-
Recent Posts
Currently Most Read Posts
Recent Comments
- Victoria Gibson on Energy Shortage?
- Robert Linsley on Pessimism About Growth
- Francis Lemieux on Pessimism About Growth
- Sharon McCarthy on Edges Early and Late
- Gregg Simpson on Empty Formalism of Education
Categories
- Abstraction and Society (201)
- American Modernism (173)
- Asian Abstraction (1)
- Conceptualism and Painting (141)
- Current Affairs (89)
- Ethics of Abstraction (140)
- Italian Art (25)
- Latin American Abstraction (11)
- Principles of Abstraction (311)
- Uncategorized (285)
Tags
abstract art abstraction aesthetics autonomy backstory Boris Groys cubism Cézanne drawing emptiness feeling form Frank Stella Gego Gerhard Richter Greenberg grids illusion Jackson Pollock knowledge labor Linsley literature meaning nature Pablo Picasso painted reliefs place R.H.Quaytman Robert Motherwell science self-reflection series sex shaped canvas Shep Steiner Smithson society space subjectivity the inhuman time titles value Willem De Kooning-
Bookstore
-
Art and its Others (with Boris Groys)
Abstraction and Possibility Space (with Andreas Neufert)
Doors:River (with Joseph Drapell and David Moos)
Around the Episcene (with Scott Lyall)
Matrix of Surds (Mike Murphy and Wojciech Oleinik)
Non-Identical Abstraction Engine (with Jan Tumlir)
A CLOUDE OF UNKNOWYNG (Lee Henderson on Sasha Pierce)
Pictures and Picture Proofs (Wojciech Olejnik and James Brown)
On Parts You Can’t See (Polly Apfelbaum and Kelly Jazvac)
Links
Meta
Tag Archives: emptiness
Stones #2
…the earth…kept deepening beneath the spades, reckoning only with the diggers’ strength and endurance. Sometimes Voshchev would bend down and pick up a pebble, or other dust that had adhered together, and tuck it away inside his trousers for storage. … Continue reading
Posted in Abstraction and Society, Ethics of Abstraction, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, emptiness, labor, meaning, nature, the inhuman, time, value
Leave a comment
Order inside and out
I keep thinking about a quote from Emerson that I’ve used elsewhere on the blog: “I would write on the lintels of the doorpost, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the … Continue reading
Empty Formalism of Education
In an earlier post I implied that university training has not improved contemporary art. Robert Hullot-Kentor reminds me of how profoundly hostile to art the university is: “Ideas make us think; we think ideas. They are what are urgent in … Continue reading
Approximating Nature
Despite my not so high opinion of the memoirs of Tapies, I continue to find interesting bits. This is his description of an early experimental phase of his work: “I was searching for images without knowing whether they were amorphous … Continue reading
More Preparation
Been reading the memoirs of Antoni Tapies. I find them bland and a little disappointing for an artist of his stature, but here is one interesting observation: “A moment of lucidity will also free the artists from many hours of … Continue reading
Posted in Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, Antoni Tapies, emptiness, feeling, form, improvisation, series, subjectivity
1 Comment
An abstract landscape
“Among the beds without flowers and the chipped cupids, the gnawing of actuality seemed for the moment silenced. In this place which had been left without meaning it seemed easier to feel meaning where there was perhaps none.” Anthony Powell
Willful Matisse
Kitaj quotes Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk: “Dare to use your own will!” There was no painter more willful than Matisse, a strange characterization of the artist of harmonious serenity, but accurate. The Bathers in Chicago, Decorative Figure On An Ornamental … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics of Abstraction, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, emptiness, feeling, Matisse, nature, subjectivity, will
Leave a comment
Polly Apfelbaum
I will soon add an interview with Polly Apfelbaum to the Publications page—actually a conversation between her and artist Kelly Jazvac. I very much admire this piece for its negative areas, the way that they flow together and make chains … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, drawing, emptiness, form, grids, Polly Apfelbaum, space
Leave a comment
New again
Emerson has something to say about the appreciation of pictures: “So with pictures; each will bear an emphasis of attention once, which it cannot retain, though we fain would continue to be pleased in that manner. How strongly I have … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, Emerson, emptiness, feeling, form, meaning, Morris Louis, self-reflection, time
Leave a comment
Lack of Time
If time is so short, why does it feel so empty? Because time has to be shaped. What we call work. Content, or feeling in art, is a fugitive effect of the shape.
Posted in Abstraction and Society, Conceptualism and Painting
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, Boris Groys, emptiness, feeling, space, subjectivity, time, value
Leave a comment
Infinity of Images
Reading Groys can also be encouraging. In my case it confirms the avant-gardist qualifications of my work—surprising to me as much as anyone. One of the strongest pieces in his book Art Power is the opener, “The Logic of Equal … Continue reading
Originality
Originality, as it happens, is the highest value in the art of our time. Many artists don’t like that—sadly nothing can be done about it. Even Sherrie Levine is original in her critique of the concept, as Howard Singerman, her … Continue reading
Stella and the Past
Stella reveals a lot about his ambitions in the following comments on ceiling painting: “Pietro da Cortona, Fra Pozzi and even Tiepolo met the challenges of architectural decoration in a more measured, distanced manner than their predecessors. They worked the … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Italian Art, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, emptiness, Frank Stella, grids, place, space, Tiepolo
Leave a comment
Relational Composition
Following from earlier posts that talk about the crowdedness of Stella’s compositions, I’d like to focus and study a design. For a piece like this one, from the Kleist series, painted by assistants from a very large collage, a photograph … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, composition, emptiness, Frank Stella, space
Leave a comment
Alighiero Boetti
A latecomer to Boetti’s work, I have no expertise in it. Right now I’m looking at this grid piece, “Niente da vedere niente da nascondere,” or “Nothing to see nothing to hide.” The title really adds something, and bears thought, … Continue reading
Off the Coast 2
I was wondering what Conrad thought of Moby Dick, which he surely must have known. He had some tragic captains, but mostly focused on the ordinary problems of work and career, certainly relevant to any artist. In any case, the … Continue reading
Posted in Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, backstory, emptiness, Linsley, literature, meaning, nature, society, space, subjectivity, the inhuman
Leave a comment
The Sea
There aren’t very many unvisited places in the world, if any. So also the artistic adventurer will sail off over the horizon full of hope and then light on well populated islands, or places where the first arrivals have left … Continue reading
Time Passing
Cézanne’s card players have come up before on this blog. I find them puzzling. The subject is boring and the manner is uninspired, even if the pictures do contain lots of typical Cézanne. But maybe time does pass without much … Continue reading
Posted in Abstraction and Society, Ethics of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged Cézanne, emptiness, feeling, Richard Shiff, society, time, value, Willem De Kooning
Leave a comment
Death Artistically Considered
Lest my readers think I’m getting excessively serious, I would like to expand on something from a couple of posts back. Death, strictly speaking, doesn’t exist, meaning that it is an affair only relevant to the living—survivors, perpetrators, legatees etc. … Continue reading
Art is social
Following the nautical theme, one can go sailing over the horizon and end up somewhere outside. The following thoughts, also torn out of Conrad, complement nicely an earlier post, Society is Abstract. “Few men realize that their life, the very … Continue reading
A Brig
I think this blog attracted some readers back in January, when I introduced the idea of backstory and then art as discourse. Those same readers may be less interested in the formalist topics of recent posts. Joseph Conrad has something … Continue reading
Drawing or letter
The ante-room had a row of books on the wall nearest to the outer door, while against the wall opposite there stood a small dark table and one chair. The paper, bearing a very faint design, was all but white. … Continue reading
Posted in Conceptualism and Painting, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, drawing, emptiness, literature, society
Leave a comment
A space within space
Thinking about ultimate literary reductions sends my mind, by an uncertain chain of associations, to a piece by Dean Hughes. Matthew Higgs did a show at the Or Gallery in Vancouver a few years ago that included a piece by … Continue reading
Literature and the loss of art
Poetry and literature in general is a funny thing. The great examples have a lot of insights which can help to keep your spirits up during tough times, and if the insights are grim then inspiration is available. But I … Continue reading
Posted in Conceptualism and Painting, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, backstory, emptiness, knowledge, labor, literature
Leave a comment
No Aura
A critic should be judged by the quotient of pain he or she can inflict. Here again is Boris Groys: “For those who devote themselves to the production of art documentation rather than artworks, art is identical to life, because … Continue reading
Backstory as documentation
The concept of backstory is an interesting one, but as the comments on some recent posts have shown, far more interesting to many people is the condition of art as a discursive practice. Perhaps one of the strongest exponents of … Continue reading
Posted in Abstraction and Society, Conceptualism and Painting, Uncategorized
Tagged aesthetics, backstory, Boris Groys, emptiness, knowledge, labor, meaning, society
Leave a comment
Shadows
Just staying on Gego for another post—couldn’t a shadow be a metaphor for interpretation, or even backstory? The object is touched by an illuminating gaze, let’s not say an imagination, but something less than that, a faculty of illumination from … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics of Abstraction, Latin American Abstraction, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, drawing, emptiness, Gego, light, value
Leave a comment
Expressiveness without backstory
Following from the previous post, Gego‘s work might be exemplary of an art which is just a sensitive handling of small particulars, when those small particulars don’t necessarily mean anything, or stand for anything, and don’t need a title or … Continue reading
The Abstractionist
Possessing no outlet for the power of his mind, Safronov discharged it out into words and would go on speaking them for a long time. Heads resting in hands, some of the men listened to him, in order to fill … Continue reading
Posted in Abstraction and Society, Ethics of Abstraction, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, emptiness, feeling, labor, meaning, society, space
1 Comment