Art, abstract

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Abstract Art ◽  
Colour Properties ◽  
Art World ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Decorative Art ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
Art Canon ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Artistic Values

The widespread use of the term ‘abstract’ for a category of visual art dates from the second decade of the twentieth century, when painters and sculptors had turned away from verisimilitude and launched such modes of abstraction as cubism, Orphism, futurism, Rayonism and suprematism. Two subcategories may be distinguished: first, varieties of figurative representation that strongly schematize, and second, completely nonfigurative or nonobjective modes of design (in the widest sense of that term). Both stand opposed to classic representationalism (realism, naturalism, illusionism, mimeticism) understood as the commitment to a relatively full and undistorted depiction of the subject matter and construed broadly enough to cover the traditional ‘high art’ canon through to post-Impressionism. Analytic and synthetic cubism are model cases of the first subcategory while Mondrian’s neoplasticism and Pollock’s classic drip works are paradigms of the second. Though the effect was revolutionary, the positive motivations for this degree of abstraction in visual art were not wholly new. What was new was the elevation of previously subordinate aims to the front rank and the pursuit of certain principal aims in isolation from the full pictorial package. Thus abstract art variously celebrates structural and colour properties of objects, scenes and patterns; effects of motion, light and atmosphere; aspects of perceptual process, whether normal or expressively loaded; and forms expressing cosmic conceptions, visionary states or utopian ambitions. With a few exceptions (for example, the Futurists) the founders of abstract art were far from lucid or forthcoming about the significance of their work, and viewers have found successive waves of abstraction initially baffling and even offensive. But abstract art now forms a secure part of the ‘high art’ canon, though generally its appeal is less well understood than that of the classic modes of representation. Criticisms of abstract art have also become more lucid. Issues concerning abstract art include the definition of the concept itself and the delineation of subordinate types; the relation between abstraction and other modes of avant-garde art that superficially resemble it; the magnitude of the artistic values so far achieved by the various forms; and the theoretical limits of significance attainable by abstraction as compared with the limits encountered in nonabstract figurative art. Abstract art merits attention from philosophers more than do traditional types of figurative and decorative art for at least two reasons: philosophical theories played a significant role in engendering abstraction and subsequent art-world discourse purporting to elucidate abstractions often operates with concepts requiring philosophic analysis to clarify and assess.

Art, abstract

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Abstract Art ◽  
Colour Properties ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
Figurative Art ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Art Canon ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Artistic Values

The use of the term ‘abstract’ as a category of visual art dates from the second decade of the twentieth century, when painters and sculptors had turned away from verisimilitude and launched such modes of abstraction as Cubism, Orphism, Futurism, Rayonism and Suprematism. Two subcategories may be distinguished: first, varieties of figurative representation that strongly schematize, and second, completely nonfigurative or nonobjective modes of design (in the widest sense of that term). Both stand opposed to classic representationalism (realism, naturalism, illusionism, mimeticism) understood as the commitment to a relatively full depiction of the subject matter and construed broadly enough to cover the traditional ‘high art’ canon through to Post-Impressionism. Analytic and Synthetic Cubism are model cases of the first subcategory while Mondrian’s neoplasticism and Pollock’s classic drip works are paradigms of the second. Though the effect was revolutionary, the positive motivations for this degree of abstraction in visual art were not wholly new. What was new was the elevation of previously subordinate aims to the front rank and the pursuit of certain principal aims in isolation from the full pictorial package. Thus abstract art variously celebrates structural and colour properties of objects, scenes and patterns; effects of motion, light and atmosphere; aspects of perceptual process, whether normal or expressively loaded; and forms expressing cosmic conceptions, visionary states or utopian ambitions. With a few exceptions (for example, the Futurists) the founders of abstract art were far from lucid or forthcoming about the significance of their work, and viewers have found successive waves of abstraction initially baffling and even offensive. But abstract art now forms a secure part of the ‘high art’ canon, though generally its appeal is less well understood than that of the classic modes of representation. Criticisms of abstract art have also become more lucid. The chief philosophical issues affecting abstract art concern the definition of the term and the delineation of subordinate types; the relation between abstraction and other modes of avant-garde art that superficially resemble it; the magnitude of the artistic values so far achieved by the various forms; and finally the theoretical limits of significance attainable by abstraction as compared with the limits encountered in figurative art.

American Rhapsody

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Zilczer
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The United States ◽  
Abstract Art ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Visual Music ◽  
Georgia O'keeffe ◽  
Contemporary Artist ◽  
Aesthetic Values

The opening decades of the twentieth century saw painters renounce mimetic representation for the formal rigors and spiritual transcendence of visual art divorced from reproduction of the visible world. That they chose to do so in no small measure resulted from a profound shift in aesthetic values: music became the paradigm for visual art. While the concept of visual music gained international currency, this seductive aesthetic model had particular resonance in the United States. Between 1910 and 1930, leaders of the American avant-garde, such as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Max Weber, experimented with musical ideas to forge a new abstract art. A comparative case study of the music pictures of these painters and the inter-media installations of contemporary artist Jennifer Steinkamp will illuminate the transformation of the modernist ideal of visual music in the postmodern era.

BREAKING THE INK – ABSTRACT INK ART IN MAINLAND CHINA

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Zhang Cziráková
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
High Standard ◽  
Abstract Art ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Art World ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Abstract Painting ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The 1960S

Chinese art is mostly presented at foreign exhibitions from a different perspective and abstraction is represented modestly or completely absent. However, abstract art, which to a greater or lesser extent based on the roots of Chinese semi-abstract tradition, finds its firm place in the works of Chinese artists in different countries or regions. After giving a fundamental analysis of the possible inspiration for abstract ink painting from Chinese art history, and modernist art movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong during the 1960s, which had a significant influence on the formation of modernism in mainland China, and the historical overview of Chinese avant-garde, such as the 85 New Wave, the author focusses on abstract ink art in mainland China. As far as the situation in abstract painting is concerned, all important movements, exhibitions are preceded chronologically. Artists' opinions on abstract painting, their contradictions and the questions that this work raises, are observed, too. Abstract ink painting began to develop with the influx of ideas of modernism in the 1980s, and it was in important factor during the movement of Experimental ink and wash movement in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century. This movement has organised exhibitions, conferences, publishes catalogues dedicated to the work of its representatives. Then the attention turns to other movements and individual artists devoted to abstract ink art. Some of the artists come to a greater extent from tradition; others try to escape the limitations of ink painting, more or less adhere to traditional Chinese art or calligraphic strokes and techniques. Some of them are more influenced by Western techniques or are attempting to synthesise. What is essential is that they create works that are often of a high standard and in their search, open new ways for Chinese ink painting in general. Special attention deserves the artists standing at the birth of the movement and to those who have so far significantly influenced the whole atmosphere in Chinese art world.

Cinema Expanded

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Walley
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Film History ◽  
Video Art ◽  
Experimental Film ◽  
Art World ◽  
Film Culture ◽  
Moving Image ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Expanded Cinema ◽  
History Of

Cinema Expanded: Avant-Garde Film in the Age of Intermedia is a comprehensive historical survey of expanded cinema from the mid-1960s to the present. It offers an historical and theoretical revision of the concept of expanded cinema, placing it in the context of avant-garde/experimental film history rather than the history of new media, intermedia, or multimedia. The book argues that while expanded cinema has taken an incredible variety of forms (including moving image installation, multi-screen films, live cinematic performance, light shows, shadow plays, computer-generated images, video art, sculptural objects, and texts), it is nonetheless best understood as an ongoing meditation by filmmakers on the nature of cinema, specifically, and on its relationship to the other arts. Cinema Expanded also extends its historical and theoretical scope to avant-garde film culture more generally, placing expanded cinema in that context while also considering what it has to tell us about the moving image in the art world and new media environment.

The Transformation of the Avant-Garde: The New York Art World, 1940-1985

1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Rosanne Martorella ◽  
Diana Crane
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Art World ◽  
Avant Garde

Politics in the Art of War: The American War Cemeteries

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-254
Author(s):  
Kate Clarke Lemay
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
American Art ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Art World ◽  
Art Making ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Art Of War ◽  
International Diplomacy ◽  
Internal Struggle

The overseas American war cemeteries, in their aim to achieve “soft power” or cultural diplomacy during the mid-century, created high-value commissions in the American art world. The sought-after commissions resulted in an internal struggle between artists practicing traditional figural Classicism and the avant-garde who had adopted expressionism and abstraction. Additionally, a surging political stream of anti-Communism made artists vulnerable, because modern art seemed to underscore Communism’s abandonment of religion. By adopting demagoguery as political strategy, McCarthyists escalated the perception of Communism as present in the United States by targeting American culture, including artists of the American war cemeteries. Describing the struggles surrounding the creation of the cemeteries, this essay takes into account the artists’ biographies, statements, and actions, arguing that their art-making was not only critical in creating international diplomacy, but also in sustaining American freedom, particularly within an era of American political suspicion.

scholarly journals SENI HIAS WUWUNG MAYONG JEPARA JAWA TENGAH KAJIAN BENTUK, MAKNA, DAN FUNGSI

CORAK ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arif Suharson
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Physical Process ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Qualitative Explanation ◽  
Decorative Art ◽  
Central Java ◽  
Home Decoration

Javanese culture derives from the intellectual, emotional, and physical process inJavanese environment. This process goes on to keep up with the constant changes in theenvironment. This process has resulted in such artistic products as decorative roof top ofwuwung in Mayong Jepara Central Java. The wuwung has been aesthetically put on top ofJavanese traditional houses precisely above the blandar penuwun. This roof top serves thefunction as the cover to keep water and dust from entering the house. This such kind ofwuwung is characteristically decorated with glass mozaik and is therefore uniquely differentfrom that in other regions.This analysis is attempting to identify and prove qualitative explanation. Accordinglythis study employs qualitative method to avoid mathematic calculation. It is so because whatmatters is the value of particularly specific and unique objects which contain meaningfulaction. The study deals with visual art, particularly ceramic craft of clay. It is expected thatthere will be sustainable benefits to reserve local genius in the national culture. The art workof decorative wuwung from Mayong Lor Jepara Central Java is characteristically clear and canbe classified by time, technique of making, decorative technique, material, and meaning.Results of thestudy suggested that wuwungan wayang in Mayong Central Java which isfamiliar in Javanese society clearly represents such good characters or heroic figures. For theJavanese people who already held particular beliefs such animism and dynamism long beforethe introduction of such religons as Hindu, Budha, and Islam, put a historical background in thedevelopment of meaningful symbols. Home decoration implies more than physical activities;rather it implies praying and expectation represented by the decorative wuwung produced inMayong Jepara with its aesthetic beautiful mozaik of glass.Keywords: decorative art, wuwung, glass mozaik, Mayong Jepara  Kebudayaan Jawa lahir dari olah pikir, rasa, dan karsa pada lingkungan hidupmasyarakat etnis Jawa dalam kurun waktu yang terus berproses dalam menghadapi perubahanzaman yang ada. Dari kebudayaan Jawa itu, lahirlah berbagai produk sebagai hasil untukpemenuhan kebutuhan dari olah pikir, rasa, dan karsa tersebut. Salah satunya adalah seni hiaswuwung hasil kreasi masyarakat Mayong Jepara Jawa Tengah yang menghiasi atap rumahadat tradisional Jawa. Wuwung hias dipasang pada atap rumah paling atas di atas blandarpenuwun yang berfungsi sebagai penutup genteng paling atas dan berfungsi menahan debuatau air agar tidak masuk ke dalam rumah dengan ornamentasi pecahan beling yang memilikiciri khas yang tidak dimiliki oleh daerah lain. Kajian ini berusaha mencari dan memberikan penjelasan secara kualitatif, sehinggametode yang digunakan adalah kualitatif. Metode ini menghindari perhitungan matematis,karena yang dicari adalah value ‘nilai’ yang muncul dari objek kajian yang bersifat khusus,bahkan sangat spesifik, unik dan selalu mengandung meaning full action. Penelitian ini sebagaisalah satu telaah lingkup bidang ilmu seni rupa, khususnya seni kriya keramik yangmemanfaatkan material tanah atau lempung. Hal ini akan memiliki dampak yangberkelanjutan, sehingga kekayaan tradisi lokal akan tetap berjalan sebagai ciri local geniusyang memperkaya khasanah budaya bangsa. Produk seni wuwung hias dari Mayong Lor JeparaJawa Tengah yang dijadikan obyek penelitian, memiliki ciri khas dan sifat yang dapatdiidentifikasi secara jelas, dan dapat diklasifikasi menurut waktu, teknik pembuatan, teknikseni hias, dan bahan material yang digunakan serta makna yang terkandung dari penciptaanseni hias wuwungan tersebut.Mengambil inti sari dari hasil kajian penelitian yang telah dilakukan bahwa sebutanwuwungan wayang yang akrab dalam kehidupan masyarakat Jawa, maka penafsiran bentukbentukseni hias wuwung Mayong Jepara Jawa Tengah jelas mengarah pada tokoh-tokohkebaikan atau tokoh-tokoh pahlawan dalam membela kebenaran. Keyakinan masyarakat Jawayang sudah memiliki agama sebelum agama-agama besar datang seperti Hindu, Budha, danIslam, tentu keberadaan kepercayaan animisme dan dinamisme menjadi latar belakang sejarahyang kuat dalam menggambarkan simbol yang mempunyai arti. Keberadaan menghias rumahtentu tidak hanya sekedar menghias, tetapi sekaligus merupakan doa dan harapan yang ingindicapai yang terwujud pada seni hias wuwung Mayong Jepara dengan ciri khusus ornamenpecahan beling yang indah.Kata Kunci: Seni hias, wuwung, pecahan beling, Mayong Jepara

scholarly journals The notion and meaning of interdisciplinarity in the studies of art and media

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-211
Author(s):  
Nikola Dedić
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Art History ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Cultural Meaning ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
Elite Culture ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Definition Of

This text attempts to mark the difference between traditional, modern, monodisciplinary and contemporary interdisciplinary approaches within the analysis of reception of media and artistic contents. Monodisciplinary approaches are connected with the classical basis of humanistic and social sciences which are related to the definition of culture based on opposition between mass and elite culture (art). Avant-garde and linguistic turn within social sciences in the 60s realized re-evaluation of the notion of culture-culture is not seen anymore as a sum of elite products of human spirit but rather as a production of cultural meaning, i.e. as a discourse. This turn enabled interdisciplinary turn within the sciences as aesthetics and art history and also enabled the emergence of contemporary interdisciplinary media theory.

scholarly journals Dadaism (Re)activated. Artzins and Dada

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Lachman
Keyword(s):  
Artistic Expression ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Literary Journals ◽  
Definition Of

The article analyses in what way artzins (independent art and literary journals published in Poland in the 1980s and 1990s) drew inspiration from the Dada tradition, and how they made its philosophy live again. Artzins are seen here both as a medium of literature and art and as specific forms of artistic expression (press art). The article attempts to show why artzins and their authors were interested in reviving the avant-garde and Dada ideas. It also investigates how Dadaism functions today in the form of contemporary works and styles which are influenced by this avant-garde movement. What is more, the article tries to answer the question about the nature and definition of Dadaism shaped and reflected by today's artistic projects.

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