This activity should only take about one class day, and is part of a 2-day Ulrike Ottinger unit. The Ulrike Ottinger unit is a part of a broader week-long unit entitled “Through her Lens”.
The Art and Career of Ulrike Ottinger (b. 1942)
Conceptual Frames and Background
Ulrike Ottinger’s paintings, photography, and films stem from her interest in pop art and nouvelle figuration. A member of the 1960s Parisian pop art movement, her works comment on mass media and culture, advertising and consumerism, and now and again align with and bump up against the feminist movements of the time, specifically regarding feminine identity in postwar Europe.
Although this overall unit’s goal is to focus on women’s subjectivity as represented by postwar women artists, students are encouraged to explore how Ottinger’s art plays with, questions, and subverts the language and visuals of advertising, consumerism, and global events. Topics worth discussing are pop art, nouvelle figuration, fantasy, avant garde, and dream-like soundscapes and visuals.
Introduction
The films of lesbian director Ulrike Ottinger are heavily influenced by her formal artistic education in Munich and participation in the pop art movement of 1960s France. We will notice in the next lesson, when we discuss the film Bildnis einer Trinkerin, the juxtaposition of these perspectives when we look at the formal staging of the shots and the dramatic (to the point of parody) costumes and locations. In many ways, her films look like pop art come to life, and play out just as surreal..
Preparation
To prepare, students should read this short interview with Ottinger by Tate. Students should write, in their own words, which artistic influences that Ottinger describes interest them most (advertisements, global events, ideology, baroque art, structuralism, surrealism, department stores, etc).
Students should look at this collection of Ottinger’s paintings and point out where they see the influences they discussed from the interview. Students should also note objects and themes they notice in the images, such as:
- America, politicians, other artists, rockets and airplanes, soldiers, household objects,
Additionally, students should spend some time looking at some pop art from the time period, not only Andy Warhol, to explore how Ottinger’s art compares. To help, below is a short list of some pop artists students can research:
- Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Sister Corita Kent, Niki de Saint Phalle, Yves Klein, Marisol Escobar
Text and Discussion
Ottinger expresses in her interview that she is interested in the art of narrative images, in other words, she is interested in the various ways that a picture can reveal a story. To learn about this skill, she states that she studied baroque paintings. To hone in on this skill, and to transfer this over to Ottinger’s own work, present students with a famous baroque painting (proposed Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, 1652). Allow students to write down or discuss what they think is happening in the painting, gather their ideas, and then walk the students through what is happening in the piece.
Share the description of what is happening in the painting, as described by Artsper. Read it (or paraphrase it) to students and walk them through the painting.
Open the document which showcases some of Ottinger’s paintings. Pick 2 or 3 to cover one at a time, giving students the chance to discuss in small groups what they observed about each work. After each small discussion, allow students to share their observations and discuss the works as a class. Draw attention to the following questions, if students do not bring it up on their own:
- Ottinger is interested in the narrative power of images- how might we read each painting as telling a story? Specifically, let us look at the pieces which are in a “comic” format. Should we read these like a comic, or what do you see?
- What sort of imagery do we see juxtaposed in these works, and what are their relationships? The (female) body, soldiers, war, royalty/politicians, newspapers, concepts of home
- The female body is often juxtaposed with images of war. Why is this?
- There are of course many answers, but one might be that female nudity and voyeurism is a form of exploitation similar to that of war for male bodies.
- Similarly, why do we see so many images of everyday routines and life juxtaposed with war and political imagery?
- One answer may be that Ottinger is commenting on the looming destruction of war or revolution, and yet we all must nonetheless go about our everyday lives- love the bomb. More here.