room of the basement with the luscious textures and patterns of stage curtains seen on celebrated late night talk shows. These replicas, which were originally exhibited at the 2014 NADA Art Fair in Miami Beach, calls attention to what goes on “behind the curtain” and references the comedic vision and personality of each host the curtain represents. The hosts represented by these curtains include Conan O’Brien, Jack Paar, Merv Griffin, Jimmy Fallon, Ed Sullivan, Jimmy Kimmel, and Dick Cavett. Stay tuned for an appearance from Johnny Carson…

The reception at the Dikeou Pop-Up was held in conjunction with the debut of artist Chad Person’s Prospector, the second exhibit organized by Black Cube. Black Cube is a non-profit, experimental art museum that operates nomadically, founded in 2015 with Cortney Lane Stell as the Executive Director and Chief Curator.

Prospector is a monumental inflatable sculpture designed specifically for its location across from the Colorado State Capital building. The sculpture is a monochromatic blue, inspired by the Disney’s Toy Story 2 character, Stinky Pete. For Person, the character draws many references from Denver - from its gold mining history, to the speculation of current tech and real estate booms, and even the connection within the era of digital commerce. The Black Cube, which is a shipping container placed next to the inflatable, holds small 3-D printed models of the Prospector which people can purchase the rights to and print themselves.

Prospector will be on view in the parking lot until November 11.

Denver is expanding by leaps and bounds, and with that comes some growing pains. Space is scarce and rent is high, and people in the arts are often left scrambling trying to make ends meet and their voices heard. Organizations like Black Cube and venues like Dikeou Pop-Up: Colfax demonstrate the positive outcomes of venturing into alternative territory. Perhaps the ideals of the pristine white-walled gallery are not just impractical these days, but also falling out of fashion. Dikeou Pop-Up: Colfax exhibits some of the most progressive art in Denver in the grittiest of spaces, and Black Cube does the same with no space at all. This city is full of ingenuity, and no matter how tight the squeeze, the community will always find new and surprising ways to bring people’s creative visions to life.

More photos from the opening receptions can be seen here.

— Hayley Richardson

A person attends a lecture or seminar usually for one of two reasons: he or she is required to go for work or academic purposes, or the person chooses to go out of their own personal interest. People from both situations comprise the audience for these gatherings, thus creating a mixture of those who are energized and engaged and those who are antsy and bored. Moods change, though, and someone can leave with the opposite impression than when they arrived. For twenty years, Rainer Ganahl has attended hundreds of seminars and lectures and photographed the speakers and their respective audiences, which has become his aptly titled “Seminars/Lectures,” or “S/L” series. The Dikeou Collection is home to fourteen of these photo sets, which date from the early days of the series and serve as a document not just of Ganahl’s own intellectual interests, but of the zeitgeist of that particular decade. This project also appeared in issue 15 of zingmagazine , with accompanying text by AS Bessa. This fall recent photographs from “S/L” were exhibited at Kai Matsumiya, which highlighted the artist’s persistent quest for knowledge and dedication to the project, as well as the current intellectual, cultural, and social climates of our time. When someone like Ganahl places themselves in the roles of spectator and artist simultaneously within the speaker-audience exchange, the resulting imagery adds new layers of value and interpretation to the event.

Rainer Ganahl, “Seminars / Lectures
Linda Nochlin, Glory and Misery of Pornography,” 1996, 20” x 24", edition 2/2

The documentation and dissemination of lecture material is rampant these days thanks to the internet, with a special nod to YouTube which now has more than 2,000 TED Talks and countless other lectures available to view. Often the camera will zoom out from behind or to the side of the speaker to show the audience, but all that is seen is rows of shoulders and heads - the audience has no identity or personality. “S/L,” though, gives equal attention to the audience and speaker by allowing each to have their own photograph. This mode of presentation also highlights Ganahl’s interest in the Socratic dialogue, or method, in which there is a dualistic exchange to stimulate critical thinking and illuminate ideas.

Socrates is credited as being one of the founders of Western philosophy, particularly his contributions to the field of ethics. Plato was his greatest student and did much to document his life and teachings. This 17th-century Italian engraving by Johann Friedrich Greuter shows Socrates surrounded by students outdoors where they are not distracted or troubled by the everyday activities happening in the background. The scene can be a metaphor for Socrates’ belief that only the trained mind is prepared to see beneath the deceptive appearances of the words and actions of others to the deeper realities of life. The relationship between instructor and student is rich subject matter for artists as it can take shape in numerous contexts over history.

The idea of “formal education” as we know it today developed in the medieval period and evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools. The setting for Laurentius de Voltolina’s Italian 14th-century painting appears to be inside a church or monastery, and shows that not much has changed in the classroom since medieval times. Teachers’ pets in the front, slackers in the back.

Pieter Mierevelt’s Anatomy lesson of Dr. Willem van der Meer predates Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by fourteen years and was a likely inspiration for the famous work. Mierevelt’s painting gives a clear look at the instruments and the pupils look straight at the viewer as if they are part of the lesson. This image speaks to Ganahl’s aims to dissolve the barriers between teacher, audience, and artist. Anyone else up for some spaghetti and meatballs after class?

Ganahl would find a likely kindred spirit with Joseph Wright of Derby who depicted many forms of learning in his art. Whether it be in the realms of science and astronomy, or art and literature, Derby beautifully captured the wonderment and joy of learning in his subjects. A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrey is representative of the Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, that started in 1766 when this painting was made, where the illumination of the mind is reinforced with the striking light in the scene. Scientific lectures and demonstrations presented by traveling scientists were a popular form of public entertainment during Wright’s lifetime, and, like Ganahl, he likely attended these lectures for his own personal enjoyment and inspiration.

[caption id="attachment_4688" align="alignnone" width="500"] STM620298; Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, USA; out of copyright[/caption]

Education for children in America was established during the colonial era and was available only to boys, but co-ed classrooms gained prevalence in the late-18th century. Winslow Homer’s Country Classroom from 1871 depicts a single-room school in the Catskills. Though there are both boys and girls present, they are still seated at opposite sides of the room with the exception of the crying boy sitting with the girls. This time period is when most women were able to work outside the home for the first time, and schoolteaching was popular as it seemed to fit into their “womanly duties.”

Speaking of womanly duties, only women were allowed to instruct other women in art classes in the 19th century because art made and taught by men was much too serious and important to be concerned with the opposite sex. Marie Bashkirtseff’s In the Studio from 1881 carries a tension that emanates from the instructor and one of the students, a feeling to which many art students can relate. The young model in this figure class looks directly at the viewer as if he can sense the tension as well, breaking that invisible artist-subject and subject-viewer barrier with a look that implies, “I can’t believe she just said that.”

Flash forward to the not-so-distant future where outsourced teaching will become the norm. “Engkey” is a robot technology that teachers can access remotely. There are about 30 of these robots in use in South Korea right now, teaching English to primary school kids. Technology is becoming more prevalent in education all the time, and while it can be useful in helping students access information quickly, there is no guarantee in its ability to help students retain this information. There is something to be said about the connection that can only be established through person to person interaction, a crucial aspect in creating memories and making cognitive connections, which is how real learning happens. The day will surely come when robots will be regular fixtures in our homes, workplaces, and schools, but hopefully it will not get to the point where we forget how to teach ourselves and become dependent on machines for knowledge.

Surely Rainer Ganahl would be present for the day that a robot gives a lecture to an audience of humans for the first time for the ever-growing “S/L” series, but for now we can still enjoy the images he captures of humanity today.

“Artists - Recent Photographs from My S/L Series”  is on view at Kai Matsumiya through November 1, 2015.

— Hayley Richardson