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Artwork: Trade
Media: Mixed Media on canvas with Objects
Artist: Juane quick to see smith
Where: Chrysler Museum of Art National Gallery of Art
Significance: Created for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival, this work critiques colonial exploitation and stereotypes of Native Americans. By layering ironic “trade goods”
https://smarthistory.org/jaune-quick-to-see-smith-trade-gifts-for-trading-land-with-white-people-2/ -
Media: Black-and-white photography with Persian calligraphy overlays
Artist: Shirin Neshat
Significance: Neshat’s series interrogates gender, religion, and identity in post-revolutionary Iran. By overlaying calligraphy on veiled women, often juxtaposed with rifles, she critiques both Western stereotypes of Muslim women and the Iranian regime’s militarized constructions of female martyrdom
https://smarthistory.org/shirin-neshat-rebellious-silence-women-of-allah-series/ -
Artwork: Balloon Dog
Artist: Jeff Koons
Media: Stainless steel with mirror-polished finish
Where: Private collections, exhibited museums
Signifance: Elevates kitsch into high art, questioning consumerism, spectacle, and the blurred line between popular culture and fine art. Koons’ Balloon Dog transforms a playful childhood object into monumental sculpture while also symbolizing optimism and mortality through its “inflatable” metaphor
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/jeff-koons-balloon-dog/ -
Media: Acrylic on canvas
Artist: Takashi Murakami
Significance: 727 introduces Murakami’s character Mr. DOB, blending anime aesthetics with fine art. It embodies his “Superflat” theory, collapsing distinctions between high and low culture. The work critiques globalization, consumer culture, and Japan’s postwar identity, while referencing Hokusai’s Great Wave
https://www.artchive.com/artwork/727-takashi-murakami-1996/