Color and Form
The exploration of form and color for their own sake is one of the distinctive features of twentieth-century art. In the first decades of this century, artists such as Robert Delaunay, Kasimir Malevich, and Wassily Kandinsky pioneered the creation of so-called non-objective art. Their approach turned away from the world of recognizable things and adopted a vocabulary of abstract shapes, lines, colors, and textures. For some artists, especially Kandinsky, these abstract components did not lose their representational purpose; instead of representing things in the visible world, they visualized spiritual or emotional forces that could not be seen with the naked eye.
For others, however, art gave up its representational role entirely. In works here by Alexander Calder, Ad Reinhardt, and Donald Judd, it would probably be fruitless to search for any represented "subject" visible or invisible. Instead, the purpose of the work is to express the simple material qualities of the thing itself. Thus, the interest in the Reinhardt, for example, lies largely in the extraordinary optical effect created by the subtle differences in shades of black that comprise its abstract grid. In the Judd, we are invited to sense volume, while the Calder mobile embraces the play of random motion.
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Donald JuddUnited States, 1928-1993 . Untitled . 1978 . plywood
. 1978.10
Purchased with the aid of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and funds provided by the University Art Museum Council
Since the mid-1960s, Judd has used the basic form of a box to create works that refer insistently to themselves. His sculptures typically express the most simple relationships of planes and volumes, and are created with ordinary, industrially manufactured materials. About his work, Judd wrote:
"A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself. It shouldn't be concealed as part of a fairly different whole. The shapes and materials shouldn't be altered by their context....I wanted work that didn't involve incredible assumptions about everything. I couldn't begin to think about the order of the universe or the nature of American society. I didn't want work that was general or universal in the usual sense. I didn't want it to claim too much."
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Joan MiroSpain, 1893-1984 . Composition . 1937 . oil on board
. 1966.20
Gift of Julian J. Aberbach and Joachim Jean Aberbach
In Composition, flowing lines criss-cross the surface, dividing areas of uncovered burlap and composition board, lightly daubed color, and sections of more thickly and evenly applied paint.
Here, Mir- has created a fantasy world in which the imagery is apparently derived less from distortions of known things than from a free-floating exploration of color and materials.
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Jean TinguelySwitzerland, 1925-1991 . Black Knight . circa 1960 . Steel, wire, electric motors
. 1968.74
Gift of Julian J. Aberbach and Joachim Jean Aberbach
Tinguely's sculpture shares with its Minimalist counterparts (such as the work of Judd and Flavin) a use of ordinary, commercially manufactured materials and a devotion to pure abstraction. But it is quite different in appearance and temperament.
Contrary to Minimalism's static and orderly forms, Tinguely creates sculptures that not only point and swerve every which way; they even move. With a dark sense of humor, Tinguely pokes fun at the machinery and purposefulness of our industrial age.
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William BaziotesUnited States, 1912-1963 . Primeval . 1952 . oil on canvas
. 1970.74
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Bolles in memory of Carolyn Jane Bolles, University of California, Class of 1918
As indicated by the title of this work, Baziotes was fascinated by the earliest stages of life on earth and the harrowing struggles that make up the evolutionary process.
In this work, two contrasting forms appear like highly primitive creatures, seemingly engaged in some kind of combat or confrontation.
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Helen FrankenthalerUnited States, born 1928 . Before the Caves . 1958 . oil on canvas
. 1966.63
Anonymous gift
Characteristic of Helen Frankenthaler's paintings of the 1950s, Before the Caves consists of swirling stains of colors. Her staining process was a significant new direction that followed after Jackson Pollock's drip paintings and led the way to color field painting. In this process, washes of oil paint are quickly applied to raw canvas. The watery consistency of the paint results in luminous colors and many accidental splashes that enhance the emotional quality of the artist's gestures.
Months after this painting was completed, Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell, both of whom had recently studied with artist and teacher Hans Hofmann, traveled to the caves of Altamira on their honeymoon. The twice present, floating numeral "173" is actually the same as Motherwell's house number at the time.
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Philip GustonCanada, 1913-1980 . Central Avenue . 1969 . oil on canvas
. 1985.54
Gift of Mrs. Philip Guston and Musa Jane Mayer
Guston paints two hooded, cigar-smoking figures driving in a jalopy with what appear to be a crudely made cross and two guns. The apparent allusion to the Ku Klux Klan is made more ominous by the shadow under the car, which indicates that it is "High Noon," a time that has become synonymous with the final showdown. Guston's cartoony, childlike style adds an ironic dimension suggesting, perhaps, that such features of our society as the Ku Klux Klan are as absurd as they are menacing.
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Mark RothkoUnited States, born Russia, 1903-1970 . Number 207 (Red over Dark Blue on Dark Gray) . 1961 . oil on canvas
. 1965.33
Gift of Mrs. Philip Guston and Musa Jane Mayer
Typical of Rothko's work after 1949, Number 207 (Red over Dark Blue on Dark Gray) follows a format of stacked rectangular forms painted atop a field of color. A key aspect of this format is spatial ambiguity. In Number 207, for example, a subtle illusion of depth results from Rothko's process of building up the forms with washes and thin layers of at least two or more related colors for each form. The clouded edges of the forms, which obscure definite overlapping, and colors that variously recede from or push towards the viewer intensify the sense of instability and movement. Rothko, who along with many other artists in the 1930s and early 1940s had keen interests in mythic imagery, developed this format in an attempt to arrive at a contemporary expression of spirituality.
Rothko taught at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) during the summers of 1947 and 1949. In 1967, Rothko was a Regents' Lecturer in the Department of Art at the University of California at Berkeley.
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David SmithUnited States, 1906-1965 . Voltri XIII . 1962 . steel
. 1968.45
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene E. Trefethen, Jr.
In the Italian town of Voltri, near Genoa, Smith made twenty-six large sculptures in thirty days with the help of a team of Italian workers. These sculptures, comprised of metal scraps and abandoned tools, were inspired by the vacant metal shop where they were fabricated. Voltri XIII is built from an ingot cart used by iron workers to carry hot oversized iron pieces from ovens to hammers. Welded to the weight-bearing bar (or "spoon," or "tongue") of the cart are playful forms selected by Smith from a scrap heap. In Smith's own words, "Voltri XIII is a circus wheel chariot with the spoon turned over, a solid guitar forging with a punched hole-with a cloud part [rolled iron sheet] below and above its tongue." This work brings together Smith's life-long experimentations with geometric composition, fanciful shapes, and an industrial aesthetic.