Meanings of Abstract Art: Between Nature and Theory

311 Pages·2012·3.04 MB·English

by  Paul Crowther

Meanings of Abstract Art
Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies
1 Ethics and Images of Pain
Edited by Asbjørn Grønstad and
Henrik Gustafsson
2 Meanings of Abstract Art
Between Nature and Theory
Edited by Paul Crowther and
Isabel Wünsche
Meanings of Abstract Art
Between Nature and Theory
Edited by Paul Crowther and
Isabel Wünsche
NEW YORK LONDON
First published 2012
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2012 Taylor & Francis
The right of Paul Crowther and Isabel Wünsche to be identified as the
author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meanings of abstract art : between nature and theory / edited by Paul
Crowther and Isabel Wünsche. — 1 [edition].
pages cm — (Routledge advances in art and visual studies ; 2)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Art, Modern—20th century—Philosophy. 2. Art, Abstract.
3. Nature (Aesthetics) I. Crowther, Paul, editor of compilation.
II. Wünsche, Isabel, editor of compilation.
N6490.M389 2012
709.04'052—dc23
2012001081
ISBN13: 978-0-415-89993-2 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-12626-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by IBT Global.
Printed and bound in the United States of America on sustainably sourced
paper by IBT Global.
Contents
List of Figures vii
Introduction 1
1 Life into Art: Nature Philosophy, the Life Sciences,
and Abstract Art 9
ISABEL WÜNSCHE
2 Mondrian’s First Diamond Composition: Spatial Totality
and the Plane of the Starry Sky 30
MAREK WIECZOREK
3 Man, Space, and the Zero of Form: Kazimir Malevich’s
Suprematism and the Natural World 47
CHRISTINA LODDER
4 The Role of Mathematical Structure, Natural Form,
and Pattern in the Art Theory of Wassily Kandinsky:
The Quest for Order and Unity 64
CHRISTOPHER SHORT
5 “We want to produce like a plant that produces a fruit”:
Hans Arp and the “Nature Principle” 81
ASTRID VON ASTEN
6 Natural Forces and Phenomena as Inspiration and
Meaning in Early American Abstraction 97
HERBERT R. HARTEL, JR.
7 Jackson Pollock: The Sin of Images 118
ELIZABETH LANGHORNE
vi Contents
8 Clyff ord Still’s Regionalist Shamanism 135
STEPHEN POLCARI
9 “Man is Present”: Barnett Newman’s Search for the
Experience of the Self 141
EVA EHNINGER
10 Nature, Entropy, and Robert Smithson’s Utopian Vision
of a Culture of Decay 158
JOHN G. HATCH
11 Embodied Nature: Isamu Noguchi’s Intetra Fountain 169
DOMINIKA GLOGOWSKI
12 The Arte Povera Experience: Nature Re-Presented 184
LAURA PETICAN
13 Nature’s Hand: Writing Abstraction in the Work of Henri
Michaux 198
BIRGIT MERSMANN
14 Abstract Art and Techno-Nature: The Postmodern Dimension 217
PAUL CROWTHER
15 Art, Beauty, and the Sacred: Four Ways to Abstraction 241
KARSTEN HARRIES
16 The Complexities of “Abstracting” from Nature 255
ANDREW INKPIN
17 Meaning in Abstract Art: From Ur-Nature to the Transperceptual 270
PAUL CROWTHER
Bibliography 283
Contributors 285
Index 289
Figures
1.1 František Kupka, Creation, 1911–1920. 14
1.2 Mikhail Matiushin, Dancer, 1915–1916. 15
1.3 Constantin Brancusi, The Beginning of the World, c. 1920. 17
1.4 Georgia O’Keeff e, Flower Abstraction, 1924. 18
1.5 Pavel Filonov, Composition Cell, 1920s. 20
1.6 Ella Bergmann-Michel, Bios Sheet, 1920. 21
1.7 Arthur Dove, Plant Forms, c. 1912. 23
1.8 Dame Barbara Hepworth, Wave, 1943. 24
2.1 Piet Mondrian, Composition with Grid 3: Lozenge
Composition, 1918. 30
2.2 Mathieu Schoenmaekers, diagram from Het nieuwe
wereldbeeld [The New Image of the World]. 37
3.1 Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Painting, 1917. 49
3.2 Kazimir Malevich, Painterly Realism: Boy with Knapsack:
Colour Masses in the Fourth Dimension, 1915. 50
3.3 Kazimir Malevich, Self Portrait: Colour Masses in Two
Dimensions, 1915. 51
3.4 Kazimir Malevich, Composition with Mona Lisa, 1914. 52
3.5 Kazimir Malevich, Costume design for Victory over the
Sun, The Futurist Strongman 1915. 53
3.6 Installation photograph of Malevich’s display of Suprematist
works, including the Black Square at The Last Exhibition of
Futurist Painting 0.10 (Zero Ten). 54
3.7 Kazimir Malevich, Chart No. 5, Classifi cation of a Painterly
System on the Basis of the Development of the Additional
Element, 1927. 56
3.8 Kazimir Malevich, Illustration from Die gegenstandslose
Welt (The Non-Objective World; München: A. Langen, 1927). 57
4.1 Wassily Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane, 1926, Figure 102. 65
4.2 Wassily Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane, 1926, Figures
50–56. 69
viii Figures
4.3 Wassily Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane, 1926, Figure 5. 73
4.4 Wassily Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane, 1926, Figure 13. 74
4.5 Wassily Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane, 1926, Figure 72. 75
5.1 Jean Arp in: Tristan Tzara, Cinema calendrier du coeur
abstrait, Maisons, Collection Dada, Paris 1920. 84
5.2 Jean Arp, Grablegung der Vögel und Schmetterlinge /
The Entombment of Birds and Butterfl ies, 1916–1917. 85
5.3 Jean Arp, Konstellation III / Constellation III, 1932. 88
5.4 Jean Arp, Menschliche Konkretion auf ovaler Schale /
Human Concretion on Oval Bowl, 1935. 89
6.1 Agnes Pelton, Ecstasy, 1928. 105
6.2 Raymond Jonson, Growth Variant No. VII, 1931. 107
6.3 Arthur Dove, Nature Symbolized No. 2 (Wind on Hills),
1911–1912. 109
6.4 Arthur Dove, Rain or Snow, 1943. 111
6.5 Raymond Jonson, Composition Five–Wind, 1925. 112
6.6 Georgia O’Keeff e, Music: Pink and Blue, I, 1918. 114
7.1 Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm: Number 32, 1950, 1950. 118
7.2 Photo of Hans Hoff man in his Provincetown school,
correcting a student’s drawing. 120
7.3 Jackson Pollock, Totem Lesson I, 1944. 122
7.4 Jackson Pollock, Beach Figures, c. 1944. 123
7.5 Jackson Pollock, Untitled, CR 716v, c. 1944. 125
7.6 Jackson Pollock, Untitled, CR 717v, c. 1944. 126
7.7 Jackson Pollock, Untitled, CR 555, c. 1939–1940. 127
7.8 Jackson Pollock, Untitled (ART), CR 1078, 1944–1945
(printed posthumously, 1967). 128
9.1 Barnett Newman, Onement I, 1948. 144
9.2 Barnett Newman, Vir heroicus sublimis, 1950–1951. 145
9.3 Barnett Newman, Untitled No. 5, 1950. 147
9.4 Barnett Newman, Here I, 1950. 148
9.5 Snake Mound, Akron, Ohio. 151
10.1 Robert Smithson, The Spiral Jetty, 1970. 159
10.2 Robert Smithson, Alogon #1, 1966. 161
10.3 Robert Smithson, page from “Quasi-Infi nities and the
Waning of Space.” 163
10.4 Robert Smithson, Nine Mirror Displacements, Artforum,
September, 1969. 165
11.1 Isamu Noguchi, Intetra, 1974–1976. 169
11.2 One of the two nets of the tetrahedron. 171
Figures ix
11.3 Isamu Noguchi, Comet, Osaka Expo ‘70 Fountains, 1970. 175
11.4 Isamu Noguchi, Intetra, 1971. 176
13.1 Henri Michaux, Narration (detail), 1927. 201
13.2 Henri Michaux, Mouvements, Chinese ink, 1950. 206
13.3 Henri Michaux, Bataille, 1952. 207
13.4 Henri Michaux, Mescaline Drawing, 1956. 209
14.1 Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project, 2003. 218
14.2 David Batchelor, Festival Remix (Christmas Lights
Commission), 2006. 221
14.3 William Latham, Mutation X Raytraced, 1991–1992. 223
14.4 Ross Bleckner, Falling Birds, 1994. 225
14.5 Philip Taaff e, Celtic Field, 1993. 226
14.6 Fiona Rae, All around us, our own world of wonder!, 2009. 228
14.7 Therese Oulton, Infra Red, 2004. 229
14.8 Tomma Abts, Bilte, 2008. 231
14.9 Ai Weiwei, Sunfl ower Seeds, 2010. 233
14.10 Anish Kapoor, Cloud Gate, 2004–2006. 235
14.11 Gerhard Richter, Firenze 20.3.2000. 237
15.1 Oppolding, St. Johann Baptist, pulpit by Johann Anton Bader
(1765), detail. 248