Art 1

Name _______________________________
Modern to Contemporary Art Due Date _____________________________

 

You earned __________ out of 10 points.

 

Worksheet #8

Spatial Overtures

Mark Rothko.  Brown, Blue Brown on Blue.  1953.
Barnett Newman.  Onement.  1948.
Yves Klein.  Leap Into the Void.  1960.
Lucio Fontana.  Spatial Concept, Expectations.  1959.

Please read Frances Colpitt’s article, Spatial Overtures and answer the following.
 

Explain what Barnett Newman meant when he said “I don’t manipulate or play with space.  I declare it!”  How does this statement also apply to the work of Klein, Fontana and Rothko?

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Compare and contrast Newman’s and Rothko’s consideration of space with Klein’s and Fontana’s.  How does each artist’s declaration of space differ from the other?

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Consider Yves Kleins concept of “the void.”  What contemporary events may have encouraged his exploration of space and concept as a material for art?  Similarly, what issues of the 1960s may have inspired each of these artists’s consideration of space?
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If Newman’s zips make the viewer acutely aware of the space in front of a painting (a.ka. the picture plane) what do Klein’s Anthropometries and Fontana’s cut pieces make the viewer aware of?

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Does there appear to be a difference in approach to the issue of space that relates to the American-ness or European-ness of these artist’s aesthetics?  Explain your position.
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