MAJOR WORKS:
Title: Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket
Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Description: James McNeill Whistler was a leading figure in the
Aesthetic movement, a Romantic trend that celebrated "art for art's
sake," and his ideas were important in spreading formalist
approaches to art. As he put once put it "Nature contains the
elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard
contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick, and
choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful." In
other words, form, in art, is more important than the accurate transcription of nature.
Such beliefs encouraged considerable abstraction in his work, the most famous example
being Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, which was the subject of a
famous libel action after the critic John Ruskin accused Whistler of "throwing a pot of
paint in the public's face."
Year: 1875
Materials:
Collection:
Title: Full Fathom Five
Artist: Jackson Pollock
Description: Full Fathom Five was among the first drip paintings
Jackson Pollock completed. The pictures have invited numerous
interpretations, many of which stress very different aspects of the
paintings. For example, Harold Rosenberg focuses on process
and technique - Pollock's encounter with the canvas. But for
Clement Greenberg, the critic who was the painter's strongest
advocate, the significance of his technique lay in its formal achievements. It managed to
detach line from its traditional role of defined shapes and volumes; and it broke away
from the rigid, shallow, demarcated space that had dominated painting since the advent
of Cubism, replacing it with a loose, open web of space.
Year: 1947
Materials:
Collection:
Title: Flag
Artist: Jasper Johns
Description: Jasper Johns is often credited with paving the way
for Pop art by re-introducing recognisable subject matter into art.
But the importance of early pieces such as Flag lies equally in the
way he created a careful balance between form and subject
matter. This created a dilemma for formalist critics such as
Clement Greenberg, since while they maintained that the seat of
an artwork's value lay in its manipulation of form, Johns' made it impossible to deny the
importance of subject matter. Artists such as Mark Rothko insisted on the importance of
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subject matter, but the appearance of their work made it easy to ignore it; pictures like
Flag made that impossible.
Year: 1954-55
Materials:
Collection: © The Art Story Foundation – All rights Reserved
For more movements, artists and ideas on Modern Art
visit www.TheArtStory.org