Welcome!

This is my Art History 1 final exam, and thank you for your interest in my art gallery!

 Art. Simply Art 

Yucaipa, California

Lauren Simpson

This Gallery is to showcase abstract, minimal art and the powerful statement they can make and be used for. 

"An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one." 

-Charles Horton Cooley 

"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine." 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson 

"Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known." 

-Oscar Wilde 

Art. Simply, Art.

Art. Simply, art - exhibition.

In this exhibition I have chosen artworks that exemplify abstract and beautiful simplicity in different mediums. I have chosen artwork from some of my favorite artists, such as:

Ellsworth Kelly, 

Mark Rothko, 

Barnett Newman, 

Piet Mondrian, 

Kazimir (Kasimir) Malevich, 

Edward Weston, Nude, 

Jean (Hans) ARP,

Kazimir (Kasimir) Malevich, 

Kazimir (Kasimir) Malevich,

Josef Albers, 

Georgia O'Keeffe.

These artists come from many different backgrounds, eras and styles but they all have at least one piece of art that is in common with each other. They all at one point in their career made a statement by using a simple shape, negative and minimal color variations. I chose these pieces after looking at the ones I am drawn to, I like simple art, and art that makes you think - which is how I assembled these artists together. I hope you enjoy! 

Ellsworth Kelly, Red Blue Green, 1963, Oil on Canvas 6' 11 5/8" X 11' 3 7/8"

        Red Blue Green, 1963, Oil on Canvas 6' 11 5/8" X 11' 3 7/8"
                -Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – present day) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting.  His work demonstrates unassuming techniques emphasizing simplicity of for, he often uses bright colors. One variant he uses is the hard-edge painting of Post-Painterly Abstraction. He used delineated areas of color to distill painting with razor-sharp edges, living it with its essential two dimensional elements.  This painting gives no illusion of depth and the shapes are 2 dimensional, keeping this painting simple but stunning.

"The form of my painting is the content."
- Ellsworth Kelly

This is the painting that made me choose the category of my exhibition. This is one of my absolute favorites. 

Mark Rothko, No 14, 1960, Oil On Canvas, 9' 6" X 8' 9"

                                                No 14, 1960, Oil On Canvas, 9' 6" X 8' 9"
                                                                    -Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko (September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) was a Russian-American painter - classified as an abstract expressionist. June 1921 at the age of 17 he completed the secondary level with honors at Lincoln High School in Portland. He learned his fourth language, English, and became an active member of the Jewish community center, where he proved adept at political discussions and like his father, Rothko was passionate about such issues as workers’ rights and women's right to contraception.He received a scholarship to Yale based on academic performance.After he moved to New York, Rothko stated, that he "happened to wander into an art class, to meet a friend"; impressed by the school, the experience provoked his determination to become an artist. In January 1924, Rothko enrolled at the Art Students League and began taking anatomy courses. Rothko's interest in luminosity compelled him to paint in watercolor. In the1940s he produced some extraordinary works using a palette of grays and earth tones, colors he would later use in a powerful series of works executed in the last years of his life. Untitled No. 10; - Untitled No. 16. 
His paintings became simple, and increasingly focused on color as the conveyor of meaning.

"I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however . . . is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn't something you command!"

                                                          -Rothko

"A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore a risky and unfeeling act to send it out into the world. How often it must be permanently impaired by the eyes of the vulgar and the cruelty of the impotent who would extend the affliction universally!"

                                                                       -Rothko

The use of two colors and simple shapes forming the abstract form of this painting is what makes this a perfect fit for my exhibit.

Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950-1951, Oil on Canvas, 7' 11 3/8" X 17' 9 1/4"

                 Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950-1951, Oil on Canvas, 7' 11 3/8" X 17' 9 1/4"
                                                              -Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters. In  the 1940s he worked as a surrealist, before developing his mature style. This is characterized by areas of color separated by thin vertical lines, or "zips" as Newman called them. In the first works featuring zips, the color fields are varied, but later the colors are of pure and flat. The zips define the spatial structure of the painting, while simultaneously dividing and uniting the composition. His use of hard-edged areas of flat color, can be seen as a precursor to post painterly. 

“Any art worthy of its name should address 'life', 'man', 'nature', 'death' and 'tragedy'. “
-Barnett Newman

“I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality. “
-Barnett Newman

“I prefer to leave the paintings to speak for themselves. “
 -Barnett Newman

This is a personal favorite of mine, and one of the many reasons why I chose to do this particular exhibit.

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow,1930, Oil on Canvas, 1' 6 1/8" X 1' 6 1/8"

 Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow,1930, Oil on Canvas, 1' 6 1/8" X 1' 6 1/8"
                              -Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian (March 7, 1872 – February 1, 1944) was a Dutch painter. He was a contributor to the De Stijl art movement. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism. This consisted of white ground, upon which was painted a grid of vertical and horizontal black lines and the three primary colors. In 1892, Mondrian entered the Academy for Fine Art in Amsterdam. He began his career as a teacher in Primary Education, but he also practiced painting. Most of his work from this period is Naturalistic or Impressionistic, consisting largely of landscapes.

"The truly modern artist is aware of abstraction in an emotion of beauty."

                 -Piet Mondrian

This piece is a great addition to my exhibit, the colors, abstract quality and thought provoking theme . 

Kazimir (Kasimir) Malevich, Suprematist Composition Airplane Flying, 1914, Oil on Canvas. 1' 107/8 X 1 7"

                   Suprematist Composition Airplane Flying, 1914, Oil on Canvas. 1' 107/8 X 1 7"
                                         -Kazimir (Kasimir) Malevich,

Kazimir Malevich (February 23 1879 – May 15 1935) was a Russian painter and art theoretician. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the avant-garde Suprematism movement.In 1915, Malevich laid down the foundations of Suprematism. He published his manifesto From Cubism to Suprematism. Malevich became a member of the Collegium on the Arts of Narkompros, the commission for the protection of monuments and the museums commission (all from 1918–1919).

 "Hence, to the Suprematist, the appropriate means of representation is always the one which gives fullest possible expression to feeling as such and which ignores the familiar appearance of objects.

Objectivity, in itself, is meaningless to him; the concepts of the conscious mind are worthless. Feeling is the determining factor ... and thus art arrives at non objective representation at Suprematism...Everything which determined the objective ideal structure of life and of "art' ideas, concepts, and images all this the artist has cast aside in order to heed pure feeling... Suprematism is the rediscovery of pure art which, in the course of time, had become obscured by the accumulation of "things".



"Painting is the aesthetic side of the object but it has never been original, has never been its own goal." 
                        -Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Malevich used his abstract style called suprematism to convey that the supreme reality is pure feeling. He used bright colors next to dark colors while creating negative space. With this use of color and shapes, its a must to have in my exhibit.