Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 1983 Post Object Art and Sociological Influences on the Internal Processes of Art Making Steve Havens Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in Art at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Havens, Steve, "Post Object Art and Sociological Influences on the Internal Processes of Art Making" (1983). Masters Theses. 2842. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2842 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THESIS REPRODUCTION CERTIFICATE TO: Graduate Degree Candidates who have written formal theses. SUBJECT: Pe�mission to reproduce theses. 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Please sign one of the following statements: Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University has my permission to lend my thesis to a reputable college or university for the purpose of copying it for inclusion in that institution's library or research holdings. ------ Date Author I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University not allow my thesis be reproduced because -�� Date Author m POST OBJECT ART AND SOCIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON THE INTERNAL PROCESSES OF ART MAKING (TITLE) BY STEVE HAVENS THESIS SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ART IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 1983 YEAR I HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUAT.£ DEGREE CITED ABOVE c �� ADVIS�R I • ,,, t/f1/f3 DATE IC ,,.... 1ft1iJJ> l COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE DEPARTMENT CHAIRPERSON Post Ooject Art and Sociological influences On The Internal Processes Of Art Making Steve Havens Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how external sociological factors inevitably have a profound effect on current art. Much great art has been created against the flow of what is critically "popular" or "fashionable, " but as these external factors become more prominent so the art work produced inevitably suffers. The exhibition of Frank Stella's black and aluminum paintings at the turn of the 60's, in my own opinion, provided something of a landmark in the history of art. These works, in al I their stark, flat, geometric nakedness denied both "form" and "content." They bare no i I I usions, no mythology, and no trace of the artist's hand. Stel :a often remarked that there was nothing more to "see" in his paintings than what the viewer saw upon gazing at the works in the first instance. In comparison to other work being produced at the time, Ste! la's works would seem to have been created in an artistic "vacuum." In order to establish this landmark, the first part of this thesis compar8S Ste I la's ideals with those of Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. Their work individ�ally and collectively has often been pigeonholed with Ste!la's. The primary difference between the works of Newman, Rcthko and Reinhardt and apparently similar products of Ste I la, is that while the former contain a skeleton history of Cubism, 426305 Expressionism, Surreal ism and Neo-Plasticism, Ste I la either ignored or abandoned such precedents. In this I ight the black and aluminum paintings and similar works by Stella's peers <Post-Object artists) must be considered to be "high art." They are examp I es of a pure art uncontaminated by externa I (sociological) elements. These works stand quite simply as statements about the activity of painting. Part two discusses various social constraints upon art making; - biography, in the form of the artist's 'curriculum vitae,' the changing function of the art gallery; with the inflow of installation pieces creating more of a social venue than a temple; the political and social "environment" in which the work is creat.:id, and fourth I y - how trivia I social phenomena condition artistic output. This leads in turn to a brief investigation into how sociological influences often quosh the artist's wilI ingness to strive more ambitiously, and how his output is often determined by "fashion. " To qualify this idea, examples are traced through art history where great paintings have been seen to stand outside of fashion and proven much more than purely perishable chronicles of their ethos. In t�e conclusion the thesis proposes a mandate stating that only by stepping ::>utside of external influences can the quality of the past be res to rad. POST-OBJECT ART AND SOCIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON TrE INTERNAL PROCESSES OF ART MAKING BY STEVE HAVENS 2 COPYRfGHT I reserve the right for Eastern I I I inois University to reproduce this thesis in part or whole. 3 DEDICATION Thanks for additional information to: The Acme Gallery, Covent Garden, London. Artist's Market, Covent Garden, London. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Part One Page 7 Part Two Page 13 Part Three Page 20 Bib Iography Page 24 5 Plates I. Frank Stella: - ''Jill," 1959, Enamel on Canvas, 7'6" x 616" 2. Frank Ste I la: - "Avicenna," 1960, Aluminum Paint on Canvas, 61 x 61 3. Barnett Newman: - "Onement I, " 1948, Oil on Canvas 4. Barnett Newman: - "L'errance," 1953, Oi! on Canvas, 86" x 77 1/2" 5. Marc Rothko: - "Black and Dark Red on Red," 1958, Oi I on Canvas 6. Ad Reinhardt in His Studio, New York 1962 7. Jackson Pollock: - "White Light," 1954, Oil, Enamel and Aluminum on Canvas 8. Frank Stella: - "Jasper's Dilemma," 1962-3, Alkyd on Canvas, 61511 x 1211 0" 9. Frank Stella: - "Sinjerl i 11," 1967 Polymer and :=-1ourescent Paint on Canvas, (Diameter 101) 6 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how external sociological factors inevitably have a profound effect on current art. Much great art has been created against the flow of what is critically "popular" or "fashionable," but as these external factors become more prominent so the art work produced suffers. Please note that alI statements pertaining to artists' intentions in this paper are purely my own judgements. Section One The history of Post-Object art is most i I luminatingly characterized as a series of almost unwitting precedents which, on each occasion eased the art object away from the center of interest, gradually eroding the importance it had enjoyed until the late 1950's at least. The turning point, I believe, was Frank Stella's black and aluminum paintings of 1959-60, (Plate I & 2) because his objectives in these works has had a lasting effect not only on pa inting, but on other art forms as wel I. The most revealing way of assessing Ste I la's unique works is by comparing him, not to the preceding gestural or symbol using abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pol lock or WiI liem deKooning, but with painters I ike Marc Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Ad Reinhardt, who, while favoring similar geometric formats, retain a strong and typ ical element or subject matter. The contrast shows up a strong visual disparity in Stet la's works which contain no pictorial form equivalent in spacial terms to "the structural devices to be found in the paintings of Newman, Reinhardt and Rothko. Newman often uses a thin vertical slit of colour to break the dominant plane of red or black. These slits serve to divide, shape, and modify the intensity of the main I ine. In conjL1nction with the hard, narrow stripes Newman uses slimmer, fainter I ines which have a different pictorial role to play <Plate 3). These are usually tonally 7 I. Frank Ste I la: - "Ji 11," 1959, Enamel on Canvas, 7'6" x 6'6" 2. Frank Stella: - "Avicenna," 1960, Aluminum Paint on Canvas, 6' x 6' • 3. Barnett Newman: - "Onement I," 1948, Oi I on Canvas 4. Barnett Newman: - "L'errance," 1953, OiI on Canvas, 86" x 77 1/2" 8 I ighter versions of the base colour, and instead of defining the spread of the colour field they appear as two slight defects in the spread of the predominant colour. In a literary sense I see these stripes to be I ike cracks in a facade in which a deep internal space can be sensed. The impact of Marc Rothko1s paintings produces an experience which find hard to assimilate in terms of language. When exhibited in series (as in the suite in the "Rothko Room" in the Tate Ga I I ery, London) they provoke what can only be described as a deep rel lgious experience. A slab (or slabs) of stone-like, loosely brushed pastel tones shimmer on the surface of a deep field of colour. The slabs act I Ike monoliths in that they demand the viewer's attention and further investigation. The colour is not flat, but airily modeled and the spacial imp I ication is deeper compared to Newman's much shallower space (compare Rothko's "Black and Dark Red on Red" (Plate 5) with Newman's "Onement" (Plate 3)). Even Ad Reinhardt's severest works deliver a similar type of impact, though. in his case the effect is sustained by the use of colour. Like Newman, he preferred rectangular elements, and his works are noteable for their impression of intense "blackness" through which the differentiated hues filter to form pairs or other configurations within the symmetrical stack of nine squares (Plate 6).