Modern Art before Modern Art

[nobrashfestivity]

Alexander Rodchenko, Points, Composition 119, 1920 

[zurich-snows]

Jakob Ottonowitsch von Narkiewitsch-Jodko, Fluidic photograph, Discharge of a Positive Current, 1883. Collection of Tony Oursler. Courtesy Tony Oursler.

As cited in pictures from the Walker Art Center essay series on paranormal photography:

https://walkerart.org/magazine/what-is-a-photographer-if-not-a-paranormal-investigator-in-conversation-with-patricia-voulgaris

https://walkerart.org/magazine/i-dont-pretend-to-have-the-answers-rik-garrett-and-kirlian-photography/https://walkerart.org/magazine/every-picture-is-a-ghost-photography-and-the-invisible/

[archiveofaffinities]

Georges Vantongerloo, Study, Brussels, 1918

[deathandmysticism]

Joannes de Boria Moralische Sinn-Bilder, 1698

[artspotting]

Iron wire explosion pattern, Anonymus 1798

[slickwhippet]

Richard Dadd, Songe de la Fantasie (1864), a pen, ink and watercolor version of The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke (1855-64)   via Fitzwilliam Museum

[transoptic]

Anonymous tantric drawing. Rajasthan, India. ca. 20th Cent.

[yama-bato]

Ocean waves from Momoyogusa–Flowers of a Hundred Generations (ca. 1909–1910) by Kamisaka Sekka. Original from the The New York Public Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.

[yan-wo]

Czech Republic Anonymous Mediumistic Drawings, 1943 Crayon on paper 8.66 x 11.81 inches 22 x 30 cm Cze 23

[orientallyyours]

Scholar’s rocks, 17th-19th century, Qing dynasty, Lingbi limestone with wooden bases

From the Freer and Sackler Galleries: “In China, irregularly shaped rocks have long been prized as art objects. Specimens from certain quarries, especially Lingbi in Anhui Province, were admired for their aesthetic appeal, spiritual qualities, and likeness to mountains, which they represented in a reduced form suitable for contemplation in a scholar’s study. A good rock is judged by its ability to provoke playful visual associations, perhaps by conjuring up an image of a cloud or by stimulating daydreams of walking through caverns to encounter immortal beings, who, according to Chinese folklore, reside in caves.

Throughout history, Chinese collectors have been willing to pay dearly for rocks, and painters have often studied them for inspiration. Although an ideal scholars’ rock should be untouched by human artifice, many rocks show barely perceptible traces of tool marks. Thus, artisans occasionally enhanced the pictorial quality of a natural rock.”

Source: Freer and Sackler Galleries- 1, 2, 3

[desimonewayland]

A rare black-glazed porcelain Scholar's Rock

The form suggesting a plume of incense vapor; one sideimpressed with the seal Qianlong zhen cang (treasure collected by Qianlong).

Bonham's

[yama-bato]

Alexander Cozens

                       Plates 9 (‘blot’ landscapes) for ‘A New Method of Assisting the Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape’                        

c.1785

[thethreerobbers]

Alexander Cozens (1717-1786), Schematic Cloud Study  

[terminusantequem]

Kazimir Malevich (Russian, 1878-1935) - Black Rectangle, Blue Triangle (1915)

[fromthedust]

Dust Breeding

Over one year of accumulated dust on a glass plate which was part of an art installation by Marcel Duchamp - 1920

[bartleby-company]

Detalle de “El Templo del Tiempo” (1846) de Emma Willard

[worldsandemanations]

Georgia O'Keeffe Series I-No. I 1918