Transformed Visions - New Images of Man
The Transformed Visions Collection Display at the Tate Modern examines how artists expressed the human figure after the catastrophes of world war. The exhibition also conveys diverse interpretations of violence and grief. It successfully shows how artists such as Jackson Pollock, Francis Bacon and Henry Moore created advanced works using expressive abstraction.
I was particularly interested in Room 2: New Images of Man, curated by Matthew Gale. I was immediately intrigued as to the reasoning behind such abstract compositions.
Gothic Landscape, 1961 by Lee Krasner (1908-1884) is a dramatic oil painting and a perfect example of expressed abstraction. It was created in response to the death of Krasner's husband Jackson Pollock. The aggressive and blunt brushstrokes resemble Krasner's feelings of grief. Whilst at the exhibition I made a sketch of this composition. I observed the dark, heavy lines that dominated the painting. These wide brushstrokes can be seen as 'trees, with thick knotted roots at their base'. I feel that they symbolise Krasner's feelings of pain and desperation at that time.
Additionally, I was also fascinated by the linear approach of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva's, The Corridor, 1950. Vieira da Silva was a key figure within the field of expressive abstraction in post-war Paris. However her work always retained a strong basis of reference to the visible world. Many of her paintings depict labyrinthine interior spaces, with complex or multiple lines of perspective. The elaborate mosaic and tiled surfaces recall the domestic architecture of her native Portugal.
Observing these conceptual compositions has inspired my work as I intend to experiment with deliberate abstraction in response to my environment.
Bibliography
Books
Plaque, July 2012, Courtesy of Tate Modern Gallery
Websites
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/vieira-da-silva-the-corridor-n06189
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