Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Abstract 20th century'

The method I use in creating abstract sculpture presented the question that became the subject of my Master's thesis. Only occasionally will I create from a pre-conceived concept. The sculptures evolve through a process of addition and subtraction of material to something that simply pleases me. This method, really no method at all, seemed contradictory to my original intentions. My artistic goals were purposeful; I wanted to create sculpture that would provoke a reaction first, not a judgment of features. I wanted the viewers emotional and psychological involvement to be the basis for content and meaning in the work. In spite of the indirect approach, I felt there was some success in achieving my goal. Discovering how this occurred was important because I was at a loss to understand the content of my own work. Did the sculpture I was making hold any deeper meaning for me? My thesis proposal advanced the question of how sculptural form expresses content. A more accurate question is, what does it mean? I had faith that I was indeed making art that was more than a pleasant arrangement of forms. Confident that there was also meaning, I proceeded to explore and analyze the relationship of creative process to sculptural form and content. While writing a draft of my thesis, I realized the question was beyond a definitive answer. This was a personal investigation of a fundamental question. My expectation was that insight and analysis would provide the answer I needed.

Orientador: Denise Hortencia Lopes Garcia
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes
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Resumo: Esta pesquisa reflete a relação entre a música do compositor norte americano Morton Feldman e o grupo de pintores do Expressionismo Abstrato The New York School of Visual Arts - partindo da ótica do próprio compositor. Abordamos a maneira como Feldman trabalhou concepções advindas da pintura na composição técnica e estética em sua música. Para discorrer sobre este tema, a dissertação apresenta uma breve contextualização histórica da década de 50, do século passado, momento do encontro de Feldman com os pintores. Em seguida, apresentamos as concepções desenvolvidas por Feldman em sua música derivadas da pintura. Para tanto, apresentaremos análises que nos permitam compreender como estas concepções se concretizam musicalmente através da história notacional do compositor. Do ponto de vista metodológico a pesquisa se vale das declarações do próprio compositor, de pesquisas que abordam o trabalho composicional de Morton Feldman e da análise de obras. Priorizamos a análise da peça Crippled Symmetry, já que ela apresenta uma das notações mais originais produzidas por Feldman, o que nos inspirou a composição de Sombras Sobre o Encoberto 11, peça que apresentamos neste trabalho como resultado composicional desta pesquisa. Nas considerações finais, além do resultado de Sombras Sobre o Encoberto 11, discutimos como as concepções utilizadas por Feldman a partir da pintura pode ser amplamente explorada como base composicional singular.
Abstract: This research is about the relation between the music of the American composer Morton Feldman and the group of painters of Abstract Expressionism The New York School of Visual Arts - from the point of view of himself. It will focus the way Feldman developed concepts drawn from painting in the technique and aesthetics of his music. Thus the dissertation presents a historical account of the 1950s, when Feldman and the painters met. Then we present concepts Feldman drew from painting and developed in his music. We provide analyses which allow us to understand how such concepts work musically throughout Feldman's notational history. The method of this research is based on Feldman's statements, researches about his compositional work and the analysis of pieces. Crippled symmetry, whose notation is among the most original devised by Feldman, undergoes extensive analysis. It has also been the inspiration for the composition of our work Sombras sobre o Encoberto II, We present this piece as the compositional outcome of this research. In addition to this piece, the conclusion shows how the concepts Feldman drew from painting can be vastly explored as a unique basis for the composition of music.
Mestrado
Mestre em Música

This thesis traces a line of literary experimentation in post-war British literature that was prompted by the aesthetic, philosophical and theoretical demands of abstraction. Spanning the period 1945 to 1980, it observes the ways in which certain aesthetic advancements initiated new forms of literary expression to posit a new genealogy of interdisciplinary practice in Britain. It is the first sustained chronological study to consider the ways in which a select number of British poets, authors and critics challenged the received views of their post-war moment in the discovery of the imaginative and idealizing potential of abstraction. At a time in which Britain became conscious of its evolving identity within an increasingly globalised context, this study accounts for the range of Continental and Transatlantic influences in order to more accurately locate the networks at play. Exploring the contributions made by individuals, such as Herbert Read, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Christine Brooke-Rose, as well as by groups of practitioners, such as the British concrete poetry movement, small press initiatives and Art & Language, this thesis offers a comprehensive account of the evolving status of abstraction across cultural, institutional and literary contexts. The discussions build a vision of an era that increasingly jettisons the predetermined critical lexicon of abstraction to generate works of a more pragmatic abstract inspiration: the spatial demands of concrete poetry, language as medium in the conceptual artwork, the absence of linear plot in the new novel.

This thesis examines a series of controversies in Portland, Oregon during the 1950s triggered by the placement of modem art in strategic public locations. This study examines the controversy surrounding the installation of Louis Bunce's mural at the Portland International Airport and the series of modern art controversies that followed the mural incident.

Bibliography: pages 232-240.
This dissertation argues that abstract art is not ideologically neutral. In spite of many artists' anti-fascist stance early in their careers, the mantle of neutrality was assumed as a reaction to the protracted struggle between the two major ideologies confronting artists living in Europe and the United States of America in the period 1933-1953, namely capitalism and communism. These ideologies were not peripheral to artists lives, but were actively debated by both artists and intellectuals and resulted in the establishment of powerful cultural organisations. The ensuing growth in prestige and influence of left-wing artist's organisations was countered by a campaign which included direct suppression of left-wing artists as well as a form of ideological control. This control was vested in what has been called the specifics of patronage and is reflected in the establishment of the Arts Council in Britain and the private art museums in the United States. Changes in the art market have meant that, together with dealers and critics, these institutions wielded almost complete economic control over artists. The prevailing ideology of liberal humanism, which glorified individualism and defined democracy as a middle ground between the left and the right, favoured the development of a seemingly apolitical abstract art style. Analysis of the demise of the Artists International Association and the American Artist's Congress supports the conclusion that the figurative tradition lost prestige as a result of the stigma attached to Socialist Realism and the idealised realism demanded by National Socialism in Germany. Account is also taken of the attempt by well-positioned and influential commentators to identify all forms of realism with totalitarianism. It is not surprising therefore, that it was commonly believed that to paint in an abstract modern style was to strike a blow against fascism. In the same way that realism was identified with the regimentation of Soviet society, the avant-gardes' abstract experiments came to symbolize democracy. Drawing on the texts of writers, critics, artists and theorists, this dissertation shows that the force of the identification of progressive realism with totalitarianism, prepared the way for acceptance of the idea that freedom of expression epitomised freedom in general. In this way, anti-Stalinism and the post-war liberal philosophy of individual freedom, coupled with a search for 'essences' and the 'universal', directed artists inward to the medium of art as relevant subject-matter. This dissertation argues that this identification was ideologically motivated in respect to the balance of social and political power in America.

Cette thèse est une étude du mouvement Cobra à travers les œuvres collectives, une de ses composantes caractéristiques. Il s’agit tout d’abord de comprendre le mouvement, ses origines et influences, ainsi que sa visée d’un art libre, ouvert, expérimental, partie prenante de la vie. Dans un contexte social d’après-guerre, souvent politisé, Cobra défend l’action collective, définie notamment dans les notions d’antispécialisme et d’interspécialisme. Il convient de mettre en exergue les origines de cette pratique, et saisir les divers aspects qu’elle arbore, notamment au travers de revues, d’expositions ou de créations partagées. Le poète Christian Dotremont, animateur et âme de Cobra, favorise le travail de collaboration et contribue à son développement en stimulant les rencontres artistiques. Il se fait le passeur et le permanent "agitateur"» de cette notion. Les peintures-mots qu’il crée avec d’autres artistes participent à sa réflexion majeure sur l’écriture et la peinture. Ce lien interpelle quelques artistes belges comme Pierre Alechinsky, mais il passionne Christian Dotremont qui ne cesse de multiplier les expériences à ce propos, pour aboutir à ce qu’il nomme les logogrammes, remarquable fusion de la peinture et de la poésie, et aboutissement de toute une vie de recherche.

Ce travail est structuré en trois points. Le premier établit une étude du contexte artistique et social des années précédent Cobra puis la mise en place du groupe. Le second aborde les années d’intense activité "officielle" du groupe, au service du collectif. Enfin, le troisième propose de suivre l’évolution post-Cobra des œuvres collectives et des recherches sur l’écriture et la peinture. / This thesis is a study of the Cobra movement through one of its characteristic components: the collective works. First of all it's about understanding the movement, its origins (three countries), its influences and its purpose of a free art, open, experimental, involvement with life. In a social after-war context, often politicized, Cobra defends collective action, notably defined in concepts of anti-specialism and inter-specialism. We should therefore underline the origins of this practice and undestand different aspects that it shows, in particular through publications, exhibitions or shared creations. The poet Christian Dotremont, leader and soul of Cobra, promotes cooperative work by collaboration and contributes to its development by stimulating artistic meetings. He is the purveyor and permanent "agitator" of this concept. The words-paintings that he creates with other artists, take part of his major thinking about writing and painting. This link interpellates a few Belgian artists like Pierre Alechinsky, but it fascinates Christian Dotremont who keeps experimenting on it, in order to reach what he calls the logograms, a remarkable fusion of painting and poetry, and a culmination of a life-time of research.

This work is structured in three parts. The first one draws a study of the artistic and social context of the years preceding Cobra and the setting up of the group. The second one talks about years of intense "official" activity of the group serving collective way of work. Finally, the third one offers to follow the post-Cobra evolution of collective works and researches about writing and painting.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Créé le 8 novembre 1948 à Paris par huit peintres et écrivains belges, hollandais et danois, Cobra est l’acronyme de Copenhague, Bruxelles, Amsterdam. Le mouvement se propose rapidement de devenir un lien souple entre artistes et poètes de différents pays, par le biais d’un certain nombre de publications et d’expositions. Son existence officielle sera brève, puisqu’elle prend fin en 1951 avec le dernier numéro de la revue éponyme. Si les premières tentatives d’analyse historique et de synthèse sont venues des artistes et des poètes membres du mouvement, plusieurs études abouties ont vu le jour depuis les années 1970.

S’appuyant sur un certain nombre d’affirmations émanant des acteurs de Cobra comme des historiens ayant écrit sur le sujet, l’auteur s’est penché sur la question de la violence picturale et théorique au sein de ce mouvement. Picturale, par la propension des artistes à brouiller la lisibilité de la composition et des figures, par leur volonté de « faire brut » et enfantin, de « mal peindre », de maltraiter le sujet en le rendant méconnaissable, hybride, défiguré. Théorique, par un certain nombre de déclarations (pour la plupart, parues dans la revue Cobra) véhémentes, engagées, politiques, relatives au climat sociopolitique de l’après-guerre comme au contexte artistique et culturel contemporain.

Au cours des recherches, il est apparu que la violence de Cobra était plus ambiguë que ce qui avait été imaginé initialement. Elle relève en réalité d’une forme d’instrumentalisation émanant des acteurs, qui ont multiplié les effets rhétoriques, les attitudes et les déclarations allant dans ce sens, conduisant Cobra à user d’une violence « décorative » nettement instrumentée :un outil utilisé par les artistes dans la construction de leur image, de leur identité individuelle et collective. Cette piste a ainsi débouché vers d’autres résultats que ceux imaginés au préalable mais n’en a pas moins permis de réévaluer le mouvement sur le plan de l’histoire des représentations, en étudiant les stratégies développées par ses membres dans les œuvres et les discours. La mise en perspective critique de ceux-ci a permis de cerner la capacité rhétorique de certains membres de Cobra, qui ont valorisé l’image d’un mouvement artistique résolument « moderne », c’est-à-dire violent et revendicateur, tout en puisant leur inspiration dans certaines formes d’art primitives et brutes.

La thèse s’articule de façon thématique, autour de quatre pôles révélateurs des formes et du sens de la violence détectée dans les œuvres et les discours des Cobra :

Répondre à la guerre – Cobra face au siècle

Une violence générationnelle

Le primitif ou le jeu de la violence

Aspirations libertaires

Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

博士
國立臺灣師範大學
美術學系
101
First chapter focused on the introduction of Zen and Taoism philosophy by Eastern and Western viewpoints. Second part of this chapter investigates the literature review by number of books, novels, research papers, articles of Zen and Taoism philosophy, art influence on east and west. However, several painters from East and West have deeply influenced by this philosophy but there is very less information available about painting and philosophy connection. Some of literature are very important for this research and had details examination in this chapter. Second chapter Research background is constructed on Twentieth century artists, who can be safely said to be influenced by Zen and Taoism philosophy, were not interested in a photographic representation of an object but in interpreting its spirits. It has been Cosmo centric. Therefore this chapter examines western artists and their involvement and viewpoints and for Eastern mainly concern on Taiwanese and Indian artists works. Third chapter of significance and expected outcomes mainly focused on varied colors and abstract forms of Zen and Tao such as Enso, Yin-Yang, circle, square, triangular, spiral or (Kundalini). Therefore this Chapter is constructed on philosophical influence of Zen and Taoism by basic of line, calligraphy, color, techniques and styles by various artists. Fourth chapter is based on my own art experience and an influence of Zen and Taoism philosophy as well as the influence of abstract painters of 20th century. The guidance of my fine art professor Su Hsian-Fa and Hsiao Chong Ray, about collective unconscious, that all humans have common inherited archetypal and symbolic patterns of emotional and mental behavior which took me to the higher levels and in depth in abstract paintings creation inspired by Zen and Taoism Philosophy. Fifth chapter is main analysis of this research. It’s analyzed by number of artist of Europe and America. 20th century’s American artists explored the calligraphic brushstroke, which was an approach to abstract painting that focused on popular writings on Taoism and Zen and its ethics of direct action. American artists were searching beyond the limitations of their culture for motivation. Shodo, in general, served as inspiration to numerous Abstract Expressionist painters of the period. Japanese art and Zen Buddhism dominated in part because America’s political and economic ties with Japan were historically stronger than those with China or India. Especially European artists inspired by this philosophy and their composition were depending upon chance, random accident or highly improvisational execution, typically hoping to attain freedom from the past, from academic formulas and the limitations placed on imagination by the conscious mind. 20th century most of abstract art was spiritual in its origin and one of them was theosophy movement, it can compare with many of spiritual techniques in Eastern systems of spirituality, to compare the different meditation techniques of Zen and Taoism in this chapter. Conclusion is arrived on Zen Philosophy is constructed on Nothingness whereas Taoist philosophy is constructed on Empty mind therefore this research focused on the aspects of comparative philosophical and painting study and view but not religious view.

This doctorate explores 'Organic Growth and Form in Abstract Painting', as the focus of my studio-based research, and which has resulted in two significant series of paintings, Organica and Streaming. The accompanying exegesis addresses experiences that are realized within the studio practice, and complements the two series of paintings. In the exegesis I describe the innovative and distinctive painting processes I have developed, and explain my motivation for working this way. I cite the writing of the philosopher of science, Henri Bortoft, in particular his description of 'active' seeing, which I suggest can be understood as a kind of modeling of my processes of making the Organica and Streaming paintings. Key to my research has been an investigation into the work of the early Russian avant-garde artist, musician, theorist and teacher, Mikhail Matyushin, who promoted an 'organic' vision of painting during the early years of modernist experimentation, insisting that perception cannot be separated from the body's inherent connection with nature. I discuss how the artists in the Organic studio, led by Matyushin, tested their sensitivity to perceptual and sensory experience with controlled experiments. Philosophically, they considered their findings to be congenial with the latest scientific discoveries of their time. Although my paintings are constructed very differently from those of Matyushin, my approach to perception and interpretation in painting is in sympathy with his thinking. The constructive and perceptual approach I have taken to both series of paintings has been directly influenced by immersion in natural environments. My exegesis provides a detailed account of this working process: how I work with geometric templates for the coordination of colours, and my systematic approach to their application, leading to uncontrived 'organic' extensions in the detail. I discuss my interest in the implicit knowledge garnered through perception of colours and the connective fabric underlying surface appearances in nature. I argue that these observations are generative resources for painting, and emphasise the fact that our sensory and thinking bodies are also part of nature. - provided by Candidate.

Within my thesis I propose to establish the existence of what I call 21st century expressionism. This genre of art is an extension of the movement that began in 20th century post-war America. 21st century expressionists create works that are intended to promote emotional responses within the viewer. “The term ``expressionism'' can be used to describe various art forms but, in its broadest sense, it is used to describe any art that raises subjective feelings above objective observations. Its aim is to reflect the artists’ state of mind rather than the reality of the external world”. Lee Krasner and Tony Smith, represent prime examples of 20th century expressionists and, Etsuko Ishikawa and Beth Cavener Stichter represent artists of 21st century expressionism.

This following is a study on abstract painting: the critical reception and analysis of painterly practice--performative, experimental, dissenting--in New York from 1936 to 1951. By metonymy, this study also looks at the figure in the political realm via the critiques offered by socially-oriented critics at this time (some of whom were also art critics). As the boundless secondary literature on this period has noted, the painting of the New York School would "triumph" with "stunning success" by the late 1950s. In other regards, the subject of this dissertation is that of failure. The revolution (or, "the idea of Revolution") that had been hoped for by so many left-wing radicals in the 1930s never quite came to pass or, later, went horribly wrong: first in Spain and then elsewhere. "Modern art, like modern literature and modern life," Clement Greenberg concluded in a 1948 essay on the Old Masters "has lost much." Greenberg's essay on the Old Masters appeared in the same number of Partisan Review as Hannah Arendt's essay, "The Concentration Camps." This is the generation of critics, intellectuals and artists who bore the brunt of articulating the unspeakable horrors of the Camps and the Bomb--manmade places and events that were "beyond human comprehension." This study is also about belief, of kinds: a Modernist belief in the agency of the artist, in the discernment of the critic, and of a "superstitious regard for print," to which Greenberg referred with irony in a 1957 essay (artists didn't always believe what they read, he would conclude). Irving Howe, the founder of Dissent in 1954, supposedly once quipped that, "when intellectuals can do nothing else, they start a magazine." The dissertation at hand contains a number of kinds of critical statements: ones of ambiguity and of skepticism, and others of crisis and disinterest, directed towards art objects and elsewhere, and expressed by writers at mid-century, some especially subtle and acute. Modernist belief, even if betrayed too often, allowed these critics often to escape velleities, or other empty gestures, in their writing.

Beyond Picturing is practice led research aimed at determining whether horizontality can be deemed a medium in its own right, and further, whether it can establish a new set of conventions, enabling a cross-cultural dialogue between peoples of our region, particularly Aboriginal people and Maori and those of European heritage. I chart the course of horizontality across the art of the 20th century, identifying it as a medium for practice. My thesis examines examples in which horizontality as a methodology was a vehicle for meaning, based on the theories of structural linguistics and phenomenology. Furthermore, by acknowledging the axial shift, from the horizontal plane of process to the vertical plane of image, I discover a shared ground for cultural dialogue with painters of the central desert and the Kimberley.

1 Abstract A monograph on Jan Kotík (1916-2002) introduces both his art and theoretical work, it deals with a historical and cultural context of the now-defunct Czechoslovakia. Kotík's - an artist's, theoretician's, published author's, educator's - artwork enjoys a prominent position in the context of Czech art of the second half of 20th century. An art-historical assessment of artwork was based on Kotik's artwork inventory and on all the documentation on Kotik's life and art work archived in the Documentation Department of the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the CR and in private archives in the CR and Berlin. The study is based on a method of organic combination of biographical data and art-historical data with quotation of Kotik's theoretical texts. An evolution of artist's work is demonstrated chronologically with the context to Czech and world art. The monograph includes chapters: "Father Pravoslav's Art Studio and Study Years", "Art Group 42", "Possibilities of Applied Art", "Painting-Object", "Stay in Berlin", "Returns".

This thesis follows a topic of visible and invisible in the poetry and the essays of the Spanish writer active in the second half of the 20th century, José Ángel Valente. It situates the author in his historical and literary context and presents the evolution of his work. After that, it focuses on three of Valente's sources of inspiration and it outlines the conception of speech and artwork in Heidegger, the approach to space of sculptor Eduardo Chillida and the work with matter of painter Antoni Tàpies. The visible and the invisible are indirectly observed in Valente by means of more or less concrete representation and relationship to the reality, in visual characteristics, such as light and darkness, colours and shapes, and in the problematics of the sight. The visibility, the invisibility and the transparency directly manifest themselves in Valente's conception of matter and form and the word's manifestation and they also appear as motifs in his texts.