Shaped canvas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shaped canvases are paintings that depart from the normal flat, rectangular configuration. Canvases may be shaped by altering their contours, while retaining their flatness. An ancient, traditional example is the tondo, a painting on a round canvas: Raphael, as well as some other Renaissance painters, sometimes chose this format for madonna paintings. [2] Alternatively, canvases may be altered by losing their flatness and assuming a three dimensional surface. Or, they can do both. That is, they can assume shapes other than rectangles, and also have surface features that are three dimensional. Arguably, changing the surface configuration of the painting transforms it into a sculpture. But shaped canvases are generally considered paintings.

Apart from any aesthetic considerations, there are technical matters, having to do with the very nature of canvas as a material, that tend to support the flat rectangle as the norm for paintings on canvas. (On this subject, see the section below headed "Departing from the rectangular".)

In the literature of art history and criticism, the term shaped canvas is particularly associated with certain works created mostly in New York after about 1960, during a period when a great variety and quantity of such works were produced. According to the commentary at a Rutgers University exhibition site listed below in the "External links" section, "...the first significant art historical attention paid to shaped canvases occurred in the 1960s...." [3]

Contents 1 Pioneers of modern shaped-canvas painting 2 Postwar modern art and the shaped canvas 3 More recent shaped canvas art 4 Departing from the rectangular 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Pioneers of modern shaped-canvas painting

In modern painting there are references to the artist Abraham Joel Tobias making the earliest "shaped canvases" in the 1930s^{[1] [2]}. (In addition to these two references, see the Wechsler book on Tobias below). Paintings exhibited by the New Orleans born abstract painter Edward Clark shown at New York's Brata Gallery in 1957 have also been termed shape canvas paintings. ^{[3] [4]}.

Between the late 1950s through the mid 1960s Jasper Johns experimented with shaped and compartmentalized canvases, notably with his 'American Flag Painting' - one canvas placed on top of another, larger canvas. Robert Rauschenberg's experimental assemblages and "combines" of the 1950s also explored variations of divided and shaped canvas. Assigning a date to the origin of the postwar shaped canvas painting may not be possible (see this article's discussion page), but certainly it had emerged by the late 1950s.

[edit] Postwar modern art and the shaped canvas

Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Ellsworth Kelly, Barnett Newman, Ronald Davis, Neil Williams, David Novros, and Al Loving are examples of artists associated with the use of the shaped canvas during the period beginning in the early 1960s. Geometric abstract artists, minimalists, and Hard-edge painters may, for example, elect to use the edges of the image to define the shape of the painting rather than accepting the rectangular format. In fact, the use of the shaped canvas is primarily associated with paintings of the 1960s and 1970s that are coolly abstract, formalistic, geometrical, objective, rationalistic, clean-lined, brashly sharp-edged, or minimalist in character. There is a connection here with post-painterly abstraction, which reacts against the abstract expressionists' mysticism, hyper-subjectivity, and emphasis on making the act of painting itself dramatically visible - as well as their solemn acceptance of the flat rectangle as an almost ritual prerequisite for serious painting.

The apertured, superimposed, multiple canvases of Jane Frank in the 1960s and 1970s are a special case: while generally flat and rectangular, they are rendered sculptural by the presence of large, irregularly shaped holes in the forward canvas or canvases, through which one or more additional painted canvases can be seen. A student of Hans Hofmann, and sharing his concern for pictorial depth as well as his reverence for nature, she also favors colors, textures, and shapes that are complex, nuanced, and organic or earthen - giving her work a brooding or introspective quality that further sets it apart from that of many other shaped-canvas painters.

Pop artists such as Tom Wesselmann, Jim Dine, and James Rosenquist also took up the shaped canvas medium. Robin Landa (An Introduction to Design, 1983) writes that "Wesselmann uses the shape of the container [by which Landa means the canvas] to express the organic quality of smoke" in his "smoker" paintings.

[edit] More recent shaped canvas art

Among shaped-canvas artists of more recent generations, Elizabeth Murray (born 1940) has produced playfully "exploding" canvases, in which exuberance of shape and color seems to force itself outside the normative rectangle - or, as a 1981 New York Times review put it: "...the inner shapes blast off from their moorings and cause the whole painting to fly apart." [4]

Singapore's Anthony Poon (1945-2006), continued the tradition of cool, abstract, minimalist geometry associated with the shaped canvas in the 1960s. The analytical poise and undulating repetitions in his work somewhat recall the work of modular constructivist sculptors such as Erwin Hauer and Norman Carlberg.

The globetrotting Filipina artist Pacita Abad (1946-2004) stuffed and stitched her painted canvases for a three-dimensonal effect, combining this technique (which she called trapunto) with free-wheeling mixed media effects, riotous color, and abstract patterning suggestive of festive homemade textiles, or of party trappings such as streamers, balloons, or confetti. The total effect is joyously extrovert and warm - quite opposed to both the minimalist and pop art versions of "cool".

In reference to the shaped paintings of Jack Reilly (born 1950), Robin Landa (op. cit.) emphasizes the power of the shaped canvas to create a sensation of movement: "Many contemporary artists feel that the arena of painting can be greatly extended by the use of shaped canvases. Movement is established in the container (canvas) itself as well as in the internal space of the container."

[edit] Departing from the rectangular

When thinking about shaped canvas it might be helpful to bear in mind that canvases are normally rectangular. Canvas is a woven material, with threads, called the warp and weft, laying at right angles to each other. In order to achieve equal tension on all the threads comprising this fabric, stretcher bars, usually of wood, form a frame that mimics the layout of the threads of the fabric. There is therefore an inherent reason for paintings to be flat and rectangular.

Furthermore, dust would tend to gather on the surfaces of any three dimensional object. Keeping a complicated shaped canvas painting clean can require care and attention that can be avoided by sticking to flat surfaced paintings.

Essentially, a shaped canvas painting is a painting in transition into a sculpture. Any other materials can be used in place of canvas. More viable materials might obviate some of the drawbacks of shaped canvas.

[edit] See also

• Stretcher bar
• Frank Stella
• Ellsworth Kelly
• Kenneth Noland
• Barnett Newman
• Park Place Gallery
• Hard-edge painting
• Jane Frank
• Tom Wesselmann
• Elizabeth Murray
• Anthony Poon
• Pacita Abad
• Jack Reilly
• Ronald Davis

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Clark, Edward; Barbara Cavaliere; George R N'Namdi. Edward Clark : for the sake of the search (Belleville Lake, Mich. : Belleville Lake Press, 1997) OCLC: 40283595
• Landa, Robin. An Introduction to Design, Inglewood: Prentis Hall, 1983 ISBN 0-13-480624-7
• O'Connor, Francis V. Jackson Pollock [exhibition catalogue] (New York, Museum of Modern Art, [1967]) OCLC 165852
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Shaped Canvas : December 1964 (New York : The Museum, 1964) OCLC 6244601 [exhibition catalogue and commentary]
• Stanton, Phoebe B., The Sculptural Landscape of Jane Frank (A.S. Barnes: South Brunswick, New Jersey, and New York, 1968) ISBN 1-125-32317-5
• Wechsler, Jeffrey; Abraham Joel Tobias; Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum.; Queens Museum. Abraham Joel Tobias : sculptural paintings of the 1930s (New Brunswick, N.J. : The Museum, 1987) OCLC 18137181

[edit] External links

• Biography of Edward Clark at thehistorymakers.com
• Book review of Edward Clark: For the Sake of the Search in the Detroit Metro Times, stating that Clark is "widely credited with making the first extended shape painting (continuing the painting out of its rectangular frame with paper and wood) in 1956. "It wasn't called a shape painting then, just something strange and different that began with that painting," Clark said. The untitled work was shown in 1957 at the Brata Gallery..."
• NY Times review: "ART: EXPLODING CANVASES OF ELIZABETH MURRAY", May 8, 1981.
• Image of a 1935 Abraham Joel Tobias shaped-canvas painting at the Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers University)
• Arthistory.about.com page on Raphael's "de Brécy" tondo canvas painting