Here are some of the images of his work which I found and particularly liked.
More about him on the MoMA website here. Images copied form MoMA and google image search.
Showing posts with label conceptual art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conceptual art. Show all posts
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
More art I like: Leon Ferrari
Another Brazilian artist using words and writing is Leon Ferrari who has exhibited alongside Mira Schendel in a show called Tangeled Alphabets at MoMA New York in 2009. Like Schendel, Ferrari also uses script repetitively, and it is not very clear whether his script actually mens anything, or whether he just likes the flowing patterns of the words. Some of his works overtly political, either about human rights or about sexuality, but some is more concerned with the writing as form and pattern.
Here are some of the images of his work which I found and particularly liked.
More about him on the MoMA website here. Images copied form MoMA and google image search.
Here are some of the images of his work which I found and particularly liked.
More about him on the MoMA website here. Images copied form MoMA and google image search.
Art I like Mira Schendel
Still thinking about my Writing. Word project, I have come across two Brazilian artists who work with words. One is Mira Schendel, who was born in Switzerland in 1919 but moved to Brazil in 1946.
She did a lot of works on paper, either drawn or using Letraset (can you still even get Letraset?) to make images and installations which challenge the viewer to see the random-ness and lack of menacing in words, as well as their value.
Pieces I have seen and particularly like include this one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (the link is here) Houston
She did a lot of works on paper, either drawn or using Letraset (can you still even get Letraset?) to make images and installations which challenge the viewer to see the random-ness and lack of menacing in words, as well as their value.
Pieces I have seen and particularly like include this one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (the link is here) Houston
MIRA SCHENDEL
Brazilian, 1919 - 1988
Variantes
Variants
1977
93 monotypes
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Brazilian, 1919 - 1988
Variantes
Variants
1977
93 monotypes
Variable dimensions
Museum purchase with funds provided by the
Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund
Arts of Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund
ABOUT
This work was discovered after Mira Schendel's death by her daughter. Comprised of 92 white-on-white monotypes and one black monotype, the installation is the culmination of Schendel's graphic objects series that launched her international career in 1964. The monotype technique she used consisted of spreading the paper over a smooth surface covered with paint and marking it on the back with some type of instrument. The sheets were then grouped, pressed between two sheets of acrylic, and suspended in order to be viewed from both sides. Although suggestive of writing, they are not intended to be read but rather experienced as texture and light.
Schendel also did a lot of drawings which are based on writing, although it isn't clear whether the writing has any particular textural meaning. Sometimes the writing is overlaid, layer upon layer,
Some are hand drawn, like this one, and repeat over and over a handful of letters, in different typefaces or different kinds of handwriting.
Some of her letraset and typescript drawings are very formal and geometric, like this one Dactiloscito, 1976,
I really like the way in which Mira Schendel's work veers between the typographical and purely abstract mark-making and drawing. I like the use of layers, and the idea of writing one r and over, filling the space with a big noise of the words and letters. This reminds me a bit of the overlaid photographic images of text done by Idris Khan
Monday, 9 January 2012
Yet more Pathway thoughts and art I like: 9th January
Today we had a day in college working towards our second pathway project, and of course, I made lots of progress and lot of changes. In fact, my thinking has been going round and round over the past couple of days.
Yesterday I was engrossed in the work of people like Jenny Holzer and Fiona Banner, and was thinking about making something, screen printed probably, which was entirely text-based. But I wasn't quite sure why the text should be, and got a bit lost trying to find a reason, a personal theme.
Then I had a conversation with Charlie, who immediately latched onto "writing" as an active verb, rather than a noun - and that set me thinking entirely differently. I began to plan in term of making some big A2 or A3 paintings based on the swirl of script, done as large as I could manage.
But this morning, in college, I was less sure, and spent an hour or so in the library looking at books and images of roman and other, earlier, forms of script. And then, in talking ideas through with fellow-students and also with tutor Mark, I found myself planning to work on the business of writing, and the nature of script and letters as individual 'objects' - i.e. divorcing the idea of letters and script from any worries about meaning or content of a piece of writing.
This of course ties in well with my intention of making something bigger than before, and something celebrating the flow, the physical action, of writing.
So I spent a bit of the afternoon beginning to copy ancient scripts , and to experience some of the 'flow' of the process of boring these unfamiliar letter shapes. I plan to continue with this, concentrating on the nature and design of the letters, and getting my drawings/painting progressively bigger.
Mark encouraged me, also, to look around at letters, individual letters, rather than whole words, in shops, adverts, street signs, etc, etc. I will try to make a photographic collection of such images, which might contribute to the project, perhaps to an alphabet book of some kind. i have a small alphabet book I printed at UWE during the Letterpress Course last summer, and that might come in to the project in some way.
I plan to spend time tomorrow and during the rest of this week on practicing script and experimenting with different kinds of inks, brushes, etc. I will try to keep things (a) simple and (b) as big as I can.
Another idea, to be enveloped if I have time, is to use digital images and computer manipulation to stretch and distort some letter shapes. I might layer some overlapping images. This could relate to some of the images I have seen in the last couple of days by Idris Khan and Jan Owen.
Mark suggested I also look up work by Jasper Johns. So I looked him up tonight. Some of his images were immediately familiar, iconic images of the emerging Pop Art of the 1950s and early 1960s, like this one of the American Flag. Is this a painting of the flags, or is it a painted object which looks like three flags?
Three Flags, 1958
Johns did a lot of paintings based on repeated images of alphabet or numbers. sometimes set out in a grid, sometimes overlaid one on top of the other. He concentrated on the mark-making, the painting and texture and colour, so that the idea of letters or numbers got a bit lost and the finished piece was about colour or texture, rather than about text or meaning.
While he repeated this idea endlessly, to the point of over-saturation and exploitation of ta willing art market, the basic idea is compelling, and chimes well with my intention of producing something which focuses on the action of writing, the essence of individual letters (or numbers, although i hadn't thought to include numerals as well as letters - if numbers, then what about punctuation marks?).
I like oct of these images, and I like the way Johns used paint with such gusto, so thickly and richly. I wonder if I can embrace the paint as eagerly in my own efforts?
Coloured Alphabet
Yesterday I was engrossed in the work of people like Jenny Holzer and Fiona Banner, and was thinking about making something, screen printed probably, which was entirely text-based. But I wasn't quite sure why the text should be, and got a bit lost trying to find a reason, a personal theme.
Then I had a conversation with Charlie, who immediately latched onto "writing" as an active verb, rather than a noun - and that set me thinking entirely differently. I began to plan in term of making some big A2 or A3 paintings based on the swirl of script, done as large as I could manage.
But this morning, in college, I was less sure, and spent an hour or so in the library looking at books and images of roman and other, earlier, forms of script. And then, in talking ideas through with fellow-students and also with tutor Mark, I found myself planning to work on the business of writing, and the nature of script and letters as individual 'objects' - i.e. divorcing the idea of letters and script from any worries about meaning or content of a piece of writing.
This of course ties in well with my intention of making something bigger than before, and something celebrating the flow, the physical action, of writing.
So I spent a bit of the afternoon beginning to copy ancient scripts , and to experience some of the 'flow' of the process of boring these unfamiliar letter shapes. I plan to continue with this, concentrating on the nature and design of the letters, and getting my drawings/painting progressively bigger.
Mark encouraged me, also, to look around at letters, individual letters, rather than whole words, in shops, adverts, street signs, etc, etc. I will try to make a photographic collection of such images, which might contribute to the project, perhaps to an alphabet book of some kind. i have a small alphabet book I printed at UWE during the Letterpress Course last summer, and that might come in to the project in some way.
I plan to spend time tomorrow and during the rest of this week on practicing script and experimenting with different kinds of inks, brushes, etc. I will try to keep things (a) simple and (b) as big as I can.
Another idea, to be enveloped if I have time, is to use digital images and computer manipulation to stretch and distort some letter shapes. I might layer some overlapping images. This could relate to some of the images I have seen in the last couple of days by Idris Khan and Jan Owen.
Mark suggested I also look up work by Jasper Johns. So I looked him up tonight. Some of his images were immediately familiar, iconic images of the emerging Pop Art of the 1950s and early 1960s, like this one of the American Flag. Is this a painting of the flags, or is it a painted object which looks like three flags?
Johns did a lot of paintings based on repeated images of alphabet or numbers. sometimes set out in a grid, sometimes overlaid one on top of the other. He concentrated on the mark-making, the painting and texture and colour, so that the idea of letters or numbers got a bit lost and the finished piece was about colour or texture, rather than about text or meaning.
While he repeated this idea endlessly, to the point of over-saturation and exploitation of ta willing art market, the basic idea is compelling, and chimes well with my intention of producing something which focuses on the action of writing, the essence of individual letters (or numbers, although i hadn't thought to include numerals as well as letters - if numbers, then what about punctuation marks?).
I like oct of these images, and I like the way Johns used paint with such gusto, so thickly and richly. I wonder if I can embrace the paint as eagerly in my own efforts?
Gray Alphabets " 1960 graphite wash on paper by Jasper Johns.
Size: 38 3/8" X 27 7/8"
Size: 38 3/8" X 27 7/8"
Numerals
[Numerals [R.T.P.]] 1970
Print, Multiple, lead relief
Technique: lead relief
Frame 76.6 h x 60.0 w cm
© Jasper Johns
[Numerals [R.T.P.]] 1970
Print, Multiple, lead relief
Technique: lead relief
Frame 76.6 h x 60.0 w cm
© Jasper Johns
Oil on canvas
support: 1372 x 1048 mm frame: 1401 x 1078 x 48 mm
painting
Presented by the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1961
support: 1372 x 1048 mm frame: 1401 x 1078 x 48 mm
painting
Presented by the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1961
In the 1950s, Johns began using flags, targets and numbers as the basis of his paintings. These were ordinary familiar things, but also had an iconic, emblematic quality. This work is one of a series that he undertook in the summer of 1960, using the superimposed numbers 0 to 9. Johns let the process of painting the number sequence dictate the structure of the painting. This allowed him to concentrate on the qualities of the paint itself, exploring colour and thickness. The result is a highlyabstract structure, but one rooted firmly in the real world.
(From the display caption September 2004)
Here is another from the same series......
Jasper Johns
From 0 through 9. 1961
Christie's. 10/11/2010. Lot № 40
Estimate: 12.9 million
Source:
From 0 through 9. 1961
Christie's. 10/11/2010. Lot № 40
Estimate: 12.9 million
Source:
Grey Alphabet, 1956
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Pathway Project Writing: Jenny Holzer
My research into writing has taken me to Jenny Holzer, b 1950, who specialises in creating large and visually imposing installations using neon and lcd lighting to spell out bald messages about contemporary living. morality, sexuality, etc, etc.
The following comes from the Art 21 website here.
Jenny Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1950. She received a BA from Ohio University in Athens (1972); an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (1977); and honorary doctorates from the University of Ohio (1993), the Rhode Island School of Design (2003), and New School University, New York (2005). Whether questioning consumerist impulses, describing torture, or lamenting death and disease, Jenny Holzer’s use of language provokes a response in the viewer. While her subversive work often blends in among advertisements in public space, its arresting content violates expectations. Holzer’s texts—such as the aphorisms “Abuse of power comes as no surprise” and “Protect me from what I want”—have appeared on posters and condoms, and as electronic LED signs and projections of xenon light. Holzer’s recent use of text ranges from silk-screened paintings of declassified government memoranda detailing prisoner abuse to poetry and prose in a sixty-five-foot-wide wall of light in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center, New York. She has received many awards, including the Golden Lion from the Venice Biennale (1990); the Skowhegan Medal (1994); and the Diploma of Chevalier (2000) from the French government. Major exhibitions include Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2001); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1997); Dia Art Foundation, New York (1989); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1989). Since 1996, Holzer has organized public light projections in cities worldwide. She was the first woman to represent the United States in the Venice Biennale (1990). Jenny Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.
Many of her images are projected onto public buildings, are on a huge scale, cannot be overlooked by passing people.
Some messages are blatantly anti-consumerist, and their placement in prominent city locations (ilk ethos one in time Square, New York) is deliberately provocative and ironic.
Holzer also makes installations using neon lights such as this one
In the 1970s and early 1908s, Jenny Holzer made a large number of works on paper recording aphorisms and statements about social and political issues. The series, Inflammatory Essays, is thought provoking and challenging, such as this one
I am not sure where this lies on the map of different types of art. Is this literary text?or is it conceptual art? Does it matter?
She did a series of embossed metal signs, rather like old British rail sings, which struck a particular chord with em, especially this one (which I found here).
because of the link with my own work on the signs t bristol Zoo for a college project last year. I wish i had found this reference then...
I really like Holzer's work. It makes big and bold and unmissable statement, with a strongly feminist, anti-consutmerist, anti-militarist perspective, which are unashamedly political and challenging. She makes a big presence with her art, and requires that people notice, even if they don;t agree with, or like, what she si saying.
Whereas Fiona Banner's written work is either very personal, or else relies on some pervious, and other persons's work, as the basis for her own writing, Holzer makes her statements on her own terms. The use of aphorisms and cliches si an effective and arresting way to get the viewer/public punter, to stop and listen and think about the meaning of phrases which they use or hear casually every day.
I am not t all sure how you define "art" but something which makes people stop and reflect seems to me to be a big part of art's purpose.
The following comes from the Art 21 website here.
Jenny Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1950. She received a BA from Ohio University in Athens (1972); an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (1977); and honorary doctorates from the University of Ohio (1993), the Rhode Island School of Design (2003), and New School University, New York (2005). Whether questioning consumerist impulses, describing torture, or lamenting death and disease, Jenny Holzer’s use of language provokes a response in the viewer. While her subversive work often blends in among advertisements in public space, its arresting content violates expectations. Holzer’s texts—such as the aphorisms “Abuse of power comes as no surprise” and “Protect me from what I want”—have appeared on posters and condoms, and as electronic LED signs and projections of xenon light. Holzer’s recent use of text ranges from silk-screened paintings of declassified government memoranda detailing prisoner abuse to poetry and prose in a sixty-five-foot-wide wall of light in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center, New York. She has received many awards, including the Golden Lion from the Venice Biennale (1990); the Skowhegan Medal (1994); and the Diploma of Chevalier (2000) from the French government. Major exhibitions include Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2001); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1997); Dia Art Foundation, New York (1989); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1989). Since 1996, Holzer has organized public light projections in cities worldwide. She was the first woman to represent the United States in the Venice Biennale (1990). Jenny Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.
Many of her images are projected onto public buildings, are on a huge scale, cannot be overlooked by passing people.
Holzer also makes installations using neon lights such as this one
In the 1970s and early 1908s, Jenny Holzer made a large number of works on paper recording aphorisms and statements about social and political issues. The series, Inflammatory Essays, is thought provoking and challenging, such as this one
I am not sure where this lies on the map of different types of art. Is this literary text?or is it conceptual art? Does it matter?
She did a series of embossed metal signs, rather like old British rail sings, which struck a particular chord with em, especially this one (which I found here).
I really like Holzer's work. It makes big and bold and unmissable statement, with a strongly feminist, anti-consutmerist, anti-militarist perspective, which are unashamedly political and challenging. She makes a big presence with her art, and requires that people notice, even if they don;t agree with, or like, what she si saying.
Whereas Fiona Banner's written work is either very personal, or else relies on some pervious, and other persons's work, as the basis for her own writing, Holzer makes her statements on her own terms. The use of aphorisms and cliches si an effective and arresting way to get the viewer/public punter, to stop and listen and think about the meaning of phrases which they use or hear casually every day.
I am not t all sure how you define "art" but something which makes people stop and reflect seems to me to be a big part of art's purpose.
Art I like: Fiona Banner
Fiona Banner uses words, often hand written, which describe bodies or films or scenes, rather than depicting them in line or drawn or painted image, such as this...
Leaning Nude, 2006, graphite on paper, 67" x 89"photo copied from ArtNet website
Fiona Banner
You gota lot of nerve 1998
© the artist. Photo: copied from the Tate website here.
Leaning Nude, 2006, graphite on paper, 67" x 89"photo copied from ArtNet website
Fiona Banner
You gota lot of nerve 1998
© the artist. Photo: copied from the Tate website here.
Break Point, 1998
This is one of a series Banner made in which she writes a vivid and detail description in words of the action of a film (or films). This one is based on the chase scene in Kathryn Bigelow's cult film Point Break (1991).
She has just been chosen in a public vote for display in a new exhibition in the Gallery in ....
There is a piece on tho in today's Sunday Telegraph, the link is here. This includes the following explanation of her work:
Banner transforms and contains the nail-biting and seemingly endless chase into an arresting landscape of words. As the distance between pursuer and pursued closes, the space between the letters and lines of text stencilled on to the canvas in hazard red correspondingly collapses, until the climax of the chase ends in a crash of words at the bottom of the canvas. But significantly, the chase does not reach completion - when the pursuer finally catches his human quarry, he lets him get away.
I rather like some of her work, which is playful but also thoughtful, and makes you read the words carefully (hard to do when they are written by hand, in wobbly capital letters, high up on a wall in a gallery installation).
Thursday, 29 December 2011
More art I like: Mel Bochner
Mel Bochner's paintings explore words, and their meaning. His website is here. Mel Bochner was born in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1940. He lives and works in New York. A valuable review article about his work, locating him firmly in the emerging conceptual art movement from the mid 1960s, is taken from Frieze magazine in March 2007, and can be found here. He worked closely with friend and fellow conceptual artist Sol Lewitt, exploring drawing, measurement, spatial relationships and colour.
HIs word paintings are many and concentrate on a single word or phrase, or more recently on related words and phrases, rather like a thesaurus entry, bringing together words which have similar meaning, and in the process exploring the texture behind emotions or descriptions like "Unnameable" or "Useless". He uses very simple script, capital letters, no frills, often in multi-coloured canvases, so the first impression is of a child-like randomness. But on closer reading, the words have coherence and emotional force. The simplicity is compelling, as is the use of often vivid odours. Sometimes the works are in repeated handwritten script, sometimes large, sometimes quite small in scale. Here are two of his thesaurus paintings from 2008
HIs word paintings are many and concentrate on a single word or phrase, or more recently on related words and phrases, rather like a thesaurus entry, bringing together words which have similar meaning, and in the process exploring the texture behind emotions or descriptions like "Unnameable" or "Useless". He uses very simple script, capital letters, no frills, often in multi-coloured canvases, so the first impression is of a child-like randomness. But on closer reading, the words have coherence and emotional force. The simplicity is compelling, as is the use of often vivid odours. Sometimes the works are in repeated handwritten script, sometimes large, sometimes quite small in scale. Here are two of his thesaurus paintings from 2008
He also explores concepts and short phrases, about language, in a variety of media and scales, such as these.
LANGUAGE IS NOT TRANSPARENT, 1969
Rubber stamp on graph paper, 9.75 x 7.25 inches
Rubber stamp on graph paper, 9.75 x 7.25 inches
LANGUAGE IS NOT TRANSPARENT, 1999
Oil on paper, 22 x 30 inches
Or these......
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, 2008
Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, 2008
Ink on paper, 11 x 8.5 inches
Ink on paper, 11 x 8.5 inches
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, 2008
Rubber stamp paper, 11 x 8.5 inches
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, 2008
Oil on canvas, 60 x 45 inches
More about him and some more of his works on this blog
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