Sculpture I Wood Joinery

 

 

 

For the wood joinery, I made three pieces imitating a jigsaw puzzle that fit together by their fit alone.

 

As the piece developed, I decided I wanted to have it connote a primitive fertility goddess.  I added both male and female primitive sexual representations and then stained the piece as something tar and dirt-like to resemble age.  I then added the goddess's royal cape made of gauze-like fabric.

 

 

Sculpture I Found Objects Sculpture

The found objects used are the tree branch, the tin can lids, the pennies, the bottle caps, the video tape and reel.  I like the fact that when you look at it you see two forms.  The first, is the eye, the second is a fish which interposes back and forth as you tend to look beyond your first look.

Week 15 Progress

I've been thinking about Kandinsky and the fact that he was Russian.  I always think of any Russian as someone who surely has endured suppression by his government.  I've read some short articles and there is no mention of him enduring government scrutiny.  In fact, he freely traveled in and out of Russia in his pursuit of artistic expression.  He certainly produced works of abstraction with bold color and line and is credited as having produced one of the first works of abstraction.  This very use of line and color was what caught my eye.  His art has stood the test of time and is just as fresh today as when it was originally produced.  He is my outside influence for this last posting and my critical reflection is on his abstraction.  It is this use of bold color and simple form that ties into my work theory.


As for material developments, I purchased some edge tape and have been trying to true-up some of the borders.   It has produced the finish I was hoping for.   Images follow.

Sculpture I

 

 

These are the pictures of my geometric sculptures.  The first photo is made of bass wood and cellophane wrap and the second is of cellophane wrap made into balls and into a pyramid.  It's a play on the glass pyramid at the Louvre.

Week 14 Progress

I've been thinking about painters that have left an impression in my mind in abstract art.  We study Picasso in Art History so we get an introduction to his work.  He certainly went through many transitions and became known for his Cubism and Blue Periods.  I sometimes wonder if he had an art teacher who expressed his work as just plain crap.  Makes you wonder, doesn't it?  How it fits into my realm of modern art is that in his final days he became very simplistic.  His bulls which were on display here were works of minimalism.  Maybe, it just really is a maturing that leads one to want to make everything a little bit easier.  He certainly did and everyone applauded his style.  He is an interesting character.  That covers my outside influence and critical thinking categories and that leaves material developments and images.  The development that certainly played its part, of course, was the sabotage of my Southwest piece which I had to bring home to try and repaint the background so I could try and progress toward an end.  I've been working on that as well as my last work with geometric forms.  The photos follow.

Sculpture I

The facial sculpture I did in class I chose to paint so that I thought it looked more like myself.  I made a black satin background board for presentation which I think made it stand out.  I wanted it to be a play-on of the old silhouettes that were popular some time ago with there contrasting black or white backgrounds.

Progress Week 13

I've managed to finish my work on the All Seeing Eye piece in time for the critique last Monday; and have started my painting on my tribute to the Southwest.  The Southwest piece I am leaving at the studio to work on in class.  I have prepared the last board, have it drawn and have started painting it.  This work I am leaving at home to work on.   I was pleased with the Eye piece when it was completed and the other two paintings I've commented on previously.  All have been a very creative and outside the box adventure for me.  It was fun, original, and lastly, a lot of rewarding hard work.  I hope the last two will also be even more fun and more rewarding.  As I have noted previously, I was impressed by  Albers work.  His simplicity of form and his use of coloration appeals to me greatly.  I enjoy all art at some level, but I am drawn to simplicity the more time passes.  Maybe, I just think that not everything about life should be a struggle and should have a degree of contentedness.  I have always been drawn to the Impressionists and their gauze-like depictions of Paris life and the effort to prettify the everyday.  I remember seeing the tour of Monet's Giverny art works and thinking how Eden-like and lovey this place seemed to be.  I will always have that impression in my mind.  Now that my two reports are complete, I will continue to be reminded by the articles that art can be an escape from the turmoils of life and that going with the flow of your feelings can lead to the production of a piece you can enjoy and be pleased with.  The progress pictures will follow.

Week 12 Progress

I've just about completed my third painting and have started painting number four.  My thoughts on my current work is that you suggested since some of the drawing is not exact, that I might consider doing something textural on some of the forms to take the attention from their deficiencies.  I'm thinking about trying some stippling which I think would do the trick by creating some unexpected interest.  I am happy with the piece but I still have some work yet to finish it.  I'm going to include my report on Surrealism which will complete my research.  It is an interesting approach to art and I enjoyed the association of detachment to your work and just going with the flow.  I posted two works of Surrealism last week, so I've got that covered.  Photos of work in progress follow.

Painting II

Leslie Robison

Surrealism

Mary Ross

 

            Surrealism appeared in 1910-1920’s as a new mode of expression called automatic writing or automatism which was to unlock the subconscious.  It became an international, intellectual, and political movement.  Andre Breton was one of the pioneers of the movement, who was influenced by the studies of Sigmund Freud and the politics of Karl Marx.  Looking beyond traditional reason and societal limits, and using free association, the results produced the unexpected in imagery.  This movement was a disregard for the past tradition of Dadaism. 

            Surrealists did not align themselves with visual artists because they believed that the structured style was opposed to their belief of the free spirit in their methods of free association and automatism. 

            The first prominent surrealists were Max Ernst, Andre Masson, Joan Miro and Man Ray.  Their work used free association, was flowing, with curving continuous lines, with strange and symbolic figures.

            Ernst experimented with the process of decalcomania and grattage.  Decalcomania is a process of pressing a sheet of paper into a painted surface and peeling it off.  Grattage is the process of scraping pigment across a canvas that is laid on top of a textured surface.  With the use of these techniques, Ernst produced works which typified the themes of violence and annihilation found in Surrealist art, especially in his work The Barbarians.

            Illusionistic Surrealism appeared when Rene Magritte painted erotic and explicit objects in dreamlike surroundings.  Surrealist artists that followed in a similar erotic style were Dali, Delvaux and Tanguy.

            Salvador Dali expanded on the dream imagery with his own erotically charged, hallucinatory visions.  He used Freudian symbols to represent his overwhelming sexual desire.  Dali found praise from Andre Breton with his representations of the unconscious in his work, Second Manifesto of Surrealism.  The two became partners in a Surrealist-oriented publication founded in Paris called the Minotaure.

            With the onset of World War II the Surrealist movement dissolved.  Most of the prominent artists of Surrealism left Europe and headed for New York.  A revival of the movement in the U.S. was featured by Peggy Gugenheim’s Gallery, Art of This Century, and the Julien Levy Gallery.  Breton organized the Fourth International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City and included Freda Kahlo and Diego Rivera.  Although, they never actually became members of the movement.

            The Surrealism movement with its surprising imagery, symbolism, refined painting techniques and disdain for convention, influenced future generations of artists, notably Joseph Cornell and Arshile Gorky.  Gorky’s work formed a continuum between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

            In conclusion, I am back to the link between my choice of abstract painting in forms and bright colors, and the link with Abstract Expressionism and Abstract Modernism and my research in completed.

 

Source:  Voorhies, James.  In Heilbrunn Timeline of History.  New York:  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-.  http://www.metmeseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd (October 2004)

Week 11 Progress

The painting I took home to redo has turned out really well and I am very pleased with the results.  The painting I've been doing in class I finished and am also very pleased with it.  I've prepared another board by sanding and applying gesso.  It is now drawn and I'm working on the background.  As far as my research is concerned I've found an article on Surrealism and have started reading that.  It is really interesting and this will be my second paper instead of Kadinsky's article.  Although my work is not in the surrealist vein, it is abstract and different, which I believe is how my work connects with Surrealism.  The photos below are of my completed work. 

Pictures of Nature Sculpture

Week 10 Progress

Currently I'm working on a new painting in the modernism theme.  I really like the composition and how it is going so far.  I'll address last week's feelings with the thought that I felt positive about the subject matter and the drawing, but after working on it, became dissatisfied with the results and have taken the painting home and have reconfigured the work.  I intend to work over the weekend and will see where it takes me and whether I like it better.  That covers what's happening and my feelings for the work for this week and last week.  I believe that the reading I've done so far on the article of Abstract Expressionism has allowed me to feel like it is okay to experiment with my paintings and not feel everything we do has to have a conscious meaning; but in itself, going with your feelings is also an acceptable expression of art.  I've been looking into Salvador Dali and the Surrealism movement and have yet to get any in-depth information.  It is an interesting avenue of pursuit.  The photos of work in progress follows.     

 

 

These are a couple of interesting Dali works which I liked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 9 Progress

This week I started on my first canvas of the five required for this half of the semester.  Photos will follow.  Also, I completed the first of the two required articles on my choice of abstract art, this one on Abstract Expressionism.  I have a copy of Kadinsky's article, "Concerning The Spirit in Art."  It is the size of a small book, so it will be some time before I will have that read and the report completed.  I've prepared my next 36" x 36" board, this time sanding and applying gesso, so I continue to learn what works and what does not.  Until next week, that is everything in process.

 

Oct. 22, 2015

Mary M. Ross

Painting

Article:  “Overview of Abstract Expressionist Ideas.”

 

In my research on abstract painting, I came upon this article about the subject, and its first founding principles.  I found that it coincided with the line of study that I will be pursuing for this last half of the semester and thought it worthy of comment. The following is the synopsis of the article.

Most of the concentration of the article was from the opinions of Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg.  Both had a great influence on Abstract Expressionism and followed the movement of Art through its changes and new creations.

Art turned from politics to the cause of art alone which at that time was great and heroic.  The movement from classical masters to freedom of expression was cutting edge and avant-garde.  Art turned to the expression of ordinary people in styles vivid and meaningful.  The canvas was no longer, “the space to reproduce, re-design, analyze or express an object, actual or imagined.”

This movement was inspired by Clement Greenberg in an essay, “Avant-garde and Kitsch;” as well as, Harold Rosenberg’s influence of Kant and Hegel.  This influence resulted in art being seen as an encounter between the artist and the canvas.  This was quite a change from past art philosophies and changed the concept of what current art could become or represent.  Gone was the classical portraits, landscapes, histories, etc. of the past, and now the door opened for works so non-conservative as Jackson Pollock’s thrown paint and debris paintings.

Abstract Expressionism gained attention and was featured in the popular magazines of the day, “Life,” and “Vogue.”  During this time, American painters took over the role of cultural leadership and was embraced by the State Department as a means of good publicity.  The State Department funded tours of American painters around Europe.  This movement was called “The Triumph of American Painting.”

In the l950’s this new movement faded and Abstract Expressionism became another staid and habitual art form.  It’s previous supporters (Greenberg and Rosenberg), believe it needed innovation.  Although Abstract Expressionism was short-lived, its influence produced the ideas that art became more and performance art emerged.  Art became an event, action, an encounter, even theatrical.

Greenberg spoke of art being “opticality, an experience of pictorial space that can be travelled through, literally, or figuratively, only with the eye.”  Note:  This is the area which coincides with my area of pursuit.  Victor Vaserely’s art is very much an optical, and visual illusion of abstract art.

Greenberg’s influence faded in the 1960’s but still left a significant effect on art.  The introduction of Pop art was part of the decline in opinion.  Still Abstract Expressionism has an after-life.

Sources: 

The Art Story:  Modern Art Theory – Abstract Expressionism and Theories.  2014.  

The Art Story Foundation.

Week 8 - Painting II

After answering the questions on your survey I was drawn to the work of two abstract artists Victor Vaserely and Joseph Albers.  Both artists use graphic forms as their subject matter, but with the use of their own stylization.  This is what I am drawn to for my work in the next five paintings.  I've obtained five panels in the 36" x 36" size and will draw my work to the size of the panel.  The large size will be a challenge and so will be getting them back and forth to school.  I don't imagine such considerations were taken into account as so many students actually live on campus but I'll do my best.  The five paintings will comprise one body of work, united by the theme of abstraction and form. 

Two paintings I enjoyed were by Victor Vaserely.

 

Another painter I liked was Joseph Albers.

 

 

 

I enjoyed these painters who used simple forms with bright paint colors in a new way.  I'm very much taken with their work and it appeals to me as something abstract and also as pop art which I find entertaining and a part of current culture.  I intend to continue to look into this aspect of art and similar artists.