ABSTRACTION & GEOMETRY
SOUND & IMAGES: Graphic Notation
SOUND & IMAGES: Wassily Kandinsky Composition VIII (1923)
SUPREMATISM ●
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Suprematism was an art movement focused on basic geometric forms, such as circles, squares, lines, and rectangles, painted in a limited range of colours. It was founded by Kazimir Malevich in Russia, in 1915. For him Suprematism was a mystical experience associated with concepts of the Fourth dimension and the nature of time, The term suprematism refers to an art based upon “the supremacy of pure artistic feeling” rather than on visual depiction of objects. Its simplification of form and use of geometry influenced, among many other things, the development of Constructivism and the Bauhaus.
Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, (1915)
Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: White On White, (1918)
Kazimir Malevich, Supremus No. 58, (1916)
El Lissitzky, Red Wedge, (1919)
El Lissitzky, New Man, (1923)
El Lissitzky, Proun Room, (1923)
CONSTRUCTIVISM Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919 ●
The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes
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Constructivists proposed to replace art's traditional concern with composition with a focus on construction. ●
CONSTRUCTIVISM Malevich's Suprematism is fundamentally opposed to the Constructivism and materialism.
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Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th century, influencing major trends such as Bauhaus and the De Stijl movement. ●
Its influence was pervasive, with major impacts upon architecture, graphic and industrial design, theatre, film, dance, fashion and to some extent music.
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Alexander Rodchenko, ‘Of two squares’ series (1921)
Alexander Rodchenko, Compass and Ruler Drawing 1 & 2 (1914-15)
Lyubov Popova, Constructivist Composition (1921)
DIE STIJL ●
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Dutch for The Style, Die Stijl was founded in 1917 The movement proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction through which they could express a Utopian idea of harmony and order The harmony and order was established through a reduction of elements to pure geometric forms and primary colours.
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red, (1937-42)
Theo van Doesburg, Counter-Composition V, (1924)
BAUHAUS ●
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Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933 The school favored simplified forms, rationality, functionality and the idea that mass production could live in harmony with the artistic spirit of individuality. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Light Space Modulator, (1930s)
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, K VII, (1922)
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Human Mechanics, (1925)
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM ●
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Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement (starting in the late 1940s). Abstract expressionism has many stylistic similarities to the Russian artists of the early twentieth century such as Wassily Kandinsky. It drew on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation that was the focus of Surrealism Although it is true that spontaneity or the impression of spontaneity characterized many of the abstract expressionists works, most of these paintings involved careful planning
Color Field painting initially referred to a particular type of abstract expressionism, especially the work of Mark Rothko ●
The Color Field painters sought to rid their art of superfluous rhetoric (command of language). ●
In distinction to the emotional energy and gestural surface marks of Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, the Color Field painters initially appeared to be cool and austere, favouring large, flat areas of color, which these artists considered to be the essential nature of visual abstraction. ●
Mark Rothko, Orange And Yellow (1956)
MINIMALISM ●
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Minimalism is often interpreted as a reaction against Abstract expressionism It emerged in New York, in the 1960s Minimalist artwork is set out to expose the essence or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts. Minimalism's features included geometric, often cubic forms purged of much metaphor, equality of parts, repetition, neutral surfaces, grids and industrial materials
Agnes Martin, Untitled #6, (1980)
Sol LeWitt, Black Circles, Red Grid, Yellow Arcs from Four Sides and Blue Arcs from Four Corners, (1972)
Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #565: On three walls, continuous forms with alternating 8" (20 cm) black and white bands. The walls are bordered with an 8" (20 cm) black band, (1988)
DADA ●
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Dada was an international art movement born in Zurich in 1916. Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, an influence on pop art, and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism
Kurt Schwitters, Coloured Squares (1921)
Kurt Schwitters, Merz. Construction (1921)
Kurt Schwitters, Starkbild (1919)