#AGAlive - In Golden Light (May 28, 2020)

2021

Programming and Engagement Coordinator Elisabeth Hill discusses how traditional icon painting influenced the European avant-garde and the development of abstract art.

“If only, some say, we could do without any image. How so much better, purer, faster our access to God, to Nature, to Truth, to Science could be.” To which other voices (or sometimes the same) answer: “Alas (or fortunately), we cannot do without images, intermediaries, mediators of all shapes and forms, because this is the only way to access God, Nature, Truth and Science.” -Bruno Latour, Iconoclash (2002)

This special exhibition, In Golden Light, features a selection of painted religious icons that date from the 17th to the 19th centuries, with origins in Greece, Serbia and Russia. Often seen as windows to Heaven or pathways to the sacred, these icons served as objects for private worship and devotion. Tracing events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, the selection of works in this exhibition provide religious instruction and are physical manifestations of Biblical teachings. On loan to the AGA from the University of Toronto, this rich exhibition marks the debut of the Malcove Collection in Edmonton.

Organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. Curated by Catherine Crowston.Programming and Engagement Coordinator Elisabeth Hill discusses how traditional icon painting influenced the European avant-garde and the development of abstract art.
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Key moments

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What Is an Icon
What Is an Icon
6:45

What Is an Icon

6:45

Nativity Scene
Nativity Scene
12:12

Nativity Scene

12:12

Lady in the Burning Bush
Lady in the Burning Bush
13:04

Lady in the Burning Bush

13:04

Abstract Art
Abstract Art
15:19

Abstract Art

15:19

Defining Abstract Art
Defining Abstract Art
15:27

Defining Abstract Art

15:27

Constructivists
Constructivists
20:05

Constructivists

20:05

Transfiguration Icon
Transfiguration Icon
24:39

Transfiguration Icon

24:39

Composition Six by Vasily Kandinsky
Composition Six by Vasily Kandinsky
28:16

Composition Six by Vasily Kandinsky

28:16

Autogenerated Transcript from YouTube (if available)

Use CTRL+F to find key words if it is a longer transcript​.

1:49

all right so it looks like we’ve got some people already logged in and it’s

1:54

just about nudes so I think we’ll get started so first of all hi and welcome

2:00

to everyone who is logged in live and may or may be watching this recorded

2:05

later my name is Liz I’m the programming and engagement coordinator at the art

2:11

gallery of Alberta so you might have seen me introduce speakers before but I’m very excited to be giving the

2:16

program myself today so today’s Ag live is inspired by our

2:23

current exhibition in golden light which features a selection of Russian and

2:29

Greek Orthodox icons dating from the 16th to 19th centuries but we’re going

2:34

to go in a slightly different direction today and look at how Orthodox icons actually influenced modern art and the

2:43

early 20th century avant-garde so first off just a little quick orientation of

2:49

this platform there is a chat box on the right-hand side and so if you have questions or comments

2:56

you can submit them there I’ll try to check it at intervals in the during the

3:01

presentation and there’s a few times we’ll ask for comments but just so you’re aware there is a delay on the

3:07

stream so I may not be totally responsive and I might not be able to see it at all times when we’re going

3:13

through slides and stuff but do feel free to drop your questions in there there is also a reconnect button for you

3:21

at the top of your screen so if you’ve been doing zoom meetings or watching

3:27

other webinars you know that sometimes internet connections can be a little unpredictable so if you hit that

3:32

reconnect button it’ll refresh for you and that might help if we run into

3:37

issues on my end I also have a way to sort of refresh and restart but hopefully we won’t have any issues and

3:45

as I mentioned a recording of this will be posted on our website and social

3:50

media in a few days so to get started let’s talk a little bit about in golden

3:57

light so that opened in December did anyone have a chance to see it before we closed in March okay so uh

4:10

while I’m talking about the exhibition I’m gonna show you a video taken by

4:15

Charles our creative director just so you can have a little sense of what it

4:24

looks like okay

4:34

so sorry for the kind of rough screen share but it’s just to give you a

4:39

general idea of the space so it includes 25 icons from the 16th 19th century and

4:48

was organized by the EGA and the art museum at the University of Toronto the

4:55

all the objects are in loan from the University of Toronto Art Center where they form part of the malkos collection

5:00

so the malkov collection was bequeathed to the U of T by dr. Lillian Malekith

5:06

who was a psychoanalyst who lived in New York and she had a very interesting and

5:11

extensive collection of objects mainly Greek Roman Byzantine and Western

5:17

medieval items but also spanning from prehistory to the 20th century including

5:24

a lot of icons which she displayed in her New York apartment I’ve heard that

5:29

the images are quite impressive and oh I see that a couple of you have seen the

5:36

exhibition so I’m glad that you’re joining us to get a different perspective today so the exhibition is

5:43

divided in two rooms one focuses on the life of Mary and the other on the life

5:49

Jesus so you can get a little sense here that when you walk into the exhibition

5:55

there’s rich color the walls are a deep sort of reddish color it’s looking a

6:00

little brown on the video and then blue in the other room there’s dim lighting which of course is a very evocative way

6:06

to see the icons but it’s also for conservation purposes they can only have

6:12

so much light because they’re very old and somewhat fragile and of course there’s a lot of

6:18

gold when you walk in and you’re very struck by the color isn’t the gold so I’m gonna stop that there second and as

6:32

you might be able to tell I am in my basement today because it’s where I can plug into the Internet

6:38

so I’m gonna try and show you a lot of pictures so you don’t just have to look at my wood paneling but let’s talk a bit

6:45

more about icons what is an icon can anyone give me a little definition this

7:06

is the part where we have a bit of an awkward pause that we wouldn’t have it if we did this live so I’ll just jump in

7:12

and say that an icon is generally speaking a depiction of a religious

7:19

figure um but we’re talking about Orthodox icons today yes so amanda says

7:28

an icon off to specifically represent someone with a halo so yeah you’ll often see a halo signifying of course that the

7:35

individual in the icon is holy and so

7:42

it’s a depiction of a religious figure but not just any religious figure to be an icon in the strict Orthodox sense so

7:49

it must be a true and accurate depiction which means it has to depict the figure

7:56

based on certain conventions and standards of the of the Orthodox Church

8:01

and it has to be a figure who is recognized as holy by the Orthodox Church so someone could paint a picture

8:08

of Saint Thomas Aquinas in a Byzantine style but that would not be an icon a

8:14

proper icon because Thomas Aquinas is a Catholic saint not worth doc st. and of

8:20

course the Catholic Church has a lot of beautiful art but they are not icons in

8:26

a specific cents and that is because of a very specific role that I contemplate which

8:34

is that they they have a theology says

8:40

that there is a sort of connection between subject the actual subject of

8:46

the icon so Christ or Mary or a saint who’s called the prototype for the icon

8:53

and then the icon which is that true and accurate representation has this

8:58

connection to the these figures who are said to exist at a higher spiritual realm

9:03

so this visible material icon beautifully painted gilded is connected

9:10

to the the prototype allowing a contact between the person who venerates the

9:15

icon and the spiritual level of being and that individual who they venerate

9:21

through the icon so it’s a little complicated I can’t say I fully understand it or the best person to

9:27

explain it but what I want you to take away is that an icon is not just a picture someone thinks oh I bet Jesus

9:33

looked like this and painted them that way it is a an object that has this sort

9:40

of mystical connection to a holy person so icons are also of course beautiful

9:48

and they are used they used to enhance

9:54

the beauty of the church and also to instruct people and matters of faith and remind them of the faith yes as Lilia

10:01

says Catholic has icons – they just have a different purpose so it’s an icon in

10:10

the sense of fiction of a holy person and of course like an orthodox icon is

10:16

used to educate people about church doctrine and faith and also to inspire

10:25

the people who venerate them – to imitate the holy figures so that’s sort

10:33

of a quick definition of an icon and I want it but I want to talk about the formal traits of

10:39

a Byzantine or Russian icon not all icons have to be painted in that

10:45

particular style but many of them are it’s not most so let’s pull up some more

10:52

images okay so I’m gonna show you three

11:08

three icons from in golden light and if you just want to put a little

11:15

description of the style that you see sort of how the artist creates the image

11:23

what traits jump out at you and then we’ll talk a bit about how that could

11:31

influence modern painter so this is Virgin enthroned the child the Pantone

11:38

NASA icon it’s Serbian or Macedonian from the 17th

11:43

century and you can see Mary and Christ in the middle surrounded by Archangels behind

11:50

them and Old Testament prophets from the outside so I’ve got some very rich reds

11:59

and blue gold this is a very large icon it’s one of the first you see when you

12:04

walk into the exhibition now this is one of my favorites it’s another one that

12:10

really grabs you right away it’s a nativity scene so unlike some

12:15

nativity scenes that we might be more familiar with from Christmas cards and such the Holy Family is shown in a cave

12:24

rather than a a barn but apparently that’s because people used to keep their

12:30

cattle and sheep in caves rather than in barns convenient ready-made so here

12:37

you’ve got some like rays of light and and more gold up at the top and around

12:45

and the halos that someone mentioned and also all these very jagged so geometric

12:50

forms forming this rocki cave now this one’s a little

12:58

different so this is our lady in the

13:05

burning bush Oh stylized landscape from Danielle yeah it’s very very stylized on

13:14

that last one emphasizing like the jaggedness of the rocks so this one’s a

13:21

little bit more allegorical it’s comparing the Virgin Mary with Moses’s

13:31

vision of the burning bush in the Old Testament and some interesting colors

13:37

the peach and orange and red and these figures painted just in white lines okay

13:46

so I’m gonna exit out of here does anyone else have any observations okay

14:07

so I guess some traits there’s a lot of things you can probably pick up on but

14:12

there’s not really any linear perspective so the figures sizes there’s

14:19

big figures in large one and small ones and that tends to represent their relative importance

14:24

yes geometric figures so the linear the lack of perspective is kind of more

14:32

symbolic so you know Mary and Jesus were very large and that first one and then

14:38

the arch Archangels were a little smaller not necessary because they were farther away but just because they are

14:44

the less significant figures and then

14:49

there’s the flat geometric forms I also noticed that there’s very strong

14:55

outlines on the forms rather than using sort of like shaded modeled volumes

15:00

there’s very rich [Music] that’s possibly symbolic that’s a whole

15:06

other thing we could get into and of course there’s the gold so I think those

15:15

are some key ones to identify so abstract art is another topic we’re

15:23

going to try and bring these two two different traditions together in a minute so defining abstract art could be a

15:29

pretty complicated discussion so I’m gonna leave it kind of simple and just

15:35

borrow a an explanation from the Tate website so abstract art is art that does

15:42

not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead ease of shapes colors forms and

15:49

gestural marks to achieve its effect so strictly speaking the word abstract

15:54

means to separate or withdraw something from something else so maybe capturing just an essential

16:01

form from a scene or an idea so the term

16:07

can be applied to art that is based on object figure or landscape where forms

16:13

have been simplified or schematized so maybe like that cave in that nativity

16:19

scene or Picasso for example is an abstract painter who took an actual

16:26

scene and simplified it down to certain expressive shapes but also is applied to

16:33

art that uses forms such as geometric shapes or marks that have no source and an external basilar reality and the

16:40

painters were going to look at today are really more in that school so they’re really trying to create a pure

16:46

abstraction that has no reference to a subject outside of the painting itself

16:52

it’s all about those color form and lines so since the early 1900’s abstract

17:00

art has formed a central stream of modern art and we’re also going to be looking at the very early early stage of

17:10

abstract art so around the turn of the century so how on earth could the icon

17:16

tradition and influence abstract art so we’re gonna go back to the very start of the

17:22

20th century with a few artists who were intentionally exploring the potential of

17:29

totally abstract art and we’re gonna start with some formal influence and the

17:35

constructivists actually we’re gonna

17:43

start a little sooner than that okay so here you can see so three pretty

17:50

different looking kinds of kinds of art on the Left we have Breton

17:55

brother-and-sister by William Boudreaux which I’ve included a serve an example of academic painting so it’s it’s very

18:03

realistic very technically skilled and

18:11

then in the middle we have a piece by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner who was a German

18:17

expressionist and then we have the Virgin and Child icon that we saw earlier

18:23

so all those formal traits of the icons

18:28

that we talked about so the lack of perspective the flat geometric forms and

18:34

powerful use of color appealed to a lot of modern artists who are looking for a

18:40

new visual language that either rejected or just departed from the academic tradition so by the late 19th century

18:48

early 20th centuries some people sort of felt that the academic tradition that was taught in like the bows our Academy

18:56

in Paris and other traditional schools was getting a little stuffy and boring

19:01

it maybe wasn’t capable of expressing the ideas that they wanted to express so

19:08

there was some artists who sort of departed from that that school and started experimenting with abstraction

19:15

is one of the main things that they did so they were looking around for other

19:20

kinds of visual languages often looking to non-western art Picasso famously was

19:28

influenced by African sculpture and also to some extent elections so

19:33

artists we’ve encountered them in that context and there are also a lot of of

19:39

course for Eastern European artists and for Russian diaspora artists in the West

19:44

icons would being part of their contemporary culture and environment students coming up I’ll mention now that

19:52

anything I don’t get to in the talk I’m going to try and find answers for you and marketing will send out a little

19:57

follow-up email with with answers so

20:04

let’s look at the constructivists so this is a painting by alexander rodchenko he’s also I think that are

20:12

known as a photographer but he was a constructivist painter so the Russian

20:18

constructivists they really emphasize building and science over expression and

20:25

they viewed the artist as a builder or an engineer and art is something to be constructed hence constructivist so they

20:31

use sparse geometric forms and simple materials now looking at this we noticed

20:39

some strong lines and flat geometric forms and the icons and to me some of

20:45

those yellow lines remind me of the ways that they painted rays of light the star and the Nativity and we know that icons

20:53

were source of sort of reference and inspiration for the way that constructivist painted light there’s of

21:00

course no perspective in these paintings because they’re purely abstract but

21:08

here’s a sort of an older paint an early painting by another constructivist named vladimir tatlin who is also I think

21:15

better known as a sculptor but I’m focusing on our paintings today so

21:21

Kathleen actually did early on paint

21:27

Saints and traditional iconographic styles but then he later used that same visual language to paint non-religious

21:34

motifs like this painting of himself as a sailor so there is a background here

21:42

this figures in the background but you can see those flat sort of sharp

21:47

geometric forms the the last sort of

21:54

composition is also very similar to an icon so this is from 1911 the next one

22:01

also by Todd plane is from 1913 so he’s made a pretty big departure here but

22:07

this is more of us sort of sculptural work using wood metal and leather and

22:13

there’s been some comparison with the use of metal here with the use of gold

22:19

in icons and also the practice of creating a metalwork cover for an icon

22:26

which would often cover maybe just the fragments of the outside frame or even as much as the whole icon except for the

22:33

face and hands so some of his technique here might be a little inspired so some

22:40

of the the sparseness of the constructivist let’s go back you know

22:46

that seems very odds with with the richness and or maintenance of a

22:51

Byzantine or a Russian icon but we can see the connections in the in the

22:58

flattened forms bright colors not bright colors in this one bright colors in that

23:03

and geometric shape and those visible rays of light slate especially as a side

23:10

note something that occurred to me while I was preparing last night is that there’s also kind of an interesting

23:16

connection between the constructivist idea of what the artist who the artist

23:21

is and what they should do and the role of the iconographer in icon painting so

23:29

the constructivist were communists and they they viewed the artist just as an

23:34

engineer who builds art in service of the proletariat not out of personal self-expression so the arts not supposed

23:42

to be an expression of who the artist is similarily iconographer z’ historically

23:48

our anonymous craftspeople highly skilled craftspeople who crafted icons

23:54

following following the strict formula and they did their survey their work in the service of God and the

24:00

church not again out of self-expression

24:07

so the second area of connection is a

24:13

little more conceptual so it’s a bit more about what art is for what it can

24:20

do and what icons are for and what they can do so let’s return again to an icon

24:31

from and this is also from in golden light so you go visit you can see it so

24:39

this is a Transfiguration icon so the icon of the trans the Transfiguration is

24:45

an episode that appears in each of the Gospels it’s an important moment for

24:52

Christians because it shows evidence of Christ’s divinity it’s the moment that

25:00

that’s sort of revealed to some of his followers so Jesus Peter James and John

25:06

so three of the Apostles climb Mount Tabor to pray with Jesus and Jesus

25:11

begins to shine with with rays of light and of waste from the sky seems to be

25:16

God calls him son so that moment is sort

25:22

of a revelation of Jesus’s internet true nature and in that episode he glows with

25:31

divine light and the land around them is

25:38

also transfigured and glows with this infusion of divine light so here we can

25:43

see Christ’s clothes are white they’re described as white as light in the

25:49

Gospels and that sort of oval shape around him is called a mandorla and that

25:54

also represents divine glory and then we’ve got these triangular red sort of

26:01

shafts of light striking the three apostles who are sort of contorted in

26:07

expression of their their sort of ecstasy in shock so the sort of point of the

26:14

Transfiguration as it shows us if the moment when Christ’s divinity is revealed and it also is a moment in

26:20

which all of material reality is transformed and transfigured with divine light so it’s about revealing truth

26:28

within reality a sort of hidden truth may be and that is what icons are kind

26:34

of for as well they unveil an essential inner nature of a being in this case

26:44

Christ and reality or can also reveal the holiness the saint allowing the

26:51

venerate er to make contact with those eternal presences and also reminding

26:57

them of doctrine and teachings of the church so in that sense icons have this

27:04

kind of transcendent mystical function and meaning which is specific specifically Orthodox Christian and

27:11

focuses on truths held by the church but the idea that art can be revelatory and

27:16

transcendent is found in other traditions and sure but it shows up in abstract art in the very beginning

27:22

that’s what I want to talk about yes I

27:29

think Lilliana is mentioning here Transfiguration is a still a significant

27:36

celebration in the church so I’m going

27:42

to talk about three main abstract artists who are examples of artists who

27:48

brought some of this idea of art being transcendent or revealing an inner truth

27:54

and being generally spiritual into their search for abstraction and all three of

28:01

these artists are Russian or Eastern European and have connections with the

28:06

Orthodox Church but they are certainly not the only ones who took this view

28:12

they’re just early influential ones so this is composition six by Vasily

28:20

Kandinsky so very famous abstract painter and considered one of the pioneers of

28:26

abstraction although who actually painted the first abstract painting is a very debated topic but he’s one of the

28:34

candidates so he was born in Moscow and grew up in Odessa and was raised in the

28:40

Orthodox Church he studied paint is he studied art but

28:45

then studied law and economics and only began really seriously painting at 30 and he he went to Munich to continue his

28:54

studies excuse me before returning to Moscow in 1914 so he worked for some

29:00

time in Russia after the Revolution as a cultural administrator but his spiritual

29:07

outlook was a bit at odds with the ethos of the Soviet Society so he’s kind of

29:13

the opposite of the constructivist in that for him art is all about expression

29:19

and about the the artists inner world so he left Russia and taught at the Bauhaus

29:26

until it was closed by the Nazis and then he moved to France or he worked until his death in 1944 so in his as you

29:37

can see his style is very lyrical he often compared his compared painting to

29:43

music calling his pieces improvisations or compositions just like a piece of

29:49

music and Colour was very important different colors have different for him

29:55

have different spiritual and psychological effects so he was also influenced by theosophy I should mention

30:01

as well as his Orthodox upbringing but it’s undoubted that that spirituality

30:09

was very important he in 1910 wrote a treatise called concerning the spiritual

30:14

in art in which he talked about the role of the artist which was to use art to

30:20

elevate humanity to the pinnacle of spirituality so to bring people up from

30:26

focusing on material things or themselves to being able to connect with

30:32

some sort of higher spiritual experience or now that reminds me a bit of what icons

30:40

are supposed to do for those who venerate them by allowing people to access this higher spiritual realm and

30:48

have contact with the the holy figures who sort of exist at that realm so

30:57

artists are supposed to be guided by a spiritual inner necessity which would allow them to produce art that would

31:04

have that effect so art for Kandinsky is obviously very mystical it’s a way to

31:09

connect to a spiritual truth so on the

31:18

left there you can see Constantin Brancusi in his studio isoprene koozie

31:24

the sculptor and in the middle is one of his earlier sculptures from 1918 and on

31:31

the right is bird in space which is probably his most famous work he took an

31:37

intro to art history class you might have studied it so from brain koozies

31:42

Romanian but he moves to Paris in 1904 to study at the Ecole des Vosges R and

31:51

to work in Auguste Rodin studio only very briefly he said I felt that I was

31:58

not giving anything by following the conventional mode of sculpture he seems like a fairly opinionated

32:05

figure he didn’t mince words so he left for a dance studio because he felt that

32:10

it was old-fashioned and conventional and in 1907 is what he enters serve the mature period of his work where he

32:18

starts using abstract forms and sculpting with direct carving so what that means and why it’s important is

32:25

that he worked directly with his material with the metal that he was using or the wood or a stone rather than

32:32

creating the kowax model and to be cast and then executed into a finished

32:39

sculpture by someone else so throughout his life Brancusi was

32:46

involved in the Catholic in the Orthodox Church sorry as a server as a child he got a grant

32:53

from his church to study in art in Romania and he was a chanter in an

33:00

Orthodox parish in Bucharest well he was a student and later at the Romanian Chapel where in Paris where he’s now

33:06

buried so for brain koozie reality was a

33:12

union of matter and spirit so the material world was very was very important because it’s sort of combined

33:19

with with spirit he gave a lot of care and attention to his materials that he used while at the same time trying to

33:28

use those materials to reveal an inner idea or essence at a more spiritual

33:34

level so I’m going to show you another quote from brain koozie which is also a bit blunt and his opinion on having his

33:43

work called abstract in the sense of you know not real so they are imbeciles who

33:49

call my work abstract that which they call abstract is the most realist because what is real is not the exterior

33:55

form but the idea and the essence of things so you can see for brain koozie

34:01

abstract art is a way to reveal an inner truth that is probably more significant

34:07

than the truth of how something looks on the outside ok and now on to our last

34:17

figure who I’m going to focus on for a bit longer so this is Casimir Malevich

34:25

who probably the most obviously combines

34:31

with the form and the theological ideas of icons with abstraction to create a

34:39

totally new kind of painting that he calls suprematism so suprematism was a

34:46

search for the barest essentials of art pairing away everything that was unnecessary to reach what they called

34:54

the zero degree of art which was the point at which his motifs just – a circle a square and a rectangle

35:01

and get deeper into that although he wrote 1913 on the back so maybe he was trying to make himself even more

35:08

avant-garde so it’s pretty straightforward to describe its formal qualities its oil-on-canvas

35:16

plain black square on a white background those cracks and texture that you see

35:22

that’s not how it originally would have looked that’s just the result of it aging it’s a square canvas seventy nine

35:31

and a half by seventy nine and a half centimeters and that’s that’s basically it so

35:37

Malevich claimed that this was the first painting that is not of something there’s debate about that but for now

35:45

take him at his word so he wrote this about this painting up until now there

35:51

were no attempts at painting as such without any attribution but without any attribute of real life painting was the

35:58

aesthetic side of a thing but never was original and an end in itself

36:06

so black square was first exhibited at the last exhibition of futurist painting

36:13

0-1 in 1915 and Petrograd so although

36:18

being called the last exhibition of futurist painting it was actually a groundbreaking first exhibition of a

36:25

group of key artists of the pre-revolution Russian avant-garde where

36:31

they sort of demonstrated that they were not just following the Western

36:36

avant-garde artists in Paris and Germany but we’re like on the cutting edge in

36:41

their own rights and doing new and interesting things so Malevich exhibited

36:47

39 completely non representational non figurative works consisting just of

36:52

geometric shapes painted on white grounds and here you see one of the few

36:58

photographs of that exhibition these are all Malevich work so do you notice

37:05

anything about the placement of the artworks and can you spot black square

37:31

so the works are hung from Florida ceiling kind of a chaotic version of a

37:39

salon hang so that’s what we call it when when you hang paintings from floor

37:44

to ceiling like that but here they’re quite almost scattered almost jumbled so

37:53

quite dynamic yeah it’s a seemingly random hanging of a comment so the one

38:02

that I want to draw your attention to I don’t know if anyone spotted it but black square is hung in a very unusual

38:07

spot up on that top corner so it’s sort of almost liberated from the wall the

38:15

way it just makes contact on this on the sides and sort of hovers out there over the corner it also really hangs over the

38:23

viewer sort of dominating the room so it’s a pretty striking and unusual hanging I think even if you walked into

38:30

an art gallery today and saw one painting up in the corner you probably notice and probably find it a little

38:36

strange but Russian viewers actually would have recognized this and probably

38:42

understood its reference which is that that position is a spot that in a traditional Orthodox home would be

38:49

occupied by an icon of a saint so as anyone what do you make of this

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reference if in putting this black square up in the place of an icon any

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thoughts there’s really no right answers

39:12

I think there’s a lot of interpretations we could take away from that and if you

39:18

have ideas continue to share what I’m gonna talk about Oh like an anti icon

39:24

yeah like a black hole that’s definitely something that would

39:30

be my first thought I think also it elevates the status of this painting

39:36

that he made so he’s not in iconographer he’s not making holy images but he’s putting his own artwork up in that

39:43

position so what I’m gonna focus on though is how this bringing together of

39:52

the position of an icon and abstract painting is it’s kind of creating a new

40:00

idea of what an abstract painting can be and what a painting should do so iris

40:05

says she’d be immediately drawn to it if you went to this gallery and I agree I think I would be – just the way it pops

40:13

out from the wall like that and is you know very simple but very powerful I’ve

40:20

never seen it in person but I imagine it would be so back to this idea of a new

40:27

kind of painting you’ll recall that I said that icons are not just a picture

40:33

of a holy figure but they are in a sense the presence of that holy person through

40:41

their icon they are present in that space that they’re in so similarly black

40:50

square is quite a presence in this room it changes the relationship between the

40:56

the painting or the image and the viewer by asserting itself as a presence in the

41:02

gallery in the space it’s not on a flat plane to the viewer sort of hovers above

41:07

them and importantly it’s not a depiction of something it’s just pure

41:12

color and form or blackness and form and the viewer is confronted by its presence

41:19

just as that as a black square it’s got no subject or background or

41:25

perspective so you can’t look at it as a window into a scene and there’s no

41:30

picture plane separating the viewer from the content of the image it just sort of

41:36

I’ve seen it described as opening itself up into the space in which it’s placed I

41:43

don’t know if you see it as a whole or as a as a physical presence extending

41:49

into the room may be either but it kind of messes with space that way and I

41:54

guess to sort of explain I’d say you know is there a distinction between

42:01

painting a black square on a canvas like a painting of a black square on a canvas which is hung in a space and simply a

42:08

black square in the space as such so is it a painting of the square or is it

42:14

just a black square that is present so

42:21

Malevich considered realism to be a distraction oh I almost want to show you so here’s a reconstruction of that

42:29

exhibition missing a few artworks as you can see but with a lot of the same ones at the Tate Modern and you can really

42:37

see how that squared dominates especially compared to the colorful works that sort of lead up to it and how

42:45

its its presence in the space feels in a sense so the legacy of suprematism well

42:57

of it considered realism to be a distraction from the transcendent experience of art and he became

43:05

increasingly these spiritual ideas and you so tarik ideas became very important

43:12

to suprematism and trying to find the the essence of art that could make it

43:18

transcendent so he divided suprematism into three phases so there’s the black

43:26

phase which we saw with black square and that was about finding that zero degree

43:32

of painting that’s the essence of of art and then the colored stage on the left

43:38

there sometimes referred to as the dainties dynamic suprematism so it focused more on color and shape and the

43:45

sensation of movement in space and then finally culminated in the white phase

43:51

which as you can the well is exemplified by white on

43:57

white where Malevich completely got rid of form and color to focus just on the

44:03

idea of a square on a canvas so suprematism was initially tolerated

44:11

after the revolution but it was a bit too spiritual and abstract and he so

44:18

tarik and was condemned under Stalin who only permitted socialist realism so

44:24

Malevich stopped painting and focused on theoretical writing between 1919 and 1927 and eventually only returned to

44:32

painting – to do representational painting but the influence of

44:38

suprematism even though it was fairly short-lived and not a huge movement was

44:44

quite widespread so constructivism that we looked at earlier even though it’s much more

44:50

grounded in material world actually grew out of suprematism and some of the

44:56

constructivists you know worked with Malevich and were supremacists initially and they particularly grew out of that

45:03

dynamic colorful phase so suprematism also created this pared down language of

45:11

abstraction that focused just on form in color you can see it in in Piett

45:17

Mondrian as well and sort of this classic idea of what abstract art looks like and suprematism was introduced to

45:24

the West in 1927 with an exhibition in Berlin that was received with interest by both European and American artists so

45:35

I’ve touched on three influential artists who viewed abstract art from

45:40

various spiritual perspectives Kandinsky was very mystical francuzzi kind of was

45:47

about revealing inner truth of reality of material and then Malevich was about

45:57

how art can like transcend everyday reality

46:02

so but this idea that abstract art is spiritual or metaphysical resonates throughout modern art history

46:09

to move a bit further down that family tree of abstraction here is a quote from

46:16

Mark Rothko who is a Jewish American artist an abstract expressionist so he

46:23

says pictures must be miraculous a revelation and this is a shot of his

46:29

black paintings in the Rothko chapel in Houston which is a non-denominational

46:36

sort of chapel religious space so you

46:42

can see that although the artists that I focus on today we’re rooted in in the

46:51

Orthodox Church and probably drew a lot of inspiration from that this idea that

46:58

art can be spiritual and miraculous can be found throughout the 20th century

47:06

now the icon tradition is not the only source for that idea I think I mentioned that Kandinsky was very interested in

47:14

theosophy and their ideas about color but it was definitely part of the

47:20

intellectual and spiritual and artistic environment in Russia and Eastern Europe which produced many influential abstract

47:27

artists so it’s not surprising that we see these connections so I guess to wrap

47:34

up the kind of comparisons the the reason I make these comparisons is I

47:41

think it shows us interesting things about both about the icon tradition and about abstract art so it reminds us the

47:49

abstract artists were not just motivated by rebellion and novelty and just

47:55

looking for the newest thing that they could sell they they developed the new

48:01

visual languages of abstraction in order to express ideas about the world and

48:07

about reality and experience that they cannot do through purely representational traditional art forms

48:14

and then on the other hand you have Orthodox icons which

48:21

are often just mute as traditional objects they’re pictures of saints they

48:28

tell us things about Bible and about Christianity but in reality the the

48:33

theology of icons contains a very complicated theory of art and what it’s

48:39

for and what it can do and that that influenced abstract artists who are coming up with new and exciting ideas

48:47

about what art can do and B as well so I hope that these connections have

48:55

illuminated some new ideas about either icons or about abstract art I think I’ve

49:02

got time for some questions I know Lily Anna asked about the difference between Byzantine Greek and

49:09

Russian schools I can’t I don’t know off

49:14

the top of my head a lot about that but I’ll try and get an answer for you and we’ll send it out to everyone who’s

49:20

registered I would say that the Byzantine school would probably refer to

49:27

the icons made in the Byzantine Empire and period which I should know the dates

49:33

of but I don’t remember right now but the earliest the Byzantine Empire was

49:38

the period in which icons originated and

49:46

all of the theology and debates about what icons are and are for we’re sort of

49:54

hashed out there were two periods called the iconoclasm where icons were

50:01

forbidden and they were destroyed but after many debates they were reinstated

50:07

and considered to be not idolatry I think was the center of that debate

50:13

and I know that there are differences between different Greek and Russian schools of icon painting and there’s

50:19

also an icon painting tradition on Crete but I’ll try and look up a bit more for

50:25

that and send that out to you guys does anyone else have any questions or

50:32

comments

50:44

okay so we’re modern artists of Western Europe indirectly influenced by icons in

50:49

any way perhaps through El Greco I think that I didn’t get into this in too much

50:56

detail but yes I’d say that modern artists from Western Europe were influenced by icons partly in the same

51:04

way that they are influenced by non-western art that if you’re familiar

51:12

with the term primitivism it refers to the way that artists looked to art from

51:23

the past or from non-western cultures which were at the time viewed as being

51:28

more primitive in the sense of being there art was being it was more simple

51:34

or naive or more primal this is

51:41

complicated so they are just like Picasso drew on things like African

51:48

sculpture and of course the idea that these were primitive traditions was

51:54

reflected racist ideas at a time as well as of course a lack of understanding about the cultural context but they did

52:02

take a lot of the forms and and shapes of imagery from these traditions to

52:08

create new abstract visual languages

52:13

that they believed were more primal and expressive so I think Byzantine and

52:20

Orthodox icons although they’re not like totally unfamiliar and exotic compared

52:25

to art from further away places and colonies they they still would have been

52:33

a bit exotic and for modern artists and because of their associations with like

52:40

the medieval past and being a pre-modern tradition might have been viewed as you

52:46

know quote-unquote primitive and so drawing some of that same

52:51

inspiration you mention alla Greco I don’t know what the lineage is between El Greco and modern Western art but el

53:00

Greco is from Crete which does have a an icon painting tradition so I think there

53:07

was definitely a connection between his sort of glowing figures and and the use

53:14

of gold and rich color that we see Thank

53:21

You Lillian yes it is difficult to tell about via the comparisons between icons and abstract art in just one hand I bit

53:28

off quite a bit so it’s almost one so I think I’ll wrap up if you have any other

53:34

questions feel free to email marketing at your HEA dot CA and I’ll pass

53:40

anything on to me and I’ll try and find a little bit more about those different

53:47

schools and see if I can sense something is everyone okay so recording of this

53:52

webinar will also be posted in coming days and I’ll also mention the next AGA

53:59

live is next Thursday at 10:30 a.m. so June 4th so chief curator Catherine

54:06

Creston will be speaking with Vancouver artist Damien Moffitt about untitled abstract drawing in space which is a new

54:14

mobile installation which was just installed in our atrium so no one’s had

54:20

the chance to see it yet but we are reopening next week so you can come see

54:25

the icons in golden light as well as Rembrandt nest for the end of the world Damian’s new piece starting on June 4th

54:34

if you’re a member so we’ve got a members preview from June 4th to 6th and then we’ll be open to the general public

54:40

on June 11th and you can find out more information about that and our new hours on your heig a so thank you all for

54:48

joining me today and I hope you’ll join us again as we continue to do digital

54:54

programming for the rest of the summer Thanks

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