Painterly Realism of a Football Player - Color Masses in the 4th Dimension
1 2017-02-28T09:14:35-08:00 Evan Sarafian 042e10782d9a6d3f0001a4b35abb02f58ad84684 12041 4 Kazimir Malevich plain 2017-02-28T10:51:55-08:00 Art Institute Chicago 1915 Moscow Kazimir Malevich Evan Sarafian 042e10782d9a6d3f0001a4b35abb02f58ad84684This page has annotations:
- 1 2017-02-28T09:24:56-08:00 Evan Sarafian 042e10782d9a6d3f0001a4b35abb02f58ad84684 Yellow object that is top heavy Evan Sarafian 1 plain 2017-02-28T09:24:56-08:00 Evan Sarafian 042e10782d9a6d3f0001a4b35abb02f58ad84684
- 1 2017-02-28T09:23:53-08:00 Evan Sarafian 042e10782d9a6d3f0001a4b35abb02f58ad84684 Tilted, black, and isolated Evan Sarafian 1 plain 2017-02-28T09:23:53-08:00 Evan Sarafian 042e10782d9a6d3f0001a4b35abb02f58ad84684
- 1 2017-02-28T09:24:36-08:00 Evan Sarafian 042e10782d9a6d3f0001a4b35abb02f58ad84684 Each block taps the next to right its orientation Evan Sarafian 1 plain 2017-02-28T09:24:36-08:00 Evan Sarafian 042e10782d9a6d3f0001a4b35abb02f58ad84684
This page is referenced by:
-
1
2017-03-26T11:07:32-07:00
CoaRse CaLIBration
72
ARTS 227 "Introduction to Letterpress Printing" (Pedersen) and CSLC134/RUSN334 "Exploding Tongues" (Gilman)
structured_gallery
2017-05-26T12:45:21-07:00
During the middle third of the Spring, '17 Semester, two classes at Occidental College (ARTS 227 "Introduction to Letterpress Printing (Pedersen) and CSLC 134 / RUSN 334 "Exploding Tongues: Language, Art and The Russian Avant-Garde") collaborated on a book making project, with printed submissions of text and design compiled in a miscellany volume, Exploding Tongues: NthOlogy, inspired by the Russian Avant-garde.
Through creative making of their own collaborative book, students explored historical literary phenomena, such as "zaum," or "trans-sense" language, a nullification or distortion of meaning through invented words, as well as visual abstraction, neo-primitivism, "Rayism," "Suprematism," "Prouns," and other visual innovations that manifest as illustrations and cover and page designs. Students took inspiration from the authors, artists and book designers from the early years of the Avant-garde, when visual and verbal "abstraction" developed simultaneously.
A century's distance from the creative ferment of the Avant-garde has given time to literary scholars and art historians to sort out radical innovations in verbal and visual cultures as if they were discrete phenomena. Time, also, has separated complex creative processes that transpired between people working in close partnership and common purpose into individuated lines of authorial credit. The scholarly impulse to conceive of cultural history on the model of scientific discovery is not, however, well-suited for understanding the ambiguous work processes and products of this brief historical moment.
As Aleksei Kruchenykh, whose "Dyr bul shchyl" (1912) is generally acknowledged as the first instance of "zaum" poetry, explained in a letter to A.A. Shemshurin, the visual and verbal elements of his book art, produced with collaborators such as Mikhail Larionov, or his wife Ol'ga Rozanova, are inextricably confused [for more on "Dyr bul shchyl" and its publication history, see Dexter Blackwell's case study on this site]:
Course readings and discussions were informed by Gerald Janecek's pioneering works on zaum, and the Russian Avant-garde artist book, as well as Nancy Perloff's most recent contribution to the topic, both of whom address the integrated nature of multimodal, collaborative arts. An "intellectual" grasp of the matter is not sufficient, however, for deep understanding. To jolt student researchers of the Avant-garde from any of their own automatic assumptions about art and literature, a hands-on, creative unit of zaum poetry writing, illustration and book-making, allowed an opportunity to view and reconstruct cultural historical processes, as it were, inside-out.Many have noticed that the genius of external beauty is highest of all, so that if anyone likes best of all the way, say, Te li le is written (from the painterly aspect) but not its meaning (toothless meaning, of which, by the way, there is none in zaum’ either), then it seems that such a reader is right and not a ruffian at all.
The word (letter), of course, has undergone a great change here; perhaps it has even been replaced by painting, but what does a “drunkard of paradise” care about all this prose? And I have already met persons who bought Te li le without understanding anything about dyr-bul-shchyl but who admired its painting.
On the matter of instantaneous writing:- The first impression (by correcting it 10 times we lose it and perhaps therefore lose everything).
- By correcting, thinking over, polishing, we banish chance from art that in a momentary art of course occupies an honored place, by banishing chance we deprive our works of that which is most valuable, for we leave only that which has been experienced and thoroughly acquired, and all of the life of the unconscious goes to pot!
-
1
2017-02-23T10:45:50-08:00
The Sudden Figure
20
plain
2017-03-14T11:17:49-07:00
A common element in Kazimir Malevich's suprematist works is an ambiguity of proper orientation. This ambiguity allows for multiple different images to become apparent based on the perspective used in observing the work. One image that can be recognized in Malevich's works is the appearance of the human figure. This figure, "the Sudden Figure", is sometimes evident in the "correct" or accepted orientation of a painting, such as is the case with Malevich's Suprematist painting. Rectangle and Circle or Painterly Realism of a Football Player - Color Masses in the 4th Dimension.
In the case of Suprematist painting. Rectangle and Circle, the Sudden Figure is sudden in that it is fairly easy to recognize in the simplicity of the work itself. The orientation does not need to be shifted. The circle represents the head and the rectangle represents the torso. Together, they create the image of a figure gazing down, suggesting a solemn mood to the piece. This somber atmosphere is accentuated by the slight tilt in the rectangle.
The figure in Painterly Realism of a Football Player - Color Masses in the 4th Dimension is a little more difficult to recognize, but its existence is revealed in the very title of the piece. The confirmation of its existence makes the search for the figure a little easier. Looking at the painting, the large black shape at the top can represent the head while the yellow object can represent the torso. This is evident just from their relation to each other and its similarity to the shape of a body. The other shapes are less clear, but with the hint that this figure is a football player, then one can observe the long bar connected to the block and see that this painting is capturing an act of motion in the middle of its execution. As the bar swings down, the large block knocks into the next smaller block which rights it and causes it to knock into the red block which rights it and causes it to knock into red bar which swings into the ball. All together, this represents the leg of a football player kicking the ball and just as the human leg is made up of many different parts, so is Malevich's suprematist interpretation of a leg.
With some of Malevich's paintings, it is more difficult to see the Sudden Figure and its sudden explosion to life requires a manipulating of the work, specifically manipulating the orientation. At first glance, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying has no figure, or any shape at all. The title suggests that there should be a Sudden Airplane, but upon looking at the piece "upside down" (but not truly upside down, because that would imply that there is a single "correct" orientation) the Sudden Figure 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 other examples in that it is composed of more parts rather than a simple "head" and "torso".
These are just a few examples of the inclusion of a common image in Malevich's works, the Sudden Figure being just one possible example. When the viewer actively searches for these common images, elements of the painting that may have once appeared random or insignificant take on new meanings and allow for more complete interpretations.
- 1 2017-03-01T11:25:49-08:00 The head 2 plain 2017-03-01T14:39:46-08:00 The black block representing the head is similar to Malevich's use of the black shape that represents the head in Painterly Realism of a Football Player - Color Masses in the 4th Dimension