Malevich, K. "Eight Red Rectangles," 1915
1 2017-02-28T01:43:42-08:00 Kelly Kirkland e1805e502570d093d70f00df18f145c99290d0a3 12041 6 Suspension of shapes against a white background, parallel grouping, and diagonal orientation suggest a visually abstracted Futurist poem on a blank page. plain 2017-04-30T08:49:44-07:00 theartstory.org 1915 Christopher Gilman 1985b99a2acd541caa12a10c3ebf6896565283abThis page has tags:
- 1 2017-04-23T12:54:46-07:00 Christopher Gilman 1985b99a2acd541caa12a10c3ebf6896565283ab Big Bang: Timeline of Russian Avant-Garde Book Arts and Their Cultural Impacts Christopher Gilman 54 A Timeline of Russian Avant-Garde Book Arts and Their Cultural Impacts timeline 2017-05-03T07:19:11-07:00 Christopher Gilman 1985b99a2acd541caa12a10c3ebf6896565283ab
- 1 2017-03-01T14:14:13-08:00 Craig Dietrich 2d66800a3e5a1eaee3a9ca2f91f391c8a6893490 Timeline Craig Dietrich 2 timeline 2017-03-01T14:16:58-08:00 Craig Dietrich 2d66800a3e5a1eaee3a9ca2f91f391c8a6893490
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Projectile Politics: Moving Sound, Objects, and Ideas through Space
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Kirkland Utopian Prospectus
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El Lissitzky's unrealized design for the Lenin Tribune exemplifies the avant-garde desire to disrupt and conquer space. Lissitzky's 1920 design is for a moving speaker's podium; thus, inherent to the structure is the possibility for mobility and transport. The tribune evokes other engineering feats of Western technology such as the Eiffel Tower and the skyscrapers of New York City and Chicago, speaking to the vision of constructing a new modern society. In doing so, it merges the abstract elements of Suprematism with a utilitarian consciousness, seen also in the mid-avant-garde "techno-fetishism" which privileges machine-driven artistic endeavors in service of a utopian vision.
The hybrid architectonic forms in Lissitzky's proun paintings realize the spatial depth implied in the two-dimensional forms of Suprematist works by artists such as Malevich. One can see in the image to the left a similar vocabulary to the tribune: a deliberate construction from parts, operating around a central, energetic diagonal. Furthermore, this diagonal draws the eye from the bottom right into the upper left field of vision, challenging the linguistic impulse to "read" forms from left to right. Language is in fact employed in the tribune's design through the word "proletary" emblazoned across a sign over Lenin's head.
Through the Lenin Tribune, Lissitzky enacts the Suprematist principles of motion and layering in three dimensions, while also distilling the dynamic, aural quality of Russian culture by functioning as a platform for the projection of Lenin's propagandist oration. The diagonal composition of the tribune reinforces the outward projection of Lenin's voice. Further, the insertion of Lenin's body into the tribune design replicates the iconography of posters such as the one on the right: leaning forward toward the crowd, the embodiment of potential motion. Here as well, he is foregrounded by text, the words on his podium being the first line of the Communist Manifesto. These words, just like the "proletary" sign affixed to the tribune, undergo a transformation from text to sound, and with Lenin's body as the medium, from theory to practice. -
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Leftward-Leaning: The Diagonals of Communism
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INTRODUCTION
In the Baroque era, painters and sculptors sought a visual language that would allow them to strike through the Renaissance ethos of stability and reflect a new era of drama, tension, and emotional dynamism. They found their answer in the diagonal line. Whether projecting upwards or slanting downwards, diagonal lines draw the viewer’s eye in a particular direction, simulating a feeling of movement. However, is movement always progress? Mathematically, diagonals are considered in terms of positive or negative slope. Positive slopes indicate that as x increases, y also increases. This is shown on a graph as a line with its lowest point in the left, increasing in height toward the right. Negative slopes go in the opposite direction, where y decreases as x increases. This gives the impression of a “downward” trajectory, beginning in the top left and moving toward the bottom right. While positive and negative may be neutral descriptors of direction, culturally they take on a moral significance. Positive=good, Negative=bad. Upward=good, Downward=bad. Progress=good, Regress=bad. Fittingly, in compositional analysis, positive diagonals are commonly referred to as “Baroque diagonals,” and negative as “Sinister diagonals.” This terminology may originate from heraldry, which uses the Latin words “dexter” and “sinister” to indicate the right and left sections of a coat of arms. The evolution of the word “sinister” in the English language clearly indicates the conception that anything leftward-leaning is evil or unlucky. Given this culturally and historically-steeped reading of diagonals, what might we make of the fact that directional lines—specifically right-to-left diagonals—appear so frequently in Russian visual culture as a symbol of futuristic progress? …Is a world that launches toward the left a “world backwards”?
READING LANGUAGE- Gutenberg-understanding the western linguistic codex (left to right)
- Examples Contra-Gutenberg
From here we launch an inquiry into the socio-political implications of the directional line in Russian visual culture. A directional line may be more accurately referred to as a "ray," or a line that begins at a definitive point and extends infinitely into one direction. The word ray derives from Latin radius, meaning "beam." As with all things that radiate, from light to sound ("radio" derives from the same root), there is an origin point- a source of projection. For Russia, this is Lenin.
Trajectile Tendencies in Russian Art- Rayonism / Futurism
- Suprematism, Constructivism, Prouns
- Figuring Lenin: Iconic images
- Architecture: Lenin Tribune, Tatlin's tower
- One Nation, Under Lenin: Posters/Print Media
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Orientation (Proper)
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What do you see, but why?
When looking at a painting, the viewer sees something. Perhaps it is something they can clearly point out, or it may be more difficult for them to articulate, but they at the very least garner some kind of interpretation when presented with a work of art. However, this interpretation is subject to differentiation based upon the orientation of the piece. What is considered to be proper is only one iteration of many that may develop when the orientation is manipulated. This is especially true in Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist works of the mid 1910s. Upon first glance, the majority of Malevich's Suprematist paintings appear to be an incoherent jumble of shapes and colors, but regardless, a viewer would still be able to look at a piece such as Suprematism - 1915 and come to some kind of conclusion. This conclusion is not complete, however, because the viewer was looking at the painting not the right side up. In fact, it is impossible to do so because there is no single correct orientation. Each turn of the piece changes it and together, these different interpretations paint a complete story, a visual poem. This rotation and a focus on looking past a single orientation, but seeing the painting as a active story that gives a piece of the plot with each vital rotation. After completely exploring these differing orientations, a story comes into focus. This is the only way any of Malevich's pieces such as his self-portrait can be fully enjoyed. Malevich's experimentation with visual poems in the form of paintings can be traced back to the early Russian Futurist poets and their experiments textually altering and manipulating their poems so that they are read differently. Malevich employs similar methods, but he focuses on a completely visual translation without any basis in sounds or text.
Orientation (Which one)?
Observing a painting is a fairly simple process in that the steps are to see it and then to observe it, in that order. However, Malevich's Suprematist works redefined the process and lengthened it. Now, it is see it, observe it, turn it, see it, observe it, repeat x2, and then observe the entire thing with a more complete knowledge of the painting. For some paintings, this may seem not necessary and indeed, it isn't most of the time. For instance, look at Suprematist Painting. Rectangle and Circle. It is a fairly obvious work in that the majority of its viewers will immediately recognize the appearance of a person, no manipulation of the artwork necessary. The circle represents the head, the rectangle represents the torso, and together one could draw a reasonable conclusion that this is a purposefully simplistic representation of a person with the intention to highlight how simple people are when stripped of all else but their shape. However, now look at the same painting, but tilted to the right 90 degrees. Now, look at it when it is tilted to the left 90 degrees. These orientations of the same painting present a completely different image that directly affects the portrayal of the original, upright orientation. Looking at these two examples, interpretations will not be as easy or intuitive to find as the human figure. However, looking at the painting tilted to the right, a knife can be seen with a large rectangular blade and a connected hand with an off canvass arm. Furthermore, the painting tilted to the left can appear to be a gun. Both of these interpretations are not necessarily the right ones and most definitely not the only ones, but their violent nature completely change the originally proposed meaning of the first orientation. Now, instead of being a painting about the simplicity of the human form and how we are all a torso and a head, it instead preaches a story of how easily humanity can tilt off balance and turn to violence against each other.
Turn-Per-View
Suprematist Painting. Rectangle and Circle is a good example of how adjusting the orientation gives more pieces of what first appears to be a simplistic story or available interpretation. The story of this painting is enhanced and revealed as originally incomplete. However, with some paintings, such as Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, any interpretation requires much more work as there is ostensibly no figure, or any shape at all. The title suggests that there should be a Sudden Airplane, but upon looking at the piece after flipping it 180 degrees or "upside down", suddenly there is an image of a person that can be seen carrying a stack of boxes. The figure is more abstract in that it is not the shape of a complete person, but only the top half. However, it is more complete than anything that may have been gleaned from the initial orientation offered of the painting.
Another, and perhaps an even more abstract example, is Malevich's painting Suprematist Painting. Eight Red Rectangles. Looking at this painting, there are many, many possible interpretations and generally everyone will see something unique in their observation. If the two long red rectangles on the left side are seen as lips, the smaller rectangles could possibly be interpreted as words escaping from the lips.. or perhaps blood red bullets and the long skinny rectangles are the barrel of a gun. The point is, there is not a single correct viewing of this painting and the infinite number of ways to view it are doubled when the painting is looked at upside down. Now looking at this orientation of the painting, there are even more possible interpretations that can be taken from the arrangement of these rectangles. Perhaps it is a cruise ship, perhaps it is a cocked gun, or it could possibly even be seen as a hand performing a rude gesture. Regardless of what one sees, if they were presented with the second orientation and told it was the "correct" one, they would not question it because it is, in the end, just as alien of a painting in that orientation as it is in the first one. In fact, in order to prove my point, I introduced the two orientations in the wrong order. The second one is actually the orientation the painting is normally presented in while the first one is the "upside down" view. The ambiguity of this painting and these two orientations highlights how neither one is necessarily "better" or more correct of a way to view the painting than the other.
ElaborateKazimir Malevich's Suprematist paintings are, if nothing else, a medium for storytelling. This is why any concerns of the necessity of a proper orientation must be disregarded when examining a Suprematist painting. Each of these stories employs a different panel of the story depending on how the painting is being viewed. The combination of these four representations into a single, holistic interpretation allows a greater understanding of the work as opposed to the more narrow interpretations that are possible from a viewing limited to a single orientation that is assumed correct.
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