User:Generalwewe77/gap analysis

Merle Temkin

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Merle Temkin
 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

For this project, I decided to investigate a type of art I was not very familiar with. I chose Environmental Art, specifically site specific art. Upon researching this subject on Wikipedia, I first noticed that there was a lack of distinction between environmental art, site specific cart, and land art. I also noticed that they had a list of artists under their page dedicated to this art form; however, this list seemed a bit limited. Upon some further investigation, I noticed that it did not contain one specific artist, Merle Temkin. I looked to see if perhaps it was a linking issue and there was a separate page dedicated to her and her work, but there was not. I am not sure as to the reason this gap exists. This gap limits the knowledge available on the people involved with this changing and growing art form. While Merle Temkin does not have as great a recognition as some of the artists on Wikipedia’s list, she has done important work and has contributed greatly to this art form. Additionally, Merle Temkin has been an active artist for several decades and has aided in the growth of several art forms including site specific sculptures, installation, and painting. This gap is most likely also correlated to the lack of in depth information on environmental art and site specific art, which is partly due to the growing, changing nature of these art forms in terms of their definition and distinctions from similar art forms.


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Merle Temkin is a New York-based artist working in painting, sculpture and installation. Born in Chicago IL and residing in New York City, she holds a B.F.A. degree in painting from the Chicago Art Institute and a M.F.A. degree in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute. Recent awards include two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Awards, a Richard Florsheim Foundation Museum Purchase Award and two residency fellowships at Vermont Studio Center. Past awards include the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and Hereward Lester Cooke Foundation.

In her work, Temkin explores the paradox between universal and anonymous themes present in her personal identity. Most of Merle Temkin’s earlier work explored this relationship through site-specific sculptures (sometimes used interchangeably with Environmental Art), pieces of art that creates or alters the environment for the viewer, as opposed to presenting itself figurally or monumentally before the viewer.

One of her earlier Works Walkthrough,consisted of alternate mirrored strips and open spaces, creating a pleasant visual confusion. Another work, Two Left Feet, consisted of high heeled shoes and their effigies placed around a room in various forms include physical, tasseled cutouts, and schematizied drawings. This work was meant to evoke feelings related to the transition from girlhood to womanhood, which are themes understood to be universally translated into emotions felt during the transition between childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

In Temkin’s more contemporary work, these themes of personal experiences projected across a wider audience are currently being explored through the use of her fingerprints as self-portraits. Her combined mediums of paint and needlework is informed by “woman’s work” of the past, meant to signify the way in which strong generational “threads” hold people together.


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