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Geometric Expressionism and the Progression of Modernity"This state of affairs suggests that if the modern project is to be saved at all, it must be exceeded."(The Anti-aesthetic, Hal Foster 1983) Abstract In 1980, art critic Robert Hughes proclaimed that after a century of of tradition, Modernism was finished. After two decades of waiting for a new art style to emerge, Hughes saw the writing was on the wall and realised no style would be coming. Almost three decades on, history has shown that Hughes' statement was on the money. Instead of seeing new styles of painting, we’ve seen millions of western artists putting forward their original ideas in original ways, and being relatively ignored by other artists who have likewise remained intent on doing their own thing. In such a climate of individualism, talk of styles or traditions has become meaningless. Although the art world around me championed individualism, I saw nothing in it to celebrate. For me, individualism was an ideological approach to creativity that ignored the value of culture and education. As history has repeatedly shown, culture and education have always been, and will always be, the basis of human achievement. Partly as a rejection of this individualism, and partly out of respect for the heritage that encouraged this individualism, I was drawn to a style that I refer to as Geometric Expressionism. The style uses geometry to constrain emotion in ways that not only heightens emotional tension, but also facilitates a more logical consideration of a concept. For example, there is emotion in Picasso's cubist paintings of weeping women, but it is a restrained kind of emotion, almost like looking at a woman's tears in an intellectual way. Although it was not Picasso's intention to have tension as a side effect of his experinment in perspective, that was the outcome.
While tension and cognition were unintended side-effects of cubism, tension and cognition are the primary focus of Geometric Expressionism. Although it may sound counter-intutive, the restraint of emotion with geometric forms can enhance emotional intensity. Because the emotion is constrained, tension builds and there is a desire for a catharthic release. This creates a cognitive state that is somewhat free of emotional corruption, but is always threatened by emotional tension on the verge of bursting. In 2009, the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto proved the effects that geometry has on cognition (Yamamura, Sawahata, Kamitani 2009.)The researchers showed that MRI scans could be used to decide whether a subject was looking at a cubist work by Picasso, or a surrealist work by Dali. Although it was nice to come across scientific validation, it was merely a confirmation of what I had long believed as an artist. I had long known that the use of geometry in art has an effect on the viewers' emotions and in many respects, that affect has some universal qualities. Therefore, I wanted to explore those qualities, along with the motivations to engage or reject them.
Differences between Geometric Expressionism and the styles it was inspired byExpressionismExpressionism aimed to present a subjective perspective that demonstrated elevated emotional intensity. This was typically achieved by distorting reality and casting off the shackles of technique and style. Unfortunately, some expressionist artists failed to understand that liberating emotion in all its glory can produce a dogs breakfast lacking in emotional resonance. Just as a singular tear is more melancholic than a hysterical bawl, and an inch of a woman’s thigh is more erotic that her legs spread apart, visual art needs some restraint so the viewer can desire that which is not overtly expressed. It is that restraint that provides the intense feeling.
Vincent Van Gogh - Starry Starry Night Arguably, Vincent Van Gogh found a balance between liberation and restraint far more successfully than any other expressionist artist. For example, Starry Starry Night achieved great emotional intensity via the use of blue paired with yellow. More intensity came with the exaggeration of cosmic light, the distortion of the real, flattening of perspective and the flowing lines in the night sky and tree. Along with this emotional liberation, there was also restraint via the black lines of the hill tops, geometric house outlines, and lines of the tree, which coralled emotion and created a sense of structure. As a consequence of the restraint, the viewer is teased with emotional liberation on the verge of bursting. Geometric Expressionism uses the restraining power of geometric form to corral emotion and create the tension yet to be expressed. Because of the greater use of geometry, it fails to gain the emotional intensity of Vincent's work, which took restraint to its very limit; however, it compliments the quest for feeling, with the consideration of morality and logic.
Suprematism/Geometric Abstraction
Kasimir Malevich Black Square 1915
Suprematism was an art movement that aimed to remove logic or objective form in order to enhance the emotional power of the painting. According to its pioneer Kasimir Malevich, "Hence, to the Suprematist, the appropriate means of representation is always the one which gives fullest possible expression to feeling as such and which ignores the familiar appearance of objects. Objectivity, in itself, is meaningless to him; the concepts of the conscious mind are worthless. Feeling is the determining factor ... and thus art arrives at non objective representation at Suprematism...Everything which determined the objective ideal structure of life and of "art' ideas, concepts, and images all this the artist has cast aside in order to heed pure feeling... Suprematism is the rediscovery of pure art which, in the course of time, had become obscured by the accumulation of "things." In more simple language, by moving away from realistic objects and context, Suprematism aimed to facilitate a cognitive desert in which the audience could create pure feeling that was uncorrupted by socially constructed meanings. The problem with suprematism was that human feeling is derived from the context of reality. Paradoxically, to deny context was to retreat into a world that was excessively safe. The supremacist world was a simple world of shapes and colours, and presented none of the challenging feelings provoked by the contradiction and confusion of life's problems, nor the feelings of appreciation stimulated by life's beauty. For example, it couldn't seriously be argued that Malevich's Black Square or Kandinsky's On White II had anywhere near the same emotion as Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night. Another deficiency with the Supremacists' works was that in the quest for pure emotion, they denied logic and morality. Consequently, they were not rounded works of art. It is no surprise that Supremist style works are extremely common in hotel lobbys today. Without doubt, they are amongst the most non-offensive, non-confronting, non-controversial artworks ever created. In some respects, they are the Big Macs of the art world. So much so, Chinese painting factories pump them out for world's hotels and bargain shops. That is not to say there is something wrong with being a Big Mac (it is not easy to create a hamburger that is popular all over the world), but it is to say that the striving to be a Big Mac can take the artist on a path to the mundane. Admittedly, Supremacist art has often been referred to as rubbish, which supporters see as a sign that it is "challenging" conservative views. However, it is no more true to say Supremacist art is "challenging" because some people don't like the look of it as it is to say a Big Mac is challenging because some people don't like the taste of it. In a nutshell, being rejected as uninspiring is not the same as being challenging. In any case, few people are offended by the art. They just aren't inspired by it.
Joseph Albers - Study for Homage to the Square 1956 Study for Homage to the Square by Joseph Albers is fairly typical of geometric abstractionist art that is held up as being rebellious and an affront to conservative views. In truth, there was nothing revolutionary about Alber’s work in 1956, and there is even less revolutionary about it today. It was work in strict conformity to a tradition that can be traced to Malevich’s Black Square in 1915. Albers became a university lecturer and was renowned for being hostile to his own students that wanted to rebel against his shapes and colours. Despite the limitations of the movement, the Supremacists/Geometric Abstractionists showed the emotive power of shape when paired with colour, and for that alone they deserved celebration. When people looked at Kasimir Malevich's Black Square, they felt something. Admittedly, they needed an artist statement to give the square a context in which to understand how they should feel, but they felt something nevertheless. Likewise, hotels buy Supremist-style work because they add something to rooms in a non-offensive fashion just as playing classical music in hotel elevators adds something in a non-offensive fashion. The world needs non-offensive art to shape people's moods in positive ways. Supremacism/Geometric Abstraction serves that need perfectly. In addition to showing the emotive power of shape and colour, Supremacists/Geometric Abstractionists showed some of the illusory qualities of shape and colour upon how they were organised in a composition. This scientific understanding has helped some artists use the colour and shape more effectively when considering less mundane concepts. Geometric Expressionism aims to likewise harness some of the emotive power of shape, colour and distortion, but it keeps a link to reality so that the painting has a context in the turmoil and joy of life. Furthermore, rather than retreat from logic and morality, Geometric Expressionism embraces it as a necessity of complete art. Although emotion is a key aspect of art, so is logical inquiry and moral confusion. In order to integrate morality and logic, Geometric Expressionism links to a context of reality, but uses a geometric abstaction to alter the method of access and the experience of it. In this way, Geometric Expressionism integrates moral, emotional and logical intelligence in a way that Suprematism did not. Cubism
Cubism was an experiment in perspective. It aimed to depict a mosaic of perspectives in a 2 dimensional plane in order to do something that the newly invented camera could not. Basically, instead of looking at a subject from one viewpoint, it looks at it from multiple viewpoints. Because Geometric Expressionism is not an experiment in perspective, it is not constrained by the same philosophical theories relating to the portrayal of perspective. In short, there is no reason not to represent images in a three dimensional format or to look at the subject from only one viewpoint. While both art forms use geometry, different rules are conformed to and different outcomes are sought. Because both art forms use Geometry, there is a common affect on cognition. Specifically, Geometric Expressionism aims to constrain emotion and facilitate a more logical access of a painting. For example, Picasso’s weeping women series shows some of the way that geometry changes the perception of an image. There is emotion in Picasso's paintings, but it is a restrained kind of emotion, almost like looking at a woman's tears in an intellectual way. Ironically, this can give a sense of enhanced emotional intensity. Because the emotion is constrained, tension builds and there is a desire for a catharthic release. Although this cognitive reflection was not Picasso's intention, it was an outcome of his attempt to represent multiple perspectives in a 2d image. . MRI scans of the brain have indeed confirmed that Cubism has a different impact than other artforms. In 2009, Japanese researchers (the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto) showed that Dali's and Picasso's artworks could be accurately classified based on brain activity alone. Although the human brain is too complex to understand exactly what was happening, the fact that art could impact a viewer's brain in a significantly different way indicated the diverse ways art style can have on cognition.
Defend USSR - Valentina Kulagina The emotional restraint of cubism is perhaps more obvious in Defend USSR by Valentina Kulagina. The Cubist perspective was used to indicate multiple possibilities in a singular time as determined soldiers march away from their workplaces. As soldiers, the defenders' minds are closed down to the emotions of love or empathy that could impact upon their ability to fight. It is not an emotional work, it is a focussed work. Although it is in contradiction to the Dada ideology that believes emotion should be liberated in all its glory, there are some advantages in adding a logical restraint to a painting. In eastern art, the use of black ink allows great emotional expression during the creative process. However, by being economical in the use of both line and colour, the final product has a refined quality that allows the feeling to be conveyed with less corruption by noise. Likewise, infusing a painting with emotion, and then constraining that emotion with logic, allows for a more complete exploration of a concept and a balanced final piece. In some ways, random application of emotion is like putting an excessive number of spices in a meal, it just isn’t balanced. It lacks structure, relationships, and proportion. SurrealismSurrealism was a revolutionary art style that originated out of the Dadaist’s attacks on culture and Expressionism. Primarily, Surrealist artists wanted to free themselves from false rationality and customs. Somewhat paradoxically, they found this applying by Freud’s theories on free association, hidden unconscious and dream analysis. Consequently, with one hand they were deconstructing logic, but with the other hand they were using aspects of it to build their style. Furthermore, they identified themselves as non-conformists, yet they worked in groups where they learnt from each other, supported each other, and conformed to the ideals of the group. In other words, they worked as a culture. The best way to think of Surrealism is that it was basically a group of classically trained and educated artists that distorted the real in order to gain more emotional freedom. They weren't able to completely escape their socialisation, which was a good thing, because it ensured that had developed skills and their art retained a context. Abstract expression was the natural successor to Surrealism because the next generation were not educated with the classic painting skills necessary to link to the real or explore cognitive ideas. In other words, Abstract Expressionism was the truer implementation of Surrealist ideology because it was an art style that was less grounded in technical or conceptual education. Geometric Expressionism shares the Surrealist distortion of the real in order to access the hidden unconscious. A principle difference is that Surrealist art is ideologically opposed to logic. On the other hand, Geometric Expressionism is like conceptual art in that it believes that making the viewer think is as important as making them feel. Some degree of emotional restraint is necessary for this thinking to occur. Consequently, whereas Surrealism aimed to deconstruct the cerebral mind in order to liberate the emotional mind, Geometric Expressionism aims to constrain some of the emotional mind in order to allow a cerebral consideration along with the emotional consideration.
Technical Details of Geometric ExpressionismThe Communicative Power of Shape
Aside from constraining emotion, as we can see Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, shapes have a communicative quality in their own right. In his famous drawing, Da Vinci added a square and a circle to a drawing of a figure to communicate the proportions of man. While the square and circle were intended to communicate proportion in a mathematical sense, their psychological associations communicated something different. Through time, Vitruvian Man has come to symbolize universal humanity. For many, the balance of the physical figure represented with a square and a circle, combined with triangular bodily forms, has come to symbolize the spiritual proportion of an enlightened being. Exactly what the square and circle symbolize can be inferred from a field known as psychogeometrics. When asked to look at a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, or squiggly line and choose which one best represents their personality, the choice people make has around 87% accuracy. Circle personalities tend to be of the caring social worker variety. Squares like rules. Rectangles are logical engineers that work in teams. Triangles are scientists. Often they need to remind themselves to be polite because they are too focussed on their aim. The squiggly lines are the right brain creatives, such as artists or salesmen. With such results in mind, we can see that just as colour has a psychological impact, so does shape. Furthermore, combinations of shapes have an impact much like the combinations of colours. A pairing of a circles and triangles will communicate something very different to a pairing of squiggly lines and squares. When shapes are combined with the psychological use of colour, a certain disequilibrium of tension is created. The emotion is corralled within the pens of geometric form, yet as with all corals, the line between freedom and security is a fragile one. ArchitectureThe psychological connotations of shape are still relatively misunderstood in art theory. In design theory; however, the physical interaction between people and design has enabled a greater understanding of shape. Much of theory has some consistencies with that proposed by the field of psychogeometrics that is used in personality tests. (Applied from http://www.design-skills.org/the_psychology_of_forms.html)
Temple of Heaven Circular shapes are associated with tenderness, friendship, support, protection and compassion. These connotations can be seen in Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, which uses rectangular shapes to symbolise earth, and circular shapes to represent heaven.
World Trade Centres Squares, rectangles and pyramids are associated with stability, strength, power, balance and reliability. These characteristics could be seen in the old World Trade Centres in New York. Despite their relatively boring structure, they gained a great deal of world symbolism via the use of solid rectangular blocks.
Horizontal lines have a calming effect that evokes feelings of tranquillity, femineity, calm, and silence. This is most clearly seen in the design of bridges, such as the Golden Gate.
Soft curves evoke feelings of rhythm, movement, pleasure and generosity. Such feelings are evoked by the Sydney Opera House.
Vertical shapes and lines convey feelings of masculinity, strength, brutality and domination. These can be seen in Greece’s Parthenon.
Sharp angled lines create feelings of energy, liveliness, violence, explosiveness and anger. Such lines were used at the National Museum of Australia, where architects tried to get away from the idea that Australian history, and Canberra architecture, is sterile and boring.
Personality in Shape
Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings of the chairs of Gauguin and his own seem to indicate that he had some idea about reflecting personality in geometric form. Each chair seems to be reflective of the personality of the owner. Vincent’s chair is rough and workmanlike. On the other hand, Gauguin’s chair is curvaceous, and the two books give a more robust quality to the man who sat in it.
Examples in painting
The Fragile State of Being
75cm X 100cm In the Fragile State of Being, I used Geometric Expression to explore the very meaning of art. The legacy of Van Gogh is apparent in the utilisation of symbols and the psychology of colour. Symbols like the Top Hat reference a personality that has closed down his emotional realm in the pursuit of the stiff upper lip, yet still retains an appreciation for the intangible over the pragmatic. Likewise, just as yellow stimulated emotions of life and vibrancy in Van Gogh’s landscapes, the flooding yellow communicates an emotional liberty external to the will of the subject. Infused into the dialogue between the hat and colour is the thematic dance of shapes. The constraint of the square protects the eye from the flowing ribbons of colour. The seemingly random organization of space lacks symmetry, yet the geometric structure still provides a certain calmness and beauty.
Vincent 1275cm X 100cm As a result of my experience in Asia, I came to see appropriation is a mark of respect. Furthermore, most of the significant movements of modernism have involved artist trying to persuade other artists to appropriate new styles. The celebration of individualism of the last 50 years is really quite rare in the history of art. In some respects, it marks a loss of faith in culture. As someone who has faith in culture, I wanted to pay my respects to Vincent Van Gogh. Not only was he very much the artist’s artist, he was also a very interesting person. In the series Meeting Van Gogh, I appropriated from Vicent's self-portraits and used Geometric Expression to apply the theories of Sigmund Freud and Edvard Munch, which proposed that the self is a battleground where the forces of desire meet the immoveable object of restraint. I used geometry to constrain emotion as a kind of ying to the emotional yang of colour. Feelings of explosiveness and instability are represented in the angler lines of the shapes and their asymmetric placement that lacks a clear thematic organisation or common vanishing points.
Crisis GlobalOil on canvas
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