My fellow students’ isms (in brief) – Part Three

Posted on 26 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Spatialism

This was a post-World War II movement founded by Italian artist Lucio Fontana. It represented a move away from mere painting as an art form, it aimed to synthesize colour, sound, space, movement and time into a new type of art. The Spatialists thought that the whole environment of the work of art had an impact upon it. The process of making art, to them, was as important as the artwork itself. Lucio Fontana created a series of slashed canvasses, such as that below, and the idea was to blur the distinction between two- and three-dimensions and to show the art of the space and colour behind the canvas.

Lucio Fontana Spatial Concept ‘Waiting’

Realism

This was a late 19th-century art movement which aimed to show the world as it really was through art. It was the art of the real and not the pictorial. The Realists were criticised, however, for their ‘immoral’ subjects such as the lower echelons of society, and nude prostitutes. Famous Realists include Gustave Courbet, Millet, Degas and Manet. It was an anti-bourgeois movement. Those in power feared for its revolutionary influence. ‘The Floor Planers’ by Courbet was chosen as a key work, and happens to be one of my favourite paintings (I remember seeing it in the Musee D’Orsay in Paris).

Courbet ‘The Floor Planers’

Surrealism

Surrealism is a very well-known 20th-century art movement, which includes works aiming to inspire by featuring an element of surprise. Paintings contained unexpected juxtapositions of objects. Surrealism developed out of Dadaism and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onwards, the movement spread internationally. Salvador Dali and Man Ray are perhaps two of the most famous of the Surrealists.

Dali’s melting clocks – an iconic Surrealist painting

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since the time of Manet. The Post-Impressionists rejected the limitations of Impressionism. They used unmixed primary colours in their art. One of the most famous Post-Impressionists was Paul Cézanne, another was Vincent Van Gogh.

Van Gogh’s Starry Night

Expressionism

Expressionism originated in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its aim was to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it substantially for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Key artists in this movement include Edvard Munch and Wassily Kandinsky.

Aghhhhh!

Orientalism

This term is used by art scholars to describe the imitation or depiction of aspects of Middle Eastern and East Asian cultures in art and literature. It was a 19th-century phenomenon. The Victorians developed a fascination with the orient and all things ‘exotic’ or ‘erotic’ about the orient.

Holman Hunt ‘A Street Scene in Cairo; The Lantern-Maker’s Courtship’

References:

Tutorial Notes

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My fellow students’ isms (in brief) – Part Two

Posted on 26 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Symbolism

This ‘ism’ is all about the representation of an object or idea in symbolic form. It was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Belgium and Russian origin. In art symbolism is related to the gothic in Romanticism.

The key painting chosen was Jan Van Eyck‘s ‘Arnolfini Wedding Portrait’.

Arnolfini Wedding Portrait

The painting is of a man and a women standing together in front of a bed. The man has traditionally been identified as the Italian merchant, Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, Giovanna Cenami, but this has not been confirmed. It is believed that the scene is a private wedding ceremony, and the painting acts as a marriage certificate; but it has also been suggested that the painting celebrates the continuity of their married life, or the close relationship between the couple.

The painting contains a lot of symbolism including:

  • The chandelier has one lit candle signifying matrimony and the unity of marriage.
  • The removed shoes suggest sanctity.
  • The small dog may simply be a pet, but it serves also as a symbol of fidelity.
  • Oranges on the windowsill indicates innocence before Adam and Eve’s fall from grace, and the couple’s wealth.
  • The spotless convex mirror on the back wall alludes to purity, and the reflection of two other individuals in the room (including the painter) infers that witnesses are present.

Pre-Raphaelitism

A Pre-Raphaelite was someone who belonged to a group of English 19th-century artists, including Holman Hunt, Millais, and D. G. Rossetti, who consciously sought to copy the simplicity and sincerity of the work of Italian artists from before the time of Raphael. The group came together as a reaction against the sentimentality and academic convention of Victorian art. Their work is characterized by strong line and colour, naturalistic detail, and often biblical or literary subjects.

The key work chosen is this Holman Hunt painting called ‘The Awakening Conscience’.

The Awakening Conscience

Dadaism

This was an early 20th-century art movement which aimed to mock current artistic conventions. It was anti-aesthetic in sentiment. It was a very short-lived movement but very important and hugely influential for modern art and the growth of conceptualism.

Tristan Tzara, one of the founders of the Dada movement, was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artists. He was also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director.

George Melly famously managed to avoid getting beaten up by a gang of thugs by reciting Ursonate, Kurt Schwitters’ incomprehensible Dada poem.

Neo-Platicism

Neo-Plasticism, an art movement of the early 20th century, is the belief that art should not be the reproduction of real objects, but the expression of the absolutes of life. This means that the only absolutes of life were vertical and horizontal lines and the primary colours. The Neo-Platicists only used planar elements and the colours red, yellow, and blue. The two main artists of this movement were Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.

Composition with Yellow

This style of painting is one of the most recognised in the modern era. It has had a huge influence on modern design.

Fancy a neo-plasticist iPhone cover?

Constructivism

Constructivism was a philosophy in art and architecture that originated in Russia in the early 1920s, but it spread around  the world. It was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism has impacted on modern art in the 20th century, having an influence on the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements. The sculpture of Constructivism was to have movement, or a sense of movement. It was a kind of kinetic art. Important Constructivists include Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth and Alexander Calder.

One of Alexander Calder’s mobiles

 Abstract-Expressionism

This post-World War II movement emphasised the concept of art made in action. Think Jackson Pollock. There was another strand to the movement, however, and that was art based on colour-field theory. This movement was about contemplation. Abstract-Expressionism in its entirety was based in New York and turned New York into a new international centre for art. The idea behind it was that art could depict universal emotions. Everyone feels emotions and they are the same, and they can be communicated through art. Abstract-Expressionism looked to the unconscious to find meaning in these universal emotions.

One of Rothko’s many colour experiments

References:

Tutorial notes.

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Medium Specificity – what is that?

Posted on 22 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

During our last tutorial, whilst talking about ‘isms’, the concept of ‘medium specificity’ came up and I didn’t understand what it was all about so I decided to investigate once I was sat at home and had time to google and ponder.

Definition – Medium Specificity

According to my old friend the OED ‘specificity’ is defined as: ‘The quality or fact of being specific in operation or effect’, or ‘being specific in character’.

It defines ‘medium’, in terms of the arts, as ‘any raw material or mode of expression used in an artistic or creative activity’.

A big book

That doesn’t help.

According to Clement Greenberg, whose name is most associated with the term, medium specificity holds that ‘the unique and proper area of competence’ for a form of art matches the ability of an artist to manipulate those features that are ‘unique to the nature’ of a particular medium.

Thinking about abstract art?

That helps a bit.

So in painting, literal flatness and abstraction are the most important element rather than creating an illusion or figuratively replicating an image.

Getting there.

In basic terms, it means that there is no point painting a figurative image. Paint is flat, the colours are flat, the canvas is flat. Medium specificity generally asks the artist to critically engage with the material of choice.

Interesting stuff. Of course this is an over-simplification of the concept of medium specificity but time has run out for more.

References:

That clever website Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_specificity [last accessed 22 November 2012]

The Art Story, http://www.theartstory.org/critic-greenberg-clement.htm [last accessed 22 November 2012]

The OED, http://www.oed.com/ [last accessed 22 November 2012]

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My fellow students’ isms (in brief) – Part One

Posted on 21 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Romanticism

Romanticism was anti-industry and anti-materialistic movement of the end of the 18th century. Emotions were key to the Romantics. They were against all former styles of academic art. They were very fond of the word ‘sublime’ which makes me think of Turner. They wanted to paint the experience of confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both of which were new aesthetic categories.

Key artists include Casper David Friedrich who painted the chosen ‘key work’.

The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

This piece uses the technique of the Rückenfigur—a person seen from behind, contemplating the view. The viewer is asked to put himself in the position of the Rückenfigur, by which means he experiences the sublime potential of nature, understanding that the scene is as perceived and idealised by a human.

Impressionism

Impressionism, a 19th-century art movement, is another ism which rejected the academic tradition of the past (perhaps a prerequisite for any credible ism). The Impresssionists wanted to capture the moment, capture the light and paint the human perception of the light at that particular moment in time. Critics said that the paintings of the Impressionists looked unfinished. The Impressionists stated that they actually like the sensation of painting bold brush strokes. It was a much freer art than the art of previous generations. The technology of painting had recently changed, paint came in tubes, pots, and artists could paint outdoors and ‘capture’ the moment as they aimed to.

Key artists include Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Brazille. There are so many key works so I’ll just choose a random Monet.

Impression Sunrise

Neo-Expressionism

This was a movement which rose up in the 1970s. The Neo-Expressionists painted strong images to get an emotional reaction. Abstract art was in the ascendent, so the Neo-Expressionists were a group of artists aiming to use figurative art to reflect violent feelings. Many of the Neo-Expressionists were German or Austrians, reacting to their pasts.

The key work chosen was this work by Anselm Kiefer.

Urd Werdande Skuld (The Norns)

Secessionism

This movement was about seceding from the establishment, hence the name. The Secessionists wanted to move away from what existed previously (as all ‘ists’ seem to want to do). They were rebelling against the old academic tradition. This movement started at the end of the 19th century and lasted until the early 20th century. The style was quite decorative and flat, and suggestive rather than obvious, but using a rich pallet of colours. The Secessionists wanted the observer to need to work out the context of the work. They used symbolism and ambiguity in their paintings.

The key work and main key artist chosen was Gustav Klimt and his famous ‘Kiss’.

The Kiss

References:

Tutorial Notes

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Bonus ism – Vorticism

Posted on 21 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Definition – Vorticism

Vorticism was a radical art and poetry movement based in the U.K. that illuminated the art world briefly during years before and during World War I. It was an offshoot of Cubism. Even though it was based in the U.K. it had many international adherents. The movement was announced in 1914 in the first issue of BLAST, which contained its manifesto. This manifesto declared the movement’s rejection of traditional art in favour of a geometric style tending towards abstraction.

Though the movement was influenced heavily by Cubism, it is more closely related to another Cubist offshoot, Futurism, in its love of dynamism, the machine and all things modern.

Three Key Artists

Wyndham Lewis – Lewis is credited with founding the Vorticist movement. It was during the years 1913–15 that he developed the style of geometric abstraction which his friend Ezra Pound termed Vorticism. From around 1915 onwards Lewis became obsessed with politics and its implications for art. He found Cubist art appealing but liked the dynamism of Futurism, and somehow combined the two.

Workshop

William Roberts – Roberts flirted briefly with Vorticism but looking back preferred to refer his art style of those years as Cubist.

Seaside – is it Cubist or Vorticist?

David Bomberg – Bomberg attended the Slade where he studied alongside other future Vorticists such as William Roberts. He was widely exhibited during from 1913 onwards, when his style of a geometrical precision developed, a style that was very close to that of Vorticism. He didn’t like being labelled a Vorticist though. So he would not have liked to be in this blog entry.

The Mud Bath

One Key Work

It has to be ‘The Mud Bath’ above which was allegedly exhibited outside the gallery ‘in’ which it was exhibited left to face the wind and the rain.

References:

Vorticism Website, http://www.vorticism.co.uk/home.html [last accessed 21 November 2012]

Wikipedia on William Roberts, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Roberts_%28painter%29 [last accessed 21 November 2012]

 

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Ism number eight – Suprematism

Posted on 20 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Definition – Suprematism

Suprematism was an art movement which focused on geometric shapes, for example circles, squares, lines, and rectangles. They were painted in a limited range of colours. The movement was founded by Kazimir Malevich in Russia, in 1915. The term equates to art based on the ‘supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts’ rather than on a visual depiction of objects.

The aim was for the art of Suprematism to be superior to all previous art forms. It was one of earliest forms of abstract art. Malevich came to be fascinated by the search for art’s barest essentials. It was a radical and experimental project that was later to be attacked by the Communist authorities.

The aims was for abstraction to come from a search for the ‘zero degree’ of painting, the point beyond which the medium could not go without ceasing to be art.

Four Key Artists

Kasimir Malevich – Malevich was the founder of the Suprematism movement. In 1915, he fired up the concept of Suprematism by publishing his manifesto ‘From Cubism to Suprematism’. During that year and the next he and other Suprematist artists worked in a peasant/artisan co-operative in Skoptsi and Verbovka village. He exhibited more of his artwork after that. He viewed the Russian Revolution as having paved the way for a new society in which materialism would eventually lead to spiritual freedom.

White on White

Ivan Puni – Puni worked with Malevich and other Suprematists. In 1915-1916 Puni, together with other artists, worked at Verbovka Village Folk Centre.

Suprematist Relief-Sculpture

Kesniya Boguslavskaya – Boguslavskaya was married to Ivan Puni (above). She was mainly a poet and interior decorator, but associated herself with the Suprematists. She also worked in the Verbrovka Village Folk Centre with the other Suprematists. This painting below was actually by her husband, but features Boguslavskaya.

Velemir Khlebnikov reads his poetry to Ksenia Boguslavskaya

Lyubov Popova –Popova had a Suprematist phase in her long career and spent some time with fellow like-minded souls at the Verbrovka Village Folk Centre. To Popova, the canvas surface became an energy field for overlapping and intersecting angular planes in a constant state of release of energy. At the same time the elements were held in a balanced and proportioned whole. Colour was used as the focus with the strong primary colour at the center drawing the shapes together.

Painterly Architectonic

One Key Work

I have chosen Malevich’s ‘Black Square’ as a key work as it has been seen as a major landmark in the history of abstract art. Malevich painted four versions of it between 1915 and the early 1930s. Apparently the last version was carried behind his coffin at his funeral. This is the first version of the painting and it depicts a purely black square against a thin border of white. This eliminates any sense of regular space or perspective.

Black Square

References:

The Artstory Website, http://www.theartstory.org/movement-suprematism.htm [last accessed 20 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Suprematism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprematism [last accessed 20 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Kesniya Boguslavskaya, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kseniya_Boguslavskaya [last accessed 20 November 2012]

The Heritage Museum, http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/04/b2003/hm4_1_30.html [last accessed 20 November 2012]

Artcyclopedia, http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/popova_liubov.html [last accessed 20 November 2012]

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Ism number seven – Neo-Conceptualism

Posted on 19 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Definition – Neo-Conceptualism

Neo-Conceptualism was a label applied to the art of the 1980s and 1990s that continued Conceptualism’s questioning of the art object and the art institution, but with a close eye on the commodification of art and its relation to gender, race, and class. There is no overriding aesthetic of Neo-Conceptualist painting and sculpture, which were generally avoided in favour of photography, video, and film, and forms of mass-media such as advertising. Neo-Conceptualism was influenced by Postmodernist theory, which aimed to take apart ideas of societal progress and individual authorship or genius.

Subsequent initiatives since the coining of the term ‘Neo-Conceptualsim’ have included the Moscow Conceptualists; United States neo-conceptualists such as Cindy Sherman; and the Young British Artists, notably Damien Hirst and Tracey Emim.

Charles Harrison, a member of the conceptual art group ‘Art and Language’ in the 1970s, criticizes the Neo-Conceptual art of the 1990s as conceptual art ‘without threat or awkwardness’ and a ‘vacant’ prospect.

Four Key Artists

Ilya Kabakov – Kabakov is a Russian-American Conceptual artist, and he was one of the Moscow Conceptualists. Kabakov has produced a wide range of paintings, drawings, installations, and theoretical texts and also memoirs that chart his life from his childhood to the early 1980s. More recently, he has created installations examining the visual culture of the Soviet Union.

Toilet Interior

Cindy Sherman – Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman has aimed at asking challenging and vital questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art.

Self-portrait

Damien Hirst – Hirst is a member of the Young British Artists. A key theme of his is death. He does appear to favour the grotesque and the decaying. ‘A Thousand Years‘, one of Hirst’s most provocative and engaging works, contained an actual life cycle. Maggots hatched inside a white minimal box, turned into flies, then fed on a severed cow’s head on the floor of a glass vitrine. Above, newly-hatched flies wove around in the closed space. Some of the flies met a violent end in an insect-o-cutor; others survived to continue the cycle.

A Thousand Years – flies and a cow’s head

Simon Starling – Starling is another member of the so-called Young British Artists. He won the Turner Prize in 2005 with the work, ‘Shedboatshed’ for which he took a wooden shed, transformed it into a boat, sailed it down the Rhine and turned it back into a shed.

One Key Work

There are lots of works to choose from and Tracey Emin seems to come up again and again so here I’ve chosen ‘Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995’ which was a tent appliquéd with 102 names of the people she had slept next to / with up to the time of its creation in 1995.

Tracey’s Tent

References:

Wikipedia on Neo-Conceptualism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-conceptual_art [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Art.sy, http://artsy.net/gene/neo-conceptualism?dns_source=art.sy [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Ilya Kabakov, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Kabakov [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Cindy Sherman’s website, http://www.cindysherman.com/ [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Damien Hirst, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Simon Starling, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Starling [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Tracey Emin’s website, http://www.tracey-emin.co.uk/ [last accessed 19 November 2012]

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Ism number six – Cubism

Posted on 19 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Definition – Cubism

Cubism can be said to be one of the most influential visual art styles of the early 20th century. It was created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. The French art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the term Cubism after seeing the landscapes Braque had painted in 1908 at ‘L’Estaque’ in emulation of Cézanne. Vauxcelles called the geometric forms in the highly abstracted works ‘cubes’.

Cubists rejected the inherited idea that art should copy nature, or that artists should adopt the traditional techniques of perspective, modeling, and foreshortening that they are taught at art school. They focused on the importance of the two-dimensionality of the canvas. So they reduced and fractured objects into geometric shapes, and then realigned these to a shallow, relief-like form. They also used multiple or contrasting vantage points to create a sense of perspective and three dimensions.

There are two main phases that Cubism went through:

Analytical Cubism. This first sub-movement lasted until 1911 and is characterized by monochrome, relatively unemotional paintings that depict rather uneventful subjects, such as still lives.

Synthetic Cubism. From 1911 on Cubism moved in a direction which we know today as Synthetic Cubism. In both Analytical and Synthetic Cubism the subject is fragmented, in Analytical Cubism giving rise to a crystalline geometry; in Synthetic Cubism the fragmentation is reduced in size, making the subject more recognizable and less formal. In both styles a subject is reconstructed in intersecting, sometimes transparent planes.

Cubism has been called the first abstract art.

Four Key Artists

Paul Cézanne – Cézanne wasn’t a Cubist, but he played an important part in the story of Cubism. He was actually a Post-Impressionist. Cézanne was interested in the simplification of naturally occurring forms to their geometric essentials. This painting ‘Les Grandes Baigneuses’ makes obvious the influence of Cézanne on Cubism.

Les Grandes Baigneuses

Pablo Picasso – Picasso and George Braque independently from each other came up with the idea of depicting objects from different viewpoints. They came together in a friendship which Picasso described as a marriage. Picasso didn’t ‘facet’ natural objects as Braque did, but utilised the geometry of Braques’ faceted images to create a style that was abstract in essence, but almost pure abstract art. Picasso’s influences were different from Braque.

Factory, Horta de Ebbo

George Braque – Braque along with Picasso is regarded as one of the fathers of Cubism. Braque was interested mainly in developing Cézanne’s ideas of multiple perspectives, whereas Picasso was influenced by African art and Gauguin. Braque’s subjects were the ordinary objects of his life. Picasso was interested in animation. Braque was into contemplation.

Violin and Candlestick

Piet Mondrian – Modrian can be said to linearized Cubism in his painting from 1912 entitled ‘Apple Tree’. This process ultimately led to the first really non-figurative paintings (or pure abstract art), from 1914 on. Paintings such as ‘The Sea’ from that same year and his studies of trees did have a representational form, but also they were dominated by geometric shapes and interlocking planes. While Mondrian was eager to absorb the Cubist influence into his work, he saw it as a phase rather than his life.

Apple Tree

One Key Work

This time the key work is an easy choice. I wrote a long essay on ‘Cubism and the Human Figure’ when I did A Level art many years ago and I remember this painting as being very key to the Cubist movement. The painting I am talking about is Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ painted in 1907. It is iconic of the movement of Cubism. In this painting Picasso depicts human figures by making use of several viewpoints, which became one of the characteristic features of Cubism.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

References:

Metropolitan Musem of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Art Factory on Cubism, http://artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cubism.htm [last accessed 19 November 2012]

George Braque, http://www.georgesbraque.org/ [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Pablo Picasso Cubism, http://pablo-picasso.paintings.name/ [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Piet Mondrian on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian [last accessed 19 November 2012]

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Ism number five – Social Realism

Posted on 19 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Definition – Social Realism

Social Realism was also known as Socio-Realism. It was an artistic movement, which expressed in realistic terms social issues, racial injustice, and economic hardship. It aimed for the realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, as a means of social or political comment. The Social Realist painter painted life’s struggles, more often than not in mural form. The working class was the hero. It was a movement or style of painting in which the scenes typically conveyed a message of social or political protest with a satirical edge. It developed out of the Ashcan School in the US in the early 20th century.

Social Realism was an important art movement during the Great Depression, particularly in the United States. It was aimed at social change, and the mural seemed to stand for this as a very public art form. For many artists, mural painting was also a reaction against the decadence of art galleries and private homes, which seemed offensive in an era of extreme poverty.

Four Key Artists

Ben Shahn – ‘…there came a time when I stopped painting, stopped in order to evaluate all these doubts. If I couldn’t see purple where there was no purple – I wouldn’t use it. If I didn’t like cows, I wouldn’t paint them. What then was I to paint? Slowly I found that I must paint those things that were meaningful to me – that I could honestly paint in the shapes and colors I felt belonged to them. What shall I paint? Stories.’ Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. His art lent towards a realist style which he used to contribute to social dialogue.

Unemployed – looking a bit grumpy

Jack Levine – Levine grew up in the South End of Boston, where he observed a street life composed of European immigrants, poverty and societal ills. He was an artist whose artwork caricatured and satirised the inequalities of America in the 20th century and mocked the people in power. Levine railed against ‘abstract painters’, calling them space cadets. This painting below was supposed to be  a scathing critique of political and police corruption.

The Feast of Pure Reason

Jacob Lawrence – Born in New Jersey but raised in Harlem, New York, Lawrence was an American painter who gave vividness to black life. He painted in gouache and tempera, using strokes with blacks and browns for outlines. He filled canvasses with vivid colour. He described his style as ‘dynamic Cubism’.

Builders

Reginald Marsh –  Marsh was another American painter. He was born in Paris. He is most famous for his depictions of New York life in the 1920s and 1930s. He painted crowded scenes of Coney Island, entertainments such as vaudeville and burlesque, women, and jobless men on the Bowery.

The Bread Line

One Key Work

I have chosen ‘American Gothic’ by Grant Wood. This painting’s style can be traced to the precise realism of 15th-century northern Europe. However, it is firmly sitting in the Social Realism camp. The artist’s native Iowa provided the subject matter. The painting shows a farmer and his spinster daughter posing before their house designed in the American gothic style, which inspired the painting’s title. Wood was accused of starirising the intolerance and rigidity of the insular rural mid-western life; he denied the accusation. Rather the image epitomizes the Puritan ethic and virtues that he believed dignified the mid-western character.

American Gothic

References:

Wikipedia on Social Realism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism [accessed 19 November 2012]

The University of Virginia, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA03/staples/douglas/socialrealism.html [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Jack Levine, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Levine [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Bio True Story on Jacob Lawrence, http://www.biography.com/people/jacob-lawrence-9375562 [last accessed 19 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Reginald Marsh, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Marsh_%28artist%29 [last accessed on 19 November 2012]

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Ism number four – Minimalism

Posted on 13 November 2012 by beckybendylegs

Definition – Minimalism

Less is more. Minimalism is a movement in art (and music) whereby eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts reveals the essence of an object. Minimalism is where the simplest and fewest elements are used to create the maximum effect. Artists who subscribe to the Minimalist movement reduce art to the minimum number of colours, shapes, lines and textures.

Minimalism in art emerged in New York in the 1960s as artists moved towards looking at geometric abstraction. Emphasizing an anonymity over the intense expressivism of the generation that came before, the Minimalists wanted to avoid metaphorical associations and symbolism.

Key Artists

Frank Stella – Stella described the picture as ‘a flat surface with paint on it – nothing more’. In the 1960s he began to create works which emphasized the picture-as-object, rather than the picture as a representation of something.

The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II

Dan Flavin – Flavin was an American artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from fluorescent light fixtures. His aim was for his artwork to possess a straightforward simplicity on the one hand and a deep sophistication on the other.

Who left the light on?

Sol LeWitt – LeWitt is regarded as a Conceptual artist as well as a Minimalist artist. His amazing two and three-dimensional work ranges from wall drawings to works on paper extending to structures in the form of towers, pyramids, geometric forms, and progressions. These works may be gallery-sized installations or outdoor pieces.

Swirly walls

John McCracken – McCracken is critically acclaimed for his monochromatic sculptures that explore the purity of colour and form. In addition they question the relationship between sculpted objects and their surrounding spaces. He is particularly known for his self-titled Planks, monochrome slabs made from wood, canvas, and steel that are often displayed projecting from a wall.

Colourful planks – the art of the less

One Key Work

I found it quite hard to find one key Minimalist work of art so I picked something that I liked after a spot of browsing on the subject. This is one of more than 50 large-scale sculptures created by Tony Smith, who is known as a Minimalist sculptor. Their distinct black finish and geometric forms represent one of the most significant achievements in American sculpture, and Smith’s unique vision has proven enormously influential on subsequent generations.

Drama created through simplicity

References:

The Art Story, http://www.theartstory.org/movement-minimalism.htm [last accessed 13 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Frank Stella, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stella [last accessed 13 November 2012]

Wikipedia’s list of artists, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimalist_artists [last accessed 13 November 2012]

Artnet, http://www.artnet.com/artists/john-mccracken/ [last accessed 13 November 2012]

Wikipedia on Tony Smith

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