sculpture
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Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
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“What I never wanted in art – and why I probably didn’t belong in art – was that I never wanted viewers. I think the basic condition of art is the viewer: The viewer is here, the art is there. So the viewer is in a position of desire and frustration. There were those Do Not Touch signs in a museum that are saying that the art is more expensive than the people. But I wanted users and a habitat. I don’t know if I would have used those words then, but I wanted inhabitants, participants. I wanted an interaction.” — Vito Acconci
In January 1972, Acconci staged one of the decade’s most notorious performance art pieces at the Sonnabend Gallery in SoHo. Gallery visitors entered to find the space empty except for a low wood ramp. Hidden below the ramp, out of sight, Acconci masturbated, basing his fantasies on the movements of the visitors above him. He narrated these fantasies aloud, his voice projected through speakers into the gallery: “you’re on my left … you’re moving away but I’m pushing my body against you, into the corner … you’re bending your head down, over me … I’m pressing my eyes into your hair.” Seedbed was a seminal work that transformed the physical space of the gallery through minimal intervention to create an intimate connection between artist and audience, even as they remained invisible to one another.
Vito Acconci
Seedbed
1972
Gelatin silver print
7 7/8 x 11 11/16 in.
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Rothko Pictures Must Be Miraculous
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“I don’t think it’s necessary to be original. It’s necessary to be honest.”
Martin Creed: What’s the point of it? is the first major retrospective of Creed’s ingenious and often highly provocative work. Since the beginning of his career, when he made small objects that could be placed anywhere, Creed has made work that questions the very nature of art and challenges taboos. His work takes on a multitude of forms—from sculpture, paintings, neons, films and installations, to music and performance—appearing both in the art gallery and in broader public circulation. At once rigorous and humorous, his art continually surprises, disrupts and overturns our expectations. It reflects on the unease we face in making choices, the comfort we find in repetition, the desire to control, and the inevitable losses of control that shape existence.
Martin Creed
Work No. 88
1995
A sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball.
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“Every good work should have at least ten meanings.” — Walter De Maria
The Broken Kilometer (1979), located at 393 West Broadway in New York City, is composed of 500 highly polished, round, solid brass rods, each measuring two meters in length and five centimeters (two inches) in diameter. The 500 rods are placed in five parallel rows of 100 rods each. The sculpture weighs 18 ¾ tons and would measure 3,280 feet if all the elements were laid end-to-end. Each rod is placed such that the spaces between the rods increase by 5mm with each consecutive space, from front to back; the first two rods of each row are placed 80mm apart, the last two rods are placed 580 mm apart. Stadium lights illuminate the work’s full area of 45 by 125 feet.
This work is the companion piece to De Maria’s 1977 Vertical Earth Kilometer at Kassel, Germany. In that permanently installed earth sculpture, a brass rod of the same diameter, total weight and total length has been inserted 1,000 meters into the ground.
The Broken Kilometer has been on long-term view to the public since 1979. This work was commissioned and is maintained by Dia Art Foundation.
Walter De Maria
The Broken Kilometer
1979
Brass
At 393 West Broadway, New York
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Art Movement Overview (Cont.)
Style often helps categorize and define art, making it easier for people to understand and discuss different periods, techniques, and themes in art history. Without a recognizable style, art can become more challenging to classify. However, this does not mean that art without a defined style lacks value or meaning. It just means that it may not fit neatly into the traditional frameworks that we’ve created for understanding art.
In the absence of a specific style, art may be categorized by other criteria, like the concepts behind the work, its intentions, or even its context (social, political, or cultural). For instance, conceptual art is categorized by the ideas it expresses rather than the visual style itself. Similarly, installation art might focus more on how the work interacts with space and the viewer than on the style of its execution.
In some ways, art without style challenges the idea that all art must be categorized in a specific way. It opens up a broader interpretation, where the meaning and impact of the art can come from its message or experience rather than its form.
Do you find this lack of style freeing, or do you think art needs some form of structure to be appreciated?