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?
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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

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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

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