Art Quiz 2

[Jonathan]

1. Who wrote that each basic geometric shape has "a certain psychic quality which we may call the 'spell-power' of the form, and with which the artist freely plays, as...the musician at his keyboard," and that "geometric forms have come to symbolize for us and potently suggest certain human ideas, moods and sentiments - as for instance: the circle, infinity [and 'universality']; the triangle, structural unity [and 'aspiration'];...the spiral, organic progress; the square, integrity"?

2. Who, like Pollock, Gottlieb and Newman, recognized the power of myth, ritual, sign and symbol in primitive art, appropriated it and consolidated into his own, and said, "You are perfectly right in feeling the primitive in [this work of art]. In the ancient days of the race of men were close to nature as a child to its mother...Sophistication came with science and what we call education to wean or warp them away from the simplicity of that childhood...Well...[this work of art] is modeled with that higher understanding - deeper than the simplicity of the barbarian, not copying his forms but drinking understanding from the springs from which he drank unconsciously...Modern art feels the need of the inner strength that comes from this eternal inspiration"?

3. Who was persuaded by his modernist patron (who championed non-objective art) to abandon his "low, crawling" vision and instead "embrace the sky as much as the earth"?

4. Who felt that picture frames prevented the full appreciation of abstract art, saying that "frames were always an expedient that segregated and masked the paintings off from the environment to its own loss of relationship and proportion"?

5. With Peit Mondrian creating diamond paintings and Theo Van Doesburg making diagonal counter-compositions, who, in sensing the need to renew the modernist focus of his work, freed himself from his worries that the diagonal was too unconventional and radical for the average art consumer?

[Ellen Stuttle]

Could it possibly have been Capuletti?

E-

___

[Jonathan]

Could it possibly have been Capuletti?

E-

No, but good guess. You know what I'm up to.

Further clues:

1. The critics of his time, as well as some of his friends, thought that his work was "extremely ugly...a monster of awkwardness," "stark, unmodelled...rude, incomplete, unfinished," and merely an "interesting experiment...without grace or ease...at times even bizarre."

2. He fell in love with a client and left his wife and six children for her.

3. His final masterpiece, which was to "embrace the sky as much as the earth," is a monument to non-objective art, created to honor the work of Kandinsky.

4. His lover and her two children were murdered in his home by a servant who had also set one of his art works ablaze.

5. Concerning the bare aesthetics of the forms in his art, he wrote, "In the opposition of the circle and the square I find motives for... themes with all the sentiment of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'; combining these with the octagon I find sufficient materials for symphonic development."

J

[reason.on]

Could it possibly have been Capuletti?

E-

No, but good guess. You know what I'm up to.

Further clues:

1. The critics of his time, as well as some of his friends, thought that his work was "extremely ugly...a monster of awkwardness," "stark, unmodelled...rude, incomplete, unfinished," and merely an "interesting experiment...without grace or ease...at times even bizarre."

2. He fell in love with a client and left his wife and six children for her.

3. His final masterpiece, which was to "embrace the sky as much as the earth," is a monument to non-objective art, created to honor the work of Kandinsky.

4. His lover and her two children were murdered in his home by a servant who had also set one of his art works ablaze.

5. Concerning the bare aesthetics of the forms in his art, he wrote, "In the opposition of the circle and the square I find motives for... themes with all the sentiment of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'; combining these with the octagon I find sufficient materials for symphonic development."

J

I was actually thinking maybe Chagall, but 2 and 4 gave it away.

The answer is Ayn Rand's hero and dramatic muse, Frank Lloyd Wright.

RCR

Edited January 22, 2007 by R. Christian Ross

[Reidy]

Rand said, "philosophically, he was anything but an Objectivist," so she knew this and was willing to overlook it.

For more about the two of them, see http://www.objectivistcenter.org/ct-24-Wright_Rand.aspx.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I wonder if better, more "Objectivist," architecture would be buildings, factories, houses, etc., in the shape of heroic looking people or human inventions like airplanes, ships, computers or whatnot.

You know, "representational" visual art.

Just aesthetically speaking, so to speak...

Not very Roark, I admit, but then, The Romantic Manifesto came much later...

Michael

[Jonathan]

The answer is Ayn Rand's hero and dramatic muse, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Correctamundo. Christian wins 10 points (actual cash value: 0.000000001 cent).

J

[Kevin Haggerty]

I wonder if better, more "Objectivist," architecture would be buildings, factories, houses, etc., in the shape of heroic looking people or human inventions like airplanes, ships, computers or whatnot.

You know, "representational" visual art.

Just aesthetically speaking, so to speak...

Not very Roark, I admit, but then, The Romantic Manifesto came much later...

Michael

You mean, like this?

[Reidy]

In the 1920s, especially in California and Florida, buildings in the shape of hats, shoes, hot dogs, pianos and dinosaurs, among other non-architectural inspirations, were popular. The ones I've seen didn't say Roark to me.

Wright built a research tower for Johnson Wax, and they proceeded to put their flagship product in a can that looked like the building. For years I thought that the inspiration had gone in the opposite direction and he was imitating a can of floorwax.

[cjsmall]

Wright built a research tower for Johnson Wax, and they proceeded to put their flagship product in a can that looked like the building. For years I thought that the inspiration had gone in the opposite direction and he was imitating a can of floorwax.

Peter:

I never saw anything like this and I can't find a picture using Google Images. Do you have any links or pictures of these cans that you can share? Thanks.

--

Jeff

[reason.on]

Wright built a research tower for Johnson Wax, and they proceeded to put their flagship product in a can that looked like the building. For years I thought that the inspiration had gone in the opposite direction and he was imitating a can of floorwax.

Peter:

I never saw anything like this and I can't find a picture using Google Images. Do you have any links or pictures of these cans that you can share? Thanks.

--

Jeff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Wax_Headquarters

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Jo...x_Building.html

RCR

Edited January 24, 2007 by R. Christian Ross

[Reidy]

If you mean the can, I don't know of any pictures. They sold it when b&w tv was the technology of the moment. You might try contacting the company.

[reason.on]

If you mean the can, I don't know of any pictures. They sold it when b&w tv was the technology of the moment. You might try contacting the company.

Oops. I didn't read JS's post very closely, I thought he was looking for pictures of the building...

Ah, well, there it is.

RCR