5/10/2019
Modern Art was still kept away from me as a mystery when I was an undergraduate. So since I came to London, I decided to have a visit at Tate Modern Museum which is popularly known by collections of contemporary art.
Last century, modern art appeared some new developments of artworks’ purposes, making methods and the old position between authors and audiences in abstract art. When scientific researches had in-depth growths in more accurate areas, many young artists were stimulated and moved their interests to seeking for new contents of art. They also attempted to use highly abstract images and new media into artworks. This time, I chose some works referred to physically nature and sciences in forms or representations into several groups that I enjoyed in Tate Modern.
‘Programmed Art’
This kind of art started form 1960s, when a new group of international artists were sharing their talents on optical effects, geometry and objects’ movement via hybrid materials and renewing artworks’ values stopped being conventionally marketable luxury goods. They took ideas from some scientific breakthroughs like mathematics and colour theory, and new technologies like computers. According to artworks, they considered these as an interactive process where viewers can be an active participant rather than just a passive spectator, breaking the old concept of exhibitions. Personally speaking, their artworks as below are purer and have a strong association with sciences, in other words, less emotional.
Indefinite Space S (1963), made by plastic sheets and arranged in regular structures, shows mixed geometric shapes in space, deliberately making it difficult to determine the certain positions and relations with these shapes, and its basic elements including square surface, line and point seem to be grounded on the fundamental structure of the cosmic space itself.
Physichromie No. 113 (1963), can be seen as an experiment of illusion from sights and changed positions resulting in different colours and images, attracting viewers’ participations and interactions.
Suasum (1965), focuses on light movement and changing perceptions by viewers, blended with cubes on a flat and curved surfaces in each, and a variation of colours from black edges to white center in order to create a vision of dark-to-light movement. When I was stand in front of it, I was able to see a simplified light world from a reflection of our reality.
Surface IX (1962), is a square wooden relief composed by several equal-size wood slats juxtaposed on different horizontal level but all painted in black, seeming to create an uneven surface. And the light reflection showed in a range of colour changes which I could see as a sense of rhythm or movement. There is no more meaning about each single slat. Additionally, they all serve the whole.
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a no. 1~7 (1962-1964), is a series of artworks from the visual culture project in Croatia, when one of designers and editors is the same artist as Surface IX. These works concentrating on visual issues by means of images, light and colours, could be seen as a typical reflection in ‘Programmed Art’ for their pure target of optical effects based on sciences.
Other artworks from these international artists also reveal these simple but fully experimental and interactive thoughts like colour movement, lines continuity and shadows.
‘White’
This group of artworks have a sense of ‘white’ in common as a purity and absence of colours from nature. White seemed to be recognized as a spectacular colour in history, bringing lots of social meanings. But here, artists only chose white to be a strong expression of art issues, and with this power of simplicity they putted their concentration on spirits, social emotions or researches of abstract and natural concepts shown in some artworks below.
Ledger (1982, left) is an uneven flat with the combination of lines, shadow and geometries in repetition. Artist painted it as a white whole which enabled him to draw attention to its other qualities like subtle variation between shapes, angles and vision.
And Achrome (1958, center) is more like a square relief built by China clay placed in square or rectangular shapes. This object can reveal a sense of heavy in white itself by the work of shadows and lights, without other interrupted senses from colours.
But the right one Holes (1954) made by painted newspapers with some penetrated holes shows more details in similar colours. These colours help to create a balance between destructive and creative action, trying to reflect an ambivalence of Japanese in the wake of World War II.
White Curve (1974), a large-size work of an extremely pure geometry between painting and sculpture, drawn from an observation of natural and man-made environment but highly simplified by the author who is seeking a vague border between two-dimension and three-dimension space.
‘Colours’
Colour is a significant notion extracted from traditional drawing elements by modern artists. They focused on researching the impact of colour itself and the relationship with humans in emotions, history and vision. This group of artworks below reveal several aspects of this impact from colours’ power.
This group of artworks work on monochromatic colours within different geometric shapes that could strengthen different senses of feeling or mood from colours. For instance, the left painting shows a series of three quasi-concentric squares in varying shades of blue which transforms from central blue-green to a darker and more muted one, then a bright blue on edges. By means of optical effects, this work attracts viewer’s eyes on the central colour. And the central one is a sharp and subtly curved triangle in light yellow, to some extent, possibly bringing more active or aggressive feelings like happy or angry. Then the right one is a whole bright navy-blue square like the ocean or universe, somehow revealing a feeling of peace and mystery to hearts.
These two paintings like using plenty of colorful lines in visual studies of colour movement. The left painting draws an unreal space like an illusion of water moving, so when I stood in front of it, I could feel the power full of energy and light. Similarly, the right one is composed of linear lines, and the colours are more gay and distinguishing.
History Paintings (1995), is an experiment that explores the history of colour pigments that represents a period of time. Artist made six different monochromatic colours grouped into six historical periods: (left to right) Cave, Egyptian, Greek, Italian, 18th and 19th century. These look more like a chronologically historical process of modern civilisation or western civilisation. But when take a close look, I found more subtle mixtures or tiny spots on each painting where the variations could point out more concrete meanings of objects or circumstances than just a history.
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Colour Cycle III (1970), is a hybrid artwork made by canvas and three diachronic lamps which can create a sequence of coloured lights by time. It was viewed in a darkened room in order to produce a series of colour transformation. And each morphed optical movement likes a radical transformation in illusion.
Overall, it is a short but impressive trip about new contents of abstract art which seems, personally, to be an important part of Modern Art. Until today, it has brought lots of inspirations in a variety of areas. And the studies about objects, sciences and optics continue working nowadays, which can provide more angles of real world.