Assisted Readymade

Christian Marclay’s The Clock at the White Cube Gallery

2010-11-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

A stopped clock is right twice a day trouble is you just don’t know when – Christian Marclay’s The Clock on show at the White Cube Gallery , uses 24 hours’ worth of shots and clips of stopped, stopping clocks from over 3,000 movies to create a synchronised, real-time working clock to solve that problem.

The Clock was brought to my attention by a tweet from Waldemar Januszczak. I follow @Januszczak as we admire many of the same artists and I like his work with his ZCZ film company and

we share a common passion for the Sistine Chapel and the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti . So although normally I have no time for video art - I’m no fan of art that needs to be plugged in - a recommendation from him sparked my interest. And I was AMAZED.

This is a brilliant, innovative idea : a collage which at once both aesthetic and practical - art for art’s sake yet it’s art with a purpose – it’s a real functioning clock which is a delight to watch.

The staging is the bowels of The White Cube gallery set up like a giant living room with large, comfy sofas and a huge screen with great sound.

I took my seat and immediately checked my watch and blow me if it wasn’t 4:55 on my watch but also on screen!....4:59....than bang!...5pm...I was watching time or was I watching the narrative which cut from one scene to another. Time seemed to pass so quickly, a very strange experience as I tried to follow and anticipate the narrative which made sense one moment only to break down and morph into another story in the next minute – all done effortlessly in time, on time.

I’m not a film buff but even I recognised some scenes from Casablanca and Brief Encounter and even a few actors Dirk Bogart , Clint Eastwood and Alistair Sims. But the majority of The Clock’s shots where unknown to me and not just the German, French, Japanese, Bollywood scenes but also the block busters, such is my ignorance. It was great fun to see something you vaguely know or recognise – an actor, a scene , a building , whatever only to have it morph seamlessly into something you didn’t know or recognise. The ever present time either spoken or shown flawlessly moving the disjointed, fractured story on – wonderful!

Available for £500,000 (including hard drive!) from an edition of six and two artist copies to private collectors and museum The Clock would make a brilliant addition to the reception of any company wishing to keep track of its own time.

You can watch The White Cube's Clock for free now , but hurry this Clock stops on the 11th Nov.....at the 11th hour?

Recommended, you'll be amazed.

Reference...

Economist review

The White Cube’s The Clock Photo

Photograph in White Cube Ben Westoby

Gagosian Gallery's PICASSO: The Mediterranean Years (1945-1962)

2010-08-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

Bikini, Feb 27 1961

Gagosian Gallery's PICASSO: The Mediterranean Years (1945-1962) is a wonderfully and thoughtfully curated exhibition which vividly shows what a prolific, prodigious and catholic genius Picasso was - from his delicate small three dimensional origami like paper and cardboard works presented by the Gallery in conventional glass cases to a painted door presented complete with its hinges and doorstep screwed to the wall, as if waiting to be opened. Gagosian's exhibition shows Picasso's genius for consuming and transforming a huge range of media - pen and ink, tiles and bricks, bronze , wood, cardboard and paper.

The exhibition is well described elsewhere for example here and here.

This review will focus on two works and a curatorial scheme/installation that caught my eye as examples of how good this exhibition really is. Regrettably security was too tight to take any pictures –men in dark suits some with the classic CIA ear piece connecting them to some unseen central control were everywhere I looked – three or four per room.

But my lack of pictures is made up by the excellent Gagsocian web site supporting the exhibition which has a good selection of pictures of exhibited works and an excellent video which thoughtfully walks you through the show.

The Two Pieces

La Taureau (The Bull) Dec 5 1945 to Jan 17 1946

Eleven 29 by 41 cm Lithographs of a lone Bull framed in black and hung in a single horizontal row at (my!) eye level .

Taken as a group the eleven Bull Lithographs are a tour through Art History of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Realism of the mid nineteenth represented by the first lithographs of a fully-formed, massive Bull giving way to late nineteenth century’s Impressionism with the Bull drawn quickly with Impressionism’s fast, light pen strokes capturing the moment as the Bull tail swirls.

There follows Cubism’s faceted planes – early twentieth century - which are used to deconstruct the Bull’s substantial form which Picasso progressively breaks down from planes into lines – from three to two dimensions.

By the final lithograph on this Art Historical journey, Picasso's Bull has lost its mass entirely. The Bull is reduced to a few pen strokes his huge , powerful head has been précised to a pinhead, his magnificently rendered horns mere sticks in stark contrast to Realism’s Bull with its massive head and menacing horns. Picasso is in total control of the journey from Realism to the edge of Abstract – Brilliant!

Bikini, Feb 27 1961

Bikini is the first piece that one encounters on entering the exhibition - it made me smile!

It is Picasso at his most playful and mischievous. He takes an essentially innocent object – an unglazed terracotta vase about one meter high –and with a couple of judiciously, incised lines and few splashes of yellow paint he creates the torso of a slim-waisted female putting me in mind of the Venus de Milo .

Bikini is on a small plinth behind glass with mirror on three sides giving a full and explicit view of the entire work in the round. What I found so convincing were the lines creating the back bone and the buttocks. Picasso translates a two dimensional line drawing into three dimensions - maintaining the elegant simplicity of the drawing.

I was also minded of one of my favourite and wittiest works by Picasso – Still Life with Pitcher and Apples, 1919. Here he places a jug on a table with two apples either side of it with a further two apples on plate positioned top of the jug. Innocent enough? On the on hand yes – this is a low, dimly lit; compressed and flattened picture space painted with a muted palette of greys, yellows and greens. On the other hand the painting – like Bikini – can be read as play on the female torso: the apples as breasts the buttocks as the body of the jug. Pitchers and Apples sexual inference is more subtle than that found in Bikini nevertheless they both show Picasso’s wit as well as his genius for helping us to re-examine our world around us

The Installation

There is a dimly lit passage about seven meters long linking one exhibition space to another whose walls are made of glass. Behind the glass walls are spot lit plinths upon which are mounted some works in wood and bronze. It is the bronze works which are this most eye catching through the spot-lighting.

The installation seems to be a homage to the Royal Academy’s controversial 1995 exhibition Africa: The Art of an Continent , with its darkened rooms and spot light objects which some at the time had argued the exhibition had late nineteenth century notions of the ‘dark continent’ . The installation presents Picasso’s work like those of the Royal Academy’s Africa exhibition and the same presentation can be found today in the British Museum’s Africa Galleries. The Gagosian installation clearly makes manifest the influence of Africa on Picasso’s art.

Summary

This is a superb exhibition, its range and depth is stupendous showing Picasso as the genius whose shadow was cast over virtually all art of the twentieth century leaving no media or form untouched by the incredible brilliance of Picasso's eye, hand and mind – Gagosian Gallery's PICASSO: The Mediterranean Years (1945-1962) recommended without reservation.

American Abstract Expressionism meets Russian Constructivism South African Mountain Biking

2009-10-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Read a piece in the Times the other day about a South African mountain biking photograph by Gary Parkin part of The Times "Story Behind The Picture" series it immediately made me think of Rothko modernism colour fields and Rodchenko black and white Constructivist photographs.
This is what I saw......what do you think?

Dada, Che & Obama Say Trust Me

2009-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

When I saw the ex-Dadist John Heartfiels’s photomontage cover for the June 1934 issue of the communist magazine AIZ Arrbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ: Workers Illustrated Paper) en titled ‘A New Man – Master of a New World. I was struck how similar the pose was to the picture of Che Guevara on thousands of student walls and T-shirts and Shepherd Fairey’s HOPE poster of Presidential candidate Barrack Obama both have become icons.

John Heartfeild the ex-Dadaist produced a series of monthly photomotages montages
Heartfield positioning the worker as a man of vision in a new age at time of rising unemployment and political strife

See for yourself ,c lick here.

All three have men staring upwards with gravitas as a friend said a calm-assertive "trust me" look.

Having identified the pose the challenge is now to find when the pose was first used. I suspect the Romans may have got their first as they have in so many things; they were the masters at propaganda.

Picture credits

1930s
Plate 5 from
Gaiger, J.M., Wood P. (eds) (2003) Art of the Twentieth Century – A Reader, New Haven and London, Yale University Press

1960s
Alberto Korda took the iconic picture of Che Geuvara on March 5, 1960 while working for the Cuban newspaper Revolución.

2000s
Shepherd Fairey’s 2008 HOPE poster for the Obama presidential campaign was based on a copyrighted photograph taken in April 2006 by Mannie Garcia while on assignment for the Associated Press (AP)

1968 Art Critic Quotes Views of 1850’s Racialist as Truth

2009-10-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

While revising the subject of Primitivism for my exam next week I looked up the word up in a book I’d brought ages ago. The author was Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968) , the book was the ‘new and revised’ 1968 edition of his pocket book The Meaning of Art a standard introductory text to art based on articles for the now defunct magazine The Listener – the BBC’s weekly literary journal. On page 76 he describes the ‘Negro’ as follows

Indeed it has been said with truth by Count Gobineau the Negro possess in the highest degree that sensual faculty which our civilised instincts tends to destroy, but without which no art is possible. It is certainly true that from a study of art of the Negro and Bushman we are led to an understanding of art in its most elemental forms and the elementary is always the most vital[1]

I could not believe it 1968 and he was quoting Count Joseph Arthur De Gobineau (1816-82). Gobineau - believed that

Inequality between the races was immutable- the superior. Of the three great graces in human history – the superior Aryan (white ) race the inferior yellow and black- the last two Untermenschen (literally , under peoples) enjoyed a propondence of numbers. [2]

The 1960s in art was a revolutionary time as there was the shift from modernism to postmodernism set against the historical backdrop of the Vietnam War, the rise of Feminism , Decoloniastion, Black power and swinging Sixties.

Yet here was a noted art critic writing for a prestigious journal , at the time, quoting the views on race almost century old, the mind boggles and the jaw drops.

But this is art history opinions and views with the occasional fact no matter how old and disputed.

Notes
[1] Read, pg 71
[2] King pg 103

References
King, C. (ed) (1999) Views of Difference: Different Views of Art, New Haven and London, Yale University Press
Read, H. (1968), The Meaning of Art, London, Faber & Faber

Barr Thinks MoMA is a Torpedo

2009-08-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

I was amazed to discover - thanks to my OU tutor - that Barr did indeed develop his chart idea but rather than use the graphical vocabulary of red and black with lines and type of varying size he changed not just his vocabulary but his language and grammar - from coloured lines and boxes to a torpedo! This takes art up to the 1950’s

It appears he sees MoMA’s permanent collection as a torpedo moving stealthily through the waters. .....

The Permanent collection may be thought of graphically as a torpedo moving through the time , the blunt end pushes into the advance field of art by means of the changing exhibitions. The bulk is made of accepted modern art. The tail tapers of into art which has become classical and is ready for the general museum. The torpedo moves forward acquiring, and retails its length of seventy years by giving to other museums [1]

At the time there was the 1934 MoMA exhibition ' Machine kind ' highlighting the Machine Aesthetic of the time so perhaps we could understand his metaphor of MoMA as a machine exemplified by the torpedo…understand it but not agree with it!

The mind boggles and the metaphors flow. Who was this torpedo aimed at? What waters were the Collection in ? What was the torpedo’s fuel, speed, engine, size ….and what do (could) they stand for? …and art renewing itself every 70 years , giving art to other ‘classical’ museums if not else Barr had a vision!

The drawings seem incomplete yielding none of overt and covert links his Chart revels, the torpedoes simply have a crude time line and artists and schools appropriately positioned along the line typed in the body of the torpedo.

There is some attempt to separate the European from non-European perhaps appealing to his target American audience but this is pretty crude. The torpedo metaphor lacks the didactic elegance of the Chart. There is no idea of the size or importance of the connections yielded by the Chart. So I regret to say the metaphor fails to produce a diagrammatic vocabulary in fact in contrast to the graphical richness of the Chart it became a simple language with one piece of grammar - a noun – the torpedo and that’s it!

[1] Annie Cohen-Solal quoting him in her article on Barr in Abstract expressionism: the internationally context, Issue 6512 edited Joan M. Marter

Professor Charles Harrison

2009-08-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

It is with regret I learned of the death this week of Professor Charles Harrison, for me a real loss as he introduced me to the Renaissance and art history.

To me he was great communicator with a real touch for bringing Art to life in a compelling practical, no nonsense way. His video on Giotto’s Arena Chapel I’ve watched many times it was my introduction to Art History I recommend it to anyone who wants to see a master at work : he, to me, is the consummate communicator the equal of many of the familiar Art Historians we see on TV, people like Robert Hughes, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Vladimir Janscheck– Prof Harrison knew, loved his subject and could communicate it with ease and enthusiasm – he had a wonderful, laconic knowledgeable style with his careful, soft spoken English , to me a perfect presenter and lecturer.

As for his writing, it has been a central part of almost every OU course I’ve ever done: A103 his unit on Seeing I’ve used many times when I’m at a loss as how to view a work, he goes back to the basics giving me fresh view; AA315 his chapter on Durer is written like a who done it as he describes how artists copied each other an excellent read in its own right.

I had the pleasure on AX272 the Summer School to be conducted around the British Museum by Prof Harrison as he described how the human figure was translated by artists from earliest times – he knew and had a passion for his subject. And now most recently on AA318 I see his matter-of-fact, debunking approach when describes how to view a Pollock or how Conceptual art could be valued.

He was very modest as he was really part of the art history he wrote and spoke about – at an AX272 lecture he talked about as young man in New York sleeping on Greenberg’s floor! And we can see and read about his hand and guiding mind in Art & Language.

I am unashamedly a fan: for me he is what Art History is about and what Art History at the OU is about, I for one shall miss him.

With regret
Michael

MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM Chart with respect to BARR

2009-08-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

I’ve always toyed with the idea of updating Barr’s famous cover for the 1936 CUBISM AND ABSTRACT ART exhibition at MOMA, in New York.

I’ve already written about Barr's use of symbols - making the least possible change to make a point or have impact in his chart see here for the post.

The current essay on Conceptual Art following the last one on Minimalism and Pop Art was an opportunity to combine the Art History behind the two essays via a version of Barr’s chart back MODERNISM and POSTMODERNISM. In my version I wanted to trace all these practises back to Duchamp - the Father of Postmodernism. You can see my attempt here: MODERNISM and POSTMODERNISM with respect to BARR.

It's high level and misses a number of practices and I do play a little free with the exact times, maybe I’ve been too cavalier, too high level?….all feed back/comments welcome.

Duchamp and the iPhone

2009-07-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

There was an iPhone app called I am Rich for sale at 999.9$ which was withdrawn by Apple it simply displayed a multifaceted ruby . Apple’s reaction is similar to the reaction of the curators of the 1913 Armoury Exhibition.

The Armoury curators claimed they would exhibit any artist who had paid the entrance fee of 5$ but then went on to withdraw Duchamp ’s Fountain, despite the fact he’d paid the entrance fee.

I’m sure you can see the connection - both I am Rich and Fountain appear on face value to have no artistic value but they have been given some measure of artistic value as indicated by thier price. I am Rich by a developer, Fountain by an artist…..which begs the questions what’s the difference between the developer and artist ? It could be argued there’s none…..

What caused the change Armory's curators change of heart? The same question could be asked of the folks at Apple…

Duchamp’s submission went onto to be voted, in the Independent newspaper’s poll of 500 UK art ‘experts’, to be the most influential work of art of the twentieth century. A Replica of Fountain was sold by Sotheby’s to Dimitri Daskalopoulos, a Greek collector, for $1,762,500. So maybe Apple are sitting on gold mine !

I never really ‘got’ it why Duchamp’s piece was so admired by so many ‘experts’ however having just done an essay comparing: Pollock –Modernism , Warhol – Pop Art and Morris – Minimalism. I can see the hand or at least the ideas of Duchamp his assisted readymades clearly inspired Warhol; he was a great supporter of Pollock; Morris’s geometrical shapes can be seen to be readymades.

Duchamp explored the idea of who is the author or artist ? What is the work or the piece of art ? What do we look for or expect of piece of art ? He challenged all these questions.

His Fountain broke the rules paving the way for Postmodernism where anything is art if ‘I’ the ‘artist’ say it’s ‘art’

Duchamp redefined what art was and who artist were in doing so broke Art free of medium specificity - freeing Art to be whatever the Artist thought Art to be.

It’s Art as I the Artist say it’s Art!

Banksy versus Bristol Museum

2009-07-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

Went to see Banksy versus Bristol Museum yesterday and had very enjoyable day despite the one and half hour queue....

It was a chance to see Banksy's work close up and make comparisons with my AA318 Open University Art of the Twentieth Century eye. On a personal basis I loved the paintings and sculpture, they were consistently witty and incisive often very cutting. It was fun to move around freely and take pictures, Banksy seems to turn copyright on its head making it his (and our) right to copy what we like, as he let's all and sundry copy him, just as he copies or rather steals from others!

None of the pictures, bar one had a plaque – that I could see – so I believe we were left to form our own opinion unmediated by the artist's or museum's thoughts and ideas.

I saw his work having two recurring themes :

ONE HeartField's Juxtaposition - a subversive, humorous often political message where, for example he contrasts two extremes the loving, caring mother with aggressive anti establishment off spring; the overweight well fed tourist in colour with their poor, under nourished rickshaw driver in black and white. He reserves much of his ironic contrasts for the riot police which he has gambling thorough a grassy field or traveling on a rocking horse or escorting a donut(!) Where Heartfield dramatically contrasts two strong, often cliche images to create a third, Banksy is not so angry or fighting for a political cause like Heartfeild. Banksy's images are often softer not so menacing but nevertheless can carry a cutting message.

TWO Duchamp's assisted readymades: here Banksy copies Duchamp's idea of taking a known picture and adding his own twist to make a new image - as Duchamp twists Leonardo, so Banksy twists Rembrandt.

So at one level he's just copying and stealing, what makes his work special and original is the media which he has made his own – the use of stencil and Graffiti techniques. When his technique is coupled with his anti-establishment, mysterious, Scarlet Pimpernel like public character, taken together they make him a compelling twenty first century artist.

20th Century Art ? It's about bridging gaps.....isn't it?

2009-07-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

It occurred to while reading that Warhol might be seen as 'bridg[ing] the gap between art and production' (Wood, 2004 ) much of what I’ve studied so far might also be seen as bridging gaps:

Duchamp the gap between art and non-art
Surrealism the gap between reality and unreality
Pollock gap between the easel and mural
Minimalist the gap between painting and sculpture
Pop art the gap between avant-garde and kitsch
DaDa the gap between artist and non-artist

May be even..

Picasso the gap between realism and abstraction.

That is a bit far fetched but it is the basis of in an interesting essay.......

On the other hand the concept does seem a useful starting pointing trying to understand and position the artist or the movement. Equally it could be basis for some new art forms how about…….

the gap between to the performance and painting
the gap between minimalist art and conceptual art
the gap between body art and land art (!)

Bibliography
Wood, P ed., (2004) Varieties of Modernisms , New Haven and London, Yale University Press

What is minimalism?

2009-06-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

An emphasis on the literal nature of an object as physically encountered in real time and space (PL)
The need to explicitly acknowledge three dimensionality (PL)
ABC Art , Cool Art, Literal Art, Primary Structure, Specific Structures
Straddles the categories of painting and sculpture (AR)
Uningratiating, unsentimental, unbiographical (AR)
Preoccupied with the boundary between art and non art (CG)
The theatricality of objecthood (MF)
A feat of ideation (CG)
Something deduced (CG)
One of the primary legacies of the 1960s (AR)
Independent art on an [equal] footing with modernist painting and modernist sculpture (MF)
Is theatre...as it is concerned with the actual circumstances in which the beholder encounters [minimalist] work. (MF)
Confrontation as the minimalist work must somehow confront the viewer (MF)
Anthropomorphism - as it lies at the 'core' of minimalist theory and practice (MF)

Conclusion

A minimalist work of art such as Frank Stella's 1960 Six Mile Bottom , is one in which the viewer , curator and artist all take part to create a piece of theatre developing the idea first indentified by the artist presented by the curator and viewed by the spectator - see 1966 exhibition Primary Structures . It is not a painting nor is a sculpture it is an object with its own individual site specific anamorphic identity.

MF - Michael Fried
'Art and Objecthood' (1967) Art in Theory VIIA7 pp835-46

PL - Paul Leider , Literalism and Abstraction (1970)
Gaiger, J.M.(eds) (2003) Art of the Twentieth Century – A Reader, New Haven and London, Yale University Press

CG - Clement Greenberg Minimalism’s Situation
Wood, P., (1999) Varieties of Modernism, New Haven and London, Yale University Press

AR - Anne Reynolds Minimalism’s Situation
Wood, P., (1999) The Challenge of the Avant-Garde, New Haven and London, Yale University Press

JacksonPollock an Understanding ?

2009-05-31T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday’s tutorial was truly memorable – I now understand Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)…didn’t say I liked him but now I understand him. And further I now don’t feel odd when I see figures resolving and unresloving when I look at a typical Jackson Pollock – that’s the intended aesthetic effect..

Cubism has its lines creating faceted planes, Pollock has his curves creating fictive figuration. Rectilinear meets curvilinear. Architectonic meets Biomorphic. The Apollonian meets The Dionysian. Picassoism* meets Pollockism *(Picasso the Cubist!).

We can track his influences and see the outcomes as Pollock moved from formal figurative to fully abstract figuration.

Formal Figurative
Influences: Cubism, Mexican Muralist,
Pollock oeuvre : Naked Man with Knife; Jackson Pollock drawings,
Prof Harrison* quote: transparent and graspable

Fully Abstract Figuration
Influences ,alcohol, psychoanalysis, Surrealism, automatism, Jung, Guernica
Pollock oeuvre :Mural , 1943, Autumn Rhythm Number 30, Eyes in the Heat
Prof Harrison* quote: vestigial modelling

So he created an alternative to Cubism based on formal figurative art ...if he'd lived he could have developed an whole new school....

*see pages 177 to 143
Wood, P. (ed), (2004) Varieties of Moderism, New Haven and London, Yale University Press

What is Kitsch ?

2009-05-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

A 30yr Intellectual in the late 1930’s writing for a communism magazine saw Kitsch as ….

Kitsch is a German word
Kitsch is a rearguard to art’s avant-garde
Kitsch is popular , commercial, art and literature, magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, tap dancing, Hollywood movies.
Kitsch is a product of the industrial revolution.
Kitsch is culture for the proletariat and petty bourgeois newly settling in cities.
Kitsch is ersatz (bogus, artificial, pseudo, fake, pretend) culture
Kitsch is for those insensible to the values of genuine culture.
Kitsch is produced mechanically.
Kitsch is its own salesman and presses (sells aggressively) every member of society.
Kitsch is deceptive The New Yorker magazine is high class Kitsch
Kitsch is not altogether worthless – now and again it produces something of merit.
Kitsch is capable of producing great profits – a source of temptation to the avant-garde(!)
Kitsch is on a triumphal tour of the world – crowding out and defacing local culture.
Kitsch is irresistible.
Kitsch is enjoyed without effort.
Kitsch is an inexpensive way in which totalitarian regimes seek to ingratiate (suck up to, crawl, grovel to) themselves with their subjects.
Kitsch is pliable.
Kitsch is easy to inject with effective propaganda.
Kitsch is a dictator’s way of keeping in close contact with the ‘soul’ of his people

Biblography
Clement Greenberg (1909-1995) Avant Garde and Kitsch first published in
Parisian Review , New York VI no.5 , Fall 1939, pp 34-49 reproduced in
Harrison, C., Wood, P. (eds) (2003) Art in Theory 1900–2000, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd

The History of Art in 3 Latin and 1 French Phrase

2009-05-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

Renaissance

Ut pictura poesis Horace 35BC
As is painting so is poetry.

Painting and poetry (and literature) are equal one was a source for the other, for inspiration and as an aid to interpretation. Look at Giotto’s Arena Chapel Fresco’s

Ars est Aretum celare Horace 35 BC
Art is to conceal art

All brush strokes are hidden , modelling is central – chiaroscuro effects are the aim.
Look at Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and try and find the brush strokes.

Romaniscim

L’art pour L’art Théophile Gautier (1811–1872)
Art for art sake

Art is free to ‘do its thing’ it had no moral or teaching purpose it was what it was, it needed no justification or origin. Try and explain Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur L’Herbe or rather why bother – just enjoy the view!

Modernism

Art est artum demonstrare Clement Greenberg 1940
Art is to reveal itself.#

The medium shows itself in the finished work aka medium specificity. Primary colours: no tones or tonality, dripping paint (if need be). Lines - clears and obvious the division between two colours. A move to flatness as that what a canvas is , who needs Renaissance’s perspective and verisimilitude ? See Pablo Picasso, 'Women of Algiers (O) (after Delacroix)' , its all there….the primary colours – straight out the tube; the black lines: separating the colours; the flat canvas – cubist effects to create the dept: unfinished look as though the artist was in a hurry (in fact on some Picasso’s you can still see the dripping paint marks

That's it...the history art - Renaissance : Romanticism : Modernism....Ut pictura poesis : Ars est Aretum celare : L’art pour L’art : MArt est artum Demonstrare : QED

Alfred H. Barr A LEGEND ?

2009-05-03T07:24:00.001-07:00

Alfred H. Barr’s cover for 1936 Cubism and Abstarct Art Exhibition at MOMA is one of my favourite works I met so far on the course. Why ? Because it appears to be so logical:
Vertically - A distinct time line all progression, one thing leading to another.

The chart ignores any of the social , political or military circumstances which impacted art's developements during the period.

Horizontally – The shift from figurative to non-figurative or the opposite from non-geometric to geometric – making figurative the negation of geometric. En Route figurative art was abstracted

What’s missing or least I haven’t come across it is any kind of legend , explaining the significance of the red and black lettering , boxes and arrows the solid and dashed lines.

Here’s my take:

Font Size

The size of the font seems to indicate importance CUBISM is the biggest reflecting its pivotal importance in modern art with six connections the most influential ISM of the twentieth century. Interestingly FAUVISM is the most eclectic ISM with 5 influences.

Red Type

The red appears to indicate external influences while the black are internal
For example the impact of NEGRO SCULPTURE – Primitivism – on Fauvism where it simplified its compositions, Mattisse Dance, and Cubism where it moved it to abstraction.

(ABSTRACT)
Here Barr is indicating the ISM had other branches he is only concerned with its abstarct developments. For example EXPRESSIONISM has on the one hand figurative work by Matisse and on the other hand fully abstract pieces by Kandinsky which both have a common root in EXPRSSIONISM

Dotted Lines

Black
A dotted line seems to indicate a tentative relationship.

The lines from Redon to EXPRESSIONISM and SURREALISM are to me problematic need to proven.

Equally the all the dotted lines to MODERN ARCHITECTURE are questionable specifically the BAUHAUS link this one at least should be a solid line.

Red
There is only one seem to indicate a tentative relationship between MACHINE AESTHETIC and Brancussi.
A dotted line seems to indicate a tentative relationship between Barancussi work and the machine which is odd because there was a famous court case where Brancusi had to defend a work as art not domestic utensil to the US custom authorities.

What is Modernism

2009-04-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

CRITICS
Greenberg
Fry
ARTISTS
Rothko
Newman
Pollock
DISCOURSE
Problematic
Contested
Autonomous
Independent
Formal
Multi-valent
Painting
Mediatated
Sculpture
Flat
Essentialist
Medium-specific
Self contained
Dehumanizing
Ambiguous
Uncertain
Paradoxical
Self critical
Juxsatapostioning
Montage
Self sufficient
Rational
Pure
Complex
Broad
Self-conscious
Self-reflective

Duchamp and DaDa is...

2009-04-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

Duchamp is…

Scandalous / provocative / ironic / sexual / subversive / alternative / inversion / enigmatic / confrontational / cryptic / diffident / perverse / innovative / problematic / puzzling / revolutionary / scandalous / subversive / questioning /

DaDa is….

Chance / Non-art / negative / anarchic / NOW / nihilistic / disruptive / mocking / oppositional / rejection / agitator / counter-aesthetic / satirical / grotesque / irrational / left-wing / skillless / anti-military / anti-national / anti-colonial / antagonistic / spontaneous / formless / chaos / performative / anti-modernity / HERE

Cracked 20th Century Art – it’s the frame and form!

2009-04-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

I’d just completed (15 February, 10:34 ) reading of Frameworks for Modern Art which has helped me understand what is going on in Modern Art. Made me think would I have become interested in Art if I had needed an introduction to Botticelli or Michelangelo in order to understand them? Neither artists' work required (for me ) any mediation at all they stood for what they were /are lovely things to look at and enjoy. Yes, having studied them and their work I know there’s so much more going on nevertheless their paintings stood for themselves no critic, no curator just nice things to look at.

That 'something' was found in the forms - the shapes and colours which creatd the compostions. Both artists used line and colour to great effect.
I was solely concerned within inside the frame, outside came with OU Art History study which helped understand the inside. But the OU’s A216 , AA315 et al were not the basis of my Art appreciation....
Modernist art attacks, condemns the frame questions its usefulness in fact often doesn’t want one at all, see Newman or Stella for example. For the MODERNIST the frame was/is a constraint .For the Renaissance art it was essential it was what defined the window their painting was viewed through – without the frame it lacked a vital support.
BTW….Renaissance frames look great so good Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has designed a great Renaissance framed mirror for MATALAN at great price £90 it looks extraordinary and makes its reflections look great. It’s silver carved wood with shells, scalloping, braiding all the features of a Renaissance Frame.

Clement Greenberg VERSUES Peter Bürger

2009-04-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

These two Twentieth Century critics Clement Greenberg and Peter Bürger took what seems to be diametrically opposing views which once you understand their arcane, academic languages and references (I was greatly assisted by Open University Handbooks in my translation), they can be distilled down to the following:

What they stand for…

Capitalism VERSUES Marxism
Bourgeois elite VERSUES proletariat
Art for art’s sake VERSUES Art for the people by the people
Modernism VERSUES Historical Avant-Garde
Cubism, Abstract Expressionism VERSUES Dada, Surrealism, Constructivism
Picasso, Braque, Mondrian VERSUES Rodchenko, Heartfield, Popocva
Picasso’s Glass and Bottle of Suze
VERSUES
Heratfield’s The Meaning of the Hitler Salute

What they said….

Greenberg : The artist is totally autonomous
Bürger : The avant-garde intend the abolition of autonomous art
Greenberg : The artist must be insulated from ideological confusion and violence.
Bürger : Sublation [Reintegartion] of art into the praxis of life
Greenberg : Avoids subject matter like the plague

References
Edwards, S. 2004 AA318 Art of the 20th Century, Study Handbook 2 Art of the Avant-Gardes, Milton Keynes, The Open University
Edwards, S ed 1999 Art and Its Histories A Reader, New Haven and London, Yale Press in association with The Open University
Gaiger, J. & Wood, P. 2003 Art of the Twentieth Century A Reader, New Haven and London, Yale Press in association with The Open University
Wood, P. 2001, Art and Its Histories Study Handbook 4 – The Challenge of the Avant-Garde, Milton Keynes, The Open University

Modern Art - Classical or Romantic ?

2009-04-11T02:24:00.000-07:00

Alfred H. Barr MOMA's curator whose 1936 Development of Abstract Art cover for his ground breaking catalog set the scene for Modern Art. In his introduction he described two types of abstract art - GEOMETRICAL and NON-GEOMETRICAL and to each he associated a number of attributes, philosophies and artists. I want to build on what he offerred in these two choices creating logical oppisities based on the Apollinan versus the Dionysian...so here goes

Deities
Apollo Dionysus

Ideas
Intellectual Intuitive
Logical Emotional
Structural Organic
Classical Romantic
Reason Emotion
Harmony Discord
Fact Idea

Philosophers
Descartes Rousseau
Pythagoras Polinius
Descartes Rousseau

Other Ideas
Rectilinear Curvilinear
Line Curve
Architectonic Biomorphic
Structural Decorative
Design Colour

Movements
Cubism Expressionism
Modern Post-Modern
Materialism Idealism

Artists
Cezanne Gauguin
Malevich Kandinsky
Mondrian Miro

English Abstraction
Ben Nicholoson Henry Moore

Changing View of the Art Object in the 20th Century

2009-03-15T04:26:00.000-07:00

Just finished my first TMA - OU (Open University) speak for Tutor Marked Assignment aka essay. Had to explain the change in meaning of a work of art in 20th Century by comparing three works:

Duchamp's Bottlerack - a ready-made
Newman's Eve - a fully abstract work
The Yuendumu Community (indigenuous Australians) Yarla - an installation

Prior to the starting the course I would have dismissed them as..Well, yes now what?

I couldn't find any meaning in them. I was looking in the wrong place - at the work! With 20th C works it's the discourse - the dialog outside the frame - what the artists, curators and critics say about the work which is as important as the work. We need mediation. We need someone to explain what's going on. Having said that it doesn't say we should like or admire it simply that before a work of the 20th century is dismissed or ignored attempts need to made to understand the (artists, curators and critics) discourse, the context - what's the artist trying to say , what could it mean? 20th century art is about questions - raising and answering them usually at the same time.

Here’s my conclusion:

To conclude, the twentieth century removed the constraints of the Academic heirarchy in defining what a work of art was, the discourse associated with the work became part of the work. Each of the works created and sustained its discourse mediated by artists, critics and curators: Bottlerack created new thoughts on the work; Eve raised questions about a painting’s objecthood ; Yarla raised questions on how ‘other’ work’s of art were to be understood - ‘etic’ or ‘emic’. Some measure of the decline in the importance of the Academic heirarchy with its demands for pictorial mimesis and the development of the artist’s and critic’s need to explain these new ways of considering the concept of an art objects that a book on twentieth century art theory of over twelve hundred words contains no pictures, reflecting the importance of discourse in creating the concept of work of art in the twentieth century.

I really struggled to keep within the word count as there was so much to say particularly about Yarla carried with it the history of the indigenuous Australians rights to be considered as human beings. In the end I don’t think I did them justice. Nevertheless a very useful exercise for me and great step on the way to understanding 20th century art.

AA318 aka 20th Century Art is all about WORDS

2009-03-01T00:13:00.000-08:00

Seems an essential part of AA318 is the words you use, modern art needs its own language to describe itself. This blog will track my search to understand that vocabulary.

Book I Intro...

MODERNISM ; POST MODERNISM ; AVANT-GARDE

are all , for example

MULTI-VALENT ; PROBLEMATIC ; CHALLENGING ; DIFFICULT

While...MODERNITY is easy - the modern condition aka the Internet, the plane, Iraq, Obama, recession, quantitative easing, feminism, racism, social networks, child poverty, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Brown,Blaire, Middle East, Alzheimer's, diet, fitness, health, plastic surgery, Hollywood, New York, London, Frankfurt, Utterhacken,Lagos, spam, global warming,energy saving, football, TED,........

Why this blog...

2009-02-28T02:13:00.000-08:00

This blog's dedicated to the vocabulary of AA318 - Art of the 21st Century Art Course from the Open Univeristy...like one of the course's main texts ART in THEORY , 1900-2000 , Harrison and Wood it will have no pictures at all, allowing the LANGUAGE to be the dominant partner in the Art and/versues Language debate that makes up AA318.

To whet you appetite here are some examples of the debate:

AESTHETIC v COGNITIVE response to art -feel or think ?

FIGURATIVE v ABSTRACT IVE art - is that a body I see or just lines ?

APOLLONIAN v DIONYSIAN - who's right reason or emotion

Two images will be the benchmark this blog - one READYMADE Duchamp's Fountain. and one ASSISTED READYMADE - Bicycle Wheel .