Contextual Studies 8

Materials & Technology

The Apostles, 13th century, Chartres Cathedral

Donatello, David with Head of Goliath, c.1420s

Canova, Paulina Bonaparte Borghese, 1805-8

Froud, Arc de Triumphe, 1883-6

Rodin, St John the Baptist, 1878 Aston Webb, Queen Victoria, 1911

Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises, 1910

Giacomi Balla, Dog on a leash, 1912 Balla, Abstract speed and sound, 1913/14

Balla, Mercury Passing Before the Sun as Seen Through a Telescope, 1914

Boccioni, Dynamism of a Woman, 1914

How is it possible to see the human face pink now that our life, redoubled by noctambulism, has multiplied our perceptions as colourists? The human face is yellow, red, green, blue, violet.

Boccioni, ‘Manifesto on Painting’ in Art in Theory, p 151

Umberto Boccioni, Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture, (1912)

1.Achieve an abstract reconstruction of planes and volumes in order to determine form of sculpture and not figurative value.

2. Abolish in sculpture as in all other art the TRADITIONAL ‘SUBLIME’ IN SUBJECT MATTER. 3. …any Futurist sculptural composition will contain planes of wood or metal, either motionless or in mechanical motion…

4. Destroy the literary and traditional ‘dignity’ of marble and bronze statues….Refuse to accept the exclusive nature of a single material in the construction of a sculptural whole. Insist that even twenty different types of materials can be used…To mention a few examples: glass, wood, cardboard, iron, cement, hair, leather, cloth, mirrors, electric lights, etc.

5. Maintain that in the intersecting planes of a book and a corner of a table, in the straight lines of a match… there is more truth than in all the knotted muscles, all the breasts and buttocks of heroes and Venuses…

Balla, Coloured plastic complex,1914-5

Boccioni, Horse and Riderand House, 1914

Boccioni, Interpretation of head with window, 1911-2

Boccioni, Head and House and light,1912, various materials

Boccioni, Development of Bottle inSpace, 1912-3

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms ofContinuity in Space, 1913

Josef Albers, ‘On my Glass Wall Paintings’ (1933)

these glass wall paintings represent a new kind of picture that is significantly determined by the material (glass) and its technical treatment (patterned cutting, double-layered sand-blasting).

the brittleness of the material and the colour, which cannot be modulated, limit the range of shapes, but also provide a special colour intensity…

our own age with its interest in technology, clearly displays this interest in ‘material’.

the fact that the double-layered paintings are produced according to a precise method generates the possibility of repeating them precisely. consequently the paintings need not remain unique. here, as in graphic art or plastic moulds, the larger edition will reduce the costs of manufacture, and avert the snobbish interest in the unique single work.

Josef Albers, Pergola, 1925 Josef Albers, Beaker, 1929

Josef Albers, Flying, 1931Josef Albers, Cables, 1931

Noam Gabo, Monument for Physics Observatory,

1922

Antoine Pevsner

Varvara Stepanova, Textile design, 1924

Lapsina, Electric Light Bulb, textile, late 1920s

Liubov Popova, Dress, 1924

Stepanova, Workwear, 1924

Stepanova, Sportswear,1923

Alexander Rodchenko, Photomontage for Moscow publisher, 1924

Rodchenko,Point Composition Black, 1920

Rodchenko, Untitled, 1920

Rodchenko and Stepanova (1920s)

G. Klutis, Project for newspaper kiosk, 1922,

Vesnin, Stage set 1923,Stepanova, Stage set,1922

Stepanova, Design for event The Evening of the Book, 1924

Vladimir Tatlin, Stage set for Zangezi,1923

Tatlin, Relief, iron, plaster,glass, tar, 1914

Tatlin, Corner-counter Relief, iron, aluminium, primer, 1915

Tatlin, Working clothing and stove,1918-19

Tatlin, chair, 1927

Tatlin, Monument to the Third International, 1919-20

Reading for 24/11:

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Abstract of an Artist, (New York, George Wittenborn,1947) p79-80

Marcel Duchamp, ‘Statement’ (1961) in Dore Ashton(ed.), 20th Century Artists on Art, (New York,Pantheon,1985) p21-22 These texts will be on Moodle for you to print out