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SA 132
Professor Pepper
24 March 2020
Tara Donovan
Biography
Tara Donovan is a very well-known American sculptor. Donovan was born in 1969 in Queens, New York and now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Most of her childhood was spent in Blauvelt, New York with her two siblings. Donovan didn’t consider herself an artist until she went to college. She received her Bachelors of Fine arts from Corcoran College of Art and Design and her Masters of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999. After that, she eventually received her first major solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of art's Hemicycle Gallery. Donovan also was able to participate in the prestigious biennial of the Whitney Museum of American Art just a year later. Her success began to grow at a very fast pace. She participated in exhibitions at the Ace Gallery in New York and Los Angeles; This is when she started focussing on site-specific installations, defining most of her future work. She continued displaying work at many more distinguished museums like UCLA's Hammer Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The following year she had major exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Parrish Museum. Donovan joined Pace Gallery in 2005. Her work has been inspired by light and space artists Robert Irwin and James Turrell. She is also linked to Postminimalist and Process artists like Eva Hesse, Jackie Winsor, Richard Serra, and Robert Morris (“Tara Donovan”).
Colony
Tara Donovan created her piece Colony in 2005. This piece is entirely made of cut-down pencils. It measures at 4"x136"x113-½" when on display This piece was installed at Pace Gallery and does not belong to any specific collection. Donovan often works with found objects and Colony can prove that. This piece to me resembles a city or another landscape created scaled-down that you may see at an architectural firm. I enjoy looking down and imagining some type of world that this belongs to. Colony defines a certain population, enhancing this idea of a city. A population of pencils made to have their community or a community that may live on this broad land of pencils. There are many ways to look at and decipher this piece. I believe that scale is a very prominent principle in this piece. Pencils are small, so with this piece finishing to be 136" creates a form of irony for the viewer. The piece can be walked around, with so many different areas to look at. That brings me to also notice the balance of the piece. Because of the height being so short, there aren't any dramatic changes throughout the piece. While it is not symmetrical at all, Colony still has an even balance to it. No areas of the piece feel heavier than others. Just like other 3d displays of a landscape, Colony varies in its values. Different values of that pencil yellow-brown color are viewed in this piece. The changes in the value make this piece feel a bit realistic. The values also change from whatever point of view the viewer is looking at due to the height differences of each pencil piece. Lastly, I believe that texture is also very prominent in this piece. Pencils have a very familiar shape and feel to many. The viewers can almost imagine what it would be like to feel this sculpture. The different heights of each pencil piece make the texture very rough, but since each pencil is the same shape around, a pattern is created.
Untitled
Untitled is a piece that shows Donovan's interest in light and space. This piece is entirely made of styrofoam cups and glue, showing her use of found objects once again. It was installed at Pace Gallery in 2008 but is not in any collection due to its scale. The installation dimensions vary on the location of the installment. To me Untitled feels like a giant cloud; The piece appears so soft and organic. I feel like this can also show irony since the materials are so unnatural, while the form is completely organic. The way the light hits different areas of this piece is truly enchanting, I feel like there is a holy world right above it. I believe that repetition is the largest component of this piece. Since the piece is only made of styrofoam cups, repetition is very important. Donovan glued each one to each other in different ways, creating differences even though the entire process was just being repeated. With this use of repetition, an amazing sense of harmony is created. The piece uses many single styrofoam cups. Donovan put all these cups together and made them feel like a whole. They are united to where each one works with each other to create a beautiful sculpture. Each cup belongs to each other and the viewer can sense that. The form is also a large design factor in Untitled. The organic shape is what makes the light above this piece refract differently. It feels like a cloud, or winding intestines, or even a pile of laundry thrown on the floor. The form is completely natural. With the form comes the scale. This piece does not have any specific dimensions since it can vary on where it is installed, but according to the images it takes up a massive amount of space. Thousands of styrofoam cups are used making this most likely one of the only pieces of art in the room. It goes from the high ceiling of the gallery down to the near top of a doorway. The scale is why Untitled reminds me of a cloud. I think the scale is what makes this piece so effective. If it wasn't so large, the styrofoam cups may have more space in between them, completely changing the look of the piece.
Summary
Tara Donovan's works make me feel like I am in a completely new world. I admire her interest in light and space because it almost brings another scientific approach to art. Her focus on scale, form, repetition, harmony, texture, and value is so strong, and add to every piece I've seen of hers. I discovered Tara Donovan while doing my sketchbook responses for Structuring Human Space. I am very happy that I can now use her works as research for my future pieces. Her use of found materials is very interesting as well. I create art out of raw materials, not often using found objects. Researching her has given me great ideas for my projects in Structuring Human Space since they do have found object requirements. Also, since classes are now online, found materials are my greatest resources. Donovan's success is very inspiring for artists like myself. She has worked very hard to earn her recognition. Colony and Untitled are only two pieces of many more she has created. They have used principles and elements of design to be such successful works of art.
Word Count: 1182
Works Cited
“Tara Donovan.” Pace Gallery, www.pacegallery.com/artists/tara-donovan/.
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Professor Jen Pepper
SA-132 Structuring Human Space
24 March 2020
Damián Ortega
Damián Ortega is an award-winning sculptor who was born in 1967 in Mexico City, Mexico. He is 53 years of age this year and is still living and working in Mexico City, staying true to his Mexican nationality. Ortega did not study anywhere for a formal art education, but he was very influenced by a few particular artists. Ortega was at the age of sixteen when he decided to drop out of his school to start his art career (Widewalls). He became a political cartoonist that focused on current problems in Mexico, like their poor economy after an earthquake. Gabriel Orozco influenced Damián Ortega’s work because he held a course specialized in experimental art (Der). Another influencer for Ortega was Diego Rivera but he soon became even more interested in a different artist by the name of Marcel Duchamp, a conceptual and surrealist artist.
Ortega was not always in Mexico. Ortega lived in Berlin for seven years of his life and worked on his art there. His connection with Berlin allowed him to exhibit his work there, so he has had work exhibited in Berlin, Mexico, London and the United States. In a lot of his works and installations, Ortega likes to use recycled items and reusable objects to aid him in the meanings of his works. Reusing things like glass bottles helps him translate his idea of marketing and realization of the heavy use and consumption of Americanization and American products (Schumacher). He also does a lot of experimental projects working with things like ice and molten metal (Widewalls).
First Deconstruction
Ortega’s piece called Cosmic Thing, figure one, was made in 2002 and is one of his most well-known works. His medium is very rare in which he used an old 1983, stainless steel Volkswagen Beetle that he disassembled and created artwork from. After the car was disassembled, the pieces of the Beetle were strung from the ceiling by many individual wires. He also added a lot of space between each car part to show depth and create almost a floating feeling. The entire piece as a whole measures to be 285 x 276 x 296 inches. It is a very large piece even though it is made from a life-sized, real car, due to the spaces in between the car parts that Ortega uses as emphasis on the piece as a whole to obtain more used space and activation.
The most prominent elements in this piece are space, and form. Space is used and activated very well in this piece because the car is not just stuck together and placed in the middle of the floor. It is deconstructed, and reconstructed to look like it is exploding, like a paused moment in time during a car explosion. The space in between the parts create a floating feeling that activates more space than a regularly constructed car. If you look at it from different views, it looks like different floating pieces of a car. Looking at it straight on, it looks just like a car, but the activated space allows for more imagination for the viewers, like what is going on? Are the car pieces exploding? Or are the car pieces being brought together? The form of the car parts create something that looks like a cloud of car parts. Form is very activated in this piece because there are many forms within the piece that create one form, like a cloud made of car parts.
The principals of design that are most prominent in Cosmic Thing are balance and unity. Balance is very dominant in this piece because the car parts are symmetrical. The parts are not only symmetrical in being the same parts on each side, but they are also symmetrical in how they are placed. If you took a picture from the front, back, top, or bottom, you could fold the picture in half and have all of the car parts line up with each other. Showing hoe carefully placed each object is hung. The balance in the piece is so prominent, that it shows structure and equal weight. Unity is also very important in this piece because the unity of all the car pieces create one idea in the audience’s mind. Whether it is an exploding car or a forming car, if the audience knows what a car is then they know that it is a car no matter what because of the unity of the pieces. If the car parts were all thrown on the ground then it would be a lot harder to distinguish what it is. But the unity of all the parts creating a full car, allow a developed theme of unity with parts and pieces.
Second Deconstruction
Ortega’s second piece that will be discussed is Controller of the Universe. He constructed the piece in 2007 and created it out of found tools and wire. The found tools include axes, saws, hammers, ice picks, crowbars and many other tools of construction, and destruction. All of the tools appear to be pointing inward, creating a sense of explosion, like his other piece Cosmic Thing. It also appears to be frozen in place, like a frozen moment in time, similar to the Volkswagen he used for his other project. The use of hand tools like these create a sense of construction and destruction. It gives off an energy like something is trying to be changed, with the use of tools, things can be changed to either form or deconstruct something different. All of the tools are also put in place to point inwards, which leads people to think that it is a self-projected work by Ortega. He could be showing that he wants to change something within himself, or he is creating a message to his readers that they need to change themselves. Another thing that creates the idea of creating and deconstructing things is the title, Controller of the Universe. The tools in the piece are pointing to something that is centralized, in the middle of the piece. So, is the “controller of the universe” the one that needs to be changed? Is the “controller of the universe” humanity?
Two of the most prominent elements of design in this piece are space and form. The element of space is used very dominantly because the objects are suspended in the air at a certain angle. The space created in the piece is very similar to the space used with Cosmic Thing. The tools are carefully spaced apart in a way that shows isolation, but all the space in the piece as a whole is what brings it all together. Each tool contains its own volume and space, correlating to the negative space around it. The spaces between in tool are also very narrow, causing it to form the idea of a relationship between each tool used in Ortega’s work. If space was not a prominent element of design, then the tools would be overlapping and creating a higher work that gives off a claustrophobic feeling and potentially creates an idea that is more centralized in one subject. Form is also a very dominant element of design in this piece because it correlates with the use of space. The way that the tools are placed, it almost creates a sphere like form with all the activation that it has. The look of the piece is also very aesthetic, which relates to the three-dimensional shape, from. The aesthetic is very symmetrical and pleasing to the eye, making it an imaginative piece with its space, and also a more grounded piece with its repetition of form and symmetry.
The two most dominant principals of design in this piece are balance and emphasis. Balance is a prominent principal in Ortega’s Controller of the Universe because the tools are carefully placed to be a certain distance apart. Everything is perfectly balanced and even symmetrical. Even though the tools are not perfectly symmetrical on each side of the piece, there is still a balance between the tools with the number of objects and just looking at the piece from afar. The work is so balanced, that if you were to look at it from a far, it would look like a perfect, fuzzy sphere. There is also a balance between the objects pointing outwards and objects pointing inwards. There are many types of balance in this piece but there is also a lot of emphasis. The idea behind the emphasis in this piece, is that there is a lot of emphasis, but it is on something that is no present in the piece. All of the tools that are lined up with something in the middle, show that there is something being emphasized in the middle of the gathering. All of the tools line up with something and it is believed to have to do with something from the title or the work. Controller of the Universe. The emphasis is on the ‘controller of the universe,’ and whoever or whatever the controller is, they are personal to the artist because the piece is very centralized, and it is all pointed inward. The emphasis is very unique in this piece because usually emphasis makes something really pop out to the audience. But in this case, the emphasis is on something that is not actually there in person. Which makes the piece more unique and gets the audience thinking even more about what the piece could be about.
Damián Ortega has a lot of beautiful works that make his audience stop and think. Cosmic Thing and Controller of the Universe are only two of Ortega’s works that I found incredible interest in. His use of materials and ideas are a work of beauty and the passion that he puts into his work is very credible and shown throughout each of his pieces. His hard life growing up and then becoming an artist is a truly remarkable story and I really hope more and more people realize what art is. It isn’t just a splash of color or a scribble on a piece of paper. For people like Damián Ortega and me, art is how we show love, happiness, hate, yearning, and practically anything else that we feel. Ortega’s works shows. A lot of emotion and ideas, but he likes to keep them a little quiet, so he buries some ideas into his pieces that are hard to pick out. Just like his emphasis on the controller of the universe in Controller of the Universe. Art can be blunt, and art can be secretive, and Damián Ortega does great at both styles.
Works Cited
“Damian Ortega.” Widewalls, 29 July 2013, www.widewalls.ch/artist/damian-ortega/.
“Der Sturm Digitized.” Guggenheim, 11 June 2013, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/damian-ortega.
Schumacher, Rachel. “5 Fascinating Facts About Mexican Artist Damián Ortega.” Culture Trip, The Culture Trip, 18 Feb. 2015, theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/dami-n-ortega-top-5-facts-on-mexico-s-wittiest-artist/.
Figure One
Damián Ortega, Cosmic Thing, 2002, 285 x 276 x 296 inches, wire and a stainless steel volkswagenhttps://publicdelivery.org/damian-ortega-cosmic-thing/
Figure Two
Damián Ortega, Controller of the Universe, 2007, 285 x 406 x 455 centimeters, wire and found tools
https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/35460745/-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abigail Wilhelm
SA.132
SA.132
18 March 18, 2020
The Contemporary Artist Joan Jonas
BIOGRAPHY
Joan Jonas is a pioneer of performance art and video art. She was born the 13th of July 1936 (Wikipedia). In her youth, she lived between her divorced parents in Manhattan and Long Island (The Art Story). She pursued extensive training, including a bachelor’s degree in Art History from Mount Holyoke College, which is in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Also, she studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where she received further training in sculpture and drawing. Jonas pursued sculpture even further, finally receiving a Master’s in the subject from Columbia University (Wikipedia).
At around age 6, Jonas knew she wanted to be an artist, and she was encouraged and inspired greatly by her family (The Art Story). Her father was an aspiring writer, her mother brought her to art galleries and the opera often, her aunt a painter, and her stepfather was a jazz musician. (The Art Story) This environment of art and culture clearly helped her to develop as an artist herself, and gave her the tools she needed to explore the world of art and eventually, create her own. She was also greatly inspired by the cultures she experienced in her travels. She has visited a number of countries worldwide, including “Japan, Greece, Morocco, India, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Hungary, and Ireland” (Tate). Motifs and objects that she has collected across her travels often appear in her work. (The Art Story). Another unlikely inspiration is her dogs. Their appearances are often unplanned, and she calls her beloved animal “a natural performer”, giving her work a sense of life and spontaneous energy.
FIRST DECONSTRUCTION
In Figure 1, a 2010 re-performance of Jonas’s 1969 work Mirror Piece I, Jonas displays a very unique use of shape, form, movement, and space. Form is one of the most prominent elements in this work. The mirrors act as a substrate, and the bodies they reflect serve as the medium. It is an extension of her training in 2-dimensional art as well as sculpture, which she believes are “exhausted mediums” (artsy). The bodies carrying the mirrors move in slow, deliberate movements to create very specific fragmentations and reflections of themselves in a commentary of the human for which is common throughout Jonas’ body of work. This is what creates the “performance” aspect of the work, and it becomes interactive as well as the audience’s own image is reflected back at themselves.
The use of shape works in direct relation to form. The shape of the mirror against the shape of the human forms is very intentional, as it creates a unique fragmentation of the human form. Jonas does this to create different angles and lines of symmetry throughout the performance. The creation of symmetry through the use of mirrors is important in the conversation this work creates about perspective, making the shape of the mirrors and the fragmented reflections of the audience vital to the work’s overall success. The different fragmentations of the audience and the performers creates an interesting conversation with the viewer regarding perspective. The angles the mirrors are positioned in give the audience atypical views of the human body, a very familiar form. Also, the mirror’s sharp, rectangular shape creates a very geometric contrast against the bodies, furthering the conversation created within the piece. The reflections of organic human forms are contained within the rigid, inorganic shape of the mirror, creating an unconventional window for the audience to view the work.
Because this work is a performance piece, it is obvious that movement is a massive component of the work. The performers move slowly, in a way that is almost ritual-like. Also, it is important to note the behavior between the female performers and the male performers. The women move around with the mirrors mostly uninterrupted, but occasionally one of the men interrupts them, at one point each man picks up and moves one of the women, almost as if they are objects. This creates an entirely new layer of conversation within the piece. The experience of womanhood is a common topic of Jonas’ work, and is apparent in this one as well. This interaction could be Jonas’ commentary on societal power structures between men and women, and the patriarchal control that is often exercised against women. Considering the nature of society when this work was first performed in 1969, it is quite probable that this is the case. Overall, movement is not only crucial to the execution of this performance, but to the conversations Jonas looks to create.
Jonas’ use of space allows the other elements to collaborate to execute this piece. Not only is her use of the space within the room important, the space that is created within the reflection of the mirrors is also crucial. In this performance, the mirrors are used not only to fracture the human forms, but create illusory pathways to seemingly infinite spaces. Jonas says “Mirrors can collapse or confuse the distance between performer and audience and disrupt visual frameworks” (The Guardian). The mirrors create a new space for the performers to move, in addition to the angle that is viewed from the audience. The literal space of the room and the illusory space created by the mirrors allow the other elements to work freely in the audience’s imagination.
SECOND DECONSTRUCTION
Juniper Tree was first installed in 1976, and in it she uses pattern, color, contrast, and variety in a more sculptural form of her work. Color is clearly one of the more emphasized components of this piece. Jonas utilizes a limited palette to help narrate the piece. Juniper Tree is a part installation, part performance retelling of the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm by the same name. The tale is a quite gruesome one, discussing dark topics such as murder and cannibalism (Muse). The shocking nature of the tale is characterized in the piece by the stark juxtaposition of the bright red and crisp white of the silk wall hangings. Jonas likely chose these colors because the woman in the fairy tale wished for a child “as red as blood and as white as snow”, which was the boy that was killed by the villainous stepmother.
Variety is also an important aspect of this piece. Jonas utilizes multiple mediums, including the drawings on silk, a kimono, a string of wooden balls, a ladder, and a seemingly endless list of other materials. Jonas does this to not only further contextualize the tale, but add a layer of ambiguity that is up to the viewer to interpret, thus once again creating her layered conversations that she is known for. The different materials represent different parts of the story, and the rest of the plot is illustrated by the performance aspect, some of it performed by Jonas herself.
The use of color and different materials in this piece create contrast which helps to illustrate the story. The contrast between the red and white help to convey the gruesome concepts that the fairy tale encompasses. The contrast is very striking, as is the story. Aside from the visual pieces, Jonas includes a tape recording of the actual Brothers Grimm tale, creating intersections between the storyline the visual components create and the literal audio storyline. This contrast between physical and non-tangible medium creates a contrast that develops the layering that Jonas is praised for.
Jonas’ employment of color and contrast within the silk hangings and other materials create unity within the work. The numerous components would seem out of place and incoherent if the limited palette and striking contrast the silk hangings display were not repeated throughout the work. There is also a greater sense of unity in the piece overall that is created by the combination of the physical elements and the audio. While the visual progression of the story is not synchronized with the audio, it does intersect, binding it together and unifying the senses to create a unique perspective.
Figure #1
Joan Jonas
Mirror Piece I
1969
Dimensions Variable
Performance
Video: https://vimeo.com/77162791
Figure #2
Joan Jonas
Juniper Tree
1994
Dimensions Variable
Mixed Media, Performance
Work Cited
“Joan Jonas.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Jonas.
“Joan Jonas Biography, Life & Quotes.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/jonas-joan/life-and-legacy/#nav.
Tate. “Five Things to Know: Joan Jonas – List.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joan-jonas-7726/five-things-know-joan-jonas.
“Joan Jonas: Mirror Piece I (1969).” Artsy, www.artsy.net/artwork/joan-jonas-mirror-piece-i.
Jonas, Joan. “Mirror Mirror: Joan Jonas on the Fairytales That Have Cast a Spell over Her 50-Year Career.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 22 Mar. 2018, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/mar/22/joan-jonas-exhibition-tate-modern-london.
Worsley, Dale. “The Juniper Tree by Joan Jonas (Review).” Performing Arts Journal, The MIT Press, 3 Jan. 2018, muse.jhu.edu/article/655249/summary.
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Vanessa German
Vanessa German asks viewers to consider her work beyond the surface level. After seeing The Boxer at the Everson Museum of Art I felt the need to know more. German’s background allows her to bring a wide understanding of American life to her work. Currently, German lives and works in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, however she has seen many sides of America. German is a middle child born in 1976 in Wisconsin, but raised in Los Angeles (American Visionary). Moving through the country surely helped expand her perspective on the issues she addresses in her work.
German’s mother influenced her career. In an interview with Jahunyia Healis of The Observer, German cited her mother as the driving force behind her artistic life - encouraging German and her siblings to create anything they desired, “My mother made us make our own lives” (Healis). German’s mother is a fiber artist whose passion is working with her community in Los Angeles (American Visionary). Community is a core aspect of German’s work. Calling herself a “citizen artist”, German recalls the children in her community watching her work, inspiring her to bring her work into public view (Healis). Truly, German is a beacon of hope and ingenuity in a neighborhood - and a nation - facing hard times. German is a self-taught creator who elevates objects people overlook in everyday life (Healis).
I believe that the practice of using found objects speaks to the message behind German’s artwork. Physically, German’s use of found objects tips off the viewer to the complexity the work is trying to convey. She deals with issues of racism and poverty, and through using found objects to create intriguing sculptures, German is informing viewers that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Additionally, there is the idea of parts of a whole. This comes back to the focus in her work on community. Rather than casting a monolith in broze, or carving from a single piece of marble, German pieces together many small objects to create a cohesive whole. To me, this reflects the value she places in community. She is acknowledging that when people come together, they can accomplish exponentially more than they could on their own. German weaves together things that society takes for granted - cell phones, cracker tins, wall outlets - to create “power figures'' which stand as protectors of her neighborhood (Bullock). These objects may be benign, but imagine our world without them. Similarly, society as a whole looks down on those in poverty and to this day people carry racial prejudices and perpetuate violence against black Americans, but America would be nothing without those people.
German’s sculptures also serve to reject elitist ideals. This can be seen, again, in her use of found objects, but also in her efforts outside of creating art. She strives to make art accessible to all people. In the early days, she taught creative thinking to the children who watched her work at home (Healis). This idea grew into ARTHouse, a community art center to educate and enhance the lives of young people in Homewood, PA (Pavel). Through ARTHouse, German tears down barriers of entry into the art world and exemplifies the idea that we can all achieve truly wonderful things. Her work rises against gate-keeping of all kinds, from police brutality to standards of beauty (May III). German’s sculptures shout ‘you cannot keep us down’, as told by Healis, “The power figures in the show tell an array of stories. There are women escaping violent victimization; there are the harrowing effects of gun violence. But above all else, the show is an exaltation of self-preservation, survival and resilience”. By sculpting the figures in these stories of suffering German is canonizing them, forging a new set of saints and heroes who represent the underrepresented. Indeed, German’s works resemble spiritual figures.
There is an irony in how menial objects can form pieces that demand reverence from the viewer. German employs an artistic sleight of hand, sneaking reclaimed trash into institutions of art. Her work is “often made of materials found in abandoned buildings and lots. This is parallel to her motives behind the work. She takes what we see and shows it to us in a way that makes us question the status quo. Many critics have noted that her practice mirrors another brilliant black artist, Fred Wilson (artsy). In his project Mining the Museum, Wilson carried out a case study in institutional racism by examining the collection of the Maryland Historical society (Raicovich). German and Wilson share a common practice of reframing what we accept as normal to put our toxic patterns of behavior front and center. By using garbage, abandoned materials, German is calling attention to the way the American government has abandoned its people, the poor, tired, huddled masses who built this country.
German has developed a unique visual language in her work. She creates free standing “power figures” as well as hanging assemblage pieces and each of them relates to the other visually. This universal style makes her installations resemble Qin Shi Huang’s terracotta army. It’s even intimidating to look at a lone assemblage, despite their relatively short stature. They stand at attention, staring dead ahead. These figures initially catch the eye as a solid cohesive whole, and the closer you get the more individualized details you see. German frequently uses tar to color her pieces, this practice not only celebrates German’s black heritage, but also “the process of destroying to create”(Everson). In addition to the tar tones in her work, German consistently uses rhinestone eyes and shell mouths to build her own personal portrait of the contemporary black female soldier (May III).
Physically, and conceptually, Vanessa German’s installations are emblematic of the struggles and complexity of modern American life for people of color and people living in poverty. Raised with the values of creation and community, German puts art to work to make her world a better place. She applies these community values to each one of her pieces to outfit armies of stunning figures which stand in defiance against the atrocities to which society turns a blind eye.Works Cited
“Vanessa German”. American Visionary Museum, n.d. http://www.avam.org/our-visionaries/vanessa-german.shtml
“Vanessa German” artsy, n.d. https://www.artsy.net/artist/vanessa-german
Bullock, Maggie. “The Future of Work: The 'Citizen Artist' Bringing Hope to Pittsburgh’s Homewood”. Gavlak Gallery, 17th Apr, 2019. https://www.gavlakgallery.com/news-events/gavlak-los-angeles-vanessa-german
“Vanessa German”. Everson Museum, 23rd Dec, 2016. https://everson.org/explore/exhibitions-archive/vanessa-german
Healis, Jahunyia. “Artist Vanessa German Celebrates Black Resilience in Her Mixed Media ‘Power Figures’”. Observer, 9th Dec, 2019. https://observer.com/2019/12/vanessa-german-sculptures-celebrate-black-resilience-at-fort-gansevoort/
May III, Richard Allen. “Gavlak Los Angeles: Vanessa German”. Gavlak Gallery, 8th May, 2019. https://www.gavlakgallery.com/news-events/gavlak-los-angeles-vanessa-german
“Vanessa German”. Pavel Zoubok Fine Art, 2020. http://pavelzoubok.com/artist/vanessa-german/
Raicovich, Laura. “What Happened When Fred Wilson Dug Beneath a Museum’s Floorboards”. Hyperallergic, 16th Aug, 2019. https://hyperallergic.com/507245/mining-the-museum-an-installation-by-fred-wilson/
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Lynda Benglis, Power Tower I, 2019 Sculpture, White Tombasil 89 x 72 x 64 in. bronze https://d32dm0rphc51dk.cloudfront.net/nRA5md_m9ZamaWmYJgHTOw/large.jpg
SA 132
Cortney Reynolds
Cortney Reynolds
Prof. Pepper
3/23/2020
Paige Bradley, an American sculptor, is quoted to say: “Art is not entertainment. Art is not luxury goods. Art is culture. It is you and me,” (“Biography”). Continuing to develop pieces in the present time, Bradley focuses on issues regarding human experience and dichotomies: “beautiful and ugly, liberated and contained, falling and floating” (“About Paige”). Liberation and Home, although not her most publicly acclaimed work, both effectively create concepts regarding humanity and life that Bradley seeks to develop within her artwork.
Biography
Bradley was born in Carmel, California in 1974, however, the exact date unknown to the public (“Paige Bradley” Saatchi Art). She knew that from the young age of nine years old that she would grow to be an artist and turned her attention to the “human condition” as a figurative artist (“Biography”). In fact, she “started drawing from the nude model by the age of ten and by fifteen [she] was studying intensely at university campuses during the summer months. Knowing that [she] was naturally a sculptor, at seventeen [she] had cast [her] first bronze sculpture,” (“Paige Bradley” Saatchi Art). Bradley went on to study at Pepperdine University in California before spending a year in Florence, Italy at the Florence Academy of Art; she finished her education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she learned more about sculpture, painting, and printing in several mediums (“About Paige”). She primarily casts in bronze, which is how much of her work is created, but also incorporates “…painting and charcoals, woodcuts, iron-bonded resin, aluminum, mixed media, or any other material she feels helps communicate her message,” (“Biography”).
In 1994 and for the next decade, Bradley worked as an apprentice under Richard MacDonald, a renowned sculptor at the time; the following year, she worked as an assistant sculptor on a monument for the Atlanta Olympic Games and because of her work, she was soon inducted to the National Sculpture Society and other clubs which recognized her as an accomplished sculptor (“Paige Bradley” Windsor Fine Art). She has developed her own studio which has moved from California to New York, and finally to London as of 2007 (“Biography”). Paige Bradley draws inspiration from the world around her. As stated on her professional website, “inspiration comes from my connection to the world, my relationships with others, and my relationship with myself. I don’t need to travel the planet or hire dancers to find a muse. My individual journey is inspiration enough,” (“Biography”). Many of the concepts Bradley depicts in her work are derived from dichotomies like connecting and releasing, hiding and emerging, and several others, all of which can be seen on her personal website, which arguably act as inspiration as well (“Biography”).
Deconstruction #1
Bradley is expressive about the human experience and the triumphs and struggles associated with it, which has inspired many of her current artworks. As seen in figure 1 Liberation is a piece created by Bradley featured within her Fragment collection. Composed of bronze, the work is 22 inches in depth, 9 inches long, and 9 inches wide (Bradley). The date the piece was finished as well as its current location are unknown. The overall form of the piece resembles the two-dimensional plane of a painting or drawing with three-dimensional elements that lift from the base. This composition offers an interesting take on three-dimensional design that differs from the types of sculptures Paige Bradley typically develops, which are majorly human bodies interacting in their space.
Liberation offers a significant amount of real texture in the way that the bronze is casted. The space surrounding the right-of-center hand resembles brushstrokes or waves that lift from the flat surface to create different dimensions within the piece. The hand emerges from this plane with rough textures, unlike that of a natural human fist, gripping a part of wave-like strokes to assert a symbolic dominance over the world’s struggles and defeating them. These brushstroke-like textures add variety to the piece with their differences in depth, direction, and individual texture. These simple variants add interest in the viewing of the sculpture by creating a diversified platform that inflicts a sense of struggle and tension, rather than a symmetrical and flat plane that would not align with the theme presented. The flowing movement is abstract in nature with these organic forms, rather than calculated, perfectly symmetrical smudges which guide the viewer’s eyes around the surface in a relaying fashion, from the natural curve of one stroke to the one adjacent. The viewer’s eyes will soon be guided to the nearly central fist, creating a focal point that is at the highest point of depth as indicated by the highlights reflecting of the bronze.
The sculpture repeats the brushstroke-like shapes of varying sizes and directions in the space allotted around the fist in a way to create a flowing movement that draws the eye to the off-center hand after shifting between the numerous textures developed. This rhythm creates a cohesiveness throughout the piece in order to tie all elements together and develop a successful theme apparent to the viewer.
Liberation is a piece that effectively communicates the message of regaining freedom through Bradley’s precision in incorporating variation, texture, movement, and rhythm in its unique form.
Deconstruction #2
Much of the human condition relates to how we interact with others and ourselves. As a part of her Couples collection, the piece Home, as displayed in figure 2, is created from bronze and features a couple laying together in an upright position with a spiraling structure surrounding them. The piece stands with dimensions of 38 inches wide, 20 inches in depth, and 32 inches tall (Bradley). The date Home was finished as well as its current location are unknown.
Unlike Liberation, this work features differences in color throughout the piece, including a true bronze hue for the human figures and a silver-toned spiral space encompassing them. These colors as well as the forms themselves create an intriguing contrast throughout the piece, highlighting the separation of the two major pieces of the sculpture, the two bodies and the spiraling form. The parallels between the simple spiral shape and its interaction with the complex human bodies develops contrast in form. The undoubtedly organic form of the spiral encasing human figures which in nature are organically shaped as well appear far more structured and geometric due to this juxtaposition and the intricate attention to detail. The objective of these contrasts is to emphasize different elements throughout the piece.
The spiral itself adds an element of movement to the piece that would not have been present without it, which would undoubtedly impact the overall success of the sculpture. The shape drags the eyes of the viewer from the left tip inward to the human figures from toe to head. Without it, the engagement would ultimately be lost; the viewer would simply see a couple laying together, unsure of where to look. This movement also plays with the asymmetrical balance established by the contrasting objects of the sculpture. The sculpture is significantly heavier on the right side than it is the left in both the spiral and he figures themselves if split perfectly down the center widthwise. The entire right side, both the bodies and spiral, also shifts to an upright position, whereas the left has a more horizontal field of view. The heavier side frames around the upper halves and faces of the couple, creating a center of focus. The tail end of the spiral on the left drags farther out horizontally past the two figures in order to add more weight to assist in creating an equilibrium. This sculpture is organic in nature, as mentioned previously, and the negative space established is no exception to this unstated rule in reference to Home. Pockets of negative space that would not have otherwise been present shine through the bronze forms with interesting organic integrity if the spiral had been omitted from the piece. This negative space created from the spiral allows only certain areas of the couple to be viewed no matter the angle; similarly, the positive space of the spiral hides segments of the bodies. This observation recognizes that the spiral makes it impossible to ever see the entire couple as long as it remains as part of the piece, and Bradley takes complete control over her work by forcing the viewer to interact with Home and move within its space to see its full form.
In Home, Bradley successfully utilizes properties of movement, balance, space, and contrast in order to create a visual effective and stimulating masterpiece that displays her vision of home.
Summary
Inspiration and themes enrooted into the work of Paige Bradley are apparent to the viewer through her utilization of the elements and principles of art and the strategies in which they were implemented. These common details visible throughout all her pieces develops a signature style. Inspiration and meaning can be directly drawn from the dichotomies and themes that Bradley presents.
Works Cited
n.a. “About Paige.” Artistaday.com, 26 June 2011, www.artistaday.com/?p=10390%5C.
n.a. “Biography.” Paige Bradley, paigebradley.com/biography-of-the-artist.php.
n.a. “Paige Bradley.” Saatchi Art, www.saatchiart.com/paigebradley.
n.a. “Paige Bradley.” Windsor Fine Art, www.windsorfineart.com/paige-bradley-1.
Figure 1
Paige Bradley
Liberation
Fragment Collection
Unknown date
Bronze casting
22” depth x 9” width x 9” height
paigebradley.com/biography-of-the-artist.php
Figure 2
Home
Couples Collection
Unknown date
Bronze casting
38” width x 20” depth x 32” height
paigebradley.com/biography-of-the-artist.php---------------------------------------------------------------------------
03/24/2020
Lindsay Taylor
Lindsay Taylor is a fiber artist that is inspired by nature and organic forms. She works primarily in hand-dyed fabrics to create three dimensional forms. Her art has been described as exciting and as “anything goes”, she mixes textures and colors to push the boundaries of art. There is no right or wrong when it comes to this art form, textile art is considered to be “new” in comparison to other art mediums.
As a teenager she was influenced by artist Kafe Fasett. Utilizing his sense of color to inspire her own work, as it was the colors in his work that amazed her. She had bought his books, tapestry kits for inspiration as a teen and she continues to draw from them still. Her household also held inspiration for her art, she was raised in a creative home where she would take scrap fabric and make doll clothes as a child. She moved on to sewing when she inherited a treadle singer sewing machine when her grandmother passed away, she recolects playing on the sewing machine for hours growing up.
When starting her route to becoming an artist she learned the qualifications of embroidery from City & Guilds 1&2, along with pattern cutting at Centra 1&2. City & Guild is an awarding body that offers many types of accredited qualifications that are listed for the regulated qualifications framework (RQF). Receiving these qualifications help her considerably which allows her to create the quality of work she does. She started learning these skills to implement them into the wedding gowns she makes for clients, but could not see her new skill of three dimensional textiles being used on many bridal gowns. So she turned to being a textile artist. She is the author of her own book Embroidered Art.
Crocus bag | Fiber and floral wire | 2010 | 14X7 cm. (Image #1)
Lindsay utilized the different lines she could create using the textiles and fibers. Using the thread to make the delicate details of the petals. The thin thread accentuates the fine vain like texture found on flower petals, this adds to the actual appearance of a natural form. Being mostly vertical lines to wrap up over this oval/spherical shape, it lends to the viewers as a way of representing a growing flower.
She creates a lot of depth and life in this piece with how she uses color. Blending multiple colors to add that color shift within the flowers gives them the appearance of almost being alive. The entire piece uses a secondary color palette; purple, orange, and green. Within the petals of the flowers there are layers of color to make the petal/natural look. The orange and the green share a similar color tone, while the purple carries different tones and values but still stays with color saturation that the orange and green have.
Taking a very moldable medium, such as fibers, to make these natural organic shapes is something that takes preciss skill and time to do. The art and sculptures she makes using these forms are very well done, and captivating to look at. Combining the organic shape with the concept of a bag is a beautiful idea, and was executed just as well. Curves are very natural in shape, creating the curves of the stems, petals and bag base makes a smooth shape for the sculpture to be viewed from.
Texture for this piece is used beautifully, she allowed the fibers to create their own texture based on how she manipulated it. Letting some strands stick out rather than lay smooth with the rest gives the untamed natural look that nature is known for. Each petal on the flowers is different just like a real flower petal is, which also reveals different color values/color shifts with the multiple colors used within them. Then adding the floral wire as the flower stamen brought a new texture to the piece to separate the different aspects of the flower. The smooth metal being twisted gives a different texture and detail to the flowers.
Pond | wooden table, textile, glass | 2010 | 74X60 cm. (Image #2)
In this piece Lindsay uses a found object to create the shape and lines for the base of the project. The only defined lines within this piece are the vertical table legs holding up the piece, along with the “L” shaped table pieces that hold the glass above the art beneath. Otherwise the rest of the piece is circles and curved lines, bringing in the natural curve of the crochet leaves. The table is what carries the lines in the sculpture, the vertical lines almost pointing towards the fiber art at its center.
Like all of her other works Lindsay uses natural colors in her projects. The different shades of green for the leaves is done beautifully. Yellow green, lime green, and a more pure green lay on the base of the table under the glass like real leaves that are floating in a pond after falling from the tree branches. The single pale pink/white lily sitting in the middle draws the eye right to it, almost like it is floating on this sea of green allowing it to stand out against everything else. The earth tone palette chosen for this piece was selected very well, she has a eye for color and it shows in her work.
The main focal point of this piece is the round table that everything sits on, the raised round glass, and the rounded edges of the fiber pieces between the glass and table. Letting the table act as the base shape Lindsay was then able to build up her own shape within the space that is provided by the table top, the glass being held above the table adds almost an extra layer of dimension to it. She took a shape that is otherwise considered to be simple and brought nature to it to create this portal to this lily pond.
This piece mixes mediums and textures in a beautiful way. The existing table already had the different surfaces from the wooden base and the glass top. Placing the fiber pieces on the open space brought in an additional texture. The natural grain of the wood table is a separate texture from the clear smooth glass that’s on top. While the textile incorporated in the project is not smooth, it has fibers that stick out creating a fuzzy like edge to parts of it. Having multiple of the textiles layers brings in that layered dimension creating textures within the dimensions.
Work Cited
Admin. “Lindsay Taylor 3D Textile Art.” TextileArtist.org, 15 Jan. 2017,
Www. Textileartist.org/lindsay-taylor-interview-3d-textile-art.
“Lindsay Taylor.” Lindsay Taylor | Art, www.lindsay-taylor.co.uk/art.php.
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Jess Kane
SA 132
Research Paper #1/2
Image #1
Image #2
Lynda Benglis
Lynda Benglis, born in 1941 in Lake Charles Louisiana is considered the pioneer of abstraction in the three-dimensional form. She graduated from Newcomb College in the year 1964 with a bachelor’s in the Fine Arts and later would earn an honorary doctorate in 2000 from the Kansas City Art Institute (“Lynda Benglis”). Among her academic achievements, she has also won quite a few rewards, such as the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975 and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1979 and 1990. Benglis has also been in many art shows and museums throughout her time as an artist and has had her art displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Throughout her artwork, Benglis tries to convey her beliefs and understanding of the world around her as she includes narratives with most of her newer creations in order to help the viewer understand the pieces better. Benglis’s artworks all have a commonality in the unexpected materials that she uses in order to create them. These materials include, but are not limited to, glitter, lead, polyurethane, and gold leaf. Benglis also tries to incorporate different cultures in her works and translates ancient symbols into the modern era to help a viewer understand the past.
Power Tower I (Image 1) is sculpture than Benglis displayed in 2019 made of White Tombasil and Bronze. This sculpture activates the space around it well as incorporates space, texture, movement, and balance. The sculpture allows the viewer to look to what is on the other side of it as it appears to be melting into the floor that it is placed upon. This is a great example of how Benglis activated the pace of her artwork and how the shape of the sculpture changes depending on which angle you are looking at, as three-dimensional forms should. Power Tower I also have actual texture in its material as you can see the indentations and imperfections throughout the piece, which helps give the suggestion that even the powerful have flaws. Movement and Balance are the final principals of design that are worth mentioning in this piece as Benglis as even though the sculpture appears to be melting and that it could fall over or collapse upon itself at any given moment it holds itself together perfectly. No matter the angle you look at it will still appear to be the piece but there will be something new at that angel to explore. This sculpture causes the viewer to move and find new areas to search without repetition and, thanks to it’s a reflective surface, it interacts with the area around it and causes reflections that just add to the piece as a whole. If Power Tower I was surrounded by artwork that could be reflected in it will only add to the sculpture and take nothing away from it.
Compared to an earlier piece that she created in 1971, Phantom (Image 2), another sculpture of hers that is made with polyurethane foam with phosphorescent pigments, the piece actively incorporates space, color, texture, and balance. This sculpture is illuminated in the dark and almost appears to be floating at some angles which explains the name Phantom. The sculpture itself is three different pieces of the material that have been shaped how Benglis wished to shape them and uses the space between them effectively. The eerie green glow the sculpture has does wonders to help convey the title it holds as any cartoons and shows convey ghosts with that same light this holds. While Power Tower I was completely silver and stayed that way no matter it has lighting situation, Phantom, goes from pure white to luminist green, a color that holds the piece together once the lights are out. The texture the sculpture contains gives the impression of sheets that people use in costumes in order to dress up as a ghost, spirit or phantom though it also could be wax, or something similar, melting and revealing an invisible figure beneath it. Finally, balance plays the final role in this sculpture as one side is not heavier than the other. The spacing of the three pieces helps with the balance as not one side is closer or farther from the middle section than the other.
After exploring both works that Lynda Benglis created it is easy to see why she won those art awards and why she is considered the pioneer of abstraction in the three-dimensional form. She is truly ahead of her time and continues to amaze the art world with her knowledge of the elements and principals of design with each new piece she creates. Power Tower I and Phantom are only two of the multiple creations she has made that contribute to this.
Work Cited
Exhibit-E.com. “Lynda Benglis - Artists - Cheim Read.” Cheim & Read,
“Lynda Benglis.” Art21, art21.org/artist/lynda-benglis/.
Lynda Benglis, Power Tower I, 2019 Sculpture, White Tombasil 89 x 72 x 64 in. bronze https://d32dm0rphc51dk.cloudfront.net/nRA5md_m9ZamaWmYJgHTOw/large.jpg
(Image 1)
Lynda Benglis Phantom, 1971 polyurethane foam with phosphorescent pigments 2.4 × 10.6 × 2.4 m https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef015434411869970c-600wi
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Emily Cone
Jen Pepper
Structuring Human Space SA-132
24 March 2020
Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley is a British sculptor born August 30th, 1950 in London, England (Kuiper). He is well known for his installations and public sculptures that portray the human form. Gormley’s work, created often by casts of his own body, explores and studies the way the human body relates to space. His art poses questions of how our physical human existence interacts with the space around us. Gormley has said that he’s “never been interested in making statues, but [he has] been interested in asking what is the nature of the space a human being inhabits.” (Antony) This idea that inspires his artwork aligns perfectly with the purpose of our class, Structuring Human Space, because both emphasize the connection between the human body and the space it touches.
Gormley has studied at a variety of colleges and universities throughout his life. These include Trinity College Cambridge from 1968-1971, where he obtained degrees in art history, archaeology, and anthropology, the Central School of Arts and Crafts, Goldsmiths College, and the Slade School of Fine Art where he studied later in the 1970s (Kuiper). Following his many years of education, he created art that would eventually be displayed across the UK and all around the world. Gormley has also received many awards and honors throughout his career, including the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012, the Praemium Imperiale in 2013, and many more (Biography). Most notably, however, was the Turner Prize he was awarded in 1994 for his sculptural installation, Testing a World View (Turner). This installation is going to be the first work of Gormley’s that I base my deconstructive analysis on.
Analysis #1
Testing a World View (figures 1 and 2) is a 1993 installation by Antony Gormley that displays five identical iron casts of his own body in different positions around a room. Each figure is 112 x 48.5 x 107 centimeters (Testing).
Form is one of the most prominent elements of design that appears in Gormley’s installation. The piece consists of five three-dimensional sculptures that take the form of the artist’s body. There are many important aspects of the form that contribute to the meaning of the whole work. For instance, the figures being life-sized and realistic looking is significant. This gives the piece a more personal feel because the viewer can perceive the five figures as real human beings, rather than something that isn’t real and that we can’t relate to. Another significant aspect of the form is that the figures are bent at 90-degree angles. These angles match the geometry of the room, which creates harmony within the piece, and they also allow for the space to be activated more than if the figures were not bent at all.
Another one of the most prominent elements of design in Testing a World View is space, which makes sense given that Gormley focuses heavily on the use of space in all of his artwork. The positions he placed each of the figures in are related to the architecture of the area. He uses the right angles of the room and the right angles of the figures to create meaning within the relationship between the sculptures and the space they are occupying. Gormley notes the importance of the five different positions the figures take, stating that each of them “evoke states ranging from ‘hysteria, head-banging, catatonia, to the awakened dead and the about-to-be-beheaded’” (Turner). This information demonstrates how identical objects can display different meanings and inspire different feelings based completely on the way they interact with space.
Movement is a principle of design that stands out in this work of art, as well. The angles and the positions of the figures allow for the viewer’s eyes to move in a certain path across the room as they observe the installation. Beginning on one side of the room, the eyes start at the head of the figure, trace the angle of the body, and let the direction the statue is facing guide them to the next one. This continues across the room, leading the viewer’s eyes from figure to figure. This movement is created by the use of space within the room because of the way the space visually connects the five figures. There is nothing there that explicitly tells the viewer to look in a certain direction, but the viewer’s eyes are able to pick up on the invisible trail that Gormley included in his installation.
Another prominent principle of design within Testing a World View is balance. The balance, like the movement, is a result of the way the element of space is used in this installation. Each of the figures appear to be spaced apart fairly evenly throughout the room, which helps the piece feel balanced. The positioning of the figures, whether they are on the floor, the ceiling, lying down, or standing up, also provides for balance because all of the space is being occupied, rather than one part of the room being more heavily activated than another. The figures also each fill the space in a different way. This allows for the entirety of the piece to feel like it is sufficiently balanced by the variety Gormley includes while using multiples of the same exact object.
Analysis #2
Angel of the North (figure 3), made in 1998, is perhaps Antony Gormley’s most well-known and most viewed work of art. It is a 20-meter-tall angel figure with a wingspan of 54 meters. The angel is made of Corten steel and weighs 200 metric tons. It is located in a town called Gateshead in Northeastern England and sits on a hill that overlooks the A1 road. (Gormley, “Angel of the North, 1998”)
Like Testing a World View, form is a prominent element of design found in Angel of the North. The sculpture’s form resembles a human figure with wings, like an angel. This was not Antony Gormley’s first angel, however, as he had previously done sculptures of angels, such as A Case for an Angel I, and he has a certain way of making them look. The wings on the human form are airplane-like rather than bird-like, which is not how most people imagine angels to look. Regardless, the lack of traditionally angelic features does not stop the form from appearing comforting and welcoming. The wide-open wings seem to embrace those who are coming towards it.
Texture is another element of design that stands out to those who view Angel of the North. It is clear that the sculpture is not smooth but textured with lines that sit on top of the surface and trace the form of the figure. This texture accentuates the form of the angel and gives it more value. A less noticeable but perhaps more important aspect of the texture is simply the material used to create it. For this piece, weathering steel, commonly known as Corten steel, is the medium. Corten steel is often used for outdoor structures as it is resistant to all kinds of weather conditions. It also doesn’t need to be painted because exposure to weather gives it a rusty appearance. Because the work of art is outside, it is important that the texture is functional in addition to being visually pleasing.
Scale is a very prominent and important principle of design found in this sculpture. The size of the angel is absolutely huge, so it catches people’s eyes. Due to its location, the sculpture has to be larger than life or else people might not notice it at all. The angel stands on a hill in a valley that is a mile and a half wide with an audience that drives past it at about 60 miles per hour (Gormley, “Angel of the North, 1998”). So, being 20 meters tall and 54 meters wide, the Angel of the North is unmissable by those who drive past it on the A1 road. Additionally, the scale of an object can give it a certain feeling. Since this sculpture depicts an angel with outstretched wings, the large scale can give it the feeling that it is watching over and guarding the area.
Another prominent principle of art that appears in Angel of the North is balance. This sculpture is symmetrically balanced on a vertical axis, meaning that the right and left sides of the piece are identical. Both physically and visually, the weight of this sculpture is equally distributed, which can provide the viewers with deeper feelings about the work as a whole. When something is balanced symmetrically, like this angel is, feelings of stability and comfort can be associated with it. The Angel of the North has its balanced wings outstretched to the world, demonstrating its reassuring strength and radiating serenity.
Antony Gormley
Testing a World View
1993
Each figure 112 x 48.5 x 107 cm
Cast Iron
Figure 2
Antony Gormley
Angel of the North
1998
20 m tall x 54 m wide
Corten steel
Figure 3
Works Cited
“Antony Gormley.” Artnet, Artnet Worldwide Corporation, http://www.artnet.com/artists/antony-gormley/. Accessed 22 March 2020.
“Biography.” Antony Gormley, Antony Gormley, http://www.antonygormley.com/biography. Accessed 22 March 2020.
Gormley, Antony. “Angel of the North, 1998.” Antony Gormley, Antony Gormley, http://www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-view/id/211#p0. Accessed 22 March 2020.
Gormley, Antony. “Angel of the North.” Blogspot, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-PzHldSNNQufTghS3MOrw1LRfAm_TILTyGJCWlsXtbaLbGHdbJL3MRGdWZZ2jvXPBUE1NoEW3hxIpm6S60hyBbQBsUavNqQ6DevY2AnnadBguJ8BIKnuuuwEBt_CV5tkvYE92KD8Upt0/s1600/The-Angel-of-the-North-006.jpg. Accessed 22 March 2020.
Gormley, Antony. “Testing a World View.” Antony Gormley, Antony Gormley, http://www.antonygormley.com/uploads/images/se_malmo_1993_008.jpg. Accessed 22 March 2020.
Kuiper, Kathleen. “Antony Gormley.” Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., revised 1 Nov 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antony-Gormley. Accessed 22 March 2020.
“Testing a World View, 1993.” Tate Images, Tate Images, https://www.tate-images.com/preview.asp?image=T12034#. Accessed 22 March 2020.
“Turner Prize 1994 artists: Antony Gormley.” Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-1994/turner-prize-1994-artists-antony-gormley. Accessed 22 March 2020.
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