White on white and color in minimalism - Essay Example

? Comparison of paintings/sculpture between white on white and color in minimalism Comparison of paintings/sculpture between white on white and color in minimalism Abstract expressionism originated in New York between the years 1940s and 1950s (Gaut & Lopes, 2005, 10). It did not grow as an ideal label that would be recognized by those who were in the movement. The label was intended for the works of painters who used color and abstract forms to fill their canvases and those who used vigorous gestural expressionism on their canvases to attack the former group. However, abstract expressionism has become acceptable and representative form for a group of artists who have no commonality. All these artists concentrated on expressive art that showed emotion and universal themes. They were influenced by surrealism that changed into a new style that existed in the post-war era and mood of trauma, anxiety, fear and death (Gaut & Lopes, 2005, 10). Abstract expressionism was not easy to define and understand. Some artists preferred to use action painting while others preferred American type painting. The artists who chose to express their artistic work through the movement showed their subconscious through their art and shared an interest in Jung’s ideas on myth memory and ritual. Minimal art developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the United States of America. Minimalist sculptures and paintings consist of geometric shapes and other simple forms that occur in a series of arranged unit (Knell, 2007, 26). The movement was also called systematic painting, serial art or ABC painting. This movement grew in opposition of the earlier abstract expressionism movement. Minimal art movement was interested in logical systems and physical principles that occurred universally. They favored the straight and hard lines of design and rejected handcraftsmanship (Knell, 2007, 27). White on white paintings or sculptures is objective and representational. They limit artists to develop things that exist in the real world situation. A viewer must be able to understand the piece of the work in the perspective of the artist. This piece of art does not allow artists to develop new things from their imagination that cannot be representative of the existence. In addition, the artists are limited to white color paintings and sculptures. They cannot use other colors except white colors when developing their work. The white color must be the background of any artwork. White on white paintings or sculptures represents the ultimate minimalism. It is neutral. In fact, it is not considered as a color. It is usually used in the background of the artwork. White on white paintings or sculptures signify and show purity, cleanliness and light (Foster, 2000, 45). White paintings are made up of white oil and exhaustic wax that softens its texture. White on white paintings has white encaustic burnt substance that contributes to the dimension of white on white painting in space. At the start of the white on white art, muted earth tones were incorporated into the white to come up with simple designs. The muted color was reduced later (Foster, 2000, 98). White paintings and sculpture present art in the simplest way possible by eliminating things that can complicate or add other dimensions on a piece of art. It brings art clearly from its background showing every detail. Minimalism is about creating clarity and avoiding ambiguity. White on white paintings and sculptures eliminate aspects of ambiguity in art works by putting the piece of art against a clear background that highlights each detail that the artist wants to display. Tara Donovan is an American artist who was born in 1969 in new York. She has a Master of Fine Art degree in Sculpture (Lewis & Lewis, 2008, 62). She is an inventive sculptor who works elicit wonder and imagination using some of the common objects in everyday life. Her sculptural works show a transformation of ordinary materials shaped into intriguing and amazing physical and visual artworks. Donovan is a white on white artist who has sensitivity to materials that she puts into use. Her works show geological and biological forms (Lewis & Lewis, 2008). She uses ordinary things such as straws, pencils or buttons to create her artwork. For her, the shape of the material determines the form of the final product. Her artwork shows her unique ability to transcend materiality and gimmickry through a culture that accepts both aspects. Some of her works include Haze untitled (2003), untitled collections, Shaheen modern & contemporary art, Greg Kucera Gallery and exhibition view, Barbara Krakow Gallery among others (Lewis & Lewis, 2008, 62). Most artists and sculptors claim that white could be the hardest color to put in a piece of artwork. White on white painting or sculptors require that artists start with clean and light colored surfaces. This could be thinned slightly on a ratio of 1:1 (Robertson, 2006, 78). White on white paintings does not require more than two layers because they tend to be marred with paint. Artists have to decide on the shades that they prefer on their paintings. Warm colors require brown shades while cool colors require gray shades. Warm white paintings need thin wash that use chestnut ink or flesh ink. . It is recommended that wash should be used in recesses where shades are required. White paintings are not highlighted like color paintings. The base is white and the highlighted color remains the same. It is essential to point out that despite their name; white paintings have other colors beneath them. They are applied in a strict linear structure (Robertson, 2006, 157). Pierro Manzoni was an Italian artist who lived between 1933 and 1963. He was a renowned artist of conceptual art. He was an abstract artist who concentrated on white on white art with materials such as cotton wool, cotton, fur and eggshells (Kostelanetz & Brittain, 2001, 393). He started painting at the age of seventeen but abandoned traditional art expression. He moved away from figures and colors and concentrated on neutral artwork that expressed total emptiness. He removed vestiges of content in his work and started developing colorless objects. To him, the material became more significant than the content. His works had a strong influence on abstract art generations that followed. Most of his works were Achromes created from flannelette and cobalt chloride treated cotton that made his products change colors with weather fluctuations. His notable works include Linea Lunga 7200m (1960), Sol LeWitt, Antonio Calderara, Magisk Sokkel nr.2, Socie du Monde and Hommage a Galilei among others (Kostelanetz & Brittain, 2001, 393). White on white paintings and sculptures are pieces of art that are representational in nature. They depict or represent things that exist in the physical world. Despite the fact that they can include the mental realms of the artists, they represent things that exist. However, artists can do this by modifying elements that exist in the external environment to give them an artistic outlook that makes them appear new. For instance, Robert Ryman is a white on white artist. In his paintings, he does not begin with a white color but it becomes his final color (Hudson, 2009, 271). His style shows a shift from the traditional methods, which had white color as a primer that helped to bring color on top of the artwork. However, his works show an illumination that surpasses darkness. His paintings are affected by shadows and colors under the white color. Some of his works include the Master in White put at Dia: Beacon, untitled (1960) and untitled (1965). Both of these paintings are oils on linen. The paintings are applied to surfaces without images. They show the use of exquisite responsibility. The physical attributes and insistence on being of the paintings is impressive (Hudson, 2009, 271). This gives white on white paintings and sculptors a unique feature. They can be used when lighting conditions are favorable and unfavorable. The white on white paints can be visualized in different lighting conditions. They can show a distance in time but achieve a close proximity in visual sense. An example of such work is the 1918 white on white squares developed by Kasimir Malevich and grid-based paintings by Piet Mondrian in 1920s (Gaut & Lopes, 2005, 473). White on white paintings and or sculptures do not allow artists to have the freedom of association. Artists cannot decide on just anything to develop including the imagination. In the usage of this style, an artist must pay attention to the amount of paint used in the development of the piece of art. The process and the result in White on white paintings or sculptures are both significant. An artist must develop a roadmap, decide on the approach and develop his piece of art with this idea in mind. The process used justifies the product and the product justifies the procedure. In a pure form that originated from the western sphere an abstract art is the art that has no recognizable subject (Harrigan & Capon, 2007,10). It does not relate to any specific external thing or represent something. The color and form become the subject of this form of art. In other words, color abstract paintings/sculpture is non-representational pieces of art. They are playgrounds of visual delights. In abstract paintings and sculpture, artists can come up with worlds full of color and contemplation (Knell, 2007). They use several factors to bring out the pieces that they have. These factors include form, line, texture, color, composition, pattern and process among others. They present ideas and evoke emotions in a nonlinear and poetic manner. An abstract piece of art is a combination of any of the above elements. They have the ability to express certain aspects that visual art cannot present. Color abstract paintings or sculptures address concepts that are intangible and theoretical because they have no definite shape or representation. They are the best pieces of art that express the realms that exist in the subconscious and conscious mind of the artists. They do not give much precedence to eternal realities (Harrigan & Capon, 2007, 89). Color abstract paintings and or sculptures depend little on textual storylines or storylines presented by objects and scenery. They are specifically created to show or touch human feelings and to arouse emotions. They are real pieces of art that exist only in the mind of the artist. This type of art is beautiful in the sense that when an artist develops a painting or sculpture, it does not have to reflect or look like anything in the physical world. This means that this art has the capability of expressing timelessness, spiritual world, exploring mysteries of life and human emotions. It could also be a piece that has no meaning at all. It could be a piece of art developed using a combination of bright and pleasing colors. Color abstract paintings and sculptures encourage free association and will. It does not tell or prescribe the type of piece of art that one should develop (Knell, 2007, 18). It does not impose the kind of meaning that an artist should achieve one the piece of art is fully developed. An artist has the freedom to experience and develop the piece of art for himself or her. They have the freedom to understand the piece of art in their personal ways. The viewers can also perceive the piece of art in their own perspectives. It is because of this quality that they have a high sensitivity to achieve abstractness (Knell, 2007, 20). An example of abstract color artists is Gerhard Richter. He is a German artist who trained as a realist artist but changed into American and European contemporary art. He has been regarded as one of the most significant artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His paintings are a means through which images that appear to capture truth are explored showing their lack of objectivity and unsure meaning. Other themes in his work show a play between abstraction and realism. Richter blurred the subjects in his paintings to achieve chance effects. He did this to show that an artist is not capable of capturing the original condition or situation of a subject in his art. Artists like Jackson Pollock and Lucio Fontana inspired him. Some of his paintings include Claudius (1986), Blau (1988), Bach (1992), Wald (2005) and Cage (2006). He contributed to several art movements, such as pop art, abstract expressionism, fluxus and dada (Harrigan & Capon, 2007). Color abstract paintings and sculptures is a rhythm of colors and a harmonious arrangement of patterns. Color abstract paintings show things that are beyond what the human eye can see. They do not portray images that can be easily understood. They focus on non-linear shapes. They correspond to inner realities and explore conscious and unconscious elements of transcendence. Barnett Newman Lived between 1905 and 1970. He was an abstract minimalist painter. He had interests in primitive unconscious and myths shared by other abstract expressionists. He was a color abstract painter (Sim, 2005, 84). His works were full with color and zips trademark that differentiated them from gestural abstraction of other artists. These characteristic gave his work a complete uniqueness. Newman believed that traditional styles could not be used to explore art fully. His style was influenced by people like Jackson Pollock and Clyfford Still. He was prominent in late 1940s and early 1950s (Sim, 2005). His work became notable in the year 1948 when he made a zip that was a picture with colorful vertical stripe of the canvas. His works are deceptively simple but emphatically abstract. Most of his works has colorful vertical lines that were inscribed with painted field of acrylic color and saturated oil. People interpreted his works differently because of the abstract qualities. Examples of his works include Adam (1951), Achilles (1952), Anna’s Light, Broken Obelisk and Tate Modern (1968) among others (Sim, 2005, 85). Despite the fact that abstract art is a general style that involves non-objectivity in art, other styles exist within the style. Each style of abstract art serves a different agenda and derives a unique meaning. Each abstract artist has his own style (Gage, 2000, 98). For instance, certain abstract artists use many colors, others use minimal colors, others prefer specific colors and others use one color more than others do. Certain artists use many patterns in comparison to others who use few patterns. Therefore, abstract art is comprised of many styles and patterns that give artists the freedom to develop their own patterns. However, these styles do not limit artists to follow any one of them. In conclusion, white on white paintings/sculpture and color abstract paintings/sculpture differs in many aspects. White on white paintings or sculptures tends to show a realistic perspective of art. However, color abstract paintings or sculptures show the value and strength of the imagination of the artist in developing a piece of art. It has many dimensions unlike the white on white painting or sculptures that show an objective and representational type of art. In color abstract paintings or sculptures, artists have the freedom to explore any style and way of art that they wish. On the other hand, the white on white artists have limitations that tie them to specific colors and objectivity. Their art works have to be representational in most cases. References Foster, H., 2000. "The Crux of Minimalism" in James Meyer, ed. Minimalism. London: Phaidon. Gage, J., 2000. Color and meaning: art, science, and symbolism. California: University of California Press. Gaut, B. N., & Lopes, D., 2005. The Routledge companion to aesthetics. London: Routledge. Harrigan, C., & Capon, R., 2007. Abstract and Colour Techniques in Painting. New York: Batsford. Hudson, S. P., 2009. Robert Ryman: used paint. London: MIT Press. Knell, S. J., 2007. Museums in the material world. London: Routledge. Kostelanetz, R., & Brittain, H. R., 2001. A dictionary of the avant-gardes. London: Routledge. Lewis, R., & Lewis, S. I., 2008. The Power of Art. London: Cengage Learning. Sim, S., 2005. The Routledge companion to postmodernism. London: Routledge. Read More