White on white and color in minimalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

White on white and color in minimalism - Essay Example The essay "White on white and color in minimalism" analyzes the abstract art and compares white on white art and color art in minimalism. All artists concentrated on expressive art that showed emotion and universal themes. They were influenced by surrealism that changed into a new style that existed in the post-war era and mood of trauma, anxiety, fear and death. Abstract expressionism was not easy to define and understand. Some artists preferred to use action painting while others preferred American type painting. The artists who chose to express their artistic work through the movement showed their subconscious through their art and shared an interest in Jung’s ideas on myth memory and ritual. Minimal art developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the United States of America. Minimalist sculptures and paintings consist of geometric shapes and other simple forms that occur in a series of arranged unit. The movement was also called systematic painting, serial art or ABC p ainting. This movement grew in opposition of the earlier abstract expressionism movement. Minimal art movement was interested in logical systems and physical principles that occurred universally. They favored the straight and hard lines of design and rejected handcraftsmanship. White on white paintings or sculptures is objective and representational. They limit artists to develop things that exist in the real world situation. A viewer must be able to understand the piece of the work in the perspective of the artist. This piece of art does not allow artists to develop new things from their imagination that cannot be representative of the existence. In addition, the artists are limited to white color paintings and sculptures. They cannot use other colors except white colors when developing their work. The white color must be the background of any artwork. White on white paintings or sculptures represents the ultimate minimalism. It is neutral. In fact, it is not considered as a color. It is usually used in the background of the artwork. White on white paintings or sculptures signify and show purity, cleanliness and light (Foster, 2000, 45). White paintings are made up of white oil and exhaustic wax that softens its texture. White on white paintings has white encaustic burnt substance that contributes to the dimension of white on white painting in space. At the start of the white on white art, muted earth tones were incorporated into the white to come up with simple designs. The muted color was reduced later (Foster, 2000, 98). White paintings and sculpture present art in the simplest way possible by eliminating things that can complicate or add other dimensions on a piece of art. It brings art clearly from its background showing every detail. Minimalism is about creating clarity and avoiding ambiguity. White on white paintings and sculptures eliminate aspects of ambiguity in art works by putting the piece of art against a clear background that highlights each de tail that the artist wants to display. Tara Donovan is an American artist who was born in 1969 in new York. She has a Master of Fine Art degree in Sculpture (Lewis & Lewis, 2008, 62). She is an inventive sculptor who works elicit wonder and imagination using some of the common objects in everyday life. Her sculptural works show a transformation of ordinary materials shaped into intriguing and amazing physical and visual artworks.