Jenny Holzer – ‘Survival series’ -1983/85

 ‘I am happy when my material is mixed with advertisements or pronoucements of some sort of another’

‘Protect me from what I want’ by Jenny Holzer - 1983/85: spectacolour signboard  51cm x102cm – outdoor installation, ‘Selections from the survival series’, Time Square, New York

Joseph Beuys - Manresa - 1966

In 1966, Beuys and his friend Per Kirkeby made an 'imaginary' journey with their wives to the village of Manresa in the Pyrenees. Kirkeby subsequently wrote about the journey and Beuys performed the 'action' 'Manresa' later that year. The village is significant for its connection with Ignatius Loyola who spent several months there in meditation, prior to writing his volume of prayers 'Spiritual Exercises'. The book is based around the idea that 'Intuition is a higher form of reason' – a belief the artist shared. The village is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and is generally associated with spiritual enlightenment. Beuys used this circular object in his 'Manresa' 'action'. To prepare for the campaign, Beuys himself traveled to the Spanish city of Manresa and visited the cave where Ignatius lived in a retreat. The insight that it is up to every concrete individual to get up from the grave with injuries, suffering and traumas, to discover and developpe the capacity for creative power.

Performance by Beuys under title ‘Manresa’ in Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf, 15 december 1966

Mark Rothko 'Red on Maroon' - colour field painting 1959

‘Rothko’s art takes place on the unlocatable – yet somehowe concretized – threshold between being and presence.’ - Arts of Impoverishment by Bersani & Dutoit, ‘Rothko: blocked vision’

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rothko-red-on-maroon-t01165

‘Rothko’s kunst speelt zich af op de niet-lokaliseerbare - maar op de een of andere manier geconcretiseerde - drempel tussen zijn en aanwezigheid.’ - Arts of Impoverishment door Bersani & Dutoit, ‘Rothko: geblokkeerde visie’

'His aim was nothing less than to ease the metaphysical emptiness burdening modern humanity.' - Koos De Wilt 'Think like an artist'

Man Ray - 'Indestructible Object (or Object to Be Destroyed)' 1923/1964

"I say that one must be a seer, one must make oneself a seer," wrote Arthur Rimbaud in 1871, and then he described how to become one: "The poet becomes a seer through a long, wonderful and reasoned disruption of all senses ... He examines himself, he removes all poisons, while only retaining their quintessence (a refined essence). "- The World of Marcel Duchamp by Calvin Tomkins, US 1966

Man Ray - ‘Objet indestructible, ou Objet à détruire’ > metronome with cutout photograph of eye on pendulum - (1964, replica of 1923 original)

Man Ray’s "Object to Destroy’ remained intact for nearly thirty-five years - although Ray intended to destroy it - until a group of anti-Dada students from an Art academy in Germany broke the item when they demonstrated at a DADA exhibition. Shortly thereafter, Ray made a second version and called it "Indigestible Object"

Assemblage  (8 7/8 x 4 3/8 x 4 5/8) - Collection NY, The Museum of Modern Art
photo credit : http://www.moma.org  - artist © : Fair Use (Section 107, Copyright Act, 1976)

Georges Braque - 'Composition with ace of clubs' - 1913

Georges Braque’s principle: ‘the senses deform, but the mind forms.’

- ‘The School of Paris’ by Bernard Dorival, 1962

‘Composition with ace of clubs’- oil, gouache and charcoal on canvas – 81x60cm

Collection: Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Joseph Beuys - 'Homogenous infiltration for grand piano' - 1966

“The other face of art (with a deviant function – not comform with the traditional idea of beauty) at the end of this century will have a symbolism that is endlessly exacting in its deep idealism.” – Pierre Restany, ‘L’autre face de l’art’-1979

Joseph Beuys - ‘Homogenous infiltration for grand piano‘, 1966

Materialen: felt cover, a cross of red cloth, tissue - size: 100 x 152 x 240 cm

Collectie: Centre Pompidou, Paris - Musée national d'art moderne / Centre de création industrielle

This work is part of the act of ‘Infiltration Homogen für Konzertflügel action, the größte Komponist der Gegenwart ist das Contergankind’ (Homogeneous infiltration for grand piano concert, the greatest contemporary composer is the Contergan child).

This performance by Beuys took place during the Fluxus festival of 1966 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf. With this action Beuys wants to draw attention to the pharmaceutical scandal around ‘thalidomide’. This drug caused severe abnormalities for children of mothers who took the drug during pregnancy. The felt cover silences the grand piano. Beuys wants to show the dangers of silence. (source MHKA)

Jean Dubuffet 'Four Trees' - 1972 NY

“My position”, Dubuffet stated, “is that of celebration.”

Group of Four Trees by Jean Dubuffet, commissioned by David Rockefeller in 1969

and placed in front of the Chase Manhattan Building NY

Antoni Tàpies - 'Matter in form of a food' 1965

"They are like metaphysical walls arising, from dust, ashes, earth, destruction, cataclysm, cosmic contemplation and inner meditation." - Art of our century by J.L. Ferrier, 1988 Longman, Essex UK 

‘Matèria en forma de peu’ – size: 132 cm x 162 cm, collection: Fundacioantonitàpies, Barcelona

Tàpies is sometimes associated with an artistic movement known as ‘Informalism’ which was opposed to all intellectual categories (form) and the dualism of western culture (heaven/hell, body/soul). Informe’s views on unnecessary waste inspired Tàpies to paint a calloused foot and other objects normally rejected by capitalist society. He called these works ‘Martéria en forma d’aixela’ (Matter in the shape of an armpit), because all organic life is constantly reshaping itself. His own materials did so as well, evolving naturally into the eponymous ‘wall paintings’ (tapia = wall/Tàpies), with associations of separations, enclosure, and the clandestine graffiti of a persecuted people.

- Helen Oppenheimer (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Culture, E. Rodgers)

Man Ray 'Unconcerned Photograph' series - 1959

From a series of 7 photographs (gelatin silver print on paper 42.5 x 30 each), whose ‘blurred images’ Grace Mayer noted, ‘were caused by swinging a Polaroid camera at random around his Paris Studio’.

“There was no humor in it, but what we did was really ‘to upset things’, you know, but subconsciously ‘to clear the way’ as I said before, for something ‘new’ which we didn’t know yet what it might be!” - Man Ray interviewed in 1972 about Dada & Surrealist movements.

'The Pond-Moonlight' photograph by Edward Steichen, 1904

"What the printing press did for the word, the camera did for the image" – quote by Prof. dr. J.M. Peters, ’From word to image’ 1980

‘The Pond-Moonlight’ by Edward Steichen, 1904 - Photograph, platinum print with applied color

Size: 39.7 x 48.2 cm (15 5/8 x 19 in.) - Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1933

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Steichen

https://www.metmuseum.org/to

Paul Cézanne's 'Bathers' - 1900/05

"... a feverish height rising desire for the new and the other, for a spiritualized world in contrast to the materialistic of the citizen, this call for sustainability and order, for security and freedom, for ideals and ideas, this opposition to bourgeois reality and at the same time escape from capitalist reality with its propriety of all living and its bonds, with its dehumanization of all humanitarian values, with its increasingly violent and extended problems, this opposition to an outer world and this flight to an inner world, is characteristic and stimulating at the same time." - Opposition of Abstract Art by K. Farner (1964 WB/ Cézanne 1904: father of the future painting, founder of a new platonic empire of the mind)

Paul Cézanne, ‘Bathers’ – 1900/05 - OOC 73 x 92cm – Private Collection

'Portrait de Guillaume Apollinaire' by Jean Metzinger, 1910

"to permanent undermine the virtuous power" - Guillaume Apollinaire

“Guillaume Apollinaire” by Jean Metzinger (FR, 1883–1956) ooc - 55 x 46 cm

Yayoi Kusama with 'Macaroni Girl' - 1964

 “I promised myself that one day I would conquer the world with my passion for Arts and mountains of creative energy stored in myself.” -  Yayoi Kusama (°1929)

Kusama with Macaroni Girl. Dressing Table and Infinity Net Painting, ca. 1964 © Yayoi Kusama Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, David Zwirner, New York

Grey paint strokes - Gerhard Richter 1968

"My method or my expectation which, so to speak, drives my to painting, is opposition. I expect that something will emerge that is unknown to me, which I could not plan, which is better, cleverder than I am, something which is also more universal." - On the Monochrome and Abstract Paintings - Gerhard Richter from 'Interview with Benjamin Buchloh', 1988

‘Grauschlieren’ (Grey paint strokes), 1968 – OOC 200x200cm

Private collection Gerhard Richter Archiv, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

(opposition: active resistance against the ruling majority)

“Grey is the epitome of non-statement, it does not trigger of feelings or associations. (It is) an illusion, like a photograph. And like no other colour, it is suitable for illustrating ‘nothing’. For me the grey is the only possible equivalent for indifference, for the refusal to make a statement, for lack of opinion, lack of form.” - Graue Bilder by G. Richter

Marcel Broodthaers - 'Egg shells and pin' 1965

Marcel  Broodthaers  ‘Coquilles d'oeufs et épingle’ 1965

Collection Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles / photo : J. Geleyns / Ro scan

After the energy crisis of 1974, the flame extinguishes from the pipe. The second oil shock of 1979-1980 increases hopelessness. Mass unemployment, price increases and inflation lead to large-scale savings measures. Around 1976 the ‘punk rock’ and the ‘new wave’ stand out. The soft values of nature, peace and love make way for the hard aesthetics of the metropolis, chaos and provocation. 'Make love, not war' becomes 'No future', the long hair becomes short spines and the flower a safety pin.  Marcel Broodthaers appears to be ahead of his time!

(source: De Standaard Kunstbibliotheek; Van Marcel Broodthaers tot Guillaume Bijl)

  

https://www.fine-arts-museum.be/fr/la-collection/marcel-broodthaers-coquilles-doeufs-et-epingle

Emilio Vedova "Image of Time" - 1951

“Your actual duty is that of saving your dream.”- quote Amedeo Modigliani

 

Artist Emilio Vedova at work in his studio in Venice, 2003

"Abstract art has found the unexpected confirmation in atomic physics. All the material is dissolved in forces." - Dr. K. Farner, 1964 'Uprising in abstract art

 

‘Image of Time’ (Barrier),1951 – Egg tempera on canvas 130 x 170 cm, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/4142

Emilio Vedova, Plurimo nr. 4 – Absurd Berliner Journal, 1964 Wood and iron, 206 x 360 cm. (Artist collection)

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/Emilio-Vedova

Van Gogh Vincent "Postman Joseph Roulin" - 1889

"In my opinion, I am often wealthy, not in money, but (not all days though) rich because I found my work. Something which I live for with heart and soul and that gives passion and meaning to life." - Vincent Van Gogh, The Hague, March 11, 1883

Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin - Ooc 65 x 54 cm. Arles: April, 1889 - Otterlo: Kröller-Müller Museum

 

"Now I'm working on a different model, a postman in blue uniform decorated with gold, a big bearded head, very sociable. [...] A more interesting man than many other."

Frantisek Kupka - "Story about Pistils and Stamens I" -1920

"If we search for the principle, we will see that it conforms to the principle of elementary life forms: the movements which expand and contract correspond to the universal rhythm of alternation and reproduction... in nature everything is moving, whether this can be observed or not." - Frantisek Kupka

Frantisek Kupka - "Story about Pistils and Stamens I" 1920 - ooc 110 x 100cm

Victor Servranckx 'Opus 1' - 1921

"Another matter is, whether this abstract art, in the country of Rubens, will be anything more than a single phenomenon ..." - M. Stijns, 1926 "The Fine Arts in Belgium"

Victor Servranckx – ‘Opus 1’, 1921, bronze sculpture, collection Mu.Zee Ostend (30 x 40 x 30 cm)

http://abstractmodernisme.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/nl/kunstenaar/victor-servranckx

Wassily Kandinsky 'Composition VII' - 1913

"To enjoy art, art-receptivity is the first requirement." - Dr. Achilles Stubbe (B), 1960

 

 

Kandinsky’s ‘Composition VII’, 1913 – OOC 200 cm x 300 cm (78.7” x 118.1”)

The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Russia