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            The Fusion of 

 

Words and Ideas

Micrography and Microcalligraphy

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The use of text in artistic creations is not a new idea. The art form known as micrography comes from the 9th century. The word itself is derived from the Greek word "Μικρογραφία" which means literally small-writing. It’s also called microcalligraphy, and Wikipedia describes it as a Jewish form of calligrams developed in the 9th century that utilizes minute Hebrew letters to form representational, geometric and abstract designs. It can also be found in Christian and Islamic traditions through the centuries as well. 

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These two articles will give you some more history and pictures to look at: Article 1, Article 2, Pictures.

This site shows some great contemporary images

You can go here to see portraits of people and a student lesson

If you have Photoshop this place will show you how to make your own micography

Pop Art and Graphic Design

In the mid 20th Century Pop Artist began playing with the idea of using contemporary culture, advertising images, or quotes of their own words as a place from which to draw their ideas. Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns are some of the artists who experimented in this direction with their art.

 

 

Later on, as Graphic design began to influence art to a greater degree, many more artists began to incorporate text as part of their art work, or let the text become the work itself. Examples of this are seen in the work of artists Ed Ruscha and Barbara Kruger.

 

 

 

American conceptual/pop artist Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1945. She left there in 1964 to attend Syracuse University the School of Visual Arts,and also studied art and design with Diane Arbus at Parson’s School of Design in New York . Early on she developed an interest in graphic design, poetry, and writing.

 

In the work for which she is now internationally famous for she layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer. Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism,classicism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, although her black-and-white images are culled from the mainstream magazines that sell the very ideas she is disputing. This link will take you to a tribute website for her.

Barbara Kruger

Ed Ruscha

Edward Ruscha is best known for paintings in which words and phrases play a central role. His interest in words stems from his career-long fascination with the new, postwar media culture. 

 

Follow this link to learn more about him, and learn more about one of his word drawings.

 

This link will take you to his official website where you can click on the “work” link at the top to see work from throughout his career.

Lisp,Edward Ruscha1968, 
oil on canvas, 59 1/8 x 54 3/4 inches
National Gallery of Art

Technology and Text

The inclusion of technology and the abundance of advertising inserted into our culture has provided fertile ground for artist to express their imaginations and they often build upon the work of other artists who have gone before. The artists Martin Firrell and JennyHolzer have chosen to use the projected word as their art form, linking text and light that is then projected onto unusual surfaces like the sides of buildings.

 

 

Your portfolio project for this unit will draw upon the work of Jenny Holzer and her use of truisms.

Jenny Holzer

You can view some of her projections and other work on her website, at a gallery that sells her work, at “For the city” site, or at Art 21.

You can also read a couple of good articles about her at the Guggenheim and Tate Museum sites.

 

 

ASurvival sorozatból, Times Square, New York, 1985–86

Untitled (Selections from Truisms, Inflammatory Essays, 

The Living Series, The Survival Series, 

Under a Rock, Laments, and Child Text), 1989.

Going back to her years as a painter at the Rhode island school of design, Holzer says she was influenced by the ‘clean, simple variations’ of minimalist aesthetics in artists like Donald Judd, Mark Rothko and Morris Louis. (3)

 

 

 

 

Martin Firrell

“I am interested in the power of popular culture to disseminate sound ideas about how to live productive, intriguing and valuable lives. It struck me that popular culture is often looked down on by 'serious' critics or commentators. I wanted to use my privileged position as an artist to counter this by taking a very long, deep and critical view of the ideas in science fiction and their potential value when applied to our daily lives.” ~ Martin Firrell

 

Firrell has been described as a cultural activist, a campaigner and benign propagandist, placing text in public space to promote debate and positive social change. His work has explored liberty, the complexity of aging, diversity, the value of difference and the suggestive power of popular culture.

He has used cinema screens, the Internet, portraiture and video interviews of culturally significant figures as well as large-scale outdoor digital projection. His body of work includes

explorations of the power of mass popular culture to propagate

socially useful ideas, in particular, the science fiction genre. 

Nathalie Crass-Fielding

 

This link will take you to some more of his quotes and text from

past projections. This one will take you to a website with images

of some of his projections and projects

Martin Firrell, Complete Hero, Text projections, The Guards Chapel, London 2009

Khafre Enthroned, from Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, ca. 2520–2494 BCE. Diorite, 5’6” high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. 

 

 

In addition, forms can be closed; having no open spaces within their mass, or open; having spaces within and around their mass. Closed forms tend to be dense and feel massive while open forms tend to feel lighter and more airy. 

 

Let’s revisit those questions from the first page and compare answers 

 

What two words can describe the difference between 2-D and3-D? 

 

Flat; Round

 

What word does the D stand for? 

Dimension

 

What does that mean?

 

 It’s a math term and has to do with measurement and how big or long something can be. 2-D Work is measures in Height and Width/length 3-D work is measured in height, width/length and depth.

 

How can the difference between 2-D and 3-D be described?

 

 2-d describes shapes that are flat and have no areas that protrude from the surface; they only contain two areas of measurement. 3-D describes objects that are not flat and can be viewed from many angles; they contain three areas of measurement. 3-D can also refer to the illusion of depth in a flat picture

Turning 2-D to 3-D

Turning 2-D to 3-D continued...

Student created park.