Project One

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“Androgyne III”. Magdalena Abakanowicz. 1985. Burlap, resin, wood, nails, and string.

Constructed from coarse materials, “Androgyne III” is commentary on the cultural sense of loss felt by the Polish when Hitler invaded in 1939. The devastation that Abakanowicz witnessed left her feeling hollow, with no sense of gender or any unique feature. The coarse material too speaks to the cold feeling that experiencing these traumatic events would leave her with. 

As seen with previous examples, this almost-minimalist piece of art is largely social commentary and not intended to be aesthetically pleasing. It is intended to directly appeal to the audience’s empathy. It is supposed to elicit strong emotions of pity or regret for what the artist and her people went through. 

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“Dancing at the Louvre”. Faith Ringgold. 1991. Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border. From the series “The French Collection” part 1.

Ringgold’s piece may face criticism for several reasons; one being its medium of acrylic paint on what is essentially a quilt. The other being that the depicted figures stand awkwardly and mechanically; they are not shown standing fluidly like human figures normally are. 

Everything that went into the making of this quilt was done deliberately in support of Ringgold’s intended message. The use of a quilt comes from her African heritage and is also a purposeful contrast to a Western and male dominated art world where oil and canvas were the primary tools for creation. 

Ringgold’s quilt is narrative in nature, telling the story of a young black woman named Willa Marie Simone who moves to Paris in the 1900s and meets world-famous artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. This piece can be interpreted as a struggle for recognition in a world where she doesn’t meet the subtle “criteria” of being successful (namely being white and male). 

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KhanAcademy is a online database offering thousands of courses covering a plethora of subjects from geology to calculus. It also covers significant portions of Art History; here is its page on Abstract Expressionism, detailing the history and meaning behind the shift from depicting corporeal scenes to depicting abstract concepts such as emotions. 

This is a link to an Khan Academy article about contemporary art (Postmodern) that argues against suggestions that modern art does not hold as much cultural value as pieces we’ve come to see as the standard for quality art (see: the Renaissance and products of its time). 

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TiltBrush by Google is a product designed to bring together art and the forefront of visual technology. Utilizing impressive Visual Reality simulators, TiltBrush allows users to create free-floating, three-dimensional images with only a controller in their hand. 

Here is an example of one such creation. Notice the point-of-view is from within the piece of art itself as the person whose perspective we share walks among the images. 

TiltBrush is just a taste of the direction both art and technology are headed. The unorthodox medium suggests that in future, art may largely be found on similarly uncommon “canvases”. 

While unconventional, art made using this technology is no less valuable than something made with oil or marble; just as historical art masters made use of their contemporary technologies (such as the transition to the use of oil paint rather than something like tempera), modern-day artists make the most of the tools they are provided. 

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“Improvisation 28″. Wassily Kandinsky. 1912. Oil on Canvas.

Unlike Mondrian’s and Newman’s attempts to induce harmony, Kandinsky’s piece was meant to inspire. But it is no less a modern work of art. Teeming with apocrvaphyl imagery and suggestions, “Improvisation 28″ was created to reflect Kandinsky’s opinion of biblical Judgement Day, and upon analysis it is found to be quite the example of Apocrypha. 

Consisting of jagged lines, sporadically thrown-together colors, and images of horsemen and disembodied eyelashes, this painting represents the chaos of the Apocalypse. And Kandinsky intended for his audience to feel this whirlwind of emotion and feeling that accompanies the end of the world. Despite criticism that this piece is not scenic in nature, in that it doesn’t depict some kind of image reflective of the natural or spiritual world, it is wholly valuable in that it instead reflects Kandinsky’s persona, and by association the time period in which he painted it. 

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“Onement VI”. Barnett Newman. 2013. Oil on Canvas.

You might recognize this piece as the one that sold for $43.8 million and surely made you wistfully think, “Well, I can do that.” And you most certainly could have, but like the modern artists before him, Newman took the notion of simplicity and corporealized it. 

Using color theory as a foundation, Newman took a color known for it’s association with calmness, serenity, and responsibility, and combined it with a clever use of form to create a piece visually calming to observe. The white line, similar to Mondrian’s use of varied-rectangle sizes, washes away any suggestion of monotony to ensure that “Onement VI” doesn’t bore but relaxes. 

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“Composition II with Red, Blue, and Yellow”. Piet Mondrian. 1930. Oil on Canvas.

Consisting of a series of rectangles, mostly white but with one red, one blue, and one yellow, all separated by black lines, Mondrian’s piece is a key example of the the artistic trend-shift towards abstraction. An initial glance at this painting might yield criticism, but the form and color are deliberately simple to convey a particular message.

This message being one of simplicity and harmony. The smooth lines and solid colors suggest peace. The use of primary colors denotes a sense of foundation. The strong, squared shapes indicate the notion of invariability. And yet the use of different sized quadrilaterals diverts any suggestion of monotony. Thereby making it certainly a modern piece with undoubtable value.