20th cent. Neoclassicism

The Russian Avant Garde Suprematism (1913-1918) “Suprematism is the rediscovery of pure art that, in the course of time, had become obscured by the accumulation of 'things‘.” Kasimir Malevich, The Non-Objective World Geometric forms as paradigms of spiritual evolution sacred geometry

Malevich Kazimir Suprematist Painting: Eight Red Rectangles o/c, 1915, 22 x 19” 3

Malevich Kazimir Black Square, 1913, o/c, 31 x 31” "the supremacy of pure feeling" "The square = feeling, the white field = the void beyond this feeling."

Malevich Kazimir Suprematist Composition: White on White 1918, o/c, 31 x 31” The Black Circle, 1913, 41 x 41” 5

What artists found appealing about the various arcane religious and philosophical systems was their underlying premise that the spiritual world is governed by laws that mirror natural laws and that can be expressed in symbols. The idea is akin to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s notion that every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of mind. Geometric forms are thus paradigms of spiritual evolution. The spiritual world, like the natural world, is charged with energy, producing cosmic vibrations and human auras. The spiritual principles that intrigued certain artists included synesthesia, the overlap between the senses by which a painting can simulate music; duality, the idea that the cosmos reflects an underlying principle of yin and yang; and so-called "sacred geometry," the belief that, as Plato put it, "God geometricizes." Spirituality in Abstract Art by Pamela Schaeffer on the subject of the exhibition "The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985”.

Piet Mondrian Line and color Composition with Large Blue Plane, Red, Black, Yellow, and Gray, 1921, o/c, 23 x 19” Line and color Lozenge Composition with Red, Black, Blue, and Yellow Oil on canvas 30 3/8 x 30 in. vertical axis 42 1/2 in. “the struggle toward unity of cosmic dualities and the religious symmetry undergirding the material universe” Theosophist Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue 1921, o/c, 15 x 13”

The International Style Architecture The International Style Holland, De Stijl - Gerrit Rietveld Germany, The Bauhaus – Walter Gropius France – Le Corbusier USA – Mies van der Rohe

Leo von Klenze Walhalla Oil on canvas 95x130cm conceived in 1807 by Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria

Walhalla built between 1830 and 1842 Johann Gottfried Schadow, sculptor

Constantin Brancusi Bird in space, polished brass, 1932-40, 60” The Newborn, 1915, marble, 8 1/2 x 6 inches Bird in space, polished brass, 1932-40, 60” Bird in Space, 1923, marble, (with base) 56 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches

The International Style DE STIJL Gerrit Rietveld dematerialization Shroeder House, Utrecht, Holland, 1923 UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites

"One of the outstanding achievements of the new constructional technique has been the abolition of the separating function of the wall. Instead of making the walls the element of support, as in a brick-built house, our new space-saving construction transfers the whole load of the structure to a steel or concrete framework. Thus the role of the walls becomes restricted to that of mere screens stretched between the upright columns of this framework to keep out rain, cold, and noise. ... Systematic technical improvement in steel and concrete …. are steadily reducing the area occupied by supporting members. This, in turn …. allows rooms to be much better lit. It is, therefore, only logical that the old type of window—a hole that had to be hollowed out of the full thickness of a supporting wall— should be giving place more and more to the continuous horizontal casement ….. And as a direct result of the growing preponderance of voids over solids, glass is assuming an ever greater structural importance....In the same way the flat roof is superseding the old penthouse roof with its tiled or slated gables.”

Gerrit Rietveld, Schroder House, Utrecht, Holand, 1923 Mondrian chair (Blue and Red chair)

The Bauhaus Workshop Wing Walter Gropius The Bauhaus Dessau, Germany 1919-25 The Bauhaus Workshop Wing

Le Corbusier Villa Savoye, France, 1929-30

Mies van der Rohe “less is more” Lake Shore Drive Apartment Houses, German Pavillion, Barcelona (1929) Barcelona Chair, 1927 Lake Shore Drive Apartment Houses, Chicago, 1950-52

Frank Lloyd Wright Edgar Kaufmann House, Fallingwater, Pennsilvania, 1935-37

precision and rationality Minimalism 1960’s + Visual purity precision and rationality creator out of the work aesthetic utopia—a universally comprehensible language devoid of reference or narrative objects are stripped down to their elemental, geometric form, and presented in an impersonal manner use of industrial materials creates abstract works that emphasize the purity of color, form, space and materials

Piet Mondrian Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Painting: Eight Red Rectangles o/c, 1915, 22 x 19” Composition with Large Blue Plane, Red, Black, Yellow, and Gray, 1921, o/c, 23 x 19”

Frank Stella Purity Precision Impersonality Abstraction Avicenna, 1960, aluminum paint on canvas, 6 x 6’  

Carl Andre “sculpture as place rather than form” Viewer-interactive sculpture 144 Pieces of Zinc, 1967, 144 zinc plates industrial materials Modular units Fall, 1968. Hot-rolled steel, 21 units, 71 x 28 x 72” each

Donald Judd ‘the simple expression of complex thought’ ‘stacks’, ‘boxes’ and ‘progressions’ ‘the simple expression of complex thought’ exploration of volume, interval, space and color Creator out of the work (external manufacturers) Untitled, 1961-9, Woodcut on paper Untitled 1969/1982 Anodized aluminum     Untitled,  1973, stainless steel, relief

Donald Judd Untitled, 1967-68. Stainless steel and plexiglass, in six parts. With Carl Andre’s 144 Pieces of Zinc, 1967

Portrait of the Artist Throwing Molten Lead Richard Serra Large scale minimalist sculpture Portrait of the Artist Throwing Molten Lead Torqued Ellipses, 1996, steel 13' h. x 29' L x 20' w (each)

Richard Serra (site-specific) , Tilted Arc, 1981, raw rusting steel, 120’ x 12’, Federal Plaza, Lower Manhatan (destroyed, 1989)

Maya Ying Lin The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC 1981-3, each wing 246’ long, black granite

"I went to see the site. I had a general idea that I wanted to describe a journey...a journey that would make you experience death and where you'd have to be an observer, where you could never really fully be with the dead. It wasn't going to be something that was going to say, 'It's all right, it's all over,' because it's not."

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC Maya Ying Lin The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC 1981-3, each wing 246’ long, black granite

Rejection of the art object as a commodity and of the museum culture Earthworks, Land Art, Site Specific Art Ephemeral art The move outdoors Rejection of the art object as a commodity and of the museum culture Robert Smithson mud, precipitated salt crystals, black basalt rocks from the site; a 1500 feet long and 15 feet wide coil that stretches out counterclockwise into the translucent red water. Spiral Jetty, 1970, Great Salt Lake, Utah

Robert Smithson Spiral Jetty, 1970, Great Salt Lake, Utah rare occasion of its re-emergence from beneath the surface of the Great Salt Lake, following a season of severe drought

Lightening Field, 1977, New Mexico Walter de Maria 400 polished stainless steel poles installed in a grid array measuring one mile by one kilometer. The poles-two inches in diameter and averaging 20’ height are spaced 220’ apart and have solid pointed tips that define a horizontal plane. Lightening Field, 1977, New Mexico

Lightening Field, 1977, New Mexico Walter de Maria Lightening Field, 1977, New Mexico

Christo & Jean –Claude The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris 1975-85 Ephemeral, environmental, site-specific art To "create works of art of joy and beauty" through “gentle disturbances” The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris 1975-85

The Running Fence, Sonoma County, Christo & Jean –Claude The Running Fence, Sonoma County, California 1972-76 18’ high, 24 miles long color and sound