Modern Art: Nature, Life Man and Abstract Exhibition

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Floor plan
Mary Pratt – Canada
Germaine Richier – France
Barnett Newman – USA
Henry Moore – Draped Reclining Figure
Pieter Cornelis (Piet) Mondriaan, Netherlands
Pablo Picasso – Massacre in Korea
References

Introduction

The theme for the exhibition is ‘Nature, Life Man and Abstract’ on how various artists have attempted to depict nature, life, man in the abstract form. The exhibition would feature works of six artists and would display selected works that show an abstraction of how these artists have shown nature and life, as it relates to human. Man is an integral part of nature and the everyday objects assume a different form when abstracted with the human mind. The displays are unique and have served as the starting of a new genre in modern art. The artists are from different countries and from different backgrounds, all united by the common theme of creativity and abstract modern art. Ranging from installations, to paintings and sculpture, the exhibits would attempt to highlight how these artists from different backgrounds interpret art. Some of the subjects handled range from animals, to objects and human misery and suffering and excesses. The exhibition is designed to show the diversity that makes up the world of artists.

Floor plan

The floor plan is illustrated in the following figure, along with a info about the artists and their works.

The exhibits would be displayed three in a row and the placement is shown as below. Efforts are taken to ensure that there is proper grouping of the artists. Each work is numbered and the layout shows where the exhibit would be placed. The works of Mary Platt, Richer and Newman would be placed in one row as indicated by the numbers, 1, 2 and 3. This is done because the works relate to depiction of life forms other than humans. The works of Moore, Mondariaan and Picasso are placed in the next row and depicted by numbers such as 4, 5 and 6. This is done since the works are pure abstractions.

Mary Pratt – Canada

Mary Pratt was an artist who used common items found in the kitchen and made installations using them. She attempts to bring to fore the imagery of the kitchen and juxtaposes them in a modern setting. Some of her works have been whimsical to the bold and included among other things baked apples, 2 lunch pails, eviscerated chickens on a Coca-Cola box and many others. She has influenced the world of modern art by leaving a fine imagination that would be hard to meet.

In this exhibition, one of her works titled ‘Silver Fish on Crimson Foil’ would be displayed. A picture of the exhibit is shown below.

In this work, a dead Cod fish is placed in a blood red aluminium foil. The foil appears to be crumpled and adds the visceral element to the work and underlines the dead fish. What strikes the viewer is the power of imagination and the play of the dead fish with blood red eyes that almost blends with the foil. The foil is crumpled and rippled with alternate patterns of light and red, showing how man, nature and life are intermingled. The white foil represents life and nature while the blood red colour shows the effect that man has on nature. The fish is helpless, lying dead with the mouth and head turned upwards, supplicating for life.

Germaine Richier – France

Richier based her works and sculpture on animals and nature. What is apparent in the sculpture is the angularity of the form, extremities that look claw like, the lines and the empty spaces combined with spindly forms. The artists specialises in depicting nature and its forms in torturous positions and some of her exhibits are very imaginary. These features gave her works an intense energy. Featured in this exhibition is ‘The Praying Mantis’ shown in the following figure

The sculpture is about the size of a human and appears crouched on the pedestal, ready to pounce on the viewer. The multitude of dark spindly appendages seem to be ready to seek out the viewer and there are some elements of the human forms that can be identified in the torso, the legs and the limbs. The spindly, skeletal limbs appear as if they have undergone and withstood the ravages of time, man and nature and the sculpture seems to be metamorphosing into human from the insect. She had once quoted “”I am more attracted by the trunk of a dead tree than by an apple tree in full bloom”. Her works were designed to be evocative, teasing and rather disturbing and no one can move away after seeing her works, without being effected in one way or the other.

Barnett Newman – USA

Barnett tries to depict suffering, death, rebirth and nature in his man works. He always attempted to create an emergent imagery that has elements of “spermazoid forms rising out of fertile chaos”. His works were always a reflection of the fecund nature and its readiness to give birth to life. Featured in this exhibit is one of the works ‘The Blessing’ and its image is as shown below.

The work was created in the World War II era that was drowned in human misery. The work seems to highlight the surrealistic fantasy in which the artist attempted to create his art and it depicts the emergence of life in the primitive sperm form against a non descript background that would be the host for life. The author refrained from giving any intense interpretations and depictions and has used the most basic of the forms that are unstructured and have a hidden symmetry. The red oval can be interpreted as the egg that is being fertilised by the sperm, shown again with red legs. The white image on the left can be seen as a phallus while the protrusion at the back can be seen as the gonads that have produced the sperm. The exhibit runs well with the theme of the exhibition. There is a latent depiction of rising emergence and the work should be interpreted in the chaos of the war that had consumed immense lives.

Henry Moore – Draped Reclining Figure

Henry Moore has been regarded as one of the foremost modern artist and has left an indelible impression on modern art with his sculpture of life, nature and its many forms. Deriving inspiration from natural objects, the artist has created sculptures that bring out the blend of man, nature and creation. Featured in this exhibition is one of his famous works ‘Draped Reclining Figure’, a picture of which is shown in the following picture.

The sculpture came up after he visited Greece and it was then that he started his shelter sketches. The exhibit is sitting in a reclined position and her stance could be regarded as relaxed but alert. She is sitting, by resting her weight on her elbows and there is a acute contrasting impression that the viewers sees, that of serenity and tension. Her dress falls in tight folds and represents the ancient Greek sculptures that show the hidden vitality and power that emerge from the cloth. She appears to be gazing at some far off object, lost and distant in her thought and it seems as if she is ruminating deeply about some thought.

Pieter Cornelis (Piet) Mondriaan, Netherlands

Piet Mondriaan was one of the pioneers of abstract Dutch painting and a key member fo the De Stijl art group that dabbled in Neo-Plasticism. He experimented with grids and lines that were primarily arranged in vertical and horizontal lines and used primary colours and their combination. Many of his paintings and symbols have been used in advertisements such as L’Oréal Paris hair gel. Featured in this exhibits is one of his earliest works ‘Checkerboard’ an picture of which is as shown below.

The work is a complex compositions of grids that form a checkerboard. This work has departed from his other works where he uses solid lines. In this work, the colours are in primary colours of blue red and yellow with some patterns of grey, black, white and the surfaces are are rectangular planes and prisms. There is an aesthetic balance is achieved by using opposition. The compositional elements are straight lines and rectangular areas and there is an avoidance of symmetry. Balance and rhythm are brought to the fore by creating relations of location and proportion. The work is relevant to the exhibit since the grids and squares on the checkerboard represent the diversity of life and nature and that is what the De Stijl art group attempted to depict. “The work reveals the strength of Mondrian’s Post-Impressionist roots – his debt to van Gogh and Munch and also to Cezanne and Seurat. And it shows how thoroughly grounded his abstraction was in the world, how specifically it derived from the trees, skies, sand dunes, windmills and churches of the Netherlands”.

Pablo Picasso – Massacre in Korea

Pablo Picasso was one of the mot famous artist who created his own form of art. The artists excelled in depicting life and nature in tortured and fragmented forms and there were elements of Cubism in his works. He was a prodigious artist and among his works are pottery, paintings, sculpture and many other media that he has used extensively to create some of the most vibrant works this world has seen. Featured in this exhibit is one of his works ‘Massacre in Korea’ and a picture of this work in shown in the following figure.

The painting represents the murder of innocent Koreans in the 1950. Hundreds of innocent Koreans were killed by bombarding and later by indiscriminate firing from US soldiers. The painting created immense controversy with an uproar being created the world over on the excesses of the US soldiers. In the painting, a group of nude women, some of whom are pregnant are standing helplessly while a group of soldiers are pointing guns and swords at them, in an act of firing. The picture led to investigation by the authorities and there was widespread condemnation of the attack. The picture is important to the theme of the exhibition as it relates to nature, life and death caused by man.

References

AM. 2003. Germaine Richier: Praying Mantis. 2008. Web.

Henry Moore. 1976. Henry Moore: Draped Reclining Figure. 2008. Web.

Martin Shaw. 2005. Picasso: Massacre in Korea. 2008. Web.

MoMa. 2007. Barnett Newman: The Blessing. Web.

Murray John. 2008. Mary Pratt: Silver Fish on Crimson Foil. Web.

Watkins Thayer. 2005. Pieter Cornelis (Piet) Mondriaan: Checkerboard. 2008. Web.

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