I've just been informed, through a brain frequency transmission via the Brew frequency generator, that a meteorite is about to strike the Hirshhorn Museum and Scuplture Garden in Washington D.C. My mission is to save two artworks from this freak natural disaster. Now for the big question, which two pieces will we save and why?
Media extracted fromhttp://hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/record.asp?Artist=pollock&ViewMode=&Record=4
JACKSON POLLOCK Number 3, 1949: Tiger 1949
MATERIAL: Oil, enamel, metallic enamel and cigarette gragment on canvas mounted on fiberboard DIMENSIONS: 62 x 37 1/4 in. (157.5 x 94.6 cm.)
Media extracted fromhttp://hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/record.asp?Artist=rothko&ViewMode=&Record=3
MARK ROTHKO Number 24 1949
MATERIAL: Oil on canvas DIMENSIONS: 88 1/2 x 57 1/2 in. (224.0 x 146.1 cm.)
ANDREA DEL VERROCCHIO Putto Poised on a Globe probably 1480
MATERIAL: Unbaked clay DIMENSIONS: 75 x 38.3 x 23 cm (29 1/2 x 15 x 11 3/4 in.)
MARK ROTHKO Chapel Murals 1962-1967
MATERIAL: Oil on Canvas DIMENSIONS: ?
This essay will compare and contrast the periods and cultures of 'Putto Poised on A Globe' by Andrea del Verrochio and Mark Rothko's 'Chaples Murals', 1962- 1967.
The period of an artwork is determined by the time during which it was created. A preiod in art typically spans a period of about 100 years. In contrast there can be many movements in art within a specific period, for example 'Abstract Expressionism' which took place in the aftermath of world War II, about 1945, during a period called Post Modernism.
The 'Chapel Murals' are a creation of Mark Rothko's created during the 'Abstract Expressionist' movement. In this, non-representational, color field painting it's meditative tranquility draws the viewer in and invites contemplation, in contrast to the representational period know as the Italian Renaissance.
Andreas del Verrochio's 'Putto Poised on A Globe' was forged of unbaked clay, during the Italian Renaissance, which spanned a period from the end of the end of the 14th century to about the late 15th century. The Renaissance marked the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Born out of a rapidly evolving civilization, the Renaissance was a vehicle for a quest for scientific precision and greater realism became an influence that reflected the increase of secular objects.
In conclusion, both pieces reflect and are defined by the culture and happenings of the period in which they were created.
Technique and medium, both, are employed to in art, both two and three-dimensional, to express complex ideas and emotional sensations. Mark Rothko and Andreas del Verroichio were no strangers to employing these important tools.
In the western tradition, painting is the queen of the arts, for if one were to ask people to form a spontaneous mental image of "art", ninety percent of them are likely to visualize a painting. During paintings long history, the styles have broadened richly. Mark Rothko's 'Chapel Murals',1962-1967, oil on canvas are but one example of the medium. Oil paint, consisting of pigment(p.168) compounded with oil, it's binder(p.168), dries so very slowly that it may be weeks or months before the painting has truly "set". Rothko employed oil paint's slow drying characteristics to thin the paint as far as to create and express a sensation of pure dematerialized color with the pigment barely clenching to the support(p.168) or canvas. The thin consistency of the paint Rothko applied to the canvas enhances the meditative tranquility of his pieces and initiates contemplation.
'Putto Poised on A Globe' forged of unbaked clay by Andrea del Verrochio in 1480 is a sculpture in the round, which means it exists wholly in our three-dimensional world. Verrochio modeled this piece, as mentioned prior, in unbaked clay which meant as long as the clay remained wet, he was, using his hands and sharp tools, able to build up the pieces form and pinch it's outward decisive lines. These decisive lines and rounded form then make up Putto's body and gesturing limbs. We can then from this three-dimensional piece, 'Putto Poised on A Globe', read a curios emotion from the pieces posture and gesture. The message is complex and all-inclusive, so Verrochio expressed it in the complex form of sculpture in the round.
Technique and medium play a vital role in any form of art. From applying oil to a canvas, to using clay to form a round sculpture which exist with us in the three-dimensional realm.
There are countless ways to interpret or approach art, though throughout the art world there are underlying themes, and perhaps sometimes not so underlying themes, that emphasize cultural aspects of which they are influenced. A theme is like a string extending through quantam space and time, emcompassing the entire history of art; There is no doubt that there are many of these. Birth, death, and the decisions we must make and balance on our tight-rope walk through life make one question the things that are accepted and no longer questioned. Throughout the history of art there are the innovators who continued to push the boundaries and expanded on the 'true' meaning of art if there is such a thing.
Scholars generally date the end of the High Renaissance in Italy to the death of Raphael in 1520. With Titian and Michelangelo still going strong, mannerism emerged. (Italian maniera, meaning "style" or "stylishness". It was viewed as a decadent reaction against the order and balance of the High Renaissance. In Angelo Bronzino's bizarre 'Allegory' he illustrates some of the fascinatingly unsettling characteristics of mannerism. In this piece all of the figures and objects stand for ideas and concepts which we are invited to "decode" their interaction, to perhaps draw a moral lesson. The 'Allegory' is on of the most obscure pieces in mannerism, enough that scholars have yet to construct it. The picture space is completely illogical with it's shallow, compressed zone filled with an 'impossible' number of people.
AGNOLO BRONZINO. Allegory("Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time") c.1545
MATERIAL: Oil on wood DIMENSIONS: 5 ft. 1 in. x 4 ft. 8 3/4 in.
The National Gallery, London
Throughout history artists have tried to create the illusion of motion in a still image. Winsor McKay, being one of the pioneers of animation in the United States, made several short animated features. His most famous was 'Gertie the Trained Dinosaur'. McKay interacted with the cartoon as it played. He employed lines to make an art piece and then breathed life in the them with animated frames.
WINSOR McCAY. Gertie the Trained Dinosaur c.1914
MATERIAL: Projected Animation DIMENSIONS: Depends on Installation
During the 1980's, many artists began to work with photographic images, often from a critical standpoint. David Wojnarowicz employed this approach in 1992 with his "untitled-titled" piece 'Untitled(Sometimes I come to hate people)'. AIDs was one of the most highly charged issues of the 1980's, which forced the undercurrent of prejudice to the surface of public life. Through a formal means of advertising Wojnarowicz channeled his emotions as the disease, AIDs, ravaged his body. The text set in a deep chroma of red, lures viewers closer to the image they might shy away from normally. The text then expresses the artist's rage, fatigue, frustration and utter despair. Wojnarowicz refused to go quietly into the timeless night.
DAVID WOJNAROWICZ. Untitled(Sometimes I come to hate people) c.1992
MATERIAL: Gelatin silver print and silk-screened text on museum board DIMENSIONS: 38 in. x 26 in.
Courtesy the Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W., New York
The Internet is the latest in a long line of communications technologies that have changed our experience of place and time. Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans, who collaborated under the name Jodi, were among the first artist to create Web sites as an art form. In their piece 'wwwwwwwww.jodi.org'(1995), they employed computer code, the language of the Internet, for purely visual aesthetic. The symbols and numbers crate a rhythm on the digital picture plain which could be interpreted as the computing equivalent of an abstract painting or poem that would have been made manifest during the abstract expressionist movement.
JODI )JOAN HEEMSKERK AND DIRK PAESMANS). wwwwwwwww.jodi.org c.1995
MATERIAL: Website DIMENSIONS: ?
All art is about communication, but video arts in particular are about 'mass' communication. Iranian-born Shirin Neshat in her piece 'Rapture'(1999)used simultaneous projections to involve viewers more actively in her artwork. Imagine being placed literally in the middle of two videos which are projected simultaneously onto opposite walls and being forced to turn from one to the other trying to experience the whole of the story or piece.
SHIRIN NESHAT. Rapture c.1999
MATERIAL: Production stills DIMENSIONS: ?
SHIRIN NESHAT. Rapture c.1999
MATERIAL: Production stills DIMENSIONS: ?
"To be defeated, power must be approached, reappropriated and endlessly replicated." Art being a thing in itself, is separate from reality, in the sense that it's possible to get away with more within it's boundaries. Maurizio Cattlelan, in his piece 'La Nona Ora'(1999). Challenged this common opinion by raising questions about the limits of artistic freedom and literally shakes the rules that keep reality safe. An image of the pope being struck down by a meteorite, can initiate a plethora of reactions." Cattlelan follows a path trodden by villains, by playing with great icons of history and heroes of everyday life."
MAURIZIO CATTLEMAN. La Nona Ora c.1999
MATERIAL: Mixed media DIMENSIONS: installation view
'Putto Poised on a Globe', forged of unbaked clay by Andrea Verrochio, in approximately 1480 A.D., and Mark Rothko's 'Chapel Murals', 1962-1967, oil on canvas, both nudge one to ponder the 'Sacred Realm', as did many Pre-Socratic philosophers. These compositions(p.121) seem to raise the timeless philosophical questions on, the nature of being, knowledge and values.
The 'Sacred Realm'(p.52) cannot be experienced with the human senses, though, some artists and philopsophers throughout the aeons have directed their creative energies toward making concrete form of these abstract ideas. This is a complex and mysterious role. Both Rothko and Verrochio assume this role in their artistic endeavours.
In Verrochio's 'Putto Poised on a Globe', the emphasis is not directed to the chubby child-like cherub figure, but is actually focused on Putto's or 'ones' transcendence or liberation from the visible physical manifestation itself. The decisive upward-diagonal lines flowing through the piece create a movement away from, both, Putto and the globe itself; then they take off and dissapear into an invisible space or realm where they have traveled for an eternity. The piece, through it's composition and visual design elements, such as line and space, evoke a childlike emotion of curiosity, both, literally and figuratively. Mark Rothko, composed the 'Chapel Murals' during a post World War II art movement called Abstract Expressionism(p.539), of which Rothko consciously directed his focus on a form of abstraction called Color Field painting. He, Rothko, wanted to create a sensation of pure dematerializaed color. He achieved this by featuring one or more soft-edged color rectangles floating in a larger color rectangle on the canvas. Rothko thinned his paints so much that the pigment powder barely held to the canvas. Again, driven by the reaccuring theme of the invisible realm in which the focus is not of the 'thing' itself but of it's 'form'. Rothko's art through it's meditative tranquility, draws the viewer into this realm and invites contemplation.
Not only do both artists explore this 'sacred realm', they bring back remnants of a distant journey into space, that formalize that contact between the eartlhy and divine realms.
All page numbers are in reference to terms found in Mark Getlein's text, 'Living With Art'.
