Alethea Melanson, Matthew Stec, Katie Tumang, and Khai Vuong
The figure is foundational to western drawing and often considered necessary for communicating feeling, emotion, and idea. This exhibit demonstrates the equal ability of shapes and lines to suggest ideas and emotions in the absence of the figure. While traditional practices like the life class focus almost entirely on naturalistic representation, modern art has a long engagement with the possibilities of abstraction. Artwork in this exhibition explores how geometry can evoke certain emotions, feelings, messages that are rendered through shade, scale, tone, color, and the properties of materials themselves.
In the absence of naturalistic representation, a work can evoke a wider range of meanings. The viewer can interpret the meaning of the forms for themselves because the work is not restricted by the confines of lifelike representation. Instead, meaning emerges through the associations produced by abstract or material visual properties, making multiple readings of the same object possible.
David Raymond (American, b. 1941)
Marks-series, 1971
Crayon on paper: 23 in. x 29 in.
University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, UM 1971.14
Purchased with funds from the Fine Arts Council Grant
David Raymond purposefully rejects the conventions of traditionally ‘good art’ and fine art, instead choosing to embrace some of the most basic elements of drawing: line and color. He creates Marks-series from four rows of parallel colored lines. Raymond is influenced by the minimalist and op art movements of the 60’s in his use of repeating geometric lines to create an orderly, repetitive composition that occupies the page. However, the crooked nature of the rows lends the piece a sense of childishness and spontaneity, breaking for a moment from the rigid sense of geometric order. His color choice expresses a joyful buoyancy that similarly contrasts the strict uniformity of the parallels.
Ivan Vasil’evich Kliun (Russian, 1873-1943)
Geometrical Design, 1920
Pencil on buff paper: 9 x 7 ¼ in.
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, AC 2001.171
Gift of Thomas P. Whitney (Class of 1937)
Russian artist Ivan Vasil’evich Kliun suggests geometric forms, but does not close his shapes, allowing the space contained by his marks to escape onto the page. The carefully drafted construction of geometric structure subtly recalls the architectural principles proposed by Constructivism, and Geometrical Design also demonstrates the artist’s Cubist and Suprematist roots. Kliun worked closely with his teacher and later fellow artist Kasimir Malevich in the development of Suprematism at the Art Academy of Saint Petersburg. Kliun superimposes geometric forms to introduce stability and balance, yet the unfinished nature of the shapes suggests transience. Painted in 1920, Geometrical Design reflects Kliun’s later works, as the artist transitioned from Suprematism toward figurative art.
Il’ia Grigor’evich Chashnik (Russian, 1902-1929)
Red Circle and Suprematist Cross, ca. 1925
India ink and watercolor on paper: 17 ⅞ x 14 ⅝ in.
Mead Art Museum Amherst College, AC 2001.198
Gift of Thomas P. Whitney (Class of 1937)
Russian artist Il’ia Grigor’evich Chashnik was a co-founder of the UNOVIS art group with Suprematist artist Kasimir Malevich. The composition, carefully designed and executed, includes a circle subtly inscribed within a larger red circle, perhaps with a compass, and a small set of geometric forms in the lower right that seem architectural in nature. However, they remain purely speculative forms. In the context of Suprematism, defined by Malevich as “the supremacy of pure sensation,” Chasnik’s forms do not represent any achievable architectural product; rather, they are geometric shapes that explore concrete spatial relationships. The cross (a common motif in Chasnik’s later works) approaches but does not interact with the dominant red circle that floats above it. The drawing seems to capture a brief moment in time, creating a sense of motion and energy.
Sol Lewitt (American, 1928-2007)
Untitled, 1999
Gouache on 100% cotton paper. Frame: 18 3/8 x 18 1/8 x 1 3/4 in.
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, AC 2013.113
Gift of Mary Patricia Pence
Sol Lewitt’s developed his free-flowing line by hand in gouache. The contrasting colors give vibrancy to the flowing line, and create the illusion that it hovers over the picture surface. Lewitt’s practice of painting directly on paper is a strong departure from his large scale conceptual drawings, which are normally installed by other artists using a set of instructions. By painting with his hand, Lewitt revisits a playful individuality and tradition of personal expression in abstract art.
Elizabeth Dworkin (American, b.1943)
Untitled, 1995
Mixed media on paper. 12 ½ in x 12 ½ in.
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, AC 1995.9
Gift of the artist
The subject of Dworkin’s abstract drawing is the process. Dworkin’s work suggests different feelings and ideas as it moves between different media. She first lays in thick charcoal marks as a background, and then experiments with painterly, rhythmic, chalky, and jagged lines to develop a spontaneous composition. Suggestions of forms and spaces encourage close looking, leading us to question our perceptions in sustained encounters with the material qualities of the marks.
Frank Stella (American, b.1936)
Sketch for Chocorua, 1966
Black, yellow, dark yellow, pale peach ink over graphite on graph paper. 17 1/16 x 22 in.
Smith College Museum of Art, SC 1998:23
Gift of Angela Westwater, class of 1964
Frank Stella’s sketch is composed of a yellow square, a yellow triangle outlined in black, and a cream colored zig-zag shape. The composition makes a geometric icon out of the natural peak of Mount Chocorua, in New Hampshire’s White Mountain range. Stella uses the precise geometric squares of the grid paper to accurately outline each shape. The perfection of the lines created in graphite contrast the patchy marks created with the yellow and black ink. Stella uses the machine-printed graph paper to aid in the creation of precise geometric shapes, able to be scaled up to his finished shaped canvas. The artist’s identifying marks emerge during the process of coloring the shapes with ink.
Robert Jay Wolff American (1905-1977)
Untitled Abstract, 1962
Watercolor and ink on paper laid on board. Sheet: 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, AC 2001.475
Gift of Thomas P. Whitney (Class of 1937)
Robert Jay Wolff is an American geometric abstract artist from Chicago. In his untitled drawing, the black and white lines creates a dynamic scribble-like movement. The spontaneous lines seem to cover up a layer of geometric shapes behind them, over a darker black background. The drawing appears to animate the shapes that populate its center, pushing them from geometric to expressive through quick and spontaneous drawing.
Henry Pearson (American, 1914-2006)
Great Circle, 1966
Ink on paper, diameter: 19 in.
University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, UM 1967.45
University purchase
Henry Pearson is a preeminent American Op artist. His works are inspired by topographical drawings and survey maps he made while serving in the American army in Japan during and after World War II. His use of parallel and variably spaced lines create a meditative effect. The lines suggest a breathing movement within the circle.
Vassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866-1944)
Untitled (Drawing for ‘Diagram 17’), 1925
Black ink on paper, laid down on paperboard. 18 1/8 in x 21 1/2 in x 1 in.
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, MH 1970.1.S.RIV
Gift of Odyssia Skouras Quadrani (Class of 1954) in honor of Professor Marian Hayes
Kandinsky is known as an early pioneer of abstract art, and this drawing shows his mastery of both organic and geometric form. In this composition, groups of parallel lines punctuated by circular forms are reminiscent of sheet music. However, the addition of irregular, curvilinear elements suggest the unorthodox flow of jazz. The arrangement of these elements cutting through negative space reinforces the idea of music breaking up silence. The feeling evoked by this image is uplifting and energetically whimsical.
David Nash (British, born 1945)
Charred, 1990
Charcoal on paper. Sheet: 36 in x 50 in x 1 1/2 in.
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, AC 2007.107
Gift of Andrew G. Galef (class of 1954) and Bronya Galef
This composition foregrounds archetypal geometric forms. Like children’s blocks, the forms are clear and simple. Unlike a child’s plaything, however, these rudimentary shapes suggest emotional resonances. The forms float mysteriously in a nondescript space. The simplicity of the shapes is complicated by the diffusion of the dark black charcoal into the pure white paper, attributing to them a certain messiness. The dispersion of charcoal around the edges of the forms also functions as a shading device, creating the illusion of a space which the dark blocks inhabit. The charcoal emanations arise from abject blackness like a dense smog, evoking ideas of malice and pollution.
Liubov’ Sergeevna Popova (Russian, 1889-1924)
Construction with White Crescent, c. 1921
Gouache and pencil on buff board, 13 3/4 x 10 7/8 in.
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, AC 2001.51
Gift of Thomas P. Whitney, Class of 1937
The rigid lines of this composition intersect in a contorted grid, forming a jumble of geometric shapes. Just above the rigid jungle is a single, curvilinear form, the “White Crescent” alluded to in the work’s title. Dramatic and contrasting shading recalls the chiaroscuro techniques used in naturalistic master paintings, without directly quoting them. The strong contrasts and geometric shapes suggest sharp, clashing forms. Although the “Construction” in the title resists ideas of the representation of nature, the forms may also be reminiscent of mountains or a crescent moon.