perception and sense in art and space
Abstract art is the kind of experience that challenges a viewer to find words to describe. Minimalism, the art movement based on simple forms, may post the starkest of these challenges. Continue reading “Bringing narrative to minimalism: A big thank you to Herb and Dorothy Vogel”
The Hirshorn Museum (Smithsonian’s modern art building) presents another wow exhibit, one that gives enough material for long-lasting, multi-level reflection. RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER: PULSE (November 1, 2018 – April 28, 2019) engages the observer in a way that is as much peculiar as it is tantalizing. Continue reading “Hirshorn’s “Pulse”: Experiencing the heartbeat of karma”
Aptly named, “The Secret Lives of Color”by Kassia St. Clair, gives colors with names befitting those delightful paint squares their autobiographical due. There’s White with some of its cousins including Lead White, Ivory, Silver, Whitewash, Isabelline, Chalk, Beige and Red with its associates Scarlet, Cochineal, Vermillion, Rossa corsa, Hematite, Madder, and Dragon’s blood for example.
J.J. Gibson outlined a radical approach to optics in his 1979 book The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. In order to perceive the structure of space, we need just one thing: light. Continue reading “Gibsonian optics brought to life in the sculpture of Fred Eversley”
Tasked with painting a still life composed of boxes and bottles in shades of white and black, with oil paints in shades of white and black, it’s easy for a scientist like me to think about the usual suspects of depth cues as a path to success. After all, if depth cues are what we use to interpret the environment, then using them should translate to a successful painting, paint skill notwithstanding. Continue reading “Depth cues are psychological constructs (we cannot rely upon when painting still life).”
Thomas Demand presented his work at William & Mary recently. His pieces span sculpture and photography, and, a number of them are based on exploiting some compelling properties of paper. His work entitled “Poll”, seen at MOMA, presents the relationship between becoming U.S. President-elect and measured change in polling paper (see below).
Museum of Modern Art Thomas Demand’s “Poll” (2001), based on a photograph of a Florida recount station.
Poll, 2001, C-Print / Diasec, 180 x 260 cm© Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / ARS, New York
When the idea of the aesthetic experience is juxtaposed with intention and skill of the artist, the consideration about what or how a work is perceived or successful can get distorted. I like the challenge of trying to resolve what our cellular receptive fields respond to with how that may be competition with what we, as human observers, think we see.
