Chapter 9 &11 Flashcards
Abstraction
- ABSTRACT is a general term, meaning forms abstracted from nature
- There is an underlying tradition of abstraction in Western art from prehistoric times that was pushed below the surface with the dominance of the classical tradition which was revived with the Renaissance
- •NON-OBJECTIVE means pure abstraction. The work of art has no reference to any object outside of itself; the forms are not based in nature
Bertram Brooker
- Canada seen its first solo exhibition of abstract and non-objective painting in 1927 from Brooker
- Brooker was a novelist art critic, script writer, dramatist and journalist
- very 1st paintings were abstract done under the influence of music
- uses colour volume and rhythm experienced while listening to music
Brooker 2
- his paintings have musical connections
- Brooke was influenced by book painting
- very interested in colour & line
BERTRAM BROOKER, UNTITLED (SOUNDS ASSEMBLING), 1928
Lawren Harris
- interested in spiritualism
- read penskys work
member of international theosophical society
one of his non objective works
trees a progression
favourite rec activities was mountain climbing
doesn’t come to complete abstraction until late 19th century
HARRIS 2
- after he left Canada for the US he takes a step into modernist practice in a series of nature based abstractions of the mid 1930s.
- influenced by Brooker’s paintings of the late 1920’s
- not until the late 1930s Harris shifted away from the spatial composition associated with his paintings of nature.
- In White Triangle he used the basic building blocks of geometric form the shallow space of Cubism and a Theosophy-inspired palette in which specific colours evoked specific spiritual states.
LAWREN HARRIS,
PAINTING NO. 4, C. 1939
Abstract Art & Harris’s third type of abstraction
- art composed only of formal elements with no message or predetermined idea.
- reflects the brief period in the late 1930s and early 1940s when several english canadians including Harris Taçon, turned to geometric non objective painting.
- They were familiar with Kandisnky, Bauhaus art and theory and New yorks museum of non objective art.
Abstract art 2 & MAcdonald
- surrealism influenced english-canadian abstraction
- european artists who had taken refuge in North America introduced artists to their theories of surrealist automatism.
- Vancouver Jock Macdonald’s career changed when he met Grace Pailthorpe who used automatic painting in her clinical practice.
- Pailthorpe taught Macdonald how to use this technique.
HANS HOFMANN
- German born artist, arrived in NYC 1932 to teach at art students league.
- central to his teaching was the importance of spiritual expression and the two dimensionality of painting.
- he argued that the paintings vitality depended on the tension between the two dimensional and three dimensional.
- he felt that this tension could be achieved by expliting the properties of colour to optically advance or recede in relation to the picture plane. This would result in a push-pull dynamic.
HANS HOFMANN, CIRCUS, 1945
Kathleen Munn
- influenced by Brooker
- 1st Canadian artist to exhibit pure abstract art in Canada around 1916
- she continued to experiment with cubist-based abstraction through the 1920s and into the early 1930s
- Paintings composition and untitled signal Harris’s abstractions of the mid 1930s and reflected a msytical search that parelleled that of Brooker.
KATHLEEN MUNN, UNTITLED, C. 1926-28 (FIGURE 9.2) OIL ON CANVAS, 37 X 60 CM.
EDNA TAÇON
- Montreal artist
- musician a violinist before painting
- influenced by music & Kendensky
- first solo exhibition in toronto 1941 titled the 1st Canadian exhibition for non-objective pictures
Taçon
- worked in mixed media, non-objective Bauhaus idiom, creating paper plastics.
- often collaged decorative materials and employed textured grounds in her experimentation with the emotional and physical effects of colour and form.
- work was included in every Museum of non objective art group show from 1941-5 and became a spokeperson for non-objetive painting,
EDNA TAÇON, FLEEING, 1946 (FIGURE 9.4)
OIL ON CANVAS BOARD, 48.1 X 45.1 CM.
Clement Greenberg
- In 1939 Clement Greenberg wrote an article entitled avant garde and kitsch that was published in the partisan review
- He began by attacking mass culture which he called kitsch for its link with mass politics
- he also felt that it encouraged conformity and thus masked the authenticity of the individual
- he said that the true artist must fight the influence of kitsch by focusing on his own medium
Clement Greenberg 2
- painters must reject narrative content and three dimensionality and accept the physical or plastic character of the painting
- greenbergs ideas about the purity of art were immensely influential
- discovers Jackson Pollock
Painters 11
- premised the creation of the group on the individualism and freedom of expression that had become symbolic of the free world.
- came together to find a common exhibition platform for abstract art.
- Hoffman’s theory of shallow pictorial space governed by the tension of push and pull remained central to their art.
- members glorified the act of painting as a means of transferring pure emotion directly onto the canvas.
PAINTERS ELEVEN (1953-1960).
- The artists who formed this group brought abstraction to toronto.
- members: Alexandra Luke, Tom Hodgson, Harold Town, Kazuo Nakamura, Jock Macdonald, Walter Yarwood, Hortense Gordon, Jack Bush, Ray Mead, Oscar Cahén, William Ronald.
- first meeting as a group in 1953, about a decade later than the automatistes.
Painters Eleven 2
- what is important about them is that they looked to new york city for their inspiration not France.
- reflect Canada’s and Ontario’s increasing economic ties to the U.S.
- following WWII these artists were therefore not directly influenced by french surrealism.
Painters Eleven 3
- havent gone to France - goal was stylistic individuality, no doctrinal statements
- Called Painters 11 because thats how many members there was
- no political agenda/purpose
- felt if they exhibited together they have a bigger impact on art scene
WHY ARE PAINTERS ELEVEN IMPORTANT FOR CANADIAN ART? DID THEY MAKE GOOD PAINTINGS?
- they produced no important landmark paintings equivalent, to the new york art school.
- in their art, there is little in the way of pure abstraction except for nakamura and bush.
- what is important is the mythology that surrounds their work
- they exhibited regularly thus kept in public eye
Why are painters 11 important part 2
- most active in first four years
- their importance lies in the fact that through persistance, their advocacy for art, and thier notoriety they broke through the limited conservative and old-fashioned view of the visual arts that was prevalent in ontario especially toronto in the early 1950s.
- they presented a collective voice at a crucial time in the toronto art scene
- brought abstraction to toronto.
ALEXANDRA LUKE (1901-1967) (Painters 11)
- wealthy, married into the automobile manufacturing McLaughlin family
- important for bringing The group together
- spark very influential in promoting abstract art in Toronto
Luke
- spent summers at Hoffmans school for 5 years
- influenced by Hoffman and ideas of modern art
- studied under Jock Macdonald
- been painting abstracts since 1945
-
ALEXANDRA LUKE, JOURNEY, 1957 (FIGURE 9.5)
Oscar Cahén (Painters 11)
- Born in Copenhagen Denmark, to a German family.
- 1938 fled europe because of fathers anti-nazi views
- in Canadian internment camp from 1940 - 2
- studied design & painting in Europe
- worked for commercial art company in Montreal.
- early work is expressionist
- influenced by Picassos cubism
Cahén 2
- dark expressionist paintings based on organic forms and religious imagery, strongly influenced by the art of Graham Sutherland and Abraham Rattner.
- 1950s distinctive approach emerged in dynamic brilliantly coloured and boldly designed paintings often with flat areas of bounded colours.
OSCAR CAHÉN (1916-1956), ANIMATED ITEM,
C. 1955
(FIGURE 9.7)
Jock Macdonald (Painters 11)
- oldest of the painters eleven
- painted first abstract in 1934.
- experimented with automatic/surrealist painting in watercolour and ink in vancouver in 1941.
- went to Toronto to teach at the OCA 1947
- 1st living Canadian other than the group of 7 to be given a retrospective exhibition at the art gallery of toronto
Macdonald 2
- studied with Hoffmann in the summer of 1948-9
- french surrealist advised him to paint in oil
- 1956 started to mix lucite 44 with his oil paints
- this gave him the fluency of watercolour and solved his problem with spontaneity
- MacDonald never completely abandons illusionistic space
J.W.G. (JOCK) MACDONALD, RUSSIAN FANTASY, 1946 (FIGURE 9.3). WATERCOLOUR/GOUACHE AND INK ON PAPER, 21.7 X 35.7 CM. (AUTOMATIC/SURREALISM)
J.W.G. (JOCK) MACDONALD, FLEETING BREATH, 1959. OIL AND LUCITE ON CANVAS, 122.2 X 149.2 CM.
J.W.G. (JOCK) MACDONALD, FAR OFF DRUMS, 1960 (FIGURE 9.6)
OIL AND LUCITE ON CANVAS, 91.3 X 106.6 CM
ABSTRACTION AFTER 1950