2010年1月29日 星期五

Non-objective Sculptures & Roman Empire Art 1 (23Jan 2010)


Art Theory: compare objective & non-objective sculptures
Before the 20th century:
sculptures-traditional materials (stone, wood, clay)
-representational, imitating human beings or animals
-about ideals, peace, war, death (represented allegorically through images of figures)
-by means of masses of material (e.g. by cutting away or adding on)
-clearly stand out (e.g. mounted on a pedestal): announcing that it is a work of art
From the 20th century and on:
sculptures - made out of “non-art” materials---plexiglass, cardboard, steel, wire, rope etc.
- many in the 20th century: about the space, creating space
- may be part of the environment
1.Art Theory: compare objective & non-objective sculptures
Iwo Jima Monument
1.Art Theory: compare objective & non-objective sculptures
Representing marines raising an American flag

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the
Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and came to be regarded in the United States as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.[1]
Of the six men depicted in the picture, three (
Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank) were killed during the battle; the three survivors (John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes) became celebrities upon their identification in the photo. The picture was later used by Felix de Weldon to sculpt the USMC War Memorial, located adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington, D.C.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima



Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) A pair of 200-foot granite walls join to make a wide V, embracing a gently sloping plot of ground


On the walls, which rise from ground level to a height of about 10 feet at the vertex, are inscribed the anmes of the 57,939 Americns who died in the Vietnam War.


Bronze sculptures (larger than life-size) By Frederick Hart
Because this monument did not seem in any evident way to memorialize the heroism of those who died in the war, it stirred controversy. àbronze sculpture nearby: celebrating heroism in wartime in a traditional way



This memorial: not an object, not on a pedestal, not At a picture frame
** it is a SITE* a place for reflection
**Primary Forms: massive constructions that are often designed with math equations and made by Industrial fabricators


Eva Hesse, “Hang-up”, 1966. Acrylic on Cloth over wood and steel, 72”X84”X78”
Description:
“A wooden frame is warpped with bedsheets, and a half-inch metal tube, wrapped with cord, sweeps out from the upper left and into the viewer’s space, and then returns to the frame at the lower right. The whole, painted in varying shades of gray, has an ethereal(immaterial) look.”


In her words: to create works that seem “silly” and “absurd”
In an interview, she mentioned:
Tried to “find the most absurd opposites Or extreme opposites”

Opposites:
1.Rigid, rectangular frame vs. curvy wire
2.Hard frame vs. cloth wrapping/bandaging
3.Metal tube vs. its cord wrapping
4.A frame on wall, but no painting
5.The tube: connected at each end to opposite extremes of the frame-may suggest a life support system /Perhaps, bandaging: illness of the artist
6. It wants to be a painting, but never materialized, and now the work is a sculpture…


Consider these when talk about non-objective sculpture:
1.The scale ( is it massive?domestic scale? Fairly large?)
2.The effect of the materials (e.g. soft/hard?bright/dull?)
3.Relationships between the parts (e.g. closed volumes? Open assembly? If assembly, are light materials lightly put together, or are massive materials industrially joined?)
4.The site (e.g. in a museum, hang on a wall? What does the work do to the site?)
5.The title (e.g. is it playful? Enigmatic? Significant?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sculptures from Roman Empire
•Strong influence from Greek art
•Official propaganda
•Realism, allegory,
*Subjects: mostly men of advanced age. Not making them nobler than they were.
*Verism (super-realism)

←recorded each rise and fall, each bulge and fold, of the facial surface, like a mapmaker who didn’t miss the slightest detail
Statement about the personality:
Serious, experience, determined, loyal to family and state (virtues that were admired)

Head of an old man, from Osimo, mid-first century BCE. Marble, life-size.








•This is called "Head of a Roman patrician" from Otricoli. It is a veristic portrait, that is, super-realistic with each rise and fall, bulge and fold of the surface of the face represented.

•It is in bust form too, because the Romans of the Republic believed the head was sufficient to constitute a portrait.









Portrait of a Roman general, from the Sanctuary of Hercules, Tivoli, Italy, ca. 75-50BCE


Marble, 6’2”high.


Interestingly enough, the general has a veristic head with the body of a youthful muscle man. Also, the modesty of the patron dictated that the man's genitals be shielded by a mantle. By his side, and acting as a prop for the heavy marble statue, is a cuirass, emblem of his rank

------------------------------------------------------------------
Contemp Art :Pick to the week

Rashid Rana (born 1968). Red Carpet 1, 2007. Edition 1/5; C-print + DIASEC. H. 95 x W. 135 in. (241.3 x 317.5 cm). Collection of Pallak Seth. Image courtesy of Gallery Chemould and Chattertjee & Lal Mumbai


Detail of Red Carpet 1, 2007.
photomontages
Rana creates a large image out of a multitude of smaller images that contradict the larger subject. Red Carpet 1 when looked at from a distance is a beautiful deep red carpet. Upon closer inspection, it is revealed that the carpet is made up of images taken in a slaughterhouse. The work reflects the duel existence of Pakistan as a purveyor of beauty and violence. “I love art history, and formal art concerns are very important in my work---but I cannot deny the time we are living in


Reference:
http://www.angelfire.com/art/historygirl/roman.html
http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/fire-contemporary-art-from-pakistan/1987
“Gardner’s Art through the Ages”
•“A short guide to writing about art” by Sylvan Barnet

Objective Sculptures(Jan16 2010)


ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures: mostly statues of human figures)
1.For what purpose was this object made? (represent a deity? A human being as a deity? )
2.Portrait? (If so à accessories? A strong sense of an individual? )
3.Pose
4.drapery
5.Medium, techniques
6.Size
7.What kind of volume? (Geometric? Irregular?)
8.What’s the original site? (public square? Pediment?)
9.Is the base part of the work?
10.Where is the best place to stand in order to experience the work?
--------------------
ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures)
1.For what purpose was this object made?
What does the highly ordered, symmetrical form of the King suggest about the man?
Egyptian, King chefren, ca. 2500BC. 5’6”
now at Egyptian Museum, Cairo

ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures)
2. Portrait?
-A strong sense of an individual? Or just of a type?
-In the tradition of idealizing, commemorative images of elders usually show them in the prime of life.


ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures)
-3. Pose: what does the pose imply? Effort? Rest? Arrested motion? Authority?
-Are certain bodily features or forms distorted? Why?

Lincoln Memorial: sitting, face: weariness, tired


•Jefferson Memorial: standing, one foot slightly advanced, fainly smiling faceàsuggest confidence & action
ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures)
4.drapery:
•is it independent of the body?
•Does it express or diminish the volumes (enclosed space e.g. knees, breasts) that it covers?
•Does it indicate bodily motion or an independent harmony?


ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures)
5. Medium, techniques:
e.g. welded iron suggested heavy industry, in contrast with bronze and marble, which suggested nobility
e.g. Rodin’s walking man: bulit up by modeling clay and then cast in bronzeà recalls in every square inch of the light-catching surface a sense of the energy that’s expressed by the figure
e.g. King Chefren: cut away from the block that did not look like him: solidity of stone

ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures)
Size: larger than life à suggest?


ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures)
7. Geometric? Irregular?
King Chefren has a closed formà
stability and permanence

Mercury has an open form
“Mercury” (1580) 69” By Giovanni da Bologna

ii. Art theory (on objective sculptures)
1.What’s the original site? (public square? Pediment?)
2.Is the base part of the work?
3.Where is the best place to stand in order to experience the work?
“The Bus Riders” 1964 by George Segal 69” X40”X76”
àSite-specific art pieces responding to current issues

Sculptures (7 Jan 2010)

Techniques involved:

•Carving(subtractive)
•Modeling
•Assembling (additive)
•Casting
-----------------------------------
Different types:
•freestanding sculpture
•relief


freestanding sculpture
“Dicus-thrower” by Myron BCE 449-334
(relief):
-------------------------------------------

Classical Greek Sculpture:
During the Classical period, Greek sculptors focused their energies on naturalizing effects on the human figure.
The beginning of the Modern period of Sculpture--- Auguste Rodin

Rodin's main contributions:
1.Abandoned the idea of making a work solely for commission
2.Used fragments as a definitive art form
3.Created a fashionable theme: speed with the torso (body )


1.Abandoned the idea of making a work solely for commission à sculptures became more personal to the maker
Craft or art???


The Gates of Hell, 1880-1917

2. Used fragments as a definitive art form




Hand of the Devil
The Secret, 1910

3.Created a fashionable theme: speed with the torso (body)
Walking Man, c. 1900

-------------------------------------------
“Ready-made” --- Duchamp
•The concept of “ready-made” is very powerful in modern period of art, because it helps break the tradition and pushes artists to try more different medium.
Marcel Duchamp (28 July 1887 - 2 October 1968) was a French painter and theorist, a major proponent of DADA, and one of the most influential figures of avant-garde 20th-century art
Nude Descending A Staircase (1912)
Fountain is perhaps best known for the huge historical scandal it sparked in the art world: the Richard Mutt Case.
It was refused entry to the first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists at the Grand Central Palace in April 1917.
Fountain, 1917
The Richard Mutt Case:
They say any artist who pays six dollars may exhibit.Mr. Richard Mutt sent in a fountain. Without discussion, this object disappeared and was never exhibited.What were the grounds for refusing Mr Mutt's fountain:-1. Some contended it was immoral, vulgar.2. Others that is was plagiarism, a plain piece of plumbing.Now Mr Mutt's fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bathtub is absurd. It is a fixture which you see every day in plumbers' show windows.

Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - created a new thought for that object.
http://arthist.binghamton.edu/duchamp/fountain.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Conceptual Artworks:

Piero Manzoni – for him, individuality itself became art in real time, expressing “being and living.’’


















Much of conceptual art focused on the artistic experience itself and its theoretical components


------------------------------------------------------
Acconci explored the artist-viewer relationship in this piece, by randomly selecting individuals on the street in New york and following them until they went into someplace that wasn’t public.
“I was a passive receiver of someone’s time and space.”



Vito Acconci, Following Piece, 1969


------------------------------------------------------------
Site-Specific Art

creating an art work that
•is integrated with its surroundings
•explores its relationship to its location
(e.g. indoors or outdoor, on a street, in a living room etc.)

What is it?


It is a castle called Reichstag in Germany being wrapped by the artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude.













Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971-95,Christo and Jeanne-Claude




http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/wr.html

-----------------------------
What is it?



It is an art piece called “Where We Are Now (Who Are We Anyway?)” by Vito Acconci done in New York in 1978.


----------------------------
Wow…
Who is it?


Untitled. by Robert Gober (1989-90) Material: Wax, cotton, leather, human hair, and wood, Size: 28.9 x 19.7 x 50.8 cm