Issues to
consider
You may want to use this painting as a spring board in discussing art in
general. What do you think about nonrepresentational
art? What
constitutes art in your view? Can art be purely emotional or visual, or
does it need to tell a story or teach the viewer, as it had in the past?
In this discussion you could look at early examples of non-narrative or
non-didactic art which retained representation, such as Whistler's Symphony in White
no.1, 1862. Whistler was adamant that this painting was concerned
only with color and compostion, and not narrative. What do you think of
this definition of art? You could compare your reaction to art which may
have
a narrative based on fact but visually is not realistic, for instance Rose
Piper's Slow Down, Freight
Train. Piper's painting has a definite emotional content which
may have determined the forms, but what about art that is purely
emotional and spiritual? Does this art have to mirror a scene that you
might be able to witness, with human-looking figures placed in a
setting, like a Baroque painting of a vision of
Christ such as Stom'sChrist before Caiaphus? Or can it take
on
forms and colors
that may have a better chance at
relating the artist's emotions or
inspiring emotions in a viewer?
Bibliography
Hans Hofmann and Modern Art:
Search for the real, and other essays. by Hans Hofmann, Edited by
Sara T. Weeks and Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T.
Press, 1967) Art: N7445 .H76 1967.
Hans Hofmann by Cynthia Goodman ; with essays by Cynthia Goodman,
Irving Sandler, Clement Greenberg.( New York : Whitney Museum of American
Art ; Munich: In association with Prestel-Verlag, 1990.) Art: ND237.H667
A4 1990
To learn more about Whistler and Symphony in White no.1, you may
want to visit the
"American Visions" website at PBS (note that you need Shockwave Flash):Whistler
entry.