ICHM 140 Introduction to Art Theory

(AVANT GARDE ART AFTER 1945)

NAME : KUNWAR SHUBHAMPAL SINGH

ID : 5380174

TOPIC : AVANT GARDE ART AFTER 1945 ( ISOLATION PRINCIPLE)

Avant - Garde , means ‘advance guard’ or ‘vanguard’ .It refers to people or works
that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture,
and politics. Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted
as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The notion of the
existence of the avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism.

1 : DREI FIGUREN (1973) by Maria Lassnig

Maria Lassnig -  (born 1919) is an Austrian artist. Her paintings are an

exploration of the body, a central theme which she calls "body awareness". In the
1950s she was part of the Hundsgruppe, which also included Arnulf Rainer, Ernst
Fuchs, Anton Lehmden, Arik Brauer and Wolfgang Hollegha. The works of the group
were influenced by Abstract Expressionism and action painting. She was the first
woman artist to win the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1988, and was awarded
the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art in 2005.
2 : HASENSCHNEIDE (1976) by Chritian Ludwig Attersee

Christian Ludwig , born in 28th August, 1940 was born in Bratislava. He is an

Austrian painter of pop art , set designers, musicians, writers and former successful
sailors (three-times Austrian champion). He is the director of Bank Austria Art, he
lives and works in Vienna and the Semmering and in St Martin an der Raab in
Burgenland. The painting above is chaotic, but not to a high level. One could figure
three to four different things in this painting which include a rabbit, an apple, a body
of a human and possibly a mask or a small bird above. The chaos in this painting is
not to the level where one stops seeing it. It is a fact that one cannot understand
what it is, but for some reason the abstract shapes and figures mixed with a general
composition and a very good use of colors keeps it interesting and more the reason
to constantly look at it. isolation here is seen through the variety of images used on
one canvas, keeping in mind the rabbit is most enlarged followed by the female body
and other unrecognized images.
3 : ISOLATION by Gilbert Reyes (2010)
 Gilbert Reyes grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He now lives in Los Angeles ,
California in El Sereno. His art is influenced from Mexican artists and family
members. He is a self taught artist. His work reflects many aspects of Latino culture.
It is about the color, the fantasies, the whimsical, the excitement and the world of
dreams and deceptions. He expresses in his paintings both the complexities and the
simplicities in life. The painting above depicts isolation through the exaggeration of
hair (which is clearly noticed) and the shapes used in the painting of the female
body. It looks like a rippled effect in the upper portion (except the breasts) while the
lower half is the same but enlarged to a certain extent ( the legs of the woman in the
brown hair) however for the woman in purple hair, her frontal upper half is rippled
while the back remains the same. Her hands are freakishly big, so are the other ones
and gives so sort of un natural or deformed look; but Gilbert expertise lies in
eroticism and he has achieved in gaining that in spite of all these details. The brain
still finds its erotic to a certain level despite the deformity.

SELECTED PIECE : “DREI FIGUREN”

REASON : the painting is a typical example of Avant Garde and clearly illustrates
isolation through the separate body pieces. Other than this , when one stares at the
painting , one cannot help but look in different directions and not focus on the central
composition in order to find actual finality in the painting. It is sheer beauty and
symbolizes innovation, creativity and depth. It was a close call between this and
‘isolation’ by Gilbert Reyes where isolation is illustrated very well; but the fact that
‘drei figuren’ was made decades ago under circumstances which differ on great
terms considering the life we live now (first lady Austrian artist to become famous) ,
and the availability of resources (oil, paints, canvas, technology) is what made me
choose this eventually. And also that the range of isolation in ‘drei figuren’ tips that
than of ‘isolation’. Gilbert may have made the painting solely based on that principle
considering the fanatics in art over the past few years, but Maria’s painting
symbolized change, strength and risks during her times and was fitted under this
principle rather than making a painting to clearly illustrate the principle.

DESCRIPTION OF PRIMARY QUALITIES:

1) SHAPE AND OBJECTS - the painting is not symmetric at all. There is no particular
shaped recognized and the figures are distorted and irregular. Possibly when
 one looks closely, three humanoid shapes could be roughly recognized. The
painting comprises of undefined body parts such as the toes, legs, glueteus
maximus and lips. The top figure on the painting would be just the feet of an
individual, as we move to the right of that figure, the shape is not certain but
from what I can deduce it could be the upper and lower abdomen compressed
together, considering the irregular semi oval shapes being the breast and butt
cheeks of the individual. Below that are two shapes overlapping each other,
and from the looks of it the light pink is the thigh and the more dark pink is the
leg or portion after the thighs. It could have been one thigh followed by leg
together, but the artist separates the two in term of colors and merges them
by overlapping. The two figures that follow to the left of these ones are what is
most interesting. The artist tries to portray the two images which are in the
middle of the composition in 3D, unlike the other figures which were in 2D.
Playing with 2D and 3D images, one can conclude that it was an attempt at
abstract and possibly maybe is considering some features of it. However in
spite of all this irregularity, the painting is still defined i.e it has boundaries.
Certain shapes are abnormally large because they do not correspond to the
idea of depth that is portrayed by the horizon. This is a mind trick of course
intentionally input by the artist to enhance the painting in its aesthetic
judgment and reviews. The proportions of the shapes in the painting are
highly disfigured and distorted, and wrong to a certain level as well; which is
why there is loss of connection between the brain and the painting. One could
assume its body pieces of an individual scattered all around a park
(background) but the attempt at 3D in the middle confuses the person more
as to what body part could that be or is it a body part?

2) FORM / STRUCTURE / ORGANISATION – to begin with, there is the creation of

the horizon.  In 'real life', the horizon is where the land (or sea) and sky meet.
In painting perspective, it's the level your eyes are at, an imaginary line to
which things recede. It's important to know where it is if you're painting a
realistic scene, and it needs to be put in straight, as you need to apply
perspective rules to the objects in relation to this. In this case, the horizon line
is placed high at eye level so it seems to be more of a zoomed image
considering the background influence. The creation of the horizon line seems
to arrange the shapes and images very well in the painting as well. The
horizon brings in some sort of decorum in terms of placements. Next, we
notice is the scatter of body pieces all over the painting. Now one often
wonders how such a scene of violence still emotes serenity and calmness
from the painting. Well one, the artist didn’t intend on portraying a violent
scene though its theme was of its nature. One can say it used the violent
theme in minimal aspects as possible, which is why it still doesn’t cause
disturbance in spite of its theme; and two, the structure of the painting doesn’t
let the brain create a violent disturbing image since it’s not clearly depicted in
the painting. The brain just assumes it is scattered body pieces but it really
doesn’t have to be that. There is no traditional composition in this painting.
Composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or
ingredients in a work of art as distinct from the subject of the work. The term
composition means putting together using conscious thoughts. Characteristics
of a traditional composition would include line, shape, form, space etc ; which
the painting chosen differs from all of it, hence not making it of traditional
composition ( in terms of lines, shapes and forms). The artist looked forward
to creating a mess instead of having unity in terms of form. The body parts are
all not there, which makes you searches for them all over the painting in order
to find equality or actual finality, but the viewer is deprived of that. The
organization is non sensual. By non sensual I mean the forms are so messed
up which in the end leads to the painting not making sense to a certain
degree. The eyes are drawn to the bottom of the painting most of the time,
since most images are drawn there, and with the attempt at 3D it creates
further distortion to the eye. There is no communication between the brain
and the body parts. The brain can recognize certain aspects of the human
body on it, but not entirely which is why there is loss of communication. To a
viewer it would seem like it was half baked idea of the artist to put in some
aspects of the body to be recognized and others not ; but if the painting
clearly depicted what it had too , it wouldn’t attract the attention and
interesting un noticed features of the painting. This logic, in itself is innovation
and beauty.
3) COLOUR SCHEME – color is a very important aspect in a painting. Color
harmony is what an artist must intend to achieve in order to enhance it. In
visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It
engages the viewer and creates a sense of inner order, a balance in the
visual experience. When it is not harmonious, it’s either boring or chaotic. At
one extreme is a visual experience that is so bland that the viewer is not
engaged. The human brain will reject under stimulating information. At the
other extreme is a visual experience that is so overdone, so chaotic that the
viewer can’t stand to look at it. The human brain rejects what it cannot
organize, what it cannot understand. The visual task requires that we present
a logical structure. Color harmony delivers visual interest and sense of order.
In summary, extreme unity leads to under-stimulation, and extreme
complexity leads to over-stimulation. Color harmony is a dynamic equilibrium.
In the painting ‘drei figuren’ an important feature we notice is the contrasting
colors between the ground and the background which is divided by the artistic
horizon. The colors are purple and brown. Purple symbolizes good judgment,
peace of mind and spiritual fulfillment; whereas brown indicates earth, order,
practicality. Hence we can assume with the use of these two colors, the artist
is trying to give a naturalistic idea of earth and night while keeping order at the
same time. The bodies are either pink with white outlines or vice versa, and
different shades of pink ranging from light to dark. This proves that there is no
ethnicity i.e arrangement and distribution in terms of color aspect. The artist
couldn’t use red to define these scattered bodies since it would not be in
equilibrium considering the colors of the background etc, so instead used pink
to subtle it down. There is partial use of shadow and is seen as the purple
shade under the 3D image, as well as the dark smudge like effect over the
thigh. No realistic play of light is seen in this painting. One could assume it’s a
kid who painted this unless it’s clearly stated its ‘maria lassnig’ . The use of
colors brings me to this conclusion. According to the color harmony theory,
this painting would come under ‘chaotic’ thereby leading to over-simulation in
the brain and hence not making it understandable.
4) TEXTURE – texture can be experienced by the senses of sight and touch.
Consequently it can be stimulated by the artist, for example making
something look as though it’s tough, or it can be made actual. For example,
the surface being textured either because of the thickly applied paint or the
addition of granular material to the paint such as sand. Texture can also be
created by sticking items to the piece (eg. Collage). When planning an art the
importance of texture must be considered in relation to the other formal art
elements such as color or line. When used skillfully texture creates contrast,
stimulates the senses, and can give composition to both unity and variety. In
this case, since shapes are all abstract it is really hard to get uniform texture.
The white shapes feel hollow with only outlines giving any form. The darker
pink legs look very smooth and don’t seem real, whereas the shapes next to
the dark pink legs are very rough and somehow closest to texture in reality.
So we can consider that there is a scale of texture ranging from hollow to
smooth, to rough and realistic.