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Tag Archives: space
Shaped Canvas 8
This piece by Martin Barré is very similar to another by François Morellet shown on this blog over a year ago. The continuation of the line across several discrete panels makes their edges more vivid—the panels punch holes in the … Continue reading
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
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Time Religious and Artistic
R.B.Kitaj has provoked me to look into a book by A.J.Heschel which happens to be on my library shelf. It’s about the sabbath as a day apart from the noise and strife. That’s how I’ve always thought about my studio—a … Continue reading
Posted in Conceptualism and Painting, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, AJHeschel, literature, meaning, RBKitaj, space, time, value
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Bornowsky’s Spheres
I’ve written a review of Vancouver artist Eli Bornowsky’s recent show in Toronto, soon to appear in the on-line edition of Canadian Art. His small works had wooden spheres, some drawn over with lines, attached to shaped supports. There are … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, Eli Bornowsky, illusion, painted reliefs, shaped canvas, space, volume
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Juam
One of the prints from the Imaginary Places series, “Juam,” offers a perspective on Stella’s overcrowded compositions. A first state—much lighter, less labored—was also released, described in a pamphlet dedicated to the piece. As usual the final state is over … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, composition, cubism, Frank Stella, illusion, place, space
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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
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Tiepolo today
As I said in the previous post, I don’t necessarily agree with Stella’s assessment that Tiepolo is more distanced and restrained than the great Renaissance ceiling painters. I have included a couple of Tiepolo ceilings on this blog. Stella probably … Continue reading
Posted in Italian Art, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, feeling, Frank Stella, Poussin, space, Tiepolo
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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
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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
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Definition of Abstraction
I’ve never worried my mind about a definition of abstract art, or of what I do, but occasionally have stumbled upon possibles. Just now I came up with what I believe to be a simple and accurate one. Abstraction is … Continue reading
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
Stella Live
I’ve loved Frank Stella’s work since I started in art, and have seen a few examples over the years. Readers of this blog will also know that I have a strong interest in the Moby Dick series, and I have … Continue reading
Overlapping, Interlacing
Arp’s figuration is a bit like Klee’s, it has an aura of innocence and a species of humor, both of which are bound to make it widely popular. But though it seems inoffensive and kind of cute at first meeting, … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, Arp, cubism, Frank Stella, illusion, interlacing, Linsley, painted reliefs, space
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Profile
Some of the Moby Dick works present a clearly defined boundary or profile, which closes them off—at least from the front. From the side they will look very different. But what interests me is the articulation of form inside the … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, cubism, drawing, form, Frank Stella, illusion, Linsley, painted reliefs, space, transparency
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Plurimi
It’s worth it to spend more time on the comparison in the preceding post, which doesn’t need much commentary. Plurimi is a made-up name. Two views of the same piece, which has a crystalline quality—enclosing parts of the viewing space … Continue reading
Emilio Vedova
The Plurimi of Emilio Vedova are clear precursors of Stella’s relief paintings, and the differences between the two groups of work are revealing. Vedova’s works had an origin in sets for an opera by Luigi Nono that he had done … 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
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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
Bringing the outside in
Another aspect of the way that Stella organizes individual works into groups by association, also well explicated by Wallace, is that in some cases he will cut a piece out of a wave-whale shape and then put the removed “negative” … Continue reading
Painting in space
Stella’s constructions are to give him surfaces to paint on, so ultimately the work depends on the expressiveness of image, gesture and color, like any painting. A construction of curved, tilted and shaped flat surfaces or a single flat surface—is … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, cubism, drawing, feeling, form, Frank Stella, painted reliefs, shaped canvas, space
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Modes of Dexterity
An Actor’s Life (R.Graham) An actor’s life, that’s the life for me Burnin’ up the scenery is really unique Hand dipped cigarillos and barrels, just barrels, of wine Do you think I like it? I like it, I like it … Continue reading
Shaped canvas 7
I’ve been looking at Tiepolo’s curved frames for a long time, and wanting to use something like that myself, only with an asymmetrical arrangement of curves. I hesitated because I felt that the strong shape would inhibit the Islands. But … Continue reading
Posted in Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged autonomy, form, Linsley, shaped canvas, space, Tiepolo, TJClark
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Shaped canvas
My claim, in the previous post, that Picasso invented the shaped canvas might raise a few brows. But what is this mythic Cubist installation? Or rather, what side of it is more important, the plane from which it emerged, the … Continue reading
Scale internal and external
Continuing with T.J.Clark’s recent piece in the LRB, he had some very perceptive things to say about Picasso’s skill at scaling an image to its support. Looking with the eyes of the present, Clark can’t help but see that today … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, cubism, form, Frank Stella, Gego, illusion, Pablo Picasso, shaped canvas, space, TJClark
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A correction
Mitchell is usually grouped with the so-called second generation of abstract expressionists, and therefore automatically discounted. This is not right. If I could re-jig the canon of abstract expressionism I would definitely drop Rothko and include Mitchell. I saw this … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, feeling, form, grids, Joan Mitchell, space
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Emptiness and need
The previous post touched on one of the reasons why abstract pictures might need titles, or maybe it is the psychological aspect of the objective problem noticed by Frank Stella in his book Working Space. As he said: “We often … Continue reading
Posted in Abstraction and Society, American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, aesthetics, feeling, form, Frank Stella, Gego, meaning, society, space, value
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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
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One Number 31 1950
Reeling from the De Kooning show, I wandered downstairs in search of something different to look at and was seriously shaken by Pollock’s gigantic One Number 31. Whoever describes Pollock’s work as “flat” has no eyes or body to see … Continue reading
Posted in American Modernism, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized
Tagged abstract art, abstraction, feeling, form, Jackson Pollock, light, space
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Pre-conceptualism
It’s hard to know exactly what people get from art; certainly their own testimony has to be taken with skepticism. But I’m contemplating the view that aesthetic pleasures, sensations, satisfactions, feelings—whatever they might be called, however they might be characterized—are … Continue reading