Sociological Interpretations

George Herbert Mead comes to mind when Schutz herself posits that we objectify ourselves and as Cate McQuaid (Boston Globe, 2006) observes this makes for the self, raising delicious questions about identity.

In Social Interactionism, it is through participation in the social act of communication that the individual realizes their potential for significantly symbolic behavior. Action is very important to our constructions of self. The self arises when the individual becomes an object to themselves. Mead argued that we are objects first to other people, and secondarily we become objects to ourselves by taking the perspective of other people. In joint activity, which Mead called 'social acts', humans learn to see themselves from the standpoint of their co-actors. It is through realizing ones role in relation to others that selfhood arises.

Are these elementary school children trying to understand their gender role behaviors as well as gendered identity via these acts? Their introspective looks (of curiosity -- rather than being void of emotions).

Socio-Political and Feminist Perspectives

I do think we need to see how, in Schutz's early work, she seems to, perhaps, naively assume the individual is the center force in the construction piece (private acts), while in her newer works she makes explicit, what the contemporary psychological theorist, Erie Bronfenbrenner references as the macro-level -- the social political influences on the micro and mesosystem -- social structures and values influence our human development -- our own ability to construct or reconstruct identity.

For feminists, what is “personal is political.” So should we take this piece and preface it as a feminist piece?

If so, one does have to look at the role of commercialization and other social, structural forces which make girls and women question body image---Is Surgery a question about body image and the reconstruction of it? It is a curiosity of young women to see what a female body looks like? Unlike Shutz’s original theme, are these girls objectified?

Further, is identity static-- or fluid -- constantly in flux due to the changing social interactions and role expectations (e.g, sociologists like Goffman’s or as discussed earlier Mead)?

Are the “surgeons” deconstructing in order to reconstruct? Note that one of the girls is sewing up what was “dismantled”…If so, what is the new reconstruction? What comes to mind is the Black feminist Audre Lorde's "The Master's tools will never dismantle the master's house"—meaning, using present legal and social system-it's hard to take apart a defective system by following it's rules—still patriarchic in structure and social acts when there is just cosmetic change. Need to consider race and gender both. (Note the diversity of the females being represented—which is also essential in more deeply understanding Lorde).

Is this act symbolically a way to free these girls of gender divisions on multiple (private and public) levels? Is it freeing young girls of stereotypes, gender expectations, historical and cultural inequalities?

One Last Contextual Point

Historical events influence all of us.

Schutz’s body of work has all been produced in a post 9/11 world.

Dana Schutz in 2009

Dana's Bio - Part 1

The body of her work is as a young artist (under 30); She's only been on the art scene since 2002. She completed her MFA in 2008 from Columbia University. Born 1976.
By 2005, her work was already part of the MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) contemporary collection; Museums where her work is installed include:

Colby Museum of Art, Waterford ME
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Honart Museum, Tehran, Iran
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
MART - Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy
Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Montreal, Canada
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (MOCA)
Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Dana's Bio - Part 2

Solo exhibits include the Zach Feuer Gallery (of New York—formerly LFL) and here at the Nerman (2004). Others include:

2009 Missing Pictures, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, NY
2008 If It Appears In The Desert, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2007 Stand By Earth Man, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002-2005, Rose Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
and Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
2005 Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
Teeth Dreams and Other Supposed Truths, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
*2004 JCCC/Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
Panic, Zach Feuer Gallery (LFL), New York, NY
Self Eaters and the People Who Love Them, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
Run, Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA
2002 Frank From Observation, LFL Gallery, New York, NY

Dana's Bio - Part 3

• Her style is deeply indebted to San Francisco Bay area figurative giants David Park and Elmer Bischoff

• In a interview for BOMB, Schutz herself discusses Kandinsky's work (A Russian artist (1866 - 1944), one of the first abstract artists who labeled his devotion to inner beauty, fervor of spirit, and deep spiritual desire inner necessity, which was a central aspect of his art. He too focused on the vibrancy of color.