Foundation 2D: Project 1 Research on Artist References – Part 1
Ed Moses
Left to Right
Red over Black, Black on White, Bam Bo, The Crackle, Mutator.
Ed moses describe himself as a bee who travel from flower to flower, gathering evidence wherever he go. His inspiration came from the image of floral pattern and craftsmen architecture.
An artist inventor whom work on his drawing on the other side of the mirror, creating possibility situation beyond usual forms.
‘Doing a painting without doing a painting’
‘Drawing a line without a line’
Ed Moses Incooperate dimensions and consistency which reinforce geometric forms into his artwork.
Personal Opinion:
I am inspired by the statement that he mentioned ‘Working on his drawing on the other side of the mirror’. Ed Moses believe that a complete artwork can exist in different forms and shapes which bring about the uniqueness and meaning in them. An artist must learn to explore the available techniques and transform them into greater meaning.
Sol Lewitt
Left to Right
Shape of Black & White Stripe, A Cube with Scribble Bands in four direction, Wall Drawing
Sol Lewitt describe himself as a conceptual artist.
‘The idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work, planning and decision were made before hand and the execution is a perfunctory affair.’ It’s 2D but brings a 3D feel. Simple concept that play with different tone and thickness that exploit the use of ‘Line’
Personal Opinion:
Sol Lewitt ‘Scribble’ drawing is a unique and time-consuming piece of artwork. Every strokes are made with no resemblance hence creating the ‘Physical rather than the abstract’ feel. His artworks venture from wall drawing to structure making. ‘Line’ is the origin form in his artwork, the ability to transform the line into different style create infinite possibilities.
Found a similarity to ‘PENROSE TRIANGLE’ and ‘PENROSE STAIRS’ which play with the idea of ‘Optical Illustration’.
Cai Guo Qiang
Left to Right
Explosive House, Sea Goddess, Gunpowder Tiger
Cai QuoQiang describe his artwork as an ‘Open Performance’ in which people of the public can enjoy (Visual Spectacle). His artworks comprise mainly raw materials such as charcoal and gunpowder. Gunpowder ignite and thus suggest with a blurry brown painting.
In the late 2009 in Taiwan, Cai GuoQiang allow the public to participate in the production of his drawings. His message bring contemporary art to a level where people are able to achieve an artwork together. By doing so, his audience are able to understand and feel connected to the artist’s fate.
His technique involve stacking various cardboard stencils on a surface followed by the gunpowder. At the moment of ignition, the cardboard layers are compressed into one, forming a beautiful abstract art as the final product.
Personal Opinion:
Gunpowder is inherently organic and unpredictable, it is not toxic unless it enter the human body. Cai GuoQiang method of drawing have a slight significant to adding depth and randomness in it. *[Random is also a kind of art]* Gunpowder is hard to control when it ignite, hence adding up to the difficulty.
Hilma af Klint
Left to Right
The Swan, The Buddha’s Standpoint in Earthly Life, The Ten Biggest
Hilma Af Klint artworks are defined as inspiration packaged from both religion and spiritual medium. Her artworks contain language that one must have intensive knowledge of history to decrypt and understand. Her ideas and internal dynamics, involve dabbling in the spiritual world on the side, which she believe were communicated to her from another mystical realm.
Personal Opinion:
In the world today, religious artworks exist. For example; Buddhist pratice Buddhist Art, Christian practice Scared Christian Art etc. All artworks carries different message across them, some of it are forbidden while some of it contain values that aim to nuture the growing children.
For someone who are unable to decipher the message in the drawing, I personally feel her drawing smooth and relaxing for the eyes. It is clean and neat too. The colours used are well presented with contrast applied. It create the movement in the eyes across the surfaces.
Hilma Af Kilnt also experiment with different methods of drawing such as Graphite, Water Colour and Tempera. As a artist, one should learn to explore different mean of methods.
Emma Kunz
Left to Right
Artcards, Artcards 55.
Emma Kunz artworks were, orginally, not meant for the museum wall. It was placed on the floor next to the client the artist was seeing. Her artworks functioned as therapeutic tools rahter than pieces of art.
With slight similarilty to the artworks done by Hilma Af Klint, her works also contain symbolic value of Religion.
Personal Opinion:
Therapeutic tools or not, Emma Kunz artworks were magnificent. In my opinion, her artworks creates the sense of satisfactory. The artworks were seen balanced with symmetrical geometric shapes in an abstract. Her approach with geometric abstraction not as formalism but also as a mean of structuring philosophy, scientific and spiritual idea.
Agnes Martin
Left to Right
Falling Blue, Loving Love
Agnes Martin artworks involved covering canvases with faint yet precise grids. ‘Grids’ was the fundamental used in her design as it it keep the surface visually taut. Her artworks were controlled with precision variation of line and colours.
The grids creates a visual feel of opening up and compression as the line sweep by.
Personal Opinion:
At first sight, her artworks gave me a warm and sincere feeling. The artworks play around with the tone and combination of horizontal lines which was guided by ‘the grid’. ‘The grid’ draw attention to the viewers eyes creating a contrast as we look along the vertical and horizontal lines. In additional, her artworks are balanced in a symmetry way.
On the side note*
Hilma Af Klint, Emma Kunz and Agnes Martin were known as the three important women artists whose innovative ideas and approaches to creating an artwork had a significant impact on history of modem abstraction. The approach involved spiritual idea and constructing philosophy. They made use of geometric shapes, lines and grid as a form of expression.*
Andy Warhol
Left to Right
Shadow V, Oxidation Painting 1978, and Untitled 162
Andy Warhol was a renowned controversial artist who loved celebrities. His artworks communicate the wide use of artistic expression though the use of different types of media such as; Hand drawn, Painting and Sculpture.
Known for his ‘Piss’ painting as well. The painting was done with urine (Effect of acid) on surface of copper. It introduce a chemical effect thus resulting in oxidation. Science and chemistry were involved.
Personal Opinion:
Andy Warhol explored the possibilities of science in his abstract artwork. His artworks were often created in large-scale that drives the beauty and bring out the mood of colours. In his ‘Shadow’ series artworks he play with the idea of ‘what is real’ and ‘what is an abstract’.
Andy Warhol share a common similarity with Cai GuoQiang in which they allow assistance from other parties. In the case of Andy Warhol, he made his friend urinate on a metallic copper background creating a ‘Paintery’ artwork.
Andy Warhol have also a firm grip on the colour pattern. He understand how colours can be formed during the process of oxidation for example; Blue and green will form later on top of a layer of red or brown copper oxides.
I find his art interesting and special. I like how he did his experiment with colour and chemical reaction.
Julie Mehretu
Left to Right
Middle Grey, Half A Shadow, The Forever Now
Julie Mehretu artworks contain inspiration from historical photographs, modern art, graffiti along with their impact of personal and communal identities.
Her artworks were mostly done using ink and acrylic paint with mulitiple layers that depict infrastructure and landscape. She play with the depth and composition of the abstracted forms and lines.
The layers of ink, marks and paint resulted in the combination of gestural marks that dissolve on the surface of the canvas. It also bring a dynamic feel resulted from the overlapping of different layers.
Personal Opinion:
Her artworks capture the energy and emotion though the use of gestural movement. Julie Mehretu creates perfection through the freedom of being imperfect.
Cy Twombly
Left to Right
NiNi Painting, Untitled VIII [Bacchus], Roses
Cy Twombly worked with a combination of abandon and selectivity in his artworks.
His artwork emphasis on the old-fashioned mark making that involve scribbling, similar to Sol LeWitt, and calligraphic scrawls.
Like many other artist, his artworks came from the response to history, literature and many other forms of art (Handwriting). He redefined painting as storytelling in which basic elements such as sign, symbols, letters and notations were introduced.
Personal Opinion:
Similar to ‘Hilma Af Klint, Emma Kunz and Agnes Martin’, Cy Twonbly artworks carries historical message across to his viewers. It seems like the painting are puzzles to be solved.
Franz Kline
Left to Right
Alpha Channeled, Sawyer, Pennsy Lvania
Franz Kline choice of materials – Inexpensive, low-viscosity house paints.
Many of Franz Kline artworks focus on or rather are images suggested through his childhood hometown. Some of it can be recognize as the bridges, railroad tracks and machinery.
Personal Opinion:
Abstract expressionism was developed in the context of diverse, overlapping sources and inspirations. The thick and thin line used in Franz Kline artworks made the overall feel engaging. Like the strokes are trying to tell something.
I find Franz Kline statement on his abstract work amazing. He mention ‘I paint the white as well as the black and the white is just as important’. In addition, I like the way he can make his artwork simple with limited palette used.
Yves Klein
Left to Right
People begin to fly, Relief Sponge, Ant 20
Slight similarity to Cai QuoQiang ‘Open Performance’.
Yves Klein artworks involved transferring paint from the model body onto the canvas. The model would first be covered in paint and then would roll or by any movement creating ‘leftover’ for the painting.
The model will move around the canvas, in paint, accompanied by live audience and live orchestra.
Creates ‘Anthropometries’ in his artwork.
Personal Opinion:
Other than Cai QuoQiang Gunpowder artwork, Yves Klein is unique in a way of creating a form of ‘Body Art’. In the world today, body painting is not only use for protests and promotion but also an exhibitionist form of art that is well appreciated among art critics. Example such as, Tattoo art.
Some well-known body painting artist are; Joanne Gair, Youri Messen-Jaschin, Johannes Stotter and many more.
However, the ‘Body Art’ in today context are made on the body itself which was the opposite doing of Yves Klein.
Mark Bradford
Left to Right
Scorched Earth, The cracks between the floor boards, Smokey
Mark Bradford challenged himself by changing the direction of his work.
His painting are usually large, because of his height, but became small due to space constrain.
Starts with a stretched canvas and builds up its surface with ten or fifteen layers of paper – White paper, Coloured paper, Newsprint, Photographs etc.
He explained; ‘The stereotype is always following you, like a monkey on your back’.
Personal Opinion:
Mark Bradford artworks focus on many small details, placed them layer by layer and transforming them into a big abstract picture. It’s like layer over layer, quite similar to Julie Mehretu but his inspiration were not from landscape and infrastructure. His works somehow inspired from rediscovering the past.
I like the idea of adding various tiny image together to form another piece of art. It is like paper mache, cutting out pages of paper and stacking them over another creating linear tracks and visually stuttering spots. As I look at his artworks, depth are exposed by exploiting the hidden colours that the process can creates. It is light emerging from within.