handout - sculpture

Important issues:

1. Context

2. Patronage

3. Method

4. Audience

Categories of Sculpture:

1. Public

2. Private

3. Portraits

4. Mass-produced

THE CONCEPT OF "ORIGINALITY" AND SCULPTURE IMPLICATIONS THAT THE SPECIAL NATURE OF "ORIGINAL" HAS FOR ARTIST TRAINING AND EDUCATION OF SCULPTORS

TRANSFORMATION OF IDEA OF "PORTRAITURE" UNDER RODIN

SIGNIFICANCE OF "THE NUDE" IN SCULPTURE

SIGNIFICANCE OF "FIGURE IN MOTION"

SIGNIFICANCE OF SCULPTURAL "GROUPS"

SIGNIFICANCE OF "THE FRAGMENT"

handout - theories related to cubism

Summary of Theory... Cubism & Related Cubism... geometric abstraction inspired initially by African art and the deconstructive/reconstructive tendencies of Cezanne. One of the most important aspects of Cubism is the practice of showing different perspectives simultaneously to suggest the passage of time

Analytical Phase... characterized by tonal colors, and dissolution of form. in the later works, fragments of words are added to blur idea between visual and verbal language.

Synthetic Phase...characterized by addition of collage elements. Idea is to fool the viewer. Color is still tonal.

Decorative Phase... bright color comes back, along with pointillism inspired by the work of Seurat. collage idea is still present but is now more often painted.

Tubism... term used to describe Leger's brand of cubism, which is based on the cylinder. Leger is also interested in the concept of the machine (which didn't interest Braque and Picasso, who focused on the more traditional, but lower hierarchical subjects of landscape, still life and portraiture)

Purism... related in a way to the machine Cubism or Tubism of Leger. attacks the then current state of cubism as having degenerated into a form of elaborate decoration. paintings seek an architectural simplicity of vertical-horizontal structure, and elimination of decorative ornateness as well as illustrative subjects. machine becomes the perfect symbol for pure, functional painting.

Architecture of Le Corbusier..."minimal housing" "a machine for living" Wanted to take advantage of the properties of ferroconcrete (light and strong) and create flexibility and allow the interpenetration of inner and outer space. Le Corbusier's five points for contemporary construction were:

(1) the pillar, to be left free to rise through the open space of the house;

(2) the functional independence of skeleton and wall, not only of outer walls but also of inner partitions;

(3) the free plan—composing interior space with nonbearing interior walls to create free flow of space and also interpenetration of inner and outer space;

(4) the free facade— the completely flexible and variable wall, which is merely a nonsupporting skin or sheath;

(5) the roof garden—the development of the flat roof as an additional living area.

Futurism...Culmination of series of attempts to break through the spiritual and intellectual stagnation of Italy and to bring about cultural rejuvenation. They extolled the beauties of revolution, of war, of the speed and dynamism of modern technology. It also paid homage to the idea of simultaneity of vision, of metamorphosis, and of motion that constantly multiplied the moving object.

Orphism...A short lived variant of cubism where color is the principle means of artistic expression. Developed in 1912, it paved the way for decorative cubism.

Vorticism..."rebel" group ... first organized movement towards abstraction in English art ... supporters of Italian Futurists. Idea of whirling force. Intention: to arrive at an original synthesis, poised half-way between the kinetic dynamics of Futurism and the static monumentality of Cubism.

Synchromism...Movement whose main import was the reliance upon color alone to provide both form and content of painting. (American version of Orphism)

Precisionism...application of a quasi-cubist techniques of abstraction to the depiction of everyday and preferably industrial subjects in America. Also know as Cubist-Realism. Advanced degree of dehumanization in favor of the attempt to endow commonplace and industrial subjects with epic or heroic grandeur.

Rayonism... Launched with manifesto by Larionov: "Rayonism is a synthesis of Cubism, Futurism and Orphism." The style was bound up with a very unclear theory of invisible rays, in some ways analogous to the 'lines of force' which were postulated by Italian Futurists (emitted by objects and intercepted by other objects in the vicinity). The artist must manipulate these rays to create form for his own aesthetic purpose.

Cubo-Futurism... is more general term applied to anti-Impressionist variants of painting in Russia.

Suprematism... a method and philosophy of abstract painting launched by Malevich in 1915. Supremetisim was the earliest of the movements which jointly contributed to the emergence of European Constructivism.

1. It eschews representation of natural appearances and idealizations of them.

2. It is the expression of pure artistic feeling or 'non-objective sensation.'

3. Suprematist art serves no ulterior purpose nor is it "expressive" of the emotions and attitudes of the artist other than the pure artistic feeling. It has no other 'usefulness'.

4. The expression of pure artistic feeling is all that is of value in art, past and present.

5. Suprematism is art constructed from elementary geometrical shapes, specifically the rectangle, the circle, the cross and the triangle. The most perfect or "purest" of these is the square. Suprematism builds up or constructs from non-naturalistic geometrical elements and is therefore to be classed with the form of abstraction which is most properly named Constructivism.

European Constructivism...general term for "non-representational" and "non-expressive" art which is based not on the deconstruction of forms into geometric elements, but the building up or construction from non-naturalistic geometrical elements. Another term sometimes used is "productivism."

Energetics... = direction of volumes + planes and lines or their vestiges + all colors. Formula by which Popova arrived at what she called the "architectonic value of a picture" which belongs in the category of constructivism.

**Only Lissitzky fits both Russian and European constructivism*** For him, constructivism "rejects the comfortable assumption of a 'given' harmony between human feeling and the outside world. In contrast, it implies that man himself is the creator of order in a world that is neither sympathetic nor hostile, and that the artist must play a central role in determining the type of order that is imposed."

**Gabo starts out as what could be called a "Russian Constructivist" but quickly becomes disillusioned and coins idea of "European Constructivism" which does not insist on utilitarian function of art. Russian Constructivism... also called "Laboratory Art." All works here were preparatory experiments towards materialized constructions. Ideally they achieve a union of purely plastic forms (painting, sculpture, architecture) for a utilitarian purpose.

Principles:

(1) denial of simulation (real materials, real space when possible, deny illusionary picture space

(2) "culture of materials" - the investigation and exploitation of the actual properties, aesthetic and practical, of "modern" materials.

(3) idea that art should contribute directly to the betterment of socialist society. They want an art of social utility.

De Stijl... Dutch for "the style" and was also the name of a periodical started by Mondrian in 1917. They sought laws of equilibrium and harmony that would be applicable to life and society as well as art and their style was one of austere abstract clarity.

Neo-plasticism... was the term coined by Mondrian for his style of austerely geometrical abstraction. He claimed that art should be 'denaturalized' by which he meant that it must be freed from any representational relation to the individual details of natural objects, being built up solely from abstract elements. To this end he restricted the elements of pictorial design to the straight line and the rectangle (the right angles in a strictly horizontal-vertical relation to the frame) and to the primary colors together with white, black and gray. In this way he thought that one might escape the individualism of the particular and achieve expression of an ideal of universal harmony. He also believed that there were mystical implications of vertical-horizontal opposition.

handout - concrete art / minimalism theory

Definitions:

concrete art-

It first became a technical term in 1930 when Theo Van Doesburg (best known as follower of MondrianÍs neoplasticism) issued a manifesto entitled Art Concrete, disguised as the first number of a review (no other numbers were issued).

The short manifesto ran as follows: Basis of Concrete Painting. We declare:

1 Art is Universal

2. The work of art should be entirely conceived and formed by the mind before its execution. It should receive nothing from nature's formal properties or from sensuality or sentimentality. We want to exclude Iyricism, dramaticism, symbolism, etc.

3. The picture should be constructed entirely from purely plastic elements, that is to say planes and colours. A pictorial element has no other sig nificance than 'itself' and therefore the picture has no other significance than 'itself'.

4. The construction of the picture, as well as its elements, should be simple and controllable visually.

5. Technique should be mechanical, that is to say exact, anti-impressionistic.

6. Effort for absolute clarity.

Really defines Constructivist principles; in fact the term was applied to a lot of artists including Mondrian. There are then movements in Sweden and Italy where the term is used. Lucio Fontana is an example (Movimento per l'arte concreta) By this time, Concrete Art became synonymous with geometric abstraction.

minimalism-

Term used to describe complex trend in art (chiefly in 1950s in US)... largely a reaction from Action Painting and some aspects of Abstract Expressionism.

John Graham (1937) anticipates in System and Dialects of Art and is used by David Burliuk in introduction to catalogue of Graham's work in 1929. "Minimalism derives its name from the minimum of operating means... Minimalist painting is purely realistic„the subject being the painting itself." Later given a wide variety of applications (common for terms coined in conjunction with modern movements).

Combines two concepts:

1. art works which had an unusually low degree of differentiation (like monochromatic paintings) and therefore a minimal amount of "art work" by the artist

2. art works which, although they might be highly differentiated, had a minimal amount of "art-work" contributed by the artist because their components were identical or near-identical with everyday mass-produced objects.

*this definition, then, could include pop works by Warhol, Thiebauld, Wesselman.

*today, the mass-produced aspect has been altered to describe the building components, say, of Judd. New "refined" definition sees Barnett Newman and Morris Louis as forerunners. By eschewing all "virtual" qualities and maintaining a maximum degree of visual simplicity, they make a unified total impression on the observer with the negation of all ambiguity.

**simplification to the extreme***

***highly intellectual approach**

describes not only approach, but ability to appreciate, which is "learned," not spontaneous.

hard edge-

ex. ELLSWORTH KELLY, KENNETH NOLAND originally coined by critic Jules Langsner in 1958 as an alternative to replace older term "geometric abstraction."

Way he uses it is "to refer to the new development that combined economy of form and neatness of surface with fullness of color, without continually raising memories of earlier geometric art. During 60s gets more general application, used to describe the style of non-representational painting which was distinguished from Abstract Expressionism both because it used a few large areas of color separated by crisp, clearly defined edges and by the fact that, unlike the spontaneous and impulsive practices of the AE, HE paintings were planned in advance of their execution.