Beholding Art (with feeling?)

                                           Reaction, Realization, Feeling 

         Art is in the eye of the beholder and in the mind too.  Can beholding art arouse feelings?  Well, I invite you to participate in measuring that.  See my attempt below at types of feeling or stance or perspective and decide how well those descriptions fit and put your finger on how or why a particular feeling comes about.  

       Feel free to dispute or have your own opinion because this topic is subjective.  And we might as well admit that music far exceeds art in welling up emotions.

        The original title of this post was Feeling.  But the sensory sequence is closer to being these: observation, reaction, realization, then perhaps feeling.  We will investigate that sequence more when we get to the topic of complexity listed below.

        Conventional discussions, worshipful towards artists, extoll the artwork and identify a feeling invoked and act as if it is all mysterious, unquestionable, and beyond analysis.  It is easy to see how that would help generate upward momentum to pricing in galleries and auction houses.

                                                        Upbeat

                                                 Martin Creed

     Martin Creed produces zany and original work.  See his six printed broccoli pieces (cross sections).  

                         

         Incidentally, there was available to me another photo that had two rows of four broccoli to the row.  I didn't find that arrangement as attractive as the one shown.  Why is that?  Well a rectangle twice as wide as high seemed a bit clumsy.  Do you find printing with broccoli surprising, shouldn't be allowed, or amusing?  

    Creed's work helps you appreciate the shape of broccoli -- looking like little trees.  Compare this display to Andy Warhol's 'multiples" of Marilyn or Mao?  That comparison would be closer if Creed had made multiple prints of the same piece of broccoli.  Do you think that would have greater graphic power?

                                                         Alexander Calder   

         Alexander Calder is famous for his mobiles but early in his career he was searching for and painting images that had a sense of movement.  Some were semi - abstract like this painting called black butterfly.

      

     Notice the three primary colors representing flowers perhaps?  Or the yellow could be taken as sunshine.   And see the black painted horizontal lines.  Those together with the butterfly comprise a dark shape playing against and intensifying the colors.  Would you accept  those black lines representing the ground?                 

        Recall Lichtenstein's use of lines or dots to fill shapes.  Also the varying brush stroke thickness appears in the butterfly and in the black strokes thus uniting them stylistically.

       There is a certain hallmark of a fine piece of art.  You can't find any change that would make the work better.

                                            Amusing 

                                                        Philip Guston

    Philip Guston indicates a crowded city with a crowd of building.

            

                                  

                                                     Richard Tuttle   

        See Richard Tuttle's wooden construction.  You can see it is made of odd pieces of wood wired together.  Part of its charm is the odd ball slapped together construction.  Recall Casualism.  

        Somehow it seems to have its head against the wall -- tired, hiding, shy, or because it was a bad boy, or is it a listening device hearing through the wall?  Or?

 

                           

                                             Complex   

      In the case of complexity the artwork generates the reaction: what am I looking at?  The viewer is perplexed and has to take the time and effort to figure it out. Then the observer comes to a realization of the nature of the artwork.  If that is you, then you may have a feeling of satisfaction based on your ability, or that the art is clever, and rarely you may have a sense of awe.  

                                                            Beat Zoderer

        Our artist of complexity, Beat Zoderer, makes three dimensional constructions. Some stand on the floor and are more complex than the one we display below.  In any case please notice five triangles in a plane closest to us. Then behind that plane there seems to be five trapezoids with each touching the front plane and each also touching the rear plane which is the wall.  Notice the shadows cast by the tan triangle at the upper left and by the blue triangle at mid left.  So, the overall structure is something like a basket that we are looking into.

                

                    

        Questions.  Do the various colors make it harder to follow the form?  After all, that is the principle of camouflage.  Maybe the artist was quite aware and wanted it as it is.  Picture the five triangles closest to us being all one color.  

       Do you know of the advice to artists to put the work away for a while and come back days or weeks later and look at it with new eyes?

        I recall an artist who did that and remarked: how did I ever produce that schlock?  Or more commonly, how did I overlook that now obvious fault?  Another poorer but quicker visual help is to look at the work in a mirror, or get the opinion of someone else. 

                                                        Calm, Regular  

                                                        Robert Ryman

        Robert Ryman makes white paintings.  But he takes the liberty to put some color on the background before painting the white.

                

                               

                                                         Lee Ufan

        Lee Ufan paints uniform stripes.  As you see, the color fades out as the stripe continues.  

        But the work is not so calm and regular after all.  The "heads" in the top row are perfectly in line.  The second row down has the heads a bit higher and lower.  The third row has greater head height variation and the lowest row has the most.

      From nature, one could think of a volume of molecules of water. With heat steadily applied, they become hot, then start to boil, then become violently boiling.

                 

                                                     

                                                          Energetic  

                                                  Jack Youngerman     

        See the painting called Aztec iii by Jack Youngerman.  Here you see it hanging in the New York apartment of the artist Frank Stella.

                

                                                    

                                       Contemplative

                                                      Max Bill 

         This painting by Max Bill has a subtle range of related tones on left-right and top-bottom and at the corners.

                    

                                  

                                                   Dainty, Fragile, Airy

                                                      Francois Morellet

    As you see, Francois Morellet drew many thin lines in various arbitrary or random directions across the page.  They intersect at many points.  Then he drew darker line segments, along the original lines, between certain chosen points of intersection of the original lines.  

     Morellet uses an underlying randomness or unpredictability of sorts then makes choices afterwards.  That process shows up frequently in his art.   For more: type Morellet in the search area -- upper right magnifying icon.

          

                          

     Would Morellet's work be better with just the single enclosed figure at the top?  Do you see pros and cons?  With the same set of initial light lines would it be easy to create other works?  Here is an excellent example where the idea counts most and the execution is rather easy.  To pursue that idea, type Sol LeWitt in the search area.

        Nothing would stop you from coloring in some of the regions transparently with watercolor thus showing the lines, or with opaque paint thus hiding the lines.   Morellet himself could have started with more or fewer underlying light lines?  For that matter, all he had to do was skip around differently connecting different intersection points. There is a wealth of possibilities.

                                                    Heavy looking

                                                   Marcello Morandi   

    What makes this work by Marcello Morandi look heavy is the broad regular black and white bands.  That appearance is common to his body of work.   Note this is a free standing fabrication.  It is made of many layers stacked one in front of the other.

 

                 

        

                                        Idea of an Artist's Brand
            Why does an artist continue making art of a very distinct but limited kind? Besides, Marcello Morandi, other artists come to mind such as Mark Rothko, Robert Ryman, and Richard Serra. I have read artists do this to advance their "brand". But, what is it like to do that for decades?
            In that regard consider Jackson Pollock. Perhaps you know that he was depressed and drinking heavily when he died behind the wheel in a car crash. Was he tired of continuing his style (his brand) and unable to find something new and satisfying?
            For more details on that poignant topic, use the word Pollock in the blog search bar. Start by clicking on the top right magnifying glass. That will bring you to the blog post called Intimate Relations.

  
                                                       Elegantly Simple
                                                        Imi Knoebel
        See the concise and pristine artwork called Kinderstern by Imi Knoebel. The word Kinderstern is German for child star. Well, of course, it most likely is a star intended for children but may we think of it also as a star that is a child?
        In any case it has an animated quality that I sense comes from its anthropomorphic appearance -- two arms, and a shoulder up on one side. Is it flying? Is it jumping?
        I recollect that Knoebel donated the star design to a charity for children, which sells the stars to those who like them, to support the charity.

                         

                                              

                                                               Feelings

         So, after all the examples we have seen, what about feelings from beholding art? 

         Think of something you regard highly, that is memorable, held in your mind's eye, that gives you joy and satisfaction to remember or to visualize.  Such an item or experience is said to give you warm feelings.

        If you are sensitive and so disposed, lasting warm feelings come from beholding and contemplating art.