The Pocket Universal Principles of Art by John A Parks

Author:John A Parks
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Rockport Publishers
Published: 2018-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917)

Monument to Balzac, 1891–1897.

Bronze, 9 ft 3 in × 4 ft × 3 ft 5 in (2.8 × 1.2 × 1 m)

Diego Vélazquez (1599–1660)

Water Seller of Seville, 1618-1622.

Oil on canvas, 41 × 31 in (104.1 × 78.7 cm)

The mass of the glass goblet is the focal point of the painting. Meanwhile, the greater mass of the stone jars is mirrored by the massive solidity of the water seller.

051 Materials as Art

Art can be generated through engagement with a particular material.

In the late twentieth century, various artists made work whose central feature was the behavior of a medium or material. Thus, Morris Louis (1912–1962) made pictures in which he poured thin layers of paint onto large swaths of unprimed canvas. The resulting paintings are fundamentally demonstrations of how paint behaves, staining and spreading to create soft-edged veils.

Similarly, the gargantuan steel sculptures of Richard Serra (1939–) are dependent on the physical properties of steel. The properties of concrete are central to the sculptures of Rachel Whiteread (1963–), in which its capacities to pour, fill, and harden are used to render palpable interior volumes that are usually filled with air.

In all these approaches, the artwork gains authority by exploring and dramatizing the characteristic behavior and appearance of a medium.

See also Conceptual Art

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