Thursday, March 26, 2009

Formalism

Formalism is the belief that an artwork has the capabilities to stand on its own merit, detached from social, ethical or representational ideals as a pure construct of aesthetics by use of composition and abstraction. Overall, I would hesitate to remove any of the three artists from the category of Formalism, each in his own way explored the elements of this ideal with great success. They each capture intrinsically attractive or compelling images using simple forms and composing them in interesting and appealing ways.

Kandinsky is an artist who I draw much of my own inspiration, his use of form to interpret what music might look like is just one of his ideas that I find myself drawn to, it appeals to many people despite the language barriers, and presents itself as an almost universal translator, much like mathematics, and in this way he was trying to get people to see art the same way. This can be seen in pieces like Composition VIII and others, simple, yet elegant geometric forms composed with slightly imperfect biological looking elements. This is the way I interpret his particular aesthetic, and in my own way incorporate elements of this into my own style.

Malevich as well fits this definition quite well, his use of geometric forms and composition of those forms creates a rich backdrop which allows other artists and viewers to visually branch out from and explore the imagery, almost indefinitely.

I selected Gary Petersen as being representative of the work I am doing, although my work does have more organic elements he comes closest to really capturing the Formalist geometric elements for me.