A large embroidery on netting, Mosquito Shrine II (2020) by Vivian Caccuri tells the story of the arrival of European colonists to the “New World” through the lens of the mosquito.
Courtesy the artist.
Jul 8, 2020 – May 2, 2021Vivian CaccuriGround Floor / Ray Ellen and Allan Yarkin Gallery
A large embroidery on netting, Vivian Caccuri’s Mosquito Shrine II (2020) tells the story of the arrival of European colonists to the “New World” through the lens of the mosquito. The allegory features the insect as a deranged paramilitary force, alluding to the power of tropical nature and the disaster of man-made structures—poorly planned artificial dams, sugar plantations, slavery—that have made mosquitos both ubiquitous and deadly.
Caccuri creates objects, installations, and performances that seek to reframe everyday experience and, by extension, disrupt traditional narratives. In her work, the conquest of nature in the West takes uncanny forms. Mosquito Shrine II is a result of the artist’s research on eighteenth-century testimonials and records detailing stories of illnesses in the Western hemisphere.
Vivian Caccuri (b. 1986, São Paulo) has participated in the Venice Biennale, São Paulo Biennial, and the Kochi-Muziris Biennial in Kerala, India, and has created commissioned works for the Serpentine Galleries, London; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; the High Line, New York; and Röda Sten Konstall, Göteborg, Sweden, among others. Caccuri is the author of Music is What I Make (2012), awarded the Funarte Prize of Critical Production in Music in 2013, and a contributor to Making It Heard: A History of Brazilian Sound Art (2019).
Bringing together works spanning three decades, a site-specific mural, and reinterpreted works commissioned by ICA Miami, “The GOAT” is the first solo museum presentation for Cuban painter Tomás Esson.
Photo: Zachary Balber.
Jul 8, 2020 – May 2, 2021Tomás Esson: The GOATGround Floor / Barbara Z. and Sam Herzberg Family Gallery Ground Floor / Janice and Alan Lipton Gallery
“Tomás Esson: The GOAT” is the first solo museum presentation for Cuban painter Tomás Esson. On this occasion, ICA Miami brings together works spanning his thirty-year studio practice alongside a site-specific mural and a commissioned reinterpretation of his early painting installations.
From his very first exhibition in Havana in 1988, which was censored and closed by Cuban authorities, Esson has created lively and grotesque paintings loaded with dynamic energy, mythological references, and political commentary. The presentation will include early works, as well as painting from Esson’s “Retrato” (Portraits) series and his “Wet Paintings” series. Each of these three bodies of works began in one of the different cities where Esson has lived and worked—the early paintings in Havana, the “Retratos” in Miami, and the “Wet Paintings” in New York City.
Esson was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1963. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, in 1987. His work was showcased in a number of controversial exhibitions in the late 1980s, as he became a central figure in the decade’s renaissance in Cuban art and began to exhibit internationally. In 1990, he left Cuba and has since then lived in Miami and New York City. His work is in the collections of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany; and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico.
This exhibition is organized by ICA Miami and curated by Gean Moreno, Director, Knight Foundation Art + Research Center.
Concrete art was an art movement with a strong emphasis on geometrical abstraction. The term was first formulated by Theo van Doesburg and was then used by him in 1930 to define the difference between his vision of art and that of other abstract artists of the time. After his death in 1931, the term was further defined and popularized by Max Bill, who organized the first international exhibition in 1944 and went on to help promote the style in Latin America. The term was taken up widely after World War 2 and promoted through a number of international exhibitions and art movements.
Concrete art Origination
Revue Art Concret, May 1930.
After the formal break up of De stijl, following the last issue of its magazine in 1928, van Doesburg began considering the creation of a new collective centered on a similar approach to abstraction. In 1929 he discussed his plans with Uruguayan painter Joaquín Torres-García, with candidates for membership of this group including Georges Vantongerloo, Constantin Brancusi, František Kupka, Piet Mondrian, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart and Antoine Pevsner, among others. However, van Doesburg divided the candidates between artists whose work was still not completely abstract and those free of referentiality. As this classification entailed the possibility of a disqualification of the first group, the discussions between the two soon broke down, prompting Torres-García to team up instead with Belgian critic Michel Seuphor and form the group Cercle et Carré.
Following this, van Doesburg proceeded to propose a rival group, Art Concret, championing a geometrical abstract art closely related to the aesthetics of Neo-plasticism. In his opinion, the term ‘abstract’ as applied to art had negative connotations; in its place he preferred the more positive term ‘concrete’. Van Doesburg was eventually joined by Otto G. Carlsund, Léon Arthur Tutundjian, Jean Hélion and his fellow lodger, the typographer Marcel Wantz (1911-79), who soon left to take up a political career. In May 1930 they published a single issue of their own French-language magazine, Revue Art Concret, which featured a joint manifesto, positioning them as the more radical group of abstractionists.
“BASIS OF CONCRETE PAINTING We say:
Art is universal.
A work of art must be entirely conceived and shaped by the mind before its execution. It shall not receive anything of nature’s or sensuality’s or sentimentality’s formal data. We want to exclude lyricism, drama, symbolism, and so on.
The painting must be entirely built up with purely plastic elements, namely surfaces and colors. A pictorial element does not have any meaning beyond “itself”; as a consequence, a painting does not have any meaning other than “itself”.
The construction of a painting, as well as that of its elements, must be simple and visually controllable.
The painting technique must be mechanic, i.e., exact, anti-impressionistic.
An effort toward absolute clarity is mandatory.”
The group was short lived and only exhibited together on three occasions in 1930 as part of larger group exhibitions, the first being at the Salon des Surindépendents in June, followed by Production Paris 1930 in Zürich, and in August the exhibition AC: Internationell utställning av postkubistisk konst (International exhibition of post-cubist art) in Stockholm, curated by Carlsund. In the catalog to the latter, Carlsund states that the group’s “programme is clear: absolute Purism. Neo-Plasticism, Purism and Constructivism combined”. Shortly before van Doesburg’s death in 1931, the members of the Art Concret group still active in Paris united with the larger association Abstraction-Création.
Theoretical background
In 1930, Michel Seuphor had defined the role of the abstract artist in the first issue of Cercle et Carré. It was “to establish, on the foundations of a structure that is simple, severe and unadorned in every part, and within a basis of unconcealed narrow unity with this structure, an architecture which, using the technical means available to its period, expresses in a clear language that which is truly immanent and immutable.” The art historian Werner Haftmann traces the development of the pure abstraction proposed by Seuphor to the synthesis of Russian Constructivism and Dutch Neo-Plasticism in the Bauhaus, where painting abandoned the artificiality of representation for technological authenticity. “In close connection with architecture and engineering, art should endeavour to give form to life itself … [The former] provided new sources of inspiration as well as new materials – steel, aluminium, glass, synthetic materials.”
As van Doesburg had pointed out in his manifesto, in order to be universal, art must abandon subjectivity and find impersonal inspiration purely in the elements of which it is constructed: line, plane and color. Some later artists associated with this tendency, such as Victor Vasarély, Jean Dewasne, Mario Negro and Richard Mortensen, only came to painting after first studying science. Nevertheless, all theoretical advances seek justification in past practice, and in this case the mathematical proportions expressed in abstract form are to be identified in various art forms over millennia. Thus, argued Hartmann, “the elimination of representational images and the overt use of pure geometry do not imply a radical and definitive rejection of the great art of the past, but rather a reassertion of its eternal values stripped of their historical and social disguises.”
Development
Max Bill, Continuity (Colossus of Frankfurt), 1986, collection: Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt am Main. Max Bill “was keen on creating works based on mathematical and geometric foundations—material manifestations of intellectual processes that resisted symbolism.”
While Abstraction-Création was a grouping of all modernistic tendencies, there were those within it who carried the idea of mathematically inspired art and the term ‘concrete art’ to other countries when they moved elsewhere. A key figure among them was Joaquin Torres García, who returned to South America in 1934 and mentored artists there. Some of those went on to found the group Arte Concreto Invención in Buenos Aires in 1945. Another was the designer Max Bill, who had studied at the Bauhaus in 1927-9. After returning to Switzerland, he helped organize the Allianz group to champion the ideals of Concrete Art. In 1944 he organized the first international exhibition in Basle and at the same time founded abstract-konkret, the monthly bulletin of the Gallerie des Eaux Vives in Zurich. By 1960 Bill was organizing a large retrospective exhibition of Concrete Art in Zürich illustrating 50 years of its development.
Abstraction, which had been quietly gathering momentum in Italy between the world wars, emerged officially in the Movimento d’arte concreta (MAC) in 1948, whose foremost exponent, Alberto Magnelli, was another past member of Abstraction-Création and had been living in France for many years. However, some seventy native painters were represented in the Arte astratta e concreta in Italia exhibition held three years later at the National Gallery in Rome. In Paris recognition of this approach resulted in several exhibitions of which the first was titled Art Concret and held at the Gallerie René Drouin during the summer of 1945. Described as “the first major post-World War 2 exhibition of abstract art”, the artists exhibited there included the older generation of abstractionists: Jean Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Sonia Delaunay, César Domela, Otto Freundlich, Jean Gorin, Auguste Herbin, Wassily Kandinsky, Alberto Magnelli, Piet Mondrian, Antoine Pevsner and van Doesburg. In the following year a series of annual exhibitions began in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, which included some of these artists and were devoted, according to its articles of association, to “works of art commonly called: concrete art, non-figurative or abstract art”.
In 1951 Groupe Espace was founded in France to harmonize painting, sculpture and architecture as a single discipline. This grouped sculptors and architects with old established artists such as Sonia Delaunay and Jean Gorin and the newly emergent Jean Dewasne and Victor Vasarély. Its manifesto was published in L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui that year and placarded on the streets of Paris, championing the fundamental presence of the plastic arts in all aspects of life for the harmonious development of all human activities. It extended beside into practical politics, having elected as its honorary president the Minister for Reconstruction and Urban Development, Eugène Claudius-Petit.
As time progressed, a distinction began to be made between ‘cold abstraction’, which was identified with geometric Concrete Art, and ‘warm abstraction’, which, as it moved towards the various kinds of Lyrical abstraction, reintroduced personality into art. The former eventually fed into international movements building on technological aspects championed by the pioneers of Concrete Art, emerging as optical art, kinetic art and programmatic art. The term Concrete also began to be extended to other disciplines than painting, including sculpture, photography and poetry. Justification for this was theorized in South America in the 1959 Neo-Concrete Manifesto, written by a group of artists in Rio de Janeiro who included Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Pape.
City
Group
Year
Artists
Buenos Aires
Asociación Arte Concreto Invención
1945
Buenos Aires
Movimento Madi
1946
Carmelo Arden Quin, Gyula Kosice, Rhod Rothfuss, Martín Blaszko, Diyi Laañ, Elizabeth Steiner, Juan Bay
Copenhagen
Linien II
1947
Ib Geertsen, Bamse Kragh-Jacobsen, Niels Macholm, Albert Mertz, Richard Winther, Helge Jacobsen
Milan
Movimento Arte Concreta (MAC)
1948
Atanasio Soldati, Gillo Dorfles, Bruno Munari, Gianni Monnet, Augusto Garau
Zagreb
Group Exat 51
1951
Ivan Picelj, Vjenceslav Richter, Vlado Kristl, Aleksandar Srnec, Bernardo Bernardi
Paris
Group Espace
1951
Montevideo
Grupo de Arte No Figurativo
1952
José Pedro Costigliolo, María Freire, Antonio Llorens
Rio de Janeiro
Grupo Frente
1952
Aluísio Carvão, Carlos Val, Décio Vieira, Ivan Serpa, João José da Silva Costa, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Vicent Ibberson
São Paulo
Grupo Ruptura
1952
Waldemar Cordeiro, Geraldo de Barros, Luis Sacilotto, Lothar Charroux, Kazmer Fejer, Anatol Wladslaw, Leopoldo Haar
Ulm
Hochschule für Gestaltung
1953
Cordoba
Equipo 57
1957
Havana
Los Diez Pintores Concretos
1957-1961
Pedro de Oraá, Loló Soldevilla, Sandú Darié, Pedro Carmelo Álvarez López, Wifredo Arrcay Ochandarena, Salvador Zacarías Corratgé Ferrera, Luis Darío Martínez Pedro, José María Mijares Fernández, Rafael Soriano López, and José Ángel Rosabal Fajardo
Padua
Gruppo N
1959
Alberto Biasi, Ennio Chiggio, Toni Costa, Edoardo Landi, Manfredo Massironi.
Milan
Gruppo T
1959
Giovanni Anceschi (1939), Davide Boriani (1936), Gabriele De Vecchi (1938), Gianni Colombo (1937-1993) e Grazia Varisco (1937)
Paris
Motus/GRAV
1960
Horacio Garcia Rossi, Julio Le Parc, Francois Morellet, Francisco Sobrino, Yvaral (Jean Pierre Vasarely), Joël Stein, and at the beginning also Hugo Demarco, Francisco García Miranda, Vera Molnàr, François Molnàr, Sergio Moyano Servanes
Cleveland
Anonima Group
1960
Rome
Gruppo Uno
1962
Gastone Biggi, Nicola Carrino, Nato Frascà, Achille Pace, Pasquale Santoro, Giuseppe Uncini. Palma Bucarelli
PERFORMANCE “I AM YOU” BY RAFAEL MONTILLA #KUBEMAN My work is based on geometric abstraction. The cube plays a central part of my proposal. It represents a symbol of harmony, unity and balance of our life. I build and deconstruct the cube shape as fundamental imprint of the universe. “I Am You” performance based in the #kubeman series I dress in a white suit and the head is a cube-mirror made of acrylic in which people can be reflected; it is a dialogue of people with themselves, because you do not see my identity but the person’s one that is reflected in the cube-mirror. You can experience your identity and your face in looking at me. Live the experience!
He was a German Fluxus, happening, and performance artist as well as a painter, sculptor, medallist, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist, and pedagogue.
Joseph Beuys extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his “extended definition of art” and the idea of social sculpture as a gesamtkunstwerk, for which he claimed a creative, participatory role in shaping society and politics. His career was characterized by open public debates on a very wide range of subjects including political, environmental, social and long term cultural trends. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century.
Joseph Beuys, who is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the postwar period, had a grand and ambitious goal for his work: the transformation of Western culture into a more peaceful, democratic, and creative milieu. His multifaceted career, which included sculpture, performance, lectures, activism, and even a campaign for elected office, were all part of an “expanded concept of art” that was aimed at advancing his utopian vision. In all its forms, his work is dense and highly allusive and draws on much of the accumulated knowledge of Western civilization, including history, religion, natural sciences, economic theory, and myth. A charismatic teacher, Beuys was mentor to a generation of younger artists who were inspired by his passionate fusion of art, life, and activism.
Service in World War II
Beuys was born in Krefeld, Germany, and as a youth pursued dual interests in art and the natural sciences. In 1940, at age 19, he joined the German air force. During his 5 years of service, he was wounded several times and interned in a British prisoner-of-war camp. He returned home in 1945 physically and emotionally depleted, and spent nearly a decade recuperating on a friend’s farm, where he made hundreds of drawings and small sculptures. Coming to terms with his involvement in World War II would be a lifelong process that informed much of his art.
Teaching at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Sled
After the war, Beuys decided to dedicate himself to art. In 1961, he was appointed to a professorship at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and soon became the school’s most sought-after teacher. At the same time, he began to develop his sculptural practice. One of his best-known works from this period is Sled (1969), which he called a “survival kit”: an elemental means of transport carrying a felt blanket, a lump of fat, and a flashlight. Sled alludes to Beuys’s oft-repeated story of crashing his warplane during a blizzard and being rescued by Tatar nomads, who treated his wounds with fat and wrapped him in felt to keep him warm. Whether true or not, the story is a powerful metaphor for the rebirth of both an individual and a nation after the horrors perpetrated by National Socialism.
I Like America and America Likes Me
Beuys was also a performer who was renowned for his “actions”—heavily symbolic events that illustrated his evolving ideas about how art could play a wider role in transforming society. The best known of these is I Like America and America Likes Me (1974), in which he spent several days with a coyote in a New York gallery space. Described as a “dialogue” with the animal, the performance presented Beuys as a shaman—a spiritual leader and healer who has a special affinity with animals—who traveled to the United States to enact a symbolic reconciliation between modern American society, the natural world, and Native American culture. To emphasize the urgent need for healing these rifts, Beuys had himself transported to and from the gallery in an ambulance.
“Everyone is an artist,” Political Activism, 7000 Oaks
During the 1970s, Beuys focused much of his energy on political activism, helping to found such groups as the German Student Party, the Free International University, and the Green party, whose goals included worldwide disarmament, educational reform, and environmental stewardship. His well-known slogan, “Everyone is an artist,” was meant to suggest that social transformation could be achieved if every human being applied his or her creative energies toward positive change in cooperative activities he called “social sculptures.” His most famous of these was 7000 Oaks (1982), a massive reforestation project in which seven thousand trees were planted throughout Germany, particularly in areas destroyed by bombing during World War II. In 1997, in homage to his idea, the Walker Art Center oversaw the planting of more than 1,000 young trees in Cass Lake, St. Paul, and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Recognition and Legacy
Beuys’s work has been collected and shown widely in Europe and the United States, with major retrospectives mounted by the Guggenheim Museum (1979) and Tate Modern (2005), among others. Large collections of his multiples are held by several American institutions, including the Walker Art Center and the Broad Art Foundation in Los Angeles. In 1986, Beuys was awarded the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize by the city of Duisburg, Germany.
While the success of Beuys’s ambitious program has been the subject of much debate, his enormous influence on the development of postwar art is undeniable. His exploration of sculptural form and materials, his mesmerizing performances, and his ideas about the powerful potential of consciously applied creativity are still catalytic forces in the art world.
CONCEPTUAL ARTWORKS
Conceptual art can be – and can look like – almost anything. This is because, unlike a painter or sculptor who will think about how best they can express their idea using paint or sculptural materials and techniques, a conceptual artist uses whatever materials and whatever form is most appropriate to putting their idea across – this could be anything from a performance to a written description. Although there is no one style or form used by conceptual artists, from the late 1960s certain trends emerged.
Read the captions in the artworks below to find out about some of the main ways conceptual artists explored and expressed their ideas.
ENVIRONMENTAL ART
Environmental art is art that addresses social and political issues relating to the natural and urban environment.
Environmental art often takes the form of installation. The term came into use in the late 1960s and is often closely related to land art.
FLUXUS
Fluxus is an international avant-garde collective or network of artists and composers founded in the1960s and still continuing today.
Founded in 1960 by the Lithuanian/American artist George Maciunas, Fluxus began as a small but international network of artists and composers, and was characterised as a shared attitude rather than a movement. Rooted in experimental music, it was named after a magazine which featured the work of musicians and artists centred around avant-garde composer John Cage.
The Latin word Fluxus means flowing, in English a flux is a flowing out. Fluxus founder Maciunas said that the purpose of Fluxus was to ‘promote a revolutionary flood and tide in art, promote living art, anti-art’. This has strong echoes of dada, the early twentieth century art movement.
The first Fluxus event was staged in 1961 at the AG Gallery in New York and was followed by festivals in Europe in 1962. The major centres of Fluxus activity were New York, Germany and Japan.
Fluxus played an important role in opening up the definitions of what art can be. It has profoundly influenced the nature of art production since the 1960s, which has seen a diverse range of art forms and approaches existing and flourishing side-by-side.
Fluxus had no single unifying style. Artists used a range of media and processes adopting a ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude to creative activity, often staging random performances and using whatever materials were at hand to make art. Seeing themselves as an alternative to academic art and music, Fluxus was a democratic form of creativity open to anyone. Collaborations were encouraged between artists and across artforms, and also with the audience or spectator. It valued simplicity and anti-commercialism, with chance and accident playing a big part in the creation of works, and humour also being an important element.
Many key avant-garde artists in the 60s took part in Fluxus, including Joseph Beuys, Dick Higgins, Alice Hutchins, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Ben Vautier, Robert Watts, Benjamin Patterson and Emmett Williams.
Performance Still 1985, 1995 Mona Hatoum born 1952 Presented by Tate Patrons 2012 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P80087
PERFORMANCE ART
Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted
Fantasy Theatre Factory Among First Theatres to Reopen to the Public
With new safety protocols in place, FTF helps patrons return to performing arts venues
Fantasy Theatre Factory at the Sandrell Rivers Theater
Fantasy Theatre Factory Among First Theatres to Reopen to the Public With new safety protocols in place, FTF helps patrons return to performing arts venues MIAMI, Florida — June 26, 2020 — With the approval of Miami-Dade County, Fantasy Theatre Factory (FTF), located at the Sandrell Rivers Theater (SRT), 6103 NW 7th Avenue, will reopen to the public on Fri., July 10, 2020, with the launch of its summer film series. Soon after that, it will — once again — start to present live performances as it rolls out its new “ONE@SRT” series. In the meantime, FTF has been creating virtual programming that has been viewed by tens of thousands of South Floridians.
Fantasy Theatre Factory at the Sandrell Rivers Theater
“We are very excited to re-open to the public after three months of producing only virtual programming,” said FTF CEO/Executive Artistic Director Larry Fields. “We are among the first of South Florida’s theaters to re-open, and we cannot wait to welcome back our loyal patrons as well as welcome new ones.” He added that the health and safety of FTF’s guests, artists and patrons remain his number one concern. “We submitted a reopening plan to Miami-Dade County, and we’re thrilled that it was approved with compliments from staff on its completeness.”
On July 10, FTF will present “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” as part of its summer Film@SRT series. The series will continue every Friday evening during the month of July, except for July 31 (the evening of the theater’s Summer Camp showcase). For a full list of movies, see the FTF website at www.ftfshows.com/film. Showtimes will be at 8 p.m., and admission will be FREE with donations appreciated. Seats are limited and must be reserved in advance on FTF’s website at www.ftfshows.com/tickets.
Fantasy Theatre Factory at the Sandrell Rivers Theater
Although firm dates for “ONE@SRT” have yet to be determined, the series is expected to launch in August. It will showcase select solo performances in theater, dance and music. To submit entries for consideration for “ONE@SRT,” see FTF’s website at www.ftfshows.com/one. FTF encourages diverse artists to submit their work. “We hope to be able to shine a spotlight on some of the terrific diverse artists in our community with this program,” said Fields.
There are a few things returning patrons will find different at the theater, noted Fields. “Among the many steps that we’ve taken to protect the health and safety of the public and our staff, we have reduced our audience capacity from 200 to 44, we have placed markers on our floors to remind guests to maintain a distance of six feet between the members of their parties and others, and we will require everyone — patrons and staff alike — to wear masks while in the building, except when they are in their seats in the theater.
“Our goal is to make returning to the theater as safe and enjoyable as possible for everyone,” continued Fields. “We understand that these protocols can be perceived as a bit inconvenient, but we are simply complying with the guidelines put forth by the CDC, the County and the federal government. The arts can be immensely healing, and our world is deeply in need of healing, as recent events have shown. We are eager to do our part in helping with that healing process, and we ask our patrons to help, too, not only to protect themselves but also to protect others.”
What will re-opening look like for FTF patrons? • FTF has reconfigured the seats in its theater to create 12 groups of four (4) situated six (6) feet apart; patrons will be allowed to sit in groups of up to four, with only patrons from the same household sitting together (no strangers will sit next to each other); • There will be only assigned seating — no general admission tickets will be available for purchase or reservation; • Patrons will not receive printed tickets; instead, they will show their receipts on their smart phones or provide their names at the box office for confirmation; • As part of the ticketing process, each patron’s full name, telephone number and address will be collected for contact-tracing purposes; • Patrons will undergo a temperature check via forehead scan; if a patron’s temperature is above 99.6 degrees, they will not be allowed to enter the facility; • Patrons will be asked by FTF staff how they have been feeling; if they say they have not been feeling well, or if they indicate having experienced any of the symptoms of COVID-19 (i.e., fever, fatigue, coughing), they will not be allowed to enter the facility and will be issued a refund (if applicable); • Patrons will be required to wear a face mask at all times inside the facility, except when they are seated in their assigned seat; • Patrons (or related groups of patrons) will be asked to maintain a social distance of six (6) feet between themselves and other groups; • All food will be pre-packaged and beverages will be served in a can (when appropriate) or in a disposable cup with a straw-less, paper cover; • Concessions attendant will always wear a face mask and latex gloves; • A plexiglass wall has been installed at the concessions counter to create a barrier between patrons and attendant.
What has FTF done to protect the health and safety of its patrons?• Installed wall-mounted hand-sanitizer stations throughout the facility; • Hired a professional cleaning service to steam-clean and disinfect facility in accordance with CDC and EPA guidelines; • Custodial staff routinely cleans/disinfects “touch-points” (doorknobs, light switches, countertops, toilets, faucets, sinks, etc.), and community spaces using EPA-approved cleaning products and procedures while wearing face masks and disposable gloves; • Upgraded its HVAC filters to hospital-grade MERV 13 filters; • Installed CDC social-distancing signage in key areas of the facility to remind patrons of protocols, as well as to alert patrons to possible symptoms of COVID-19; • Placed social-distancing markers and arrows inside/outside the facility to help patrons maintain a safe distance between their parties and to direct the flow of traffic; • Restricted the facility’s elevator to two people per trip (signage has been posted); • Restricted the facility’s restrooms to two people at a time (signage has been posted); • FTF staff members will wear KN95 face masks at all times during public events; • FTF staff will wash/sanitize their hands every 30 minutes during public events;Employees will not be permitted to shake hands, hug or otherwise physically engage with patrons, unless emergency medical assistance is requested; • FTF staff will monitor public spaces to ensure compliance with social-distancing and other rules; if anyone refuses to comply, they will be asked to leave the premises; • Water fountains have been taped off and prohibited from use until further notice.
The protocols for the coming live performances will require performers to maintain a 16-foot distance from the audience and to wash and sanitize their hands before and after going on stage.
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About Fantasy Theatre Factory: Fantasy Theatre Factory has been serving Florida since 1982. In addition to being the managing operator of the brand-new Sandrell Rivers Theater, FTF also performs in rural and inner-city schools, theatres, parks, hospitals, community centers and more across the entire state of Florida. Fantasy Theatre Factory presents more than 500 Florida programs reaching over 150,000 people each year. Fantasy Theatre Factory’s mission is to make more quality theatre programs available to more people of all cultures and backgrounds. FTF also provides skilled circus performers for all types of events as well as theatre workshops for young audiences, both typical and individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities. Fantasy Theatre Factory is headed by Executive Artistic Director, Larry Fields, who has served with the company since 2006. FTF was founded by Edward Allen and Mimi Schultz. Fantasy Theatre Factory programs are award-winning— FTF has won the Miami-Dade Arts Educator of the Year Award, the 2013 Excellence in Direct Service to Children Award from the Miami-Dade Children’s Trust, 2018 Remy Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Theatre, 2019 Remy Pioneer Award, December 2019 Hero in the Arts- Key Biscayne Magazine, among many others.
Concrete Art Definition, History, Famous Artists, Abstract Paintings.
DefinitionFirst coined by the Dutch artist and designer Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931), the term “concrete art” refers to any type of abstract art which has no figurative or symbolic references. Thus an abstract painting whose motifs or shapes are evidently derived from any natural elements, would not be considered concrete art: the picture must be wholly devoid of any naturalistic associations. As a result, most concrete art is based on geometric imagery and patterns, and is often called geometric abstraction. To use a dietary analogy: concrete art is to abstraction, as veganism is to vegetarianism – it is the purest form. The basic idea behind this sort of pure abstraction, is to create a self-contained type of art: a sort of visual form of music.
Also, geometric abstraction is in line with classical aesthetics: Plato for example maintained that the highest form of beauty lies in the ‘ideal’ concept or geometry of a thing, rather than its actual appearance in the natural world. Finally, by having nothing to do with the material world, concrete art may be viewed as possessing a spiritual dimension. It is this spiritual dimension, for example, that underlies the “infinite pattern” designs of Islamic art. It is all a far cry from the figurative humanism of the High Renaissance. Another synonym for concretism is “non-objective art“. Early pioneers of this form of avant-garde art include Kandinsky (1866-1944), Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), and Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935).
Opposed To Abstract Expressionism
In contrast to the unemotional, geometrical iconography of concrete art, abstract expressionism is a much more emotional, sentimental and derivative form of abstraction. It may not be representational, per se, but its shapes, colours and overall design is typically based on natural world associations. Thus neither Jackson Pollock’s “action-painting”, nor Willem de Kooning’s gesturalism, nor Mark Rothko’s or Barnett Newman’s “colour field painting”, is usually classified as concretism. For a comparison of Gesturalism versus Colour Field, compare Jackson Pollock’s paintings with Mark Rothko’s paintings.
History
Geometric forms of abstract painting had appeared long before the term concrete art. Islamic art, for example, is famous for its geometrical designs such as the “infinite pattern”, as are common Celtic designs such as spirals, mazes, knots. Later, 20th century movements like Cubism (1908-14), Futurism (1909-14), and De Stijl (1917-31) all used the genre, as did Kandinsky as well as schools like the Bauhaus Design School. It was also prevalent in the international section of the famous Armory Show. But the genre was given extra attention when the term first appeared in Van Doesburg’s Manifesto of Concrete Art, which was issued in Paris in 1930. Van Doesburg argued in favour of a type of abstract art that would be entirely free of any basis in observed reality – a form also devoid of any symbolic implications. He stated that: “The work of art should obtain nothing from nature’s formal properties or from sensuality or sentimentality… Technique should be mechanistic, that is to say exact and anti-impressionistic.” In effect, Doesburg wanted to create a totally independent and self-contained form of art, which focused exclusively on itself. He saw no need for any imitation of nature, or linear perspective to create a false ‘depth’ to the painting, because he thought that nothing was more concrete (or more real) than a line, a colour, or a plane (a flat area) of colour.
Sadly, Van Doesburg passed away a year after issuing his manifesto, but his ideas were continued and developed by the Abstraction-Creation group – led by the Belgian artist Georges Vantongerloo (1886-1965) and the French painters Jean Helion (1904-87) and Auguste Herbin (1882-1960) – whose members included the cream of European abstract sculptors, such as Jean Arp (1886-1966), Naum Gabo (1890-1977), El Lissitzky (1890-1941), Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962), Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) and Ben Nicholson (1894-1982). (Note: several of these artists later moved to non-geometric art forms, such as lyrical or biomorphic/organic abstraction).
Concrete art was later exemplified by the spiralling abstract sculpture of the Swiss ex-Bauhaus architect, sculptor and designer Max Bill (1908-94), who publicized and popularized the genre in his own country – notably, by organising the first international exhibition of concrete art in Basel in 1944 – and also introduced it to Italy, Argentina and Brazil. In keeping with the Swiss talent for minimalist graphic design and poster art, Bill’s works have been seen as precursors of minimalism in sculpture. There is a museum of Concrete art in Zurich, Switzerland.
Other abstract art movements include: (in Russia) Rayonism (Larionov), Suprematism (Malevich) and Constructivism (Rodchenko); (in Germany) the Bauhaus Design School; (in Holland) Neo-Plasticism and Elementarism; (in Italy) Movimento d’arte concreta (MAC); (in France) Espace; (in America) Hard Edge Painting (Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland and others); and Clement Greenberg’s Post-Painterly Abstraction, including Shaped Canvas (Frank Stella).
Two important collectors of concrete art include Solomon R Guggenheim (1861-1949), and Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979).
Famous Concrete Artists From Around The World
Here is a short list of famous abstract painters listed by country.
RUSSA Leading Russian exponents of concrete art include:
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) One of the great pioneers of abstract art. Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) Founder of Suprematism. Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964) Founder of Rayonism. Natalya Goncharova (1881-1962) Co-founder of Rayonism (Luchism). Lyubov Popova (1889-1924) Leading Constructivist painter/designer. El Lissitzky (1890-1941) Known for his geometric-style ‘Proun’ paintings. Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) One of the leading Constructivist painters. Konstantin Medunetsky (1899-1935) Russian Constructivist artist, famous for his Colour Constructions.
NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM Leading Dutch/Belgian exponents of geometric abstraction include:
Georges Vantongerloo (1866-1965) Belgian founder member of De Stijl. Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) Member of De Stijl; founder of Neo-Plasticism. Bart Van Der Leck (1876-1958) One of the founders of De Stijl. Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) Leader of Dutch De Stijl group; invented the term ‘concrete art’.
FRANCE Leading French painters of non-objective art include:
Fernand Leger (1881-1955) Semi abstract French painter, noted for his Tubism. Auguste Herbin (1882-1960) One of the founders of Abstraction-Creation group. Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) Founder of Orphism (Simultanism). Sonia Delaunay-Turk (1885-1979) Delaunay’s wife, noted for her colourful abstract works. Jean Helion (1904-87) Signed Doesburg’s Concrete Art Manifesto; member of Abstraction-Creation.
USA Leading American geometric abstractionists include:
Tony Smith (1912-81) American abstract sculptor. Agnes Martin (1912-2004) Minimalist painter, noted for her pencilled grids. Ad Reinhardt (1913-67) Known for his parallel red, blue, black rectangles. Ellsworth Kelly (b.1923) Member of American Post Painterly Abstraction school. Kenneth Noland (b.1924) Minimalist painter concerned with colour & structure. Donald Judd (1928-94) American minimalist sculptor, collected by Charles Saatchi. Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) Influential American minimalist sculptor, conceptual artist. Robert Ryman (b.1930) American minimalist painter, noted for his white monochrome compositions. Richard Anuszkiewicz (b.1930) American Op-art painter. Carl Andre (b.1935) Minimalist sculptor specializing in geometric shapes. Frank Stella (b.1936) Minimalist painter noted for geometric hard-edge painting & shaped canvas. Sean Scully (b.1945) Irish-American painter, famous for large-size, abstract paintings.
SWITZERLAND Leading Swiss exponents of non-objective art include:
Paul Klee (1879-1940) Swiss fantasy painter. Johannes Itten (1888-1967) Swiss geometric-abstractionist. Max Bill (1908-94) Swiss artist, promoter of concrete art in Switzerland, Italy, Argentina & Brazil.
BRITAIN Leading British concrete artists include:
David Bomberg (1890-1957) British abstract painter; explored Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism. Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) Noted for his “white reliefs” – geometric abstract relief sculpture. Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) Founder with Nicholson of the St Ives School of abstraction. Peter Sedgley (b.1930) British Op-Art painter. Bridget Riley (b.1931) Leading figure in British Op-Art movement.
HUNGARY Leading Hungarian exponents of concrete art include:
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) Hungarian Constructivist painter, Bauhaus instructor. Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) Hungarian graphic artist; pioneer of kinetic art/Op-Art.
REST OF THE WORLD
Frank Kupka (1871-1957) Czech painter influenced by Futurism. Josef Albers (1888-1976) Famous for his Homage to the Square paintings. Jiro Yoshihara (1905-72) Japanese Industrialist & self-taught abstract painter. Ivan Picelj (b.1924) Croatian geometric abstractionist, leading member of group EXAT-51.
See also: Abstract Artists in Ireland.
Famous Paintings
Examples of concrete art can be seen in many of the best art museums around the world. Here is a small selection of such works, listed in chronological order of artist. For a larger list see: Abstract Paintings: Top 100.
• Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) Harmony Squares With Concentric Rings (1913, Centre Georges Pompidou)
• Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) Composition (1929, Guggenheim Museum, New York) Composition With Blue And Yellow (1932, Philadelphia Museum Of Art) Broadway Boogie-Woogie (1942, MoMA, New York)
• Bart Van Der Leck (1876-1958) Composition (1918, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam)
• Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) Black Circle (1913, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg) Red Square (1915, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg)
• Paul Klee (1879-1940) Rhythmical (1930, Musee National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou)
• Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964) Red Rayonism (1913, The Merzinger collection, Switzerland)
• Fernand Leger (1881-1955) Composition (1924, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg)
• Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931) Composition VIII (The Cow) (1918, MoMA, New York)
• Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) Rythme 1 (1940, Musee National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou)
• Josef Albers (1888-1976) Variation in Red (1948, Private Collection) Rain Forest (Study for Homage to the Square) (1965, Private Collection)
• Johannes Itten (1888-1967) Benign Light (1920-21, Thyssen Collection, Lugano)
• Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) Non-Objective Painting: Black on Black (1918, MoMA, New York)
• David Bomberg (1890-1957) In The Hold (1913-14, Tate Gallery, London)
• Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) Yellow Cross Q.7 (1922, Gallery of Modern art, Rome)
• Jiro Yoshihara (1905-72) To Martha’s Memory (1970, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo)
• Victor Vasarely (1908-97) Untitled (1941, Israel Museum, Jerusalem) Arny-C (1969, Artist’s Private Collection)
• Ad Reinhardt (1913-67) Abstract Painting Diptych (1959, Private Collection)
• Ellsworth Kelly (b.1923) Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red (1966, Guggenheim Museum, New York)
Non-objective art defines a type of abstract art that is usually, but not always, geometric and aims to convey a sense of simplicity and purity
The Russian constructivist painters Wassily Kandinsky and Kasimir Malevich and the sculptor Naum Gabo were pioneers of non-objective art. It and was inspired by the Greek philosopher Plato who believed that geometry was the highest form of beauty.
Non-objective art may attempt to visualise the spiritual and can be seen as carrying a moral dimension, standing for virtues like purity and simplicity. In the 1960s a group of American artists, including Sol LeWitt and Donald Judd, embraced the philosophy of non-objective art. By creating highly simplified geometric art out of industrial materials they elevated these to an aesthetic level. Their work became known as minimal art.
What Is the Definition of Non-Objective Art?
By Beth Gersh-Nesic
Non-objective art is abstract or non-representational art. It tends to be geometric and does not represent specific objects, people, or other subjects found in the natural world.
One of the best-known non-objective artists is Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), a pioneer of abstract art. Though paintings like his are most common, non-objective art can also be expressed in other media as well.
Defining Non-Objective Art
Quite often, non-objective art is used as a synonym for abstract art. However, it is a style within the category of abstract work and the subcategory of non-representational art.
Representational art is designed to represent real life, and non-representational art is the opposite. It is not meant to depict anything found in nature, instead relying on shape, line, and form with no particular subject. Abstract art can include abstractions of real-life objects such as trees, or it can be completely non-representational.
Non-objective art takes non-representational to another level. Most of the time, it includes geometric shapes in flat planes to create clean and straightforward compositions. Many people use the term “pure” to describe it.
Non-objective art can go by many names, including concrete art, geometric abstraction, and minimalism. However, minimalism can be used in other contexts as well.
Other styles of art are related or similar to non-objective art. Among these are Bauhaus, Constructivism, Cubism, Futurism, and Op Art. Some of these, such as Cubism, tend to be more representational than others.
Characteristics of Non-Objective Art
Kandinsky’s “Composition VIII” (1923) is a perfect example of non-objective painting. The Russian painter is known as one of the pioneers of this style, and this particular piece has the purity that best represents it.
You will notice the careful placement of each geometrical shape and line, almost as if it were designed by a mathematician. Though the piece has a sense of movement, no matter how hard you try, you will not find meaning or subject within it. Many of Kandinsky’s other works follow this same distinct style.
Other artists to look for when studying non-objective art include another Russian constructivist painter, Kasimir Malevich (1879–1935), along with the Swiss abstractionist Josef Albers (1888–1976). For sculpture, look to the work of Russian Naum Gabo (1890–1977) and British Ben Nicholson (1894–1982).
Within non-objective art, you will notice some similarities. In paintings, for instance, artists tend to avoid thick texture techniques like impasto, preferring clean, flat paint and brushstrokes. They may play with bold colors or, as in the case of Nicholson’s “White Relief” sculptures, be completely devoid of color.
You will also notice a simplicity in perspective. Non-objective artists are not concerned with vanishing points or other traditional realism techniques that show depth. Many artists have a very flat plane in their work, with few things to indicate that one shape is nearer or farther away from the viewer.
The Appeal of Non-Objective Art
What draws us to enjoy a piece of art? It is different for everyone, but non-objective art tends to have a rather universal and timeless appeal. It does not require the viewer to have a personal relationship with the subject, so it attracts a broader audience over many generations.
There is also something appealing about geometry and the purity of non-objective art. Since the time of the Greek philosopher Plato (ca 427–347 BCE)—whom many would say inspired this style—geometry has fascinated people. When talented artists employ it in their creations, they can give new life to the simplest of forms and show us the hidden beauty within. The art itself may seem simple, but its impact is great.
Arte concreto es una expresión acuñada en Europa, alrededor de 1930. Designa una modalidad de la abstracción que, mediante el empleo de formas geométricas y el análisis de los elementos plásticos, descarta toda referencia a un modelo a la vez que se propone desarrollar un sistema objetivo de composición.
Este movimiento surge en Francia en 1930 de la mano del pintor holandés Theo van Doesburg quién creó el término de “arte concreto” para sustituir al de arte abstracto (por lo que también es conocido como arte constructivo-abstracto o contretismo). El término fue utilizado por primera vez por Van Doesburg en el “Manifiesto del arte concreto” publicado en el primer y único número de la revista “Art Concret” editada en París, en respuesta a la formación de la asociación “Cercle et Carré”, firmaron el documento Hélion, Carlsund, Tutundjian y Wantz. Su eslogan fue “materiales reales, espacio real”. El citado manifiesto argumentaba seis puntos mediante los cuales sentaba las bases teóricas del “arte concreto”. Los planteamientos teóricos y estéticos de esta tendencia fueron puestos en práctica principalmente por el grupo Abstraction-Creation.
Van Doesburg fallece en 1931 y sus ideas son retomadas a finales de los años 30 por dos artistas suizos, Max Bill y Jean Arp, quienes publican varias obras y realizan importantes exposiciones de pintura, escultura y artes aplicadas.
Entre los seguidores de este movimiento podemos citar, entre otros, a Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931), Max Bill (1908-1994), Naum Gabo (1890-1977), Auguste Herbin (1882-1960).
Los artistas interesados en la estética abstracta se agrupan sucesivamente en tres movimientos: Cercle et Carré (1929), Art Concret (1930) y Abstraction-Création (1931-1936) unidos por un doble motivo: exhibirse como una fuerza internacional, buscando así la resistencia para enfrentarse a un público ostentosamente hostil, y plantear un debate estético al Surrealismo, movimiento con el que discrepa frontalmente. Dos exposiciones realizadas en estos años serán decisivas para la formación de estos movimientos: la exposición LE SAC (Expositors Selectes d’Art Contemporain) en el Stedelijk Museum de Amsterdam, organizada por Nelly Van Doesburg en 1929 y la exposición de arte post-cubista celebrada un año más tarde en Estocolmo, bajo la dirección de Carlsund.
Características generales del Art Concret:
Rechazo de toda relación con lo natural, lo objetivo y lo simbólico.
Utiliza la representación de ideas abstractas en una nueva realidad de carácter universal y constante.
La expresión plástica se basa, principalmente, en la línea y la superficie, relegando al color a un segundo plano.
Empleo de elementos geométricos sencillos (círculos, cuadrados, triángulos) y creación de tensiones.
La forma tiene más importancia que el color.
Composiciones geométricas formando estructuras que recuerdan construcciones o arquitecturas.
Emplea colores planos creando efectos cromáticos de espacio y vibración plástica.
Arte Concreto, remite a uno de los grupos surgidos de Arturo: en 1945 los artistas Tomás Maldonado, Edgar Bayley, Raúl Lozza y Lidy Prati se unen a Alfredo Hlito, Enio Iommi, Oscar Núñez y Simón Contreras, entre otros, para formar la Asociación Arte Concreto – Invención. El grupo realiza una muestra en casa de Grete Stern y edita en agosto de 1946 el primer número de la revista Arte Concreto. En dicho número reproducen el “Manifiesto Invencionista” —que guarda un eco del Manifiesto Comunista de Marx y Engels— en el que afirman: “La era artística de la ficción representativa toca a su fin. El hombre se torna de más en más insensible a las imágenes ilusorias. Es decir, progresa en el sentido de su integración en el mundo. Las antiguas fantasmagorías no satisfacen y las apetencias estéticas del hombre nuevo, formado en una realidad que ha exigido de él su presencia total, sin reservas. Se clausura así la prehistoria del espíritu humano” (Arte Concreto, nº 1, p. 8). El segundo número de la revista es más precario y se titula Boletín de la Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención. Es de destacar que en sus páginas los concretos responden varias críticas, y resulta particularmente interesante la polémica que sostiene Maldonado con la revista uruguaya Removedor, del Taller Torres-García.
Serie de obras de Arte Concreto del Artista visual Rafael Montilla.
Tomás Maldonado, artista plástico argentino central en las vanguardias del siglo XX, además de teórico y diseñador. Protagonista del movimiento de arte concreto en la década del 40, que postuló la emergencia de un nuevo arte basado en la geometría y el orden matemático, en el primer número de la revista “Nueva visión” (1951), por él dirigida, sostuvo: “Es falso que el arte concreto sea ajeno a todo sentimiento pictórico. Lo que en realidad sucede es que este se manifiesta aquí de un modo distinto. Es decir, no como sensualismo vulgar de la materia pictórica, sino como sensibilidad superior de la inteligencia pictórica”. Fallecido recientemente, en 2018, lo recordamos con el óleo sobre tela “Composición” (1950), una de sus obras en nuestra colección de este período, previo a su viaje a Italia, donde residió desde 1967 y desarrolló una vasta carrera docente. En 2007, el Bellas Artes le dedicó la muestra “Tomás Maldonado. Un itinerario”, que también incluyó sus trabajos realizados luego del año 2000, cuando retomó la pintura tras casi medio siglo sin practicarla.
