Finding the Light

An investigation into the desire by artists to capture light.

A humble tour of self illumination.

Lucille Atkins International Study Tour course 2011 Griffith University

I want to start with the last first

Leonardo da Vinci
http://www.arttattleer.com.images

The Last Supper

1495

Chiaro light

Scuro shade

Chiaroscuro has come to mean the imitation of light and shadow in the setting of a painting. This concept emerged in Italy in the 15th century but had been used in art practice since the 13th century. Da Vinci was one of the first artists to use chiaroscuro as a single entity rather than as a dichotomy. He was also extremely interested in the science of light waves and used his paintings as experiments in optics. The Last Supper is a superb example of his experimentation into lighting where light is depicted as coming from different sources within the one frame.

Farago 1991, pp. 63-88

Three framed light beams

Light coming in at eye level

Right wall almost completely illuminated

Marani 2009, pgs 29-30

but da Vinci was not alone in his use of chiaroscuro and experiments with light.

Hans Raphon
The Passion Altar 1499
Oil on canvas

Raphon was also a master in capturing light on the canvas. The use of light and shading creates a richness in texture.

Again light is depicted as coming through the background windows.

Sternberg Palace, Prague 2011.

In Prague I am introduced to Kupka and see work that is bathed in light

Frantisek Kupka Money

1899

oil on canvas

National Art Gallery, Prague

The golden light in the painting gives an organic, natural quality to the both the nude and the money box. The frightful beasts in the background are contained within the shadows and add to the surrealism of the image. This juxtaposition of natural and unnatural, light and shade reflects the combination of the satirical and the fanciful. The seductive and sexual power of money is strikingly obvious in this work and reflects Kupkas personal struggle with poverty at the time.

Fauchereau 1989, pg 9.

Kupka is recognised at one of the pioneers of European abstract art.

Planes by Colours 1910-1911

Oil on canvas http://www.pichaus.com

White Circle 1940

Oil on canvas

Joseph Mucha, Painted Glass Window, c 1900 National Art Gallery, Prague

The Art Noveau movement depicts women as ornamentation with the use of decorative curves and intertwining of plants through the female body. The natural light through glass creates an almost dreamlike symbol of the female figure.

Thompson 1971, pp.162-163

and the discovery of another artist whose use of light made me pause and reflect

Jan Zrzary Last Supper 1 1913

National Art Gallery Prague

oil on canvas

Zrzary was an early modernist in Czechoslovakia and part of the avant garde. He was inspired by Renaissance masters as well as French Impressionists.

His work, The Last Supper, is bathed in light with a simplicity of form that creates an atmosphere of reverence and sorrow with the hands of Christ and the disciples clasped in prayer.

Colour was important to Zrzary with blue connoting sorrow.

Richter J, 2077

The delights of Stockholm

http://www.arttattler.com/Images

Siri Derkert 1888-1973

Derkert is known as a pioneer of Swedish 20th century art and as a Cubist painter she was influenced by the Parisian avant garde in 1920s. Her use of fractured light gives an ethereal quality to her paintings. Derkert also experimented with collage and carvings in concrete that were shown in public art spaces. One of her largest works (Carvings in Natural Concrete), in the underground station at Ostermalmstorg, is classed as one of the most innovative pieces of public art in post war Sweden.

http://www.modernamuseet.se/en/Stockholm

Siri Derkert Collage ca 1962

At the age of 74 Derkert was chosen to represent Sweden at the first exhibition in the newly-built Nordic pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1962.

http://www.arttattler.com/Images

and the shift from capturing light through paint on a canvas to harnessing light as the source of illumination.

Ivan Mares Egg, 1987

National Art Gallery of Prague

By using molten and cut glass, reflected light allows multilpe viewings from the one structure. This work presents an engaging play on light.

With light always comes shade

and the art works that happens in the dark

the art work that we see in the light.

Instead of trying to capture light these Berliners are guided by waiting for the lack of light.

Shadows create a new visual as the sun sets over Berlin: a unique take on the desire by artists to capture light,

and then onto geometric shadows that mirror structure.

Jewish Memorial Berlin 2005

Here the predominate use of concrete, geometric forms and play of shadows creates a visual image that is both moving and introspective.

But is this the only genocide that warrants such a memorial?

Now I get to wander through light...

Museum Fur Moderne Kunst,Frankfurt Am Main, 2011

Artist unknown, Museum fur Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, 2011

This installation encourages participant engagement as overhead glass windows allow natural light to illuminate the structure.
Plastic as the structural material allows an intensity of reflected light.

and am immersed in the play of light on the flat screen.

Douglas Gordon Play dead: real time, 2003 Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main

Artist unknown Solutions, National Gallery, Hamburger Bahnof, Berlin, 2011

Does video art have an artistic function?

Walter Benjamin states that film, (and here I am including video art) as a result of its mechanical reproduction, is missing a presence in time and space. The aura withers as it no longer has a unique existence. A painting allows contemplation and invites the spectator to abandon him/herself to associations whereas this is not possible with the moving image (Benjamin cited in Arendt,1968).

The video art on the tour did allow contemplation and in fact often became a vehicle of meditation for me in a sometimes overloaded journey. The uniqueness and beauty of the work allowed a place of silence and ritual.

Light contained in a box becomes a canvas

This drawing on a lighted box reflects the ideals behind the Larte povera movement which was a reaction against the complexity and consumerism of the modern art world.

Artist Unknown, Larte povera from Russia,

Padiglione Contemporary Art Gallery, Milan, 2011

and an illusion.

James Turrell
This optical construction necessitates participant engagement in order to adjust to the lack of light. Light in this work evokes monumentality and spirituality, a constant motif connecting the artists from da Vinci to the present.
Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2011

At last into the city of light and an unexpected encounter with disparate applications of light

54th Venice Biennale

ILLUMInations as the title for the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia references the theme of light but also emphasizes one of arts intrinsic characteristics: it is a unique and illuminating experience (Bice Curiger, Curator, 2011).

Jacob Tintoretto 1569 Removal of the Body of Saint Mark.

Oil on canvas

In many contemporary artists (the ones that interest me most) I find the same search for light, both rational and febrile (Curiger 2011).

http://www.oil-painting-portrait.com

Tintoretto 1518-1594
The placement of a work by Tintoretto acts as an unusual backdrop for an exhibition of contemporary art. However in the emotional and historical context of La Biennale, it opens interesting perspectives well beyond the mere fact that Tintoretto was a painter of light (Bice Curiger, curator of ILLUMInations, Venice 2011).

Tintorreto Last Supper 1594 oil on canvas http://www.paradoxplace.com

Arthur Rimbaud 1854-1891 The Illuminations

Bice Curiger referenced the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud as another backdrop to the ILLUMINations exhibition. This French writer saw poetry as a vehicle for changing life and depicted both explosions of light and ensuing darkness. The role of the poet was that of a voyant: a prophet, a visionary with the desire to transcend into the unknown. Certainly the Biennale establishes places of darkness and light and some artists clearly make a political statement. Are the artists at the Biennale voyants?
Peschel E R, 1973

Venice Pavilion, 2011

Finland Pavilion, Venice 2011

Light on the screen contrasts to light on a canvas and presents a dialogue between artists of the past and modern artists. Is the light in these works not rational but febrile ( Curiger 2011)?

David Claerbout The Algiers sections of a happy moment 2008

Sigalit Landau One Mans Floor is another Mans

Feelings

Israel Pavilion, Venice, 2011

The use of the daily cycle of light to create movement.

Salted boots are placed into the snow and ice in Poland. There is the literal capturing of light to create movement and sound which gives a rhythmic quality, almost poetic, to the visual. The depiction of the unknown, perhaps?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBFDedy1gH0

And the last stage of my humble tour

and an insight into another way of drawing with the illuminated screen as canvas. I have avoided drawing and painting in my own practice but the recent work of David Hockney has presented me with a possible vehicle of release from this phobia

David Hockney at the Louisiana Gallery, Humlebeck, Denmark 2011

iPad and iphone drawings

Who would have thought that the telephone could bring back drawing? David Hockney, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Photographs taken in Kalmar, Sweden, 2011

Can I launch into unfamiliar territory?

Summary
On my tour I found light and illumination in unusual places with the discovery of new art works and artists. I acquired a new admiration for the uniqueness of graffiti and video art and the inspiration to maybe start drawing.

Regrets: that I didnt buy that absolutely fabulous panama hat in Milan but

Thanks Byron Bay Hat Company!

References
Benjamin, W 1968, The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction , in Arendt H & Zohn H (1 st ed.), Illuminations, Jonathon Cape, London, pp. 217-251. Illuminations catalogue and brochure 2011, Marsilio Editore, Venice. Farago, C J 1991 Leonardos Color and Chiaroscuro Reconsidered: The Visual Force of Painted Images, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 73, No. 1 (Mar., 1991), pp. 63-88. Fauchereau, S 1989, Kupka, La Poligrafa, Barcelona. Heads Up - Graffiti in Berlin - One Wall Down, Thousands to Paint, http://www.travel.NYTimes.com Hooper, J 2002, Still Divided, The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4, (Autumn, 2002), pp. 47-51. http://labienale.org/en/art/news/illuminations.html http://www.modernamuseet.se/en/Stockholm/Exhibitions/2011.Siri-Derkert/About-the-exhibition/ Marani, P C 2009, Leonardo da Vincis Last Supper, Skira editore, Milan. Pallucchini, A 1971, Tintoretto: the life and work of the artist, Thomas and Hudson, London. Peschel, E R 1073, Arthur Rimbaud: A Season in Hell The Illuminations, Oxford University, Press New York

Richter, J 2001, Jan Zrzavy:quietly observing the essence of things, viewed 29 October 2011, http://www.radio.cz/en/section/arts
Thompson, J 1971, The role of Women in the Iconography of Art Noveau, Art Journal, Vol.31, No.2, pp162-163.