digital collection

I love this reinterpretation of Len Lye:

The Len Lye Original:


The video in question:


Everything new is old?
Hmm

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Creator Theo van Doesburg, (Artist), Dutch, 1883-1931
Cornelis Van Eesteren, (Artist), Dutch, 1897-1988
Title Contra-Construction Project Axonometric
Work Type Architectural Drawings
Date Drawing date: 1923
Project date: 1923
Material Gouache on lithograph
Measurements 22 1/2 x 22 1/2 (57.2 x 57.2 cm)
Description Unbuilt Project for a private house. Excerpt from Envisioning Architecture catalogue (essay by Peter Reed): With the zeal of a crusader, Theo van Doesburg, the prolific writer, painter, and cofounder of the avant-garde Dutch movement de Stijl, promoted a new order uniting art and life. In his utopian quest for a universal ideal, cleansed of social and artistic conventions but not without moral and spiritual dimensions, van Doesburg predicated a formal language of abstraction on the rectangle, primary colors (red, blue, and yellow), and asymmetrically balanced compositions. To suggest what a de Stijl environment might look like, van Doesburg enlisted the assistance of the architect Cornelis van Eesteren. In 1923 the two men mounted a landmark exhibition at Léonce Rosenberg’s Galerie L’Effort Moderne in Paris. This so-called Contra-Construction was among the works exhibited. The Contra-Construction is not a study for a specific building but a meditation on a new kind of architectural space and structure. Serving as a demonstration of the ideas in the artists’ manifestos, the composition-an axonometric placed diagonally on the paper-is key to understanding their aims. The construction seems to float on the sheet, divorced from time or place. The high vantage point lets us see many sides at once, but we have no clear understanding of front, side, or back, or of inside and out. Horizontal and vertical planes define a complex of asymmetrical volumes around a central open core. Color is a constructive element, applied to elements running the height, length, and width of the construction. The planes have an atectonic character, being divorced from a supporting function. The spatial relations and sense of freedom in the composition underscore van Doesburg’s overarching goal: to liberate humanity from material things through a new form of modernism.
Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.
Repository Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)

I know Mondrian had a hard time seeing the value of van Doesburg‘s vision to bring the abstract into every part of modern life. In my hometown, Jacksonville, Florida, architecture here is generally uninspiring. Among the countless strip malls and eateries the few architectural gems of my city can be found in downtown Jacksonville. Possible remnants from an area when architects and designers, “Got it.” Now designers usually use beige neutral colors when designing buildings. Besides the historic districts my city really lacks any kind of architectural voice. I find this unfortunate. The article here from FastCo Design is an idea that I have been having for a while about designing for the ethos. I hold a philosophy that the ethos needs to create its own beat and go with it instead of following what has always been. Imagine if we followed the protocol all the time and never stepped forward. It is necessary too to look back to make sure what you are creating is new and to make sure you aren’t about to make the same mistakes which others may have already made. I think Jacksonville is in this point of not stepping forward and the result is that downtown is dying and new places are now filling the void. So to revitalize downtown I would encourage them to rethink and refit the current public spaces and venues, to really study what is happening on in the world around, and finally create something beautiful, functional, and environment friendly. I think people would want to go downtown then.

Mondrian and van Doesburg got in an argument over Doesburg use of the diagonal line. Mondrian was a very restricted person (think of Calvinism, asceticism) and this philosophy showed up in his works. Where as Theo van Doesburg was much more extravagant and ready to play with what art is and the meaning of art (which is good aswell). I like van Doesburg’s drawing because there is a lot of movement and the building seems to just have come together out of space. But I do know that while this all looks good on paper, placing it into an urban environment does not work well all of the time.

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Buckminster Fuller

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Dennis Oppenheim

Dennis Oppenheim

Dennis Oppenheim

Dennis Oppenheim’s works make me reevaluate the idea of the curve in nature.

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Charles Ray - Untitled

More constriction more freedom?

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