October 4
Theme #4: Abstraction

 

 

Project
Instructions
Supplies
Mystery Objects Each student will receive a paper bag with a mystery object inside – don’t look inside the bag! Drawing paper
  Draw the object as you feel it inside the bag Pencils, pen or crayon
  Don’t insist on making a precise rendering.  Instead, allow the expression of shape, volume and texture  
     
Abstract studies You will see a series of images for about 60 seconds each Drawing or sketch paper (smaller sized paper will probably work best, or you may make your sketches on one large sheet)
  From each image, find a line, texture or shape that interests you and sketch it Pencil
     
Abstraction from nature Create a work composed of the fragments from your abstraction studies Student's choice
  Be sure to consider composition, line, value, and texture

Tracing paper or Mylar?
Colored pencils or markers?
     
Nonrepresentational abstraction Create a work composed of lines, values, shapes and textures completely derived from your imagination Student's choice
  Be sure to consider balance, movement and expressive gesture Pen and ink?
    Collage elements?

 

 

 

 

 

Examples and Inspiration

 

 

Abstract art varies from simplified images based on natural forms...

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat.  Untitled (Red Man).  1981.
Emmerling, Leonhard.  Basquiat.  Koln: Taschen, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

to completely nonobjective or nonrepresentational works

 

Mural

Jackson Pollock. Mural. 1943. 8' X 19'.
Emmerling, Leonhard. Pollock. Koln: Taschen, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An abstract drawing can be achieved by simplifying, distorting or exaggerating forms

 
Theo van Doesburg.  Abstraction of a Cow.  c. 1916.
Preble, Duane and Sarah Preble.  Artforms.  Revised 7th edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Type of Women
Les Demoiselles D'Avignon
Edmond Fortier. Type of Women, West Africa. 1906.
Hirsch, Robert.  Seizing the Light: A History of Photography.  Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000.
Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles D'Avignon. 1907.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

as well as by creating marks derived purely from the imagination

 

Criticism

Cy Twombly.  Criticism.  1955.
Joselit, David.  American Art Since 1945.  London: Thames & Hudson, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An abstract work, whether based in nature or completely nonrepresentational, explores the expressive and aesthetic dimensions of formal elements like line, shape, color and composition.

 

Arshile Gorky.  Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia.  1931 - 2.  Ink on paper.  24 X 31.
Fineberg, Jonathan.  Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being.  2nd edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pablo Picasso. Guernica. 1937.
Preble, Duane, Sarah Preble and Patrick Frank. Artforms. Seventh ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002.

 

 

 

 

 
Pablo Picasso.  Sketch 1 for Guernica.  May 1, 1937.
Pablo Picasso.  sketch 6 for Guernica.  May 1, 1937.
Pablo Picasso. Sketch 15 for Guernica. 
May 9, 1937.
Sayre, Henry M.  A World of Art.  4th edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus

Francis Bacon. Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus.  1981.
Ficacci, Luigi. Bacon. Koln: Taschen, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Rosenquist. F-111. 1965. 10' X 86'.
Fineberg, Jonathan.  Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being.  2nd edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jackson Pollock. Male and Female. c. 1942.
Fineberg, Jonathan.  Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being.  2nd edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

Skull

Jean-Michel Basquiat. Untitled (Skull). 1981.
Emmerling, Leonhard.  Basquiat.  Koln: Taschen, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris Ofili. The Holy Virgin Mary. 1996.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Willem de Kooning.  Seated Woman.  1952.  Pastel and pencil on cut and pasted paper.
Sayre, Henry M.  A World of Art.  4th edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bed

Robert Rauschenberg. Bed. 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bed detail

Robert Rauschenberg. Bed. 1955.
Rauschenberg, Robert .  Robert Rauschenberg: Combines.  Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

artgraphics

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still Life with Chair Caning

Pablo Picasso. Still Life with Chair Caning. 1911 - 12.
Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Tenth edition.  Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roger Shimomura.  Untitled.  1984.
Fichner-Rathus, Lois.  Understanding Art.  Seventh edition.  Australia: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstraction Studies
You will see a series of images for about 60 seconds each
From each image, find a line, texture or shape that interests you and sketch it

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk Drop

Harold E. Edgerton. Milk Drop. 1936.
20th Century Photography Museum Ludwig Cologne. Taschen, Koln, 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacques-Louis David. Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard. 1800-01.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Rosenquist. I Love You with My Ford. 1961. 82" X 93".
Lobel, Michael. "Sign Language." Artforum. October 2003: 127.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louise Nevelson. Royal Tide IV. 1960.
Grosenick, Uta ed. Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century. Taschen, Koln. 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katshusika Hokusai.  The Wave.  c. 1830.
Preble, Duane, Sarah Preble and Patrick Frank. Artforms. Seventh ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Cassatt. Mother and Child. c. 1905.
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Third edition. New York: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blam

Roy Lichtenstein. Blam. 1962.
Fineberg, Jonathan.  Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being.  2nd edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rodeo

Robert Frank. Rodeo- New York City. 1955-56.
Frank, Robert. The Americans. SCALO Publishers, New York. 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raimondi Stela

Raimondi Stela. Chavin de Huantar. Early Horizon.
Stone-Miller, Rebecca. Art of the Andes. Second edition. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Canna

Georgia O'Keefe. Red Canna. c. 1924.
University of Arizona Museum of Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

Corsets

Eugene Atget. Corsets, Boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris. c. 1905.
20th Century Photography Museum Ludwig Cologne. Taschen, Koln, 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cindy Sherman. Untitled Film Still #21. 1979.
Cruz, Amanda and Elizabeth A. T. Smith.  Cindy Sherman: Retrospective.  Chicago:  Thames & Hudson, 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

Allegory with Venus and Cupid

Bronzino. Allegory with Venus and Cupid. Mid-1540s.
Fineberg, Jonathan.  Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being.  2nd edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sandro Botticelli. The Birth of Venus. c. 1484-86.
Fineberg, Jonathan.  Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being.  2nd edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie Mehretu.  Untitled.  2000.  Ink, colored pencil and cut paper on Mylar.  18 X 24".
Hoptman, Laura. drawing now: eight propositions.  New York:  The Museum of Modern Art, 2002.