Black and drab

ZenDruid

ZenDruid

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There's a certain genre of art I've seen here that I don't understand and would like to. It involves work with drab backgrounds and large swatches of black. Minimalist abstract. Sometimes multimedia. I'm taken back by this because I favor hot colors. Of course I'm missing something, does this style have a name, is there a movement with a meaning behind it? Thanks, just curious for the sake of conversation :)
 
I like your question. (y)

I am currently going through a phase in which I feel compelled to use dark grey, almost black in parts, colours. I am not qualified to attempt any psychological analysis of what may be behind this compulsion, but I can tell you what I am trying to achieve in these experiments. Owing to my lack of talent I call them experiments and not “art”, which makes me feel better about what I am producing.

The four paintings I am working on are all experiments in ways of using rapid set concrete on panels to create heavy textures. See the thread https://creativespark.art/threads/using-concrete-in-paintings.1614/ and

https://creativespark.art/threads/concrete-textures.1655/

I am trying to achieve the effect of a painting that looks black at first glance, but then reveals hidden colours when you look more closely. Perhaps I just need a break from doing the brightly coloured, in-your-face paintings I did earlier this year. You can see them in the Contemporary and Abstract Art forum. I will be posting the results of the concrete experiments quite soon in the same forum. I have discovered that there are amazingly many possibilities of achieving subtle colours and textures when I mix a range of greys from complementaries on the colour wheel. The process has also opened my eyes to the beauty in cast concrete walls and asphalt surfaces. I find this exciting.

That is, in my own case, a bit of an explanation of the motivation to do dark and sombre paintings. I cannot, of course, speak for the truly great real artists like Pierre Soulages and Antoni Tapies who have produced this kind of work, but this may help you understand the reasons I am playing with dark grey and black in my paintings.
 
Thank you Hermes for that great answer. You have quite an experiment going! The two artists you mentioned are making dark graphic art very similar to what I was thinking about. The pictures of your concrete paintings are very interesting. I'll be studying these for awhile. Thanks....:)
 
ZenDruid said:
There's a certain genre of art I've seen here that I don't understand and would like to. It involves work with drab backgrounds and large swatches of black. Minimalist abstract. Sometimes multimedia. I'm taken back by this because I favor hot colors. Of course I'm missing something, does this style have a name, is there a movement with a meaning behind it? Thanks, just curious for the sake of conversation :)
Click to expand...
Interesting question, I think it would help if you could show some examples of that kind of art. In the mean time I'll try a google search for minimalist abstract art.
 
Could they be influenced by the Tenebrists - an extreme form of chiaroscuro?
Their paintings were very dark too.
Tenebrism is a term derived from the Italian 'tenebroso' which means darkened and obscuring. It is used to describe a certain type of painting in which significant details such as faces and hands are illuminated by highlights which are contrasted with a predominantly dark setting.
Click to expand...
 
Can report that a search for "minimalistic abstract art" is not helpful at all, as expected, waaaaay too non-specific.
 
Thank you all for your interest, I'm referring to work like this:

3d LGG_SoulagesInstall_0903191892-EDIT-915x610.jpg


Some artists seem to do this exclusively. Hermes mentioned two artists, Pierre Soulages and Antoni Tapies. I find it interesting, just wondering if there's a school of thought behind it.
 
Frans Kline

If I spelled it correctly. The link will explain that it belonged to the expressionistic era of painting. I knew I had seen his work but could not remember his name. Hope it helps.
 
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Enyaw said:
Frans Kline

If I spelled it correctly. The link will explain that it belonged to the expressionistic era of painting. I knew I had seen his work but could not remember his name. Hope it helps.
Click to expand...
Franz Kline, yes. Found this on wiki:

"Kline's brushstrokes became completely non-representative, fluid, and dynamic. It was also at this time that Kline began painting only in black and white. He explained how his monochrome palette was meant to depict negative and positive space by saying, "I paint the white as well as the black, and the white is just as important."[11] His use of black and white is very similar to paintings made by de Kooning and Pollock during the 1940s.[10] There also seem to be references to Japanese calligraphy in Kline's black and white paintings, through his exchange with the Japanese avant-garde calligraphy group Bokujinkai and its leader Morita Shiryu, although Kline later denied that connection.[13]"

Franz Kline, 1956:

3d mahoning-1956.jpg


Thanks Wayne
 
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Hermes2020 said:
I forgot to mention another of my favourite artists, Robert Motherwell, who used lots of black in his wonderful Elegy to the Spanish Republic series of paintings: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AOaemvJwZL9FcKAk-sVQ8bFDbtvuVMp0-g:1637333180274&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=Robert+Motherwell&fir=DxWOuqFQtC6V0M%2Cqr8VzAk3lZsi3M%2C_%3BALjAlosTi1PBbM%2CCOFVr7E1AMLtuM%2C_%3BtwF1eO-kqGCEvM%2CB4I4sCyShc-XbM%2C_%3BciCY8UhJOGCb-M%2C_0aEOsrCnpMuLM%2C_&usg=AI4_-kTvsru1Ik0xUoneihUnH_xydWSN-g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR39q01aT0AhUfQEEAHfCbCLUQiR56BAhDEAI&biw=1885&bih=935&dpr=1

I would love to collect these when my ship comes in, although with my luck, I will probably be at the airport when my ship comes in.
Click to expand...

Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic:

3d motherwell.jpg

This is an example of what I meant. Motherwell seems to use this pattern a lot. Thanks Hermes.
 
Thanks to all for your replies. I had been wondering if this is a style of art that becomes a movement, or just personal choices for black and white by different artists. Probably that. Plenty of biographical information available, I'll check it out.
 
I love Motherwell and Kline. I have dedicated a couple of paintings dedicated to Motherwell, and Kline grew up where my father was born: Bethlehem, PA, which is what much of his work is depicting--the steel industry. It was all around him. Though his work is abstract, it is essentially the landscape of what was all around him.

Motherwell was, though an abstractionist, considered a surrealist. There is an amazing documentary you should see called Storming the Citadel. It was what really made me fall in love with his work.

There is no connection between Kline and Motherwell other than their aesthetic, as far as the theory behind their work.

Motherwell also liked color. The black series was mainly addressing the Elegy to the Spanish Republic, as you referenced.
 
Artyczar said:
Motherwell was, though an abstractionist, considered a surrealist. There is an amazing documentary you should see called Storming the Citadel. It was what really made me fall in love with his work.
Click to expand...
Thanks Arty, just watched Storming The Citadel, very good, I recommend it to anybody interested in abstracts. (y)
 
Hermes, I have been familiar with that work in the past and suppose I never really knew who made it. Thanks for that link and her name. :)
 
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