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Modernisms 1900-1980
Course: Modernisms 1900-1980 > Unit 7
Lesson 4: Constructivism- Geometric Abstraction in South America, an introduction
- Joaquín Torres-García, Composition
- Torres García, Inverted America
- Lygia Clark, Bicho
- Breaking the Frame, the Concrete Art movement
- Painting in an Industrial Age, the Concrete Art movement
- The Challenge of a Straight Line, the Concrete Art movement
- Rhod Rothfuss, Yellow Quadrangle
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Rhod Rothfuss, Yellow Quadrangle
Rhod Rothfuss, Yellow Quadrangle, 1955, alkyd and gouache on board, 37 x 33 cm (MoMA). A conversation with Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Smarthistory.
Video transcript
(mellow music) - [Speaker 1] We're in
the Museum of Modern Art and we're looking at a painting by Rhod Rothfuss
called Yellow Quadrangle. I see squares, rectangles. - [Speaker 2] And we're seeing
them in different colors. We've got greens and reds and
yellows and dark navy blue and they are all projecting off of a white background that
is largely rectangular but has a prominent
projection off the left side. - [Speaker 1] That extension
of the frame seems to be caused by the yellow rectangle right next to it. - [Speaker 2] Because Rothfuss
has made each of these shapes project off of the background,
we're seeing shadows. He placed pieces of wood on the backside of this work so that it
would project further off the wall to cast another shadow on the sides and the base
of the entire work of art. - [Speaker 1] In the
history of art, cast shadows are generally something that the artist
paints to convince us of the illusion of volumes of the forms that are
depicted within the painting. But here the forms are
themselves three-dimensional and project, and all of the
forms are painted flatly. - [Speaker 2] Each of these squares or rectangles have black
outlines done using some type of straight edge technique
to give us these crisp, even black lines. - [Speaker 1] They feel machine made because we don't see
the hand of the artist. On the other hand, we sense
the presence of the artist because these forms are
so beautifully balanced. - [Speaker 2] If we look at
the squares and the rectangles that project forward, they
are more smoothly painted and that is in contrast to
the background that is white. But we can see parts of the wooden background showing through. - [Speaker 1] The background
has an irregularity and depth to the color that those
geometric shapes that are laid on top of it don't have. - [Speaker 2] Likewise,
the paint that was used to create these saturated
colors has a sheen to it that the background does not. So as we move around this painting there is a light reflection
that we don't see on the background that
adds a further sense of dynamism to this geometric composition. - [Speaker 1] This decision
to extend the frame, it was important to the artist. - [Speaker 2] To understand what informs this particular painting
we have to go back in time to the '40s when Rothfuss was
the editor of and an author in the journal "Arturo", which
was published in 1944. And it was a really important
collection of essays, of poems and other writings. What it discussed overall and what Rothfuss discussed
himself is the importance of abstraction and this ongoing rejection
of recognizable forms. In his essay, Rothfuss
talks about how to break the frame of art. He's the first person to talk about these irregularly shaped frames, what are called the marco recortado. And he says that, "A painting
with a regular frame suggests a continuity of theme which disappears only when the frame is rigorously structured according to the painting's composition. That means the edge of the
canvas plays an active role in the work of art, a
role it must always have. A painting should begin and end with itself, without continuity." - [Speaker 1] So for Rothfuss,
the frame should respond to the forms inside the painting rather than limit the
forms inside the painting. - [Speaker 2] Rothfuss is
rejecting this idea of painting as a window into a world that we see
represented on a canvas. Say if we're looking at
a Renaissance painting using linear perspective, we
have sight lines that allow us to both go into the painting, but these lines also project outwards. - [Speaker 1] By rejecting
this Renaissance idea of the painting as an illusion Rothfuss is reminding us of
the painting's own reality. - [Speaker 2] And that idea
that we typically associate with the Renaissance is one that continues through the Spanish colonial period here in South America and in the period of academic painting in the
19th and early 20th century. And so it's not only a rejection of those artistic traditions but it's one that's also tied
to the political situation in Argentina in the '40s. There's been a military coup in the government where
the Peron administration is advocating for
representational academic art. And so this rejection in the actual works that are being created as well as the many
writings and manifestos and exhibitions that these
artists like Rothfuss are doing are situated in this moment. And even grappling with the
fallout from World War II. How do you pick up the pieces in a world that's been shattered
with so much devastation? And these artists are trying to figure out what that looks like in new ways. - [Speaker 1] And so, although
this is entirely abstract, which does not at all borrow from the
visible forms of the world, it does seem that the
artist wanted to connect art to the world in a new way
by breaking the frame, by lifting the background off the wall. In this way, the forms
move into our space. - [Speaker 2] Rothfuss
and the other artists that he was associated
with in the Grupo Madi, by this point in the '50s, were not the first to engage with geometric abstraction
in Latin America. For that, we have to go back in time to the artist Joaquin Torres-Garcia. He is using rectangles and
squares defined by bold lines. Artists like Rothfuss are looking to Torres-Garcia not only for inspiration but are trying to move
beyond their artistic father. - [Speaker 1] Geometric
abstraction was important in Uruguay, in Argentina, in Brazil,
in so much of South America well into the 20th century. (mellow music)