Conceptual Art Essay

Abstraction is the creation of art without representation of objects, in which the artist has total freedom of the art that they are creating. I will be using three paintings from three different time periods in order to show the development and lasting effects of abstraction in the twentieth century. The first work that I will be looking at is Foghorns by Arthur Dove. I will use this piece to show the beginning of abstraction, and how ideas of abstraction were present before the movement began. The second painting that I will be looking at is Jackson Pollock’s Lucifer. I will be using this painting as an example of the height of abstraction in the 20th century and will be discussing Pollock’s influence on abstraction. The third piece of art I will be looking at is Many Mansion by Kerry James Marshall. I will use this work to show the remnants of Pollock’s influence, and the influence of abstraction in general, on art in the later half of the century. For the development of this paper I looked at two of the course readings. The first reading that I used was The Tradition of the New by Harold Rosenberg. I used this article to show how Foghorns by Arthur Dove relates to abstraction, and to show how ideas in creation of this painting can be linked to ideas of abstract art. The second reading that I used for this paper was The Legacy of Jackson Pollock by Alan Kaprow. I used this article to gain information about

Just like everything else in life, art has its critics. Art criticism is the expression used to describe the act of making selective judgments, both positive and negative, about an art piece. Just as art is so diversely expressed and interpreted, those who critique it also have various methods and use various standards when criticizing an art piece. There are many theories critics use to evaluate art but there are three basic theories most commonly put to use by professionals. The three basic theories are: formal theories, contextual theories, and expressive theories. Formal theories focus on the formalities of art. Critics using formal theories pay close attention to the making of a piece, how each section of the art piece works to form a visual experience that may or may not attract the attention of those who come across it. Formalists’ attention is centered on the formal organization rather than the themes, which they deem irrelevant. Contextualists, on the other hand, value the theme and its relevance to the times in which the artwork was created. The contextual theories deal with the context in which an art piece is used; what it symbolizes concerning the culture and values of the environment. Lastly, there are the expressive theories. Expressionists are more concerned with the artist and the personal expression put into the work. Also, because art is a method of communication, expressive theories

Throughout human history people used to capture the reality of their time, express their feelings and share their impressions by copying both literally or figurative the mundane. The so-called artists have had different impacts in society all along the centuries. Only a few are currently taught in school, although the reverberation of their work is still impregnated in XXI Century. Nowadays, the term ‘artist’ can be used in reference of painters, sculptors, writers, singers, choreographers and other professions whose production are considered valuable culturally speaking. One of the main problems is that their work produce such a magnificent impact on the audience the artist is set aside and usually forgotten as a person, so they feel their rights to be violated.

Non-conformist to traditional art forms, Conceptualism challenges the viewer to delve into the mindset of the artist. It is often seen as multidimensional as it forces the audience to decipher the artists intentions. This art movement has been completely rejecting the standard ideas of art since the mid-1960’s. Since then, many artists have made a name for themselves by self-consciously expanding the boundaries of art. Many of these artists have said they’ve linked their work to artist Marcel Duchamp.

During the mid-20th century, there were many artists competing for the best artwork in the world. Commercialization began to mass-produce art in all varieties, from comic magazines and books, to billboards and so much more. As a result, art was now widely available to the general public. However, one of the biggest question was being asked, with the creation of so many replicas’ what would define the value of art? Critic Clement Greenberg was the denouncing voice of the fine art community, criticizing this movement throughout the 1940’s, 50’s and on.

Abstract Expressionism is considered a triumph in American Painting. It is still the most discussed and debated form of twentieth century American art, and still influences generations of artists. It used the cultural references of the tragic, the unconscious, the sublime and the primitive to create a unique and evocative style of painting that was unique in the art world.

Upon glancing at various beautiful paintings there is to offer at the Museum of Fine Arts, only one astonishing artwork caught my immediate attention. The artwork is named “The Windmill on the Onbekende Gracht, Amsterdam” and it was painted by Claude Monet of the impressionist period in 1879. The medium is oil which is used for the oil painting on a canvas. Besides the subject matter, the content of the overall painting represents a serene and beautiful setting in which one can take ease and enjoy. It is a breathtaking view that captures a fleeting moment of a town setting by the riverside. Furthermore, the title also signifies the importance of the central object, which is the windmill.

Conceptual art is essentially an art form opened to interpretation. A painting or musical piece can be heard and seen by many but could meaning completely different things. The great thing about conceptual art is that anyone regardless of artistic background could be able to participate and share a different viewpoint from those already stated. Conceptual art is all about ideas and meanings rather than works of art. This art form emerged during a period of social and cultural upheaval in the 1960s and 1970s.

Postmodernism is an artistic theory and a social mindset that sought to break the shackles of the so called modernist art society. Famous artist kept getting recognition as their pieces were critiqued by famous critics and was deemed ‘High art’, as it was separated and elevated from other art forms. This practice excluded the masses from being a part of the art of that time and reserved it for the high class society. Many artists rose to counteract this movement, one of which was Andy Warhol, who “emerged as specific reactions against the established forms of high modernism… which conquered… the art gallery”. (Jameson 111). Thus the post-modernism movement was in its essence a reaction against modern art ideas. Andy Warhol who gained fame in the 1960’s, characterized his pieces using all the elements from this movement. His work lacked any arbitrary meaning nor any deep ideas about the facets of human life or nature for example, and this exact idea changed the art world and made him a trailblazer of the postmodern art period. His creations embodied post modernistic ideals and illustrated it through his pieces and his use of the media.

Lucy Lippard describes Conceptual art as a movement “in which the idea is paramount and the material form is secondary, lightweight, ephemeral, cheap, unpretentious, and or “dematerialized” (7). To expound, the movement started as a form of escape from representational, commodified works of art. Conceptualism was not limited to just one particular style; rather, it shared an interest in expressing the idea artistically without the necessity for subject and/or objects. In the 1960s and 1970s, language as an artform became a significant development in the movement. Artists began to obtain higher levels of education and develop articulate skills, enabling the incorporation of literacy in their works (Newman 204). They took a step even further in their use of language by altering it into a mode of abstraction. The transition caused a controversial but thought provoking dynamic in the art

The question that I have chosen is ‘how have photographers used formal elements to objectify their subjects?’. In this essay I will try to answer that question while including some relevant history of photography and formalism, and examples of photographers which I think have used formal elements well in producing images that are aesthetically pleasing because of their visual qualities, by having good use of composition and colour manipulation, and that are not only good artworks because of their history or meaning behind them.

Conceptual art is the one where materials and techniques are replaced by ideas and concepts, creating art objects that are expected to serve a particular artistic idea. Dadaism initially coined by Marcel Duchamp was one of the branches of conceptual art, showing how the idea may be primary in creating a work of art. Joseph Kosuth’s “The Boundaries of the Limitless” is an example of conceptualism, seen in Figure 4, while the collage “Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany” by Hannah Höch represents Dadaism, seen in Figure 5. Although the distinctions between styles and movements may be no as clear as their value for the viewers, these artworks still represent the ideas of the artists applied through the extraordinary use of resources and techniques without limiting it to a gallery or a private collection, making them accessible and usable to some

As he said in his Sentences on Conceptual Art, “I will refer to the kind of art in which I am involved as conceptual art. In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” When LeWitt first made his wall drawings in 1968, he demonstrated how art could be approached in a systematic and objective manner. In this body of work, LeWitt establishes ideas that are translated into written instructions. In doing so, the various compositions of lines, colors, and shapes, conceived by LeWitt become executable by anyone

Art before the 20th century consisted of new styles and three-dimensional spectrums to create the most realistic painting possible. Portraits and landscapes were presented as sort of photographs with a paint brush. Everything required specific fundamentals and anything different would be rejected and labeled degenerate. During this time, foundations were put to the test and it was completely disordered by revolutionary ideas and styles. This art influenced a vast majority of modern day art. Pablo Picasso’s cubism and Henri Matisse fauvism helped shape this era not only in style of painting, but a revolution against conformity of a social artistic structure.

Postmodern art decided to make revolutionary break with past and questioned previous theories known as “big narratives” of art, politics, economics and overall culture in order to create new theories. The big part of postmodern theory deals with the belief of preexistence of the art all around us. The artist is the one who can recognize these elements of art around as and synthesize them into the art work. This art work becomes object of interpretation which inevitably varies among different generations, social groups, national group, religious groups, and depends on some extent of the educational level of the observers and it is also different in the same individual in different times or environments. The different interpretations of