Two whole weeks to go before a holiday and there's still lots more learning ahead of us
In this topic, New Zealand abstraction is usually considered in relation to international artists and movements.
You need to also know the difference between Lyrical Abstraction
(lots of simplification and expression- Jackson Pollock -try this Pollock painting, also essential viewing is the colour field artist, Mark Rothko),
When you get a handle on this topic, friends will be amazed at your genius and it should give you some impressive exam answers too.
What do we need to know? Abstract art is not about the figurative, (people, objects, places), more about ideas. Sometimes abstract painting is mainly about the physical act of making art, the viewer is therefore able to make their own interpretation about the work.
The influence of overseas artists in NZ is essential in this topic, plus the impact of the big O.E. and travel/ study grants make to McCahon, Hotere and Albrecht.
New Learning Alert!
It is essential here that you know the difference. Make sure you do.
Meantime, back at the action.......the factors for a changing NZ art scene:
During all that isolation and loneliness that the NZ landscape artists had been concentrating on, the rest of the world was speeding up with their new ideas for art.
Last week we got up close and personal with Cubism, which came 30 years late to NZ thanks to McCahon's Kauri images, and it wasn't well received. Eventually NZ got TV, colour art magazines from the USA and direct flights overseas. Progress.
You'll be relieved to know that Aotearoa did catch up, eventually.
Here are the headline artists for the topic......
Colin McCahon and last week's Iconography homework - Elias Series
Ralph Hotere and the important role he has played as a NZ Protest Artist and social commentator. You should also know the range of materials he uses and how they relate to NZ.
Gretchen Albrecht and her richly coloured abstract paintings, plus her early influences and new sculptural direction.
Housekeeping Alert!
By the end of this term we should be at the end of the NZ Abstraction chapter in our workbooks.
In terms of homework, I'll be collecting book in on Friday 8th to check McCahon/Hotere notes, up to pg 21, and Wednesday 13th to check on Albrecht work, up to & including pg 25.
There will also be an exam sample to attempt and submit, a context question on Hotere's Dawn Water Poem and some work for the holidays - see the next post for details :-)
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