Frances Muldoon
April 1, 2014
Advisor: Laurel Sparks
Whitney
Biennial Comparative Analysis
On one of the
first warm days of spring the line into the Whitney led down the street.
Beginning on the forth floor I was shuffled and bumped around the gallery space
occasionally stopping to stare in wonder at a piece that grabbed my attention
away from all the commotion. Amidst all the exiting and colorful works of art there
were three artists that stood out to me. I found these works not only most
successful, but most applicable to my own studio practice and relatable to each
other. These artists were Laura Owens, Amy Stillman and Charline von Heyl. In
this paper I will discuss their similarities including their use of grids,
abstraction, their affinity for drawing from wide pools of influence including
comics or illustration, as well as how their work relates to work I am
currently creating.
Charline von Heyl, Folk Tales, 2013. JPEG file
Charline von Heyl, Folk Tales, 2013. Acrylic,
ink,wax, charcoal and collage on paper, each: 24 × 19 in. 61 × 48.3 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and Petzel, New York. Photo: Jason Mandella
Charline Von Heyl's collection of
black white and grey-layered collages caught my attention immediately and held
it captive. The linear grid of the picture frames was at odds with the
swirling, patterned ink charcoal and general mixed media work with in. The
amount of frames was at once overwhelming, but at the same time invited
closeness. It was as if each piece fit together perfectly to create one large
wall sized mural or painting. The work was digestible at two different scales,
both successful. The broad level at first, taken as a whole and upon further
examination the more intimate view of not only the individual pieces in frames
but the small moments of play and chance with ink and paper. The viewer was
able get close to each drawing and become lost in it.
Heyl’s work has been described as “resolutely abstract and non-narrative” (Kaneda) however hints of the recognizable can found. But it is
not these comparisons of the recognizable or representational and the abstract which
seem to be a focus of her work. (Kaneda) Heyl draws not from a single source but rather a
divergent plethora including “high art, popular culture, comic and design.” (Kaneda)
This list goes on to include Russian and Polish books of folk art, enlarged
copies of which serve as bases for the collages present in the Whitney Biennial.
(Charline)
Heyl’s work is an inspiration
to me. The whimsical yet slightly dangerous feeling these collages illicit is
something I have been striving for, for years. The saturated blacks and stark
whites are home for me. The collages are taken from book pages, something I
have also enjoyed working on in the past.
Amy Sillman, Mother,
2013-14. Oil on canvas, 91 × 84 in. (231.1 × 213.4 cm). Collection of the
artist; courtesy Sikkema Jenkins Co., New York. Photograph by John Berens
The unique color
pallet and slanted grid like forms drew me to Amy Sillman’s painting. The
blocks of color seem at once sloppy and slightly distorted while giving the
impression of being carefully planed and exactly placed. The squares and
rectangles are broken and divided by curved lines. However what I find most
compelling about Sillman’s work is the presence of imperfections and what
appears to be chance encounters with the medium, an aspect of art that I find
intriguing and, include in my work.
This infatuation
or inclusion of imperfections is discussed in a 2013 article.
“Her paintings are filled with the residue of Sillman’s
thinking and changing her mind . . . It’s about acknowledging her thought
process, about the messy imperfection that’s part of being human (Cook). Along with Heyl, Sillman has vast influences including
“mid 20th century
Abstract Expressionist artists like Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Joan
Mitchell and Richard Diebenkorn.” As well as “expressionist realists and
cartoonists like Francesco Clemente, Jim Lutes, Alice Neel, Gary Baseman,
Nicole Eisenman and David Shrigley” (Cook). Like
Heyl, Sillman includes cartoons/cartoonists among many influences.
Sillman’s collaboration with
Pam Lins was the inspiration for Mother, in
which her focus appears to be on the grid and abstraction rather than the line
between abstraction and representation (Amy). At first glance Sillman appears to use the grid
differently than Heyl – whose grid appears ridged while Sillman’s appears
lopsided and loose. However, they may be
seen as very similar. Heyl’s frames form
the ridged grid while her work inside floats ambiguously and spontaneously.
Sillman’s painting, imperfectly layered, is created on a rigidly rectangle
canvas which can be seen as a piece of a larger grid. Both works have ridged outside and flowing
morphing insides.
Much of Sillman’s
previous work is more relatable to my own, however the imperfections and
moments of chance, which occur during a painting such as this are highly related
to all the work I create.
Laura Owens. JPEG file
I was at once surprised by
the simplicity and intricacy of this painting. It grabbed my attention as I turned
the corner to face it and allowed myself to become transfixed. At first glance
this large painting appears quite flat but at the same time through use of
apparent shadows it looks as if the painting is ripped and torn in places. This illusion of shadowed depth is what makes
it so unique and of such interest to me.
In my studio work this
semester I am working with physical layers of paper and Mylar. With this piece,
Owens’s is able to work on a single canvas while creating the same layers of interest.
Like Sillman and Heyl’s work, Owens also
included a grid in her paining. But unlike Heyl’s structured frames that form a
grid or Sillman’s wonky off kilter grid, Owens chooses a physical and broken
grid. These physical pieces of what appear to be wood are strategically added
around the painting creating yet another level of depth within the painting. A
simple saying runs down the right edge of the painting "When you come to
the end of your rope, make a knot and hang on." The words can be clearly read but the “trompe-l’oeil shadows” (Laura) do
truncate several of the words.
Owens’s is also a
frequent borrower from art history and “from modernist movements past such as Color Field, Op Art, and
Pattern and Decoration, from European painters like Rousseau and
Toulouse-Lautrec, from anonymous mediums such as textile and embroidery” (Kushner). Owens’s
chooses not to make set distinctions of where she borrows from, weather it be
high or low images and art, all is fair game. “She
leaves out the big theories of art in favor of pleasure and fantasy” (Brown). This, I believe
is a bold statement. Owens’s aptitude for creating complex layers of interest
while working in what appears to be a laid back style is exceptional. She, like
Heyl and Sillman borrow and take inspiration from, not only the art world and
its movement’s but cartoons, popular culture and everyday life around them.
They are not static but keep moving forward creating new and exiting art. The
use of the grid, originally associated with masculinity is disrupted in these
works of art, whether physically broken, as in Owens’s, lopsided and imperfect
as in Sillman’s or used as a visual device in which to house the spiraling fantasies,
which belong to Heyl. The grids created by these three woman artists are disrupted
and changed.
I draw
inspiration for and find similar goals in my own work, including the use of the
grid, wide fields of inspiration, incorporation of cartoons and cartoon like
lines and shapes as well as collage and layers. The ideas of chance, human
error and the imperfect are also paramount. These three individual works of
three female artists embody and exemplify aspects of my work which not only
currently exist but which I strive to include in the future.
Bibliography
"Amy Sillman." Whitney
Museum of American Art:. N.p., Mar. 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Brown, Kathan. "About the Artist:
Laura Owens." Crown Point Press. Crown Point Press, n.d. Web. 01
Apr. 2014.
"Charline Von Heyl." Whitney
Museum of American Art:. N.p., Mar. 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Cook, Greg. "Painter Amy Sillman: ‘I
Do Have A Cheerful Vibe, But … I Don't Like It’." The Artery Arts
Culture on WBUR RSS 20. TheArtery, 02 Oct. 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Kaneda, Shirley. "Bomb." BOMB
Magazine — Charline Von Heyl by Shirley Kaneda. N.p., Fall 2010. Web. 01
Apr. 2014.
Kushner, Rachel. "The Believer -
Interview with Laura Owens." The Believer. Believer, May 2003. Web.
31 Mar. 2014.
"Laura Owens." Whitney
Museum of American Art:. N.p., Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Photographs
Heyl,
Charline Von. Folk Tales. 2013. Acrylic, ink,wax, charcoal and collage
on paper. Courtesy of the Artist and Petzel, New York, Whitney Museum of
American Art.
Heyl
, Charline von, Folk Tales, 2013. JPEG file
Sillman, Amy. Mother. 2013-14.
Collection of the Artist; Courtesy Sikkema Jenkins Co., New York, Whitney
Museum of American Art. Whitney Museum of American Art:. Mar. 2014. Web.
31 Mar. 2014.
Owens Laura. JPEG file
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