Internet Artist Research Worksheet

Name: Elaina Hintze_____________________

Hour:_2_______

Artists Full Name _Sandy Skoglund_____________________________________________

Date of Birth: ___9/5/1946_______________________________________________
Place of birth: __Quincy, Massachusetts________________________________________________
Date of and age at death: _n/a_______________________________________
Place of death: __n/a_______________________________________________
Cause of death: __n/a______________________________________________
Education:_ She studio art and art history at Smith College, then_went on to graduate from the
University of Iowa__________________________________________________
Primary type of artwork (ex: painting? drawing? sculpture? printmaking?
ceramics) ___film making, print making,
painting__________________________________________________
Media (what materials are used?): _paints, brushes, tableaux, colored furniture, actors, other
objects________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Style or period of art? __Surrealism, Conceptual art_________________________________________
Short definition of that style or period (see Artlex or Artcyclopedia):
_Surrealism was inspired by psychoanalysis and is meant to be just as confusing and bizarre as dreams
are. It captures the mysterious vibe and in depth thoughts that dreams create. It is meant to go
against common reality.__________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Interesting/Personal information on the artist:

_To create the effects she wanted in her painting, she had to build and paint the entire sets herself,
which took longer than just capturing the photo would
have.____________________________________________________________

Art Criticism:
Title of the art:

Radioactive Cats
Date of art:
__1980___________________________________________________________
Location of the art: (museum or collection)
____Whitney Biennial Exhibition_________________________________________________________
What is the subject matter (Describe the objects in the art)?
___Brightly colored paints, a contrasting dreary backround, old folks, a broken chair, a functional
chair, lack of food in the kitchen, an abundance of
cats__________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Genre: Is it a still life (group of things), a portrait (of a person) or a
landscape, seascape or a cityscape or other (explain)?
__It is a still life photograph. It captures everyday subjects/objects in one moment in a
group.___________________________________________________________
Style/form: Is this artwork realistic (as real as possible) or abstract
(distorted reality)? It is extremely abstract, with colors being out of the ordinary and the situation
being odd. ____________________________________________
How was it made?: Sandy had to do all the work such as painting the room, building the cats,

painting them too, and finding actors herself in order to take the photo because of the lack of
technology we have
now.__________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Interpretation:
What do you think the artist was trying to say in the artwork?

_Based on the title (which hold a lot of wait in interpreting any art work), I believe Skoglund was
trying to capture what life would be like in the aftermath of nuclear warfare. In the photo, the cats
out number the humans and seem to have a lot of freedom in the home. This shows a lack of
authority from the elderly couple which would reflect the human population as a whole in this
aftermath. If there was nuclear warfare, people would be in disarray (kind of like the cats in the
photo), and leaders would have a hard time maintaining control of the human population. I believe
cats in particular were the abundance of objects in this photo because is goes to show that nature and
animals would also be in chaos with the humans not even being able to control themselves. The
apparent lack of food in the kitchen and the relaxed, hopeless posture of the old man illustrates that
the lack of control within society would affect businesses and resources as
well.____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Why do you think he or she chose this subject?
_I believe she feels strongly about the world refraining from using nuclear warefare because she has
imagined the effects of it, so she uses this artwork to encourage the rest of the world to feel the same
way.____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
What feeling does this artwork give you and why?
__When I see this artwork, I feel hopeless and cut off from the work. When I look at a photo, I imagine
myself in the subjects shoes, and by their living condition and the lack of resources there, I believe
that is what I would feel along with feeling out of control of the
situation.___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
What part of the artwork is your favorite and why?
________My favorite part of this artwork in particular is the lying down broken chair. I believe that it
intrigues the viewer and makes them wonder why it was even included in the first place, and just adds
to the theme of chaos and hopelessness while still being a seemingly unimportant
object._____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
What events in history took place during the time of the artwork that may

have influenced this artist (a war, etc)

______The U.Ss presence in Iraq began and Iran and Iraq began a wa that lasted for 8 years. War and
the fact that we had the technology to use nuclear weapons may have inspired Skoglund to speak out
against the possibility of using it at this
time._____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
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