CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
DIMENSIONS
FREEDOM WITHIN STRUCTURE
An abstract submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in
Art
by
Roslyn Marg1in-Knopf
June, 1981
The Abstract of Roslyn Marglin-Knopf is approved:
(Bruce Everett)
chairman
California State University, Northridge
ii
In dedication to my mother Sophie Margolin,
brother Robert Margolin, husband John, sons
Bruce and David Knopf.
iii
Searching, examining the past and present in painting.
Defining - evaluating - thinking - assimilating -
groping; all part of the prelude to the process.
I am ex-
ploring the problems of transparencies and overlays of
pure or nearly pure color to produce mixtures of other
hues of intensity and incorporating both control and spontaneity in a harmonious balance.
Like most contemporary
artists I seek the union of reason and intuition.
"Pity
us," wrote Appolinaire, art critic and writer (1880-1918),
who are enduring this endless quarrel between order
and adventure •.• " 1 Ultimately I am working towards a feel11
~'/e
ing of freedom through a structural medium - and I have
been able to make my work reflect this.
I want to create
an art that includes the presentation and solving of formal plastic problems but is not bounded by them - but in
fact tra.."1.scends these concerns.
Another one of my concerns is to create a pictorial
plastic space with the means of my format and technique.
Stanton IviacDonald Wright ( 1916) delineated in his writings
1As quoted in Philip Leider, Stella Since 1970 (The
Fcrt \vorth Art Museum, 1978).
iv
of a plastic form - an intense form.
It is this which I
refer to as well as a spatial relationship, or the form of
the space.
In order to stress the two dimensional quality
of the paintings I choose to present them directly on the
wall rather than conventionally stretched on frames.
Vis-
ually one perceives the painting and the wall as a combined entity.
I prefer to work on a large size canvas.
As William Rubin stated so aptly in the New York Museum of
Modern Art's catalogue on the Frank Stella exhibition: "··
.architecture potentially exerts a kind of control and authority over the spectator's experience - The size of the
traditional easel picture, which functions as a window on
another world, gives the spectator the option of simply
disregarding it if he chooses.
The large picture, which
displaces or identifies itself with the wall, imposes itself on the spector in a more authoritative way, in the
manner of architecture itself. 112
The painting is first
part of the wall - possibly expanding onto the wall, then
it becomes visually detached from the wall toward the
viewer, hopefully in an engulfing experience.
My technique consists of using thin layers of
acrylic stains and water, applied with very large brushes
2
William S. Rubin, Frank Stella,(The Museum of Mod-
ern Art; New York, l970)p. 45-46.
v
onto unsized canvas similar to a watercolor technique.
This proceedure is followed by pouring layers of paint of
different densities on the remoistened canvas.
Each coat
of paint is of one hue and is allowed to dry thoroughly
before the next is applied.
The canvas is laid flat on
the floor to control the amount of dripping of the thin
paint.
This enables a comprehensive, yet intimate view of
my work from within, on and above.
The process allows me
to paint with a rhythm, which feels free and exhilarating.
My paintings are hung with 1 to
1~
inch brads,
about 10 inches apart along the top edge, leaving the
sides and bottom loose.
The nails are left protruding
about. i inch from the wall, and the painting is pulled
away from the wall to the edge of the nails.
Brads are
not visible on most of the paintings from a distance.
vi
-
Variation on Turner's Cloisters, Salisbury Cathedral #l
64 by 51 inches
vii
'
Variation on Turner' s Cloisters, Salisbury Cathedral #2
64 by 51 inches
viii
Variation on Turner's Cloisters, Salisbury Cathedral #3
64 by 51 inches
ix
Is It So?
59 by 47 inches
X
Vicissitude #l
70 by 111 inches
xi
Vicissitude #2
70 by 65 inches
xii