IB VA COMPARATIVE STUDY WILLEM DE KOONING MARK ROTHKO BRYCE HUDSON
GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION Hudson, De Kooning, and Rothko all manipulate imagery and emotion into geometric forms, ranging from loose to straight edged forms. Their work explores the embodiment of psychology and spirituality. I am interested in analyzing how the three of these artists find meaning behind the simple shapes of their work.
MARK ROTHKO Orange and Yellow Orange and Yellow Rothko s color field painting titled Orange and Yellow is simply named for exactly what it is: a painting of orange and yellow. He used a technique of applying multiple washes of colored painted repeatedly on large canvases. Each rectangle hovers just before the edge of the surface, creating the effect of a bright afterimage. He uses scale to envelop the viewer into his work. This particular piece is 91x 73 inches.
The main thing you see when you look at this piece is two rectangles, one slightly bigger than the other on the bottom. The edges of the rectangles are not sharp, distinct lines, but have a textured natural look. Two colored blocks overlap the background. Because Rothko s work has no subject matter, the choice of color and form was crucial. His palette choices changed drastically from bright colors to increasingly darkened colors during the late 1950 s in order to affect the mood of his work. His process involved applying numerous layers of paint onto an unprepared canvas with brushes or rags. This allowed the colors to absorb into the fabric, and give the art a distinct brightness. His lack of representation in his art urged his viewers to put forth their personal spirituality and seek clarity by applying their own enclosed ideas into his canvases. Rothko s intention was for the viewer to stand close to the painting, in order to be visually surrounded by the colors.
WILLEM DE KOONING Excavation Kooning s Excavation is a frenzy of shapes, lines, and forms created with oil paint and enamel on canvas. Created in 1950, this piece represents his innovative style of articulate brushstrokes and organized space.
Kooning s intention of the piece was not to have the viewer focus on one aspect of the painting, but to have their eyes constantly moving throughout the piece to absorb the madness of shapes and lines. He often purposely left his canvases with a sense of dynamic incompletion, letting the audience view the forms as if they were still in the process of moving into and settling into the piece. The structure of the lines were intended to resemble anatomical parts, including human teeth, noses, ears and necks. Kooning s painting process is a technically mastered movement of building up the surface with paint and scraping down the layers. This development often took him months, until the piece reached it s desired effect. In his 6 9 x 8 4 masterpiece, Kooning exemplified his passions for drama, anger, pain, love, figures, and his ideas for space in his work.
BRYCE HUDSON Untitled #12 Bryce Hudson s Untitled #12 is a great example of straight, hard edged, abstract geometric artwork. The painting captures you with its bright and bold colors. The shapes are clearly two dimensional, but depth is created in the piece by the choices in color.
Untitled #12 was created with oil and acrylic on watercolor paper. Moderate in size at 40x 26 inches, this piece was created in 2011. The varying angles and alignment of the shapes create an interesting composition that suggests movement. Hudson s work is inspired by life in contemporary society which explores race and identity through his geometric style. By looking at the piece, one would most likely interpret the art as just an arrangement of random shapes. Beyond the visual appearance, Hudson The limited palette of his work offers a strict language that contradicts the diversity the piece aims to achieve.
CONNECTIONS After researching what impacts each of these artist s decision making behind their work, it can be made clear that each of the works of art generally looks similar, but the message, idea, production, and influences vary from artist to artist. Hudson s influences originate from his roots in Morocco, Kooning s from the Netherlands, and Rothko from Latvia. Despite their opposing cultural backgrounds, these artists can interpret their ideas in the same visual manner without the restriction of language or identity. Although after researching the messages behind each of their works, one can conclude that they can be visually interpreted as a frenzy of shapes and patterns, some being extremely intricate and others strikingly simple. The beauty of abstract geometric artwork is that the same style of work can have a magnitude of creative ideas and interpretations of what all the shapes, lines, patterns, and brushstrokes mean to the artist who created it, and what impact they hope to make on their audience.
SOURCES http://www.wikiart.org/en/willem-de-kooning/excavation http://www.contemporisticon.com/the-store/original-works/ http://www.markrothko.org http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/collection-highlights/piece:rothko-orange-yellow/ http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/76244 http://www.brycehudson.com