CONTENTS ABOUT THE MUSEUM
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MINIMALISM
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DONALD JUDD
PSYCHEDELIC ART PETER MAX
GRAFFITI/STREET ART KEITH HARING
POP ART ANDY WARHOL
CONCEPTUAL ART SOL LEWITT
OPTICAL ART BRIDGET RILEY
JUNK ART JANE PERKINS
DIGITAL ART OLIVER JEFFERS
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ABOUT THE MUSEUM The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as “SAM�) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on January 20, 2007. The SAM collection has grown from 1,926 pieces in 1933 to nearly 25,000 as of 2008. Its original museum provided an area of 25,000 square feet; the present facilities provide 312,000 square feet, plus a 9-acre park. Paid staff have increased from 7 to 303, and the museum library has grown from approximately 1,400 books to 33,252. SAM traces its origins to the Seattle Fine Arts Society (organized 1905) and the Washington Arts Association (organized 1906), which merged in 1917, keeping the Fine Arts Society name. 4
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MINIMALISM DONALD JUDD
MINIMALISM ART MOVEMENT The term “Minimalism” has evolved over the last half-century to include a vast number of artistic media, and its precedents in the visual arts can be found in Mondrian, van Doesburg, Reinhardt, and in Malevich’s monochromes. But it was born as a self-conscious movement in New York in the early 1960s The designers and artists created objects which often blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and were characterized by unitary, geometric forms and industrial materials. Emphasising cool anonymity over the hot expressivism of the previous generation of painters, the Minimalists attempted to avoid metaphorical associations, symbolism, and suggestions of spiritual transcendence. 7
Donald Judd was an American artist, whose rejection of both traditional painting and sculpture led him to a conception of art built upon the idea of the object as it exists in the environment. Judd’s works belong to the Minimalist movement, whose goal was to rid art of the Abstract Expressionists’ reliance on the self-referential trace of the painter in order to form pieces that were free from emotion. To accomplish this task, artists such as Judd created works comprising of 8
single or repeated geometric forms produced from industrialized, machine-made materials that eschewed the artist’s touch. Judd’s geometric and modular creations have often been criticized for a seeming lack of content; it is this simplicity, however, that calls into question the nature of art and that posits Minimalist sculpture as an object of contemplation, one whose literal and insistent presence informs the process of beholding.
Title - No Title (Untitled) 1961–78
Title - No Title (Untitled) 1992-93
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PSYCHEDELIC ART PETER MAX
PSYCHEDELIC ART MOVEMENT Psychedelic art is any art inspired by psychedelic experiences known to follow the ingestion of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and psilocybin. The word “psychedelic” (coined by British psychologist Humphry Osmond) means “mind manifesting”. By that definition, all artistic efforts to depict the inner world of the psyche may be considered “psychedelic”. In common parlance “Psychedelic Art” refers above all to the art movement of the late 1960s counterculture. Psychedelic visual arts were a counterpart to psychedelic rock music. Concert posters, album covers, lightshows, murals, comic books, underground newspapers and more reflected not only the kaleidoscopically swirling patterns of LSD hallucinations, but also revolutionary political, social and spiritual sentiments inspired by insights derived from these psychedelic states of consciousness. 11
Pater Max was trained at the Art Students League, Pratt Institute, and the School of Visual Arts, all in New York. After closing his design studio in 1964, Peter began creating his characteristic paintings and graphic prints. From visionary pop artist of the 1960’s, to master of dynamic neo Expressionism or Psychedelic, Peter Max and his vibrant colors have become part of the fabric of contemporary American culture. In the 1960’s Max rose to youthful prominence 12
with his now-famous “Cosmic ‘60s” style, a bold linear type of painting which employed Fauvist use of color and depicted transcendental themes and art. Peter Max revolutionized art of the 60’s just as the Beatles transformed the music of the decade. As his expressionistic style evolved, becoming more sensuous and painterly, Max’s unique symbolism and vibrant color palette have continued to inspire new generations of Americans throughout.
LOVE 1968
The Liberty Head 1976
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GRAFFITI/ STREET ART KEITH HARING
GRAFFITI/STREET ART MOVEMENT Graffiti art is a movement that can be traced back to New York in the 1970’s. It was named after the spray-can vandalism common in most cities in the world but most associated with the New York subway system. The purpose of graffiti art is selfexpression and creativity, and can involve highly stylised letter forms drawn with markers, or cryptic and colourful spray paint murals on walls, buildings, and even freight trains. In the late 80s and early 90s the writers Cost and Revs were the first to use new techniques that was to be a new form of graffiti, Post-Graffiti also known as Street Art. These participants use stencils, posters, stickers and installations to spread their art illegally in the streets. 15
Keith Haring moved to New York City in 1978 and began using the city as his canvas, making chalk drawings in subway stations. His art was eventually seen everywhere from public murals and nightclubs to galleries and museums around the world. Beyond the clubs, Haring began using the city as his canvas. Riding the subway, he noticed the black paper rectangles of empty advertising panels on station walls; using white chalk, he began filling these black 16
panels with simple, quickly drawn pictures. His signature images included dancing figures, a “radiant baby� (a crawling infant emitting rays of light), a barking dog, a flying saucer, large hearts, and figures with televisions for heads. These graffiti drawings attracted the attention of New York commuters, as well as the city authorities. The energy and optimism of his art, with its bold lines and bright colors, brought him popularity with a wide audience and art lovers.
Debbie Dick 1984
Keith and Julia 1986
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POP ART
ANDY WARHOL POP ART MOVEMENT Pop Art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop Art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising and news. In Pop Art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, and/or combined with unrelated material. The concept of Pop Art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it. Pop Art characterised a sense of optimism during the post war consumer boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s. It coincided with the globalisation of pop music and youth culture, personified by Elvis and The Beatles. Pop Art was brash, young and fun and hostile to the artistic establishment. It included different styles of painting and sculpture from various countries, but what they all had in common was an interest in mass-media, mass-production and mass-culture. It is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well as an expansion upon them. 19
Andy Warhol was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became a renowned and sometimes controversial artist. Warhol’s art used many types of media, including hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, 20
sculpture, film, and music. In the 1970s, Warhol began expanding into new artistic mediums. He put together his first book, Andy Warhol’s Index, in 1967, and released several other titles. Warhol also experimented extensively with video art, producing more than 60 films during his career. Warhol also worked in sculpture and photography, and in the 1980s, he moved into television, hosting Andy Warhol’s TV and Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes on MTV music channel.
Marilyn Diptych 1962
Campbell’s Soup Cans 1962
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CONCEPTUAL ART SOL LEWITT
CONCEPTUAL ART MOVEMENT Conceptual art is a movement that prizes ideas over the formal or visual components of art works. An amalgam of various tendencies rather than a tightly cohesive movement, Conceptualism took myriad forms, such as performances, happenings, and ephemera. From the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s Conceptual artists produced works and writings that completely rejected standard ideas of art. Their chief claim that the articulation of an artistic idea suffices as a work of art - implied that concerns such as aesthetics, expression, skill and marketability were all irrelevant standards by which art was usually judged. In truth, it is irrelevant whether this extremely intellectual kind of art matches one’s personal views of what art should be, because the fact remains that Conceptual artists successfully redefine the concept of a work of art to the extent that their efforts are widely accepted as art by collectors, gallerists, and museum curators. 23
Sol LeWitt earned a place in the history of art for his leading role in the Conceptual movement. His belief in the artist as a generator of ideas was instrumental in the transition from the modern to the postmodern era. Conceptual art, expounded by LeWitt as an intellectual, pragmatic act, added a new dimension to the artist’s role that was distinctly separate from the romantic nature of Abstract Expressionism. LeWitt believed the idea 24
itself could be the work of art, and maintained that, like an architect who creates a blueprint for a building and then turns the project over to a construction crew, an artist should be able to conceive of a work and then either delegate its actual production to others or perhaps even never make it at all. LeWitt’s work ranged from sculpture, painting, and drawing to almost exclusively conceptual pieces that existed only as ideas or elements of the artistic process itself.
Wall Structure Blue 1962
Serial Project, I (ABCD) 1966
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OPTICAL ART BRIDGET RILEY
OPTICAL ART MOVEMENT Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions. Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrations, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping. Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground relationship that causes the two planes to be in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition. Op art is created in two primary ways. The first, and best known method, is the creation of effects through the use of pattern and line. Another reaction that occurs is that the lines create after- images of certain colors due to how the retina receives and processes light. 27
Bridget Riley is an English painter who is one of the foremost exponents of op art. Riley’s mature style, developed during the 1960s, was influenced by a number of sources. It was during this time that Riley began to paint the black and white works for which she is best known. They present a great variety of geometric forms that produce sensations of movement or colour. In the early 1960s, her works were said to induce sensation in viewers as varied as seasick and sky diving. 28
From 1961 to 1964 she worked with the contrast of black and white, occasionally introducing tonal scales of grey. Riley began investigating colour in 1967, the year in which she produced her first stripe painting. After a trip to Egypt in the early 1980s, where she was inspired by colourful hieroglyphic decoration, Riley began to explore colour and contrast. In some works, lines of colour are used to created a shimmering effect, while in others the canvas is filled with tessellating patterns.
Movement In Squares 1961
Shadow Play 1990
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JUNK ART
JANE PERKINS
JUNK ART MOVEMENT Junk art derive their identity as art from the designation placed upon them by the artist and from the social history that comes with the object. This may be indicated by either its anonymous wear and tear or by its recognizability as a consumer icon. The idea of dignifying commonplace objects in this way was originally a shocking challenge to the accepted distinction between what was considered art as opposed to not art. Although it may now be accepted in the art world as a viable practice, it continues to arouse questions. The artist gives the audience time and a stage to contemplate an object. Appreciation of found art in this way can prompt philosophical reflection in the observer. 31
Jane Perkins works as an artist in found materials, taking inspiration from found objects and working them into something new. She loves art with an element of fun and the unexpected and she loves what she does. Having worked for 17 years as a nurse and 10 years as a Mum at home, she took a degree in textiles at Somerset College of Arts and Technology, graduating with a First in 2006. During the course, she particularly enjoyed the recycling projects and made recycling the focus 32
of her final year. Since 2008, She has been making iconic portraits from found materials. In 2010, she started making Plastic Classics, re-interpreting famous Artworks using the same method. She uses any materials of the right size and shape; plastic toys, beads, buttons, shells etc. No colour is added - all materials are exactly as found. Since 2010, She is been represented by Will’s Art Warehouse, a gallery in Putney, London. Her work has been sold in London, New York and Singapore.
Nelson Mandela 2008
Barack Obama 2008
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DIGITAL ART OLIVER JEFFERS DIGITAL ART MOVEMENT Digital art is an artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as an essential part of the creative or presentation process. Since the 1970s, various names have been used to describe the process including computer art and multimedia art, and digital art is itself placed under the larger umbrella term new media art. After some initial resistance, the impact of digital technology has transformed activities such as painting, drawing, sculpture and music/sound art, while new forms, such as net art, digital installation art, and virtual reality, have become recognized artistic practices. More generally the term digital artist is used to describe an artist who makes use of digital technologies in the production of art. In an expanded sense, “digital art� is a term applied to contemporary art that uses the methods of mass production or digital media. Digital art can be purely computer-generated or taken from other sources, such as a scanned photograph or an image drawn using vector graphics software using a mouse or graphics tablet. 35
Oliver Jeffers is an artist, illustrator and writer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. From figurative painting and installation, to illustration and picture-book making, his work has been exhibited in New York, The Brooklyn Museum, Berlin, Dublin, London, Sydney, Washington DC, and Belfast. He is widely known for his picture books for children, Jeffers’ style of illustration uses mixed media and is recognised for its subtle narrative and use of space in composition. As a freelance 36
illustrator he has worked for clients such as Sony PSP, RCA Records, Starbucks, Creative Review, New York Times and The Telegraph. Jeffers artwork consists of figurative painting executed on either canvas or three-dimensional objects, both found and made. His solo show Additional Information, (Belfast December 2006) studied the balance between form and content by drawing parallels between the arts and sciences, in which figurative oil paintings were over laid with mathematical equations.
Saturday Morning By The Pool 2011
Friday Afternoon South Williamsburg 2011
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NOTES
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