Concrete art

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Theo van Doesburg: Sac à Main , around 1929, Centraal Museum Utrecht
Jo Niemeyer , sculpture in the Kunsthalle Villa Kobe , 2003

The term Concrete Art was introduced in 1924 by Theo van Doesburg and in 1930, when the Art Concret group was founded, it was programmatically defined in a manifesto for a direction in art that ideally is based on mathematical and geometric foundations. In the true sense of the word, it is not “abstract”, as it does not abstract anything that is present in material reality, but on the contrary materializes the spiritual, has no symbolic meaning and is more or less generated purely by geometric construction. Richard Paul Lohse spoke more of constructive art . Concrete art distinguishes itself from constructivism and abstract art through its scientific thinking (especially the exploration of geometric laws), its focus on the interplay of form and color and its interest in exploring color. Some experts emphasize the importance of simple basic geometric shapes. However, the use of such elements is neither a unique selling point nor a necessary component of works of Concrete Art. For historical reasons, the term is mainly used for works from the German-speaking cultural area, although of course there have been and are artistic positions worldwide that correspond to Concrete Art, namely in Italy, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and in North America. However, these are usually listed under different "labels". It is typical for artists in this particular direction that their works are usually created in the head before they are materialized. In extreme cases, the principles of origin are so stringently formulated in the head that they can be represented almost like mathematical formulas (see quotations from RP Lohse ). This encourages the frequent creation of entire series of works. The Stuttgart philosopher Max Bense made an important contribution to the theoretical superstructure and the reception of concrete art and poetry , especially in Germany .

Quotes

Theo van Doesburg

  • “The work of art must (!) Be completely conceived and designed in the mind before it is executed. It must not contain anything of the formal conditions of nature, the senses and feelings. We want to turn off lyricism, drama, symbolism, etc. The picture must (!) Be constructed exclusively from plastic elements, i. H. of surfaces and colors. A picture element has no other meaning than itself.
... Because we have left the time of searching and speculative experiments behind us. In search of purity, artists were forced to destroy the natural form. Today the idea of ​​the art form is as out of date as the idea of ​​the natural form.
We foresee the time of pure painting. Because nothing is more concrete, more real than a line, a color, a surface ... Concrete and not abstract painting. Because the mind has reached the state of maturity. He needs clear, intellectual means to manifest in a concrete way.
... The color is the basic substance of painting; it only means itself. Painting is a means of realizing the idea in an optical way: Every picture is a color idea ... Before the work is converted into matter, it is fully conscious (!). It is also necessary that (!) The realization has a technical perfection that is equal to that of the intellectual design ... We work with the dimensions of mathematics - Euclidean or non-Euclidean - and science, that is: with the means of thinking . "
  • “Painting is a means of making one's thoughts come true in an optical way”.

Richard Paul Lohse

  • “The number replaces the individual, themes take on the expressive function of the element” -… - “The decisive task now is to activate the systematic-logical process in such a way that (!) A dynamic artistic formulation emerges and the principles of order become a means classify with this intention. "

Max Bill

  • In his introduction to the catalog of the Zurich Concrete Art exhibition in 1949 , Max Bill formulated the goal of Concrete Art : “... the goal of concrete art is to develop objects for intellectual use, similar to how humans create objects for material ones use. [...] Concrete art in its ultimate consequence is the pure expression of harmonious measure and law. it arranges systems and gives life to these orders with artistic means. "
  • Max Bill 1947: “The aim of Concrete Art is to develop objects for intellectual use, similar to how humans create objects for material use. (...) Concrete art is in its ultimate consequence the pure expression of harmonious measure and law. It arranges systems and gives life to these orders with artistic means. "

Introductory text on the homepage of the Museum for Concrete Art in Ingolstadt

  • “... Concrete art (is) a direct art movement aimed at sensual experience, which can be grasped without any prior knowledge, but necessarily without prejudice. It is a non-representational art in painting, sculpture, film or installations that does not want to depict the visible world. Therefore, the colors, shapes, the line and also the materials have a special meaning. (...) It was not until 1930 that the term “Concrete Art” caught on through a text by the artist Theo van Doesburg for various non-representational and geometric positions. (...) Especially by reducing it to the reception in Switzerland, the so-called “Zurich Concrete”, Concrete Art was defined very narrowly. (...) But even the logical painting by Richard Paul Lohse wants more than just to illustrate mathematical laws. Lohse in particular had great social goals and wanted to use his art to make systems and structures visible and thus reformable. (...) The generation of artists born in the 1970s would never allow themselves to be labeled with the label “Concrete Art”. The term has become historical, but the content is as topical as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. "

Pioneer of Concrete Art

A great turning point in art began around 1903. Painting and sculpture are moving away from visible reality. Henri Matisse said that when you look at a picture you have to completely forget what it is. It is art that allows form, color and image design to have extensive autonomy from the representational. This movement away from the world of the visible was called abstraction . It's about concentrating on the essentials, the necessary.

From 1910 an art emerged that consistently continued the path of abstraction. Any remnant of representation, figurative or figurative, was rejected: “Could such an art - which has obviously become completely independent - still be described as an extreme form of abstraction, as integral or total abstraction? Wasn't there something fundamentally new, a complete autonomy of artistic creation? "

Wassily Kandinsky stated that art only follows its own, art-immanent laws. It is an art of pure non-representationalism. Quote:

  • “The new art has placed the principle in the foreground that art can only have itself as its content. So we do not find in it the idea of ​​anything, but only the idea of ​​art itself, of its self-content. The very own idea of ​​art is that it is non-representational. "

Artists of Concrete Art / Constructive Art

Concrete Art sculptor

Concrete photography

see: Concrete photography

Concrete poetry

see: Concrete Poetry and Visual Poetry

Museums for Concrete Art

See also

literature

  • Dietmar Guderian: Mathematics in Art of the Last Thirty Years . Bannstein-Verlag, Ehaben i.Br. 1990, ISBN 3-9802180-1-5 .
  • Willy Rotzler: Constructive Concepts: A History of Constructive Art from Cubism to Today . 3. Edition. Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85504-113-X .
  • Gerhard Leistner and Johanna Brade (arrangement): Art as a concept. Concrete and geometric tendencies since 1960 in the work of German artists from Eastern and Southeastern Europe . Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-89188-074-X (exhibition cat. Regensburg, Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie 1.9.-27.10.1996).
  • Dietmar Guderian, Marlene Lauter, Serge Lemoine, Beate Reese, Hella Nocke-Schrepper, Margit Weinberg Staber: Concrete Art in Europe after 1945 . Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2002, ISBN 3-7757-1191-0 .
  • Jäger Gottfried, Rolf H. Krauss, Beate Reese: Concrete Photography: Concrete photography . Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-936646-74-0 .
  • Andreas Filler, Dietmar Guderian, Theo Grundhöfer and Nils Rosehr, Johanna Heitzer, Herbert Henning, Marlene Lauter, Timo Leuders, Matthias Ludwig, Jürgen Roth, Heinz Schumann, Hans-Georg Weigand, Christian H. White, Thomas Weth, Jan Wörler: Ironically, ... mathematics and concrete art . Spurbuchverlag, Baunach 2007, ISBN 3-928155-51-2 . :
  • Christoph Metzger, (Ed. On behalf of the International Music Institute Darmstadt) Music and Architecture, Pfau-Verlag, Saarbrücken, 2003, ISBN 3-89727-227-X
  • Sabine Fehlemann (Ed.), The Holze Collection - Donation to the Von der Heydt Museum, exhibition catalog of the Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, 2003, ISBN 3-89202-053-1
  • Tobias Hoffmann, Museum for Concrete Art, Ingolstadt (ed.): The Idea Concrete , Wienand Verlag Cologne, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86832-121-0 , overview of the development, transformation and impact of Concrete Art from its beginnings to the present

Web links

Commons : Concrete Art  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. NZZ Online, Dec. 14, 2002: Grosse Farbenfuge - for the 100th birthday of Richard Paul Lohse
  2. Dr. Alexander Fils (fils fine arts) [1] , accessed April 24, 2019
  3. Examples of related art movements: Neoplasticism , Suprematism , Constructivism , Elementarism , Abstraction-Création , Analytical Painting , Minimalism / Minimalism Minimalism , Modernism Modernism , Colorfield Color field , Hard Edge , Op-Art , Geometric Abstraction
  4. Willy Rotzler: Approaching the concrete. In: Peter Volkwein (Ed.) Museum for Concrete Art Ingolstadt. 1993, p. 47f., ISBN 3-89466-045-7 , first published in 1990 in the catalog: Concrete Art - the Gomringer Collection, Ulmer Museum, Ulm
  5. ^ Definition of Concrete Art, Kunsthaus Ketterer [2] , accessed on April 23, 2019
  6. quoted from Eugen Gomringer , series and module in the new works by Richard Paul Lohse , in Das Werk - Architektur und Kunst, Issue 11, Pages 739 to 743, Volume 55, 1968 [3] , accessed on April 27, 2019
  7. Max Bill / Ketterer [4] , accessed April 23, 2019
  8. What is concrete art. Museum of Concrete Art , accessed December 16, 2018 .
  9. Susanne Buckesfeld, “Carlernst Kürten. Against the loneliness of the concrete sculpture. Interactive aspects of the stainless steel sculptures by Carlernst Kürten ”; in: Catalog I - KG Schmidt , Carlernst Kürten and companions , ed. as part of the project “Hellweg Konkret - A Region in the Focus of Concrete Art” , Kettler Verlag, Dortmund 2014, ISBN 978-3-86206-415-1 , pp. 90–98.