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The Pink Monochrome Project

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The Pink Monochrome Project College of Fine Arts The University of New South Wales DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2010 THESIS The Pink Monochrome Project The transformation of monochrome painting since the 1980s By Christopher Dean June 2010 STATEMENT This volume is presented as a record of the work undertaken for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement ...........................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................4 List of figures .....................................................................................................................5 Research question ...............................................................................................................6 Abstract ..............................................................................................................................7 Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................................12 Chapter Two: Methodology and methods ...........................................................................20 Chapter Three: The rise of formalism and the theoretical interpretation of historical abstraction and monochrome painting, 1910-1970 ...................................................24 Chapter Four: Artists’ writings, 1910-1970 .......................................................................32 Chapter Five: The impact of cultral theory on the interpretation of historical and contemporary abstraction and monochrome painting, 1970-2010 ................................56 Chapter Six: The role of subjectivity, the practice and writings of four contemporary monochrome painters, 1970-2010 .............................................................................65 Chapter Seven: Cultural interpretations of the colour pink ..................................................83 Chapter Eight: Three contemporary exhibitions of monochrome painting ..............................96 Chapter Nine: Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................100 Appendix: Pure and applied — the studio component of The Pink Monochrome Project ...................................................................................................................103 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................121 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With special thanks to Nicole Ellis and Andrew Christofides for their ongoing academic supervision and Jacqui Spedding for sub-editing and designing this thesis. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Black Square, Kazimir Malevich p. 35 Figure 2 Unist Composition II, Vladislav Strezeminski p. 38 Figure 3 Rose Monochrome, Yves Klein p. 41 Figure 4 Monochrome, Ad Reinhardt p. 44 Figure 5 Monochrome, Robert Ryman p. 49 Figure 6 Praise, Agnes Martin p. 52 Figure 7 Desire, Marcia Hafif p. 68 Figure 8 Red painting, Joseph Marioni p. 71 Figure 9 Orange Monochrome (for Peter Halley), John Nixon p. 76 Figure 10 Pink Nightmare, Matthew Deleget p. 81 Figure 11 Gasket Monochrome, Christopher Dean p. 104 Figure 12 Applied Monochrome Painting, Andreas Exner p. 106 Figure 13 D’oyley Monochrome, Christopher Dean p. 107 Figure 14 Forget Foucault Remember Baudrillard, Christopher Dean p.109 Figure 15 1979, No More Puffs at the Star,, Christopher Dean p. 110 Figure 16 I arrived in Australia as a tourist in 1974 after meeting an Australian man in Buenos Aires ( Juan Davila), Christopher Dean p. 111 Figure 17 Middle Age Hard Edge Abstractionist From St. Marys Seeking Same, Christopher Dean p. 114 Figure 18 I grew up in a place where they think poofters are blokes who like women (Ian Milliss). From the series Twelve Rules for a New Academy (gender & sexuality), Christopher Dean p. 120 RESEARCH QUESTION How can cultural theory be applied to the production and interpretation of monochrome painting? ABSTRACT This thesis aims to identify the relationships connecting monochrome painting and cultural theory. To achieve this aim the question asked throughout the thesis is “How can cultural theory be applied to the production and interpretation of monochrome painting?” Informing this question are definitions and concepts relating to the practice and interpretation of monochrome painting. This interpretative process is achieved through a close reading of the practice and writing of artists who have produced monochrome paintings over the past one hundred years. The scope of the methodology informing this thesis focuses on the discourse surrounding abstract or non-objective, two-dimensional, single-colour paintings that generate a visual language through the interpretation and transmission of phenomenal, existential or subjective concerns. As stated by the title of the thesis, the aim of this research project is to test the relationship between a selection of historical and contemporary monochrome paintings in the context of colour theory. The construction of the narrative informing this research project has been produced through the combination of a written thesis and studio component that presents an examination of the way that cultural theory and the colour pink can been used to discuss gender, sexuality, identity and subjectivity. The Pink Monochrome Project is not merely a linear history of monochrome painters who have decided to use the colour pink but is a theoretical account of the way that pink – as an identifiable and distinct colour – operates as a signifier to designate interpretations of gender, sexuality, identity and subjectivity. Not all of the artists contained in this thesis have produced pink monochromes and indeed none of the artists discussed in the thesis have developed an art practice that exclusively explores the production of pink monochromes. However, this thesis brings together a selection of artists from different generations who have produced pink monochromes including Yves Klein, Agnes Martin, Marcia Hafif and Matthew Deleget. As the chronology of this thesis is both contemporary and historical, the secondary question driving the research is “Why has art history marginalised the use of the colour pink in the context of monochrome painting?” This discussion is shapedby an examination of networks of debates and theories that have guided the critical agenda surrounding cultural theory. These debates primarily focus on the interpretation of gender, sexuality, identity and subjectivity and are applied to cultural associations informing the interpretation of the colour pink. Aside from the analysis of artworks and theoretical writings, this thesis places an important emphasis on the interpretation of artists’ writings in the context of the evolution and transformation of monochrome painting since the rise of Postmodernism during the 1970s and 1980s. 7 THE PINK MONOCHROME PROJECT A detailed study of the chromatic associations of monochromes is used in the thesis to demonstrate the way that monochromatic painting, as well as the more general category of abstract art, holds the potential for innovative forms of visual communication. In the context of monochrome painting, the significance of cultural theory is that it holds the potential to interpret the impact of culturally discrete perspectives (including subjectivity and cultural specificity) on the genesis, evolution and transformation of historical and contemporary monochrome painting. Each of the ten chapters contained in the thesis serve to analyse a specific perspective relating to the theoretical outcomes concerning the role that subjectivity and cultural specificity has played in the overall development of monochrome painting. Through the development of the studio component of the research project, combined with a critical reading of the practices and interpretations of this century-old artistic tendency, this thesis establishes an alternative story in the history of monochrome painting. Chapter outline Chapter One: Introduction The introductory section of the thesis identifies the development of arguments contained within the chapter sequence, providing a structure to the research project. The introduction places an emphasis on the definition of the key concepts contained within the thesis. These concepts are: monochrome painting, cultural theory, identity and cultural specificity. Chapter Two: Methodology and methods Chapter two investigates the transformation and evolution of monochrome painting in response to the rise of cultural theory during the 1980s. The research methodology that guides and informs the thesis is developed through the application of interpretative models and a selection of writings that foreground the relationship between monochrome painting and subjectivity. Examples of these writings include Victor Burgin’s Situational Aesthetics, Yves-Alain Bois’ Painting as Model, Thierry de Duve’sKant after Duchamp and Frances Colpitt’s ‘Systems of Opinion’ in Abstract Painting Since 1959. These writings are discussed in the context of the artistic practices of six historical and four contemporary monochrome painters. Throughout this thesis, the writings of Victor Burgin, Yve-Alain Bois, Thierry de Duve and Frances Colpitt are used to interpret the historical and contemporary practice of monochrome painting in relation to the primary research question, “How can cultural theory be applied to
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