Though I have seen the various exhibits in Hirschhorn Museum over the past year, I was pleasently surprised to find myself walking on untreaded territory, both physically and mentally. The experience this time around proved to be much more enriching and perhaps made more clear some of the mysterious or unknown intentions the artists had in creating their art. As a dedicated observer of modern and contemporary art, I am often more attracted to art that challenges one to perceive more than what is on the mere surface and two-dimensional plane that contains much art, both emotionally and psychologically. The Hirschhorn is truly a testament to the ways art can shatter previous conceptions people may retain about art and the world around them. The “Strange Bodies” perfectly exhibits how people are forced to confront modern interpretation and perceptions of the one standard ruler by which we are all measured: the human body. Besides that particular exhibit, much the museum contains artistic expressions of the various elements and principles of design, as are demonstrated below.
Point:
Joan Miro Painting (Circus House), 1927
This image uses to two separate points in the rather barren and abstract composition to create some kind of order and relation to one another. Though the line created by the two points is interrupted by another line, the mind is forced to connect the two points according to the gestalt theory of closure which causes the viewer to in some way, psychologically imagine a circus house given the implied line made by the two points. Deliberately abstracted by Miro, the contours that are explicit help the viewer psychologically form a line between the two points and eventually form the structure he desires to be seen beyond the surface image.
Line:
Edward Hopper "First Row Orchestra", 1951
In this painting, the artist uses horizontal and vertical lines in tandem to create the sense of safety and solidity to the point of stoicism. Common in many of his works, Hopper uses heavy, straight lines to demonstrate the alienation and unsentimental approach people take towards one another in modern life. The lines, being the strongest, most effectively used element in the composition are parallel in relation to gravity, creating a mood of repose to the extreme of isolated complacency that perfectly fits the theme of being a spectator to a non-existent show.
Form:
Francis Bacon "Diptych: Study of Human Body- From a Drawing by Ingres", 1962-44
In this rather peculiar interpretation of the timeless diptych, the artist uses very distorted forms to relate to his viewer a sense of discomfort and inability to actually perceive what is being depicted within the given space around the figures. These highly irregular forms try to force a sense of organic reality within the composition, yet the viewer is also confronted with highly abstracted forms that express the artist’s intentions to break previous conceptions of the human form and use a study by a master artist to challenge past depictions of the ideal human body and what people actually see themselves as in art.
Movement:
Alexander Calder "Red Cascade", 1964
In this sculpture, the artist takes the element of movement to its most rational extreme, to the point where shapes with in a composition can actually move and change their spatial relationships to one another throughout time. The gradations in red allow the viewer’s eye to move throughout the composition as it begins to move on its own, relating the artist’s desire for the viewer to perceive movement not only in the literal movement of the mobile sculpture, but also through the changes in color value. This continues the artist’s idea of a red “cascade” which literally demonstrates the color’s ability to change throughout space and time, in strange, irregular contours that make the more composition all the more dynamic.
Color:
Clyfford Still "1962-D", 1962
In this inherently abstract composition, the artist emphsizes the ways in which colors vibrate and contrast one another, using complementary colors (blue/orange, black/white) as the basic language to be transcibed by the viewer’s eyes. While the off-white recedes into the warm background, the black formless shape is pulled out into the viewer’s focus and immediately radiates as the dominante figure in the composition, leaving the blue and orange to the left to balance the viewer’s attention to the rest of the composition. The maroon accent to the right of the black figure also works to balance the composition and retain its integrity in remaining an equal composition in terms of color.
Pattern:
Karl Benjamin "#25", 1964
In this image, the artist repeats a basic pattern, contained within the space of squares and rectangles, interrupting the overall flow and organization of the what the artist is depicting in the composition. Because the pattern is geometrically abstracted circles and lines, the artist perhaps wishes to communicate to the viewer the sense of distortion and chaos within such a ordered and harmonious composition that refuses to emphasize any particular part of the image. The pattern created by the artist merely confuses the viewer and leaves the eye to move around the composition randomly, with no fixed emphasis. Though there is a strict order to the structure and “skeleton” of the composition, the viewer is unable to discern any reason behind such a consistant and ordered pattern.
Texture:
Julian Schnabel "Portrait of Andy Warhol", 1983
In this painting, the artist chose to place the most creative emphasis on the texture and actual external quality of the composition’s surface, using a black velvet surface as a canvas on which the rough, jagged, abstracted lines form a rather abstracted portrait of the venerated artist. With this choice of medium, the artist is creating the illusion of a tactile sensation as the viewer’s mind is able to understand the heavily applied oils to the black velvet background, creating a very distorting, yet simultaneously comforting feeling. This technique used by the artist in some ways reflects the quality and expressionism of Warhol’s own artwork: comforting and familiar, yet simultaneously jarring and perplexing to the viewer, creating different sensation psychologically while this painting creates mental tactile sensations.
Balance:
Antoine Pevsner, "Column of Peace", 1964
The artist employs visual equilibrium in this sculpture to provide vitality and stability to this bronze cast, reconciling the sharp, opposing forces that at first seem violent and agressive, but are truly arranged equally at either side of the central axis. From any viewpoint, the sculpture is at peace with itself, resulting in a calming tranquility that detracts from the implied violent contours of the bronze sculpture.
Proportion:
Rene Magritte "Delusions of Grandeur", 1967
In this sculpture, the artist effectively uses proportion to relate to the viewer the inability to discern different masses from one another and the ways in which they delude the viewer from the true, natural shape and contour of the form that is the subject. Again, as stated, the human body is the most universal standard of measurement. The fact this sculpture is able to destroy previous conceptions of art’s favorite subject- the female form- is quite exciting and also jarring as well. Because everyone models his or herself by the standard ideal form of the female form, the artist wishes to extend to the viewer the futility of such self-degrading behavior, employing proportion to demonstrate the female form’s degeneration into something fake and unreal. The excess is also notably empty in its three different proportions, reinforcing the concept that retain the ideal female form is hollow, shallow excuse to hurt oneself.
Rhythm:
Frank Stella "Line Up", 1962
In this geometric abstraction, the artist relies on gradation and repetition to carry the rhythm of the composition and allow the viewer’s eye to move throughout the painting, as it comes the center convergence of dissecting lines. As the multiple lines come closer to the center of the composition, the gradation frequently changes and forces the viewer’s eye to constant move throughout the composition and “line up” with what exactly the image is attempting to depict- which is nothing. The repetition of line and colors again guides the viewer’s eyes through the composition and brings the viewpoint eventually toward the center, where each of the orthogonals converge and relate to the viewer the last “beat” in the rhythm created by the composition.
Emphasis:
Constanitn Brancusi "Torso of a Young Man", 1924
In this very minimalist sculpture, the artist is choosing to emphasize only one part of the sculpture that perplexingly makes up only quarter of the total mass of the whole. By using a shiny bronze medium for the minimalist torso that reflects everything around and places it at the top of the sculpture, the artist is visually explaining to the viewer that element of the composition is the emphasis and mental focus one should take when regarding the sculpture. The wooden and stone geometric shapes below which form the pedestal on which the golden torso sits, are just as compositionally important as the torso due to the fact the sculpture is made entirely of simple geometric shapes. Although the torso and legs do take the most emphasis, the pedestal relates to the viewer how inorganic and unreal the sculpture is as a whole and how it barely begins to approximate what a real human torso is.
Unity:
Sol LeWitt "Wall Drawing #1113", 2003
This massive composition estimates mostly all of the elements and principles of design very well, combining almost every different part of design previously discussed. The effective and consistent use of form, color and especially pattern to create a visually strong and highly unified composition that uses simple geometric shapes to cover massive areas of the wall, perfectly balancing the space it occupies while simultaneously creating a strong rhythm in the perpendicular bars of color used coming down to the triangle. The converging lines at the central point emphasize the shapes and geometric value of the composition, making the constantly move throughout the bars of color until it reaches its logical end- the vanshing point at center.
